The Sad Path to Transgenderism #2

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green. founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's word. Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit.

Now Coming back within a Christian mindset and a Christian worldview, here's what you need to see and understand just very clearly and straightforward. Is that reality and identity are no longer tied to revelation and even to reason? And the necessary outcome of that is the acceptance of transgenderism. And the way that this is working out in every area of society is just astonishing. And we'll talk about this more, but one thing that I do just want to say and point out is that it is to the point where public school policies are such that if a child says anything to a school official, this is not.

Universal yet, but these are the kinds of codes that are being promoted and in some places accepted. A child that goes to a counselor and says, I believe that I'm transgender. They are affirmed in that in such a way that, under a guise of privacy, the parents are not even notified that this is taking place.

So, that parents are increasingly being robbed of any voice in this matter with their own children. And where this is going is that parents are going to lose the right to, and in many places already are, losing the right to object to a child's proclamation of his gender, even down to the youngest of ages, five, six, seven, and sometimes even less than that. This is utter insanity, beloved, and we need to have an awareness of what is happening so that we can help each other and protect our families and have some kind of idea about how to respond to this world in which we live. A writer named Jonathan Grant expresses it this way. Before I read the quote, let me just say, so that in this mindset, as shown by the quote from Jenner.

I'm so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self. The true self, what He, she feels inside. The whole affirmation of that is that finally this person is being real. They are being authentic. They are showing us who they really are, and that is being applauded as a great virtue.

Jonathan Grant expresses it this way, and I quote, Modern authenticity encourages us to create our own beliefs and morality. The only rule is they must resonate with who we feel we really are. The worst thing that we can do is to conform to some moral code that is imposed on us from outside. By society. Our parents, the church.

or whoever else. It is deemed to be self-evident that Any such imposition would undermine our unique identity. The authentic self believes that personal meaning must be found within ourselves or must resonate with our one-of-a-kind personality. End quote. He's being descriptive, not an advocate there.

The idea being that the best thing, the most honest thing, the highest thing that you can do. is to let out whatever is inside of you. Everyone should understand that you have a unique identity and you are allowed to assert that whatever the case may be. It is shocking. I document this in a subsequent message.

It may shock many of you to realize that on this whole transgender, gender identity thing. Is that It is now no longer simply a question of are you a man or are you a woman? There is a website that advocating gender issues that you can go to And it lists out 117 at last count different genders that a person might be. A hundred and seventeen. That's where this goes.

And if truth is up to me, I can define what's true about myself. I am free from God. I am the master of my own destiny. and my own identity. That is the intellectual path that leads to it.

When you reject revelation, when you reject reason, you are left with this self perception of truth, and it can be whatever you want it to be. And no one can contradict it.

Now next week I will respond to that biblically. That's not the purpose of tonight's. Message, but this is the worldview that we have to confront and we have to answer and we have to respond to. What are we to make of that mindset, and how do we answer it? in an effective way.

Now, that's the intellectual path. Secondly, there is a cultural path that has led to transgenderism as well. And time forbids tracing the impact of the sexual revolution. and the rise of homosexual marriage, which feeds this Fire. Al Moler.

has traced it all compellingly in his book titled We Cannot Be Silent, and I can only commend that to you if you're interested in tracing it. One writer summarizes it all, not Al Moll or someone else. One writer summarizes this cultural path as follows. And I quote. Transgenderism is simply one part Of a much broader social and sexual revolution that has engulfed Western culture.

A revolution that includes The advent of the contraceptive pill. The various waves of feminism premarital sexual experimentation. cohabitation, no-fault divorce, abortion on demand, the lowering of film and television standards, the repeal of blasphemy and sodomy laws, and the legalization of same-sex adoption and same-sex marriage. End quote. Now, beloved, here's the point, that over a course of several decades, in our American culture especially, there were these incremental steps that were taking place.

