A Day of Infamy

The day after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke to the nation, stating yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. On June 26, 2015, a day that will reign in infamy in the minds and hearts of God-fearing people throughout the U.S., they were bombed by the highest court in the land. The decision sanctioned and legalized homosexual marriage, and it will change forever the moral fabric of the nation and the moral fabric of the family. We title the sermon, A Day of Infamy. That decision will go a long way in putting the final nails, or the nail, in the fabric of our society and the family. It is all about satisfying the lust of the flesh in the name of human rights. In essence, it sanctions all form of averent sexual behavior when all is said and done, because it's going in that direction. That direction being of any form of sexual behavior would be stating that human beings have the right to express themselves. And especially if, quote, they love one another, as we shall see, it is a deliberate and direct blow to the commands of God the Father.

God is the creator of male and female. We're going to look at these scriptures today. We need to look at them. We need to plant them forever in our hearts and minds. So if you would, turn to Genesis 1, 26.

In Genesis 1, 26, we begin reading and we see that God is the one who created human beings, male and female. In verse 26, God said, let us make man in our image and our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So human beings are like the apex of creation. Of course, they were created because God is love for a great transcendental purpose. That is, to be a part of the family of God, the kingdom of God, to be of the same essence of God Himself. God is spirit, as it says in John 4, 24, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So God created man in His own image. He is in the image of God, but not of the same essence, as we shall see. God created man in His own image. In the image of God created Him. Male and female created He them. Now, as we shall see also in just a moment, there is a difference in the way that the male was created and the way that the woman was created. Now, let's look at chapter 2, verse 7, a verse that we know so well that hopefully we do in the Church of God. And the Yahweh Elohim, in the Hebrew or primary names, the Lord God formed man of the dust to the ground. So the male formed from the dust of the ground. Sixteen common elements are contained in the makeup of a human being and breathed into His nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living nayfish. Man became a living soul. I've been writing along these lines, if I ever am able. My lifetime goal is to write a book about the fallacy of the immortal soul. I did a little writing on the first part of this week on it. See, this word nayfish is used here in verse 7 of chapter 2. You look at Genesis 1 there across the page again.

Verse 21, God created great whales in every living nayfish, every living nayfish that moves. So the word Hebrew word nayfish is used for human life. It's used for animal life. Soul is what you are. You are a living soul. In the ultimate sense, it means that you have life potential. And that life potential can only be taken away by God. Of course, you can do things to destroy your life potential so that God will take it away. And here I'm quoting from Matthew 10.28. I'm not turning there, but it says that we should fear God and not man, because fear Him who is able to kill both body and soul in Yihanah fire. Only God can take that ultimate life potential from you, and the ultimate life potential is taken away of the incorrigibly wicked when they experience the second death as recorded in Revelation 20. So Adam became a living soul. Soul refers to what he is, a living, air-breathing being.

And now we look further with regard to this. Remember, he created them, male and female created he them. So now we look at verse 21 in chapter 2, and here we see the creation of Eve in Genesis 2 and verse 21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, so God is the author of anesthesia. It is said that two or three of the greatest medical breakthroughs in all of history, one is anesthesia, which permits people to have surgery and the other vaccinations of various sorts. And I know the Church has been up and down and here and there with regard to vaccination, typhoid, malaria, the polio vaccine. You know, I have relatives, and you have relatives, and you've seen people who are crippled for life because of polio. It was pretty common to have at least a person in your extended family in the 40s and 50s who had polio. So God caused this deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he took one of his ribs, so you would have the same genetic material, DNA, RNA, that's in a male, to a large degree, in the female, but obviously there are differences, especially in hormones and the way that they develop. In the early years, females secrete testosterone, and males secrete estrogen sort of along about the same level. Then, around age 9, 10, and so on, the testosterone begins to shut down in the female and the estrogen in males. So he took that rib, and he closed up the flesh, and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man made he a woman, and brought her under the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. So God says in verse 23 now that we are going to read, that a man is to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. So let's read the verse. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

