Lillja Road Baptist Church
Houston, Texas 77060-5509
Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:26-27
It will be a happy enlightenment when the Spirit enables one to see that the last four books of Moses (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) contain an exegetical commentary on the moral law of God. These writings contain an expansion of the Ten Commandments by showing the various ways each may be transgressed. Nowhere is this more evident than in Leviticus 18, showing how very broad is the seventh commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery". Such sins are mentioned and condemned as: incest, bestiality, adultery and sodomy. The eighteenth chapter of Leviticus is an awful testimony to the depravity of human nature, especially in the realm of sexuality!
One such sin mentioned and forbidden is that abominable practice of homosexuality, "Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with woman kind; it is an abomination". The expression, "to lie with", is used in scripture to describe illicit sexual unions. (See I Sam. 2:22; Gen 19:33-35). So is the term "to go into" (Gen.38:9; Gen. 16:4). Thus, to "lie with mankind as with womankind", is for two males to commit sex acts, one being "used" as one would use a woman. One man lying sexually with another man as one would with a woman, this the apostle Paul calls "unnatural" in Rom. 1:26-27.
The legal marriage union is modestly described in scripture as "to know", and "knew" (Gen.4:2; 4:25; Luke 1:35). This marriage bed is honorable in all and undefiled (Heb.13:4). Marriage in the biblical sense is a man and woman becoming one flesh by the conjugal union (Gen.2:24; Matt.19:5; Eph.5:31). On the other hand homosexuality is a going after strange flesh (Jude vs.7). Only a man and a woman can become one flesh by the sexual union. Two of the same gender (homosexuals) is strange flesh, for it is other than God ordained in the beginning. "Male and female made He them" (Gen.1:27).
THE ORIGINAL ORDER OF THE SEXES AS ORDAINED BY GOD
To fully comprehend the perversion involved in the practice of homosexuality, we have but to consider God's creation in the beginning. God made Adam and Eve, a man and a woman (one of each). As some have said, "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Frank; or Eve and Heather." One man and one woman to be his wife to live as husband and wife and to procreate the race. To them God gave the command to multiply and replenish the earth (Gen. 1:28). "Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bare . . ." (Gen. 4:1). This was to be done by the heterosexual union. The ONLY proper relation and sexual union is the heterosexual, i.e. one man and one woman becoming one flesh.
HOMOSEXUALITY IS IN EVERY CASE A VIOLATION OF DIVINE ORDER
Many today are declaring homosexuality to be a legitimate and normal "alternate" lifestyle. Apostate "reverends" are embracing this perverse conduct. The liberal cesspool that is Hollywood is seeking to force sodomy into general acceptance. The public school system, in the chokehold of liberal and humanistic social engineers, is pushing little children to believe that "gay is good". States are passing special "hate crime" laws. We are told that the new national disease is "homophobia". The media, for the most part, favors all homosexual causes.
The Scriptures are clear; homosexuality is a perversion of the divine order in every case and instance. It is abomination (Lev, 18:22; 20:13) i.e. a thing God detests. It is unnatural; therefore, it is a perversion. In fact, in Romans chapter one, the apostle Paul calls homosexuality by such unflattering terms as: "vile affections", "against nature", "unseemly", "their error".
Homosexuality is never a legitimate behavior according to the word of God. No Christian should approve of such a thing. It is always a vile thing in God's sight! The church must stand upon the word of God against the acceptance of such a thing. In no wise is "gay good". Let the Christian believe that sodomy was the sin for which God rained fire and brimstone down on the city of Sodom (Gen.19) and was punishable by death under the old economy (Lev.20:13)
THE SOCIETY THAT TOLERATES AND APPROVES THIS SIN PUTS ITSELF UNDER THE JUDGMENT OF GOD
The society that looks with favor or approval upon homosexuality will rot away into complete moral degradation. This is one of the sins that God said would defile the land (Lev.18:27-30). God will not bless the nation that sanctions the sin of sodomy! Sodom and Gomorrah ever stand as a testimony to the fact that God detests the sin of homosexuality. "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly" (II Peter 2:6). "Are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude vs. 7). Though God will not rain fire and brimstone upon our land, yet the social and moral fabric will corrupt and society will rot away into moral decadence. God is not mocked and will in some way judge the society that grants acceptance to homosexuality.
