Foundations of Truth

Guest (Male): You're listening to Foundations of Truth, the Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Timothy Mann. Our mission is to help you build your life on the unshakable foundation of God's Word, rooted in Scripture, anchored in the grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Each week, Dr. Timothy Mann opens the Bible to bring clarity, conviction, and encouragement for everyday life.

Guest (Male): In every generation, God's people are called to stand upon His unchanging truth, even as the culture around them continues to shift. Few issues today generate more confusion, emotion, and debate than the subject of homosexuality. Is the Bible really clear on this issue? Have Christians misunderstood what Scripture teaches? And how do we speak the truth without sacrificing the love and grace of Jesus Christ?

As we open God's Word together, we'll discover that our opinions are never the final authority; God's Word is. This message comes from Genesis chapter 19, along with other key passages in the Old and New Testaments that reveal God's design for human sexuality and His gracious call to repentance and redemption. Now, here's Dr. Timothy Mann.

Dr. Timothy Mann: Genesis chapter 19. So we’re going to begin there. We’re going to work our way through the Bible. We'll start in Genesis, move to Leviticus, go to the New Testament, and see what God says.

We come to Genesis chapter 19, and I’m going to read a section from that chapter. Not all of it, but a portion. I’m reading from the New King James Version. Follow along with me if you have your Bible. The Bible says, “Now two angels came to Sodom,” that’s a city, “in the evening, and Lot,” that’s a man, Abraham’s nephew, “was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. And he said, ‘Now here, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house,’” meaning his own, “‘and spend the night and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go your way.’ And they said, ‘No, but we will spend the night in the open square.’ But he insisted strongly, so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.”

“Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.’ So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, and said, ‘Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.’ And they said,” meaning the men outside, “‘Stand back!’ Then they said, ‘This one,’” meaning Lot, “‘came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.’ So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break the door down. But the men,” meaning the angels, “reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.”

Now look down at verse 27. “And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord.” Abraham had been praying for his nephew and his family in the city of Sodom. He had asked God to spare the city if he could find ten righteous men, but he couldn’t. Then he, meaning Abraham, verse 28, “looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.”

We’ll stop there. Now we’ll turn to the book of Leviticus. You can find the book of Leviticus, chapter 18, and we will read verse 22. The Bible says, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.” Now go to Leviticus chapter 20, verse 13. The Bible says, “If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.”

Now turn to the New Testament, book of Romans. If you’re using a paper Bible, you’ll pass by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the book of Acts, and then you’ll come to the book of Romans. You can use a Bible app and easily get to the book of Romans. Romans chapter 1, and we’re going to begin in verse 18. I’m going to read all the way down through the chapter.

The Bible says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,” meaning mankind, “who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they,” that is to say all mankind, “are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”

“Therefore,” that is to say, because mankind refused to acknowledge God and glorify Him and thank Him and chose idolatry, “therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

Now turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9 and 10. The Bible says, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”

Now go with me to 1 Timothy. You’ll move right past 1st and 2nd Thessalonians and you’ll find 1 Timothy. Of course, using your Bible app you can go directly to 1 Timothy chapter 1. We’re going to read verses 8 through 11. The Bible says this: “But we know that the law is good,” that’s speaking of the law of God, “but we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to me.”

We’ll stop there. In all of this scripture that we’ve just read is God’s Word. It’s God’s Word.

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Dr. Timothy Mann: And so we come to this time where we’re asking the question: What does the Bible really say about homosexuality? Do you know what God actually says about homosexuality? There are a lot of things that we can think, that we can discuss, but the reality is we have to settle on: What does God say? What does His Word say?

Now the Bible says a lot of things. It says things that have to do with love, and justice, and holiness, and God, and man, and hopes, and hurts, and desires, and feelings, and longings, duties. It’s about faith and repentance, and it’s about heaven and hell, and a hundred other things. But the Bible does say something about homosexuality. I hope everyone can agree on that. It does say something about homosexuality.

Now, the Bible is not mainly a book about homosexuality. That is to say that if we think that the big takeaway from this book is only the rightness or wrongness of homosexuality, then we’ve managed to take a beautiful, massive narrative and pound it down to a single talking point. You need to understand Jesus is the main topic. Redemption is the main topic of the Bible. And so we have to keep the question of "What does the Bible really say about homosexuality?" in the context of "What does the Bible say about everything that it has something to say about?"