And then God ordains the institution of marriage, male and female. God is the author of marriage. He is the creator of male and female. He is the author of marriage. He is the one who ordained male and female, and the reproduction process. There is a natural, quote, process within this. And virtually in nature, this process is not violated. That you have male and female coming together in order to reproduce. So in verse 24, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. Now they are of the one flesh in the sense that Eve upon creation was taken from Adam, a rib, and they become one flesh in when they become intimate. So we see here that God is the author, male, female. God is the author of marriage. Now these steps, we begin to get into spiritual parallels. These steps in the creation of male and female and the institution of marriage parallels what God is doing to a large degree in bringing sons and daughters to glory in his family. Eve was created from a rib of Adam. We are in the female role as human beings, as potential sons and daughters of God, regardless of whether we are male or female, we are in the female role, as it were, because God is the one who is going to beget us. So we are begotten to a new life by the very essence of God. We receive, like the female receives in the reproductive process, we receive the essence of God into our being. The female receives the sperm from the male. So in the parallel, of course, God's spirit is that seed. Remember James 1, 17, 18 says that he has begotten us by his own will. In 1 Peter 1, verses 21 says of incorruptible seed. So we see a parallel even there, that Eve was taken from the rib of Adam. We are begotten to a new life by the very essence of God, the Holy Spirit. These parallels, the average person who might attend, you can name the church, whatever denomination, they really don't examine this. They tell a story, and sometimes it has a good bit of substance, and sometimes it doesn't. But the bottom line is just believe on Jesus, and you can be saved, and you have heard the story many times. In this embryonic and fetal stage, humans are nourished in the womb of the mother after the sperm and the ovum unite and eventually attaches to the uterine wall, the womb of the mother. And through the placenta, that fetus, first of all an embryo, and then after about three months it's called a fetus, this fetus is nourished from the mother through the umbilical cord. Human beings are begotten to new life spiritually, they're nourished in the womb of the church. We'll look at now Galatians chapter 4, here toward the climax of the allegory that Paul talks about between Sarah and Hagar, the comparison and contrast of the Old Covenant with the New Covenant, Jerusalem above versus Jerusalem in the flesh, and what Paul says here about... And of course this is speaking figuratively, metaphorically, but there is a spiritual reality to it as well. In Galatians chapter 4, verse 26, But Jerusalem, which is above, is free. Jerusalem and Zion are oftentimes used to symbolize the church.

But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, you barren, that bear not. And of course, Sarah was barren to begin with, and as we have noted also, Rebecca, Break forth and cry, you that travail, You that travail not, for the desolate has many more children than she, which has a husband. Now, brethren, as Isaac was, you are the children of promise. So we are begotten by God Himself. We are the children of promise. Isaac was begotten by Abraham, but it was a miracle, the Begettle, because Abraham was able to beget children, but Sarah was way past the time of childbearing.

Time after time, the ministry is admonished, and you'll find this like the last chapter of John, the Gospel of John, where Peter is asked three times by Christ, Do you love me? And Peter obviously said, each time, yea, Lord, you know I love you. And the admonition was, well, feed my sheep, or feed my lambs. A bit of a derivation of a different derivation of the word of sheep and lambs and that kind of thing. Look at 1 Peter chapter 5, with regard to this admonition that the elders have the responsibility, they are commanded to feed the flock. We have begotten sons and daughters of God in the womb, and they are to be spiritually nourished by the church, by those that God has called forth and ordained to preach to them the truth of God. In 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 1, The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Now, that's sort of a parenthetical statement added on there. That was when Peter, James and John were taken into the Mount, and they saw the transfiguration, that vision of Christ coming in the clouds of glory and all of that. That's what that reference is to a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for a filthy lucre, not for money, but of a ready mind. You've been called to it. What choice do you have if you've been called to it?

You know, we have had examples in the Bible where when they were calling, think of three right off, Moses, when he was called, said, well, I can't speak. Abidently, he was a stutterer, and God says, well, I'll give you your brother Aaron. He can speak. He has a silver tongue. Or Isaiah, who said, I'm a man of unclean lips, not me. And the seraphim came forth with a coal, touched his lips, said, I've cleansed your lips. And then Isaiah says, Hear my Lord, send me. Then you think of Jonah, who was commissioned to go to Nineveh and preach to them, and he tried to run away. Of course, really, you can't run away from God. He can separate himself from you, as Cain was separated. But you can't run away from him. Or you think of Paul and all of his various disabilities, a by-sight, poor eyesight, not an eloquent speaker, and on and on. And apparently not of the kind of personality that you might think that God would call to take the gospel to the nations. Apollos would be probably more the choice of men, or the case of Saul and David. Saul would be the people's choice. David was God's choice, and that's what it means by man after God's own heart. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for money, but of a ready mind, neither as being overlords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away. So that admonition to feed the flock of God is, of course, given to the leadership of the church. Now, individually, in addition, individually, we're instructed to feed on the Word of God, the Matthew 4.4. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So we have an individual responsibility, and if we're just depending on what we get at Sabbath services, for our spiritual sustenance, we're going to come up short, I'm quite sure. You have to dig on your own on a daily basis. So this part about where to feed individually, personally, on the Word of God. Renew the inward man daily through study of the Word of God, through prayer, meditation, and obedience. We're familiar with Psalm 119, verse 97. Oh, however, your law, it is my meditation all the day. Is it really?

