to Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel
chapter 16. Let's read verses 49 and 50. Ezekiel 16 verse 49 and 50. Behold, This was the iniquity of thy
sister Sodom. Pride, fullness of bread, and
abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, or
in her sister cities. Neither did she strengthen the
hand of the poor and needy, and they were haughty. and committed
abomination before me. Therefore, I took them away as
I saw good. I intend to do something tonight
that I don't usually do. I want to make a few comments
about a current event. Yesterday I was looking at the
internet and an article came up that was about Phil Robertson
from Duck Dynasty. And as most of you know, I know
him. Most everybody from where I grew
up knows him. He was a coach in our high school
and baseball coach before I went to school back in the 70s. But
when I was in college, I used to go to his house and he would
tune my duck calls. And every time you went over
there, he would say, did you come to talk about the gospel
or did you come to talk about ducks? And we talked about both. And it didn't take us long to
figure out that we didn't agree on the gospel. But he's a friend
still. So this article caught my attention. And I began to read it. And he
was doing an interview with somebody. And he spoke about homosexuality. Or as God refers to it in the
scriptures, sodomy. And he made some comments that
I thought could have been said in better taste. They were rather
over the top, sort of in feel fashion. But what angered folks
most is that he paraphrased from 1 Corinthians 6 verses 9 and
10 and he said that sodomy is sin. He just quoted the scripture. One of the headlines said, Phil
Robertson says homosexuality is sin. Well, he didn't say that. God said that. That's what 1
Corinthians 6 said. I have believing friends, mothers
and fathers who have sons or daughters who are homosexual. And they've asked me questions
about that before and I simply Some of the things they've asked,
I don't know how to answer. But I know this, I do know that
all unrighteousness is sin. All unrighteousness is sin. And
I know the only way we can be saved from our sins is by the
Lord Jesus Christ, by God's grace. The Holy Spirit has power to
sanctify a sodomite out of darkness into his marvelous light the
same as he does an idolater or an adulterer or a drunkard. I
know that. I know that's true. But my message
is not so much about sodomy. It's not so much about that.
It's something worse than that. Far worse than that. I told Melinda
when I read that article, I said, Phil's going to be hung by the
media before the day's over. And sure enough, about late last
night, early this morning, the backlash started coming across
the internet. His comments were called hateful. They were called anti-gay. I
didn't see anything hateful in the article. I haven't read the
full article, just what they quoted. But the union for Sodomite
said that his comments were unacceptable to fans, to viewers, and to networks
alike. And they also said this, they
said, lies, lies about an entire community, meaning the gay community,
lies about an entire community fly in the face of what true
Christians believe. And I didn't see anything that
was a lie about what he said at all. Well, they pressured
A&E to stop the show and they succeeded in not getting them
to stop the show, but they succeeded in pressuring them to suspend
him from the show indefinitely. Well, there are several aspects
to this that troubled me. And I'll try to bring out some
of them in the message. But I want to show you that the
things that are happening in our nation, in our day, are not
new. They're not new at all. God's
overruling everything that's come in the past. And God has
graciously shown us in His scriptures, in the past, He's shown us these
things come about. And He's shown us what has happened
to those in a city like that. But I want to show you these
things are not new and I want to show you that the problems
that we're dealing with here are spiritual. They're much deeper
than just a supernatural thing, a superficial thing. They're
spiritual. First of all, the things that
are happening in this nation, all over this world right now,
they're not new. These things are not new at all.
These things have happened long ago in a city called Sodom. Look
at Ezekiel 16 and verse 49. Behold, this was the iniquity
of thy sister Sodom. Sodom was a city in Abraham's
day. It was where his nephew Lot went
to live. That's where he chose to live.
And it was full of what men today call transgender people. And it was full of sodomites,
homosexuals. And the word sodomy comes from
the city Sodom. That's where we get the word
sodomy. It comes from this word Sodom. But now as God is describing
Sodom here, He's saying this was the iniquity of Sodom. But as he's describing the iniquity
of Sodom, he's speaking to Jerusalem. He's speaking to Jerusalem. He
declares that these very sins of Sodom were worse in Jerusalem. He says, Sodom has not done the
half of what Jerusalem has done. because they were guilty of doing
these things in religion, in vain religion. Look back up at
verse 1, Ezekiel 16, 1. See who he's talking to here.
