How Did We Get Here (Pride Month) - Pastor Daniel Batarseh

And we're gonna pray one more time before we explore this subject because we need God's help this morning, as we do every morning. Bow your heads with me, please. Father, we thank you that your word is truth. And you commanded that no man shall ever add to your word or take away, lest there be severe consequences. Lord, we take you at your word.

Despite the culture's opinions, despite our own beliefs, Lord, we submit to the authority of the scriptures. We ask, Lord, that in this moment, you would assist us by opening our hearts and our minds. And that, Lord, the ministry of the word would be delivered in the power of your spirit. We pray, Lord, that every truth that will be delivered will be delivered with faithfulness, but also laced with love. We ask Lord that we would feel revived by the wisdom, the knowledge, the power, the grace, the mercy that is found in you.

And Lord, we just pray that Satan's ambitions this morning would not even prevail for a moment. Lord, we trust that your word will not return void. We lean upon you with complete reliance and trust that you will speak now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen.

As we are all aware, a particular community in our general population has unanimously recognized the month of June to be the month of the year that celebrates something known as pride. And not pride in the general sense, but an unashamed boast that is connected to a specific way of life. And that way of life is the ever growing range of general or rather gender identity and sexual practices that demands to be accepted and praised by all. This month is not so much about rights being given to specific people, but more about desensitizing and normalizing different sexual preferences, until the culture upholds what people believe to be on the same standard as traditional marriage, and even biologically logical and rational sexuality. This is a campaign.

This is a mission that is becoming more and more aggressive, clear, and loud. I just recently, I stumbled upon a couple of videos that were cartoon shows, and maybe you've seen this yourself. One of them was Blue's Clues. Did you grow up with Blue's Clues? Another one being Nickelodeon, a cartoon channel for children.

And to my shock, I realized that what was being portrayed on these specific episodes was pure propaganda. Shows that you would want your children to learn about numbers and colors and shapes are now teaching about the different flags that represent different sexual preferences. They are demonstrating drag queens that are taking certain jingles to make them more catchy and memorable, and are trying to indoctrinate children about how families can have two dads or two moms or or everything in between. There is an agenda that is far beyond just achieving basic human rights. There is a desire to try to get the world to believe that this is something that should be normal.

And it should be our conviction this morning that if America's politics, sporting brands, schools, businesses, social media platforms, and children's cartoon shows are willing to take a time of the year, a whole month to unashamedly declare a warped message of sexuality, then the church must not hide her light underneath a basket. The Bible tells us that in the end days, it would be like the days of Noah and Lot. That's very amazing because there are specific descriptions that describe the days of Noah and Lot. There are distinctives. And I would like to say that as much as it's important to understand those distinctives, it's important to understand the role of Noah and Lot during those days.

Noah was a herald of righteousness. He preached truth in light of the coming judgment. And Lot, we are told, was tormented in his soul because of the sexual and essential conduct of his neighbors. And Jesus said, before he comes, it will be like the days of Noah and Lot. Not just to tell us what will happen in society, but I believe to tell us how we should respond to it.

Where are the heralds of righteousness? Where are the people that are disturbed in their souls about what they are seeing? Because I believe many professing Christians are also becoming desensitized because of the ongoing bombardment of what we are surrounded by continually. And here's how we are going to tackle this subject this morning. We're gonna answer a question.

Ready? How did we get here? How did we arrive at this moment? How did our culture plunge into such moral chaos and confusion? If you are expecting this morning to receive biblical answers to the common objections to traditional biblical marriage and sexuality, that's another sermon that you can find on our YouTube page.

Today, we're just going to answer the simple question, how? How are we here? And we're going to see from an angle that will provide the spiritual commentary and implications of our current moral crisis, especially in the West. And the Holy Spirit uses the Apostle Paul to describe and define and lay out for us the steps that lead a culture, that lead a generation, that lead a nation to embrace such beliefs and practices. But not only that, he goes beyond how a nation is lured into such a way of life, but also describes the spiraling consequences that follow it.