Through sexual union, male and female are joined together as one. Believers are joined together with God and Christ 24-7 through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Let's notice now in Ephesians chapter 5, we'll see this graphically explained to us in detail here in Ephesians chapter 5. Now, initially, starting up in about verse 20, God's exhortation is basically to the husband and wife. Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, gave himself for it.

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands. We come down to verse 20, Ephesians 5, giving thanks always for all things unto God and to the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

A husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, for he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives also be subject to their husbands and everything. Continuing now, so that, of course, is an admonition that husbands are to carry out in their marriage relationship.

And, of course, the husband and the wife jointly work together to deform this union. And this is a union that is carried on in mind and spirit, even in homes, in some cases, in which people don't even have God's spirit to some degree. It is practiced. You know, as a child growing up throughout our community, close community, virtually everybody went to church, and divorce was unheard of.

Finally, at one point, one of my great-aunt's, she and her husband, got divorced. But it was virtually an unheard-of thing. Divorce. And so even in families that didn't have God's spirit, and it can still be true, of course, today, to some degree, they can carry on a meaningful, loving relationship, but, of course, they don't have this dimension that we're going into right now. In verse 26, that he, God, might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.

So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies, he that loves his wife loves himself, because she is now bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. When we come together in intimacy, we're flesh of flesh. We're joined together in intimate union, and to hate your wife is to hate your own flesh, because the two shall be one.

Now, look at this. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, we're quoting now from Genesis 2.24, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery. But, now what is the real lesson punchline that is getting to you? But I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence or respect her husband. Once again, verse 32, This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

See, God is in us 24-7. God and Christ are in us through the Holy Spirit. There's one major difference between human reproduction and what God is doing in bringing sons and daughters to glory, in that in the human realm, the mother brings forth and gives birth to the fetus. Now, in the spiritual realm, in spiritual reproducing of spiritual sons and daughters in the family of God, it is the Father who begets us and brings us forth. In the human realm, the Father begets us and the mother brings us forth.

Now, we have seen some of the parallels that after being begotten of God's Spirit, we're in the womb of the mother, the church, to be fed, to be nourished. Now, with God and the spiritual coming to fruition and to birth, God the Father begets us and he brings us to birth. And whether we are raised from the dead or caught up in the air to meet him when he comes again, it is God the Father who brings us to birth into his family.

Let's look at some Scriptures to show that. I think even this you might say, well, I've heard this all of my life. Really? Have you really looked at it? In 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, those who are dead, who are in the grave, that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if you believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain in the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who are in the grave. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead, and Christ shall rise first. Who is it that actually, whether we're in the grave, or whether we are alive and remain and are caught up, who is the one it brings us to birth? It is the Father, as we shall see.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, and the dead, and Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now, you look at Romans 8, verse 11, which specifically tells you that it is the Father, who is the one who resurrects us and brings us to birth. You have other scriptures to pursue along these lines. See, these parallels of begat in birth and what we shall become are destroyed, in essence, if you go the route of homosexuality, and you lose sight of God's very purpose for the creation of humankind in the first place. Satan the devil cannot be happier. I mean, it was a great victory for the devil yesterday, in spite of what Hillary Clinton said about the LGBT community. The great courage of the LGBT community helped bring us forth if we celebrate here today. That's Hillary. Romans 8, verse 11.

