Why can’t two people of the same sex get married? It’s an easy question for the Christian to answer because the Bible talks in several places about marriage being only between a man and a woman but what if you don’t care about what the Bible says? What if it’s no more a guide for your life than “Huckleberry Finn” and what it says is irrelevant to your way of thinking? Christians know that someone with that attitude has got bigger problems than how they feel about gay marriage but it doesn’t help the debate in the court rooms. What exactly do you say in front of the judge or the congressman or the liberal activist that is supposed to change their minds or at least consider the bigger picture in the gay marriage debate? Because pointing out that the Bible says it’s wrong isn’t convincing them. But who ever said it would? The preaching of the cross is foolishness, (1 Cor 1:18), and I’m here to tell you that presenting the commands of Christ will meet with defiance and laughing scorn. Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t because that is how it’s supposed to affect the world.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to give everybody a pep talk about how we need to find a sales pitch that the world will accept to get these gay people to see the cause of Christ. I’m not even going to waste your time and mine by arguing that the Bible ain’t working and we need to find a better pitch to sell the world on keeping gay marriage illegal.
No, just us Christians talking here. Why can’t a man marry his gay boyfriend? Why not? Because the Bible says? The Bible says eating shrimp is a sin, (Lev 11:9-12). Yes, yes, I know there’s more to it than that and the association is faulty logic but by the time you’ve given them a Bible 101 lesson you’ve used up all your time. You have to give these guys a whole life time of Sunday school lessons before you can even get to why something is wrong. The whole world has fallen that far out of the knowledge of God. Let me present that Sunday school lesson now. Let me also make our case to the secular mind with why we see gay marriage as a threat. Hear us out. If you don’t agree maybe at least you can understand. Because it’s not about hate. It’s all about the truth and what the big picture of life is all about.
Why can’t a man marry a man? Why can’t a woman marry a woman? May I submit to you that I can’t think of any earthy reason why not. This is America. Consenting adults can do whatever they want. Marry your dog. Marry your car.
Against the law? Come on now. Something being against the law makes it no more than that. Against the law. It means if you violate it you get punished but being a law doesn’t make something right, moral, or wise. Those who want same sex marriage don’t have to go far to point out that slavery was perfectly lawful in our country at one time. Once again I’ll repeat this as many times as you might need to hear it. Moral absolutes are transcendent of any law but the people violating this do not recognize that. Are they wrong? Of course they’re wrong but it still remains the problem. How do we pull down that stronghold and deal with this lofty thought of so-call knowledge, (2 Cor 10:3-5)? They want same sex marriage. What are you going to say to somebody that doesn’t give the slightest care that it is a violation of God’s law and precepts?
You want to know what they should do if they want to get married? Go get married.
Oh, but... How? By whom? In what way?
They want, they say, to get “married” in the same way that you and I got married. Well, my wife and I got married in a church in the sight of other believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I got news for same sex marriage activists, they will never get married the way I was. Let me say that again. The true church of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ will never recognize any sinful marriage of any same sex couple. Oh, sure, you’ll see them “married” in some building that might have “church” on the sign out in front. They might even have the service officiated by a “minister” but... Whereas before we had a situation of homosexuals giving no weight to the authority of the Bible now the scriptural backing becomes a huge player. What do they want? They want to get married. How do you go about getting married? In a church service? Why? Anybody can go to the county courthouse or Justice of the Peace and co-sign a marriage license. Well, in some states, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire and in Washington, D.C. That’s the issue. That’s no more than a contract. We’ve actually already had such things called “civil unions” legal for a while. Got a live-in lover? Want them to get your stuff when you die? Make up a contract. Want your lover to have medical benefits? Take it up with the company you work for. That’s not a marriage.
No. That’s not enough for them. They want the legal ability to get “married”. Why? To destroy marriage of course.
I submit to you that marriage is a religious rite. It is a religious institution. Not a legal formality. As a legal formality I don’t think we are far at all from partnering with anybody we want. What’s the fuss? But, no. They don’t want that. They want to get married and there is no one out there who has any kind of objection other than those who have religious objections. Well, perhaps the military for “morale” purposes but I don’t think they’ll be able to get away with that argument for long. Now, there are those with spiritual backgrounds who have no objections at all, liberal theologians for example. But this is still my point. The debate is in the forum of doctrine and scriptural teaching and never stays in the courtroom. It can’t. Sooner or later it will always transfer over to a religious issue because marriage is a religious issue. Being out of the closet and keeping your job in spite of your sexual preference can be decided in the court room. The scripture has something to say about that sin but whether or not you keep your job, your property, your pension, or your children can be decided in secular court with no thought or input from the Word of God.
Oh, but marriage, that is God’s territory. At least it’s religion’s territory. Granted, Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism, all those have religious rites in the institution of marriage. Anything with no religious accent to it is a legal contract. It’s not “marriage”.
