Statement of Faith Article Twelve – Marriage, Gender & Sexuality

You'll take your bulletin. We'll be reading from that in just a moment. Before I go forward, just to let you know, Beth Westcom was taken to the emergency room yesterday and needed a heart procedure. She is doing well and should still be coming home this afternoon or evening. Is that still the word?

Does that sound right? Beth is still coming home today. All right. She sounded really good on the phone last night, but that's. Beth is always this way.

She's one of those people. You probably need to pray that she makes sure she rests instead of pushing herself too hard. So keep her in mind. And Randy as well. They might appreciate a couple meals because I don't know that Randy is that good of a cook.

And no telling what he puts in the soup when he makes it since he can't see that well, we're continuing our actually two different series on Communion Sundays. We've been going over our statement of faith. We are on Article 12 today, which is going to end that series. It's on marriage, gender and sexuality, which also fits in the few messages that here I am doing on marriage. So if you look at your bulletin now, I want us to read the entire Article 12.

Just follow along as I read we believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female. These two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God, and as such, one's biological sex is not to be rejected. We believe that the term marriage has only one meaning the uniting of one biological man and one biological woman in a single, exclusive, lifelong covenantal union as delineated in Scripture. We believe that marriage is not merely a human institution, but is a special divine metaphor that is supposed to illustrate the union of Christ and the church. Pastors of Lwefc will abide by this belief that when they are asked to perform marriages.

Continuing on the next page. We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other. We believe that any form of sexual immorality, including adultery, fornication, homosexual behavior, bisexual conduct, and the use of pornography, is contrary to to biblical teaching. We believe that God does, however, offer redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking his mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. We also believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect and dignity.

Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with Scripture nor the doctrines of Lwefc. Once again, we're talking about exploring Doctrine. We're looking at marriage, gender, and sexuality. Why do we do that? What is the importance of doctrine?

Doctrine is three things to us. The first thing is it's a guide. Mary and I went hiking a lot, and there was one day we got lost and our 6 hour hike became an 11 hour hike because I made the wrong choice. We didn't have a little guide with us for the trails, and I thought it would end up where it didn't. But when you go hiking, you don't carry all of your travel books and an encyclopedia in the globe.

Okay, so doctrine is like this trail guide. It keeps you on the path. But God's word is the complete set of information on how to live. Therefore, what is the meaning of doctrine? It is a concise, limited synopsis of core beliefs that defines Christian faith and provides a guide for Christian living.

It's a guide, it's also a level. Now, if you're building something, you put a level up to see if things are what if they're level. Now, if it's crooked, you don't take the level and start beating the door or the window, right? The level is there just to alert you that something's not right. You need a toolbox with lots of tools and shelves of equipment to straighten out and fix the problems.

When we have a statement of faith, that's like the level, it doesn't fix things. It just alerts you something's not right here. And then you have to go to God's word, the toolbox with everything, and figure out, how do we fix this? What's actually wrong? The purpose of doctrine, it provides a framework that alerts believers to false teaching, but it must never replace Scripture.

Doctrine is a guide. It's a level, but it's also a fence. Fences are made to keep bad things out, and they're made to keep our kids and our good things, what inside? There are lots of other things that protect us. But a fence sets a boundary, and that's what doctrine does.

If you hear somebody teaching something that is outside this fence of our statement of faith, you need to stop and say, wow, that's out there. We should be checking God's word to see what's wrong with it. And. And in the same way, we need to make sure that our children and our families and our thoughts are dwelling what is inside the fence?

Doctrine is a guide. It's a level, it's a fence. But the final authority for all matters of belief and conduct always is God's word. Therefore, here, scripture is our primary Source. Can we go to the next slide up there?

Good. The Bible itself. It's the inspired and infallible word of God. Inspired means that he breathed it into those that wrote it. He gave it to them.

