Homosexuality Part I

[00:00:19] Hello again and welcome to Become A Competent Biblical Counselor. I'm Dr. Dave Jones and today we're starting a two-part series on homosexuality.

[00:00:31] Tough subject, huh? So let's get into it. Part one.

[00:00:35] So today we begin a short series on the subject of homosexuality.

[00:00:40] Probably there is no subject that has been in the news more than this subject of homosexuality.

[00:00:46] I suppose everybody has his viewpoints and his ideas, but we don't really care very much about what men are saying about this question.

[00:00:55] I think we better take a look at what the Word of God has to say about the matter.

[00:01:00] And so that's what we're going to do now for these two broadcasts.

[00:01:06] And so if you're interested, if you'd like to know something about this matter,

[00:01:10] even though we can't discuss it in any real depth on these brief broadcasts,

[00:01:15] we're going to take a hard look at it and see if we can't lay down some clear-cut biblical principles

[00:01:21] that may help you to understand this matter and perhaps even to help somebody else who's involved in it.

[00:01:28] Or perhaps you yourself are involved in homosexuality and would like to do something about it.

[00:01:34] So today we want to understand just what homosexuality is.

[00:01:39] According to the scriptures, we have a very clear-cut picture of homosexuality.

[00:01:44] According to the scripture, it is a sin.

[00:01:48] That's the most important fact to keep in mind.

[00:01:51] Now, don't turn it off.

[00:01:53] Any of you who might be involved in homosexuality when you've heard that,

[00:01:57] you might think I'm just going to stand here and make all kinds of accusations

[00:02:01] and start tearing you apart and tearing you up one side and down the other and that kind of thing.

[00:02:06] But that's not the point at all.

[00:02:08] Just hang in there a minute and you'll see what I'm getting at when I say that it's a sin.

[00:02:15] The point that I'm trying to make is that because it's a sin, there is hope.

[00:02:21] All the hope that there is in Jesus Christ who came to deal with sin.

[00:02:26] There's hope for homosexuality to be forgiven.

[00:02:30] And not only to be forgiven, but to get rid of this practice in your life.

[00:02:34] Some people are wrongly deceiving others by telling them that homosexuality

[00:02:39] is something that their parents, perhaps their mother,

[00:02:42] an over-dominant mother in the home has done to them.

[00:02:46] And so they're stuck with it because from childhood they've been trained in the wrong way

[00:02:50] and now their whole pattern of life has been so altered or so dominated by this wrong training

[00:02:57] that they'll never get out of this pattern.

[00:03:00] Nothing could be farther from the truth according to the scriptures.

[00:03:04] Others say that homosexuality is a matter of genes, a matter of the way you were born.

[00:03:10] Now, there's no question that some people have genes that give them more feminine characteristics

[00:03:16] and others more masculine characteristics.

[00:03:19] But that does not stick a person with the kind of sexual life that he is involved in,

[00:03:24] regardless of those characteristics.

[00:03:27] According to the will of God, homosexuality is a sin, and all sin can be dealt with.

[00:03:34] That's the point I want to get across.

[00:03:37] Jesus Christ came not only to forgive sins, but he came to cleanse us of those sins.

[00:03:43] He came to take those sins out of our lives.

[00:03:47] He came to transform us and make us new people who no longer had to go on in the same old ways

[00:03:54] in which we did live and did behave before we were saved.

[00:03:58] Let me read for you from 1 Corinthians 6, these very hopeful words.

[00:04:04] 1 Corinthians 6, 9-11.

[00:04:07] Don't you know that the unrighteous...

[00:04:10] Now, notice all these various characteristics he's going to label in the next verse...

[00:04:15] ...are called unrighteousness or sins.

[00:04:19] Don't you know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?

[00:04:23] Do not be deceived.

[00:04:26] Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers shall inherit the kingdom of God.

[00:04:43] Now, get this next verse, verse 11.

[00:04:45] Verse 11, such were...

[00:04:47] Get that.

[00:04:48] It's past tense.

[00:04:49] Such were...

[00:04:50] Past tense.

[00:04:52] Past and gone is what that word means.

[00:04:55] Such were some of you, but no longer.

[00:04:58] In other words, now he goes on to say,

[00:05:01] But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our Lord.

[00:05:10] He is saying that a person can be a homosexual and be forgiven.

[00:05:14] Made clean just before God, as though he had never engaged in this sin, and he can be sanctified and washed.

