Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee?

Sermon Transcript

So first of all I just want to thank Pastor Stucky again for the opportunity to preach. The title of my sermon is called Do Not I Hate Them, O Lord, That Hate Thee. It sounds pretty radical, but it is actually found in the Bible, and we are going to see that today. This is the first sermon of a series I have entitled Who Shall Abide in Thy Tabernacle — the tabernacle being the house of God, the congregation, God's house. Who is going to abide? Who is going to remain in God's tabernacle?

You are there in Psalm 15:1. It says the Psalm of David: "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?" It is a question. He is saying, who is going to make it in the Christian life? Who is going to endure in that Christian life? Who is going to abide and who is going to dwell in God's house? And we have that answer here in the book of Psalms. The reason I have chosen to do a series on this is because there are a lot of characteristics we find here in Psalm 15 — things that we ought to look at and strive to have. David continues by saying the words and states what is required for someone to be steadfast and unmovable.

Let us look at 1 Corinthians 15:58: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." Because we have the victory in the Lord Jesus Christ, we should recognise that we are going to be rewarded. Our labour is not in vain in the Lord. These are not things we are just doing to pass time, as if we have a hobby or something. Our labour is not going to be in vain in the Lord. And to abound in something means you are succeeding in that thing. It means you are actually striving to do your absolute best. You are abounding in that. We want to succeed, and Psalm 15 is going to tell us how we can succeed in the Christian life. There are things we should be doing, attitudes we should be having, but there are also stances we need to take as Christians — and they are not popular stances. That is why this sermon is about the right attitude we should have towards people that the Bible calls vile. Psalm 15 also speaks about honouring them that fear the Lord, but we also need to have the right attitude towards vile people.

Psalm 15:4: "In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not." Who is going to abide? It is the person that has the right attitude to vile people. It is an old way of saying contempt — when you hold someone in contempt, you despise that person, you have a disgust for that person, you find that person despicable. You have extreme disrespect for that person. The Bible does not want us to care for those that are in this category. The Bible actually says we are not to love those that hate the Lord. So what is the correlation between people being vile and people who hate the Lord?

Point 1: The Reprobate Doctrine

Let us look at the reprobate doctrine. The Bible tells us there are things that are vile affections — things people do that are unnatural, that even when you think about them just bring disgust to you. It is even a shame to hear about how despicable they are. That is why the Bible says it is good to be simple concerning evil. It is better to not really understand how wicked this world is because it is just going to grieve your soul.

Jeremiah 6:30: "Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them." Pure and simple — rejected is just what it means to be a reprobate. Someone that God has rejected is a reprobate. This verse helps us to understand the meaning of the word.

For some reason this doctrine really offends a lot of IFB people. It is something that they will want to separate fellowship over, which is quite astonishing. I recently spoke to a missionary who was going to be serving abroad and came to my old church seeking funding. He said he had been going soul-winning and I asked if he would like to join our team, but he said he was busy that week because he was going with another pastor. Before he left I felt compelled to tell him that that pastor believes in repenting of your sins for salvation. So I asked him what his stance on that was, because I was curious what he would be preaching when he got out there.

When I spoke to him a little while later after the church service I asked him what his stance was. He said he did not agree with repentance of sins for salvation — but then he immediately jumped straight to criticising what he called that Anderson stuff, one two three repeat after me. It was just slander. Anyone who has come out preaching the gospel with us can clearly see we are not a one two three repeat after me. I asked him if he had ever heard a Bible presentation from Pastor Anderson. He said no. And then out of nowhere he asked me what my stance was on homosexuals. I asked him what that had to do with soul-winning or what our conversation had been about. He said he just thought Pastor Anderson had a bad spirit. And obviously he had a big problem with us believing that homosexuals cannot be saved — the reprobate doctrine. Meanwhile he was about to go soul-winning with someone that believes in repentance of sins for salvation. It is just ironic. That is why Galatians 1:8 says: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."

