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Homosexuality |
Dear Brethren,
Do we hate homosexuals or fear them? The answer is, neither.
Homophobia, and other derogatory terms, divert the reality of
the matter from the truth. This question came up recently,
indicating that God made homosexuals that way - that they were
born that way. That, too, is not true. God has created no
one with a predisposition to what God refers to as an
abomination.
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with
womankind: it is abomination." (Lev
18:22, 20:13) It has become politically correct to "accept"
their lifestyle. (Jesus prophesied that it would be like the
time of Sodom just before His return.) Perhaps, it would be good
to mark our Bibles so that we are able to give an answer to
those who stray from God's way.
God's instruction to His people has always been clear, "Love the
sinner and hate the sin." Homosexuals and lesbians will not be
in the Kingdom of God - please notice the straightforward
Scripture: "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 abusers of themselves with mankind."
(1Co 6:9)
Why will homosexuals be denied the Kingdom of God? Because God
is a Family - and family oriented. God created the family.
Homosexuality wars against the family unit - redefining the
Godly love that family and marriage represent. God's will is
that everyone be in His Kingdom. God does not create homosexuals
and lesbians who would be doomed to failure and death. "Who
knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things
[homosexuality and lesbianism] are worthy of death."
(Romans 1:32)
God does not make it impossible for homosexuals and lesbians to
change and repent. "The Lord is not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
(2 Peter 3:9) People are not born as homosexuals and lesbians,
each one, unfortunately, makes that personal decision for
themselves. They are not "Made That Way" - they become that way.
Notice: "So I gave them up unto their own hearts'
lust: and they walked in their own
counsels." (Psalms 81:12) Paul is writing about
homosexuals and lesbians in these next verses: "Wherefore
God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their
own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between
themselves." (Romans 1:24)
Notice in this next verse, speaking specifically
about lesbianism, how they changed themselves
into lesbians - they were not created that way. "For this
cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their
women did change the natural use into that
which is against nature." (Romans 1:26) Please notice
that God's Word, the Bible, says that it was the women
themselves, who changed when they gave into lust.
Paul was speaking specifically about homosexuals, and how
they changed the natural marriage relationship,
away from women and toward other men - showing clearly that
they were not born with homosexual tendencies. "And
likewise also the men, leaving the natural use
of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with
men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves
that recompence of their error which was meet." (Romans
1:27)
The very "look" of a man changes when he chooses to become a
homosexual, but, today, that is only a part of the "recompence
of their error" that they receive. It is now estimated
that one hundred million people are going to die of AIDS in the
next twenty or so years - due mainly to sexual sin. "Knowing
this, that the law is made for the ungodly and for
sinners, ...for them that defile themselves with mankind..."
(1Timothy 1:9-10)
Homosexuality and lesbianism pervert the mind - "having
their conscience seared with a hot iron." Nature - the
natural way - teaches that male and female animals pair off
to propagate the species. Nature teaches that a man does not
make himself attractive to other men for sexual purposes.
"Doth not even nature itself teach you, that,
if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto
him?" (1Corinthians 11:14) "Mortify therefore your
members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness,
inordinate affection..." (Colossians 3:5
)
God burnt up Sodom and Gomorrah for their homosexuality.
"They called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men
which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that
we may know [have homosexual relations
with] them." (Genesis 19:5) "Even as Sodom and
Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving
themselves over to fornication, and going after strange
flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the
vengeance of eternal fire." (Jude :7) "There shall be
no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite
of the sons of Israel." (Deuteronomy 23:17)
In today's permissive and abusive society - it may seem that
children may show the tendency toward homosexuality and
lesbianism at an early age. Their role models are missing.
Their parents do not fulfill their God given roles. Children,
themselves are abused and molested, forever scarring their
tender and fragile emotions and psyches. "The Lord is
longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and
transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation." (Numbers 14:18) Some
children are terribly hurt and make wrong choices because of the
sins of parents and grandparents - so it may seem that they were
"Made that Way," - but they are made in God's image.
***
Sermon: "Sodom and Gomorra"
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