welcome to real Christianity mission is to bring the church back to the Bible my name is Dale Partridge and I'm the president of relearn. Org and Reformation Seminary the premise of the show is simple the culture is growing darker the church is in need of sound Doctrine and many Christians are hungry for the truth join me here each week as we look to scripture and discover what it really means to be a Christian
welcome to real Christianity my name is Dale Partridge today's episode is titled homosexuality of the sum of self-worship now as you know the show has been an audio Ministry and video ministry of realtor.org if you're watching the video recording of this episode please be sure to also subscribe to the podcast version of real Christianity is available on Apple podcast Google play Spotify you can also follow our ministry on just about every social media platform now in light of today's conversation I did want to quickly mention two things first we have a man problem in the west namely we have forgotten what it means to be a man and it's my belief that the only way to restore biblical manhood is to learn about the manliness of Christ and that's why I wrote my new book The manliness of Christ the subtitle is how the masculinity of Jesus eradicates effeminate Christianity you can get copies for yourself or your men
 group at our website by going to relearn. Org forward slash man again that's relearn. Org forward slash man so for today we are going to be talking about Romans chapter 1 verses 26 through 27 last week we went to Romans 24 124 225 and we learned what God does with a easy as we learned the idea of your Humanity rejecting God and there's no excuse for a theism the text told us that those who deny God they are not seeing God in creation the redirecting their impulse to worship idols they are exchanging the truth of God in the glory of God for lies and number for they're worshipping the creature rather than serving the Creator this was the context again about 18 through 24 and as a result of what God says in the scripture is that he hands them
 over to their sinful desires got handed them over in fact verse 24 says that God gave them over and the loss of their part to impurity so that their bodies would be Dishonored among them another words we learned that ACAC has them in the misdirection of worship toward the creature instead of the Creator results and God's grace withdrawing from someone's life and that was drawing basically results an unrestrained desire for sin it's a searing of the conscience if the pulling back of common Grace and it manifests itself in sexual immorality that's what happens when we worship idols when we reject God it that we see and creation got handed over to our sin and manifests itself in God withdrawing his, grace the conviction of the conscience and results in sexual immorality it's it results in this desire for self pleasure and an unrestrained
 desire or unrestrained a path toward sinful Behavior today in verses 26 to 27 riddle see the full extent of that manifestation we're going to see exactly how far sexual depravity and deviation can go and ultimately what occurs as a result of God's absence in a person's life so we're going to read Romans 8:18 Romans 1:18 through 27 I want you as a grass the entire concept are a contact to your this is going to be a good chunk of scripture but go ahead just follow along as I read here I'm reading in the nasb the 1995 Edition verse 18 for the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness because that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident to them for since the creation of the world is invisible activates his eternal power and divine nature
 have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse for even though they knew God they did not honor him as God or give cigs but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish Hearts were darkened professing to be wise they became fools and exchange the glory of The Incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and the birds and a four-footed animals and crawling creatures therefore God gave them over in the loss of their hearts to impurity so that their bodies will be Dishonored among them for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever amen for this reason God gave them over to degrading passions for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural and in the same way also the men abandon the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another
 men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error and just if they did not see fit to acknowledge got any longer God gave them over to depraved mind to do the things that are to do the things which are not proper wow what a passage of scripture this is a an extensive overview of exactly what happens when someone reject God walks in an atheistic attitude worship self worships the creature that rather than the Creator this is God pulling away handing them over to the depraved passions sexual immorality the common Grace of the Lord pulls back
 really working through three main Clauses in the text and those Clauses are number one God gave them over to degrading passions that's kind of the main Banner of the first section 26 God gave them over to degrading passions number to is their women exchanged the natural for the unnatural and number three is the men abandon the natural function of the woman and burned with lost toward another so those toward one another actually I should say there there's basically those three main Clause is that we're going to be dealing with verse 26 buses go from the beginning here and we're going to verse by verse break it down it says for this reason God gave them over to degrading passions for their women exchanged natural function for that which is unnatural now the word for this reason it's a result claws could have said as a result as a result God gave them over to degrading passions for that reason