And so I would encourage you, you're gonna have to hold on to your bibles and bear with me for the first few moments because you're gonna see the connection near the end. But as you and I read what we're about to read, and hear what's going to be presented today, it will be very difficult to debate how we are not living under what we are about to study. Romans chapter one, beginning in verse 18. The Holy Spirit says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping creeping things. I want us to understand the basis of our observation today on three principles. Man's revelation of God, number one.

Man's rejection of God, number two. Finally, man's replacement of God, Number three. We see here in verse nineteen and twenty that God has chosen to reveal himself in a particular way. From generation to generation, humanity has been exposed to the testimony of the reality of God. The existence of God according to the apostle Paul is not up for debate.

In fact, he says it is plain to all. No man can ever point a finger to heaven and accuse God of hiding himself. In fact, all are held accountable to why they did not seek him when the evidence was so obvious. And the way in which we are exposed to God is in two fashions. First, we are told through his eternal power.

That's what Paul says. The omnipotence of the almighty by bringing all things that we see, breathe, hear, taste, and touch, coming to life, bears witness to him. The vast beauty and the great complexities of our universe and our known world begs us to credit a divine being as the originator and the designer of everything. Our universe is identified and organized by systems. Are they not?

Everything from a solar system down to your digestive system. And those systems, which are a set of things that function according to a interconnected network of mechanisms, emotions, point us to a divine mind. Point us to a transcendent being to be acknowledged. The sustaining of our universe alone. The fact that you and I live on a planet where everything is is held by surgical precision, testifies that every single day we are being sustained by a merciful miracle worker.

And that's why his eternal power is known, which helps us to understand that creation also testifies what Paul says here, and that is his divine nature. Not just his eternal power, but something about his character. We don't just realize that there is some powerful being that brought all this to existence. No. We also understand something of the goodness of God.

Something about his attributes and his heart toward us. Paul used that truth when he preached to the Gentiles. If you study Acts carefully, you realize that when Paul preached to the Jews, he often used the Old Testament. But when Paul preached to the Gentiles, those who didn't have the scriptures, he pointed to creation very often. And at one point in Acts chapter 14, he preached to a bunch of pagan worshipers and listened to what he said in Acts 14 here down in verse 17.

Yet he, being God, did not leave himself without witness. Same thing. God did not leave himself without witness ever since the beginning. For he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seas and satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. He did good.

God has been doing good because he is good. He's been actively providing for us to know means of survival. Not just survival, but actual pleasure and satisfaction. I wonder if we believe that. You know, God could have created a world with the theme of torture.

He could have played a sick game with some sadistic mind, like some of our video games promote, where you kind of see humans trying to survive under your tyrannical tricks and your twisted plots. We say he could have, but he couldn't have. Why? Because he is holy, and he is wonderful. And everything that we see and experience here is an expression of who he is.

He does good. He allows our animals to reproduce and be healthy and multiply. He allows our crops to grow so that we can feed our families. He gives the joys of drinking clean water so that we wouldn't die of thirst. And if anyone senses an objection in their hearts because they see the tragedies in different parts of the world and they see sickness and disease and famine, realize that that is not the world that God created, that is the world we created.

That the human race, because of the rebellion against God, fractured the Garden of Eden and introduced a spiraling disgrace in a broken universe, which God still chooses to intervene in to manifest his goodness instead of leaving us completely to ourselves. But is that it? Is creation's only purpose to give us the undeniable evidence that there is a powerful being who is compassionate towards his creatures. No. Creation goes beyond that.

Creation, in fact, is an invitation through general revelation. Right? We call it general revelation. God has given this to all mankind, and it's general, but it pulls us to say, I wanna know him specifically. I wanna know who this god is.

I want to encounter this God. I want to meet with this God. And that's why God provided something called special revelation, and that's where we're preaching from this morning. Paul says it in another sermon to a different group of idol worshipers in Acts 17, and he says it so wonderfully when he speaks about creation. He says that when God created the world and he created humans and he placed them in different parts of the world, what did he do it for?

