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Welcome to the Protestant Witness, this is Pastor Patrick Hines here at Boodle Heights.
Presbyterian Church, and today I'd like to post what was, in fact, the final talk of our Marriage, Family, and Sexuality conference that we had here at church, it was our annual fall conference, and had a couple other ministers in our presbytery, great, great preachers and men of God, Stephen Warhurst, and also the Reverend John Dawson spoke on being godly husbands, and making marriage healthy, making family healthy, and Stephen preached a wonderful message on the Sabbath day, and delighting in God's holy day, so it was a really great conference, so we had a good turnout, I was very pleased by it, and we try to do that every fall, it's pretty tough to get people to come out on a Friday night, and an all day Saturday, but there was a good group that came, had some good discussion afterwards, we had pizza, after we were done with all the talks, and I'd like to just post here on the Protestant Witness what was my second talk, my final talk, because I think it's the most important talk that I gave, I'd like to post the other ones too, I'd like to post Stephen's and John's too eventually here, but this is the LGBTQ stuff, I've had to address myself to this because it is taking over the PCA, and as much as I hate to admit it, Greg Johnson is exactly correct when he said, and of course it was very quickly pulled off of Twitter, but the Nashville Statement passed, and we lost that battle, but we will win the war, I think he's right, I think that they will win the war, and I do not believe that the study committee that the PCA formed is going to have anything to say at this coming PCA General Assembly, which will be in Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama of course is in the middle of a very conservative part of the United States, so I think probably, probably, the committee will not have a report at this coming PCA General Assembly, because the General Assembly the year after this coming one is going to be in St. Louis, which is the epicenter of Revoice, and that's where Covenant Seminary is, and blah blah blah.
So they're going to want to do it there and present their findings that probably same sex attraction is not going to actually be condemned, and so on and so forth. So that said, this is a topic that has been on my heart for a while.
There is no such thing as sexual orientation, and there is no such thing as the LGBTQ community. There is no LGBTQ community, and there's no such thing as homosexuals either. Many people don't realize this because everybody takes it for granted that there is such a thing as sexual orientation, that people simply discover their sexual orientation, and it might be straight, it might be bi, it might be homosexual, or who knows what all.
Who knows what other fun things people can come up with for different letters of the alphabet. Anything. Who knows where this is going. So anyway, I hope that you will find this to be encouraging, and that this will embolden you to stand for what is true and righteous, because my sincere hope is that the Gospel will liberate more and more people from this vice, and that they will be able to go to heaven and come to know Christ.
So I hope you find this to be helpful and.
Gratifying to that end.
Well, I appreciate y 'all spending this much time on a Saturday to hear about these really important topics related to family and marriage and sexuality. It's been really good material, hasn't it? So far, I'm very thankful, John and Stephen, for your ministry to us.
A lot to chew on, a lot to think about. And this final topic, it's a topic I am weary of addressing, but it needs to be addressed. It needs to be addressed straightforward, biblically, accurately, for the sake of our children and the future of the church in this country.
So would you pray with me, please?
Father in heaven, we thank you for giving us scripture and for its clarity. We thank you for the great instruction we've gotten on the need to be forgiving and gracious in our homes. The practical advice we've had on being godly fathers and leading family worship and our responsibility and that we're not to abdicate those things.
It's a lot to take in, last night and this morning so far. And we thank you for the convicting power of your word and also that you are able to help us to accomplish these things in Christ. So be with us now, Lord, as we think about this very important topic that's really shaping so much of the cultural conversation in our time.
And I pray you'd bless us as we do so.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
In his excellent book called The Same Sex Controversy, I mentioned that to you before, Dr. James White, in chapter one, which was titled The Unthinkable Has Become Thinkable, he wrote this, quote, our culture is inundated in print and on screen with the idea that homosexuality is a normal, proper, and healthy expression of love between persons.
This view has successfully infiltrated our TV sitcoms, magazines, bookstores, and coffee shops. And now we're being told that homosexuality in either orientation or act is something approved by God and therefore consistent with biblical morality.
The growing number of proponents of this view tell us that the Bible, rightly understood, interpreted, or translated, does not condemn homosexuality and that it even contains examples of loving, committed homosexual relationships within its pages.
We are witnesses of a desperate clamor to move the authority of the Bible to the side of those who claim that homosexuality is an acceptable God-approved lifestyle. The call to receive homosexuality as a morally acceptable belief or belief in behavior is now being heard in the church and by the church.
