Earlier in the service I read from the first
chapter of Romans what is really a very, very
shocking portion of Scripture.
Just to remind you that Romans chapter 1,
verses 18 to 32, describes the wrath of God
that is unleashed in the world.
The wrath of God is divided into a number
of elements.
There is eschatological wrath.
That is the wrath that will fall on the earth
at the end of human history in a time called
the time of Tribulation.
There is sowing and reaping wrath.
That is the wrath of God that comes consequent
on sin–whatever a man sows, he reaps.
There is cataclysmic wrath.
That is the wrath of God that He sets on man
from miraculous use of the natural order,
such as the Flood, or any other massive disaster
that catapults souls into eternity.
So there is that wrath of God which is eschatological
and which is consequential and which is cataclysmic.
And then there is that wrath of God which
is eternal wrath, and that would be the wrath
of God unleashed on the ungodly forever in
the punishments of eternal hell.
But the wrath that is being referred to in
Romans 1 isn’t any of those.
It is the wrath of abandonment.
The wrath described here is the wrath that
is executed when, according to verses 24,
26 and 28, God gives them over–gives them
over, gives them over.
In other words, it’s when God abandons a nation.
It’s when God abandons a society and gives
them over to the consequences of their behavior,
which is escalating iniquity and disaster
leading to judgment.
This wrath of God is released from heaven,
“revealed from heaven,” verse 18 says, “against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who suppress the truth.”
And he goes on to say they all have the truth;
the truth is visible from creation.
You can know something of God and His nature
and from the heart, Romans 2 says, the law
of God is written in the heart.
But when man abandons God, as revealed in
creation, when man abandons God, as revealed
in conscience, when man abandons God, as revealed
in Holy Scripture, suppressing the truth,
God judges that society.
And though that society may consider itself
to be wise, it is in reality the ultimate
ship of fools.
The heart becomes darkened when God is abandoned
and then God abandons the darkened heart.
What you see in Romans chapter 1 is the sequence
of what happens when God abandons a nation.
First, verse 24 says, He gives them over to
“the lust of their hearts to impurity,” sexual
sin, the dishonoring of their bodies among
them.
When God abandons a society, the first thing
that happens is it becomes pornographic.
It becomes obsessed with sex, obsessed with
fornication, adultery, every kind of sexual
behavior.
We have gone through that already in the sexual
revolution a couple of decades ago.
The second thing that happens when God abandons
a culture is found in verse 26, “God gave
them over to degrading passions…their women
exchanged the natural function for that which
is unnatural…in the same way also the men
abandoned the natural function of the woman
and burned in their desire toward one another,
men with men committing indecent acts and
receiving in their own persons the due penalty
of their error.”
At the end of that verse, “Receiving in their
persons the due penalty” is the diseases that
come consequent to homosexual behavior.
And as you know, they unleashed on the world
the horror of AIDS.
But what it’s saying here is that when God
abandons a nation or a culture under His wrath,
there will be a sexual revolution followed
by a homosexual revolution.
And we are living in this very condition.
There’s a third step, verse 28, “God gave
them over to a depraved mind,” that’s a mind
that doesn’t function, that can’t think right.
So life becomes filled with unrighteousness,
wickedness, greed, evil, envy, murder, and
we talked about that last week, the massive
murder of millions and millions of unborn
infants in the womb that is carried on in
our country and around the world.
Also characteristic of this depraved mind
is they become haters of God, haters of God.
We’re living in the outpouring of the wrath
of God in the category of His abandoning a
culture, and we’re living in the sequence
that is here–a sexual revolution, a homosexual
revolution, a reprobate mind that unleashes
everything, including murder on a massive
scale, and hate toward God.
It was shocking to me a few weeks ago, as
I said last Sunday, to see that these very
things that God hates and that bring down
God’s judgment were affirmed as part of the
Democratic Party platform.
Open sex with government-provided contraception,
murder of babies in wombs, God left out of
the platform, and homosexual behavior even,
advocating homosexual marriage–an oxymoron,
since that’s impossible.
Now, all of a sudden, not only is this characteristic
of our nation, but we now promote it.
One of the parties, the Democratic Party,
has now made Romans 1, the sins of Romans
1, their agenda.
What God condemns, they affirm.
What God punishes, they exalt.
Shocking, really.
The Democratic Party has become the anti-God
party, the sin-promoting party.