I tried to explain to him — look, anyone that believes will be saved, but unfortunately a homosexual or a lesbian cannot believe. That is the issue. If they would believe they would be saved. Anyone that believes can get saved. But unfortunately they have already been rejected and it is impossible for them to believe. And that is why we believe the reprobate doctrine. At the end he kind of understood. He said yeah, I do not think I will ever get any of them saved. But it was a grieving thing that he jumped straight to that, and that is why I wanted to preach about it today. And we often speak to vile people out soul-winning. But why do they never get saved? Because we understand this doctrine.

Let us look at Romans 1. The reprobates are not the only people that God has rejected. There are also people that blaspheme the Holy Ghost who have lost their opportunity to believe. There are also people that the Bible says take out of the word of God, for whom it is impossible to get saved because their name is removed out of the book of life. So there are people that already lose that opportunity, and the reprobates fall into that same category.

Romans 1:21: "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. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 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. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves." The Bible is saying because you did this, I am going to punish you and I am going to give you over to these disgusting things.

Verse 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." These people chose to worship something else rather than God. And the consequences of rejecting God and actually hating God — and we are going to show that they actually hate God — this is a consequence they incur.

Verse 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." God ends up removing that filter. Every single one of us has a filter. There are things that are disgusting that we are grossed out about, things that would never tempt us in a billion years, things that are just despicable and disgusting that we would never do. But these people do things that are against nature. Why? Because God has given them up unto vile affections.

Verse 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." Vile affections. It is against nature. And what is the recompense? It is the AIDS that comes upon these people. It is God's judgment. It is all the diseases, all the sicknesses. I have worked in a lot of houses of these reprobates. They have got alcohol everywhere because they do such disgusting stuff where they need to be completely drunk to even be able to do it, because they practically abuse each other. It is absolutely disgusting. And God has just given them over to these things.

Why am I preaching these things? Because the Bible says in whose eyes a vile person is contemned. How can we resist in the Christian life? How can we have the right attitudes? It is not by going along with IFB people that tell you that hey, these people are okay, you should have them over for lunch, you should care about these people, you should reach out to these people. The Bible is actually telling us to have nothing to do with them.

And I would just say this — the same way we as Christians are going to be tempted with things we have to fight against, in the same way these people are actually tempted with these vile things. That is their temptation. Those are the things they think about. And the recompense of their error is AIDS. A great sermon from Pastor Anderson on this topic is AIDS, the Judgment of God if you want to learn more about it. And Pastor Stucky also preached a really good sermon called the Characteristics of a Female Pig — if you just search it up at Soulwinning Baptist Manila you can hear it, because a lot is preached against the homosexuals but not as much against the lesbians. In the Bible you are going to have that correlation where a dog is referred to as a homosexual and a swine is referred to as a reprobate woman. And also a great documentary is The Sodomite Deception, which probably helped a lot of us to understand these types of people because the world has lied about this, and you need somebody that actually fears God and knows the Bible to bring you the truth on these matters.

Verse 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." They are doing things that do not come naturally. Unthinkable things. These people do not want to even think about God. They do not want to retain God in their knowledge. What happens? God gives them over to a reprobate mind. They have rejected God and they just continually hate the Lord.

How can we spot a vile person? Because you are going to hear even IFB people and pastors say we are all vile. No, we are not all vile. This is a category of people that fall into that category.

Verse 29–31: "Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." Notice it does not just say they are filled once — it says they are being filled. They continuously get filled with all unrighteousness. And it includes being haters of God. They rejected him and they just continually hate the Lord. The pride flag itself makes clear that they are an abomination to God — they just try to mock God. They boast about the despicable things they do. They are inventors of evil things — there are things that would never cross your mind that these people can invent. And they are also disobedient to parents. That is something that just characterises them.

Now obviously even a saved believer could be guilty of some of these things — being disobedient to parents, or being proud, or boastful. We could unfortunately be guilty of some of these. But these people are being filled with all of these things continuously. It is all unrighteousness, and it includes those things like being haters of God and includes those things that are just unthinkable to us.