And then infallible means that he made sure what they wrote down and what they spoke was exactly the way that he wanted it to be said. So God's word speaks with final authority concerning truth, morality, the proper conduct of humanity. It is the sole and final source of all that we believe. And again, our statement of faith is just this concise summary of our core beliefs. It does not exhaust the extent of them.

May we pray, Heavenly Father, as we look at your word now, to see the supporting evidence of why we've written this doctrinal statement. Give us new insight, help us to understand things that maybe we did not understand before. Help us to see where we can strive to make our marriages better. And also pray for others that are married, Father, that they will do likewise in your son's name. Amen.

We go to the first statement. We believe that God wonderfully and immutably means it's great and it can't be changed. Creates each person as male or female. These two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God. And as such, one's biological sex is not to be rejected.

Just want to go over some aspects of this today. We're certainly not covering everything. I go to Psalm 139. Where we see and what we need to get out of this text. Is that it?

You are wonderful. And the way that God made you is that you're immutable. If you're a woman, changing your body is not going to turn you into something else any more than adding a tail to your body is going to make you some type of animal. Okay. In the same way, for men, you are as God made you.

You are remarkable. And you are loved in an immeasurable way by God because you are exactly the way that he wants you to be. You are a beautiful, wondrous work of art to Him. Now, just as we don't always understand every piece of art that we see. The artist knows why they did it that way, and they appreciate it, so it is.

We may not understand God's work of art in us individually, but we are each made exactly as we are according to his will. Let me read the text here. For it was you who created my inward parts. You knit me together in my mother's wombs. I will womb just one.

Sorry. I will praise you because I have been Remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret. When I was formed in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw me when I was formless. All my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began. If you're ever tempted to say, God, why did you give me this? Or why did you make me this way? There is purpose in it, even if you don't understand.

We find this in the New Testament, where Jesus healed the man born blind. And they were saying, is this man blind because he sinned before he was born? Or is he blind because his parents sinned before he was born? And Jesus healed the man and said, no, he was made this way so that God might be glorified. But the next step was there.

It was always something that his blindness brought him to Jesus Christ so that he could see him spiritually and literally see him physically. However you are made is for the glory of God, and it is for our good. I brought in two pieces of artwork for us to see today.

There we go. One is Picasso and one is Rembrandt. Who would you like to paint a picture of your child today?

But you know, we have no right to tell Picasso that he should have painted a Rembrandt because he's an artist. He did what he meant to do, and he appreciated his art just as Rembrandt did. We had a visitor this morning, came in with a bag, and guess what was on it? A picture of a Picasso painting. It was very interesting.

You are wonderful. You are immutable. Even if you can't understand how you are. And your spouse also is wonderful and immutably made. And you may not understand why they have little things about them that bother you.

It's all there because God made them that way. Let's go back to Psalm139. We're also designed for unique purposes. And this is where our uniqueness plays in. God has made us individuals so that we can do very specific things every day.

And we're not just talking about a lifetime here. Every individual day it says that all my days were written in your book. And what's the next word planned? So when you get up every day, you should be saying, lord, I'm unique and I'm different. There's someone out there.

There's something that only I can do because of the way I am. Please show me what that is. We are all designed for unique purpose. We go Back to Genesis, chapter one. Now, men and women are equal in value and equal in importance.

And the world may try to tell you that Christianity says that men are more important and women are less important. That's not the truth. There are plenty other religions where women are just considered property and they're nothing. But Jesus Christ elevated women to the place that they're supposed to be. When we go back to Genesis, God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

So God created man in his own image. He created him in the image of God. He created them male and female. We could translate that. Let us make mankind, because God made both men and women, male and female, in his image.

And it's the combination of both that give everyone a picture of who God is in this world. We also learn in Genesis that man and woman were created to be complementary. Yes, they are equal in value, but they are different. And as much as some people can say they're the same, they're not.

Adam was created first. Adam was assigned the task of naming the animals. Adam was given the command from God, do not eat the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And Eve was created to be his helper. For all these reasons, God has established that men are to be leaders in the home and leaders in the church.

