Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / July 5, 2015 | How We Should Respond To The Supreme Court Decision Legalizing Gay Marriage

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July 5, 2015 | How We Should Respond To The Supreme Court Decision Legalizing Gay Marriage · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: How are you this morning?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Did you stay up late for the fourth last night?
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you're in third service today.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: I know I have to talk loud, some of you, your hearing shot.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: There were some really, really loud bangs in our neighborhood.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: ISIS is here.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, anyways, cool.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's my problem here?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, let's try that.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Ha ha, baby.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, for those of you who've been out uh feeding pigs or or bailing hay for the last couple weeks, don't know what's been happening.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um back in January, the Supreme Court took a case on uh gay marriage.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a case, by the way, very similar to the one they refused uh in 1972.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: In 1972, they said the Constitution doesn't mention, even mention marriage.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: We don't uh marriage predates politics, we have no say there.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: But however, uh this year they decided to take the case.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And in uh nine days ago, on June 26th, and that's the Supreme Court building, um, the gay activists were able to celebrate because our Supreme Court uh legislated that same-sex marriage is now a constitutional right.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that partly means that the 13 states that hadn't approved it yet, 37 states up till now, according to the Tenth Amendment.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um is somebody throwing communion cups at me?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: I know I need Jesus, but uh this is a bit much.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um excuse me, for those of you missionaries on the field listening to this, I I apologize for that.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um so there were 37 of the 50 states that had already approved same-sex marriage.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: It had been according to the Tenth Amendment, any rights not delineated in the Constitution are left up to the states and individuals.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so part of what's happened is that 13 states, Kansas had already approved it as a state, but the 13 states which uh had were still banning same-sex marriage, uh now all the states uh uh uh uh have to uh observe same-sex marriage.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I come to you this morning, I'm leaving Route 66 series for one Sunday.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you've tuned in, if you're here to see Route 66 Book of Proverbs, that'll be next week.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm actually going to stay in the Psalms, which I took last week.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna direct you to Psalm chapter 2.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible, feel free to turn there.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to address a very practical question, and that is how should we respond to the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: I have a number of uh things to read or share with you, and so I'm really glad for PowerPoint this morning.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: It will allow you to both hear and to see uh some of the words, you know, the words that I'm gonna share.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the questions that has come to me uh this year uh is, especially from young people, is uh Jim, what is the big deal anyway?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: This uh allowing uh lesbians or gays to marry won't affect my marriage at all or any other marriage.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Why not just let them do what they want?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: What is the big deal about this?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I would argue it is a big deal, but but let me uh allow the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court uh to to to weigh in on why it's a big deal.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this was his response nine days ago.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if you will go on, you can actually read the decision and the comments.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're not hard to understand, they're very, very interesting, and you you read an incredible difference between the four justices who dissented and the five justices, very close decision, who who uh the majority who approved it.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what John Roberts uh said.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Many people will rejoice at this decision, and I begrudge none their celebration, but for those who believe in a government of laws, not of men, the majority's approach is deeply disheartening.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Supporters of same-sex marriage have achieved considerable success persuading their fellow citizens through the democratic process to adopt their view.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's referring to the 37 states.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: That ends today.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Five lawyers have closed the debate and enacted their own vision of marriage as a matter of constitutional law.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Stealing this issue from the people will for many cast a cloud over same-sex marriage, making a dramatic social change that much more difficult to accept.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's a big deal because of the way this has been done.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you are old enough to remember a similar thing happened in 73 when the Supreme Court approved abortion, and instead of quieting the waters, it just simply roiled them up.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that that's as you can tell from the last nine days, if you follow the paper headlines, you know that that's that's what this has done.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's poured gasoline on the fire.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I I've received and read uh I think all of the all of the links that I have been deluged with over the last couple of weeks.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And there are a couple that I think rise above the others, and I'll just mention those to you this morning.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: One at the beginning, one close to the end.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Joel Rosenberg, who's better known for his uh best-selling books and his stance on Israel, actually had a blog last week that was, I think, made four uh good points.