Marriage

I sent in my email last night an attachment with reports on the Council of Elders meetings. They were meeting this past week. For those of you that don't get email or didn't have easy access to that, I printed copies. I think I've got four copies of each day. We have the reports from Monday and Tuesday, and I suspect probably soon Wednesday will be available. And I think they've met until noon on Thursday. So we'll make those available. But those are on the information table. If anybody would like a copy, please help yourself. It's pretty routine. I think they're going over various things. I know one of them has been in the process of going through the bylaws just to revise and see if there's anything that's been... Sometimes there's an obscure wording or something doesn't seem right, and it's been there for 20 years. Actually, I was writing a fairly long message with my email last night before my computer ate it and it disappeared, and I had to start over. I'm not on the Council of Elders. I know somebody needs to do that job and it's a valuable service, but boy, that board work is tedious and thankless sometimes. It's important and necessary. So if I'm ever called on and I have to do it, well, I hope that there are better qualified people to continue doing that. Like I said, needs done, but I'm happy for someone else to do it. Ah, there's that drinking problem again. Pardon me.

Well, with that said, let's move into the sermon. I wanted to note it was just last year. The United States Supreme Court overturned a law that had been... It's surprising in some sense because it had been so popular when it was first passed. That law was called the Defense of Marriage Act. The Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional and thus could not be legally enforced. And across the nation, this decision was widely celebrated. And not only by pro-homosexual activist groups, but by lots and lots of people. People who do genuinely care about fairness. People who care about what they call human rights. And we could add things like peace on earth and good will towards men. That sort of thing. Millions of people celebrated. And it would seem that a majority of people, a majority of Americans, were very happy to be rid of a law that, less than two decades ago, they had been very happy to have put in place. It was back in September of 1996 that the Defense of Marriage Act was passed in both houses of Congress by large majorities. With large support, I'm not sure if that's the right term, but with a lot of support by both major parties. It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton at the time. The key aspect of that law was that it authorized individual states to refuse to recognize what is called same-sex marriages performed in other states. It's notable it did not say that any states could not perform such marriages. It just said they would not be required to acknowledge those done in other states. The most stringent part of the law was that it did define the term spouse in a way that limited marriage to heterosexual couples.

Now, I will say that I'm pretty certain that most people, not only in the church, but most people in the country, still think of marriage as a man and a woman in a binding relationship. But we are bombarded with examples and claims that it might be otherwise. I know there's at least some cable TV channels where it's presented that marriage could be one man and several women. I'm not sure which channel it is, but I know we've had times where we're flipping through the channels and they're interviewing the different women at different times. My reaction has always been, what's entertaining about this? I've never seen any entertainment value in it enough to put it on television, but it's there. Much more common is the portrayal of marriages that consist of two men together, or of two women.

Advocates would have us to think that this must be allowed. That any legal restriction against what, as I said, is called same-sex marriage would be denying a large portion of the population from being able to establish the type of loving relationship that they consider to be a fundamental human right. Is it such a large portion? I found a study that was conducted in 2012. An article in the Atlantic cited a Gallup poll that had been done recently at that time. And that Gallup poll found that most Americans, well above half, believe that more than 10% of the population is homosexual.

Actually, the true number is less than 2%. And there are good reasons to think that that could be quite an exaggeration. But less than 2% is not close to 10%. There's a pretty big difference in reality. Why do people have this wrong perception? Well, another study I found was a study of the 2012-2013 television season. It seems there's this image, presented on TV and in movies, that's very different than reality. The study of last year's TV season, in essence, showed that 4.5% of all television characters are homosexual. Now, 4.5% isn't huge, but it's more than twice that of reality. Moreover, nearly half of all television programs included either a homosexual character or something about homosexuality in it. Which means that in America, half the time a television set is on, homosexuality is involved.

Now, I found it interesting that same study didn't have any comment on how much of the time a TV is on that religion is portrayed. I'm pretty sure it's nowhere near half. But no wonder people who don't take the effort to learn the truth believe that lots and lots of people around them are homosexual. And that they should have the right to marry someone else who is.