Verse 31: "Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." Being around people that are without natural affection should be something that scares you. And implacable means they cannot be placated. It does not matter how much you give in to these people, they are never going to stop. It does not matter how much the government bows down to them and goes after what they want and whatever they are fighting for — they are never going to stop. They are not satisfied. And they are unmerciful — zero mercy whatsoever. And it just helps me as a believer and a Christian to understand how somebody can hurt a young child. It is because they have no mercy. They are unmerciful.

I am incredibly grateful that God actually tells us these things so we can understand them and know them, because I have a young child and I can know the dangers that are out there because the Bible has warned me about them.

Now the world is obviously going to have a completely opposite perspective. They are going to tell you these people are funny, they are always the ones on TV, they are always the really funny people, they are always the people that make people laugh. There is a reprobate who is even pretty much the mascot of McDonald's in the Philippines. They are just everywhere, just feeding it to the children. It is a disgusting plague on the Philippines. And there is a huge percentage of the LGBT community in the Philippines.

What does the Bible say about them? What does God think about these people?

Leviticus 20:13 — but please keep your place in Romans 1: "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." When someone does these things, they are guilty, and they incur the consequence. God's perfect law was that these people would be put to death. Obviously we do not have vigilante justice here — the governments should be doing this. This is a crime guilty of death. The same way if someone commits murder we do not just go out and kill that person ourselves, but want the justice system to take them through the right process and trial them for what they have done. We do not have the death penalty here unfortunately. But the same way with these people — the Bible says as soon as someone does this, they are already guilty of death. So if we had a just system, if we had just laws, if we had a just government, these people would be put to death under God's perfect law. And one day there will be God's perfect law. So we are looking forward to that. That is the punishment the Bible is ascribing for this sin.

Romans 1:32: "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." For us to say that they are worthy of death is not something out of the ordinary. It is not something crazy. It is just us aligning with the word of God. We believe that they are worthy of death. Like I said, if you are offended right now, I believe it is because you are failing to have the right attitude towards vile people. And I believe you need this sermon.

The title of my sermon is Do Not I Hate Them, O Lord, That Hate Thee. They are already haters of God. I am going to continue showing this to you.

Point 2: David Hated Vile People

The title of my sermon is inspired by Psalm 139. Let us look there to see how David thought about these people that hated God. God does not call us to hate our personal enemies. God does not want us to hate those that do us harm who are not enemies of God — they are probably just a very backslidden Christian coming against us. But God wants us to hate those that hate the Lord. Our personal enemies we should not hate, but God's personal enemies we should hate.

Psalm 139:19–22: "Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies." What was David's attitude? I hate them, Lord. And then in verse 23 he is saying — search me, O God. He is saying look, I hate those people that hate you. I have the right attitude towards vile people. Search me and see these things in my heart. David is reminding God — hey, I know that these people are vile. I know who these people are.

And let us look at David's famous last words. He is actually speaking about the reprobates. Interesting that this is what he addresses in his final words. 2 Samuel 23:1–7.

"Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow."

Verse 6: "But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands." The Bible says here that these people cannot be taken. They cannot be helped. Pretty much all of the sons of Belial are going to be thrown away, cast away. These people are the children of the devil. That is why he calls them the sons of Belial. God cannot help these people — they cannot be taken with hands. We are in God's hand and we know nothing can snatch us out of his hands. But God cannot even reach out to these people anymore. He cannot take them with his hand because they cannot be taken with hands. A son of the devil, a son of Belial, cannot be taken with hands. David's famous last words — and he is already talking about this.

The Bible describes three categories of people throughout its pages — the sons of Belial, the children of disobedience, and the sons of God. We are the sons of God if we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The children of disobedience are the people we are trying to reach when we go out soul-winning — we are trying to find out, have they yet rejected God, are they still able to believe? And then there are also the children of the devil who cannot be taken with hands.