 we want to see the connection of this statement of work 26 with a previous statement in verses 25 and 24 to Paul is saying that their rejection of God that manifested in sexual immorality you said that they would they would be handed over to a dishonoring of their bodies at the 7 verse 25 resulted in God giving them over to degrading passions and what we have to see here is this cascading severity of self-appointed afflictions severity of self-appointed Affliction that God continues to hand them over because of this and because of that they got hands them over and because of that got hands them over and it gets deeper and darker and deeper and darker so God permits these things to occur as a result of their rejection of him and their idolatry now when you read this whole section of chapter one you start to see that God makes the state that God gave them over God gave them over
 I'll give them over three times in the section the first time is in chapter 1 verses 24 where it says God gave them over to the loss of their hearts to a itty the second time is in vs127 where it says God gave them over to degrading passions and then the third time is inverse 28 which is the next sermon that will be talking about but we'll talk about it here for second is 128 that says God gave them over to a depraved mind and so when we reject God and we we direct our worship to the creature rather than the Creator tour titles God draws back from a person's life permitting their sin to overtake their lives basically to rule their hearts basically he removes his grace from their lives and as a result he hands her heart over or he hands over their hearts to passions and their minds to send that's essentially what happened to your other words would a person reject God got exits their life
 allowing their fallen desires to dominate their affections can want you to grass that when God when it when a person reject God got exits their life allowing their fallen desires to dominate their affection and as a result sexual deviants takes root it distorts their life it distorts our understanding of God it rules their heart that eliminates the opportunity for True joy and leave them on an unrestrained Passport Health that's exactly what happens in the midst of atheistic desires or or idolatry and so let us get back to our first year with his God gave them over to degrading passions this is the moral description of the behaviors to follow in the text right God gave them over to degrading passions In this passage is basically going to explain what those degrading passions are degrading passions are like the banner that rides above
 flies above these descriptive actions and behaviors below and so I want to just first talked about what degrading means the word degrading in the Webster's Dictionary is defined as a cause of a loss of self-respect or humiliating this is actually translated in the ESV as dishonoring the new King James translates this word as vile as to these are dishonoring passions these are violent passions this is something that we are seeing is not a positive thing is the description of these behaviors is not good therefore we will not understand what are these degrading a dishonorable and vile passions and so he goes on to identify them with specificity and what these passions are so we listen to sex or two specific sexual manifestation one for the one
 and one for the man and we're going to talk about each of these in detail but this is first look at what scripture says is the object again of these degrading dishonoring and vile passion so number one this is the first one to the women and the second one of them in the first one is for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural and in the same way also number to the men abandon the natural function of the woman and burned and their desire toward one another okay these are the the degrading dishonorable and vile passions that God has handed them over to have manifested themselves in clearly what Paul is talking about is homosexuality so as we know homosexuality is a sin that permeates our modern culture it's a confronting the Church aggressively and I believe it's important that we understand what the Bible's perspective is on this matter of the perversion of sexual relationship first to be clear
 this isn't a new position in scripture homosexuality has been forbidden by God since the very beginning of the Old Testament we go back even to Leviticus 18:22 it says quote you shall not lie with a male as with a woman it is an Abomination that word Abomination is one of these strongest words in scripture it's almost hard to translate how intense that verbage is but it says you shall not lie with a male as with a woman it is an Abomination 1st Corinthians 6 9 through 10 says or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor men who practice homosexuality nor thieves no greeting or the green or drunkards revilers North swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God and quote
 e110 the sexually immoral quote are, men who practice homosexuality and slavers Liars perverse and whatever else is contrary to sound Doctrine homosexuality is forbidden
 cover 2 back cover in scripture Kevin DeYoung and his book homosexuality rights quote from the first chapters of the Bible to the Torah to the New Testament there is no hint that homosexuality is acceptable behavior for God's people to think the Bible of firms homosexuality takes more than special pleading it requires a denial of the plain teaching of scripture and quote okay guys just there's just a firm evidence ultimate Clarity when you look at the Historical cultural grammatical context of homosexuality there is no possible way that you can twist into theological gymnastics to make homosexuality and accepted act act for the Christian Life as this passage uses several words to describe the the Bible's view of homosexuality and I want to talk about this because these words help us bring
 incomprehension to the descriptors that God uses to identify homosexuality and those words will help us understand how intense the scriptures are against homosexuality first a homosexuality is under the banner of degrading dishonorable and vile we know that already we read that that's that's the banner above its second is described as unnatural the ESV dsv describe that is contrary to Nature described as an abandonment of the natural function of the human body so it's a biological perversion essentially as overseeing their fourth it's described as indecent or Shameless depending on what translation you're looking at it's described as deserving of penalty this is something that is unrighteous that that is deserving of penalty 6 it's described as an error it's not according to sound Doctrine
