The Bible and Homosexuality

Alpha and Omega Ministries presents the Dividing Line radio broadcast. The Apostle Peter commanded all

Christians to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us. Yet to give this answer with gentleness and reverence.

Your host is Dr. James White, director of Alpha and Omega Ministries and an elder at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. If you'd like to talk with Dr.

White, you can call now by dialing 602 -274 -1360. That's 602 -274 -1360.

Or if you're out of the Metro Phoenix dialing area, it's 1 -888 -550 -1360.

That's 1 -888 -550 -1360. And now, with today's topic, here's

James White. And good afternoon, Phoenix. This is Rich Pierce sitting in on a special edition of the

Dividing Line today. A special edition because we will be listening to a sermon today that Dr.

White gave some time ago at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. Strangely, the issue of homosexuality is becoming more and more a serious issue within the confines of the church in America today.

The moral climate in our land has turned a favorable eye upon the homosexual agenda and has become critical of those in the church who dare to stand against it.

This moral decline in the culture of our land, as well as around the world, is having a tremendous impact upon the conscience of our world, the church.

Dr. White addresses the issues that we, as Bible -believing Christians, need to be aware of so that we don't make the same compromise and fall into the trap of the enemy.

We won't be taking calls today, but be sure to have your Bible ready for this poignant and timely message.

And now, from the pulpit of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church, here's James White. It was not without a fair amount of fear and trepidation that I undertook to address our topic this evening.

It is obviously not a topic that is extremely easy to address, extremely easy to discuss, but it is one that has come up so often over the past year or so that I felt that it was right to look once again at what

God's Word says about the sin of homosexuality.

If I might, by way of introduction, mention some of the reasons why

I felt that it would be timely to again look at what God's Word says about this topic, a number of recent events have brought it again to our mind.

For example, the Phoenix City Council meeting that took place, I guess, approximately a month to two months ago now at the

Phoenix Civic Plaza was probably the straw that broke the camel's back in my thinking as to addressing this topic.

I specifically recall, I guess they call them today sound bites. I was not there, but I watched with interest, as I knew some people who were there, the television reports and I don't think this gentleman would appreciate being credited with my decision to discuss this this evening, but I remember very clearly a cleric standing at the podium speaking, wearing the black priestly garb.

I believe he was an Episcopalian and his words still ring into my mind to this day.

He basically said, the homosexual members of my congregation are kind, loving people.

It is the Bible -banging Jesus lovers who are most mean and cold -hearted amongst the people of my congregation.

And I cannot even begin to imitate the way in which he said the

Lord's name. The hatred that flowed from the man's lips physically affected me, even though I knew

I was only watching videotape of what had happened earlier. This happened within our own community and as you know, the council decided to put it to a vote of the people and then decided that wasn't a very smart thing to do and passed a sort of watered -down version of the ordinance as quietly, in my opinion, as humanly possible.

But the events in our city, recent encounters I've had elsewhere, for example as you know every six months we travel to Salt Lake City and pass out tracts at the

General Conference and twice within the past year, various groups such as Act Up and Queer Nation have showed up at the

Mormon General Conference to present their own message and we have encountered some of these individuals at such meetings.

I have also noticed, as I'm sure many of you have noticed as well, a consistent media attempt to portray homosexuality in the most positive light possible.

And as I began thinking more and more about this, I recognized this with increasing frequency, especially in the various situation comedies that are presented on the airwaves and quite often in the national news.

One will find the national news broadcast doing everything but handstands, carrying sandwich signs that says, please accept homosexuality as an alternate lifestyle to get us to believe that homosexuality has truly no moral connotation to it whatsoever and that if you are in any way, shape or form opposed to homosexuality and if you are so backwards as to actually say something against homosexuality in a public context, then you are the person who is in fact sick because you are suffering from a new national epidemic known as homophobia, a new disease that seemingly has only developed over the past 20 or 30 years.