Verse 7: "But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear; and they shall be utterly burned with fire in their place." Do not even get close to these people. Anyone that even gets close to the sons of Belial is going to face consequences. You are opening yourself up to a lot of harm. You are opening up your children to a lot of harm. Your family. These are people you should not even get close to. Why? Because they are vile people. They have wicked imaginations. They have the potential to hurt your family.

Stay away from the reprobate uncle, the reprobate sibling, the reprobate whoever. Even if you have to deal with someone like that in your workplace, just do your best to stay away from them. Pastor Stucky talked about how there was a reprobate at his job and he just hated him. You kind of just mind your own business. Reprobates are just going to hate you. They can feel your spirit. We know that they are the children of the devil. They know we are children of God. They feel our spirit as well and they are going to hate you.

2 Chronicles 19:2: "And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord." Jehu is speaking to King Jehoshaphat who made affinity with Ahab. He is saying hey, why are you even helping people like Jezebel, why are you even helping these people? If you even love those people that hate the Lord, God's wrath is going to be upon you. God is going to be really mad with you. You might just be thinking, why is my life so cursed, why is my life not blessed? But maybe you even have a sodomite or a reprobate in your midst and you are not getting them out. You are not putting that person away from you. We see kings in the Bible that took the sodomites out of the land. You might not even be taking them out of your family gathering, out of your social group — when kings of Israel took them out of the entire land. The Bible tells us that if you have that wrong attitude, if you love those that hate the Lord, God's wrath can be upon you. It is going to bring a curse upon you. It is going to bring a curse upon your family. You might be thinking, why is God not blessing my life, why are all these bad things happening to me — but you are not realising that you have the wrong attitude towards vile people. You do not hold them in contempt.

Luke 17:1–2: "Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones." Jesus is saying if you even hurt a child, it is better for you that somebody takes you off this earth than for you to hurt that person. Why? Because Jesus Christ created hell for the devil and his angels and it is going to be far worse for that person. The Bible says they are going to be tormented in the presence of the Lamb. Jesus Christ is personally going to administer that punishment to these pedophiles. And he is saying it is better for them to just tie something around their neck and be thrown into the sea — obviously they would drown — than for them to hurt a little one. And it just matches up with Leviticus 20:13 perfectly.

Why do we believe the reprobate doctrine? Because it is a biblical doctrine. That is why we believe what we believe.

And something to remember — not all reprobates are pedophiles, but all pedophiles are reprobates. They maybe have not gone down that road. Maybe they are in the road of going after Balaam for reward. Maybe they are like Korah and they want power. There are going to be different avenues a reprobate can go down. And sometimes I have even heard Pastor Stucky talk about how they could be serial killers, because they are full of murder. They could just be killing everyone and then out of nowhere they just stop killing people because they are just over it and go into another avenue. They are going to try something else.

God does not want us to love these people. He wants us to hate those that hate the Lord. What about our personal enemies? David loved Saul. He did not want to do him any harm. Saul was a believer, incredibly backslidden, very far from God, persecuting David. But David did not want to do him any harm. He was not even speaking up against him. He had opportunities to take revenge but did not do it. Why? Because Saul was David's personal enemy and he was still a child of God. David said, maybe somehow God is going to deal with him — he might fall in battle, something might happen — but I am not going to touch him. That is the attitude we should have towards our personal enemies. But we are to hate the reprobates. We are to hate those that have vile affections.

Point 3: Vile Affections

The Bible is telling us what we should think, the stances we should have towards certain individuals. We have to see people in a certain way.

2 Timothy 3:16: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." Even these passages that are not pretty are profitable for doctrine. They are there to help us, to instruct us, so we know what we need to be doing and the attitudes we should be having. If we want to abide in God's tabernacle and always abound in the work of the Lord, we need to have the right attitude even towards vile people. If you do not have the right attitude towards vile people, you are not going to be able to last in the Christian life. You are not going to be able to last in church. You are not going to always abound in the work of the Lord because you have a soft spot for reprobates. In the Philippines, nearly every family has a reprobate of some kind. It is something that needs to be preached. I am glad that our pastor is preaching it and thundering forth this truth regardless of whether people like it or not and regardless of the persecution it can incur.

