Homosexuality and the Church Today

Transcript

GRM 524
4/13/1997
Homosexuality and the Church Today
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh


We have been studying the book of Colossians on Sunday morning at Indian Hills and we took a break from that study a few weeks ago and we’re not going to quite get back to it yet this week. I anticipate next Sunday morning we will return to Colossians, but I want to address a subject that I’ve addressed on other occasions here. A couple of reasons for addressing it. One, it is currently in the news. Two, I want us as a church to be clear on the biblical reasons why we are where we are on the subject. Number three, I want to be sure that our position as a church is well known and well established in light of the direction of the way things are going. So, I want to talk about the subject of homosexuality today. It is a matter we have talked about before, we have a booklet on the subject that you can get and read. It is in the news again because I understand Ellen is coming out. I have never seen the program, don’t know the person but she is important enough to have made the cover of TIME magazine and evidently has a television program. And a, two of the news magazines that I looked at, and I didn’t go to check the rest of them out, but both TIME (TIME has a multi-page cover story) and Newsweek, didn’t have the cover story but they had, 2,4,6 pages devoted to it. I have to say, I look at some of these things that are called news magazines and think that there are billions of people in the world, people dying for a variety of things, and this is the most significant thing that went on last week? Something that is evidently happening in a television sit-com kind of situation. I think it maybe brings out what is really important, at least in our country and in our society. I realize that most of you are clear that the Bible addresses the subject of homosexuality and addresses it as a sin. I want to say at the front end I would understand it to be sin, but not unforgivable sin. Why I am focusing on this particular subject today as sin, I would understand that the provision God has made for salvation, for cleansing, for new life and power to live a life that is honoring to him, encompasses this sin as it does any and every other sin. So I would not want anyone to go away with the idea that I pick it out because I think Homosexuality is the sin of sins, which can’t be forgiven. But nor would I want anyone to misunderstand that the biblical position is homosexuality is a sin which God detests, which God hates, which God will judge as He will other sins as well. One of the things that is going on in our society is there is an environment that is progressively developed and created which make certain sinful practices more and more acceptable. Much of this environment is developed through the media and out of Hollywood. For example, it wasn’t that many years ago, depends on how old you are how you view this statement, that divorce was viewed as something wrong. And we would reflect on Hollywood stars and think how terrible it is that they divorce their husband or wife and marry someone else. And that is what Hollywood does but that is not what the rest of us do. Well that progressively has been done enough that it has become common and acceptable. Now Hollywood leads the way and has led the way and helped condition us to accept the fact that you don’t even need to be married. In fact that simplifies things, you just flow into a relationship and when you are done with it, you have never been married anyway, you just flow into another one. So people will use the media to express they are proud? No. We live together, we have children together, we don’t have any intention of getting married now. This kind of thinking is to condition us, and we are not shocked by it. And furthermore we find it more and more acceptable and I think that whole process is going on with homosexuality in our day. It wasn’t that long ago that this was considered deviant behavior. But more and more there is an open push to find this just a variation of the normal. In one of these articles, I read these and several others on the subject, made note of the fact that if you know someone who is homosexual or you have a friend or family member who is homosexual you will be much more tolerant and accepting of the behavior. That is the danger, I believe it is true. The more exposed to sin we are the more accepting of sin we can become. That is why it is important for us as God’s people to be reminded God’s position has not changed. In fact, it has remained the same from the creation and will until the climax of all things.



