God's Guardrails on Gender #1

We must understand that God is holy, that He is separate, and He is a God to be feared. And in the whole spectacle of transgenderism, the fear of God has been utterly lost. Scripture is clear that those who want to be friends with the world become an enemy of God.

And that includes their embracing the worldview of transgenderism. Hi, I'm Bill Wright, and today on the Truth Pulpit, Pastor Don Green continues teaching God's people God's word. Don continues a series titled The Bible and Transgenderism. So Don, do we as a church no longer take God's holiness and wrath seriously?

Well, Bill, that's a great question, and my friend, I wish I could give a more optimistic, sanguine answer to the question. But look at the churches and look at the prominent preachers around us, and no, we don't take God's holiness or God's sin seriously. If we did, we'd be less concerned about matters of earthly justice and concerned to call people to repent and to put their faith in Christ because they've offended a holy God. That would be the indication that we're taking God's holiness seriously, is that we're calling people to flee from the wrath that is to come. So we need to come back to the gospel. We need to come back to Christ. And in the context of this series on transgenderism, we'll see what that means as we study God's word together today on the Truth Pulpit. Thanks, Don. And friend, there's certainly more for us to learn about God's guardrails on gender.

So let's join Don now to lead us deeper into God's word on the Truth Pulpit. Well, we return to our series on the Bible and transgenderism. You could ask the question, why spend time studying something like this when, to the best of my knowledge, it is not immediately affecting our congregation at the present time. There are no transgender issues, certainly that we're dealing with as an elder board. Why would we deal with this?

R.B. Kuyper said this in his book The Glorious Body of Christ at page 228. He said this. He said, it is important that the church, in instructing its membership, apply the teachings of Scripture to the peculiar conditions and pressing problems of the day, end quote. And so we recognize that this is an issue that has come upon our shores like a spiritual tsunami, as I've said in the past. And it's important for us to be able to know how to respond to it and to understand it from a biblical perspective. I would say this for the benefit of those of you that maybe are just kind of dropping in in the middle of it, is that all of the messages are somewhat interconnected and I can't take the time to repeat and rehearse all of the context of what's gone before. Just know that what's said tonight is in a much broader context of teaching that's taken place over the past two or three weeks. What I want to share with you tonight, I've titled God's guardrails on gender.

I liked the alliteration of that. God's guardrails on gender. God created gender. God designed sex and gender expression, you might say, and set down in Scripture what his expectations are for that. God is the creator of men and women generally. He assigned a binary dual sexuality to humanity and in the act of conception forms each person in its mother's womb to be male or female and that is expressed by their biological sex. Gender is not something that you get to choose.

It is assigned to you by God at conception and is identified at birth. We've covered all of that and I'm not going to go into it anymore than to review that little bit of summary here right now. What we want to see tonight is that God, as revealed in Scripture, has established protection for sex and gender. In other words, he has set boundaries upon it which men are not to violate.

And the fact that it is being violated in our day and age in very open ways and embraced even by society that does not claim to be transgender personally is a most serious matter as you will see from the teaching that lies just ahead here. There's something that needs to be said and we start with this fundamental premise. Any thinking about any issue of any significance must start with God and his nature and his character. We cannot begin to think properly about this whole issue of gender and transgenderism unless we start with the reality and the character of God. God is the creator of heavens and earth. He is the creator of humanity. He is an eternal spirit. He is great in his sovereign majesty. He is omnipotent. He is omnipresent. He is omniscient. He is a good God.

He is a loving, gracious God. But what I want to focus on specifically this evening is this, and I'm breaking tonight's message down into two parts. We'll start tonight with this matter as we consider God's guardrails on gender.

We're starting with this first point which we'll handle rather briefly. It is the high truth about God's holiness. The high truth about God's holiness. We must understand that God is holy, that he is majestic, that he is separate, and he is a God to be feared. In Proverbs chapter 1 verse 7 it goes so far as to say that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And in the whole spectacle of transgenderism, the fear of God has been utterly lost.

And that has tragic consequences of eternal magnitude for those that do not repent. So we need to come back to God's holiness as we think about this matter of gender. The God who created humanity, the God who made humanity male and female, the God who assigns sex in the mother's womb is a God who is holy, he is high, and he is majestic. And we are reviewing some things that we've taught over the years in this brief portion of tonight's message. What does it mean that God is holy?

