Title of the morning message is God's word. And the dilemma of homosexuality, there is there are two topics that I really don't enjoy preaching on. One is the topic of abortion. We preached on that on May the 5th. And the other is the topic of the morning, homosexuality or sodomy, as we would see it from the scriptures. It is a topic that is not spoken of much at all in our churches, unfortunately. And as a result of that, our nation is being swept away, believing a lie and embracing a sin. The message this morning is not a political message. It is a message that is spiritual and moral. But as a result of the political environment that we live in, homosexuality has become a political issue. And sadly, most churches are silent. A couple of illustrations of that. Evangelist Billy Graham stepped down or retired from his evangelistic ministry in Two thousand five. One of the last interviews he gave before one of the last crusades that he held was to a writer with the Associated Press. That writer questioned evangelist Billy Graham regarding homosexuality, but in particularly gay marriage. Osling, the reporter, wrote that Graham's response was this. I don't give advice. I'm going to stay off those hot button issues. The writer went on in that June 27, 2005 article in Newsweek and made this observation regarding Graham. Graham now seeks to shun all public controversies, preferring a simple message of love and unity through Jesus Christ. Billy Graham is not alone in staying off of hot button issues. Another illustration, mega church pastor Andy Stanley. pastor of the North Point Community Church in Atlanta, which has several satellite video fed churches all around the greater Atlanta area. In April 2012, he was preaching a message about grace and truth. In the course of that message, He gave an illustration, if you'll allow me to share that illustration with you. Stanley shared that a woman in his church had come to him with news that she had divorced her husband who had left her and was living with his homosexual lover. The homosexual couple began coming to Andy Stanley's church until the ex-wife protested that she wanted a drama free space to worship. The homosexual couple then left Stanley's main campus church and went to one of the satellite churches where they immediately became a part of the leadership team of that church. When Stanley found out that the homosexual couple was in leadership at the campus church, he asked the men to step down, not because they were practicing homosexuals, but because the partner was still married to his wife. Stanley told the men, This is just good old fashioned adultery. You're in a sexual relationship with someone else's husband. As long as he's married, you can't serve on a guest service team. Stanley went on to share with his church how the homosexual couple left the church, but only for a short time. They were soon reconciled, at least as a family, with the wife who decided to show her former husband, now living with another man, she decided to show him grace. Stanley observed in his message that the resulting relationship, the ex-wife, her daughter, her boyfriend, his daughter, the ex-husband and his partner are a messy, marvelous picture of the church exercising truth and grace. Comment. It was not what Stanley said, but what he did not say that raised concern. He called adultery sin, but he never called homosexuality sin. The firestorm that followed that, in which Stanley was challenged, that he missed an opportunity to state that homosexuality is a sin, has to this day not been answered. The reality is pastors in the pulpit churches and the members sitting in the pew are almost unanimously across this nation avoiding hot buttons. For a preacher to be unwilling to call sin, sin and an offense against a holy God is a dereliction of duty before God, but it is an act that condemns the lost souls of men to a Christless judgment. It's a hard subject. The Apostle Paul, if he lived today, would be unwelcome in most pulpits. in America. The same man who in Romans chapter one, and I'm going to turn in my Bible there, writes words that inflame. The society we live in today. Is the same apostle who wrote in Romans five and verse eight, but God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans chapter one, the apostle that writes of love and the God of love is also the same apostle that without apology and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes God's opinion regarding sin. Follow with me again, if you would, Romans chapter one and verse twenty six, and I want you to notice three words that we're going to pull out of this passage that really illustrate God's wrath concerning sin, particularly the sin of homosexuality. Notice, if you would, in verse twenty six, for this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections. The word or the meaning of that phrase is disgraceful or shameful. God gave man over because of his sin and his rebellion to that sin that is a perversion of God's created order and of all that is natural. Notice again, if you would, the latter part of verse 26 and then on into verse 27. For this cause, God gave them up into vile affections. For even the women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. It's speaking of women. who turn from the relationship that they would have with man under God's created order, and they turn to other women. Verse 27, And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts one toward another. And so the next word would be unnatural. Unnatural. The natural use is that which is God-ordained. It is instinctive. And yet, Paul, as he's writing, he is pointing out the wickedness of man. And he says, for man to be with man and woman to