THE APOSTLE PAUL'S CONDEMNATION OF HOMOSEXUALITY IN ROMANS CHAPTER ONE
Let us focus our attention upon the text in Romans 1:26-27, it being among the strongest texts in the condemnation of the way called homosexuality. The apostle Paul is discussing the birth of paganism as apostasy from God's revelation. God revealed his eternal power and godhead in creation, which men perverted and suppressed in unrighteousness. As a result of their perversion of the truth of God, they fell into degrading sins and God gave them over to uncleanness. As God abandoned them to their own wicked lusts, they fell into the most vile and unnatural sins, even the sin of homosexual perversion.
We can read at least three statements declaring that God abandoned them to their own evil hearts. "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves" (vs.24). "For this cause God gave them up to vile affections" (vs.26). ". . . God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient" (vs.28). As a consequence of God giving them over to the power of their lusts and the wickedness of their own depraved hearts, they fell into "all unrighteousness" (vs.29), even into the most degrading and defiling, homosexuality. Then, they forsook what the apostle Paul calls "the natural use" and both men and women espoused and practiced the lesbian and homosexual vices. "Even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature" i.e. they became lesbians and sexually cohabited with other women.
Leaving the natural they perverted themselves into the unnatural. This did "even the women". Their females left the natural use, which is heterosexual, and turned toward their lusts which were lesbian. The apostle Paul speaks even more harshly of the men. "Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly . . ." Note the perversion, "men with men". This the law forbade. "Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind, it is abomination" (Lev. 18:22). When fallen sinners are ruled by their lusts and vile affections, when God lays the reins upon the neck, they will rush headlong into the most degrading way of life that leads to final destruction.
It ought to be noted that the apostle Paul here uses words to describe the two genders that are a further condemnation of their acts. He calls the women "females" and the men "males", using the same terms as would apply to beasts and ignorant creatures. It is, "for even their females did change the natural use . . . likewise also the males, leaving the natural use of the female . . ." The word the apostle Paul uses here, translated "women" is used only twice in the whole of the new testament, and both times are right here in Romans 1:26-27. It simply means the female of the species and comes from the word which means to give suck, or supple.
In describing the conduct of male homosexuals, the Apostle Paul charges them with "leaving the natural use of the female". The tense is, "having left". They had already done so. Under the power of their vile affections and sordid lusts, they had already abandoned the natural order. They were driven to such behavior by the power of their insatiable lusts which burn out of control like the fires of hell. They burned with lust one toward another of the same gender. Men craving men! Having left the natural use of the woman they are ignited with a lust too powerful to resist which craves other males. Their lusts flow from the gehenna that constantly burns as a perpetual fire in their hearts.
Let us make a point of comparison regarding the Apostle Paul's use of the words, "the natural use". The "natural" use of the woman is of course the heterosexual, i.e. man and woman in sexual union as ordained by God. This is to be consummated in a lawful union of marriage. Since homosexual unions are unnatural, the lusts for homosexual relations are also unnatural. Thus, there is a natural lust and an unnatural lust. Natural lust is described by the apostle Paul in I Cor.7:1-9 as a man desiring a woman. Granted, this is a sinful lust according to Christ's teaching in Matt.5:27-28. The point is, it is "natural" lust in that it is not a desire for that which is perverse. Heterosexual unions (husband and wife) are ordained by God, while homosexual unions (two of the same gender) are forbidden because they violate the original ordination of God. Perhaps this is the proper place to make another point against homosexuality. In the beginning God made them male and female (Gen.1:27). To put it as modestly as possible, the anatomical design of the bodies of men and women supports the heterosexual union in conjugal relations.
