Transcript: Gay Liberation

Video Transcript – Unit 06 - Gay Liberation (David Feddes)

The Gay Liberation Movement has come a long way. Not so long ago, if people of the same gender had sex together, they

might be in big trouble with the law. But now here's a little danger of prosecution. Gay people have the same rights as other

citizens. In fact, some governments don't merely allow gay sex, they're moving to grant it official approval and exalting it to

the sacred status of marriage. Meanwhile, in the economic realm, many companies give the same benefits for gay partners

as they give for husbands and wives. The median income of gay people is higher than the general population. Gays and

lesbians have grown strong politically and economically, and they've also made great gains in the institutions that shape

public opinion. Surveys find that among people in the news and entertainment media, only a tiny percentage see anything

wrong with homosexuality, and they use many different means to communicate this point of view. Movie studios that once

avoided open references to homosexuality now feature gay themes in some of their highest profile films and TV shows. In the

realm of public education, many schools and universities train students to think of sex among gays and lesbians as normal,

healthy behavior. Gay people have also changed the mindset of some churches and seminaries and Divinity schools. In the

more progressive institutions, you won't hear gay and lesbian sex condemned as sin. In fact, the person preaching the

sermon may be gay. A growing number of religious leaders are telling gays and lesbians to celebrate who they are, and to

relish their own sexual preferences as a gift from God.

No doubt about it. The Gay Liberation Movement hasn't really come out of the closet. It's moved into the courtroom, the

boardroom, the newsroom, the school room, and even the seminary and the sanctuary. For a lot of gay men and lesbian

women, gay liberation has meant the freedom to express their sexuality openly instead of secretly to be treated as persons

and not just as perverts. They feel a newfound sense of power instead of helplessness of boldness instead of fear of

solidarity and support instead of isolation. All of this sounds like good news for gays. The Bible also has good news for gays

in the Bible, God shows that his love extends to gay people and he shows gay people how they can flourish and live forever

with him. But the Bible's good news of gay liberation isn't like the recent gay liberation movement. The Bible says that

homosexual coupling is sinful and unnatural. The Bible also says that through faith in Jesus, homosexual behavior can be

forgiven. And homosexual people can live differently and enjoy eternal life with Jesus. As a follower of Jesus, I'm not trying to

make gay and lesbian sex a crime punishable by the government, any more than I'm trying to make gossip or greed or

blasphemy, a crime punishable by the government. God judges these things as sins. But that doesn't mean the government

has to treat them as crimes. As a Christian pastor, my main aim for people involved in homosexual behavior is not to turn

government against them, but to turn them to Jesus Christ. Homosexuals don't need to be outlawed. They need to be saved,

to be washed in Jesus blood and transformed by His Spirit. But now I'm getting into God's good news of gay liberation in a

way that many homosexual people don't like to hear, and also in a way that some Christians tend to ignore. Some church

people are so busy opposing gays in public policy, that they don't actually bring the good news of the gospel to gays, and

they don't make any effort to understand or support fellow Christians who still struggle with homosexual urges. Meanwhile,

many gay and lesbian people don't want their sin to be forgiven. They want it to be affirmed and celebrated.

They want the same status that government grants to married people, and they also want the blessing of the church. To

make this happen, they lobby to overturn the moral teaching of whatever congregation or denomination they belong to. And

this means that in dealing with the whole matter of gay liberation, Christian who is serious about the Bible's teaching and

about ministry is facing a two front battle. The first is bringing the good news, showing God's love and proclaiming the gospel

of forgiveness and new life in Jesus to home sexual sinners.

As fellow sinners, we Christians must relate to people humbly, gently, respectfully. But given the polarization that's occurred

and the attempt of homosexuals to define their behavior as normal and good, we face a second part in this battle, we need to

battle a particular evil agenda, we need to stand against the organized movement that declares evil to be good. Many

homosexuals don't seek forgiveness or new life, they seek blessing from church and support from the government. And this

means that Christians are in a very difficult position on the one hand, to show love and bring good news to other people who

happen to be gay or lesbian. At the same time, to stand against a certain agenda. It's very hard to be loving and bringing the

Gospel on the one hand at the same time standing against what people are pushing. On the other hand, but hard though it is,

it's what we must do. And if we must do only one or the other, then I suggest the most important is the first bringing the good

news to simply be an anti gay person who is trying to stop their advances in society and in government and battling a

homosexual agenda, but not have gospel concern, and genuine love for people is going to do more harm than good. I believe

we need to do both. But I want to start with simply bringing good news. Now, in bringing good news.

