The origin of sodomy in the Bible: Genesis 19:5 (the men of Sodom) called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.

The fires of unnatural lust burned unabated in the young to the old. This practice of lust had widened to include strangers. The outcry of the people of Sodom had reached God so in Genesis 19:13 God had sent the angels to destroy Sodom. These men were "wicked and sinners before the Lord"; their unlawful deeds troubled Lot (2 Pt 2:7-8). The delivery of Lot was a remarkable instance of God's care for his own.

Lot was the type of believer whose aim was to make the best of both worlds. He was occupied more with the things of earth than the things of heaven. He was a man who sowed to the flesh, and from the flesh he reaped corruption. Lot is a concrete warning for all Christians who feel a tendency to be carried away by doing the things of the world.

The depravity of the Sodomites were almost unbelievable. Homosexuality was practiced by Sodom's old and young men.

God told Abraham that Sodom's and Gomorrah's sin was very grievous (Genesis 18:20). What must God think of the homosexual movement in the church? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ --------------------------------------------

Leviticus 18:22 You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.

Leviticus 20:13 'If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.

The saved believer's life is to be completely and thorough eradicate old sinful habits. The bad passions are to be cut off and to beware of putting themselves into circumstances which invite temptation.

We must love, but we must love virtuously. In Leviticus 18:22 homosexuality is prohibited. The offense is characterized as an abomination. Homosexuality is not to be viewed as a disease or a viable lifestyle. The penalty for homosexuality according to Leviticus 20:13 is death.

Homosexuality is condemned throughout Scripture (Genesis 19; Leviticus 20:13; Judges 19:22-25; Romans 1:27; 1 Cor 6:9) as an abomination which means that it is something that God literally finds detestable and hated by God.

It is to be noted that adultery, incest, and homosexuality are just as sinful under the New Testament as it was under the Old Testament. Leviticus 20:13 insists that those who disregard these moral laws should be put to death. Romans 1:18-32 says those who do such things deserve to die. In God's sight it constitutes grave and serious sin meriting the severest censure.

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Jude 4-16 (4) For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long before and marked out this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. (5) Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. (6) and angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. (7) Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. (8) Yet in the same manner these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. (9) But Michael the archangel when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." (10) But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. (11) Woe to them! For these men revile the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam and perished in the rebellion of Korah. (12) These men are those who are hidden reefs in your love feast when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; (13) wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. (14) And about these also Enoch in the 7th generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, (to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." (16) These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.

Verse 4, "certain persons have crept in unnoticed: these men had no rightful standing in the church, but had made their way into the church secretly and by false pretences.

According to 2 Peter 2:1, false teachers privately brought in damnable "heresies", and those who "creep into houses and lead captive silly women" according to 2 Timothy 3:6. These men are described more precisely: "those who were long before hand marked out for this condemnation." The reference is to ancient prophecy. These men in the church and their moral conditions revealed the judgment of God upon them. Judge refers to the penal retribution.

"Ungodly persons"==> there was no spirit of reverence. This ungodliness takes the form of an immoral perversion of spiritual privileges: "Who turn the grace of God into licentiousness". "The grace of God==> the whole gift of redemption offered in the gospel.

God's gift was shamelessly debased. Grace was perverted in licentiousness. The ungodliness in these men further rose to a denial and disavowal of all Divine claims upon them. "Deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ"==> denial of God and the denial of Christ. It is a practical disavowal of God, which appears in a godless and unbridled life.

In verse 5, we have 3 instances of the judgments of God referred to: (1) Taken from Israelite history: "I desire to remind you." These evil men had knowledge of the principles at issue and the retributive deeds of God by which these principles were vindicated.

"A people"==> Israel's Lord by bringing Israel out of Egypt secured a people for himself; and God destroyed unbelievers among them.

What is intended? a.. God performed a redeeming deed. b.. God performed a punitive deed. - the wilderness fate of unbelieving Israel (cf. Ps 106:12-21; Heb 3:16-4:5)

(2) Angels who abandoned their proper abode (v.6) a.. angels have been example of the terrible law of Divine retribution b.. the angels did not maintain their lordship, they'd held in creation. c.. PUNISHMENT: God has kept them in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the Great Day. d.. Eternal bonds: bonds which they can never escape. They are in the dense, black darkness of the nether world. This penal detention is a prelude to "the judgment of the Great Day" (cf. Acts 2:20; Rev 6:17). (3) History of the cities of the Plain: a.. The cities of the Plain who suffered God's judgment were Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim. b.. The sin charged against these cities was indulgence of passion contrary to nature. c.. They indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh. The verbs bring out the intense sinfulness of the sin. The impurities practiced were a departure from the law of nature. d.. The Dead Sea is a witness of God's retributive justice to the cities of the Plain. e.. They suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. The destruction of these cities suffered the eternal retribution of God In verse 8, at the forefront of his warnings were these terrible instances of gross sin and overwhelming penalty.