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'll just mention the first three.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: First, he said the Supreme Court is overreaching its constitutional authority.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, nothing's in the 14th Amendment uh uh has anything to do with marriage, and is thus undermining its own legitimacy and pouring gasoline on a highly politicized issue that'll deeply divide Americans for years to come.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Second, the court's ruling forces 320 million Americans to embrace overnight a radical reengineering of the social compact of marriage that even some of the nation's most liberal political leaders strongly opposed just a few years ago.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: What he means by social compact is referring to the fact that for the 5,000 years of Judeo-Christian history and the 10,000 years of uh of known human history, never before has a society decided they would actually redefine marriage, which predate predates all politics and and states anyway.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is, he's saying, a re-engineering, and he's saying, and it's also something he says that even the nation's most liberal political leader strongly opposed.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: A few years ago, I'm sure he's probably referring to the fact that just seven years ago, then Senator Obama said on MTV, I oppose gay marriage and and etc.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Third, he says the court's ruling opens the door for a frontal and massive attack on religious liberty.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Question is, is that really true?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in the debate, Samuel Alito, Just Samuel Alito, asked the lead attorney for the Obama administration, now that this decision is made, the question remaining is actually uh during the debate he asked the question, do you think that this decision could affect the tax exam status of Christian colleges?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the justice and the lead attorney said, Well, that is an issue.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so after the decision was made, Alito said, now that this decision is made, the question remaining is whether those who've called for tolerance will themselves extend tolerance toward those who disagree with them.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Sadly, I fear not.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we're finding that that is true.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Headlines, recent headlines, and headlines within the last just nine days, show that show that those have been calling for tolerance are becoming, are suddenly now intolerant.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: For example, in Slate magazine, Purge the Bigots, or another headline, how gay marriage ruling may impact Christian colleges.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And what this means is that if Christian colleges do not, since it's a constitutional right, do not agree to hire gays or to permit gay weddings, they will lose perhaps their tax exempt status.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why 70, no less than 70 Christian colleges and universities this past week sent a very desperate letter to the government quoting uh uh a senator, I mean, quoting one of the justices who said, Well, I'm personally for gay marriage, I'm gonna vote for it, but I don't think that we should put Christian colleges out of business uh uh for being against it.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: So quoting him, they're saying, Can we please, can you please do something about this or we're in trouble?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Idaho's city's ordinance tells pastors to marry gays or go to jail.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: In my home uh city, in my hometown, Portland, Oregon, Christian bakers face a hundred and thirty-five thousand dollar fine.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: They may lose not only their business but their house for refusing to make a cake for a gay wedding and were sued for emotional pain suffered, even though, of course, the couple could have gone down the street and and had anybody else make the cake.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, uh, we're we're dealing with an uh, it's not so much as uh as you will hear, a niceness issue, or why don't we love people like Jesus?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's a discrimination and tolerance issue.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you will hear that that love means agreement, and you will hear that disagreement means hate.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Probably the most common, I receive all kinds of uh counseling issues and questions.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the most common in the last five years has become uh TBCers who come in and say, now a member of my family has become gay and has a gay partner, and they come to Christmas or they come to whatever else.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I uh since I don't believe that that's right, even though uh you know I I don't show any hate, I'm not being invited anymore until I decide I'll go along with it.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: What do I do about this?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well I don't know of any other social, moral, ethical issue today in which love somehow automatically is construed as agreement, and disagreement is automatically construed as bigotry and hate.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really, really key point here in my view.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, uh during the court case, one of the justices, I think it was Alito, said now, or I believe it was Scalia, Antonin Scalia, said, now, if if you allow genderless marriage or marriage for this, what would prevent polygamy?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he was mocked by you know by the attorney uh for the side saying, of course that'll never happen.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: However, um this week already uh Montana polygamist has is uh is file has filed suit in the court there seeking legitimacy after Supreme Court ruling.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: So what I want that was just all introductory.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like you to open to Psalm 2, which I believe answers the question that I'm raising, which is how should you and I respond in this day to this Supreme Court ruling?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Would you open your Bible then to the second Psalm, which is one of the great chapters of the Bible?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: While I don't believe that I've ever preached on that chapter here at TBC, I have often taught on it both at Care Purville Latin School and both here in smaller groups.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you should be aware, this is one of the great chapters, oftentimes called a title chapter of all of the psalms.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's a royal psalm.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And while I won't exposit it completely, I want to direct you to the fact that there are four voices in this psalm.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna talk about the four voices in this psalm: the voice of defiant rebels, the voice of a disdainful God, the voice of a confident son, and the voice of a counseling spirit.