TRUE LOVE
Mike Cunningham
September 15, 2013

“I’m glad no one really believes the Bible anymore, or they’d stone me.” These were the words of a gay activist, replying to a Christian who was using the Bible to condemn homosexuality. The activist argument was clear: Since the penalty for homosexuality in the Old Testament was death, how can you say you believe the Bible? And if you don’t believe it, then don’t use it to argue against homosexuality!”

Do you folks believe everything that the Bible teaches? Do you believe everything that it says about homosexuality? You said that you did when you joined this church. Have you changed your mind about the truth of the Bible, especially as it pertains to homosexually?

Erwin Lutzer, the man whom I quoted in the opening paragraph of this sermon, in his very insightful book, “10 Lies About God,” asks, “How do we answer those who insist that God is more tolerant today than He was in the days of the Old Testament? Back then, the law dictated that homosexuals be stoned to death, along with adulterers, children who cursed their parents, witches, and blasphemers. I have discovered about a dozen different sins or transgressions that Jewish law considered capital crimes in Old Testament times.”

“Today everything has changed. Homosexuals are invited into our churches, parents are told to love their rebellious children unconditionally; adulterers are given extensive counseling. Yes, murder and incest are still crimes, but witches are allowed to get rich practicing sorcery in every city in America.”

“We hear no more stories of Nadab and Abihu, struck dead for offering “unauthorized fire.” We read no more documented accounts of people like Uzzah who touched the arc contrary to God’s instructions and was instantly killed,” (2 Samuel 6:6-7).

“Today people can be as irreverent or blasphemous as they wish and live to see old age. As R. C. Sproul has observed, “If Old Testament penalties for blasphemy were in effect today, every television executive would have been executed long ago.”

“Is God more tolerant than He used to be? We need to answer this question for two reasons. First, we want to know whether we are free to sin with a minimum of consequences. Can we now live as we please, with the assurance that God will treat us with compassion and not judgment?” Pgs.40-41

“At one time Christians in America might have been described as legalists adhering to the letter of the law. No one would accuse us of that today. We are free, free to ski in Colorado and romp on the beach in Hawaii, but also free to watch risqué movies, gamble, free to be as greedy as the world in which we work-free to sin. Is it safer for us to sin in this age than it was in the days of the Old Testament?” P.41

“There is a second reason we want an answer: we want to know whether it is safer for others to do wrong today. If you have been sinned against, you want to know whether you can depend on God to “even the score.” The girl who has been raped, the child who has been abused, the person who was chiseled out of his life’s savings by an unscrupulous salesman-all of these victims and a hundred like them want to know whether God is so loving that He will overlook these infractions. What is the chance that these perpetrators will face justice? We want God to judge us with tolerance; however, we hope that He will not extend the same patience to those who have wronged us. So we wonder; can we depend upon God to be lenient or harsh, merciful or condemning?”

“Many people decry God’s apparent silence today in the face of outrageous and widespread sin. The question is; how shall we interpret this silence? Is God indifferent, or biding His time? Has He changed?” P.41

“Sometimes we say things we do not mean, or we make promises we cannot keep. Unforeseen circumstances make our words worthless. Not so with God: “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever,” (Isaiah 40:8).”

“David agreed when he wrote, “Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens…. Long ago I learned from your statues that you established them to last forever,” (Psalm 119:89, 152). “God never has to revise His schedule.”

“Yes, there are a few passages of Scripture that speak of God as regretting a decision and changing His mind (Genesis 6:6-7; 1 Samuel 15). In these passages Scripture shows God changing His response to people because of their behavior. But there is no reason to think that this reaction was either unforeseen or not a part of His eternal plan. As J. I. Packer put it, “No change in His eternal purpose is implied when He begins to deal with man in a new way.” Pgs.44-45

“In a PBS program hosted by Bill Moyers, Genesis; A Living Conversation, the participants agreed that there was development in God. He sent the flood to the world, but then like a child who builds a sandcastle only to destroy it in anger, God regretted what He had done, felt duly chastised, and so gave the rainbow with a promise to never do that again.”

“Most of the panelists agreed that the flood was evil; it had no redeemable value. Choose almost any human being at random, and he/she would have been more benevolent than God, they said.”

“The panel assumed, of course, that the Bible is only a record of what people throughout the centuries have thought about God. So as we evolved to become more tolerant, our conception of God became more tolerant. Thus the New Testament, with its emphasis on love, is a more mature, gracious representation of God. This surely would explain the apparent difference between the Old and New Testament’s.” P.42

“How then can we account for the difference between the consequences of disobedience in the Old and New Testaments? If God cannot be more tolerant than He used to be, why are the Old Testament penalties not carried out? Why does it appear so safe to sin today?” P.46

That’s a good question. Are you folks prepared to answer it? At this point I’ll pause and give each of you an opportunity to share your opinion. Please take your time and don’t feel rushed.

Now let’s consider Lutzers’ opinion. “God’s judgments abide, but His method of managing them has changed. He relates to us differently without altering either His opinions or requiring less of us. He is neither more tolerant now or more accommodating to our weaknesses. Let me explain.”