But this is what we have going on and this morning I was reminded in our reading prior to Bible study, we read

Psalm 12 and I was struck once again by that final verse of Psalm 12,

Psalm 12 verse 8, the wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.

The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men. And I don't think anyone needs to be reminded that one could hardly watch recent political gatherings without seeing signs of gay and lesbian rights being waived by various delegates as often as was humanly possible.

And so we see this all across our nation and we not only see it in the secular media, but what may be amazing to some, and certainly not amazing to all, is the fact that there has been a tremendous growth in pro -gay theological writers.

There are many, many individuals who carry theological degrees and claim to be speaking a message that is consistent with the

Christian faith, who are today encouraging us to embrace homosexuality as a lifestyle that can indeed enjoy

God's blessing, is not inherently contradictory to Christian faith, and that indeed within the past week a minister of a,

I guess you still call it a Protestant denomination, the Episcopalian denomination, informed me that it is surely his desire to again see the church blessing homosexual marriages.

And this individual informed me of this in writing as we were discussing this particular topic.

We are being told that a loving church would accept, not condemn, homosexuality.

That to in any way, shape, or form be negative toward what someone chooses as their sexual orientation is contrary to the loving acceptance of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Recently this was communicated to me by a friend,

I did not see it, but the friend described it to me very clearly. A rather well -known

Christian leader, Jerry Falwell, appeared on the Larry King show with two other,

I put that very wrongly, with two representatives of the homosexual perspective. And Mr.

Falwell attempted to communicate various Bible passages that we will look at this evening that express the fact that homosexuality is contrary to God's revealed will, that it is not a relationship in which love can truly exist, can truly blossom, can truly be patterned after God's love, that it is something that is an abomination before God.

One of the two representatives of the homosexual perspective interrupted him repeatedly and informed him that he himself was a

Baptist and that he was a homosexual and that Mr. Falwell had absolutely no right to tell him what his

Christian faith could or could not encompass and accept and include. And I believe that Mr.

Falwell's response was the correct one. He said, I did not mean to speak for all

Christians. I meant to speak only for those Christians who actually are biblical

Christians, which you are not. Unfortunately, he took a lot of heat for having said that, even though there was much truth in what he had said.

And so it is a subject that though it is very distasteful, the word of God addresses it. And as it is coming up more and more in the secular context in which we live,

I believe we should be prepared to give an answer for the hope that is within us, to know where in scripture to turn, to be able to explain to someone why homosexuality is an abomination in God's sight, why it is contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ, and why we as biblical

Christians must call those who would both practice homosexuality, and I would like to add those who even if they do not practice it would defend it, to repentance, to repentance.

First of all, we begin very early in the Bible in Genesis chapter 2. If you would turn with me there,

Genesis chapter 2, in a passage that is familiar to all of us. Genesis chapter 2, beginning at verse 18.

I will be reading verses 18 through 25. The Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him. Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and the birds of the air.

He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air, and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found, so the

Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.

Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Here we have in Scripture given to us

God's creative design for the relationship of man and woman.

We are told that God recognized that it was not good for man to be alone. He recognized that it was necessary to create a helper suitable to him.

Notice that phrase. The one who would be created is created by God to meet the needs of the man, that there would be a proper relationship between the two.

And what does God do? God creates woman, not another man, but woman, different from man, for one man and another man do not meet the needs that God saw existed in man when he said it is not good for him to be alone.

He did not simply create another man to fill that need, he created woman. And so when

Adam sees the woman, he says, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. And then we have this statement. We are not told in this particular passage that God is saying the words we find in verse 24, but the

Lord Jesus indicates as much when he cites it, for he says, God is the one who said this. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Here is God's creative design. One man, one woman, together for life.

This is the ultimate. Yes, we see in the New Testament that men who did not have the full knowledge of what

God's highest was, for example, engaged in polygamy. And we see that, for example,

Solomon had hundreds of wives, and we see that David engaged in polygamy as well.

But we see from the lips of the Lord Jesus that this was a step down. It was a step away from the highest and best that God had designed for man.