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Each of these voices is given exactly three verses.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the first verse that we find, first verse is the first section, the first voice that we hear, is the voice of the nations.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a voice of rebellion and defiance, verses one and two.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Word conspire means that what we've got here is sort of a military planning and a uh you know a conspiracy against God.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the plotting in vain, the word in vain means it's it's futile, it's it's silly.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 2, the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: The I love the Hebrew word there, it's like in a conclave, like the Supreme Court, actually.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And what do they say?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: They say in verse 3, let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: You do not have to be really acquainted with modern life to know that gay activists feel as though God and the Bible in this case are chains and they are moral shackles.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you see signs held up saying, you know, get your Bible out of my bedroom.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's a sense in which the moral laws of God, and by the way, I'm not gonna spend any time today trying to prove to you what I've proved to you before, which is that homosexuality is called a sin in the Bible, that God is not for it.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we could debate that, you know, but that's not my purpose today.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Look back at some of my other messages.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the issue is uh, is it a chain?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Is it a shackle?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Is the Bible, are the Ten Commandments, are the rules of God a shackle?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that really is the feeling that gay activists had.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And they feel that way when they see Jesus' words in Matthew 19.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Haven't you read, Jesus said, that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, said, therefore man shall leave his father, mother hold fast his wife, two shall become one flesh.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus there, quoting Genesis 2, is saying that marriage is between a man and a woman.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I I quote Matthew 19 here very deliberately.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Franklin Graham has gotten in trouble just this last week.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: I love Franklin Graham, he's a great guy.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: But he came out immediately after the ruling saying, God has weighed in very clearly that marriage is between a man and a woman, and he quoted Genesis 2, which left him wide open to LA Times had a response article, a number of people saying, Oh, yeah, okay, you're gonna quote the Old Testament where marriages included polygamy, included concubines, and so forth.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And and but but the Gactivist can reply to Genesis, but no reply to Jesus versus Jesus, New Testament days, monogamy, in which Jesus says here that the true meaning of Genesis 2 is one man, one woman.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it is this statement that is being rebelled against.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I I love the uh I was thinking about a parallel, I was thinking about the white queen uh in in uh Lion Witch in the wardrobe, and I this wonderful statement, best I know, by an English Puritan, Richard L.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Lane, 1660, sin is the insurrection and rebellion of the heart against God.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's true, by the way, of your sin and of my sin.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: It turns from him and turns against him.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: It takes up arms against God.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: You and I do this.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: We take up arms against God when we deliberately sin against him.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And surely, surely in this situation, uh, saying, get the Bible out of my bedroom.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: I uh, you know, I am going to force 320 million Americans to agree with me or suffer is an act of bold defiance, taking up arms against God.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: So there are a couple of subpoints that I would suggest to you out of verses 1 through 3.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Mankind is in rebellion against God.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: People who never agree about anything else agree when it comes to defying God and his word.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now I just have a few more minutes on this defiance section, the largest of the four sections.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: I want to apply this to the specific ruling.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was interesting to me that in the debate, Antonin Scalia uh said, This decision is a judicial putsch, P-U-T-S-E-H.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: That word, special word, uh Russian background, means an overthrow.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what he meant by that was it was an overthrow of thousands of years of tradition and of religion.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say that this applies to Psalm 2 as well.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: It is an overthrow of God's authority on earth.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: It is a rebellion.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: What I find, by the way, most interesting is how uh the uh is the few of the websites in which we discover that many, many gays oppose gay marriage.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'd I'd like to quote some of them, for they see this as an act of deliberate defiance and rebellion.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Here's one why I oppose gay marriage.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Even being homosexual, I actually oppose gay marriage.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Not only that, I oppose it as a gay person.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I just excerpted three sentences.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't understand the reasoning that civil unions with all the marriage benefits are somehow not good enough.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't deny that it's hilarious and delightful to make Bible beaters uncomfortable, but inflicting pain on one's enemies alone is not reason to call for gay marriage.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And a third statement after decades of fighting the state, it seems homosexuals have now made the state their God.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that I think is the most important statement in this article.