“When a four-year-old boy was caught steeling candy from a store, his father gave him a spanking. Let us suppose that the same lad steals candy at the age of twelve; the father might choose not to spank him but to give him some other form of punishment, such as loss of privileges or a discipline regime. If the boy repeated the practice at age twenty, there might not be any immediate consequences pending a future date in court. My point is simply that the parents’ view of thievery does not change, but they would choose to deal with this infraction differently from one period of time to another. Rather than lessen the penalty as the child grows older and has more knowledge, his parents might exact a more serious penalty.”

“Just so, we shall discover that God’s opinions have not changed; His penalties are yet severe. But there is a change in the timetable and method of punishment. The more carefully we look at the Scriptures, the more we become aware of the unwavering consistency of God and His intention to punish sin. He hates it just as much today as ever. Thankfully, He offers us a remedy for it.”

“In Hebrews 12:18-29 we see the unity of God reflected in both Mount Sinai and Mounty Calvary. Here, like a diamond, the fuller range of God’s attributes are on display. We see that God has not lowered His standards; He will in the end prove that He has not mellowed with age. Those who are unprepared to meet Him face a future of unimaginable horror.” Pgs.46-47

“Obviously, there was no freedom of religion in the Old Testament era. Death was the punishment for idolatry. “You shall have no other God’s before me” was the first of the Ten Commandments given to the nation Israel. If people did not obey, the penalties were immediate and from our standpoint, severe,”

“Jesus brought with Him a radical teaching, the idea that it would be possible for His followers to live acceptably under a pagan government. He did not come to overthrow the Roman occupation of Israel; indeed, His kingdom was not of this world. When faced with the question of whether taxes should be paid to the pagan Romans, Christ replied, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s (Luke 20:25). Yes, believers could pay taxes to a corrupt government, and yes, they could fulfill their obligations to God as well.”

“Our agenda as a church is not to take over nations, politically speaking. Of course, Christians should be involved in government as good citizens, but our primary message is the transformation of nations through the transformation of individuals. The early disciples had all of our national woes and more, and yet without a political base, without a voting block in the Roman senate, they changed the world, turning it “upside down,” as Luke the historian put it (Acts 17:6, NLT).”

“When Paul came to the immoral city of Corinth, he taught what surely must have appeared a novel idea, namely, that it was not the responsibility of the church to judge the unbelieving world with regard to their morals, but only to judge them in relation to the gospel, which is ”the power of God,” (1 Corinthians 1:18).” To the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (NIV)
9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people–
10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

Lutzer continues, “If a Christian lives this way and we have fellowship with him over a meal, or if we enjoy his company, we are in some sense approving of his sin. To help such see the error of their ways, Paul says don’t even eat with them.”

“Now we are ready to understand why we do not put people to death today as was done in the Old Testament. We have no authority to judge those who are outside the fellowship of believers; the state is to penalize those who commit certain crimes, and those laws must be upheld. But-and this is important-all the behaviors that merited the death penalty in the Old Testament are infractions for which we now discipline believers within the church. We do not have the right to take a life, we do not have the right to inflict physical death, but we can announce spiritual death to those who persist in their sins. Paul instructed the Corinthian church to put the immoral man not to death but out of the congregation (1 Corinthians 5:5). Such discipline is our duty.”

“It is foolish for us to think that we can sin with impunity just because Christ has come. The purpose of redemption was to make possible our holy lives. It is blessedly true, of course, that God does forgive, but our sin, particularly deliberate sin, always invites the discipline of God. We are to pursue holiness, “for without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). God has not revised His list of offenses.” Pgs.51-53

Before I close I want to re-quote the Corinthian scriptures I that cited earlier. Paul reminded those early Christian’s of a letter that he had written to them previously. He says,

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (NIV)
9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people–
10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

Doesn’t that seem to be rather harsh treatment? How do you think you would feel if you were a member of that congregation? Obviously, they were aware of his transgression. The man was blatant!
I want you folks to know that this has not been an easy message for me to put together or deliver to you today. I’m sure some of you would rather not have heard it. I think it’s been my most difficult sermon to preach. Believe me when I say that only the Lord knows how prayerfully I have agonized over it.

The Holy Spirit has convinced me that I wouldn’t be honoring God, nor would I truly love someone who, despite numerous warnings, persists in living what the Bible describes as being a sexually immoral life. What kind of a pastor would I be if I didn’t deliver this message to you folks today? Those of you who have attended other churches, how often have you heard a message such as this one preached?

I had to preach it! Either standing or sitting, throughout the years I’ve reiterated the same warning the Lord inspired the Apostle Paul to send to the churches at Corinth and Galatia. To at least one of you the message has fallen on deaf ears.

Time is of the essence! None of us know when we are going to die and leave this world. Do you know where you will dwell in eternity? We must not enable any member of our church to continue committing these kinds of sins for years on end. On the contrary, we must do everything we possibly can to help him or her see how serious these sins are by expelling the person from our church. TRUE LOVE dictates that we must not do otherwise. Paul explains in his letter to the Galatians.

Galatians 5:19-21 (NIV)
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

It’s been my prayerful hope that every person in this congregation will continue to love this man and never stop praying for him. Plead with our Father and ask Him to wake this man up and bring him to his senses and a saving faith in His Son, our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.

Lord willing, next week….