So it tells you very clearly that the Father, and we'll see more of this, raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and he's also going to raise us from the dead. You look at Galatians, chapter 1 now. Galatians, chapter 1, verse 1. In Galatians, chapter 1, and verse 1, Paul, an apostle, not of men. Of course, he was called by God, struck down on the road to Damascus, supernaturally, blinded, or some time until he really came to his senses in one sense, I guess you would say. Then his sight restored. He was commissioned to preach to the nations. Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. Now we're going to see that resurrection from the dead are being alive and changed, as we read from 1 Thessalonians 4. Resurrection of the dead, or being alive and changed, are equated with birth. We'll go first to Psalm 2. You might think, well, what is there in Psalm 2? Well, it's what Paul quotes in Acts 13, as we shall see, concerning being brought to birth. In Psalm 2, the first part, quite of the nation's rage and all of that, of course, the reason is they don't want God to rule over them. We pick it up in Psalm 2, verse 6, Hebrews 12, verses 22-23 This is where God the Father is called Yahweh in one of the places. There are other places.

Have I, Yalod, in Hebrew, spelled Y-A-L-A-D, it is the equivalent of Gnaou in the Greek. This day, Yalod, this day have I, Yalod, brought you forth, literally, brought you forth, resurrected you to life. Well, how do you know that, you might ask? Of course, Yalod is like an owl, in the sense that it can be used for beget, it can be used to bring forth, to give birth. It depends on if it's the action of the Father, it's to beget. If it's the action of the Mother, it's to bring forth. Now, we look at Acts 13. This is quite an amazing section of Scripture here in Acts 13. There are three very inspired sermons here in the book of Acts. One, of course, Peter on Pentecost, Acts 2, Stephen the Deacon, who was stoned to death in Acts 7. And here in Acts 13, the Apostle Paul is the one doing the speaking. In Acts 13, we'll pick it up along about verse 27. Acts 13, verse 27. We're breaking into the thought where Paul is talking to the Jews. He's preaching and saying, Look, here's what you did to the Messiah, the one that was promised. You killed him.

So we pick it up in the middle of that. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, Nor yet the voices of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath day, They have fulfilled them in condemning him. I mean, the very people that he was coming to save were the ones that condemned, I mean, to save initially, He came to save all nations. But the ones that came to, he came to initially, as it says in the Gospel of John, He came to his own, and his own received him, and received him not, But unto them that received him, he gave them the power to become the sons of God. That's John 1.12. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, Nor yet the voices of the prophets, I mean, it was read every Sabbath day, they should have understood, verse 28, And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they pilot, that he should be killed.

And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead. Of course, we have already read that from Romans 8.11, and also Galatians 1.1, and there are other places. But God raised him from the dead, and he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, which are his witnesses unto the people. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that some 500 people witnessed and saw him after the resurrection. And we declare unto you glad tidings how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God has fulfilled the same unto us their children, and that he has raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second psalm, which we just read, You are my son, this day have I canow you, I brought you to birth, I've raised you from the dead. And as we will see in just a moment, that is acquainted with birth. And concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption. He said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Now we go to Revelation 1.5 in which it is very clear, and especially with this background, it should be even clearer to all of us, that resurrection is equated with birth. Revelation 1.5. And from Jesus Christ, maybe we should read verse 4, because Revelation, people talk about it being the revelation of Christ. Jesus Christ is a revelator, but the revelation, where does it begin? With the Father, verse 1. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him. God gives the revelation, Jesus Christ is a revelator, which God gave to him to show his servants things which would shortly come to pass, that he, and he sent and signified it by his angel, as Angelos, and his servant John. So the chain of revelation, the Father, Jesus Christ, the Angelos, John. And John writes the letters to the pastors of the seven churches. Verse 4, John, to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be in you, and peace from him which is, which was, which is to come, all three dimensions of time, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is a faithful witness, and the firstborn, Protodacos. The firstborn of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth, and to him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and it made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. So verse 5 clearly shows you the firstborn, Protodacos. Now there had been other people resurrected from the dead, in the Old Testament, New Testament, but this is the first one that was actually born into a new order of beings. See, this is a new order of being. This is one who has lived in the flesh, and now, after giving up his glory and living in the flesh, having been killed, is now raised, and his glory restored. Remember, Christ prayed in John 17, restoring to me the glory that I had with you before the world began. You look at Romans 1. Romans 1.

