The Authority of Scripture

Well, good afternoon once again, everyone. Appreciate the opportunity to be here with you guys. Once again, it is just not the same being at home sick. So we certainly do appreciate the chance to be together here and all of your wonderful smiling faces. I can see it in your eyes. I know you're smiling, so it's appreciated very, very much. Some of you may have come across this story this past week, earlier this week on Monday. A former Interior Minister of the country of Finland went on trial after being accused of hate speech.

In this particular case, this case has captivated the interests of nations around the world because for many, it's being seen as what is next to come to their own nation. In 2019, Pivi Rassanin, who is an Interior Minister, was, I should say, an Interior Minister within the Finland government, composed a tweet on the popular social media platform Twitter to question the Finnish Lutheran Church in supporting Finland's Pride Week.

The tweet, which contained a picture of the Bible and then verses from the Bible superimposed over the top of the picture, illustrating the biblical prohibition against homosexuality, was deemed by the state prosecutor of Finland as being likely to cause intolerance, contempt, and hatred towards homosexuals.

In addition to the 2019 tweet, she's also facing charges over a pamphlet that she authored, with a bishop in the Evangelical Finnish Church in 2004, notably before the law was enacted in Finland, which in that particular case, that pamphlet affirmed the importance of the biblical standard for marriage between one man and one woman, and she's also being charged for an interview that she gave on a radio station where she was interviewed regarding the particular topic. Convicted, these three separate charges will carry a two-year minimum prison sentence. This last week, as a result of the trial being on Monday, U.S. Senators Rubio, Hawley, Lankford, Inhofe, and Braun sent a letter to the newly elected, or newly confirmed, I should say, U.S.

Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, Rashad Hussein, urging his office to monitor this alarming case. They wrote in their letter, it is our understanding that Finnish authorities believe that these actions constitute hate speech, even though these statements, which she has made, reflect a conception of marriage and sexuality that is upheld not just by hundreds of millions of Christians, but also by many Muslims and Jews worldwide. They went on to say, we are greatly concerned that the use of Finnish law is tantamount to a secular blasphemy law.

It could open the door for prosecution of other devout Christians, Muslims, Jews, and adherents of other faiths for publicly stating their religious beliefs that may conflict with secular trends. We believe that, regardless of whether Finnish prosecutors agree with the religious beliefs that Minister Rossinen and Bishop Puthola, one of the bishops of the Church, also being charged with regards to the creation of the pamphlet, that they agree with the religious beliefs that have been expressed, that all people have a fundamental right to the freedoms of religion and speech, which should be upheld without fear of government interference.

Now, this isn't anything new. Just north of us, in Canada, beginning in the early 2000s, Canadian lawmakers expanded on the hate speech legislation that was on the books, making it illegal to incite, in quotes, hatred, against an identifiable group based on color, race, religion, and ethnicity. Then they expanded that to include sexual orientation. The problem is, sexual orientation and hate were not defined. They were left open for interpretation and, unfortunately, left open to very wide interpretation. There have been a number of cases that have come before lower courts in Canada, where it has been repeatedly upheld that the Bible texts themselves cannot be characterized as containing the requisite intense feelings and strong sense of detestation, calamity, and vilification—all very judgy words—necessary to consider violation of the human rights code.

However, they cautioned Christian communities in Canada that the Bible cannot serve as license for acting unlawfully or in a sense of hatred, quote-unquote, against gays and lesbians, and that each case would be considered contextually. Read very subjectively and on the whim of whichever judge happens to be hearing the case, which is exactly what has been the case in Canada. There have been a number of attempts to take it before the Canadian Supreme Court, of which the Canadian Supreme Court has completely and totally rejected any and all cases being brought before them, challenging this particular law.

As a result, the current Canadian law allows for the quoting of biblical passages which prohibit homosexuality. But if the pastor were to expound on and comment on those passages, well, you're in violation of Canadian law. Today in our message, I'm going to violate Canadian law. And I'm going to do so as respectfully as I can. I'm going to do so as lovingly as I can. But this last month, at the early part of January, you're going to see more and more news coming out about this, but Canada passed an additional law prohibiting what is known as conversion therapy in adults.

