homosexuality part 2

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Bodies In The Wilderness: An Object Lesson For The Church (part 3) - [Hebrews 3:7ff]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the
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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her
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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Mike Abendroth, your host with you today, back in the studio,
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I wish I could say live. We tried doing live shows, but I remember the first couple shows, some equipment didn't work right and didn't sound as good, had to be here in the studio exactly at 3 .30.
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There's commotion going on at the church, people getting slain in the spirit outside my door, altar calls going on up over by the altar, people howling in the spirit, barking, and all these kind of things in the church.
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That happens usually, you know, every day here at Bethlehem Bible Church. And so I just thought I'd better tape them. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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You can email me on those. If you haven't listened to the show before, you have to listen to some old shows to see what I really believe regarding those topics.
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Today I'd also like to follow up and address biblically to try to get you to think
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Christianly about homosexuality. We talked about that last week, and I want to finish up a few thoughts today to kind of highlight what we talked about last time.
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Number one, whether society says something is right or wrong, Christians have to go to the
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Bible. Whether you think the Bible is relevant or irrelevant, if you call yourself a
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Christian, you're under its authority anyway. Number three, if there are parts of the
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Bible that you don't like, join the club. Once again, refer back to number two.
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You are a person under authority, and God's ways are God's ways. And God's ways are right ways, honoring ways, good ways.
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God doesn't have to tell us why something is true. He just has to tell us this is the truth.
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Once in a while, he'll tell us why, and then we get to know those things. So when it comes to our culture, as we're heading like a runaway train towards Christianity and homosexuality exploding, at least as a society, we might as well try to think about this properly now.
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Because soon enough, we will go the way of Europe, and Christian churches are going to be forced to be muzzled.
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Some will go along with that program. Some will lose tax exemption. Some will lose their pastors to jail.
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Some will lose the ability to meet. And we're just going to keep getting worse and worse and worse if things continue on this current trajectory.
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Well, what does that do for us? Well, it doesn't really do much for us because the mission is still the same.
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Whether you're given as a pastor a prison ministry because you're put into prison for saying homosexuality is talked about in the
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Bible as a sin, a sin that can be forgiven, or you're not put in jail, we still need to tell people that there is one
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Messiah, one God, one Jesus, one substitutionary atonement, one confirmation,
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Christ's resurrection, one soon return, and their only hope is to not trust in themselves or what society says about what's right and wrong and its mores.
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But what does the Bible say about forgiveness? And forgiveness is found in Christ Jesus alone.
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The wages of sin is death, and somebody has to die when you sin, and that somebody, instead of you, could be
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Jesus if you'll trust in him, if you'll turn from your sin. I said last time that I would not spend a lot of time going through what
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Mosaic Law is for Israel regarding homosexuality. I think you could still prove that homosexuality is a sin in God's eyes that way,
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I just think if you're a layperson, you're going to get bogged down pretty quickly with people's quick retorts that, does that mean we can't blend certain kind of clothes together, and they'll go to other parts of the
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Mosaic Law that were for Israel to make sure that they were uniquely different, set apart, sanctified.
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For instance, when it comes to not eating pork, I don't think the main reason the Jews were required to stay away from pork was because pork is dirty and they could get trigonosis.
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That may be a secondary thing, but I think it was to distinguish the Jews from everyone else.
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The Hittites ate pork, the Canaanites ate pork, etc., but God's people didn't.
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They needed to act differently. They didn't serve the same group of gods or goddesses.
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They served Yahweh, the Creator, and He was different, and He then told the church that you can eat whatever you want, eat as often as you want, because that system is done.
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We no longer have the nation of Israel under Sabbath law, etc. So I think you probably get yourself into trouble if you're going to try to show someone this is what the
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Bible says about homosexuality and how it is sinful, and how it's always sinful.
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You can say to adulterers, we love each other, we're not hurting anyone, well, it's still sin because adultery, according to the
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Scriptures, is sinful. If somebody creates you, they can tell you what to do.
