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Sodomy

Sunday, September 09, 2007 Posted by naomi

All scriptures from the King James Bible What does the Bible, the written word of God, have to say about sodomy, known today as homosexuality? Homosexuals: are listed as people that God “gave over to a reprobate mind� (Romans 1: 28) This type of lifestyle, based on unnatural sexual acts between same sex couples is now accepted by society, and those of us that believe in God’s word and stand against such activities are perceived as the unnatural ones. Laws have been put in place to prevent the people of God speaking out and preaching against this way of life that the Holy God of the universe hates. We read in Genesis 19: 1-29 that God sent two angels to take Lot and his family away before God rained down fire and brimstone from heaven on the lands of Sodom and Gomorrah: “before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: 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.� (Verses 4 and 5). The lasciviousness and depravity of the Sodomite men, the reason that God sought to destroy the land, was exemplified by the fact that when Lot went out to plead with them not to do such a wicked act and offered his virgin daughters their response was: “And they said, Stand back. And they said again, 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.� (Verse 9) These men did not want Lot’s virgin daughters, they wanted to know the men, but God’s protection was with them. The angels pulled Lot into the house, shut the door and smote the men with blindness (Genesis 19: 11). In 2 Peter 2: 8-9 the word of God says that Lot, “the righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their un-lawful deeds; The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished.� So we see that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and their inhabitants but delivered the righteous, as he promised Abraham in Genesis 18: 16-33. Likewise, God will deliver those of us who believe the written word of the great I AM, and whose souls are vexed from day to day and those committing acts of sodomy will be destroyed as those in Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible tells us that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God does not change. Malachi 3: 6, Hebrews 13: 8, Leviticus 20: 13, 15, Romans 1: 21-32, 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10, Jude 14-25. Let’s start at the beginning and read what God’s word says about his reasons for creating Man in Genesis, which means ‘the beginning of all things’. Genesis 1 tells us that after the Great God created the firmament in the midst of waters, he divided the waters from the waters, he called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the water he called Sea, God saw that it was good. God then said, let the earth bring forth grass, and herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself, after his kind. In verse 20-21 we read, “… God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. ..God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind� God did the same with the cattle, creeping things, beasts of the earth after his kind (verses 24-25). We notice the words ‘after his kind’ are used repeatedly, and the male carries the seed. “And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.� (Verse 22) Can two males or two females be fruitful and multiply? The question was asked ‘What came first’ the chicken or the egg?’ Now let us go on to mankind. In Genesis 1:26-27, The Holy Bible, the written word of the Holy, High and Mighty one of Israel, the Alpha and Omega, The beginning and the ending: the first and the last, the Omnipotent, The Amen and Amen (Revelation 1:8 , 17, 18,) tells us that “God said Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Note: when the Lord says US he is referring to himself and his son, Elohim (John 1: 1-4, 18, 1 Corinthians 8: 6, John 17: 5, Ephesians 3: 9, Colossians 1: 16, Hebrews 1: 2) Genesis 2: 21-23 goes further to explain that male and female came out of the Man as we see that God takes the female out of the man. This is akin to what we witness in plant life; seeds are in the male plants. Verse 28 of Genesis 1 tells us that God told man to ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.’ I’ll ask the question again, can two males or two females multiply? Can they be fruitful or replenish the earth through their sexual behaviour? *According to the Bible, God will destroy them as he did Sodom and Gomorrah 2 Peter 2: 6 “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly;� Going back to the beginning, in Genesis 2: 8; 15-17 we read that God planted a garden and gave the man whom he had formed, the command to dress and keep the garden and to eat freely of every tree of the garden. But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil God said he should not eat of it, saying that “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. In verse 18 we go on to read that God said it was not good that the man was alone. The Holy God said ‘I will make a help meet for him’. In verses 19-20 we see that after God brought every living creature that he had formed unto Adam, and Adam named all cattle and all fowl of the air and every beast of the field, a help meet for Adam was not found. What did God do? Verses 21-24 show us that, God put Adam into a deep sleep and took one of his ribs, closed up his flesh, and from Adam’s rib he made a woman. We see that the rib that God took from the man is synonymous with the seeds that every tree and living creature has within them, Genesis 1: 11, 21, 24. God made a woman, not another man but a woman, he brought her to Adam and Adam proclaimed that she was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh and called her Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Adam also said, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. The Holy God of heaven ordained marriage between a man and a woman only, Genesis 2: 18-25, Matthew 19: 3-6, Mark 10: 6-8, Hebrew 13: 4, and after this ordinance God blessed them that they should multiply and have children. In Psalms 127: 3 we see that “children are the heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.� Males cannot bear children; neither can women bring forth seed. The word of God continues to say “Happy is the man that hath his quiver full� of children, verse 5. Psalms 128: 1, 3-4 – “Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways…..Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD�. Ecclesiastes 12: 13 reads “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man�. God’s words tell us that Sodomy is a sin, an abomination; Leveticus 20: 13 reads “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.