Re-Created - Part 2

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message. It is a joy and honor and a privilege to join you each week.

And I want to thank you for tuning in. This is a great day that the Lord has made. We are rejoicing and we are glad in it because of our great Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the one who we come to give glory with the one who we come to give honor, the one who we come to give praise for our great Lord died for us.

There is no greater love than that of our Lord, Jesus Christ, because he died so that we might live. And so we lift him up and we praise and honor our Lord on this day. Well, folks, today I'm going to play for you part two of my interview with Dr. Shaw, who is the pastor of Clearview Baptist Church in Henderson, North Carolina. If you were with us last week, you heard part one. And so we're going to play part two today. If you missed part one, you can visit our website, Godfirst.org.

There's G-O-D, the number one S-T dot O-R-G. And you can listen to part one. And I encourage you to do so because Dr. Shaw just really gives so much great information concerning sexual morality. And it is something that is so much needed in our society today and even within the church, because, folks, it's sad that it's a topic that we don't talk about enough in the church. We tend to sidestep the topic.

And guess what? The world is talking about it. And if people coming up in this world, if they're not going to hear the truth of God's commands when it comes to sexual morality, well, then the world is going to teach them. And that is what we are finding.

So many are going by the ways of the world. And so we, as the body of Christ, the church, we need to combat that. We need to speak God's truth to overcome, to override the deception of Satan, because so many people are suffering today. So many people are struggling in life because of sexual immorality.

A lot of heartache, a lot of pain, a lot of regret could be avoided if people would just turn to our Lord and follow his ways and his commands that are laid out in the scriptures. So, again, I was so privileged to have Dr. Shaw to join me. And we talked about this, this very important subject. And he did a series on it called Recreated, in which he spoke about the way in which we as believers in Jesus Christ should approach this topic and how we should reach those in the world, the lost.

So without further delay, let us join Dr. Shaw, pastor of Clear View Church, in part two of our discussion on Recreated. We're continuing, though, with your series, the questionnaire that you gave out. Another question that came in is, is there a gay gene? That is a thing a lot of people talk about now. People were born that way. And you gave a lot of statistics concerning that. So can you speak to that question? Is there a gay gene? Yeah. So, you know, that I remember back in the 90s, we had to do a paper for ethics class.

And this was the same question even back then. Is there a gay gene? They have done research and they found that, you know, this and this.

And the short answer is no, there isn't. And a great scholar who has done a great work in this direction is J. Allen Branch. He wrote a book called Born This Way, Homosexuality, Science, and the Scriptures. And he explains how, you know, people talk about the XQ28 or 8Q12 regions in the genome that, you know, there could be something there. The operative word in all of this, even those who are not on our side and believe that there is no gay gene, is it is inconclusive. Science tells us all of this research about a gay gene is inconclusive. And so why do we keep repeating this? Yesterday I was talking to a lady and she's a hairdresser.

She said somebody came by to get a haircut and they kept telling her. It's like, yeah, they found the gay gene. They found this gene. And so people are born this way. And we are repeating false information all under the guise of, oh, this is science. While scientists themselves are saying, even those who are gay, they're saying, yeah, we think there's something there, but we are still not sure. Yeah, and this is one of those things that you when you hear people say that you, me personally, I don't know about you, but I have to really sort of counsel myself in not allowing my anger or blood pressure to rise when I hear it because you hear it so much now.

But I have to I have to remember, as you said, we are firm, but yet compassionate because there are people out there and we have to understand when when people, especially when they do not have Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they don't have the Holy Spirit. So there are some things that they're blinded to. They can't see the truth. It would be just like asking someone who is physically blind to get in the car and drive to the store. You know, they just can't do it. They can't see to do it.

And so so we do have to to have that patience with them when it comes to those things. But you mentioned earlier about how, yes, now when when people want attention, all they have to do is come out as as being gay or transgendered. And we've seen this thing even trickle down into sporting events, you know, when you sort of cross over into the area of trans transgenderism, of allowing biological males to compete in sports with with girls. And it's just causing so many things that just do not make any kind of logical sense at all. And I know in your series, you did split it out as far as homosexuality and transgenderism is two separate messages, because as you mentioned, they are not the exact same. But there is some some somewhat crossover because we know in the the LGBTQ, they can they lump it all in together. The key thing is, I guess you could say, is that all of it comes from Satan and is a deception.

Absolutely. And it again goes back right to the book of Genesis, because that's where God tells us he made us male and female. He made us in his image. So, you know, when it says that, the question is, Genesis 127. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them.