Not just so that he can provide them food and drink and wonderful families. Look here in Acts 17 verse 27, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. So creation itself has an evangelistic purpose. The fact that you are born with a certain family, with a background and a culture, and whatever nation you came from, God's ultimate purpose in bringing you into this world is so that you would know the creator of this world.

And not just have some general understanding of him, but say, I want to know the one who made me and who sustains me and who loves me. Natural revelation should cause us to seek for special revelation, and God has provided the specifics of who he is through his word. And ultimately, that leads to the salvation of Jesus Christ. God does not just give me my meals every day. God has purchased my salvation.

He shed his blood for my soul. He wants to bring me beyond this world into his world, into his presence forever and ever and ever. So we see that there is a revelation of God. But unfortunately, instead of the majority seeking after him, pursuing him like Cornelius did, being a man who feared God though we didn't know Jesus Christ, God honored that man who sought him and sent an angel to reassure him that I'm gonna send my messenger to preach the gospel to you. That's how I personally believe about those You know, there's a great debate.

What about those who never heard about Jesus or heard the gospel or been into a church or have received the bible? I always turn to Cornelius. When this man who had general revelation wanted special revelation, God provided and he sent a missionary. And I believe God will do the same in 2021. But unfortunately, there are not many Cornelius's in our generation, and that's why we come to the next point.

Yes, man has revelation of God, but man also rejects God with the revelation that they've been given. We are told here in verse 21, for although they knew God, not in a personal salvific way, but in the general revelation that he's given. They understand that there is a being there. They understand that there is a powerful force, an almighty person that has made all things come about. That's how most, if not all, know God.

Although they knew God, what happens? They did not honor Him. They did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. That is a fascinating reality. Refusing to honor God means to reserve our exaltation and our adoration of who he is.

When you glorify God, when you honor God in part, it's your heart praising him and submitting to whatever commands he has issued concerning his glory and your good. But to hold that glory in this specific context, you know what it means? To not give God the credit for the creation that you and I live in. That's the flow of the thought. They did not honor him as God though through the visible, he has made things happen through his divine nature and eternal power.

He's not the mastermind. He's not the author. He's not the designer. He's not the great architect. No.

That is why today we are seeing a nation and a world embracing theories that strip God of glory concerning the origins of who we are. And if they don't wanna go there, you know where else they'll go? They'll hold to what? Being an agnostic where the author of everything is anonymous. As long as God doesn't get glory and His name is not recognized, This is what we're seeing.

Because to acknowledge God as the source is to give Him glory. And unfortunately, many in their sinful state are bold enough to live in God's world and not give him the right and the due for praise and worship, and say his fingerprint isn't on it. This Friday, this past Friday, we studied the Philistines of first Samuel chapter five and six. And it's amazing, when the Philistines mistreated the ark of the covenant, which was the presence of God on the earth, they came to a realization that they could not treat this god like the other gods that they worshiped. And so God began to judge the Philistines through plagues and mice and all these these horrific things.

And they came to a point where they realized this after several months, and they said to the Philistines, you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravaged the land and give glory to the God of Israel, first Samuel six five. Give God glory. What do they mean by that? We have to recognize the God of Israel as the one who is sovereign over these plagues, over all the discomfort, over the the turns of events that we are experiencing as a nation. We must recognize him.

That's what it means to give God glory. And that's what they did. God, you are sovereign over these mice that are chewing at our ankles right now. And you are sovereign over the health of our bodies. And you are sovereign over the famines and the rain.

The Philistines understood what it means to give God glory. But today, man does not want to do that, and that leads to a lack of gratitude. They did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. The unbeliever does not feel thanksgiving in his heart, nor does he know what it tastes like on his lips. Even though he continually drinks from the mercies of God that stream from his heart, he can eat 10,000 meals and not pause for one moment to pray and bless the name who graced him with another portion.

He can witness the miraculous birth of a child and not, for one second, look up to heaven with awe and wonder. He can survive sicknesses and surgeries and not even think that God was the one who gave humans the mind and the capacity to solve situations through medical intervention. He knows no such thing of thanksgiving. And that is a result of not glorifying God. But what's amazing here is that the rejection of the revelation of God does not just lead to a dishonoring in the absence of worship.