Again, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man,
cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. You see, he's speaking to Jerusalem.
Look down at verse 48. He says in verse 48, As I live,
saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister. He's calling Sodom the
sister of Jerusalem. He says, Sodom thy sister hath
not done she nor her daughters as thou hast done thou and thy
daughters. He says in verse 51, Neither
hath Samaria committed half of thy sins. But thou hast multiplied
thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy
sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done. He says,
Thou also which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame
for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they. You see, he's talking to Jerusalem.
He says, They're more righteous than thou. He says, Sodom's more
righteous than Jerusalem. And he says, Yea, be thou confounded
also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy
sisters. Look over at Isaiah 1, just a
moment. Isaiah chapter 1, to your left
there, a couple of books. Isaiah 1. I told you a place in Isaiah.
We may come back here. But Isaiah 1 verse 1, he says,
This is the vision of Isaiah the son of Amos, which he saw
concerning Judah and Jerusalem. This is who he's talking to,
Judah and Jerusalem. Now look down at verse 10. And
look how he addresses them. He's talking to Judah and Jerusalem
here. He says, Hear the word of the
Lord, you rulers of Sodom. He calls Jerusalem and Judah
Sodom. And he says, Give ear unto the law of our God, ye people
of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt
offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight
not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.
When you come to appear before me, who has required this at
your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations.
Incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons and sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even
the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed
feasts, my soul hateth. They are trouble unto me. I'm
weary to bear them. This is God speaking speaking
of Judah and Jerusalem calling them Solomon Gamora He says verse
15 when you spread forth your hand when you pray to me He said
I'll hide mine eyes from you. Yeah, when you make many prayers,
I will not hear your hands are full of blood That's God speaking
the problems that are in our nation today. They started in
the pulpit That's where they started. They started in the
pulpit, in the hearts of religious men. That's what God is saying
here. He's saying this to Jerusalem,
where religion was. Let's go back now. Let's see
what Sodom's iniquity was, and then when God says Jerusalem
and Judah's was worse, we can see here then that it's much
worse. It's much worse. But let's see
what Sodom's iniquity was. He says, verse 49, First of all,
their iniquity was pride. It was pride. As far as we know,
according to the scriptures, pride was the first sin. It began with the devil. Pride. Over in Isaiah 14, we
have there the words of Lucifer, the words of the devil. This
is what he said when he found out that God was going to exalt
human nature, the God-man, and exalt man over the angels. This is what he said. Thou hast
said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God. Above the stars of God. I will
sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of
the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I
will be like the Most High. That's the heart of pride. And
then pride is the governing sin of fallen nature. That's what
governs us. Pride is... Pride is behind a
lot of what we do. Behind a lot. Every commercial
appeals to our pride. Pride motivates a lot of what
we do. Pride makes sinners hate the
gospel. Pride is what makes a sinner
hate to hear that there is none good, no not one. Because it
offends what he thinks is his dignity. It's what makes him
be offended when he hears that there's none good but God. He
says, I'll ascend unto God, I will. Pride is what makes a man hate
to hear the truth that natural man cannot receive the things
of God. They're spiritually discerned.
The spirit of God has to come to whomsoever he will and teach
us these things in our heart. And a man says, I have wisdom. How dare you offend my wisdom? I can learn. I can see these
things. I can find these things out on
my own. God says, no, that's not possible. It's what makes
men hate the fact that God must save alone. Only God can save. Nobody else can save us but God
and Him alone. But pride is fueled by will,
works, religion. That fuels pride. I told you
about being in Mexico and those running for marriage. And when
they get finished with that, they all take turns doing it,
you know. They ride in a truck, and then one will run a while,
then he'll get in the back of the truck, the other run a while.
