Jesus Loves Homosexuals - Part 2 - Part B

Listen, if you claim to be a Christian and you once practiced these things, that's understandable, but you can't be a Christian and still continue to practice any of these things.

That's his main point in that one verse. That is, by the way, why we should be merciful to people. Because when you see somebody committing a sin that you used to do, he's simply doing what you used to do.

You don't do it anymore. God has saved you. So whenever you approach somebody caught in a sin, you got to let the rocks out of your hand.

You got to drop those stones. An English novelist once noted, We hand folks over to God's mercy and show none ourselves. Connect with Skiff Heitzig today as he shares how you can find freedom from sin and hope and joy in Christ, even if you have a past full of mistakes and failures. But before we begin, we want to let you know about a resource that gives you practical insight on how to love others like Jesus. 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 Skiff Heitzig. These booklets look to scripture to demonstrate Jesus's 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 connectwithskiff.com slash offer. OK, we'll be in First Corinthians Chapter six for today's study. So let's join Skip Heitzig. Next on the list is idolaters. That's the worship of any false god or any false religious system. It is essentially at its root putting anything before God. Adulters is next at specifically refers to those who are married, engaging in sex outside of the covenant relationship of marriage.

It's what we saw last week with a woman caught in adultery in John Chapter eight, who was brought before Jesus. But look at the next two words. Nor homosexuals nor sodomites. Now this wasn't referring to people who lived in the city of Sodom at that time.

This word had become a term synonymous with the lifestyle that was once prevalent in that city. This is not how all translations render what we just read. The old King James Version puts it, nor those who are effeminate, nor abusers. The English Standard Version says, nor those men who practice homosexuality. Now these two words, interestingly enough, are actually technical terms for the passive and active roles in a homosexual relationship. Now why would Paul be so dramatic, you might say, or be so descriptive in mentioning these things? Well, here's why.

It's very easy. That was what was prevalent in that ancient culture at Corinth. According to New Testament scholar William Barclay, Socrates was a homosexual and Plato was probably a homosexual.

William MacDonald, another scholar, says he definitely was. And his writing, The Symposium of Love, was an essay glorifying homosexuality. Fourteen of the first fifteen Roman emperors were homosexuals. Caesar Nero, who was reigning in Rome at the time of Paul's life and a lot of his writing, had a boy named Sporus whom he castrated so that that young boy could become the emperor's wife. And when Nero died, that boy was passed on as a possession to one of his successors named Otho for the same exact purpose. So that is why Paul brings it up.

This was rampant in Greek and Roman culture. But let me ask you this question. Why do these things top the list?

And I think I have an answer for it. Because though there are other sins in life and in this list, these represent a moral divide when it comes to sin. A moral divide.

You say, now wait a minute, Skip. Aren't all sins equal? Well, in one sense, all sins are equal. But in another sense, all sins are not equal. All sins are equal in that any sin will separate you from God. So all sins are equal in their spiritual consequence, but not all sin is equal in its moral equivalence. None of you think that all sin is equal.

None of you do. Lying to someone isn't the same as killing someone. There's a moral difference. They are not morally equivalent.

And the Bible would indicate that there are degrees of reward in heaven, and even degrees of punishment for those who don't receive Christ. In John 19, verse 11, Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin, as if held to a higher culpability. In Matthew 23, verse 23, Jesus said to the Pharisees, you pay tithes of all of these different plants, but you have neglected the weightier matters of the law. And, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, the chapter we're studying, sexual immorality is one sin that you commit against your own body. Paul says this is a bit different. Look at verse 18 of chapter 6. Flee sexual immorality.

Every sin that a man does outside or is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. So here's the deal. You and I may disagree over a lot of different secondary issues. We might not agree about the mode of baptism. Some of you think that you should be dunked backwards. Some of you think you should be dunked forward. Some of you think you should be sprinkled. Some of you think you should be firehosed.

I don't know. But we may disagree on that. 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. According to what we just read, those who practice these things will not what? Will not inherit the kingdom of God. So now the apostle ties morality with entering the kingdom of God. As if to say those who practice that lifestyle are simply giving evidence that there's not a change in their life brought on by repentance. According to Sean McDowell who wrote a terrific book called Same Sex Marriage, he says there are five general biblical truths about homosexuality.

Let me run through them quickly. Five general biblical truths. Number one, there is not a single passage in either the Old Testament or New Testament that will support homosexual behavior.

