Jesus Loves Homosexuals - Part 1 - Part B

Do you know that scores of people outside the church as well as some inside the church feel a sense of shame because of same-sex attraction, feel a sense of alienation and feel uniquely condemned because of the feelings they hold. A few years ago when Hugh Downs whose 2020 interviewer on television was interviewing Dr. Billy Graham, the interviewer wanted to ask him a pointed question about the gay lifestyle. And so he turned the interview around and he said, Dr. Graham, if you had a son who is a homosexual, would you love him?

Billy Graham said immediately without any hesitation, why I would love that one even more. The Bible doesn't say for God so loved only a certain group of people. It says for God so loved the world. That means he loves all people. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares practical insight to help you show Christ-like love to those who are different from you. But first, did you know that Skip has important updates and biblical encouragement on social media? Just follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to get the latest from him and this ministry.

That's at Skip Heitzig, at Skip, H-E-I-T-Z-I-G. Right now, we want to share about a great resource that helps you better understand the unconditional nature of God's love. The Bible makes it clear that Jesus loves the devout and the doubters, priests and prostitutes, the diseased and the depressed. Jesus just loves people, all people, no matter what's their past or their present. Sadly, sometimes it's the people who need love the most, who feel the most rejected, even by the church.

But if Jesus loves all people, shouldn't we? We want to help you grasp God's relentless love for people by sending you the complete four-booklet Jesus Loves People collection by Skip Heitzig. These booklets look to scripture to demonstrate Jesus' love for people from every walk of life. Get all four Jesus Loves People titles, including Jesus Loves the Broken and Jesus Loves Addicts, when you give a gift of $25 or more today to help expand this Bible teaching outreach.

To give, call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now, we're in John chapter eight, as we dive into our study with Skip Heitzig. Jesus was honest. He was candid that one of the most loving things you can do is to tell people the truth. And Jesus did that. There are some inconvenient truths in scripture. Now, I say without shame that I believe in the authority of scripture.

I make no apologies for it. I believe that God has spoken through his word and he has spoken on issues of morality and sexuality, sexual practice. Homosexuality isn't mentioned a whole lot in the Bible, but it is mentioned seven times, seven different passages. Genesis 19, Leviticus 18 and 20, Judges chapter 19, Romans chapter 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, and 1 Timothy chapter 1 all have something to do either directly or tangentially with the practice of homosexuality. And the Bible is teaching on it is clear. According to the Bible, homosexuality is sin.

And it is contrary to God's plan and God's design for humanity. Now, I hope you will not switch me off at this point. Hold on. There's more to this message. I realized that in making the statement that I just made, that I am considered by the vast majority of our public to be narrow-minded. I'm not dumb.

I'm not dumb. I understand that. In fact, not only am I considered narrow-minded by my view, I am considered to be intolerant by my view. And after all, we live in a culture now that worships tolerance. You have to be tolerant. There's only one group you don't have to be tolerant with, and that's Christians in this culture. I also understand something else that in saying what I just said, one day I could end up in jail for saying that in our culture.

That could be labeled as something that would imprison a person. But I sort of feel like what the apostles felt as they stood before the council in Acts chapter 6. And Peter said, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God, you judge. But we must obey God rather than men. You see, we can't just simply handle biblical prohibitions irresponsibly. We can't shape them around our personal or cultural preferences. We can never think that God will bless what God denounces. No matter what culture tells you, no matter what your body chemistry or a genetic study will tell you, no matter how you feel, the Bible, I believe, trumps it all.

Because you know what? I've had all sorts of feelings in my past and was predisposed toward a number of behaviors that if I acted on them all, I would be not alive or be in jail. It wouldn't be right. Just because someone has a preference for something doesn't make it morally correct in and of itself. But I want you to differentiate between something here. I keep talking about practice.

Jesus said, go and sin no more. He was talking about her practice, not her preference. There's one thing to note that somebody has a preference or an orientation or a propensity or a proclivity.

There's another thing to practice it. This woman in our story had a preference. She was attracted to a man outside of her marriage. And she yielded to that temptation, that urge, and it became an act.

Thus it became sinful. A few months ago, I was in a restaurant and it was just a remarkable time. I was seated by a waitress. She introduced herself to me. She said, you don't remember me, do you? You invited me to one of your Easter services some years ago. And she said, I did not go.

But I did come to your church after that and I gave my life to Jesus Christ and he's changed my life. But then she said something and my whole family was there. It was quite remarkable how candid she was. She said, you can probably tell by looking at me that I'm a stereotypical lesbian.

I'm just going, okay, I'm all ears. And she said, you know, I have lots of people around me or who tell me either change the way you look or just hook up with someone. And then she said something that was so profound, I wrote it down. She said, I'd rather struggle with my desires and remain single than to give in to those desires. She goes, I trust that God will change the rest as time goes, but I have chosen to make a decision, my choice to remain celibate rather than give in to those urges. She admitted that she had a homosexual preference, but she no longer was practicing it.