Verse 1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures. Once again, the promise of the Messiah coming on the scene, which they misperceived and killed the Prince of Life, concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the resurrection from the dead, the firstborn among many brethren. Now we go to Isaiah 66, and we see this in the Old Testament in the greater sense in which the church, the mother of us all, Zion, is used here along with Jerusalem, which we've already referenced both of those in conjunction with, referred to as the mother. In Isaiah 66, 6, a voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the eternal that recompense to his enemies, before she had prevailed, she brought forth, before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child. Of course, this is quoted to some degree in Revelation 12 about the birth of Jesus Christ, but it also has implications for us, and it's what is going to happen with us. Who hath heard of such a thing? Who has seen such a thing? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day?

Or shall a nation be born at once the holy nation of God, the first Peter 2.9? You are a holy nation, a purchased people, that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you into his marvelous light. For as soon as Zion prevailed, she brought forth her children.

Yes, as the first Thessalonians 4, with the first Corinthians 15, with the voice of the shout of the archangel, the dead in Christ shall rise.

Shall I bring to birth, and not cause to bring forth? Saith to the Lord, shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb, says your God? Rejoice you with Jerusalem, be glad with her all you that love her. Rejoice for joy with her all you that mourn for her. Can you imagine the joy that's going to be present when we are resurrected from the dead, born into the family of God? And all of this that we're going through and have gone through is behind us, and we look back at that.

And now we're there where there is, it says at your right hand, there is joy evermore.

What a time that will be. God's great purpose for creating male and female is to bring sons and daughters to glory in his family. That we'll be of the same essence. Look at Hebrews now, Hebrews 2.

Hebrews 2, somewhat breaking in on the thought here, but we will start in verse 8, Hebrews 2, verse 8, You have put all things in subjection under his feet, Christ is over all except the Father. For he that put all in subjection under him, that is God, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

For it became him, for whom are all things, by whom are all things, in bringing many sons, and of course its daughters, male and female, to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifies, and they who are sanctified, are all of one, that one essence. There is one Spirit. There is one baptism in the body of Christ. For both he that sanctifies, and they who are sanctified, are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, because we are of the same essence. It's like human beings are of the same essence with regard to the flesh. It began with Adam and with Eve, and continues to this day. And in resurrection, we'll be of the same essence. We already have that essence abiding within us. So, as you can see from the clear words of Scripture, the very plan and purpose of God are subverted by same-sex marriage. This beautiful picture of what God is doing in bringing sons and daughters to glory. How will same-sex couples rear children? They cannot reproduce without the aid of the opposite sex. If it's a male, then it either have to have a surrogate mother, and he would donate sperm, or the sperm bank, or whatever it is, attached the embryo into the womb of a female. If they want to have children, or they must adopt him with a female.

She has to be impregnated by a man, or harvest an ovum, go through that process, but a male has to play a role in it, or adopt. How will the children be taught? What will they be taught? Well, they already have studies out in which they are saying that the children reared in a same-sex marriage are just as well adjusted, and just as well, you name it, as those who are in heterosexual families. Now look at Ephesians 6, verse 1. We're going to really get into some ironies now.

In Ephesians 6, verse 1, children obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. See the very fact that you come out of the loins of your parents, and this mother holds you, and this father holds you, and they nourish you, and they take care of you, and you develop this bond. That within itself is built in. It's like an innate part of the DNA, as it were, where children learn to love father and mother, where they learn how to relate to father and mother, where they learn how to relate to society as a whole. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth. Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

The nurture and admonition of the Lord. You are to instruct them, as God says, to instruct them.

How is this going to take place? How can they be brought up in the nurture and admonition of God? When the very words of God contained in the Holy Scripture are denied, it's a contradiction of the word of God from the get-go. For this cause shall a father, a male, leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife a female, and the twain shall become one. That is what God's... Do you want to talk about God and what God has ordained?

You can't skip what it's all about. So how can they be brought up in the nurture and admonition of God when the very words of God contained in Holy Scripture, created he, them, male and female, for this cause shall a father, say, father, shall a man leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife? Let's go to Leviticus 18. God makes it very clear in Scripture that homosexuality is a sin. It was, under the terms of the Old Covenant, a sin punishable by death.

Leviticus 18, verse 22. Surely, during my lifetime, there were several states that had sodomy laws. It was against the law to commit sodomy. You could go to prison for committing sodomy. In Leviticus 18, verse 22, You shall not lie with mankind as with a womankind. It is an abomination. Now, more is added to that. You look at Leviticus 20, verse 13. So here it says clearly, you shall not lie with mankind as with a womankind. It is an abomination. Now, you look at this. Leviticus 20, verse 13. If a man also lie with mankind as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. They shall be surely put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.