The volume of this call is increasing, as is the volume of books that are being produced. A proliferation of literature teaching this new morality under the guise of right understanding or proper biblical interpretation is resulting in the twisting of scripture, the confusion of many, and the weakening of the church.
With increasing vigor, we are told that the previous ways are wrong and unenlightened. We're told that the Bible previously thought to condemn homosexuality does no such thing and that homosexuals, either in practice or merely in interest, need to be embraced by the church and allowed, if they so aspire, even to hold positions of authority in the church.
This pushes evidence of a tragic cultural transformation that has occurred in recent decades, one that pertains to the ethical, to the moral, to that which is right and wrong. Yesterday's outrage has become today's standard.
Today, homosexuality, which at one time was morally unthinkable, is on parade before us as normal, acceptable, and in order to show its authoritative status, unquestionable. Francis Schaeffer wrote,. There is a thinkable and an unthinkable in every era.
One era is quite certain intellectually and emotionally about what is acceptable. Yet another era decides that these certainties are unacceptable and puts another set of values into practice. On a humanistic base, people drift along from generation to generation, and the morally unthinkable becomes the thinkable as the years move on.
Francis Schaeffer, writing in the 1970s, perceptively continued,. The thinkables of the 80s and 90s will certainly include things which most people today find unthinkable and immoral, even unimaginable, and too extreme to even suggest.
Yet, since they do not have some overriding principle that takes them beyond relativistic thinking, when these become thinkable and acceptable in the 80s and 90s, most people will not even remember that they were unthinkable in the 70s.
They will slide into each new thinkable without a jolt.". In the fall of 1993, I was a freshman on the campus of Ohio University in Athens County, Ohio, a state college with around 22 ,000 students. The original College Green, founded in 1804, along with its beautiful chapel, had been preserved and updated for use by the students, and I loved that chapel building.
Right in the middle of College Green, I was able to stop by there between classes when I had time, and I would take my Bible, and there was a piano in there, I'd play and read my Bible and read other great books.
On a beautiful fall day of my freshman year, to my initial delight, in one of the pews I used to sit in, I noticed a program of service on the floor with some footprints on it. It had been left over from a service that had just taken place.
And at that time in our country, the gay rights movement and open doors movement were already in full swing. There were open door groups on campus, and I knew students that were homosexuals and so on and so forth.
There were already lots of openly homosexual people there on campus, but I wasn't thinking about that issue at all when I saw that program on the floor in that chapel. I picked it up and started reading it, and quickly realized it was a wedding.
A wedding had just taken place. And on the front of the program, however, there were two male wedding rings intertwined, which I thought was a little strange. And then I noticed that the individuals who were married were named Steve and Brian.
This was a program of a homosexual wedding that had taken place right in that room I was sitting in. And as I looked through the program, I saw that they had sung a couple of hymns, Be Thou My Vision and How Great Thou Art.
But what most intrigued me, and at that point I was 18 years old, they had had two scripture readings. The first passage was 1 Samuel 18, 1 -4. I immediately put the program down and took out my Bible and looked up the passage and read this.
Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Saul took him that day and would not let him go home to his father's house anymore.
Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul, and Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt.
I was taken aback. Do they really think that passage would have any bearing or relevance to the moral atrocity of performing a gay wedding? Apparently they did. And that was read as if that passage is relevant to the topic.
And then there was another scripture reading, Ruth 1, 14 -17. Put the program back down, took out my Bible and opened it up. Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
And she said, look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, entreat me not to leave you or to turn back from following after you.
For wherever you go, I will go. And wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God. And where you die, I will die. And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.
I was taken aback by that too. How is that relevant to the perverted and wicked practice of homosexuality? Didn't Ruth go on to marry Boaz? Remember that part? And had a child that is in the genealogy of Christ?
I've also since then heard Jesus' relationship with John, the beloved disciple used in conjunction with this topic of same-sex attraction. I trust everyone here and everyone listening knows what's wrong with that kind of mishandling of God's word.
But for the record, I want to point out that David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi, Jesus and John, the beloved disciple are gloriously beautiful examples of friendship that people can have with one another.
The narratives about David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi, Jesus and John are absolutely positively and in every conceivable way irrelevant to the topic of homosexuality. Do you know why? Because David and Jonathan were not attracted to one another romantically or sexually.
Ruth and Naomi were not attracted to one another romantically or sexually. And God forbid the blasphemy of such a thought. Jesus and John, the disciple were not attracted to each other. Anyone who would cite or even allude to any of those three passages with the notion of homosexuality in the background has no respect of any kind for God's word.