And when we look at those polygamous relationships, when we look what happens with Abraham and his handmaiden, when we look at the grief brought into David's family because of his polygamous relationships, when we look at Solomon, the fact that his heart is turned away from God because, again, of the polygamous relationships, the many wives he has, we see that that relationship is an improper, unnatural relationship.

And it brings heartache to those who experience it. Here is the highest that God has for man.

One man, one woman, together for life. Now we can see that this is the most perfect element of God's created order and with reference to the sexual orientation of man and woman because this is the example that is used for us in Ephesians chapter 5.

We looked at this this morning in Bible study. We looked at that passage in Ephesians 5 where the relationship of husband and wife is likened unto that relationship that exists between the

Lord Jesus Christ and the church. And the fact that in Holy Scripture you have the

Lord Jesus filling the role of the husband and the church filling the role of the wife and the love that exists but from the

Lord Jesus for the church that is to be mirrored in the love that man has for his wife tells us that certainly this is

God's created decree for man. This is God's will for man. This is how

God would have man to exist in the marriage relationship. One man and one woman.

Now why do I start off with that particular emphasis? Because even though we will see numerous condemnations throughout

Scripture of the homosexual act and the homosexual lifestyle, it is important that when we are asked why it is that we hold the position that we do that we be able to point out positively

God's creative decree for man and woman in the marriage relationship.

It is a relationship that is under attack in our culture. We recognize that homosexuality is not the only sexual sin out there, that we see adultery and fornication being glorified in our society and it is no wonder that those who today are willing to accept homosexuality as some alternate lifestyle were prepared for that acceptance by the attack upon God's best.

That is the monogamous relationship of man and woman together. The idea of fidelity within marriage, of commitment of a man to one woman to love her and to honor her and to cherish her and to commit his life to her in providing for her has been made a mockery of in the very same popular culture and the very same media that today now having accomplished that, now having very clearly made it clear that you are old fashioned, you are out of step if you are concerned about old moral issues like fidelity in marriage.

Having accomplished that, they are now the ones pushing the concept of homosexuality as a loving alternate lifestyle.

There is certainly no coincidence in that situation. You first attack what

God says is right before you start offering your substitutes and that is exactly what we have seen happening.

Now if you will take your Bible, I want to move through a number of passages and just touch upon them so we can see what the word says about various incidents, various mentions of the concept of homosexuality in scripture.

Genesis chapter 18, Genesis 18 and 19 specifically, we will be looking at verse 6 of chapter 19 but you recall the incident in Genesis chapter 18,

Jehovah God and two angels appear to Abraham by the Oaks of Mamre and God reveals to Abraham that he is going to destroy

Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham walks with the Lord and enters into the rather famous bargaining situation where, well what if you find 50 righteous men, what if you find 40, well 30 and eventually down to 10 and God agrees, well if I can find 10,

I will not destroy the city but as you know that was still not a possibility, the city was so corrupt and so in rebellion against God and so in chapter 19 we have the two angels arriving at Sodom in the evening in verse 1.

They encounter Lot who encourages them to stay with him during the night and then go on their way early in the morning.

Verse 3, but he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast and they ate.

Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house.

They called to Lot, where are the men who came to you tonight, bring them out to us so that we can, and the

NIV translation simply says, so that we can have sex with them. Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, no my friends, don't do this wicked thing.

Now the NIV just simply doesn't pull any punches in translating the term to know. It is very clear though there are defenders of homosexuality today who would attempt to get around this passage and say, well they just wanted to get to know them, they wanted to find out where they were from, you know just sort of get their credentials, they're strangers in the city, we just wanted to get to know them.

It's very obvious when Lot shuts the door behind him and says, do not do this wicked thing, that they were not the welcome wagon come by to say hello to the visitors who had come by, they wanted to have sex with them.

And it clearly says that all the men from every part of the city of Sodom, both young and old, the corruption knew no age boundaries.

