Genesis 2:18-25

Traditional marriage is under attack like never before.

People not only in America but all over the world are debating and arguing over what a marriage is and what a marriage isn’t. As Christians it doesn’t really matter what our opinions of marriage are or whether or not we think that it should be re-defined. What should matter to believers like us is what the Bible and God says about marriage.

The Bible clearly defines marriage and anyone who cares to read it for themselves will find there really are no gray areas even though some people will attempt to say that there are. Marriage is biblically defined as a holy union ordained by God to be between one man and one woman. No human being, no act of congress, nor any society created marriage. Marriage goes all the way back to Genesis. In Genesis 1:27-28 we read this: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And in our first reading this morning we read this: So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

There is a common denominator emerging here. In all the verses of Scripture that I know of, marriage is ALWAYS defined as being between a man and a woman. The debate here in America and elsewhere has centered mainly on the “freedom” to marry no matter what gender the two people may be. Again, there is nowhere in Scripture where any marriage that is described, and there are many marriages described in the bible, where the two people are of the same sex. To the contrary there are various Scripture references that tell us that same sex partners are unacceptable and sinful. Not any more sinful than sins that relate to heterosexual people but sinful nonetheless.

In the Old Testament God spoke to us about homosexuality and how it is sinful. In Leviticus 18:22 we read this: You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. In Romans 1:26-27 we read this: For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Paul writes this: Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Again, it is not what we, or anyone else, thinks about the subject. Scripture clearly tells us that not only is homosexuality wrong but that Jesus can set gay people free from this sin just like He can set anyone free whatever sin or sins they may be in bondage to.

The proponents of same sex marriage try to get as many people as possible to not only tolerate gay marriage but to accept it. They even to try to get us as Christians to embrace it and put it on the same level as marriage that is ordained by God. This argument causes us to lose focus as believers in what is really happening here. There is a satanic bait and switch happening here. A big part of the argument for gay marriage is that they want us to believe and accept that homosexuality is not a choice but rather a genetic absolute that they cannot possibly have any control over.

This is simply not true.

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 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. And within a year it had been proven that no such gene existed. Since that time Dr. Hamer has admitted it was not true—when asked about this he and others in the gay movement have said, “It doesn’t matter now, people already believe it and it’s made life easier for homosexuals.”

So now that we understand that homosexuality is a choice and that gay people can be set free from this sin problem through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, just like we all have been forgiven of our various sins, then why do they insist on having us accept their sinful behavior and want us to help them to re-define marriage into something that God absolutely forbids it to be?

Perhaps it is because it’s just not as simple as that. When we look at issues like gay marriage we really must look deeper and broader than the just the issue of gay marriage. We already have acknowledged that God ordained marriage to be between one man and one woman, right?

What God ordains for us is always good, right? And we can all agree that sin is bad and bad for us right? So who is the father of sin? Satan is of course and he always wants to tear down and destroy that which God has ordained to be good in our lives.

The gay marriage debate is really a battle between Satan and God. God’s idea of marriage is good and always works if we follow His plan but Satan’s ideas for marriage are counter God’s ideas for marriage and cause strife and discord in the world at the same time. God ordained marriage for several reasons and some of them are for having and raising children, companionship, sexual intimacy and building communities and societies. The nuclear family is God’s building block for the world.

Satan has fanned this debate into a huge fire and his reasons are simple yet very damaging. Satan wants nothing more than to introduce perversion into God’s plan for marriage. Basically he wants to pervert marriage and turn it into nothing more than a sinful sham.

God cannot and will not bless gay marriage no matter how many people here in America think that He should or will. No matter how many states pass legislation to allow same sex marriage God will never accept it or condone it.

And we as Christians have to stand with God in the defense of biblically ordained marriage.

We are important players in this war on marriage and we had better take it very seriously because I promise that Satan and the world at large are not going to stop until biblical marriage is no longer the norm. And if that happens then future generations are going to suffer greatly and needlessly, but we have to be the generation that helps keep godly marriage alive and well in America.

Satan and his forces are beating our voices down to intimidate us into keeping silent.

Political correctness has many Christians afraid to stand up and proclaim the truth. Satan and his minions will call us homophobic, haters and bigots, and they will tell us that we don’t love them. Ahh! There is the turning point, isn’t it. We need to hate the sin and love them enough to tell them the truth about sin and who can set them free from their sins!

Satan has a different version of love than the type of love described in the bible. He wants the world to believe that the gay marriage issue is all about love. Love between two people and nothing else matters not even their genders. But what Satan knows, and most people either don’t know or don’t want to accept is this is not love. It’s nothing more than a slippery slope that once one starts to go down it there are not a whole lot of ways to stop the descent into more sinful definitions of marriage.

If we change our laws either on a state or federal level to allow gay marriage what happens next? Where does it end? Under these kinds of laws people would be able to say that they love their brother or sister or that they want to marry their mom or dad, they may even want to marry an animal or whatever. These things may seem far fetched but God laid out the rules for relationships and all the things I just listed are unacceptable to Him.

Have you ever read the book of Leviticus? It’s part of the Holiness Code given to the Israelites to help them remain as children of God, to keep them from becoming as defiled as the world around them. Let me share some of chapter 18, it begins like this: And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the LORD your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes.” Then he goes on to list some of the abominations that are forbidden:

“None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father.. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether brought up in the family or in another home. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter or of your daughter’s daughter. The list goes on and then the tells them why: because it is perversion.

Can we see why Satan wants us to change the definition of marriage? It seems to be all about fairness and love but it is a perversion and what it is really all about is destroying the greatest nation this world has ever known to date from the inside out.

If we as believers allow this redefinition of marriage to happen then we will have been a part of possibly the greatest tragedy that this country has ever known. Granted, it will take time but God knows what evil and sinfulness mankind is capable of as we have just seen in the verses of Leviticus. Doesn’t it just seem like common sense that people wouldn’t want to have sexual relations with the people we just read about? There is nothing new under the sun but now it’s our turn to stand up for godly values, principles, and laws.

And don’t misunderstand, it’s not about hating people or judging people it’s about hating what God hates which is sin and loving who He loves, people, but we can’t love people and sin at the same time. We have to stand up to people who are doing things that are ungodly no matter what they say to us or call us.
We have a mandate from God to uphold and defend the things of God against all forms of attack. And always keep this in the front of our minds when we are fighting this battle – that it is really Satan that we’re fighting and we need to fight him with all that is within us. We cannot let him win this culture war.

We are fighting for marriage but in all seriousness we are really fighting for the very soul of America.
Are we ready to fight? Are we ready to defend biblical marriage and all that it represents? We had better get our armor on because there is way more at stake here than just who should be allowed to get married in America. So, let’s go to war!

Amen!