Now, some of this might sound familiar because I'd begun doing research on this sermon, getting some examples and things I wanted to present, when the latest issue of the Good News magazine came out. And as I was looking, I saw, what do you know, Tom Robinson wrote an article on almost exactly, well, not exactly this, but the November-December issue includes an article that's entitled, Government and the Gay Agenda. And that Mr. Robinson cites a number of examples showing that gay rights groups have been very successful at convincing government and educational institutions that it's not enough just for people to tolerate homosexuality. Not enough to just tolerate it. Now people are being pushed to openly advocate for it and accept it in their lives. He cites a case in which a Christian camp in New Jersey was actually convicted in court for violating discrimination laws when it refused to allow a same-sex civil union ceremony to occur on its grounds. Now, their religious beliefs just weren't allowed. Those wouldn't be tolerated. He cited the Federal Department of Justice issuing a brochure for its employees, saying that they must verbally affirm the rights of homosexuals. For them, not saying anything is not an option. And in Colorado, a judge ordered a baker to create a wedding cake for a homosexual wedding, in spite of his religious beliefs, to the contrary. And there are a lot of other examples we could cite. And what strikes me is the fact that this is real. It's not some doomsday prediction. It's not science fiction about some distant future where things are odd and different. It's the way it is now when conditions are progressing, you know, and not in the direction that some of us might prefer. And studying this, I did find a quote that I thought interesting to share. This was made publicly in the year 2004 by then-President George Bush. I believe the second George Bush, not the first one. But he was supporting an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to define marriage, as what it has actually been through most of human history. And what he said seemed to ring true to me. This is what George Bush said. After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of human civilization. I would have done that to sound like George Bush if I thought I could pull it off, but you get the point. But I would ask, is that what's happening? Is marriage really such a big deal? Is it really the most fundamental institution? And what does constitute a marriage? Now, as Christians, we need to understand what the Bible, what God's Word, says to answer these questions. We need to not only understand, but it's important for us to think and be able to explain what we believe, and why we believe it. Because, let's be honest with ourselves, and sometime in the future any one of us could have opportunity to not only explain to someone that we work with or a casual acquaintance, but we might be testifying in a court of law. Because the way things are progressing, the things that I'm saying here today might be against the law. As a matter of fact, from what I understand, some places, and I believe Canada in particular, this sermon perhaps could land me in court. Classifying is what's called hate speech. But I do want to go on record. I'm not motivated by hate. I don't have any feelings of animosity or hatred towards anyone that's homosexual. This sermon is meant to be simply about what the Bible teaches. So let's consider those questions today. From the perspective of the Bible, where did marriage come from, and what is it? For that matter, what does the Bible say about homosexuality? Does it say anything? What does it say about what marriage should be?

To answer fundamental questions like these, it seems fitting to go to the beginning of the book. And if you will, turn with me to Genesis 1. We'll go to the beginning and see how it all started. I'll start in Genesis 1 in verse 26. Actually, we'll read verses 26 and 27. It says, Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, and the image of God, he created him male and female. He created them. Now, we see here a number of things that are packed into this. One is that man didn't evolve from some lower life form. Man was created by God, and he created us to look like him. Or, as you read the plural, them, the ones that we would now call God the Father and God the Son, which tells us, what does God look like? Well, he must, you know, he has a torso, and arms, and legs, and a head. He doesn't look like, you know, a bull. He doesn't look like a cow, or a fish, or anything else. But, more importantly, well, another thing we could say, of course, that he gave mankind dominion over the other creatures. Mankind is made different, and we have different rights. This isn't about animal rights groups, or plants rights groups, or anything like that, but that's as an aside. But we also see that God originally made man in his image male and female. Both sexes alike are created in God's image.

We could ask, why? Why too? Was that an accident? Was it a necessity? We could find the answer, actually, for me across the page. Chapter 2 and verse 7 will begin. I'm going to have to get the glasses out so I actually read it properly. Chapter 2 and verse 7, now what this is, is they're going back, and it's not a separate, or it's not saying God created man again. This is about God creating man, but it's giving a little more detail. So, he covered the whole creation week. Now we're going to back up and give a little more detail about man. So, in verse 7, the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living being. Or, I still like the original King James, says, man became a living soul. We'll jump over to verse 18. And the Lord God said, it's not good that man should be alone. I'll make him a helper, comparable to him. Or, again, the original King James would say, a help meet for him. A helper that fits, that's just right for him. And it proceeds, out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field, every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was his name. So Adam gave names to all the cattle, to the birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him. Now, I should make the point, God wasn't conducting an experiment. He didn't look at Adam and say, boy, he's kind of alone. Let's bring all these other creatures and see if one of them he can mate up with, and that'll be alright. No, God knew. He wanted Adam, though, to know for sure, too. Adam, you've seen all the others. None of them are right for you. So that when the woman was presented, Adam would say, okay, this is right. And we go from there. In verse 21, the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs, closed up the flesh in its place. And then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made into a woman, and he brought her to the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Now, of course, at this point, Adam sees she's different from all those other creatures. She is like me. She's fitting. And she was his only option at the time. We talk about marriage being one man and one woman. At this point on planet earth, there was one man and one woman. And we'll see what happened.