So the question is, what does that really mean? And I explain it later in one of my messages that we're really talking about the Trinity or the plurality in the Godhead. So God the Father, OK, then there's God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, they are there, but not as clearly laid out as we see at the baptism of Jesus. There is the Son, there is the Father speaking from heaven and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove coming down. So we begin to see things much clearer. But the point is, when it says God made us in his own image, in the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them.

What does that mean? Well, it means that the way the Father relates to the Son and the Son relates to the Father is how God has designed the man, the husband, to relate with his wife and the wife to relate to her husband. Now, of course, the Holy Spirit is there too, but for this analogy, you know, it's Father and Son. And then we see how Christ relates to the church. We know that passage, you know, of Christ being the head of the church and so also the husband being the head of the wife. And so when we begin to neutralize those differences and make it man-man or woman-woman, how are we dishonoring the image of God?

Yes. The reason it's such a terrible sin is because we're telling God that he is wrong. The Trinity has faults. And so anytime somebody tells me, you know, sin is sin, you know, why are you making this one so much worse? It's because when we talk about homosexuality, we're actually challenging the nature, the person of God. And then we're walking on very dangerous grounds at that point.

Yeah. And that can explain and help us to see why God calls it an abomination. You know, he doesn't call all sins an abomination, but that is when he says it is an abomination. And there is a reason for that. But that was I mean, that is just such a powerful picture that you gave of how we being created in the image of God, how that is displayed and how we interact with one another. I mean, that is just so, so powerful. And that is why people when we have our marriages between a husband and a wife, we we only tend to a lot of times think about it from an earthly standpoint. But it goes so much beyond that.

It's a symbolism. And as you said, with Christ in the church. And I love the fact, Dr. Shaw, that you're willing to say that just as the Bible said, God created things in marriage. He designed it to be for the husband to be the head of the wife. I have listened to so many interviews where pastors were asked that question and they refused to stay to say that they is as they're as a husband, we're the head of their wives. He would say, well, we're we're a partnership or something like that, you know, which is saying it is out of the order of what the Bible declares. Absolutely. I mean, first Corinthians 11 three.

I don't know how people can get around that. But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. The head of woman is man. The head of Christ is God. Very clear. And we can talk about other references to where we're bringing this same imagery out. And it's the name. It's an old mystery. And ever since the beginning of time, God has this mystery and it was revealed in Christ in the church. So for Christians, evangelical Christians to say, oh, that doesn't matter or this was more time bound or there were things going on in the Corinthian church that Paul was addressing. Well, OK, read entire First Corinthians 11. Paul is referring to Genesis. He's not just talking about the situation in Corinth and the Greek people. He is talking about Genesis. Exactly. And that's that that should cause us to think twice about why our marriages are where they are, because we have lost that order. And again, let me clarify.

It's not for a moment. Does it mean that the man props up his feet on the coffee table and barks orders and tells his wife to bring him a drink? Exactly. It's a sacrifice. It's a sacrificial relationship.

But just as Christ made his life down for the church, I am to lay my life down for my wife. Amen. Amen. Exactly. Exactly. And that is one of the things that I highlight for because, you know, sometimes you do see women will sort of puff up at that idea and you say, well, look, I mean, Jesus Christ, he he did what he sacrificed himself.

He gave up his his desire, his pleasure for the sake of the church. And so that is what the husband should do for his wife. And so. So, yeah, you're exactly right.

I'm so glad you pointed that out. Did you have another point you wanted to make? I mean, that that to me is is it's all connected. What's happening in the marriage relationship, what's happening with feminism in our culture and now homosexuality. All these are bedfellows.

Yeah. OK, we're dealing with a with one issue, although it's manifesting itself in marriage issues and of course, feminism that's been around for a long time. And then, of course, homosexuality.

That's like a storm right now. All these are connected and they all go back to the image of God. We are simply enacting the divine image in everyday life. And when whether it is not understanding the role of the husband and wife relationship or not understanding what feminism, how dangerous that is and not understanding how homosexuality is an abomination, all this is connected. They're all leading back to the image of God issue. Yeah, I agree with you.

I agree with you totally. And again, you know, to the women out there that might not like the sound of that idea of the husband being your head. Remember, as we said, a man of God, a true man of God that is looking at this biblically, he is going to do what he's going to be willing to to lay down his life for your sake. That is what a head does.

