00:16:12.900Now, homosexuality, according to Romans 1, is, number one, a prime result of godlessness.0.72
00:16:19.840Number two, it's the ultimate physical and emotional outcome of a person who rejects God and worships self.0.90
00:16:28.400Number three, homosexuality is one of the central manifestations of God's grace being removed from a person's life for their atheism and idolatry.0.82
00:16:39.800Number four, and this is my final point, is that homosexuality is the consequence of giving the0.90
00:16:47.520worship and servitude that is due to God to idols or to self. And so, in other words, homosexuality0.92
00:16:53.580is the breaking of God's design for human fruitfulness. That's really what we're going to1.00
00:16:59.180get to at the core of this message. John Piper once described it this way, and I want you to
00:17:04.340pay attention. This is a little bit of a heavy quote, and I need you to kind of stay along with
00:17:08.740me because there's some big language here and I'll take it slow, but I want you to grasp this
00:17:12.620because we're going to unpack it here shortly. He says, quote, God and humanity in covenant worship
00:17:18.860are represented by male and female in covenant sexual union. Therefore, when humanity turns
00:17:28.380from God to worship self, God hands us over to what we have chosen and dramatizes it by male0.56
00:17:37.740and female turning to images of themselves for sexual union, namely their own sex.0.94
00:17:44.320Homosexuality is the judgment of God, dramatizing the exchange of the glory of God for images of0.89
00:17:51.260ourselves. Did you guys grasp that? That is a magnificent explanation of the theological1.00
00:17:59.440and the spiritual complexities of homosexuality. We have to understand that God is a God of0.98
00:18:06.300symbolism. We learn about God through symbolic means. I'll explain what I mean there. He knows
00:18:15.620that we are a forgetful people, and he's built in physical practices or physical symbols to remind
00:18:21.620humanity of spiritual truths or our spiritual roles. In scripture, husbands and wives represent
00:18:28.240Christ and the church. You know, it's the earthly role play, if you will, of the heavenly realities
00:18:38.420of the gospel. That's what marriage becomes in a male and female traditional heterosexual view of0.76
00:18:44.940marriage. Ephesians 5, 22 through 30 tells us that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved
00:18:49.800the church, and wives are to submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ. And so
00:18:56.140when this occurs physically in our lives, we more fully understand the beauty of the gospel. When we
00:19:01.440see this and it plays out, it manifests in a physical dimension, we get to understand the
00:19:06.560spiritual realities. So again, God's given us these physical roles that teach us spiritual truths.
00:19:11.900It's a symbolic meaning there that we understand that represents the gospel. So when marriage is
00:19:17.820ordered according to God, according to the way that he has laid out in scripture, humanity can
00:19:24.300fulfill God's command to be fruitful and multiply. However, when humanity rejects God's purpose for
00:19:29.600marriage and the design and structure for male and female relationships, uh, and, and people pursue
00:19:35.160self, God hands these people over to themselves. Now, essentially what the Bible teaches here is
00:19:41.620that in a sense, God's saying, you want to worship God, I'll put you in a relationship that magnifies
00:19:47.640the gospel. But if you want to worship self, I'm going to put you in a relationship that magnifies
00:19:52.960self-worship. It's essentially what is being said by here and also by John Piper. In short,
00:19:59.880homosexuality is the ultimate expression of sin-centered self-love. It's the ultimate1.00
00:20:05.160expression. Do you understand that? It denies God's design for otherness. It denies God's design
00:20:12.500for the male and female compatibility. And instead, what it does is it chooses to magnify
00:20:18.860the selfish passion of, quote, more me. And it says to their partner in a homosexual relationship,
00:20:26.220I don't want the opposite of me. I want more of me in you. And that's really what's happening.
00:20:32.220It's dramatized selfishness. As Piper said, it's the perversion of the natural order.
00:20:36.980It's suicide of reproduction and the rejection of the spiritual purpose that God has placed
00:20:42.560for divine or for intimate love in marriage. It's much more than what the culture has made it out0.54
00:20:49.440to be. It's much more than a sexual deviation. There is so much thick theological depth here
00:20:56.180that we need to understand. So catch this with me. The marital drama that's played out between
00:21:02.060a husband and a wife that's supposed to magnify the divine love that is seen and captured and0.98
00:21:09.200experienced in the gospel between God and his people has now been perverted in homosexuality.0.92
00:21:15.760Okay, in the same way that God shows us the beauty of the gospel through heterosexual marriage,0.94
00:21:21.320God in his judgment shows us the vileness of self-worship through homosexual union.0.91
00:21:27.340It's a very deep and complex topic here, but this is what Romans 1 is talking about.1.00
00:21:32.560So when we exchange the way of God for the way of self, again, God dramatizes our desire for self.
00:21:38.260he gives us more of it in someone else. He gives us more of it in our own selfish desires.
00:21:44.360Piper says, quote, God decrees that this disordering of our relationship to him
00:21:50.120be dramatized in the disordering of our sexual relations with each other, end quote. Okay,
00:21:57.620so homosexuality, it's just, again, it's much more than a dysfunctional sexual orientation0.67
00:22:02.600between two people. It's the physical manifestation of self-worship. In context with our passage0.81
00:22:09.280in Romans, it's the ultimate physical result of turning away from God. That's what this passage
00:22:15.460is saying. You want to reject God in creation. You want to reject God in your desire to worship
00:22:21.060idols and worship self. God is going to pull back. He's going to hand you over to these
00:22:24.680sexual impure desires, and that's going to further be handed over to a degrading passion.0.99
00:22:31.240that degrading passion will manifest itself in homosexuality. That homosexuality will manifest0.99
00:22:36.280itself in a depraved mind. And it just goes down in this, again, self-appointed, self-afflicted0.99
00:22:42.280problems of sin. And so it's a very complex issue that we need to pay attention here.
