PARSONS: To abrogate something means to repeal something or for it simply to be done away with or
to go away. Many of the Old Testament Mosaic laws have been fulfilled, not abrogated, not repealed,
but they've been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And that's a very important point there. Now, not all
of those have been fulfilled in the sense that some of them continue. When it comes to sexual
ethics in the Bible, we have to understand that they are rooted in creation. They are rooted in
creation in God's ordering of creation in creating man male and female, man and woman. And Jesus
appeals to the creation ordinance, the apostles in the New Testament appeal to the creation principle
or ordinance pertaining to all matters of sexual relations and the sexual identity. And so, when it
comes to homosexuality, we need to understand that homosexual sin is sin, homosexual activity is sin,
homosexual lusts are sin, homosexual desires are sin, and that's how the Bible speaks of them. The
Bible doesn't whisper about them. The Bible speaks very plainly and very clearly about them; in fact,
so clearly that throughout the Old Testament, we can see this in Leviticus 18, Leviticus 20,
Genesis, later on in Judges, but we also see it in the New Testament in Romans 1, in 1 Corinthians 6,
and 1 Timothy 1, that it is made very clear that homosexual activity is sinful. Now, in our day and
throughout history at different times, but really in the last century or so, have people identified
with their sin. They've wanted to take the identity of being a homosexual, when the reality
of it is that that is not technically an identity. We don't identify ourselves by our sin. Now,
I certainly realize the world disagrees with this and they don't understand this, but I would say
that, in truth, that homosexual sin is understood by not only Christians, but I would even argue
that it's understood by all human beings to be essentially inappropriate, to be essentially
wrong, because by the light of nature I believe that human beings know that homosexual sin is
against nature. And that's, in fact, the language that the Apostle Paul uses in Romans 1 when he
speaks of homosexual sin, men with men, women with women, as a sin that is contrary to nature.
Now, it's interesting because in 1 Corinthians 6 and in 1 Timothy 1 Paul lists homosexual activity
or sin along with numerous other sins, revelry, and drunkenness, and all sorts of other sins,
minor, and more major, and more significant, less or more significant heinous sins,
but in Romans 1, he identifies homosexual sin as a more heinous sin,
being that it is contrary to nature. And so, while we know that God hates haughty eyes,
He hates arrogance, He hates pride, He hates hands that shed innocent blood, that God hates my sin,
He hates your sin, He hates all of our sins, He hates adultery, He hates fornication,
He hates pornography, He hates unbiblical divorce without cause, without biblical grounds,
homosexual sin is different because it is sin contrary to nature. Now, God hates it all,
but homosexual sin is a sin contrary to nature and it is based in the creation ordinance and
creation principles. It is taught against and prohibited by God throughout the Old Testament,
and then it is prohibited naturally throughout the New Testament as well as sin. And so,
what we need to understand very clearly as Christians is that we don't want to give into
the sociocultural influences of our day to make it seem okay to identify as a homosexual. The
reality of it is is that no one should identify by their sin. We don't want people to identify as an
adulterer or as a drunkard. We want to identify by who we are. We are either in Adam and in sin
or we are in Christ and we are justified and we are in grace. And so, while we are all
sinful and while we all still sin, we are either still in our sins in Adam or we are in Christ.
And so, it's important that we understand that and it's also important that we understand that
homosexuals, or those who identify as homosexuals, are those that we should love, those that we
should care for, those that we should preach the gospel to. And one of the things that I have done
over the years, I have met many, many people who identify as homosexuals, who are in homosexual
relationships. You know, where we live here in Central Florida, we come across people all the
time who are in relationships that are of a homosexual nature and, you know, at different
gyms where I work out or at restaurants where I go, I've known a lot of people, I've worked with
homosexual people, and what I have sought to do is I have sought to help them know that I love them,
that I care about them. I have sought to help them understand the gospel and the hope that
they have in Jesus Christ, and I have also sought to explain to them and to make it clear to them
that I believe that their lifestyle is sinful and wrong, but ultimately what I want them to
know is that it's not them getting cleaned up or changing their lifestyle that gets them saved.
It's not them getting cleaned up or changing their lifestyle that makes them justified before God.
It's only their faith in Jesus Christ and trusting Him, and that faith in Jesus Christ
means repentance and it means rejecting and leaving that homosexual lifestyle and recognizing
and repenting of it as sin and recognizing that they need the righteousness of Christ and to live
in the righteousness of Christ. And so, you know, there is a lot of talk that we've heard and really
only in recent years, quite frankly, about those so-called Christians who want to somehow identify
as being homosexual and still Christian, fighting their lusts, fighting their homosexual desires.