He sacrifices himself and his wants and desires for the better of his wife. And so that is something you must keep in mind. And you definitely have have expressed that, Dr. Shaw. Now, you wrapped up the sermon, this one recreated by addressing the question about sexual orientation change efforts. Some out there say that has been proven to be harmful. So can you speak to that?

Well, it happened, I would say, maybe 10 to 15 years ago, there was a institution or a movement, I guess you can say, or a ministry, really, that was really leading the efforts on helping people leave a lifestyle and learn how to walk with Christ, whether it is being celibate or being single or finding a person of the opposite sex. So it was going great. All of a sudden, the ministry comes to a halt and the word is put out that this was very harmful. This was terrible. We really apologize to the world for what we've done to you. And from this day on, we're no longer going to do this. It was shocking to me because we were thinking, wow, I thought this was good. Now, I understand maybe some of them didn't know what they were doing or some people had some problems or didn't really respond well to the biblical discipleship that they were going through.

I get it. But to say that people cannot change or there cannot be a hard change, you're going directly against 1 Corinthians 6. And Christian faith is revelatory at its core, which means that I believe the word and I will filter science and history and everything through the word of God. The word tells me in 1 Corinthians 6, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? And do not be deceived, either fornicators or idolaters, adulterers, homosexual, nor sodomites will inherit the kingdom of God. And then Paul says in verse 11, and such were some of you.

But you were washed, but you were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God, which means that the word tells me that people can change. Now, of course, I personally know several wonderful friends who have left the old lifestyle, gay lifestyle. I know a gentleman who has, I know a lady who has left the lesbian lifestyle and she messaged me on Facebook and said, thank you.

I'm sending this to some of my old friends because they need to hear this. So I know change is possible. But when people in our own corner begin to say, you know, oh, the whole sexual orientation change effort is so dangerous. You're messing with people and people may hurt themselves. I mean, we need to stop and really think about what we're saying.

Yes. We're saying that God cannot wash us and sanctify and justify us. Now, I will also add sometimes people who come out of that lifestyle may struggle, they'll struggle till the day they leave this world with temptation. Just like a person, you know, who is an alcoholic, he goes by the bar, he may struggle or he may be completely free and say, you can drink all you want to.

I am fine. I often counsel people, if you come out of that life, don't go near that. Yes. Because the temptation is real.

So there are people who may have same sex attraction. But now they know, hey, listen, God is working in me and he will finish what he has started one day. Amen.

Amen. And Dr. Shaw, where I want to wrap up with is I'm going to ask you to pray for those who were who are battling with this. Because, again, as we said, yes, there is a part of society that is celebrating it and embracing it.

But also know there is also people out there that are struggling. They want deliverance and they are seeking it. But we want to pray for all those people, even the ones who are celebrating it. Because I think deep down inside, even when they when they're alone behind closed doors, they really know that what they are doing is unnatural. And so we want to pray for the deliverance.

And just one thing I want to share. I spoke at an event several years ago and I used to view sin really in general as simply is wrong. You know, you're in rebellion against God and you need to stop.

It's that plain and simple. But at the end of this, this time when I spoke, a young lady came up to me and she said that she was a lesbian. That was how she described herself. And she said that she know that is wrong and she's trying to come out of it. And she asked me if I would pray with her. And so as I began to pray with this woman, her heart, she was just broken.

Dr. Shaw, I mean, she was just crying her heart out and I could just feel her pain. And it really gave me a different perspective. It really showed me that, yes, these are people who are seeking deliverance, but there is a stronghold in their life. There is a demonic force that that is there that has them hooked into that scene. And we know the devil does that with other scenes, like you stated with with alcoholism.

You know, there are people who he draws in with that temptation for some people, they get that temptation. Others do not. But but but we are going to, as you said, we want to be compassionate and understand the hurt. So if you would, can you pray for the people out there that are seeking deliverance and and just in praise, share with them the key as to how they can be delivered and have freedom in Jesus Christ? Absolutely.

Let me say this, Brian. It is heartbreaking because there are people you're 100 percent right who do struggle. And and this is where the church community comes in carefully, prayerfully. We are to be we are to be willing to come alongside people who are new in the faith or struggling with some sin like this and encourage them. Too often what we do is we get them saved, go get baptized and, you know, we'll buy you a Bible and hope you come to our Bible study and we just leave them.