Those things we read about in Genesis 19 and Judges 19 are there for our instruction. They are there for our learning. They are there for us to understand what we need to be doing and the attitudes we need to be having. Let us look at Genesis 19:1.

"And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat."

Lot actually pleaded with these angels to come inside. Lot understood about vile people. He is saying look, you cannot stay outside. You are in danger here. He knew what reprobates are capable of.

Verse 4: "But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: and they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them." They are demanding Lot bring out the men. And we know what knowing someone means in the biblical sense — remember Adam knew his wife Eve. They want to go against somebody's will. They want to hurt that person. And this is something that is not glossed over. The dialogue is very specific — men wanting to know men. Vile affections. It is already starting. God is straight away wanting to warn us about these people.

Verse 6: "And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, and said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly." He understood it was not just something consensual. He is saying do not do it, it is so wicked.

Verse 8: "Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof." He is obviously trying to protect these two men. He is not thinking rationally anymore because these people are so violent. You can just imagine the spur of the moment — he has got these people compassing the house roundabout. He understands how wicked these people are and he has just run out of ideas. But they are not appeased. They do not even care about the reproof or the rebuke. They are still going to do things that they do because they are just full of all unrighteousness. They were not placated even with this offer.

Verse 9: "And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them." They are saying whatever we thought to do to those men — which was not something pleasant, it was wicked — whatever we thought to do, we are going to be doing even worse to you. "And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door." They are grabbing him. They want to get inside and get those two angels.

Verse 10–11: "But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door." God just smites these disgusting people with blindness and they are still trying to find the door. God has already punished them and they are still trying to hurt these people. They are blind and they are still going. They have no brain. They have just lost their mind. God has given them over to a reprobate mind and they just do things that are unthinkable. We cannot even understand the mind of a reprobate because we are not reprobates. All we can do is just read about it in the Bible.

This might put you in a little bit of fear, but the IFB churches have been preaching against this for 20 plus years and God has clearly protected them. God can protect us as well so these people cannot hurt us. They are trying — they are like ravening wolves, like beasts. The Bible calls them brute beasts. They are just trying to get inside. It does not matter what you do to them. God gave them over to a reprobate mind and they just do things that are just unthinkable.

Now let us look at the parallel passage — Judges 19. Genesis 19, Judges 19. It just helps you understand that these people are always out to hurt people. You might think, I do not really hear about this happening these days. Well it is because they would not want to be caught doing something this crazy. There are actually laws against them doing these things. But this is a good example of what these people would do if they would not get caught and if they would not face justice.

Judges 19:13: "And he said unto his servant, Come, and let us draw near to one of these places to lodge all night, in Gibeah, or in Ramah. And they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down upon them when they were by Gibeah, which belongeth to Benjamin. And they turned aside thither, to go in and to lodge in Gibeah: and when he went in, he sat him down in a street of the city: for there was no man that took them into his house to lodging."

"And, behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even, which was also of mount Ephraim; and he sojourned in Gibeah: but the men of the place were Benjamites. And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw a wayfaring man in the street of the city: and the old man said, Whither goest thou? and whence comest thou? And he said unto him, We are passing from Bethlehemjudah toward the side of mount Ephraim; from thence am I: and I went to Bethlehemjudah, but I am now going to the house of the Lord; and there is no man that receiveth me to house."

He is saying he has nowhere to go. He does not know what to do. He is just going to stay outside.

Verse 19: "Yet there is both straw and provender for our asses; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for thy handmaid, and for the young man which is with thy servants: there is no want of any thing."

"And the old man said, Peace be with thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street." This old man understood — that place you cannot stay. That is a horrible place to be. He knows the dangers that are out there. And these predators are going to be doing a lot of evil at night. We see this again — at night, when it is dark, when they can get away with things, that is when these people can strike. What does that night represent? It could represent when your children are left alone with them. When you are not around. It can be under the cover of darkness. Everything looks good, everything looks fine — but as soon as night comes these people can do unthinkable things.