A few years ago in one of the news magazines there was a survey done about three years, TIME magazine, June 27, 1994, and ah, some of the statistics show thinking. Sixty-four percent of the people, and I was surprised it was this high in this survey, did not believe that homosexual marriages should be recognized by law; 64% said they should not be. That’s a high percentage. 31% felt they should be. Sixty-five percent felt there were giving too much attention to homosexual rights. Again, would show, at least in one sense, there are some strong feelings opposed, at least, to ratifying this behavior by giving it marital rights, and about the same percentage feel we’re just giving too much attention to that whole area. But I was interested to note that 46% said they would allow their child to watch a TV program with a homosexual character in it. One of the things that happens in these settings is these people, and part of it is the rabid homosexual movement, that is ready to attack anything that is taken as, you know, oppressing a minority. These characters are always presented in a good, positive light. So 46% of the people don’t have a problem with their child watching that, what we’re doing is conditioning them that these people are really nice, they’re really okay, it’s not so bad. I was also interested, “would you attend a church or synagogue with a homosexual minister or rabbi?” 42% said, yes. I scratch my head. There’s a breakdown here. Sixty-four percent don’t believe that they ought to be allowed to marry, homosexual ought to be allowed to have a marriage relationship. But 42% said they go to church where the rabbi or minister is homosexual. In other words, this conduct is all right if you’re not married? I just tried to think, there are certain percent of these people are confused or they don’t bother to think, they just fill in the box. “Would you allow your child to attend a preschool that had homosexual staff members?” 42% said, “Yes.” This is a breakdown of how you see this behavior and do you see it as threatening, as wrong, as sinful, as morally corruptive? I was interested. And I have thought at least there was on person who expressed what I would see as a proper balance. And this came from a lesbian. They are interviewing people. Is coming out going too far? We condition people by changing terminology. People aren’t drunks today. When I was growing up in the big city and somebody was laying on the sidewalk with an over-influence of alcoholic beverage, they were drunks. Now we have alcoholics. And if I stand up and I say to you, “I am a drunk,” you say, “well that is terrible. Change.” If I get up and say, “I am an alcoholic,” you say, “oh that’s too bad.” So you don’t have homosexuals today. You have gays. Some expressed in these articles, they don’t like the terms homosexual and lesbian, they like gay because then you know you just have gay and straight. You just have alternatives, not quite the stigma attached to it. Is coming out. What does it mean coming out? I would say it is being blatant about your sin. What ought to be done today. That’s what coming out it. I want to declare my sin. But they interviewed one female author, Camille Peglia. She says, “as an open lesbian I say the entertaining industry has been exploiting the artistic talents of gay people throughout the 20th century without ever giving them their due.” Not surprising from a lesbian. But listen to what she goes on to say, “but the objections of conservative Christian ministers who believe in the Bible are well founded. People on the left have got to accept that it is not simply bigotry that causes believing Christians to object to this kind of element in popular culture.” Well, that was an interesting statement, from an open homosexual. But you have to understand Bible believing Christians aren’t bigoted when they oppose homosexual behavior. That comes out of well-founded biblical beliefs. That was an honesty that is lacking in most of what is discussed here and so I think it is important that we as Christians ought not to be bigoted in the sense that we have selected out a group just because we don’t like them, or as they say you have homophobia. The reason you have homophobia is because we always fear the different, or fear the unknown, or fear what is new, or whatever. And you know, do you have homophobia? Well, I don’t have. I don’t think in the way that they are expressing it, I have it in the way I feel about child sex claims of sin. Do I have pedophobia or some such concocted word? Yeah I would say that kind of sexual deviance with adults and children, I would fear it, I would be angry about it, I would find it morally repulsive. I am opposed to it. In our society today if you stood up and didn’t say that they would think that you were some kind of deviant. I would say I have the same kind of attitude against homosexual behavior and other sinful behavior. Some of this comes on to intimidate us. Even as believers and we feel that we don’t want to come on too strong. We feel that we have to couch everything carefully less anybody be offended and go away and say that we are bigots. Well, I am opposed to a number of things as you, as everyone is. In fact, it was not that long ago that our society believed that it was the right thing to be opposed to such behavior. I alluded to an article up here several years ago in the newspaper about a prominent psychiatrist who wrote to the editor of the New York Times asserting that homophobia, not homosexuality is a form of mental illness. And he is the chairman of the American Psychiatric Associations committee on Gay, Lesbian and Bi-sexual issues. He says quote, “Consensus grows among mental health professionals that homophobia, the irrational fear and hatred of homosexuals, is a psychological abnormality that interferes with the judgement and reliability of those afflicted.” Now that ought to somewhat scare you that a supposedly intelligent man writes a sentence that is just totally nonsense. Homophobia is the irrational fear of homosexuals. Is there a rational fear of homosexuals? No if you are opposed to homosexuals you have the irrational kind. And that means you have a psychological abnormality, and that means your judgement and reliability is affected. Doesn’t sound like you are far from saying this person ought to be placed in a situation where he could be reprogrammed. Amazing. Well, we are concerned with what the scriptures says about the subject, and what I want to do is just walk you through some of the basic Bible passages on the subject, beginning in Genesis chapter 1. So, you can turn there and then I want to give you some comments from some other places. You can turn your Bible to Genesis chapter 1 and put you bulletin there. You can jot down John 17 verse 17 where Jesus said, “sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.” What we need in considering a subject such as this is truth. Well, the problem is morality in our society is relative. One of these articles makes the statement, “All morality is relative.” Well that is scary, because if that is so maybe we will return to events like what characterized Nazi Germany and in the moral situation is will become okay. We are moving toward that and it will take place in the tribulation period for Jews as well as believers of other nationalities to be martyred. All morality is relative, that is what happens if there is no standard all we have is opinion polls and the decisions of the elite of our society who decide for us this is what society ought to believe and ought to do and now we have to help them realize it. Get rid of their abnormalities. We have truth, unchanging truth by which everything must be measured.


