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Lowell Brueckner

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Look Again at Your Bible!

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Another look at Jesus in the Gospels

William Booth, founder of Salvation Army predicting 20th
and 21st Century Christanity. I think you can translate it.
For any who might think that sinners were comfortable with Jesus, let me invite you to take another look at the Gospels. Remember that before Jesus sat to eat with publicans and sinners, John the Baptist had been around. Jesus showed that the same ones who came to him, had been following John, desperately looking for truth and salvation (Mt.21:32). John called them to repentance and so did Jesus. The only sinners that were comfortable with Jesus and with whom Jesus was comfortable were repentant sinners.  

Even so, these sinners had to overcome their aversion to the light of truth in order to get close to Jesus. See Peter prostrate at Jesus’ feet crying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Lk.5:8). Hear the centurion say, “I am not worthy for you to come under my roof” (Mt.8:8). “If I had not come and spoken to them,” Jesus said, “they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin” (Jn.15:22). Do you think it made people comfortable when Jesus reached over and tore the covers off their soul, baring even the hidden things that no one knew about? He was a friend of sinners all right (Mt.11:19), the same kind of friend commended in the book of Proverbs… “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful the kisses of an enemy” (Pr.27:6)


Another look at the Bible about homosexuality

With this homosexual thing coming to the forefront again, it’s a good time to tell you about something else that is bothering me. I am hearing again and again from some pretty good people, addressing the homosexual and lesbian: “I am a sinner just like you are. Adultery and fornication are just as bad.” This is just another misguided attempt to try to make the homosexual comfortable. They are not giving homosexuality its proper place in the light of Scripture.

Let’s take another look at the Bible. In so doing, I am not trying to lessen the sin of adultery and fornication, it is true that the adulterer and the fornicator will go to the same hell as the homosexual, but I am trying to give the same emphasis to each one that I find in Scripture.

When God sent angels to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, the account says nothing about the adultery and fornication that were surely there. We don’t read of thievery and murder. This place was worthy of historic notoriety, because of the depths of moral degradation found in it. “Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord” (Gen.13:13). Then the Author of Scripture, the Holy Spirit, sends us with the angels into Sodom to see for ourselves exactly what was happening there and what kind of people were there.

After reading that account, no decent human being could blame God for turning that city to ashes with everyone in it. The sin that illustrates the putrid state of the populace, young and old from every quarter of the city, was homosexuality: “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them” (Gen. 19:5). In the Bible, from that point on, a homosexual was called a Sodomite. With that graphic illustration, there can be no doubt as to the nature of the sin.

Then we turn to the Apostle Paul in the first chapter of Romans. He is describing the fall of the human race into rebellion and mutiny against the Creator. They – no let’s say we, members of the human race – we did not honor him as God, we were ungrateful, unreasonable, and illogical, with darkened hearts. We ignored Him and made gods of animals, men, birds and even reptiles, and therefore the wrath of God burned against fallen men. This is the cause, that is, turning away from God and following are the consequences.

Evangelism in India, "Rich Man & Lazarus"
The potential consequences of alienation from God are degrading passions, unnatural lusts and perversion. When men and women fall this far, according to New Testament truth, they are abandoned by God and left to the worst state of dishonor or shaming themselves. They are far from the true God, but as this chapter states, they turn to idolatry… a god of their own imagination and making. The sin that Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives to illustrate this state is homosexuality and lesbianism. God in His wrath has abandoned the homosexual. Then Paul writes of those who give hearty approval to those who practice those things. That would be the Supreme Court, the Democratic Party, and the whole general populace, who votes them into office, after which the judges are appointed by the president with the approval of Congress.

We’re talking about sexual perversion. Perversion is the unnatural thinking and misuse of God’s creation, twisting things into a function that God never intended. It can happen in all areas of life, including music and the arts, architecture, styles and dress, etc., etc. The possibilities of perversion are boundless and simply express the woeful, anti-God condition of the heart and mind of man.

In these times, if we are 13-years old (probably a lot younger), we have a pretty good idea of male and female anatomy. Having that knowledge, it is easy to come to the conclusion that they were made for each other, physically to be sure, but also spiritually. We read of God’s intentions right from the beginning of time; that is, that man is to leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they become one flesh. When this happens, if they are both healthy, reproduction takes place and new life is brought forth.

Bring two men or two women together and nothing happens… never has, never will It wasn’t meant to be… Perversion is pretty simple really. Sex among two males or two females just doesn’t work. Scribbling is not writing. Distorted sound is not music. Incoherent writing is not poetry. The expending of senseless energy is not work. Impractical and exaggerated styles, make-up, hair-dos, tattoos, and jewelry are perversions and the more you give yourself to them, the more you evidence your distance from your Creator. Perverts have been abandoned by God.

Another look at biblical evangelism
28-page booklet might help you in
evangelism. Ask for it.

So what can be done; what can we do? Understand this, God owes them and us absolutely nothing. He is totally righteous even if He saves no one. Of course, we have family and relatives, who are perverts, so we are not content that justice takes place against them. We want mercy and that is a legitimate longing. “God have mercy!” is a legitimate cry… so cry!

That’s where it starts, so distance yourself from all false comfort, offered by well-meaning, but deluded people. Get into your Bible, so that you can see how evangelism really takes place. Stop justifying and excusing sin and the sinner. Face truth! Then cry out to God for mercy.

When my dad found the Lord, he knew that my grandpa was on the road to destruction. Did he tell him Jesus loved him and try to enter a more comfortable relationship with him? (The term used today is “showing him love”). It didn’t enter his mind. He hounded him until Grandpa angrily said, “Stay away from me!” My uncle and Dad prayed, “God do anything you have to do, but save our dad!” I believe assuredly that as a result of that prayer, my grandpa lost his leg. Gangrene formed in it and it had to be amputated, but 29 years later, Grandpa died with a smile on his face and went to heaven.

“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” The usual sequence is this: anger, fear, conviction of sin, humility, repentance, faith and joy. It doesn’t normally happen after a 15-minute “gospel sales pitch”. We try to avoid the ingredient of anger, but in my experience, it usually takes place when a person’s eyes begin to open and he is forced to face himself. Anger is not yet a manifestation of wisdom; it is a stupid reaction, but it usually has to happen, before fear wisely enters. It happened in the Bible and it happened in the lives of the church’s great evangelists.

My one-legged grandfather, now waiting for the resurrection
in heaven, when he will have two legs again.
Light entering a dark heart is painful. If you are used by the Holy Spirit as an instrument in opening someone’s eyes, he will probably get angry with you. Don’t be a coward! Prayerfully and courageously step into whatever situation God would have you be a part of. Speak the truth in love (that does not mean speak softly and nicely, but faithfully from your heart). Do whatever you have to do, say what you have to say, however you have to say it, for that sinner’s eternal good. Love enough to do that.

Cooperate with the Holy Spirit as he makes it clear that this unbeliever is a guilty, helpless sinner, who must come to repentance. Then in the end, hopefully you will have the same satisfaction that my uncle and dad had, when they heard my grandpa say, “The devil got my leg, but Jesus got my heart.”

Whether you like John MacArthur or not, would you please listen to his message on homosexuality. I did and it moved me, especially the story of the dying young man with AIDS, whom MacArthur led to salvation in the hospital. I was also thankful for his definition of hate-speech.











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