But we must not underestimate what Eve was created to be. She was made to be his helper. And the word that's used there isn't talking about a servant or a slave. It's talking about someone that's your comrade, someone that you seek for advice. And sometimes the the same word is used to describe a warrior because your wife is there to fight with you when that is necessary.

The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal. But for the man, no helper was found corresponding to him. The giraffe was too tall. The elephant was too large. The mouse was too small.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man. And he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. And Adam said, wow, when I think about the differences between male and female, they both are made out of clay.

They're both made out of dirt. But man is more like the old coffee mug that you don't rinse out. You know, every day you keep using it over and over. He's made out of clay. But a woman is like fine porcelain, which is also made from clay.

But which do we value more? We. We value the porcelain. And it was interesting. I talked to someone about, you know, who made china, and they told me, actually, china plates and porcelain plates are stronger than the regular things that we can buy in other places.

I don't know why, but my mom said, you got to take really good. Careful, we can't break these things. She never told me and probably didn't know they're actually stronger. And so it is that in many ways, women are stronger than men. Maybe not physically, but we also are to esteem them as fine china.

I also learned something other. When we were in Europe, I was looking at all these stones that the Romans cut to make their roads and their arches and their building. And I didn't think they had diamond saws back then. So I asked, how did they cut these stones? Does anybody know what they used to cut the stones?

Silk. Silk is the strongest material that is known. And they didn't use this one strand. They would twist it so that there would be many, like a rope. But when we think about our wives and we think about women, they're like silk.

It's beautiful and it's wonderful, but it's also very. What? It's very strong. Matthew Henry had a quote that you will recognize when he talked about this passage. And I want to.

He really had four points. I want to give you three of them. He said, man being made last of the creatures at the best and the most excellent of all. But Eve being made after Adam and out of him puts an honor upon that sex as the glory of the man. If the man is the head, she is the crown, a crown to her husband, the crown of the visible creation.

The man was dust, refined, but the woman was dusty, double refined and removed further from the earth. He goes on to say that it's interesting that Adam slept while his wife was in the making, that no room might be left to imagine that he had herein directed the spirit of the Lord or been his counselor. In other words, Adam wasn't awake telling God what he needed. Adam wasn't awake telling him what Eve should look like. He completely rested, and he trusted that God would create and make for him exactly what he needed.

And God did that.

That the woman was made out of the rib. Matthew Henry wrote. I mean, out of the side of Adam, not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon him, but out of his side to be equal with him. Under his arm. To be protected and near his heart, to be beloved.

Adam lost a rib, but what he gained was far more valuable, far more abundant. He wasn't missing anything, because the little he gave up, God gave him even more in his wife.

Isaiah 45, 9. We also have another point about why we accept ourselves the way we are. And it's because of God's sovereignty means he rules over everything. He. He knows everything.

He's ultimately wise. And Isaiah gives this warning. He says, woe to the one who argues with his maker. Like one clay pot among many. How can the clay say to the pot or the one forming it, what are you making?

In the same way, we're not to argue with God about how we are. In Romans 9, we read, on the contrary, who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Again, we have this analogy about the potter and the pot. Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, why did you make me like this? Or has the potter no right over the clay to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?

And we talk about honor and dishonor there. I'm going to liken that to that. The piece that's created for honor is the beautiful vase that's going to sit on the shelf. And the piece that's created for dishonor is just ordinary. It's the coffee cup that we use every single day.

And God has made some of us one way, God has made some of us another way. But he's sovereign. We are not to argue with Him. And why? Because God is all wisdom.

God is all knowledge. And because of this we can never fully understand why we are like we are. Maybe, maybe someday when we get to heaven, he'll explain, you know, your spouse was like that because I made them that way. And you're going to think, wow, I didn't see that coming. But.

But now I understand. Romans 11 we read, oh, the depths of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways.