One few years go by, another one, then another, and just What I'm wanting you to see is, is what I said at the start, is you have all of these gradual incremental steps, like you're walking down into a basement. Maybe better stated, you're walking down into a dungeon. And All in the name of freedom, all in the name of constitutional rights to privacy, or whatever the justification may be. But all being steps that are stepping away from or stepping against. revealed biblical morality.

And as these things gradually expanded. And we reached the point where Four years, five years ago, it seems like a lifetime ago, That the United States Supreme Court legitimized and mandated. The acceptance of homosexual marriage across all fifty states What I want you to see is that this ever expanding and the ripples of this great sexual so-called liberation lays the groundwork as well for what we're finding in the transgender world and in the transgender ideology. Think about it this way. Accepting Affirming homosexuality inevitably.

Paves the way for what we're seeing in the transgender world. Because I know some of these things are not self-evident unless you trace them out in the details. But, beloved, if there is no necessary correlation. Between your biological sex and your sexual practice. Why should there be any necessary correlation between your biological sex and your gender identity?

You have separated Human relationships, you have separated human behavior. from any necessary connection to the biology of the man or woman involved. And once you've set that aside and said that's not important, you can do what you want with whomever you want or with whatever you want. With however many you want. Once that becomes accepted, then the dominoes are already falling.

in a way that makes transgenderism inevitable. And so On a cultural level, one by one these steps have taken place. You could say one by one the dominoes have fallen. And we have arrived at a place where 50, 60 years ago, what they weren't thinking about this when this was all set into motion in the Sexual revolution of the 60s. No one was anticipating this outcome, but it clicked the first domino, and everything started to fall along with it.

That The problem. Philosophical trends over the centuries, beloved, and incremental steps of sexual license have led us to this place that you and I find today that most people call the realm of freedom. We don't believe that this is freedom. at all. And what I want you to See, Beloved, is this.

to mix my metaphors Or to change into a different metaphor. Talking about paths that led us here, stepping down. To mix my metaphors, a spiritual tsunami. has reached our shores. Its forces lie deep in the ocean of the human heart.

And that's what I want you to see, that there are forces at work in the human heart that have shaped the way that men think and the way that men behave that goes far beyond. People cross-dressing. or asserting that they have a different identity than what their body would suggest is real. What I want you to see is that this is a symptom of something else. This is the outcome of greater things that have occurred.

leading up to it. Just as the tsunami hits the shore with enormous force without much prior warning, that's where we find ourselves here today.

Now Next week, I'm going to respond to these intellectual and cultural things from a biblical perspective. Tonight, we're just laying out the groundwork and the framework so that we can see where we need to go from here. For the remainder of our brief time here this evening, I want to answer this question: what shall the church do? What shall the church do in response to this environment in which we live? We're standing on the beach and the tsunami has hit us.

What are we to do?

Well, you know, we're kind of getting into the game a little bit late here. The compromises that took place over the past decades in the cultural realm, we are inheriting the whirlwind of things that other people have accepted and yielded on in the past, and we are left to deal with the consequences of it. When I say we, not just us as Truth Community Church, but we as the Christian world, we as Christians, we as biblical Christians, those devoted to Christ, those devoted to truth. What are we to do in response to this?

Well I think this is so fundamental, beloved. Yeah. You know, maybe I'm off my rocker here. But I don't think so. What we must do is recognize The nature of the battle.

This is about more than individuals who struggle with understanding who they are. And so often the discussion in Christian circles starts with a transgender individual and says, We have to find a way to minister to this person.

Well, I think that's a totally misguided approach, even if it's well-intentioned. We need to understand how did this ever come to pass? What is it that justifies that in the mind of so many? How are we to understand this? And what I think the reality of it is.

is that the church must assert truth. truth in a fundamental clash of world views. This is a fight to the death. This is a colossal, titantic engagement. This is a battle of colossal proportions that far transcends the less than 1% of people in the population who identify as transgender.

This is a clash of worldviews of monumental consequence. We are dealing with the very nature of how truth is asserted. and how truth is understood and how truth is believed. We cannot. Christians cannot yield to the transgender ideology at all because it's premised on a subjective approach to truth.