We always have to start where the Bible starts, and that’s what we’re going to focus on again today. Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. The first person we meet in the Bible is God, and we see what God, the Creator, is about. God is the self-existent One. He is independent. He is without ending and without beginning. He is without equal. He is distinct from His creation. He is holy. He is a holy, unrivaled God—eternal, infinite. In His essence, He is unlike anything or anyone that ever was or ever will be.

This is the God who has created all things. He created man, and He created woman. He has made them in His image after His likeness. He created them to rule, and to reproduce, and to have a relationship with Him. We also know that as He looked at this creation and He looked at the man and the woman He made, we know that this man and this woman did not obey God’s command. Instead, they listened to Satan, the serpent, as he tempted them to doubt the clarity and the goodness of God’s commands.

And so when sin entered the world, it was not just a fall, although that was the case; it wasn’t just a fall, it was a curse. It’s a curse. And so the central plotline of the story of the Bible, the story of Scripture, is that at the time that was set in motion, and that this is a holy God, Creator, making a way to dwell in the midst of unholy people. That’s the central storyline of Scripture. And that’s really what the rest of the Bible is all about. There are other things in there, but that’s really the main storyline of the Bible.

God sent His Son, Jesus, as the Son of Abraham and the Son of David. God took on flesh in His Son, Jesus, and He tabernacled among us. Jesus would die when we deserve to die. Jesus would drink the cup of God’s wrath against sin that we deserve to drink that cup, but He drank it on the cross. And He was raised from the dead to give eternal life to all those who would trust in Him. If we repent of our sins and we believe in Christ, all the promised blessings—the forgiveness, the cleansing, the redemption, eternal life—that all becomes ours. All of it becomes ours.

And so when you get to the end of the Bible and you go all the way up to the book of Revelation, you see the tree of life in the New Jerusalem. The right to eat from the tree of life is not the right of those who profess one thing and do another. No, it will not be enjoyed by those who forsake their first love, who deny the faith, or those who give themselves over to sexual immorality as the practice of their life. Only those, the book of Revelation says, who overcome by faith, only those who conquer by faith will be granted to eat, will be granted the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

The heavenly vision of the book of Revelation at the end of the New Testament is the consummation of everything the garden had promised in Genesis and later the temple. All of that, it’s the consummation of all of that that the Bible has pictured and predicted. No chaos, no conflict, no tears, no death, no mourning, no crying, no pain, no night, and no detestable thing. Nothing to interfere with the holy God and His people. So the way things were, the way things should be, will finally become the way things are forever, forever. I’m looking forward to that day. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to that day.

That’s the story. That’s what the Bible is about. That really is it in a broad sense. And there’s not a whole lot about homosexuality in a significant sense in the Bible, but the Bible does directly speak to it. Because Jesus Christ is coming again to judge the living and the dead, and if those who repent of their sins and believe in Christ will live forever with God in His new creation through the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and if those who are not born again and do not believe in Christ and do not turn from their sinful practices will face eternal punishment and the just wrath of God in hell.

And if among those in the lake of fire excluded from the heavenly garden are the cowardly and the faithless and the detestable and murderers and sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars—and I quote Revelation 21—if all of that is true, then determining what constitutes sexual immorality in God’s mind, in God’s decree, in His will, that has everything to do with the storyline of Scripture that you must answer, that I must answer.

And so the question is: Is homosexual activity a sin that must be repented of, forsaken, and forgiven? It’s a question that the Bible answers. And as we’ve stated many times, the Bible is the authority. Not me, not you; the Bible is the authority. God’s Word, because the Bible is God’s Word. It’s the inspired, authoritative, unbreakable, fully trustworthy account of the divine revelation. So you have to get that settled at the first. You have to get that settled: that the Bible is what it claims to be. It is God-breathed. It is given by inspiration of God. It is the final word.

It doesn’t matter if I’m a nice person. It doesn’t matter if I’m a friendly person. It doesn’t matter if I’m a so-called good person or what my opinions are or what my feelings are. The question is: Is the Bible the final word of authority? And you have to settle that. If you say no, then there’s not much else I can do for you. You could go your day and turn off this podcast and this message and forget about it. If you say no, then you can go on. But if you say yes, if you say yes that it is the final word, it’s the final authority, the Bible has the truth in it—it is the truth—then that has implications for your life and my life.