In verse 24, therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. Okay, we're talking about a wife here. And they shall become one flesh. That last scripture, probably, we're almost certain, was not Adam's words. We know Adam said what was in verse 23, but Adam didn't know anything about leaving father and mother. He didn't have a father or a mother, and neither did Eve. I believe these were God's words. Basically saying, therefore, what is the therefore about meaning? Because there's a man and a woman, and because God made them for each other, God brings them together. In the future, a man will leave his parents, the woman will leave her parents, and they'll form a new thing, a marriage. And what I'm getting to is, at this point, God created marriage. Adam and Eve didn't come up with it on their own. God formed it.

Now, in English, one definition of marriage, or marrying things, can be just joining two separate things into one. In the introduction trades, sometimes a plumber could talk about marrying two pipes by welding them together or putting them both into a coupling.

Here in the Garden of Eden, God took two different people and made them into one new unit and called it marriage. But we can see, it's not just here that we see this. If we turn to Matthew 19, let's see what Jesus Christ would later say about this. Matthew 19 will begin in verse 3.

Now, of course, to set the stage, Jesus had been carrying on his ministry for some time, and he'd gained some antagonism with the religious leaders of the day, particularly the Pharisees, but also the Sadducees. And so they were looking for a way to catch him in his words, to find something to discredit him. And this is one of those cases, but we're going to bring out something not about the Pharisees, but about marriage. In verse 3, the Pharisees came to him, that is to Jesus Christ, testing him, saying to him, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?

And he answered and said to them, Have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female? And for this reason, I could stop and say, what reason? Well, because he made them male and female, for that reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then, there are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate. What did God join together? He joined together one man to one woman.

And in doing so, God created the institution of marriage. And I believe Jesus is here saying that not only did God join Adam and Eve, but he's using that example to say that it's God who joins every husband to every wife. When a husband and wife make that commitment and form a marriage, it's not just between the two of them. God is involved in it. That's why in our marriage ceremony in the United Church of God, we say that marriage is a natural union, but a divine institution.

It's a divine institution. It's from God. Not just Adam and Eve, but everyone. Which maybe might make some of us feel a little happier about our marriages. Just, hey, this is something God made. He was there that day when you said, I do. That's pretty important. And this is made all the more evident by the continued discussion that follows. I'm not going to read all the chapter, but the Pharisees asked Jesus, well, since God made marriage and doesn't want man to unbind it, why did ancient Israel have laws about divorce? Why did they allow divorce at all? Jesus would answer and say, well, Moses permitted it because of the hardness of your heart, but God did not intend it that way from the start.

Let's read verse 9. This is, again, Jesus Christ's words. I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality commits adultery, and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery. Jesus doesn't here define sexual immorality. I'm not going to turn there, but I think most of us would agree the Bible does define sexual immorality pretty substantially. And we could sum it up by saying any sex outside of marriage would be considered sexual immorality. That's a good biblical definition. And that covers a variety of situations.

But the disciples were kind of taken aback. Wow! You can't get divorced, or any sex outside of marriage is adultery. And verse 10, his disciples said to him, if such is the case of a man with his wife, it's better to not get married. They're saying, if there's no way out, maybe it's better to not get married in the first place.

And it's interesting, Jesus doesn't say, no, you're wrong. He says, well, not everyone can handle that, in a sense. He says, all cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it's been given. That is, those to whom it's been given to really understand, and I would say by God's Holy Spirit, can understand this.

For there are eunuchs who were born, Dass, from their mother's womb. There are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. And he who was able to accept it, let him accept it. Now, that's, as I said, covering a wide variety of situations, but we could summarize it this way. Jesus is saying that if a person can't enter marriage on God's terms, then he needs not marry at all.

And that means, along with it, to not engage in sex. Jesus basically says the only way that sex is not immoral is within a marriage. And so, if you, you know, can't handle that, stay out. Now, I should add, of course, and by not engaging in sex, he means play the part of a eunuch. I'm sure Jesus did not intend anyone to mutilate themselves. He wasn't in favor of castration, you know. I'd say when he says, you know, some were made eunuchs by other men, you know, that was a practice that happened in the ancient times, where, you know, emperors or whatever who had a harem, they would have castrated men watch over the women in the harem.

Jesus is not favoring that. But he says, someone who made themselves eunuchs, he's saying basically, you decided you can live without sex because you're not in a marriage. And it could be for whatever reason. Including, it could be someone who doesn't feel any attraction to someone of the opposite sex.

For whatever reason, they just don't have that. Saying, you know, if you're thinking you want to have sex with someone that you're not allowed to marry, you have to play the part of a eunuch. God created marriage as the union of a man and a woman, a male and a female. And according to the Bible, that's the only permissible setting for human sexual relations. It's to be an exclusive sexual relationship.

And I've got here in bright red ink, not that sex is all that a marriage is about. You know, there's much more to it, but if anyone's not willing to enter marriage on those terms, Jesus said that they shouldn't marry. Period.

