Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Praise the Lord. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today on the Sound of Faith because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You are about to hear a penetrating word from scripture addressing the volatile issue of same-sex marriage following the Supreme Court's ruling to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states of America in the name of equality for all. But they have essentially redefined marriage, an institution created by God, not man, because the Supreme Court is not the Supreme Being.

R. G. Hardy: And so the two angels came down and Lot said, "Oh my goodness, you need to come in my house. Get off of these streets, it's too dangerous out here." So they got in Lot's house, but the men of the city came banging on the door and demanded to have sex with those men. They thought they were just men. Demanded, "We want to know them." I already told you that a few sermons ago what that means. We want to have sex with them. And we know that's what they meant because some people say, "Well, then maybe they just wanted to be acquainted." Well, if that were the case, why did Lot answer, "Oh, do not do so wickedly"?

He said, "Do not do so wickedly." So obviously he wasn't just talking about being friends. And to show you that Lot was already poisoned himself, he said, "I got a couple virgin daughters that I'll bring out to you." But they said, "We don't want them. We want those men." So what happened is the angels blinded their eyes. But that didn't deter them. They banged on the door all night until finally the angels said, "Lot, tomorrow we're going to get you out of this city. But first, run to your other daughters and their husbands. Run to them and tell them they must come and get out of the city because God is going to destroy it." And the next day, Lot ran to his daughters and their husbands and the Bible says they mocked him.

And that's what they do to us today. If you say that God will judge America for this, they will mock you and scorn you. They mocked him and they would not come, they would not leave, and so they were destroyed. And Jesus said in Luke 17:28-30, "As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the days before the coming of the Lord." He went on to say, "But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all."

So if anybody has any doubt that Sodom and Gomorrah actually took place, as some may try to say, Jesus confirmed it in the New Testament. And on one of my Holy Land tours, we actually went in that area and you can pick up brimstone. On the sandy, sandy area, just sand everywhere, but you can pick up brimstone because it goes all the way back to that time of destruction. And Jesus went on to say that if God did not spare Sodom and Gomorrah, He will not spare this wicked generation.

And as I quoted that Peter said that God will deliver the righteous out, but He is going to bring the wicked to judgment. And the book of Jude said that these cities were destroyed because they were given over to fornication, which is all sex outside of marriage. However it takes form, all sex outside of marriage, because of fornication and going after strange flesh. That's what Jude says. So Jesus confirmed it, Peter confirmed it, and Jude confirmed that Sodom and Gomorrah took place.

Now, here's another thing that you will come up against and it's a fairly recent lie that is really catching on, and that is that homosexuals are born that way and they can't change. And if that were true, then of course it would be very evil to try to force somebody to change who was born that way and couldn't change. But it's not true. And no one has proven it to be true. No one has proven it to be true. And you can't prove something that's not true. So turn with me in 1 Corinthians the 6th chapter and let's look at verse 9.

"Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." Now you can't make it any clearer, any plainer than that. So in the midst of all these, we got to look here. Don't fool yourself, I'm not talking to you, but I'm speaking to the homosexuals at large. Don't fool yourself by expunging scriptures from the Bible to try to ease your conscience and say, "Well, these are just the words of a man."

Don't fall for the line, "Homosexuality must be okay because God made me this way." God would not condemn what He created. And He did not create anyone homosexual. Now look at these terms. He said "effeminate" will not inherit the kingdom of God, and that refers to homosexuals who play the role of the female. "Abusers of themselves with mankind" refers to sodomites and homosexuals. God said they will not inherit the kingdom of God. They're not going to heaven.

But there is a way out. Verse 11, oh, I love verse 11. "And such were..." Is that past tense? "And such were some of you." You were, but now you are sanctified. But now you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. I will say it again, homosexuality is not the unpardonable sin. Paul said it right here because he was an eyewitness to those who had come out of homosexuality into the freedom of heterosexuality. And he rejoiced with them. He said you were, but now you're not. You were, but now you're washed. You were, but now you're sanctified. That means now you are separated from your sin. Now you are no longer practicing homosexuality. And now you are justified or now you are made righteous in God's sight.

And this tells us that a homosexual can change by the power of Jesus Christ. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I once was blind, but now I see. So we need to get that message out because Paul said clearly that if you practice homosexuality, you will not go to heaven. And Apostle John confirmed it in the book of Revelation. These will be the last verses that we will read. Turn with me to Revelation chapter 21, chapter 21 and verse 8. Let's look at verse 7.

