A Practical Q&A on Transgenderism #2

So, how do we trust God in a transgender world?

We come back to Christ and we remember that He can be trusted. He's been leading His people since the creation of the world. Defending God's truth in a transgender age and responding to a transgender accepting world with Scripture is not always looked on with favor, is it? Sometimes that's even true with family members and friends.

Hello there, I'm Bill Wright. Today on the Truth Pulpit, Pastor Don Green continues in a series called The Bible and Transgenderism as he continues teaching God's people God's word. And Don, when people we know are dealing with gender confusion, well, it's really tough to know whether to love and affirm them or preach to them about their sin. Well, it really is, Bill, and this is a serious pastoral issue and I hope I can have a word of encouragement. I have had multiple conversations with people dealing with these issues in their families and with their loved ones, and it is so difficult for them to know just what to say in any particular given conversation. Well, let me just encourage you that we can go to God in prayer and ask for His help, that He has abundantly given us His Holy Spirit, who is able to give us wisdom in conversations and to help us know how to speak a word in the right circumstances. So as you're struggling with these issues day to day and how to help someone, make it a day to day matter of prayer. God, help me. Give me wisdom.

Direct my tongue so that I can say the words of truth in love that would be profitable for this person that I care about. Thanks, Don and friend, let's join our teacher now for more biblical insight from the Truth Pulpit. What I want to do is give some practical advice related to Christians and transgenderism. This is kind of a practical Q&A question and answer on transgenderism. How do we as Christians live in a transgender world where everything that we believe and have taught over the past few weeks is viewed as secular heresy and an assault on well-intentioned people, as the case could be pejoratively made against us?

So let me just walk through some questions very, very quickly. We ask this question. How do we help the families of transgender people? How do we help the families of transgender people? This whole thing is just enormously complex because there are just so many different dimensions to the issue. There's the relationship with the transgender person themselves.

There's the understanding of the ideologies that we've looked at in recent weeks. There are the biblical issues. There's the cultural issues. There's issues, you know, how's this going to maybe affect my job? And now, you know, and we just realize that there are just so many complexities to it.

That's why I've spent six messages talking about it. It's trying to sort these things through one step at a time. Now, how do we help the families of transgender people? And here we enter into that where my pastoral affections and compassion are especially kindled. Well, I would encourage you, first of all, to tell them that they are not crazy for not going along with it, to tell them the things that we've talked about here at Truth Community Church, that God made everyone in the world, either a man or a woman, and to reassure them that it's not their responsibility to accept and endorse someone else who is rejecting what God made them to be and to just simply be a strength and encouragement to them.

And this will probably take a good bit of time. As you are dealing with that and as you are talking with that, to sympathize with them, to weep with them. And in that, I would take you to a passage in Romans chapter 9, if you will, and to affirm the grief and the sorrow that they feel. And in Romans chapter 9, verse 1, this is obviously not a transgender passage, but to help them see that in Scripture we have examples of godly people grieving deeply over the way that others are rejecting Christ. Paul says about the Jews in Romans chapter 9, verse 1, he says, I am telling the truth in Christ.

I am not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. And if I had opportunity to sit down with a family like this, I would take them to this passage and say, you see, we have loved ones who break our hearts, and even the apostle Paul knew what that was like, that there is great sorrow and unceasing grief in his heart, to remind them that Jesus himself wept over Jerusalem and their rejection of their king, and that the heart of a godly person knows what it's like to grieve when they watch their loved ones rebel against God and turn away from him. It is grievous to watch people reject their creator. It is grievous when people reject Christ, and we want to come alongside and be a friend to those who may not have many other friends in this situation.

Now, I've said about all I know that can get me into trouble, so why stop now, right? It is often the nature of the LGBTQ community to act like a cult and to separate and isolate people from those who have always loved them. This is often the way that it is done, and relationships are broken off for the sake of pursuing this lifestyle. And I would tell these dear families that, look, you may not be able to prevent it and to encourage them to lean on Christ and to look to Christ, to look to the Word of God, to look to the one who said, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and to point them to Christ as the only one who can be their loyal, omnipotent, sufficient friend in this time. You can offer this series on transgenderism to them if they'll take it, but preeminently, point them to Christ and be a sympathetic friend to them.

One other little thing that I'll mention here, again, the fingers of this just go in so many different directions. Let me just mention a book to you that I've alluded to in the past. There is a book written by an author whose father left her for the transgender lifestyle when she was a very young child. The woman's name, the author's name is Denise Schick, S-H-I-C-K. She has written a children's book that is age appropriate. I've gone through it.

I've read it myself. It's age appropriate to help children think through these issues. And the title of the book, it's very sad that this is even necessary and a thing in our world, but the title of the book is When Daddy Leaves to Be a Girl. When Daddy Leaves to Be a Girl.

For families who are dealing with this, this is a resource that might be helpful to help young children process that kind of change in their family life. Look, we're dealing with raw reality here. We're dealing with the way these things play out. And what we want to do, what we're trying to do here in this series is to just meet the challenges head on and directly and compassionately as we possibly can.