My message to you in this talk is not really a defense of the biblical truth regarding marriage between one man and one woman. I assume if you're here on a Saturday, you already know that. Nor is it a defense of the biblical condemnation of both the desires and the actions of homosexuality.
The fact is the desires and the actions are named and condemned in scripture in a single verse. In fact, my 10-year-old who's sitting here was reading Romans on her own the other day and pulled me aside and read the verse to me.
Hey, dad, listen to this. Romans 1 27. Likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
Dad, shouldn't that be enough for Presbyterians to settle these issues? I said, yeah, but you need a seminary degree to really mess up something that easy. Having said all this, however, the key to the entire controversy before us in the PCA is something that R .C. Sproul pointed out a long time ago, probably in the late 70s, early 80s.
I transcribed part of his talk. It's free on Ligonier Ministries' website. There's one lecture on homosexuality. It's 48 minutes long. It's worth its weight in gold. Sproul says this, quote, first of all, to deal with the homosexual is one of the most difficult problems we have to deal with.
It would be so much easier for all concerned to just ignore the problem and say to the people and to the world and to the homosexual, look, it's okay. It's all right. You're just left-handed. It's fine.
But for me to do that would be to commit perjury against the Word of God. The problem is that so many people have bought the myth that they are intrinsically homosexuals and they have no hope of changing.
They've been listening to a society that tells them that they are sick and there's no cure for their disease. That is telling them in effect there is no hope. There is no transforming power available to change my nature.
And as Sproul says, what we must do in order to help them is begin with this fundamental thesis. Biologically, essentially, and intrinsically, there is no such thing as a homosexual. And Sproul says, let me say that again.
Biologically, essentially, and intrinsically, there is no such thing as a homosexual. People have asked me before, what would you do if one of your kids came out? What would you do? You do all this preaching, you say all this stuff in the Bible against all this stuff.
I said my kids would not come out. That's a secular concept. That's an anti-Christian concept. Because there's no such thing as homosexuals. There's no such thing as sexual orientation. And they know that.
So don't even ask me that question if it's not going to happen. What if they had a struggle with this, though? What if this was an ongoing issue? I would get on my knees and pray with tears in my eyes that God would help them overcome it in Christ.
That's what I would do. If Christians understood what Dr. Sproul said, there's no such thing as homosexuals, the debate would be over. Because everyone would recognize there's nothing to debate. The fact that the PCA formed a study committee to study homosexuality was itself a massive loss for the cause of God and truth.
And I will tell you, in my opinion, that is as foolish as them forming a committee to study does God exist or not. Because there's nothing to study. The only reason anyone thinks there's anything to study at all is because they don't understand what Dr. Sproul saw and that it is absolutely biblically true.
No one is biologically a homosexual. No one is essentially a homosexual. No one is intrinsically a homosexual. The modern psychological notion of sexual orientation is the key to all of this. Sexual orientation is mythology.
Sexual orientation as a fixed category of personhood, as Rosaria Butterfield described it, is, quote, from the pit of hell, end quote. It is a thoroughly secular concept which is flatly contradicted by the word of God over and over again as we will see.
Very quickly, though, what is sexual orientation? People talk about that all the time. Sexual orientation, sexual orientation, sexual orientation. It's a concept that was invented by the American Psychological Association in 1975.
It means, quote, an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and or sexual attractions to men, women, or both sexes. Sexual orientation also refers to a person's sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions, end quote.
That is mythology. That is a lie. There is no such thing as sexual orientation. You and I do not have sexual orientations. Sexual orientation is part of what Nate Collins, the founder of Revoice and his book All But Invisible, calls our first creation, which is not sinful.
Being a fixed and unchangeable part of our persons, this concept of sexual orientation implies that there are gender and sexual minorities who are identified by non-straight sexual orientations and or transgender identities.
Repentance is not possible from non-straight sexual orientations and transgender identities, nor is repentance necessary since neither are sinful, so we are told. There ought to be no shame associated with non-straight orientations and transgender identity because both are part of one's first creation.
One simply discovers or becomes aware of their orientation or their gender identity, be it straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, cisgender, et cetera. Now this leads to a second thoroughly anti-biblical secular concept, and that is the concept of coming out.
If sexual orientation and gender identity are fixed parts of one's person, then at the point one discovers their sexual orientation or their gender identity, one might be inclined to make that known to the world around them what their sexual orientation and gender identity is.
