declaring doctrine

Reprobate Doctrine (Part 23)

Declaring Doctrine | Part 23 | Reprobate Doctrine

 We’re in Romans 1 and we’ve been going through this series called Declaring Doctrine. We had a section on the Word of God and then we had a series on the doctrine of the Godhead and related items. Now we’ve been in a section on Salvation. We started with looking at what the Bible teaches about justification and propitiation and atonement. Then we looked at the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer. I gave you 5 reasons why we believe in eternal security. Then we looked at the doctrine of individual soul liberty. The fact that God has given you free will. God has given us a choice and we must choose to believe on Christ. God does not force his will upon anybody. We also talked about how that differs from freedom of religion. Last week I preached a sermon called the doctrine of the new man and how when you get saved, God creates in you a new man separates from the old man or the flesh. And we’ve been going through this series on salvation and I feel like the last four sermons have been very positive and encouraging. I mean these are very positive doctrines that we believe in. Salvation, eternal security, individual soul liberty, the new man.

 Tonight, I’m preaching on the reprobate doctrine. I can’t preach a series on the doctrine of salvation without dealing with the reprobate doctrine. Although it doesn’t cover salvation, it does fall under that heading of salvation. Let me just give you a definition for the reprobate doctrine if you’d like to write this down. The reprobate doctrine is the belief that although every human being is born with the opportunity to be saved, someone can cross the line with God and lose their opportunity to be saved. I want to make sure you understand what I’m saying. I’m not saying that somebody can lose their salvation. We believe in the eternal security of the believer. Once you’re saved, you’re always saved. You can’t lose that but you can lose the opportunity to be saved. Someone can cross the line with God. I’m talking about somebody who’s not saved. They can lose their opportunity to be saved.

 This sermon is really meant to just give a doctrinal philosophy as to why we believe what we believe in. The reprobate doctrine. What is it? Why do we believe it? Today most Christians don’t agree with the reprobate doctrine. In fact, this is one of the doctrines that people just hate our church for and preach against us and say we’re hateful people. Because today people are told that God never gives up on anybody and you can get saved until your dying day. And I would say for most people that’s true. God doesn’t give up on most people and most people could get saved even up to their dying moment. But the Bible teaches that God does give up sometimes and that people can cross a line where they go too far.

 If you don’t agree on this subject, I encourage you to follow along and look at what the Bible says. Because at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. What does the Bible say? As Baptists, we should just decide that whatever the Bible says is good enough for us. Let’s talk about this idea of the reprobate doctrine.

 Let’s start number one with the deviance of a reprobate. The deviance of a report. I’m going to give you four kinds of headings or sections for this doctrine. The first one is the deviance of a reprobate. I use that word on purpose. The word deviance is defined as deviating or departing from the norm characterized by deviation or deviant social behavior. Deviance is when somebody deviates from what normal social behavior. They depart from the norm and that’s exactly what the reprobate doctrine is about.

 Romans 1:24 “24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”. I’ll come back to that verse in a little bit. Look at verse 26. “26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections:” The word vile means morally wicked. The Bible says that he gave them up to wicked affections. “for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:”. I want you to notice the deviance of a reprobate. The reason that they depart from normal behavior and are deviant individuals is because of the lust of their own hearts. They’ve been given up unto vile affections.

 And then the Bible says that what they do is unnatural. It says “26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:” The Bible says that what these people do is not normal. Verse 27 “27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”. What are we talking about here? Homosexuality. Men with men working that which is unseemly. The word unseemly means not proper, not appropriate. “and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet”. Just write beside that verse the word aids.

 Notice verse 28. “28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”. The word convenient means what comes easily or what comes naturally. I want you to notice when we talk about the deviance of a reprobate, we’re talking about the fact that they do things that normal people do not do. They do things that normal people do not desire. They do things that do not come naturally to people. See, the truth of the matter is this. We’re all sinners. Everyone’s a sinner. We’ve all sinned. However, the Bible says that there are some sins that are unnatural. Everybody by nature performs natural sins but there are some things that are unnatural. They don’t come naturally. They don’t come normally to an individual.

