you. Thank you. Okay. you. All right, good evening. Good to see you guys here this evening. I see this series is really drawing the crowds. So thank you guys for being here. We are if you got your Bibles turn with me to a strange place, a different place. Isaiah was looking through my Bible the other day, I don't know where we were at. And he had my Bible was flipping through it. And he was naming off places where I didn't have notes written in and the books where he's like, dad, you need to preach here, dad, you need to preach here, dad, you need to preach here. And one of those places was Leviticus. So Isaiah, we're marking this one off tonight. I'm preaching it tonight, so you can check the other books off later. Leviticus chapter 18, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and we're gonna continue our study of what does the Bible say about homosexuality? And I've been asked, this is the third sermon, I've been asked, why are you teaching on this? of all the topics you could have preached on, why this one? And my answer is, this isn't a fun topic for me, this isn't a fun subject for me, but the culture has made it an issue. And when the culture makes it the issue of the day, and that's the line that they're drawing in the sand, and that's the battle lines that are being drawn, then it's our place as a church to confront those lies with the truth. So where they draw the battle lines, we have to fight. And that's what we're going to do. When they start applauding some other sin, we'll fight on that one, too. So that's where, like the old song says, we didn't start the fire. We'll just put it out. So that's what we're going to do tonight. The church has to deal with it. We'll deal with it. And we're going to come to a place tonight where I think the Bible speaks probably the most directly and probably the most clearly on the subject, Leviticus 18. And I want to show you tonight God's clear command. where you could title it, God's Clearest Teaching on Homosexuality. It doesn't get any clearer than Leviticus 18, verse 22. I mean, if God wanted to make it clear what he thought about homosexuality, he couldn't have made it any more clear than what he says in this verse. So I'm going to read this verse to you and then we will pray and we'll study not just this verse. There's another verse in Leviticus 20 that we're going to cover. We're really going to look at all of Leviticus 18. So you guys buckle up and we'll look at God's clearest teaching on homosexuality. Let's read this verse and we'll pray. Leviticus 18 verse 22. And you guys tell me if you think this could be any more clear than what it is. It says, verse 22, thou shalt not, it's a command, God's clear command, thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind, it is abomination. I mean, that couldn't be any more clear. I'm gonna talk about it in just a second, but the culture will take that and say that doesn't mean what it says. But we have to show you and we don't really have to spend a lot of time on it, but it means exactly what God meant for it to say. So let's go ahead and we'll pray and we'll look at God's clear, very clear command. Father, we thank you for your word. We trust as a people of God that our God is able to clearly communicate himself to his people. that there's nothing hidden, there's nothing that is hard here. It may be hard to accept, but it's not hard to understand. So God, we thank you for being very clear with us. We're thankful for the perpiscuity of scripture, that you are clear on the things that matter the most. So God, you're very clear here. And let me be very clear as I teach this. Help me to be true to your word, but help me to also be loving and to maintain that balance. I don't want to, in any way, be mean or hateful tonight. We do this because we love people who are caught in this sin, and we do this because we want to see them saved. So God, let that be our heart tonight as we study this passage, and we ask and pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. There was a book written, I mentioned it last week, in 1989, and the title of the book is How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s. That's the title of the book. I want to read it to you again. Here's just the title. How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s. And it lays out what we need to do as a country in order to accept and applaud homosexuality in our nation. And it works this way. We're going to do this in the 90s so that it turns into the 2000s and turns into the 2010s and turns into the 2020s when it will be an acceptable thing in our nation. And here's what it said, it said that first of all, we must muddy the moral waters, which means that we must cause confusion. We must get, and this is a direct quote, we must throw seeds of doubt about God's commands concerning homosexual behavior. We must make people doubt what God says about the issue. Another direct quote, we must start a campaign of misinformation to make people say, did God really say? I don't know if that sounds familiar to you, where they're trying to make us ask, did God really say? I mean, this is a direct quote from the book. They are taking a satanic method and using it to get America to