Sermon Tone Analysis

*Genesis 18:20, 21; 19:1-17*

*The Sodomite is Not Gay*

“The Lord said, ‘Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me.

And if not, I will know.’

“The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.

When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, ‘My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet.

Then you may rise up early and go on your way.’

They said, ‘No; we will spend the night in the town square.’

But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house.

And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

“But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house.

And they called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight?

Bring them out to us, that we may know them.’

Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, ‘I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.

Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man.

Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please.

Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.’

But they said, ‘Stand back!’

And they said, ‘This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge!

Now we will deal worse with you than with them.’

Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down.

But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door.

And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.

“Then the men said to Lot, ‘Have you anyone else here?

Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place.

For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.’

So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, ‘Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.’

But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

“As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Up!

Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.’

But he lingered.

So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

And as they brought them out, one said, ‘Escape for your life.

Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley.

Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.’”[1]

"Gay.”

This is a word whose meaning likely will never be recovered in our lifetime.

Only within the past several decades has the word been transformed from one meaning to another.

The root of the word can be traced to the Old High German in the 12th Century.

Its root meant “sudden or fast.”

In the 13th Century, the word had evolved to mean “merry” or “lively” in the Old French tongue.[2]

It is interesting to note that the word has had a sexual connotation since at least the 17th Century when a “gay” woman was a prostitute and a “gay” man a womaniser.

In the early 20th Century, the word began to be used by homosexuals when they referred to themselves.

In a master's dissertation by Ken Cage at Rand Afrikaans University, he writes, “gay people throughout the Western world have, for a long time, used a secret form of language to communicate among themselves.”[3]

Therefore, the term, “gay,” became common within the homosexual community, used by homosexuals to refer to themselves long before the word came into common usage in that context.

In 1938, a very public use of the word occurred in a movie starring Cary Grant.

In this movie he was dressed in a woman's lace nightgown.

He was asked if he always dressed this way.

His reply was, “No, I've just gone gay all of a sudden.”

In 1941, the term “gay” was used as a slang term for a homosexual in a book entitled, “Sexual Variations.”

In 1969, New York City police raided a bar at Greenwich Village that was frequented by homosexuals.

As result of that ordeal and the ensuing protests, the word, “gay,” took on its modern usage in our world.[4]

There is increasing pressure to normalise what has been seen as abnormal throughout history; the transformation of word meanings is but one evidence of this transformation.

No Christian should be surprised at this effort.

When Paul had catalogued the long list of sins that reveal the downward march of a terminal society, he concluded that list with this statement, “Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose.

And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing.

They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating.

Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers.

Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags!

They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives.

They ditch their parents when they get in the way.

Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded.

And it’s not as if they don’t know better.

They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face.

And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best” [*Romans 1:28-32*]![5]

Let me say at the outset that anyone who justifies acts of violence or abusive language because they disagree with or are angered by behaviour will find no comfort in the Word of God.

God does not condone gratuitous violence against sinners.

He is the Judge—you and I are unqualified to judge the hearts and motives of any individual, much less judge our own actions and attitudes.

Having said that, it is equally wrong for those who advocate for homosexuality to employ abusive language against or to seek to harm those who do not agree with their lifestyle choice or the agenda that they are even now imposing on western society.

However, we must not permit ourselves either to ignore sinful behaviour or to justify cowardice through silence.

Amos has spoken for all who would conscientiously follow the Lord God when he wrote:

“The lion has roared;

who will not fear?

The Lord God has spoken;

who can but prophesy?”

[*Amos 3:8*]

When God has spoken, those who fear Him must speak; and it is quite clear from even a casual perusal of the Word of God that He condemns sin.

The Lord is pledged to judge all sin.

Therefore, when we speak out to warn of that divine judgement, we are showing compassion for and mercy toward sinners.

Christians who speak out against sinful behaviour do not seek to hurt, but rather to bless.

They have no desire to condemn; rather they seek to deliver from judgement.

In that spirit of compassion and concern, I now point us to the Word of God.

*Homosexual Behaviour is Sinful* — “The Lord said, ‘Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me.

And if not, I will know.’”

Sodom, together with her twin city of Gomorrah, was a wicked city.

Indeed, the inhabitants were condemned as being arrogant and self-centred; and though surfeited with food and with excessive leisure, the people was utterly unconcerned for the poor and needy [*Ezekiel 16:49*].

Nevertheless, it is the “sexual immorality and [pursuit of] unnatural desire” [*Jude 7*] that brought about the destruction of the cities of the valley.

Male homosexuals are identified as “Sodomites,” after the actions exhibited by the people of Sodom toward the angels sent to assess the behaviour of the inhabitants of the city.

Thus, the term “Sodomites” describes the behaviour of individuals who act out homosexual desires.

People argue over semantics, contending that homosexual desires should not condemn anyone.

The thought is that a person cannot help feeling what they feel.

Let me say at the outset of the message that God does not condemn anyone for his or her feelings—so long as illicit desires are not entertained.

You will recall that the tenth commandment condemns greed, or entertaining desire to possess what another possesses.

“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour’s” [*Exodus 20:17*].

Until one begins to dwell on what another has, awareness is not sinful.

When one entertains greed, focusing on what another has or what the thinker doer not have, that individual has passed from awareness to sin.

Similarly, feelings toward another of the same sex are not sinful in themselves, provided one does not entertain sinful desire, focusing on behaviour that is clearly condemned by God.

Make no mistake—homosexual acts are condemned by God.

One cannot get around the clear statement that widespread approval of homosexual acts is a mark of God’s dismissal for society.

The passage is extended, but it will be beneficial for us to establish the biblical view of homosexual behaviour by referring to the divine assessment given in the first chapter of Romans.