But when they get to town, where everybody is, they all get out
in front of the truck, like they've all been running the whole time,
and they all run in there together, and they all run in there shouting,
yes, we could. Yes, we could. Yes, we could. And the whole town goes to shout,
yes, we could. Cody said, he said, I'd like
to get some of those billboards that you put up, you know, where
you read one and you go a little further and you read the next
one, and put up, it's, not of him that runneth. That's pride. That's pride. The
first iniquity that led to Sodom's overthrow was pride. They didn't
need God, but they were not nearly as proud as those in Jerusalem.
Those in Jerusalem. And that's how it is with our
nation in our day. A nation of pride. A proud nation. And in religion
in our day. The pride of natural lewd sinners
is great. It's great. It's so with all
types of sin. Men are just proud. But they're
nothing compared to self-righteous religious men. There's no pride
compared to that. religious, self-righteous sodomites. You know why sodomy is such a
good... You know, God describes false
preachers in the Scriptures as male prostitutes. He describes
them in the Scriptures as sodomites. And it's a good description.
False religion is a good description of sodomy because it does not
produce children. It doesn't produce children.
And it goes against the nature. It goes against God's order.
God's order is that Christ the husband, he gives life through
his bride, the church, and he produces children. That's the
order. That's the picture that was set
forth in Adam and Eve. That's the picture set forth
with a husband and a wife. And that's, see, sodomy goes
against that. That's why God himself uses sodomites,
as describes false preachers, as sodomites. That was the pride,
pride. Proud of our place in nation,
proud of our type of government. Aren't we proud? We're proud
of democracy. I like democracy. I think it's great. We're proud
of it. Proud of our will. Proud of our
decisions for our little Jesus. Proud of our great church cathedrals. Proud of our great works. Proud
of our policing the world. When you're good as we are at
everything, you don't need God. We take God's name out of everything
that's useful, but we use His name in vain every other breath. Pride. Alright, then the next
thing he says there is, fullness of bread. The land of Sodom was
fruitful. Bread here stands for all sorts
of food. It was a fertile land. It was
a fruitful land. They had plenty of everything
they wanted. Everything they wanted. Listen to the description.
Let me read this to you over Genesis 13. Remember when Lot
and his herdsmen and Abraham's herdsmen, they got into an argument.
So Abraham said, you just pick out whatever you want, whatever
piece of land you want. And it says in Genesis 13, 10,
Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that
it was well watered everywhere. Well watered everywhere. And
it says, before the Lord destroyed Solomon Gomorrah, even it was
as well watered as the garden of the Lord. in the land of Egypt
as thou comest unto Zoar. It was as well watered as Eden,
as the garden of Eden. It was a fertile land, fertile
land. And Jerusalem had even more bread
than Sodom. And by bread, I'm talking about
spiritual bread, light that God gave them. They had the oracles
of God. They had God sent them prophets. God sent them His law. God gave
them a mercy seat where He would meet with them. He gave them
the gospel. That's what He was teaching them
through that old covenant law, was giving them sites and pictures
and types of the gospel to come. He gave them... His presence
was there. His presence was in their midst. But all this fullness of good
things, apart from God the Holy Spirit to humble a sinner, you
know what it does? It puffs him up. It makes him
proud. When has our nation... You think
about this. When has our nation ever had
to have disaster relief come to us? Has that ever happened? I don't
think it's ever happened. We have fullness of bread here.
We've had fullness of bread. We have the most religions in
this nation. Of any nation. We've got more
religions than anybody. And we're the most ungodly of
anybody. Here's the next thing it says
there. Verse 49. It says they had abundance of
idleness. Abundance of idleness was in
her and in her daughter. Sodom and all her sister cities
had peace of rest. They rested. They had peace.