By the way, there are seventy-two million
registered Democrats in this country who have
identified themselves with that party and
maybe they need to rethink that identification.
I know from last week’s message that there
was some response from people who said, “Why
are you getting political?”
Romans 1 is not politics.
The Bible is not politics.
This has nothing to do with politics.
This has to do with speaking the Word of God
through the culture in which we live.
It has nothing to do with politics.
It’s not about personalities; it’s about iniquity
and judgment.
And why do we say this?
Because this must be recognized for what it
is–sin, serious sin, damning sin, destructive
sin.
You say, “Well, our society cultivates tolerance
and you’re giving hate speech.”
What I’m saying is not hate speech.
What the Democratic Party is saying is hate
speech because they must hate the homosexuals
if they will allow them to go the direction
they’re going, affirm that knowing that it
will take them to hell.
That’s hate speech.
This is love speech.
You either warn them or you affirm them.
And Romans 1 warns them and any faithful Christian
warns this is dangerous, this is deadly.
It’s better to warn them than to affirm them.
You might be the nice guy to affirm them,
but that’s not love speech, that’s hate speech.
I want you to look at 1 Corinthians chapter
6, 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
And what I’m going to do is just put you in
touch with what the Word of God says so you’ll
know the truth.
The news is very bad, but the news can also
be very good.
Listen to this, 1 Corinthians 6:9, “Do you
not know that the unrighteous will not inherit
the kingdom of God?”
Do not be deceived by the propaganda by the
media, by the films, the television programs–everything
you’re exposed to–educators.
“Do not be deceived; neither fornicators”…That’s
people who engage in heterosexual sin…”nor
idolaters”…And sexual sin and idolatry always
historically have been connected…”nor adulterers”…That’s
people who have relationships with other than
their spouse…”nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit
the Kingdom of God.”
We exist as a church to proclaim the Kingdom
of God, is that true?
We have been given the keys to the Kingdom
of God.
Jesus declared that to His apostles: “I give
you the keys to the kingdom of God.”
Our responsibility is to tell people about
the Kingdom of God and who can be in the Kingdom
of God and who is excluded from the Kingdom
of God.
That’s the ministry of the church; that’s
what we do; that’s what every preacher must
do.
And I’m not the one who makes the terms.
I am only the one responsible to God to proclaim
what God has revealed.
And I’m here to tell you that if you advocate
a life of sexual sin, adultery, fornication,
effeminateness, or homosexuality, you will
not inherit the Kingdom of God.
What that means is, you’re on your way to
hell, not heaven.
This is the spiritual kingdom of those who
are in Christ.
The church is made up of people who were like
this.
Please notice, here’s the good news, verse
11, “Such were some of you.”
That’s right, this is the church in Corinth.
And what is the church made up of, all righteous
people who have been righteous since they
were born?
No, there aren’t any–all sinners.
The church is a collection of former fornicators,
former idolaters, former adulterers, former
effeminates, former thieves, former coveters,
former extortioners, and former homosexuals.
“Such were some of you.”
That statement alone indicates this is not
some genetic defect.
You were this way.
You aren’t anymore, any more than every other
thing is to be genetically blamed.
Do people fornicate because of some kind of
genetic defect?
Is that why they’re idolaters?
Is that why they steal?
Is that why they covet?
Is that why they’re drunkards?
Is that why they’re revilers and swindlers?
If so, then we better have equal rights for
all of them and let them all start lobby groups
so that they can get us all to recognize that
this is a genetic issue.
“Such were some of you; but”…This is key…”you
were…sanctified.”
You know what that means?–separated from
that sin, separated from that sin.
People say, “Well, you know, if you’re homosexual,
you know, you can’t really ever be changed.”
That’s not what Scripture says.
You were like this, but you are sanctified,
you are separated from that behavior.
It doesn’t just say you were justified, that’s
forensic.
I’m glad it doesn’t just say you were justified
’cause then people would say, “Yes, I am forgiven;
the righteousness of Christ is imputed to
me; I’m justified, but I still have the same
sort of tendency.”
No, you were justified, but you were also
washed and sanctified, changed, separated
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that work is done by the Spirit of our God.
This is the message that we want to give to
the world: these are sins that send people
to hell, and people who advocate these things
and live these lifestyles will not inherit
the Kingdom of God, and hell is forever.
