Grace Thoughts

Guest (Male): Hello friends, welcome to Grace Thoughts, the radio ministry of Grace Connection Church with Pastor Tim Kelley. Grace Thoughts has been dedicated to preaching a clear Gospel of grace for over 20 years. Here is Pastor Kelley.

Tim Kelley: Now Christians, before we run out of here saying, "I told you it was a choice." Let's remember what I said. When people end up here, it draws a line back to something that happened in here. There's something that hurt that person, damaged that person, made that person seek this to find security, whatever this is. We're talking about homosexuality today, but you could put anything into this equation. The issue is not their sin; the issue is the needy heart that caused them to sin.

Lewis Sperry Chafer said in his book *He That Is Spiritual* many years ago, "I never deal with men after their sin; I deal with men after the need in their heart that caused them to sin." If I'm going out and drinking myself into a stupor, I'm doing that to forget something, to sublimate, put something behind me, whatever that is. There's a reason why I'm doing that. There's a reason why somebody has entered into a homosexual behavior. The bigger problem is not the behavior, it's the reason. If you can address the reason, you can address the behavior, just like you can with anything else. Agreed?

Two of you agreed, thank you for that. I want to be clear on that, though, because the thing that should stir the church is not wagging a finger, "Yeah, you're doing it." No, we should be like, why are they doing that and how can we minister to them? How can we show the love of Christ in their life and give them what they need so they can walk with God in the freedom of the Spirit? That needs to be our battle cry, not combatting some political agenda.

The second myth here is 10% of the population is homosexual. That's being taught. I had a young person tell me that in the last 12 months. Our kids are told that in many cases. The 10% number was derived from a Kinsey Report 50 years ago, and that number has been tossed around for 50 years now. When they did drill down on the actual report, they found out that the amount of people they used in this study were all in prison. They were inmates, and there was a very small section of them at that.

The Kinsey Report has pretty much been not even used anymore within the arguments when people want to talk about these things. It's been discredited abroad, yet it's still cited and quoted. If you know the truth, friends, that's just dishonest. 1990 US Census Bureau—these are the numbers—less than 1% reported to be homosexuals. The 1991 study by the University of Chicago, a large study, not the largest but a very large study, came out with 1.7% of the population being homosexual.

In 1994, probably the biggest study to date, American Sex Survey, came out with the conclusion 2.7% of men are homosexual and 1.3% of women are homosexual. A little different than 10%, but those are the real numbers, to the best that I could find them. The third myth is a homosexual lifestyle is healthy and it's normal. Well, it would be normal if it was genetic, but we've already looked at that. If it's not genetic, then I'm not sure that it's normal or healthy.

78% of male homosexuals have had or have a sexually transmitted disease. H.H. Hatfield quoted that in *Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Homosexual Men*. Two-thirds of all AIDS in the US are a direct result of homosexual behavior. I'm not saying this to pile on. I'm saying this: if this is a normal lifestyle, if this is just a genetic reality, then why are we facing these numbers like this?

50% of all homosexuals have a HPV virus, a disease that leads to cancer. You know what HPV stands for? Human Papillomavirus is what it stands for. Steven Goldstone, assistant clinical professor of surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center, speaking at a 1999 Gay Men's Health Summit in Boulder, Colorado, said that, not me. Homosexual young people are 23 times more likely to get a sexually transmitted disease. A homosexual male is 1,000 times more likely to get AIDS than anyone else.

In San Francisco, the sexually transmitted disease rate is 22 times higher than the national average. Lesbians are 14 times more likely to contract syphilis, four times more likely to have scabies, and three times more likely to have breast cancer. Only 3% of homosexuals are 55 years and older. The average homosexual lifespan is 8 to 20 years below the national average depending on who you read.

Because of medical breakthroughs, the homosexual community is living longer than they have in previous generations. I'm not saying that in a bad way; I'm just being honest. It used to be 40 to 42 years, and now it's extended because AIDS is no longer even considered terminal in many cases. They can extend the life 20 to 30 years after you get it, which, praise the Lord, they can do that.

Romans 1:27 once again: "And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved." The Apostle Paul talked about a physical ramification to this lifestyle 2,000 years ago. Without the science, without anything else, he probably had his own type of history he referred to, but he talked about it 2,000 years ago.

24% of homosexuals report to have up to 100 sexual partners in their lifetime. That's the lowest number I found; the highest I found was 1,000. In other words, people who comment on it, so I just took the low. I think you get my picture, my friends. For a normal lifestyle, there is a lot of bad stuff happening to the people who practice it. I don't glory in that; I truly don't. I want to point people to something better than that, as I would with anyone.