So then, at the core of the issue is not whether gay people have the right or ability to get married it is really whether or not we have the right and ability to take issue with this invasion of an area we live in and refuse to recognize any perversion of a God given mandate that is ours alone. This isn’t about hate it is about the objective truth of the word of God that we have all been told. You want to dispute that? I’m ready for that but where do we hash this out? In the church or in the courtroom? If it’s in the courtroom then what can I say? If you’ve taken God and His ten commandments out then what leg have I got to stand on? You folks go sign a contract. Good luck with that. But no, you want to come into our church and perform our sacred observance mandated by our God and you think we’re dumb enough to be alright with that? Never going to happen. Why? Because the Bible says it’s not alright. You don’t care what the Bible says? We do. You want to cut that part out of the Bible? Where does that end? Why take any of it if we ignore some of it? We might as well sleep in on Sundays.
For even those who recognize it as a religious institution, I don’t think they understand what it’s for. What’s marriage for? Is it for the wedding? I have an idea that there are many people both heterosexual and homosexual who are just craving the ceremony with no real concern about what’s going on in or behind that ceremony. It reminds me of a lady we had in our church many years ago who wanted our pastor to baptize her new-born baby. The pastor and the elders took her aside and explained that we’re Baptist and we believe in believer’s baptism and not infant baptism and why that’s important . They were very patient with her. One of the elders was telling me later that it was very bizarre. None of this was sinking into her head. She could not understand at all why nobody at our church would baptize her baby. She just didn’t get it. The couple eventually left us and went to another church that would baptize her baby on the spot. You see, this baptism meant nothing at all to her about doctrine or teaching from the Bible. It was about her wanting to go through this tear jerking ceremony for her baby. Well, not really for her baby. This was all for her. She didn’t care what baptism is for. She didn’t care what water baptism is an evidence of. All this talk about the doctrines and Biblical reasons were just getting in the way.
Why would gay people want to get married? Why do they care? I think the motivation is different for each person but by and large I think it stems from a couple of root desires. The first one being they want the ceremony and if they can get the ceremony they think they can get the acceptance. For some reason standing there in a ceremony previously forbidden to them now means they have shattered the proverbial glass ceiling and achieved victory over their enemies. As I said before, it is the furthest thing from their minds whether the true God of the Bible approves of this ceremony. They just don’t think like that. A church “minister” has done the ceremony, ergo, they beat the dirty ol’ bigoted “church” that kept them enslaved all their lives. Right? Wrong. What they don’t get is that it’s like the Grinch who stole all the presents and Christmas trees and decorations and thought he had stolen Christmas. But you’ve all seen how that story went. He stole the stuff, he never stole Christmas. You can have all the wedding’s you want. Go ahead and even have them in a church building with some man or woman wearing a backward collar and “Rev” in front of their name. The Lord God of the Bible., the only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob does not accept any of it.
This brings me their second motivation, which is to destroy the institution of marriage. How is gay marriage an attack on marriage? Gay marriage attacks the holiness of the institution. It destroys what marriage is made for. It is an attack on what marriage is a picture of.
Allow me to break something down for you. God works a whole lot in His word with “types”. Do you know what I mean by a “type”? When I say type you can understand me using the word to mean “an example” or a “model”. I mean something that is in the Bible that is an object there but is also a lesson God is teaching us of a bigger, overall, truth. Take for instance the Tabernacle that Moses and the Hebrews made in the wilderness. There were many “types” in there. The incense in front of the curtains signified prayers. The lamp stand was Jesus as the light of the world. You follow what I mean? Look at Passover. The angel of death “passed over” any Hebrew that had what? The blood of the lamb on his door posts. A male lamb, a lamb without blemish. They weren’t allowed to break any of the lamb’s bones. All this was a type of what Jesus would do on the cross. Joseph, in Genesis, was a “type” of Jesus. He was sold out by his own brothers. He went to the gentiles, in this case, the Egyptians. He took a gentile bride just like Christ took a gentile church as his bride. When his brothers saw him again they did not recognize him just like Israel doesn’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah today.
There are many types in the Bible. I really don’t want to go through all of them other than marriage. I say to you marriage is a “type” that God instituted. It is an earthly “picture” to signify a higher, heavenly reality, the marriage of Christ and the Church, (2 Cor 11:2). In practice, in this world, marriage is given a mandate to be fruitful and multiply just like the Church. The heavenly picture is not Christ marrying Himself or the Church marrying the Church. This is why it’s wrong and a sin. Because it’s a blasphemy and perversion of what God intended the institution to be. Not just sex. The sex is prohibited in other places, (Lev 18:22). We’ve already talked about that. No, it’s the marriage part that they’re messing with now. They think they can muscle into the picture that marriage is and by doing that they will accomplish something... Break the heavenly reality that marriage is a model of. Nobody here made gay marriage wrong. God made it wrong when He devised the whole divine marriage that our earthly marriage is only a picture of. Marriage is only for this present world.