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It's their prerogative, it's their right, it's their duty. And so too with God. If He has created us,
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He's created everybody who's listening here, then you are under His authority. By the way, that is why we have evolution today, so pushed by people, because they don't want to have a
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God over them. If there's an all -powerful God over them, they know they need to submit and repent and do what they are told.
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But people don't like to do what they're told. Don't you tell me what to do, is the attitude of folks today.
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So they try to concoct a system that will allow them to sleep at night and their consciences can feel good, and they realize it's just one big bang, and after all, how the dinosaurs get on the
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Ark, how do we have all this kind of proof for the worldwide flood, and go on and on and on about that.
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Because if you get evolution as the starting point, then it's not biblical, it's not the God of the
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Bible, and you're good to do whatever you want. And you can have the moral majority, or you can have majority rules.
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And so you just, you know, majority just determines morality, and off you go.
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So last time we looked at Romans chapter 1. One more reminder for those that missed last week's show, there's nothing homophobic about talking to folks about what the
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Bible teaches about sin, I think that's love, I want homosexual people to be forgiven,
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I want them to go to heaven, isn't that loving? And so the way to heaven, the way to forgiveness, is to tell people about Christ Jesus, that is what love is.
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And so you don't know you need a Savior until you know you are a sinner. And so we talk to people about their sin, reprove, rebuke, exhort,
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Paul told Timothy, reprove, this is sin, rebuke, you do that sin.
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And so we need to tell people that they are sinners, which they know already, but to confirm the fact that even though society says it's good, it's righteous, society celebrates it.
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Society says, yes, we determine the rules and don't you tell us what to do or we'll try to throw you in jail or arrest you like the guy in London not too many weeks ago.
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But we have a different agenda, and that agenda is no matter what people say, no matter what the laws are, we need to obey
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God and let the consequences fall where they may. And so if you're listening today and you're a homosexual,
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I'm glad you're listening. If you try to do the quick retort, oh, you're a homophobic, you don't know me and you don't know who my friends are who are homosexual, and I would defy you to make that stand up in court or just public opinion, because if you met some of my homosexual friends, they would say to you, of course,
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Mike's not homophobic. I wish he wouldn't say homosexuality is a sin, but he's not homophobic.
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And so that's just something that people throw out because it's incendiary and it gets them off the point that they will die one day and stand before God.
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And they can say, I was born that way. They can say, my mother made me do it. My father wasn't around.
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I was molested as a child. I just like to, whatever the reasons are, and they're all wrong reasons.
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The best thing to do is just own up to your sin, fornicating, adulterating, homosexuality, sodomizing, just say,
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God, I'm a sinner and I'm enslaved to sin. I can't get out of this sin. I sin and think about this kind of sin all the time and I need to be rescued from myself, from my sin, from Satan, from the world, from your wrath, from you, because it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living
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God. You can try to put God out of your mind all you want, but one day you're going to stand before God.
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And the Bible says that those who practice unrighteousness worthy of death. And so we don't want to give hearty approval to people who practice unrighteous things, but that doesn't mean we can't love them, eat with them, dine with them, have them as friends and neighbors.
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Homosexuality is not the unforgivable sin talked about in the gospels. So we want to make sure that we think biblically, rightly, but still,
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I don't want to back down. If the Bible says something's sin, then I think
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I'm going to call it sin. What kind of show would that be? Some compromise radio, somecompromise .com.
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No, I wouldn't want to do that at all. So I think if you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, it would be much better for you to look at that passage than other passages, because that passage will deal with what the
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Bible says for everyone. And not just the church.
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1 Corinthians 6, do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? They should have known that.
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Paul had taught that to the Corinthians. He says, do not be deceived. Why does he say that? Because it is easy to be deceived.
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If you have friends, the cult, if you have friends that do this, relatives, the culture says it's okay.
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There's all kinds of reasons to be deceived. Our heart deceives us. Neither. What's put at the top of the list?
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By the way, it's not homosexuality. Fornicators, nor adult idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers shall inherit the kingdom of God.
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That's just what the text says. Don't be deceived. You can be deceived and somehow think that unrighteous people can go to heaven.
