This is Connect with Skip Heitzig, and we're so glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig is all about connecting you to the never-changing truth of God's Word through verse-by-verse teaching. Before we get started, we want to invite you to check out connectwithskip.com to find resources like full message series, sermon outlines, and more. While you're at it, be sure to sign up to receive Skip's weekly devotional emails right in your inbox. When you do, we'll send you Skip's booklet, Hell No, Don't Go. This insightful resource will help you gain a deeper understanding of what awaits believers in heaven and unbelievers in hell. It's an encouragement for those who have said yes to Jesus and a sobering picture for those who have not. Get your copy when you sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. We in the past studies contrasted Abraham versus Lot. Abraham still lived in a tent, Lot lives in a house. Abraham is a pilgrim, Lot is a citizen of Sodom.
Now you say, well, why is that a big deal? Well, it's a big deal when you get to the book of Hebrews chapter 11 and down around verse 9, 10, and 11 of that chapter, it discusses Abraham. It says Abraham by faith lived or dwelt in the land of promise as if he dwelt in a foreign country dwelling in tents, for he looked and waited for a city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God. He becomes the picture of somebody on earth realizes I'm passing through, I'm not going to get my roots down too deeply here whereas Lot settled in the city. Now does that mean the Christians can't live in cities and own homes? That's not the point. The point is one of comparison, one who's heavenly minded and one who in name or word only is heavenly minded but really is focused upon earthly things and earthly status and earthly prominence. Well, he tells these two angels disguised as visitors, human beings to spend the night at his house.
They go, no, no, no, we'll just stay out here in the open square. Now watch what happens. But he insisted strongly. Why? Because he knows his town pretty good by now. And so they turned into him and entered his house and then he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread and ate. Boy, when I read those verses, it might sound insignificant, but I get hungry. Because I know what unleavened bread in the Middle East tastes like. It's pita bread, but when they make it fresh on a stone or put it in those Persian or Iraqi ovens, that unleavened bread and just comes off and it's so.
Okay, enough. They gave him unleavened bread and they ate. And now before they laid down the men of the city of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, where are the men who came to you tonight?
Bring them out to us that we may know them. Now in the New King James, if you are reading like I am, it has in italics the word carnally. Does your Bible have that? And it's in italics. So it says, if I were to finish out the verse and I didn't on purpose, that we may know them carnally. But the word carnally is in italics. It's implied by context and I'll tell you why in a minute.
But it simply is that we may know them. Yada is the Hebrew word. The translators put carnally and that is a correct move. Some Bible translators like the New Living Translation make it even clearer.
Let us take these men that we might have sex with them. That's what the word to know, yada, implies. For thousands of years, and I say that without stretching it at all, for thousands of years, people have recognized that the Bible condemns homosexuality as a sin.
They understood that. It was never a dispute of what the Bible says about it. Now you can say, well, I disagree with the Bible and the Bible is wrong, that's your privilege. But there was never a dispute of what the Bible said about homosexuality being a sin. The Old Testament laws, the Levitical laws under the laws of Moses get really explicit about what to do in case there's an offense in that regard. And the New Testament holds up this sin both in Romans, Jude, Peter and other books as being sort of the threshold that marks the ultimate corruption of a culture. And here is a case where people again for thousands of years have recognized that this is the posturing in the city of Sodom for homosexual rape.
We want to come into these men and we want to force ourselves on them and know them sexually, intimately, carnally. And a lot's going to prohibit that from happening in a weird way. Here's the problem with this belief. You can't be a practicing homosexual and hold to that belief. You can't hold to the belief that it's wrong, that it's a sin.
You can't do that. That's mutually incompatible. Especially if you consider yourself, and I'm going to give you a new term, maybe it's not new to some of you, to others it is, if you consider yourself a homosexual Christian, that's a term that has come up in the last several years with the upsurge of the church, the Metropolitan Community Church under Troy Perry came up 20 years ago, where people say, I am a Christian but I'm a practicing homosexual. So you have to do something with that thousands of years interpretation that the Bible condemns this as a sin. So what do you do?
Here's what you do. You reinterpret the biblical documents to mean something other than what they plainly mean. Now the real first attempt at this was back in 1955 when an English gentleman by the name of D, I think it's Edwin Bailey, but it was a guy by the name of Sherwin Bailey, D. Sherwin Bailey wrote a book called Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition. And what he said when he came to Genesis 19 is that the sin of Sodom was not a proposed homosexual rape at all, but it was the lack of hospitality shown these two men who came to visit. Because hospitality was such a huge thing in that culture and for them to barge in and not show hospitality that was their sin. That's why it was judged.
That's why the city fell. Now the same author will acknowledge that when you get to the New Testament there's some pretty blatant texts like Jude that takes and says about Sodom and Gomorrah that the people were involved in immorality, sexual immorality, and they loved strange flesh. And so what this guy does is say, well, yes, the New Testament condemns homosexuality, but the interpretations of that came between the Old and the New Testament in the inner testamental periods. And so they don't hold the same validity. And so the big question is what does he do with all of those texts that blatantly speak out against homosexuality in both the Old and the New Testament? And this is what he says. He says the problem in the Bible is not homosexuality, but homosexual promiscuity.
