People of God, after a lengthy series on I Corinthians 15, we are going to shift our attention to a topic of great importance, the topic of marriage. I will be absent from the pulpit these next two coming weeks, and so in order not to start something at this stage, I wanted to give particular attention to a matter that is at the core of the moral decline this nation.
As many of you know, the Session of Providence Church sent a letter to the mayor of Pensacola exhorting him to disavow his proclamation, which stated—among many other things the following:
WHEREAS, the annual Pensacola PRIDE festival is an opportunity to celebrate and promote the history, courage, and diversity of the Pensacola area Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender persons and to advocate the message of toleration, equality, dignity, and respect for all citizens.
This incurred a reaction from some of the conservative leaders of the city. As a result, I was invited to be one of nine speakers at the Standing for Righteousness Rally this past Monday. We had over 250 supporters, and about 100 protestors. Though there were some disagreements in our messages as to how to proceed with this matter, we all agreed that marriage is under assault. Something needs to be done about this both locally and nationally.
The Apostle Paul wrote specifically in Romans 1 against not only the homosexual practices of the day, but he was also writing to liberate those who were being sexually abused by their masters. And this needs to be the source of our response, that the Gospel is liberating. It does not just liberate man spiritually, but also from his or her destructive lifestyles. It frees the captive and enslaved. It saves the whole man. At the moment we are beginning to proclaim a gospel that only saves the soul, we are proclaiming a mediocre gospel; a gospel that does not change the very heart of human idolatry.
This modern threat upon the sacred definition of marriage is not only coming from without the Church—as to be expected—but it is coming from within the Church. Mainline denominations, though decreasing in staggering numbers over the years, continue to pursue a re-definition of marriage. “The Civil Union and Marriage Issues Committee at the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has agreed…to sending the proposal, which could change the church’s definition of marriage “between a woman and a man” to being “between two people,” to the General Assembly for consideration.” This change would certainly be consistent with the pattern of the PCUSA in the last 40 years. Continue reading “Sermon: Marriage and the Public Gospel”