They didn't have to labor. They just enjoyed prosperity
and ease and security and quietness one generation after the next
generation. Sounds like us, don't it? It
produced sloth and idleness. It produced laziness. That's
what it produced. They had time for sin and they
had time for wickedness. Jerusalem was worse than that
in their religion. They were worse than Sodom. Early
in the chapter, look back up there, the Lord speaks of how
He adorned Jerusalem. Look at verse 10. You know this
passage where He says, I found you polluted in your blood. Now
look here at verse 10. He's showing a picture here of
the privileges of having the scripture and having the prophets
and the worship that God gave to Judah and to Jerusalem. Look
what he said, I clothed thee also with broideried work, and
shod thee with badger skins, and I girded thee about with
fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also
with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on
thy neck, and I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in
thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head. Thus was thou
decked with gold and silver. Thy raiment was of fine linen
and silk and broided work. Thou didst eat fine flour and
honey and oil. Thou wast exceeding beautiful,
and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. and thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty. For it was perfect through my
comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God." Remember
in Isaiah, he said, I planted a vineyard, and there he uses
the metaphor of a vineyard. He said, what more could I have
done? I put a hedge around it. I put a tower in it. That's what
he's saying here. I gave you all these precious
jewels. I gave you my word. I gave you
my tabernacle. I gave you prophets. He gave
him all this stuff. But all this stuff without the
Spirit of God won't avail anybody anything. And he shows us that
here. Look at what they did. Instead of using those things
to worship God, in their prosperity and in their idleness, they invented
new worship. They worship the things that
were to be used to worship God. Now that's what religion does.
They use the things God gave them. All these things we just
read about that were to be used to worship God, they use those
things and worship those things. Look here in verse 15. But thou
didst trust in thine own beauty. you trusted in your beauty, and
played the harlot because of thy renown, and pours out thy
fornications on everyone that passed by, his it was. And of
thy garments thou didst take, and deckest thy high places with
different colors. You see what he said? You took
the garments I gave you to worship me, and you decked your high
places with them, your places of worship, of false worship.
And you played the harlot thereupon. The like thing shall not come,
neither shall it be so. Thou hast also taken thy fair
jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and made
us to thyself images of men. He says, and didst commit whorems
with them. And when he's talking about whoredoms
and harlotry here, he's not talking about natural sexual. He's talking
about spiritual. He's talking about you. You worshiped
idols. This is the worst kind of whoredom.
This is the worst kind of adultery and sodomy and what have you
that we're talking about here. Did you see how they take the
things that God gave them to worship and they worshiped the
things? He says, Verse 18, you took the broided garments and
covered them, and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before
them. My meat also, which I gave thee,
fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast
even set it before them for a sweet savor. And thus it was, saith
the Lord God. Moreover, thou hast taken thy
sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and
these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this
of thy whoredoms a small matter? that thou hast slain my children
and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for
them?" And men will say, folks aren't doing that in our day.
Yes, they are. Folks are taking... The church
building is supposed to be a place you go into and worship God. And men think, call the place
holy. And don't speak of God as being
holy. Men will take... Instead of using the preaching
of the Gospel to preach Christ, men will preach men. Instead
of using the Scriptures to seek Christ, men will seek life in
the Scriptures. Or seek life because they read
the Scriptures. Expect life because they read
the Scriptures. Instead of making disciples for Christ, men worship
their ability to make disciples. This is so brethren, you can
close up your ears and try to ignore this all you want to.
This is the sodomy that we live in, the spiritual sodomy, all
around. And you say, well they're not
burning their children to fire. Every day folks are persuading
their children to join false religion. to join in, walk the
aisle and give your heart to Jesus. You might as well be lighting
them up and setting them on fire, literally. That's sacrificing
of this fire so that Paul said in Galatians, so that men can
glory in what they constrain you to do. There's going to be
a whole bunch of mommas and daddies that stand before God one day
and say, Lord, look, I got my children to believe you. I got
my children to make a decision for you. Don't that count for
something? Here's what else they did. Back in our text, Ezekiel 16,
49. He says there, neither did she strengthen the hand of the
poor and needy. Sodom had abundance and they