Now, they had laws on the books with conversion therapy of minors, which incidentally, for those that are not aware, Oregon has a law on the books as well for this exact same thing. It is illegal in Oregon to put a young minor through conversion therapy, quote-unquote, conversion therapy. But this law went into decree on the 7th of January, and under the law, the following things have now been made illegal in Canada.

And I want you to hear these things, because once again, these are the things that are coming our way. These are the things that are coming our way. This enactment of this law amends the criminal code to, among other things, create the following offenses. It is now an offense to cause another person, regardless of age in this case, I'm adding that, to undergo conversion therapy. Doing anything for the purpose of removing a child from Canada with the intention that the child undergo conversion therapy outside of Canada.

So if you're a Canadian parent and you want your kid to undergo conversion therapy and it's illegal in your country, you cannot take your child across about the borders of Canada into, say, the United States to have that taken care of. That is now illegal as well. Promoting or advertising conversion therapy of any kind and receiving a financial or other material benefit from the provision of conversion therapy. It also amends the criminal code to authorize courts to order that advertisements for conversion therapy be disposed of or deleted.

Now the wording of the preamble of the law reads as follows, and I want you to hear this, whereas conversion therapy, and we could really insert any word there other than conversion therapy into this, you'll see in a minute, whereas conversion therapy causes harm to society because, among other things, it is based on and propagates myths and stereotypes about sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, including the myth that heterosexuality, cisgender gender identity, and gender expression that conforms to the sex assigned to a person at birth are to be preferred over other sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expression.

And whereas in light of those harms, it is important to discourage and denounce the provision of conversion therapy in order to protect the human dignity and equality of all Canadians. The myth that heterosexuality, cisgender identity, and gender expression that conforms to the sex assigned, the myth is what this says.

The law essentially prohibits any attempts to formally force, which, mind you, also is not defined, also is not defined, a person with same-sex attraction to convert to that of a biblical heterosexual orientation, and the the prohibition comes with a sentence of up to five years.

Many in Canada and in the broader world are watching this law closely and asking some really critical questions and very important questions about application. What if a pastor is asked by the parents to talk to a child that happens to be experiencing same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria and engages that child in discussions over those particular things? If that pastor upholds the truth of the Bible, is that considered to be promoting conversion therapy? Because all of us are expected to be converted from a life of sin to a life of godly righteousness, right?

That's why we're here. Obviously, in the Church of God, we don't have any formalized conversion therapy programs, but it does not take a lawyer to see the handwriting that's on the wall with these laws. At their core, while these particular cases do happen to be about homosexuality and transgenderism, these are symptoms of a much bigger challenge that is facing us as Christians overall. For the past two millennia, societal trends and laws have been largely founded on Judeo-Christian values and ethics. Largely. I mean, not straight across, but mostly.

That has been shifting subtly and not so subtly since the end of the 1950s. Really, when you start looking at it, when did it really start to shift? The 1960s. Really is when it started to very, very much shift, especially here in the United States. Once you had a situation where you had the number of practicing Christians, it began to decline. Once you had a situation where the tendency became for those that were maybe still practicing Christians to be less deeply Christian, the foundation upon which society was built began to be eroded. Little bit by little bit by little bit. And when that happens, society begins to topple. You take out the foundation stone underneath, society begins to really struggle to hold itself up. As experimentation with drugs, experimentation with sexual expression began to be celebrated throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the norms of society began to be rebelled against. That has continued, mostly unchallenged for the last 60 years. And now, two to three generations later, from the 1960s, we have a generation that is increasingly less Christian and increasingly less willing to accept Christian values on the whole. And I think about that. It's not uncommon. You go back to Scripture and you can see that in the lives of the Israelites after the death of Joshua. Right? Joshua dies. The generation that followed Joshua, they were still strong. They were still, you know, right there with God. After that, things started, the wheels started to come off the bus a little bit. You know, we went through a recent message that I gave on church attendance and the importance of church. We went through a lot of these recent statistics, but so I won't belabor those things here. But needless to say, Christianity in America is struggling. It is struggling mightily. And while transgenderism and homosexuality really are the point of attack in this latest battle, the real war, the real war that has been raging for some time now is over the authority of Scripture.

