Respectable Abominations

with me to 1st Corinthians chapter 6. 1st Corinthians chapter 6 and I'm going to read verses 9 through 11. 1st Corinthians 6 verses 9 through 11. 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. And such were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Amen. The title of today's sermon is Respectable Abominations, Homosexuality and Transgenderism. I want to talk today about respectable abominations, homosexuality and transgenderism. And today this is going to be something of an equipping sermon or more of a teaching than a preaching really. But I hope this is very helpful. A little bit of a topical sermon but we're going to be circling around this passage right in front of us the whole time. Let me pray for us one more time. Lord Jesus, to approach this topic, I need your help in the full and I need your spirit. I need your ability to concentrate, Lord. Lord, I need your power and I need you especially, Lord, to get me and my sinfulness as a man, fallen and stupid and small and weak. Lord, please get me out of the way. And we want so badly, Lord, today to hear from your word alone. And I also ask, Lord, that this sermon is an equipping sermon, that the saints are mightily equipped through it, Lord, that you clarify our minds, that you equip us with your word and make us better soldiers out on the field of battle through what we hear today. Lord, thank you. Please help us. Please be merciful to us as we are here right now. In Christ's name, I pray. Amen. Amen. Respectable abominations, homosexuality and transgenderism. In this title, I'm quoting the title of an excellent book by Jerry Bridges. Does anybody know that book? It's called Respectable Sins. Anybody heard of it? It's an excellent book. Jerry Bridges talks about how there are certain sins in the Christian church that get normalized. And in normalizing them, we all become desensitized to them. And then eventually they just pass under the radar. And all of a sudden, all of us as a church don't even realize that we're totally greedy or that we're totally rich or that we're totally prideful. I really recommend Jerry Bridges' book to all of you. It's called Respectable Sins. So I'm sort of punning on that title for the title of today's sermon, Respectable Abominations. What we're talking about today is a certain class of sins that are called in the Bible abominations. They are evil and they are hated by God, this type of sin. But what I want to get across to you right as we start here is that the whole world around us and even large sectors of the Christian church have normalized these sins, haven't they? The sins of homosexuality and transgenderism. And in that normalization, we become desensitized and those sins can even start to pass under the radar for us. Now, I was struggling with wanting to preach this sermon, but I believe the Lord did lead me here and I believe this will be good for us. When I think of all of you, I mean, I know all of you really well, right? So I think we all here treat these topics like conservative biblical Christians. We know that these are abominations, don't we? But I want to sort of pique your interest with this title, Respectable Abominations. I want to tell you that even we in the conservative biblical church can have our senses dulled to just how evil these these sins are. So I want us to have our senses sharpened today. OK, amen. You all with me? I think it's really important. And I want to equip us on this, especially because, well, let's think of the world around us. Just a few months ago, we went to that drag queen story hour and preached there. On April 1st, we had the world had the transgender day of vengeance, whatever that is. Then June coming right up is pride month, quote unquote. And there's going to be the pride parade. And I do hope that we can send out some troops to give the gospel at that parade. Amen. I hope we're all together on that. We got to get the gospel out there. It's always been worth it every year that we've gone there. So let's do it this year. All right, brothers, let's do it. So I want to equip us for that. I want our senses sharpened today. Think of all that chaos in the world around us, all the confusion around the issues of homosexuality and transgenderism, and then think of the clarity of a verse like this. Leviticus 18, verse 22. Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. It is abomination. Is that not clear? Or think of the clarity of Deuteronomy 22, verse 5. The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man. Neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God. Is that not clear? Now, isn't it wonderful that with all this chaos and confusion and self justifying and and bad interpretations of the scripture going on in our world, if you just read the Bible, it's pretty clear, isn't it? So let's just study the Bible today. We must realize, as we discuss this topic, that we are up against not just a certain sin, but we're up against a whole theology. What do I mean by that? I mean that people who practice and promote homosexuality and transgenderism also have an account of God that they're They have a theology. They think they know something about God. And they'll