accept homosexuality. They're using what Satan used in the garden, did God really say? And they're using it again today and saying, did God really say what it says in the Bible? And we've fallen for it as a nation hook, line, and sinker. And we have, just a few years ago, President Obama said that the obscure passages in the Bible don't really say what they mean. He said, I'd rather stick with the Sermon on the Mount than all the obscure passages, whether they be in Leviticus or Romans or somewhere else. It doesn't really say what you think it says. And we're here today, and I'm going to give you some of the things that I've been told. That the Bible doesn't say anything about it. That's a lie. We are told that the Bible says very little about it. And I actually read a paper this week that said the Bible only speaks on it six times. The Bible only speaks on homosexuality six times. That's not true. But if that is true, six times is enough for me. One time is enough for me. So they'll say that. The Bible doesn't say anything. Lie. The Bible says very little. That's a lie. They'll also say the Bible isn't clear. We can't really know what it says. There's all these different interpretations and these people say this and you say this. We can't really know. The only thing that we can really know is love and we all just need to love and accept everybody because the Bible's just not clear enough on the issue. That is being said everywhere today. And again, our nation, churches, Christians are falling for this argument hook, line, and sinker. But I want to turn tonight and I want to show you in Leviticus 18 that the Bible is very clear. That we have a God who clearly communicates His commands to us. And the Bible says it here in what I believe is the clearest teaching on homosexuality in the entire Bible. If this was the only verse in the Bible on homosexuality, it would be enough to say it's a sin. So Leviticus 18, I know some of you probably have never studied Leviticus. It's called the book of holiness. It's called the holiness code. Holy is said 40 or 50 times in Leviticus. The theme of Leviticus is be ye holy for I am holy. That's the theme. God is showing his people how to be a holy people. To live in a holy place, to worship in a holy temple, to live holy lives before a holy God. It's all about holiness. Verses 1-5 of chapter 18 makes this clear. Read this with me. 1-5. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the Lord your God. And after the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, shall you not do? You are not to be like Egypt. And then he goes on to say, And after the doings of the land of Canaan, whether I bring you, shall you not do that either? To walk how they walked. Don't be like them, be holy like me. And it goes on. You shall do my judgments and keep my ordinances to walk therein. I am the Lord your God. You shall keep my statutes and my judgments, which if a man do them, he'll live. I'm the Lord your God. And every time it says, I'm the Lord your God, it's basically saying, because I said so. That's the old dad line. That's God saying, I'm the Lord your God, do what I say. So he's making it very clear here. Setting the boundaries of what's right and what's wrong in Leviticus. And in chapter 18, he's setting the boundaries on sexual activity. He is showing us how to be sexually holy. Chapter 18 is a commentary on thou shalt not commit adultery. So he's showing us the boundaries. Do not step outside these boundaries. So we have in front of us an absolute and very clear command against homosexual activity in all ways. And we ought to take this command very, very seriously because it's God's clear command. homosexuality so I'm gonna we're just gonna look at that one verse starting out I might read more to you but I want to show you I mean I'm gonna give you three points you say can you give me three points in one verse I think I can I think I can I think I can so I want to show you first of all the command The command. You see that in verse 22. Let's look at it. The command. It says in verse 22, and you see that if you will read the 10 commandments and it says thou shalt not, that's a command. Thou shalt not have no other gods. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not, you know, all the thou shalt nots. So he's saying, giving a command here. Thou shalt not. But he's, I've got to give it to you in context because there's a progression here. Start with me in verse six. He's already said, here's what you're going to do as you live there. Verse 6, he starts with the boundaries. And he begins with, and it's a progression, that thou shalt not when it comes to family. Watch what it says. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but you'll get the idea. Verse 6, none of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him to uncover their nakedness, because I said so. So he's talking about incest, talking about family. And it goes back to the Egyptians that it mentioned in verse two, because the Egyptians were bad for intermarrying amongst family members. It was bad. So he's telling them here, and he's going to go down a list and you can read it later on your own. He goes down a list of all the people in your family that you should not and cannot and shall not have sex with. Watch what he says, the nakedness of your father, the nakedness of your mother, thou shalt not uncover. She is thy mother, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. Verse 8, the nakedness of thy father's wife, don't uncover. And it goes on, the nakedness of your sister. Verse 10, the nakedness of your son's daughter. And you can just go on down the list all the way to verse 18 that says, don't take a wife to your sister to vex her. So this is again, the Egyptians were bad for incest. So he's saying, you're not going to be like the Egyptians in the way they intermarry amongst family with sisters and moms and dads. And we read that and we say, that's just gross. Nobody would do that. So that's the Egyptian stuff. Don't do that. But then he said also, don't do the Canaanite stuff. You see that in verse 3? Don't be like Canaan. Canaan wasn't the family in incest. Canaan, the Canaanites had a free-for-all. They weren't sleeping with family members. They were sleeping with everybody and everything. Well, watch what he says here. Verse 19, he goes into what the Canaanites did. Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is a part of her uncleanness, that time of the month. So it's gonna go from not so bad to real bad. Verse 20, moreover, thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbor's wife, to defile thyself with her. That's adultery. Verse 21, thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech. Neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God, for I am the Lord. Don't sacrifice your children to fertility gods. Verse 22, homosexuality, thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. Verse 23, neither shall thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith. Neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down with it. It is a confusion. It's crazy. So you see what's going on there. He goes down the list of adultery, polygamy, homosexuality, and the last one is bestiality with animals. That's what the Canaanites were doing, and we're not to do that. So this is a clear teaching on homosexuality. Verse 22 describes it as you shall not not lie with mankind as with womankind. These are generic terms. And I'm going to give you this, and you may not care, but these are the arguments that you get because people in the culture today are saying, that's not homosexual activity, that's a master raping a servant, or that's an older man with a younger man. but he uses here the term mankind. It's a man with a man. It's the same word in Genesis 1 when God created them male and He created them female. So he's saying here a male cannot lay down with another male. It's the same two things. Like you would a female. God designed it to be man and woman, not man and man. It's okay in marriage for a man to lie with a woman, but it's never okay for a man to lie with a man. It's never okay. And then he calls it abomination. It's a very strong word. It's the strongest word. And it's used only for the worst of sins. Which means it's something that God despises. It's something that God hates. It's something that makes God sick. It's detestable. And out of all these sexual sins from verse 6 to verse 23, only one of them has, it is abomination at the end of it. Have you noticed it? It says in verse 23, to lie with a beast is confusion. That's crazy. But in verse 22, that's an abomination. He makes it very clear. He puts a label on it and says, because I say so. It's a detestable act. And no detestable act can be performed whether it's in a loving, caring relationship or not. It's detestable. And it comes with a punishment. Turn with me to chapter 20. Verse 13. Same thing. I mean, the Lord's speaking to Moses in verse 1. And he's telling them how they're supposed to act. And he goes down this same list. But this time he gives the punishment for if they do. You're not to act like that, but here if you do that, here's the punishment for it. And he says here, verse 13, if a man also lie with man, as he lies with a woman, how many of them shall be punished? How many of them committed abomination? Both. So again, the culture we live in today would take this passage and say, no, no, no, that's rape. That's only if a master rapes a servant or if an older man rapes a younger man. That's what the testable act is. But it says here, both of them has committed abomination. And if you turn to Romans 1, you don't have to, but it says when it's talking about homosexuality in Romans, it says God gave both of them, them over and their bodies over. It is a mutual act between a man and a man or a woman and a woman. And God again calls it a detestable act. And it says, and they shall be. Watch this. Only the worst sins got the worst penalties. And the worst sins got the worst penalties, which would be death. What is worse than immediate death? I mean, we call it a capital punishment now. That the worst things get the worst punishments in any society. If you do something awful, you get the worst punishment. And there's no worse punishment than death. God says it's an abomination and it's to be punished by death. And they didn't go through a system, you know. It wasn't no, you know, you get to appeal