And so we have answered four questions so far. How do we trust God in transgender world? How do we raise children in a transgender world? How do we respond to transgender people? And how do we help the families of transgender people?

Wow, that's a lot. Let's answer a fifth question, shall we? How do we respond to the pressure of a transgender world? How do we respond to the pressure of a transgender world? What do we do when transgendered people tell us to use different names than those by which we have known them, to use different pronouns than we have ever called them, and to just insist on and to tell us that these are the words that you must use to address me now?

And increasingly, they are able to say these things with legislative support and penalties attached to the way that you respond. Well, this is a difficult question. I have heard different Christians give different answers to the question.

This is my opinion and the reasons for it. Generally speaking, we want to love these people. We want to communicate the love of Christ to them. But beloved, if Scripture teaches us anything, it is that we must speak the truth in love, that truth is not sacrificed on the altar of so-called love. Love must be based on the truth. And as I see it, the most important thing that we can do is to help them see that much more than their personal identity is at stake in this discussion, that God is the one who assigns sex in the mother's womb, and that nothing that we say to each other changes that reality.

Nothing that we do to our bodies, none of the hormones that we take, putting on dresses when we have male anatomy, none of that changes the reality of what God made us out to be. And so I think that we say, I will treat you with love and respect, but I cannot accept your desire to put words in my mouth, my friend. My conscience answers to a higher authority than that.

Now, some people, some Christian writers in some of the books that I've read about this, as they're dealing with their Q&As about it, some people say that you should play along and honor their wishes and call them by the name that they want to be called by and use the pronouns that they ask. Look, I'm not going to presume to define it for every person in every situation. Here we're speaking in the realm of matters that go beyond the four corners of Scripture. But for me personally, I want to be the guy that was telling them truth all along. If down the road they have a change of heart about this, if down the road the Spirit of God works repentance in their hearts, if down the road they have a different perspective on it, I don't want to be in a position where I have to apologize for having agreed with that which they are now rejecting themselves.

Because then you've compromised, you've compromised your testimony, in my opinion, you've compromised your testimony for the sake of momentary false harmony and hidden the truth in the process. And so however you personally work out the application of this, I think that somewhere at the core of your response to those kinds of demands is somehow we have to communicate to people that I am not accepting the transgender worldview and I don't recognize you as the opposite sex of that into which you were born. However that plays out from there, however you communicate that I think that somewhere that needs to be in the mix of how we respond and not just give them the impression that this is okay, that there's no problem here. And as I hope to do in two or three weeks on a Sunday, to urge them to come to Christ and rather than finding their identity and their personal feelings inside about who they are, to find their identity in the Lord Jesus Christ, to come to Him for salvation and find their identity in Him and their meaning in life and who they are, to find it through repentance of sin and faith in Christ and to be identified with Him in His life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension on high.

And to tell them this is a far better identity than anything you could create in the contours of your own mind. Now, I realize that in saying these things and one of the things that made me cautious and to hesitate as I entered into this series, kind of counting the cost of a series like this and saying these things that I felt like needed to be said, I realize that faithfulness to Christ for some of you, either hearing this in this room or on subsequent media, I realize that faithfulness to Christ in this realm may come at a personal cost of relationships and for some even a threat to their careers and employment. And that's especially true in Canada and Britain and other places that are further down the road even than America is on this.

The province of British Columbia is just a cesspool of despair in the way that they've given themselves over to these things. And I realize that there are life consequences that are at stake in what we are saying here this evening. Well, let me just encourage you and as we think about those things, what I've been saying throughout this message to come back to Christ, to never view these things, to never view the situations, the people or the consequences of it, never view them apart from Christ. Come back to Christ again and again and again.

Now, how would that apply to responding to the pressure of a transgender world? Look at the Gospel of John chapter 15, if you would. John chapter 15.

John chapter 15 verse 18. Jesus told his disciples, If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.

If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. Look, Christ was crucified. Let me say that again. Christ was crucified by a world that hated Him. If we are followers of His, it should not surprise us that some kind of lesser persecution comes to us, and the mere fact that we are threatened with persecution is not a reason or an excuse to change things, to distort the truth, to hide the truth in order to avoid it. This is part and parcel of what it means to be a Christian, that sometimes there is a price to be paid for following Christ, and sometimes the price and the providence and the design of God for your life is very high.

The price is not how we determine whether we will be faithful or not. We must recognize the truth and be loyal to the truth and let the consequences of that fall where they may. And Jesus promised a particular blessing on those who suffer for His sake. Listen as I read the familiar passage from Matthew chapter 5 verse 10, where Jesus said to His disciples, blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The idea is theirs and theirs alone. It's only people that suffer that are somehow persecuted for the sake of righteousness who belong to the kingdom of heaven. And He goes on to say in verse 11, blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great.

For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. If it comes to one of us to suffer loss for the sake of loyalty to Christ in this realm, Jesus would say, you're blessed to be persecuted for the sake of My name because your reward in heaven is great. And we're not living for what happens in this life.

We're living and our eyes are set on the world to come. And so we come back to Christ and loyalty to Christ makes us willing to pay the price. If it happens to someone in our church, we need to be committed in advance to be there for them, to support them through it, whatever that means.