It just causes men to replace God with something else to praise. And that's the third point. Verse 22. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. When you reject God as being the source, as being the origin, as being the author, you are left to explain things in different ways.

You have to find a different narrative, a different belief. And for many, they are satisfied with philosophical persuasions or academic and scientific theories to solve the mystery of where we all came from. Some of you sat under that. Hey, guess what? Some of you might believe that.

Right? You're visiting here today. I don't know what you believe. Don't get distracted now. What we see here is that the thoughts the thoughts of believing something or someone else, bringing all things into existence, that alone is not blasphemous to God.

What's blasphemy to God is that they boast in their apparent discoveries, claiming to be wise. And often those who reject the idea of God being creator will at the same time criticize you, believer of a book written by men, believing in some fairy tale concept, believing in some mystical idea, some myth that others believe in ancient times, you are behind your time. Claiming to be wise. Because when men often rejects God, they begin to deify themselves. And they won't admit it, but they praise themselves and others as though they were God's.

It's amazing to observe that although there is a wide rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is something even in our fallenness. There's something even in our fallenness that craves to worship, that longs to be in contact or relate to some deity. And some men who claim that they don't worship anything, like in verse 22, in fact worship themselves claiming to be wise. In God's eyes, they're fools. The psalmist agrees.

You're a fool. I'm a fool if I believe there is no God. But some will exchange the true God and do what? Begin to worship creation instead. They begin to fabricate and design and come up with different ideas of who God is or many gods by saying no to the immortal God only to turn around and create false ones.

Only to invent different ideas and concepts. Why? Why? Because in man made religion, there is something of self satisfaction. There is something about the flesh that is appeased when man chooses to come up with their own belief.

Jesus Christ says, carry your cross. Die to yourself daily. Your ambition as a saved person is to imitate the character and nature of God, and that is opposed to the flesh and the desires, and you know that well if you're born again. But study other religions. In fact, just go to Israel in the Old Testament and realize when they worshiped other gods, when they invited different forms of gods and idols into their land, the worship often appeased the flesh.

Everything from either self righteousness to gross sexual immoral practices. It tickled the flesh while satisfying the religious conscience. And that's what we see today. Something of self being appeased. Either my pride because I'm working my way towards God, or even beliefs that encourage fleshly acts so that you can walk in your ways because your God approves of that himself.

Now you might be wondering how any of what I just said relates to my introduction to this message, and what it has to do with what we are dealing with as a culture and a nation. Well, there's a connection being made here. Paul brings this introduction only to lead us into another thought process because we have to ask ourselves, well, what will God do with a nation, a society, a culture that stays on the path that though they have received truth, not just general truth like in America, but even special revelation. Think about all our radio programs. Think about all the Bibles we've printed.

Think about all the churches and the preachers that we have in America today. At one point, America was the hub that launched missionaries across the world. That's not the case. Now nations are sending missionaries here. What happens when a nation not only has general revelation, but also has received special revelation and has suppressed it?

Verse 18. The wrath of God is revealed. The wrath of God is revealed. This is not speaking about God's eternal wrath, his eternal punishment when man gives his final breath and his spirit stands before the throne of judgment. No.

Nor is it speaking about God's series of judgments that he will bring about on the earth at the end of the age. This is a unique type of judgment. This is a judgment that can be experienced while society thrives, while new technologies are being invented, while people are marrying and having families and growing businesses. This wrath can be known. And if this can be described as anything, it is the wrath of abandonment.

I want you to know, notice a common phrase that is repeated in these verses here. Come down with me to verse 24. Therefore, God gave them up. Go to verse 26. For this reason, God gave them up.

Verse 28. And since they did not see it fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up. Three times in a few verses we are told God gave them up, and that is the wrath that is described in verse 18. What does it mean for God to give up on a people? It means when He willingly removes His restraining hand and allows allows a society to plunge into the destruction of their own sin.