say phrases like this. I know what God is actually like. I am in control. I can use my body as I like. I can modify my body to suit my needs. And in fact, the theology of the transgender and homosexual movement is to say, either I know better than God, or I myself am God. So I want to equip you all with that. As you think about this, don't just think it's someone practicing a sin. What coming along with that is someone also believing a whole theology. Amen. We'll see that very important. Again, my goal today is to equip you. And I want to call this just a, if you like this term, a thudding apologetics. What's apologetics? It's a defense of the faith, right? I want to impress upon you that with this particular topic, all you need to do to defend the faith is open the Bible and read it to people. All you need to do on this one is just open the Bible and proclaim what it says. I call that a thudding apologetics because it's like, boom, just, it's just thudding, right? There have been especially in the last 25 years or more, there has been this desire among ministers of the gospel or so-called ministers of the gospel, just to package up these truths with a nice little bow and to make it all really acceptable to the world. I want to encourage you all not to do that. I want to encourage you all simply to say what the Bible says, to open up the Bible and to get those texts on the table. Martin Luther said this in the early 1500s. And this is still true of every single one of us. If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God, except that little point, which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Amen. You all hear that? Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved. And to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he if he flinches at that point. Amen. That's so very true. I can profess all of the Christian faith and the whole counsel of God. But if I leave out that little point, which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. That to me means that every single one of us, even in our little tiny church, we need to stand up on this point of homosexuality and transgenderism and we need to speak clearly on it or else we're preaching a coward's gospel. So I have for you today three points and each of the points has about five rooms in it or five sub points. So we're going to talk about five facts, five objections and five approaches to this issue. OK, five facts directly from our text in front of us, five objections and finally five approaches. Let's study this together. Let's read our text one more time. First Corinthians chapter six, verses nine through 11. And I want to tell you all this is the text that you need to be equipped with. This is the text that you need to be ready to turn to all the time. This is a catch all passage. This is a go to passage. This ought to be your your back pocket passage. Be ready to turn here at all times. It has, I would say, almost every truth that we need to approach this topic. Let's read it one more time. Verse nine. No, not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. What's he saying? He's saying this is a matter of knowledge. Do you not know this? Do you not get this? He's saying this is absolutely crucial, absolutely important. And it starts with the pure question of knowledge. Has your mind tuned into this? Do you have these facts straight? And then he says, be not deceived. Oh, so Paul is pointing out to us that this is a place where we could be deceived, is it not? This is a place where we could make error. And he's telling us, do not be deceived. Then he says, 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. So all those classes of people, all the people practicing those sins, brothers and sisters, will they inherit the kingdom of God? No. And isn't that beautiful? He just nails that, doesn't he? Do you not know it? You have your mind straight on it. And then he says, don't be deceived. Don't let anyone change your mind on this one. You got to remain straight in your mind on this. And then verse 11 and such were some of you. Now that humbles us, that reminds us that we used to be there, that reminds us that we were saved out of that. We used to be that way, but we've seen a necessity to change. And then what does he say? But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. And that little portion ought to convict us to we ought to look at ourselves as we study this topic. Have I been? Have I been sanctified? Have I been justified? Have I been washed? OK, first point, five facts that we've learned from this text right here. This text teaches us five basic facts that we all need to know when we approach the topic of homosexuality and transgenderism. First, these verses, verse nine is unquestionably about homosexual practice. Everybody with me? It's unquestionably about homosexual practice. The two words right here. Look at the end of verse nine in the King James. It says nor the effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Could someone tell me what is the new King James say at the end of verse nine? Homosexuals, non-sodomites. Right. Homosexuals and sodomites. Yes. My footnotes mentioned something about catamites. Yeah. Yeah. So