If we do that, we have surrendered Christianity. Because truth is objective, it is found in God's Word, it is absolute. We cannot There is no compromise to be had here. This is a fight to the death. This is a different kind of world war.

And so, beloved. For those that may be watching over the live stream, welcome. Hearing this in subsequent media, What's our response as believers? We're calling men to repent. But we're calling men to repent of more than transgender behavior.

We are calling men, the church must call men to repent of the very way that they think. Of the very fundamental worldview that they have adopted until now. We are not simply suggesting that these facts ought to be interpreted a little bit differently. We are saying that their thinking is wrong, their thinking is ungodly, their thinking is corrupt, and they have to repent of everything that informs their mindset and their worldview. They must repent.

of their autonomy. and consciously submit to Jesus Christ and to His inerrant Word, and to exchange their self centered, self justifying way of thinking And come humbly, as Scripture says, to humble themselves and to come to Christ and to come to Scripture as though a little child. To receive Christ and to receive His Word as Lord and authority over. not only their lives and their behaviour, but of the very way that they think. That is how fundamental The conflict is And any Christian response to transgender ideology that falls short of this is inadequate and is doomed to failure.

Now, with all of those things said, let's end on a few scriptures here. Turn, if you will, to 2 Timothy 2. As we put a little bit of scriptural perspective on this, as we bring it to a close for this evening. While we have talked about this in. Historical terms, cultural terms.

What you and I have to understand is that ultimately this is a supernatural conflict that we are engaged in. This is supernatural. And this is the only thing that can ultimately make any sense of how a mind can be so blinded as to believe. The things that are asserted as unquestioned truth in the day and age in which we live. Look at 2 Timothy 2, verse 24, which informs us not only about the nature of our approach.

but also of what we are confronting. The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome. But be kind to all. able to teach. patient when wronged.

with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition. If perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses, and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. The transgender ideology and those who embrace it are under the captivity of Satan himself. And they need to be confronted with the truth. They need to be called to repentance, to turn away from all of that, so that their repentance would lead them to an understanding and a knowledge of what is true.

As we make those assertions as we make those appeals. We realize that we are dealing with more than a cognitive understanding of factual matters. We are dealing with those that have been spiritually blinded by a supernatural force over which they have no control. The only answer, the only power in a realm like that is the Spirit of God taking God's word expounded to people and opening their eyes. God has to do a work here.

The Holy Spirit has to help us. We cannot simply argue people out of this. There is a supernatural dimension to it that Scripture speaks to clearly. I believe it's over in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 where a similar statement is made. 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

Where it says in verse 3. Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Do you want to know how vile Satan is? How vile.

How utterly, unspeakably corrupt Rebellion against God is, we're getting a picture of it living out in the world around us. And there is a supernatural blindness on this that we must not lose sight of, that this is a supernatural conflict. that is taking place. And so, as I'm teaching this series, I'm just happy to. Acknowledge my utter dependence on the Holy Spirit to give any success to anything that I say.

because this is beyond my power to persuade any one of. This is supernatural, and we must have help from God. And if there is to be a reversal of this history of human rebellion in the realm of philosophical thought, we need nothing less than a sweeping revival of the Holy Spirit to make it happen. And he has the power and the capability to do that.

Now So it's a supernatural conflict. Go back to Second Timothy chapter 2. Second Timothy. Chapter 2, and I would say this. In addition to the fact that it's a supernatural conflict, Brothers and sisters, This is a difficult conflict.

This is not easy. And it was never intended to be. Paul wrote to Timothy in the first century and said to him in chapter two, verse three, He said, Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. In chapter 3, verse 1, he says, Realize this: that in the last days, difficult times will come. And in verse 13 of chapter 3, he says, Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

We have to be realistic that this isn't going to be easy. That this is a fight in the trenches. In one sense, engaged from a pulpit. In another sense, engaged in individual to individual conversations, man-to-man, woman-to-woman conversations that you'll have in the future going forward. Hand-to-hand combat in other words, being the mark of a soldier And doing so from a position that the world.

views not only as silly and outdated, but as dangerous. To be silenced. That's what we are up against. It will be difficult. There will be times like this where we're teaching on these things, and it's not comfortable teaching even for you to hear.