And here's the point I want to make. A sexual orientation does not have to define you when a spiritual orientation can define you. And that is the choice that she made, that she would be defined by her submission to God, no matter how she felt.

I know it's cliche. I almost shunned to even say this. However, it is true and we must demonstrate it that God loves the sinner. He may hate the sin, but God loves the sinner. Romans chapter two, verse four tells us it's the goodness of God that leads a person to repentance.

And you know what? Jesus came to remove the debt of sin from all people, from all unbelievers, all undeserving people. And he condemns all forms of sin, including hypocrisy, which is what I want you to notice next. So first, Jesus was candid with all people. The second thing I want to make note of is Jesus was confrontational with all hypocrites. You see that throughout the New Testament. Whenever Jesus encounters people like these scribes and Pharisees, look at verse three. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, I just want you to picture that. The scribes and the Pharisees brought this woman, set her in the midst and said to him, teacher, this woman was caught in adultery in the very act. I can see him smiling almost when they said that. Now Moses in the law commanded that such should be stoned.

But what do you say? This they said, testing him that he might have something of they might have something to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, wrote on the ground with his finger as though he didn't hear.

I love that. When they continued asking him, he raised himself up and said to them, he who was without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first. And again, he stooped down and he wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it being convicted by their conscience went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last. And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst.

Okay. Scribes were people who copied the law by hand. They were like professional secretaries. Pharisees were the legalists who claimed that they kept the law. So picture the scene.

The sun is rising. Jesus is sitting down in the temple teaching. Suddenly there's a commotion and everybody looks over their shoulder and these religious leaders are dragging a woman right into the church service, right into the temple and plopping her down. Can you imagine how embarrassing, how shameful to be treated that way? She's brought before the crowd and put right in the middle.

So humiliating. And they say, the law says stoner. Now there's some problems with this. Problem number one, they hadn't stoned anybody in Israel for over a thousand years at this point. They had, they had long interpreted that to be something relegated to the wilderness and it wasn't practiced in Israel for over a thousand years. Number two, they quote a scripture to Jesus or refer to one and it's a one-sided misinterpretation.

Listen to what it says in Leviticus 20, both the adulterer and the adulterer shall be put to death. So what's wrong with this? They're just bringing one person. It takes two to tango.

If she's caught in the very act, where's the dude? They're very one-sided. And number three, they were not at all concerned about morality. They're concerned about mortality. They want Jesus dead. They're looking for a way to trap him so that they might accuse him, we are told. So they don't bring this woman because they hated adultery.

They brought this woman because they hated Jesus. And they're looking for some way to trap him. Verse six, Jesus just stooped on the ground.

Isn't that funny? He's not like, he's not even listening. He's just moving his fingers. We don't know what he's writing by the way. He's writing by the way. Doesn't tell us.

But listen to this. It's the only time we ever find Jesus writing anything. The word Jesus wrote on the ground is a Greek word katagraphen, which means to write an accusation against someone.

One source believes that what Jesus was doing, and there's no really way to tell, but because of that word is that Jesus may have been writing the names of those religious leaders and the secret sin that he knew about next to it. Wouldn't that be interesting? Shlomo. Greed. Avi. Lust. Jason.

Texting while driving his camel. I, you, you get the idea. Look at verse seven. He says, he who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.

Now this statement, our Lord raises the issue from a legal issue, which they are making it a legal issue to a spiritual issue. He's saying, well, you know, there's only one qualification that would allow you to be the one condemning her and stoning her. And that is you have to be on a martitas without sin. Actually, it means one who has not sinned, one who cannot sin. If there's one of those people are among you great, then you throw that rock, pick it up. But you have to be one who cannot sin.

One who has not sinned. You see, self-righteous judgment always becomes its own gallows. You've heard it so many times before that when you point one finger, there's three pointing back at you. That's the case here.

That's the case here. If we were only in touch with our own fallenness, our own desperate need for God, we would be much more compassionate with all unbelievers, gay or straight. David Kinnaman, who wrote for the Barna Research Group in his book called UnChristian writes this, outsiders say our hostility toward gays, not just opposition to homosexual politics and behavior, but disdain for gay individuals has become virtually synonymous with the Christian faith. And make no mistake, the Bible has some strong things to say about homosexuality. But do you know the Bible has also strong things to say about divorce and about lust and about adultery and about greed and about gossip? Listen to 1 Corinthians 6, here's one.

I'll talk more on this next time. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders. Unfortunately, people don't read the next verse.

Nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. So, Jesus was candid with all people. Jesus was confrontational with all hypocrites.

Here's the third principle. Jesus was compassionate with all sinners. I love the end of verse 9 where everybody leaves and there's just our Lord facing this woman alone.

I love the idea of Jesus dealing one on one with a person's need and with a person's sin. When Jesus raised himself up and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? She said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.

