Welcome back to Aspastor John. This summer Pastor John is out of the studio preaching in Belfast in Scotland before returning to the States for a 40-day writing leave to finish up a book on Providence on the sovereignty of God a book he started last summer and hopes to finish this summer I cannot wait to see it and all of it the travel the book writing in this very podcast is all made possible by you we are supported by the prayers and the funding of God's people so thank you for generously and

investing in this important and eternal work so with Pastor John busy we're diving into our archive of 1500 episodes and this summer we're pulling out some of your favorites about once every 50 episodes we release one that touches a nerve and touches the 300,000 play mark these are the elite episodes in our six and a half year history we only have about 30 of them and here's one of them

Pastor John here is today's question if you were invited by a family member to attend a so-called same-sex marriage ceremony would you attend it just kind of

plating that thought is heartbreaking my answer is no I wouldn't and that would be a kind of shattering of the corner stone of a father's broken heart at that moment

and here's here's why I assume that's what they really want to know not just with ride go or not but why why would you number one it's not a wedding

because it's not a marriage and therefore attending it as a wedding is to be false like everyone there is being false

there is no such thing as a so-called same-sex marriage God has defined marriage as a covenantal union for life between a man and a woman as husband and wife this isn't that

therefore this is not a marriage and this is not a wedding I'm not going to lie about it by going to this union if you can dare to call it

that is not being joined in heaven Jesus said what God has joined together let no man separate this is what makes weddings awesome

they're not human accomplishments God joins a man and a woman marriages made in heaven Jesus said not between two people merely or a pastor or a judge

and this pairing of two men or two women is not being joined in heaven and to give the impression that it is is an offense to heaven number three

this blessing of this event would be hateful it would be hateful for me to do it

because it would be confirming a life and a lifestyle that will lead to hell

the apostle Paul said don't don't be deceived neither the sexually immoral or idolaters or adulterers or men who practice homosexuality

or thieves or greedy or drunkards or revilers or swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God they won't

so to celebrate this lifestyle is to celebrate the destruction of human beings

and that's hateful it would be like gathering to celebrate theft

gathering to celebrate drunkenness gathering to celebrate swindling let's all have a meeting and celebrate greed

let's all have a meeting and celebrate adultery anybody that joins in celebrating sin is sinning

I shouldn't sin the fourth thing I would say is that this ceremony will defile the drama of Christ and the church

God designed marriage to display Christ's covenant to his bride the church to celebrate a brideless union

as marriage is to distort and deface the parable of the most beautiful act in the world

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