The Apostle Paul summarizes humankind apart from God in Romans 1. Let's go to Romans 1. See this act of infamy that was foisted off on the nation, defying the Constitution and every sense of morality that has been practiced and instructed from time immemorial. In Romans 1, the Apostle Paul writing, let's start in verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

The literal meaning of this word, hold, is to hold back the truth in unrighteousness.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. See, even nature itself would teach you, as this is contained, as we shall read here in a moment.

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. I mean, if you're just an observer of nature and the order of things in the universe and nature, you would know even by that, because when they knew God, see, even after the Tower of Babel, as they went away from the Tower of Babel, they carried the various stories with them of the flood, of creation, as they went to the various inheritances which God had given them, and as they went along the way, became more and more legend, more and more perverted, but little strands of the truth going all the way back to the Garden of Eden contained in it, because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations. Oh, the vanity that exists today, the intellectual vanity, the so-called puffed-up kind of attitude. Oh, we are so better than you are, because we understand this great freedom. And their foolish heart was dark, and professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible men, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things, and so they made idols, and they worshipped the heavenly bodies. Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts. This is what it's about. The lust of their own hearts, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped, and served the creature, the creation, more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.

It's not what the baboons are doing.

And likewise also the man, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of the error which was fitting. And so we have all of these associated diseases and things that have come about as a result of that. The destruction of the family, the destruction of the sanctity of life, the destruction of the sanctity of marriage, and it just goes on and on. It is like a chain reaction throughout the world. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. And of course there is bestiality or bestiality. There is pedophilia. There are all kinds of aberrant behavior that are practiced.

Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, malignanness, I'm sorry, maliciousness, full of enmity, murder, debate, deceit, malignancy, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who, knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do they the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. That's where we are. You know, it says in Jeremiah, that my people love to have it so. That's the way they like it.

Why would a people destroy themselves? Why would any culture, why would any nation, seek to destroy themselves? Why would they go the way that would guarantee them, if they do not repent, the lake of fire?

Look at 1 Corinthians 6.

1 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 9.

1 Corinthians 6 verse 9. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9. 1 No, you not, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6 verse 9. 1 Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. I mean, it even goes a step beyond.

It talks about effeminacy.

The young males that are born into this culture at this present time have a tough road to hope.

There are very few. The fathers and the family do not provide the kind of masculine example in leadership when they get out there in the schools of today. And with the peer group of today, with the media of the day, they have very little chance of succeeding, that is, to become and be able to fulfill their role as a male. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor revelers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. So it is very clear in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, homosexuals want to talk about love. Oh, we love each other. We get this true love. And if you really love somebody, that's what really counts. Now, of course, love and lust are easily confused. On the one hand, they talk about God's love for everyone, and then turn around and deny God's definition of love. And they deny God's definition of the whole plan of male and female. Heterosexual marriage, and the beautiful picture that God presents with a human family, paralleling what He's doing in bringing sons and daughters to glory on the spiritual plane.

So what is love? Look at 1 John 5.3. 1 John 5.3. We find in 1 John, of course, a definition of sin in 1 John 3.4, sin is a transgression of the law. Here we see a definition of love.

In 1 John 5.3, For this is the love of God. What is the love of God? You say you love God? Do you say you love one another?

You see, you can't love one another without loving God, and you can't love God without loving one another. They are reciprocals. The preceding verses show that clearly. For this is the love of God, that we should keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous. I mean, look at 1 John 2.4. I mean, this, that every knee shall bend and every mouth shall be shut, all you'd have to do is read 1 John 2.4.

He that says, I know Him and keeps not His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him. See, God brought forth judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexuality. I mean, how does that escape anyone who claims that they are Christians, who claims the authority of the Bible in any sense?

Look at Genesis 19.

We will do a quick review there, not reading every verse. But Genesis 19, these two angels show up at the house of Lot, because God has been beseeched by Abraham to spare any righteous that might be there. And so, God agreed to do so, and finally came to you, perchance if there be ten.