And we are told in scripture, for example in Jude verse 7, that it was for perversion, sexual perversion, that God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

This is what the Jewish people understood it to be, this is the background of any mention of Sodom and Gomorrah in, for example, the

Gospels. It is very clear that the corruption was inclusive of homosexuality, homosexual behavior.

Sexual sin was the reason for God's destroying these individuals. Now God's law specifically encodes this fact that homosexuality is a perversion, an abomination in God's sight, worthy of capital punishment.

The two specific passages you would want to possibly make note of are found in the book of Leviticus.

Leviticus chapter 18, Leviticus chapter 20. Leviticus chapter 18, if you look at the context, the entire chapter is in regards to unlawful sexual relations.

And certainly this is where so many in the modern theological community think that we've totally lost our minds when we actually believe what passages like this say.

You see, there is very much in the heart of the natural man a hatred for God's law and a hatred for the idea that God can define for me what is and what is not proper behavior, especially within the realm of the sexual.

But if you look at Leviticus chapter 18, that's pretty much all the chapter is about. If you read the entire chapter, it is a prescription against all sorts of sexual activity.

Beginning in verse 4, actually prior to that, verse 3, we are told that the people must not follow the practices of the people who lived in the land of Canaan.

We know that the Canaanite religion was very sexually oriented and encompassed about every kind of perversion it was possible to imagine.

And so God says in verse 4, you must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees.

I am the Lord your God, keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them.

I am Jehovah God. And then you'll see what is said, no one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations.

I am the Lord. Over and over and over again, you find these prescriptions all the way down to verse 22.

Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman. That is detestable.

That is an abomination before God. Now again, the modern theological defenders of homosexuality will say, well, what this is actually about is about cultic practices of homosexuality, not a monogamous loving relationship as it would exist amongst monogamous homosexuals.

I guess that also applies then to verse 23. Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it.

I guess it would apply to everything else in the rest of the chapter. The entirety of God's revelation concerning what is and what is not proper sexual activity might as well be thrown right out of the door.

Verse 22 does not give us any indication that there is any special context here that would allow for any exceptions.

Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman. That is detestable. Turn over to chapter 20, verse 13,

Leviticus chapter 20, verse 13. If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable.

Please notice, they must be put to death. Their blood will be on their own heads.

It is a capital offense in the theocracy of Israel to engage in homosexuality.

Now God does not make simply, no, dislikable things capital offenses.

When the capital offense is defined in scripture, this indicates that it involves something that is detestable in God's sight.

It is a complete rejection of God's will for mankind and it must be cut off from the people of God.

God knows that those who engage in an activity that is an abomination before Him will be those who will encourage others to do the same thing.

He knows that they will be a poison amongst the people of God and so He says they must be put to death.

It is a capital offense amongst the people of Israel. Again, the entire context of the chapter rules out any type of exceptions to this prohibition against homosexuality.

Well, someone might say, you poor people, you need to realize that after the old law came the

New Testament and we are no longer under the law but we are under grace and therefore you need to realize that Jesus never said anything against homosexuality and if you would just follow

Jesus instead of being so tied up with all that Old Testament law stuff that you don't follow all of anyways, then you would realize why it is that people look at you as so narrow and bigoted.

This is a special edition of the Dividing Line today as we listen to a message Dr. White gave at the

Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church some time ago on the subject of homosexuality. We're going to take this opportunity to take a break and we'll be right back.

And welcome back to the Dividing Line this Saturday afternoon. We are listening to a special edition of the

Dividing Line with Dr. White as he gives a message from the pulpit of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church on the subject of homosexuality.

And so let's go ahead and get right back to the message. Well, let's look at Romans chapter 1.

Romans chapter 1, the book of Romans I think properly called the

Gospel According to Paul, the Gospel of God's Grace, the book that most clearly and with the strongest terms points out the grace of God in Jesus Christ, the free and abundant pardon in Jesus Christ, the acceptance that God has of anyone who will draw near unto

God through Jesus Christ. All of it is found in the book of Romans. But before you hear about justification by faith, before you hear about the precious blood of Christ that cleanses from sin,

Paul speaks to us about the nature of sin. And beginning in verse 21 he says that men know

God, but though they know God they do not glorify Him as God or give thanks to things that any man, no matter if he's a pygmy in Africa or a theologian at Princeton, must give to God is honor and thanks.