He allows them to collide with the very consequences that he is willing to protect us from when we submit and obey to him. In a unique way, it's his justice that when his truth is rejected and man has turned their back on God, God will turn his back on them, and he gives them over into their impurities. He lets them roll around in the dirt of their iniquity, and he essentially allows them to dive headlong into their own sin, allowing their own actions to bring about their own ruin. Only to prove the most horrific and most horrific fashion that what he has said was true. You claim to be wise, I'm gonna show you that you're a fool.

And that your theories, and your educational system, and what you've preached from pulpits, will in fact be to your own demise. Here's the fascinating aspect of this. When he says God gave them up three times, if you pay close attention, it is actually three phases. Three phases. God gave them up, and that's one level of being given up.

And then you read again, God gives them up again in deeper fashion of deterioration. And then from there, God gives them up again, even in deeper fashion. So every time God mentions he gives them up, it just gets darker and darker and darker. And as you hear these things, you will realize something. We are very well in our age under the wrath of God.

So let's see here in verse 24. Therefore, that's an important word. Everything that I just said about God's revelation to man, man's rejection of God, man's replacement of God, Because of these things, therefore, as a result, the equation is this. The first thing that you and I will see in a nation, in a culture, in a generation, in a society is that there will be degradation concerning sexual behavior. Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.

This is speaking about general immoral sexual conviction. It will come to a place where a group of people, a nation will encourage a carelessness with faithfulness to and within marriage. Abstinence, are you kidding me? Pornography of the vilest of kinds with wide availability. A mockery concerning virginity.

You're gonna be a virgin until you're married? The promotion of abortion. A hook up lifestyle. And you wanna know the revival of Romans one twenty four, the sexual revolution. Between the nineteen sixties and the nineteen eighties, a culture that was being fed the lie that you will unlock a freedom when you just let loose and ignore the institutions that tell you to honor how God called you to express yourself in your sexuality.

That's repressive. That's oppressive. We will know true liberation when we allow ourselves to be liberated with our desires. And we are still facing the repercussions of such a revolution to this day. So God gives them up to impurity.

Whatever is in the heart, instead of that being generally maintained by culture understanding that you should get married, and there are shameful ways of life. No. Now you just do what you want. Even in my day when I was in high school, in our own city, there was a there was a daycare center right beside a high school because there were so many girls getting pregnant in high school that they had to drop their kids off at daycare so they can go and learn math. Where did that come from?

It came from a time when the world said, let loose and have fun. Was that progressive? Was that a revolution? No, it's the wrath of God. You want it?

Have it. God gave them up. God gave them up. But what's amazing is that it doesn't end there. It doesn't stop just at the sexual revolution.

It doesn't stop just when people want to live out their desires. No, it gets more perverse. Because the sexual revolution, according to Paul, will lead to something else, and God's wrath would be behind it. He goes from the impure lust of the heart down here, and we see in verse 26. For this reason, God gave them up, here's the second phase, to dishonorable passions.

For their woman exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. You go from impure lust of the heart, a sexual revolution, to a gay revolution. And many believe 1960 the late nineteen sixty, '69, specifically in the West, was the trigger, was the moment that America would never turn back on their fight for the LGBT to be recognized, not for human rights, but that their sexual preference should be praised and accepted and embraced.

We see a deeper deterioration happening here. Many believe that this is not an issue, but it is an issue for obvious reasons. But Paul is very specific with his language here, and it's amazing because it ties into what we just heard early on about creation. One preacher said it this way, when man forsakes the author of nature, he inevitably forsakes the order of nature. What does that mean?

It means this, that man cannot help himself in his sinful condition. Not only is he willing to reject God as the creator, he is also willing to dishonor God by dishonoring his order of creation. I'm not just gonna say you didn't create everything. I'm gonna take what you have created and pervert it, and twist it, and violate it. That's exactly what's happening here.

It starts with a refusal to honor God, a refusal to give thanks to him, and then now you come to abominable practices such as this. And so what happens here? Paul's very specific. Lesbianism and homosexuality. And then here he says that they do so with what?

With consuming passion. Consuming passion. In other words, there's a feverish lust that is described within this kind of practice. And that's not just emotion. That's not just criticism.