And we’re here in love to speak love speech
and say you must escape the wrath to come
by repenting and fleeing these sins, and you
can be washed and transformed and justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Through the years at Grace Church–and I’ve
been here a long time, since 1969–this church
has existed in a hotbed of homosexual activity
in Southern California.
And I’ve had my share of personal opportunity
to meet people who have been washed and sanctified
and justified.
And some of them are sitting among you and
you don’t even know that because they were
saved from that, just as there are adulterers
and swindlers and the rest that make up a
redeemed congregation.
I’ve had some incredible experiences.
I can remember going down to a local hospital–a
young man dying of AIDS; raised in a Christian
family; rejected the gospel; lived twenty-plus
years in a blatant, outrageous, homosexual
lifestyle.
The L.A.
Police Department told me some years ago that
the numbers of partners that active homosexuals
have would be an average of about 500, some
as many as a thousand–that kind of lifestyle.
This young man in his room was surrounded
by these kinds of friends.
He had called the church to say, “Could someone
come?”
He was dying and he was afraid to die.
And he held my hand, and squeezed my hand,
and I prayed that God would forgive him and
save him, and he cried out to God and repented
of his sin and pled with God to be merciful
and gracious and save him.
The same as David.
And I prayed, and he was squeezing the life
out of my hand.
And then when the prayer was over, he just
looked still and he looked at the clock on
the wall.
And I said, “What are you looking at?”
He said, “I want to remember the time of my
salvation.”
And he lived for a few more weeks and all
those people shunned him.
I’ve seen that and not just once.
And that’s why we’re here, to preach the message
of deliverance to the people who are trapped
in that horrible sin.
I can’t imagine that somehow it could be illegal
in the United States of America to speak in
love to those people, and that some party
in this country would adapt the tolerance
of homosexuality as something they affirm.
Unbelievable.
Well, you know, it’s being taught in public
schools from the time children arrive there
and through every form of media.
Sinners coming together around a certain sin
and demanding to have rights.
I wonder why the murderers don’t do that,
and the drug dealers, and the thieves, and
the rapists.
This kind of behavior is nothing more than
the expression of sexual lust, twisted and
uncontained.
People who want to talk about why do people
have this tendency and that.
Simple–wretched heart, debased heart, evil
heart taken down a path of destruction.
Best we can tell, there are about one percent
of the population that are homosexual in their
conduct.
It’s not a genetic defect.
But there are about one percent or maybe a
little more who behave that way.
You would think it was a lot more, wouldn’t
you?
There was a study of 518 mass murderers, mutilating
kind of murderers–350 of them are homosexuals.
One percent of the population and maybe seventy
percent of those kinds of people–it unleashes
a horrendous passion.
It’s a deadly sin.
And that’s just the physical part, to say
nothing of the eternal reality.
How could we not speak to this?
Go with me back now to 1 Corinthians 6 for
just a minute.
In 1 Corinthians 6 we see these words that
I just want to draw to your attention.
You know the word “fornicator.”
That’s porneia, from which the word “pornography”
comes–idolaters.
Because sexual sin was connected to idolatry,
all the idol temples had priestesses that
were nothing but prostitutes, and it was all
mingled together.
And you know what adultery is, having sex
with someone other than your spouse.
But take the word “effeminate” there.
That’s the word malakos, malakos in the Greek.
And it’s a technical word for a passive partner
in a homosexual relationship.
Effeminate doesn’t mean that you walk funny.
It means you’re the passive partner in a homosexual
relationship.
In fact, the lexicons–and by the way, homosexuality
has been around since the start.
I mean, Genesis 19, a whole city of people
in this sin, that God incinerated, and I’ll
get to that in a minute.
So it’s been around a long time; so there’s
plenty of words to deal with this in the Old
Testament and the New Testament.
Malakos is a technical term for the passive
partner in homosexual relationships.
It actually came to refer to the male prostitute
who offered himself anonymously for homosexual
vice.
“Such were some of you,” but you’re washed,
sanctified, justified.
The word “homosexual” is arsenokoites.
Koites is the word for “bed”; arseno is a
term for “man,” going to bed with a man.
That’s what it means.
It means going to bed with a man.
People who do that don’t inherit the Kingdom
of God.
They do not.