� Likewise lying with a beast (verse 15), and incest (verses 16-17). The word of God tells us that those committing these acts are doing “a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people� (verses 17 and 18). Are we to expect that these too will become lawful acts? Since homosexuality and civil partnerships are now legal, it would appear that the authorities believe that they are greater than the Holy High God of heaven. But we see in Acts 4 when those in authority commanded Peter and John not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus, Peter and John’s response was “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard� (Acts 4: 18-20). We as believers must take Peter and John as our example, and not listen to men more than God. Acts 5: 29 gives us further instruction… “We ought to obey God rather than men�. As discussed above, God ordained marriage and from this union children are to be produced and are to be raised to honour their father and mother (Exodus 20: 12). This excerpt is from the Ten Commandments which were written by the finger of God, the great I Am (Exodus 31: 18, 32: 16-16, 34:1, 28, Deuteronomy 10:1-5. There are some homosexuals that want to adopt children because they are unable to multiply. If however, they were following the words of God they would not need to adopt, they would be marrying someone of the opposite sex and would be able to produce their own children. Having been made in the image of the Holy God (Genesis 1: 26-27) and Jesus the Son of God (John 1: 18, 49, Luke 1: 26-38, Romans 1: 3-4, Matthew 3: 16-17, Proverbs 30: 4) how can people say that they were born with homosexual tendencies? God cannot sin! In Acts 17: 24-31 the word of God tells us that God “made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth……. he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things …made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation….. For in him we live, and move, and have our being… For we are also his offspring� Psalms 139 continues in the same vein, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well�. (Verse 14) Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them (verse 16). God made us all the same, perfect, so we say the claim that homosexuality is a case of nature and not nurture is untrue. What would we see about those committing acts of paedophilia or bestiality? Are we also to believe that these are natural acts? If so, the laws would have to be changed to make all such abominable offences accepted behaviour in society. The word of God tells us in Romans 1: 16, that Paul was “not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.� This salvation that Paul refers to is deliverance from sin and as we have already discovered homosexuality is a sin, an abomination (Leveticus 20). Verses 17 and 18 go on to tell us that “therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.� Anyone that claims to be a Christian and is living a life of sin falls into this category of holding the truth in unrighteousness; this includes homosexual Christians’ a paradoxical term in itself. Paul continues to sum up the situation… “when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie� (verses 21-25a). The truth of God is that homosexuality is a sin, it is not acceptable behaviour in the sight of God and therefore God will not accept the praise and worship of one that professes to be of Christ ‘A Christian’ and tries to change his truth to suit their lifestyle. In verses 26 and 27, Paul goes further to exemplify that this behaviour is not acceptable to God, “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: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.� This needs little explanation, men turning from heterosexuality to homosexuality is unseemly. It could be argued that the recompense of their error is AIDS. It is not necessary to query God’s stance if we continue to read verses 28 to 32. “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; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 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 the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.� Those guilty of unrighteousness are worthy of death. All sin is unrighteousness. 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10 reads, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.� All unrighteous people will have their part in the lake of fire and brimstone, which is the second death (Revelation 21: 8). Jude verses 6 and 7 tells us that “the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.� Governments can make laws to suit popular opinion, but the great God, the Creator of all, that counts “All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity�. (Isaiah 40:17) he is coming back to this earth to take vengeance on them that know not God and that do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1: 7-10). Jesus himself explained that his coming will take man unawares as they will be busy going about their own affairs and not God’s. “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be� Matthew 24: 37-39 (see also Luke 17: 26-30) The scriptures foretold the situation that we would be in today: “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17: 26-30) The authorities of this world will continue to make their own laws which go against God’s moral principles that he gave to mankind to live by. But we must remember that he is coming back to clean up his world with fire. The element shall melt with fervent heat, but God’s people, the righteous; look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. No unrighteous person will be there. The book of Revelation 22 verse 11, says “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still�. Verses 12-14 go on to tell us that he will come quickly to give every man his reward, according to his works. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Only those that keep his commandments will enter into the city. Homosexuality is against God’s holy commandment, it is a sin. God did not make man to have sex with those of the same sex. The destruction of Sodom stands out as a warning to the present world that God will do the same thing to this world as it follows in their example. See Jude 7, 14, 15; 2 Peter 2: 6-9. The Thomson reference Bible tells us that archaeologists have tried to find ruins of Sodom, but have found nothing. They have however, found Jebel Usdum (Mount Sodom), a mountain of crystalline salt, 5 miles long and 300 feet high, along the south western shore of the Dead Sea, so named from the belief that Sodom stood near it. See Genesis 19: 1-26. Recently there has been a search for these cities in a diving expedition, but so far they have had no success as they can not be certain that any ruins found are from the cities that “the Lord rained brimstone and fire from out of heaven� Genesis 19: 24. Of the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah, Dr. George Adam Smith says “Here was laid the scene of the most terrible judgement on human sin. The glare of Sodom and Gomorrah is flung down the whole length of scriptural history. It is the popular and standard judgement of sin. The story is told in Genesis, it is applied in Deuteronomy, by Amos, by Isaiah, by Jeremiah, by Ezekiel, by Zephaniah and in Lamentations. Our Lord employs it more than once as the figure of the judgement. He threatens upon cities where the word is preached in vain, and we feel flames scorch our own cheeks (Matthew 10: 15; 11: 24; Luke 10: 12; 17:29). Paul, Peter and Jude make mention of it. In Revelation the city of sin is scripturally called Sodom. Though the glare of this catastrophe burns, still the ruins it left have disappeared.� As I close this study on homosexuality, I hope that those who read this lesson will understand why this lifestyle is sinful and hated by God and will be led to turn away from this sin. Amen Note: Written by Pastor L A Pinnock Note: Written by Pastor L A Pinnock