This is something that is studied by psychologists and sociologists today. We don't have time, but if you want to go and study the statistics about those who are involved within this community and you realize that it is above normal concerning how they relate to others in terms of sexuality. Study the amount of partnerships that the average gay man has and you'll be shocked. It is not like how it is with heterosexual people. And not only that, Paul says very clearly, they receive in themselves the due penalty for their error.

So homosexuality according to the Holy Spirit is not just a sin, it's a punishment within itself. It is judgment To be given over, it is judgment in itself. And we see the diseases that include this, that are involved with this, that modern medicine is still trying to figure out how to solve and try to limit the consequences of. Because instead of being healed by Christ, they wanna be healed while they remain in their sin. And it speaks of the rebellion of the heart.

This also speaks about the penalty, the promiscuity again, as I said earlier. And when you read the statistics, this dawned on me. When I was reading the statistics about how these people, on average, can have hundreds of sexual partners in a year, thousands in their lifetime, it bear it bears witness to the dissatisfaction that they feel. They can't settle. They're disturbed.

They just have to live from one kind of thrill to another. And oftentimes, it becomes more animalistic as it is continually fed. There's a penalty involved with this sin within this lifetime. Within this lifetime, not just reserved for the end, but even experienced while people are in their sin. Now, we might be thinking as we're sitting here this morning, wow, what a description of America today, of the West, of the known world today.

And I would say, no. Not that we're wrong in believing that, but there's more to that. There's much more to that. And that's the final step that Paul presents here in verse 28. And since they did not see it fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up, final time here, to a debased mind, to do what ought not to be done.

So you you you start with phase one. The first mark of God letting go of his hand, his restraining grace from a people is that there is uncontrolled and limitless sexual activity. And then from there, it only gets darker, and then it becomes homosexuality, which we've been seeing over the past twenty, thirty years, in a way that is not shameful or people don't blush anymore, more specifically. And then it doesn't end there because we hear that God gives people over to a debased mind. Might be wondering, what does that mean?

Your translation might say reprobate. Your translation might say depraved. But if you just study the original meaning, it simply means a non functioning mind. Non functioning mind. It's not just a crazy sexual standard anymore, nor is it about parading with unnatural, unnatural desires.

No. It's a surrender to a type of loss of rational thinking. It's the absence and the forfeiting of a grip on logic almost. You actually come to a point where your conscious has been so seared and ignored and defiled that normal thinking becomes skewed to the point of borderline madness. And simple basic biological truths are now up for debate.

And it looks like many things that you've seen and heard already. It looks like parents, doctors, and psychologists who give hormonal treatment to young children who don't even know how to make lunch for themselves. It looks like sports leagues allowing full grown men with hair on their chest and bulging biceps to participate in the same teams and against women because that man has long hair and gave himself a woman's name. It looks like a woman who identifies as a man gets pregnant, gives birth, and then on YouTube it goes viral because everybody sees that a man gave birth to a child. It's insanity.

Things fifty years ago that we would we would all agree as a culture saying, this this cannot be this is not normal, now is becoming normal. And so at this point, you can you can say, this commentary is the commentary of America. We are living Romans one in 2021. And so when you read a text like this, it almost makes you feel it makes you feel glad to a certain extent because you see the wisdom of God behind this. You see that God has predicted this.

You see that God is involved in this, but there's also the the pain to see that this is where a nation can plunge into. This is what a society can come to. And it becomes even more painful when you know somebody. You know somebody, you have a friend, you have a relative that is tangled up in this kind of deception. So how do we respond to such a thing?

We read this and we think to ourselves that our response to just simply sit back and watch society burn to the ground and protect our own while it does. We almost come under the impression that there is no hope for such people, and you have some people who claim to be Christians that say, they are beyond hope. They would equate a debased mind to somebody who's crossed the line and are beyond salvation. I don't agree with that one bit. Paul here is describing the wrath of God in a book that eloquently and beautifully and in such great depth presents the salvation message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We read something like this and we see God's wisdom. We see the prophetic element behind it. But we also realize that Paul said in a different letter to people who were under this kind of bondage, and such were some of you. First Corinthians. And such were some of you, but you were washed.

