Things You Thought Were True
Part 5
“Jesus Never Addressed Gay Marriage”
Before reading our opening passage, I want to talk a moment about truth, and where you and I get the truth we accept as true.
First, to know if something is true you need a non-negotiable standard—like a ruler measures distance, or a thermometer measures temperature, or a medical manual measures health.
For instance, every doctor has got to have an authoritative, ultimate standard for what good health is. If he doesn’t accept that 98.6 is a normal temperature, and 120/80 is normal blood pressure, if he doesn’t know whether something is normal or abnormal, how will he ever conclude that a person is sick or healthy? You don’t want to go to a doctor that doesn’t know what a healthy body is!
Likewise, there’s no way you can definitively measure the distance of a mile (5,280 feet) unless you accept what a foot is. There has to be an arbiter, a non-negotiable, authoritative source for distance. If you reject one foot being 12 inches, and three feet being one yard, then you can never authoritatively state that you have walked a mile, or how far you’ve driven, or any other distance at all!
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Here’s why this matters. If I were to ask five people how wide this stage is, I’d likely get five different opinions. And one opinion is as good as another if all we have is opinion. The only way to know for sure is to bring in the non-negotiable standard—a tape measure. The tape measure settles all argument!
So when it comes to truth—philosophical truth, spiritual truth, moral truth—everyone can have an opinion. But to know what is truly true you must have an accepted, non-negotiable standard. And for the Christian that non-negotiable standard is God’s word.
Without God’s word we are plunged into relativism where there is no ultimate truth.
All truth becomes simply a matter of opinion and moral anarchy is the by product.
So for something to be irrefutably true we must have a transcendent source—an authoritative voice that rises above men’s opinions.
Here’s the deal: We are now living in a nation that has thrown out the tape measure of God’s word regarding truth. Truth is no longer measured against Scripture, which presents a transcendent source for all truth—the Person of Almighty God!
For the last century and a half there has been a concerted effort to destroy man’s confidence in God’s tape measure—the Bible. In fact, all the way back to the Garden of Eden the authority of God’s word was attacked by Satan—“Has God said?”
So in talking about our topic for today—gay marriage—if there’s no ultimate standard to measure it by then there is only man’s opinion, and one opinion is as good as the other.
We need a non-negotiable, transcendent source on this topic, so in looking at this issue mine will be Scripture.
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It is only because our nation, including the Supreme Court, has rejected the standard of God’s word that they could pass a law changing the very definition of marriage.
On December 13, 2022, Joe Biden signed into law the “respect for marriage act,” which repealed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that was signed into law in on September 21, 1996.
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States federal law limiting the definition of marriage to the union of one man and one woman, and it further allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states.
But not to be outdone, proponents of changing the very definition of marriage pushed through the “respect for marriage act.”
This law now requires the U.S. federal government and all U.S. states and territories to recognize the validity of same-sex marriage.
Again, this could only happen if the tape measure of God’s word were thrown out, and it was. And unfortunately, many professing Christians think this was the right and loving thing to do—that we’re not to judge or impose the Bible’s standards on others. If you were to ask them if this is showing love they would say, “I think that is true!”
Well, what does the standard of Scripture say about it?
First off, the Bible warns that when a person or nation reject God’s word as the transcendent standard for truth, there will follow a steady downward plunge into moral anarchy.
Ro. 1:21 “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
Romans 1 proceeds to describe God “giving them up” to their sin three times in vs. 24,26,28. The first time He gives them up to hedonistic sensuality (a sexual revolution), the second time to homosexuality, and the third time to a reprobate mind.
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Well, when all else fails follow directions. So what does the transcendent standard of God’s word say about marriage? What were God’s directions and intent when he created marriage?
Let’s go back to the beginning and look at the creation of the woman, which is where God’s purpose for marriage first unfolds:
Genesis 2:22-24 “Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man (adam aw-dawm’) He made into a woman (ish-shaw’), and He brought her to the man.
