×

This is part 4 of 4 from my sermon on Leviticus 18. For the introduction to the series where I talk about homosexuality and the Reformed Church in America go here. Part one talked about other kinds of sexual sin. Part two talked about homosexuality. Part three explained why we ought to follow God’s rules.

*****

How should we engage others with these rules in our day?
I know you’ve had enough lists for one day, but let me conclude by quickly giving you a few suggestions for how to engage others with biblical sexual ethics.

First, we need courage. We need courage to say that unchecked, unrepentant sexual immorality cannot be tolerated in the church. We need courage in our churches and denominations to affirm clearly, not just on paper, but in our preaching and actions, that unchecked, unrepentant sexual immorality is to be lovingly rebuked, not celebrated. The peace-loving, conflict-avoiding, middle of the roaders need to courage to stand on God’s word and not compromise for fear of being thought mean, narrow, majoring on the minors, a distraction, or arrogantly self-assured. Young people especially need courage to stick out like sore thumb in their schools and teams and winsomely defend the belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman for a lifetime.

Second, we need humility. We need to check our own hearts to make sure our courage does not become hostility, and our love for the word of God does not become hate for those who disobey it. We need to ask God to show us our blind spots, whether it has to do with divorce, or greed, or self-righteousness. We need to repent of gay jokes. We need to repent of our own sexual sins.

Third, we need love. We need less rage and more tears. We less talk about taking back America and more talk about the grace God extends to all sinners. We need to put down the “turn of burn” signs and put away the apocalyptic rhetoric and be willing to touch–emotionally, socially, and physically–those who sin just like us, even if they sin in different ways than some of us. We need to love enough to listen to those who struggle with sexual sin. We need to love enough to suffer with those who suffer, and possibly in the future, to suffer for our opposition to sexual immorality.

Fourth, we need hope. We need hope that God can change the hardest heart and slowly, over time, change the deepest addictions, habits, and orientations. We need to offer hope–the hope of God’s mercy, the hope of forgiveness, the hope of eternal life, the hope of a warm, truth-filled, grace-saturated church community, that hope of 1 Corinthians 6 that “such were some of you.”

Finally, we need prayer. Pray for our denomination, the Reformed Church in America, that she would not do the easy thing and try to make all sides happy, but do the hard, loving thing and call sin sin so that grace can be grace and God can show himself to be the sort of God who forgives our iniquities, heals our diseases, redeems our life from the pit, crowns us with steadfast love and mercy, and satisfies us with good. Pray for those who struggle with sexual temptation–whether it be pornography, lust, or same gender attraction. Pray that our church would be a welcoming place for strugglers, sinners, and sufferers. Pray for open doors to minister to those who often hate the church–sometimes for bad reasons and sometimes for understandable reasons. Pray for those in the gay community–one of the least reached people groups on earth–that they would be soft to the gospel and we would be ready to love and share the gospel with them. Pray that God would rid us of unrighteous anger, cowardice, compromise, and fear. Pray that the precious, holy, merciful name of Jesus would be hallowed, and that the light of Christ would shine in the dark places in our cities, and in the dark places in our churches, and in the dark places of our own hearts.

LOAD MORE
Loading