God's View of Homosexuality, Part 1 B

God says being a transvestite is an abomination, being a transsexual is an abomination, being a homosexual is an abomination, and God will judge the nation that tolerates it and God will destroy the people that do it.

Having said all of that, I go right back to where we started and remind you of this wonderful truth. This sin is forgivable. Does that tell you something about God's grace?

Does that tell you how gracious our God is? Many churches have revised their long-held beliefs about homosexuality, to the point of approving same-sex marriage. And why not? After all, isn't there something honorable about a marriage commitment? Do the genders of the spouses really matter? And anyway, aren't there lots of gray areas in the Bible concerning homosexuality? Bring those questions to today's lesson on grace to you, as John MacArthur continues his look at homosexuality in the Bible. This study can help you understand, with precision, God's view of homosexuality. It can also prepare you for tough conversations you may have with friends or relatives. So follow along.

Here's John MacArthur. Finally, this one should be apparent, but just in case it isn't, this sin has taken on unique properties in our culture. It has been declassified as a sin and turned into a sort of civil rights group. It is, at this particular point, a political issue and not a moral one, an issue of freedom and not a moral one or a spiritual one. The fact that it is being advocated not only in the private sector, but in the public sector, in public schools and in government political parties and conventions, and that it is being ruled on in courts and decided on in legislatures and dealt with by governors and presidents and mayors and so forth, has taken this sin and sort of extracted it out of the general plurality of sins and given an identity all its own. And consequently, because of its prominence in our culture, it needs to be addressed. What does God say about it?

Let's go back and find out. Deuteronomy chapter 22 is a good place to start. Deuteronomy chapter 22. Sometime in your past, if you've been in a fundamental or evangelical church, you may have heard some pastor refer to this verse probably in another context.

Verse 5 of Deuteronomy 22 says, a woman shall not wear man's clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman's clothing. Now follow this, for whoever does these things looks weird. Is that what it says? No. For whoever does these things must be on his way to a party.

No. For whoever does these things is what? An abomination to the Lord. It abominates God.

It disgusts and revolts Him. Now, a woman is not to wear man's clothing. The first time I ever heard anybody refer to this, they were preaching a sermon about why women shouldn't wear slacks or pants. It doesn't mean that.

May I remind you of something? In ancient times, men wore skirts. That is a ridiculous interpretation of this. Everybody wore skirts.

Nobody wore pants. That's not what it's talking about. There was a certain style, however, to men's clothing and a certain style to women's clothing. But the Hebrew says, a woman shall not wear literally that which appertaeneth to a man. Whether it's weapons or implements or tools or clothes or whatever it is that rubs out the distinctiveness of one's sex, that's an abomination to God. Today we call people who do this transvestites, a person who exchanges his dress for that of the other sex because it induces a certain kind of sexual...perverted sexual thrill or fulfillment. Men are to be masculine and women are to be feminine and God has made them male and female. Male and female created He them and that's the way He wants them to stay and Satan wants to obliterate and convolute and pervert and twist that.

We see that in the homosexual community today, rampant. In fact, they love to dress up in the clothing of the opposite sex. The men put on those women's clothes and they parade themselves publicly under the title drag queens. I'll never forget one time when I was riding with the infamous Hawaii Five-O in Honolulu. One of the officers was taking me around to see Sorted Honolulu at night and he said, I want to take you into an area to see something you won't believe. And we drove into this area and here the streets were lined with dozens of people in bikinis and spiked high heels and done hair and thick makeup.

And as we got closer and started to mingle with them as I walked with this officer, I saw that they were all men. They parade themselves like that down the streets in their gay pride parades all over the country. They dress like that.

Sometimes you see them on the street and don't even know it. Some of them are drag queens. That is, they do it in public. Some of them are female impersonators. They do it in public. Some of the women dress like men and you look and you wonder if they're men or women. They do it in public.

And then there are those who do it in private. There's that sick kind of sordidness that men get into when they wear their wives' clothes and bizarre things like that. That kind of thing distresses God. It is an abomination to God because it is an attempt to rub out the distinctions that God has ordained.