What we've seen in these two passages of Scripture pretty much does answer a couple of our basic questions. Where marriage came from, God made it. Now, also, it gives us a pretty basic definition. It's a lifelong union of a man and a woman. The Creator God made mankind, and He purposely made mankind as male and female. It wasn't an accident. And of course, the same time He did that, He created the institution of marriage. And I could pause and say, I realize I'm not telling you things you don't know, at least most of us. This is old business, but it's good for us to review it and make sure that we, as I said, understand what the Bible says. Why we have certain beliefs. It's not because we're bigoted. It's not because we're old sticks in the mud and can't keep up with modern society.

Under God's law, no one is forced to marry anyone else. But Jesus said that if a person who's not in a marriage, that is a man and a woman joined for life, then he needs to live the equivalent of being a eunuch, a sexless life. And there someone would say, well, what about homosexual? What about homosexual? No. I'm not saying that. What about someone who's homosexual? Why do they have to be left out? Why can't they have marriage? Well, the answer is, God didn't make it that way. I mean, the scriptures we've read pretty much are the answer to that, in essence. God created marriage to consist of a man and a woman. Not two men together, and not two women. Or any other combination. And I would say, as an aside, we're looking at the Bible as the highest authority. I do believe that the Constitution of the United States is a good constitution. I was listening to someone on the radio the other day saying he believed that God had a hand in it being written. And I don't know that I would disagree with that. Of course, it's not Holy Scripture. But I would say that under the U.S. Constitution, homosexuals do have the same exact rights to marriage that heterosexuals do. And they always have. Each man has the right to marry one woman. That's the right that I've always had. That's the right that all men have had. So, what I would say is people who are wanting something different, they're not wanting equal rights. They're wanting something new and different. I'm sure a lawyer would argue differently, and I don't want to get into legal arguments, but I thought that was worth saying.

Aside from that, though, having, I think, established that, it's good to look and say, What does the Bible say about homosexuality? I want to start with reading something written by the Apostle Paul. Now, the Apostle Paul has been labeled as both a misogynist, that is, someone who hates women, and as a homophobe, which is used in modern society as someone who doesn't like homosexuals. I object to the term, not, you know, I guess on just the principles of grammar, because it's based on the Greek word phobia, which means fear. I say, I don't like that, because you can dislike homosexuality without having a fear of it. So, there should be another word. I'm not sure what that word should be. I'm not well versed enough in Greek. But there's part of me that says, I think it's a matter of those who get, you know, people who want to shape the argument, and they stick you with the labels first, and they stick you with a label that implies something about you, like fear or misunderstanding. And there's where I say, no, it's not fear, it's not misunderstanding, it's just a matter of knowing God's word. And that's where I want to pick up in Romans chapter 1, because the Apostle Paul gives us some very blunt teaching and understanding on the subject. Which is why, of course, people want to say, well, the Apostle Paul, he was speaking for himself, he didn't know what he was talking about, or he was just biased. Let's begin in Romans 1 and verse 18.

Here he says, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God has manifested them, for God has shown it to them. And I would say a lot of activist groups have been effectively suppressing the truth. As I said, a lot of people think that homosexuals make up at least 10% of the population. And activists want to suppress the truth that it's a far smaller number than that. Let's drop down to verse 24. In verse 24, Paul writes, Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts, and those he gave up are those who cut themselves off from God, who didn't acknowledge God's way. He cut them off...

Now I lost track of where I was. Okay. Okay.

So the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness. And he goes on from there. I want to stop. Because I think you could say God... God... Paul addresses a number of sinful practices, but no doubt he includes homosexuality, both with women and with men. And let's consider some of the words he described. I picked them out and put them on paper, and I said, you know, some of them are pretty mild. He called it an error. That's not all that harsh. He said, not fitting. Some of the stronger terms, he called it shameful. He called it against nature. And then when he wanted to get stronger, he called it debased and vile. And I would say through most of human history, the majority of people on the planet have agreed with Paul's characterization. In fact, when he said homosexuality is contrary to nature, he was simply commenting on what's blatantly obvious to anyone who's willing to look. And I thought about bringing a nut and a bolt up here to show, because nuts and bolts are classified as male and female, even though they're not organic, because the obvious thing is two male parts don't fit together, and two female parts don't fit together, but male and female do, and you can see it. You know, it's demonstrable. There's nothing prudish or unimaginative in saying that. It's common sense. And if a person does believe that we exist because a creator God made us, then they can't deny what's in the Genesis account and what we've read. That God made a man and a woman to be able to join together as one flesh. And it wasn't just one of a variety of options that he had in mind. God didn't say, okay, this is one thing you could do, but feel free to mix and match. No, he pretty much said what they were supposed to do. Now, I should note, I'm speaking about the Bible's definitions. There are religions that don't base themselves strictly on the Scripture, and I understand that. And if they don't want to believe what this says, of course, they're free to have other teachings and understanding. But let's continue with what Paul teaches. If we turn to 1 Corinthians 6, 1 Corinthians 6, and we'll begin in verse 9.

