1.     I want to speak this morning on the subject of so-called “gay marriage.”  Parents, you may want to send your young children to Children’s Church.  It is up to you.

2.     As we can see from our text in Genesis 2, God ordained marriage.  God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18).

3.     That “help meet” was a woman, not a man (2:22-25).

4.     The marriage between a husband and wife is so precious and so sacred that God compares it to the relationship between Christ and His church (cf. Ephesians 5:21-33).

5.     This morning, I would like to draw a contrast between Biblical marriage and so-called “gay marriage,” which is a mockery and a perversion of real marriage.

6.     If the marriage between a man and a woman is a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church, then so-called “gay marriage” is a picture of the relationship between the devil and deluded, degraded sinners.

7.     “Gay marriage” is a bogus term invented by sodomites to confuse and mislead people.  Homosexuality is all about confusion.  Men dressing like women is confusion.  Women dressing like men is confusion. Famous lesbians like Ellen Degeneres and Rosie O’Donnell promote confusion.

8.     Bigmouth Rosie O’Donnell says she has been treated for depression for years and so she hangs upside down like a bat (“inversion therapy”) for up to a half-hour a day to improve her mental state. 

9.     She is very wealthy and famous, but she is depressed because her lesbian lifestyle is sinful.  God calls it an abomination.  

10. New York Post cover story for February 25, 2007 – “Talk about a tax cut.”  “A judge has ordered taxpayers to foot the bill – up to $20,000 –   for a sex-change operation that will make a 21-year-old man into a woman.  In a ruling to be released Thursday, Manhattan Family Court Judge Sheldon Rand said the city must provide the subsidized snip because the woman wannabe, identified as Mariah Lopez, had been in the care of the Administration for Children's Services as a youngster. The judge said the agency has a duty to pay for all ‘necessary’ medical care to the kids in its charge. Rand ruled that Lopez suffers from a diagnosed gender-identity disorder and that surgery is the recognized treatment.  ‘I don't think it's hit me yet. The consequences are so far reaching,’ a jubilant Lopez told The Post after learning of her victory in the legal battle, which started before Lopez was 18 and cared for by ACS.  ‘This court has recognized that gender-identity disorder is a real condition and there is a real solution to it and people don't have to suffer from it.’  The city's senior lawyer on the case, Julian Kalkstein, said, ‘We respectfully disagree with the judge's decision and are going to be appealing the case.’   Lopez said the surgery would cost between $15,000 and $20,000. The city has already paid for a laser hair-removal procedure around Lopez's genital area.  Lopez's father, who lost custody when she was 6 because of his drug use, said, ‘She's my son-daughter, I love her.  If it's in her blood to be a woman, so be it.  I think if it helps other gay people, I'm all for it.’  Lopez, who was named Brian at birth, told of feeling like a girl trapped in a boy's body at 6 years old.  Lopez – who is still physically a man – dresses as a woman and has taken hormones since age 15 in order to go through puberty as a girl, get breasts and develop a higher-pitched voice. Lopez also likes to be referred to as ‘she.’”   THIS IS CONFUSION.  THIS IS AN ABOMINATION.

11. The NY Post published an editorial about this abomination. “Over the last 41/2 years, Lopez has racked up: Thirteen arrests encompassing 29 charges, including: loitering; loitering for the purposes of prostitution; prostitution; third-degree assault on a police officer (a misdemeanor) and second-degree assault on a police officer (a felony).  Eleven convictions, and Four separate trips to Rikers Island, the longest for 40 days - the felony assault charge having been plea-bargained down to a misdemeanor.  Now, it's probably true that Brian Lopez would be much happier as Mariah Lopez  -- unambiguously, as it were.  But, Judge Rand notwithstanding, it's not really clear how effecting this transformation somehow has become the responsibility of New York's hard-pressed taxpayers.  Again, the notion that, simply because an individual was once in the care of ACS, it follows that the city is responsible for that person's well-being forever and ever is, in a word, absurd. Would the city have to pay for continuing health care for everybody who has ever been under ACS? If not, why is Lopez special? (He is, after all, something of a sociopath. Indeed, after 13 arrests and 11 convictions, he should be paying the city, not the other way around.)  But, if so, whence the money?  Appeal this decision.  All the way to the United States Supreme Court if need be” (“Justice Isn’t That Blind,” 2-27-07).