let me explain these two terms for you. The first one in the King James says effeminate. In the Greek, it is malakoi. And that literally means the soft ones or soft men. OK, and you could translate it softies or soft men. This would be effeminate men or passive partners in the homosexual relationship. And then the next term in the King James says abusers of themselves with mankind. In the Greek, it's arsenokotai. And this literally means men who bring other men to bed. OK, what I wrote down here is here, Paul is covering all his bases. He's looking at the homosexual relationship and he's seeing there are there is the effeminate ones and then there is the more active ones. So there is the soft men and the men that forcibly take other men to bed. So you have the passive and the active partner in a homosexual relationship. What we want to note here is that this is unquestionably about homosexual practice. And again, Paul is covering all his bases. He's not letting anyone get out of this equation. Second fact that he teaches is that homosexuality is sin. Did you all see that? Don't be deceived. These classes of people will not get to heaven. Third fact that he gives homosexuals will not go to heaven. So it's not only sin, but it's a sin that excludes you from heaven. Fourth fact that he gives verse 11, homosexuals can be saved. You all see that such were some of you, but you are washed, but you are sanctified. So there is hope for homosexuals to be saved, to be washed, to be sanctified, to be justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. And here's a final fact that he gives in order to be saved. All sinners mentioned here must be changed. And I want you all to lock that one down. Homosexuality is sinful. It will debar you from heaven. Homosexuals can be saved. But please get this last fact in order to be saved. All sinners mentioned here must be changed. All sinners must undergo what it says in verse 11. You must be washed. You must be sanctified. You must be justified. Why am I harping on that for a brief moment? You could put it this way. You must become not homosexual. And that's really important to explain to people today. I you could find me before I was saved in verse 10. Look at verse 10. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards. I was a drunkard before I was saved. OK. But if I want to be saved, if I want to be a Christian, if I want to get to heaven, I must become not a drunkard. Amen. I must actually be fully changed out of verses 9 and 10 into verse 11. And we're going to talk about a little bit later in this sermon. There are a lot of people who want to hedge their bets and say you can still stay in those categories while receiving the stuff of verse 11. So I want to make that very clear. You must become not homosexual. Homosexuals can be saved, but they must change their identity so thoroughly that they are now not homosexual and that they are found in Jesus Christ. Amen. OK. Those are our five facts that we learn from this text. And I want to encourage all of you to fight for these facts. Learn these facts. Teach this text to our children, to our friends, to those who need to be discipled, who come into this church. We have to remain steadfast on those clear facts from the text in front of us. Now, second point, five objections. Five objections. We say all this about homosexuality and transgenderism. And here are the five main objections that come up. First one. Jesus never addresses it. Have you all heard that objection? OK, so here this letter is written by Paul. And we know that Paul talks about it also where Romans one and first first Timothy chapter one. He talks about homosexuality. Right. We all know that the first objection we then hear is. But Jesus doesn't. People will say Jesus just doesn't address it. How do we answer that objection? Anybody thinking that through? First way we answer it. Jesus does address homosexuality by discussing godly marriage in Matthew 19. So everybody learn that passage. Write that passage down. Matthew 19. Jesus looks at godly marriage and he says it's between a man and a woman. And he defends it and he makes it so crystal clear. And Votie Baucom taught me that point. I want you all to take that home. People say Jesus doesn't talk about it. You say, no, he does. He addresses heterosexual marriage. He says that it's blessed of God. And therefore, he does address it. Amen. A second thing we ought to say is this is the second answer. Jesus is God and God wrote the Holy Bible. So Jesus has superintended the writing of every single passage here. We see Paul writing this, but he's writing it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he's writing it with the approval of Jesus Christ himself. Amen. Everybody with me? Amen. But you've got to notice this, brothers and sisters. On this particular issue, everybody is always ripping up Jesus. You talk to someone about this and they say it's not sin. And then you show them Paul speaking on it and they say, well, that's not Jesus. You tell them Jesus is God and they'll say, no, he's just the son of God. He was just a good man. And all of a sudden you realize what are they doing? They're just ripping up our Savior. So there you