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, as the whole book of Revelation pictures, we have on earth a situation where as we get toward the end, the state will rise up in rebellion against God and declare itself God, and declare that God's laws and God's rules and God Himself should be dethroned.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that, in a sense, is what's happened in this situation.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Another article entitled, I'm gay and I oppose same-sex marriage.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: I excerpted three of his points.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Opposition about political correctness.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Opposition to same-sex marriage is characterized in the media at best as clinging to old-fashioned religious beliefs and traditions, and at worst as homophobia and hatred.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he resents this because as a gay person, he's being called homophobic.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Second, he says, we're in the middle of a fierce battle that is no longer about rights, it's about a single word, marriage.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Genderless, that is, no male nor female, marriage is not marriage at all, it's something else entirely.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, uh, he was he once was for gay marriage, and then as he studied it, he was uh he has a partner, and they used to talk a lot, and he says, intellectual honesty led me finally to some unexpected conclusions.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: One, creating a family with another man is not completely equal to creating a family with a woman, and two, denying children, parents of both genders at home, is an objective evil.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Kids need and yearn for both.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Two men or two women together is in truth nothing like a man and a woman creating a life and a family together.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Forgive me, one more.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: My favorite article, again entitled, I'm gay and I oppose same-sex marriage.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: As a 30-year-old gay man, one would expect me to be ecstatic about this ruling, yet I can't.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Deep down I know that every American, gay or straight, has suffered great loss because of this.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not alone in thinking this.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: The big secret in the LGBT, lesbian, gay bi transgender community, is the number of gays and lesbians who oppose same-sex marriage.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: He mentions that last week, two weeks ago, he was at a party with his 10 gay friends, and 10 out of the 11 of them opposed this.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: You don't hear us speak out because gay rights activists, most of whom are straight, have a history of viciously stamping out all opposition.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: I published this article under a pseudonym, not because I fear harassment from Christian conservatives, but because I know this article will make me a target of the gay stappo.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says the wheels of my pride parade float came off the moment I realized that the argument in support of gay marriage is predicated on one audaciously bald-faced lie.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: The lie that same-sex relationships are inherently equal to heterosexual relationships.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: It only takes a moment of objective thought to realize that the union of two men or two women is a drastically different arrangement than the union of a man and a woman.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is often overlooked because the people, and I would include many Christians here, lack a Fundamental understanding of what marriage actually is.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Most people think it's just a love contract.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Two people who love each other make a contract with each other.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so if it's male or female, lesbian, gay, what difference does it make?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says marriage is far more than just a love contract.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: If so, I mean just think, he says, why does government regulate marriages but not other interpersonal relationships like friendships?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: The answer is government's involved in marriage because it creates babies.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's critical to national flourishing and so forth.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm almost done with this whole area of defiance.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is my last slide.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And this is just a headline from day before yesterday.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oregon State issues gag order against opposing gay marriage, where a judge this past week, I rate because a couple had simply come out saying we would prefer not to serve our cakes at a gay wedding.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And he announced that they may not even say that uh anymore publicly without uh financial penalty.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so you see uh how how you know how we have moved from tolerance to intolerance, 1995.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want marriage, just civil unions, 2005.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Our marriage won't affect your rights, 2014.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Bake me a cake or else.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And now your opinion against same-sex marriage is illegal.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the response, the voice of God in verses four through six is a voice of laughing disdain.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: You'd be surprised.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us think that we think of God as crying or God as desperate.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: God's not up there wringing his hands.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Verses four through six tell us that he is sovereign, utterly relaxed about this, and disdainful.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: We read in verse four, the one enthroned in heaven laughs, the Lord ridicules them.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a little bit scary.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he says, he ridicules them and says, uh, you're in trouble, one day I'm gonna get angry, and and and and I'm gonna establish my son, and the state will not be the ruler.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: So so uh it's important for us to realize that God's not panicked, that that earth may be a place of noisy confusion right now, but heaven is a place of quiet serenity, because the Lord scoffs at man's petty defiance.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: The way, for example, that um well, to be honest, it's the way I suspect the army would scoff if a pacifist joined the army and then filed a lawsuit trying to force the army to create a branch of pacifists who would not have to fight.