That is, you can have a partner and a lifelong partner, but if you sleep around, that's the sin that God condemns. Now following on the heels of that, I mentioned Troy Perry who used to be a Pentecostal preacher. But he came out of the closet, said he was a homosexual and started the Metropolitan Community Church. He lives with his partner in California to this day. He's now an older gentleman.
I believe he's still around. And basically he says this, homosexuality is a gift from God. Therefore, God condones and blesses what I'm doing and calls himself a Christian homosexual. And I've read how they wrangle the text of Romans and Jude and Genesis. However, I simply want to say this. A plain, simple, straightforward reading of the text can only lead you to one conclusion.
And it's over and over and over again. And that is homosexuality is sinful, is wrong, is unbiblical. Now there's a lot of other sins that are sinful and wrong and unbiblical. So all have sinned and all have fallen short of the glory of God. And who am I to speak?
Because God saved me from my sin and redeemed me by his blood. And God is able to do that with anyone with any background. He can do it. That's the business he's in.
He's in the redemption, restoration business. But a straightforward, simple reading of biblical texts would lead you to the simple, straightforward truth that is presented here, interpreted by Paul and Romans, mentioned by Jesus in the New Testament, and also in the book of Jude later on in the New Testament. Now you'll notice again in verse five, they say that we may know them carnally. Well, those of the Metropolitan Community Church, Troy Perry and others, what they like to refer to themselves as homosexual theologians, say that yes, the word in the Old Testament, yada, the Hebrew word, can sometimes be translated as knowing a person intimately sexually.
In fact, they say 15 times it is used that way in the Old Testament. However, they say over 900 other times, that same word simply means to know somebody mentally. Now you might say, oh, well, they've got a point.
No, they don't have a point. The interpretation as to which way it is to be interpreted comes by context, what is the context? You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, in his book, Is God Real?, Lee Strobel, author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Case for Christ, provides a rational exploration of the proof of God's existence and the basis of our eternal hope. Writing to skeptics and believers alike, Strobel turns his critical mind and expert interviewing skills to perennial questions like, how do we know which God is real? And if God is real, why does he seem so hidden? Is God Real?, along with two messages preached by Lee Strobel at Calvary Church, are our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your resources when you give at least $50 today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. The contextual argument is the strongest argument for what any word means. You could take the word light. What does light mean?
Well, it means the opposite of darkness, or it means something that's not heavy. Well, how do you determine what it means? By other words that are surrounding it in the sentence. The context will tell you exactly what it means. So the translator saying, knowing them carnally, or we want to have sex with them, are doing it justice in translating the text, because though it's only used 15 times, it wouldn't matter if it was only used one time. It's used in that manner here. He said, well, how do you know that?
By context and read on, you'll see. So Lot went out to them through the doorway, verse six, shut the door behind them, and he said, please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly. See, now, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish.
Only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason that they have come under the shadow of my roof. Now, before we get to the obvious apparent crazy thing that he did, notice in verse eight, his daughters have not known a man. It's used in the same way. You think it means they never in their whole life ever met a man, ever mentally had a conversation or got to know any human being of the male's gender? That's stupid.
That's ridiculous. It obviously means, know them, yada, in a sexual, intimate manner. And since he is suggesting that they take them who have never been sexually with a man, known a man, that you can do whatever you want to them, but don't know these guests. It's all part of the same context. It's unmistakable.
It's straightforward, simple reading. And they said, stand back. And then they said, this one came to stay here, and he keeps acting like a judge. Okay, back to those verses. Lot, you say, is absolutely out of his mind.
Well, yes. Now, I'm not going to speak on his behalf, because what he suggests is wrong. Hospitality in the ancient times was so sacred that when you invite a guest into your house, you are sworn to his protection or their protection, even if it means your death.
That's how sincerely and totally they took the responsibility of hospitality. Now, having said that, it does not clear him at all. It simply shows that he has lost his moral compass. He's been living in Sodom.
He's now a leader in Sodom. It has rubbed off on him. And what a point that is to make. It's very difficult to live in a culture that has its values that are against biblical values and not have that culture rub off on you, have that mentality, those values rub off on you. It's very difficult to maintain the right kind of balance.
We face that similarly in our position. We're bombarded with messages on the radio, on television, on billboards, so much that we become numb to it. And so we think, oh, no problem. Let's see that movie. The F word's only mentioned five or six times. People say it all the time. Well, there's only four sex scenes in it. That happens every day.
We start becoming numb to it and accommodating to it, and pretty soon we can get to a thing and we just, whatever. This has rubbed off on him. And to suggest what he suggests is absolutely deplorable that they take his daughters. And something else, notice in verse 7 what he calls the men of Sodom, my brethren. Oh, that's telling.
Well, he says they've come under the shadow of my roof. Can I just say something else? Ancient cultures disregarded women as being like chattel, maybe a step up from a slave. And there's still many cultures today, including Islam, that sees the woman in a degraded position as something you own and you command. Women, you ought to thank God for Jesus Christ, who elevated the woman to the correct status, not as a position of ownership by the man, but as the equal, as it says in Ephesians. And it says that great scripture, there's neither male nor female, Scythian, bond or free, we're all one in Christ.