 Here God gives us an example in Romans 1 of homosexuality or sodomy. A man with a man or a woman with a woman. But those aren’t the only examples of unnatural sins. Some of the things we would put in this category sodomy and same-sex attraction. Pedophilia is not natural. A grown man being attracted to a child is not normal. Bestiality is not natural. A human being attracted to an animal is not natural. These are things that we would say are deviant behavior. Reprobates according to the Bible are the only ones who desire these unnatural sins.

 There are some major sins that we preach against like fornication, adultery, drinking alcohol and all sorts of things. But it’s normal for a man to be attracted to a woman. We preach against fornication and that’s a sin you can get kicked out of church for but we’re not going to call them a reprobate for that. However, there are some sins that the Bible says are unnatural. They’re not convenient. They’re not normal. And here’s the point, in order to partake in those sins, something had to have happened for them to be able to do that.

 Now let me just make this clear because this is where people often misunderstand our position on the reprobates. People think that we’re saying that if a person does sodomy that makes them a reprobate. That’s wrong. That’s not what we believe. What we believe is that somebody can do sodomy because they are a reprobate. Somebody can go down these roads of unnatural sins because they have been given over to a reprobate mind. So, we have the deviance of a reprobate that teaches us that they deviate from that which is normal. Normal people do not desire unnatural sins. Normal people do not desire these types of things. Only a reprobate does. When we look at a situation where there are unnatural desires burning in the lust one towards another then we can walk away from that saying that person’s reprobate. Why? Because a normal man is not attracted to children. A normal man is not attracted to animals. A normal man is not attracted to other men. A normal woman is not attracted to other women.

 So, we have the deviance of a reprobate. But now let’s talk about the development of a reprobate. Go back to Romans 1 and look at verse 18. The development of a reprobate. How does this happen? How does somebody go down the road where they cross a line with God and become a reprobate? The Bible gives us here an idea of how this takes place and how somebody comes to this place. I want you to notice first of all they knew God. And by the way, let me just say this, every human being born on earth knows of God. You say “Well how could you say that?”. Here’s why. Because God reveals himself to mankind. Now not every human being has heard a clear testimony of the gospel. Not every human being has maybe even heard from the word of God but God has revealed himself to every human. You say “How can you say that?”. Here’s why. The Bible tells us that God reveals himself through creation. We’ve actually talked about this in our doctrinal series.

 Look at Romans 1:18. “18 For the wrath of God is revealed”. Now when we talk about the fact that God reveals himself to mankind, I want you to notice God reveals himself through creation. However, only the wrath of God is revealed. When we go out and preach the gospel, we’re preaching the good news of God. We’re preaching the good news of salvation. The good news is not revealed through creation. That must be revealed through a soul winner preaching the gospel. But the Bible says that the wrath of God is revealed. You see that word revealed there, it means to make known or to disclose or to reveal. The wrath of God is revealed. Notice “18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;”. The Bible tells us here that unsaved people hold the truth in unrighteousness. Even though they’re unrighteous, even though they’re not saved, but it says they hold the truth in unrighteousness.

 Romans 1:19 “19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,”. Those words mean that they’re manifest. They’re revealed. They’re shown. “being understood by the things that are made,”. That’s creation. “even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse”. Here’s the point and you know this. I’ve taught this to you. Before everybody is born, every human that’s born can look up at nature and creation and they can see the sun, the stars, the moon. They can see nature and that reveals to them the fact that there is a God. There’s a reason why every civilization, every group of men and women that have gathered throughout the history of the world have all believed in God. They believed in a God. They believed in something or some sort of form of that. You say well what about people that are atheists? Nobody’s born an atheist. You say “An atheist told me that they’ve been like that their whole life”. They are lying. Everybody’s born with a belief of God, a revelation of God and they have to be brainwashed into not believing in God. They have to be convinced into not believing God. See, God reveals himself through creation.

 “20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”. Not only does God reveal himself through creation but even more powerfully than that God reveals himself through the conscience. Notice verse 19 again. “19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.”. The word manifest means evident or apparent. The Bible is saying that God revealed himself in them.