had time. They had idleness. They had abundance
and idleness. So they had time to help the
poor and the needy and they had abundance to do it. Now either
Sodom was too proud and too idle to do so or she oppressed the
poor and needy rather than strengthening them. You think about this, that's
what it sounds like here because some in Sodom had fullness of
bread and had abundance of time and idleness while others were
poor and needy. There's a difference in strengthening
the hand and giving into the hand. There's a difference. You
know, to strengthen the hand is to help somebody get up get
on their feet, to help them get a good job, to help them get
whatever education they need, and to help them get the ability
to provide for themselves and for others. That's strengthening
somebody's hand. But giving into the hand, just
keep giving into the hand, keep giving into the hand, that makes
a man dependent on a handout. And that works oppression rather
than strength. It provides a lower class of
cheap labor for those with the abundance. You see, welfare is
a profitable business for the oppressor. Profitable. Well, Jerusalem did this in religion,
far worse than Sodom did. The Apostle Peter said, false
prophets make merchandise of men. They fleece men spiritually. The poor and needy are sinners
who are bankrupt in sins. They need Christ. They need the
gospel. And the gospel of Christ in whom
crucified is the message through which Christ our head is going
to pour out the unsearchable riches on his people. He's going
to robe us in his garment of righteousness through the gospel. but where sinners are not told
of their absolute ruin and sin. Where sinners are made to think,
you know, if you just take the first step, God will take the
rest. When sinners are not told, they're totally, thoroughly ruined
in sin so that they can't take a step. They're nothing but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores from the sole of the foot to
the top of the head. They can't take a step. And where
sinners are not told that the only way that God can be just
and justify a hell-deserving sinner is by Christ Jesus, the
Son of God, coming to where we are and taking our sin and paying
the wages of sin and putting away our sin and justifying His
people by His work, by His faithfulness, by His deeds. And that men need
for the Holy Spirit to come and to quicken us and to give us
life and to draw us. Christ said, no man comes to
the Father but by me. No other way to come to God but
through Jesus Christ. And he said, and no man comes
to me except the Father which has sent me, draw him. Now that
tells you something brethren, nobody in this world that God
saves is going to be able to come to God except through Christ
and everyone that comes to Christ is going to be drawn by the Father
to Christ. They are going to be drawn to
confess Him and cast their care upon Him. Sinners have to be
told these things. This has to be preached over
and over and over. One, men are stout hearted. What
is a stout heart? A stout heart, a stiff neck is
just somebody that says, I'm not going to hear that. You ever,
when you were a child, you ever go to church services and say,
well, I'm going to go, I'm going to be there embodied, but I'm
not going to listen. Well, God might let you do that. He might say the reason you don't
believe is because you're not my sheep and just let you perish.
But if you're his, he'll make you hear. He will make you hear
this gospel. And sinners need to be told this
because when they're told this, this is how God saves. And the
thing is, when they're not told this, they're oppressed. They're oppressed. This is what
religion does. They're oppressed to bring forth
a righteousness and a holiness that they're too bankrupt to
produce. That's what religion does. Not
only do they not give you the true righteousness and the true
holiness, Christ, but they oppress you to bring forth a righteousness
and a holiness that you can't produce. And they give you a
reward now and then. and promises of reward, but then
they whip you. They whip you with the law, but
they never strengthen the hand with grace. They never strengthen
the hand with grace. Spiritual welfare is a profitable
business for the oppressor as well, just like natural welfare
is. So here we are. We got this proud
nation. We're full of bread. We've got
abundance of idleness, and yet still full of poor and needy. Doesn't that describe us? And
look at religion. It's supposed to be Christianity
in this nation. You've got men full of pride
of their works. You've got their rich and increased
in need of nothing. And yet full of oppressed and
needy sinners. Now look here. Here's the next
thing. These two go together. Look at verse 50. And they were
haughty and they committed abomination before me. Turn over to Genesis
19. They were haughty and they committed
abomination before men. Now, in Sodom, haughty means
they lifted themselves in their hearts and their minds. They
thought of themselves above God and above men. Haughty. Above God and above men. That's
how they considered themselves. And then committed abomination
means they committed sodomy. Homosexuality. Now, you remember
two angels came down from, they went to Abraham first. Three
angels went to Abraham and told Abraham, Sarah's going to have
a child. And she laughed and the two were
sent on down to Sodom and one stayed there with Abraham. Well,
these two came to Sodom that evening. And when they got to
Sodom that evening, Lot, they went to get Lot out of Sodom.