There's a lot in that statement. I don't have the time to exegete it. I have before, but the implication is repentance.

Go and sin no more. Implication is faith and repentance. Notice he calls her woman. That sort of sounds like a snubbing remark today, but it was a term of respect. Jesus called his own mother woman. At the feast at Cana, he said to his mom, woman, a term of dignity.

The hour has not yet come. From the cross, our Lord said, woman, to his mother, behold your son. So what our Lord was doing by calling this adulterous woman, the same term he called his mom, is giving her back a little of her dignity that was lost in this whole fiasco. He didn't dehumanize her. He didn't have adulterous jokes to share. No slurs, but dignity.

Woman, where are your accusers? You see, this is love, and love is the heart of the gospel. Jesus is bold, calling it sin, confrontational with the hypocrites, but very compassionate with this woman.

I wish we were. Do you know that scores of people outside the church, as well as some inside the church, feel a sense of shame because of same sex attraction, feel a sense of alienation and feel uniquely condemned because of the feelings they hold. A few years ago when Hugh Downs, whose 2020 interviewer on television was interviewing Dr. Billy Graham, the interviewer wanted to ask him a pointed question about the gay lifestyle. So he turned the interviewer around and he said, Dr. Graham, if you had a son who is a homosexual, would you love him?

Billy Graham said immediately without any hesitation, why I would love that one even more. Now I want to give you, as we close, four little quick things to walk away with. Based on the word love, L-O-V-E, here's an acronym.

The L in love stands for the first way to show love, and that is to listen. Listen. Don't give advice before you've heard the story, the background. You know, it's been estimated that people listen to about only 10% of what somebody tells them.

If you ever talk to somebody who's trying to pour out your heart and their eyes are shifting around and they're looking at who else is in the room and they're moving their body language, they're saying, hurry up. I have an answer for you. Just listen to my answer. I don't care about your question.

Don't do that. Listen. Second thing, O, love, L-O.

O will stand for offer support. I'm there for you. I will pray for you. I will pray with you. I will stand with you through the ups and downs of the ups and downs.

I'll wrestle through the tough issues. If they make any movement, especially toward the cross, offer support. V, here's the third, L-O-V. Voice God's truth. Voice God's truth. At some point in the relationship you have, you need to share what the Bible says about the activities that are going on. Don't ever be embarrassed by what the Bible says. That's God's word.

That's God's plan. Voice God's truth. However, I will say this. Watch your tone.

How convincing is this? God loves you. Does that just win you over?

Watch your tone. Paul said in Ephesians 4, speaking the truth in love. Truth and love are married.

What God has joined, let no man separate. Some people are all about truth, but their tone betrays and belies that there is no love. Some people are all about love.

I don't need to share the truth with you. I just want to love you. No, you need love and truth. Voice God's truth, but in love.

So listen, offer support, voice God's truth, and the E stands for esteem. Every single person, no matter who they are, no matter what they have done, all humans deserve respect for one simple reason. We've all been created in the image of God.

That alone should cause respect and esteem. I believe that the church should be a refuge for struggling people, not a museum for perfect people. If you're a perfect person, go find a place that's perfect because you, this ain't it. I found a poem yesterday and I just sort of thought about it and it really wasn't written about America. It was written about Asia. So I rewrote it a little bit, but as I read it, a poem by Alfred Kilmer, doctored up a little bit by me, I looked at the poem and I thought, Lord, I pray this will never happen here. Whenever I walk through our city with skies so big and so blue, I go by a great big church house with people so strong and so true.

I suppose I passed it a hundred times, but today I stopped in for a minute and looked at that church, that tragic church, the church with no love for me in it. I pray that our love for people will be as radical as the gospel itself. It's a radical message.

It's a radical message. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from the series, Jesus Loves People. Right now, we want to tell you about a unique opportunity to take your knowledge of scripture to a new level. Calvary College is now open for registration. Calvary College is offering select online classes as an opportunity for individuals to take their life's calling to a whole new level with an educational emphasis in biblical studies, with our unique partnerships with Veritas International University and Calvary Chapel University.

You will have the opportunity to obtain your bachelor's or master's degree with complete online programs. Whether you're looking to obtain an accredited online degree or take individual courses to become better equipped in your knowledge of God's unchangeable truth, Calvary College has you covered with a range of opportunities. For updates on classes and registration information for Calvary College, please visit calvaryabq.college. That's calvaryabq.college. For Calvary College, calvaryabq.college. Here at Connect with Skip Heitzig, we get to hear some powerful stories about how listeners like you encounter the living God through these messages.

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800-922-1888. Thank you. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares how you can build a healthy balance between loving others and standing firm in God's truth. We may disagree about the use of spiritual gifts in the church. A lot of churches disagree. We may disagree about the timing of the rapture and end time events. But this is one issue we cannot disagree on and here's why. Issues of sexual morality are not secondary issues. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.