Not one. I mentioned there are seven texts last week. Genesis 19, Leviticus 18 and 20, Judges 19, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Timothy chapter 1. Not one of those texts will support homosexual behavior. Here's the second general truth. Not until the mid 20th century did a single church leader or Jewish leader affirm homosexuality. That's how recent it is.

Historically hadn't happened until mid 20th century. Number three, every regulation in the Bible concerning marital relations assumes male female sex. Number four, every wise saying like in the book of Proverbs assumes male female sexuality. And number five, the Ten Commandments assume heterosexuality.

Honor your father and your mother. It assumes that. You shall not commit adultery. It assumes that.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. It assumes heterosexual behavior. So God indeed has spoken on this issue. In fact he spoke on this issue in the very beginning book of Genesis chapter 1.

When God said let us make man in our image. It says God made them male and female. Why male and female? Why so unique?

And why highlight the uniqueness? Because he then stated his goal for humanity. He said be fruitful in what?

Multiply. Now I don't think anybody's going to argue that it takes a man and a woman to make more people. If you're going to be fruitful and multiply it assumes a heterosexual relation.

And then the pattern is given in the very next chapter, chapter 2 of Genesis. For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and be joined into his wife and the two shall become one flesh. There's leaving. There's cleaving.

And there's weaving. You leave one relationship of dependence. You are glued inseparably to another.

And then you become one. You weave your lives together to the production of offspring. Now in having said that the critics will say about what I just said this. They will say well that example in Genesis is only an example, only one example of marriage. It doesn't tell us how we are to live today. Well Jesus has a response for that and I'm glad that he does. Because a few thousand years after all of that took place in Genesis Jesus comes along and he says, Have you not read that he who made them in the beginning made them male and female and said for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined into his wife and the two will become one flesh. Therefore what God has joined let not man separate.

And he said so they are no longer two but one flesh. I mean no disrespect in stating what I have just stated. I mean no lack of love. I love you and if you are gay I love you and God loves you. But I will say that when it comes to all love all respect on a human level. Even with wife and kids even with other believers in church. I love God more and I must fear and respect God more. I must as it says in the book of Acts obey God rather than men. So everyone is on a list of some kind all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Here's the second great truth I want you to notice. Everyone has a past. Everyone has a past. All of us have baggage, junk in the trunk.

We have a past. I didn't even finish the list. Verse 10 nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkers nor revilers nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

Okay those aren't first on the list but they're on the list. But notice what it says and such were some of you. Thieves and covetous that's the sin of greed. It's I want what you have. It's that idea.

Thieves and covetous are wrapped up in the sin of greed. When is the last time you met someone who is satisfied with his income? Oh I'm satisfied. Okay so next time at work when they say we're going to give you a raise you're going to say no I'm good. I don't need I don't deserve it.

I'm fine. I rarely find anybody like that. Next on the list drunkards that's pretty self-evident, self-explanatory.

By the way wherever you find sexual sin rampant you're sure to find alcohol. Revilers these now take note of this because you might be going I'm glad I'm none of those people. Revilers are those who sin with their tongue. They're slanderers. They wound with their words. These are gossips.

They're on the list. Extortioners those who steal indirectly. They want to beat the system. They want to embezzle. They want to cheat.

So everyone is on a list and everyone has a past. And you might look at verse 9 and say can't relate and then you get to verse 10 you go a little too close for comfort. That's why if you read this passage and you read verse 9 about adulterers and idolaters you go I'm not like those people but do you get drunk? Because if you do you have missed the whole point of this passage. Now let me ask you a question. When is the last time or have you ever seen Christians marching in Washington DC against gossip?

Isn't that a thought? Ever see that kind of a march? Ever see that kind of an anti-sin parade? We're going to march against gossipers. Ever seen church groups holding up signs that says God hates extortioners?

Revilers? That would be kind of ironic wouldn't it? One of the reasons Christians are more harsh and more judgmental on this particular sin is perhaps because we think we are more righteous and better than other people. Remember the passage in Luke 18?

Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, one a tax collector. And the Pharisee said God I thank you that I'm not like other men.

Especially like that tax collector. And the other guy beat his breast and just said God be merciful to me I'm a sinner. Jesus said that man went away justified. There was a son who was dying of AIDS. I got a copy of his letter. It was given to me. This young man was writing a final letter to his father. Listen to these words.

Just a portion. Dad, I'm too weak to write. So I've asked Kevin, that's his brother, to write this for me.

Since you never phone me and you hang up the phone whenever I call you, there is no other way for me to say goodbye. That was the last communication attempt that son made to his father who had cut him off and shunned him completely. Now look back at the passage. The central thought of this passage is simply this.