realize there's a bigger sin going on and you have to teach them about the deity of Christ. And you have to go to Romans chapter nine and verse five and say, Jesus Christ is God. He owns these scriptures and he speaks to you through every page of these scriptures. So listen to him. Even right here in first Corinthians chapter six. Listen to him. Amen. That was our first objection that Jesus never addresses it. And that's how I want to equip you today with those answers. Second objection is this. The Bible only addresses Greek pederastic customs. Have you all heard this objection? Pederasty was an institution in ancient Greece. If you look up Socrates, he practiced this. It was that he was teaching his younger students. And as part of that educational system, there was a homosexual relationship going on. OK, I don't have to go into more detail, do I? Yeah. People will say that's what the Bible is addressing, but it's not addressing consensual, loving homosexual practices that we now know of today. Has anybody heard that type of argument? Of course. How do we answer that? We simply say this. The verses right in front of us look at verse nine. It's talking about explicit sex acts. It's not just talking about Greek pederasty. It's not just talking about an old custom. It's talking about what happens between homosexual partners. And you could also take them to Romans chapter one, verses twenty six and twenty seven. And you can see that there are explicit sex acts described between men and between lesbian women. OK, so that should totally dispel that objection. We're not just the Bible is not just talking about a custom that was limited in time and place. It's speaking universally and it's speaking about a reality that still abides today. But also, you've got to say this. The Bible speaks about explicit acts. OK, that's how we answer that objection. Third objection, people will say all sins mentioned in First Corinthians chapter six are equal. So don't single out homosexuality. Has anybody heard that type of argument? That argument is running rampant right now in the Southern Baptist Convention. We can talk about that a little more in a moment. But you hear what they're saying. They're saying, I see a list of sins that debar us from heaven here, but they're all equal. So don't pick one out and talk about it. And we can all just say, well, that's patently silly, isn't it? You can pick out drunkards from this list and talk about it and find other passages in the Bible where drunkenness is spoken of. And it's absolutely legitimate to do that. But you know what people are really saying here? They're saying that all sins listed here are equally, they might say, not so big of a problem. They say, well, if all these things debar you from heaven, then don't pick anything out and act like it's so heinous, so horrible. That's the type of argument people are giving. How do we answer this objection? We should say this, brothers and sisters, all the sins in these lists are equally damning and they will all equally keep you out of heaven. But and this is a very important, but so please listen. Some are more or less heinous in the eyes of God. OK, and we need to be able to say that some sins in this list are more heinous in the eyes of God than others. I want to just stay here for one second because Christians are have become so pushed into a corner that they will never say this and we have to learn to say this. Some sins in this list are more heinous in the eyes of God than others. For example, look at the list here. Thieves drunkards. Those sins are not spoken of in such horrid terms as sodomy or homosexuality in the rest of the Bible. They simply aren't. And so you want to get this in Leviticus 18 verse 22 and Leviticus 20 verse 13. The word used for these particular sins is abomination. In Hebrew, it is toe a bar. Very important word. It literally means something that God detests, something that God hates, something that God finds abhorrent and repulsive. So we want to train ourselves and that that's it's right there where I use that term for the sermon respectable abominations. We can come to just say, like so many people are saying in the Southern Baptist Convention, they're all just sins. They're all just equal. That's not true. If you read your Bibles, God points to these specific sins and says, I detest those. They are abominable. They're a different class of sin. And we don't want to become so desensitized that we can no longer see that. Amen. All with me. Very, very important. Very important. Toe a bar an abomination. Fourth objection. Transgenderism is not mentioned in the Bible. Has anybody heard that you're talking about homosexuality, the LGBTQ things? And someone will say, but not transgenderism. That's not mentioned in the Bible. How do we meet that objection, brothers and sisters? You go to Deuteronomy 22 and verse five. Let me read that for you one more time. Deuteronomy 22 and verse five. And it says the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man. Neither shall a man put on a woman's garment for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord by God. Now, what's that talking about? Is that talking about transgenderism as people