23 And Adam said:
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman (ish-shaw’—meaning from or out of man but different in gender), because she was taken out of Man (ish).”
—So ish-shaw’ (female) was taken out of ish (male).
Moses then, writing under the inspiration of God’s Spirit, says in vs. 24:
“This explains why a man (ish—male) shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife (ish-shaw’—female), and they shall become one flesh.”
God clearly states that the reason he created ish and ish-shaw’ was for marriage!
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Then in the New Testament, Jesus was asked about marriage and divorce. He replied by quoting the text we just read, written by Moses under God’s direction. Watch how He focuses tightly on gender:
“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male (arsen) and female (thay’-loos),’ and said, ‘For this reason a man (anth’-ro-pos—a man) will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife (goo-nay’—a woman, wife, my lady), and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” -Matthew 19:4-6 NIV
So notice how in quoting Moses, Jesus begins by stating the gender of the two—arsen (male) and thay’-loos (female). He is establishing the two genders involved in the kind of marriage God intended—a male and female. “At the beginning the Creator made them male (arsen) and female (thay’-loos)…”
Then he uses different words to reinforce this fact—anthropos, the general word for male, and goo-nay’, another Greek word for woman, wife, or my lady!
Jesus is undeniably stating that the marriage bond is between a male husband and female wife. It is a sacred union. And He makes it crystal clear that God’s design for marriage is between the two genders God created in the beginning—a man and woman.
So when the government (Supreme Court) decided to redefine marriage, they essentially sabotaged God’s divine decree for marriage.
So if the issue of gay marriage being okay is something you thought you knew, I encourage you to return to God’s original plan. In the beginning it was not so! It may be a civil right but it’s a bible wrong.
No human being, no act of congress, no ruling by the SCOTUS or a group of people in any society created marriage. God created it on purpose for a purpose.
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Now, regarding the homosexual issue (including lesbianism) what does the standard say? In Leviticus chapter 18 verse 22 we read this: “You must not have sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman; it is a detestable act.”
And this prohibition is carried over into the New Testament. The Scripture passages that deal with homosexual behavior call it sinful every time.
In Romans chapter 1 verses 26-27 we read this: “For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 27 and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameful acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
Also, in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9-11 we read this: “Or 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 effeminate (mal-ak-os’—the effeminate submissive in a homosexual relationship), nor homosexuals—
(ar-sen-ok-oy’-tace—a male engaging in same-gender sexual activity), 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
So we note that Paul identified church members that “were” those things in the past but were no longer practicing it.
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Now, the argument is made: What about the “born this way” claim? If homosexuality is genetically imposed, isn’t it unfair and cruel not to allow them a happy life with someone else in a same-sex marriage?
The problem is a “gay gene” has never been found! In 1993 Dr. Dean Hamer studied 40 pairs of non-identical gay brothers and claimed that 33 had inherited the same x-linked genetic markers indicating a genetic cause for homosexuality.
Without any scientific confirmation—the media latched on to this story and exaggerated his findings to say there was a gay gene. Hamer’s study was quickly proved misleading—and it didn’t hold up to scientific scrutiny.
Within a year it had been proven that no such gene existed. Following this disclosure, Dr. Hamer admitted his theory and findings were never true.
Passages found in Romans 1 clearly claim it’s a choice. It says that those who rejected Him and His moral standards “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image of corruptible man, and “who exchanged the truth of God for a lie.”
“Changed and exchanged” are verbs. It shows a decision of the will to give up one thing for something else. It is after the “exchanges” were made that God gave them over to their sin. We see here a cause and effect, not an irresistible genetic urge.
So in summary, the very idea of bringing something that God clearly says is sinful into a sacred covenant of marriage is spectacularly wrong. The message of the gospel is that you can be freed from enslavement to sexual bondage of all kinds and live in the joy of freedom!