be with woman is a vile affection. It is unnatural. Notice another word. It is unseemly. The latter part of verse 27. Men with men working that which is unseemly. The word unseemly means indecent, obscene, shameful. For those of you that are much younger than I am, you probably are not aware that what I am preaching on today would hardly have been spoken of in any manner of company as I was growing up. It was just unheard of. Oh, there might be a whisper here or there, but nothing like the flagrant show of wickedness that has taken hold of our nation. Turn with me again to First Corinthians chapter six. First Corinthians chapter six. And Paul, as he lists ten sins that are a portrait of all Gentile nations in particular, as he's writing to the believers at Rome, now the believers at Corinth, he writes these words in verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 6. Know ye not that the unrighteous, that is, the wicked or the unjust, they shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived. Neither fornicators, and that covers any manner of sexual sin outside of the boundary of marriage, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates. That is the soft, if you would, submissive homosexual. Nor abusers of themselves with mankind. That is the homosexual who is more masculine. And sadly, as you look at our society, you see the evidence of that. There was a basketball player that recently came out and he's like a third rate basketball player in the pros. But he gets a call from the president because he stepped out and the president wanted him to know how proud he was of him. That's the day that we're living in. It is a wicked, day. Let's continue. Verse 10, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And we're going to come back to that. But let it be said. There's no such thing as a Christian homosexual. Homosexuality. is the pinnacle of depravity. But in the midst of this verse, as we look at man from God's perspective, let it be said that thieves, extortioners, And the list goes on and on here. Fornicators, idolaters, drunkards, revilers. None of them shall inherit the kingdom of God. But verse 10 of that same passage, 1 Corinthians 6, verse 10, And such were some of you. Let me pause there. Hillsdale Baptist Church has a membership All of whom were at one time, before Christ, lost sinners. There are some who were adulterers. There are some who were fornicators. There are some who worshipped and followed after the gods of this world. There are some who were thieves. There are some who are covetous of others possessions. There are some who were drunkards. There are some who were revilers. There are some who were swindlers or extortioners. And such were some of ye." Again, 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11. But ye are washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. You've been made clean, if you know Jesus Christ as Savior. And your sins have been washed away. and you're white as snow in the sight of God. Or you might deal with the sins of the past and wrestle with the consequences of them. But God forgives sin. You're not only washed as a believer, but you're sanctified. God says, I love you. I died for you. And now My child who has put your faith in Me, I set you apart. to serve Me. Not only are we washed and sanctified, but ye are justified. Do you know what that means? It means as others might dredge up your past, but you who have put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior, you are righteous in the sight of God. Not because of your own effort, but because Christ died in your place. Now that's the introduction. Let's deal with some issues. What is homosexuality on your outline? By definition, it is a sexual attraction between members of the same sex. In reality, homosexuality is a rejection of God's command that man and woman be one flesh in marriage. That's what makes this rally for gay marriage. It makes it such a mockery and a hypocrisy. The homosexual movement is not interested in marriage. In fact, the reality is that it is normal and natural for the average homosexual to have anywhere from 300 to 500 sexual encounters with others during the course of one year. It is not unheard of for homosexuals who have been practicing that sin throughout their lifetime to have had as many as 1,600 different encounters, most of them anonymously, without any knowledge of name. It is a rejection of marriage and a rejection of one flesh between a man and a woman. Genesis chapter two and verse 24. Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. Now, let me say this. A lot of the problem with marriage today has come from our own churches. Our failure to honor the sanctity of marriage. Our failure for a man and a woman to be married in the sight of God and before those who are witnesses, and to be so committed to that marriage, that they will be faithful through the storms. But sadly, the divorce rate in churches is almost identical to the divorce rate of society. When I was growing up, there was only one friend that I remember who came from a broken home. And that only occurred when he was a teenager. Husbands and wives stayed together before God and out of love for their family. They withstood the storms. Let me share with you some terms for homosexuality. The first is a biblical term, it's sodomy. Sodomy, it takes its name from Genesis chapter 19, where God judges the city of Sodom and Gomorrah because of its wickedness. In particular, what is identified in Genesis chapter 19 and in several other passages that follow that identify Sodom is that it was the sin of homosexuality that caused God's ultimate judgment to rain down upon Sodom. A more recent term is homosexual. It