Now over time, people learn things that they didn't know before. Hopefully that's your experience that you are learning and growing over time. And you may even find that you are changing your opinion on issues as you learn more. That's the human condition. Hopefully we are all engaging in that and we hope that we are all arriving at a better place of truth. Of course, God has given us an unchanging and inspired word, and we hope that we are also accurately interpreting scripture because we want to have a correct understanding of what God has said to us. And so we do at times ask ourselves if we are wrong on something. Have we been wrong? Well, sometimes as we are considering this, there are people who are convinced by stories of these various lifestyles and the LGBTQ. plus, we'll just cut off the letters there, spectrum of lifestyles. They are convinced by stories of those who are in these lifestyles that this is a natural and innate part of a person's being. For instance, there has been much research that has been poured into the question of whether There is something natural to this particular set of lifestyles. Some are looking at genes and at DNA and different things. Others are looking at nature and they are saying if we can find homosexuality, for instance, in nature, there's no way that God would condemn it within humanity if it is natural, if it's something that he has made. And so this is one way that people are changing their minds on this issue. But the reality is, of course, as you might suspect, I would say, the reality is that this is not as clear cut as our culture is painting it or presenting it. Despite all the money that is being poured into genetic studies, we have never been able to definitively prove, for instance, that a gay gene exists, that there is something within the genetic makeup of a person that that makes him or her gay or lesbian or whatever. Now, newspapers have falsely reported that scientists are close to a breakthrough or that there have been important discoveries made, but there has, of course, never been that headline of, yes, we've discovered it and here it is, even though those headlines, those misleading headlines have been appearing since the 90s. Even some of those stories that we see from the animal kingdom are false. And I'll give you an example of that. You may have heard that in Sydney, there is a, Sydney, Australia, that there is an aquarium there where there are two gay penguins. It has come out that, yes, of course there are two male penguins who have adopted an egg, but it was actually the aquarium staff that manipulated them into that position. There is no evidence that they have any attraction toward one another. They just simply took an egg and gave it to male penguins, and then instinct kicked in. There was certainly nothing that was indicative of a homosexual relationship between those penguins. They just instinctively, once they had a chick in front of them, started taking care of it. And again, with all of this, I am posting my notes on this so that you can get links to the various stories and everything else. Even if the data, though, were not manipulated by activists, we have to ask ourselves, why are we looking to the animal kingdom for cues as to morality? Does not also rape and incest occur within the animal kingdom? We don't idealize those particular those particular actions, so why would we say that homosexuality or something like that is something we should highlight? But this is part of where culture is shifting its opinion. A lot of people are accepting the premise that they are simply born this way, as Lady Gaga sang, right? So in this series, we have been looking at that. Why has culture been shifting its opinion? How has culture been shifting its opinion? And even as it's accepting issues like, for instance, same-sex marriage, which it used to be completely against, even Christians now, Christian churches, have shifted their opinions on the subject. Could it be that this shift is toward a godlier, more loving position? Well, we have to ask, what does Scripture say? What does Scripture say on that question? And so far, we have seen an answer to that question. In the first sermon in this series, we have looked at the at what the Bible describes as a cultural decline as culture is embracing homosexuality and lesbianism. It is a sign of God's judgment. It's a sign of God's judgment upon a society. And in the next sermon, what we talked about last time, we saw that God's original design for sex and marriage is very distinct. It is what people, what humanity has believed for thousands of years. But sin, of course, warps these definitions, and today, as culture is more interconnected than ever, we have collectively been warping these definitions at a breakneck velocity. God originally designed marriage to be between one biological woman and one biological man for life. And you have to state that today. It is not a trans woman or a trans man, but rather a biological woman and a biological man. And yes, of course, we believe it is for life. that there should not be divorce. It is sin that brought in marital conflict. It is sin that brought in sexual shame. And it is the gospel and the help of the Holy Spirit that helps us to overcome those things so that we can return at least as best as we can on this side of the veil to godly relationships between men and women. But the redefinitions are all around us, and we have to recognize that. We now have to contend with the fact that we have a definition of marriage, and the world has a definition of marriage, and these definitions are not compatible. We have to contend with