Once a homosexual, always a homosexual. You've heard it. Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. Once a drug addict, always a drug addict. If it's not genetic, my friends, then it's changeable. If it's not genetics, then we can beat this thing, whatever this thing is. Today we're talking about homosexuality. Verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 6: "Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy, or drunkards, or abusive, or cheat people, none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God."

The Apostle Paul said that. But then he says this in verse 11: "Some of you were once like that." He wasn't talking about the church there in practice; he was talking about people before they became Christians. "But some of you were before like that, but you were cleansed, you were made holy, you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God."

That's a really cool verse. Notice what he said here: "Some of you were once like that." Some of the people reading that letter in Corinth, which is a pretty crazy city, as we brought out last week, he said, "Some of you used to be that way, but you're not now." Things have changed for you because you've met Christ. You've been declared righteous. You've got the Holy Spirit living inside you. So you're no longer a practicer of idol worship, adultery, male prostitutes, homosexuality, thievery, greed, drunkenness, abuse, or cheating. You're no longer. No, that used to be you, but you're not that person anymore because Christ is in you and your body is the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit.

Masters and Johnson came out with a study. They have remarkable success with people who want to leave the homosexual lifestyle. 79.1% had immediate success. It's a secular program. 71% stay celibate out of their homosexual lifestyle. So 79% who want to leave can leave, and they can do it without ever going back. That would be hard if it was genetic. Again, my friends, you don't create a void and not fill it with something else. You don't take from this person, "This isn't good, you need to stop this," and not give them something else to fill that void with.

It's our job as God's people with truth to fill the void, to meet these people right where they're at. These people, whoever these people are and whatever they're practicing, whether you're a drunkard, an idol worshipper, or an abusive cheat. Fill in the blank; there's a whole list of stuff there. It's our job to come in behind them and fill that void, and to love them right where they're at and show them a Christ that cares for them. Chip Ingram said this: "The research and the Bible both say this is not a life sentence that cannot change."

It will take a life, my friends, walking closely and honestly with God, with some trusted friends that will help you stay accountable and daily contact with the Lord. Discipleship is dirty. It's hard work. It takes friends and mentors to put their arms around people and say, "I will walk with you through this. I will stand with you through this. And yes, you can pick up a phone and you can call me when you have this temptation." Whether that's a temptation to practice homosexuality or a temptation to drink or to use drugs, it takes God's people who are willing to get dirty in the messy things of life to say, "You can count me as a friend and I will help you walk through this." We, the church, need to come in and fill the void that these people are trying to fill through other things.

If we feel a little bit righteously justified now, listen. Homosexuals need to meet a Jesus that loves them and cares for them deeply, not one wagging their fingers in self-righteousness and saying, "That's disgusting." So is your gossip, and so is your Pharisaism, and so is your self-righteousness. That's even more disgusting than their homosexuality. It felt good saying that. When I saw Jesus rebuking and getting mad in the Gospels, do you know who he got mad at? He didn't get mad at the homosexuals, he didn't get mad at the adulterers, and he didn't get mad at the fornicators. He got mad at the Pharisees. The people that were wagging their fingers and judging everyone and cramming them in a mold and just pointing out their bad behavior but not coming in behind them with anything to fill it.

Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. He loves the homosexual as he loves the whole world, and the doors of God's Kingdom are flung open to everybody. Amen. My friends, I'm going to close with this. The worship team can get ready if they want to come on up. But please understand, I send you out of here not wanting to point the fingers. I never want to wag my finger at somebody's behavior or somebody's sin. But on the other side of the coin, I want you to leave here being biblically literate so you can articulate what the Bible says about this subject.

This is a hot-button subject in our society. It's being taught differently and talked about differently in the media, in our educational system, our secondary educational system, on the airwaves, and in peer groups. It's not being represented biblically correct. So now we understand what the Scriptures teach. And if again you feel that my science was wrong, you can feel free to show me where I was wrong. I paid a painstaking price of hours of research to make sure I didn't get it wrong. I didn't use Christian sources; I used secular sources on purpose so I'd make sure I wasn't saying anything that I couldn't verify.

But again, the spirit of this is so you'll leave educated, that you'll leave prayerful, and I pray as God's people that you'll leave convicted. Not convicted against the sin of homosexuality; the conviction is: what can I do to help the people that battle with it or help the people who battle with anything? If we are the salt and we're the light, then my friends, it's on us to show a better way.