and you got to sit on death row for a while. You're caught in that act, you die in the moment. You're stoned, you're done with, both of you. You don't hear that kind of thing, do you? You say, should it still be a capital punishment to be homosexual? We don't live in a theocracy where it's Israel and a nation where God's ruling over it. We're multiple nations with multiple laws. I believe it has a worse punishment than death now. Because the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6 that no one who lives in and commits this act will see the kingdom of heaven. A worse punishment than death is eternal damnation and hell. So this is an internal punishment for unrepentant homosexuals. This is a sin that leads to eternal judgment. Now you have some people and I'm moving on. This is just point one. You'll have some people that say, well, that's just for Israel. That's just for God's people. Everybody else can do it. You know, God didn't put that stipulation on everybody. We'll go back to chapter 18 with me. Watch this. It's almost like people don't read scripture. And again, I understand people that, that this isn't my argument. You have some people that want to want to believe homosexuals, homosexuality is okay. And they don't use the Bible. They don't believe the Bible. They don't believe in God. My problem is with people who are going to use the Bible to say it's okay. Because nowhere in the Bible will you find that homosexuality is okay. Leviticus 18 verse 24, watch what God tells Moses. God tells Moses this, this is, do this because I said so. Verse 24, defile not yourselves in any of these things for in all these nations are defiled, which I cast out before you. And the land is defiled. You notice the all these nations and the land is defiled. Therefore do I do visit iniquity there upon it. and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourns among you. For all these abominations have the men of the land done which were before you, and this is why the land is defiled." They did these things. All the other nations have done these things and they did these things and that's why they are out of the land and now that you're in the land, you better not do these things. Let's go on. that the land spew not you out also, when you defile it, as it spewed out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Therefore shall you keep my ordinances, that you commit not any one of the abominable customs which were committed before you, and that you defile not yourselves therein." There's that statement again, because I said so. So here it is. Let me just make it clear. It was a standard of holiness for Israel. It was a sexual standard of holiness for Israel. It was a sexual standard of holiness for the nations. It is a sexual standard of holiness for all time and all people. So we see here God very clearly does not approve of homosexual behavior. It's a sin and he treats it very, very seriously. So if we didn't have anybody else arguing on this passage, I could stop here. We could all go home. Thank you guys for coming. Let's pray we're gone. But I'm just at one point. I got two left. I showed you the command, and it's a very clear command. But now I want to show you the foggy confusion. Because our culture today is going to take this passage, and this is what's going to happen. They'll look at this passage, and I've done a lot of reading on the opposite end of this this week. And what they'll say is, yeah, OK. Leviticus does say that. It couldn't be more clear. There's no doubt that's what it says. I mean, anybody with a brain sees that. Am I right? I mean, I don't have to be a great teacher for me to read this to you and you guys be like, yeah, that's kind of what it says. Very clear. I mean, you'd have to be a dum-dum to miss this. But here's where they start throwing a little bit of confusion at you. OK, you ready for this? They'll say, but Leviticus also says all kinds of other strange things. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Leviticus says that homosexuality is an abomination. It does. I mean, that's right there. I mean, if you take a dum-dum, not see that. Even your scholars will say, yeah, yeah, yeah, it does. But it also says you can't eat bacon. And old Josh, he ate some bacon last night for dinner. So you eat the bacon, Josh. but you pick homosexuality to preach a series on? Why aren't you preaching a series on bacon? Are you picking and choosing? You hypocrite. That's what they'll say now. Oh, it says you can't eat bacon. It says you can't wear clothes of two different fabrics. And Josh, I'm pretty sure you're wearing clothes of two different fabrics right now. So you wear the clothes, you eat the bacon, but you preach a series on homosexuality? Really? Picking and choosing. It also says we can't eat shellfish. I don't like shellfish, so I'm good there. I eat bacon. Don't eat shellfish. But it does say that. It says you can't eat shellfish. And see, I'm throwing this at you. How would you respond? You're hearing this, or they're confusing it. 1989, that book says, muddy the waters, right? Cause a little confusion. Get us thinking, well, does God really say that? I don't know here. I mean, we break all of them. I eat bacon. I eat