And what I would say to them, what I have said to them is that while each one of us as human beings,
each one of us because of our genetics, because of our upbringing, because of our own personalities,
and because of our own sin natures, that we all have certain proclivities toward certain
sins that we are born with. Now, we used to speak of besetting sins and we all have besetting sins,
and all of our sins are besetting, but it is true that each of us has certain proclivities
or desires towards particular sins. It might be arrogance. It might be pride. It might be
sexual lust, but some might have a certain proclivity or desire for whatever reason
towards homosexual lust, homosexual sin. And what they have to do is recognize it as sin. They have
to repent of it as sin, confess it as sin, and consecrate their themselves, their hearts, their
minds, their eyes to a new way of living rejecting that sin, just as we have to reject every sin that
we're faced with of any sort of sexual temptation, of any sort of temptation of gluttony, of revelry,
of drunkenness, of disobedience to parents or whatever it is that the Bible tells us. We have
to reject it, we have to reckon with it, and we have to consecrate ourselves to a new way of life.
So, I simply want to say that, you know, we need to seek to love our enemies,
pray for those who are against us, pray for those who hate Christianity, hate the biblical ethics,
but what we do not want to do and what we cannot do is water down the very clear
biblical ethic and biblical truth about my sin, your sin, and about homosexual sin. It is sin
and we cannot water it down. We cannot make light of it. We must call it what it is,
because if we make light of sin, then we'll make light of the grace of God.
We have to have a proper regard for our sin, so that we can have a proper regard
for the grace of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and why He came and why He died,
dying for those who sin like you and me, dying for those who sin in different ways. And one of the
things that I've said you've heard me say this, Nathan, is that, and I think about this regularly,
I want to hate my sins more than I hate the sins of those who sin differently than I do.
And that's not easy to do. Our tendency is to hate everyone else's sins more than we had our
own sins. And I want to hate my sins more than I do the sins of everyone else, even though some
of those sins are contrary to the nature of who we are as men and women as God made us.
BINGHAM: Oftentimes, when we point our fingers at someone else's sin,
and we look at our own sins, we're just calling them "mistakes." It's not just that, you know.
PARSONS: Yeah, in fact,
I have heard this. I have not witnessed this, but I have heard this that there are in fact
pastors that have, sort of, sought to develop an entire vocabulary of words and terms that they use
in replace of the word "sin," and they have developed this vocabulary in their preaching
and their teaching using words like "mistakes," "shortcomings," "issues," and all the rest,
rather than using the word "sin," because the word "sin" offends people, I mean has a tendency to
offend people when you tell them that they're sinners. But the reality of it is that we are
sinners. We do make mistakes, and we do have shortcomings. And I use those words as well,
because they are legitimate, but we also must insist on using the biblical language
that God uses and calling them sins, transgressions, going across, or past,
or against God's law and God's will for our lives. We all have them, we all have them,
and we exhibit them in different ways with our different personalities every day of our lives.
BINGHAM: You said you've had conversations with individuals, restaurants, gyms,
whatever the case may be. Is it easier for you because you're a pastor and so
Christianity comes up or is it harder, because I'm sure there are people watching and thinking,
"Well, of course, you'll talk about your faith, because they say, "What do you do?"
PARSONS: It's interesting. Not too long ago there was a fellow I run into at a gym. He works there
and he saw me in a video. I was doing a wedding here locally and I guess he and his partner were
planning to get married, and they saw this video. I didn't know they had this video,
but the location where the wedding was being performed had me doing this wedding for some folks
in our church. And he saw me and he didn't know I was a pastor, but I was always friendly to him,
and I always say hello to him and say good morning to him, and so on. And he came up
to me one day and he said, "I saw you. I saw you in this video." He said, "We're looking at doing
our wedding there." And he said this is where he and his partner met or they met down the street
and wanted to have it there. And we had the most wonderful conversation where I got to tell him I
am a pastor. I got to tell him what I believe. I got to tell him about the gospel. And I haven't
seen him a whole lot since then, but we've talked here and there a little bit just saying hello and
so. But I got to preach the entire gospel to him and explain to him what I believe. So,
in one sense it is easier for me, but people don't always know I'm a pastor. That sometimes comes up
a year or two or three afterwards. There are times that people hear the gospel from me when they
don't actually know I'm a pastor and sometimes they don't find out till a year or two later.
BINGHAM: You invite them to church and they see you in the pulpit.
PARSONS: Well, I don't actually always invite them to church. I invite them to Jesus. In fact,
in that same gym is a trainer that I worked with early on when I started working out at
the gym. And I always laugh, I always joke with people who say, "You work out of a gym,
really? I don't believe it." But the trainer I worked with, he has actually been coming
to our church. So, I'm very grateful. But no, you know, back when I was in high school and college,
I worked in the restaurant industry and lots of different places and, you know, I got to know
lots of different people. And one thing I'll say is this. Some of the people I worked with,
who identify as homosexuals, they have often told me, they said, "You know what? I have never met
a Christian like you because you tell me the truth. You tell me that you think I'm wrong.
You tell me that you think I'm in sin, but you are one of the kindest people to me."
And I have names in my mind right now that I can go back and refer to of women and men
that I've known and I still think of and I still pray for, but I think that we can be kind
and I think we can be gracious and I think we can also preach the truth and speak the truth
with clarity and conviction. And they won't always like that. They don't always respect it,
but I think we as Christians are called to do that.