Now I'll ask you to turn to Romans, chapter one, where our text is for our meditation. And we'll begin by reading verses 24 to 27. We've begun studying the letter of Paul to the Romans and we're in chapter one still. This morning, verses 24 to 27 of chapter one. Romans 1 verse 24, Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Homosexuality is not a pleasant topic to talk about, but liberal ministers in mainline churches and liberal teachers in colleges and high schools and liberal politicians and the liberal press forces the subject on our attention constantly, and that makes us evaluate what they are saying about homosexuality. The movies and the TV gloat over compelling us to pay attention to the practices of homosexuality and what they think we ought to think about it. But even more importantly, the Bible has some very plain expressions about the subject of homosexuality. In other words, the Holy Spirit has something to say about homosexuality. The liberals in the first place compel us to think about their assertion that there is nothing wrong with homosexuality and many of them even say that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality. We're going to first look at the fact that the Bible disapproves of the practices and the desires of homosexuals and calls it immorality. When the liberals say, liberals in the press, liberal politicians, liberal teachers, liberal ministers, say that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality, We have to conclude that they never opened the covers of the Bible and even read the words, or they could not, with a straight face, make that assertion. Let's first notice the language of the Bible concerning homosexuality. In verse 24, it talks about sinful desires. It uses the word sexual impurity It uses the word degrading their bodies. In verse 26 it talks about shameful lusts and unnatural relations. In verse 27 it uses the words indecent acts and the word perversion. All we have to do is look at the words and the argument is conclusive. The Word of God very strongly condemns homosexuality as being immoral. Secondly, we need to notice the argument of the Bible in which homosexuality is being discussed in Romans chapter 1. In particular, the argument is that ideas have consequences. The ideas of liberal ministers and liberal politicians have consequences. Verse 23 tells us that in particular homosexuality flows out of the fact that they deny that God is the creator and in his place they exalt man and creatures to the highest place. And human perversion Human sexual perversion results from that kind of thinking. It flows from a futile and darkened mind, verse 21. It flows from suppressing the truth, verse 18. A way of thinking that suppresses what the Bible says has a darkened way of thinking and in particular rejects the Creator and lifts to a higher plane the creatures, both man and beast. This then is a depravity that results from that kind of thinking. Psalm 94, 23 says, God has brought on them their own iniquity and shall cut them off in their own wickedness." So, the Bible argues just with its language and it argues in the argument of Romans 1 the immorality of homosexuality. The second thing we want to notice about homosexuality in chapter 1 of Romans is that the Bible makes homosexuals responsible for their evil behavior. There is responsibility in man for this kind of behavior. Now you will know that the great argument of liberalism in the press, in politicians, in the teachers of the universities is that they cannot help it. More of that as we proceed. First, It is because the truth was known in them, verse 19. And God had shown them the truth about his being the creator, which they rejected. His being the creator, who having made us, defines our sexuality, and defines what is appropriate practice in sexuality. Denying that he is creator when he has shown it to them makes them responsible for the behavior in which they have plunged themselves. Rebellion against God is the cause of such behavior. Secondly, they are responsible because when God arises to treat them with justice, you notice in verse 27, he talks about a penalty for their perversion. And in verse 24, he says he gave them over. And in verse 26, it says God gave them over. He is giving them over to sinful desires, verse 24, shameful lusts, verse 26, which already existed within the fallen human heart. It is not that God put in them the desires that were not there, but he gave them over. He gave them up. He removed all restraint. He allowed the fire of these desires to burn and consume themselves. because of the evil that they had done. Sin is not something which God presses on an individual. It is from within, out of the human heart that proceeds all sins of immorality. Murders, sexual immorality, lying. It begins in the human heart and proceeds outward. It does not come from without and engulf a man. This was the teaching of Jesus in Mark chapter 7. There is in every fallen human being the seeds of all evil that has been seen on the face of the earth. And it is when God gives men over to what is in their own hearts that they will discover the depth of the immorality within them. Now the liberal line of reasoning is one of fate. Think about it. What you read about in the newspapers, what you hear in the schools about homosexuality being something that people cannot help is an argument that they are determined in their behavior by fate. They are born that way. And there is within liberalism Many different strands of this determinism. For some it is chemical determinism. That man is only the pawn of chemical forces in his blood, in his vein, in his hormones. And he only acts out the