that. We have to understand that there are gonna be ebbs and flows in culture as more people accept one thing that is sinful, and then they shift and accept another thing which is sinful. But even as these shiftings occur, God's word remains true. And let God be true in every man, a liar. We hold to the truth of God's holy and inspired, inerrant word. And so this is what we're going to continue to look at. Just as we considered last time, the original design and how the fall affected sex and marriage, we are considering 10 more passages on this subject. Now, as I was preparing this, as we are looking at what scripture has to say about this, I decided that we could not cover 10 more passages this morning. We just could not fit them in, even though that was my desire. So I was thinking, well, we'll cover five, and we'll save the other five. for later, but now it's actually down to three. So we'll get through this as quickly as possible, but what I'm going to do is look at the division point here, and I believe the division point is right at the end of the Old Testament text. We will save the New Testament text for tonight. So rather than me preaching the rest of this Next Sunday, I'm actually going to preach it tonight. And so come on back and we'll continue with this series tonight. And I've noted that in your bulletins. This is part two, and then part three will come tonight. But let's go ahead and look at what the Bible has to say about this. It is so important for us to continue to move slowly through these first few points as we are seeing the Bible establish a framework for our understanding. And the first thing that we are going to notice today is that God clearly condemned LGBTQ plus at Sodom and Gomorrah. And so let's go to the left a little bit in your Bibles to Genesis. So much is explained in Genesis and that's why we are spending more time in Genesis and then through the rest of the Torah because that lays the understanding that we have to have or the foundation that we have to have for understanding the rest of scripture. And so here in Genesis 19, we have the condemnation of Sodom and Gomorrah and the question of what God was condemning there. And so when we get to verse five here, we see that, of course, verse four, people are coming out to find these visitors who have come to the city of Sodom. In verse 5, they called out to Lot, that would be the men of Sodom, called out to Lot and said, where are the men who came to you tonight? bring them out to us that we may have relations with them, as the New American Standard translates it here. Some of your Bibles might just simply say, so that we may know them. Of course, that is what is a more literal translation, but relations is the understanding there, that we may have relations with them. Verse six, but Lot went out to them at the doorway and shut the door behind him, and said, please, my brothers, do not act wickedly or so wickedly. Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with a man. Please let me bring them out to you and do to them whatever you like. Only do nothing to these men and as much as they have come under the shelter of my roof. But they said, stand aside. Furthermore, they said, this one came in as an alien. In other words, he was an out of towner. He is someone who is a transplant. He is like the Californian who comes to Colorado. And already he is acting like a judge. Now we will treat you worse than them. So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door. But the men reached out their hands, that would be the two angels, reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves, trying to find the door. Now, back in Genesis 3, we noted that sexual sin is as old as the fall. We see shame enter in that first time. This gives us the most popular case of sexual sin, and of course it is dated to around Abraham's time. Now just as Cain overturned God's created order by killing his brother in Genesis 4, people soon began exploiting and exploring, I should say, alternative sexual lifestyles and seeking to find different ways of overturning God's order. And the first time that we see that clearly, I should say, is in Genesis chapter four. Keep your hand here in Genesis 19, but take a peek back to Genesis chapter four. In verse 19, Genesis 4, 19. And these are the offspring of Cain when he finally settled in the land of Nod. Verse 19, we see one of his descendants, Lamech, took to himself two wives. And you say, well, what's the big deal about that? In the patriarchal days, they had multiple wives. This is the first time. How did God make them in the beginning? Remember, we talked about the original design. In the beginning, he made them male and female. How many wives for Adam? One, exactly. Lamech took for himself two wives. This is the first time we see a case of bigamy, or we might say a bigger relationship. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah. And there we see that, and we see the descent of the people of the town as that continues on. But that's the first time we see someone saying, hey, wait, I have one wife, why not have two wives? And that leads up to more and more experimentation that we could talk about, but we get eventually to Genesis chapter 19, where we have men looking at other men. Did it happen before Genesis 19? That's possible. But here we have apparently a whole city of men thinking that this is a good idea. Now, what is this talking about? There is a debate as to whether this is talking about homosexuality. So let's begin by examining the passage. Again, verse five, we read about the men demanding that Lot bring out the angelic visitors so that they may know them. This is the same word that's used back where we read about Adam knowing his wife and she conceives and she bears a child Okay, this is what's known as euphemistic language euphemistic language is where you use kinder words to describe a harsher Reality or something that you might think is a harsher reality. There's nothing harsh of course about Adam knowing his wife. That's perfectly natural, but the Bible also does not want to describe these things in great detail, even when we get to the Song of Solomon. Obviously, there is some very interesting material in the Song of Solomon, but you know it's not their pornographic material, even though it is describing a relationship between a husband and a wife. It is not pornographic, it's poetic. And so we do see that the Bible does this. It does describe things euphemistically to perhaps shield some of our younger listeners as the Bible is being read, et cetera. But we do see this with these men, they want to know And as the New American Standard translates it here, so that they may have relations with them. That is also a euphemism, right? We could get more direct than that. We could become very much more descriptive than that. This term does have the plain meaning of spending time with a person, obviously to get to know them as an individual, but it is also speaking of sexual relations. Even in our modern vernacular, we still use this term of carnal knowledge, right? Carnal knowledge, which is to know someone in an intimate way, in a physical way. And so this is obviously talking about a sexual act. And that's what's being said. Now, if this euphemism is too veiled, consider what we read next. Locke condemns this as a wicked act. He says, don't do something that's so wicked as this. As I think the ESV translates it, don't do this act that's so wicked. Here, let me give you something that's a little less wicked. And so he uses this term, no, to speak of his virgin daughters. I gotta say, this is a very twisted offer on Lot's part. Obviously, we would condemn this. Just because we see people in the Bible doing something doesn't mean that it's presented to us as an example to duplicate in our own lives, right? Lot was a very compromised individual. And so when he sees that these men are inflamed in their lust, he has this twisted sense of morality concerning hospitality rules where you protect the men who come and stay in your house. And he offers up his daughters. Obviously, that's a twisted understanding that he is undertaking. But he also has this understanding that, well, at least it would be with women rather than with other men, and so he sees that as perhaps slightly less wicked. Now, understand, God does not operate on a sliding scale of sin. We don't compare sins like that, but a compromised individual like Lot is doing that. He's saying, okay, well, let's see, this would be less wicked, let me have you do this. But do the men of the city accept that? No. They don't accept even that offer. The only thing that offer teaches us in the text and in the providence of God is that these men are gathered for a sexual purpose. But they condemn him. Why do they condemn him for offering up his daughters? Nope, they condemn him for judging them. And if they had Matthew chapter 7 verse 1 back then, I'm sure they would have quoted, didn't Jesus say, judge not. This is exactly what they are saying to him. You are a foreigner. You're an alien. You've come in and now you are casting judgment upon us saying what we are doing is too wicked for you. Well, guess what? Now we're going to do worse to you. And that is the dire situation that Lot now finds himself in. And they advance on him, and they intend to break down his door. The only thing that saves Lot is supernatural intervention. The angels. save him by bringing him into the house. There's perhaps something supernatural in that as the men are gathered around and pressing hard against him. The fact that the angels are still able to open the door, grab him by the hand, and pull him inside. There might be something supernatural just in that act. Alone, but then they closed the door even though the men are pressing against the door you would think they someone would have got their fingers in the door got their foot in the door something and Would try to wrench that door back open. Nope. They just closed the door and then they strike the men in the doorway Whether they were men of high stature or low stature the small or the great they all got struck with blindness blindness. I didn't know what happens next. It says that they wearied themselves trying to find the door. I'm thinking, okay, if I was so dedicated to this act that I had gotten up to that point, I would think that being struck blind in the moment would wake me up. I would think so. And I'm sure that there's a moment of pause there where, okay, who turned off the lights, right? They realize that they can't see. And then they begin to realize based on what other people are saying that no one else can see either. And so you would think that this would be a moment of reflection, but no, this is how caught up in their lust they are. They don't care that they've just been struck blind. Come on guys, we can still find that door. Let's find that door so we can break it down. They are not going to be deterred. This is how full they are of their own lust and their own violence. And it gives us a very vivid picture of how that can well up and take over a person. Our sin can master us. As I said, this is a very hotly disputed passage. There are people who look at this and they say, okay, well, this is not about homosexuality. Even