Elevated the woman, not kept her subservient or dominated like some of these other cultures. Well, verse 9, they accuse him of acting like a judge. How many times whenever you bring up Jesus or you say, well, that's not right, just saying sometimes that's not right, people go, who are you to judge, right?
We get that all the time. And what about judging? Well, Jesus said, judge not lest you be judged, but that means a censorious kind of a judgment that would relegate a person eternally to hell. Jesus also said, flip the coin around, judge ye a righteous judgment. Discern, make determinations of what is right and what is wrong. That's part of sensible living.
But they say he keeps acting like a judge. Now, we will deal worse with you than with them. Couldn't imagine what that could be. And so they pressed hard against the man Lot and came near to break down the door. But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot, the men being these two angels, verse 1, and pulled Lot into the house with them and shut the door. And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness.
Cool. Both small and great, so that they became weary of trying to find the door. Remember years ago that television show, Touched by an Angel? Well, you could call this, Punched by an Angel. You don't want to mess with an angel. Now, the Bible says that, by the way, angels are mentioned in 34 books of the Bible, 34 different books, 17 books of the Old Testament, 17 of the New Testament, mention angels. About 103 times in the Old Testament, about 165 times in the New Testament, angels are mentioned. Billy Graham used to call them God's secret agents.
Great name for them. The book of Hebrews describes them as ministering spirits. Angels are ministering spirits, Hebrews chapter 1 tells us, sent by God to minister to us who will inherit salvation. You have angels that protect you. You have angels that watch over you. The Bible teaches that.
I am so glad for that. Now, I wonder what some of them think when I get on my Harley Davidson or I get on my skateboard. I think, oh man, he goes again. Double up, get the guys over here.
He's a crazy old man going out on those things. Angels are invisible because angels are non-corporeal. They don't have a body. Because they're invisible, non-corporeal, they don't have a body, they don't have the restrictions or the limitations that we as human beings do. However, from time to time, God sees fit to, let's say, clothe them with a form so that people can interact with them.
So they appear to be like human beings to suit his own purpose. And the closest example, and it might be lame to some of you, but I'm going to share it anyway. Do you remember Star Trek?
Okay, follow me so far. Star Trek. Think about Star Trek episodes. And you remember when you're in a Federation starship and you're traveling around the universe and you've got like star hopping and there's a long journey, you got to do something. And so for entertainment aboard some of the Federation starships, they had a thing called the holodeck. Remember the holodeck? Okay, nobody, two of you do?
God bless you. That hand, I see that hand, I see that hand. Okay, so the holodeck created three-dimensional holograms that seemed to be like real life. You could interact with them. You could walk through them. If you were from Earth, you could design the Alps and take a trek through the Alps in the holodeck.
If you were a Klingon, you could recreate an ancient battle and test your fighting skills. It was a computer program, but it seemed so real. So think of angels appearing with the physical features of a human sort of like that. God enacts the program so that human beings can see and interact for God's own purpose. So we see that in the Bible, don't we? In the Garden of Eden, there were two angels that stood guard with a flaming sword. Adam and Eve could see them. They could interact with them. They were visible.
Non-corporeal, invisible, but for a time, like the holodeck, to interact with man, they're provided with some sort of morphological structure. In Genesis 18, they were dinner guests. The Lord Himself and these two angels, they ate a meal with Abraham and Sarah. Now, what do you feed an angel? Angel food cake. That's exactly right.
Very good. Now here, we see them in Sodom and they're divine bouncers here. Okay, a little insight on angelic power. In 2 Kings chapter 18, Sennacherib the Assyrian has gathered his troops against Israel and are staging an attack on Jerusalem.
Well, King Hezekiah of Judah is in the city and he sees and he hears what they're threatening and he prays to the Lord, oh God, please save us from this enemy and he tears his robe and he prays and says we trust the Lord, not our own strength. So the Lord answers his prayer and the next day, one angel, an angel of the Lord, goes through the camp of the Assyrians and kills 185,000 Assyrians. That's one angel. Now here's two angels in Sodom. Massive power.
Can totally wipe out the city. Boy, that puts a whole new spin on what Jesus said to Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, Peter, put your sword away. Don't you know I can call for 12 legions of angels? A legion is between three and six thousand Roman soldiers. So don't you know, Peter, that I can call like this for between 36,000 and 72,000 angels? Well, if one angel can down 185,000 Assyrians, can you imagine what 72,000 could do?
Powerful. In the tribulation period, God will dispatch his judgment to angels. After the seven seals are opened up, seven angels blow trumpets that issue four judgments.
Seven more angels pour out bowls of judgment upon the earth, very, very, very powerful judgments. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been encouraged in your walk with Christ by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will help you confidently respond to questions and challenges to God's existence.
It's Lee Strobel's book, Is God Real?, and two messages he preached on the topic at Calvary Church. Request your resources when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources from Pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox? Simply visit connectwithskip.com and sign up for emails from Skip. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