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the army would just giggle.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh or I suspect the way a potter would laugh in disdain if somehow a piece of pottery that he had made developed a voice and said, I don't want you in my life.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And in that way, you see, God sits in heaven utterly serene and sovereign.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we could say that these verses clearly make clear that the king is still on the throne.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're happy about that, feel free to say amen.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Verses 7 through 9 then are the voice of the Father's Son, the voice of the Messiah, and it is a voice not of fear or anger, but a voice of confidence.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus quotes his father's words in verses five and six and says, My father said to me, You are my son, today I have begotten you, which is not a word for birth or source, it's a word of position, placed on the throne.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Ask of me, and I'll make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: So the Son of God is not upset either.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: The one who came to earth and died to save us from our sins is not upset that he's being spurned.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's confident because he knows something.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: He knows that today is the day of man, but the day of the Lord is coming.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: He also knows that all of today's powers will be broken when God installs his son as ruler on the earth.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: So that is a voice of confidence.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, we get to the voice of the Spirit.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, these are the last three verses, and we find that this is a voice of calm counsel, of wise counsel.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: The verses go like this.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: We find, by the way, surprisingly, the spirit is not giving counsel to you like I am.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit is actually giving advice to the rebels.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, So now, kings, be wise.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Receive instruction, you judges of the earth.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And here he could be speaking to the five lawyers on the Supreme Court.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Serve the Lord with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Pay homage to the Son, or he will be angry, and you will perish in your rebellion, for his anger may ignite at any moment all those, he concludes, all those who take refuge in him are happy.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Your translation probably says, All those who trust in him are blessed.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Same words.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he concludes with a statement, basically, that you and I think of as the gospel.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Trust in him, and you'll be happy.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be blessed.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: What the Spirit is saying, among other things, is listen, it's stupid for you to defy God.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's smart to submit to him.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, he's saying to you and me, the Supreme Court decision doesn't change your mission in life at all, which is to lead people to life in Christ.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: The last words blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is, in other words, an evangelistic opportunity.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me explain that by summarizing my answer to this morning's question: how should we respond to the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say that our voice should be a voice that does three things, the opening letters of which are PTL, makes it easy to remember.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: First, pray.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I mean by prayer, not simply pray judgment on people or pray, you know, panic.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm talking about is going to God in prayer and starting off by adoring him for the fact that he's in charge and that he's serene, that he's in control.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then moving beyond that to grieve before him for this decision and the direction that our country and in fact you could say the entire world is going.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then to move from that to repentance.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because the truth is that you and I need to say to God, God, I'm spiritually broken myself.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sexually broken too.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm broken in every possible way because once I was sexually whole, but then I fell with Adam.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: And since then everything is broken.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sexually broken, so I can't look down on anyone in a gay marriage and somehow think that I'm superior to them.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, I ask that you would forgive me for my sins and I repent of my sins, and ask that you would heal me so that so that I would become more like your son Jesus Christ.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then move on from there to a prayer, perhaps, for revival for the church, and a prayer for your friends, perhaps your family members who are involved in a homosexual marriage or a partnership of some kind.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm talking about.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about a real prayer of meat and potatoes here, all right?
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: And secondly, I would suggest that the T is that you teach.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's astounding, it is astounding how ignorant and naive so many of our friends are, even in the church.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I would suggest, especially young people, the statistics are really clear, that back in 1988, only 7% of Americans supported gay marriage.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now that number has risen to 61% today, just in less than 30 years.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I suspect if you ask, if you pulled or did a survey of high schoolers or teenage or college kids today in America, it wouldn't be 61, it'd be 91%.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: And among Christian young people, I would guess that the number is at least 60%.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And some of you know that you have uh you've looked on Facebook and you've seen Christian kids raised in good families and they've got rainbow on their faces, or they're celebrating this decision as equality for LGBTQ, Q standing for queer, for that society.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you go, wow, what in the world has happened?