And when they got down there, Lot, He took these two angels,
they looked like men, they were disguised as men, and he took
these two angels into the house to try to save them from this
city full of Sodomites. Now look at what they did, verse
4. But before they lay down, before these angels lay down,
the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, come past the house
round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter,
They surrounded this house, these men did. And they called unto
Lot and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to
thee this night? Bring them out unto us that we
may know them. They didn't want to know their
names. This word know them right here is like a man knows his
wife when they're married. That's what they wanted. They
were sodomite. They openly, unashamedly said
they wanted to commit sodomy with these two men. Our text
says they committed abomination. This city was full of this. This
city was full of this. It was so common that nobody
dared speak out against it. And our text also says they were
haughty. It means they exalted themselves
over God, over His Word, and over His witnesses. Now Lot,
being a believer, being a righteous man, he commanded these Sodomites
to repent from this wickedness. That's what he told them. But
look at what they said. You think they bowed to the Word
of the Lord? Look at verse 9. And they said to Lot, stand back. Now see if this sounds familiar
right here. See if this sounds familiar.
And they said again, they're speaking about Lot. This one
fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge? Now will we deal worse with thee
than with them? And they pressed sore upon the
man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. Here was all
the people, all these men of Sodom. Here was Lot, speaking
that which was right according to God's Word. And they said,
How dare you judge us? How dare you judge it? The thing,
one of the things that troubled me about this thing with Robertson
is that the law of this land and public opinion, the law of
this land and public opinion is regarded as right by men and
by the media. It's regarded as right. And God
and his word is held in utter contempt. In fact, little by
little as the day went on today, I noticed that they gradually
took out the paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 6 altogether out of the articles
and just put the other comments that Robertson made. I read in several comments, how
dare this man judge us? How dare he judge us? God says
in our text, they were haughty and they committed abomination.
They were above God, above His Word, above His... Anybody tried
to speak to them about God, they said, we're not hearing it. How
dare you judge us? And they committed sodomy. Now
understand this, especially our young people, I want you to get
this. This was really the main reason I wanted to preach this.
Though an earthly government passes a law, though an earthly
government passes a law and makes something lawful, It does not
mean it is lawful before God. Our society has made same-sex
marriage lawful, and now we're going to see it everywhere. We're
seeing it everywhere. And when you see sin, when a society says
a certain sin is lawful, and you start seeing it everywhere,
it just becomes commonplace to you, and it doesn't seem quite
as sinful anymore. It's a weird thing to me to see
this. By the time y'all get old enough
and start having children, it won't be weird to them at all.
If this place is still around by then. But just because men
say something is lawful does not mean it is so with God. Don't forget that. Don't ever
forget that. You notice here in our text in
verse 50, God said, they were haughty and committed abomination
before me. He said, I beheld it. They did
this before me. So, this is what he said. He
said, therefore I took them away as I saw good. God rained down
judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed it in one night.
Destroyed those cities in one night. And He's going to do that
again, but this time He's going to do it with the whole world.
Because what He showed us with Sodom and Gomorrah is just a
little example of this sin problem that's over this whole world.
We're not just talking about America here. This problem is
all over the world. It's been this way since the
garden and it's progressively gotten worse. God's going to
do it again with the whole world. Now look, but first he's going
to deliver all his elect out and none is going to be lost.
Look at 1 Corinthians 6, just a moment. 1 Corinthians 6. Every one of God's elect have
been washed in the blood of Christ at Calvary and each shall be
washed in regeneration and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. They've been
washed at Calvary, they're going to be washed and sanctified by
the Holy Spirit in time. This is the scripture that was
paraphrased in that article that said sodomy is sin. Verse 9,
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God? The word here means those who deal unjustly towards others.
Paul, the Corinthians, they acted like they had a profession of
faith in doctrine, they believed doctrine, and they came and worshipped
the Lord. I'm talking about true doctrine,
but it didn't go any further. They were acting like they had
no new character, no new nature, and like their conduct was just,
had all kind of trouble going on. They were taken, immediately
right here, they were taken one another to law before unbelievers.
