Refuting Five Myths about Homosexuality #2

People are lying about this.

People are not disclosing information that needs to be made. There is this great delusion. There are these rampant myths that are easily disproved. Thanks for joining us on the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Today, Don presents part two of a message called, Refuting Five Myths on Homosexuality.

As he continues the series, The Bible and Pride Month. Well, Don, some folks might think that the issue of the rightness or wrongness of homosexual behavior and so-called gay marriage was once and for all settled in the recent Obergefell versus Hodges Supreme Court decision. But that's not so, is it? Well, no, Bill, I really don't think that does settle it. The fact that five unelected lawyers wrote an opinion about something doesn't settle anything. If you think back on American history, the Dred Scott decision in 1857 said that slavery was an acceptable form of society going forward. Well, that didn't settle the issue of slavery at all.

And this recent decision by the Supreme Court doesn't settle the issue of homosexuality at all. God's word has spoken and we need to know what God says about it because that is unchanging truth. Let's come back to the Bible today and study this together on the Truth Pulpit. Thanks, Don. And friend, here is our teacher now teaching God's people God's word from the Truth Pulpit.

You're thinking people, you're intelligent, every one of you. Why would they lie if not that they had to misrepresent something in order to achieve another result? This isn't about searching after truth for them. It's about a social goal that they want to accomplish by any means possible. Otherwise, they would be as forthcoming with this information.

And look, I feel sorry for you in one sense. I know that many of you are saying, I never heard this. Where can you find this stuff? It's not easy to find. It's all there, but it's not readily available.

You really have to go after it like a detective going after a criminal in order to find the evidence that is right there. They don't want you to see this and yet it is easily documented and I've got all the documentation right here on my table in front of me. I'm not making this up. Myth number four, homosexuality is physically and mentally safe. Look, if love is love, then what could be harmful about it? This report, Top Health Issues for LGBT Populations, Information and Resource Kit, published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In other words, the Obama Administration. Obama officials reported that men who have sex with men are 44 times more likely to be diagnosed with the HIV virus than the general population. Syphilis rates were 46 times higher than the general male population and 71 times higher than the female population. More generally, homosexuality has been shown to result in a decreased life expectancy of 25 to 30 years. Liver disease, which increases the risk of liver cancer. Fatal immune disease, including associated cancers.

Sorry, but this needs to be said. For homosexual men, anal cancer at rates 17 times higher than heterosexuals. Multiple bowel and infectious diseases and much higher rates of suicide. Homosexuality, it's a documented fact by the Obama Administration itself that it greatly increases suicide, ideation and substance abuse.

One study found this. Homosexuals and lesbians were twice as likely to have attempted suicide in the preceding year. Homosexual and bisexual men were four times as likely to attempt suicide during their lifetimes. Depression and substance abuse were at least one and a half times more common in the homosexual community.

Do you ever wonder why they are depressed and suicidal? Listen, it has nothing to do with the fact that there are Christians that uphold a biblical ethic. It has nothing to do with that. I know that we're the scapegoats, but it's not true. It's an utter fiction.

Try this on instead for an explanation. Again, relying on statistics from top health issues for LGBT populations published by the Obama Administration. Over 56% of lesbian or gay adults report experiencing intimate partner violence compared with 17.5% of straight adults.

You are three times more likely to be beaten up by your intimate partner if you're in that lifestyle than if you're a heterosexual. Who's telling them that? Why isn't that public front page one news?

Why do you have to dig through a 100 page report and read the fine print in order to find that? Why isn't someone warning these people before they get enmeshed in the lifestyle, look out, this is bad news? You know why? Because the politics aren't good in it. They want money to be made by protecting people.

What's this saying? More than half the time their own lovers are beating them up. It makes me want to weep.

This is horrific. For those of you who are in the homosexual lifestyle watching over the live stream, I want to assure you I'm not your enemy. Did I become your enemy just by speaking the truth on statistics attested by your own preferred administration?

That doesn't make any sense. I have no axe to grind against you. The axe that I'm grinding, the thing that elicits my passionate reaction against it is the fact that people are lying about this.

People are not disclosing information that needs to be made. And there is this great delusion. There are these rampant myths that are easily disproved. And you may not like me for saying it, but my homosexual friend, I love you enough to tell you the truth.

I love you enough to lay out the consequences of what's ahead of you. And there's another aspect of it, you know. I'm a pastor. I've counseled homosexuals in my office. I know the guilt that they feel. I know that some of them feel trapped in a lifestyle that they can't get out of. Some of them say, but I didn't choose to be this way. But I don't believe for a minute that everyone who has a homosexual inclination or has been engaged in homosexual behavior is a radical like is portrayed in some circles. I don't believe that for a minute. Some of the reason that I'm saying this, a big part of the reason that I'm saying these things is to let you know that there is hope out of that lifestyle.