For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God that he should be repaid for from him and through him, and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever, and amen. You can rejoice in how you are made and how your spouse is made, and how your kids and your friends and everyone that's different than you, because God was wise and knowledgeable when he created them. Let's Go to the next statement.

We believe that the term marriage has only one meaning. The uniting of one biological man and one biological woman in a single, exclusive, lifelong covenantal union, as delineated in Scripture. We've had to add biological there and biological again, because we base what you are on what your body is. If you change your body, that doesn't change your personality. It doesn't change your conscious.

It might make you think different about yourself. You might look differently. But the core important person that you are is inside of your body. Therefore, God made a man and a woman to be married and a single, meaning there aren't to be multiple spouses. It's an exclusive relationship that pushes everyone outside of it in such a special way that the two of you are completely intimate with one another.

And we believe that it's a lifelong covenantal union. It's not a contractual arrangement. When you get married, if you have a Christian marriage, a contract says, if person A doesn't do this, I'm out of here. There's no penalty. And if person B does this and they're not supposed to, the person A can say, well, I'm out of here.

No penalty. No Scripture says that marriage is a covenant. And a covenant means that there are no clauses for where you can get out of it. It's God's intention that it's eternal and it lasts. Not eternal.

It lasts for your lifetime. And that's because it's a picture of God's covenant relationship with us when we place our faith in Jesus Christ. He doesn't say, well, you'll be one of my children as long as you don't drink this, and as long as you don't do that. And as long as you don't say these things. No, there are no exceptions.

It's a covenant relationship meant to continue and last. Jesus affirmed the history and the application of this in Genesis. When we read In Matthew, chapter 19, we believe that Genesis is historical. We believe that this is God telling us what happened because nobody was there other to write it down. And Jesus affirmed that it's not just a story.

He affirmed it's not just an analogy, it was historical. And he also affirms what we apply to our lives. From that, Jesus said, haven't you read that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female. And he also said, for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

Therefore, what God has joined Together, let no one separate. Next statement. We believe that marriage is not merely a human institution, but is a special divine metaphor that is supposed to illustrate the union of Christ in the church. And pastors of LWEFC will abide by this belief when they are asked to perform marriages.

Your marriage, if you are both believers, is to be a picture of Christ and the church. That means when people look at your marriage, what they see in there either attracts them to Christ or pushes them away from Him. Because if they see a marriage where the relationship is not how God intended it to be, then they don't understand the great love that's between Jesus and His church. So every day we just stop and ask, is my marriage. Is our marriage picturing Christ's relationship with the church in an adequate way that people are drawn to him, or is it pushing them away?

And it's particularly important with your children and with your grandchildren that they see that you have a loving, caring marriage that falls right in line with Scripture so that your children and your grandchildren will be attracted to Jesus Christ and not pushed away from Him. We see this analogy in Ephesians chapter 5. It's mentioned over and over again. And without going into what the passage all means today, I just want us to see that the analogy is there. Ephesians 5 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church.

He is the Savior of the body. And now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the Word. And the passage goes on to mention this analogy three more times. The repetition itself says this is extremely important for us to remember and to seek to understand and to live it out.

Next statement. We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other. I go to First Corinthians chapter 7 and read this.

But because sexual immorality is so common in Paul's day, sexual immorality was very common, and it is becoming more and more common with the Internet and advertising and everything in the world. It's for this reason that each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman should have sexual relations with her own husband. A husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, but likewise her needs are to be met also by her husband. Paul explains it this way. A wife does not have the right over her own body, but her husband does.

But equally in the same way, a husband does not have the right over his own body, but his wife does. Both spouses, scripturally are to meet the sexual needs of the other. And the reason being is so that there is no need unmet that allows for temptation to come in from outside to separate the marriage.

