Consider this scenario: A young dynamic Christian leader renounces his faith, dumps his family, and takes up an adulterous lifestyle (actually, and unfortunately, this happens far too often already). But then he goes on to become a leading champion for adultery.
He becomes a leading activist, campaigning for the cause of adultery. He does all he can to subvert and undermine both marriage and family, and the Christian faith. He champions his ungodly, sinful and unbiblical lifestyle, and flaunts his sin in public.
He then offers awards to those who support his cause. He in fact offers an award (which is proudly accepted) by a leading evangelical Christian. The award is for all the services this leader offered to the adultery community. And the adultery pride press writes up the story in glowing terms, commending this Christian leader for all his help to their cause.
So what would you think of the person receiving such an award? Would that speak well of his Christianity and his commitment to Scripture? Would you not say, “This is just plain wrong; it does not compute”? How in the world can someone gladly, willingly and proudly accept an award from such a person who has renounced his faith and dumped his own wife and kids?
How in the world could any Bible-believing Christian take such an award? Yet that is exactly what has happened, and even more incredibly, more than once. Several Christian leaders have been given such an award, but I must change just one word here. Please replace the word “adultery” with the word “homosexuality” and we have an actual situation which is occurring now and has been for some years.
These Christian leaders are out and proud in affirming the homosexual community, and have readily taken these awards. But my question is this: If we would rightly be shocked at a Christian leader affirming and endorsing an adulterous lifestyle, then how can we support them if they affirm and endorse the homosexual lifestyle?
This is just another example of the perilous state of the so-called evangelical church today. We are told quite clearly in Scripture that no adulterer will inherit the Kingdom of God. And no homosexual will either. Of course in both cases this text (1 Cor. 6:9-11) is referring to those who were caught up in these sinful lifestyles, but have since renounced them when coming to faith in Christ.
Paul makes this perfectly clear when he says, “and such were some of you”. They used to be adulterers and homosexuals, but they came to Christ in faith and repentance and renounced their past sinful lifestyles. And with God’s help they were able to find real freedom and deliverance in Christ.
That is the good news of the gospel. Any and every sin can be forgiven, cleansed and overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. Justification always must lead to sanctification. If there is no changed life, one has to ask if one was ever saved in the first place.
The Holy Spirit is just that, holy, and he will not and cannot reside in a person who stubbornly clings to his sin, and resists God about dealing with known, unconfessed sin. Salvation at its very heart is about agreeing with God. It is taking him at his word, and acknowledging that our sin separates us from God, and that unless we agree with him, renounce our sin, repent of it, and seek his help in becoming a new person in Christ, we are still dead in our trespasses and sins.
That one may still struggle with such temptations after receiving Christ is not at issue here. Some people find instant healing and deliverance for their sins, while others may well struggle and take some time to gain the victory. So we are not referring to those who still struggle with these sins but really do want to change with God’s help.
We are referring to those who have called God a liar, and who have said that there is nothing wrong with their homosexuality (or adultery, or whatever sin they still want to enjoy, justify and defend). It is these people (and their misled supporters, whether pastors or other so-called leaders) who are playing fast and loose with biblical truth and are leading many people astray.
What Paul said is perfectly clear, and no amount of obfuscation, trickery or mental gymnastics will do away with his message. Only those who want to justify known sin can avoid this passage or twist it to their own destruction. But sadly we are seeing this happening more and more by so-called evangelical Christian leaders.
I do not mean to be singling out just one or two individuals here. The tragic truth is, there would be many such Christian leaders and pastors who would also fit nicely into this camp. They have long ago abandoned the biblical teachings on this subject, and have happily embraced the homosexual agenda, either in whole or in part.
They are in fact doing the work of the homosexual activists for them. They are softening up the churches to fully embrace the homosexual lifestyle, to ordain practicing homosexuals, and to even allow same-sex marriage in our churches.
The radicals have long known that it is far easier to subvert an institution from within than battle against it from without. Thus they have very cleverly been targeting churches, and those leaders who are soft on this issue. They have gotten these leaders to do all their work for them.
And one day we will likely see these very same leaders fully turning against those who see this as the sell-out of our churches to secular activist agendas. As soon as more “hate crimes” laws and the like are passed, and Christians who take a stand against all this are taken to the courts and thrown into jails, these leaders will be there cheering, giving their solemn blessing to the new inquisition.
Just as Jesus warned about, there will come a day when his true followers will be hauled before the courts and tossed into the prisons, and these religious leaders will be there supporting all this (Mark 13:9; John 16:2-4). And of course they will think they are doing God a service in all this.
These leaders will perhaps even be happy to cast the first stone at those who remain true to Scripture. Just as some “Christian” leaders sided with the Muslim activists against fellow Christians in an infamous court case in Victoria some years ago, they most likely will do the exact same thing here.
They will side with the homosexual activists while the true followers of Christ are persecuted, imprisoned and fined. Sadly that is where all this is headed. I will say this quite clearly: it is not a question of if this will happen, but a question of when it will happen.
Then we will see those who are really faithful to Christ and his teachings clearly separated and distinguished from those who are not. But it begins now with those who would rather side with those waging war against the Christian church than side with the clear teachings of Scripture.
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