You were justified and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of God. Such were some of you. Read that list in first Corinthians six nine to 11. You'll realize that homosexuality is there. Adultery is there.

Immorality is there. Drunkenness is there. Being a liar is there. Now I know because I have to say this because usually the criticism follows. Why why as Christians do we single out this particular sin?

Why why not talk about other sins? Well, we do talk about other sins. But what are we supposed to do as a church when culture wants to take a whole month to celebrate a specific sin? If the world is so willing to blatantly proclaim what they believe, why are we ashamed or why do we have to explain what we believe away? When the world is being confused and Blue's Clues is teaching us about depravity, are we gonna stay silent?

See part of the deception of what's happening in our culture is that the church, most of the church doesn't even realize that they're being succumb to their tactics. And that's to make you feel embarrassed, and to make you blush at what you believe, lest you present the very truth that can set men free. And then when there are men who are willing to speak up on this thing, they should with love and faithfulness to the word of God, There are attacks. And this is what I want us to say. In response to Romans one eighteen to 28, don't forget Romans one sixteen.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To some, no. To quite a few, but not the reprobate? No. To everyone.

To everyone who believes. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. I want you to realize today that our response to this our response to this is the response to every other sin that we see creeping into our culture, the gospel. Is it that simple?

I understand that every case is different, and I understand that when there is somebody that we know and love, there is an approach that must be taken, Especially if that person professes to be a believer. And it looks different when there's somebody else who doesn't profess to be a believer, but is willing to preach and parade in this kind of lifestyle. But in the end, no matter our tactics, no matter our counseling sessions, no matter our our works that would show that we love this community, the solution at the end is the gospel. Or else we're putting a band aid on cancer. And so here's my encouragement to all of us.

I have one point of act and I fully fully fully understand that there will be more questions out of this than anything else. How do I face it this way? What about if somebody says this? And what about these things? And what about these objections?

And what about what I'm facing at work? And what do I do at school? And how do I identify with this person? I totally understand. Maybe he deserves more than one message on a Sunday morning.

But what I wanna say, if there's one point that I wanna drive into our hearts this morning, is don't be ashamed of the gospel at this time. Don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed. I want you to really believe that the gospel can set all men free. All men free.

Or what if they've heard the gospel? What if they already heard the gospel and they still reject it? Well, how many times have you heard the gospel before you accepted it? How many times have you heard it growing up in the church? Sunday school, your parents, sermons.

How many times until you came to the realization this is the truth. See, don't look at the LGBT community as a group of people that are enemies to the gospel. Everyone is an enemy to the gospel. Those people are just as much in need of truth as anybody else. And it's going to require the people of God to believe and not think that they're in some separate category where the gospel doesn't really work.

They need something else. The gospel works for the drunkard, right, and the adulterer, but not the one that is entangled in these things. But isn't the wrath of God revealed in this way? Where's salvation and wrath? Well, here's the understanding.

This is not God's final wrath. This is not his eternal wrath. This is not his everlasting cutting off of man because of the rebellion or refusal to receive the gospel. No. You read your bibles carefully and you realize that God oftentimes throughout history, including in the book of Revelation, will demonstrate his wrath so that he can draw people to repentance.

And so when the penalty is experienced in some, and when they receive the due reward for the rebellion against God, even in that state of brokenness and pain and shame and guilt, they would look up and find Christ. A reminder of the testimony of a preacher. And maybe I've shared this before, but I'll I'll share it every single time because I think it's a glorious testimony. Where he preaches this truth. Many preachers are not willing to.

And there was a leader in that area of the LGBT movement who would actually help organize the parades in that city. And one day he realized that he contracted AIDS. He was gonna die. And he was so fearful of death. He didn't know where he was gonna go.

He didn't know where to turn to. He didn't he didn't understand what was gonna happen after he dies. And so he begins to speak to those in his community. I don't know what to do. I know I'm going to face death, but I can't face it.