though one of our terms for homosexuality comes from this. passage, sodomy. And even today, you know, we still, in our legal system, describe that, describe certain acts as that. And you can see that on certain individuals' records, sodomy or aggravated sodomy, et cetera. But people say, no, no, this is not what this is describing. and modern day social justice activists and advocates would say, no, this term, is describing non-consensual activity here. These are just criminals. What's happening here, especially as we look to other places, and we will look to Isaiah in just a moment. So if you wanna look there, you can, but we will be going there in just a few minutes. They say, okay, well, no, Isaiah describes inhospitality in that city. Obviously, they're not being hospitable to their guests. It's describing pride there, and yeah, sure, there's pride. And so they say, see, this isn't about a, you know, a nominal, say, gay relationship where two men have a consensual relationship and they need each other and they fall in love and they just, you know. get married or whatever the case may be. This is talking about a very particular kind of thing that we should all condemn, which is rape and things of that sort. But scripture elsewhere describes this as sexual immorality. For instance, In Judges, we see this repeated in Israel. These are not non-Jewish people at that point. At the end of Judges, Judges 19, very strange case, but almost line by line a replication of what we read in Sodom and Gomorrah, where we see the sexual sin happening there in Israel as well. Jeremiah. And Jeremiah 23, 14 links adultery and walking in falsehood to the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. And we would assume that adultery in that case would be consensual. In the New Testament, Jude chapter seven speaks of the gross immorality that happened when those went after strange flesh. And it's describing a man going after another man as going after strange flesh. Similarly, 2 Peter 2, verses six and seven, describes the city's destruction there. And it says that Lot was oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men. The sensual conduct of unprincipled men. In other words, the plain reading of Genesis 19 is just how we are to consider it. That God is condemning, among other things, in Sodom and Gomorrah, the sin of homosexuality. And that is usually the case when you have a passage where you have questions about it. The plain reading usually is the right reading. That usually is how that works. Now, we're going to talk about some of these passages again in a few minutes. We're going to get into some of those. But for now, I do want us to see that God is condemning Sodom and Gomorrah for homosexuality. It's not that there aren't other things to condemn there. People are people. We typically don't carry just one sin within us, right? We usually keep our guns loaded with multiple rounds, right? We have various kinds of sins that mark us. And so when scripture does condemn these cities, it also highlights the pride that was there, the assault that was there, the inhospitality that was there, the laziness that was there. And there are other sins that we could probably highlight there. But that doesn't make the sin of homosexuality any less sinful. In fact, these other sins, which are present, Or these other sins are present today in our currently pornography-fueled, over-sexualized culture. And they accompany homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgenderism, queerness, and the like. It's all there. And of course, this month, we see it all proudly on display. And if you say, well, no, there's still people who will not cross those lines. I just saw an image in my Twitter feed this morning of a pride parade where they had an underage child biking naked with the adults who are also biking naked down the street. This is the kind of stuff that is being promoted. And scripture, yes, it highlights one sin here, but there are a plethora of interconnected sins within the human condition. Usually people don't just sin with one sin. There's usually a lot of other kinds of related sins which are present within that person. Now, Again, as we're looking at this, of course, we looked at those things there. But as we are considering this, some would say, as we are looking at Sodom and Gomorrah, that this still does not represent typical LGBTQ community values. Sexual assault is not common within this community, it is said. Well, we can certainly be thankful that it is not true of every homosexual or lesbian individual out there. Every transgender person out there is not engaging in violence, which is good. However, it's more common than we might think. There is a high instance, for instance, of domestic abuse among both homosexual and lesbian couples. In fact, domestic violence is very high, higher within lesbian households than within the median household in America. There are male rapists who identify as women. so that they can go into women's prisons when they are arrested, or when they are not arrested, go into women's shelters. It happens. For instance, there is one shelter which recognized this and said, nope, we are going to have only a biological women's shelter. Once that news got out, the transgender community gathered and vandalized that shelter because it said that this was bigotry. There are areas in the internet world filled with people who just spew hatred and fantasize about assaulting and killing those with traditional values and views on the subject. And if you've seen in the news recently, within the last couple of weeks, the, well, dozens of pages