[00:05:22] That is, set apart from this sin and set apart to a new way of life, as the word sanctified means.

[00:05:29] There is a hope for the homosexual, and that's what we've got to say.

[00:05:34] There is all the hope that there is in Jesus Christ.

[00:05:38] Christ came to die for sins that we might have them forgiven, and that he might help us to overcome them.

[00:05:45] But he did not come to die for our genes.

[00:05:48] If it's a matter of genetics, then there is no hope.

[00:05:52] If it's a matter of what your parents did to you, you can't get your parents to go back and redo it.

[00:05:58] So there's no hope there either.

[00:06:00] But if it's a matter of sin, as the Bible says it is, then there is a lot of hope.

[00:06:07] And that's the first step in the transformation of a homosexual's activity.

[00:06:11] He must come to see that this is a sin against God.

[00:06:16] Now, our sin is not something that we, of course, are happy with.

[00:06:21] Listen to how God speaks about this sin.

[00:06:23] Over in the first chapter of Romans, there's what he says, beginning in verse 21,

[00:06:29] Even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks.

[00:06:35] But they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

[00:06:41] Professing to be wise, they became fools.

[00:06:45] Notice now, it's darkening of the heart that's behind this.

[00:06:49] It's full, foolish activity that this is labeled as being.

[00:06:55] And they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of a corruptible man

[00:07:01] and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

[00:07:05] Therefore, because people worshipped the creature and worshipped his creation rather than the creator himself,

[00:07:12] God says, therefore, in verse 24,

[00:07:15] God gave them over in their lusts of their hearts to impurity.

[00:07:21] He calls this lust an impurity that their bodies might be dishonored among them.

[00:07:28] For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie.

[00:07:31] This is a lie.

[00:07:33] They worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator, who was blessed forever.

[00:07:40] Amen.

[00:07:40] For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions.

[00:07:45] Here's how he describes homosexuality.

[00:07:48] For their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural.

[00:07:54] No, it's not one's nature that leads him into homosexuality.

[00:07:58] It's not a matter of his genes, the nature with which man is born.

[00:08:03] But this is against nature.

[00:08:05] Literally is what the Greek says.

[00:08:07] It is what is against his genetic situation.

[00:08:11] And in the same way, also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman,

[00:08:16] burned in their desire toward one another,

[00:08:19] men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

[00:08:26] So again, it is stressed that this is not the natural function,

[00:08:31] but this is against one's natural function.

[00:08:34] We read about this as an indecent act or a shameless deed, literally.

[00:08:40] And that that is an error.

[00:08:44] And then he goes on to say,

[00:08:46] Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer,

[00:08:49] God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper,

[00:08:55] being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, malice, full of envy,

[00:09:03] murders, strife, deceit, malice, and gossip, and so on.

[00:09:09] And then he says at the end,

[00:09:11] Although they know the ordinance of God,

[00:09:14] that those who practice such things are worthy of death,

[00:09:18] they not only do them, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

[00:09:24] And of course, that really describes the homosexual community as a tight-knit,

[00:09:28] woven-together kind of society that encourages one another in these very practices that God condemns.

[00:09:37] Now, I'm not, as I said, just simply throwing stones here today,

[00:09:40] not just talking about the fact that it's a sin and condemning people,

[00:09:44] but the very fact that it is a sin, and it's not genetic, it's against nature,

[00:09:49] and it is not something your parents did to you,

[00:09:53] but it's a way of life that you yourself have adopted for whatever reasons

[00:09:58] and can change by the grace of God is what gives hope.

[00:10:02] Sin can be dealt with.

[00:10:03] Jesus didn't die to change our genes on the cross,

[00:10:07] but he did die to deal with our sins.

[00:10:10] And that's where the great hope of all this comes from.

[00:10:14] Lord, we are thankful today that you have dealt with sin on the cross

[00:10:17] and not left us in such ways to our own futility.

[00:10:20] For Christ's sake, amen.

[00:10:22] So that's the end of part one.

[00:10:25] Tomorrow we get into part two

[00:10:26] and give you some suggestions on how you can overcome this sin

[00:10:31] through the grace of God

[00:10:33] and the power and the strength that he gives you to do so.

[00:10:36] Make it a blessed day and we'll talk to you tomorrow.

[00:10:38] Here we go.

[00:10:38] Chris