Let me show you something. Turn in your Bibles to Luke, chapter 20. It might interest you to know that we will not be married “forever”. The Mormon’s are wrong. When we get married even in a godly, Biblical, blessed by God, union before the church and God, it is still only a union that is applicable in this world and on this side of eternity.
Luke 20:34-37
34 Jesus answered and said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage;
Someday, in the Kingdom of God, after we have been resurrected as John 6:40 says all in Christ will be, there will be several institutions that will be a thing of the past. Our marriages to each other being one of them. Is marriage a thing of the past? No, the perfect marriage that our marriages on earth were a picture of will have come so the picture is no longer needed. This isn’t new or something that was never mentioned before. Turn to Hebrews chapter 8. It works exactly like other Passover. Do we celebrate Passover in the Church? We do not because the Lamb, the true Lamb, the Lamb that Passover itself was only a picture of, has been slain for real and now we have a perfect sacrifice for our sins and not a picture. This was the writer of Hebrews’ point in much of the book...
Hebrews 8:4-6
4 For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Do you get his point? He’s saying the Tabernacle was great but it was only a model. If I may, it was a prophecy of the true Tabernacle that would come. We do not see a Tabernacle any more. The perfect Tabernacle of Jesus has come. We do not see a Temple any more. You are the Temple of God now. We are not the perfect Temple but one day we will be.
1 Corinthians 13:9-12
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
This goes on and on. This is not the real world. The better perfect one is coming and is almost here and we have certain pictures and institutions that we have been given for this world that we will not need when the perfect is come. Communion. Do you think communion will go on forever? What did Paul say?
1 Corinthians 11:26
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
We proclaim the Lord’s death with communion until... He comes back. Communion, the celebration of the last supper, is a temporary institution for the Church to do in this world.
Colossians 2:16-18
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Communion, baptism, marriage, they are all shadows of a reality that is coming and will do away with the “picture”. Violating the “type” is very serious. In Leviticus 10:1-2 we read of the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, bringing “… profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.” What exactly they were doing wrong, whether they were drunk or not, (Lev 10:9), it was not what the Lord had “commanded them”. God has these ceremonies, offering, sacrifices and orders with much deeper meaning than just giving His people things to do. They teach His people about Him and His plans. Violating these lessons has had profound consequences. In 2 Chronicles 26:16-19 we read of King Uzziah taking it upon himself to go into the Temple of God and burn incense on the altar of incense. Kings of Judah were not of the Priestly tribe of Levi and not allowed to do this. God has a picture and a type of Holy, sanctified, people who serve Him and Uzziah was violating this type. God struck him with leprosy for this sin. Violating the type is very serious. In Numbers 20:7-12 God told Moses to speak to a rock and it would give water. Moses took it upon himself to strike the rock instead to bring the water. Moses disobeyed. Perhaps God had wanted to make a type from speaking to the rock but now the lesson learned is to do exactly what God says, exactly the way He says it. Moses sin kept him from continuing into the promised land, (Num 20:12). Violating the type that God has established to bring His people into deeper understanding of the government of the Kingdom Of God is deadly serious. It always has been and always will be.
Gay sex is a sin because ALL sex outside of marriage is a sin. None of us were put here for “sex”. None of us are put here for self gratification or hedonism or pleasure. The point of our lives is not physical gratification. The point of our lives is to become like Christ.
Romans 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Wilfully living a life in contrast to the decrees God makes for His Kingdom and His family will lead to destruction, (1 Cor 6:9). Marriage is a type for Christ and His bride, the Church. Family is a type for the growth of God’s Kingdom. Violating these will not be accepted by God. Call a ceremony anything you like. It will never be any accepted “marriage” in the sight of God or His true church.
That all being said... Why would gay couples still fight so hard to be “married”? As I said, who can stop anybody from having a ceremony? Who can stop two consenting adults from living together in the same bed? Who can stop anyone from writing a will and leaving their possessions to anyone else and who can stop anyone from pressuring their employers to recognize their partner as their dependant for employee benefits? None of that can be stopped for long in a free country like we have now. And without Biblical knowledge and guidance how long can anybody justify denying equal rights to homosexuals that heterosexuals have? Why not? Because the Bible says? They don’t care what the Bible says and that is why it is an attack on God and His Word. It will soon be an attack on His church when gay couples come into churches all over the country and demand to have their ceremonies performed by true believing pastors. When they refuse there will be legal trouble planned. Sex between two adults is an issue between their sin and God. Demanding a “marriage ceremony” from a Bible believing pastor is an outright attack on God and His Church. It now has nothing to do with freedom to do what one wants. It now has nothing to do with gaining legal rights. From a secular point of view I can’t think of any argument that can hold off their plans for long. Our objections are from chapter and verse and that is where they are targeting. Not to get the acceptance. Not to get the ceremony. Not to get the rights. Not to get the benefits. They do it to burn the Church down.
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