from the Covington shooters manifesto has been revealed. We see that that girl who, thought she was a boy, went into that school to shoot up people because they were Christian, because they did not believe in transgenderism, and because she wanted them to pay for her mental distress. The sinful ideology that can twist the original order that God has created can become further twisted toward hatred and violence. It's not that there aren't straight heterosexual men, for instance, who go out and shoot up places. Of course, that happens as well, and that is twisted as well. But let's not pretend for a moment that what is being paraded in the LGBT movement is not also twisted. And it should be no surprise that it can become twisted further. Now that is just the first of the several passages I want to consider today. So moving on to the next passage, let's consider the fact that God has also condemned LGBTQ plus with his Torah prohibitions, his Torah prohibitions. And that's where we get back to Genesis chapter, or excuse me, Exodus, Exodus chapter 20. And really we could start in chapter 19. But as I said, we're considering a number of passages. Remember that the first five books of scripture, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, they collectively form the Torah. right? The five books of Moses. Sometimes it's called the Pentateuch. the Pentateuch. This is the law of God. So that means that Genesis is part of the law of God. What is laid out in Genesis is part of the law of God. God wants his people, as they are considering his law, to consider how he created the world, for instance. How he created Adam and Eve. How he made Marriage. And as we consider these prohibitions, all of that is resting on what Genesis reveals about God's design. This is not just another historical book, Genesis, that is. It's not just another historical book. It's part of God's law, and it's part of God's law for a reason. We have to understand the beginning if we are to understand how things are going wrong. We have to understand the fall in Genesis chapter three if we are to understand why some of these commands are even needed. And so these accounts in Genesis, they all reveal Israel's need for God and his law. And it includes that debauchery in Sodom and Gomorrah for them to see, yes, God needs to lay down certain laws about sexual sin, at least restricting those laws. And so as we get into God's law, and very apropos for the discussion this morning, we see a lot of laws against sexual sin, including adultery. including incest, including prostitution, including homosexuality, including bestiality, including bigamy, including polyamory, and all the rest. All of these sins fall outside of God's created norm, is my point. And so God is trying to demonstrate that. Some people will say, how dare you compare a consensual act between two adults to non-consensual acts like between an adult and a child or between a human and an animal. The comparison is that it's all outside of God's norm, not that it's all consensual or non-consensual. The comparison is that they are all not what God intended. They are all not God's best. And so we see God's law clearly outlining this, and it begins in Exodus. Now, as we think about Exodus, we often think about God's miraculous deliverance of the children of Israel from sin. or from slavery, and of course that is a picture of God's people being delivered from sin. But this book also shows us how God is delivering people from the bondage of sin, and how he wants them to live as a result of his deliverance. And so, as we think about the Exodus, we actually are only considering about the first 15 chapters. As they get into the wilderness, as they are heading toward the promised land, I should say, I was about to say as they get into the promised land, but they're not quite there yet, they're in the wilderness, they first stop at Sinai. And at Sinai, they begin to consecrate themselves. We see that in chapter 19. as they are gathered there to learn God's law as there's the sound of the trumpet from the mountain or thunder that is trumpeting from the mountain. And there is the dark cloud and the people are afraid. They see that this is a very weighty matter before them. And so they begin that consecration process. And then after they are ready, God speaks those 10 commandments. Those 10 commandments that we all know. Now we could talk about those commandments, but of course we're only highlighting a couple of those, and those are verses that we already read. Those verses condemn engaging in sexual sin, which is the thou shalt not commit adultery command. And there is a command against entertaining sinful, lustful desires, which is the thou shalt not covet command. Why does it say you shall not covet your neighbor's wife? don't create a desire within you for someone else's wife. These commands against adultery and covetousness don't just apply to married individuals. I hope you understand that. You say, well, it's adultery. I'm not married, so I'm free. Nuh-uh. It doesn't work that way, right? Because there are a lot of other commands that are detailed here. This would include single men who go after married women, but it would also include two unmarried parties who engage in fornication. In other words, these commands call us to sexual purity in both our actions and in our hearts. And that opens the door for other sexual considerations. Remember, the Ten Commandments are just a summary of God's holy law. They are just a summary of God's holy law. They are not the sum in total of God's law. This is where people like the rich young ruler come by. and think, okay, well, I've