Is the Bible authoritative or not? That's the war. The latest battle is homosexuality, transgenderism, but the war is over the authority of Scripture. Let's go to 2 Timothy 3.

2 Timothy 3. And we'll take a look at the Apostle Paul's words on this particular topic.

2 Timothy 3. And we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1.

2 Timothy 3 and verse 1. We want to go through the conditions. We want to look at what was said to have come or what was said to come. 2 Timothy 3 verse 1 says, But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedience to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good. It's like takes a breath.

Traitors! Let's just kind of keep going, right? Traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people, it says, verse 5, turn away. In these last days, Paul says, men will be lovers of themselves, they'll be proud, they'll be blasphemers, they'll be unthankful, unholy, despisers of good. And that these are ultimately characteristics that we observe both in society around us, but quite honestly, brethren, are characteristics that we need to be on guard against in our own lives as well.

In the effect that these last days have on the people that are in them. And so we want to ensure that we do what we can in our own self-examination to be able to, you know, take care of these things in our own lives as well. The New Living Translation translates verses 1 and 2 as follows. It says, you should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times, for people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred.

They will consider nothing sacred, it says in the New Living Translation. A little further down, as we move out of, you know, chapter 3, as we move down the passage, we see a passage that stakes a claim on the immutability of the Word of God contained here in the Bibles in front of us.

Verse 16 of chapter 3, 2 Timothy 3 verse 16, says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Now Paul tells Timothy that the words contained in Scripture, the writings that were available at that time, and certainly by implication those that have been collected and canonized for us down into the future that have been verified as being legitimate, these things are the very Word of God. These are things which have been breathed by Him, that have been inspired, they've been recorded for the purposes of teaching, for the purposes of instruction, for the purposes of convicting in reproof, for correction when needed, and an instruction in righteousness. Now why? Why does it matter? Well, it's in order that man might become complete, that man might become capable and proficient in this way of life that God has called us to lead.

It is these words that we review and that we study and that we look at and that we internalize that help to provide us with guide to live this way of life. And inside of this book, inside of this word are topics on marriage and family and work ethic. There are topics on money, as Mr. Hansen talked about today. I mean, there are topics on exactly how to go about living your life that are contained in this book. These things are recorded for our growth, they're recorded for the development toward the example of Christ that we've been provided and to be thoroughly equipped for every good work that we can go and do. Paul goes on at the beginning of verse 4, if you want to kind of just check over to verse 4 there, chapter 4 and verse 1. Notice the charge that Paul gives Timothy. He says, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word.

Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching. For the time, verse 3, will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

He goes on to say, but you be watchful in all things and do reflections, do the work of an evangelist. And Paul says, fulfill your ministry, fulfill your service, Timothy. Now this warning, we know it was primarily for those that were in the church. You know, Timothy's being exhorted by Paul to preach the word. And as teachers, as those who have a responsibility of instruction and teaching, those who are up here behind the microphone, that's something that each of us try to be very, very careful about. We understand that, you know, those who are teachers are held to a stricter judgment. We recognize scripture does say that. We try not to insert our own understanding. We try not to rely on our own knowledge and understanding and instead let the Bible speak for itself. All of us that are up here recognize that as an incredible responsibility. And so we're very careful in that sense to ensure that our own opinions and our own positions and our own thoughts don't become conflated somehow with the Word of God. Paul tells Timothy, preach the Word. Preach the Word. Brethren, in that message is a warning for all of us that there will be a time that comes in which people may not endure sound doctrine. They may not endure sound doctrine, where the authority of the Bible will be degraded, where they may begin going to other sources instead of to the Word of God, going to other places to hear the things that they want to hear, to hear the truth, quote-unquote, that they want to hear. Because, as Paul says, they have itching ears. They might go to specific teachers who say the things that they want to hear and ultimately be turned away from the truth. That's not just the church, that's society around us. This guy at this church doesn't say what I want to hear. Well, I'm gonna go to a different church. Right? I mean, it happens all the time, right? It happens all the time.