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Fornicators, that's easy. Sex before marriage. Adulterers, that's easy.
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People who are married but have sexual activity with other people. Effeminate and homosexuals.
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They had effeminate people back in the Bible days. They had homosexuals back in the day of the
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Bible. This is not some kind of new category of people. Thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers.
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These are all things that show us those that live a life of unrighteousness aren't able to go to righteous
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God's dwelling place. When I say righteous God's, I mean the righteous God and his dwelling place.
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Can this sin be forgiven? Can any of these sins be forgiven? Certainly. And such were some of you.
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You used to be that way, but you were washed. You were sanctified.
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You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in the spirit of our
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God. Paul says you can be forgiven. You can have a savior forgive you, turn from your sins and repent.
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But you see, Christians realize that we make up all kinds of excuses.
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Sinners make up excuses. And so Paul says to the people proclaiming themselves as Christians in 1
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Corinthians 6, verse 12, stop making up excuses so you can sin like you used to.
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And he says, all things are lawful for me. 1 Corinthians 6, 12. But not all things are profitable.
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All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food.
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I like to sin and God likes to forgive. That's a slogan. But God will do away with both of them.
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The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord. And the Lord is for the body.
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Don't rationalize your sin and say, you know, I get hungry. I have to eat.
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Therefore, I have a sexual urge with the same sex or different sex. Therefore, I have to do it.
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You know, I have a biological desire and I need to act on that.
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That sounds pretty much like people talking today, doesn't it? One man said food and the stomach were created by God for each other.
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Their relationship is purely biological. It is likely the Corinthians were using this truth as an analogy to justify sexual immorality.
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So whatever your justification is, don't do that. You've been given a body by God and God owns you.
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Verse 14, now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through his power.
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Our bodies will not just be for us in this life, but also in forever after the resurrection.
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Your stomach and food issue, that's done at death. But when it comes to your body, you will have that forever and ever.
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In other words, you don't own you and you last forever. Including your body.
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Verse 19, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own.
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For you have been bought with a price. Therefore, Corinthians, he says, glorify God in your body.
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So what about the church? The church has to say, we need to proclaim that sin is sin, unrighteousness is unrighteousness, and sinful unrighteous behavior can be forgiven.
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That's what we need to do. If you have your Bibles, turn to Genesis 19. Some try to take
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Genesis 19, the account of Sodom and the wickedness there, as some kind of lack of hospitality.
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But we're just going to walk through the passage and you'll see without doing any kind of pre -existing hermeneutical hopscotch,
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Chinese finger puzzles, you're going to find out quickly that if you just read this, you'll know exactly what's going on.
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This is the chapter in Genesis 19 that Luther said he would read and he would feel a deep revulsion.
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And so there is a lesson here and there is a lesson that needs to be learned by everyone.
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I find it interesting that Jesuit priest John J. McNeill said in a conference, according to Christianity Today 1977, there is no clear condemnation of homosexual activity to be found anywhere in the
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Bible. Well, I guess he must have some other kind of Bible.
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Genesis 19. Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.
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And Lot saw them. He rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. So here come these angels, probably the same angels that visit
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Abraham. They go 25 miles away to Sodom, which is no big deal for any kind of angel.
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And he said, now, behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servants house and spend the night.
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Wash your feet that you may rise early and go on your way. They said, however, no, but we shall spend the night in the square.
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Thanks for your hospitality, but no thanks. Yet he urged them strongly.
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So they turned aside to him and entered his house and he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread and they ate.
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Why was he so insistent? Well, because he knew what was going on in the city.
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He knew what was going on in the local area. He understood. And so he forced them as it were in.
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He knew what was going on in the streets of that city at night. So verse four, before they lay down the men of the city, the men of Sodom surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.
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Basically, the idea is come one, come all surrounded by all kinds of people, all kinds of men, repetition, men of Sodom, men of the city.
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They called 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 so that we can have sex with them.
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We want to know them, a sexual term. We want to know them. Who knows the angels handsome as they had bodies.