Paul says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites. And I'll point out here, Paul covers both angles of male homosexuality. I don't want to get into defining the terms, but basically it's both ends of the transaction. Nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God. He says, Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. It is worth noting that Paul does not say that homosexuality is worse than any of these other sinful acts. And his definition, committing adultery with someone of the opposite sex, results in the same thing as homosexuality. That is exclusion from the kingdom of God. And for that matter, so does alcoholism, so does covetousness, so does any sin. The Bible says all these actions are sin because they're contrary to God's law. And that's not Frank Dunkel's opinion. It's not a homophobic rant. It's also not a misinterpretation of Scripture. I would say it's a very clear and correct reading of Christian Scripture. For those of you that have them open on your laps, it's there in your Bible. You just read it.

As I said, though, a lot of people want to choose to believe that Paul was just writing his own bigoted, short-sighted, misinformed views. These statements couldn't possibly be the reflection of a loving Creator God who wants everybody to be happy. Well, those who believe such things, they've got to deny more than just Paul's writing. There are other sources. Now, I want to go to the Old Testament to see something, but first, since we're in 1 Corinthians, if you look over to chapter 10 and verse 4, I'll remind us that the same Jesus Christ who appeared in the flesh is purported and explained... I shouldn't say purported... it's explained that he was that God that appeared in the Old Testament. In 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 4, speaking of the ancient Israelites who traveled in the wilderness and were fed manna from the sky and drank water out of a rock, says, all drank of the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. That was the one God who is explained or described in John chapter 1, where it says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. This is the one that we sometimes call the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. Before he was born of a virgin, he existed before that. And of course, if he's the one that was there talking to ancient Israel, he gave them a full set of laws. He gave them a set of moral laws. He gave them a set of civil laws as a nation. He gave them a set of ritual laws for operating their temple and sacrificing animals. And I noticed in the book of Leviticus, he gave them a brief set of laws governing human sexuality. Let's turn to Leviticus chapter 18. This isn't not the only place where this is addressed, but I was surprised at how comprehensive it is. Leviticus 18 will begin at the start of the chapter.

Let's read the first few verses to set the context. Leviticus 18. Then the eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. Here he's establishing his authority. This isn't Moses' suggestion any more than Paul was writing about his own opinions in the New Testament. We're going to read some direct commands from Almighty God. And he says in verse 3, According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do.

And according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do. Nor shall you walk in any of their ordinances. You shall observe my judgments and keep my ordinances to walk in them. I am the Lord your God. In other words, you could say, he's about to tell them, Look, other people do all these perverted things that I'm about to tell you not to do.

Don't do those things. I'm God. I made you. I know what's best. And after this, we're not going to read the whole chapter, but it goes out to lay out certain things that he says not to do. And I was a little surprised, but he spends a lot of time describing different varieties of incest.

He says, don't do that. Two people that are closely related don't need to be getting married or having sexual relations. And he mentions, of course, adultery. Having sex with anyone to whom you are not married is off-limits. And even within a marriage, during that time of month when a woman is menstruating, sex is not allowed. And then he goes on. Let's drop down to verse 21. Near the end of the chapter, he says, And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire of the Molech.

Now, you might say, wait a minute. He jumps from all these restrictions on sex to saying, by the way, don't sacrifice your children. That seems unrelated until you think, well, how do you get children in the first place? Well, I think most of us know what the result is. And he's saying, look, the purpose of sex, you know, having children is one of those purposes, but not so you can sacrifice them to some idol.

So that is strictly off-limits. He said, Nor shall you profane the name of your God. I am the Eternal. So he said, you know, don't let any of your descendants pass through the fire.

And then in verse 22, You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. Nor shall you mate with any animal to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is a perversion. Do not defile yourself with any of these things.

For by all these, the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. In this description, homosexuality is sandwiched between child sacrifice and bestiality. And it seems to me that's how God sees it. According to Scripture, you know, and he doesn't say, well, that's a personal preference. It's a lifestyle choice. No, God called it an abomination. And that's what Scripture calls it. As I said, it's not my personal opinion, not a personal lifestyle.

God who created mankind said, these things, they're not allowed. They defile you. They're an abomination. Now, we could spend more time in the Old Testament. I'm going to assume that I don't necessarily need to review the account of God destroying the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah. But I will point out that the very term, sodomy, comes from the name of the town Sodom. I think most of us do that. And we are near Genesis. Let's turn to Genesis 18 and read verse 20.