Ultimately, in this situation, an individual is going from what's being described here, from the authority of Scripture to a myth and a fable, to falsehoods, to fantasy, to that which on the surface may seem godly, but under closer scrutiny doesn't hold up to the standard of God and Scripture. Often what happens is these individuals want to make the Bible say what they want it to say, not what it actually says. Not what it actually says. You know, the Bible, as we mentioned before, it contains instructions from God on so many topics. Marriage and family, and child rearing, and faith, and work ethics, and leadership, all these things. You can find—our teens have been going through the book of Proverbs this month, and they've been reading through the book of Proverbs, a chapter a day, and looking at the instructions that Proverbs gives you on all of these things. And there's incredible, incredible wisdom that's contained in those books. And you know, you go out to a bookstore, and you go down through the various sections all over the place, and there are books on these topics, too, all over the place, on leadership, and faith, and marriage, and family, and child rearing, and work ethic, and leader—what it all looks like. And you know what? Where those books follow godly principle, they are right on. But where they twist it, and they thwart it just a little bit, or they warp it in one direction or another to take it to mean something else, and what God said is where they fall apart. But the problem comes, brethren, if we can't discern between the two, and if we struggle to separate the two things, it's a challenge. It's a challenge. And there have been things over the past, you know, several years, books that have gone around in circles and various things that have come out that are just quite simply not biblical. But they sound good. They look good. They're interesting, but they're not biblical. And what happens when we do that is we end up putting God in this box. We end up making these boundaries around these topics to be the things that we agree with. And if God says something in here outside of that box, our automatic response is, nope, nope, I'm sorry. That's outside the boundaries of the box. No, the box says this. This is the box.

And ultimately what happens is we find reasons and justification for it to mean something different.

The only question we should be asking ourselves in these scenarios is, what does the Bible say?

That is the only thing that we should be asking ourselves in these scenarios is, what does the Bible say? Because that's the only question, really, that matters. So we're going to take just a moment today because I began with the topic of Miss Resenin's trial that is going on in Finland at the moment. We're going to take a second to see what exactly does the Bible say on the topic of homosexuality. What does it say? How does it treat the topic? Let's dig in. Genesis 1, verse 26.

One of the things that has come up in recent years has been the transgender movement and what is ultimately gender dysphoria but is being given a significant amount of kind of traction, I guess, you know, we deal with it. Mr. Hanson's talked about this before, dealing with it in the school systems. It's very prevalent in the school system. When I was teaching, it was something that came up quite a bit. But Genesis 1, verse 26, what does God specifically say? Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the sea. And so, verse 27, God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. It goes on, verse 28, then God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Male and female, God created them. Period. End of sentence. God established, at the beginning of creation, biological gender. Biological gender was established at the beginning of creation. Why? What was the purpose? What was the reason? Well, go to verse 28. Be fruitful and multiply.

Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. God specifically created mankind to be able to procreate and fill the earth. It was part of his design so that God could ultimately have God in the offspring. God wanted mankind to establish and to fill the earth so that God could continue to call people to his family.

You fast forward just a little bit. We see that things shifted pretty quickly after the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve. Fast forward a few chapters to the time of Noah. We see that mankind reaches a state in which God describes every intent of man's heart was upon evil continually. Imagine that. Literally every thought that proceeded from the heart of man was wicked. Everyone. That means you don't even have the moments of good that you see in society around us today. Every intent of their heart was wickedness. And ultimately God comes to the conclusion that he must destroy his creation aside from Noah and his family.