Part of the difficulty is for a congregation to embrace hearing some of these things for the sake of a broader cause than what our personal lives. might require Now, with that said. And what the ultimate reality of all of this is is this is that God has already given to us everything that we need to be faithful in the battle. We lack for nothing as Christians to respond to this world environment in which we live. Look at Second Timothy chapter three, verse sixteen.

Actually, we'll go to verse 14. In light of the difficulty, in light of the supernatural nature of the conflict, Shouldn't we just go home? Shouldn't we just hide? Shouldn't we just wait to die or wait for the Lord to come? No.

Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. That is not what we should do. We should not run and hide. we should run to the battle.

Paul told Timothy verse 14, After just having said that evil men are going to go from bad to worse, he said, Here's what you're to do. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them. and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Even as we are confronting the world view, we are simultaneously offering people eternal life if they would repent of their sin and put their faith in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. We are not their enemies in this.

We are their best friends because we are offering them deliverance from the snare of the devil and deliverance into the kingdom of Christ where there is forgiveness of sin and eternal life and real truth. And Scripture is sufficient to lead people to that knowledge of Christ. Verse sixteen. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that. the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work.

Do you realize that in the Scriptures As we study Scripture together, as we know Scripture together, as we proclaim and honor Scripture and obey Scripture together, we're equipped for the good work that is before us in our day and age. God's Word has prepared us, God's Word equips us, God's Word has sufficient answers for everything that we are seeing here today. We lack for nothing. And so What do we do? Chapter 4, verse 1.

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom? Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. When it's popular and when it's not, when people want to hear and when they don't.

You be ready. You reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. But you Be sober in all things.

endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry.

So what do we do? What do you do? What do I do? We preach the word. We endure hardship.

We fulfill the ministry that the Lord has given to us. Providentially, He appointed our lives For this very time We are given a challenge, a battle, an opportunity. not given to the reformers in the sixteenth century? Not required of Charles Spurgeon in the nineteenth century This is Our day And this is our responsibility to Preach the word, to endure hardship. to fulfill our ministry.

And in the coming days, Lord willing, Lord helping us. we will try to answer that noble biblical call. on behalf of our Christ. Let's pray together. Father uh Scripture comes to us, Christ comes to us as light shining in the darkness.

And Father, we say these things, we preach these things, not from an attitude of. of spiritual superiority. We're all sinners saved by grace. We're all in need of redeeming love. And we thank you that For so many of us here tonight, you have redeemed us.

through faith in Christ. We honor you. We pray for those who don't know you yet in Christ and pray that your spirit would lead them to a saving knowledge of him. Give us understanding. Give us courage as we consider these things in the days to come.

Father may somehow you use this Humble place and these humble words to accomplish purposes far beyond anything that we could have asked or thought. because we've prayed to you in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Now, before we go, I just want to send an invitation to you in this brief moment here at the end of the broadcast. It is a real joy and privilege for me to Week by week, meet new people who come through the Cincinnati area and stop by for a Sunday service or even a Tuesday evening Bible study at our location on the east side of Cincinnati. And I would invite you to do that. There are a lot of attractions that bring people to our region, and people often plan their trips around the opportunity to be with us on a Sunday morning service or on a Tuesday. And so, if you would come and visit us, I would love that.

But even more, make the opportunity, I'm very accessible at our church. If you do visit us, come and introduce yourself to me. I would love to meet you, have a brief word of fellowship with you, and for us to be able to cement our relationship even more, going from the mere audio here to that which is face-to-face in person as we share in the joy of serving. And knowing our Lord Jesus Christ. You can find the address and service times at our website, thetruthpulpit.com, and we would love to see you.

Again, that website information is thetruthpulpit.com. Dot com. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to the Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.

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