Coming out is making one's sexual orientation and gender identity known publicly, and that's what Teaching Elder Greg Johnson did in Christianity Today, and from his pulpit, and on the floor of the General Assembly of the PCA.
He came out. Remember Oscar Martinez from The Office? I know someone here I'd have seen in The Office, right? Oscar Martinez, remember Ross's ex-wife from Friends? Remember her? The show Will and Grace?
The movie Brokeback Mountain? The list could be multiplied. We could just name the TV shows, the sitcoms, the Hollywood personalities, movies, on and on and on and on and on. Every form of media in our culture for the past many decades has assumed the validity of the concept of sexual orientation as a fixed category of personhood.
The news assumes it, entertainment assumes it, movies assume it, documentaries assume it, everyone assumes it, and therein is the problem. It is assumed, never substantiated. It is taken for granted, never argued for.
The media blitz on this has been relentless. Even ministers of the gospel have uncritically adopted the concept of sexual orientation as defined by secularists. This is why we're losing, and in all likelihood we'll lose the debate in the PCA.
Now I want to tell you, as little as four years ago, I just want to make a confession to you, how naive I was, even four years ago. I was incredibly naive even four years ago. Someone forwarded me a link, someone in the church forwarded me a link to a same-sex attraction open forum that was hosted at a guy named Scott Saul's church with a special speaker, same-sex attracted, RUF campus minister Steven Moss.
Steven Moss is on the board of Revoice. During one of the armchair discussions at the conference, I watched all those videos. I watched all those videos four years ago when they first came out, and I immediately thought, that guy's going to lose his job like that.
I can't believe that they would do this. They're all going to get in big trouble with the denomination. No, nothing. One of the armchair discussions, I've transcribed this question and answer because I think it is so telling.
It is so telling. Listen carefully to this. Someone asked the question, here's the question, quote, in the message this morning, you made a reference to eunuchs from birth, from Matthew 19, drawing a parallel between same-sex attraction being the way God creates someone to be.
Explain why God would create someone in direct opposition to his own design for human sexuality, end quote. Now, before I read to you the answer that was given at that open forum, here's how I would answer that question if someone asked that of me.
Okay, first, I would never parallel what Jesus said about people being eunuchs from birth and homosexual perversion because there's no parallel between them. But that being said, in answer to the question itself, God does not create anyone who is biologically, essentially, or intrinsically a homosexual.
So in answer to the question, why would God create someone like this, my simple answer is God does not and never has created such a person. Eunuchs from birth is not in any way an example of something like homosexual from birth.
That's a gross misuse of that passage. That's how I would answer it. Now, here's the answer that Reverend Sahls gave, and I've transcribed it exactly. I'm going to make some comments along the way here.
Here's his answer to that question. Quote, I'll have to go back and listen to the recording. I don't think I said God created someone to be a certain way. I said that people are born a certain way. I referenced the account in the Gospels about the man who was born blind as a bit of a parallel.
He's born in a broken condition. He's born in a condition that does not represent flourishing. He can't see. And he's utterly dependent on everyone around him. Now, break from the quotation here for a minute.
Folks, do you hear what's being said there? It's the exact same thing that Greg Johnson said on the floor of the General Assembly. Physical handicaps are being directly paralleled to sexually perverted desires.
They have embraced the concept of sexual orientation. It is just as much a part of who you are as being born blind. He continues, quote, that's not the way things were originally designed, and yet he was born that way.
God clearly had jurisdiction over him being born that way. But that doesn't, you know, you get into a whole other theological discussion as, well, God created me this way. And then I'd have to say that God created me with aggression and a tendency to get defensive.
No, that's actually just a part of how I was born broken. That's a product of the fall in my life. Just like the man born blind. His blindness is a product of the fall. You see the parallel being made there again?
My tendency to be aggressive or self-defensive is not in any way able to be paralleled to being born blind. Physical handicaps are not morally evil. He continues, Jesus was asked, was it this man's sin or his parents that he was born this way?
And Jesus said, nobody. He is this way so that God might be glorified in his life through the glory that comes through weakness, suffering, and those sorts of things. I think another parallel account is 2 Corinthians 12, where Paul speaks of a thorn in his flesh.
And then talking to Stephen Moss who was sitting there right next to him, he said to Stephen, you've asked many times over the course of your life, Lord, would you take this desire away? Would you grant me a desire that I can actually move forward with a woman according to your design scripturally in marriage, et cetera.