was first coined in 1892. Before that, it would have been known as sodomy. And a homosexual would have been known as a sodomite. Number three term is gay. Many of you might have heard or you might be old enough that you can remember when songs would refer to having a gay old time. Well, you don't want to use that expression anymore. It has come to mean something entirely different. The term gay was coined in the 1950s to try to remove the stigma of immorality that accompanied the homosexual lifestyle. A fourth one is lesbian. The term lesbian applied to women attracted to women is as recent as the 1970s. There's another term, you may not know it, it's called buggery. It is a legal term that dates to the 16th century. If you read some of the prosecution of homosexuality back in the 16th and 17th century, you'll see mentioned buggery. It's sodomy. And then finally, there is a term that is sometimes used and it draws itself from the scriptures of Romans 1, 26 and 27, and it's called crimes against nature. crimes against nature. Now, let me rush on. Homosexuality has been in the headlines locally, nationally and internationally. In 1996, Congress passed DOMA. That is the Defense of Marriage Act. And President Clinton on September the 21st actually signed the Defense of Marriage Act. The purpose of that was to solidify that marriage is between a man and a woman. Also in that bill was the fact that any couple that claimed, as a same-sex couple, that claimed federal pensions or any other means of support would be denied because same-sex marriage would not be recognized as a legal relationship equal to the man and the woman. You're probably aware that DOMA has been challenged since its beginning. Liberal judges have brought rulings against DOMA in several states. And sadly, February 2011, our own president instructed the Department of Justice to no longer enforce, honor, or defend the defense of Marriage Act. We know that nationally we have a political machine that is moving to tear down the institution of marriage. Add to that that the mainline Protestant churches have been as guilty as the government in purveying the idea that homosexuality and the relationship of a homosexual couple can be acceptable. In fact, it is so bad that some denominations have actually ordained lesbian and homosexuals to be their ministers. How bad is it? among the more conservative evangelical mainline denominations. And that would be those that are conservative in most of their outlooks and opinions. At least 17% of even the conservative churches in America believe and accept homosexuality as normal. Of the mainline denominations, Presbyterian, Methodist, the non-denominational churches, the number is as high as 31% of mainline Protestants accept homosexuality as normal. In the Catholic Church, 55% of all Roman Catholics accept homosexuality as a normal, acceptable relationship. Add to that the corporate groups And historically, private organizations have been assaulted by homosexual activists. You may not realize this. The Girl Scouts is a very liberal left wing organization. Share with you some quotes. The first is this, the Girl Scout organization does not take a position, this is out of their charter, does not take a position on abortion or birth control. Our membership is a cross section of America's diversity with regard to religious opinions and practices. We believe these matters are best decided by girls and their families. Another quote, the Girl Scouts value diversity and inclusiveness and therefore do not discriminate on any basis. However, we do not permit the advocacy or the promotion of a personal lifestyle or sexual orientation. We believe that sexual orientation is a private matter for girls and their families to address. As a result of that charter, the Girl Scouts have leaders who are practicing lesbians. They are troop leaders. Their executive board is made up of those who support gay and lesbian marriage. Recently, we know that the Boy Scouts also crumbled to the homosexual agenda. They voted to accept homosexual, openly gay scouts into their local troops, something that had never been done before. And even as the activists were applauding the decision that the Boy Scouts made, they came out with another challenge. And that next would be that the Boy Scouts would begin having homosexual scout troop leaders. Those two organizations should not be trusted. Your children, if they're Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, they need to get out of those organizations. Let me add another thought to this. Our public schools are becoming activist institutions for homosexuality. Consider this indoctrinating children to accept homosexuality as normal begins as early as kindergarten. With book titles like Mimi has two moms. Of Ingrid has to dance. Those that hold to traditional family values. Are referred to as homophobia. In health science classes, homosexuality is presented as a normal, acceptable behavior. But God's Word has something different to say. On your outline, the Word of God universally and unequivocally condemns homosexuality. Let me say that again. If you believe the Bible and you accept it from cover to cover, both the Old and the New Testament, and you're going to stand where God's Word stands, you must condemn homosexuality as a sin. Consider some verses this morning. And I don't have time to illustrate these. We'll come back. We've already shared with you the first mention of homosexuality is in Genesis chapter 19. It is illustrated as that pinnacle of human wickedness and depravity. We'll touch on that in a couple of weeks. Add this thought, though, to your outline and it may not be on there. A society and a nation can become so