Any man that exists knows that those things are due to God. They don't do that.

Their thinking becomes futile, their foolish hearts are darkened, and although they claim to be wise, they become fools.

What they do is they exchange the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

They worship the created order rather than the creator. They become twisted. They want to become

God and make God an object of their control. Therefore, verse 24, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

With one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped 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.

Please note that this section begins with the revelation of the wrath of God being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men.

This is not a passage that would indicate to us that God, being a

God of wrath, has somehow disappeared. That God, being a God of law, has somehow disappeared.

God's law has not changed in the sense that it reveals for us what God is like, what

His standards are. And men continue to sin against that and His wrath is revealed against them.

They twist the created order. And it is God who created man and woman to be together.

And so, it seems from Paul's perspective, that the classic demonstration, the height of the perversion of man, the demonstration that God has given a man over to shameful lusts, is homosexuality.

A denial that God has made me man and that God has the right to define that sexual orientation that is mine, man and woman.

I will rebel against what God did back in Genesis chapter 2. I am going to twist that order and I am going to become so perverted in my mind that I will go against nature.

I will go against what is right for me and I will burn in lust for my own kind. It is not natural.

It is unnatural. It is a perversion of God's created order in the sexual realm.

Notice that Paul identifies these things as shameful lusts, indecent acts and perversion.

It is a perversion of what God has created us to be.

Well, that is just that one passage in Romans chapter 1. That catalog of sins.

See, all Paul was really doing was he was borrowing from this commonly understood list of sins that exist outside of the

New Testament and so that was just culturally oriented. That is just how the Jews understood this.

Well, turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1

Corinthians chapter 6. I would like to read with you verses 9 through 11.

Paul asks in a rhetorical way, Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And that is what some of you were, not are, were.

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Notice the direct contrast, the black and white contrast.

And such some of you were, not are.

He is speaking to the church. And it is clear from his words that there is not in the church those who continue to practice as a lifestyle any of these things.

Those who are sexually immoral, or idolaters, or adulterers, or male prostitutes, or homosexual offenders.

Such some of you were, but that is the reason that you needed to be washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of our God. And so those in the church knew that their conversion to Jesus Christ meant a radical break with that kind of a lifestyle.

And it was not just simply some cultural thing, but that to be a follower of Jesus Christ meant to understand what sin is in God's sight and to repent from that.

Well, I have mentioned a number of the excuses that are made by defenders. I will just mention two very quickly and respond to them and then close with how we should react to the homosexual campaign going on in our world.

Just recently, I responded to a statement in an electronic forum that had been entered by a person who claims to be a

Christian concerning gay Christians. And this is what they had said. For those who are gay by nature, the church is telling them to repent of something that is as much a natural part of them as left -handedness is to some people.

Please note that this is really what is today the main defense of homosexuality in our culture.

That is that homosexuals are born that way. That that is the natural state that they exist in.

This was my response. This is the main defense of homosexuality today. It is based upon the mistaken idea that people are homosexual by nature.

This is simply untrue. Homosexuality is a chosen behavior, a decision of the will.

It is not analogous to left -handedness or to blonde hair. God's law does not command us to repent of left -handedness.

It does not identify having blonde hair as a sin. It does identify homosexuality as an abomination in God's sight.

Hence, unless one is willing to throw out the authority of the word, I have yet to meet a defender of homosexuality who did not, when pressed, do so.

There is no way to logically connect a non -moral condition, left -handedness, with a moral choice, homosexuality.

Homosexuality denies God's created order. God made man male and female to burn with lust for one's own gender is to demonstrate the most twisted rejection of God's plan for man's sexual expression.