We need to face this fact that God loves homosexuals. But he does not love homosexual behavior. It is sinful and offensive to

him. The Lord loves gay people in exactly the same way he loves sinners of every kind, with a love that forgives and rescues

and transforms not a love that merely tolerates and approves and endorses behavior of every kind. The Bible's teaching

about sin, of which homosexuality is one of many varieties. The Bible's teaching us two main points. We need to be set free

from it, and we can be set free from it. If we refuse to repent of sin will end up in hell. But if we repent and trust Jesus, we will

change and live forever. Now, the Bible is very clear about the sinful nature of homosexual behavior Leviticus 18 verse 22

says, you shall not lie with a male as with a woman, it is an abomination. Romans chapter one speaks of the perversion that

comes with sin, and it talks about many kinds of sin, but one type is homosexuality. Romans one says women exchanged

natural relations for those that are contrary to unnatural, and the man likewise gave up natural relations with women, and

were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men, and receiving in themselves the

due penalty for their error. Though they know God's decreed that those who practice such things deserve to die. They not

only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. The first step in the gospels liberation of gays and lesbians is to

show that they need to be set free in order to enter God's kingdom. God doesn't mince words about sexual immorality.

homosexual behavior is sinful and abomination, unnatural. It's not a morally neutral feature of the way a person is such as

being left handed or having a certain skin color. It's not just a harmless personal preference, like preferring apples to

bananas. Gay and Lesbian sex is sinful, it's wrong. It's spiritually deadly. In Jude one, verse seven, it speaks of the final

punishment on sin, and on sexual sin and homosexual sin. It says Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which

likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursuit, unnatural desire, serve as an example, by undergoing a punishment of

eternal fire. And there it's referring to the men of Sodom, who sought to rape two angels who came to Sodom in the

appearance of men.

Now, obviously, rape of any kind homosexual or heterosexual is wrong, but you'll see that Sadom was just characterized by

unnatural desire or as the original language has it strange flesh, and there is a punishment of eternal fire, reserved for that

kind of sin unrepented of just as eternal fire is the punishment for every other kind of sin unrepented of, and not cleansed by

Jesus blood. So this is a very, very serious matter. And we're not doing anybody any favors by denying it.

Now, It doesn't stop there. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? The Bible is very clear

about that. Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice

homosexuality, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards, nor revisers, or swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such

were some of you notice it says, such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the

name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God, they were that, but now they are this. Now, the fact that

homosexual behavior is sinful doesn't make it somehow worse than all other sins. As we've just seen in First Corinthians six

homosexual behavior is one among many types of sinful activity, it's not in a category by itself. in God's eyes, a homosexual

act is no more sinful than uttering a swear word or getting drunk or being greedy and self centered, or having sex with a

person of the opposite sex when you haven't married that's fornication, just as bad as homosexuality. All of these things, and

many others appear in the Bible's lists of sins right along with the sin of homosexuality.

These are all sins that send people to hell. These are all sins also that can be forgiven only at the cost of Jesus blood.

whether or not we're homosexual, we've all got sins that are equally offensive to God. And so we shouldn't think that we are

superior to homosexuals, if that doesn't happen to be our particular sin. We shouldn't treat homosexuality as worse than all

other sins. But neither should we approve or practice gay sex. The Bible insists that homosexual behavior is indeed sinful.

And at the same time, the Bible insists that homosexuals can be forgiven, and renewed and adopted by God as his sons and

daughters, just like other saved sinners, a gay or lesbian who repents and seeks God's forgiveness on the basis of Jesus

blood is loved by God just as much as anyone else. And he or she is just as much a part of the church as any other repentant

sinner. This teaching of the Bible is a rebuke to those who hate and despise gays and consider them beyond redemption.