I knew someone that got abused by a reprobate. That person was given alcohol, got drunk, and got abused. And it is something the Bible actually tells us can happen. The Bible says: "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink." It is something that people are capable of. That is why these people have so much alcohol. They are going to be spiking drinks. You might think, oh it is just a cup of water he is giving me. This person — you have no idea what they could do to you. And it is under the cover of darkness. It is probably under the influence of alcohol. They have spiked something. And this is a great reason to never drink alcohol for any reason. And never be around them, because you might not even be wanting to drink alcohol — you might just be accepting what looks like an innocent drink from them and it could be laced with something.

And you might say, I am a woman, so I know these men might do things to men, but I am a woman. Am I pretty safe?

Verse 21–25: "So he brought him into his house, and gave provender unto the asses: and they washed their feet, and did eat and drink. Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him."

Certain sons of Belial. That is a good verification of what David was saying in his famous last words.

"And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly." He calls them brethren. He is trying to plead with these people. But they are implacable. You try to plead with them and it just gets you nowhere.

Verse 24: "Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing." He knew what these people planned to do. He knew what these reprobates are capable of.

Did the men listen? Did they want the maiden that was offered to them? Did they want her, or did they want the man? Obviously they wanted the man, but they took the concubine. God protected the maiden, but unfortunately this concubine — who had initially run away from that man — it did not end well for her.

Verse 25: "But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go." These reprobates go both ways. Do not think that because you are a woman you are safe. These people go both ways. They burn in their lust one towards another and they also burn in their lust in these other ways as well.

And why am I teaching this? Because all scripture is given by inspiration of God. These things are not in the Bible by accident. They are not there because God made a mistake. They are there for our instruction and our learning that we may be perfect — so men, children, and women, all of these people can be targets of these reprobates.

Verse 26–28: "Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, till it was light. And her lord arose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold. And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered." She was dead. She was a victim of these reprobates. He is telling her to get up but there is no answer. They pretty much killed her. It is just unbelievable what these people are capable of.

And it is a really graphic story — her body gets dismembered later. He wants to show people what these people are capable of and he sends it out to the twelve tribes, just to say look, look what has happened. And because of this there was a big war. It was just a horrific story. They end up fighting against the sons of Belial.

And this is here to teach us that these people have vile affections. They do not care. They are capable of unthinkable things. That is why when you hear about beastiality, pedophilia, homosexuality, rape — these people are capable of all of these things. They are capable of those unnatural affections, things that are against nature. They want to hurt people.

And this is why reprobates can even get married to someone of the opposite gender, because it is a perfect cover. They are going to get married, say they have a husband or a wife. People's guard is down. They come to family functions. And there are cases where children get hurt multiple times before someone finds out about it. And it is just something that poor child has to live with for the rest of their life. God has already warned us about it. People could marry someone who is a reprobate and then they are like, how is this person so crazy, how is this person so vile and wicked? That is why if you are single here today and even thinking of getting married, be so careful that the person you marry is a son of God. A son of God cannot become a child of the devil. But you have to make sure that person is saved before you marry them. Because you might think you will get them saved afterwards — they might harden their heart against the gospel, they might reject God, and then you are married to a reprobate. And that is something that can be avoided.

And like I said, there are over 11% of the population in the Philippines that are LGBT. 11%. It is just unthinkable. And our pastor preached a really great sermon called The Embarrassing Sins of the Philippines and he spoke about this, because it is just an embarrassment, it is just horrendous that these things are actually occurring. My wife and I said, why did God allow this to occur? Why is this happening? Well, sometimes we do not understand why. But God made man upright and he has sought out many inventions. God did not make it like this. It is just that people chose to reject God. People chose to follow the devil. They chose their side. They became sons of the devil. They went that way. The Bible actually tells us why they became that way. God did not make it like that. And we just have to heed the warning.

I wish it was not like this. I wish we were not facing this. But right now they are really loud. You can see they are influencing schools, influencing people, trying to come up under the cover of darkness and infiltrate people's families. So I wish it was not like this, but it is.

