Our Stand on Biblical Sexual Morality, Part 2

Today is part two of our stand on biblical sexual morality. What does the Bible say concerning our stand as believers? This has come about because we want to join our brothers in Canada that labeled last week as a week in which they would do this every year to preach on this topic because of the new law that was passed, C4, which banned any kind of conversion therapy or any kind of presentation of truth that would move someone from being a homosexual to no longer doing that. Or being a transgender and counseling them away from those kinds of things that they might follow the Lord and honor Him and serve Him. That's been banned in Canada. And because it is, it's punishable by up to five years in prison.

I found out this past week that in Indiana here in the United States, there's a law before the legislation that is similar to the one in Canada that says those in Indiana can't do any kind of conversion therapy either. I don't know if you've heard of Dr. Pavi Razanan, but she's from Finland, and she is part of the parliament there in Finland. She was once a doctor, a part of their legislation there in Finland. And she wrote a book 17 years ago, 17 years ago, on sexual morality and what the Bible says about marriage. And she is going before a judge tomorrow, on the 24th of January, with the possibility of facing six years in prison. She's been charged with ethnic agitation and therefore it breaks one of their penal codes. And she faces a judge tomorrow. She has spent 13 hours in a police station being questioned about the views of the Apostle Paul in Scripture. And she has thought that a great privilege to be able to have a Bible study with the police in Finland. But that's what is being done around the world, and probably in more situations than we can ever begin to imagine. And it probably will move to here in America as well.

So why do we address this? I like what Matt Walsh said this past Wednesday on the Dr. Phil Show. He was there to battle the transgender ideologists. And Dr. Phil had him on. And one of the guests on the show asked Matt Walsh, "Why do you care so much?" Listen to his response. He said, "I care about the truth. I want to live in a society where people care about the truth. And where we are grounded in the truth." Now I don't know what his beliefs are about Christianity and the Bible, but it's absolutely true. That whatever view we have is based on truth, not popular opinion, not feelings, or even what I think I believe. It's based on absolute truth.

But as we said last week, we live in a postmodern world where there are no longer any truths that are absolute because there's no concrete values any longer. Romans 1:28, man no longer wants to recognize God as the ruler of his life. Why? Romans 1:18, he has suppressed the truth in unrighteousness, doesn't care. And so, what is our stand? What do we base our stand on? Well, we began last week by telling you it's the veracity of Scripture. It's the truth of God's holy word. God's word is absolutely true. But Satan battles that. He is the father of lies. He is a murderer from the beginning. In fact, Jesus said in John chapter 8 that there is no truth in him. He is so committed to lying, there's absolutely no truth in Satan.

So, in Genesis chapter 3, when he said to Eve, "Hath God really said?" Planting doubt in her mind as to what the truth of God really says. And that's one of Satan's greatest tactics: to get us to doubt what the truth of the living God is. And so, because Satan is a liar, He has gotten man to suppress that truth, move away from God, to do whatever it is he or she want to do, but we stand on truth: truth that is absolute, truth that is objective. It's given to us by the God of truth, and because it has, we believe it. Because it's not based on what we think or our opinion. It's based on what God's Word actually does say. "Sanctify them in truth. Thy word, O Lord, is true." John 17:17, "The sum of thy ordinances is truth." Psalm 119 tells us. So we know that God's word is absolutely true.

But because the man today doesn't want to recognize God any longer, he has now what the Bible calls a depraved mind or a reprobate mind, a mind that cannot think straight any longer. And therefore, it's filled with unrighteousness, the Bible tells us. And man now is a hater of God. Because Satan is a hater of God, those in his kingdom now are haters of God. And our God is a God of truth. And we are lovers of God.

Paul would say these words in 2 Timothy chapter 3. He says, "But realize this: that in the last days," what are the last days? The time between the first coming and the second coming of the Messiah, "difficult times, perilous times will come." It's a word used in Mark's gospel to describe a man who is demon-possessed. So, in other words, in the last days, the days between the first coming and the second coming of the Messiah, the world will become like Satan's graveyard. A place where lies and murder, deceit run rampant.

He describes it. "For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control." Without self-control, that is so true. Remember Proverbs 29:18: "Without the revelation of God, man is unrestrained." That is, there's no control in him. God's revelation, God's truth, restrains man from doing that which is evil because he recognizes that he's accountable to a higher authority. But without that revelation, man is unrestrained. He's out of control. But happy is the man who keeps the law of God.