Turn in the Old Testament to Isaiah chapter 8, Isaiah chapter 8. In connection with the offering, I remarked about the fund-raising I was watching on a television network for religious television. You know I was impressed. I was impressed how gullible people are. Now I realize many of the people sending in their money are not believers they are simply religious. But I am concerned that many believers listen to this, and it is all mixed together with the hocus-pocus of power and magnetic field in the hands that can multiply your gift a hundred fold. Where in the next breath they talk about isn’t it wonderful that we can know all of our sins, past, present and future have been dealt with and forgiven in Jesus Christ. People hear that and they allow that to lend credibility to other things. We have to be careful that we are handling the Scripture, but handling it accurately and consistently. Isaiah chapter 8 verse 19, “When they say to you “consult the mediums and the spiritus who whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God. Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living. Where do you go to consult your God? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word it is because they have no dawn.” No light, no morning, they are in darkness. You see the standard? The word of God is truth. You can consult God by going to His word. If they don’t speak according to this word it is because they are in the darkness. Personal relationships, family relationships, friendships cannot be allowed to color my thinking. Truth must be the standard. Now we know this truth is going to be distorted. When we studied 2 Peter together we saw in 2 Peter chapter 3 that Peter warned us about those that would distort the scriptures. Listen to what Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 16, Paul writes in his letters, “Some things hard to understand which the untaught and unstable distort as they do the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction.” We studied as we noted these false teachers, these hucksters, are going to use the scriptures, but they are going to distort them and twist them. “You therefore beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the air of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness.” We have to be careful as believers that we are anchored in the scriptures, that we are not diluted by the hocus-pocus that comes along. I have to confess, I have been watching this share-a-thon for about a week, I try to get about 15 or 20 minutes in before I go to bed. You know they are effective in raising money. The first night I tuned in, for that day they had 8 million dollars in commitments. They have a hundred and fifty phone lines. Operators, they keep showing them on the television. Five million dollars when I went to bed the second night for that day, 7 million dollars the third night. I said, do people really give this kind of money to this kind of foolishness? The man last night was up there saying you know we have the power to multiply your gift a hundred-fold, he came to understand recently that it has to be now. Just think of how many times the Bible uses the word now. So, if you want God to bless you a hundred-fold it has to be now, get on the phone. Call in your commitment. Well, he is right, the Bible does use the word now, but nowhere in any context does God say I’ll multiply anything you give a hundred-fold now. In fact, nowhere does the Bible say God is going to multiply what you give today a hundred-fold. But we take the Scripture and we just throw these things out rapid fire. “They distort and twist the scripture to their own destruction.” We have active now, within the evangelical church, homosexual movements led by people who believe that homosexuality is completely consistent with being a Bible-believing Christian. They are either terribly confused Christians who have fallen from their own steadfastness or they are the leaders who are twisting the scripture to their own destruction. They’re manifesting their lost condition because the Scripture is absolutely clear.