First Timothy 1:9, realizing the fact that
the law is not made for a righteous person,
but for those who are lawless and rebellious,
ungodly sinners; unholy, profane people who
kill their fathers or mothers–murderers,
immoral men, and homosexuals.
The law of God, the law of God, is made to
expose the lawless, rebellious, ungodly sinners;
unholy, profane killers of their parents;
murderers, immoral men, and homosexuals–that’s
not a nice group to belong to.
And they will not inherit the Kingdom of God
because you have to turn from your sin, repent,
confess, and beg for mercy.
How perverse is it that the major denominations,
so-called Christian denominations in our country,
affirm homosexuality, ordain homosexuals,
ordain lesbians, marry men to men, and women
to women.
Even the Quakers, and I quote, say, “Homosexuality
is no more deplorable than left-handedness.”
The Episcopalians have led the parade with
a well-known bishop for the whole of the United
States of America, who is a sodomite.
A local Methodist church not far from here,
the pastor says, “A homosexual is welcome
in this congregation, and will have all the
rights and privileges.”
That’s hate speech.
If you love that man, you’ll confront his
sin and tell him about the gospel so his soul
can be saved.
There’s strong lobby against this teaching
of Scripture.
In fact, liberal theologians have suggested
that Paul himself was a repressed homosexual,
struggling with his sexual yearnings that
never were resolved.
He was a kind of a self-hating guy, and there’s
even a denomination called The Metropolitan
Community Church.
At one time there were a hundred and ten of
them, it’s a homosexual denomination and the
leader, the guy that started it, a man named
Troy Perry.
I know Troy Perry.
Some years ago I was invited by a national
magazine to do an interview and a debate with
Troy Perry.
We went to an office building down in the
Los Angeles area, and I was there to confront
him and to discuss the idea of whether or
not you could be a Christian and a practicing
advocate of homosexuality as he is.
We got into the room, it was a very heated
kind of environment, you can image.
He had a few of his associates with him.
I had a great big huge lineman from the USC
football team because I didn’t know what might
happen.
That’s the truth.
And we sat across from each other, and he
started to talk about being a devoted homosexual
to one person that he loved, that God had
brought in his life, and he was talking about
the fact that you could be a holy homosexual
in that sense.
That, you know, you could be a Christian,
and he was parading himself as if he was some
pure person, and before he went I made sure
that he heard the message of repentance and
grace and forgiveness in Christ, which to
my knowledge, even to this day, he has not
believed.
The Metropolitan Community Church and the
people who advocate this, teach that homosexuality
is a gift from God, that Jesus was not hostile
to lesbians and homosexuals.
David and Jonathan were homosexuals.
Ruth and Naomi were lesbians.
Sodom was destroyed for a lack of hospitality.
And the
false church aids and abets all of this.
Writers about ancient history say this is
one of the major contributors to the decline
of the Roman Empire–that Nero, by the way,
was emperor when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians–and
Nero had a little boy that he had castrated
and he had a full wedding and married this
little boy and took him as his wife.
The little boy’s name is Sporus.
He was blatant.
It was advocated.
Paul’s world wasn’t any different than ours,
and he confronted it as sin because that’s
the only hope the homosexual has–to see the
sin for what it is and to find grace in Christ.
Looking back into the Old Testament, go back
to Deuteronomy 22, we just need to get the
clear picture here of what God has said.
And we’ll just try to cover a few things.
Deuteronomy 22:5, “A woman shall not wear
man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s
clothing; for whoever does these things is
an abomination to the Lord your God.”
That would be called transvestitism in my
day.
In this modern day it’s called cross-dressing.
It’s an abomination to God.
And actually in the Hebrew, the statement
would read this way, “A woman shall not use
that which pertains to a man.”
It’s a broad statement, “That which pertains
to a man.”
Clothing, obviously–style of life, implements,
weapons, tools, anything that blurs the distinctiveness
between a woman and a man.
Some old preachers used to say, “This is why
women shouldn’t wear pants.”
That doesn’t work because the men didn’t wear
pants in those days, they wore dresses.
We know that.
They all wore robes, so get over that.
Just be masculine and be feminine, that’s
the point.
It’s an abomination to try to look like the
opposite sex.
It’s an abomination to try to act like the
opposite sex.
Satan wants to obliterate that.
The ancient writer Maimonides mentions that
a man dressed in fancy women’s clothes would
come and worship Venus and Ashtoreth, and
women dressed in men’s armor would come to
honor the god of war, Mars.