Well, if I'm without self-control, I am brutal and I'm a hater of good. How do you describe a hater of good? Well, we know that God is good, Psalm 119:68. So, if you're a hater of that which is good, you essentially are a hater of God who is good. He is the author of all that is good. And Hebrews 6:5 tells us that the word of God is good. So if you're a hater of that which is good, you're a hater of God, and you're a hater of the truth of God. He goes on to say that men will be "treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women, weighed down with sins, led by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Weak people are weak in values, weak in virtues, and weak in veracity, truth. Those who are weak in value, those who are weak in virtue, those who are weak in veracity find themselves extremely vulnerable to false teaching. And they fall prey to false teaching. He goes on to say: "Just as Jannes and Jambres oppose Moses, so these men also oppose the truth. Men of depraved minds, rejected in regard to the faith," the truth, the body of truth that God has given to us.

We, as a church, take a stand. But our stand is not based on opinion, it's based on objective truth. The absolute truth that God Himself has given to us. So, our stand is based on the veracity of Scripture. Number two, the sovereignty of God. It's based on the sovereignty of God Himself, that God rules over all. He is, as the Old Testament says, El Elyon, the God Most High, who rules over the realm of mankind. He rules over everybody, not just certain people, not just certain kinds of people. He rules over everybody. And because he does, man is subject to his direction, subject to his sovereign control over all things.

We referenced Psalm 139 last week, but let me read it to you because it's so important. "For you formed my inward parts," Psalm 139:13, "You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works." The psalmist makes it very clear that he is wonderfully made, he is fearfully made, he was formed by God in his mother's womb, specifically knit together by God. "And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth." Not only am I fearfully made, not only am I wonderfully made, I am skillfully made. "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with you."

The psalmist says that God in his sovereignty designed you the way you are. And to be born and say, "You know what? I want to change that. I know I was born a male, but now I want to be a female, or vice versa." Now parents sign the birth certificate "they/them." They/them. You know what a they/them is? A they/them is a person born who has the opportunity to choose what they want to be down the road. So no longer are they male and female babies, they are called "they/them" babies. They can be whatever they want to be. And yet the Bible says that God inHis sovereignty fearfully and wonderfully made you, skillfully wrought you. He made you male. He made you female. There is no in-between. There is no transgender. No, that comes from a reprobate mind. That comes from a dark mind. That comes from a satanic mind. God's very clear. Male and female, created He them. And God inHis sovereignty designed you to be either male or female. God designed the family in which you would be born. God designed everything about your life because all your days were numbered before there was even yet one of them. God's in charge.

But to say, "God, you made a mistake, God, you weren't right, I can change that," sets me up to be what? An idolater. Sets me up to be God. As if I can change who I am. But you can't. You're either XX or XY. That's your DNA, right? If you're XX, you're a girl. If you're XY, you're a boy. Simple as that. If you die today, 20 years later, we dig up your grave. Guess what? The DNA would tell us whether you were a boy or whether you were a girl. Because you're skillfully and wonderfully made. And you were made in God's image. The sovereignty of God is crucial to our understanding as to our belief and stand on biblical morality.

But transgenderism doesn't just seek to destroy human sexuality. It seeks to destroy humanity itself and redefine it. Remember in 2018 when Martina Navratilova, who was openly gay and a leader in the gay pride movement, said these words. "You can't just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete as a woman." She was vilified for that by the transgender community. They said that she was warned by them, that she was on the wrong side of history, and as the leader in the gay community, she was going to be left behind. Because she didn't believe in transgenderism. She did not believe, in fact, that's the greatest debacle to feminism, is transgenderism. And so we have to realize that God and His sovereignty created us the way we are. And we believe that, and we trust in that. Our stand on biblical sexual morality is based on the veracity of Scripture, it's absolutely true, and the sovereignty of God, who skillfully and wonderfully made each and every individual.

Number three, that's where we left off last week. The sanctity of marriage. The sanctity of marriage. Marriage is designed by God. Marriage is created by God. In fact, on day six of creation, God created man. God created marriage, and God created the sexual union between man and woman on day six. It was all designed by him. In fact, turn back with me in your Bible, if you would, to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2. Very important passage of scripture. Because we believe in the sanctity of marriage. That God designed marriage between male and female. It says in verse number 18, "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him. I'm going to make him a perfect helper. I'm going to fashion for him a suitable helper.'" So, what God did was create woman for man. Listen carefully.