And so for the next several minutes, we’re going to examine these scriptures, and I’m going to say upfront—probably we’re going to understand upfront—that the Bible says that homosexual behavior, no matter the level of commitment, no matter the level of mutual affection for one another, the Bible says that homosexual behavior is in the category of sexual immorality. That’s what it says. It’s not in the Creator’s design. It’s not God’s plan. It’s not His intention at all.

The Creator’s intention, according to the Genesis account, was for one man, one woman, one flesh. We’ve already seen that before as we’ve studied God’s Word. The woman was created; that indicates that she was the man’s divinely designed complement. The nature of the one-flesh union presupposes two persons of the opposite sex. Two persons of the opposite sex are the only ones who can fulfill the procreation purposes of marriage. The historical significance of marriage is redemptive. That’s a divine symbol in the Bible, and it only works if the marital couple is a complementary pair of a man and a woman.

So let’s take a quick survey through God’s Word and let’s see what the Bible actually says about homosexuality. Let’s see what God actually says about homosexuality. So back to Genesis 19. You’ll not find two more infamous cities in all of the Bible than Sodom and Gomorrah. You won’t find two more scandalous cities than those two, because in Genesis 19, the Lord rained on them brimstone and fire, a devastating punishment for their brazen wickedness. Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, Sodom and Gomorrah are synonymous with extreme sinfulness and divine judgment in the New Testament.

As you read what Jesus had to say, He often references Sodom and sometimes Gomorrah in an effort to actually warn people of impending judgment and to expose the hardness of their hearts. The two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, are really a byword for sin and judgment. Our word sodomy comes from the type of sin that went on in the city of Sodom and the type of sin that was attempted at Sodom. We just read about that. Verses 5 through 9 in chapter 19 of Genesis. It’s very plain as to the wickedness that was rampant in the city of Sodom. God had already said back in chapter 18 of Genesis that the sin of the people of Sodom was very great and grievous. No doubt Sodom’s sins were many, but included in that was pursuing homosexual behavior.

Now the New Testament’s view of Sodom is very clear. In Jude, verse 7, the New Testament says this: it says, “Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in similar manner to those having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” The Greek word translated "strange flesh" can also be translated "unnatural desire." They indulged in unnatural desire, that is to say desire that goes against nature. In Genesis chapter 18, verse 20, the Almighty God calls the sin of Sodom great and grave or grievous.

Let’s go to Leviticus 18. There are two verses in Leviticus that speak directly to the issue of homosexuality. Leviticus 18, verse 22: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.” Leviticus 20, verse 13: “If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination.” Now, this book of Leviticus, the book is named for the Old Testament priests who were of the family of Levi. That’s a big book of laws given from Almighty God to Moses to the people of God. It’s truly instructions to the Levitical priests to tell the folks how to live. So let’s back up a minute. I need to do this, and we need to understand the big idea in Leviticus.

The word holy or holiness occurs 87 times in Leviticus. Holiness, then, is the book’s overarching theme. Holiness and the whole system of Israel’s worship assumed the holiness of God as its starting point. You have holy priests with holy clothes in a holy land at a holy place using holy instruments and holy objects, celebrating holy days, living by a holy law given by a holy God that they might be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. That word holy means to be set apart, it means to be separate, it means to be different. I think you get the idea. It’s all about holy. And so the second half of Leviticus, from chapter 17 onward, is sometimes called the holiness code because it details how the Israelites were to live as God’s people, His holy people.

Guest (Male): You’ve been listening to Foundations of Truth, the biblical teaching ministry of Dr. Timothy Mann. Today’s message reminds us Scripture doesn’t merely identify sin; it points us to the Savior. Every one of us stands in need of God’s grace, and the good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ came to redeem sinners of every kind who repent and place their faith in Him.

If you’d like to hear this message again or learn more about this ministry, visit us online, foundationsoftruth.net. Join us next time as Dr. Mann continues this important series, Divine Design, and the second part of the message, What Does the Bible Really Say About Homosexuality? Until then, stand firm in God’s truth, walk humbly in grace, and may the Lord richly bless you.