have painted it today? No, it's literally talking about cross dressing, right? Transvestite ism. But what is it saying about cross dressing? It's saying God looks at a woman who dresses like a man and he says detestable. He hates that. We've got to get clear on that. If God calls cross dressing an abomination, how much more would he call sex change and identity change an abomination? Hey, man, everybody with me. So how do we meet this objection? Transgenderism is not in the Bible. We should meet it with a how much more argument. Well, cross dressing is God detests cross dressing. And the things people are doing nowadays are so much worse than cross dressing, because what are people claiming to do now? They're saying not only can I change my dress, I'm going to change my identity. I'm going to change my gender or sex or whatever they want to call it. And then they're going to say, and I can actually have replacement surgeries where I can change my body. So we could say it's a hyper abomination. It's more than an abomination. And that's the type of argument we need to give. We don't back down and say, oh, you know, you're right. I don't think it looks like God just forgot that that was going to happen in the history that he was providentially residing over and sovereignly ruling all the time. God just forgot. No, we should say he made provision. He talked about it here as an abomination. And what you're practicing is stages and stages and stages worse than what the Bible talks about. Amen. Final objection is this. Only preach grace. Don't judge and tell trans people or homosexual people that they are in sin. How many people have heard that argument? Only preach grace. Don't talk about sin. How do we answer that? Would you all turn with me very briefly? Let's turn to First Timothy and chapter one. First Timothy, chapter one. First Timothy, chapter one and verse eight. And this is really important. I want to equip you with this passage. You should be quick to turn there as we meet with this particular objection. First Timothy, chapter one and verse eight, it says, knowing this. Yeah, sorry. Verse eight. But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully. Wow. Everybody see that here we are in the new covenant in the New Testament, even in the epistles of the New Testament. The grace of Jesus Christ has come. The new covenant has been cut in his blood. We're recipients of grace. And here Paul says to Timothy, but we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully. So that teaches us that there is still a lawful use of the law in the New Testament times. Amen. Now, how do we use it lawfully? Let's read on. Verse nine, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man. That's incredible. In some way, the things that are about to be spoken of here. I don't need to look at you all and hammer you with the law. Right. We need to be strengthened by grace, as it says in Hebrews. But then he says, verse nine, but it is made for the lawless and disobedient. So when should we use the law with the lawless and disobedient to bring them as a schoolmaster unto Christ to show them what's right to order our society. And for all purposes like that, let's go on. He says for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers. So what does Paul mean right there in verse nine? He's saying the law needs to come against these people, meaning they need to hear the law of God. They need to know the law of God is against them. And in many cases, they need the law of God operative in their land so that they would stop doing these heinous crimes. Murder in verse nine. But read on with me in verse 10 for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind. And there's the same exact word that was used for homosexual in First Corinthians, chapter six. So what's Paul saying? He's saying that homosexuals need to hear the law. And what would that mean for us? This is so important. It means you need to go up to people and say what you're doing is wrong. And then you need to open the scripture and say, see, it says right here. God says what you're doing is abomination. It's evil. So, brothers and sisters, we need the law and homosexuals need to hear the law. Amen. It's sort of simple, isn't it? But I really wanted to bring up that objection. People will say, just preach grace. Don't judge. Don't bring the law into this. First Timothy chapter one explicitly says that they need the law. So when we go out to the pride parade and if we just say homosexuality is sinful, what you're doing is evil. Is that is it OK to say that or not? It's OK. It actually needs to get spoken. And it's from there that the law drives them to their need for God and then drives a man or a woman to his or her need for God's grace. Amen. OK, we've talked about five facts, five objections, and I want to end with five approaches. Please just, again, sharpen your minds, sharpen your senses by thinking about this. There are about five different ways that people are approaching this topic in our world today. Some of these people claim to be Christian. Some of these people don't at all. But I want you to think through these five ways with me and then consider which one of these approaches do