"Out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and whatever the man called the living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him." Think about this. God, in his sovereignty, God, in the greatness of his mind, knows that Adam needs a suitable helper. But Adam doesn't know he needs a suitable helper. So, how does God get Adam to recognize that he needs a suitable helper? He is going to name all the animals. Now, remember, Adam has a sinless mind. Okay? He's got a perfect mind. And so he can name the animals and give them whatever name he wants as fast as he wants because his mind is so far superior to our minds, right? And so God has all the animals walk before him. He begins to name them. And he realizes that there is Mr. and Mrs. Cow. Mr. and Mrs. Bird, Mr. and Mrs. Dog or horse or cow, whatever the case may be. There's a Mr. and a Mrs. Recognizing, wait a minute, every partner has a counterpartner, has a suitable helper fit for them. And so God, in his sovereignty, helps Adam see his need for a suitable helper. God knows he has a need. But he wants Adam to see the need.

"So the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept. Then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and brought her to the man." Very, very simple. The word for rib used thirty-five times in the Old Testament. 34 of the 35 times, it has never been translated rib. The only place it's translated rib is here. So, is it a rib or is it not a rib? I don't know. It's irrelevant what God took. But we do know he took flesh and bone. How do we know that? Because Adam sings a song. Adam has the first love song in the Bible. Listen, I won't sing it for you. I'll just read it to you. "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man." Wow. That's the first love song in Scripture. So, if you want to sing love songs to your wife tonight, sing Genesis chapter 2: You're bone of my bone, you are flesh of my flesh. And she should be called woman. Know what that translated means? She should be called soft. From the very beginning, God designed woman soft. Not hard. Sin makes her hard, right? Sin makes everybody hard. But she was fashioned as a suitable helper for Adam. And she became the person that he needed.

The Bible says. "For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." That is the definition of marriage. Oh, by the way, that's a definition of family. Family is man and wife, or man and woman, coming together to be husband and wife. That is, by definition, family. You have children as a byproduct of that, but the family is man and woman coming together. Why? How do we know that? Because over in 2 Samuel 5 and over in Genesis 29, verse number 14, the common phrase used to describe family is: this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. And so this is family at its highest. And this is a perfect family that's been created by God. God never designed another man to be with another man or another woman to be with another woman. God designed it this way. This is how God designed it. And Genesis 2:24 is translated or used four other times in Scripture because it's the only definition of marriage that we have. For this cause, what cause? What's the cause? Man should not live, man should not be alone. That's the cause, verse number eighteen. And for this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother. He shall cleave to his wife. They should become one flesh.

Now, listen to this. "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." Why? Because they didn't know any evil. There was no sin. So, therefore, they could be naked and not ashamed because shame is the result of guilt, and guilt is the result of sin. So, when there's no sin, there's no guilt, there's no guilt, there's no shame, therefore they could be naked together. That's why, when they sin, they clothed themselves. Because now their eyes are opened and they realize they were sinners. So, in day six, God makes sure that man is created, marriage and family are created. The definition of sexual conduct is created so there's no mistake. So Jesus would go back to Genesis 2:24, Paul will go back to Genesis 2:24 because it all describes what God's design was from the very beginning. It's never changed. It's always the same. So we believe in the sanctity of marriage. We believe what God says about marriage.

In Genesis chapter 3, verse number 1, who shows up? Satan. Satan never showed up when Adam was by himself, right? But he showed up after God fashioned a suitable helper for Adam. Why? Because Satan wants to obliterate God's design. He wants to destroy marriage. And will stop at nothing to destroy your marriage. Remember, you don't wrestle against flesh and blood, you wrestle against spiritual forces of wickedness, Ephesians 6. So, you're not wrestling with your wife or wrestling with your husband. There's a spiritual battle going on, even right now, as we speak in your family. Satan wants to divide you. He wants to disrupt you. He wants to destroy you. He wants to disintegrate your family. That's what Genesis 3, verses 1 and following tell us. He's out to destroy your family. And will not stop until it's done. That's why it's so important that you know the Lord. That you walk in the spirit, so you don't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. That you honor the Lord with all that you have. Your struggle in your marriage is a satanic struggle. Because Satan wants to destroy your family.