That change is possible. That Christ does save sinners. He'll save you too.

I just invite you to come to Him and lay yourself down before Him. And the reason that we need to say these things is that we recognize that there is hurt, deep hurt in the lives of many homosexuals. Why else would they destroy themselves? And where is the word that would warn them? Where is the word that would bring a word of comfort and hope and say it doesn't always have to be this way? There's one person that has the power to do that. It's the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is only Christ who can redeem us. When you put these four myths together that we've looked at, that homosexuality is common, that homosexual love is like heterosexual love, that homosexuals are born that way, that homosexuality is physically and mentally safe, and you see how utterly false all of that is, there's two things that we would say about it. First of all is this, is that on a human level, there has been an astonishingly successful misinformation campaign at work regarding the nature of homosexuality. On a human level, from a media and political and legal strategy standpoint, man, they are geniuses who have been able to pull this off in the past 20 or 30 years.

But it is outwardly successful, but it is based on a series of demonstrable lies. That's just on a human level. On a spiritual level, bringing it back here within the church to those of you. Look over at Ephesians 6. We need to understand the nature of the battle. In Ephesians 6, the Apostle Paul said, put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

Look at this in verse 12. How is it that we're up against this in our day and age? Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Jesus said that Satan is the father of lies. We see a systematic perpetration of lies on a culture and upon a world system. And when you trace it back, look past the media campaigns, look past the political action committees, look past the legal maneuvers and realize that we are against, and we are coming against a supernatural, deluding influence traced to Satan himself because every lie traces back to him. I had you put your finger in 2 Corinthians 7.

I don't want your finger to get a cramp in it. Now turn there if you would. So what do we do? What do we respond to this?

What do we say in light of these things? 2 Corinthians 10. How do we engage the battle? 2 Corinthians 10 verse 3 says, Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. In other words, not by human means that rely on lawsuits and politics and a constitutional amendment.

No, no. Our weapons are not of the flesh, but they are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations in every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Where is the knowledge of God found? Where is the mind of Christ found?

Nowhere else except in the 66 books of the Bible. It is God's truth. It is the teaching of God's truth. It is the proclamation of the Gospel, which is the cannonball of fire against these lies that we find ourselves enmeshed around. And if the collapsed society around us on a moral level brings us back to this one fundamental point, this time in history will be marked as a blessing from God to the church, to bring us back to the truth, bring us back to the Scriptures, bring us back to that which, in the words of the prophets, are sweeter to my taste than honey and more precious than gold, which Paul says is divinely powerful for the exposing and the contradiction and the refutation of lies and pointing people to the truth that alone can deliver them from their sins. You see, I know that a lot of people in our day and age in the church are speaking, and I understand where they're coming from, but they just want to narrow this down to just proclaiming the Gospel on an individual basis and sticking to the Gospel with individuals.

That's fine as far as it goes. These people that are advocating that don't recognize the breadth of the battle that we're engaged with. We're engaged with satanic philosophies that are designed to undermine the truth. It's more than just an individual's salvation. We must bring the full truth of God to bear against this assault on the way people think. And the Word of God is more than sufficient for it. I wish, in one sense, this is a denial of my love of the doctrine of providence to speak this way, I'm far enough along in life that maybe I've got 20 good years if the Lord gives me breath. Maybe 20, maybe 25.

You know what? I wish I had 50 to give to God's Word in a time like this. Those of you that are in your late teens and early 20s, you've got those 50 years ahead of you. Give yourself over to Christ. Give yourself to the teaching of God's Word. Give yourself over to the church and show yourself a lion and a warrior for truth because we're going to need you in days to come.

There's a final myth that we need to deal with. Myth number five is that homosexuality is spiritually safe. You're more likely to find today people who, in the church, who believe that you can be a gay Christian than those who would refute and contradict that notion. A gay Christian.

They assume that you can be an LGBT Christian. That's not true. That is an oxymoron. It is a contradiction in terms. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 6 and we'll close at this passage and one more. 1 Corinthians 6. God's Word is clear.

It's not difficult to understand when you let it speak for yourself. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9 says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? And notice this Spirit-inspired warning as if it were written for times just like ours, Do not be deceived.

In other words, beloved, give me your attention for just a moment. In other words, Scripture says that you are prone to deception on this very point. That's why the warning is there. If you were not subject to this deception, Scripture would not warn you against it. And so it says, as obvious as this seems, you need to be on guard so that you would not be deceived by what I am about to say, by those who would contradict what I am about to say. Don't be deceived by it. And so the very nature of Scripture puts all of us in this room and Christians watching over the live stream puts us on notice.

