I am lead to speak about unrighteousness and returning to the Lord from wicked unrighteous behavior. Isaiah 55: 7 says “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
I wish to make exception to those who are gay, or those who have family member who are gay. This message is not meant to be a hate message but instead a message of love from God. The principle point in this message is that God loves you, no matter who your are, or unrighteous act you have committed. God loves you as a sinner but God does not, can not tolerate the unrighteous sin you are committing. As the message from Isaiah says, “forsake your wicked way and the Lord will have mercy upon you.”
I have a friend that preached a similar sermon to his church in North Dakota. After he finished a group of congregants came to him and asked him to leave the church for they could not tolerate such hateful messages. Well, I have my bags packed and the car is ready to go if you find similar feelings after I am done. And that will be okay because I could not preach where the truth of God is squashed for a more popular social status. Thankfully we do not quench the Holy Spirit of God.
If you are an openly Gay person, know this, I love you, God loves you, but neither God nor I will love the sin you do. So please hear this message in the context of love. I have been asked were do I get such a staunch view of homosexuality, or drinking, or doing evil. I get it from the Bible. There are several scriptures on the matter but I will quote Leviticus 18:22 as a base scripture against the practice of homosexuality.
“If a man lies with a man as one lies with woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”
We hear the word pride a lot these days. But what is interesting is that “pride” is used many times in Scripture, but in almost all these instances, it is condemned because it relates to the sin nature of man. This past month was Pride month for LGBTQ people. I struggled with that concept.
Jesus said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts,”
Notice what “evil thoughts” Jesus is speaking to:
“out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.”
Jesus list “pride” right along with murder, adultery, sexual immorality. Let’s conclude this verse.
“All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Mark 7:20-23.
What did Jesus call these things? He called them “evil.” I am sorry if you do not believe it but if you partake of any of these things, you are partaking of evil things. How can you take pride in that?
In Proverbs, we read, “Pride goes before destruction.” Proverbs 16:18. Barbara read that in he Church School program last week. She is right, pride does go before destruction just as the Bible says. Let’s look at the Proverbs text more completely:
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
It is interesting that what the world calls the “pride” movement is really man celebrating sin. As such sin will “bring him low” and “defile” the person. God also warns about this in 1 Corinthians as well.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”