you yourself take? Five approaches to this topic of these, quote unquote, respectable abominations, homosexuality and transgenderism. The first approach is this. The brazen LGBTQ movement. Is that our approach? What do I mean by brazen? I mean, it's just bold as all boldness can be, no? This movement is is taking ground. It's advancing. They are bold. This they've actually named the whole month that we're about to enter into as Pride Month. The very term pride shows that what their approach is to their movement. So what about this approach? This is our first approach. Just consider it. It's happening all around us in the world. It's brazen. It's bold. It is non-Christian. And then consider this. Christians are very divided on how to even approach that movement. We can all see that that brazen LGBTQ movement is not Christian. But now we quarrel among ourselves. How do we approach it? Christians don't know if we're allowed to tell them what they're doing is wrong. Christians don't know. Can we preach at that pride parade? It's always been interesting. Hasn't it been when we go there to find that there are no other Christians around? People might be scared to go. There might be fear of men. They might be being told that if they go, it's not loving. I don't know. Many, many different possibilities. I would encourage us simply to be unified on how we approach that and say that is a movement led by Satan. And we should confront it head on. And we should also confront it with the law. And we should confront it with the gospel. Amen. Okay, that's the first approach. Second approach is this. The quote-unquote gay Christian movement. That's a contradiction in terms, isn't it? The gay Christian movement. The main players in this movement, so you can look out for them, are Matthew Vines, Justin Lee, and Brandon Robertson. You've all heard some of those names. Their ministries are growing like wildfire. They call all the passages that we've just looked at, they call them clobber passages. Clobber passages. What they mean by that is that Christians have used these passages to just beat people over the heads for years. So in calling the Bible and portions of the Bible clobber passages, what are they doing? They're accusing the Bible itself. They're accusing Christians themselves for even using the Bible or bringing the Bible into the public square. One of the big chants of this movement is Jesus never talked about homosexuality. And we already went over that, didn't we? I equipped you on how you can meet that objection. But they will say that over and over again. They make a claim that they are on the right side with Jesus. They're buddy-buddy with Jesus. And he never talked about it. And there's so much dividing of the Bible there. So much that, yeah, Paul, but Paul had an anger problem or something. It's just, give me a break. Anyway. They'll also say this. The Bible doesn't describe what we now know of as loving, committed, consensual, homosexual marriage. And we talked about how to meet that objection, didn't we? No, the Bible does talk about it. The Bible talks about these explicit acts. Finally, I'll say about this second approach. These are false teachers. And these are wolves. We need to expose them. We need to know their names. We need to warn people not to listen to those men. Amen? Okay, third approach. And here it gets a little more difficult. The third approach is called Side B Christianity or Revoice. Has anybody heard those terms? This is much muddier, and this is much more demonic than the last one I told you about. These guys I just told you about, Matthew Vines, Justin Lee, Brandon Robertson. You can just tell that they're lying. It's very easy to point them out, isn't it? You can tell they're false teachers. They're wolves in wolves' clothing. But this third approach is called Side B Christianity, Revoice Theology. One of the men at the head of it is Sam Albury. And here's what they'll say. We are Christians. We are non-practicing homosexuals. We still identify as homosexuals. We are against conversion therapy or any Christian who tells us that we can be delivered. And they'll use this phrase about themselves. I am a same-sex attracted Christian. Now do you all see how that's much more subtle than category number two that we talked about? These people are saying, I have my cake and I want to eat it too, right? I want to just have it always. You can compare what they do to the work of Alcoholics Anonymous. Basically what they're doing is saying, come in, be a Christian, but know that you're never going to get that much victory. Come in, be a Christian, but know that you always are going to have to identify as a homosexual Christian. And they would even say, but I'm a repentant homosexual Christian. I'm a non-practicing homosexual Christian. What do we need to say to them? Brothers and sisters, please turn back with me to First Corinthians chapter 6. First Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 11. We need to say to them, no, that's not enough. You need the victory of verse 11. Such were some of you. You used to be that way. You are no longer that way, but you have been washed. You have been sanctified. You