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The Church and the Homosexual Agenda 

Isaiah 3.8–9

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • October 27, In the year of our Lord, 2013

 

Prelude: 

  1. The moral climate of the Western nations is changing really fast! 
    1. Are you prepared for it?
    2. Are you prepared for persecution?
      1. It is coming from the homosexual movement, and
      2. it will come from Islam.
        1. The homosexual agenda includes silencing the church, because
        2. they have silenced or changed every part of American society,
          1. except for one.
          2. The church stands as the last stronghold
            1. against the full acceptance of
            2. homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
              1. If you think they will leave us be,
              2. you had better wake up.
  2. Let Romans 13 be our battle cry,

    11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts (Rom 13.11–14).
  3. There is a group known as The Reformation Project 
    1. whose purpose is to change the church.
    2. Will they change it?
      1. Many churches have already changed.
      2. Will we change our position to avoid persecution?
      3. Will you change your beliefs to avoid hostility or rejection?

Persuasion: 

  1. What Is Happening Around the Country 
    1. The homosexual movement claims to be loving, tolerant, and accepting, but
      1. do not believe it.
      2. They want us to be that way with them, but
        1. they will be hateful and intolerant toward us,
        2. fighting us in anyway they can on this issue.
          1. They will mock us, file lawsuits, harass, and do whatever it takes
            1. to silence us, or
            2. to get us to accept homosexuality.
          2. What will we do?
    2. They claim to want
      1. freedom of speech,
      2. freedom of religion, and
      3. freedom to marry, but
        1. they want much more.
        2. Isaiah 3 pictures their aggressive and bold nature,

          8 For Jerusalem stumbled,
          And Judah is fallen,
          Because their tongue and their doings
          Are against the Lord,
          To provoke the eyes of His glory.
          9 The look on their countenance witnesses against them,
          And they declare their sin as Sodom;
          They do not hide it.
          Woe to their soul!
          For they have brought evil upon themselves.
          (Isa 3.8–9)

          1. Genesis 19 reveals the incident to which Isaiah referred,

            4 Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally” (Gen 19.4–5).

          2. Judges 19 shows an incident in the tribe of Benjamin,

            22 As they were enjoying themselves, suddenly certain men of the city, perverted men, surrounded the house and beat on the door. They spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, “Bring out the man who came to your house, that we may know him carnally!” (Jdg 19.22).

            1. Today, they take great pride
            2. in public displays of their immoral behavior.
    3. If a business does not do what they want, they go after the business.
      1. Richard and Betty Odgaard own the Gortz Haus Gallery,
        1. a converted art gallery,
        2. where people can also do weddings.
          1. However, the Odgaards are Mennonites, and
          2. they do not believe in same-sex marriages.
            1. Therefore, when a couple approached them,
            2. the Odgaards would not allow it.
              1. However, the state of Iowa is forcing them to do it, and
              2. they are in turn suing the state.
                1. Why could the couple not just go somewhere else?
                2. They have an agenda, that is why.
      2. The Times Free Press of Chattanooga, Tennessee
        1. is persecuting the Ridgedale Church of Christ in that city
        2. for disciplining some of its members for support of homosexuality.
      3. The Catholic News Agency for August 27, 2013, reported,

        “The New Mexico Supreme Court has ruled that a small Christian-owned photography business does not have the right to decline on religious grounds to shoot a same-sex commitment ceremony.”

      4. One News Now reported on September 4, 2013,

        “City council members in San Antonio are edging closer to a decision on a non-discrimination ordinance that has caught nationwide attention. The proposal would ban anyone who has spoken ill of the homosexual or transgender lifestyles from running for or holding political office, or serving on city boards or commissions. It would also ban business owners or subcontractors from doing business with the city if they hold religious views on homosexuality.”

      5. Both California and New Jersey have banned so-called, “reparative therapy,”
        1. a psychological method for turning homosexuality to heterosexuality.
        2. Do you think they will leave us alone for trying to turn people?
      6. According to World News Daily, the Church of Scotland,
        1. representing 42% of Scotland’s population,
        2. is considering dropping weddings from the things that it does,
          1. out of fear of expensive lawsuits from same-sex couples.
      7. One News Now reports that,

        “California’s new ‘transgender’ law mandates school districts allow students to participate in school activities and use facilities [Read, “bathrooms,” DR] based on their ‘gender identity.’”

      8. Fox News reported,

        “A family-owned Christian bakery, under investigation for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple, has been forced to close its doors after a vicious boycott by militant homosexual activists. Sweet Cakes By Melissa posted a message on its Facebook page alerting customers that their Gresham, Ore. retail store would be shut down after months of harassment from pro-gay marriage forces.”

    4. Now, there is a major effort underway to change the churches.
      1. They will not stop until they have silenced us or changed us.
      2. Are we willing to pay the price for remaining loyal to the Scriptures?
    5. Here in Grants Pass, our seminars are making us known.
      1. With every seminar, we have received some opposition.
      2. In the October 16, 2004 issue of The Daily Courier,
        1. the newspaper featured Nathan and I on the front page
        2. for our stand against same-sex marriage.
      3. Ads in the past brought persecution
      4. Therefore, the Savage Street Church of Christ could become a focal point.
    6. A couple of months ago,
      1. our shepherds contemplated a same-sex couple
      2. approaching me to do their wedding.
        1. The elders wanted to know what we would do.
        2. I told them that I would treat a homosexual couple
          1. the same way I treat a heterosexual couple who come to me,
        3. asking me to do their wedding.
          1. I will ask whether they have been married before.
          2. I do that, because I have certain convictions about remarriage.
            1. Whether they, or you, agree or disagree with me,
            2. is beside the point.
          3. I put the situation in their hands like this.
            1. If they have been married before,
            2. I read to them Matthew 19.3–12.
              1. Then I ask whether they think
              2. I can perform their ceremony in a good science.
        4. This text also speaks of who is qualified for marriage in regard to gender.
          1. I will simply show them the text and
          2. tell them that I believe what it says.