Now you come out the other side of the flood. We see that mankind re-establishes the population. Man re-establishes things based on Noah and his family. Let's go to Genesis 18. Genesis 18 will see that, unfortunately, as we understand with Satan being present and Satan still influencing human behavior, that we see the story of Sodom recorded here in our Bibles. Now, interestingly, and if you haven't watched it yet, definitely check it out.

There's a Beyond Today, if I recall, on this topic. A little blip on it. They believe at this point that over the past probably 15 days, 16 seasons of archaeological work, that they have uncovered what is the city of Sodom. It is a city that is consistent archaeologically with a massive destruction like suddenly. You know, it was a pretty quick sort of situation. They found a lot of really cool stuff in here.

The area is in Jordan Valley called Tel El Hamam. And it fits the biblical description of Sodom's very quick destruction. The only thing it doesn't fit is the dating, and the archaeologists are so convinced that the dating is accurate, and it doesn't quite fit the timeline of Abraham.

So there's maybe something that needs to be worked out there, but it sure seems to be the location. Lot and his family, we know, moved into, I should say, the city of Sodom after he and Abraham separated. And then the wickedness of the city came to the ears of God, and ultimately God was determined to destroy it.

So what does Scripture state was the reason? Genesis 19. Genesis 19, and we'll pick it up in verse 1. And the reason I'm reading these passages is as you go through and take a look at these things, you guys, it is amazing the amount of scriptural gymnastics that needs to be done to be able to conclude that homosexuality is okay.

It is unbelievable the amount of scriptural gymnastics that has to be done. And if you begin to read into some of these things, it's unreal, the level of gymnastics that had to have to be done. Genesis 19 in verse 1 says, Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom, and when Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.

Again, Lot lives in Sodom. Lot fully knows what Sodom is like. And he said, Here now, my lords, please turn into your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet, and then you may rise early and go on your way.

And they said, No, no, we'll spend the night in the open square. Lot has a moment of, Nope, you absolutely will not. You're going to come and you're going to stay in my home. He says, insisted strongly, so they turned into him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

Verse 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. I want you to notice that. This is not three or four people. This is every male of the city that has come out from every quarter. Old, young, doesn't matter. It says, comes out, all the people surrounded the house of Lot. Verse 5, They called to Lot, and they said to him, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them carnally. And so Lot, it says, went out to them through the doorway and shut the door behind him.

Tried to make a deal with a situation that is just unbelievable, but a number of the commentators will make the claim that the issue with Sodom and the men of Sodom was the lustfulness, not their homosexuality, but the lustfulness of the act. That's the issue, because it wasn't done in love, therefore it was lust, and that's lust is prohibited.

That's not what's being prohibited by this scripture and by this story. That is not why Sodom was destroyed. In fact, we can take a look at other passages throughout, and that's the reason why this that interpretation doesn't work. It doesn't line up with the rest of the scriptures that we see throughout both the Old and the New Testament. In all circumstances, when we're wondering what God's Word says, it needs to corroborate from place to place to place.