As Julie Rogers said in her talk, you pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. And like with Paul, God has for some reason not answered that prayer in the affirmative. He's answered it in the negative and decided what is best for you in my infinite wisdom is for you, at least for now, to have same sex attraction and to live with it and glorify me through that.
Just like the man born blind was allowed that affliction. Are you tracking this? He continues, Paul was allowed the thorn in the flesh to bring glory to God. I think the important thing that goes along with Stephen's distinction between temptation and sin, you can't blame Paul anymore for having a thorn any more than you can blame the man born blind for being blind or Stephen Moss for being born with same sex attraction.
Are you following this? He continues. I know people want to say, well, Stephen, you must have had some really terrible environment you grew up in, or that's the reason for this because people aren't just born this way.
Well, but Stephen, you had a very nurturing home and nurturing church. Like you said, a kind of charmed life. According to you, you've never been abused. And yet this is something you entered life with.
And the scripture that comes to mind is what the enemy, the serpent in the garden intends for evil. God intends for good end quote. Now it's hard to know where to begin to even address the entire phalanx of errors that were just committed in those statements.
First, there is no parallel whatsoever regarding the sinfulness of a man being attracted to men and a person being born blind. And if I had been born blind, I would be very offended by this. There is no parallel whatsoever.
One is the physical handicap for which a person is not morally accountable to God because physical handicaps are not sin. The other is a gross violation of the law of God and the creation order design itself.
And while I would never deny that there are people for whom same sex attraction may be an ongoing problem. God's word does not teach that sinful desires and tendencies are anything like Paul's thorn in the flesh, which he specifically describes as an angelic being of some kind, which was sent to Buffett or strike him.
According to the passage, we do not know exactly what this was, but there is no indication of any kind that it was some kind of a sinful desire or sinful tendency in Paul's heart or life. Paul's prayer that God would take it away from him is not normative when it comes to the Christian life dealing with sin for one simple reason.
Jesus himself answered Paul's requests with these words in 2 Corinthians 12, 9. My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. You see how that passage is being used with regard to the homosexuality issue?
While Christians may ask God to weaken or remove certain evil desires and tendencies we may have, the fact that those desires and tendencies persist does not mean, listen to me, it does not mean that God wants us to make peace with those desires or tendencies and simply decide that, well, God must want to just glorify himself by not taking these desires away from me.
If the desires and tendencies do not weaken or go away when you pray, when you recite scripture, when you worship God, when you pray with your brethren, that is not God answering you with, I've given you these evil desires to glorify me with them.
Please rid your mind of that false teaching now and forever. If desires and tendencies that you have, which are evil, persist, that is God calling you to fight harder, to resist harder. When we have a huge struggle with certain sins, and believe me, every Christian in this room knows exactly what I'm talking about.
Everyone in this room has huge, massive struggles with ongoing sin in their life. The fact that those sins and those desires persist, that is not God calling you to make peace with those sins and tendencies.
It is God calling you to fight with more ferocity, with more determination, and more abandon to him. It is God calling you to strap on his armor with greater care. It is God calling you to wage aggressive warfare against that sin, to stay out in front of it, to flank it, to cut off its every opportunity to lodge in your mind and heart, to kill it with every weapon at your disposal, to wear yourself out, putting it to death, to expend every bit of spiritual and physical energy you have to rid yourself of it.
No matter how long that sin hangs on, you stand and fight. No retreat, no peace, no truce. When God effectually calls a sinner to himself, he justifies that sinner by the blood and righteousness of Christ alone.
But that blessed peace we have with God marks the beginning of a war that will not stop till you draw your final breath. And any teaching that would tell you, you can make peace with this sin, or this sin, or this sin, just for a time, that's the hissing of the devil into your ear.
May God break the arms and the teeth of anyone who would dare to tell one of Christ's precious blood-bought sheep that making peace with their sin can somehow glorify God. May God silence the lying mouths of those who would say that anything at all would call a struggling Christian back from fighting his sin with the belief that in Christ he can and he will overcome it.
The Christian's fight with sin is nothing like being born blind. A person born blind would certainly expect, yes, it's God's will that I be unable to see. But the Christian is not to have such an attitude toward any sin in their heart, or mind, or life.
Physical handicaps are not like sins in that way. Anywhere our enemy's sin tries to lodge in our hearts, there we are to attack, destroy, and kill that sin. Colossians 3 .5, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desires, kakos, epithumia, any desire you have that's contrary to the law of God, kill it.