The ancient writer Maimonides mentions that a man dressed in fancy women's clothes would often come and worship Venus and Ashtaroth and women dressed in men's armor would come to honor Mars. That is so typical in ancient mystery religions because it was all a part of their pagan culture. Satan dominates the world. He dominates pagan culture and he wants to twist and pervert sexual identity. God says, if you do that, that is an abomination to me. Look at chapter 23, verse 1.

Here you find another issue at hand. No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord. Now you'd have to ask the question, who in the world would have his male organ cut off?

Who would do this? A homosexual. They're called today transsexuals. They used to be called eunuchs. Oh, it was done in a religious way. Sometimes parents in pagan societies would have their ten-year-old boys castrated so they could be devoted to the gods in the temple and they didn't have to then worry about them playing around with the priestesses who offered their services to paying customers. Sometimes a king who had a harem would want some men in there to care for some of the needs of the harem and he would against their will castrate them so that they couldn't do anything with the women in the harem. So eunuchs had places in harems and they had places in pagan temples even from the time they were young. But I think what you have here is someone who has this done to him and the implication would be not only the possibility of pagan worship here, certainly that's a possibility, but also the implication of the possibility of a homosexual perversion.

It doesn't tell us specifically, but you have here a surgical attempt to remove maleness. Today these transsexuals say, well, I'm really a woman trapped in a man's body and so I have to get my body fixed. In ancient times, people were castrated for their religion.

They were castrated because of their duty perhaps to a king, or they were castrated by their own volition because it fit their perversion. And it says here, one who has this done shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. If you're a transsexual, that fits your idolatry and your sexual preference, you're not going to enter the assembly of the Lord.

Ever? You mean that somebody who has a sex change operation can never, ever, ever enter the assembly of the Lord? Look at Isaiah 56, Isaiah 56. That means they can't enter the kingdom. They can't have a relationship with God. They can't go to heaven.

They can't worship the true God. Look at Isaiah 56, verse 3. But go back to verse 1 for a moment. In the middle of the verse, God says, my salvation is about to come. My salvation is about to come. I'm going to bring salvation.

Now go down to verse 3. So let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will surely separate me from His people. You don't have to say that. If you say, I'm a pagan, I've come over here to live in Israel, I've come over here to worship at the temple, I've come over here to honor the true God, but He'll probably kick me out.

Don't say that. I won't do that, God says. Verse 3, neither let the eunuch, the transsexual, say, behold, I'm a dry tree. There's no hope for me. I was castrated. I'll never be able to enter the assembly of God. I'll never be able to walk with Him. Isaiah says, don't say that.

Why? Verse 4, for thus says the Lord, to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant, to them I'll give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than that of sons and daughters. And then here's a play on words, and I'll give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off. I'll save them if they come to me, if they hold fast my covenant, if they choose what pleases me. So, somebody who had his organs cut off and so defiled the image of God can be forgiven, can be forgiven if they come to the Lord. I was baptizing and always I interviewed the people who came in to be baptized, but this night I had been delayed, I think, and I didn't get a chance to, so someone else did, and I just came in to do the baptism. So, this rather burly lady came in and spoke her name, and I think the name was Carla, and the voice sounded strange, and the mannerisms looked strange, and this person said, well, I'm here because I want to testify to my faith in Christ and be baptized, and a very brief testimony, and then I just baptized Carla. But I was deeply distressed, and I went out and I said to someone, I said, make sure that that person comes to my office immediately after getting dressed, and this person walked in and I said, I just want to spend a few moments, I have some questions. Fine. I said, I'm disturbed.

I want to be very upfront with you. You came in from the woman's side, you gave a feminine name, but I think you're a man. And then we launched into a discussion about the fact that he had supposedly had a recent sex change operation. I said, you certainly don't for a moment think that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to accept you and sanctify your lifestyle as a man living as a woman in a homosexual relationship or relationships. Well, I was a...I've always been a woman. I just got trapped in a man's body, and I said, no, you've always been a man, and now you're a castrated man, but you're a man. You were born a man and you will die a man, and you must live as a man, and you must acknowledge the sin of what you've done, and if you will acknowledge the sin of what you've done and ask the Lord's forgiveness and repent and come to Him by faith, you'll be forgiven and He'll be gracious to you. But you must live as a man. Get rid of those clothes, get some men's clothes, and prove the genuineness of your heart repentance toward God. Never saw Him again. Showed up at another church down the road, and I called to talk to the pastor, told the story, and they had to deal with it. It's real life.

