0.32 %…. Let this number stick in your craw for a little bit. 0.32 %… How does that taste as you chew on it? Is it sweet or bitter? Satisfying or a gnawing continuation of hunger? I guess you need to know what this 0.32% represents before you can decide. This number represents the percentage of the American population that living in a sexual immoral state with another person of the same sex; we know it by the term homosexuality. If we tabulated how many straight people cohabited, which is sexually immoral as well, the number would be markedly higher. The reason 0.32% is the focus of my writing is that sexually immoral straight folks are no clamoring to be included in state sanctioned marriage. Please understand that sexual immorality is egregious to God whether it is pornography, fornication, adultery or homosexuality and if any of these are not repented of they will lead to eternal destruction.
Revelation 21:6-8 (NKJV) And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Which brings us back to the original number. The United States of America has a population of approximately 320 million. Of those 320 million approximately 1 million (which is extremely generous accounting) live in sexually immoral civil unions and or state sanctioned “gay marriages”, if you choose to define them as such. The reason for my focus on this extremely small minority of the American population, which is LESS THAN ONE HALF A PERCENT, is related to today’s Supreme Court decision, which struck down a states right to ban homosexuals from marrying. Today in America the high court has overstepped it’s constitutional duty, it has approved of that which they know brings the judgment of God (Romans 1:32), and has told the Creator “we will decide what it truth and what is error”. Sadly, this tipping point action, was based on the sinful notions of 0.32% of this nations population, when the majority of people do not support “gay marriage”. In fact the majority look at same sex sexual immorality as just that… IMMORAL.
I am not writing to pick on the Supreme Court justices, in fact my heart is burdened for them in this hour. Our God and Father desires to express mercy over judgment and wants repentance. In spite of His desire for the extension of grace, He will bring judgement on the unrepentant wicked, which will include the U.S. supreme court justices, who have waved their hands in applause of the wickedness a minority of citizens indulging in sexual perversion, unless they turn from this wickedness. May God grant them conviction unto repentance. This can happen. I remember Bernard Nathanson, an abortion doctor who admitted to fudging numbers and statistics to influence the Supreme Court to rule in favor of abortion in Roe vs. Wade, which legalized child murder. This man, by his own account presided over the killing of 60,000 babies. With the onset of ultrasound in the 1970’s Nathanson found himself convicted of his sins before God, and turned away from killing children to seeking to preserve their lives. His repentance and life change are remarkable example of what God can and desires to do, in those repent. May those who have worked hard at undermining the Creator, through legalizing gay marriage, be awakened by God to address their sinful error.
I am not writing to lament the loss of some altruistic vision we believers often express about the nation in which we live. This decision today does not change our calling in Christ one bit, in fact it magnifies it. This decision does not diminish where and when we are called to share Christ, nor should it cause fear to well up in our souls. We should rejoice in this fiery trial as it will purify our faith and being a catalyst to love our enemies boldly. This trial give the opportunity to stand in God’s truth for His glory, regardless of the uncomfortable circumstances. This decision is a road sign that should tell us our hour to stand for Christ has come. May we with honor, love and the fullness of the Holy Spirit testify of His cross and resurrection for the redemption of man. May we be found faithful for His sake. This decision should reveal to us that His appearing is certainly nearer to us than ever before.
Matthew 24:37-39 (NKJV) But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
In this passage Jesus is communicating the social climate at the time of His return. We must remember that in Genesis 6:5, the wickedness of man was so great that every intent of the thoughts of men’s hearts was only continually evil. In Noah’s day they had sodomy, fornication, adultery, murder, no natural love etc. Men were doing what they pleased and givine one one another in marriage. God’s blessing in marriage to men and woman (as counterparts), was being defiled. Interestingly, approval of sodomite and lesbian unions are popping up all over the world and Jesus words are being fulfilled as we speak. Yes today’s ruling and less than half of a percent are a sign of the times, yet there are three things it indicates to the Church as well.
All Nations are a Drop in the Bucket to the Lord
Isaiah 40:15 declares that to our God all nations, even the mighty and powerful, are like a single drop of water in a bucket. That includes these United States of America. We are still debating whether our nation has been uniquely blessed among all other nations. Interestingly, Britain liked to debate this before we existed, as did Spain, France, and yes Italy as well. We can see a Judeo/Christian line of thinking, where each of these nations at one time expressed a “Divine Right” type of idea about their nation. The only problem is that each of these nations, including ours, fall more into this scriptural pattern…
Psalm 33:12 (NKJV) Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom He has chosen for His inheritance.
In the first place this passage refers to Israel. This can not be mistaken as Israel are His chosen people, not any other nation. Yet, the principal of a nation who turns to the Lord and follows His way being blessed cannot be understated. One need look not further than to the Book of Jonah to see a wicked people who turned at the warnings of God and prospered for over 80 years, until they reversed their repentance, and were judged under Nahum. We can see this principal with Great Britain, a nation that was solidly pagan and immoral before the message of Christ came to its shores. In a remarkable turn around, this smallish island nation became “the” super power for hundreds of years. When did it diminish? As it walked further and further into secularism. I have no romantic notion about England, as there were times of egregious persecution against the church, but it prospered as it attempted to find its way, with God. What is my point? America is like all other nations and we (as a collective whole) have wanted God’s “blessings” with no accountability for a very long time. We are like all nations.