The goal by Satan through homosexuality, same-sex marriage, transgenderism is to blow up the family unit. Because through the family unit comes education, comes the formation of children, comes the development of the character of children, all those things. And so now, what do you find? You find the state wanting to educate your children, control your children, so much so that in the state of Oregon, State of Oregon, at the age of 15, you can have a sex change without ever telling your parents. And it's legal. And the state will pay for it. Heard two weeks ago, state of Washington, at the age of 13, you do not need parental consent. So Satan wants your children. If he can get your children and divide your family, he'll do that. He doesn't want your children growing up in a home where mom and dad are committed to the Christ, serving Him, loving Him, honoring Him, following Him. So He will do all He can to disrupt your family. But our stand on biblical sexual morality begins with the veracity of Scripture, the sovereignty of God. The sanctity of marriage.

Also, this, the purity of the church. The purity of the church. Today, we have gay couples being married in the church. We have homosexuals being ordained to ministry in churches. But God is concerned about the purity of his church, the holiness of his church. He wants his church to be holy, set apart. And it began way back in the book of Leviticus. Turn back with me if you would, to Leviticus chapter 18. Leviticus chapter 18. It says in verse number 22, "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an abomination." God is giving laws and orders to the nation of Israel. An abomination. So if you lie with a male as one lies with a female, that is. You engage in a homosexual relationship, that is an abomination to God. Oh, by the way, that phrase abomination is the same one we read last week in Deuteronomy chapter 22, verse number 5 says, If you're a man and you dress like a woman, or a woman and you dress like a man, that too is an abomination to God. Because God created you male and female, and never are we to blur the lines between male and female.

So in Leviticus 18, God makes it very clear that you cannot lie with another man as you would lie with a female. That's an abomination. Also, "You shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is a perversion." So, what the Lord is doing is equating homosexuality and bestiality in terms of something that is a perversion that's worthy of an abomination by the living God. That he says this: "Do not defile yourselves by any of these things. For by all these, the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. For the land has become defiled. Therefore, I have brought its punishment upon it. So the land has spewed out its inhabitants. But as for you, you Israel. You are my called-out people. You are my chosen ones. You are to keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native nor the alien who sojourns among you. For the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled, so that the land will not spew you out, should you defile it. As it has spewed out the nation which has been before you. For whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people." He goes on to say, "I am the Lord your God." Then in chapter 19, he says, "I want you to be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy."

That's why the Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. It's a repetition of that attribute. Why? Because God is uniquely and distinctly separate from his creation and separate from corruption. So now God says, "I want you to be holy as I am holy. I want you to be separate from creation." He's telling Israel, "I want you to be separate from the Canaanites, the Jebusites. All the other-ites, the Amorites, the Edomites, whoever there may be, I want you to be separate from them, separate from that creation, separate from any corruption. Because if you engage in what they engage in, you will become defiled. You'll become corrupted. You can't be holy as the Lord your God is holy. I need you to be uniquely and distinctly separate as I am."

So Peter would go on and quote that in 1 Peter chapter 1, right? You've heard that it said, "Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy." He wants us holy in all of our conduct, completely separate. And so the church, the body of Christ, the bride, that's us, right? Are waiting for the bridegroom. The bride is not waiting for another bride. The bride is waiting for the bridegroom to come. Because marriage is a picture of Christ's love for the church. Of all the definitions of marriage and all the way you want to look at marriage, marriage primarily is a picture of Christ's love for the church.

If you can keep that in the upper recesses of your mind and understand that you are portraying, you are painting a picture of Christ to your children every day. What do they see about the Christ in your love for your wife? You are painting a picture, a portrait of Christ to your church, to everybody you come in contact with, by your marriage. "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." That's the portrait you're painting every day. Yes, marriage is designed for procreation, only in the realm of marriage. Yes, marriage is designed for pleasure. It's designed for protection, right? You protect one another from the lust and temptations of the world. But most importantly, it's a picture of Christ's love for the church.

Therefore, the Lord's concerned about the purity of the church. That's why over in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, remember, there was someone who had taken his father's wife. There was immorality in the church of Corinth. And Paul speaks to that. He says, "Remove the wicked man from among yourselves." Verse number 13, why? This man is a part of your church. And he has slept with his father's wife. This is wrong. You can't do that. Yet he's in your church. I'm concerned about the purity of the church.