 This is why even atheists, when they find themselves in positions where they might lose their life, call out to God. You say why is that? Because everybody in their heart knows there is a God. God has revealed himself through creation but God has also revealed himself through conscience. Romans 2:14 “14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”. I want you to notice that the Bible says here that by nature people do things contained in the law.

 Isn’t interesting that all throughout human history, even in areas where the word of God has not been preached, where the laws of God have not been given, men and women have gotten married and had children and had families. And by and large, except for maybe some reprobate cultures, people have seen things like adultery as a negative thing. People have seen things like stealing as a negative thing. People in general have seen things like murder as a negative thing. Did they need God’s law to tell them that? Now God’s law does tell them that but they didn’t really need God’s law to tell them that because God had already put his law in their hearts. It’s called a conscience. Have you ever heard about having a guilty conscience? People feel bad when they do wrong. They don’t need a preacher or a Bible or a law to tell them that they did something wrong. I mean all those things are available but sometimes it’s just that conscience that God put inside of you. That conscience is God revealing himself in you and to you.

 Notice Romans 1:20. “20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”. Nobody will ever stand before God and have a reason or have an excuse as to why they couldn’t get saved whether they have heard the gospel or not. Now please understand though. Because sometimes people get to say “Well what if they never heard the gospel?”. Well look, if they never heard the gospel then that’s your fault. That’s my fault. God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. God has given to us the ministry of going and preaching the gospel unto all the earth. That’s why we sang that song this morning “That all the earth may know”. God has given to us the job, the task of reaching the world with the gospel. But yet no one will ever stand before God with an excuse. Why? Because whether they know the gospel or not, they know there is a God. Creation reveals God. Their conscience reveals God. Because God reveals himself through conscience and creation. Everyone and anyone that stands before God will stand the Bible says without excuse.

 Now we could love them and help them out a little bit. We could love them and knock on their door and say “You know that guilty conscience you feel, you know how you are struggling with this idea of God and guilt and shame, God put that in you to draw you to him. Let me teach you about God. Let me teach you about his Son. Let me explain the good news to you.”. We don’t really need to spend a lot of time on the bad news. People’s guilty conscience is often enough for them to realize that they are sinners and deserve hell.

 So how does the development into becoming a reprobate take place? Well, it begins with the fact that they and everybody knew God. God reveals himself through creation and conscience. Now what do they do? What gets people down this road of becoming a reprobate? First of all, they knew God. Secondly, they reject God. Now I didn’t say they reject salvation. It’s not even that hard. They just need to reject God in general.

 Look at verse 21 “21 Because that, when they knew God,”. It’s not that they didn’t know God. Everybody knows God and has a conscience. Everybody has an understanding that there’s more to this life. He says “21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,”. Notice verse 23 “23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.”.

 Now in the ancient world, when the Apostle Paul was writing this, he was referring to the fact that there were pagans who were worshipping animals, birds, four-footed beasts, creeping things as deity. And in fact, even in our world today there are major parts of our world in India and with the Buddhists that are still worshiping animals. But before you start thinking “We live in the United States of America and we’re a little more sophisticated and we don’t worship animals.”. We just do it in a bit more of a sophisticated way we call evolution. Our society has also “changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:”.

 Notice verse 25. “25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”. It’s not they didn’t have the truth. They had the truth and they changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature. That’s evolution. Look at verse 28. “28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”. It’s not they didn’t know about God. They just don’t want to think about God. It’s not they didn’t have access to God. It’s that they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.

 So how does this happen? How does somebody go down the road of becoming a reprobate?  well first of all they and everyone knew God. Secondly, they chose to reject God. They glorified him not as God. Romans 1:21 “they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like two corruptible man”. Romans 1:23 “they changed the truth of God into a lie”. Romans 1:25 “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge”. So, what happens to them? Romans 1:28, God eventually rejects them. You say “Well Pastor, this is where I would disagree. God doesn’t ever reject anybody. God doesn’t give up on anybody.”. Well, this is where you’re going to have to figure out and decide whether you believe the Bible or not. Because in romans 1:21 the Bible says this “21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”. Notice verse 24 “24 Wherefore” Or for this reason “God also gave them up”. Notice how the Bible says that God gave them up. You say, I don’t think God gives up on anyone. Well then, I don’t know how else to interpret verse 24. It says “24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:”.