We have to go back to Genesis chapter one. The opening three chapters of Genesis are foundational as we have talked about before, to everything else that comes in scripture. That is why they are incisively under attack. They are under attack from within the evangelical church today by those who say, the opening chapters of Genesis are not meant to be taken literally, like you read your newspaper. That is by people who are ignorant, you have to understand the literary genre of the time, this style of writing was never meant to be taken literally. Under the guise of the genre of the literature, the style of the literature, the kind of literature you are dealing with, and the way it has to be dealt with, we move away from just reading and accepting it for what it says. But consistent when you move through the rest of scripture anytime these opening chapters of Genesis are dealt with not as some different kind of genre, but they are dealt with as literal, factual events. We get impressed by the scholarship of the day that comes from within our own realm, evangelicals and seminary and so on. We say well, I guess I don’t know enough about Genesis to interpret it but they say this is not literal, so I guess it is not. Now just take it as God gave it. Take it as God interprets it Himself later on. It is not so difficult. But we want to pick up the creation in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 of mankind. Chapter 1 unfolds in summary fashion, God’s work of creation down through the different days. Verse 26 tells us, “Then God said let us make man in our own image according to our likeness, and let them rule.” So God is going to make mankind in His own image and He is going to place man at the head of creation to rule over everything else. Verse 27, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created Him, male and female He created them.” So now man is created in the image of God, God blessed them, God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, subdue it and rule over it.” God’s intention here that man and it says mankind because He created the man as male and female. They would rule over creation that they would have children, their children would have children, and they would fill the earth. Verse 31, “God saw everything that He had made and it was very good.” There you have God’s statement on creation. It is very good, it is perfect. Everything is as God intended it to be at this point.


Amazing, I was reading a statement by a Roman Catholic bishop or cardinal supporting the Pope’s position that evolution is acceptable science. And this Roman Catholic leader was saying well, we have been teaching this in our Parochial schools in New York for years. We have to come to understand that Adam and Eve may have been some form of sub-life, that God infused a soul into. Where do we get this? We don’t get it from the Bible, we get it from man’s thinking. You come to chapter 2, and if you read some of the biblical feminist they support those who say chapter 1 of Genesis gives one account of creation, chapter 2 gives a totally different kind of account. So you pick and choose.

So those in the feminist can’t say we pick chapter 1, because there male and female are equal. We don’t like chapter 2, that is not the right account because there you have hierarchy and we all know hierarchy is a no-no today. What you have in chapter 2 is God simply unfolding the details of His creation of male and female. Not a different account of creation. Now let’s pick up what is the center of God’s work of creation. That which is in His own image, and God gives the details of how He did it in verse 7 of chapter 2. “Then God formed man of the dust from the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” Man became a living being, God planted a garden. God placed the man in the garden to till the garden and take care of it, to cultivate it. He told him you can eat of all the trees of all the fruit except one. It doesn’t sound like some pre-human blob to me or some animal form of life. Furthermore, God has all of the animals come before him and he names them. It sounds like we have devolution going on today not evolution if that is the case. There is a man of such intelligence and insight that he can name the animals. And I take it in the naming of them as consistent with the Old Testament there was a recognition of something of their innate character and being. And they are so identified. But God said something about this man verse 18. God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Well you can understand why the feminists don’t like this. We are going to make a woman and you are going to call her a helper for man? I don’t like it. But you see our problem is what God says he did. So our problem is with God. And we see Romans 1 is true. We worship the creation not the creator. Because we are going to make our own story, our own account the way we want it to be.

God says it is not good for man to be alone. “Now among all the animals” the end of verse 20 tells me “there was not found a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 1 and 2 are clear. There is a clear unbridgeable chasm between the animal world and the human world. And man does not find the companionship that he needs with a good-looking ape. Just not there. Even though we are told they are our nearest looking relative. No. There was not a helper found suitable for Adam. Now God did not do this for His benefit. He did it for Adam’s benefit. It helps solidify God’s plan in Adam’s mind. So then the Lord God put Adam to sleep in verse 21. He put him to sleep. He took out a rib and He closed the flesh up. Then he fashioned the rib into a woman. That’s not so hard to imagine. He fashioned the dust into a man in verse 7. Now He takes out of the side of a man a rib and constructs a woman. This truth picked up in the New Testament. Paul doesn’t say well you know we just have a story here. You just have to understand the genre. It doesn’t mean you take it literally. He takes it literally in writing to the Corinthians and says the woman was made out of the man. I guess Paul didn’t get to study genre himself. But we believe in inspiration. The Spirit was directing.