And at the same time, it challenges the politically correct notion that homosexual behavior is just fine that it doesn't need to

be forgiven at all, but only approved. Now, having heard all of this, someone might object. Well, what about those scientific

studies that show that people are born gay? Doesn't that prove that it's just natural? And okay? Well, to start with, never say

that the word of God is less trustworthy than the latest findings of scientific studies. Also, ask yourself this question Who's

doing the scientific studies, many of the scientific studies that allegedly prove that homosexuality is entirely genetic or inborn,

are themselves the studies done by homosexual persons, and some of them are very motivated.

One of them said that he was very eager to show that if he could show that it was inborn, it shows that it's not a fault, and it's

not your fault. And he said he would give up his work as a scientist if he wasn't able to prove that. So he knew what he

wanted to prove before he started the study. And this is more widely the case as well. So again, just as a general comment

don't place scientific study pursued by fallen peoples, many times, people with an agenda above what is revealed in the

written word of God, one kind of study has been done among identical twins. And it's been found that less than 50% of

people with a gay, identical twin are gay themselves. Now, the research has found that if you have an identical twin who is

gay or homosexual, you're more likely to be homosexual yourself than people in the general population. But there can be

other factors, of course, if you're an identical twin, you're brought up often in the same household with many of the same

influences. So it's not proving that genetics did it. And if less than 50% were gay, even if they had a gay, identical twin, it

absolutely proves that genetics aren't everything, because identical twins are identical genetically. And that means there

would have to be a 100% correlation, if being gay were completely determined, genetically. So this actually, this is alleged to

prove that genetics determine everything and it proves the exact opposite.

Now, there's also been some studies with gay genes they've located certain kinds of genes in the human DNA code that have

a correlation with whether a person is homosexual or not, but they I also find that many people who have the supposedly gay

gene aren't homosexual, and others who are homosexual don't have that particular gene at all. So they see this genetic thing

and there is seems to be some correlation, but it's obviously not decisive in and of itself. If there is a genetic component, it is

not the whole story. Let's not overlook the obvious about genes. While we're talking about genes. Male chromosomes are x,

y, female chromosomes are x, x, We know that with absolute clarity. Let's not overlook the obvious about anatomy, male

organs match female organs and result in reproduction. This is as plain as can be. And so in looking and researching the

most obscure and difficult areas, let's not overlook what is extremely obvious. Now, having said all that, I would not be

persuaded that homosexuality is okay even if it were something that you're born with. Homosexuality may be at least partly

inherited. But our sin nature is inherited. The Bible teaches that we inherit a sin nature all the way going back to Adam and

Eve. And just because something is inherited, and we're born with a certain tendency does not mean it's right. There are

people who are born with a tendency towards greater anger and rage. There are people who are born with a greater

disposition toward alcoholism. But in such cases, it's your duty to refrain from drinking, it's your duty if you were born with a

greater disposition toward rage to frame from fits of rage. So even if you're born with a sin nature, that doesn't mean it's not

sinful, it means it's something that you're going to have to fight against and find a way to be saved from.

Now many homosexual people think they were born homosexual, and it's an essential part of who they are. They're

convinced of that not so much because of scientific research. But because of their own experience, they know that there's

more to their condition than a conscious choice they made. They didn't just wake up one day and decide to become a

homosexual, goes a lot deeper than that. When they think back, they can't remember ever being attracted to someone of the

opposite sex. Their romantic and erotic feelings have been directed toward people have the same sex for as long as they can

remember, when they first discovered these urges, they may have felt ashamed of them, and wish they weren't there and

tried to change. But they found out that it's not that simple, those feelings wouldn't just go away. Eventually, when they acted

on those feelings, and had sexual encounters with others of the same sex, it didn't seem unnatural. It felt like something they

always wanted. Whether their desires came from genetics or from something that happened in their early years, or a mixture

of several things. They felt those desires for as long as they can remember. And it's not something they just freely chose. It

feels like who they are. So, if you're somebody who feels this way, what are you supposed to do? Well, before anything else,

you first need to take God at His Word. If he says it's wrong to be sexually intimate with a person of the same gender, then

it's wrong. If Jesus says he can set you free, then he can set you free. That's the place to begin to know and believe God's

word.