The next statement says, we believe that any form of sexual immorality, including adultery, fornication, homosexual behavior, bisexual conduct and use of pornography is contrary to biblical teaching. We believe that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking his mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. This is only a partial list, it is not an exhaustive list of how you can be sexually immoral. Mankind is continually creating new ways for immorality to come about. Now we have AI immorality.

But what scripture tells us, what is important is that if we stick to the fact that sex is meant for marriage between a husband and wife and anything outside of that fence is wrong, then there should be no doubt. You don't teach people how to recognize counterfeit money by giving them hundreds and hundreds of counterfeit bills to figure out, well, this one looks like this and this one looks like this. No, you just give them a one bill, one hundred dollar bill and you say, learn what the this looks like and anything else outside of it, it is wrong. So it is with sexual relations. It's only to be within marriage between one man and one woman.

But we have sinful people and God graciously does forgive if we err in this area. If we sin. He promises us in First John 1:9 that if we confess our sin, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is sin and forgiveness from God Almighty for those who fail sexually. The next statement says, we believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect and dignity.

Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with scripture nor the doctrines of lwefc. That means if someone comes into our church, if someone is a friend in our life, someone that we work with, our next door neighbor, if they don't live their life and agree with our statement of faith in this matter, we're not supposed to shun them, we're not supposed to be mean to them, we're not supposed to harass them. We are supposed to continue to be compassionate towards them, to love them, to respect them. We don't agree with how they are living, but our ultimate goal is that we might bring them to Jesus Christ. We are to have love for everyone, those that agree with us and those that do not.

We go to mark chapter 12, where Jesus says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second command is, love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these. Now the question came up, well, Jesus, who is my neighbor? And he wasn't talking about the person sitting next to you in the pew.

He wasn't talking about your next door neighbor. The example that he gives is between the good Samaritan and the Jewish man on the road. And you can go and read it. They were enemies to one another. They did not associate.

Those two people groups hated one another. So when Jesus is talking about loving people, he's saying, your neighbor might be that person. That's the most extreme person to you in the world. And they may be completely against me in my word, but you're still called upon to love them. And the reason for that is because we are to love everyone as God loves everyone.

John 3:16. For God loved the people that are like me. Is that what it says? No. God loved the world in this way.

He gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. Now, thank the Lord. I don't think he's going to ask any of us to give our children up out of love for other people. But that's how great his love was for the world. Romans 5.

God proves his own love for us in that. Not while we were good. But it says, while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Verse 6 says, While we were helpless, while we were his enemies. Enemies.

Jesus didn't stand around and say, I'm going to die for everybody that's being friendly to me today. He died for those that were sinners. He died for those that hated him or his enemies. And he doesn't die for people that help themselves. No, he dies for us when we're helpless.

And so it is. Our love for everyone should be for the sinners. It should be for the helpless. It should even be for those that are our enemies. I don't know how God is speaking you today.

Maybe you just need some scripture verses to know why we believe these things. Maybe God is confronted with you. There's something in my life where I'm not living according to this. You need to pray with someone about that. You need to ask God to help you.

Maybe there's someone in your life that they're so different in their lifestyle, you're having a hard time loving them. It's difficult to love people. But that's why we have the spirit of God within us. And if we were just willing to ask him to help me to love that person more and to express love to them in a way that they'll receive it so that they might come to faith. Because God does everything for his glory.

He does it for our good. We just need to focus on God's glory and what he wants. And then goodness will result in our life. We're going to have a time of singing now. We're going to have people at the back.

If you want some scripture verses shared with you. Maybe you want to share something in your heart. Just need someone to pray for you. Please make your way to the back as we are singing. And Bill, would you please come up and lead us?

I'll close this in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the fact that you have given us spouses, that you have made us equal. You have made us wonderful, you've made us complimentary. So that together we might serve you in a better way than we can by ourselves. Give us a desire to improve our marriages.

Show us how to improve our marriages. And we ask that you would remind us to pray for other marriages, Father, outside our own, that they also might grow. In this, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.