So here now you have a helper suitable for the man. He’ll be talking about male, female relationships in Colossians chapter 3, so we are not going to run down that road now. Just to note it is God’s plan that man have a compliment, a helper, one that is suitable for him in every way. That compliment that completes him and enables him to be everything that God intends him to be is a woman, a wife. So God brings the woman to the man. In verse 22 “God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.”” You see the insight of Adam, the intellect? His understanding had not been marred at all by sin. He names the woman on the basis of what she is. She is part of man. She shall be called “woman,” she was taken out of man. And the play there is in the Hebrew words here is picked up in English. “Woman.” Man with “wo” on the front. Similar kind of thing done on the plan on words in the Hebrew text.

I am reading a book and it had a quote in the book from the National Organization of Women. “NOW” is the acronym. And in there they refer to women, but they spell it wimmin. And there is no place for men and the connection of women to men. You see the animosity that is being developed in our society develops out of an animosity to God and His plan. If we are not careful this kind of thinking begins to infect us as Christians, and we even become a little bit tense. Do you know how to raise the temperature level of the church? Stand up and say I want to speak to you this morning on the role of women. Some of you say “Gil, this is not necessary right now.” Why is there such tension about it? I mean I can stand up and say to you, I want to speak to you on the Biblical issue of this and there is not. But all the sudden we speak on this and there is tension. Well tension doesn’t come from scripture. Scripture has said the same thing for millenniums. But we are less comfortable with what the scripture says and less sure that we want to live under the authority of scripture in some areas, so they become tension areas. So we walk around them.

So here God’s intention for a man is a woman. I mean He could have made two men. He didn’t. He could have made two women. He didn’t. He made the man and then He said “it is not good for the man to be alone,” he needs a companion. A helper that I will construct that will be suitable for him. Now the New Testament tells us there is a place for the single life but it is abnormal in that sense. It is not the normal pattern. The normal pattern is the companion. In special cases God by His grace gives a gift that enables you to live a single life to devote yourself to Him.

In our society incidentally, failing to recognize this, we are creating all kinds of moral problems. We are pushing back and back and back and back and back the age for marriage. Because now it is not only get done with high school and college, and not only get done with college, get done with grad school and not only get done graduate school but get established in your profession, and not only get established in your profession but be sure that any diversions won’t slow you up. And all the sudden you wonder why there are moral problems. Well, we ignore God’s plan. This is a different day. Well God’s plan works every day.


How do we interpret this? “This is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh” in verse 24. “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his [friend.]” Modern day paraphrase. It doesn’t say you shall cleave to your “friend”. It says “You shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.” Leave your marker there and come to Matthew chapter 19. Let’s find out how Christ dealt with the literary genre of Genesis 2. The question of marriage and divorce has come up in Matthew chapter 19. It doesn’t come up because they are confused. It comes up because they want to trap Christ and discredit Him. Well in answering their question about marriage and divorce, not what Christ says. Verse 4 of Matthew 19, “He answered and says, “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female.”” He does not say have you not studied the genre of Genesis to gain insight into the background of what is really being said in that kind of literature? Just read it. Haven’t you read Genesis? He made them male and female. That tells you what God’s plan is. A male and a female. He didn’t create four males and one female. He didn’t create one male and four females. He created a male and a female. And He said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.” They are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate. Now is that not simple, literal interpretation just as you would the newspaper?

What is God’s intention? God back to creation. Well, we don’t want to go back to creation. We don’t believe that account. We are animals. Well, we are trying to prove that we can live like animals. But God’s account is true. He created a male and a female. He brought the female and the male together and Christ says that is God’s intention unchanging intention from the creation. Violation of that is sin. I mean it couldn’t be any clearer. And I am not bothered in that sense. I am not amazed that the world is confused. The world has rejected the truth of God, so they are adrift looking for someone to tell them what is right. But we as God’s people ought not to be adrift. There is no confusion here. It is clear from the beginning of creation. That’s why Hebrews chapter 13 verse 4 says “let marriage be held in honor by all. In marriage the bed is undefiled. Adulterers and fornicators God will judge.” God intends sex within the marriage relationship to be beautiful, to be fulfilling. It is an expression of the oneness that characterizes us in more than the sexual area as a married couple. But the sexual relationship expresses that oneness. Anything else, sex in any other context will bring the judgement of God. “Adulterers and fornicators God will judge.” Fornicators, homosexuality would come under fornication. That’s God’s plan.