Final question, question number six here. How should the church respond to a transgender world? Well, I'm about to state some pretty important policy for Truth Community Church. And this is the direction of our church and gives you a sense of how seriously we take these matters. Within the walls of Truth Community Church, I trust our position is clear. We believe, we teach that transgender ideology is opposed to the truth and cannot be reconciled with the truth.

The Christianity, biblical truth and transgender ideology are two mutually exclusive realms that has consequences. If a transgender person came into our church, we would welcome them to this extent. We would welcome them to come and learn and to sit under the teaching and the sound of the gospel, but we would not affirm them in their transgender identity. In that sense, it's no different than any other kind of sinner that comes into the room. Whether it's a drunk or whether it's an adulterer or a liar or a thief, if they come in to hear the teaching of God's Word and they sit in a respectful way, then we welcome them and we would pray that God would use His Word in their life to perhaps convert them and to cause them to be born again. We make the gospel the priority.

We give them our time as we are able to do so. But practicing transgender people are not eligible for membership. They would not be recognized as Christians in any way, shape, or form, no matter what their verbal profession might be.

The lines there are clear. Beyond that, and I'm so grateful to the Lord that we're able to say these things, and as a friend told me last night, to plant a flag on these issues in advance. Furthermore, we would say in advance, and we all need to hear this, that members of Truth Community Church cannot defend transgender identity to others. They cannot affirm transgender identity in others, especially in family members.

This is not an option. This is not an option to affirm and defend it. It's one thing to love the person, to try to walk through these issues, to suffer under the weight of it.

That's one thing. To affirm it and to defend it and to recognize their transgender identity, that's a different realm and that's what's not allowed. Transgenderism is an assault on the truth, and I say it clearly, even though I say it with compassion, beloved, that members who would affirm transgender identity in the way that I have been describing, would be subject to church discipline. It is just as immoral to betray the truth as it is to betray a spouse in adultery, and we have made very clear our reasons for our positions on transgenderism, and this is the position of our church on these matters. This is part of us defending truth in a transgender age and responding to a transgender world. So, to the best of my knowledge, there are none of those issues in our congregation right now, so this isn't aimed at anyone that's dealing with anything in their immediate families. We're just stating principles here so that there is an awareness in our church life about what is accepted and what is not. So, those are our practical Q&A on transgenderism.

Let me just close by saying this. This message tonight, this Q&A, has necessarily had somewhat of a defensive posture in terms of defending ourselves from possible intrusions of transgenderism upon our teaching, upon our church life, and upon our personal lives. It's necessarily had a defensive posture, but remember that the whole message throughout here has been framed in remembering Christ and remembering who He is, that we trust Him and therefore we are not afraid. We trust Him and want to obey Him and therefore we are willing to uphold truth even if it is unpopular, and we want to be faithful and loyal to the truth even if it comes at a personal cost to us.

That is not a defensive, reactive posture. This is the positive, highest, noblest aspect of being a Christian is our opportunity. This is just one application of the greater reality that a Christian has to be loyal to Christ in response to His saving grace in our lives. And because we are so grateful that He's redeemed us from our sins, we're so grateful that He gave His life on the cross to save us from the eternal torments of hell and that He suffered those in our stead and in our place.

We are so grateful to Him for that, that any kind of cost that living for Him in this life may bring is inconsequential by comparison. And our love for Christ is what motivates us to uphold His truth. Our love for Christ is what motivates us not to accept transgender ideology and deceive people into thinking that they're okay when they're not. And our love for Christ calls us to support one another and to proclaim the gospel in this very dark and dying world.

Let's pray. Father, we do humble ourselves here before You. We ask You for Your wisdom and Your protection as we go forward. And supremely, Father, we come back to Christ. We thank You that He is with us always, even to the end of the age.

And we corporately proclaim to You and to one another that we trust You in this world in which we live. Throughout the ages, O God, You have protected Your people from difficulties, from assaults, from persecutions. You've preserved them through them, sometimes letting them spill their blood for the sake of Christ, other times delivering them from the worldly danger. But whatever the case may be, Father, we know that we are in Your hands.

We love to be there, and we know that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so, Father, from that position of strength, security, and serenity, we commit all of these things to You. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. God has placed believers on earth to be lights in a dark world, and that means carrying His Word as a torch of truth to those who desperately need eternal hope. Our love for Christ must always motivate us to do that, and so we hope this teaching is helpful to you. And join us on our next program as Pastor Don Green teaches about what to say to those who identify as transgender as he continues the series The Bible and Transgenderism here on The Truth Pulpit. Right now, here again is Don with a special message. Friend, I invite you to our website, thetruthpulpit.com, to request your free CD album or find audio downloads of all of the messages that I did on this matter of transgenderism. Again, look for the series The Bible and Transgenderism at our website, thetruthpulpit.com. Thanks, Don. And friend, that's all the time we have for today. I'm Bill Wright, and we'll see you next time as Don Green continues teaching God's people God's Word here on The Truth Pulpit.