Well, first we can say this. The theologian Louis Berkhoff defines it in this matter in his standard textbook on theology. He said, and I quote, holiness is that divine perfection by which God is absolutely distinct from all his creatures and exalted above them in infinite majesty. Holiness, when we speak about the holiness of God, in part what that means is, is that he is utterly separate from all of his creation. God is separate, he is distinct, he is majestic in an infinite way, and in that way he is different in essence from us. He is uncreated and eternal.

We are creatures and finite. He is sinless, we are sinful. There is a separateness about him that is intrinsic to his being. If you would, turn to the book of Exodus, chapter 15. It's always nice and good and important to have a scripture text to attach to things like this when you are making theological assertions.

In Exodus, chapter 15, verse 11, Moses, after the deliverance of Israel through the Red Sea, said this. He said, who is like you among the gods, O Lord? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders? He says, God, who is like you? And the implied answer is no one is like you. You are different from everyone and everything else.

There is no one like you. In the context of what Moses was praising him for, God, there is no one who can part water and bring a nation through on dry land and then have the waters come back and converge so that their enemies are drowned in the sea. No one does that, God, except you. You are separate, you are distinct, you are above all else. You are infinite in power and in majesty. So God is separate from all else. Secondly, we can say this about God's holiness.

Let me just read because it's a little bit hard to find the book and I don't want to spend a whole lot of time here. From the book of Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 13, Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 13, the prophet said this about the character of God. He said that your eyes are too pure to approve evil and you cannot look on wickedness with favor.

Habakkuk 1 13, your eyes are too pure to approve evil and you cannot look on wickedness with favor. And in this we see that in God's holiness, not only is he separate and distinct, God's holiness means this in addition, again quoting from Berkhof, holiness means that God is free from all moral impurity or sin and is therefore morally perfect, end quote. So God is separate and he is morally perfect and that aspect of his essence and nature means that he is to be respected, he is to be feared, he is to be obeyed and we are not to trifle with him no matter how much comedians stand in pulpits and make us try to think something different and diminish God by their small way of handling his word.

Now, stay with me here. This is all just kind of an unfolding of some basic theology here. In the Ten Commandments, in God's word, God demands exclusive worship of himself as the only true God. You shall have no other gods before me, Scripture says, the Ten Commandments say. And so God requires and demands exclusive worship as the one true God. In the second table of the Ten Commandments, Commandments 5 through 10 in summary fashion, the Ten Commandments require the honoring of parents, loving others, you shall not commit murder, and sexual purity among other things.

It forbids theft and dishonesty and coveting. And so there is this searching moral dimension of the Ten Commandments and when we understand them at any basic level, we understand that we all fall short of God and of his glory and of the holiness that he requires. That's why we need a Savior. That's why we're profoundly grateful that Jesus Christ became a curse for us on the cross because God's word condemns us and places us under the curse that is attached to those who disobey his will. And Christ in love went to the cross, bore that curse, became a curse for us that those who believe in him might be forgiven. And ultimately the Ten Commandments points you inexorably to the cross of Jesus Christ. When you are convicted, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ. Now, beloved, with all of that little bit of background said, here's what I want you to understand.

I'm making simple points here tonight. God has revealed his will and he has revealed it in Scripture. As part of the revelation of his will, he has expressed his judgment on those things which contradict his holiness. And there is a word that is used frequently, particularly in the Old Testament that we're going to focus on here, to express God's view on some particular sins of men, and it is the word abomination.

I'll take you to a few passages in just a moment. But the word abomination is used to describe those things which God considers detestable, repulsive, or loathsome. Abomination is used for those things that God considers detestable, repulsive, or loathsome. It refers to those things that are repugnant to God and fall under his judgment. And this is all under the point that we're making here about the high truth about God's holiness. What we see and what we're about to see is that God's holiness has consequences, and it is incumbent upon us to take his holiness seriously and to adopt God's perspective on the things that we see in the world around us rather than letting the world influence us.

Beloved, when it comes to the matters of revealed morality, let me give you a hint. What you want to be in this discussion is you want to be on God's side here. You want to think God's thoughts after him. You want to have a godly mind, and a godly mind is a mind that is shaped and informed by the revelation of God in Scripture, not what is popular in the world, not what is politically correct, not what is going to wind you friends with people who have no regard for God.

We have to think God's thoughts after him. And when you go into Scripture, you find what God says about many different things. So turn to the book of Leviticus with me, if you will. I'm going to show you passages briefly that show the word abomination being used in God's revelation of his moral will in the foundational first five books of the Bible, the five books of Moses, the book of the law, which is intended, just as it was written by one author, these five books of the law are meant to be read together as a unit, to be understood together. And in Leviticus chapter 18 verse 22, you find this word, abomination, in reference to the sin of homosexuality, where it says, you shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an abomination. It goes on and says, also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it.