There are people who do this. The kingdom is open to them if they acknowledge the sin of what they have done and do what pleases God. Well, we talked about the transsexual and the transvestite. Let's go right to the issue of the homosexual.

Those are components of homosexual life. The real issue is struck with a telling blow in Leviticus chapter 18. Leviticus chapter 18 and verse 22.

It could not be more explicit. God is giving laws here, laws against wickedness and sin. Verse 22, you shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is 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. Again I say to you, God doesn't make commands about things that people don't do. This kind of bestiality and this kind of homosexuality has always been a part of human life.

He says, don't do it. It's an abomination to lie with a man as you lie with a woman. It's an abomination to have intercourse with an animal.

It's a perversion. Then follow verse 24. 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 visited its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants. He says, look, I brought you into this land. I'm giving you this land and I'm telling you the reason that you're able to have this land is because I have thrown the other people out and the reason I've thrown them out is because this is how they behave.

This has brought about the destruction of the prior nation. Look at them. They are homosexual. They are involved in bestiality.

They are involved in names, other things like incest and so forth. They're involved in that. That's their life pattern and I am throwing them out. My wrath has fallen on them and I'm telling you, if you do it, my wrath will fall on you too. You won't escape.

They didn't. Homosexuality defiles the land and it brings God's judgment. Verse 26, but as for you, you're 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, nobody. 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 may not spew you out should you defile 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, killed from among their people. You're going to die if you do this. Thus, you are to keep my charge that you do not practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves with them.

I am the Lord your God. This is God talking, folks. You do this, you'll defile your land.

You defile your land, you'll die. We're watching it, aren't we? We're seeing it. People say, is it the judgment of God? Of course it's the judgment of God. Is AIDS the judgment of God? Of course it's the judgment of God.

All venereal disease is the judgment of God built into the fabric of human life. You do this, you'll die. You do this, I'll destroy your land. This is an abomination. This sin is intolerable to God.

He will not allow it to go on unchecked. He will judge with death those who do it and He will destroy a nation that tolerates it. Now you tell me where America sits in view of God's judgment. It's not going to get better for us in this country.

The glory days are over, folks. It looks to me like we're going downhill fast into the pit of judgment. Some of the homosexual rights people say, well, Jesus said He came to put an end to the law. Sure, that's the Old Testament law, but Jesus came to put an end to the law. No, He didn't come to put an end to the law.

He came as the end of the law, the fulfillment, the culmination of the law, the one who lived the law perfectly. And He said, not a jot or tittle shall pass away from this law. And He reiterates the law, does God, in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit given to Paul to write as he writes 1 Timothy 1, 10, the law is not made for righteous men, verse 9, but for those who are lawless. Verse 10, immoral men and homosexuals, the law is still written to call homosexuals to account.

That's what He's saying. 1 Timothy 1, 9, and 10, nothing has changed. God's moral law hasn't changed because God hasn't changed. Whatever is right has always been right and always will be right. Whatever is wrong has always been wrong and will always be wrong.

Nobody doesn't change because God doesn't change. God said, if you do this, you'll defile your land. If you defile your land, I'll destroy your nation.

If you do this, you'll die. This is a blood-guilty nation. And if you think we're on the edge of some American utopia, you better guess again. From God's standpoint, these are serious days. How in the world we could ever get to the point with Christian beginnings where we have politicians, people running for president and congress and senate and governor and mayor and council members and all of that kind of stuff who advocate homosexual rights, and those people could be elected, those people bear guilt before God because they aid and abet people going into a sin that is an abomination to God. All that said, God says being a transvestite is an abomination, being a transsexual is an abomination, being a homosexual is an abomination. Aiding and abetting any of that stuff is abominable to God, and God will judge the nation that tolerates it, and God will destroy the people that do it.

Having said all of that, I go right back to where we started and remind you of this wonderful truth. This sin in all its categories and in all its extremes is forgivable. Does that tell you something about God's grace? Does that tell you how gracious our God is? Does that tell you something about the death of Christ who in His own body bore those very sins? God is a God of mercy and grace and if you will come to Him in your sin, He is willing to forgive.

