Quote from Forum Archives on May 10, 2006, 2:05 pm

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

PAID FOR BY GOD

May 7, 2006

TEXT: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

As announced and noted in the bulletin today, Focus on the Family Action is requesting Christians to join in a postcard mailing campaign in support of the Marriage Protection Amendment. Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, writes, “Despite the fact that the one-man, one-woman definition of marriage has served civilization for millennia, activist judges have been arrogantly declaring it unconstitutional, and so some members of the U.S. Supreme Court have hinted that they will redefine [emphasis added] marriage when an opportunity is presented. Marriage in this country is at a key crossroad. It must be safeguarded by enshrining its historic and biblical definition in the U.S. Constitution, where it will be beyond the reach of judicial reinterpretation. Unfortunately, American citizens will not have the opportunity to become directly involved in protecting marriage until the Congress sends the federal Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) to the states for ratification. A vote on that amendment, S.J. Res. 1, is scheduled for early June - but it’s clear that many U.S. senators are unwilling to take a stand on this vital issue. They need to know that traditional marriage has deep and passionate support among their constituents. The people must be allowed to preserve marriage.” (James C. Dobson, Focus on the Family Action letter, April 2006)

It is an amazing state of affairs that we find ourselves in. I am certain that every adult here this morning never imagined somewhere in their earlier years of life that defining marriage would ever be an issue. Yet, here we are today, seeing it threatened as never before. Of course, the primary threat to traditional and Biblical marriage right now is the move to legalize the union of homosexuals. Thus, in order to protect its sanctity, defenders of marriage in America must resort to pressing for a Constitutional amendment to define it. Astounding! Absolutely astounding!

Not that I think that there is anything wrong with a Constitutional amendment for this or any other reason. I truly respect our Constitutional system. But so much has changed in our culture, and even our churches, to reach this point. In 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote to a church with troubles - a church that created their own troubles. Throughout the letter, Paul points out quite a few sinful behaviors that needed to be confronted and stopped. One of those specific sinful behaviors was sexual immorality. In chapter 6 we read, “’Everything is permissible for me’ - but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible for me’ - but I will not be mastered by anything. ‘Food for the stomach and the stomach for food’ - but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”

I do not know why certain sexual behaviors are sinful to God. I do not believe there is a categorical reason stated in the Bible. It just is. Just as other sins such as stealing, deceiving, and murdering offend God’s holy nature, so does sexual immorality. Indeed, the context for Paul’s inclusion of sexual immorality in this portion of his letter is not homosexuality. Rather, it is an improper union that he writes about in 5:1-2. “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?”

As amazing and bizarre as it was in Paul’s day for such behavior to be going on within the fellowship of a Christian church, this is exactly where the Church finds itself today. Just as there are those claiming Christianity who willfully ignore Biblical testimony about the Virgin birth and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, there are those claiming Christianity who willfully ignore the Biblical testimony about the immorality of homosexuality. Most unfortunately, this includes some churches within our own denomination. An early group of American Baptists who began a vocal campaign favoring the acceptance of homosexuality named themselves “American Baptists Concerned,” or “ABConcerned.” Writing in their newsletter of Spring, 1997, on the occasion of their 25^th anniversary as an organization, we read, “Over the years, there have been many struggles with the more conservative members of our denomination. There have been many resolutions, many close calls, many sleepless nights wondering how the votes would turn out. Some had positive outcomes. Some did not. But the struggle continued and along the way I believe ABConcerned members have made a huge difference in people's lives. We only dreamed 25 years ago of the day when Rick Mixon, an openly gay man, would be ordained. We only dreamed that there would be several dozen ABC churches across the country would go on record as being open and affirming of gay/lesbial people.” (Barbra MacNair, “Reflections About ABConcerned,” Voice of the Turtle, vol. XX, no. 2, Spring, 1997, p.3) Along with Paul, we can only exclaim in unbelief that “they are proud of it!”