That worked out well. Kill it. Kill it. Evil desires. Don't ever make peace with sin. Don't ever make peace with sin. Don't ever make peace with sin. If it's contrary to the will of God, it's your enemy.
Whatever it attempts to find a home in your life, in your desires, your affections, your attractions, your thoughts, actions, attitudes, or anything else. What's amazing to me is that now we have ordained ministers and ruling elders who are fighting, not against their sin, mind you, but fighting hard to protect their supposed right to designate themselves homosexuals.
They are fighting to protect that abominable label, that abominable, unnatural, perverted, twisted, vile desire for which our Lord Jesus Christ was crowned with thorns, mercilessly scourged, nailed to a cross, and died.
And he was buried and rose again so that he could, by his almighty and gracious power, liberate sin-enslaved souls and make them slaves of righteousness. Paul writes this triumphant indicative. Wouldn't this have been a great passage to answer the question with?
Romans 6, 4. Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, here, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
If you were a homosexual and you've come to Christ, that old man is dead. He was crucified. He's not alive any longer. That the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
For he who has died has been freed from sin. If you belong to Christ, you no longer belong to evil. You no longer belong to darkness. You no longer belong to covetousness. You no longer belong to sexual sin.
You no longer belong to hate, to jealousy. And you no longer belong to homosexuality. All that we were was nailed to the cross. And the dominion and power of sin has been broken over us. And for every redeemed sinner who has been with Jesus to the cross, in union with Christ, sin's tyranny in their life has been shattered.
Galatians 5 .24, great text. Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with his passions and his desires. You dare not think, well, same-sex attraction is my being born blind. And it's my Pauline thorn in the flesh.
I'll ask God to remove it. And if it doesn't disappear, then it's okay for me to identify as a homosexual who is going to glorify God as a homosexual and choose to be celibate, end quote. That is satanic thinking.
That is satanic, anti-Christian, anti-biblical thinking. Has no basis in church history, historical theology, moral theology. If you can't hear the hissing from Eden in such words, perhaps you're just spiritually deaf.
It is not God's will that his redeemed ones continue to be enslaved to sin or defined by sin or to conceive of themselves as sin. We are the temple of God. Sin's presence in our members is just as inappropriate as the money changers in the temple that Jesus beat senseless and threw out of that place.
Jesus walked up to I would really mean a lot to me if you guys would leave. Would you guys please get out? Well, they won't get out. I guess it's God's will to glorify himself with money changers in the temple.
No, we are to have the very same aggression. What a travesty of anti-biblical advice. Just pray for God to remove it. And if he doesn't, just bow to it, accept it, identify as it. I'd like to replace that with biblical truth that applies to every single blood-bought Christian and child of God, no matter how they were born or what ongoing struggles they have with sin.
Do you want to know God's will for you? Here it is. First Thessalonians 4 .1. Finally, then brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more just as you received from us how you ought to walk and please God.
For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel and sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.
God's will is not for you to make peace with sin, to accept its presence and to bow to it being your self-conception. God's will is your sanctification, that the whole man would be renewed after the image of God in righteousness and holiness, that you should abstain from sexual immorality in whatever form it rears its ugly head in your life.
Homosexuality, adultery or any other form. God's triumphant indicative statements of fact concerning this sin and you as a person is this. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Romans 6 .14. It doesn't have dominion over you anymore.
It doesn't have control over you anymore. Romans 6 .18. Having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. And I read in my earlier talk, Romans 6 .21. What fruit did you then have in the things of which you are now ashamed?
For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness in the end everlasting life. 2nd Corinthians 7 .1. Therefore having these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
You want to be a doer of the word and not a self-deluded hearer only? I'd like you to turn with me. Look at James 1 .21 and following. James 1 .21 and following. This will be the last passage I have you turn to.
But it's a key passage on this topic. James 1 .21 -24. Great paragraph for meditation. James 1 .21. See it there? Therefore lay aside what? All filthiness and overflow of wickedness. And receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
Okay, stop there for a moment. All filthiness. Pras huparion means all moral uncleanness. What is God's will for you? To simply accept the presence of wickedness in your life. No, it is to lay it aside.
To take it off like a garment. All moral uncleanness. All of it. Every last bit of it. When those men in Acts chapter 7, remember the stoning of Stephen? It says that they took their garments off and laid them down at the feet of a young man named Saul.