That's the message to homosexuals and that's the message for you to give to homosexuals. Father, we grieve over the fact that so many are trapped in this sin, and we grieve over the fact that this is being reclassified or declassified as a sin, and that even churches are denying its sinfulness and thus bear the blood of those who die as punishment for this iniquity. Father, we just pray that You might save many who are caught in this sin.

Deliver them, O God, even as You have many through the years. We know You are able to save sinners. We feel comfortable about our own sin, but we know You hate pride and hypocrisy and a lying tongue and flattery. We feel more comfortable about those sins.

This one we feel less comfortable about and we can become very self-righteous because we don't commit this one, and yet Lord, we are equally as sinful. But Lord, You can forgive us all. I just pray in Your grace You might pour out Your mercy on those who are caught in the sin of homosexuality and that You might deliver many before they are destroyed forever. I pray that we might be kind enough to speak the truth, kind enough to give the warning so that they might come to the cure who is Christ. I pray for the leaders of our nation to take a strong stand on this.

We feel if people who advocate this get into positions of power, it surely is a token from You that Your hand is off this nation and that You've given us over. So Lord, we ask that You would be gracious to us and give us leaders who see this for what it is. Give us people who will not tolerate it and yet who will preach the saving love and mercy of Christ.

We thank You that Your Word speaks to the issues that concern us and gives us clarity. Now make us faithful to obey. If there are any Christians who know You but who have been tempted by the old patterns of homosexual life before their salvation, give them strength and victory and triumph.

If there are any young people that are being influenced into this, save them, deliver them before it ever happens and lead us all to be a people zealous of good works who live righteously and godly in this present age. We pray in our Savior's name. Amen. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John's current study is titled Homosexuality in the Bible. John, in light of today's topic, I'm remembering one of your appearances on Larry King Live back when same-sex marriage was a national debate and you were on the show with a Hollywood actor who was a homosexual and at one point you turned to that actor, you were sitting right next to him, and you had this pastoral moment and you basically gave him the gospel right there on live TV. And I mention that simply to say all of us as Christians need to bear in mind that homosexuals are not our enemies, they are the mission field.

Yeah, and I remember that very vividly. He was sitting to my right and we were live on CNN with Larry King and we got into the discussion of homosexuality and I could tell that he was homosexual in a very painful way because he was talking about the fact that this was something his parents would totally completely reject and it had cost him a relationship with his family. It turned out that that actor actually played the role of Steve Saint in a Christian movie that depicted the missionary among the Aucas and so I knew he was around Christianity and knew something about Christianity and at the moment I just felt that I had to reach out to him.

I think this is what Paul has in mind when he said to the Corinthians, such were some of you. Somebody stepped in and gave the gospel to homosexuals. Some of you were homosexuals but you've been washed and you've been cleansed and I just felt compassion on this guy and I wanted to give him the gospel because homosexuality is a sin that the Lord can fully and totally forgive and I wanted him to know that. We have a new resource, by the way, about homosexuality. It's a booklet entitled What the Bible Says About Homosexuality.

From time to time we produce these booklets because we want to put a useful tool in your hand and it's a quick read that covers the ground we're looking at in the series this week on radio. Again the title, Homosexuality and the Bible, is our series. The booklet, What the Bible Says About Homosexuality. Here's the good news, we'll send you a free copy if you just ask for it. That's right, a free copy of What the Bible Says About Homosexuality with our compliments.

Right, and friend, do take advantage of this offer. Contact us today and request your free copy of the new booklet called What the Bible Says About Homosexuality. Our number here 855grace and our website gty.org. The issue of homosexuality might seem overwhelming or even hopeless, but there is hope in the biblical truth that you'll find in this booklet. Again, to get your free copy of What the Bible Says About Homosexuality, it's a brand new booklet. Just call 800-55-grace or go to our website gty.org. And before we sign off, let me remind you that our current sale runs through this Friday, June 18th.

Right now, nearly everything we sell is 25% off the regular price. So now is an ideal time to purchase a popular book like Anxious for Nothing or Hard to Believe. You could also pick up Grace Tew's flagship resource, the MacArthur Study Bible, or any of John's 34 New Testament commentaries. Again, to take advantage of a 25% discount on nearly all of our resources, go to gty.org. Do it today. Now for John MacArthur, this is Phil Johnson encouraging you to be here tomorrow when John continues his study, Homosexuality in the Bible, with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace Tew.