chemistry that he has. So no one is to be held responsible. He is part of a chemical machine. and his actions are determined. He is not a choosing human being responsible for what he does. There is psychological determinism and of course Freud was the master of this. That a person's past experiences which were forced on him, compel him to act in everything that he does and everything that he says within his life. So he is a victim of what others did to him. He is not to be held responsible for how he acts. Of course, those who victimized him were also only acting as they were compelled to do because they were treated in a certain way. So man becomes part of a great psychological cosmic machine and he is not to be blamed for anything. Or now the emphasis on genetic determinism. It's all in the genes. If only we could read the genes appropriately, we would know before anyone was born exactly how he would act in any certain situation. And homosexuality, the result of genes, the result of chemistry, the result of treatment in the past and psychological necessity of response. So man is not responsible Of course, the scripture says quite to the contrary. Verse 25, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served, created things rather than the creator and because of this God gave them over to shameful lusts. And so it reads throughout the passage. The scripture saying homosexuals are responsible for their behavior. and they are not a flywheel in some great machine being destined for the way that they are behaving. The Bible sternly disapproves of homosexual practices and desires. They call it immorality. The Bible does. The Bible makes homosexuals responsible for the evil that they do. Thirdly, In addition to the immorality of homosexuality and the responsibility of homosexuals, the Bible speaks quite clearly about the misery, the misery of being a homosexual. We notice the phrase briefly for a couple of other reasons, but you will notice the very last part of verse 27 when it is talking about male homosexuals It says, they receive in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Now, the Bible is very morally clear about homosexuality, but it is very discreet. It is very delicate in its treatment of the subject and never describes the behavior of homosexuals, not graphically. And the reason for this is given in Ephesians 5.12 where Paul said, it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. And so the scripture does not describe the behavior of homosexuals and seldom is the behavior described in the literature of our day and one of the Amazing features of the discussion of our generation is that many people talk about homosexuality being alright, while I am convinced that many people have absolutely no idea what homosexuals do. And what they do is their own misery. There is here, however, when it says that they receive in themselves the due penalty of their perversion, the allusion to the fact that homosexual behavior is self-destructive. Many of the male homosexual acts do damage to the human body. They are injurious to the human body. to even carry out their sexual acts requires damage done to the human body. Because they are unnatural acts and the human body was not made for the acts which they perform. And physicians have catalogued the pathology of what occurs when men practice homosexuality. and the damage that they do to one another's bodies. Injury. They receive the due penalty of their reward in themselves. Secondly, male homosexual acts spread disease because they are filthy. And we are not using the word filthy in a moral sense. We are using it in a sense of hygiene. They are some of the most unsanitary acts that are imaginable. They are unsanitary in the extreme and they spread disease. Of course there is floated the myth in our day that the use of condoms would prevent disease. And of course it is helpful in preventing disease in the extreme. But when male homosexual acts are performed, even when using condoms, and the condoms perform with perfect precision as they were meant to do, male homosexual acts continue to spread and cause disease. There is the myth that while homosexuals would be safe, if their acts were monogamous, that is, if they had only one partner for a lifetime in homosexuality. And there is no question that promiscuity, whether it's heterosexual or homosexual, spreads disease much more rapidly through the community and causes it to be more intense. But even if one individual had only one homosexual sex partner, They would inflict injury on one another and cause disease. Furthermore, homosexuals are a serious threat to public health. But when their behavior is saluted by the community and affirmed by the community and approved by the community, then the disease that is spread by their filthiness spreads through the community. and the community is responsible for doing so. Of course we notice in our day that many practices have changed which belies the fact that there is great uncleanness within homosexuality. Now when we go to the dentist they wear surgical gloves. Now there is talk about the spread of disease through the blood that is used in transfusions in our society. Now it is obvious, even at athletic events, that doctors who treat the athletes wear surgical gloves, and athletes are forced to be removed from the competition when there is bleeding of any kind. All of this is an allusion to the fact that great uncleanness is spreading through our society because of homosexual practices. These are the things that are being spoken about when it says in verse 27, they receive in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. It may perhaps refer to more. It may, in