 Romans 1:25 “25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause” Notice these words “God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28 And even”. The word “even” there means in the same way. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,” In the same way they didn’t want to think about God, they didn’t want to acknowledge God, the Bible says “God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”. The Bible clearly teaches that people know God, reject God and then God eventually rejects them.

 Now let me just give some thoughts here for some common questions that I receive in regards to this idea. First of all, let me just say this. Not every atheist is a reprobate. And the truth of the matter is this, we don’t even know really who is or isn’t a reprobate because not every reprobate is even a sodomite or a homosexual or whatever you want to call them. Now look, you can’t go down that road unless you’ve been given over to a reprobate mind. But you may have been given over to a reprobate mind and not fully gone down that road yet. Does that make sense? Here’s what I believe and here’s what we believe at Verity Baptist Church. Every sodomite is a reprobate but not every reprobate’s a sodomite. Every pedophile is a reprobate but not every reprobate is a pedophile yet. Look, you give them long enough, they’ll all go down that road of depravity because they’ve been given over to this reprobate mind. But it’s not like only the sodomites are reprobates. There are all sorts of reprobates.

 And you say “Why do you cue in on the unnatural sins?”. Well first of all because Paul did. But secondly because that does give us a clear proof if somebody’s doing unnatural sins. That gives us a clear testimony that person is a reprobate. But that doesn’t mean that somebody who hasn’t done those things couldn’t also be a reprobate. Because becoming a reprobate is a road you go down. You take steps in that direction and you go down that road long enough that you eventually cross a line and God rejects you. Now where that line is, we don’t know. It’s in different places for different people. That’s why we want to get as many people saved as possible and as young as possible so that people don’t go down that road.

 And let me tell you something, the Devil is doing a wonderful job at getting everybody on that reprobate road. In fact, I would say this. If you put your kids in the public school system, I’m not saying every kid in the public schools is a reprobate, don’t walk out of here saying that because that’s not what I’m saying. But I am telling you that if you put your kids in the Public School system, the Devil is lining them all up and just having them start walking down that road. Why else would the Devil be teaching kindergartners and first graders about having 2 dads or having 2 moms? The Devil starts them with sex ed education in second grade and third grade to teach them all sorts of perversion. Having transvestites come in and read books to little children. They’re trying to bring them down the reprobate road. That’s why they’re teaching evolution to them. That’s why they’re teaching them there’s no God. That’s why they’re teaching them that they came from animals. Why? Because the Devil is doing his best to put people down this road to reject God as early as possible. He is doing his best to teach them about a perversion as early as possible, to get them down that road. And please understand this. We live in a society that is crazy. We’ve got somebody running for Governor who’s a transvestite and that’s just accepted.

 The point is this. There is a road people go down. And by the way, sometimes people start going down that road but get saved before it is too late. We understand that too. And we want to have grace and show people love and all those things. But the point is this, people go down these unnatural sins. And the way that they get there is because they knew God, they reject God and God eventually rejects them.

 Let me also say this because I get asked these questions a lot. Somebody performing a sodomite does not necessarily make them a reprobate. We live in a society where young children are being told just try it. Just try it to see if you’ll like it. And some of these young people in these schools, they don’t have a church like this, they don’t have parents like you have. You’ve got these school teachers telling kids that they might be a homosexual and just try it. Obviously because of drugs and alcohol and abuse and all sorts of reasons. There might be a reason why somebody has had that type of stuff happen to them and they’re not a reprobate. We understand that. The key words that the Bible says is that they burned in their lust one towards another. And we’re going to have to become very adapt to this because the more and more that we minister in 2021 and 2022 and 2023, we’re just going to find a lot younger people who have been forced and coerced to go down this road. And they realize that they don’t desire this and are able to come out of it and get saved and the Lord is able to restore them and help them. But please understand that there’s a big difference between a teenager who was confused and some 40-year-old drag queen that has been doing this for 30 years. Those are two different things.