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We don't know the exact reasons, but we know what the people of Sodom wanted.
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And you see the New Testament confirmation of this sexual idea.
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Jude 1 verse 7, in a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion.
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They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. So this is not some kind of lack of hospitality issue.
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Genesis 19 .6, a lot went out to them at the doorway and shut the door behind them and said, please, my brothers do not act wickedly.
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Lot was courageous in defending his guests. Now, behold, I have two daughters.
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You know, he did good so far. And now I have two daughters who have not had relations with man.
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See, this has nothing to do with hospitality. Please let me bring them out to you and do whatever you would like to them.
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Only do nothing to these men in so much as they have come under the shelter of my roof.
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We don't understand it. But back in those days, you had an obligation to protect people who are under your roof.
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You had an obligation to protect your guests. If you had a stranger and you took that stranger in, you would have to protect that stranger with your own life, even.
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Genesis 19 .9, but they said, stand aside. Furthermore, they said, this one came in as an alien and already he's acting like a judge.
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Now we will treat you worse than them. So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door.
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We don't need a moral judge. That's what we don't need. But the men reached out their hands and brought
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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 their way back.
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No, to try to find the doorway, the doorway. Some kind of blindness, some kind of vision distortion.
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Who knows? Commentators say mental blindness, mental confusion, but probably there were some kind of, well, probably there was some miracle going on.
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The men said to Lot, whom else have you here? Son -in -law and your sons and your daughters and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place.
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For we are about to destroy this place because their hospitality was lacking, because their outcry, no, has become so great before the
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Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it. Lot went out, spoke to his sons -in -law who were to marry his daughters and said, up, get out of this place for the
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Lord will destroy the city. But he appeared to his son -in -laws to be jesting. Probably because he was so immersed in that sin city, they would not take him seriously.
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Who knows if he'd ever even talked about his faith before. And when the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot saying, up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.
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Well, that's Genesis chapter 19. So here's my premise. My premise is this. The Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin.
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The Bible teaches that sin can be forgiven. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ can forgive sin.
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The Bible teaches that we ought to receive sinners and love them. It doesn't mean we have to celebrate their activity or celebrate what they do, but we ought to love sinners.
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And we, when people call us, if you're a Christian today, you've been saved from all kinds of sins.
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You've been saved from, how many sins do you commit a day? If you are to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbors yourself, and you don't do that every hour only, that's 24 in a day times how many years are you old?
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We have lots of sins that we've committed. And since we've been forgiven for millions of sins, we should be able to forgive other people.
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We have to love them. We have to be kind to them. We are not to buy into somehow people are our enemy.
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They aren't our enemy. When we see things that are going on with these churches,
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Episcopal churches and Methodist churches and PCUSA churches ordaining homosexuals. Well, that's an easy one.
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That's a dumb moment. If you need a lesson on that, then you need to look at 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.
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The Bible teaches that you should be the husband of one wife. That's easy. When these churches like United Methodist churches say, well, we have to open that up again and kind of rethink, is homosexuality a sin or not?
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The second you ask that question, well, it's over. Because if you've got to rethink that, you're going to use today's contemporary culture and society.
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And then you'll use that as a higher priority than the Bible. And it's over. This particular 24 -member panel of the
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United Methodist church that I referred to years ago said that the panel agreed that biblical references to sexual practices should not be viewed as binding just because they're in the
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Bible. So I guess maybe what's binding is queer eye for the straight guy.
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I don't know, or something else like that. If you are a sinner saved by grace, you ought to preach the gospel that Christ saves to other sinners.
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So that God, by his grace, his sovereign prerogative might save them as well.
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And you ought to be a friend to all kinds of sinners. And you ought to be the kind of person that if you have the homosexuals move into your neighborhood, you should be the first over there to help, to greet, to give, you know, here's a cake, welcome to the neighborhood kind of thing, to love them.
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Love is, I want what's best for the other person. I want forgiveness for other people. Don't you?
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It's Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. Email me at info at nocompromiseradio .com.
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I'll see you next time.