And Paul started out there, he said, don't you know believers
are going to judge the world? That's going to be something,
isn't it? All these folks that all their lives said, don't judge
me, how dare you judge me? One day, the believers are going
to judge the world. If you'll read there in the first
part of chapter 6, we're going to judge angels. That's right. But he said, here
you are made righteous by Christ, and you're going to judge angels
and judge men one day. And he says, and yet you can't
judge between yourselves, between brother and brother, and instead
of taking the fault, and instead of committing it to him that
judges righteously, you're going before unbelieving judges, before
unbelievers, before folks who are not heirs with you in the
kingdom of God, and you're taking a fellow brother to court over
this thing. And so he says here, know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Those that deal unjustly
won't go into God's presence. Be not deceived. Don't let anybody
tell you that character and conduct is irrelevant. Neither fornicators,
that's uncleanness out of marriage, nor idolaters, men who worship
their imagination. This is how I think it is. Well,
that's idolatry. That is, that's idolatry. Anything
put before God is idolatry. Nor adulterers, uncleanness with
another's spouse, nor effeminate. The word here is soft. It means
to be of no certain gender. Today they call this transgender. That's what the word is. Effeminate.
He says, they won't enter, verse 9, nor abusers of themselves
with mankind. This is sodomites. This is what
the world today is calling gay and lesbian and homosexuals.
This is God's word on it. This is what he quoted in that
article. This is what got him so mad.
Nor thieves, you know what that means, nor covetous, people with
hearts set on material gain, nor drunkards, that's alcohol
or drugs, prescription or otherwise, drunkenness is what is forbidden
here, not being drunk, Verse 10, nor revilers, those who run
down other men's characters, who speak reproachfully of other
men, openly, secretly, speaking behind one another's back, spreading
reports, you know, they get some scandalous thing and boy, they
can't wait to tell it to everybody, that's a reviler. Nor extortioners,
those who forcefully, unlawfully rob others. He said, don't be
deceived, none of these shall inherit the kingdom of God. But
look, I wish that article would have went further. I wish he
would have quoted this next verse. Look what he says in this next
verse. All these sins God has power to justify and sanctify
his elect from. Look at verse 11. And such were
some of you. Such were some of you, he said.
But you're washed. but you're sanctified, but you're
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
of our God. I know this by the Word of God. I know that there
is not one child of Adam born into this world who is not born
into this world dead in trespasses and sins. I know that. I keep
hearing Sodomites say, I was born this way. I was born this
way. All men are certainly born absolutely,
totally depraved. That is true. That is true. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. As by one man sin entered the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men,
and for that all men have sinned. But sinners willfully sin because
sin is what the natural born heart is. And that's not what
they want to hear. They're looking for an excuse,
but God don't give an excuse. Even though we're unable, we
don't have the ability to come to God, we don't have the ability,
we're still responsible. to do so. When God blesses that to your
heart and gives you an understanding and a living heart, that will
make you cast yourself in the mercy of God. It takes the blood of Christ
to wash all God's elect. He has to wash us. He has to
put our sins away. He has to justify us. And it
takes the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and remove us out of the darkness
of adultery, the darkness of homosexuality, the darkness of
drunkenness. Take us out of that into His
marvelous light and sanctify us from our flesh and to make
us partakers of the divine nature. It takes the Holy Spirit to do
that. And He shall. Christ our Head is powerful enough
to bring His Gospel, bless His Word, call out His sheep, and
He shall do so. He shall do so. When He does
that, our profession stops being in doctrine only. And it stops
being in just attending worship services only. And then going
home and living like hell six days out of the week. It really
becomes a devotion and a consecration to God. We're sinners still and
no doubt about that. And we hate our sin and we don't
like our sin. But we don't love it. That's
certainly so. We don't love it. We want to
serve Him. We want to serve Him perfectly.
We want to serve Him without sin. Christ our head has the
power to do this for each and every elect child. He does. He's going to find us. He's going
to wash us. He's going to sanctify us. He's going to turn us from
our sins to Him. Now, this is something else that
troubled me and I'm just about finished. This troubled me too.
How little the media said in our country. I didn't hear anything
about it. Maybe one word about it. But
how little they said about This being a violation of freedom
of speech, and more importantly, freedom of religion. They just
act like the Constitution didn't exist. That troubled me for about a
second. But then I remembered this. This is what Peter said
over 2 Peter 2.9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptation. He knows how. And He knows how
to reserve the unjust until the Day of Judgment to be punished.
There's a picture of it in what happened over there in Genesis.