That term apatithe me. To put off. To take off. That's the term that's used here. Put it off. Lay it aside. Take it off like a garment. James 1 .21 continues. Take off all moral uncleanness. All filthiness and the overflow of wickedness.
The abundance of wickedness. All of it. All of it is to be discarded like an old garment. Paul uses the same illustration. Listen to this point. Ephesians 4 .17. Just listen. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But you have not still learned Christ. If indeed you have heard him and been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Listen. That you put off. Take off concerning your former conduct. The old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust.
Remember what Paul said in Romans 6 about the old man? He died. He was crucified with Christ. And here Paul is saying and keep taking it off. Take off that garment that grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.
Why do we say it's sinful to adopt a self-designation as homosexual? Why would we say that? Why would we say national statement is correct and pointing out it is sinful for us. It is contrary to scripture.
It is contrary to God to adopt the self-conception of homosexual because that's the old man. That's the old guy you're supposed to take off. Discard. That's the old man that was crucified with Christ.
He's dead and gone. Reckon yourselves to be dead to sin. Don't reckon yourselves to still be in it. Reckon yourselves to be alive to God in Christ. Dead to sin. The old man, he's part of the past. We do not live in that any longer.
That no longer has dominion over us and anytime that old man tries to assert himself you are to put him off like a garment. Take him off. Take off the old and put on the new man which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness.
We don't wear the old man. Don't wear the old man. We don't identify as what we used to be. We do not identify as someone who will not go to heaven. Look at verses 22 through 24 of James 1. But be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourself.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of a man he was. Okay, stop there.
If you're a Christian, when you look in the mirror, yes, I know we often feel ashamed and guilty of all the sin that we still struggle with. But the old man is dying more and more and the glory of Christ is growing in your hearts.
James 1 exhorts us to lay aside all moral uncleanness. And homosexuality certainly counts as a form of moral uncleanness. It ought to be fought against and discarded, not embraced as an identity. The person who looks in the mirror and still sees the unregenerate slave of sin looking back at them is self-deceived, to be sure.
They're deluded, the passage says. They're like someone who sees himself in the mirror and then immediately forgets what kind of man they were. They forget what they look like. Why would a Christian? I don't understand it.
It makes no sense to me at all. Unprecedented in church history. Never heard anything like this in everything I've ever read or studied about church history, historical theology, and Christian thought.
Why would a Christian, a minister of the gospel, fight to protect his right to adopt a self-conception as a homosexual, when according to the word of God, everything we just read, that abominable sin is something he no longer lives in.
It does not have dominion over him, and it's a vice from which he's been set free by the grace of God. For the many former homosexuals in the world and in Corinth, that makes no sense at all. 1 Corinthians 6, 9 -11.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Isn't that so simple and beautiful? While this does not mean that every repentant person who came to Christ in Corinth never had any more struggles with any of those old demons and those old sins, it certainly does not mean that any of them would have adopted the self-conception as a fornicator, an idolater, an adulterer, a homosexual, a sodomite, a thief, covetous, drunk, reviling, or an extortioner.
None of them would have done that. It would have made no sense to them to do that. On the contrary, with all of God's people throughout all the ages of time, they would have identified themselves instead as washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Their stories were no doubt wonderful, encouraging, and inspiring. I would love to have heard them. We don't identify as our former sins because how shall we who died to sin live in it any longer? Paul asks in Romans 6 -2.
Jesus Christ, as I said before, has not lost any of his life-changing power. It's always a wonderful and heartwarming thing to see it when it truly happens. People take off all that remains of moral uncleanness.
They become radically transformed. They become pure. They become worshippers of God. They discard all the filth and the yuck and the vile of their past, and they detest it. They hate it. They cast it aside like an old, moth-eaten, worn-out garment, and they begin the painful and joyful process of putting on the new man who is created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.
The battle against remaining in dwelling sin is wearisome. It often consumes us and really pushes us to the edge of ourselves, but such is only fuel to the fire to continue the fight. Any counsel that would urge Christians simply to accept the presence of such moral uncleanness in their lives is the counsel of death.
You and I do not have sexual orientations that we will one day discover on life's journey. I'd like to close with some other, some more words from the same lecture from Dr. Sproul, and I can get away with saying this because he said it.
Quote, why would a man, this is Dr. Sproul, why would a man have less than confidence in his maleness? Somewhere along the line, someone is telling him either directly or indirectly, he's not a man, that he doesn't measure up to the standard of maleness in our society.