immoral that God is forced to turn that people over to their own destruction. Sodomy is condemned in the Old and New Testament and was punishable by death. Leviticus 18 and verse 22, Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. It is abomination. Leviticus 20 and verse 13. If a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. Genesis 19 and chapter 20. And I do not have time to look at it this morning. We'll look at it in another week. It's an illustration also of the great wickedness of homosexuality. On your outline, though, I think I do have this. Judges 19 and verse 22. Now, as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, that is wicked and ungodly men, they set the house round about. They beat at the door and they spoke to the master of the house. The old man say, and bring forth the man that came into thine house that we may know him. The idea of knowing is that idea of the relationship that a man is with a woman. These men were desiring to have that same relationship with the man. The next verses describe God's view of homosexuality. Chapter 19 of verse 23. The wickedness of homosexuality is number one, it's wicked. Number two, it's folly. Number three. It's vile. Number four, it's lewdness. Number five, it's evil. Now, brethren, that is God's Word. We can't allow for the inclusiveness of homosexuality as something that is acceptable. It is wicked, it is folly, it is vile, it is lewdness, and it is evil. Not only does the Old Testament condemn it, but also does the New Testament. If you have your Bible still, take it and turn with me. Romans chapter one again. And let's go back and just look at a few things as we close this introduction to this series. The Apostle Paul summarized the sin and the ungodliness of the Gentile nations in Romans 1, 26 through 32. Number one, verse 26, God gave Him over unto vile affections. Why was that? They had rejected the Creator. Now they reject the Creator's design. What is happening in our society and sadly, what is happening in our city is that we live in the midst of a society who has rejected God. Having rejected God, they've rejected God's moral standard. Having rejected God's standard and God's law, they are left unto their own whims and their own desires and their own devices. But we know that man apart from God will never be satisfied. And so man goes down the road of wickedness and sin. And it becomes deeper and deeper as he digs this hole of great depravity. But the lust is never satisfied. That is what is happening in society. When you hear gay marriage, forget it. It is a minuscule number of homosexuals that have any commitment to any one person. They're not interested in marriage. They're interested in destroying marriage. I'll give you a test. What do you think is the percentage of homosexuals in the U.S. population? Think for a minute. What do you think the percentage is? How many of you think it might be 20 percent? None? Ten percent. Ten percent. Let me share with you something. The idea of 10 percent of the population came out of a report called the Kinsey report may have heard of it, Dr. Kinsey in 1948 and then in 1953. did what was considered a historic survey of the population of the U.S. Coming away from that survey, he set out what was a shocking number of gays and homosexuals that were in and a part of the American population. The 10% number was never set forth by Dr. Kinsey, but they used his report to set it as a baseline. Since 1950, the 10% number has been used by gay and homosexual activists, by our politicians, by our news media and by our educators ever since. But the reality is the 10% number was a lie. It was later revealed that Dr. Kinsey had surveyed 25% of his group were either prisoners or had served time in prison. 5% of his group were known prostitutes. Male. prostitutes. The number actually that has come out of recent surveys is this less than three percent of the population is same sex oriented. A March 2011 study by the National Centers for Health Statistics and the Center for Disease Control found that only one point four percent of the population identified as same sex oriented. UCLA's Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation, Law and Public Policy concluded in April 2011, that 1% of Americans identified themselves as gay. An additional 1.8% identified themselves as bisexual. According to the UCLA survey, the largest percentage of Americans that would consider themselves at all same-sex oriented would be only 3.5% at the maximum. The U.S. Census Bureau began asking questions about homosexuality in 1990. In 2009, the study had revealed that less than 0.5 percent, that is half of 1 percent, of individuals identified with same-sex households. The Census Bureau in 2010, in their demographic profile, showed only 2.5 percent of the population identified with same-sex spouses. Does that shock you? They dominate the headlines. They march in the streets. They are loud and provocative. But the reality is they are a minuscule group. Do you realize that to date there has never been one scientific proof of homosexuality being natural or being influenced by genetics? Not one. Not one. Whatever you've heard, it's skewed. Whatever surveys you hear are not true scientific surveys. What I shared with you on the census, UCLA, the earlier one, those people have an agenda and even their agenda sets it only at about three percent. You might also be interested, those who are honest in the homosexual community have come out and have admitted that all these years they've been purveying a lie, but they accomplished what they wanted to accomplish. Wow, my time is gone, isn't it? Let's fill in a little bit of the blanks here. Number two, women and men, a