This kind of crossing over has been going
on in all of human history, and it’s all over
the place in false mystery religions in ancient
times.
Chapter 23 of Deuteronomy, verse 1, “No one
who is emasculated or has his male organ cut
off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.”
This is a transsexual, somebody who has surgical
sex change.
People say, “This releases me from being a
captive in the wrong body.
Let me tell you something, you’re in the right
body, you might not like it, but it is the
one God gave you.
By the way, the word “emasculated,” interesting
word; it’s the word crushing.
That’s scary.
People would even go to that extreme to have
that done.
People were castrated for their deities.
Parents would do it to boys at the age of
ten.
This is paganism, paganism.
Leviticus chapter 18, just further understanding
of this, verse 22, “You shall not lie with
a male as one lies with a female; it’s an
abomination.”
It’s an abomination to dress like the opposite
sex.
It’s an abomination to have some kind of sex
change, altering of your body.
It’s an abomination to have a relationship
with someone of the same sex.
“You shall not lie with a male as one lies
with a female; it is an abomination.”
And it’s right alongside having intercourse
with an animal, with an animal–bestiality.
“Nor shall any woman stand before an animal
to mate with it; it is perversion.”
That’s the level of this perversion.
Just like a woman having a relationship with
an animal.
And the land, he says, will be defiled.
Don’t defile yourself, verse 24.
“For by all these the nations which I’m casting
out before you have become defiled.”
There’s Romans 1.
That’s why that judgment comes, because of
these kinds of perversions.
God abandons and then judges nations.
I don’t know how much time America has left,
I really don’t.
But we’re on a course described here as God
casting us out.
The land has become defiled.
“I’ve brought its punishment upon it,” verse
25, “so the land has spewed out its inhabitants.”
We get all caught up in the politics of this
election.
That isn’t the issue.
There are things vastly more important than
that, than personalities.
It’s about whether this society exists in
the future at all, as we know it.
The land is so defiled, God will spew it out.
First He abandons it, and then He destroys
it.
Verse 30 ends this section, “You keep My charge,”
keep My commands.
“Don’t practice any of the abominable customs
which have been practiced before you, so as
not to defile yourselves with them.”
Why?
“I am the Lord,” and verse 2, “You shall be
holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”
He’s saying to His people, you have to stand
against this.
It’s a shocking thing when this becomes the
agenda to support.
Chapter 20 of Leviticus, chapter 20 and verse
13, and there are just–this is a hard section
to read because it talks about so many ugly
things: incest, adultery, all kinds of horrible
things.
Verse 13, “If there’s a man who 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 bloodguiltiness
is upon them.”
Remember, we said last week the murder of
babies makes this land bloodguilty?
Their blood cries out for punishment.
Homosexuality makes this land bloodguilty.
“Their blood guiltiness is on them.”
They “have committed a detestable act; they
surely shall be put to death.”
Well, you say, “That’s such a terrifying message.”
And I say again, there’s still hope for them.
Turn to Isaiah 56, and the only hope is in
the Lord.
Isaiah 56, verse 3, “Let not the foreigner
who has joined himself to the Lord say, ‘The
Lord will surely separate me from His people.'”
In other words, I don’t have a chance.
I’m an outsider.
“Nor let the eunuch…the eunuch…say, ‘Behold,
I’m a dry tree.'”
In other words, I have no hope.
Listen to this, “For thus says the Lord, ‘To
the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose
what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant,
to them I will give in My house and within
My walls a memorial…a name better than that
of sons and daughters; I will give them an
everlasting name that will not be cut off.'”
What grace is that?
This is the homosexual, who says–and maybe
he’s even been castrated–“I’m a dry tree,
I can’t ever have a future.
I can’t have children.”
Horrible.
I don’t have a family.
And the Lord says, “Hold My covenant fast,
choose what pleases Me, and I’ll give you
a place in My house, and in My walls I’ll
raise a memorial to you and a name better
than that of sons and daughters and give you
an everlasting name which will never be cut
off.”
Play on words.
That’s the grace that God offers to those
who turn from this sin.
It’s important for you to know the dramatic
account if you aren’t familiar with it already,
in Genesis 19.
So turn to it.
God’s law is unchanging.
God’s law is unchangeable.