It is a perversion. This idea of abomination, it is detestable before God, and Scripture declares that in no uncertain terms. Turn over to the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 7. We're doing a little bit of a brief word study on this word abomination because it is important for what comes in the second half of the message. In Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 25, you see this word abomination being applied to the sin of idolatry. In Deuteronomy 7 verse 25 it says, the graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. Now, beloved, we're just building a context.

We're putting together a matrix through which to see things. The sin of homosexuality is called an abomination, a separate sin, in a sense a different kind of sin. The sin of idolatry is called an abomination to God.

It goes on, and you can see how some of these things are classed together. Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 29, when the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in them, beware that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods saying, how do these nations serve their gods that I also may do likewise? You shall not behave thus toward the Lord your God, for every abominable act which the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Child sacrifice mingled with idolatry, falling under the condemnation of an abomination before God. These are the grossest kinds of sins that even in today's society, to some extent, abortion certainly takes the, blunts the edge of what I'm about to say, but even in that which we're talking about things that would even repulse our society, what's left of it in terms of thinking about sacrificing children by fire to a false god, I mean we're just appalled at the thought of that aren't we? And God expresses his condemnation of it in his word. One more in Deuteronomy chapter 18, Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 9 through 12. As Moses is giving instruction to the children of Israel, shortly before they enter into the promised land and take possession of the land that God had given to them, he said to them this, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations.

Detestable things being a translation of the same word that is elsewhere translated abomination. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable things, the Lord your God will drive them out before you. The nations were being judged as God drove them out from the land.

In part, it was not only a deliverance of the land to Israel, it was a judgment on the nations for doing these detestable things in the sight of God. And so, beloved, what we see is this, is that nations lost their existence over these things, and therefore God obviously takes them seriously. One more passage that perhaps hits a little bit closer to home, that's a little bit more in our own personal kitchen, since none of us are sacrificing children to false gods here tonight. Look at Proverbs chapter 6 verse 16, and you see more respectable sins falling under the umbrella of that which is an abomination to God.

I use respectable sins, of course, in an ironic way. Proverbs chapter 6 verse 16, there are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him, detestable, loathsome, repulsive in the sight of God, haughty eyes, verse 17, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers. All of these things being a detestable, repulsive, loathsome thing in the sight of God. Now, beloved, let me just sum this up as we talk about the high truth of God's holiness. God abhors these things that fall under the label of an abomination. God abhors your lying lips and your lying tongue and the reason in part that He hates it is because God is a God of absolute truth.

There is no deceit in Him. It is impossible for Him to lie so that every dishonest word and misleading action that comes out of our lives is a contradiction and a violation of that which is of the very essence of God. And He abominates it.

It's frightening to think about. And God abhors all of these things and He judges those who do them. One resource said about these matters, these acts of disobedience were sure to bring God's wrath on those who perpetrated them. And so God is high and holy. He has expressed His holiness in His word and in His moral law, and it has consequences, and God works it out in detail into things that are now widely accepted and approved and endorsed and defended within our society, and yet the approval of the world does nothing to change the perspective of God on them. And as the people of God, as those redeemed by Christ, forgiven of our sins through the redemption that is found in Christ alone, it is our responsibility, it is our duty, and it is our privilege to understand these things from God's perspective rather than simply swimming along downstream with the world. Christians are not meant to be fish that just swim downstream and go with whatever the existing current of the day is. We must know God's word, and we must respect it, and we must believe it, and we must adopt it as our own perspective on these things, lest we be found in sharing in the approval of that which God hates. You know, it's reassuring to know that the holy God of the universe knit you and me together in our mother's womb with a specific DNA and gender. We must always carry Scripture verses in our hearts and minds and share them with others who are struggling with truth.

Well, we hope this series better equips you to do just that. And join us on our next program as Pastor Don Green continues teaching about God's guardrails concerning gender during this series titled The Bible and Transgenderism here on The Truth Pulpit. But right now, Don's back here in studio with a special message. Well, Bill, this whole matter of transgenderism is something that just breaks my heart.

The world says it's a matter of freedom and self-identity, but the truth is is that it's a matter of false advertising and many lives and families are being torn apart by it. It's hard to find clear answers, my friend, and that's why we're offering the complete pulpit series for free at our website, thetruthpulpit.com. Thanks, Don. And, friend, we're out of time for today. I'm Bill Wright, inviting you to join us again next time as Don Green continues teaching God's people God's Word from The Truth Pulpit.