12. In these days of apostasy and rebelliousness, the sodomites and lesbians are coming out of their closets in droves. These perverts and their liberal allies have been very successful in infiltrating the schools, the media, the entertainment industry, the court system, the government, and even many churches.

13. A couple of weeks ago in San Francisco, the following proclamation was issued: “Be it resolved that I, Gavin Newsom, Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco, congratulate Colt Studios on the occasion of their 40th anniversary and proclaim February 23, 2007 as Colt Studio Day in San Francisco!”

14. Colt Studio makes homosexual pornography.   When people complained about honoring a pornographic studio that distributes dirty movies all over the world, the mayor backed off a bit and claimed he did not read the proclamation before he signed it.  However, Assemblyman Mark Leno defended the pornographers, telling the San Francisco Chronicle that “the owners of the studio are taxpaying, law-abiding San Francisco employers who promote safe sex.”  He went on to tell the newspaper that the pornographic Colt films had “contributed to his development as a gay man” (Bill O'Reilly, New York Post).

15. A lady who used to attend our church places children in foster homes.  She said she and her coworkers were ordered by their supervisors to give priority to homosexuals.

16. Years ago, people would not mention homosexuality in polite society.  Now they are teaching it to little children in the public schools.  Now it is all over the newspapers and television.

17. In Noah Webster’s 1828 English Dictionary, there is no word “homosexual.”  The word had not yet been invented.  And back then the word “gay” meant “merry” or “jovial,” not perverted.

18. There are no references to homosexual or gay (as people now use the term), but here is how Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines “sodomy”: “a crime against nature.”  And this is how sodomy was defined in all fifty states in America until the 1960’s.

19. Another word for sodomy is buggery. Here is how Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines “buggery”: the unnatural and detestable crime of carnal intercourse of man or woman with a beast; or of human beings unnaturally with each other, sodomy.”

20. In other words, “buggery” could refer to either bestiality or homosexuality.  They are closely related.  The Bible calls it confusion.

21. Here is how Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines marriage: “The act of uniting a man and a woman for life; Marriage was instituted by God himself for the purpose of preventing the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, for promoting domestic felicity, and for securing the maintenance and education of children.  “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4).

I. GOD ORDAINED MARRIAGE.

1.     We see the first marriage way back in the very first chapter of the Bible – way back in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1:27, 28). 

2.     Notice, Genesis 1:27 says, “male and female.”  Not “male and male” or “female and female.”

3.     Notice, Genesis 1:28 says, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply.”  Homosexuals cannot reproduce.  They cannot be fruitful.  They cannot multiply. 

4.     In Genesis 9:1 and 7, God said to Noah and his family, “Be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.”

5.     It’s a good thing Noah and his sons were not homosexuals or we would not be here today.

6.     Notice, Genesis 1:31 says, “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”  Marriage between a man and a woman is “very good.” 

7.     But sex outside of marriage is not good.  Hebrews 13:4 says, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

8.     Whoremongering is not good.  Adultery is not good.  Fornication is not good.  Premarital sex is not good.  Sex outside of marriage is not good.  Giving out condoms to teenagers is not good.  Watching dirty movies and TV shows is not good.  Pornography is not good.

9.     And homosexuality is not good.   The first marriage is found in Genesis 1.  The first reference to homosexuality is found in Genesis 13:13, where we are told that, “The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.”

10. This brings us to our second point.

II. GOD CONDEMNS HOMOSEXUALITY.

1.     Both the OT and the NT condemn homosexuality (cf. Lev. 18:22; Romans 1:24-28).

2.     Because these Scriptures strongly condemn homosexuality, most sodomites despise the Bible.  That is why they keep pushing for so-called “hate crime” laws.  These laws state that it is a “hate crime” to say homosexuality is a sin.