kept all 10 commandments, what else do I need to do to inherit eternal life? No, you have not kept all 10 commandments, and Jesus proceeds to demonstrate how he hasn't even kept the first one, because he has money as his God, rather than God. But we have to consider the fact that these commandments show us a lot more about ourselves than we are willing to see. And so as we get to places like Leviticus 18, for instance, we see an expanded list of sexual sins. Let's go ahead and turn there, Leviticus chapter 18. And we won't read All of these, there are several prohibitions here, but if we skip down to verse 22, we see the one that is important for us to see. Verse 22 says, you shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an abomination. With all these verses, there is debate. because people want to try to read them a different way than what they clearly are speaking. In other words, there are activists who engage in linguistic, linguistic sleight of hand to try to make these verses say something other than what they are saying. And so they try to say that maybe this is talking about ritual prostitution. Now that's actually somewhat hinted at in the previous verse where we read you should not give your offspring to offer them to Moloch. Obviously we reject the idea of killing babies to appease some God that would include the God of convenience. But I'll save that for my abortion message. But there is obviously something else sexual that is being involved there. God also speaks to that very clearly in chapter 19, verse 29, where he says, I'll go ahead and just read it. Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot so that the land will not fall to harlotry and the land become full of lewdness. Obviously a man should keep his daughter from this and If you say well, yeah, but where would a man see that temptation today? There's this whole whole app I guess it's called only fans now that a lot of young girls get into because they think they can make some money dads keep your daughters away from that kind of stuff and But what happens when people get involved in harlotry? Not just the women, but the whole people there, the whole land is subjected to lewdness when that happens. So obviously that is something that scripture condemns, but scripture never allows an exception clause here. Well, what if you have a monogamous, consensual, same-sex union? Well then, God says it's okay. Does he say it's okay? No. Where does he say it's okay? He doesn't ever say that that's okay. That's assumed. The language here is just as plain in the Hebrew as it is in the English. You don't lie with a man. Obviously, this is speaking of the male in the audience, because typically men are leading the home. Men are the first to receive these commands. Men don't lie with other men as men lie with women. And that's the clear command. The passage forbids this as abominable. That means it's idolatrous. It's lewd. It's lewd. And that's what the passage is saying here. See, these lifestyles, the whole LGBTQ plus spectrum here, it breaks The two great commandments. You remember the two great commandments. You say, was that the first and second commandment? No, it's not from the 10 commandments. It's what Jesus agreed were the two great commandments of scripture. The first is to love the Lord your God, right? With all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And then the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself. Well, these lifestyles break both of those commandments. Again, as I said, the word abomination speaks of idolatry, so there's the breaking of the first great commandment, because you're putting your own desires, your own self-interest, your own seeking of pleasure above what God has said, and above your worship of God, and it also hates our neighbors because it has a degrading and even a destructive effect upon societies, upon families. That's why such harsh penalties were fixed to these acts. In chapter 20, verse 13, we see there that if there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act. They shall surely be put to death. Now, obviously, this is speaking of a consensual act. Because you wouldn't have a man raping another man, and then you're like, okay, well, let's kill them both. That's obviously not what God is commanding. This is a consensual act that God is condemning to the point of capital crime. Say, that sounds hateful, why would God ever do that? You know, God also commands the death penalty for adulterers in verse 10 of this chapter. God also commands the death penalty for incestual relationships. Now, I guarantee you if I went out and I took a poll And I said, do you think that we should tie millstones to the necks of pedophiles and drop them into the ocean? How many do you think would support that? I think most people, or many people at least, would say yes and amen. Okay. What about that spouse that cheated on you? There would still be a few people who say amen to that, I think. But God also calls homosexuality, and presumably lesbianism and the rest, abhorrence and worthy of death. Why? Because it's a similar attack against the family and against society. Now, don't mishear me. We are not under the law of Moses anymore. So we don't apply this. Obviously, we don't believe that we go and take up stones and find the pride parade in Grand Junction and let people know how we feel by throwing stones. No, we don't do that. This is the New Testament era. However, God commanded this of his Old Testament people because this was important for the people of God to see. that this is a detestable and even a destructive sin upon a society. And