Now Jude deals with the character of the insidious troublers and corrupters of the Church in his time. He describes them as dreamer's who defile the flesh. He also charges them with "rejecting authority and revile angelic majesties. Jude is leveling 3 separate charges against the men, probably a reference to vv. 5-7. The Gnostics in the 1st century paid not attention to human authority.

In verse 9, the irreverent and unbridled speech of these "filthy dreamers" is now contrasted with self-restraint of one of the "Dignities" of the angelic world: Michael the archangel. Michael was the champion and protector of Israel against the world powers of heathenism in The Book of Daniel. Michael said "The Lord rebuke you."

In verse 10, these men resumed their impious, irreverence, and self-indulgence. High and holy objects are beyond their knowledge and their understanding is limited to the senses: the physical want and appetites which they have in common with brutes. They are rash and profane of speech where they should have been silent and restrained. The phrase "by these things they are destroyed" indicates how absolutely they are lost in the service of their physical appetites.

In verse 11, "Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain." Cain was one who lived by the impulse of nature regardless of God or man. In this verse he is introduced as the 1st and the most pronounced example of wickedness in the Old Testament: a wickedness defying God and destroying men. Cain's error was a life diverted from righteousness and truth. These church men "rushed headlong into the error of Balaam and perished in the rebellion of Korah". Their error was their life was diverted from righteousness and truth. They surrendered themselves to the error in question: "gross immorality and going after strange flesh." These men lost themselves in riotous excess. Their character was debased and they practiced perversion. These church men asserted unregulated liberty, assumed self-invented holiness: adopting a worship which was alien to God. It is a contemptuous and determined assertion of self against God's appointed ordinances.

In verse 12-13, this was the well-known love feasts of the primitive church where rich and poor sat down together. These church men's moral conduct makes these men like treacherous reefs, on which these follows experience shipwreck. The "hidden reefs" expresses the reckless, irreverent spirit in which these men had at the love feasts. These love feats were suppose to minister to Christian fellowship and the holy sense of brotherhood, but these church men were using it to further their own base ends.

"Clouds with out water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead uprooted': rainless clouds does not bring fruitfulness to the earth------ so do these empty, volatile, inconstant men disappoint the church and do not service the church. "Autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted: The of unfruitfulness is expressed in a more absolute form. In the autumn, fruit was put on the trees in the Middle East. These homosexual men in the church have no fruit to show. Their capacity to fruitfulness is extinct. The possibility of their recovery is gone. They are dead to all good service and should be rooted out as hopelessly useless. "Doubly-dead" means a death in life.

"Wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam": their degrading lusts had inspired their unlicensed life. "Wandering stars, for whom the back darkness has been reserved forever": these church men have transgressed the command of God before their rising. Their doom is like a comet vanishing into the unseen. The idea expressed is that of certainty and irreversibility. It is the doom which Christ himself pronounced to be prepared (Mt 25:41).

In verse 15, "to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deed which they done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." The emphasis is on the ungodly sinners. Jesus comes with his comes myriads of holy, to pass judgment upon them, and will destroy the impious, and will call to account all flesh for everything the sinners and the impious have done and committed against him.

In verse 16, the grumblers are discontent with their circumstances. Their "following after their own lusts" declares the secret cause of their discontent. They make themselves their own ambitions and appetites, the rule of their life. They therefore judged the lot assigned to by God unworthy of them and railed against it. In their liberty they exercised unbridled self-indulgence. In their arrogant selfishness they refused to be submissive to the Divine word. They exalt self and magnify self above the God of gods . Their partial and unprincipled conduct was used as an advantage for self. Their lot was accompanied by a cringing, unblushing submission of their manhood to those of their fellowmen who had favors to bestow to them.

The rise of homosexuality in the Church is a deadly symptom of evil in the Church. Today, these men have crept into the Church appear to reveal the corruption of their nature. They were wicked offenders before they joined the Church and their behavior followed Cain in his unacceptable worship, in which there was no sacrifice of a victim, no contrition of spirit, and no prayer for mercy. They imitated the temper of Balaam, and their actions injure the Church

The Son of God-- who in his own character, and in the treatment of his people, who are members of the mystical body, has endured reproach, accusations and maligned lifestyle. God will take vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey his gospel message, where Christ is to be our center and our glory. In view of these homosexuals in the church with their corruption, a most fearful prospect awaits them. A believer is preserved in Christ Jesus whereby we acquire our power and depth of meaning which will not fail to awaken a true believer's gratitude to Jesus who keeps us obedient to his law in times of fiery temptation.

In Him Tim.