And God agreed. Of course, there were not ten righteous in Sodom. But God did spare Lot, mainly because Abraham interceded. See, Abraham and Lot had already had a disagreement in the sense that their herdsmen got into an article about the pastures. And so, Abraham said, look, let there not be strife among us. You choose whichever way you want to go, Lot. And Lot, looking toward the plains, said, oh, it's fertile, it's green. And Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. And if you pitch your tent toward Sodom, guess what? You'll wind up in Sodom. In Genesis 19.1, And there came two angels to Sodom at evening, And Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, And Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them. And he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.

And Lot then began saying, look, I want you to spend the night inside the house with me tonight. He knew what the people of Sodom were about.

And so, finally, Lot pressed on them to the point that they agreed to go inside. Well, they went inside, and here comes the sodomites, and they're banging on the door. Send out these two men that we may know them, biblical terminology, for you know what.

And finally, of course, they didn't go out, and so they began to beat on the door and would have broken in, But then the angels struck them with blindness. And so, the next day, there was Lot in the interim. One of the things he said is that he had two daughters that had not known a man. Evidently, he had married daughters because he went to his son-in-law, and the son-in-law mocked him, wouldn't have anything to do with it. So you look down there in verse 11, And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they weared themselves to find the door. They were blinded. And the men said unto Lot, Have you here besides son-in-law and your sons and your daughters, and whatsoever you have in the city, bring them out of this place, for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord, the YHV, the Eternal, has sent us to destroy it. Now see this verse 14, And Lot went out and spoke unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters. Now he had two daughters inside, it says, that had not known men, to get up out of this place where the Eternal's going to destroy the city, but he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law. Now note this, literally what happens here that even Lot didn't just get up and get out the next morning. It was like God, like, have you ever seen an old mama cat grab her little kitten by the neck and lovingly move it over here?

So that's really what God did through the angels with Lot. So we shall see here. And when the morning arose, then the angels hardened a hastened Lot. The angels hastened Lot, saying, you know, get with it, get busy, get ready to leave, arise, take your wife, your two daughters, which are here, lest ye be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, he dearly dallied, and while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, upon the hand of his two daughters, the eternal being merciful unto him, and they brought them forth and set him without the city. Just like, and put them out of the city. And of course, you know the story of God rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom and destroyed it. Even archeological evidence today is indicating that that area, as described in the Bible, has the remnants of this fire and brimstone. Of course, you know the story about Lot and his two daughters and him fathering Moab and Ammon. Now you look at Jude. Jude all the way toward the end of the Bible.

Jude has one chapter that is very similar to 2 Peter 2. But in Jude and verse 14, Just as it came to Sodom and Gomorrah, the day of reckoning is coming for all humankind. Jude 14 and Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the eternal comes with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walkers after their own lust, and their mouth speaks great swelling words, having man's persons in admiration because of advantage. But, beloved, remember you the words which were spoken of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who would walk after their own ungodly lust. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. So that's where we are. Very few people on the face of the earth believe in God and believe to the point that they should, and God tells us to be separate, to come out from among them. Now we look in Luke 17, and we'll see at the end of this age the prophecy here that Jesus Christ Himself uttered regarding how things would be when He returns to the earth. You know what we say, and a lot of us say, and we pray, and we should pray as the bottle prayer says, Thy kingdom come, and we desire the kingdom to come. Before the kingdom comes, of course, there will be the great tribulation in the day of the Lord. There's a verse in Amos says, woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is going to be, God is going to directly intervene, so many of the events in Revelation will be fulfilled. We see the events that began to unfold on the world scene today, and we think, how terrible, how awful.

And it is. These are the beginnings of sorrows. As the old guy says, you ain't seen nothing yet.

But all the while, God tells us to be a good cherry, to be a good cheer, lift up your heads, your redemption draweth nigh. And whether we are alive or whether we're in the grave, the bottom line is God wants us to finish in faith. In Luke 17, verse 26, As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be, in the days of the Son of Man, they did eat and drink, they married wives, they were given in marriage. And to the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise also, as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, drink, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven. See, it was God's doing, and so will the day of the Lord be. You can talk about natural blood moons and all that kind of thing. But when God intervenes in the day of the Lord, there will never be a time like that. Even shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

So, brethren, we must turn to God and fill our laps with oil. Have our path lighted by the Word of God. We must choose the road less traveled because broad is the way, broad is a path, at least destruction. But on the other hand, narrow is the gate and straight is the way that leads to life eternal. Brethren, we have been taught the way, we know the way.

I hope we choose life.