as we bring that forward and apply the eternal moral principle of the law, we have to say, okay, this is something that we should not allow in a civil society. Now, if people want to do this in the privacy of their own home, I'm not saying that we necessarily go kick down doors or anything, but we certainly don't paint flags that celebrate this on crosswalks or fly them from the White House. We don't promote this kind of aberrant behavior. Now we are talking about this. We're talking obviously a lot about the L and the G, and perhaps even the B and the LGBT movement, but we haven't really said much about the T yet. Does the law have something to say about transsexual, transvestite, transgender behavior? Oh yes, it does. Take a look over to the book of Deuteronomy. the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 22. Deuteronomy, of course, is the second telling of the law. And so there is much that is repeated there. But we also have some things which are made more definitive. And in Deuteronomy 22, verse five, we read a woman. shall not wear man's clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman's clothing. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God. The Hebrew language even goes beyond this and refers to things which pertain to maleness and things which pertain to femaleness. and women are not to put on things which pertain to maleness, and men are not to put on things which pertain to femaleness. Now, as we bring that up, there are always some people who are, who come in perhaps with a little bit of sarcasm, a little bit of snark, and they say, well, how can you tell? Didn't they all wear dresses back then? Well, no, they did not all wear dresses back then. A robe is not a dress, and if you know anything about the history of clothing, there were differences in what men wore and what women wore, even back then. You can say, well, look at Scotland. Don't the men and the women wear kilts in history? If you know your history, you know that there's a difference between the male tartan and what the women were wearing, right? There were still those differences there. Just as there are differences today, now those differences might not be the same as what some of our fundamentalist independent Baptist brethren have pointed out in the past. Women, I think, have pretty much adopted pants, for instance. We can't really make a case that it is not feminine for a woman to wear something that shows separation between her legs, rather than, say, a long skirt or a dress. We don't say that anymore because that's just a little bit of movement in our society. But there are still clothing options that are very masculine or very feminine in appearance. And there's something that shakes you for a moment, something that, especially with guys, maybe not so much with women, but within guys there's almost a gag reflex when you see a man walking around. in women's clothing. There's a stopping there, and we're disturbed. And it does happen. It does happen. God commanded that this was not supposed to be that way. Men do not do this, even if, you can't, okay, just imagine an Israelite saying to Moses, as Moses is pointing out, hey, you're wearing women's clothing, dude, what's going on? It's all right, I identify as a woman. Moses isn't going to say, oh, well, then it's all right, man. No, no, he would say, okay, we need to deal with this. We need to deal with this. In chapter 23, verse one, we see no one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord. There are reasons why people did this. Maybe sometimes it was for employment, royal employment required a person to be made into a eunuch. But there were also people who engaged in this for sexual purposes. We see this very clearly later on, kind of leading up to the time of the New Testament with the cult of Diana, where you had men who were either forcefully emasculated or willingly emasculated so that they could be a part of this feminine cult. And there was even a worship that was going on there. Some men would seek out to wear women's clothing and undergo these ancient surgeries, and vice versa, apparently. But the Lord condemned all of that. He said, no, this is not supposed to be the way. Something, well, why does God condemn this? If we're fallen, if we're in a fallen world, and we sometimes now get sick, and we sometimes are born with genetic defects, perhaps even defects in our DNA, maybe there's a defect that we are born with that makes a boy be born into a girl's body and a girl to be born into a man's body. Understand that there is no test to ever show such a thing. And such a thing has never been proven in science. It's always based on the feeling of the individual. But God does not allow for that. He condemns all of it. He says, no, no, a man is not to wear something that is pertaining to a woman, and a woman is not supposed to wear something that is pertaining to a man. You know how the best way to deal with this is, what the best thing to do is when you have, say, a young man who's confused about his gender, or a woman who's confused about hers? You know the best way to deal with that? It's to talk to them about it. to counsel them through it. Why do you think that? Some cases, it may be because they've had some trauma that they're trying to escape. Other cases, they might just have the wrong thought of what it is. In other cases, and this happens a lot, it may be for popularity or for some kind of recognition or some kind of rebellion against mom and dad. But if there is something that's going on in that young person's mind where they honestly believe that they are not in the body that they are in, or