But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord!

The recent Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges has established homosexual marriage as a national policy and has served to ignite a firestorm of virulent hatred and name calling on both sides of the widening political and moral divide in the United States.

Although this decision is unambiguously tainted on at least three crucial levels - Moral; Constitutional; and Structural - the concerns enunciated in this Blog go beyond the flawed logic and obvious Constitutional overreach of the majority of the Supreme Court bench to the very fabric of civilized, historical, social and moral composition of the human race since its inception - whether you believe that humanity began in the Garden of Eden or not.

No, the much greater concern to me is the response of those who call themselves Christians or Jews, followers of the one true God, protectors of the sacred Scriptures. There are two diametrically opposed views within these groups that garner particular concern.

The first is more obvious and clearly does not reflect the heart of God, His Son, Jesus and Holy Spirit that dwells within us - the vindictive, hate-filled, judgmental attacks on people who espouse a different world-view than we do. This is happening on both sides of this contentious issue. Jesus clearly speaks against this type of reaction when He tells His Disciples,

"But I say, love even your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!" [MATTHEW 5:44] 

 The Apostle Paul also encourages us,

" I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior..." [ITMOTHY 2:1-4] 

And again when the beloved Apostle John records the words of Jesus saying,

"God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him."  [JOHN 3:17]  

Clearly then, the true followers of the Way should not respond to this decision with abusive anger as this reaction in no way reflects the heart of God, His Son or Holy Spirit.

But it is the second, very different response, that concerns me most. It is the response that, far from being diametrically opposed to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, this decision lines up perfectly with the intent of God for humanity, if not the writings of the Prophets and Apostles, which are seen as archaic and "out of touch" with modern times. Now again, we are not speaking of a monstrous misconception of the Word of God propagated by secular humanists or pagans, for as the Apostle Paul states clearly,

"It isn’t your responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning." [I CORINTHIANS 5:12] 

NO, the far greater concern is the response of the so-called "People of the Book" (the name given to Jews and Christians in the Moslem Koran).

Brothers and sisters let me clearly and categorically state, that although we recognize the freedom for each man or woman to choose their own destiny in life - a gift that God, Himself bestowed on us at the very beginning of our existence - the Holy Bible from beginning to end is inexorably consistent on the theme of marriage. 

Right at the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 2:24, the Father instituted the holy covenant of marriage between a man and a women, when it is declared,

"This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one."

This is the first, foundational and unwavering covenant espoused in the Bible. For those who would say, "Surely a loving, compassionate Jesus didn't confirm that type of restrictive viewpoint!", I would refer them to the Gospel of Matthew 19:3-9. When tested by the Pharisees of His day (about the question of divorce), Jesus reiterated the fundamental importance of the marriage contract, when he stated,

"'Haven’t you read the Scriptures?'” Jesus replied. 'They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’ And He said, 'This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together."

The second, frankly concerning argument that I am hearing a lot of, is the liberal and hyper-grace babble about Mosiac Law being arbitrary and open to interpretation and anyway Christians were freed from the constraints of the Law when Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law and we were born again into a new life in Him, being filled with Holy Spirit.  

One oft repeated argument in support of homosexual unions from our Jewish brethren is the argument that God could not have meant Jews to comply with the 613 Mosiac Laws - without including the plethora of Oral Law added through the Mishna - as many of them were health guidelines, etc. So a "liberated" Jew is free to choose which of these antiquated Laws they choose to follow. A very strange argument at best. Can you imagine if each citizen of a country could choose which Laws they were going to comply with and which not? Another major flaw in this argument is the severity with which God pronounced the Laws relevant to sexual immorality in particular.

For example, the penalty for transgressing the Law in our country regarding the murdering of another human being is far more severe than a citation for jaywalking. In the same way, there are transgressions of the Law spoken of in Scripture that are deemed for more seriously than others. A review of Leviticus 18:21-24 illustrates this point. The LORD is speaking to Moses and focuses in on various forms of sexual immorality climaxing on the three that apparently are the most despicable to God.

²¹ Do not permit any of your children to be offered as a sacrifice to Molech, for you must not bring shame on the name of your God. I am the Lord.  [ABORTION??]
²² Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin.
²³ A man must not defile himself by having sex with an animal. And a woman must not offer herself to a male animal to have intercourse with it. This is a perverse act.
²⁴ Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for the people I am driving out before you have defiled themselves in all these ways."
So please, please don't try to rationalize or amend Scripture to support an aberrant viewpoint. You are entitled to your own perspective on the issue, but don't look for support in the Scriptures or place new meaning, where it is clearly not present.

Then we have the liberal and hyper-Grace streams within Christianity that support homosexual marriage, either because they don't believe in the veracity of Scripture or they believe that Jesus has a different view of events than does the God of the Old Testament, or that we have been freed from any restrictions placed on us by the Mosiac Law by Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross - a partial truth that has been pushed to the extreme, thus the nomenclature 'hyper-Grace'.

 For us as Christians, the touchstone of truth should always be Jesus. He was the One that clearly stated,

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." [JOHN 14:6]

On many occasions throughout the four Gospels, Jesus quoted verbatim Old Testament Scripture and although He was vehemently opposed to the legalism of the Pharisees and the liberalism of the Sadducees, He clearly denounced doing away with the timeless Laws of God. In fact, in Matthew 5:17, Jesus tells us,

“Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose."

Now please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. It is true that we are no longer subject to the Mosiac Law in all its complexities, but rather we are now subjects of a new kingdom. Within this kingdom, however, there are most definitely spiritual laws that govern how we should live and act. The great Apostle of grace, Paul, lists some serious transgressions of these spiritual laws that has occurred for those who have wandered from the faith,

"²⁵ They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

²⁶ That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.