So ignore the polarized politics. Ignore the mixed results of research, ignore your own preferences, ignore gay bashers who

say you're garbage, ignore gay flatterers who say you're just fine and accept God's truth, when he says that you need to be

liberated and you can be liberated. The Bible is not simplistic or naive or unrealistic when it talks about sin and about

liberation from sin. God knows that homosexual behavior like all other sin, is much more than just something you choose to

do at a given moment. The Bible doesn't treat sin as something you can just freely turn off and turn on at well, sin certainly

involves the will, but it goes much deeper. The Bible teaches that ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, people have been

born sinful. All people are born with sinful tendencies, although the particular tendencies vary from person to person. So in

that sense, it may well be true that some people are born with a tendency to be gay. That doesn't mean it's okay to act on

that tendency. There's an inborn aspect to sin, and also an addictive aspect to sin.

There's a sense in which sin controls us with a grip that's beyond our power to change just by trying. Jesus says everyone

who sins is a slave to sin. Sin is a power that grips and controls us. The inborn and addictive aspects of sin, make it

impossible to change yourself simply through an act of willpower. This is true for centers in general. And it's true of

homosexual centers. But the good news of Jesus Christ is that you don't have to depend purely on your own willpower in

order to become a new person. homosexual sin, like all other sin separates us from God and from eternal life with him. But

that's not the end of the story. God refuse to leave us in our sin, He sent His own Son, and the condemnation we deserved

was heaped on the back of Jesus Christ, as he hung on the cross suffering, the punishment of hell to pay for our sins, Jesus

as open to the way to forgiveness for all who repent and believe in him and seek a new way of life. His Spirit gives us power

to fight against our sinful tendencies. Now, let's say you're somebody who wants to follow Jesus, but you still have

homosexual desires to deal with. What then? Well, some homosexuals who become Christians find that their orientation

changes and they desire someone of the opposite sex and end up in a happy heterosexual marriage. For others, though,

their old urges remain with them just about as long as they live, even though they're Christians.

What does freedom in Christ mean then? It means this, you have the freedom to deny your old self in order to follow Jesus.

In Jesus, you have a new self, a new identity to live up to. In Ephesians, the Bible says you were taught to put off your old

self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of

your minds, and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness, and holiness. So all of us have

a lifelong struggle against deceitful desires, desires that seem natural, that seem healthy, and yet they're part of that old self.

And we know that because the Bible says it's sinful. And then we put on our new self in the Lord Jesus Christ in Christ. The

blessings of the new self far outweigh the struggles and sacrifices of denying the old self. In Christ, we have the resources

we need to live the new life, we have the Holy Spirit, we have the power of prayer, we have the support of fellow Christians,

and where it's necessary. There are also specialized Christian ministries and support groups, for former gays and lesbians.

for any of us to live the Christian life, we need a deepening relationship with God. We need loving and caring relationships

with other people who encourage us and hold us accountable. And we need to be realistic about the difficulty of the struggle.

It's not always easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is, if you're a homosexual person who has been born again, you may still be

tempted, you may still have many of the old urges that were part of your old self. And when you do, you'll have to deny

yourself. It's no sin to be tempted. The sin is giving in to temptation. Christ gives you the freedom to say NO to temptation.

And if at some point you do stumble and fall, the gospel gives you the freedom to trust God's forgiveness, and to let the Holy

Spirit pick you up again, and continue the battle, rather than simply giving up and giving in to your old way of life. So again, in

this two front battle, the first thing is to understand the good news and to bring this good news to homosexual people to show

God's love and proclaim the gospel of forgiveness and new life in Christ, to homosexual sinners. And all of us Christians, as

fellow sinners must relate to people humbly and gently and respectfully.