Where do I go? Do you guys know anything? Do you guys know anyone? And the people within the LGBT community, the leaders of that movement in that region said, go to the church of so and so, and he'll provide answers. Interesting.

And sure enough, that individual came into that service, heard a specific truth from the word of God, repented and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And with his limited life, as a born again believer, he would every year stay in his house because the parade would go through the root of his street and he would evangelize those that he once walked with. Don't tell me that they're beyond hope. Don't tell me that it's impossible. Before Paul speaks about the wrath of God, he first says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and neither should we.

I I want us to really understand and believe that in this month where people are just suppressing truth all the more, we should be declaring it all the more. Yes, in love. Yes, in wisdom. Yes, through conversation. Yes, through much prayer.

But I'm afraid, I am sincerely, that because it seems so overwhelming, it seems like it's just gaining more traction and more ground, that Christians themselves feel as though there's nothing that we can really do about this. That this is just headed towards one way, and again, let's just hold on for dear life, and let's just live through this and hopefully our kids won't buy into the message. It's more than that. It's missional. We're not just on the defensive, we're on the offensive.

How we do that? I don't know. That's gonna look different for every single one of us. But as a church, we'll do it in this way. We preach the truth.

We declare the truth. We keep our doors open for those who need this truth. And we trust that God will transform them with the truth. And so may God give us wisdom. May he give us a compassion.

May he make us like Noah and Lot. Noah who preached righteousness and Lot who felt the pain of unrighteousness around him. And God will give us grace. I am fully aware again that there might be more questions. All my goal was today was to explain one simple thing.

How did we get here? God is behind it. But just because people are under this, it doesn't mean that they can't come out of it. And God will use the church as the rescue team for those under the wrath of God. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the the truth of how you are sovereign over everything, absolutely everything. And, Lord, thank you that to glorify you and to give you thanks is the great protection from our own destruction. And, Lord, our hearts go out to this nation that seems to be only spiraling deeper and deeper into their own depravity. Lord, we do not look upon them with disgust and with a glare of condemnation. For if you have not saved our hearts and our own souls, we were capable of the same things.

Lord, we pray that in the midst of the wrath, there would be revival. Lord, help us in our own hearts believe that as much as there is an aggressive campaign to try to recruit children, even our own children. That Lord, they are not our enemies. There is an enemy behind them that is using them. We ask Lord that you would deliver them from the entrapment of the evil one.

And that Lord you would rescue those that are even leading these movements and deceiving the people to come to the knowledge of Christ. Lord, we pray for those in here that have family members, cousins, uncles, parents, children. That without a doubt might have a mind that is not functioning in this area. Lord, help us understand that in the gospel, you renew our minds. You renew, you rewire, you transform.

And so we pray for those in here not to lose hope because your Holy Spirit says, and such were some of you, that man surely can come from death to life, from confusion to clarity, from impurity to holiness. Lord, with the ongoing creative ways that evil is manifesting itself, we ask from heaven that you would dispense a greater wisdom, a greater discernment, and a greater boldness. Lord, we understand that many even professing Christians are feeling the tug to sympathize and to agree with those that contrarily live to the word. Lord, infuse the spine of steel in preachers to stand upon the Word of God faithfully, and to lead their congregations to truth unashamedly. And we ask, Lord, for those that are hearing these messages and seeing the emotional involvement that comes with their arguments, Lord, to just grip to the word of God, and to not restrict those from experiencing freedom because we are embarrassed.

Help us realize that when we feel ashamed of what we believe, that's a tactic of Satan. Shake it off of us, Lord. And help us see the gospel for what it is, the means of salvation, The source of deliverance. The transforming power of God that brings people into righteousness. And so Lord, we realize that although America is under this type of wrath, you are able to still bring revival.

This is not the period mark to America's history. We believe that you can change things. And we ask that, Lord, in our generation, we would see a different kind of parade. An unashamed church with the light of the gospel. On YouTube, on social media, and everywhere else.

Lord, help us. We praise you today. We praise you with mixed emotions like Lot, like Noah. Make us faithful. Keep us faithful.

And help us bring pay people into the faith. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Can we stand and worship, Lord?