It has to. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, he established the laws by which would govern their society. Much of this was a reintroduction in many ways to Israel of the laws that he already had in place, but some of them were reintroduction of things specifically for Israel as God's chosen people at that time. I'm going to read a couple of these just briefly, and we'll kind of punch through them here real quick. Leviticus 18 verse 22, you shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. Leviticus 20 verse 13, if a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death, and their blood shall be upon them. Deuteronomy 22 and verse 5 prohibits men from dressing in women's clothing and women from dressing in men's clothing. Now, it doesn't mean pants. That doesn't necessarily mean, you know, that type of situation. It means a woman should not pass herself off as a man, and a man should not pass himself off as a woman. Those were prohibited. Nothing in these passages that we look at, nothing in Leviticus, makes allowances for it to be in love and not lust. None of these make allowances for that. The act of homosexuality, same-sex practice, is prohibited. Fast forward through the rest of the Old Testament to the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 6. Let's go ahead and turn over there. 1 Corinthians 6. If I were in Canada, the best I could do is read the passage, and then move to the next passage. That's the way the law is written currently in Canada. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 9. Actually, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 7 to begin. I know you guys love it when I do that, because then you've got to rewrite your notes. I'm sorry. I heard the groan. I heard you. Oh, he did it again. I do that all the time. Sorry. 1 Corinthians 6. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 7. He says, Now therefore, again, Paul addressing the church in Corinth here, a church that, as we know, had some notable challenges with some of these issues and some of these topics. Corinth was a Greek city. It was known in one of the places for Corinthian columns. If you've ever studied Greek history, the Corinthian column was found there. So it was a Greek city that had a congregation there that Paul was working with that he had brought up. So in verse 1, sorry, verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 6, Paul talks about some of the various challenges that they face. He says, Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? Did I give the wrong passage? No, I didn't. Okay. No, you there, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren. He says, Do you not know, kind of bringing these concepts to bear, that the right, the unrighteous, will not inherit the kingdom of God? He says, Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God. So Paul goes through and he enumerates these things. But then notice what he says in verse 11, And such were some of you. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. He tells him, Do not be deceived. He says, fornicators, and idolaters, and adulterers, and homosexuals, sodomites. The list goes on. Cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

What's interesting, you get into the Greek a little bit here, 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9, there's a distinction made, you'll notice, between in this case homosexuals and sodomites.

Right? You'll see the word that's used there. The word for homosexual is malakos, and it translates as soft or effeminate. That tended to be the more passive of the two.

And then the individual who was considered to be, in this case, a sodomite, was the Greek word arsenocotoi... that's all Greek to me. Arsenocotai.

Koitai. Arsenocoitai. That's the pronunciation. And what's interesting is, it's a compound word. It's used in two places in Scripture, both times by the Apostle Paul, and it's a compound word that literally means man liars. Arseno is the word for man. Koito is the word for lie. Man liars. In fact, if you go back to Septuagint and you look at the translation that's used in Leviticus 18, that prohibits men lying with men, the words in Greek in the Septuagint is arsenocotai arseno, men lying with men. And so what Paul did was Paul said, well, put the two words together!

It works perfectly! Arsenocotai. That means man liars. People would recognize that as being what was there in Leviticus. And so this covers both sides of the homosexual relationship that Paul is covering. But I want you also to notice how he says, as such were some of you. As such were some of you to those who are in Corinth. Notice he didn't say, as are some of you.

He said, as were some of you. Past tense. And the point there is the expectation was that they would change. The expectation was that this was not the natural state of things. This was not the way things should be. And that God expected people to repent of their sins and to come before him ultimately in newness of life, having been washed and having been sanctified and having been justified. In fact, turn over to 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1 is another place that we can see what the Bible says specifically on the topic. 1 Timothy 1, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 8. 1 Timothy 1 in verse 8 says, but we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully.

Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manlayers, that's the Arsinocoitai word again, that's the other place it's used, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. If Paul writes, he says the law is for the lawless and the insubordinate, and it's specifically for those that are unwilling to submit themselves to and to rebel, and those who rebel, against the law of God. And it goes into various rebellious acts, murderer, unholy, profane behavior, fornication, homosexuality. It talks about kidnappers, actually slave dealers specifically, in this sense, liars, perjurers, but then nobody says at the end, kind of the encompassing, all-encompassing, any other thing that is contrary to or in opposition to sound doctrine, according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God which was committed, he says, to his trust. That those things, specifically, were prohibited. Romans 1, verse 18 to 27, you don't need to turn there, talks about how in the rejection of God, how in the rejection of God, and of the sound doctrine of God, how that rejection leads to people being corrupted, people giving up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts, exchanging the truth of God for the lie. Once again, exchanging the truth for the fable, for the myth. And he says, when that happens in Romans 1, he says, when that happens, that in doing so they would be filled with the actions of a debased mind. They would be unrighteous, they would be immoral, they would be covetous, they'd be malicious, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, gossip, pride, boastful behavior, and the whole lot that goes along with the debased mind. Remember what we read earlier, in the last days, perilous times will come. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, according to what they want to do, as opposed to what the law of God establishes, they will heap up for themselves teachers and will turn their ears aside from the truth and be turned aside to fables. We talked earlier about the amount of scriptural gymnastics and kind of wrangling that has to take place to try to shift these passages to mean something than what they actually say. It's truly Herculean. If you go and you read some of these articles that have been put into place, it is unbelievable the steps that are required to take something that is so simple and so plain and so clear and muddy the waters enough that you can poke holes in it. And that's literally what is being done in these articles and in these debates.