Remember Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira? They had sold their property, right? And they gave some of the proceeds to the church. But they lied about what they sold their property for. So Ananias goes to church. He meets Peter. And Peter says, "Ananias. Did you sell your property for this much?" And Ananias said, "Yes." He lied. And Peter said to him, "The feet of those who are willing to take you out are at the door." He dies in church on the spot. They drag him out. Three hours later, Sapphira shows up. Where has she been for three hours? She's been to the Jerusalem Mall. She's got her hair done. She's got new shoes, new dress, new everything. She's got her nails done, her toes done. She is, she's got it going on, man. She walks in thinking, "Man, I'm going to look good today." So she walks into church and she meets Peter. Peter says, "Hey, Sapphira, did you sell your property for this much?" "We sure did." Ah. "The same feet that took your husband out are at the door waiting to take you out as well." Boom, she dies.

Acts 5 tells us that great fear came upon the church. And great fear came upon all those outside the church. Why did God do that? He's sending a message. At the very beginning of the church, know this: I am concerned about the purity of the church. I am concerned about the holiness of the church. And therefore, I'm not going to tolerate sin running rampant in the church. You can say, "Well, they still gave to the church." Yes, they did. They just lied about how much they sold their property for. Is that really a big deal? To the God of truth, that's a big deal, right? But God wants to set the tone for the climate of the church. It needs to be a pure and holy place.

So Paul comes around in 1 Corinthians 6 and says, "Hey, you got a guy sleeping with his father's wife. You can't do that. You got to remove the wicked man from among you. You can't associate with this guy." And then he goes on and talks about this. He says, "Do not be deceived," verse 9. "Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers. Shall inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you, but you used to be that way. There were people in the Church of Corinth that were homosexuals. Yet they were converted. They were adulterers, yet they were converted. They were liars, drunkards, yet they were converted. They were washed. They were sanctified. They were justified."

Isn't it interesting? We have a prison ministry in our church, sending men and women to prisons. To do what? Preach the gospel. Share Christ, right? And we can do that. So we go to prison and we share Christ with thieves. We share Christ with drunkards. We share Christ with murderers. We share Christ with swindlers. We share Christ with wife beaters. We share Christ with them. There's no law against that. But there's a law against sharing Christ with the homosexual and effeminate person. Why is that? Don't they need to be converted like the murderer and the thief and the swindler and the liar? Yes. Because the Lord transforms people's lives. We're not converting anybody. God converts them. We just speak the truth. We just share the truth. We proclaim the truth. That's what we do, right?

And certainly within the body of Christ, the church of Christ, there needs to be a place where it's pure and holy and true. And so, because we're concerned about the purity of the church. We're concerned about the sanctity of marriage, those in the church. We're concerned about the sovereignty of God who rules over all. We're concerned about the veracity of Scripture because it speaks the truth as to how we are to live our lives.

Number five, our stand on biblical sexual morality is this. Our stand is on the exclusivity of heaven. The exclusivity of heaven. In other words, not everybody goes to heaven. Did you know that? Some people think that everybody goes. Everybody's going to go to heaven. They're not. Heaven's a very exclusive place. Turn with me to the last chapter of your Bible, Revelation chapter 22. Let me show you this. Revelation chapter 22. Our Lord, in His sovereignty, is going to give an invitation at the very end of the Bible, the very last book, right? He's going to extend an invitation to everybody. Here's the invitation: verse number 17: "The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come,' and let the one who hears say, 'Come,' and let the one who's thirsty come. Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost."

The Lord God gives us an invitation: come. If you're thirsty, come. Come. Take the water of life without cost. And then, right around that invitation, he gives all the incentives for responding to the invitation. It's so incredibly crystal clear. And the very first incentive to responding to the invitation is the exclusivity of heaven. That's what he says. Verse number 14. "Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city." That's the blessed person. They get to go into the new Jerusalem, the capital city of the new heaven and the new earth. And they enter in through the gates. There are 12 gates. Three in each quarter of all that have the names of the tribes of Israel on them. And they enter into those gates because their robes have been washed.