Paul is saying this. Whatever is on this list that you did, it's what you did. It's not what you do. And such were some of you, not such are some of you. Listen, if you claim to be a Christian and you once practiced these things, that's understandable. But you can't be a Christian and still continue to practice any of these things.

That's his main point in that one verse. That is, by the way, why we should be merciful to people. Because when you see somebody committing a sin that you used to do, he's simply doing what you used to do.

You don't do it anymore. God has saved you. So whenever you approach somebody caught in a sin, you've got to let the rocks out of your hand. You've got to drop those stones. Like Jesus said to the woman last week, there's only one person who qualifies to throw stones, and that is Ana Martitas, without sin. You've never sinned, you're incapable of sin, and it's interesting as it not, the only person in that narrative who was qualified to throw stones didn't do it. Drop the rocks. Galatians chapter 6.

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently, but watch yourself or you also may be tempted. Everyone's on a list. Everyone has a past. Here's the best point of all, though.

Everyone can have the best. And the best verse out of all of these, the good news and the bad news is verse 11. And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our Lord.

Notice the way that's worded. You know, if I was writing this, I would have simply said, but you were washed and sanctified and justified. Three times he says, but you were, but you were, but you were. And that is because it is the strongest, adversative participle in Greek. And he does it three times to show the demarcation line, the difference between past and present to demonstrate the contrast.

Now look at those three words. But you were washed. When you came to Christ and you were born again, out of that sprang new life.

And that's what this is speaking about. A new life is the result of that new birth. I've said it so many times that God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you that way. He washes you. When you come to him the way you are, he then cleans you up. Notice the second, but you were sanctified. Now this is the new behavior that comes from the new life that is the result of the new birth. So once he washes you, he polishes you.

And notice the third, but you were justified. This is a new status before God. And to follow my little analogy, he washes you, he polishes you, and then he puts you in a position of honor. R.T. Kendall, a theologian and pastor said, if I were looking for a motive to be sexually pure, it would be not only to be true to my wife and a good father to my children, but I want God to look down and say, here is a man I can trust with my Holy Spirit in great measure. To me, that is the most compelling reason of all, is when you bring God into any lifestyle early on, that's what you get. Yeah, there's plenty of reasons to stay pure, wife, children, job, friends, but more than that, I want God to look down and say, here is a man that I can trust with my Holy Spirit in great measure. Now all three of these terms in verse 11, washed, sanctified, and justified, these are all three terms that tell us what God does to believers in relation to their sin.

Please notice this. He washes you from your sin. He sanctifies you from the stain of your sin. He justifies you from the consequences of your sin. You see folks, to label some behavior as sin, even though that's so repulsive to our modern ears, is actually quite helpful.

It's helpful for two reasons. Reason number one, like we said last week, when Jesus called what the woman did sin, it frames for us how God views our behavior that is wrong. He didn't call it a hang up, he says it's sin. And here's the second reason. Because it's sin, that's precisely why it is forgivable.

Get the drift? That is such a sin. Good, he qualifies to be saved.

He's met the qualification. You've got to be a sinner. And because it's sin, it's forgivable. And it also means that sinful people are redeemable. I know, historically, traditionally, many Christians have been sin sniffers. But God is a sin fixer.

He's a sin fixer. So whatever you were, whatever list you were on, whatever past you have had, you can have the best. I go to a car wash. And they have different options to choose when you take your car in. And one of them is called the best. So I was in the other day and my car was dirty and I pulled up and they said, which service would you like? And I said, I want the best. And the attendant turned and he said, the best for the best. And I thought about that.

That's precisely what we're talking about. God will give the best for the best. Do you know you are the crowning of God's creation? Mankind in the image of God?

You're the best. God gave his best, his son, to die for our sins so that you and I can be washed and sanctified and justified. Think of it. You can go from the ash heap of sin and be welcomed into the kingdom of God. God's in the business of cleaning sinners and turning them into saints. Remember this as we close. God always has bigger plans for you than you have for yourself. Do you realize that?

We too often settle for second best or third or fourth or we go way down the line. God always has bigger and better plans for you than you have for yourself. And this, this is the best. To be washed, to be sanctified, to be justified. That concludes Skip Heiseck's message from the series Jesus Loves People. Now, here's Skip to share how you can keep this broadcast going strong, connecting you and many others to Jesus love. I love the fact that Jesus was called the friend of sinners. Instead of spending time with the religious elite of his day, he reached out to the lost and the outcast. His love is for everyone.

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