00:22:48.040In an issue of Table Talk magazine produced by Ligonier Ministries, one theologian said,
00:22:53.080quote, what are we to think of a passage like Romans 1, 26 through 27? The Bible defines
00:22:59.840homosexual desires as, quote, contrary to nature, not an equal alternative orientation.0.89
00:23:06.260Homosexuality is a, quote, dishonorable passion that, quote, consumes men and women, leading to0.96
00:23:12.840shameless behavior. The strong emotional pull of lust and the affection shared between persons0.99
00:23:19.880in a homosexual relationship, whatever those affections may be called, cannot properly be
00:23:25.400called, quote, love. After all, love, quote, does not rejoice at wrongdoing, 1 Corinthians 13, 6,
00:23:34.480and homosexuality is wrongdoing, end quote. This is complex and powerful stuff for the church to
00:23:41.520understand. So now, having said all of that, having said that, I want to be very clear here.
00:23:47.440I am no greater or wiser or better than any single person in the LGBTQ community whatsoever.
00:23:55.400I'm simply redeemed. I've simply been saved. I'm not redeemed because of anything that I did.
00:24:01.240I'm not redeemed because of anything that I chose. I'm not redeemed for any of that besides the
00:24:05.540simple fact I'm redeemed because someone decided to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with me.
00:24:11.300I was convicted of my sin. I repented of my sin and I trust in Jesus Christ alone. And so I was
00:24:18.640just like every human being that was born in sin and lost. I needed to be born again. I was an
00:24:25.380enemy of God, but now I'm his son. I was addicted and broken and lost, but now I'm found. I'm found
00:24:32.940because Christ found me. The sheep don't look for the shepherd. The shepherd looks for the sheep.
00:24:38.340So every human being, as I said, is born sinful and lost. And it's why Jesus in John 3, 3 commands
00:24:44.860that we must all be born again. If you want to enter into the kingdom of heaven, we must be born
00:24:49.540again. So many people in the homosexual community say, I was born that way. I go, yes, I understand0.96
00:24:54.140you were born that way. You were born that way with these dishonorable and broken desires.
00:24:59.480I was born that way with dishonorable and broken desires, and that's why we must be born again. So
00:25:04.800again, whether you are living a homosexual lifestyle, if you're gay, lesbian, transgender,
00:25:10.180whatever that may be, what I would just suggest you to do is come to Christ, lay your pride at
00:25:16.200the foot of the cross, repent of your sins, and believe in Jesus Christ. This is something that
00:25:22.940we all need to be considering. So we need to work on exchanging our desire to serve self to serve
00:25:30.160the creator. That is exactly at the core of the gospel. We need to be seeing that our desires for
00:25:35.700self are wicked against a holy God. Our worship is only due to the creator. The only reason we
00:25:42.220have that impulse to worship in us is because God has given it to us to maintain our relationship
00:25:47.720with him. Now, this is the message of scripture. This is what scripture teaches on the issue of
00:25:52.760homosexuality. It's not difficult to understand, but it is difficult to swallow. When we are
00:25:59.140fallen, when we are lost, we don't have the understanding, the Holy Spirit guiding us
00:26:03.160and giving us comprehension of scripture. These are offensive statements. This is hate speech to
00:26:08.620the culture. Nevertheless, the only way that God saves people is faith comes by hearing,
00:26:13.380hearing by the word of Christ. We need to get out there, preach the gospel of Jesus Christ
00:26:17.080to individuals in the LGBTQ community. Let them know that God is in the business of turning his1.00
00:26:22.480enemies into his friends. And we know that God loves saving people, giving them that new birth,
00:26:29.000changing those affections, changing those passions. We know that Jesus, when he comes and rescues a
00:26:33.860life, doesn't just change what we do. He changes also what we want to do. He changes those
00:26:39.140affections. That's exactly what needs to occur with those people who are struggling with the
00:26:43.680sin of homosexuality. On that note, thank you guys for listening to this episode. Let me close in0.81
00:26:48.400prayer. And then I'll close with just a quick message. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your
00:26:53.040word. We thank you that you have not left us with no clarity. We thank you that we're not here
00:26:58.680guessing what you want us to do and how you want us to live. We thank you for this passage of
00:27:03.860scripture that is stern and clear and gives us boundaries on how we can honor you with our
00:27:09.440sexuality and how we can honor you with our worship. Lord, we ask that anybody who's listening
00:27:14.040to this right now, whether by video, whether by podcast, Lord, that you would bless them with the
00:27:18.280wisdom of understanding. Anybody that's struggling with these sins, that you would bring conviction,
00:27:22.700that you would give them the new birth, that you would save them and rescue them and bring them
00:27:26.820into your kingdom, Father. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen, guys. Well, thank you guys for listening
00:27:32.840to this episode of Real Christianity. I hope today's content was edifying for you in your
00:27:37.480walk with Christ. That is the goal here at relearn.org, is to bring Christians back to the
00:27:42.640Bible, to look at the scriptures, not through the lens of our emotions, but to look at it through the
00:27:47.060historical, cultural, grammatical context of the scriptures, and to really bring you back to a
00:27:52.880journey of biblical truth and sound doctrine. Lastly, I'd like to ask you guys, would you
00:27:57.980prayerfully consider supporting us? We are a ministry that is passionate about the gospel.
00:28:04.420We're passionate about theological and biblical literacy in the church. All of this stuff,
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00:28:36.320forward slash donate. Again, my name is Dale Partridge. Thank you for listening to this
00:28:40.460episode of Real Christianity, and we'll see you next week.