Lets face it, we have seen communism destroy the people of the nations in which it is practiced. In these lands the leaders come in with great promises, that apply only to the elite. In the wake of communism is brutality, poverty and millions of hungry and empty souls. We have seen fascism destroy the potential for good in a whole nation of “Christians”, as the Nazi regimes terror. We have witnessed Arab nations suffer under the religious and political dictatorship of Islam, seeing in the degradation of humanity in a myriad of human suffering. These nations and their leaders all thought and think they had a predetermined plan for humanity. Are we different in America because we have had democracy? We are not. We have seen how unrestrained freedom has led to the demise of our power and the destruction of the fabric of our society. It is not communism, or Islam or fascism but fanatical lustful desires brought about by what we consider the blessings of freedom…
Ezekiel 16:48 (NKJV) As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.“Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, abundant food and abundance of idleness(careless ease), but she did not strengthen the poor and needy.“And they were haughty and committed abominations before Me.
Psalm 33:12 (NKJV) Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom He has chosen for His inheritance.
In the first place this passage refers to Israel. This can not be mistaken as Israel are His chosen people, not any other nation. Yet, the principal of a nation who turns to the Lord and follows His way being blessed cannot be understated. One need look not further than to the Book of Jonah to see a wicked people who turned at the warnings of God and prospered for over 80 years, until they reversed their repentance, and were judged under Nahum. We can see this principal with Great Britain, a nation that was solidly pagan and immoral before the message of Christ came to its shores. In a remarkable turn around, this smallish island nation became “the” super power for hundreds of years. When did it diminish? As it walked further and further into secularism. I have no romantic notion about England, as there were times of egregious persecution against the church, but it prospered as it attempted to find its way, with God. What is my point? America is like all other nations and we (as a collective whole) have wanted God’s “blessings” with no accountability for a very long time. We are like all nations.
Lets face it, we have seen communism destroy the people of the nations in which it is practiced. In these lands the leaders come in with great promises, that apply only to the elite. In the wake of communism is brutality, poverty and millions of hungry and empty souls. We have seen fascism destroy the potential for good in a whole nation of “Christians”, as the Nazi regimes terror. We have witnessed Arab nations suffer under the religious and political dictatorship of Islam, seeing in the degradation of humanity in a myriad of human suffering. These nations and their leaders all thought and think they had a predetermined plan for humanity. Are we different in America because we have had democracy? We are not. We have seen how unrestrained freedom has led to the demise of our power and the destruction of the fabric of our society. It is not communism, or Islam or fascism but fanatical lustful desires brought about by what we consider the blessings of freedom…
Ezekiel 16:48 (NKJV) As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.“Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, abundant food and abundance of idleness(careless ease), but she did not strengthen the poor and needy.“And they were haughty and committed abominations before Me.
Our Desire Should be for Revival in the Church
In line with the above idea, the church needs to leave behind this idea of having a revival to the way it used to be. For decades the church has lamented the supposed fact that we have lost ourselves as a Christian nation. We have clamored for the way that is was. Yet is that even a biblical command or point of focus for the Kingdom of God. The New Testament does not outline this as our calling, but we are called to make disciples (Matthew 28:15-20), seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), pray always (I Thessalonians 5:17), love one another (John 15:12) and our enemies (Matthew 5:44), not to love the world (I John 2:15), or be focused on its day to day meanderings and issues (II Timothy 2:4), but to be concerned with the ministry of reconciliation given to us in Christ (II Corinthians 5:17-21). The only problem with our biblically discerned calling is we are not walking in it very much, because we have been to busy trying to clean up the nation, when God wants to clean up our Christian hearts, which have grown cold to Him. Our hearts have good ideas and programs and the right irritation with evil, yet we miss evil in our own midst. We miss the evil of losing our first Love, of loving one another less, and of being apathetic to the lostness of men around us. We make lip service about our sin, but in reality we would rather curse the darkness than in humility repent for our coldness to our Father. This ruling gives the church a blessed opportunity to know we cannot legislate or fix this nations slide into wickedness with anything other than a revival in us first. A revival of absolute surrender to His will and a revival and re-purposing in his Great Commission.
Our Great Calling Bring Reconciliation to All Men
In II Corinthians 5:17-21 Paul relays to us that great truth about our being new creations in Christ. He blesses us with the preaching of the cross where “God made Him who knew no sin, to be sin, that we could be the righteousness of God in Him”. Yet sandwiched between these verses is the ministry of reconciliation we are called to be active in all the time. This ministry is seen in the force with which it is to happen; as though God is pleading through us on their behalf, to be reconciled to God. This is the calling of all the “living stones” of Christ; we are reveal Christ crucified and risen and plead with them to believe the truth and walk after Him. We are not called to reform society, but to allow God to work through us to reform their hearts in Christ’s love. As the world turns closer to Jesus return, the reformation of societies is far more implausible than in times past, for all things are racing to the moment of His return. Yet we are not hopeless, nor daunted at 0.32% or the whims of judges who have forgotten the Author of all law and precept. We have His purpose, His power and His promise. Let the storms come, the rain fall and the waters rise, in this we will not be overcome… He who has Jesus as His Lord has no need of a majority. To have God is to have the One who is undaunted and undefeated. Praise His name.
I agree Romans 1:32 is what i read a couple days ago and i didnt understand why i kept coming back to that verse The Lord was telling me hey i am preparing you get ready to stand for me. Good word pastor Mike
Great Blog. I agree about how we shouldn't look down on the supreme court we should be burdened for them because they will have to face god one day for their decision. we should be praying that they repent and turn to god.