God’s attitude toward sin is the same.
And if you want to see a picture of God’s
attitude toward homosexuality and what’s going
to happen when Romans 1 reaches its ultimate
culmination and judgment comes, or when God
does what He said He was going to do in the
writings of Moses, to nations that are defiled,
that He would bring about their spewing out,
here’s an illustration.
Genesis 19, way back in the beginning of human
history, there’s a city called Sodom.
By then homosexuality has spread everywhere.
It didn’t take long.
You had the Fall in chapter 3, and then you
have the story of sexual sin that just goes
raging through the rest of the book of Genesis.
You have adultery, incest, rape, prostitution,
homosexuality, and it just comes like crazy
early on.
And by the time you get to the nineteenth
chapter of Genesis, you’ve got a city, Sodom;
another city, Gomorrah–cites of the plain
that are basically, literally defined by homosexuality
so that the word Sodomite means homosexual.
It’s that fast that this sin has taken off.
Two angels come to Sodom in the evening in
human form, which angels can do and did in
the Old Testament frequently.
And Lot is sitting at the gate of Sodom.
Lot’s living there.
He chose to live there.
So these angels show up, he rose to meet them,
bowed down with his face to the ground.
And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please
turn aside into your servant’s house.
Spend the night, wash your feet, then you
may rise early and go on your way.”
You’ve got to get in my house, get cleaned
up, get up in the morning and get out of here.
“No, we shall spend the night in the square,”
the angels say.”
We’re just going to stay here in the square.
“He urged them strongly,” verse 3, so they
turned aside and entered his house; and he
prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened
bread, and they ate.
They were real physical bodies that these
angels had taken on, and he showed them this
kindness.
And he was really trying to protect them.
“Before they lay down,” verse 4 “the men of
the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the
house, both young and old, all the people
from every quarter.”
The whole place is caught up in sodomy–the
whole place, young and old, from every part
of town.
They have just seen two beautiful men show
up in town, and the word is going around town,
and they’re ready for a mass rape.
And they show up at Lot’s house.
And they said, “Where,” verse 5, “are the
men who came to you tonight?
Bring them out to us that we may have relations
with them.”
But they wanted to rape them, gang rape them.
Lot went out to them at the doorway and shut
the door behind him and said, “Please, my
brothers, do not act wickedly”–“do not act
wickedly.”
And then he makes probably what he thought
was a safe suggestion.
“I have two daughters who haven’t had relationships
with man; please let me bring them out to
you, and do to them whatever you like; only
do nothing to these men, insomuch as they
have come under the shelter of my roof.”
This is kind of a stupid thing to do, but
this is a kind of perversion that has no interest
in what is normal.
That’s how far it’s gone.
Maybe he felt safe.
It’s still a stupid thing to do.
They said, “Stand aside”–out of the way.
Furthermore they said, “This one came in as
an alien, and already he is acting like a
judge; now we will treat you worse than them.”
You get out of our way or we will do worse
to you than we’re about to do to them.”
Nice group.
“So they pressed hard against Lot and came
near to break the door.”
And the men, the angels “reached out their
hands and brought Lot into the house…and
shut the door.”
Then “they struck the men who were at the
doorway of the house with blindness, both
small and great.”
They all went stone blind, supernaturally.
And listen to this, “So they wearied themselves
trying to find the doorway.”
What?
If I had just gone blind, I think I’d be thinking
about what happened?
How did I get blind?
I’d be running like a madman.
They’re all blind, and it doesn’t change anything.
In their blindness they’re wearying themselves
to find the door.
Then the two men said to Lot, Well “whom else
have you here?
Your son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters,
and whomever you have in the city, bring them
out of the place; for we are about to destroy
this place, because their outcry has become
so great before the Lord that the Lord has
sent us to destroy it.”
That’s the message, folks.
You live like this and God will send His destroying
angels.
And you know the rest of the story.
That is precisely what happened.
Verse 24, “The Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah
brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven,
and He overthrew those cities, and all the
valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities
and what grew on the ground”–destroyed the
whole thing.
That’s an illustration of how God feels about
a society that affirms homosexuality and people
that conduct themselves this way.
From this time on, from Genesis 19 on, the
word for homosexual is the word sodomy, sodomy,
sodomy .
A homosexual was a sodomite.