Homosexuality is not an individual problem as much as it is a societal problem. A high incidence of homosexuality in a given society is an indictment upon the whole society. There's a lot of truth in that.
Don't you agree with Sproul? He's right. He says, when a society manifests a distorted value system of maleness and femaleness, corrupting an authentic understanding of maleness and femaleness, homosexuality will follow inevitably in the culture.
One of the most effective counseling techniques that I've used with people struggling with homosexuality, especially those who profess to be Christians, is this. I say, hey, you have an authority crisis here.
Your society, or your mother, or some girl, or even yourself, have been telling you all these years you're not a man. God says, you're a man. Now, you've got to settle the question of authority in your own life.
And we go right back to creation. God created male and female. There is a fundamental, rather simple way of discerning the difference, at least biologically, physically, organically, between a man and a woman.
And I tell guys this, I'm still quoting Sproul. The next time you have any doubts about your being a man, I want you to go into the bathroom, close the door, lock the door, and I want you to take your pants off and take a look.
You have the equipment that is inseparably related to what God calls a man. God calls you a man. How dare you gainsay that claim? You are a man. Now, what God has called you to be, morally, in terms of your sexual behavior, is what?
A man. If God calls a person to be something that he's not, that would involve a real struggle. It involves Herculean dimensions of faith. When God calls one who is a man to be a man, it shouldn't be as difficult as it apparently is, unless the distortive element of our society is overwhelmingly great, end quote.
Listen to that again. I'm not going to read the whole thing again. The last sentence, when God calls someone who is a man to be a man, it shouldn't be that difficult. And Sproul says, stop doubting what God made you to be.
Go look at yourself in the mirror. Next time you're in the bathroom, when you get out of the shower, you are a man. Don't let anyone, any force, any person in society tell you otherwise. That's what you are.
Act like it. Be obedient. You see the death counsel that's coming with all this, well, just make peace with it and we can have sexual minorities in the church. That is the counsel of death. Is there no one who loves these people?
For the true child of God, the distortive element of our society, it's great. If it was great when Sproul said that in the 80s, how much greater is it now? But it's not overwhelmingly great. It's not overwhelmingly great.
1 John 5, 4 and 5, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. There's a verse you should tell someone who struggles with this. Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. You can overcome this in Christ.
Now, is that a guarantee? Just ask God to take it away and bang, it'll be gone. No, that's not the way it works with any sin. Have any of you noticed that the sins you struggled with when you were 18, you still struggle with now?
They haven't gone away. But what is that an invitation for you to do? To fight harder, to struggle more. Jesus is worth the fight. Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world.
Our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the son of God. God calls men to be men. Men are not women. And it's sinful for them to act like women. God calls women to be women.
Women are not men. And it's sinful for women to act like men. There's a relationship between the indicative, the gender that God assigned you at conception, and the imperative, the gender that God calls you to be in life.
There's no such thing as sexual orientations. The church does not have gender and sexual minorities. They don't exist. If you are male, God equipped you physically, sexually, emotionally, romantically, for intimacy with one woman, for life, and vice versa.
The issue before us is actually very simple. It's easy to understand. Like Dr. Sproul said, there is a serious authority crisis among us. It's a serious authority crisis. Is God allowed to define us? Or will men rebel against God and insist on being something other than what God created them to be?
May God give discernment back to the shepherds of his church in the PCA and in our country at this time. And let's pray that he will. Father in heaven, we know that teaching and ruling elders are gifts of Christ to the church.
There's always hope for everybody. But for those who have been more influenced by the winds of culture change than they have been by the immovable and unchanging word of God, we do pray for their repentance.
We pray that the church would be a safe place for people to admit they do struggle with sins like this, and where they can be given biblical counsel and given the tools they need to stand their ground and fight, and to recognize if you someone a woman, you've equipped them to act like one.
But if you made someone male and called them to be a man, you've given them what they need to act like that. We pray, Lord, that you would save many, that you would help us, give us men of discernment and wisdom and courage in these.
Dark days we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. This is Pastor Patrick Hines of Brittle Heights Presbyterian.
Church located at 108 Brittle Heights Road in Kingsport, Tennessee. And you've been listening to the Protestant Witness Podcast. Please feel free to join us for worship any Sunday morning at 11 a .m. sharp, where we open the word of God together, sing his praises, and rejoice in the gospel of our risen Lord.
You can find us on the web at www .brittleheightspca .org. And may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.