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you need to understand that they simply are, they've simply bought the line that this is about love of Jesus and it's about kindness, and they don't understand that there's a whole intolerance and civil discrimination and all of these other things and a defiance against God.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so you and I need to teach.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things you and I, I think, desperately need to teach, and this is what I think of all the time, is to teach that there is a road in between the Scylla and Charybdis, in between the cliffs and the valleys that are dangerous on both sides, because it seems to me that so many of the people I know, the adults, oftentimes listen to good Christian radio, but they come away absolutely upset and panicked and fearful and angry, and not at all holding on to the calmness and serenity of heaven.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so I urge those people when they come to me, really trust God, God is still sovereign.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's on his throne.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: But then there are those other people, oftentimes younger people, and they've caved or they've sold out or they've done the Romans 12, too, don't be conformed to this world.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they see this thing going this direction, and no one wants to be the pariah in their college or in their high school class, and so they've caved or they've compromised.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why we need stuff like I'm doing this morning, or they need you to talk to them and teach them.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, one of the uh I would recommend to you, if if if you're dealing with Christian young people who are a little confused about this, perhaps you would take them to this website entitled 40 Questions for Christians Now Waving Rainbow Flags, Gospel Coalition website.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'll just excerpt 12 of the questions real quickly.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: How long have you believed that gay marriage is something to be celebrated too?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: What Bible verses led you to change your mind?
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good question because, as you know, I mean almost nobody believed that gay marriage should be legal or should be celebrated 15 years ago, including our president or Hillary.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, how would you make a positive case from Scripture that sexual activity between two persons of the same sex is a blessing to be celebrated?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Four, how would you make a positive case from Scripture that sexual activity between two persons of the same sex can adequately depict Christ and his church?
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, do you think Jesus would have been okay with gay marriage?
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: If so, why did he reassert the Genesis definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman?
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: Seven, how would you define marriage?
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think close family members should be allowed to get married?
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Should marriage be limited to only two people?
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: On what basis, if any, would you prevent consulting adults of any relation and of any number from getting married?
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: Should there be an age requirement for getting a marriage license?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Does equality entail that anyone wanting to be married should be able to have any meaningful relationship defined as marriage?
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: If not, why not?
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody came up to me after last service and she said, a girl in maybe her about age 30, and she says, you know what turned her on this whole thing was when someone said to her, Really?
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Are you more loving than God?
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, I realized that I did feel like I was more loving than God when I was supporting gay marriage.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: So PT and now L.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: Pray, teach, finally, love, lead people to life in Christ.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's the third response.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's true love.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's how you take advantage of this.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you ask a question like, listen, where do you believe that dignity comes from?
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your dignity, where do you believe that happiness comes from?
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: I happen to believe, you know, that dignity comes from being made in the image of God.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where, therefore, where happiness comes from.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I realize that that all got broken, and so I'm in desperate need of a savior because I'm as sexually broken as anyone else.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I desperately needed a savior.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if it's true that your dignity and mine come from being made in God's image, and therefore happiness is related to being close to God, then therefore you and I need to put our trust in Him to be happy, to enter into this relationship.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever considered starting a personal relationship with God as your personal savior?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: You ever consider trusting in him?
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Lead people to life in Christ.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Use this, you see, as an evangelistic opportunity.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I think you and I should respond to the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: P.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: T.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: L.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: Say it with me.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Pray, teach, love.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray and then celebrate the Lord's table.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, who came to earth for all of us broken people, broken in every possible way, socially, spiritually, sexually.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you that he died on the cross for our sins to heal us and bring us back to his kind of health, Christ's health, fullness, happiness in him.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: We'd ask, Heavenly Father, that as we break this bread and drink this cup, that you would bring to our minds again a remembrance of that moment when you died on the cross for us and when you delivered us from our sins and started us on the path toward sexual healing and wholeness.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.