3.     There are a few religious sodomites who claim that God does not condemn homosexuality – He only forbids promiscuous homosexuality.  This is a strange view, considering that the vast majority of sodomites are very promiscuous.  Homosexual orgies are commonplace at gay bathhouses and gay bars.

4.     Other religious sodomites claim that certain Scriptures only condemn homosexual rape.  However, that is not what the Bible says.  “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination” (Lev. 18:22; cf. Rom. 1:24-28). 

5.     Some teach that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was inhospitality.  But the Bible does not say that God destroyed those cities for being rude and inhospitable (cf. Genesis 18:20; 19:1-11).

6.     Still others say that the sin of the Sodomites was pride.  Ezekiel 16:49 says, “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.”

7.     However, the next verse says, “And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.”

8.     Whenever we study the Bible we must look at all the relevant passages (cf. Genesis 19; II Peter 2:6; Jude 7).

9.     We are told in II Peter & Jude that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was given as a warning to the ungodly (II Peter 2:6-8; Jude 7).  Sadly, it is a warning that is not being heeded today.

10. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is referred to many times in the Bible, both in the OT as well as the NT.

11. It is referred to twice in Deuteronomy, four times in Isaiah, three times in Jeremiah, once in Lamentations, six times in Ezekiel, then once by Amos and Zephaniah.

12. It is mentioned six times by our Lord in the Gospels, once by Paul in the book of Romans, then once by Peter, once by Jude, and once in the book of Revelation.   Why so many times?  Jude 7 says, “for an example.”

13. The Bible, and the Bible alone is our only authority – not the NY Times or the rest of the liberal media, not psychiatrists, not opinion polls, not ruthless and spineless politicians, not liberal teachers and college professors, and certainly not unregenerate preachers!

14. The Bible strongly condemns homosexuality.  Therefore, it is absurd to refer to “gay marriage,” and it is absurd to refer to “gay Christians” or “gay churches.”

15. If any so-called church condones homosexuality, it is not a Christian church.  It is the devil’s church.

16. And if a homosexual repents of his sin and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, he will leave the homosexual lifestyle.  God can save a sodomite but he must turn from his wicked sin (cf. I Cor. 6:9-11).

17. As we get closer and closer to the second coming of Christ we can expect to see more and more of these so-called “gay Christians.”  When Jim Bakker was exposed as an adulterer and a homosexual, a preacher (who used to be a Pentecostal) said to my pastor, “This is just the tip of the iceberg.  This sort of sin is very commonplace in Pentecostal churches.”

18. I heard a Pentecostal preacher on the radio say the same thing. Recently we heard about the Ted Haggard scandal.

19. By the way, in his biography, Bakker claims that when he was a teenager, he was seduced by a sodomite in his church. He says this molestation went on for several years.

20. Bakker’s son, Jay Bakker, now preaches that homosexuality is not a sin.  His mother, Tammy Fay Bakker is also pro-homosexual.  The sodomites lover her.  They like to dress up like her and wear makeup like her, etc.

21. In his autobiography, entitled Church Boy, popular gospel singer Kirk Franklin said: “(Homosexuality) is a problem today in gospel music – a major concern – and everybody knows it. ... It seems that more than half the young people involved in dance, music, and the theater are openly gay. ... and the gospel music scene has not been exempt from that” (quoted by David Cloud).

22. The RCC, the Episcopal church, and all of the mainline churches are loaded with homosexual pastors.  Many of these sodomite “ministers” are “out of the closet.” Many of these so-called churches perform so-called “gay weddings.”

23. Barack Obama belongs to a church called Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago that promotes homosexuality.  Bill & Hillary Clinton attended a pro-homosexual Methodist church when Mr. Clinton was president.

24. The devil has taken over most of the liberal mainline churches.  This brings us to our third point.

III. THE DEVIL IS BEHIND GAY MARRIAGE.

1.     Again, let me stress that God ordained marriage (Genesis 1 & 2).  Our Lord said in Mark 10:6, “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.”