addition to the physical effects, refer to psychological effects, changes of personality in some homosexuals, both lesbians and male homosexuals, when some men lose their masculinity and some women lose their femininity and ability to socially relate to others in a normal fashion. It can also refer to the effect upon the human will. When any sin is entered into over a long period of time, it makes a human being incapable. It destroys the will so that he is incapable of resisting the power of that sin. Of course, the liberals love to speak of alcoholism as a disease, they talk of sexual addiction, drug addiction, gambling addiction, and there is a truth in it all. That when a human being pursues a course of wickedness, he becomes enslaved to that wickedness and is powerless to break his own habits or to pull himself back from the behavior when he becomes aware that it is self-destructive. He has ruined his own will. He is receiving in himself the due penalty of his perversion. It's a miserable condition to be in, to be a practicing homosexual. And some of that is what the scripture is saying. It speaks of the immorality, It speaks of the responsibility and it speaks of the misery of being in that condition of judgment that the very practicing of the sin is the judgment of God upon them. Now, why does Paul say so much about homosexuality? Well, it was a prevalent problem in Rome as it is a prevalent problem in America in our day, and so it needs to be spoken to. But much more than that, as we look back at verses 16 and 17, we see why he is speaking about homosexuality. He says, I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. It is the power of God for salvation. For in the gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. The Apostle Paul came with the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And in doing so, he is saying that the Son of God came to bring God's mercy to homosexuals and to all other perverted sinners and slave sinners, depraved sinners, sinners living under the judgment of God, living in A condition in their sins that they cannot escape. There is a savior who will deliver them. They cannot deliver themselves. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. And the homosexuals are lost. And that's what the apostle is saying. He came not to call the righteous the good people, but sinners to repentance. Do you want to see sin in some of its foulest forms? Read the description of verses 24 to 27. But he came to say the sinners and not the righteous people. If your response in reading about homosexuals is to say, well, I've never done that. or to lift up your eyes and say, I thank you, Father, that I am not like other men are. I thank you that I am not like the lesbians and the male homosexuals. Then you sound like the Pharisee praying at the temple. The hope of the Apostle Paul is that the homosexual will see the ugliness of his sin, the bondage of his sin. the judgment he is already under, the wrath of God that is breaking upon him in the midst of practicing his sin. And that he will turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and that he will pray like the publican in the temple, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Mercy from God. Mercy from God in the gospel to homosexuals. That is his point. In talking about this, this is the reason that we read earlier this morning from First Corinthians chapter six. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Those who go on practicing their wickedness will not inherit the kingdom of God. Drunkards who go on being drunkards, they will not inherit the kingdom of God. Greedy men who go on in their greed will not inherit the kingdom of God. Homosexuals who go on in their homosexuality will not enter the kingdom of God, no matter how many liberal ministers embrace them publicly and say in the words of the false prophet, peace, peace to the homosexual, when there is no peace to them. Here are people under the wrath of God and the liberals dare to say, peace, it's all right. God does not disapprove of you. That's the sign of the false prophet and that's what liberals are. The false prophets of our day saying peace to people who are in misery. It is not possible for those who continue to live in these lifestyles to enter the kingdom of God. Oh, but listen to this. He goes on and he says, and that's what some of you were. You Corinthians who are now in the church of Christ, that is what some of you believers are. I can look back to the time that some of you were drunkards and you're not drunkards anymore, you've been washed. You've been sanctified. You've been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. And I can look back to the time that some of you were homosexual offenders and you were, but you've been washed from that. You've been cleansed. You've been changed. The Gospel brings hope to the homosexual. Hope of deliverance. Hope of pardon. Hope of cleansing. Hope of escaping this wrath that is breaking upon him. Hope of escaping the misery of his condition. And the Gospel is the power to deliver him out of it. The blood of Jesus Christ can make the foulest clean. He breaks the power of reigning sin, our one song tells us. To break the power of reigning sin. Listen, what are the liberals saying? The liberals are saying the homosexuals can't help it and there is no way out for them. There is no way out. They are doomed to live in this condition where they inflict injury and disease upon one another and shorten one another's lives. And they are doomed to live that way. There is no escaping it. They must continue in the condition that they are in. They are consigning them to a hopelessness by what