²⁷ And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

²⁸ Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done." [ROMANS 1:28] 

Unbelievably, even this passage from Paul's letter to the church in Rome, has been questioned contextually as relating only to the deviant Roman Proletariats' practice of sodomizing young boys. Really!! There are many other New Testament passages that clearly consider homosexuality - as well as other sexual immorality - as aberrant to the moral laws of the kingdom.

Let me conclude with this statement meant to be heard by the 'true' Body of Christ...The definition of a Biblical marriage must always remain as,

"An intimate and complementing, covenanted union between a man and a woman, in which the two become one physically, emotionally and spiritually, in the whole of life. The purpose of marriage is to bear and raise children that will in turn glorify God with their lives and families, to reflect the relationship of Christ to His Body and to serve Him always."

 




 

                                    INTIMACY WITH GOD...A MORE EXCELLENT WAY

So many of us have grown frustrated with our walk with God. He seems so distant! Things are deteriorating so rapidly in the world, yet God seems so absent, removed or disinterested. Why isn't he speaking to us anymore? Why isn't he blessing our lives, why isn't he responding to our prayers for healing, or finances, or salvation for our family or our friends? Why does the church suddenly seem so irrelevant to my children and even to me? There are many answers to these genuine heart cries heard from many believers, but the overarching issue in the church in America was prophesied by Jesus, as found recorded in Revelation 2:4, "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love ("agape")." The answer is clear and the solution is profound. Paul in I Corinthians 12:31 calls it "...the more excellent Way."

The "more excellent Way" is quite simply a passionate pursuit of greater intimacy with our triune God. Andrew Murray in his ground-breaking devotional "Teach Me to Pray", describes it this way,

"We were made for God, to seek Him, to find Him, to grow up into His likeness and ultimately to show forth His Glory - in the fullest sense to be His dwelling place on the earth, His tabernacle. The secret of true adoration can only be known by the soul that gives time to tarry in God's presence and that will yield itself  to God for Him to reveal Himself to...What is the most profitable thing that a person can do every day? Nothing less than to seek, to know, to love and to praise God for Himself"

It is a great step forward into the abundant life that God has reserved for us, when we truly see this and consider fellowship with God every day as the chief end of our lives. Take the time to ask yourself whether truly knowing and loving Him is the utmost desire of your heart. For if it isn't, your Christian walk is doomed to insipidness.

If knowing Him and loving Him in greater intimacy is the true passion of your soul, you can be certain that in return God greatly desires that you should live out this intimate fellowship with Him. It is only as the soul bows itself before Him in honor and reverence that the heart will be opened to receive the divine impression of the nearness of God and the working of His Power in our lives. Alone with God - that is the secret to an abiding intimacy through which we become partakers of the abundant (GREEK - 'perisseuo' which means 'superabound in quality or quantity', 'flow in excess', 'exceed', 'excel') life that God has reserved for each of us.

A successful spirit-filled Christian life and service will only out of a deep, intimate, loving and abiding relationship with Jesus. It all begins there. From that place of intimacy flows a fresh understanding of God's amazing love for the world (John 3:16) and we become partners in His quest to reconcile every heart to Himself.

 

There are so many vagaries of doctrinal debate within the church in these final days that have little to do with the mission of Christ's body on the earth as enunciated in Isaiah 61:1 - 2a and reiterated by our Lord in Nazareth at the beginning of His earthly ministry,

"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor (i.e. poor in spirit - those who are hungry for righteousness and truth), He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives (all those in the bondage of sin and death), and recovery of sight to the blind (i.e. spiritual as well as physical sight), to set free those who are downtrodden (tormented and controlled by the demonic forces of darkness), to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD (Today is the day of salvation for all who will believe - it is a personal jubilee year when all will be returned to them that has been taken and freedom from slavery to sin and death are realized by the cleansing power of His redeeming Grace). 

We have recently witnessed the extremities of heretic behavior perpetrated by the liberal mainstream church; ordination of gay bishops, support for government programs that advocate 'termination of life', withdrawal of financial investment in Israeli companies and even the rejection of basic Christian tenets and the inerrancy of God's Word. More insidious, though, is the massive shift of the church in America and Europe from Christo-centric worship and teaching to ego-centric, self-help, man-focused religion with very little reference to the Savior, less to the Cross and only a generic acknowledgement of God. Pastor Osteen is by no means the only perpetrator of this 'new religion', but the cover of his new book just sums it up all so well.

In response to the wave of apostasy in the western church, a number of large denominations have retreated into the safety of the Word of God, but at the same time have rejected the present operation of the Holy Spirit of God in the world. Jesus clearly assured the church that it was only through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we would be empowered to continue the 'Mission' that he had so clearly illustrated through His own life, death, resurrection and ascension back to His place at the Father's side.

On the other end of the spectrum of the Christian faith, there have arisen large, growing movements that minimize the study and meditation of the Bible and instead rely on an 'active' faith that places great emphasis on hearing God through His Spirit. Though admirable in concept, the downfall of this Spirit led life (which is fully advocated by the writings of the early Apostles), is that without the grounding and illumination of God's written word, it is possible to hear from the wrong spirit. We have seen many recent examples of this in the last few years within the Church.

No, ultimately we must always heed the instructions of the Master found in the Gospel of John 4:23-24, "But the time is coming - indeed it's here now - when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." There is so much that Christ is teaching us in this brief passage - as he commissions the first Christian evangelist - but the point to be taken away by us today, is that our worship of God must be a balance of the richness and revelation found in His Word and an openness to the constant direction of the Holy Spirit in our lives and ministries.


TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.....