The Apostle Paul calls the homosexual union "vile affections". "Affections" would be better rendered by the word "passions". Vile passions! Passions that are evil, dishonorable and degrading. Such as are not found even among the ignorant beasts. Homosexual acts are "unseemly," i.e. shameful and disgraceful. It is a shame to speak of such things, much less to practice them!
THE APOSTLE PAUL TRACES HOMOSEXUALITY TO IT'S BIRTH IN PAGANISM
How often are these two sorts of sin found together! Homosexuality practiced in idolatry fills the cup of human depravity. Ignorance of God leads to a variety of heinous sins, none of them greater than the perversion found in homosexuality. It was a common sin among the Greeks and the Romans, people that knew not God. To engage in idolatry is to exchange the truth of God for a lie, and to engage in sodomy is to exchange the natural for the unnatural. Both are drastic perversions of God's order. In Romans chapter one the apostle Paul presents idolatry and homosexuality as the ultimate degradation and consummate defilement of human nature and behavior. It is therefore abominable that some today are seeking to "Christianize" this perverted life style as legitimate Christian behavior. Pity the pathetic and apostate "reverends" that support homosexuality in the name of God! Practicing homosexuals are lost (I Cor. 6:9-10) just as are practicing atheists or idolaters.
HOMOSEXUALITY BRINGS JUDGMENT UPON THOSE WHO PRACTICE IT
The apostle Paul says in Romans 1:27b, "and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet", or which was fitting or proper to their sin. God is able to make the judgment fit the crime, often making sin the punishment for sin. Homosexuals pay a very heavy price (in this life) for their sin. God gives them over to the power of their lusts. He gives them besotted minds unable to discern the truth (Rom.1:28). Statistics show that homosexuals forfeit as much as thirty years of life expectancy by their "alternate life style". There are very few OLD homosexuals. Their numbers are ravaged by such diseases as AIDS. While they do live there is the guilt, the shame, the loneliness and alienation from their families. These are the judgment of God upon them. The fire and brimstone upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are called an example to such as live ungodly. On the average homosexuals die much sooner than do their straight counterparts.
THE POLITICS OF HOMOSEXUALITY
Homosexuals, with the complicity of the biased liberal media, the moral debauchees in Hollywood, and bleeding heart liberals, and spineless politically correct politicians, have been very successful in politicizing both the homosexual lifestyle and the disease of AIDS. First they adopted a harmless sounding name as a covering for the true nature of their behavior. Homosexuals have become "gays". This is a deliberate ploy on their part to remove the stigmas associated with "pervert". As a result of this politicization of homosexuality we now have special "hate crime legislation" that imposes harsher penalties for any act of violence against one based on their "sexual orientation".
This very article would be considered "hate speech" by the politically correct crowd. Does this mean they also consider the Holy Scriptures to be filled with "hate speech" since they condemn homosexuality? They seek to bully their critics into silence by accusing them of being "homophobic" (the new national disease that requires "sensitivity training"). Well, I slap your homophobia on the snout. By the way, why are not male homosexuals called "femiphobic since they do not love women in a sexual way?
THE SHAMELESS PERVERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES BY HOMOSEXUALS
Every false movement seems to have a religious wing. There are some homosexuals who are "religious", attending where "gay is celebrated". They pretend to find homosexuality in scripture in such examples as Jonathan and David because it is said that their souls were knit together in love (I Sam. 18:1). Again they are so brazen as to suggest the same of Jesus and the apostle John because Christ loved John and the apostle leaned on the breast of the Holy one of God. They have charged that the apostle Paul was either a homosexual, or homophobic, since he talked a lot about homosexuality.
Such homosexual organizations as N.A.M.B.L.A. (North American Man Boy Love Assoc.) have advocated the abolishment of all laws restricting sex with children. And don't forget how many serial killers are homosexuals. They are a horrible blight upon any society.
We Christians are bound to take the side of scripture in such matters as homosexuality. Let God be true and every man a liar.