Because, of course, we know God appeared to Abraham with a couple of angels with him. And they appeared in the form of men, human beings. And Abraham had them come, and they enjoyed dinner, and God revealed some things to Abraham. And eventually, he told him what the business they were there for. In verse 20 of Genesis 18, the Eternal said, "...because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave..." Now, God doesn't say one sin is worse than the other, and the effect you get, that it cut you off from life in his kingdom.

But God did call that sin very grave. And what we see is, going through the rest of the chapter, of course, the two angels went ahead and were taken in by lot. And then the men of the village gathered around, wanting to be able to have sexual relations with them.

And soon afterwards, God rained fire and brimstone, just destroyed the town, and Abraham from a great distance saw it look like smoke like a furnace coming up. Now, this is where many people listening to this might rush to condemn me, or to condemn God's church. And perhaps all of you here with me, they might say that, I just said we should burn homosexuals. No, I didn't say that. Or that the church teaches they should not be permitted to live.

No, that is not what the United Church of God teaches, and never has. It's not what I believe. So I do want to say very plainly, we do not believe that God gave the church any responsibility to punish any sin. He gives me no right to say, you're doing this, therefore, you're going to lose your life, or I'm going to inflict pain or suffering. I would say that's something Jesus Christ will take care of when He comes.

Whatever punishment He chooses, of course we know Jesus Christ, His goal is repentance and forgiveness. What responsibility the church has is to preach the gospel, the good news of the coming Kingdom of God. And there is a responsibility to warn people of the results of their sins. And of course, that's part of what we do. And we're responsible to guide and teach those who are called out, who want to be a part of the church and understand what the Bible teaches. But in all that, we would no more seek harm for homosexuals or any of those who are, you know, leading any, practicing any type of activity that we consider sin.

We wouldn't want to harm them more than we would someone who puts misleading numbers on his tax return. Or more than someone who sees their next-door neighbor bought a new car and has a covetous feeling about it. You know, we look at that all the same. It's not our duty to punish or to seek punishment. I'll go even further, though, to say that God's Word does not even say that Christians should avoid or have to avoid having dealings with or associating with those that practice those.

The very same Apostle Paul, who has very clear teachings about what homosexuality is and how sinful it is, is our source of teaching for this. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians and read chapter 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, and we'll begin in verse 9. Now, I'll make the point here before I start reading that the Apostle Paul is very corrective of the Corinthian church. And he makes note of an earlier letter. We know we have two letters preserved in the Bible.

He makes reference to perhaps one earlier, because he starts on verse 9 saying, I wrote to you in my epistle. Well, it can't be the one that was 2 Corinthians, because that followed after this one. So, apparently he had told them this, not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Well, we've seen that in Paul's view, homosexuality was sexually immoral. So he said, I wrote in my earlier epistle not to keep company with him.

Yet, I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of the world, or with covenants or extortioners or idolaters, since you would need to go out of the world. So he's saying, oh, wait a minute. I'm talking about members of the church. People in the world, if you don't want to have association with anyone who's involved in sin, including sexual immorality, you'd have to build a rocket and blast off. Of course, he didn't know what a rocket was, but he's saying you'd have to leave the planet some way. He says in verse 11, but now I've written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner.

No, not to eat with such a person. And it says, for we could say, but what do I have to do with judging those who are outside? It means outside the church. We're not supposed to judge those who are outside the church. Don't you judge those who are inside. Those who are outside God judges. Therefore, put away from yourselves the evil person. Now, in this case, he's making reference to someone who was committing sexual immorality that they were allowing to fellowship in the church.

He said, no, you need to put him away. And even there, he doesn't say punish him. He doesn't say burn him, you know, get him with a cat and eye and tails or anything. He just says, don't fellowship with them.

