The Unchanging Truth

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Unchanging Truth, the verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Jerod Gilcher, lead pastor of Christ Community Bible Church in Arlington, Texas. Through the living and active Word of God, The Unchanging Truth exists to encourage your soul, transform your life, and help you trust and treasure Christ as redeemer, savior, and king. Now, opening the scriptures and proclaiming the truth that never changes, here is Dr. Jerod Gilcher.

Dr. Jerod Gilcher: And you have to understand that God punishes nations and cultures and societies by giving them over to the very sins that they desire. This is terrifying because sometimes the wrath of God takes the form of fire falling from heaven, destroying entire cities like Sodom and Gomorrah. Sometimes the wrath of God takes the form of a global flood that kills everybody except for eight people. Sometimes the wrath of God takes the form of hail from heaven, the ground opening up and swallowing people whole. Numbers chapter 16. And sometimes the wrath of God is when he removes his gracious restraints that keep a culture intact and gives people over to the very passions that will lead to their destruction.

That is the wrath of God. It is exactly what Paul is saying. That is what he means when he says God gave them over. He hardens the heart. He sears the soul. He cauterizes the conscience and hands people over to the very lusts that will destroy them, which looks like what exactly? What would this look like if this happened to us? Well, for instance, you know that it would happen to us when a culture pursues open homosexual sin as a societal norm. When sin like homosexuality becomes a civil right. When it becomes a cultural value to be honored and celebrated. When that sin becomes sanctioned by the authorities. When it becomes a national holiday. When people are punished if they oppose or speak out against that particular sin, you understand that is not the sign of a culture falling apart. That is the sign of God tearing it apart in the fury of his wrath.

In 2009, when the president declared June to be Pride Month, and 2015, when same-sex marriage became a civil right, and when laws started getting passed that say that pastors and counselors are not allowed to try to sway people away from homosexuality, what you have on your hands is a revolution, and in particular a homosexual revolution. And it is the wrath of God himself. And let us be clear about this. Paul is not vilifying people who are born with same-sex struggles. We are all born with various sins for which we did not ask and we do not want. I have particular bents and proclivities; I wish I did not have them. And for some people, one of those bents and proclivities is towards same-sex attraction.

You are not the enemy. You are not the villain here. The power of Christ is available to change and transform. Life is war. Welcome to the war that is sanctification. Nor is Paul ranking homosexuality as the worst sin ever committed. That is not his point. We have to understand that. Rather, what we have to say is that this sin, like all sins, is a symptom of a deeper issue lurking beneath the surface, namely idolatry. God has been exchanged. That is the greatest atrocity. That is the greatest outrage. If you look at the text, the worst sin on the page is verse 23 and verse 25, where sinners take what is not God and they love it and they worship it and they try to be satisfied in it as if it were God.

That is the outrage. And all other sins are but symptoms and manifestations of that. And yet, listen very carefully, don't miss this. Having said that, it cannot be denied that not only is homosexual sin not just on the list, but it is being singled out as a particular variety of sin that reveals something absolutely tragic. Namely, this is where sinners are willing to go in their rejection of God. That is the point. It is that people are willing to do what is biologically and anatomically unthinkable in their efforts to try to find satisfaction apart from God. That is Paul's point and that is why this sin in particular comes in for discussion. It is and it is not like other sins all at the same time.

It can be forgiven like any other sin, but it also reveals how far the heart is willing to go in the suppression of the truth. Notice how Paul describes the sin of homosexuality in verse 26. He calls it dishonorable passions. Dishonorable passions. The word passion there is really interesting because it is a stronger word than the word for lust in verse 24. This is a stronger word. This one is more consuming. This one is more enveloping. It is a passion that controls; it overtakes and dominates the life and overwhelms all self-control. And notice that Paul calls these dishonorable passions. Dishonorable passions, meaning they bring dishonor to God and dishonor to people in the image of God.

These passions dishonor God because they violate his good design. And these passions dishonor people in the image of God and they ravage their lives and their bodies with disease and absolute destruction. And you would not believe it if I told you of the physical devastation that occurs in the homosexual community. No one is going to tell you the truth about that, but it is real. It is real. And it is part of what Paul means by dishonorable passions. Notice verse 26. Paul unfolds exactly what these passions are, and it is same-sex sin. He begins first with the women. Verse 26: for their females exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, or against nature, or even contrary to nature.

And there it is again. God is exchanged for idols. Truth is traded for lies. And here what is natural is changed for what is unnatural. What does this mean? Well, if you look at verse 27, it is clear. It is same-sex sin. It is homosexual sin. You have to understand this is very important. In this revolution, both men and women reject the biological facts of marriage and family and procreation and anatomy and embrace a sexual union that ignores all of those facts. That is the issue. The word use or function there in Greek is the ancient clinical word for intercourse. You understand there is a natural way to do that that makes biological sense, honors God's design for marriage, produces children in the image of God.