 So, there’s the deviance of a reprobate. There’s the development of a reprobate. Thirdly, there’s the depravity of a reprobate. So how can somebody do these things? How can a man even be attracted to these things? The reason is they’re depraved. The word depraved means morally bad or evil. To make corrupt. The Bible tells us in romans 1:28 “28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”.

 But let’s look at what the word reprobate means. Jeremiah 6:30 defines it for us. “30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them.”. This verse is talking about how with metals, there is a refining process. That process purges the impurities out. You heat it up and all of the impurities boil to the top and then are removed. This is how they make the silver pure. Jeremiah is talking about how when they would take something like silver and refine it, they would heat it up so all of the impurities would be removed. They would call that reprobate silver. It came from the silver but it was trash. It was reprobate. It was something they did not want. That’s what Jeremiah is referring to. He says there are people like that. He says reprobate silver shall men call them. You say why? Because the Lord hath rejected them.

 I get sick and tired of these people and these Christian organizations saying “We’re not giving up on anybody no matter how bad they are.”. Let me tell you something, I’m all for love. I’m all for patience. I’m all for forgiveness. I’m all for all those things but when you’re forgiving more than God forgives, you’re forgiving too much. I mean when you love so much that you out love God then something is off. The Bible says “God is love”. And if God gave them up, there’s nothing you can do about its friend. Reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them. When the Lord has rejected someone, there is nothing that anyone can do for them. See, the Bible says that they’ve been given over to a reprobate mind.

 What does that mean exactly? God revealed himself through creation and conscience. Psalm 19 tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God. Nature itself declares to us the amazement of God. He reveals himself through nature and he reveals himself to conscience. You know even unsaved people would say that you don’t harm a child in that way. Why would someone do that?

1st Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;”. The Bible says that there are people who can have their conscience seared. This is what the Bible refers to when it says that God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.

 You know what it means to sear something? This is often something that’s done if somebody would maybe have a wound that’s bleeding and they might die. It’s bleeding so much you might take a hot iron and you would place it over that and their wound in order to burn that skin together to make it callous and hardened so that you can’t feel it. When something is seared, it’s burned so that there’s no longer feeling there. The Bible says that their conscience is seared. Their conscience is callous. It’s unfeeling. It’s hardened. It’s seared with a hot iron. Their conscience is seared. This is what it means when the Bible says that they were given over to a rejected or reprobate mind.

 We have a Documentary out there on YouTube called Psychopath Reprobates that explains these things. Titus 1:15 “15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”. Their conscience is defiled. Your conscience is supposed to be the moral aspect of you. God put it in you to tell you no. Don’t do that. That’s wrong. Even when we sin against our own conscience and do that which our conscience tells us not to do, we feel guilt and shame for having done it. These people, their conscience itself is defiled. It’s like having a conscience saying “Yes, steal from that person. Yes, kill that person. Yes, rape that person. Yes, take advantage of that person.”. Their conscience, their mind is defiled.

 Verse 16 “16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.”. They are reprobates because they have a depraved mind. Their conscience has been seared. They’ve been given over to a reprobate mind. This is the only way that they can do these unnatural sins. Normal people can’t perform these unnatural sins. You say how can they? Because their conscience is seared. And by the way, that’s why I say that when someone goes down that road, you find out that they had all this child pornography on their computer or whatever. That’s a reprobate. Their conscience has been seared. A normal person wouldn’t go down that road. They wouldn’t find that attractive. It’s unnatural. Their mind and their conscience are defiled.

 Go back to Romans 1. We talked about the deviance of reprobates. We talked about the development of reprobates. We talked about the depravity of reprobates. Let’s talk about the danger of reprobates. You say what’s the big deal? Why are you guys so angry about this? Because the Bible says that these people are extremely dangerous. What would you think if there is a person out there with no conscience, no moral boundaries, nothing in them that tells them don’t do that or don’t go there or don’t tell that lie or don’t take advantage of these people?