Now, for the second aspect of that battle, there is an evil agenda that has to be opposed. As Christians, we stand against an

organized movement that declares evil to be good. Many homosexuals aren't seeking forgiveness or new life, they're just

seeking blessing from the church and support from the government. And that, as Christians, we can't give. You don't

understand the times that we're living in. We need to understand that gay activism is well funded, well organized, politically

well connected, and has a lot of clout, also well organized within some church groups and pushing that agenda. Another thing

to understand about our times is something very curious. at just the time when homosexuality among men was clearly fatal,

killing 1,000s. Homosexuality gained in support, and people began to think it was normal and healthy. aids Acquired Immune

Deficiency Syndrome was originally called grid gay related immune deficiency. I remember in the early days seeing a

pamphlet educational pamphlet that came out. And already then the government was trying to be politically correct. And this

talk all about the danger of AIDS. And it did not mention homosexuality. At a time when more than 90% of the people dying of

AIDS were homosexual man, they wouldn't mention that it was fatal. And so there's just a very strange thing, it sounds like

Romans one all over again, little bit, they know such things bring death, they not only keep on doing them, but praise those

who do them.

That's a characteristic of our time, a very sobering characteristic. Another thing we need to observe is that it's not just a gay

problem. heterosexuals for a lot of years, have been acting like homosexuals in a lot of ways. They've been minimizing the

gender differences between male and female, many marriages, people got sterilized and so their union was no more fertile

than a homosexual marriage. And they had sex outside of marriage and shacked up or became promiscuous. And so the

times we live in, are very depraved sexually among many who are not homosexual at all. Now, many church supporters of

homosexuality are also Universalists. They believe that nobody goes to hell, that every path leads to God, that nothing you

do is eternally fatal. And you need to understand that because when people say, oh, there's no danger, no harm, and it just

remember, these people believe there's no danger and no harm and hardly anything. One more sobering thing. Churches

blast homosexual unions before government did. Sometimes, oh, secularism, it's done so much damage. The fact is that

there were church groups that were blessing homosexual unions before the government did. Now as we think about gay

marriage, we need to realize that whenever a government or court offers a ruling in favor of same sex marriage, homosexual

people are celebrating, but not many actually want to get married, that's one of the better kept secrets of the homosexual

agenda. They want gay marriage to be approved. And they don't actually want to get married themselves, except in a few

cases, most want official government support for homosexual marriage, because they think it sends a message that it's good

to be gay. When we when it comes to actually living their lives.

Very few want to tie themselves down to another person all want the aura of prestige and normality that comes with saying

that homosexuals are just as eligible for marriage as heterosexuals. But far fewer homosexuals actually want to promise the

monogamy and lifelong faithfulness that are the ideal of traditional marriage. When we think about gay marriage, there's been

a Dutch study of committed gay partnerships, and homosexuality has been widely practiced in the Netherlands for many

years. It's an advanced society in that regard, one of the study find, it found that these committed partnerships lasted an

average of two years, and that even in these committed partnerships, more than 95% had other sexual partners during those

two years. The average was eight other partners per year. So in a committed partnership, there were 16 different sexual

partners in that average two year period that the committed partnership lasted.

Sound like marriage to you? Some activists fear that official approval of gay marriage won't be inclusive enough. It might

exclude bisexuals, who, maybe what both male and female partners yet excludes transgenders, who, one day want to

consider themselves a man and then a different day want to consider themselves a woman and they want to have the

freedom to be switch hitters and gay marriage kind of locks them into deciding one or the other. It's discriminatory to have

gay marriage that leaves out bisexuals and transgenders. According to some activists. It also might exclude legalized

homosexual polygamy, somebody who wants to tie the knot with seven partners and be married to seven people at one time.

And so there are some gay activists who feel that gay marriage is dangerous because it will tie gays into some of the same

things that have characterized heterosexual marriage. One gay editor in Canada said I'd be for marriage if I thought gay

people would challenge and change the institution and not buy into the traditional meaning of till death do us part and

monogamy forever. So if marriage had none of the things that make marriage what it is We'd be all in favor of it. It's very

encouraging. If marriage is not between a man and a woman, if marriage is not a commitment to be sexually faithful to one

person, and if marriage is not meant to last a lifetime, then this gay editor would be all in favor of marriage and of gay

marriage, because marriage is no longer marriage. But that's the conundrum that many people find themselves in. They

support gay marriage, allegedly, but they don't like marriage itself at all because they don't want to be sexually faithful.