And there is an unnatural way that does not make sense, that violates God's design, that does not make children, and tears the fabric of society apart at the most basic fundamental level. That is what Paul is describing. What that means very simply, beloved, is that contrary to the claims of the culture, not all love is actually love. It does not matter if there is consent. It does not matter if there is commitment or if it is a monogamous relationship. It does not matter. This sin is an absolute rejection of God and his design in the most basic biological, physiological way possible. No one is saying that homosexual sin is somehow worse than heterosexual sin. No one believes that or thinks that.

But Paul is singling this text out. It reminds me of a time years ago, back when I was a pastor in Washington and I was waiting for a meeting. I am sitting there at a coffee shop, my Bible open, and right next to me was a professor from one of the local universities having a conversation with one of his students. They were talking about a paper that the student was writing, ironically about marriage and, in particular, so-called gay marriage. I sat there silently and listened to them bat ideas back and forth about marriage. Eventually, they crossed the bridge into what the Bible says and what people like me think about same-sex marriage. With a sneering, searing tone of mockery, the professor said, "You know, I don't get it. I don't get why fundamentalist Christians make such a big deal about same-sex marriage. What do they care if homosexuals want to get married?"

And I almost, I did not, but I almost intervened and said, "Excuse me, sir, we care because it ruins the parable. The parable of marriage. Of what marriage is to be. Traditional marriage is not about tradition, nor about being better than homosexuals. It has nothing to do with that. It is that one man and one woman who treasure Christ together for life is a picture of the greatest love story in history, namely Christ who died for his bride. That is why we care." Which means that marriage is not about conservative politics; it is about cosmic significance. We cannot play along, beloved. We will not bow the knee. And the revolution demands that we play along and we agree and we bow the knee and celebrate what is against God's design and pretend like it is a good thing. But that we cannot do.

Rather, with courage and compassion, we have to be willing to say, "Church, my conscience is bound to the word of God. I can neither affirm nor agree. Not because I fear or hate you. It is the opposite of that. Rather, it is that God has something better to give, namely his son, in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins." We were made by God, for God, in the image of God. And our sins have separated us from God to be under the wrath of God. But the love of God sent the Son of God to bear the wrath of God that we might be reconciled to God in the kingdom of God for the glory of God. And that is what you tell everybody.

But then verse 27, he gets to the men. The women exchange the natural function for what is unnatural. Here it is. And likewise also the men, after abandoning the natural function of the female, were inflamed in their passion or lust for one another. Males with males committing indecent acts and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. I do not write the text. I do not make the facts. I just report the facts that are here. And this is the revolution, you understand. Here Paul does not mean just a few isolated individuals on the fringe. What he means, and this is important, he is talking about the wide culture-wide dynamic where many people do this and many people who don't do it support those who do with a kind of suicidal solidarity.

It is like Sodom and Gomorrah. When a culture takes the rejection of God to the furthest logical extreme, it always eventually leads to this. This is where people are willing to go. Which means it is not freedom that they experience; it is God's fury. It is not progress that they have made; it is God's punishment. It is not liberation that they have gained; it is God's vindication of his justice. Look what Paul says. This is so haunting. He says that men in a culture can collectively or a large segment of the culture can get to the point where they abandon the natural function of the female and burn in their lust for one another, which is eerie and profound because the point is that once enticed and open to the idea of encounters with other men, violate the immutable facts of biology though it does, the burning passion of lust ignites and combusts and even consumes their lives.

Look at the word passion there or lust. That word there in Greek describes a term being stretched to its absolute limits. It is a passion that consumes in totality. It takes over people's lives. It becomes the very identity. And another way to render the word is promiscuity. Promiscuity is the word. It crosses lines, it violates boundaries, it plunges into passion without restraint. Just to give you an idea of what this could mean, back in the 90s, there was a publication, some findings put out by a homosexual magazine, a magazine from the homosexual community. This is what they revealed: that over 15% of the homosexual community has over a thousand partners. Less than 2% are monogamous.

It is exactly the kind of consuming lust that Paul is describing. Again, let us be clear about this. Is anyone saying that homosexual promiscuity is somehow worse than heterosexual promiscuity? Nobody says that. Nobody believes that. It is just interesting to me that what Paul describes in the text is exactly what we see play out in a culture that the world demands that we celebrate and that we cannot do. And the reason why is because the very sin they pursue is the very punishment of God himself. Look at verse 27. The end of the verse. Paul says they commit indecent acts and they receive in themselves the due penalty of their error. You see, that is why we cannot affirm and that is why we cannot celebrate.

Why? Because number one, these are indecent acts. Literally, the idea is these should never even be theoretically entertained. And number two, the reason why we can't accept or celebrate this is because the sin itself is the judgment. The sin itself is the judgment. Meaning homosexual sin not only deserves to be punished, like all other sin, but that it itself is the punishment. Do you see? God hardens the heart and sears the soul. Even though his restraints, his gracious restraints were placed over the culture to protect that culture and to keep them from unraveling, God gives them over to the very sins that will lead to their ruin and destruction unless. Unless.

Did you know that that is the point of the whole chapter? There is an unless. They and all lost people, regardless of their sexual orientation, will perish and die in their sins unless they hear the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ. We have no guarantee that we can fix the culture. We have no promise that we can alter legislation. But we do have the guarantee that God's elect are out there and that they can be saved through the proclamation of the gospel. We have a Savior who really changes people's lives. A King of sovereign power. Fully God, fully man, who lived on earth, who never sinned, who bore the wrath he didn't deserve for sins he didn't commit, who conquered death, rose again, and at this moment he is alive.