 Here is what the Bible says about them in Romans 1:29 “29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,”. Maliciousness is a desire to inflict injury or harm or suffering. Malignity means to speak evil or harmful things. “30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:”. Without natural affection means they lack empathy. Implacable means they can’t be appeased or pacified. The Bible paints this picture and tells us that if you know someone like that, stay away from them.

 Here’s what people will say, “You’re saying that if a kid is disobedient to his parents, then he’s a reprobate? Here’s what you need to understand. The first 4 words of verse 29 are “Being filled with all”. See, normal people can commit murder, be envious, be malicious, be backbiters, be proud. But the thing is that reprobates are all of this. And what God is trying to tell us is that these people are highly dangerous people. You say “Pastor, I work with a sodomite and he is really nice”. He’s lying to you. The Bible says they are wicked and dangerous people. The Devil is waging war on God and the best way for him to do that is to put as many people on that Reprobate Road as he can. He knows that as long as he can get them down that road without a soulwinner snatching them off that road then they will go to hell.

 How does he do this? Public education. Teaching them there is no God. Teaching them to try perverted things. Through media. There is a concerted effort by our media to just brainwash you. They act like every other neighbor is a homosexual. That’s not true. They act like every coworker you got is a sodomite and they’re all the nicest and most loyal people. At some we as Christians need to decide if we believe the Bible or not. If you just read the Bible cover to cover and ask what God thinks about sodomites, every time they come up in the Bible they are trying to rape or hurt somebody or take advantage of someone. God never shows this nice, funny but kind of quirky guy. I’m going to trust God before Hollywood or the Public School or the Government. What God tells me is that these people are wicked and dangerous. They’re filled with wickedness and maliciousness and murder and malignity. They’re haters of God. These reprobates are extremely dangerous people. They hate the lord.

 And look, all of them hate God period. You say, “I know this Church and they have this Lesbian Pastor”. That is wrong on so many levels. Or you say, “I go to this church and there are homos but they love the Lord.”. No, they don’t. Why don’t you just say “I don’t believe the Bible and don’t care what God says. My authority is the television I spend more time watching the stinking television than I do reading the Bible. So, I’ll just let the television tell me what to believe.”. The Bible says they hate the Lord. The Bible says they’re wicked. The Bible says that they are dangerous. This is why Psalms says “21 Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? 22 I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.”.

 You say Pastor Jimenez, aren’t you supposed to love your enemies? I’m supposed to love my enemy yes. But when people hate the Lord, they become reprobates. And the only way someone could become a reprobate is by rejecting my God and hating him. As David said that he counted them his enemies, so do I hate them. You say what do you think about some homo down the street? I hate him. He’s, my enemy. I don’t want my children around him. You say, “Well what if he’s a co-worker? Should you hate him?”. I didn’t say beat him up or get arrested. You might have to act nice and cordial at work. Do whatever you got to do but don’t be friends with those people. You hate them. You say what about a neighbor or a family member who was gay? I would hate them. They are haters of God. They’re wicked. “I count the mine enemies”. The Bible says they’re dangerous people and the Bible says they’re worthy of death. Now we know that God gave us a government and that is their job. I’m not saying vigilante justice but this is what the Bible teaches.

 Romans 1:32 “32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”. This is how Romans 1 ends. He talks about how they are given over and their minds are defiled and filled with wickedness. Then he shows in verse 32 they are worthy of death. God put the death penalty on this behavior. And again, I’m not saying we should go do it. I’m not saying that we need to take up arms. But this is what the Bible says should be done to these people. There’s no reforming them. There’s no changing it.