they should not be in the body that they're in, we need to talk to them and counsel them through that. That's love. It's not love to cut off healthy organs. And to call them something other than they are. but those who are accepting of LGBTQ lifestyles don't understand that there can be an argument that's loving that would also condemn these things. But scripture does. Scripture condemns it. Remember, God is our creator. God made us this way. Now, this would be enough, but we referenced Isaiah. Very quickly, I wanna go to Isaiah. I know that we're running late on time, I think I got started a little later up here. I didn't note the time when I first got up here, but we won't be spending nearly as much time in Isaiah here. Isaiah chapter one, we'll just look at a couple passages real quickly here. Isaiah chapter one, verses nine and 10, We see the Lord condemning Israel, and he says, unless the Lord of hosts had left us a few survivors, we would be like Sodom, we would be like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. He's speaking to Israel spiritually, Sodom. And give ear to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah. The situation that Israel descended into right before the Babylonian captivity was so dire that they were very much like Sodom and Gomorrah. And we might say that their situation reflects ours with our pride marches and flags and displays. If you look to chapter three, verse nine, look at how he describes their faces. He says in three, nine, the expression of their faces bear witness against them. I mean, think about that. God says, I can look at your faces, and it bears witness against you. And they display their sin like Sodom. They do not even conceal it. Woe to them. for they have brought evil on themselves. They got to the point where they could not even display shame anymore. They didn't have shame over the acts that they were engaged in. And Isaiah continues to warn them in chapter 13, verse 19, that just as Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed, just as Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed, so too were they going to be destroyed. And so he likens Judah to Sodom and Gomorrah there, and the public displays that they were going into. Now, as we consider this, we have been considering condemnation. And so let me shift to a little good news. Something to leave you on a little bit better. You're in Isaiah, turn to Isaiah 56. Isaiah 56. Isaiah 56, in verse three, We have that shifting in Isaiah, of course, from condemnation to good news. And in verse three, let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will surely separate me from his people. Even the foreigner, even the Gentile can be brought in. Thank God for that. And now look at this. Nor let the eunuch say, behold, I am a dry tree. What does that mean? Well, the eunuch is infertile, right? And of course, kids who have been through these puberty blockers and hormone treatments and everything like that, they often grow up, more often than not, to be infertile if they ever want to switch back to their natural gender. Girls, for instance, usually cannot have children, although the Lord can still work. I'm not saying he can't work. But he says don't don't let even that person say I am a dry tree look at verse 5 He says to them I get I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than that of sons and daughters I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off so maybe you as we were going through the the law, the Torah, and you say, oh, the person who's emasculated himself can't even enter into the temple, can't even enter into the assembly of the people. Well, God just doesn't want those people. No, God actually gives hope. That is there to discourage people from undergoing certain acts upon themselves. But let's say that person undergoes that and then wants to repent. Is there hope? Yes, there is. God says, yes, let them come. Let them come. And I will establish a memorial. I will establish a memorial. And so this is where God is saying that there is no one, not even someone who has undergone sex change operations or someone who has true birth defects or whatever, no one is beyond God's redemption. And so as we wrap it up, I'm hoping that you'll see that. There's a lot more passages that we could get to here, But I want you to see that no one is beyond God's grace, even those in the LGBTQ plus identity group, identity range. All these individuals can have a hope of an everlasting name, which will not be cut off. They may have cut something off, but God will give them a name that can't ever be removed from them. That's the word play that's intended there. So there is redemption and transformation that is available in Jesus Christ. Now, as we proclaim that, it is not loving to pretend that this stuff is not sinful. If we're gonna say that there's redemption available in Christ, redemption from what? If we say, no, God's okay with this, we are like the false prophets in Israel, Jeremiah 6, who said, peace, peace, when there is no peace. We have to proclaim the truth, but we proclaim the truth in love. We proclaim the truth in love. The truth is that Revelation 21, eight, Yes, the sexually immoral persons will have their part in the lake of fire, but there is redemption available in Jesus Christ. We have to proclaim that, just like the rest of us need that same message of redemption in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ dies on the cross for all of our sins, including those sins that are being paraded in front of people today. And Jesus Christ can even wash away the stain of being involved in these lifestyles.