Response to Supreme Court Ruling

Yeah, if we could find our way to our seats. Yeah, the reason you have less time to greet one another this morning is because Mike Berry is preaching this morning and I wanted to say a few things before he did so. That. And I'm, I'm doing this with Mike's not only his allowance, but also his encouragement.

you are all aware of the decision. That was handed down by the Supreme Court on Friday morning essentially calling Same-sex unions, marriage and making such unions legally recognized as marriage in all 50 states of our country. And I wanted to just share a few thoughts before Mike comes up this morning. First of all, I want to remind Myself and all of us that in the High Court of heaven, there sits one supreme Judge.

And he has spoken his decrees, which are immutably registered in his eternal word. That we read and study, preach from and base our lives upon. And this Supreme Judge is unfazed by 5-4 decisions. He's unfazed by 9-0 decisions made by the little judges who preside over our nation's highest court.

His decrees recorded in His word, are the only decrees that will stand the test of time and eternity. Jesus Christ will return one day and he will establish his righteous reign upon the earth and all who now continue to cling to Jesus Christ, and to his righteousness and to his word. They are the ones who will find on that day themselves to be on the right side of history. Let's remind ourselves today that the Supreme Court is only so powerful.

As Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist denomination said on Friday, he says the Supreme Court cannot put Jesus back in the tomb. And they cannot change what marriage is because God is the creator of marriage, marriage is his intellectual property. And because it is his intellectual property, God is the only one who gets to define what marriage is, which is a man and a woman cleaving to each other and becoming one flesh in a lifelong covenantal union. Our society is pressuring us to evolve on the issue of homosexual marriage, and this pressure is only going to increase in the days to come.

They want us to change our views and repent. Of the biblical view that we have held up to this point. But here at Cornerstone, we won't be doing that. And that's going to make us and other churches like us a problem.

To our nation's rulers, we offer this response, and I adapt this response from the words of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego and Daniel. O kings, we are not careful to answer you in this matter. The God whom we serve will deliver us from the fiery furnace, but even if not, Be it known to you, O kings, that we will not bow before your equal signs or worship the rainbow images which you have set up. This week's developments should be clarifying for us.

They have been for me. And that they help us to see the bold contrast. Between the gospel way and the way of the world. As Christians, we are, we're no better than anybody else.

In fact, we are the ones who admit our guilt. We are the ones who confess our cherished and deep-rooted sins. We bemoan them and we decry them, and we cry out to Jesus for salvation from those sins. What the homosexual lobby has done.

is they have taken their sin and they have institutionalized it and called it good, and they have now convinced the Supreme Court to join them in that verdict. And they think they have won a victory. But they are the real losers on Friday, not us, and we should weep for them. God calls us to confess our sins and to call upon Jesus for deliverance from our sins.

The world, however, justifies its sins and calls upon God only to change his view. And to accept them and their sin. But God is immutable. He will not change his view.

God does not evolve, and neither will we by His grace. We will not be joining the world. And going the way of Cain. We should be humbled by this week's developments.

I think all of us have some repenting to do. Our society has abandoned God's design for marriage, but it didn't start on Friday and we all are not guiltless in this. We too have abandoned God's full design for marriage in a variety of ways. We depart from God's design for marriage whenever we have given way to lustful thoughts and actions.

Every time we husbands have failed to love our wives like Christ loved the church, we are abandoning God's design. For marriage. Ladies, you depart from God's design for marriage whenever you choose to disrespect. Your husband and to be embittered against him.

As an unmarried person, you depart from God's design for marriage every time you look at pornography or engage in premarital sex. We married people depart from God's design for marriage every time we hold on to our grievances and refuse to pursue reconciliation with our spouse. We depart from God's design. For marriage as a church, when we fail to hate divorce as much as God hates divorce.

We cannot very well sit in judgment of the world for what it is doing when in fact we ourselves are doing the same thing. In other ways to varying degrees. All of us should use this opportunity to be asking, how about me? Am I really following God's design and pattern for marriage?

Husbands and wives of Cornerstone, I ask you, how is your marriage doing? How are you doing in your marriage? If we're truly going to be the counterculture that God wants us to be, then we need to have God glorifying Christ exalting marriages in which the gospel is put on vivid display for the whole world to see. This is one of the greatest gifts that we as a church can give to the people of our culture today.

Lastly, as Russell Moore said in an editorial on Friday, let's remember that the sexual revolution is based on a lie. And it will not fulfill its promise. There will be many people who will be disillusioned by the lies of the sexual revolution. There will be sexual refugees coming into our church in the days to come looking for help and for deliverance, and we need to be prepared.

To love them and to minister to them and to help them in their journey from brokenness to wholeness. Through the gospel Of Jesus Christ. On Friday, I heard a speaker. Say that this week's decision by the Supreme Court confronts us with good news and bad news.

The bad news is that our society has never been closer to ancient Rome than it is now. The good news Is that our society has never been closer to ancient Rome than it is now. And his point Was that the gospel was powerful enough in the first century to take hold of people's hearts and change them and turn cities upside down in the first century and the gospel is the same today and it has the same power to do exactly that today. So let us be faithful to our mission.

To believe in and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is still the power of God and the salvation to everyone who believes. This decision by the Supreme Court. will almost certainly cause a cascade of consequences that will create some religious liberty issues that will confront us and confront the church in the days to come and we will deal with those things as they come. But when it comes to the things that we cherish most, nothing has changed.

God is still God. Sin is still sin. Grace is still grace. And the risen Christ is still savior to all who call upon His precious name.

And let us continue to hold his name high. Amen. Let's pray together. Lord, we just come before you this morning, we're We're asking you, Lord, the God of the universe, universe to look upon us with grace and with mercy, and that you would make us The brothers and sisters at Cornerstone make us a, a praying people and a humble people, a broken people.

Who tremble at your word. Make us a bold and a courageous people, Lord. who stand with you. We believe the truth and we speak the truth no matter what it may cost us, no matter whether anyone listens or not.

We want to side with you. And when Christ comes in glory, we will know then what we know to be true now and that is that to do such puts us on the right side. Of history. Make us a people of your word, Lord.

We spend too much time reading other things. And many poured over the decision by the justices on Friday and Saturday, and rightly so, but Lord, make us a people who pour over the decrees and the decisions and the counsels of you, the Supreme Judge of the universe. And may we be more marked by your word. And your ways Than by the cultural winds that are blowing at a swift pace and taking many with it today.

Give us hearts of love for the lost, that we would speak your truth and we would speak it in love. We have good news for the world. We have good news for those whose lives are broken by sexual sin and any other sin, and that is that there is forgiveness and deliverance. And eternal glory for all those who repent of their sins and who look to Jesus and cry out to Him as their Lord and Savior.

That is our message, Lord, and may we deliver that message through the words we speak. And through the lives we lead. We thank you for this opportunity to open up your word this morning. We pray your blessing on Mike as he preaches to us your holy truth and the wonderful good news of our justification in Christ.

We ask these things in the name of Jesus and all God's people said, Amen.