shellfish. I wear clothes. I grow my sideburns. I mean, what do I do with this? There's a lot of these things that we ignore. So why out of all the commands in all of Leviticus do we pick that one to talk about? So they'll look at you and they'll say, obviously, it's not relevant for today. That was just something for them back then. They'll say, it doesn't mean that for today. It doesn't count. God didn't really mean that for 2020. He meant that for them. That was a long, long time ago. So what do we say? That's the muddying of the waters. And every one of these passages, I said it last week with Sodom and Gomorrah, they say, it wasn't homosexuality. They wasn't very hospitable to those angels. to say the least. I mean, it might be a hospitality issue when you want to rape them. So what do we say to this? I think it's just one of those gotcha questions, like they were asking Jesus in Matthew 22. It's just a throw it out there. Who's got the answer to this one? And a lot of Christians today will just sit and... I just believe it. So what do we say? Well, I've got to come back. You guys ready for this? See, I just gave you the command. And then I gave you the muddying of the water, the confusion that they're going to give us. And now I want to give you the comeback. You ready for this? This is why we're preaching this series. I'm trying to prepare you, not just for the days that are ahead, but for the days we're in right now. Here's what the Bible says about their little ignorant, uninformed confusion. You ready for this? I don't have a gotcha statement. I've got a Bible. And here's what it says. First of all, I would look at them and I would say, let's say I have an advocate for homosexuality sitting in front of me right now, and they look at me and they say, you eat bacon. It's not for today. If you eat bacon, you can have homosexuality. But you notice they don't say it about bestiality. You notice they don't say it about incest. We'll go on. I would look at them and I would say, is Leviticus scripture? And the answer is obviously yes, because our first reaction must not be that when we come across something that we don't like or that we disagree with, that our first reaction is, that's not for me. And that's how a lot of people respond to these things is, I don't like what that says, so that must not be for me. I need to figure out another way of looking at it. I don't like it. It has to change. It can't be right. It's a bad interpretation. That's not how Christians approach scripture. We look at this and we say, this is Bible. And this is 2 Timothy 3.16. All Scripture is given by inspiration by God and is profitable for us in our lives. So we look at this and we say, God breathed that out. And God put that there for a reason. It's my job to figure it out. We don't just dismiss Scripture. Nothing in the Bible, Old Testament or New, is to be set aside by Christians. All Scripture is by inspiration of God. Leviticus was in the Bible Jesus read. Leviticus was in the Bible that Jesus believed and obeyed and Jesus taught. So Leviticus is Bible, we do not just dismiss it. Okay? And they'd have to agree with that. Yeah, it's Bible, Jesus said, Jesus, and I'll get to it in a second, even quoted Leviticus. You ready for this? We might not like Leviticus, we might not read it, we might not know it, we might want to overlook it, we might ignore it, but Jesus loved it. When Jesus said, thou shalt love, what's the greatest commandment? We preach this, you guys were here, you know what it is. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength, with all your soul. So what's the second commandment? Thou shalt love your neighbor as yourself. You know where that verse comes from? Leviticus 19, tucked right in the middle Leviticus 18 on homosexuality, Leviticus 20, the punishment for homosexuality is a verse Jesus quoted, love your neighbor as yourself. You can't love your neighbor as yourself and accept homosexuality. The verse they love to quote comes from Leviticus. Others quoted it. It's one of the most quoted books in the entire New Testament. 1 Corinthians 5, Paul quotes it when he alludes to incest in the Corinthian church. 1 Corinthians 6, 9, Paul almost word for word quotes Leviticus 18, 22. When he says, and I'll turn there, 1 Corinthians 6, we're going to preach it in a couple of weeks. But he says, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived for neither fornicators. And he goes down a list. Do you see this? He goes down a list of abominable things, fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate. And then he uses a word here that is arson quoitai, abusers of themselves with mankind, which is almost identical to what was quoted in Leviticus 18.22. I think Paul was reading Leviticus 18 when he quoted this verse in chapter six. A word that means men who bed with men. 1 Timothy 1.10, he uses the same exact word. Quoting, alluding to, Leviticus 18. So we can't just overlook it like it's not there. Leviticus is scripture. Leviticus is quoted all over the New Testament. You can't just set it aside and say it's not for today. He says, well, OK, what do we do with it? Josh, you haven't told me what to do with homosexuality and bacon. Homosexuality and clothes