It is the Old Testament term for homosexual
used in 1 Kings 14:24, and also used in Deuteronomy
23:17 and 18.
And there in Deuteronomy 23:17 and 18, it
calls homosexuals sodomites and dogs, dogs.
A very graphic description of their conduct.
It is preposterous to call them gay.
Homosexual is clinical.
Sodomite is biblical.
But sinner is theological.
It’s a horrible thing, this thing, and it’s
a horrible thing for people to advocate it
as normal.
Tragic, tragic.
Isaiah has another comment that I want to
point you out to–point out to you–Isaiah
3.
Here Isaiah is talking about God’s judgment
coming.
God’s judgment is coming and–on Judah, southern
kingdom–and they’re very sinful.
Verse 8 might be a place to start; well, verse
9; let’s start there, “The expression of their
faces bears witness against them that they
display their sin like Sodom.”
In other words, they’re sinners and they’re
blatantly sinners.
Sodomites that assaulted Lot’s house were
blatant in their sin.
They do not even conceal it, he says, about
Judah.
It’s the same.
Look at this nation, the same thing.
“Woe to them!
They brought evil on themselves.
Say to the righteous…it will go well with
them, for they’ll eat the fruit of their actions.
Woe to the wicked!
It will go badly with them, for what he deserves
will be done to him.
O My people!
Their oppressors are children.”
In other words, even a child could overpower
you, you’re so weak.
Why?
“Women rule over them.”
Women rule over them?
In the culture of the Old Testament, it could
well be a sodomite.
Sodomites in the government, homosexuals in
rule.
I read an article two days ago on the rapidly
growing number of homosexuals–open homosexuals–populating
the United States Supreme Court.
Not the judges, but the surrounding masses
of people.
In a book called The Gay Invasion, the reports
are that, of course, we’ve had homosexuals
in every presidential cabinet since Franklin
Roosevelt, but never to the degree we do now,
and being appointed as judges.
In some cities they are the majority of leaders,
by the way.
Isaiah knew sodomy was all around them, a
part of life in Assyria, a part of life in
Babylon, a part of life in Egypt.
In fact there was much about homosexuality
among the pharaohs.
It took a while, it took about 150 years,
but all of this kind of seeped in and what
destroyed Sodom would destroy Judah.
And later it would destroy Greece, and later
it would destroy Rome.
This is always a deadly sin, and always a
defining sin, and always a damning sin.
In 1881 it was Sigmund Freud who came along
and said, “Well, I’ve studied homosexual behavior
and I’ve concluded it’s a psychological disorder
that comes from a domineering mother.”
The 1930s there was a man named Harlock Ellis
who published a manual on this, bringing sodomy
into the open, and he said, “It is a genius
gene.”
In other words, it’s a genetic gift that homosexuals
are uniquely geniuses.
And then he had a whole litany of supposed
homosexuals from Erasmus, the Dutch humanist;
and Christopher Marlowe, the English poet;
Michelangelo; Lord Byron; Francis Bacon; Oscar
Wilde; Walt Whitman, on and on and on.
So for him it was an elevated human being
in another level of genius.
It was in the forties and the fifties, [Alfred]
Kinsey came along and fabricated lies saying
one out of ten people in America were genetically
homosexual.
American Psychiatric Association declassified
sodomy as a sickness, and now it’s not only
acceptable, but it’s advocated.
This is where we are and this is on the brink
of judgment.
This is on the brink of judgment.
Now go back to Romans 1, verse 32, the end
of all of this in this section is that although
they know the ordinance of God–Is there anybody
in doubt about what the Bible says?
It’s clear.
In this country we all know that, in the Western
world.
Although they know the ordinance of God that
those who practice such things are worthy
of death.
I’ve just read that all to you, haven’t I?
“They not only do the same, but also give
hearty approval to those who practice them.”
That’s the issue, folks.
Why am I doing this now?
Because an entire party in the United States
has given hearty approval ( suneudokeo ).
Eudokeo means “to agree with, to consent to,
to be well-pleased, to think it is good.”
Sun means “together with others.”
Collectively this group has decided that this
is good and they give hearty approval.
No wonder they didn’t want God in their original
platform.
We have to speak the truth to rescue the perishing.
Turn to Psalm 107, and I’m going to close
there–Psalm 107.