Psalm 15:1 — if there are dangers out there, if there are people that are wicked out there, the best thing we can do is just understand it and have the right attitude towards them. And having the right attitude towards them is actually I believe the best protection from God. Because that is where God has already warned you. You are going to stand your ground. You are going to make certain decisions that you otherwise would not have made if you did not understand these truths.

Psalm 15:4 — who is going to abide? In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. I hope we are going to have the right attitude towards vile people. I hope we are going to not only have the right attitude towards vile people but also honour them that fear the Lord. We see churches today that are honouring vile people and dishonoring people that fear the Lord. They do not honour people that are godly men, soul winners, doing the right thing. If you have a stance like this, people are going to dishonour you. And unfortunately they are going to just be really nice to those wicked people and really nice to the false prophets.

What is normal in this life? Temptations that are common to man. These people do things that are uncommon to man.

1 Corinthians 10:13: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." We have a limit. There are limitations to children of God. That is why if you know that someone is saved, if you know that they are a child of God, there are certain limitations there. But there are people where you have to understand — hey, this person is not someone that fears the Lord. I do not honour that person. I honour the person that fears the Lord. But the person that does not, I have to hold that vile person in contempt.

A person can be tempted with inordinate affections — things that are not appropriate. But those that have vile affections have only got that way because they have been punished by God.

We should have the right attitude towards them. We should not be saying you have a bad spirit if you have this attitude. I hope no one thinks I have a bad spirit here because I have explained it through the Bible. This is what the Bible is saying. And it is not something people should separate fellowship over. It is not a bad spirit. It is the right spirit. It is in the Bible.

Point 4: Passages People Might Use to Contradict Our Stance

There are going to be passages that people bring up to try to contradict this stance. They are going to try to find something. Especially in the bad translations of the Bible, they are going to change things. They are going to take out the word sodomy. They are going to say things like such were some of you, naming them as homosexuals — which is not found in the King James Bible. They are going to try to bring that up and say hey, look, they can be saved.

Let us look at Matthew 11:20 so I can explain this quickly.

"Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not: Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." Jesus is upbraiding specific places where most of his mighty works were done. He is saying I have done these mighty works in this place and you guys rejected it. But Tyre and Sidon — places in enmity with the Israelites, very idolatrous, doing really wicked things — those people would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Same as the Ninevites when Jonah went to them — those people actually repented, even though they were enemies of the children of God. There were people that actually changed when they heard the word. They believed God. So even though they were enemies of the children of God and fighting against them, there was still the possibility for them to repent and actually get it right. And Jesus is saying these people would have got right if you would have done these works with them.

Verse 22: "But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you." To whom much is given, much shall be required. You have been given so much. God is going to require much. It is going to be more tolerable — I am going to go easier on them at judgment, even though they are going to get judged, than on you.

And if you remember, there are going to be people tormented in hell in the presence of the Lamb. There is going to be a far greater punishment for some. The same way there are going to be different degrees of glory in heaven based on what we have done for the Lord, the same way in hell some people are going to be in the lowest hell as the Bible speaks about. And some people — those that hurt children — Jesus is personally going to take care of those people.

Verse 23: "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day." And some people will jump on that and say — see! Sodom would have remained. That means the sodomites can be saved. I got you. See, that is like the James 2 argument for the reprobate doctrine. The same way someone says, see, faith without works is dead, I got you, you need works for salvation — as if that one verse just throws away a hundred verses that show it is by faith alone. It is kind of laughable when someone brings up the fact that it says Sodom would have remained until this day and uses it to say reprobates can get saved. Let me explain what this actually means.

Let us look at Genesis 18:20.

"And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord."

"And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" And then he negotiates all the way down, and in verse 32: "And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake."