they are saying. But the gospel is giving hope and it begins not by telling fairy tales, but by telling the truth. The condition in which you are living is an expression of the wrath of God that is already broken upon you. You are living in a shameful lifestyle, an immoral condition. And we have this gospel of Jesus Christ that is the power to lift you out of it. To deliver you from all of the miseries that homosexuals experience, to deliver you from all of the bound practices which you cannot break, there is power in Christ to break those chains. It is the power of God to salvation, salvation from sins. Christ came to save his people from their sins, from the sins of homosexuality, from the sins of drunkenness, from the sins of greed, from the sins of telling lies about one another and slandering. And he delivers from their sins, and that is the power of the gospel. He washes them, he makes them clean, he makes them new creatures in himself and they are delivered. The way of the transgressor is hard and it needs to be spoken of as a hard way. Paul is describing the tragedy of the human condition and saying, God looked down from heaven and he had compassion. Why would he have compassion on men who denied his being the creator and exalted creatures and mankind above God in their thinking and said, we don't want to hear the truth of God. We want to go in our own way. Why would God have compassion upon such rebels? But he has mercy upon them. And he sent his only begotten son to save them. And there were homosexuals, practicing homosexuals, saved in the first century through the preaching of Paul. And there are some who are being saved today by the same gospel of Jesus Christ. Not many, but then not many are being saved, are there? The gate that leads to life is very narrow and the road that is along the way to life is a very narrow road and few there be that enter in, few there be. But broad is the gate that leads to destruction and many are going in. We don't see. All brunkards who are being saved, we don't see all homosexuals turning to Christ, but there is power to save in Jesus Christ for men who are in every condition. Salvation is of the Lord. And the question comes to you. Here is Paul dealing with the homosexuals. You know, there were times Jesus did not speak of homosexuality so much. Being in the Jewish culture, it was not permitted and not tolerated and not Therefore, very widespread. But he did speak of harlots and he said the harlots enter the kingdom of God before you Pharisees. Because the harlots know that they are sinners. And the first step to coming to God and receiving pardon for sin and receiving the grace of God and the mercy of God and becoming a new creature. And the first step is conviction of sin. A conscience that is awake to the fact that my sins That my sins that I am living in are an expression of the wrath of God come upon me. That my sins are self-destructive. That my sins are leading me into misery. That my sins will destroy me at last if I am not saved from my sins. Not just the guilt of them in the day of judgment, I must be saved out of the sin and washed and sanctified. Well, we have a gospel that are to that is effective to save homosexuals, and that's the whole point of this passage in its wider context. Paul is preaching to them. He is calling them to the Lord Jesus Christ. The homosexuals find no compassion from the liberals, they have no compassion for them. They pat them on the back and say, you're all right. Don't feel guilty about it. Just go on your way. No compassion whatever for this lifestyle and its ruinous nature and the suffering that there is under it. But the gospel comes along and says, seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way. And the unrighteous man, his thoughts, the thoughts, the desires, the way have to be put behind and let him return on to the Lord and he will have mercy upon you. Let him return to our God and he will abundantly pardon you. But not while you continue to walk in the way of sin, let him forsake his way and his evil thoughts and return to the Lord and he will have mercy upon you and abundantly pardon." And that is an invitation to homosexuals. Whether they, the text, well the NIV couldn't quite bring itself to translate it the way the Greek is. It doesn't really say to women in verse 26 and men to the females and the males. They're not acting like human beings. to the female homosexuals and the male homosexuals, the invitation goes out and Christ stands ready to receive any who will turn from his wicked way and trust in him and receive him as Lord and Savior. So that's the reason that the Apostle speaks so plainly and that's why the Bible speaks so plainly of our sins. even though sometimes trying to draw the curtain and say it is shameful even to mention what they practice in secret. What are your secrets? Have you been saved from those secret sins through the Lord Jesus Christ? Let's bow together in prayer. Father, we are aware that we are living in a nation that is plunging headlong into ruinous and self-destructive ways of immorality for which they are responsible and misery. We thank you for the gospel of Christ. Help us to tell it and tell it well to our friends and neighbors and help us to begin by defining what the sin is. Help us also to do it with the compassion that Christ had, with the mercy that you had in your heart, O God, in sending your Son to rescue homosexual sinners by dying for their guilty ways upon the cross, and then offering pardon freely to all who would believe and only believe. Keep us from being so foolish as to press on in our sins. instead of calling upon Christ for pardon. We ask in His name. Amen.