So we can interpret that in modern day. There's no instruction in God's Word that says we need to make sure to not have any association with people outside the church who practice homosexuality. Now, we might not have any desire to a personal preference if you like to avoid people like that. If you feel uncomfortable, that's your personal choice. There's not a teaching that says you have to seek them out, invite them over for coffee and dessert or things like that. But if, you know, someone practicing that lifestyle wants to be in the church, we would say, well, wait a minute. God's Word teaches that you can't be in the church and live that lifestyle. That's a different story. And I'll say openly, I've had association. I've known people who were what's called gay. That's another term I tend to... I feel... I don't really like that one because it used to mean something very different. But, you know, I've known people like that that I considered to be pretty good people. Good by the ways of the world. Nice people to be around. Matter of fact, I had a boss in one of my former jobs who was homosexual. Not working for the church, mind you, but... And he was one of the best bosses I've ever had. I was amazed at how much he taught me. How much I learned from him. How understanding he was of my religion and protective of it. And I'll tell you the truth, I didn't know he was homosexual until I worked for him for several years. So he didn't parade it out. He didn't make a pass at me or try to convert me. And I didn't try to convert him. But as it says here in 1 Corinthians 5, it's for God to judge someone living that lifestyle, not for you or not for me. What it is for me to do is to look at myself. To look at God's Word. And to live by God's Word to the very best of my ability. And, of course, as a minister in God's Church, to teach it to others. As I said, so we understand what the Bible teaches and how we'll practice. And, you know, if it becomes illegal to believe that homosexuality is wrong, we'll obey God rather than man, as it says in Acts 5. But one thing we could move a little forward, since we've seen God's Word doesn't agree with the United States Supreme Court. God's Word doesn't agree that marriage doesn't have to be limited to a man and a woman. We believe it says it is limited to a man and a woman. But we could ask before we wrap things up, what else does it say? Does it give us some more insight? And there, I have to put a disclaimer, even though I've got a bit of time left, I don't have nearly enough time left to delve into all the things that the Bible teaches about how to make a good marriage. And, to be honest, I haven't given many sermons on the topic, because I've looked out usually and thought, hmm, I'm one of the least experienced in that realm of the people here. Many of you have been married for decades. I've just passed one. But we can look in God's Word and we can learn quite a bit from it. We can go beyond our discussion that despite what anyone says, two men together is not a marriage and two women is not a marriage. It might be something, but it's not a marriage. As far as sex and gender goes, though, the Garden of Eden's account and Jesus' comments on it make it pretty clear, God made marriage to be a lifelong union of a man and a woman. I want to turn to 1 Corinthians 7, because here Paul makes it equally clear that for Christians, sexual relations are an important part of a marriage. I'm going to start in 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 2.

I'm addressing this not because I think I have to give instruction on sex. I certainly don't want to be doing that. Homosexuality and bisexuality and all these other things they come up with is all about sex. I want to show that the Bible doesn't leave us ignorant. In verse 2 he says, Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, again, his own wife and no one else, and let each woman have her own husband. Here, speaking of sexual immorality, he means to prevent out of control desire come together. As he says, Let the husband render his wife the affection do her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. I like that. In the original King James it says, Conjugal Dues. It's been a while since I've read the original King James. I remember most of my life reading it and it's going, What in the world is that? I had no idea. I was going to say, Oh, it means sex. Which it's saying, you know, Okay, you're married and he says, The husband, you know, the wife doesn't have authority over her own body, but the husband does, and the husband doesn't have authority over his own body, the wife does. So it's something that you do together. And in verse 5 he says, Do not deprive one another. Okay, you don't have authority. Don't deprive someone, or don't deprive your mate, except with consent. Okay, he's not saying you have to be together all the time. If you both wanted to deprive each other with consent, that's fine. For a time, you might give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and come together again, so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. This stands somewhat in contrast with what we read in Leviticus 18 in the parts I didn't read. There are a lot of commands about how to not have sex there. Here, there's direct instructions that, for a married couple, you do have to. I've got to admit, when I first got married, I found that as greatly ironic. I'd spent a lot of years as a single man, knowing that the Bible taught that, as a single man, it was wrong for me to have sex. Then, suddenly, as a married man, it became wrong for me to go very long without having it. As I said, I saw that as ironic.

But enough about that. Certainly, as I said, I don't want to make this some talk about sex. As a matter of fact, I'll mention, two or three weeks ago, I had an occasion to speak at a forum at ABC, and I attempted, maybe less successfully than I wanted, to try to explain to them that, contrary to what movies and television might tell you, sex is not the ultimate human experience. I want to tell them, you know, sex is good. It's a good part of a marriage, but it's not the ultimate human experience.

Because TV and movies would make it seem like that's the peak. You get to there, and that's the best you can be. That's the highest of everything. No, it's not. There are a lot of other things in life. And of course, most of you here know that, but if you're younger, you know, and I was there, that's what you thought. Or what you would be led to think. Sex alone doesn't make a marriage.

It's not the ultimate human experience. It's not even all there is in a good marriage. But, you know, it can be part of a good marriage, and should be, as we just read in 1 Corinthians 7. Let's talk about some of the other things that go into making a good marriage. If you'll turn with me to Ephesians 5, and I know some of you have been in the church long enough that you've heard a lot of sermons based on Ephesians 5.

Again, at some place I don't go that often because I recognize my own limitations and, you know, shortage of experience. But I guess after 11 years I can go there a little bit. And again, it's still a way bigger subject than I want to tackle today, but I do want to emphasize a little bit of it because what we'll find is when we get to the end of this passage, it's going to bring us back to where we started.

Let's read it starting in verse 21. I always like to start here instead of the next one because it's important to see that Paul wrote, submitting to one another in the fear of God. He's speaking of husbands and wives. Submit to one another at different times. You'll each have to put yourself second. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church, and he's Savior of the body.