 Leviticus 20:13 “13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”. This is what the Bible says in regards to homosexuality. You say “That is Old Testament. God was angry then”. Ok, well Romans 1 is New Testament and it said worthy of death. That’s the New Testament. All of these liberals want to tell us that we are supposed to love our neighbors. I’m all for loving our neighbors but let me remind you that the phrase “Love thy neighbor” is a quote from Leviticus. But that same book said “if a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman both of them have committed abomination they shall surely be put to death.”. So therefore, these two verses do not contradict each other. Because when you put people that are dangerous to death, you’re actually loving your neighbor. You’re protecting your community when you take these wicked reprobates that are dangerous people and put them to death. And again, I’m not saying that that’s something we should do but the Bible teaches that this is how they should be dealt with. If God established the government, then that’s what we do. In fact, when God established a government that’s what he did.

 Today, this sermon in our society is like the most unpopular thing you could preach. The LGBTQ Movement has so much power in our society today that everyone’s afraid to cross them. Even Christians who don’t agree with homosexuality, they’re not going to get up and say any had truth against it. You say why do we do it then? Because look, this is the battle of our day. This is what we’re dealing with. Do you understand that we’re dealing with a reprobate culture in the United States of America and in the world? I mean the Devil has done such a great job at pushing this agenda, pushing people away from God to reject God. This is the big issue and we as Christians we need to stand up and preach it. You say why would you preach the sermon? First of all, I want you guys to be firm on what we believe.

 And by the way, at Verity Baptist Church we’ve always believed this from day one. I mean the 1st book I preached through was the Book of Genesis on September 5, 2010.  You can listen on our website and listen when I get to Genesis 19. We’ve always believed this and it’s good for you to be reminded of these things because we have this constant pressure to back down or to back off or to not speak about this. The world is bold in their message. The world has no problem getting their message out there. They are brainwashing us. They put up posters, billboards, etc…It’s time that Christians get some boldness too. Sometimes Christians get a bit of a backbone and stand up for what’s right.

 We shouldn’t put them to death. That’s not our job. But I’ll tell you this. They’re not coming into this church. We’re not creating a ministry for them. In fact, we’ve been talking about this prison ministry and we’ve been developing a plan and strategy to expand it and partner with different people and get more prisoners. We want to reach these people in prison with the gospel of Jesus Christ. you know the Bible says that we’re supposed to visit the prisoners and minister to them. But in my opinion, there are two types of people in prison. Those who don’t belong there because there are no prisons in the Bible. You steal something and you’re supposed to pay it back fourfold. There are corporal punishments where people get beaten for certain things or whatever. In my opinion there are two types of people in prison. Those who don’t belong there because whatever they did to get there is not worthy of prison biblically. And then there are those who deserve to die because they’re just a bunch of reprobate pedophiles or whatever and they should be put to death.

 In this prison ministry we have all these sermons we send to all these prisoners. We start with the Bible’s way to heaven. We start with victorious Christian life. We start with all these things about the Christian life but right about the sixth sermon, they get “Make America Straight Again”. We don’t want to miss these people. We have about 60 people on our mailing list right now but over the last year and a half, as we’ve been doing this, there’s been two or three who asked to be removed right after that sermon. I’d say Praise the Lord. We don’t want a filthy animal as part of this. If this sermon offends you then you offend me. If the sermon offends you then I’m worried about you. If the sermon offends you then I don’t want you anywhere near me or my family or our church. The Bible says that they’re worthy of death.

 So, we see the deviance of a reprobate. They’re not normal. They perform unnatural sins. Only reprobates would desire these unnatural sins. We see the development of a reprobate. They knew God and rejected God and God eventually rejects them. We’re not saying that everyone who rejects God is bad. Someone could reject the gospel a lot without being a reprobate. But eventually they reject God long enough and they’re going to cross the line where God will reject them. We see the depravity of reprobates. They’re given over to a reprobate mind. Their conscience is seared and now they no longer have a conscience which is what allows them to do these depraved things. And we saw the danger of a reprobate. They’re extremely dangerous people and according to the Bible they’re worthy of death. The only way to deal with them in a responsible society would put them to death. There’s no other hope. There’s no other way to deal with them. This is the reprobate doctrine. This is what the Bible teaches. And you know we as Christians are just going to have to decide do, we believe the Bible or not.

 Let’s pray.