 it is error it's a way from the way that God wants us to live it's a way from the way that God has designed a human body to work and 7th is described as not proper there is no way that you can wish this in to being a positive thing in scripture it's absolutely impossible now again I don't want you to see this text in isolation homosexuality is not simply some ridiculous Divine rule from God against humanity to prevent them from doing what they want that's not what homosexuality is no homosexuality according to Romans 1 is number 1 a prime result of godlessness number to it's the ultimate physical and emotional outcome of a person who reject God and worship self number three homosexuality is one of the central manifestations of God's grace being removed from a person's life for their atheism and idolatry
 number for and this is my final point is that homosexuality is the consequence of getting the worship in servitude that is due to God to Idols or to self it so another words homosexuality is the breaking of God's design for human fruitfulness that's really what we're going to get to at the core of this message John Piper was described it this way and I want you to pay attention this is a little bit of a heavy quote and I need you to kind of stay along with me because there's some big language here and I'll take it slow but I want you to grasp this because we're going to unpack it here shortly he says quote God and Humanity in Covenant worship our representative by male and female in Covenant sexual Union therefore when Humanity turns from God to worship self God Hand us over to what we have chosen and dramatize is it by male and female turning to
 images of themselves for sexual Union namely their own sex homosexuality is the Judgment of God's dramatizing the exchange of the glory of God for images of our selves did you guys grass that that is a magnificent explanation of the theological and the spiritual complexities of homosexuality we have to understand that God is a god of symbolism we learn we learned about God's or symbolic means I'll explain what I mean there he knows that we are a forgetful people and he's built in physical practices or physical symbols to remind Humanity of spiritual truths or spiritual roles in scripture husbands and wives represent Christ and the church it's the Earthly it's the Earthly roleplay if you will of the Heavenly realities of the Gospel
 that's what marriage becomes in a male and female traditional heterosexual view of marriage Ephesians 5:22 husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and why they're to submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ and so when this occurs physically in our lives we we more fully understand the beauty of the Gospel we see this and it plays out in manifest in the physical Dimension we get to understand the spiritual reality in God's given us these physical rolls that teaches spiritual truth it's a it's a symbolic meaning there that we understand that represents the gospel so when marriage is ordered according to God according to the way that he is laid out in scripture Humanity can fulfill God's command to be fruitful and multiply however when Humanity rejex God's purpose for marriage in the design and structure for male and female relationships and and people pursue self God hands these people over to themselves
 essentially what the Bible teaches here is that in a sense God saying you want to worship God I'll put you in a relationship that magnifies the gospel but if you want to worship self I'm going to put you in a relationship and magnify self-worship essentially what is being said by here and also by John Piper self-love it's the ultimate expression you understand that denies God's design for other nests it designs God's design for the male and female compatibility and it said what it does is it chooses to magnify the selfish passion of quote more me
 and it says to their partner in a homosexual relationship I don't want the opposite of me I want more of me and you and that's really what's happening is dramatized selfishness as Piper said it's a perversion of the natural order it's suicide of reproduction in the rejection of a spiritual purpose that God has placed for divine are for intimate Love and Marriage it's much more than what the culture is made out to be it's much more than a sexual deviation there was so much thick theological depths here that we need to understand so catch this with me the marital drama that's played out between a husband and a wife is supposed to magnify the Divine love that is seen and captured and experienced in the gospel between God and his people has now been perverted in homosexuality in the same way that God shows us the beauty of the Gospel through heterosexual marriage God in his judgment shows
 what's the vileness of self-worship through homosexual Union it's a very deep and complex topic here but this is what Romans one is talking about so when we exchanged the way of God for the way of self I did God dramatizes their desire for self he gives us more of it in someone else he gives us more of it in our own selfish desires Piper says quote God decrees that this disorder during of our relationship to him be dramatized in the disorder meaning of our sexual relations with each other and quote cancel homosexuality is much more than a dysfunctional sexual orientation between two people it's the it's the physical manifestation of self-worship in contact with our passage and Roman it's the ultimate physical result of Turning Away From God that's what this passage is saying you want to worship you want you want to reject God and creation you want to reject God in your desire to worship idols and worship
 God is going to pull back you can hand you over to be sexual Emperor desires and that's going to further be handed over to degrading passion that degrading passion will manifest itself in homosexuality that homosexuality will manifest itself in a depraved mind and it just goes down in this again self-appointed self-inflicted problems of sin and so it's a very complex issue that we need to pay attention here in an issue of tabletalk magazine produced by Ligonier Ministries once the illusion said quote what are we to think of a passage like Romans 1 2627 the Bible to find, sexual desires as quote contrary to Nature not an equal alternative orientation homosexuality is a quote dishonorable passion that quote consumes men and women leading to Shameless Behavior the strong emotional pull of lust and the affection shared between persons in a homosexual relationship