This is a point of vulnerability even if we don't think so. If we're lifted up and boastful and proud, we think, Oh, I could never fall for that. Well, don't be deceived tells us that this is a prime area for deception.

What does it say? Look back at verse 9 with me. It says, Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. People who are marked by those unrepentant sins will not go to heaven. And it is a colossal spiritual crime for Christians to suggest anything to the contrary. It is a cosmic treason against God to contradict what his own word says on this point just for the sake of political correctness here on earth and because we're afraid of what men will think about us by saying, No, unrepentant homosexuals will not go to heaven. It's a treason against God to qualify that statement. And what is more is it is a treason against our fellow men to offer them a false hope that says you can be an unrepentant homosexual and not fear the judgment of God. That God will take you just like you are without repentance, without change, without you turning to Christ.

You have to give up your sins. Now look, those of you that know anything about the homosexual culture understand that there's a sense in which their identity, the identity of many homosexuals is totally wrapped up in their sexuality in a way that's difficult for us to understand. To tell them to forsake their homosexuality is to tell them to deny their very life. And that seems too severe to Christians who don't trust God's word enough and think that, well, let me help God out here.

I'll shave off the rough edges. But you know what? Denying yourself is exactly what Jesus said the price of discipleship was. He said, if anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and come follow me. There came a point where I had to deny my angry, prideful, sinful self and reject it all and say, that is ungodly and I repent of it. That's what we tell every sinner.

At least we should. This is true of every sinner. It's not specific to homosexuals. The gospel message is the same. No matter what your sinful condition is, you need to deny yourself, repent, and put your faith in Christ if you want to be saved. We're not saying anything different to homosexuals than what we say to sinners everywhere. Now, let's read on in verse 11. My homosexual friend, here's your hope. In verse 11, as Paul writes to Christians at the church of Corinth 2,000 years ago, he says, There were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God.

You were like that, past tense. You now have been reconciled, justified, declared righteous in the presence of a holy God because Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate, left the glories of heaven above and came down to earth with a perfect, sinless life, which He offered up to God the Father as a sacrifice to satisfy the wrath of God against sinners just like you and me. He took the punishment so that you and I could be saved if we put our faith in Him. And homosexuality, my friend, is not the unforgivable sin. Being a lesbian is not the unforgivable sin. We offer you the same gospel that we offer to sinners everywhere. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. And He'll save you too if you come to Him in faith. And so the Spirit of God had changed those people in Corinthians so that they were no longer homosexuals. Change is possible for homosexuals and for those wrestling with those powerful temptations.

You're not a prisoner of your genetics. If we're going to find the truth about these matters, having looked at these five myths and refuted them, we need God's Word to guide us. And let's start here and close with this one passage in Matthew 11. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 11. Maybe you're angry.

Maybe tears of hope are involuntarily running down your cheek. But I present to you a gracious, sympathetic Savior who will receive you. Despite all of your past sins, He will receive you and save you and cleanse you and welcome you into His family. Jesus said in Matthew 11 verse 28, Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Are you tired of your sin? Come to Christ. He will give you rest. Look at His promise.

And He never breaks His promise. Never once has a sinner come truly to Christ and found that He was turned away. Jesus said, Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. I want every sinner to know that rest.

Don't you? If you're a sinner and you've never come to Christ, look at the promise and take this occasion to receive Him. Christ comes to you and says, Come to Me and I'll give you rest.

Won't you come? Come to Christ and be saved. And with that, Pastor Don Green completes a message titled Refuting Five Myths on Homosexuality. Next time, as Don continues our series The Bible and Pride Month, he'll begin a message called Addressing the Heart of Same-Sex Attraction. Plan now to be with us.

But now, here's Don with a closing word. Well, my friend, thank you for being with us today on The Truth Pulpit. You know, our biblical voice on these ethical matters is an increasingly minority opinion in culture today. But I'm encouraged nonetheless. It may surprise you to know that our ministry reaches nearly all 50 states and over 40 countries on a consistent monthly basis.

And so God's Word is having an impact and He will never allow it to return void. You know, friend, would you consider supporting our broadcast to enable these podcasts and airing over local radio stations to continue as we minister God's Word? You can find the ability to give on our website, thetruthpulpit.com. That's thetruthpulpit.com. Thank you so much and God bless you. There you'll also find a link to Don's Facebook page and much more. That's all at thetruthpulpit.com. And now for Don Green, I'm Bill Wright, inviting you back next time as Don teaches God's people God's Word and the truth pulpit.