"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." And of course we know that just means mankind, sons and daughters. Verse 8, "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." How many see that?

Okay, let's look at verse 27. "And there shall in no wise enter into it," that's the city, "anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, and maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." Do some of these words sound familiar to you? Look at 22 verse 14. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into that city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."

I'm not going to take the time to explain the word "dog," but let me just tell you that it has a connotation of homosexual. But even if we take that word out, even if we don't even use that, which I'm not going to take the time to prove to you, which I could do, what does it say? If you're abominable, God said homosexuality is an abomination. Anything that defiles, He said that homosexuality defiles a person. And anything that loves and makes a lie, He said they changed the truth of God into a lie. So I see three reasons right here why homosexuals are not going to heaven. It's pretty clear because we saw these in scriptures and I took the time to have you read them so you would know it.

Now here's another thing that you will come up against, or at least I would think, that the day after this landmark Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in America, in every state, all 50 states in America, you would think that the next day the newspaper would have some kind of a heading and banner that would be rejoicing, "Same-sex marriage legalized." That's what I would expect to have seen. Imagine, I was shocked when the next morning the Baltimore Sun says, "Rights battle isn't over." What?

Think about it for a minute. Because folks, even though they have just now had what they have wanted for so long and been fighting for years, in the midst of their jubilation that they have finally achieved the Supreme Court legitimizing same-sex marriage in the United States of America, in the midst of all that, they're saying that the battle isn't over. Why? Because they want to silence everyone who opposes their agenda. And now they are greatly emboldened to do so.

One minister, one black minister, said they have hijacked the civil rights movement and now they're seeking to make it a hate crime to speak out against homosexuality. The purpose of hate crimes was to prosecute people that commit violent acts against others solely because of their race. That's the intention of that law and it's a good law. It's a federal law and if you commit violence against someone, if you can prove that you did it because of their race, it becomes a federal felony, and that of course increases the consequences. But they want to hijack that law that was meant for that and they want to make it so that if you speak out against homosexuality, that is a hate crime.

One Texas minister said, "They compared the color of my skin to their sin." Now God created skin color and nobody can change the color of his skin. We know a lady up there in Washington tried to do it, but it caught up with her. You can't change your skin color because God created red, yellow, black and white precious in His sight. Or vanilla or latte or caramel, whatever y'all like to say. All beautiful to God. God does not care about your skin color. He cares about the color of your heart.

God did not create homosexuals and we saw that they can change and have changed and will continue to change by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because God is not willing that any should perish. So this hate crime thing is a serious problem because if they manage, if they succeed, if that's what they succeed in doing, it's going to speak trouble for preachers.

Hillary Clinton is a candidate for president in the next election. She was at a global conference on women and she was discussing women's rights and speaking of abortion. She said, "Religious beliefs have to change." I'm going to say that again. She said, "Religious beliefs have to change." In other words, in order to be able to accommodate abortion, you've got to rewrite the Bible. That same sentiment is being touted by those who endorse homosexuality. They're not happy now that they have legitimization. They want to force their beliefs on everybody else.

They want to strip the Christians in this nation, Christians and Jews and even Muslims for that matter, any of those who oppose same-sex marriage, they want to strip us of our First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Now one minister pointed out the fact that they may to a point let you go on the freedom of speech. You can get out there and say whatever you want, everybody says what they want. But when it comes to the practicing of your religion, that's where it's going to get rough.

Where they're going to try to force Christian owners, and they have already, we all know about the Christian bakeries. We all know about the Christian florists. We all know about the Christian wedding reception venues who have been sued and taken to court and fined great fines and threatened with jail time because they refused to serve homosexual weddings. Not homosexuals in general. You can come if you're a homosexual, buy all the cupcakes you want, buy all the cakes you want, buy all the flowers you want. But I cannot participate in a wedding ceremony. I will not discriminate against you as a citizen of the United States, even if you're a homosexual or whatever you are, but when it comes to that I have got to be a part of something that is against my conscience as the Word of God dictates, I can't do it.

And they have forced businesses to close down. Do you think they won't come after Christian ministers next? They've already done it. Do we remember October 2014, Houston's openly gay lesbian mayor? She subpoenaed five pastors. One of them is the executive director of the Texas Pastor Council. She subpoenaed them to turn over any of their sermons dealing with homosexuality. And she said that if they failed to comply, they could be held in contempt of court. How many remember that?

