As I write its June 6, 2023, exactly seventy-nine years from the day of the Normandy invasion to liberate Europe from the clutches of the mad man from Germany, Adolf Hitler. In his book A LETTER TO THE AMERICAN CHURCH Eric Metaxas tells us that the German Church failed to stop Hitler in the 1930’s and the result was World War Two. In the early 30’s, there were approximately eighteen thousand Protestant pastors in Germany. Three thousand stood with the Nazis, three thousand stood against the Nazis, but twelve thousand did nothing, when they could have stopped Hitler and his henchmen. He draws parallels to the weakness of the American Church today in failing to stop the slide of American culture into a moral abyss, and the resulting rise of totalitarianism that has followed it. It’s time to wake up!

A Marine Colonel, Craig Tucker, who led his battalion into Fallujah in 2004 once thanked me for being a missionary. He said, “Thank you for going…so that we don’t have to!” He understood that where true Christianity prevailed, there was no war, and no need for Marines to fight for the oppressed. That meant a lot to me! I’ll watch SAVING PRIVATE RYAN again tonight and again I’ll become a puddle of tears after the first fifteen minutes when that invasion, and the suffering that men willingly endured so evil could be stopped and men freed, is depicted. But I’ll resolve again to make Jesus Christ an unavoidable reality to all that I encounter. How can I do less? How about you?

THE BIBLE AND ‘PRIDE’

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. Nor shall you mate with any animal, to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is perversion. Lev 18:22-23 NKJV

“Yikes, Lord! Homosexuality is taking over everywhere, like Kudzu!” In a nonchalant, joyful voice – God the Holy Spirit does not get ‘rattled’ by anything – He replied, “Just get them saved, then I’ll clean them up!”

God is true. He has made a provision in His word for every legitimate circumstance of man. He has provided for every physical situation, every medical situation, even genetic sexual deformities (study EUNUCHS), even supplying wine to make glad the heart of men (Ps.104:15). He has provided for every legitimate need of man, spiritual, emotional, sexual, physical, both individually, community wide and the nations of men, to whom he has assigned their territories. He has made NO provision for homosexuality, with no exceptions. Therefore, homosexuality CANNOT be a legitimate circumstance of man.

They say there must be a ‘gay gene’ predisposing them to homosexual acts and being beyond their control. There are different testosterone levels in men and women making some men more effeminate, and some women more masculine, but that still does not justify homosexuality. God says that homosexuality is sin. Sin is the responsibility of man and therefore under the control of man, for how could God judge us righteously for something we have no control over? So, there is no ‘gay gene,’ which is scientifically true, and there is no homosexuality in nature – Rex goes after Lassie, not Fido – regardless of what they claim in their desperate attempts for legitimacy.

So, where does homosexuality come from? What is the source of ‘pride’? And, how do we approach getting them saved so the Holy Spirit can clean them up?

Have you ever run into this statement when you’re sharing the gospel – “I tried praying, but got no answer”? Why would a God, who wants everyone saved, not answer an unsaved ones prayer? First of all, I might say that the fact we are talking right now might be God’s answer to your prayer. But Proverbs gives some insight (how all this relates to helping homosexuals get saved goes back to the fact that their problem is fundamentally this – their adversarial relationship with God).

Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open squares.  She cries out in the chief concourses, at the openings of the gates in the city She speaks her words: ‘How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.

First, the wisdom of God is out there, constantly speaking, constantly testifying, constantly seeking to point and direct people to the Father. All creation testifies to a Creator. All true logic, true reason and natural law point to moral absolutes that again point to a Law Giver. The expanse of the universe is there to testify to man that ’You are not a god; but I am God.’ The wisdom of God demands a proper response from man!

Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.

The Word says that the goodness of God draws men to repentance. But when they reject God’s goodness, here manifested as a rebuke, then consequences come – one of which is unanswered prayers – which could have been avoided.

“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies. Prov 1:20-31 NKJV

The fear of God is far greater than the fear of consequences. We’ve always equated the two because they are parallel in some ways, but the fear of God outshines the other in infinite degrees and calls us reverence and worship. As society loses the fear of God, it loses the natural, innate call to worship the Creator and in turn worships something else, leading to its own destruction and death. In the case of homosexuality, it’s always the worship of self. The worship of self (look at ME…how beautiful I am!) is the basis of all the ‘pride’…

It’s source came from the first sin ever committed…

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Isa 14:12-14 NKJV

Notice all the ‘I’s – five of them, confirming the worship of self – to be like God. You must understand that the aim of the homosexual movement is not ‘equality’ but superiority. Their inferiority and sinfulness will only be mitigated if their ‘true greatness’ and superiority (I am unique, beautiful…I do not need to humble myself to be a father or a mother. I am like God) is acknowledged…and worshipped. Remember that disco dancing, where the dancer dances alone and everyone watches in various degrees of envy and worship, began in gay bars in NYC in the 1970’s!

So, how do we win these folks?

Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. Rom 12:21 NKJV

Street preachers with bullhorns are so annoying. I tried to talk to one once as a fellow minister, and someone who wants to see people saved, and this guy was so defensive and weird I stopped after about thirty seconds. True spiritual warfare comes at the enemy in an opposite spirit. Where they are proud, we come humble. Where they shout and yell, we pray, listen and calmly reply, because we are not threatened, and we act, not react.

So first, treat all sinners the same, as dear lost people who need the gospel. Throw off your fear and sense of being threatened (‘Yikes!’). God is not threatened. He is not rattled. He will be strong on our behalf and save us even if everyone else goes under. So, you don’t approach evangelism with a sense of ‘these guys must be saved or we all are doomed.’ No, they may be doomed but not you and I. So you minister from a position of strength and not fear. People follow confident people because they are comforted by the strength of another. People will listen to you as much for who you are as they do for what you say.

Remember the old camp meeting song…

Lead me to some soul today / and teach me Lord just what to say / friends of mine are lost in sin / and cannot find their way / few there are who seem to care / and few there are who pray / melt my heart and fill my life / give me one soul today…

Amen? Go get ‘em! Love you!

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…