 whatever those affections may be called cannot properly be called quote love after all love quote does not rejoice at wrong doing for Ian's 13 6 and homosexuality is wrong doing and quote this is complex and Powerful stuff for the church to understand so now having said all of that having said that I want to be very clear here I am no greater or wiser or better than any single person in the lgbtq community whatsoever I'm simply redeemed I've simply been saved not redeem because of anything that I did I'm not working because of anything that I chose I'm not reading for any of that is that the simple fact I'm redeemed because someone decided to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with me I was convicted of my sin I repented of my sin and I trust in Jesus Christ alone and so I was just like every human being was born
 Ensign and lost I needed to be born again I was an enemy of God but now I'm his son I was addicted and broken and lost but now I'm found I'm found because Christ Sammy's the Sheep don't look for the shepherd the shepherd looks for the Sheep so every human being is I said is born sinful and lost it that's why Jesus and John 3:3 command that we must all be born again if you want to enter into the kingdom of heaven we must be born again so many people in the homosexual Community say I was born that way I go yes I understand you were born that way you were born that way with these dishonorable and broken desire I was born that way with dishonorable and broken his heart and that's why we must be born again so again whether you are living a homosexual lifestyle is your gay lesbian transgender whatever that may be what I would just suggest you to do is come to Christ lay your pride at the foot of the cross repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ
 you work on exchanging our desire to serve self to serve the Creator that is exactly at the core of the Gospel we need to be seeing that our desires for self are wicked against the holy God our worship is only due to the Creator the only reason we have that impulse to Worship in US is because God has given it to us to maintain a relationship with him this is the message of scripture this is what scripture teaches on the issue of homosexuality it's not difficult to understand but it is difficult to swallow when we are Fallen when we are lost we don't have the understanding the Holy Spirit guiding us and giving his comprehension of scripture these are offensive statements this is hate speech to the culture nevertheless the only way that God Saves people's faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ we need to get out there preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to individuals in the lgbtq community let them know that God is in the business of turning his enemies into his friends and we we know that
 love saving people getting them that new birth changing those affections changing his passions we know that Jesus when he comes and rescues a life doesn't just change what we do to change is also what we want to do he changes as a faction that's exactly what needs to occur with those people who are struggling with the sin of homosexuality. Thank you guys for prayer and I'll close with just a quick message Father we thank you Lord for your word we thank you that you have not left us with no Clarity we thank you that we're not you're guessing what you want us to do it how you want us to live we thank you for this passage of scripture that is Stern and clear and get his boundaries on how we can honor you with our sexuality and how we can honor you with our worship Lord we ask anybody who's listening to this right now whether by video where to buy podcast Lord that you would bless them with the wisdom of understanding anybody that struggling with these sins that you would bring conviction that you would give them the new birth that you would
 save them and rescue them and bring them into your kingdom father in Jesus name amen amen guys will thank you guys for listening to this episode of real Christianity I hope today is content with edifying for you in your walk with Christ that is the goal here at realtor.org is to bring Christian back to the Bible to look at the scriptures not for the length of our emotions 4 to look at it to the historical, cultural grammatical context of the scriptures and the really bring you back to a journey of biblical truth and sound Doctrine lastly I'd like to ask you guys would you prefer to consider consider supporting us we are a Ministry that is passionate about the gospel we're passionate about the illogical and biblical literacy in the church we all of this stuff this set everything we're doing here it's not cheap and having the people that do the editing and do the Motion Graphics and do the recording and buying the equipment in and funding the other projects in writing different books all those things cost a significant amount of money and
 we really rely on completely on our donors and so if you're interested in supporting us again you can always do that at relearn. Org forward slash donate again that's relearn. Org forward slash donate my name is Dale Partridge thank you for listening this episode of real Christianity and we'll see you next week
 thank you for joining me on this episode of real Christianity real Christianity is a listener supported audio Ministry of relearn. Org our mission a tree there. Or days to bring the church back to the Bible we achieve this through strengthen and Christians in biblical and Theological literacy find biblical articles podcast sermons and videos at our website at relearn. Org our team is small but our mission is large and we need your help if you'd like to support our ministry financially you can always do so at relearn. Org forward slash donate thank you again for joining me today and I hope to see you next week for another episode of real Christianity