Come back to Genesis. Now just a side note here. And these are always what get me in trouble. God made a helper suitable for the man. That wasn’t a boyfriend. It wasn’t a man friend. It was a wife. All this emphasis today on male bonding, that a man needs a male friend that he can confide in, is so much--. That’s where I get in trouble. I mean it’s foolishness. Now I’m not saying it’s anything wrong with a man having some men who are friends. And women having women who are friends. But I don’t need a male friend. I need my wife. She completes me. She’s what God provided that is suitable for me. This idea that what is wrong with men is that they haven’t learned to express themselves to other men. Hug a man! Well, do what you want, I’ll hug my wife! We get drawn into this. We say, Yeah, this makes sense, because their saying, We want men to lead. But for men to lead they have to become like women and they have to become expressive and they have to have male friends. And if you haven’t learned to bond with a man you haven’t really developed yet as a person, and on and on and on. I think back and read, “God said, “It’s not good for man to be alone, I’ll make a helper.”” He made him a woman. He said that woman would be his wife. So I have what I need. I’m glad for the male friends I have. I don’t need them, not like I need my wife. She completes me. And that’s God’s plan. With all these manmade ideas that sound so wonderful and really we’re just ignoring the simplicity of God’s plan, the simplicity and beauty of God’s plan.

Well, chapter 3 of Genesis the fall enters the picture. When the fall enters the picture, everything goes into turmoil. The fall occurs when the man and his wife rebel against God. The wife rebels but the man takes the leadership. He is responsible. When Adam rebels the fall of the race occurs. And that rebellion continues to spread out and multiply with the consequences death and the judgement of God. You come over to chapter 19 of Genesis. Chapter 19 records the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Cities infamous right down to our day the city of Sodom gave its name to the sin so prevalent there. So today you can read in the paper about Sodomy. Picked it up from the name Sodom and the ugliness of the sin of that city. What you have is not just a historical account in Genesis 19, but you have something given as we will see as an example for us to learn God’s attitude toward sin and the assurance of judgement that will come towards sin. You know the account. Adam, Abraham and Lot, Lot is Abraham’s nephew go separate ways because they both have great herds and wealth. Lot ends up in the city of Sodom. We find him in Genesis 1 sitting in the gate of Sodom. Couple of angles have come to Sodom and they have come down to bring judgment on the city because, chapter 18 verse 20, God had said, “Their sin is exceedingly grave.”


One thing we see with this sin. This sin of open widely practiced homosexuality is always a sign of the final state of deterioration of a city, of a nation, of a country. Well, what happens is these angelic beings appear as men. They come into the city as was customary with the practice of the day in hospitality, Lot invites them to his home for the night. They go to his home. Verse 4 tells us, “Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house,” note this, “both young and old, all the people from every quarter.” This sin had permeated Sodom. They weren’t just in a bad part of town. These men came from every quarter of the city and they were from all ages young and old. This corruption had spread. You say well, that’s really a lot worse, but give us time. One article that appeared a few years ago in USA Today noted that in Fairfax County, Virginia, the 10th largest school system in the nation, it waits until the 9th grade before showing the video “What if I’m Gay?” Tell we are not doing what we can to encourage perversion among the young. Not just among the old. This article was written in the context of the issue that was going on in New York City because one of the boards of education in one of the burrows of New York were refusing to teach 1st graders tolerance of homosexuals. This began with a standoff with the Queen’s Board of Education tenaciously refusing to teach 1st graders tolerance of homosexuals. So we read about Sodom and the men of the city, young and old, came. And we can pick up a daily newspaper in our own society and there’s a debate and a stand-off of whether your going to teach 1st graders that homosexuality is acceptable and show a 9th grader a film to help them decide whether they’re homosexual. You tell me that we haven't become like the city which God says, which we’ll see in a moment, is an example of His attitude towards this sin, and the assurity of judgment that it will bring. Yet there are people who claim to be Bible students and say, the real problem at Sodom was not the homosexuality. It was that it was done in a promiscuous way. It wasn’t done in loving relationships. That’s their sin. Well, there reading between the lines; my Bible doesn’t make that distinction neither in the Old Testament or the New Testament. Verse 5, “They called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men that came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them.”” Have relations with them. When the angles strike them blind, they weary themselves trying to find the door. Sin is a driving passion, consumes a person. Verse 9, when Lot tried to reason with them, he even offered his own daughters, something for us hard to understand, but in that culture you had to protect you guests in your home at any cost. Note what they said at verse 9, “Stand aside. ”furthermore they said, “This one came in as an alien and already he is acting like a judge.”” Who are you to judge us?! Well, not so new is it?