So here we see that if there were at least ten righteous people, Sodom could have remained — not for the sake of the wicked, but for the sake of the righteous. Because there were not even ten righteous people, Sodom just grew worse and worse and worse. There was like no law there. They were just able to do whatever they wanted. The Bible says righteousness exalteth a nation. These people had no righteousness there. It just got worse and worse. Nobody was going out soul-winning. There was not even a righteous Lot effectively — he was just backsliding, not going out, and people thought he was joking when he tried to talk to them about judgment.

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. We as soul winners, we as Christians, can bring life into a place. Melbourne this year alone has 67 people saved, just by people that come to this church. That is not even counting people outside our group. 67 righteous people that are now here. And Sodom did not even have ten righteous people. You can see there was just nobody preaching the gospel.

1 Kings 15:12: "And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made." A righteous king like Asa removes the sodomites out of the land. And unfortunately wicked governments and wicked people do the opposite — they remove the saved people out of the land. They get the righteous out. And that is why Sodom got so bad. The children of the devil fight against the children of God and push them out.

You know, saved people help evangelise a nation. If we do not go preach the gospel, the reprobates are still going to go and promote their wickedness. They are recruiters — not reproducers. We can have children. We are normal people. But these people are just recruiters. They are going to try to get people on their side. They are going to try to hurt people. And you can kind of see that usually what happens is if someone gets hurt as a child, they can go one of two ways — they can reach out to God, or they can blame God for it, and then ultimately end up becoming a sodomite themselves because they have been hurt and they start blaming God. The devil tells them hey, God let this happen to you. And that person ends up turning against God. Like I said, they are recruiters, and if there is no soul-winning going on, what is going to happen? They are going to be pushing out the righteous people. That is why there were not even ten righteous in Sodom.

Matthew 11:24: "But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee." The people who rejected those mighty works are going to face a far worse judgment than even Sodom faced, because so much more was given to them and they still rejected the Lord Jesus Christ.

Luke 10:10–12 is a parallel passage. Jesus sends out his disciples to preach and some places just reject the message. Verse 12: "But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city." As wicked as a place becomes, it can be spared for even ten people's sake. God can actually spare Melbourne a lot of destruction because there are so many people going out every week preaching the gospel and getting people saved. God can spare it for the righteous' sake. And it tells us just how badly those people rejected so much — he came unto his own and his own received him not, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

And we are not going to be wasting our time here in Melbourne with vile people. And we are not vile — as some people say, we are all vile. I hope I have made it abundantly clear that those people are vile. It is not something a Christian should ever say about himself. That is a great way to just gloss over what the Bible says and ignore all these passages. You know, we are all vile. That is kind of the Calvinist thing — we are all reprobates before we get saved, we are all haters of God. No. We are not. We are children of disobedience, yes. But hater of God — it is clearly laid out in the Bible who that is.

We who are saved cannot be children of the devil anymore. The same way those children of the devil cannot be children of God. It is impossible for them.

Before I close — I remember there was a reprobate that threatened to abuse me. I was so grieved by it that I prayed before God and said, God, can you destroy this person, can you kill this person? And the Lord said vengeance is mine, I will recompense. About two and a half years later, God killed that person. It was just such a joy for me. God hears our prayers. It might not happen straight away. You might be praying imprecatory prayers against someone and wondering why God is taking time to judge them. Sometimes things take two years, three years. We do not know when it is going to happen. But God is going to judge and people are not going to get away with it. It is going to happen sooner or later.

In conclusion, we are to hate those that hate the Lord. We are to have the right attitude towards the vile of this world, the reprobates. I just hope that God helps us to look at the portrayal the Bible gives of these people and not the things the world is going to portray about them. The world has its portrayal of them, but the Bible has its portrayal of them. Let us hearken to the word of God, because "all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable" — so we can actually have the right doctrine. This is why we believe the reprobate doctrine in this church.

Father God, thank you so much for these passages that you have given us so we know what to stay away from and what we need to protect our families from. Thank you that you have given us this church that is not afraid of preaching these truths and a pastor that is not afraid of preaching these truths. We pray that you would bless all that we are going to be doing today with the soul-winning and bless the brethren and their families. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.