Let me be abundantly clear. The Bible explicitly prohibits homosexuality. Period. End of sentence.

There is no question. There is no debate. It is clear in Scripture that that is the case.

Now in recent years, and the reason I bring this up and the reason I even go here, in recent years I can think of at least three young people that I know personally that have gone through the camp program who have been our kids, who have come out.

And the conclusion is now I'm out, I'm who I'm supposed to be, I still want to be a Christian.

But we got a problem. We got a problem at that point. Because unfortunately, there is a choice that has to be made because you can't have both. You can't have both.

You cannot be a practicing homosexual and continue to be Christian.

Just like you can't be a practicing idolater, practicing fornicator, practicing thief, drunkard, reviler, or extortioner. Repentance from these things is critical. Absolutely critical.

That does not mean, and I want to be very clear, it does not mean that a person can't struggle with or fight against same-sex attraction. That absolutely does occur. And if a person is fighting against those things and is repentant and is like not acting on the taking captive thoughts and just all the same things that would go along with somebody who's a recovering alcoholic or somebody who's recovering has other recovering addictions or other things like that, the past actions don't define us, provided repentance has taken place and the individual is not re-going back to those things in that life. But you know, it's interesting when you talk about Bible's authority being in question, it's not just homosexuality that gets scripturally wrangled and gets passages to mean differently than what they actually mean. It happens quite a bit.

It's done regularly on a number of scriptures, actually, on a lot of different topics, and it's something that all of us need to be abundantly careful to preserve and stand upon the sanctity and the authority of scripture. You know, as much as we resist society's interpretation of scripture according to them when they rely on their own understanding, brethren, we have to do the same thing. This is just the most recent battle in a war against the authority of the Bible. But as individuals who base their lives upon its word, who live the values contained within, and who believe that these values are important, we are going to increasingly bump up against society. We are going to increasingly bump up against society as it becomes less and less accommodating of a biblical worldview and of the authority of scripture in the United States. Especially as the United States begins a more full transition from a Christian nation to a post-Christian nation. Europe is already there.

The United States is next. When we take a look at the U.S. and the way that the numbers are tracking, Christianity will not be a majority in the coming decade. It is dropping off so quickly, and it's changing so fast. Now, this law that we mentioned earlier that we talked about in Canada that I am in violation of today, it's not law here in the United States yet. It's not. It is in Canada. It's not here. But brethren, it doesn't take a lawyer to see the handwriting on the wall.

Finland. 12 other countries, Canada being one of them, have laws in the book that are similar.

And Finland appears to be more strict than Canada's because even a tweet that shows a picture of the Bible with just the passages quoted over the top of it with no other commentary was enough to land this minister with a charge. Again, handwriting on the wall. Brethren, one of the challenges that comes from residing in a nation that provides freedom of religion and freedom of expression is the reality that there are others that do not believe the same thing that we do, who do not agree with us, and ultimately will express themselves differently than you. And because we are a secular society, they are legally allowed to do so. That is one of the challenges that comes from living in and having the wonderful blessings that we do have in this nation of freedom of expression and freedom of religion. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our King is Jesus Christ. And as such, we operate under a different set of rules. We're ambassadors in that sense. And we've talked about this before. We're ambassadors from the kingdom of God to this world and to this nation. And so, when the laws of this country that we live in come into contrast and come up against the laws of God, we as Christians must stand firm and be unwilling to yield on those things. For example, if the United States were to instate a mandatory military service law such as Israel for our youth, where from the ages of 18 to 20 you are trained in military service and put on military outposts, based on our beliefs of military service and war, we would have to stand firm and resist that.

