It is now June, and I still haven't finished my post about cults. I'll get there eventually, but for now it is still a work in progress. In the Southern Hemisphere, the first of June is also the First Day of Winter. But nowadays, June is Pride Month too. Specifically, LGBT Pride Month. But it's usually just shortened to Pride Month. The reason June is Pride Month is because the 1969 Stonewall riots, which launched the "gay rights" movement that has now led to the legalisation of same-sex "marriage" throughout the Western world and a number of other places, took place in the month of June.
A few days ago, I had a rather novel idea: to observe Pride Month on this blog. But not by celebrating the sin of homosexuality. God forbid!!! Instead, I am going to post a verse or short passage about pride on each day of the month - so 30 verses or passages altogether. I want to show you exactly what God thinks of pride. And I'm not just talking about "gay pride" here (although I will certainly touch on that, especially today). I'm talking about all forms of pride - including the pride of those who despise homosexuals. (As I have said in other posts, homosexuality is a sin - for it is a transgression of God's Law - but despising those who commit it the way the Pharisee despised the publican is also a sin.) In all honesty, I probably won't talk a great deal about homosexuality at all as I do this. But I have preached against it in past posts and will do so in future ones. Ultimately though, this is just a month-long study about pride. And what better time to do a Biblical examination of pride than Pride Month? The world sees pride as a virtue (it often goes by the name of "self-esteem"). Gay pride is regarded by the world as being almost the Virtue of Virtues. However, by the time we reach the end of June, you will see that God takes a very, very different view of pride.
I am going to kick this study off with a short passage that is very appropriate to Pride Month in its modern LGBT sense:
"Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good." (Ezekiel 16:49-50)
So here we see a little list of the major sins of Sodom, the Biblical city most strongly associated with homosexuality (the Biblical word for homosexuals, sodomites, comes from Sodom). And what sin do we see listed first? PRIDE. Nothing in the Bible is there by accident, and it is certainly no accident that pride tops the list of Sodom's iniquities. The term "gay pride" might have been invented in the 20th Century, but the reality is, it started all the way back in Sodom. The Bible doesn't hold back when it first describes the kind of place Sodom was: "But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly." (Genesis 13:13) Genesis 18:20 describes the sin of Sodom as "very grievous". Just how wicked Sodom was, and how grievous their sin was, is revealed in Genesis 19:1-26. As a result of their gay pride, the men of Sodom were haughty. (That haughtiness really shows in the way they treated Lot.) A haughty spirit is the direct result of pride in the heart. We see that same haughtiness in many of today's homosexuals, especially when they rail against those who still dare to stand against their wickedness. They have thrown open the doors of the closets that they used to hide in and now parade their sin proudly and openly for all to see. However, this is something else pioneered by the ancient Sodomites: "The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves." (Isaiah 3:9)
Yea, today's sodomites are haughty and declare their sin as Sodom, no longer hiding it as they commit abomination before God. But while God gave them time to repent, in the end He judged them, an event recorded in Genesis 19 and referred to several times in both the Old and New Testaments. He did it by raining fire and brimstone on that evil place and utterly destroying it. All the gay pride in the world couldn't save the ancient Sodomites from the wrath of God. Here's the thing about pride, whether it's gay pride or any other kind of pride: eventually, God humbles the proud. If you don't humble yourself before Him in repentance, God will find a way to humble you. And He humbled Sodom (and its twin city Gomorrah) in particularly severe fashion, because their sin was that wicked in His sight. And as both Peter and Jude explain, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was designed by God to be an example to other sinners: "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)" (2 Peter 2:6-8) (I think many of us in this present day and age can relate to how Lot felt.) "Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."
When God says "I took them away as I saw good" in the Ezekiel passage, He is referring to this overthrow by fire. That is the ultimate end of gay pride and homosexual sin not repented of. Judgement by God, then eternity in the Lake of Fire. But before you Westboro Baptist Church and Steven Anderson types get too smug, you too are headed for the Lake of Fire unless you repent of your own pride and haughtiness. You think you're better than the homosexuals, but you're not. We have all sinned and all gone astray in our different ways. So we are all equally guilty before God. In fact, when you stand before Christ on the Day of Judgement, you might just find that it will be more tolerable for the homosexuals than for you, just as it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for some cities that rejected Christ and His disciples in their religious pride. So be more like the publican than the Pharisee who despised him. Mourn and weep before God over your sin, ask for His mercy (for He is ready to abundantly pardon if you truly humble yourself in repentance) and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Homosexual sinners, you also need to do this. You might say, "But this is how I am, I can't change." If you are born again in Christ, God will change you. Don't listen to Steven Anderson, who outdoes many homosexuals in his pride and who says that sodomites cannot be saved. The salvation of Jesus Christ is as much available to homosexuals as it is to anyone. Please read this:
"Know ye 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. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
So Paul lists homosexuals ("effeminate" are the passive ones, and "abusers of themselves with mankind" are the ones who do the sodomising) as among those who do not inherit the kingdom of God. But then he says to his readership of saved Christians in Corinth, "such WERE some of you". What is their new state? Washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by God's Holy Spirit. Instead of an evil, haughty spirit, they now have God's Holy Spirit dwelling in them, with the result that they are new creatures. So if you are a homosexual, you absolutely can be saved and made new in Christ. But firstly you must repent and humble yourself before the God against Whom you have grievously offended. Get rid of your gay pride, lest one day it precedes your destruction and you join the people of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Lake of Fire. What shall all that pride and haughtiness profit you if, in the end, you lose your soul? As Isaiah said above, it will be a woe unto your soul indeed if that happens. So please repent and believe on Christ while there is still time. You may not have tomorrow, although I hope you have many days left.
And on that sobering note, I conclude this first Pride Month post. While I have talked a bit about homosexuality in it, my aim in remaining posts is just to focus on pride in all its forms. So look out for the Day 2 post tomorrow.
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