They don't want a relationship to last for life. Some want government approved gay marriage argue that it'll encourage more

monogamy and faithfulness among homosexuals. But gay marriage won't make homosexuals more monogamous and

faithful. It will just make marriage itself less monogamous and less faithful. To really understand what's going on with the

movement toward gay marriage. We need to see how it fits into the bigger picture of the sexual revolution. We would never

have reached the point where gay marriage could be considered if heterosexuals had not been so busy. trashing marriage.

author David Frum says if you think of coupledom as a partnership that may or may not involve children, or if you have

become accustomed to the idea that children are in a home that will often have a biological relationship with one adult but not

necessarily the other, then you will not find same sex marriage a very exotic idea. Indeed, you'll be ready to believe that

prejudice and hatred are the only possible reasons that somebody might oppose same sex marriage. From goes on to say, to

oppose same sex marriage effectively. You have to believe that marriage is more than a contract between two consenting

adults, more than a claim on employers and the government for economic benefits. You have to believe that children need

mothers and fathers their own mothers and fathers. You have to believe that unmarried cohabitation is wrong even when

heterosexuals do it. lose those beliefs and the case for marriage has been lost.

Those who oppose gay marriage are right to do so. But we all have to realize that we didn't reach this point overnight the sins

and failings of heterosexuals, the anti child attitudes and millions of abortions, the epidemic of single parent situations, the

view of sex as a personal privilege and undeniable, right, disconnected from personal commitment or public obligation. These

things provide the setting in which same sex marriage doesn't sound all that different from what's happening among many

heterosexuals. The approval of same sex marriage would simply be the final seal on a society's acceptance of the sexual

revolution and its rejection of genuine marriage. Now, it would be wrong to blame homosexuals for all of this gay marriage

might do further damage to whatever remains of traditional respect for marriage, but most of the damage has already been

done by heterosexuals themselves. Society already went a long way down the wrong path before we got to this point. But

now that we're at this crucial juncture, what should we do? Should we just plunge further ahead until we reach the point of no

return? No, but demand for gay marriage serve as a wake up call. It should alert us to how far marriage has already fallen,

and how urgent it is for us to turn around to repent and to go back to marriage as God designed it and as Jesus defined it.

When it comes to government policy. Many say that morality can't be legislated.

But government legislates sexual morality when it outlaws polygamy. Having many wives or husbands when it outlaws

beastiality reality sex with animals, when it outlaws rape when it outlaws molesting children when it outlaws child

pornography. So the question is not whether government should legislate sexual morality, but how much it should legislate. In

countries that once out of Christian consensus, there were laws against pornography, against fornication, against adultery,

against groundless divorce, and against homosexual coupling, because these things were known to be wrong and harmful. In

recent times, these laws have been relaxed. And how many other laws will be relaxed remains to be seen. Now, when

government deals with something, there are at least four possibilities for different approaches. One is that it prohibits. It

doesn't allow and it punishes. So there's a law against that. And there are punishments if you're a thief. If you're a murderer,

the law is against it. And there are punishments for murder. So one thing government does is take certain behaviors and say,

this is not allowed and you will be punished if you do it. Another way that government can deal with things is to permit it but

kind of penalize it and it doesn't in our society through syntax as for example, government doesn't outlaw cigarette smoking,

it just hikes the taxes on cigarettes to the moon. It doesn't outlaw alcohol consumption, but it taxes it pretty heavily. It doesn't

outlaw gambling, but it gets a huge tax intake from it.