And he rules all things by the word of his power. And he is coming back again to rule his kingdom and to break the curse and to lift the spell and make all things be the way they ought to be. That is the message that saves people from destruction. That by faith in him alone we can receive the treasure of salvation in full. I said it before, I will say it here. We would have less power if we had the launch codes for nuclear weapons. We are former slaves trapped in darkness mingling with current slaves to sin who are right now trapped in darkness. The question is: what are the implications of knowing and having a message like that?

You have the gospel message. What are the implications of having that message? Do we not owe to perishing people the same opportunity afforded to us, namely to hear and believe the gospel of Christ? Do you believe that just by speaking words, that just by saying things, should they match the message of the text, is able to save people from destruction? That is astonishing. I said it before. You know what we are? We are brokers of eternal life. That is what we are. We are middlemen. We are salvation middlemen that arrange meetings between sinners who need salvation and the God of the universe who sent his son to give salvation. We would have a less important job if we were kings who ruled an empire. May God give us strength.

May God give you strength to preach the gospel, to contend for the faith, to expose the darkness, to be willing to be hated, to suffer shame for the name, no matter the cost. Because like Paul said, woe to us if we do not preach the gospel. And we're not quite done. Paul's almost done. There is one more revolution, hang in there, and it is this. Number four, a cultural revolution. A cultural revolution. This is number four and this is, I believe, the revolution that we are in the midst of at this moment. And once you're here, you can go no further. There is no basement in the sewer. There is no cellar in the slough of despond. Once you're here, you're here and you can go no further.

In this stage will sound very familiar starting in verse 28. "And even as they did not see fit to acknowledge God." What did God do? There it is again. "God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper." And there it is. That is the last and the worst. That is the reaching of a breaking point, the crossing of a threshold and, in most cases in human history, the point of no return. And we're here. This makes a lot of sense. That a culture could get here. Because not long after a homosexual revolution, you get to a cultural revolution when everything in the culture is upside down. When good is evil and evil is good and people pursue their rejection of God to the furthest logical implication.

That is what this is. And it makes a lot of sense that with a collective conscience of a culture cauterized by sin and given to rampant immorality, it is only a matter of time before they do not see fit to acknowledge God any longer. And yet, what does that mean? What does it mean to not see fit to acknowledge God? What that means is a culture-wide disapproval and rejection of God. That is what he means. When God becomes forbidden. When God becomes taboo. When God becomes the one whom you should not name. When even bringing God into the conversation of the public sphere has the possible penalties. And when this happens to a culture, the signs are clear. There is persecution, there is discrimination, there is marginalization of believers.

When God is gagged and churches are targeted and believers are silenced and the word of God is forbidden, you have entered into a stage-four culture war. This is where we are. And if that sounds extreme to you, "Well, come on, Jerod, that is a bit sensationalist, don't you think?" Well, then explain to me why the FBI was caught searching private emails of churches who disagreed with homosexuality. During the 2020 lockdowns, why were pastors taken to jail for holding service, but managers at Costco were fine? Also during the lockdowns, riots were fine, casinos and strip clubs were open, churches were closed. And there are dozens and dozens and dozens of examples exactly like that.

And the point is the proof is there. The proof is there that we have arrived at a stage-four culture war. And it is true. It is true. Jerod, come on, it is not as bad as it could be. That is true, but it is also not as bad as it will be and we have to be prepared. And notice the phrase Paul uses there. Paul says that the culture, they did not see fit to acknowledge God. Do you see that there? And the phrase see fit is one word in Greek. It is one word. It is the word dokimazo. Dokimazo. And that word literally means to examine something, to put something to the test, to measure something for its quality. It is actually the word for quality control back in the ancient days when they would make coins like the Roman coins.

They would make coins and they would have all these coins and you had to evaluate them to see if they were fit for public use. And so they would make the coins and then they would dokimazo them. They would test them, examine them, look at them, weigh them out to see if they were fit for public use. And those who were, they distributed them publicly and those that were defective were taken and destroyed. And Paul says that is exactly what cultures do with God. They put him on the scale. And they have evaluated God. And they have decided he is not fit for public use. God is out. God is out.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for The Unchanging Truth, the verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Jerod Gilcher and Christ Community Bible Church in Arlington, Texas. At Christ Community Bible Church, we exist to prize, portray, and proclaim the supremacy of Christ as we trust in his word and wait for his return. We hope today's teaching has encouraged your soul and helped you trust and treasure Christ as your redeemer, savior, and king. If you're in the DFW area and looking for a church home, join us for worship Sunday mornings at 10:30. To learn more about the mission of the church, meet the pastoral staff, or plan a visit, go to ccbiblechurch.com. You'll find ministry services and additional teachings there as well. Just click on the resources tab to get started. That's ccbiblechurch.com. Join us again next time as we open the scriptures together and proclaim the truth that never changes. This has been The Unchanging Truth.