The reason was this was her payback or her punishment because earlier in the year in June 2014, she had passed a law that allowed any man who identified himself as a woman to use a woman's public bathroom and vice versa. When they passed that law, the people of Houston were outraged. Parents were outraged, as well as pastors and the citizens in general. They garnered 50,000 votes on a petition that would allow it to go on a ballot so that the voters would have to have a public vote.

But when they did that, the mayor just dismissed it. She dismissed the petition and when she dismissed that petition, they had the votes they needed to get it on the ballot. She just ignored it. So then they filed a lawsuit against the mayor's administration. That's what stirred her up to subpoena these pastors. This was her response and she said they had to turn over their sermons, text messages, photographs, electronic files, emails and all communications with members of your congregation on topics such as homosexuality and gender identity.

The backlash and the firestorm that ensued was so dramatic and so immediate that she quickly dropped the subpoenas. But we should not be so naive as to think it won't happen again, especially now in light of this Supreme Court ruling. But Benny told me this morning, and so I usually don't go on Facebook when I have to preach, but he told me, so I hurried up went on his page because he said he put it on there.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, God bless Texas. I've been talking about them a lot today. I know I just talked about that mayor, but she learned a lesson there. The people rose up and Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill on Thursday, the day before this landmark ruling. It's called the Pastor Protection Act. It protects religious organizations and individuals from performing marriage ceremonies that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.

They had a signing ceremony at the governor's mansion. He was joined by members of the legislation who helped him get this passed, by members of the clergy from all across Texas. And this is what the governor proclaimed: "Freedom of religion is the most sacred of our rights and our freedom to worship is secured by the Constitution. Religious leaders in the state of Texas must be absolutely secure in the knowledge that religious freedom is beyond the reach of government or coercion by the courts. I am proud to sign into law the Pastor Protection Act to ensure that clergy in Texas cannot be forced to violate their religious beliefs."

And you know what I had to say? One down, 49 to go. We may not be able to reverse the Supreme Court, but we need to get legislation passed to protect ministers. Amen. Or some of you may be coming to visit me when you go to city jail ministry. Come on, stand on your feet and let's give the Holy Spirit a shout out for the truth. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

You got to have a backbone to be a Christian. You got to be like Paul, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because I know it's the power of God." And it's got the power to deliver people out of all sin. Amen.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen. I hope you're being spiritually stirred and socially enlightened to the truth of the homosexual redefinition of marriage, because that is exactly what the Supreme Court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states of America has done. But the Supreme Court is not the Supreme Being. This is not about equality for all people. Marriage is an institution created by God, not man. Marriage is God's idea and He created the blueprint: one man and one woman.

When He created Adam and Eve, He said, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they two shall be one flesh." And Jesus Christ ratified it in the New Testament and added the solemn warning: "What God has joined together, let no one put asunder. Let no one undo God's marriage design."

Some claim Jesus did not address homosexuality, but in this verse, which was also cited by Apostle Paul, God laid down two pillars of the foundation for marriage: monogamy and heterosexuality. There is no evidence that God created people to be homosexual. He would not condemn what He created and He does solemnly condemn the practice of homosexuality. The Bible is clear: any who practice homosexuality and claim to be a Christian going to heaven is deceived.

But the good news is homosexuals can change and have changed and will continue to change by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul was an eyewitness to this and he rejoiced with them, proclaiming, "You were homosexual, but now you are washed, separated from your sin, and righteous in God's sight."

But the danger for Christians, especially ministers who preach like this, is that the homosexual agenda wants to make it a hate crime to speak out against homosexuality. So even if you read scripture straight from the Bible, you could be prosecuted for a hate crime. They've already succeeded in prosecuting Christian bakeries and florists and wedding reception venues who refused to participate in same-sex marriages.

Saints, we must not allow our First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion to be stripped from our pulpits. I urge you to order "The Supreme Court is Not the Supreme Being" on CD for a love gift of at least $10 to help us keep this program on the air. Request offer SK-180. Mail to PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203 or go online to SoundOfFaith.org where you can also order on MP3s. But to order by mail, send a minimum love gift to Sound of Faith, PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Till next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying Maranatha.