And sometimes the government is actually compromising in cahoots, because it's making money from the very thing that it's

permitting. But anyway, it still penalizes certain things, even when it permits them. A third thing government can do is to just

privatized something and keep its nose out of the matter. It doesn't penalize it, it doesn't promote it. It just lets people do what

they want. In that area, the government doesn't tell you, you have to buy a red car, that's kind of up to you, there'll be no

penalty, no benefit from doing so it just leaves it entirely up to the private choice of persons. And the fourth approach is to

promote and to privilege something. For instance, in government controlled schools, there may be a part of the curriculum

that encourages certain kinds of behavior, because the government wants to promote that, or government wants to promote

home ownership. So it gives tax breaks for mortgage interest, or it wants to promote ethanol as an alternate fuel. And so it

gives financial subsidies to the ethanol industry. So it's promoting and privileging something. It's not just allowing it, it's

helping to pay for it and trying to get people to adopt it. So those are four different ways that government can approach

something and in relation to homosexuality. There's been a progression from prohibiting, to permitting, to promoting in

curriculums and so on. No government can punish every form of sin. It criminalizes only those things that are considered

most harmful to public order and wellbeing. But even if a government doesn't criminalize our punishment, he sins, it's still a

huge step to go from prohibiting and punishing, to permitting and privatizing, and then to promoting and privileging it.

At one time homosexuality was punished, then it was permitted. Now it is being promoted and exalted to the same level of

value and importance as marriage. This is a colossal blunder. It's one thing to tolerate sins committed in private. It's quite

another to make a particular sin and honored subsidized part of the public fabric. The truth is, the government can't really

approve gay marriage. Because there is no such thing. The word marriage means the union of a man and a woman who

promised to remain faithful to each other for life. It's not discrimination to say this, it's just definition wouldn't mean

discrimination to say that a brother and a sister are siblings and not spouses. Would it be discrimination to say that my

brother's son is my nephew and not my husband? Would it be discrimination to say that a group of first year college students

moving into a campus apartment are roommates and not newlyweds? So that's not discrimination, it's just accurate use of

words. The word marriage means the union of husband and wife. It would be nonsense to apply the word marriage to a

brother sister relationship, or a nephew uncle relationship, or a college roommate relationship. And it would be silly to

demand that the government regard such relationships the way it regards marriage.

Likewise, it's nonsense to apply the word marriage to a same sex pairing, and to demand that the government regard those

non marital relationships the way it regards marriage, courts can try to create a new institution from nothing. They can try to

redefine words reinterpret constitutions and reshape society. But real marriage will always be between a man and a woman.

Marriage existed long before judges and courts existed. Saying that a dog is a cat won't make that dog meow. And mating

two people the same sex won't make it a marriage no matter what the judge says. It's less foolish to say that a nine person

little League team is the same as a nine person Supreme Court than it is to say that a two person same sex relationship is

the same as a husband and wife marriage. Among gay people in all of this as its progressed over the years, we've heard

some very contradictory arguments. gays demanded, keep the government out of our bedroom, and then turn around and

demand and have the government license and support what we do in our bedroom. gays said what we're doing is nobody

else's business. And then went on to say what we're doing is so important to the public good and the future of society, that it

should have the same public standing and government approval as marriage.

So on the one hand, we heard stay out of it. And then on the other hand, get into it and support it and promote it and

subsidize it. The fact is that sinners always want the approval of a king and a priest. We always want the government and the

church to bless whatever it is we're doing. And that's why the gay agenda was not satisfied with let's privatize it and asked to

be left alone. They want it to be approved and blessed and promoted. Why single out homosexual unions for special

treatment, and not declare other relationships to be marriages? Should government declare marriage status for all uncles

and nephews to go fishing together? Should government declare marriage status for all grandparents and grandchildren who

hug each other? Should government declare marriage status for all students on college campuses a room together for a few

years? Should government declare every close friendship to be a marriage? Of course not. So why declare a same sex

friendship to be marriage if the only difference is adding sinful sex? The simple fact is that marriage is uniquely important in

raising up the next generation of citizens. That's why good government has a special interest in supporting marriage. It's not

just biblical teaching, but it's also observable fact that children flourish best in families headed by a father and mother

committed to each other in lifelong marriage. Society blesses marriage, because marriage blesses society. The future of

society depends on the future of the family. It does not depend so directly on other types of relationships, and it certainly

doesn't depend on relationships that are sinful. In the meantime, whatever the government does, the Church must keep on

proclaiming the Word of God. Sad to say some apostate churches and pastors have raised the head of government in

rejecting biblical standards for marriage. For decades, some church leaders have denied Jesus virgin birth. They've denied

his bodily resurrection, they've denied salvation through him alone. And now, having denied the core facts of Christian truth.