quote, became nothing more than creatures of sex. Another few things as we close this morning to cite the first century church. Lived in a a bed, if you would, of homosexuality that was all around. Roman society was dominated by sodomy, 14 of the first 15 Caesars were homosexuals. It is known that one of the reasons that the Greek and the Roman armies fought so valiantly when they were away from home, not just months, but years at a time, was that homosexuality was so pervasive in their armies when these men were away at war that the men would fight not for the cause of their nation, but to defend their homosexual lovers. The wickedness of depravity. It has always been among man. But the sin of homosexuality is its pinnacle of a society that is corrupt. Another quote, author Florence DuPont wrote in a book, 1993, Daily Life in Ancient Rome, right into the bisexual nature of the Caesars, she wrote that it was said in society that Caesar was the husband of all women and he was the wife of all husbands. Let's close with some good news. As I studied and prepared this series, There were times that I felt like I was living in darkness. It's just something you don't want to deal with. And yet it is something I knew I needed to research. Would you take your Bible and maybe you still have it open? First Corinthians six. And we'll close here in just a moment. Paul's writing his letter to the church at Corinth. And he asked this question in verse nine. No, you're not. Don't you know? that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. What follows are ten sins. We've already noted them for you, fornication, idolatry, adulterers, effeminate, the more submissive homosexual, abusers of themselves with mankind, the more masculine homosexual, The thieves and the covetous, that is, greedy, drunkards, those given to wine, revilers, those who are slanders, extortioners, embezzlers and schemers, that none of these shall, latter part of verse 10, inherit the kingdom of God. But verse 11, as such, for some of you, I'm mindful when I go to county meetings and I speak, that those that are around me that are on the opposite side of an issue like this are sinners for whom Christ died. I am reminded that the blood that was shed on the cross was not just shed for Travis Smith, who perhaps hasn't stooped to the degree of wickedness in my opinion, of homosexuality. But God looks out upon us and He sees a sea of sinners. But such were some of ye. There is hope for the homosexual. There is forgiveness offered. There is cleansing available. But the homosexual must know that his life is wicked in the eyes of God. I challenge you as I close this morning. There may be someone here and you do not know Jesus Christ, the Savior. And you've heard this preacher preaching about one sin. But it is not a sin that, as I close, I want to isolate it. I want you to understand, under one big umbrella, we all stand as sinners. There is hope. But that hope is Christ. Maybe you've got a family member. Maybe a son or a daughter. maybe a next-door neighbor or a friend, and they practice this sin, I urge you to let the love of Christ flow through you. May your words speak that which is true, but may your heart be broken, for they need to know Christ. You are the ambassador to a lost world that needs to know Christ died for your sins. You're here today and you do not know Christ. Could I invite you with our heads bowed and our eyes closed? If you've never put your faith in Christ, you would say, preacher, hey, I'm not One of those great and awful sins you've mentioned. But I want you to know that we're all sinners. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none righteous. No, not one. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. I'm not going to ask you to raise hands this morning. But I am going to ask you, if you have not put your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, we right now confess, oh God, I know that I'm a sinner. And I do believe that Jesus Christ died and shed his blood for my sins. And I'm asking you for Christ to be my Savior and for my sins. to be forgiven. If you prayed that prayer, believing in your heart that Christ died for your sins and accepting Him as Savior, I want you to know that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I'd love to meet you after church. And you share with me as you're going out the door, preacher this morning, I ask Christ to be my Savior. Believer, we're going to leave here in a few minutes. We're going to go out into a world that doesn't need to hear our anger. They need to hear our love and that God loves them, that Christ died for them. That's our message. We need to stand against sin, but we need to love the sinner. Let's stand. Father, as we're closing in prayer this morning, I pray that your people will leave here with a greater confidence of what your word teaches, of what it says, but also leave here with a great hope that sinners can be saved. Even those that in our view might be the worst of sinners, even they were loved by You. Loved by You enough that Christ died for their sin. And Lord, I pray for anyone that's struggling with that. Struggling with loving someone that is lost in sin. that you would right now stir in them a compassion for the lost. And Lord, for that one that perhaps, even after I've shared the gospel at the end, are still searching and still questioning that they'll not leave this place without making the decision and trusting Jesus Christ as Savior. And Lord, as we close with a verse, Perhaps there's other things that you've done in our lives today. We open this platform for a place of prayer, if you so lead. Lord, do a great work in our lives, we pray. In Christ's name, Amen.