Here he's saying God, you know, he's put two together, and you're equal in many ways, but here he's saying God had to put one in charge, and he made it the man, but it's not just that, and that's all there is to it, because Christ is head of the church, and he's Savior of the body, and we are the body of Christ. We'll come back to that. Suggested the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be subject to their own husbands and everything.

Well, the church is subject to Christ, and Christ is someone who loves us unconditionally and gave himself for us, not someone who beats us around or orders us around arbitrarily or tells us to do things that aren't for our own good, and that's what he'll next tell husbands. In verse 25, husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the Word.

That's the way husbands should love their wives. As a matter of fact, he says, well, here, speaking of Christ cleansing the church, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she should be holy and without blemish. So, or like that, husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself. And that reminds me of that old saying, you know, happy wife, happy life. You love your wife, you love yourself. You're not loving your wife or making her happy. Well, all of you are husbands out there, you know. And those of you who aren't yet, you'll learn. And the same goes for women, of course. You know, you want to be part of that happy life that we get. I lost track. I'm getting off. Oh, in verse 29, Love your wife as your very own body. No one ever hated his own flesh, but he nourishes it, cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. We come back to the fact that the church is the body of Christ.

I've got a note here. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 27 makes that point. And who, if the church is the body of Christ, and there's this analogy of Christ and the church, remember, the church is made up of what? Us. All of us as individuals. Christ loves the church as a group, but he loves each of us individually, the way he wants husbands to love their wives.

I'm always intrigued often, though, that he doesn't tell wives to love their husbands. I'm guessing it's not because they don't have to, but because women will naturally love their wives. It's built in women to be loving. Men are a little more thick-headed and have to be told, Hey, dummy, love your wife! That's what she's there for. And I wanted to come back to this. Verse 31, for this reason, for what reason? Well, for the reason part now that God made a male and female to be a husband and wife, but also for the fact that it symbolizes Jesus Christ and the church, or Christians.

For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. That's what God said when he created marriage. Paul says, this is a great mystery. Now, people have been saying marriage is a great mystery probably ever since Adam and Eve, but I don't think that's what Paul means.

He's saying, here, I'm going to reveal a great truth that not everyone understands. I speak concerning Christ and the church. Marriage represents Christ and the church, and the church is made up of all of us. So, marriage is a symbol of the loving relationship that Christ will have with every Christian. Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

In this passage, we not only get some good instruction from making a successful marriage, he tells us, love each other, submit to each other, fulfill the role that God designated for you, and we could add others if we wanted to extrapolate, but Paul also tells us a great deal about why God made marriage in the first place. As I said, it goes all the way back to that Genesis account where God said, it's not good for the man to be alone, I want to make a helper that's suitable for him.

And then he made Eve, and you know, said, for this reason, because their husband and wife, and I'm making them to go together, we have marriage. And he intended it, as we see here, to be an example of God's love and his care for us. The example of Christ in the church. And I'd like to say there was no accident or afterthought. God didn't see a happy marriage going on and say, ooh, what do you know?

Look at that. Maybe I could make an example of that. Maybe I'll say, hey, I want my relationship with called-out Christians to be like that. No, it was the other way around. God knew the relationship, the type of love he wanted to have with those he would bring into his family and said, I want to create a human joining, a relationship that's so close and so intimate and so loving that it'll be the closest thing you can have to the love between God and his people.

And so he created marriage to represent that. And when marriage is done right, it'll do that. And I say, whoever does marriage right? Well, we're all working on doing that. And at times we're closer to it than others, I'd say, and any of us. But this is a big reason why human beings are not at liberty to take whatever sort of relationship they want and call it a marriage.

That's not for us to decide. It's never something to take lightly. It's too important. It represents something very important. And that does bring us back to where we started. Many people in our country and other countries have decided that same-sex marriage is valid. And even that it's some sort of human right. Well, I'd say regardless of what the governments of men say, the Bible teaches us something very different. It shows us that God created marriage.

He created it right at the same time he created a man and a woman, both in his image and likeness. And God had made sex to be part of a marriage between a man and a woman. Not the only part, but a necessary and valuable part. So God made human sex to be part of a marriage between a man and a woman. Any other sex among humans is contrary to God's law. In Biblical terms, it's a sin. So, not coincidentally, what might be called marriage between two homosexual people, I say is not marriage.

But by the Bible's definition, it's plain old sin. And again, I'm the one up here speaking these words, but I'm just saying that's what the Bible teaches. And I don't think it's a stretch or interpretation that's far out there. It's very close, proper reading of Scripture. The Bible tells us that marriage is special. It's sacred. Marriage is a creation by God that should be the highest form of a loving relationship between two people. And in doing so, it represents the love of God Himself for the people that He created.