Look over in the New Testament. Keep a place there and jump over to the book of Jude, all the way at the end of your New Testament just before the book of Revelation. The little one chapter book of Jude. And what Jude is doing here is giving some examples of God’s judgment in the past which assure us that God will in His time bring judgement on sin. And one of the examples is Sodom and Gomorrah. Look at Jude verse 7. “Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh are exhibited as an example in undergoing to punishment of eternal fire.” You see they are an example. They are something we are to learn from. Back up a few pages to the book of II Peter chapter 2. Verse six, Peter is doing the same thing, giving a series of examples of past judgement to assure us of coming judgement. “If He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives hereafter.” So we oughtn’t to just read the account of Sodom and Gomorrah as interesting history. It is to have an ongoing impact on us. What it says is God will judge sin. As we will see as we proceed in the Old Testament and this evening as we continue in the New Testament, the sin of homosexuality is one of those glaring sins that God singles out for special attention for His special hatred, sin that He detests.

Come back in the Old Testament. Go to the book of Leviticus. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. The book of Leviticus, we are in the Law of Moses. We don’t live under the Law of Moses today. But what we will see is God’s attitude toward this behavior is the same from the beginning of the Old Testament right on through the New Testament. And in Leviticus chapter 18 verse 22, “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an abomination.” The word “abomination” is used a number of times in the Old Testament. It is used a number of times in this chapter. It means something that is abhorrent, that is detestable. One of the finer commentaries on Leviticus translates it “that which God hates.” You shall not do this. Why? God hates it. It is detestable to God. It is abhorrent to God. You shall not. There it is, homosexual behavior. God finds it an abomination. “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female.”


Again there are those today trying to claim to be Evangelical Christians who say what we are really talking about here is a lack of love in a relationship. What we are talking about here is sexual sin in the context of worshiping an idols because verse 21 talked about offering your god to idols. Well is that what we are talking about in verse 23 then, bestiality? That’s only wrong when you don’t love the dog. You say something is not right here. I hope you are saying something is not right here. You are probably sitting here thinking does he have to say this in public. I don’t know that I came to church to hear this. But it is what God has in His word and we cone to church to hear what God says in His word. “You shall not have intercourse with any animal.” I mean this idea we are going to pick out this and say we are really here. You have to have love. And it is only in idol worship that this is forbidden. They twist the scriptures to their own destruction. And that is a serious, serious matter.

So he goes on. “Don’t defile yourselves by these things.” He is speaking to Israel. He punished the people who practiced these things verses 24 and following. That’s why the Canaanites are driven out. They did these detestable things. And I judged them. It is the warning of scripture. God will judge sin. We think that we can just pursue it and God has not done anything so it must be acceptable. Well in His time. The Canaanites did it for a long period of time. The Sodom and Gomorrah people did it for a long time. God judges in His time. He will judge sin.

Look over in Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13. They are in the context of incestuous behavior. You understand people are saying you know we are finding that we are born with this tendency. Well you can say that about any sin. I was reading the account of a man who is in prison and eligible for parole. And he is saying I hope you won’t parole me because I will go back and do the same sin. The sin that he was guilty of was sex with children. He says I have had these desires and tendencies ever since I can remember. Well we get enough people saying that. Does that mean that we are going to decide that that behavior now is acceptable in our society, that as long as you have the desire or the tendency or at least the interest in it for as long as you can remember, it must mean it is normal because you were born like that? Well as Bible believing Christians we must all remember we were born sinners and sometimes the propensity for a certain sin manifests itself very early age. Our propensity to sin generally manifests itself very early. But for some people they lock on to specific sins very early. That oughtn’t to surprise us. Are we going to begin tot justify this. If someone, a murders says you know I have had a desire to kill someone ever since I can remember. Well, you know it must be natural for you. I will just try to stay out of your way. I mean the absurdity of it. But somehow well these people are born with this desire. Well I don’t doubt that. We are born with a desire to rebel against God. Only God’s salvation sets us free. Only God’s power enables us to live free.


