Robert Jeffress - When God Lets Go - Part 2
Hi, I'm Robert Jeffress and welcome again to "Pathway to Victory". 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Yet, some Christians believe they can pick and choose which parts of the Bible to follow, especially when it comes to the issue of same sex relationships. Today, I'm going to share with you the grim reality of what happens to those who knowingly defy God's commandments. My message is is titled, "When God Lets Go," on today's edition of "Pathway to Victory".
The God that homosexuals say they worship is not the God of the Bible. It is the God of their own making. They have created God in their own image. They have imagined God to be a sovereign who approves of everything and condemns nothing. But that is not the God of the Bible, who says be ye holy for I am holy. A.W. Tozer says, "The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true". And that's what the homosexual Christian does. He imagines God to be a God who approves everything and judges nothing and acts accordingly. No, the Bible says homosexuality is both the cause of and the result of God's judgment. And I want you to notice the three statements here the Bible makes about homosexual behavior. Not only is it degrading and degenerative, Paul says homosexuality is destructive. Look at what he says. He says that homosexuals receive in their persons the due penalty of their error.
Now some people believe this due penalty they receive in their bodies is the coming judgment of God and that may be true, but others believe this due penalty they receive are the physiological consequences of engaging in unnatural sexual practices. Now this comes not from "Focus on the family," this comes from the government's center for disease control. Did you know homosexual men are eight times more likely to contact hepatitis and they are 14 times more likely to contract syphilis than heterosexual men. Now how do you explain that? Why are they eight times more likely to have hepatitis, 14 times more likely to contract syphilis than heterosexual men is because what they do goes against nature. It is unnatural and you certainly see that in aids. Yes, it is true that the effects of aids have spilled over into the heterosexual population, but make no mistake about it, aids is primarily a homosexual disease. Don't take my word for it.
Listen to the words of Matt Foreman, the executive director of the national gay and lesbian task force in an address he made to homosexual activists. This is one talking to one of his own, a group of homosexual activists. He says quote, "Folks, with 70% of the people in this country living with HIV, being gay or bisexual, we cannot deny that HIV is a gay disease. We have to own up to that". End of quote. Do you hear what he's saying? I've been misquoted in the press. I've never said that 70% of homosexuals have aids. But what he's saying here is 70% of those with HIV are engaged in homosexual practice. The Bible says homosexuality is a destructive behavior.
Dr. Milton Helpern was the chief medical examiner for New York city. He is considered the father of modern forensic science. He makes no claims about being a Christian, nor does he condemn homosexuality on moral grounds. But I want you to listen to what he says about the destructive nature of homosexual relationships. He writes this in his biography entitled "Where death delights". Now I found this in a commentary I was reading. And I was so astounded by what he wrote, I thought this writer, Christian writer is making this up or he's exaggerating from Dr. Helpern has said, so I went back to the original source to see if this is what really the chief medical officer for new city had said and it was word for word.
Listen to this. "It is my my role to condemn homosexuality as such and I leave it to the psychiatrists and psychologists to try to figure out why people practice homosexuality. Having performed 60.000 autopsies, I say this. It is high time that those who deviate from the norms should understand the risks. I don't know why it's so, but it seems that the violent explosions of jealousy among homosexuals far exceed those of the jealousy of a man for woman and a woman for a man. The pent up charges and energy of the homosexual relationship simply cannot be contained. When the explosive point is reached, the result is brutally violent. But this is the normal pattern for these homosexual attacks. Multiple stabbings, senseless beatings that obviously must continue long after the victim dies. When we see these brutal multiple wound cases in a single victim, we just automatically assume that we are dealing with a homosexual victim and a homosexual attacker". End of quote.
Is that not astounding? The chief medical officer for New York city? Why is that? Why is there such vindictiveness and brutality in homosexual relationships? It's because what they are doing is abnormal. It is degrading and it leads to destruction. The Bible says when a person abandons God, God abandons them to immorality to abnormality and thirdly he says he abandons unbelievers to depravity. Look at verse 28. When a person has rejected God and replaced the knowledge of the true God with a false God, sometimes it does lead to homosexuality, but that's not the only sin that it leads to.
Look at verses 28 to 32. "And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving and unmerciful. And although they know the ordinances of God that those that practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but they also give hardy approval to those who practice them".
Time doesn't allow us to look at each of these. They are mainly self-evident. But I want you to notice the last two expressions in verse 31 of a person who has abandoned God, the kind of depravity that he falls into. He uses the word unloving, verse 31. They become unloving. That seems like a harmless word. Unloving. But this word in Greek refers to an unnatural family relationship. I read recently of a great illustration of that. A mother, who just gave birth to an infant daughter, as soon as that daughter was born, the mover took duct tape and placed it over the infant's mouth and dropped it in a garbage dumpster. Now that is unnatural. That is unloving. What is it that possesses a mother to do that and you say that is awful. Ladies and gentlemen, that is no more heinous than a mother making the choice to butcher her own baby while in the womb through abortion. It is all the same thing. It is a sign of a depraved mind that would take the life of a child. That's what he's talking about here, unloving. And then he uses the word in verse 31, unmerciful. That word means Ruthless. It means without mercy.