Even though those favoring the acceptance of homosexual behavior, and a redefining of marriage to include homosexual unions, make complex arguments for their support, they forget Paul’s main point in this portion of his letter: “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

No believer should ever forget this. In fact, this should be as memorable a verse as John 3:16. We are paid for by God! When we enter into relationship with God through our belief in Jesus’ cleansing blood, we commit ourselves to Him. In several of his letters, Paul wrote of the incredible freedom found in release from the bondage of sin through belief in Christ. At the same time, Paul always reprimands those who take their freedom to the point of disobedience. “’Everything is permissible for me’ - but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible for me’ - but I will not be mastered by anything.” When Paul writes this, he does so as one freed from the traditional Jewish legalisms that dogged him and others. Coming to God through the grace given by Christ, Paul was freed from fulfilling works of righteousness. That was liberty. But liberty could swiftly unravel into unprincipled license. Other contemporary cultures offered few brakes to those who believed that their freedom had no boundaries. Witness the Corinthian church as they boasted about one member’s relationship with his father’s wife. Their culture was not going to censure them. They ignored that they were “bought at a price.”

Similarly, our culture today offers very few brakes for turning liberty into unbridled license. In fact, secular culture rejoices greatly when God’s people forget they were bought with a price. They don’t want Christians to think about God’s instructions and laws. They want us to think about ourselves and our desires and our gratifications, because then we don’t pester them with Christian morality and obedience; and if we do, they can let us know how hypocritical we are. Nothing delights satan more than to see Christians disobey and forget that we are paid for by God.

Some in our society and our churches will have us believe that identifying oneself as homosexual is irreversible. They discuss it as a condition over which there is no control, so there should be no control over the behavior, either. Now I do not stand here this morning and suggest that there is anything simple about this issue or the behavior. I do not suggest for a moment that there is not significant struggle for individuals and families facing these choices. But that is true of all sinful behavior. Once we’re hooked, we’re hooked. The longer it goes on, the more difficult it becomes to turn and leave it behind. The analogy of a drug addiction helps. Once hooked on something, it becomes an agonizingly painful journey to let it go. It seems easier to rationalize and justify the behavior than to repent and change.

But when the believer remembers, and acts on the knowledge, that we are paid for by God, then it does become possible to overcome sinful behavior. At any rate, the last thing the sinner needs is a church that is proud of the behavior! In 1994, an article was published in the ABE Journal by a man struggling with his identity as a homosexual. He provided proof positive that one who remembers that he has been paid for by God can be led out of any behavior. He confirms that homosexuality is not a behavior to be compromised in the church. “In a letter I wrote in the spring of 1992 in support of a proposed resolution on homosexuality (which was defeated) that came before the American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts, I shared some of my concern about homosexuality: I wanted desperately to… find some sign that God at least condoned homosexuality if not approved of it. I couldn’t find that sign… Instead, God showed me clearly (through his Word) that all homosexual activity is wrong. In fact, God views any form of sexual activity outside of marriage to be wrong… The Bible refers to homosexuality as an activity or behavior which is sinful. This is good news for those struggling with homosexuality because it shows there is hope for change.” (anonymous, “A Testimony to Change,” ABE Journal, vol. 12, no. 3, September 2004, pp. 22-23)

This author expresses a much different testimony than those we face in both secular society and in homosexual affirming churches. Indeed, the sin proclaimed by them is the audacity to suggest that change is possible or that the behavior is sinful at all. Any one of us, and any organization, that imparts the truth from God about homosexuality as sin is blasted as intolerant and mean-spirited and, dare I say it?, fundamentalist! Yet, those welcoming and affirming homosexual behavior, as well as other immoral sexual behavior, march farther and farther away from God’s holy love. They forget that they were paid for by God.

And so it comes that we have to try to convince our elected political officials to define legal marriage as God intended: the monogamous relationship between a man and a woman. It seems wrong that we have to debate and argue it in our political arena and hope that it becomes defined properly in our Constitution so that some judge cannot rule it unconstitutional. That’s just wrong. Nevertheless, I invite you to participate in the Focus on the Family postcard campaign.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

 

Rev. Charles A. Layne
First Baptist Church
Bunker Hill, Indiana

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