And it is tragic because they see their old friends who are waiting for them to come back and waiting for the next party, always there. And then the church people who they really want to be with, they're busy in their own world or their own ministries. And so the church community, if we're going to really take this on as we want people to be set free, the church community has to really see the importance of the body, how we together help people by the Spirit of God, not in our own strength, but by the Spirit of God to walk in the newness of life. And when we do that, be prepared for the attacks because the enemy is going to come and he's going to wreak havoc in every way. So we got to also pray for protection on the body, for God to just guard us, keep us humble and keep us dependent on Him. Father, we come before you today. God, we are so grateful for Jesus Christ.

Thank you, God, that He has come to set us free, free from the penalty of sin, free from the corruption of sin. And God, we thank you for ministries like this, for Radio Show with Brian, they're willing to stand up and to tell the truth, but do it in love and compassion. And God, our hearts go out to people who are in the body or still lost, who are struggling, who are going through difficult times. And God, we know that we don't have the power, we cannot change people, but it's you working through us, your Holy Spirit working through us that can change lives. So God, we ask you to use us, use the body, use the radio waves, airwaves to talk to people, Lord, and open their eyes, help them to see the error of their ways, that they will come to know Christ, to be saved. And we pray, God, for those who are struggling, we pray, God, that you would break that stronghold.

Maybe it's a memory, maybe it's the way they were raised, maybe it is something else, maybe it's an experience, we don't know what happened. And God, we do know that you are more than powerful to help them heal and find hope and forgiveness. But God, we pray today for deliverance, we pray, God, that you would set them free, and some will be set free immediately, some is going to be a long process. So God, we pray that you would burden the hearts of the body, men and women who will go along and befriend people who are struggling.

In Christ's name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, Dr. Shaw, thank you so much. And as I said, when I reached out to you by email, I said that I wanted to commend and applaud you and give you a virtual handshake because, again, it is very, very, very few.

I mean, a very small percentage. And trust me, I search high and wide to find pastors that are willing to speak on this topic, and it's just not many that will do so. So I want to thank you for your courage, your commitment, your devotion to Jesus Christ. I pray that he will bless you bountifully for it. I believe that he's going to reward you in this life.

I'm sure he's already already have. But the ultimate reward is going to come in eternity when you will hear those words, well done, good and faithful servant. And so I just want to applaud you for it. And just one thing I want to end on. And I know that you are not here to to bash other pastors.

Neither am I. We're just here to focus on what God has called us to do. But I do have the question, because in your prayer, you mentioned the church. We need to to stand up when it comes to this and to help those along who are struggling with this. So why is it that you think most pastors will not talk about this publicly?

And what message do you have for them? Thank you. Thank you, Brian. Thank you for kind words as well. And thank you for your stand, because because of your voice out there. We have a voice on the radio airwaves. So thank you so much for what you're doing.

I believe it is the lack of being our leader standing up because what's happening now in the past, I would say, five to 10 years, people that I looked up to as stalwarts. I would say, man, I know where they will land. I know what they believe. I can follow their example. Imitate me as I imitate Christ. I can imitate them and then to see them become silent, especially in the past.

I would say five to 10 years, silent over issues that we should be standing up on and speaking out on. What that has done to pastors is they feel like, oh, they're not if my hero is not speaking. For me to speak, wait, I can't do that because I may be wrong, but I don't understand the issue. Or if they're scared, who am I to do this? And my encouragement to pastor friends, because I really love pastors. And both sides of my family have pastors is, hey, listen, maybe it's time God is raising you to be that voice in the wilderness.

So don't worry about your heroes. You take the stand and God will handle the consequences. Amen. Amen. Well said.

Well said. Well, Dr. Shaw, how can our listeners follow you? And I'm just going to say to the listeners, I encourage you to follow the sermons of Dr. Shaw because you are definitely going to get the truth of God's word. So how can people follow your ministry and hear the great messages that you are delivering each week? Oh, thank you. Well, there are several ways you can follow my blog, which is Abidonshaw.com.

All my messages are online. And then, of course, you can find me on YouTube or you can find me on Facebook. I'm the Clearview Church page, Clearview Church Henderson page and ClearviewBC.org. That's our church website. Our messages are there as well.

So a lot of different ways. But we would love for them to to just let us know if this ministry has been a blessing to them. We would love to hear from them. Amen. Well, it has definitely been a blessing to me.

I love it. It encourages me to continue to speak the truth as well. So, again, I just want to commend you and applaud you. And again, thank you for taking the time to come on today. And we look forward to having you back in the future. Thank you, Brian. Look forward to being there again.

All right. And to our listeners, please come back and join us again next week as we continue to encourage you to discern the times by looking at life through the window of the Bible. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel. And to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Thank you for tuning in to the God First program. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.