            4 And He answered and said to them, “ Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matt 19.4–5).

            1. Then I will ask them if they believe
            2. I can officiate their wedding with a good conscience.
              1. Most people do not want you to do something
              2. that is against your beliefs.
                1. If that does not make them drop the issue,
                2. then so be it.
      3. I am ready to suffer for what I believe the Bible teaches.
        1. I have been called out in Klamath Falls, and here, and
        2. I have not discovered any biblical reason to change.
          1. They may sue us or me.
          2. They may imprison us or me.
          3. They might disrupt our worship services.
          4. They might harass us with protesting out front.
        3. Will you stand with me, with the Bible, and with one another?
  2. What the Bible Says 
    1. Romans 1 depicts the Gentile world without God’s leadership,

      26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due (Rom 1.26–27).

    2. I could read several other passages, but
      1. if Romans 1 and First Corinthians 6, that I will use later,
      2. does not convince a person, then more Scriptures will not either.
    3. However, it is not just the Bible’s explicit prohibitions of homosexuality, but
      1. the examples it holds up for marriage
      2. that shows God desires for human marriage.
        1. You know that He created the first two humans as male and female.
        2. Every biblical example we have of marriage is heterosexual.
          1. If the Lord wanted us to know that same-sex marriage
          2. was acceptable to Him, He would have shown it.
            1. He certainly is not shy about declaring what He wants,
            2. whether it pleases or displeases man.
    4. Why did the Lord not give us a Book similar to the Song of Solomon, but
      1. only about a homosexual couple?
      2. Show me one approved homosexual, married couple anywhere in the Bible.
  3. What We Should Do 
    1. We must not persecute.
    2. We need to learn why people,
      1. including sinners, prostitutes, and tax-collectors,
      2. flocked to Jesus.
        1. He did not persecute people, but
        2. they knew of His accepting nature, and
          1. they knew He did not condone their sin.
          2. In fact, they wanted to change their lives,

            8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold” (Luke 19.8).

    3. We should use the word of God,
      1. not psychology.
      2. Decades ago the church thought psychology was a friend of Christianity.
        1. However, the psychological society never really said
          1. that homosexuality was sin, but
          2. that it was a mental illness or something else.
        2. They said it needed treatment.
          1. Brethren, sinners need repentance, not treatment.
          2. The psychology society determines what is a mental illness
            1. by votes and
            2. by what insurance will pay.
    4. You should have your children at all the worship services and Bible classes
      1. that we may counter all the homosexual propaganda they get in the world,
      2. that they might form friendships in the church rather than the world.
    5. Pray relentlessly for
      1. our government,
      2. our schools,
      3. our churches, and
      4. for preachers.
    6. Treat them as you would any other sinner needing salvation.
    7. Treat them as you wish to be treated.

Exhortation: 

  1. In First Corinthians 6, Paul shamed members of the church 
    1. for taking one another to court, that is,
    2. asking the unrighteous to judge in matters between the righteous.
      1. Among the reasons that Paul gave was this,

        9a Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

        1. These people are not even inheriting the kingdom of God, because
        2. they do not think as God does.
          1. How then can Christians ask the unrighteous
          2. to make judgments among people who are inheriting the kingdom?
      2. Then Paul listed some of the unrighteous who will not inherit the kingdom,

        9b Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

        1. Interestingly, Paul prefaced his identification of the unrighteous
        2. with a warning not to be deceived, because
          1. people will try to deceive us,
          2. persuading us
            1. that grace will allow us to continue in these things, or
            2. that these things are not even unrighteous in the first place, but
              1. they are psychological problems, or
              2. that is the way God made them, and so on.
      3. Paul reminded the brethren that they had changed,

        11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1Co 6.9–11).

        1. The Christians in Corinth were no longer practicing those things,
        2. which you noticed included homosexuality.
          1. What happened?
          2. They had been washed, sanctified, and justified
            1. in the name of the Lord Jesus and
            2. by the Spirit of our God.
  2. They obviously received Jesus as the Lord, and 
    1. understood the work of the Spirit.
    2. As John wrote at the beginning of his Gospel Account,

      12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1.12–13).

      1. They would have been like Paul himself
      2. when Ananias approached Paul and said,

        16 “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22.16).

  3. Have you been guilty of the things Paul listed in First Corinthians 6? 
    1. Have you been involved in fornication, which is sex outside of marriage?
    2. Have you worshiped something other than God?
    3. Have you committed adultery?
    4. Have you been involved in homosexuality?
    5. Have you stolen something?
    6. Have you coveted what belongs to another?
    7. Have you been a drunkard?
    8. Have you been a reviler?
    9. Have you extorted from people?
    10. Have you done something else that you know is wrong, but Paul did not list?
      1. You need to receive Jesus as the Lord, and then
      2. you need to arise right now,
        1. come forward, and
        2. be baptized to wash away your sins, and
          1. in so doing you will be calling upon the Lord.