I read not long ago of a child molester who escaped from jail and the authorities were particularly intent on capturing this man, because of what he had described to counselors was his fantasy. This man fantasized over and over again about kidnapping little girls, raping them, torturing them and then electrocuting them to death. You say that's sick. Yes, it is sick. It is sickness, but where does the sickness come from? It comes from a man that has abandoned God and has been abandoned by God. The downward path that leads us away from God always results in immorality, abnormality, and depravity. But will you notice the climax of this downward path. It is not homosexuality. It is not being unloving and unmerciful. The final thing he says in verse 32 is not only do people practice these things, but they give hearty approval to those who practice them as well. That is the final sign of being abandoned by God is that you applaud that which God absolutely hates and ladies and gentlemen, that is what is happening in our country right now. We are condoning what God has condemned. We are calling natural what God calls unnatural. We are calling good what God says is evil.
Ladies and gentlemen, I don't care what the congress says. I don't care what the supreme court says. I don't care what the president of the United States says, the judge of all the universe has spoken and he has said homosexuality is a perversion, abortion is murder. And make no mistake about it, the message of Romans 1 is this. The individual, the nation that abandons God and his law will be abandoned by God for its own self-destruction and that is what we're witnessing in the United States of America right now. We have abandoned God. We have abandoned his word. We have called good what he has called evil and God has taken his hands. He has removed the restraints and he is allowing us to follow the downward path to our own destruction. Well, pastor, is there any hope? I'm one of those people who feels like I'm on a downward path away from God. That may be true of you. Maybe your downward path has led you into sexual immorality. Or maybe it's taken a different form in your life. Addictions in your life that you just can't overcome or just a general sense of despair you think you have been abandoned by God. Is there any way to reverse that and start on the path up toward God? The good news is there is.
Remember the story again of the prodigal son? There he was in the far country far away from his father, living in depravity, despair, depression, eating the slop that was only meant for the pigs. Yet the Bible says one day he came to himself and he said I don't want to live like this any longer. I will get up and I will go back to my father. And Luke 20, verse 15 says, "And he got up and he came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him". The son starting walking toward the father, but the father who had searched the horizon every day for any sign of his son, one day he saw his boy on the horizon and when the son was walking, the father started running to his son. He hugged him, he embraced him and he forgave him and God will do the same for you. If you're willing to take that one step toward God, confess your sin, put your faith in Jesus Christ, God will come running towards you, ready to forgive anything and everything you've done.
Pastor, you don't understand the depravity I've been involved in. I've been involved in sexual immorality, I've been involved in addiction, I've been involved in all kind of sin. God could never forgive me, could he? I want you to turn over to 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, verses 9 and 10, words or tremendous, tremendous hope for any of you who feel like you've been abandoned by God. Listen to this, Paul writes, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, for neither fornicators," that is those who are involved in pre-marital sex, "Nor idolaters, not adulterers, nor effeminate nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers shall inherit the Kingdom of God". Now some people put a period right there and they don't ready any further. I've heard people use these verses to say it's impossible for a homosexual to be saved and to go to heaven. That is the unpardonable sin, homosexuality. Well, if that's true, I want you to notice what else this verse says. It's not only homosexuals who can't be saved, adulterers can't be saved.
Have you ever lusted after somebody who's not your mate? Jesus said you're an adulterer if that's true of you. That means you can't go to heaven if the homosexual can't go to heaven. Or he talks about idolaters, they don't have any place in heaven. Have you ever loved somebody or something more than you've loved God? You can't go to heaven either the Bible says. And not only that, the covetous, covetous, have you ever desired something that somebody else owned? If so, you're not going to make it into heaven either. Ladies and gentlemen, the truth is every one of us is guilty of one or more of these sins. And that's why none of us can make it to heaven. The Kingdom of God is shut off from us. There's nothing we can do to get to heaven. But there's something God can do for us to make sure we go to heaven, look at verse 11. I love these words, Paul says, "And such were some of you. Some of you Corinthians were adulterers, covetous, idolaters, homosexuals, such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God".
Ladies and gentlemen, regardless of your sin, regardless of the depravity you've experienced, your sins are not too numerous. They are not too serious not to be cleaned by the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ can wash us from all unrighteousness. That is the truth. That is the hope that we all have. Isn't that great that we serve that kind of God? Doesn't matter who you are or what you've done, God is willing to forgive you. Whenever I think about that truth, I think about the story of John Newton, who wrote "Amazing grace". You know the story of John Newton. He was an infidel. He was a slave trader. He was involved in every kind of debauchery imaginable until God reached down and saved him. And not only did God save John Newton, he called him to be a pastor, a preacher of the Word of God.
Some years ago, a group of us went to Olney, England, where John Newton pastored. And I remember walking into his church. They had a big pulpit way up there and I climbed up the steps and opened the Bible and read from a passage of scripture, Ephesians 2 about God being rich in mercy, able to save us through grace. And after we finished in that little chapel, we walked outside to the cemetery behind the church where John Newton is buried. We stood in front of his grave and there was his tombstone and it made such an impression on me. I took a picture of it so I could remember forever what the words said. John Newton's tombstone reads "John Newton, once an infidel and libertine was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy". No wonder Newton was the one who wrote those words, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see". Listen to me. It doesn't matter how far you have wandered away. You are not beyond the reach of God's amazing grace. God only gives up on those who give up on him.