When those sodomites were trying to get in that house, the angels,
they grabbed Lot, they pulled him in the house, and they blinded
those men. And it says so that they could
hardly find the door. God knows how to reserve the
unjust to the Day of Judgment. They just grope around and they
can't find the door. But He knows how to pull the
just into the house and keep them safe. And the scripture
says, the Lord being merciful unto Lot, and they brought him
forth and set him without the city. And it wasn't until that
was done, Christ destroyed the city. They destroyed the city.
And when Christ has brought each one into his fold and saved us
out of sin and death, he's going to destroy this world like he
did Sodom and Gomorrah. If we could look into history,
look at 2 Peter 2 and verse 6. If you could look into history,
in the past, this is what history is for. If you could look back
at history and know for sure you have an example of something,
so that you can know for certain what your future is going to
be, then wouldn't you look at that history and say, ah, this
is what's going to happen. This is what's going to happen.
Well, everything I've been telling you tonight about Sodom, is the
example God's given us in history. Now look at what he says, 2 Peter
2, verse 6. God turning the cities of Solomon and Gomorrah into
ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example
unto those that after should live ungodly. You want to see
what's going to happen? Look at Solomon and Gomorrah. How's it going to end? Extreme
global warming. That's how it's going to end.
By God's hand. Now, this is what He said. Look at Isaiah 1. I'm going to
just read this. Isaiah 1. This is what He said.
Now, have you heard what I've been trying to say to you tonight?
I hope God makes you hear this. Now look, this is what He said
when He spoke over there. and called Judah and Jerusalem
Solomon and Gabor. This is what He said to them.
Look, verse 18. Come now. Come now. I tell you what, let's start
reading that in verse 16. Wash you, make you clean. That
doesn't mean you're going to be able to do what only Christ
can do, but it means this. Put away the evil of your doings
from before mine eyes and stop doing evil. It means repent is
what it means. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge
the fatherless. Plead for the widow. Come now. Listen to this. Come now and
let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be
red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you be willing
and obedient. He's going to have to give you
that. One day you'll say, I want to come. I'm willing, I want
to come to Him. You'll find out He made you willing.
If you're willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the
land. Christ Jesus, the true bread from heaven. But if you
refuse and rebel, stiffen up your neck, say, I'm not going
to listen. You shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth
of the Lord has spoken it. The mouth of the Lord has spoken
it. I wish, I can't do this, but I just wish I wish I could make sinners realize
these are not my words. They're God's words. What I'm
reading is God's words. And this is something that everybody
that hears the gospel, it's going to be worse for them because
they heard the gospel and wouldn't heed it. And one day God's going
to bring it up. He's going to bring it up again
and say, here's what you heard. Here's what you heard. And you
sat there and you listened that whole time and you were too ignorant
and too rebellious and too stiff necked to even listen. And then
throw him into hell justly and all of heaven's going to rejoice
when he does it. Because we'll know true righteousness. We'll know what it is for God
truly to be holy and righteous and will be holy and righteous.
And we'll rejoice in His holiness and righteousness. Oh, I wish
He'd make you see that now before it's too late. I pray He does. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren. Father, how we do depend entirely
upon Your Word. How we do depend entirely for
You to speak in power to our own hearts, to the hearts of
Your lost sheep. Lord, we need You to keep us.
We need You to strengthen us. We need You to give us boldness.
We are in Sodom. Lord, thankfully, You're the
King of Sodom. just like you're the king of heavenly Jerusalem.
And we need you to rule everything. We need you to protect us. We
need you to keep your gospel in our hearts and to keep us
at the feet of Christ. Lord, we pray that you'll be
willing to call out your sheep to bring us safely, safely into
your presence. We trust you will according to
your word for your glory, for your honor, Lord, how we look
forward to praising you in that day for the great, marvelous
things you've done. Father, forgive us our sins.
We ask it in Christ's name. And Lord, we ask you, be with
those who are persecuted for the gospel's sake. Be with those
who... Be with those who are persecuting. Take one of those Saul of Tarsus'
and make him into a Paul. Lord, we ask you just to show
your glory and your honor. In Christ's name, amen.