They also deny Christian sexual morality.

Any church that does such things is no more a church than a same sex partnership is a marriage. Jesus and the rest of the

Bible have warned against false prophets. Jesus said watch out for false prophets, they come to you in sheep's clothing, but

inwardly they are ferocious wolves. Jude set spoke of godless man who changed the grace of our God into a license for

immorality, and denied Jesus Christ, our only sovereign, and Lord. There are people who have all the titles and all the

degrees and the high positions of church leaders who are false prophets and godless men. We need to understand as we

think about gay liberation and its agenda in society that secular humanism was one force, and apostate theological liberalism

was the other driving force behind the sexual revolution. We need to understand our times and understand even the apostate

churches role in that, just as government endorsement of homosexual marriage would be unthinkable if heterosexuals hadn't

first made such a mess of marriage. So government endorsement, homosexuality wouldn't have happened if churches hadn't

led the way to perdition.

It's common to say that religion shouldn't influence politics. The truth is that religion always influences politics, and bad

religion produces bad politics. The religions of secular humanism and apostate theological liberalism are the driving forces

behind the sexual revolution and the political movement towards same sex marriage. Those who value a healthy nation and

civilization need political courage to resist the latest onslaught, and to strengthen the crumbling foundations of our society.

But political action although important, isn't enough. Government is a product of culture and culture is largely a product of

church and family or lack thereof. This means that we don't just need amendments or laws to defend the family. We need

revival in our churches, rebirth in our relationship to God, and renewal in marriage and family life. Churches need to stand

firm even if society rejects Christian influence. The Church must continue to teach God's word. Government doesn't have to

punish every sin, but God will punish sin with hell. And churches must warn of God's wrath against sin, even if it's not

something that the government must punish. And the Church must excommunicate openly gay couples not bless them or

officiate up there. weddings are make them leaders in the church, the church must instead say you're not allowed to come

and take part in the Lord's Supper, until you repent of your homosexual behavior and stop it. The Church must have the guts

and the biblical courage to do this. And to say this now, this does not mean that every person who has gay urges and has

has slipped, should be excommunicated immediately.

People if they repent of something and continue to strive against it are to be encouraged, not excommunicated. But someone

who openly lives in sin and wickedness and declares it to be good and encourages others to do the same, must not be

allowed to infect and poison the Church of Jesus Christ. And those churches that are making such folks into leaders, instead

of saying they have no part in the kingdom of God, if they continue on their present path, such churches are not serving their

people well. Now, let me remind you again, of what I said at the beginning of this message that we are called to minister the

homosexuals not just to resist a societal agenda. It is not right or loving, to treat homosexual behavior as normal and

pleasing to God that much has to be said, then we're to love people, to pray for them, to care for them, to be friends with

them, to show them the way of Christ. And to not despise one kind of sin more than we despise another kind, we should not

single out homosexual sin as worse, we also need to understand that all sin including homosexuality can involve inborn or

ingrained tendencies. And so it's not just as simple as well cut it out behave. But instead of bringing them the resources of the

gospel of forgiveness in Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, the fact that Jesus blood removes guilt, and the Holy Spirit's

power transforms life, sometimes, their entire orientation will change and they can get married. At other times, they may

never lose those urges. And so they will have to simply abstain from sexual involvement and remain singles for life. And that's

a hard path. But it's the path God calls us to if we're not able to be married, then we are to abstain from sexual conduct.

We're to teach godly self denial and self control, denying the old self and living in accord with the new self that is ours in

Christ Jesus, and where Christians do still struggle, where they sometimes fall to show compassion, to lift them up again, to

assure them of Christ's forgiveness, and that they can continue on this path and that God will be faithful to them. So that's

our two front battle, bringing good news showing God's love proclaiming the gospel of forgiveness relating to people humbly

and gently and respectfully as fellow sinners saved by grace, and then also having the firmness and courage to battle and

evil agenda to stand against the organized movement that declares homosexual evil, to be good. And in that it is

tremendously difficult task to be loving, and at the same time, vigilant and firm, but by God's grace, that is our calling as

individual Christians and it is our calling as leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ.