The subject that I announced that I would be talking on, and will be discussing it today and then again next Sunday morning, is “What God Thinks of Homosexuals.” And I’ve purposely phrased the title that way. What does God think of homosexuals? Well, the answer is He loves them just like He loves you and just like He loves me. No different. What does God think of homosexuals? “For God so” – what? – “loved the world.” And He loved them enough that “He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” God loves homosexuals.

Let me show you a simple scriptural comparison to reinforce that. Look at Ephesians chapter 2 in verse 4. Ephesians chapter 2 in verse 4. This is what it says. This is one of my favorite texts. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you are saved.” Now watch. It is God making us alive. It is God saving us is what Paul is saying. And he says, “The reason God does this, the reason God is so rich in mercy and so free with His grace is because of His great” – what? – “love.” You see, the motive behind all salvation is God’s love for sinful man. Because of His great love with which He loved us, He has saved us. Everybody who has ever come to Jesus Christ is beloved of God. That’s the reason He redeems.

Now, I want you to compare that with 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9 and following. God sets His amazing, incomprehensible love on somebody, and thus redeems that somebody. Now, when you look at 1 Corinthians 6:9 with that in mind, we find something very interesting. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God.” But watch verse 11. “Such were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”

He says, “You know, the Corinthian church is full of ex-fornicators, ex-idolaters, ex-adulterers, ex-effeminates, ex-homosexuals, ex-thieves, ex-covetous, ex-drunkards, ex-slanderers, ex-extortioners; and they’ve all been washed; and they’ve all been sanctified; and they’ve all been justified.”

Why? Because of His great love wherewith He loved us. See? The reason God redeems anybody is because He loves.

If there is a redeemed fornicator, it is because God loves fornicators. If there is a redeemed homosexual, it is because God loves homosexuals. If there is a redeemed little white liar it is because God loves little white liars. So, you see, God loves all sinners, homosexual ones and every other kind. And, amazingly, He loves them all the same. That’s right. He loves them all the same.

Did you notice that in this verse, homosexuals are put right in there with people who are covetous? Amazing. A little closer to home. People who drink too much, people who slander others, people who extort, cheat on their income tax. You say, “You’re sure this is the same category?” Well, it’s in the same text. You see, it’s that we’re all ex-somethings, aren’t we? And if this is your first time to Grace Church, welcome to a whole bunch of ex-sinners. No doubt, some ex-homosexuals, some ex-fornicators and all these other things. Such were some of us. Amen?

But we’ve been washed, and we’ve been sanctified, and we’ve been justified, and the reason we have is because God loved us. I want you to look at those two terms in verse 9. The first term is translated in the authorized, effeminate. The word is malakos (???) in the Greek, and it really means perversion. You could translate it to perverts. But the – the base meaning of the word pervert is one who takes the role of the opposite sex. Technically speaking, you – you perhaps are talking about a transvestite or – that’s somebody who wears clothes of the opposite sex; and, you know, a lotta people do that. A lotta people. Do you know, I read an article that says one out of every ten women you meet aren’t?

Now, see, you laugh about that, and that’s understandable in a sense, but that is a sad thing, ‘cause that’s the sin of which it speaks. And Arndt and Gingrich say that the word probably also included men and boys who allowed themselves to become male prostitutes for homosexuals. So in that society, it encompassed somebody who was available to be used by a homosexual or somebody who was a perverted individual. And then the next word, and, of course, in the King James it says “abusers of themselves of mankind,” and it puts a whole half a dozen words in there, but it’s only one in the Greek, and the word is arsenokoitai (???) in the Greek, and it simply means homosexuals. Male homosexuals, sodomites.

And, by the way, if I use the term sodomite a lot and sodomy a lot, it’s because I feel that’s the best term to define this. The worst term is gay. Gay is a term that was invented in order to take the stigma away from this particular thing and to make it seem rather frivolous and fun and light and so forth. And homosexual is a little too clinical, but Sodom is the Biblical term. Sodomy is a term used biblically to define it. And a sodomite, not only speaks of the sin itself and the activity itself, but implicit in it is something of God’s attitude toward it. So that’s probably the best term to use, although it may not be the most popular with people who are involved in this kind of sin.

So you have here then, in verse 9, people who are transvestite or transsexual. A transsexual is somebody who would be castrated or would exchange his maleness for a quasi-female kind of lifestyle. And you say, “Did they do that then?” Yes, they did, even the – even to the castration. And so whether a transvestite or a transsexual or a male prostitute, it’s all wrapped up in that first term; and the second term would refer directly to a homosexual. Now, you’ll notice that, in the case of the Corinthian church, God loved these people. God redeemed these people. God brought them into the church.

They were one with the Father and one with the Son and one with the Spirit and one with everybody else in the assembly. They were forgiven. They were washed. They were sanctified and they were justified. And even with their consequent problems, and even with their reputation, and even with the stigma that might have gone with it, they had a place equal to the place of anybody else in the assembly of the believing. No different.

Now, homosexuality is mentioned seven times in the Bible, specifically; and in Leviticus – you don’t need to turn to it, I just want to allude to it. In Leviticus, as we shall see next week, it is made subject to the death penalty. In the Old Testament, a homosexual was killed for an abomination before God, which homosexuality was considered to be. But it is also interesting to note that in Leviticus, sodomy or the act of a sodomite, homosexuality, is not the only thing that brought about the death penalty. It is not as if it belongs in a category all by itself in its heinousness. There were many other things for which death was prescribed.

Well, similarly, in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, it is not singled out from these other sins as if it was something all in a category by itself. It is just one other way to manifest human depravity. That’s what the text is saying. And I’m afraid in the church we don’t always recognize that, and sometimes where we’re very willing to forgive certain things, we’re very unwilling to forgive that particular past lifestyle. John Drakeford in his book called Forbidden Love writes, “A man stands up in church and tells the story of his early drinking escapades and his slavery to alcoholism. Another admits having used drugs, and tells of his struggle with addiction across the years. In both cases, the man declares he is through with it all, and he is immediately hailed as a trophy of grace.

“In fact, there are preachers who travel the countryside relating the gory details of their past and drawing large crowds of hearers. But let a man stand in the church and tell about his struggle with homosexuality, a strange hush will descend, and the people do not want him to go on. In fact, they generally don’t want him to belong to their church.” I’m afraid he’s right. In the Corinthian church, Paul said, “Such were some of you, but you’re washed. You’re sanctified. You’re justified.”

What does God think of homosexuals? I’ll tell you what He thinks of homosexuals. Same thing He thinks of a sinner like John MacArthur. He loves them. Aren’t you glad? Aren’t you glad? I am. And not only does He love them, but He redeems them. Now, there’s more to the issue, and I want to ask a second question. What does God think of homosexuality? What is God’s view, not of the person, but of the act? And, by the way, I would add a footnote here. Nobody is really a, quote, homosexual as if that was some kind of definition from which he couldn’t escape. He or she is only a person who chooses to do homosexual acts.

Now, first of all, let’s define it. A sodomite is a person who engages in sexual activity with another person of the same sex. That is sodomy, the sodomite. And, frankly, it’s nothing new. We think, you know, “Oh, we’ve discovered a new one in our day.” No, this is an oldie. Take you all the way back to Genesis 19. Clear back in the first book. You know, when you get back to Genesis 19, you’re right back at the start.

And here’s the first time we run into this, and we’re barely into the Book of Genesis. We’ve barely gotten off the ground. And, along with all the other things that appeared in the first-to-15 (???) chapters of Genesis that Satan brought along to try to destroy God’s basic monogamous design, this is another one.

“There came two angels to Sodom at evening,” and these two angels came to visit Lot, having visited Abraham. They came into Lot’s house, and all of the sodomites, the homosexuals in town saw them and were astounded at their beauty, no doubt, and the aura that was around them. Because of their perversion, they came, and they wanted to sleep with them and to rape them. They came and tried to knock the door down.

And, finally, as the story goes on – and we’ll go into in detail next week – they – they had to – God had to literally come and blind them, strike them all blind. And, of course, immediately following that, destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. The city was full of homosexuals, and that’s where you get the term sodomy, sodomite. Somebody who commits the sin of Sodom.

Now, Ezekiel tells us that Sodom was not just a whole civilization of homosexuals, but that Sodom had given itself over to the gratification of the lust of the flesh, and it had manifested itself among other ways in homosexuality. And this is just one perversion that existed there among many, for which it was destroyed. But this was one particular central one that is pointed out in the passage as these Sodomites attempted to rape angelic visitors, the angels of God visiting Lot. This sin, coupled with the rest, destroyed the nation Israel, brought divine judgment.

Same thing that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed Jerusalem in Israel, and later was to destroy Greece and Rome. Did you know that in Greece, Socrates was a practicing homosexual? So was Plato, and wrote in his Dialogues a whole section in the symposium exalting homosexual love. Great part of Greek life. Did you know that 14 out of the first 15 Roman emperors were homosexuals? In The Twelve Caesars, a book written by Suetonius, there is an interesting chronicle of the lives of these Caesars. And it just goes through detail after detail describing their homosexual lifestyle and how it pervaded the Empire.

Did you know, for example, that Julius Caesar was a homosexual? It is said that Julius Caesar was the catamite, and catamite is another term for a sodomite or the partner of a homosexual. He was the catamite of King Nicodemus, and Dolabella called him the queen’s rival and the inner partner of the royal bed. Did you know that Caesar Augustus was a homosexual? In fact, he himself was a homosexual who sold his service for 3,000 gold pieces. And he softened the hair on his legs by burning them with a red-hot walnut shell, so he’d be more desirable to his male partner. And they still do things like that, shave their legs and so forth. Hooey.

Tiberius – Tiberius Caesar was also a homosexual, and his problem was manifested in the way that he was always adopting young boys with homosexual designs, and Tiberius was also a sadist in the way he treated those little boys. Caligula was a homosexual, as well as committing constant incest with his sisters. Nero seduced little boys. He found one he particularly liked by the name of Sporus, and so he had him castrated, put a bridal veil on him, a bridal gown, and put on an official ceremony and married him. And when Nero died, the next Caesar took up the relationship with the little boy. So it was in Rome. So it was in Greece. So it was in Israel. So it was in Sodom. So it’s always been.

You see, it’s nothing new. Nothing new at all. It’s been going on throughout the history of humanity. It’s exactly what Romans 1 says, “Man continues to invent ways to do evil.” Isaiah in chapter 1 verse 10 was speaking out to Israel, and he literally called them, “ye rulers of Sodom.” He literally said in Isaiah 1:10, “You’re just like they were.” Man has always had this. You say, “But, John, it seems like today it’s worse than ever.” Well, I don’t guess it’s worse than ever. Maybe it’s – maybe it’s just the proliferation of it and the publication of it is worse, because we have such media possibility.

One writer I read this week said that he watched television for 14 hours. And it was within those 14 hours of just any set time that he established – he established a 14-hour period and he watched television for that 14 hours – he listed 59 references to homosexuality. “Well,” you say, “how did we get where we are today in this mess? Why, I can remember when I was a boy,” you might say, “or when I was a little kid 30 years ago, nobody talked about this, and anybody who was this was hiding off somewhere. How did it get so far out and so widespread?”

Well, maybe I’ll give you a little background. In 1881, there was born a man by the name of Sigmund Freud. And Sigmund Freud recognized by the time he was older and began to work in psychological counseling and in developing certain psychological behavior pattern solutions, that homosexuality was a major problem in human society; and so he tackled the problem of homosexuality or sodomy. And he began to try to develop ways in which they could help these poor sodomites, because he concluded that it was a psychological sickness related directly to a domineering mother.

That was Freud’s theory. And as – as many other things from Freud stood the test of time, that one did for quite a long time. People believed that was true. That, in fact, it was a problem from a domineering mother. And so Freud faced this problem and he just passed it off as a psychological problem, not the fault of the person involved. You see, that was Freud’s ploy all the way. It’s what your mother did to you. He even said about people who believe in God, “That’s what your father did to you, made you need a substantive father image,” and so when you grew out of your family relationship, you substituted God for your father.

Freud was followed in the ‘30s by a man by the name of Havelock Ellis. And Havelock Ellis published a sex manual really brining this thing right out into the open and dealing with the issue of sodomy, and he pointed out some famous homosexuals. And his conclusion was that these great men accomplished what they did because their genius was related to them being sodomites. In other words, their homosexuality was hereditary, and homosexuality had implicit in it a bent toward the arty and a bent toward the genius, so that homosexuality – he denied what Freud said – was no sickness at all based upon a domineering mother, but it was hereditary. It was given to you, and with it came certain abilities.

He listed, for example, Erasmus, the Dutch humanist and scholar and author of the 16th century, as a homosexual genius. Michelangelo, the great Italian artist, is a homosexual genius. Christopher Marlowe, the English poet and playwright; Francis Bacon, the English essayist; Lord Byron, the author of so many poems, the British author; Oscar Wilde, and the American poet Walt Whitman. And he said, “All of these people are homosexuals, and you can see the genius of homosexuality.” And so he said it’s hereditary.

And those have been the two schools of thought. Some have adhered to Freud, that it was a psychological illness. And, incidentally, for years and years and years after Freud, there were people trying to help people get rid of this psychological illness. But Havelock Ellis came along in the ‘30s and said, “Hey, this is no illness. Look at Michelangelo. Look at Walt Whitman. Look at Lord Byron. Look at Erasmus. Look at the Christopher Marlowe. Look at Francis Bacon. Look at all these fantastic geniuses. This is something that is hereditary.

And Freud and Ellis were followed by a third person who brought us to our modern dilemma. His name was Kinsey, and in 1942 and 1953, Kinsey, Alfred Kinsey published the Kinsey reports, in which he made homosexuality statistically representative of a certain amount of people in America. He said, “Let’s face it, folks. Statistically, this is an alternate lifestyle. It’s here. It’s dominant. We might as well face it. We might as well enjoy it. We might as well live with it.”

And so you can see the progression. First there was Freud, who said, “It’s all around us, but it’s – it’s a sickness, and we got to help folks.” And then there was Ellis, who said, “This is no sickness. This is hereditary, and it’s almost bordering on a certain kind of genius.” And then there was Kinsey, who said, “And there’s a lot of ‘em, so we might as well face up to it. It’s a part of our society. Don’t get upset about it.” And with those three men came the flow that has brought us to the place we are today, the total acceptance of this.

And it’s interesting that the whole ideas of Freud, that this is psychological illness, for the most part in secular psychology and medicine are entirely rejected today. Listen to this. The American Psychiatric Association, in our decade, has removed homosexuality from its standard diagnostic manual, because it no longer considers it a psychological disorder. Why? They say it is hereditary. You’re born that way, and so we might as well let it go.

So in England in 1967, they passed the Sex Offenses Act, which permits homosexual acts by consenting adults; and, since then, according to one sodomite leader, England has become the gayest country in the world, a homosexual paradise on earth. And, believe me, in the next 10 or 15 years, America’s going to be equally a paradise for this. Do you know that in England, homosexuals, sodomites are invited into the public-school system to present to the elementary school children their particular alternate lifestyle, so that the young people can make their own choice?

Some say there are 30 million sodomites in America. The Denver Post recently reported in their Sunday Magazine that some of the major TV producers are gay and “have agreed to cooperate with the Gay Liberation party to portray homosexuals accurately and honestly on television.” We’re right in it, folks. It’s not new, but certain situations in recent decades have contributed to a massive drowning of – of society in this. Television, movies, books, magazines, and all the while, the sodomites are crying out as if they were a mistreated minority who have no rights. And, frankly, in a relativistic society like ours, if they’re loud enough and get enough votes, they’ll be accepted.

Sodomites in the land. It destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. It destroyed Israel. It destroyed Greece. It destroyed Rome. The track record isn’t too good. And as I’ve said so often, if God doesn’t destroy America pretty soon, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. For example, the Gay Community Service Center in Hollywood, whatever in heaven’s name that would be, just received – I was reading this this week, a $305,000.00 grant from the United States’ government for gay education for 75 homosexuals. $305,000.00 to outfit classrooms for gay education. I’d like to see the furniture.

The latest issue of Publisher’s Weekly, which is a very important publication monitoring all the current books being written, shows 60 different books from 39 publishers dealing with homosexuals. “They are increasing in sales,” it says, “and looking forward to even better sales with the deluge of new books.” That’s Publisher’s Weekly. Such as the Joy of Homosexual Sex, that’s out. The Joy of Lesbian Sex.

Here’s another one. Gay: What You Should Know About Homosexuals for Children 10 and Above. McGraw-Hill has published one, A Family Matter: A Parent’s Guide to Homosexuals. It says it is “A handbook for parents to help them respond positively to their homosexual children.” Another book called Another Kind of Love is “a maturing view of Christian gay life.” And there’s one called Jonathan Loves David: Homosexuals in Bible Times, published by Westminster Press.

You see, it’s not epidemic. It’s pandemic. It’s not upon us. It’s all over us. We’re drowning in it. Homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality, transvestitism. Even here at Grace Church, I baptized a transsexual one time, not knowing it. Could the days of Lot have been any worse? Could they? You say, “Well, John, what are the explanations for it? Was Freud right? Is Havelock Ellis right? Who’s right?”

Well, let’s go back and think about it. Freud said it was a mental disorder acquired from a domineering mother, so it was a psychological thing. And he said – and just to give it in one word – it was produced by environment. And Ellis came along and said, “You’re wrong, Freud. It’s produced by heredity. You’re born with this.” And you know something? That Freud is pretty well a dead issue. There are some who would perhaps agree with that, but – but the out-front, overt sodomite community identifies with Ellis. And the Christian gays, quote – and I use that in quotes because it can’t be. It can’t be really true.

But those at the Metropolitan Community Church who call themselves Christian gays have said, “Yes, it is hereditary. Yes, it is a gift from God.” See, that’s their new thing. They have that in their publications. “It is a gift from God.” And for them, they say it would be a perversion not to fulfill it. And I’ll get into that in Romans 1 next week when we look at the Scripture and how they twist the Scripture.

Well, for years, Freud was right, as far as everybody concerned, and – and everybody used to go to great lengths to try to help these people. Freud tried it by analyzing their dreams and exploring their subconscious. And then surgeons came along and, for years, they did radical lobotomies to try to cut out the homosexual propensity by doing a frontal lobotomy and cutting the brain. And others used to give great doses or hormones. Shoot them with hormones, and some with chemicals to shock the system out of being a sodomite. In more recent years, they used electroshock, and then they’ve used hypnosis, and then they used aversion therapy.

You know what aversion therapy is? Well, it’s like what they do with alcoholics sometimes, you know. They give an – take an alcoholic in for therapy, and in order to condition him against alcohol, they’ll give him all kinds of things and then – and – and then when they give him alcohol, they’ll shock him. And then as they – every time he touches – the alcohol touches his lips, they shock him. Or else they’ll give him a certain pill, and whenever he drinks anything that has alcohol content, it’ll make him deathly sick and he’ll vomit and throw up. And by creating an aversion, or by creating a repeated bad experience, they hope he transfers the aversion to the alcohol.

Well, they’ve done the same thing in trying to cure homosexuals when they deemed that it was a psychological problem. And what they would do would be to shock them every time they would see a homosexual. They’d show them long films, and they’d have heterosexual people, you know, and normal things going on. And, all of a sudden, a homosexual would come on the screen, and they’d jolt the guy with the juice, see. And they figure after a few weeks of that, he’s going to hate homosexuals. So they’ve tried it all. But in the last few years, they realized nothing worked.

You know why nothing worked? Because there’s only one thing in the whole world that’ll work, and that’s the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the only one, you see, who can change the life. He’s the only one who can turn you away from sin to righteousness. He’s the only one who can make a change. Well, they couldn’t come to Christ, and so what they decided was, “Well, I guess you can’t cure it,” so they came up with a statement, “Once a homosexual, always a homosexual.” And you hear people say, “I never knew anybody got cured.”

I know somebody that got cured. A whole bunch of them in the Corinthian church. But they got cured by the Lord Jesus Christ, not by getting wired up and shocked. What have you done for a homosexual if you’ve made him into a fornicator? Huh? Nothing. Transferred one sin for another. The answer is Christ. Well, finally, they realized they couldn’t do anything with this, so they decided it’s better to say it’s hereditary. The American Psychiatric Association removed it from the books, and they said, “It’s just hereditary” And the Christian, quote, “Christian gays” love that. They say, “Right, you see, it’s a gift from God.” They call it constitutional gayness.

You want to know, I did some reading on that. And, you know, there is absolutely, and I mean this, there’s absolutely zero medical, clinical evidence that it is hereditary. Zero. There is no such thing as a hormonal imbalance. There is no such thing, clinically, as a man living entrapped in a woman’s body. And I’ve had people say, “Well, you see, John, I – I’m a man trapped in this woman’s body.” “I’ve had” – I mention it (???) – “Well, I’m a woman, and I’m trapped in a male body. That’s why I had this transsexual surgery.” That isn’t true. That is not true. Medically, clinically, that is not provable. That is not verified. There is no chromosomal imbalance that makes you a man trapped in a woman’s body or a woman trapped in a man’s body.

You say, “But, John, I’ve seen these people, and – and some of the – the male sodomites, they are so, you know, they’re so – they’re effeminate, effeminate.” It’s true. Want to know something interesting? I did some study in that. You know what I found out? That is learned behavior. Did you hear that? That is learned behavior.

The effeminate mannerisms are learned and encouraged and reinforced. They are not a result of some female hormone or some imbalance or some kind of creation of God. They are learned mannerisms, learned by somebody who does that, because they are attempting to appeal to another homosexual. It’s purely learned behavior. And science and medicine and psychology has never been able to prove the contrary.

You say, “What is the sum of all this?” The sum of it is people are sodomites for no other reason than that they choose to sin in that manner. That’s all. That’s it. There are really no environmental demands. There are no hereditary demands. Although I would say there are certain pressures that can come into a life that can push somebody that way. Maybe a domineering mother, maybe a resentment of women can help to kind of trigger that, but the cause of it is a willful act of choice.

And former homosexuals will say, invariably, that what happens is you have a homosexual experience and you have a sexual fulfillment in it, because that’s possible, and that is the way you go. And then that is reinforced to you by the individual you were accompanying and the reinforcement brings you into it again. And, pretty soon, it is a habit of life which you have chosen, and it is then reinforced and re-encouraged. Simply a choice.

The former homosexual, Guy Charles, told a correspondent for a national newspaper these words, “Nobody is born gay. You are born male or female, and the conditioning you receive as you grow up shapes your sexual development. At some point in our lives, we make a decision either physically or mentally to participate in a sexual act. The decision is repeated over and over until it’s a habit, and the habit forms the lifestyle.” And then once you’ve chosen that lifestyle, they say you develop the mannerisms to appeal to other sodomites.

Charles related how he became a homosexual. He was the sick, anemic son of a Salvation Army bandmaster. His physical progress lagged behind other children his age. He discovered he had a talent for art. At 16, he became involved with a well-known designer for the Broadway stage. The man introduced Charles to the practice of homosexuality. Charles was hooked. Thank God Charles today is unhooked by Jesus Christ.

I heard the testimony of two other converted homosexuals, heard them personally sharing their testimony this week. Both of them stated Jesus Christ had totally delivered them from what was a chosen lifestyle, having no relation to any causes which they had no control over. It is something people choose to do, even the effeminate mannerisms. That’s why the Bible can condemn it, you see.

Sadly, and I mean sadly, the church today won’t face this. And the church today wants to accept this thing either as a psychological sickness or a gift from God. But it isn’t. We even have today those, “Oh, it’s a gift of God,” and now we’ve got homosexual churches. Do you realize that? The Metropolitan Church of Los Angeles started it. They have 109 of their churches across America, Canada, England, and Africa. They’re doing mission work in Nigeria, converting peoples to Christianity and homosexuality, one in the same time. I’ll read you their mission report in a minute.

Spokesman, for example, for the National Council of Churches, that is the National Council of Churches in America, says, “It is simply not true that the Bible has a clear position on homosexuality. The Bible does not teach that it is a sin.” That’s the National Council of Churches. A major denomination in America recently ordained a lesbian. The Roman Catholic church has over 100 organizations for homosexuals. The major one is Dignity. That’s the name of it, Dignity. An evangelical church recently voted a homosexual couple into membership. And I read this week a report by the Quaker church. You remember the Quakers? Said this, “Homosexuality is no more deplorable than left-handedness.”

Why is it? This breaks my heart. Why is it that the church is so continuously stupid as to buy the spirit of the age? But they’ll do it every time. Every time, they do it. And if you stand up in the midst of this thing with a prophetic voice and call people back to the integrity of the Word of God, you are damned for being unloving. Well, I guess I love God, and I love His church too much to let impurity exist. Homosexuality is more deplorable than left-handedness.

But we got to get back to the Bible. Look at Jude 7. I’m going to quit after this verse, Jude 7. And next week I’m going to take you to every passage in the Bible that refers to this and show you what the Bible teaches. Jude verse 7. Go back to verse 6. He’s talking here about apostasy and he makes an interesting comparison here. Verse 6 says, “And the angels, who kept not their first estate – that’s the fallen angels, the angels who fell with Satan out of heaven and became demons – “they left their own habitation.” Who are these angels? Well, these are those fallen angels and demons that left their habitation. In other words, they left the habitation of angels and came to men.

Genesis 6, remember that? Where it says, “And the sons of God came and cohabitated with the daughters of women,” and the result was a half-breed, mongrel demon-man, and God had to send the Noahic flood to wipe that civilization of half-breeds out. And what he’s saying is that, “God reserved those demonic beings who cohabitated with humans in everlasting chains to the judgment of the great Day.” – Now, notice – “even as Sodom and Gomorrah.” And there’s the parallel. Whatever the sin of those angels was parallel to the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah.

I’ll show you next week where the – the “homosexual Christians,” quote, say that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was a lack of hospitality. Listen, the sin of those angels was going after strange flesh, was going after human flesh, was mingling angels with men, which is not normal. Men were to be with women, and women were to be with men, not with angels. And the sin of verse 6 was the angels who wanted cohabitation with the men, and the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was the men who wanted cohabitation with the angels. Do you see? It’s a reverse of the same perversion. “Giving over to sexual sin and going after strange flesh are set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of fire.”