You would not believe... These are articles that are written in the public format, so they're read by many people.

You would not believe the responses that I got for having said that from those who claim to be

Bible believers. So it is said that homosexuals are born this way, that it is natural for them to be this way.

And yet we know that God's law tells us it is an abomination before God, that God is the one who defines the sexual genders in creation.

Another common defense is the important thing is love. As long as the relationship is loving, as long as people experience fulfillment, it's okay.

To which I respond, love is defined by God, not by man.

Homosexuality is a selfish act. It is a rejection of God's created order.

It is a rejection of God's will for a person's life. It is not a giving act, which is what love truly involves.

It is not godly love in any way, shape or form. It is destructive and is symptomatic of the final stages of rebellion against God.

True love is defined for us, as I said before, over there in Ephesians chapter 5, where you think of what

Jesus Christ did for the church and the relationship that exists between Christ and the church. There is no way to parallel a homosexual relationship with the loving relationship found in Scripture.

How then shall we react? Well, first of all, we must always approach the topic of sin as sinners.

We must always approach the topic of any particular sin as sinners.

We will never have the right attitude in discussing a particular sin until we recognize our own sin.

Until we recognize that we, of all people, have such tremendous light.

The Word of God is open to us every Sunday, every Wednesday night. We are exposed to it on a regular basis.

And yet we know that in our heart we are still sinners. We continue to sin against that light.

And we must always keep that in mind as we approach the discussion of any sin. Because there is a group of men in the

New Testament who when they approach the subject of sin seem to forget that they themselves were sinners and they were called

Pharisees. And no one, no one brought upon their heads the strong words of condemnation from the

Lord Jesus Christ as much as the Pharisees. The prostitutes, those that were involved in sexual immorality, did not call upon their heads the strong words of vipers and whitewashed walls that the religiously hypocritical did in the

Pharisees. So we must first keep that in mind. We must recognize ourselves as sinners so that we do not set ourselves up as judges.

Instead we must seek to speak the word of God. Secondly, we must realize that in Corinth, as we read in 1

Corinthians chapter 6, homosexuals were converted. He said, and such were some of you.

So homosexuals had been converted from that lifestyle. Homosexuals had come into the church, not as homosexuals, but they had experienced that lifestyle and they repented of that lifestyle and they came into the church, they came into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

God calls all kinds of men and women unto Himself. Hence, we cannot refrain from proclaiming the gospel to all men, even to those involved in the most heinous sin.

Thirdly, we cannot even consider compromising the gospel for the sake of cultural peace.

We must call homosexuality what it is. It is an egregious perversion of the created order.

We cannot, even though culture would tell us, and it is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility to think into the future, of it being actually against the laws of the state, to stand behind a pulpit such as this and to call homosexuality what it is, an abomination in God's sight.

Certainly that is a possibility for God to allow our nation to so decline in the moral atmosphere.

But we cannot, if we truly love people, in any way, shape, or form, compromise with what the

Word of God says about what homosexuality is. It is a sin. It is totally inconsistent with God's created order.

It is totally and completely inconsistent with a profession of faith in the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

A person who is under the Lordship of Jesus Christ cannot live a homosexual lifestyle.

It is not a possibility. Well, it's time to take our final break on the program today. We'll be back with Dr.

White's concluding remarks right after this. And welcome back to The Dividing Line for our final segment.

We are having a special edition of The Dividing Line today. My name is Rich Pierce, sitting in for Dr. White as we listen to a message that Dr.

White gave from the pulpit of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church on the subject of homosexuality. And now, his concluding remarks.

And finally, we must call homosexuals to repent, and we must also call all those who claim allegiance to Christ to repentance if they reject

God's standard of holiness found in the Scripture. There are many in the church today who are truly bringing blasphemy upon the name of Jesus Christ because they reject the authority of the

Word of God and actually use the Word of God to attempt to cloak or to provide a basis for continuing practice of homosexuality.

Those individuals need to be called to repentance as well. God's judgment falls upon that kind of individual.