have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. What does that mean? You're immersed in the character of Jesus Christ. There's no more room for you to say, oh, I'm still a drunkard at heart. Oh, I'm still a homosexual at heart, but I'm just not practicing. You all see that? There's no more room for that. If you truly live in verse 11 right here. Okay. Amen. That was the third category. Fourth category is this. Again, this is the fourth approach to this topic. Fourth approach is conservative evangelicals who don't address it head on. And in a way, this is the approach that makes me most angry. Because this is the one that leads the most people astray. This is the one that weakens the church more than any other one. Conservative evangelicals who don't address it head on. Here, I would encourage all of you to check out what's happened in the Southern Baptist Convention in the last few years. People like J.D. Greer and Ed Litton, they've passed around this phrase, the Bible whispers about homosexuality. And they'll say, if the Bible whispers, then we ought to whisper too. We'll be loud on the topics where the Bible is loud, but we'll whisper where the Bible whispers. And I've told you all about that, haven't I? It's through that, let me just say, satanic computer program called Docent that people have used to create their sermons, actually. And the computer program is creating these sermons. I don't even want to talk about it, it sort of makes me sick. But that phrase is getting passed around, and it's producing a bunch of conservative evangelicals who won't even stare this thing in the face. Usually these men are giving some allowance for being saved, but still seeing same-sex attraction as not going anywhere. So it's similar to that third category. You're saved, but your same-sex attraction isn't really going anywhere. And these men will also say that homosexuality is not a choice, and you are born that way. One of the biggest proponents of this type of approach is a man named Tim Keller. And he just passed away. Have you all heard about him? And I'm not going to attack him horribly in this sermon. I am simply going to say, if you're interested in how these charlatans approach this topic, listen to Tim Keller at the Veritas Forum, where he was interviewed on this topic. And he'll say things like, homosexuality is not the best for human flourishing. Okay, that might be true, but it's nothing like what we've been talking about throughout the rest of this sermon, is it? The Bible doesn't say it's not the best for human flourishing. The Bible says it's abomination. God hates it. You see the difference there? And I'm just bringing that out. We don't want to be like that. We don't want to be these conservative evangelicals who are too afraid to address it head on. Paul says, having this hope within us, we use great plainness of speech. If we truly have the Christian hope within us, we should be able simply to say, that's abomination. That's good. It's good to do that. It's bad to do that. That's evil. That's righteous. Do you see what I'm saying? If we're truly Christians, you just teach your kids the simplicity of the gospel. Teach yourselves the simplicity of the gospel. Speak straight to people. Don't mince your words. Those men that I mentioned, you know what they are? They're rhetoricians. They use rhetoric to try to get people into the kingdom of God. But you know what they're actually doing? They're hiding behind their rhetoric. They're cowards. They're not able just to come out and say plain Bible truths. There's a final approach. And it's called the biblical Christian. And this is what I pray all of you would be. The biblical Christian says homosexuality is abomination. Homosexuals can be saved like any other sinner. But they must repent of their practices. And they must repent of their identity. And there is full deliverance in Christ. Do you all see how different that is from the other four approaches we talked about? Let's read our text one more time. This is a beautiful text. This is a clarifying text. This text just cuts through all the chaos and the confusion and the lies of the world around us. 1 Corinthians 6 9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, Nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, Nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, Shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But ye are washed. Ye are sanctified. Ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Amen. We thank you, Father. Thank you, Father, for the clarity of your word. Thank you, Father, for sharpening us today. Thank you, Father, for building up your church today. Thank you, Lord, for edifying us and building us up into this holy temple of God. Lord, we need to be clear. We need to be clear on this issue. And each one of us in this room is going to be called to disciple someone else or many others. So, Lord, equip us through today's sermon, please. We so badly need it, Lord. We need your equipping. We need your truth. We need to speak the oracles of God. Lord, help us not to be cowards. Help us not to be ashamed, Lord. Help us to speak simple Bible truth. And help us to get people to heaven by doing so. In Christ's holy name, amen.