Some years ago I was standing here at the
beginning of the service, and I got up to
read
the Scripture, and this is what I read, starting
at verse 4, “They wandered in the wilderness
in a desert region; they didn’t find a way
to an inhabited city.
They were hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted
within them.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He delivered them out of their distresses.
He led them also by a straight way, to …an
inhabited city.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness,
and for His wonders to the sons of men!
For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, and
the hungry soul He has filled with what is
good.
There were those who dwelt in darkness and
in the shadow of death, prisoners in misery
and chains, because they had rebelled against
the words of God and spurned the counsel of
the Most High.
Therefore He humbled their heart with labor;
they stumbled there was none to help.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He saved them out of their distresses.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow
of death…broke their bands apart.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness,
and for His wonders to the sons of men!
For He has shattered gates of bronze and cut
bars of iron asunder.”
I read that.
After the service was over, a handsome, tall
man, 6’ 3″ or so, walked up to me.
He’d been sitting right back there.
His name was Robert Logerstrum.
He was one of the directors of the gay pride
parade in Los Angeles, lived completely consumed
in a world of homosexuals, and was dying of
AIDS.
He said, “I have to talk to you; I have to
talk to you.”
I said, “Absolutely.”
So we sat and talked and he said, “I just
have to tell you, you preach a long time.”
I said, “Well, why are you saying that?”
He said, “Because when you read that Scripture,
I knew I was in the right place, and I just
wanted to get wherever I needed to get, to
whoever I needed to talk to, to tell how the
Lord could break the bands of iron and bondage
that holds me.
And then you kept talking, and talking, and
talking, and talking.”
Later when I talked to him on a couple occasions,
he couldn’t remember the sermon.
All he remembered was the Scripture.
But, he gave his life to Christ.
He was dying of AIDS, and he went to some
of his friends and he said, “I don’t want
to die.
I’m terrified to die.
Where can I get help?”
And the homosexual friends that he had said
go to Grace Community Church.
They sent him here.
These are unconverted people who know the
reputation of the church.
He came that one Sunday.
He came, gave his life to Christ.
I baptized him right here a few weeks later.
He was totally transformed.
He went back and the gay pride parade, went
down Hollywood Boulevard, right by his apartment,
and all his friends came by to see him in
his dying days, and he gave the gospel to
all of them.
And he went to glory.
And his baptism testimony was recorded and
played at his funeral to the whole homosexual
community.
That’s not politics.
That’s the gospel at work and if you don’t
have the right view of sin then you’re going
to get caught up in aiding and abetting people’s
destruction.
Now with that in mind, listen to the words
of that psalm.
“They wandered in the wilderness in a desert
region; they didn’t find a way to an inhabited
city.
They were hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted
within them.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He delivered them out of their distresses.”
I love this, “He led them also by a straight
way.”
They talk about going straight.
“Let them give thanks….There were those
who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of
death, prisoners in misery and chains….they
cried out to the Lord and He saved them out
of their distress.”
These are tragic people–sad, sad, people.
Profoundly guilty, empty.
You can’t affirm them.
Romans 1 ends this way in verse 32, “although
they know the ordinance of God, that those
who practice such things are worthy of death,
they not only do them, but they give hearty
approval to those who practice them.”
Really?
You’re gonna give “hearty approval” to that.
“Hearty approval,” suneudokeo in the Greek,
suneudokeo .
The word eudokeo means “to be pleased with,
to think something is good, to give consent
to,” and suneudokeo means “to give collective
consent.”
It’s an intense word, to join in being well-pleased.
Unimaginable that American leadership and
people would join together in giving hearty
approval to the destructive, deadly, damning
sin of homosexuality.
May the Lord help us to bring the gospel to
thousands of people like Robert and see them
delivered by its power.
Father, we are so grateful that You have not
left us in doubt about these things which
are part of life for us.
I pray that You’ll use us to bring the glorious
gospel of Jesus Christ to people in these
horrible chains of homosexual behavior, who
have no future, no family, no hope, who live
with massive guilt, pain, agony, driving unleashed
passions.
That You would come powerfully through the
instrumentation of Your people to bring the
gospel–it alone can save them.
Be glorified, Lord.
Turn the tide with Your truth and with Your
gospel.
Save people caught in not only this sin, but
in all kinds of sins that are so popular in
this culture.
Give the gospel a fresh hearing, we ask for
Your glory, in Christ’s name.
Amen.