I say that because we are on the section of incest here. And you know we still hold certain taboos in our society. But I get fearful the way we continue to discard them with no foundation for discarding except some people have said it is time to discard them. Verse 13 says of Leviticus 20, “If a man lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood guiltiness is upon them.” We have some people reading the Bible who think this gives them the right to go out and kill a homosexual. That’s why we have to realize we don’t live under the Law. What we are seeing here is what God revealed in the Law. We are not living under Law. But we find out before the Law was given and after the Law was done, God’s attitude toward certain sins has remained the same. Certain things remain detestable before God.

The issue is not here love. “If any man lies with a male as with a woman and does not love that male” is the way some want to put this. No. Those conditions aren’t there. This is a violation. We go back to Genesis. God created a male and He created a female. He brought the female to the male and now we are told a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. They become one flesh, expressed sexually. That is God’s plan. Why in that quote I read from the National Organization of Women where they spelled women wimmin, they also in their final statement in bold letters had the declaration No God. Because we cannot recognize His authority. I mean so there has to be no God in our plan. And you see what? Man as mankind here, the female part of it exalting themselves as God, overruling anything God has said or would do because this is the way we have determined it will be.

This is a vile and gross sin. We have to pick up with one other Old Testament passage. Then this evening we are going to move into the New Testament passages to show the consistency of the Word of God. But in this context I want to leave you with a reminder and we as Christians must remember we are not talking about the unforgivable sin. And we do not want to give the impression in dealing with this sin that it is anything less than a detestable, vile, repulsive sin before God. He hates it. But you understand that this is a sin that is just as forgivable as any sin. For God hates all sin. He will judge all sin and the only hope for sinners, homosexual and heterosexual sinners, And all have sinned is the grace of God manifested in the salvation He has provided in Christ.

And that salvation is so great and so powerful and so awesome, it sets free from the chains and bondage of sin. “If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed.” I have no question that people who are saying you know I can’t be anything else. This is what I am. I have to say I believe what you are saying because you are a sinner and you are manifesting what you are. But Jesus Christ died to set you free. And not only that. When He sets you free, by the grace of God He indwells you to give you the power to live free. And every single one of us can praise God for that. And I have to be careful I don’t look down and say, I thank You Lord that I am not a sinner like homosexuals are sinners. Lord I am a sinner but I am not like them. I don’t know that there is any indication that the apostle Paul ever was a homosexual. As a Pharisee I would assume he was not. But he says I was the chief of sinners.


So we focus on this sin because we don’t want to lose perspective. Biblically it is a detestable sin and can be seen as nothing else. But biblically it is a forgivable sin and that brings hope. And if we don’t understand it from a biblical perspective, you understand there is no hope. You are consigned to live in bondage to that defiling, corrupting, destroying behavior. People are giving their lives in the pursuit of this sin with the diseases that are coming and have overtaken many. And they continue to pursue it. What a tragedy. But there is freedom. That freedom is in Jesus Christ. May we never stop presenting the glorious gospel which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Let’s pray together.

Father we thank You for who You are, the awesome creating God. Lord how amazing it is that we can take our Bibles and turn to the beginning chapters and have unfolded there Your clear presentation of Your work of creation and see and understand in that work of creation something of your purposes for men and women, for the sanctity of marriage, for the beauty and completeness of the marriage relationship. Lord thank You for the consistency of the scriptures which is Your word to mankind. Lord I pray for those who are here who may be ensnared and entangled in the very sin that we have been talking about. Perhaps in secret in the hidden ways that others don’t know about, the lust of their heart. Lord may they come to experience the freedom that is found in Christ. Lord we realize that freedom doesn’t mean a life of ease. But in the battle and struggle with sin there is the sufficiency of our God and his power to live above and beyond the bondage of sin and its slavery. We give You the praise again for so great salvation in Christ’s name, amen.