We remember in Romans 1, at the very end, this passage comes to mind whenever I hear someone who claims to be a

Christian using the Word of God in that way. Verse 32.

Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them.

This too is an act of perversion, a perversion of God's truth. And so we need to bring the message of repentance both to the homosexual as well as those who would claim to be

Christian and defend this sinful action supposedly on the basis of God's Word.

Now again, I recognize it's not necessarily an uplifting subject, but we live in our culture.

We live amongst people of the world. And if we live a life that demonstrates that we are under authority to God's Word, then we must be prepared to explain what this

Word says concerning those issues that face our nation. And you're not going to hear less and less about the drive to make homosexuality something that is acceptable in our culture.

And folks, no one lives in a vacuum. No one lives on an island. People say, well, what happens in someone else's bedroom is no business of yours.

We do not live separate from one another. Working in a hospital has certainly reminded me of that truth.

We are all affected by the moral degradation of our society. And surely if we are to be salt and light in this world, we need to be able to bring the truth of God's Word to bear even on issues that are as distasteful as this one.

The Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, saw fit to bring this issue up, to address it, and to define what it is in God's sight.

And we, to be faithful to the Word of God, must follow in its footsteps. Let's close with a word of prayer.

Our Father, we do thank You for Your revealed will. Lord, we thank

You for the gift of love. We thank You for the gift of marriage. Lord, we realize that the sinful heart of man can pervert even the greatest, most beautiful gifts

You give us. Lord, help us as we think about this subject and as we prepare to give an answer to recognize our own sin first, to recognize ourselves as sinners saved by grace so that we do not in any way have pride or arrogance as we approach it.

But Lord, help us also to be uncompromising, to be straightforward in describing sin as sin, for sin is dishonoring to You and is destructive to mankind.

Father, we pray for our nation. We know that it would be perfectly righteous and just of You to make an end of this nation for the sin that is ours.

But Lord, it's our desire that You would grant repentance. Lord, that You would, again in our land, make truth, justice, morality, bring honor and glory to You, something that was common and not the exception.

Father, we ask that whatever Your will is for our nation, that You would work in Your church. And Lord, that the church would speak with a united and clear voice about what is sin and calling men into repentance.

We thank You for loving us. We thank You for giving us this opportunity of looking at Your Word. We pray in Christ's name.

Amen. Well, Dr. White has given us a compelling message from God's Word. Clearly, we cannot compromise this vital ground.

Just like we would deal with anyone caught into a cult or a false religious system, we must warn those who have deceived themselves into thinking that God is willing to rubber stamp their rebellion against His created order.

We must, because the Christian faith demands it. On to another subject.

Again, this is Rich Pierce, and I am the president of Alpha Omega Ministries. I must bring before you something that I am reluctant to do.

Many of you are aware of the fact that our Internet website has been down now for nearly two weeks.

This website is a major resource of donation income for this ministry. And I assure you, I have done everything in my power to try to get things resolved with the

Internet. But the Internet is a somewhat entity of its own, and getting a website moved is not an easy task.

I have been doing everything I can to get that situation resolved and hope that by this weekend, everything will be back to normal.

But because we rely so much on the donations we receive from the website, we find ourselves in difficulty.

This ministry normally operates on a shoestring budget, but God is faithful to see us through, no question about it.

If you are a regular listener on this program, then you know that we never solicit donations over the air.

But as President, I must make this one exception. The vast majority of Alpha and Omega Ministries' support comes from folks just like you, people who believe that God's truth needs to be proclaimed loudly and strongly to those trapped in falsehood, even when it's not popular.

We do not believe in begging for money. We see how those who do so often water down their gospel message in order to keep from offending a major supporter.

We therefore would humbly ask you that if you believe that the unique message that this ministry provides needs to be heard, would you prayerfully consider supporting this ministry with a monthly gift?

And would you consider praying for us on a regular basis? Our prayer is that the

Sovereign God would lead you as He sees fit. Well, that's it for today's