Listen, God destroyed a whole civilization that did it in Genesis 6. God destroyed another civilization that did it in Genesis 19. God destroyed a civilization that did it in the time of the Babylonian captivity. God destroyed a civilization in Greece that did it, and God destroyed a civilization in Rome that did it, and God will destroy another civilization that does it. They are an example of judgment, what happens when a people go apostate and pursue a wrong relationship outside of God’s design.

You know what the sad thing is? I’ll tell you. The sad thing is the Metropolitan Church, Troy Perry, and Robert Sirico and all the rest of them, are doing something that is hellish. By going around the world and converting people to homosexuality and telling homosexuals that they’re okay, they’re literally damning people. This is their recent mission newsletter, which I have a copy of. It says this. “Sunday the 17th of November was the dedication of the church in Nigeria. I preached to over 150 people as Brother Felix interpreted.

The same beautiful spirit we feel in other Metropolitan churches – and they have 109 of them in America – was everywhere present. Such singing as I’ve never heard and the quietness of the Holy Communion, interrupted only by the goats across the street. The offertory, where everyone danced down the aisle to leave their small offerings on the altar, all these were deeply moving.

And in my heart, once again, I praise God for the universal fellowship in Nigeria where, out of 150 people, two gay brothers sat, worshipped, and shared with all God’s children, unafraid and loved, because we are there with Christ. If you’d like slides, some of the recorded music from the worship service in Zaria, you can have them. They’ll be presented to those at the Eastern and Western Ministers Conference.” Very organized.

You know what’s sad about it? What’s heartbreaking is, you see, God loves those people. You know that. God loves them; and when you deny the problem, beloved, you deny the cure. You understand that? And Paul said, “No fornicator, and no idolater, and no effeminate, and no homosexual shall enter the Kingdom of God.” And in their latest letter where they call David and Jonathan two homosexuals, and where they say things about them that I wouldn’t repeat in public, they closed the whole thing with listing the four spiritual laws, and telling a homosexual how he can become a Christian homosexual. You can’t be one according to 1 Corinthians 6. “Such” – what? – “were some of you.”

If a person says, “I’m a Christian,” but continues the same lifestyle, it’s not true. If any man be in Christ, he’s what? New creature. And so the sad, heartbreaking thing is that God loves the homosexuals. God loves the sodomites. But God’s love can’t touch them in that situation, because they won’t admit that sin is there. And what a satanic, hellish perversion to call it a gift of God. And so they anesthetize those people against the only one who can really redeem them and change them. The Lord Jesus Christ. Can you see the subtlety of that satanic lie? When you deny the disease, you eliminate the cure. Well, next week, we’ll look at the texts that talk about it.

Father, thank You for our time this morning. Father, help us to love the sinners like Jesus did. Doesn’t matter what their sin is. Help us to love them. Help us to forgive them. Help us to share with them, not in a state of shock, but in a state of love, the Gospel.

But, Father, sometimes when it comes to these apostates, give us a holy boldness to stand up and proclaim the truth. Help us to call fire from heaven like Elijah. Help us to denounce them like Isaiah. Help us to curse them like the prophets of old, because they damn people with their lies. God, I pray like David. Take vengeance on your enemies and draw some of these people out of this to Yourself, so that Grace Church may even have more ex-sodomites than we’ve ever had, because they’ve come to know Jesus and been transformed.

And, Father, I want to pray one more thing. I know there are some people right here this morning who have a problem with this. They have tendencies to commit this kind of sin. Father, I pray that if they’re not Christians, You’ll bring them to Jesus Christ, who alone can change them. And if they are Christians who are still fighting it, I pray that You’ll bring them to 1 Corinthians 10:13 and to the great confidence that “there is no temptation taking you, but such is as common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you’re able, but will, with the temptation, make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Help that – that one who is a former homosexual and still fights the temptation, Father. Strengthen him or her, undergird them. And for some who’ve fallen into this thing, even some Christians, perhaps, shatter them. Wake them up that we may live a holy people unto You. Thank You for loving all of us unworthy sinners. In Jesus’ name. Amen.