What are washed robes? They're cleansed robes. I love the book of Revelation because if you just keep reading in Revelation, it always defines for you what it says. And if you go back to Revelation chapter 7, these words are spoken. Revelation 7, "Then one of the elders answers, saying to me, 'These who are clothed in white robes, who are they? And where have they come from?' And I said to him, 'My Lord, you know.' And he said to me, 'These are the ones who came out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'" How do you get clean white robes? You wash them in the blood of the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. You go back to Isaiah 64, go back to Zechariah chapter 3. Soiled robes, soiled garments are emblematic of a sinful life. And so the blessed person is the one who gets into heaven because his robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

But, but. "Outside," verse 15, "are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying." Ah, wait a minute. Not everybody goes. Heaven's very exclusive. Now remember, it's a list that is representative, not all-inclusive. Because you have another list over in verse number 27 of chapter 21 and verses 7 and 8 of chapter 21. You have the same kind of list in the book of Ephesians and the book of Galatians, right? In the book of 1 Corinthians. They are lists. They are representative of people who practice and live in their sin. But notice what it says: Heaven is so exclusive that the dogs never make it. Now, don't get offended that I said that. Look, I got two dogs. I know they're going to heaven. You know, Willow and Tucker, man, those are great dogs, okay? But let me tell you something. That's not what I was talking about. I'm going to define dogs for you. Because the Bible defines it. It's found in the book of Deuteronomy, 23rd chapter, 17th verse. You ready? "None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute. You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God. For any votive offering, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God."

Who's the dog? It's the male prostitute. See that? God defines the dog. Because dogs are not like they are today. We train dogs, we bathe dogs, we take care of our dogs, we love on our dogs. But in those days, dogs were undomesticated animals. They were filthy animals. The Jews called the Gentiles dogs because it was the lowest of the low. So, when the Lord uses the phrase in Revelation 22, verse number 15, he's using it in reference to homosexual prostitutes. Male prostitutes. But, but Paul says, "Such were some of you. But you were washed." See, that's conversion. That's transformation. You're going one way and you hear the gospel, and what do you do? You turn and go the other way. That's a conversion. You're transformed. That's what the Bible calls repentance. You're calling people to repent of their sin.

And so why do we do this? We do this simply because heaven is a very exclusive place. Not everybody goes, but we want you to go. So, how do you know you're going to get there? You have to have your robes washed in the blood of the Lamb. You need to be cleansed. Cleansed from what? The abomination. The perversion, the transgression, everything that goes against the truth of God's Holy Word. There needs to be a transformation of your life, and that can only come because of the work of God through the Spirit of God. Being spoken to you through the Word of God transforms and turns your life around. How shall they hear without a preacher? Right? We tell them because that's what we've been compelled to do.

So when someone says, "Do you have a stand on biblical sexual morality?" Say, "Yes, I do." But what's it based on? One truth: the veracity of scripture. Two, the sovereignty of the living God. He's in charge. Creates one male, another female, nothing in between. Then we believe in the sanctity of marriage as designed by God in His Word. For the purity of the church is to be separate, uniquely distinct from the world and from the sin in that world. Number five, because of the exclusivity of heaven, not everybody goes there. So what do I do? I show them how to get there. What do you do? You show them how to get there. You tell them the truth. Speak the truth. Because he says, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

So here's the invitation: come. The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." The one who hears, who's responded, says, "Hey, you come." Those of you who are thirsty, you come. Drink from the water of life without cost. You can't earn your way into glory. It's done because you've been washed in the blood of the Lamb. And when that happens, your life is turned upside down. Or right side up, I guess I should say, right? Right side up. Because that's what God does when He saves a soul. But we're not done. I have five more points. So, I'm going to cover all five of those next week. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for today and the opportunity you give us to preach the truth. Pray for everybody in the room. There might be one in the room who falls in the category of 1 Corinthians 6 or Revelation 22. But they can be cleansed. They can be washed. They can be transformed. They can be converted. Because that's what you do. You never leave us the way we were. You change us from the inside out. And for that, we are grateful. For those of us you have touched with your Spirit and dwell our lives, you have given us new life in Christ, and we are grateful. We can't thank you enough that your life is now within us. If there be one today who does not have that life, Lord, may they come today. For the Spirit and the bride say, "Come." The one who is heard says, "Come," that they might drink from the water of life without cost.