of two different fabrics. Homosexuality and shellfish. What do I do with that? Well, we do acknowledge that there's some things in the Old Testament that has changed in the New Testament, don't we? We're not worshiping the temple right now, are we? That's changed. I don't bring a sacrifice. Did anybody bring a sacrifice to church tonight? There's some things that change, right? So let me show you here. Leviticus, let me explain it to you. The New Testament says, and we need to get this, I'm closing. My clock's hidden, I don't have any idea what time it is. The New Testament says this, and you guys can write these down, I'm not going to read them. In Acts 10 and 11, and in Mark 7, Mark 7 being Jesus' own words. In the Old Testament, you can't eat bacon. In the Old Testament, you can't eat shellfish. But in Mark chapter 7, Jesus said all foods are clean. And in Acts 10, Peter, he saw in a dream, and they told him, eat! Eat the bacon! So the foods were made clean. In Romans 14, in the Old Testament, you must celebrate certain holy days. And in Romans 14, the Bible tells us you don't have to. It's optional. If you want to celebrate the holy days, you can. If you don't want to, that's fine. It's a Christian liberty thing. So the Bible has explained these things in the New Testament. I'll give you another one. Hebrews 7 through 10. The whole sacrificial system has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. I don't have to bring sacrifices. I don't have to light a candle. I don't have to light the menorah. I don't have to do all these things, these sacrificial washings and go to a priest. As soon as that curtain was split from top to bottom, the sacrificial system was wiped out by one sacrifice in Jesus Christ. You with me? So Jesus in the New Testament changed how we worship Him, but He didn't change how we live for Him. He changed our ceremonies, but He didn't change our morals. The New Testament doesn't change the boundaries for sexual activity. It affirms it. And it confirms it. The sins in the Old Testament, the sexual sins in the Old Testament, are still sins in the New Testament. Get this, did Jesus confirm that adultery is sin in the New Testament? And again, Leviticus 18, adultery is a sin. It says there, don't lay with your neighbor's wife. That wouldn't be very neighborly, would it? Again, back to love your neighbor as yourself, means don't lay with your neighbor's wife. That's not loving your neighbor. All these, it's a neighborly thing. So Jesus said, sermon on the Mount, Barack Obama quoted it. Don't commit adultery. But I say, not just don't commit adultery, but don't even look at a woman with lust in your heart because then you've committed adultery already in your heart. Are you with me? Jesus confirms what Leviticus says. Adultery is sin in the Old Testament. Adultery is sin in the New Testament. Let's move on. Incest is still a sin. It was a sin in the Old Testament. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. It's still a sin in the New Testament. Polygamy, same thing. It's condemned in the old, it's condemned in the new. Homosexuality, condemned in the old, condemned in the new. Romans chapter Jesus, Matthew 19. He confirms what marriage is between a man and a woman. God created it in order. Romans 1 talks about sin in a nation and what it does to a nation. 1 Corinthians 6 says, unrepentant homosexual activity, unrepentant homosexuals shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Timothy 1.10. And we can go on into Revelation. Over and over and over, the New Testament affirms and confirms exactly what Leviticus taught. See, it takes a little bit more thinking here than, oh, you eat bacon. They fail to look at the entirety of Scripture. They take one passage and try to twist it and turn it and muddy its waters. But we have to look at all of Scripture. So I believe this makes it very clear. The command in Leviticus is true in all cultures and all times. Homosexuality is a sin that must be taken very, very, very, very seriously. So, yes, God did say so. Now the question is, what should we be saying to our society if this is a sin? And we believe it is. How should we treat them? And I've been closing every time with this, but Acts chapter two, I want to show you what we ought to be doing. Our heart towards them. What should it be? Acts chapter two is one of the greatest moments in preaching in all the history of the world. at Pentecost when Peter stands up to preach to thousands. And the first thing that he did was confronted them in their sin. He condemned them, and he told them they committed the worst sin that's ever been committed. You say, what's the worst sin that's ever been committed when they hung Jesus on the cross and crucified him? That's the worst sin. I'm going to be preaching on Sunday morning on what I believe is one of the worst sins, hypocrisy. And he says here in Acts 2, he just laid it out there. And in verse 36, he says, therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. He condemned them. He confronted them. He told them they committed a terrible, damnable sin. And we must do that. We can't be pulling back on that. And I think we're pretty good at that, almost too good at that, in that we do confront it. I think churches are starting to not touch it anymore. I think they're afraid to touch this issue. I think that you just don't hear it from the pulpit anymore. It's not explained. It's not taught. But we need to be confronting it. We need to be calling it what it is. That it's a damnable sin. Just like adultery. Just like incest. Just like bestiality. Just like fornication. It's like all these sexual sins. When you step outside the boundaries of one man and one woman, it's a sin. And if you're living in it, it's a damnable sin. So we need to call it what it is. But then watch what he does in verse 37. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, you're okay, just keep on going how you're going. If you're issue is turned there, that's not what it says. Repent. Turn and go the other way. Turn from your sin of homosexuality and follow Christ. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And that's what he's saying. If you repent, your sins will be forgiven. It'll be walked away. It'll be as if as if you never sinned one time. Understand that it is a sin, but it's not an unforgivable sin. It is a sin, but it's not an unpardonable sin. And what he's doing here in these verses is he's condemned them, and he's confronted them, and he's told them the truth, and it's hit them in the heart, and now he does what we all ought to be doing, is opening up the doors of forgiveness and salvation to them and saying, it's available to you if you'll believe in Jesus. And that's what he does. And I'm just going to finish reading this and we'll close. Repent and be baptized. Every one of you, all of you, In the name of Jesus for the remission of sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promises unto you and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord God shall call. And with many other words that he testify and exhort saying, and this is this is what I wanted to get to save yourselves from this untoward generation. And that is exactly the generation that we're living in today. It is a terrible generation. And we should be calling not just homosexuals, but adulterers and the effeminate and any other people caught in sin. Save yourselves from this crazy generation. Verse 41, Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and the breaking of bread and in prayers. That's what we do. We tell them they're in sin, and they're on their way to hell, just like we would anybody else. And then we open up the door of forgiveness to them and tell them that it's not unpardonable. It's not unforgivable. The door of salvation is open to you if you believe. We got to get better at that part. We're very, very good at and I think we are. I think the tides may be turning. I'm seeing a shift to where the church is now opening up the doors, but not telling them they're in sin. Come on in, God accepts all. But if you don't condemn them and confront them, they'll never turn from that sin. So you have to have both. You can't be on one end pointing your finger and damning them to hell, but never inviting them to find forgiveness in Christ. But on the other hand, you can't just open up the doors and say, come on in. He accepts you just as you are. And you can just go on as you want and live however you want to live and do whatever you want to do. He loves you no matter what. Without condemning them and confronting them in their sin and telling them they need to repent. Peter balances that out perfectly. And the church today, we need today to do the same thing. Yeah, it's a sin. That's what I'm doing here. Yes, it's a sin. Salvation is available. Yes, it's a sin. But it's a sin that can be forgiven if you turn to Jesus. I think that's the most loving thing anybody could ever tell a homosexual. Whether I'm called hateful or bigoted, I think I'm being as loving as anybody can be. I think that doing this tonight and for a five or six week series, I may love them more than anybody else. Because I'm telling them the truth. It may not be seen that way. This is what it is. So yes, it is a sin. But it is not the unforgivable sin. Let's pray father. We thank you for the clarity of your word. They say is what it says because you say so. I love that because you say so. Not because Josh says so, not because the church says so, but because the Lord God said so. And who are we to? Fight back for with you. So God help us and I've tried my best to balance this of what it. That it's a sin, but it's not unforgivable. And I hope that tonight and I set a goal for every sermon and God, I pray that that you would meet that goal that the church, these Christians that are here tonight and that would be watching online. Would be prepared for the day that they live in. They're muddying the waters. They're trying to make us doubt what you say. So we need to be ready. And I pray this sermon helped us to be ready tonight. And I pray that maybe someone who's fighting this sin. Someone who believes it's not a sin would come across this sermon. And that their mind would be changed. And that their hearts would be open. And that you would save someone by the power of your word. So God, we thank you again for the clarity of your word. And we ask and pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.