If the United States were to establish a national religion that all of its citizens were required to go and worship on Sunday, we as Christians would have an obligation to resist that.

There are laws that are put into place that come up against the laws of God.

Because we are not citizens of this country, we are ambassadors. But we also need to be careful where we draw those lines and which laws we decide to reject. Scripturally, we see it can't just be a blanket statement that all laws put under effect by the authorities have to be done away with. We can't do that. Christ himself said paying taxes to Caesar was required.

Right? So it's a recognition of where the lines are drawn. He told Pilate if his kingdom were of this world, his people would fight. And brethren, there's a time coming in which we likely will fight. Absolutely will. When Christ sounds that advance. But right now, the world around us is blinded as a result of Satan the devil. And the nations that have sown in that wickedness, man, they are going to reap what they have sown in spades. In spades. And we're seeing it now.

We're seeing it now in the debate in society where feminism is now up against transgenderism and stopping and saying, wait a second, what do we do here? This person identifies as a woman and just set the world record in this event in women's sports. Like, what do we do? I can't say that this isn't valid because it's valid, but... And you're seeing these places now budding into each other, trying to figure out how do I proceed here? Because something's got to give. Something's got to give.

Brethren, we have an obligation to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world, to help the world see as God chooses to call them to open their eyes. But I want to advocate a degree of care.

I want to advocate a degree of care because just like you wouldn't verbally berate or condemn a blind person for not knowing what the color red is, we need to take care and we need to take tact in our interactions with those around us who are blinded to the way of God and do not fully understand. Because, brethren, the impression that others will have of God and of His kingdom that we are professing to them begins with their impression of us. We are the ambassador to this country, to this world, and their opinion of our father and our elder brother and the kingdom that he is bringing is going to rely on the words that we say. We're told to preach the truth in love, and unfortunately some people have a lot of difficulty with love. You know, we talk about the truth in love. Sometimes I think maybe we should stop and work on the love part and make sure we've got that before we throw truth back in. Let's go over to 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2 verse 23. I'm in Hebrew, so that's not going to do me any good. There's 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2 verses 23 to 26. Notice what Paul writes to Timothy here. He says, avoid foolish and ignorant disputes. He says specifically avoid foolish and ignorant disputes knowing that they generate strife.

Verse 24. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility, correcting those who are in opposition. Why? If God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will. In some ways, you might say this passage tells us to pick our battles. It says that not every fight is necessarily worth fighting.

Some of them are simply foolish disputes that just generate strife. But we also recognize there absolutely are hills that are worth dying on. There are hills that are worth dying on. And when it comes to dying on those hills, we absolutely will. We absolutely will, and we absolutely must.

The wisdom and the discernment is in figuring out which one it is. The wisdom and discernment is figuring out which one it is and not doing the Don Quixote thing and tilting at every windmill we come to. Start in every possible fight we can.

A servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those in opposition, again hoping that God will provide them with repentance, that they might recognize and know the truth and come to their senses. So we might say they might have their eyesight restored, that the scales might come off of their eyes so they can see clearly.

Brethren, it's really hard to do that through two black eyes.

It's really challenging to do that through two black eyes. Jesus Christ sent his disciples out into the world as sheep in the midst of wolves, and He instructed them to be wise as serpents and harmless or innocent as does. Again, the discernment comes in knowing when and where to engage and how to engage.

As God's people, we are against sin in any form, whether that is homosexuality, whether it is lying, whether it is adultery or fornication or idolatry. It doesn't matter the sin. We are against sin in any form. As we see homosexuality as a practice that is strictly prohibited by God and one that we ultimately as a church cannot and will not accept, regardless of the pressures of society and of the winds of policy.