A Practical Q&A on Transgenderism #1

You should have a solid understanding of why loyalty to Christ and loyalty to the truth disallows you from embracing and endorsing the transgender life and the transgender ideology. How do we trust God and His Word in a culture that now promotes gender confusion and transgender ideology in the media, schools, and public venues? Hi, I'm Bill Wright, and today on The Truth Pulpit, that's just one of the questions Pastor Don Green answers as he continues in his series titled The Bible and Transgenderism. And Don, it seems that now everything we believe and hold dear as followers of Christ is now viewed as secular heresy. Well, Bill, that may be the case, but I'm not daunted by that thought at all. The truth of the matter is that for you and I, my friend, we as Christians, we are not concerned by.

We're not influenced by what the world thinks. We simply want to do everything, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, all to the glory of God. And if we hold fast to the truth of God's Word, even on controversial issues, we can know that we're on the right side and that God will bless us for that fidelity to His Word as we trust in Christ and seek to walk as He commanded us to walk. Thanks, Don. And we look forward to hearing more of your answers to practical questions on today's program. So friend, here is Don as he continues teaching God's people God's Word here on 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? The overarching advice that I have here is the advice that every Christian should have close to his heart on every issue of life. Again and again and again, the answer to transgenderism is to come back to Christ. Come back to Christ, and in different aspects of the person and work of Christ, you will find your answer to the issues that surround life in a transgender world. And we'll work this out as we go through six different questions here tonight.

So let me just walk through some questions very, very quickly. Whenever I do a series like this, I've said this many times, there's always a certain sense of sadness when it comes to an end, although I'm going to be glad to move on to other things. There's a certain sense of sadness that I feel knowing the time that has gone into this, the preparation, and just feeling like I'm at a point now where I just hand it over to the Lord and trust Him for whatever the results of it may be. Question number one, how do we trust God in a transgender world? How do we trust God in a transgender world knowing that the LGBTQ mafia is very much out to squash and silence any kind of Christian voice in the discussion? And knowing that the time is not too far away for some of us where our jobs and livelihoods may be threatened by loyalty to Christ in the policies that come to play in a secular workplace. How do we trust God in a transgender world? How do we live without fear in light of this hostile environment in which we find ourselves?

The media, the medical world, educational establishments are making it very difficult to voice any opposition to this agenda in any meaningful platform. And I would just remind you of this, come back to Christ. This is not the first time that God's people have been isolated. It's not the first time that God's people have stood against the current of the times, and it won't be the last.

And what I would encourage you to do is to think beyond transgenderism and remember something that's far more important and far more transcendent. Remember divine providence. Part of the reason I taught on divine providence within the past two months was to be able to make this statement now.

Remember that God is in providential control of absolutely everything that happens. He's in control of the secular mind, the secular direction of events, and he's in control of the particular circumstances of your own life. And if you would, turn to the book of 2 Peter chapter 2, and I'm just going to try to attach in most of these questions just a single text, a scripture, to give you a sense of perspective and a place to hang your thoughts.

How do we trust God in a transgender world? 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 7 is speaking about the ability of God to protect his people in times of trouble. And in verse 7, it says, If he, meaning God, if God rescued righteous lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men, for by what he saw and heard, that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.

The point here is that if you are here as a genuine Christian this evening, God knows how to protect you. He has the ability to do that. He's been doing it for millennia. He's been doing it throughout the course of the entire history of his people, going all the way back to the opening chapters of the book of Genesis. God knows how to deliver the godly in times of ungodliness.

And so at a very broad, general level, you just come back to that. And while you and I may lack wisdom for how to walk through particular circumstances at any given time, there should be this deeper, broader, more foundational conviction in your heart that you are in the hand of God through the saving work of Jesus Christ, and as a result of that, you will trust him day by day as you walk through whatever may come as a result of these things. Because God knows how to rescue his people in times of ungodliness. We need to be wise. The remainder of this message, the remainder of these five questions are hopefully going to point us in the direction of wisdom, but the overarching thing to start with here this evening is this, is that we do not need to be afraid.

We should not be afraid. We do not walk in fear because we trust the ever-living one. We trust the living God. We believe that he is intimately involved in the affairs of our life and in the course of world events, and that he has made us his friend.

That in Christ we have a brother in heaven who is at the right hand of the most high God, and he is ever-living and interceding for us. And we trust him for that, even if we can't see what the road ahead might be. And 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. And, beloved, even in the course of world history there have been far more autocratic, ruthless men in power seeking the destruction of God's word, literally burning copies of scripture, literally seeking the destruction of God's people, literally burning his people at the stake, and God's church has carried on. God's church stands purified and with a legacy of faithfulness from our spiritual forefathers and God is going to do the exact same thing for his people during this time as well.

And so we are not afraid that this is a threat to the ultimate existence of the church, and we understand that we can trust God individually through what will come. So that's question number one. Question number two, a very important question that I want to spend probably a disproportionate amount of time on. Point number two, how do we raise children in a transgender world? How do we raise children in a transgender world? Well, we come back to Christ.

That's always our answer to everything. We come back to Christ and we remember this, that in one sense, beloved, in one sense there is nothing new or different for us to do because the instruction to Christian families, to Christian fathers and mothers is unchanged since the apostle Paul wrote it some 2,000 years ago. Look at the book of Ephesians chapter six.

Ephesians chapter six, where in the simplest of language, in God's all-sufficient word, we find these words. Ephesians chapter six, verse four, fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Our approach to raising children, raising families, or helping our children raise their children in a transgender world is not simply a defensive posture of protecting them from what's out there, but there is this positive dimension that we have an entire Bible to teach them. We have an entire manner of life and wisdom to communicate to them, to build them up in Christ, to instruct them in the gospel of Christ, instruct them in the person of Christ, instruct them in the work of Christ, instruct them in obedience to Christ.

There's all kinds of things that we have to tell our children that have nothing to do with transgenderism. And so at that level, we simply keep teaching our children about Christ and the gospel. We teach them the hymns of the faith that will come to their mind and echo in their minds in times of difficulty and trial. We teach them God's word. We show them faithfulness to Christ.

Here's one for you. You lead your family, as you guys are doing, as shown by your presence here this evening, you lead your family and you model as an example being faithful to a local church. The simplicity of this is quite encouraging. And to communicate to your child the truth of Christ, the truth of the gospel, and simple faithfulness to church and a week-to-week consistency of being with God's people and serving within a local church puts very high guardrails around their lives and directs them in the path in which they should go. We should never underestimate that, even though there's not a lot of bells and whistles, necessarily, that go with that kind of faithfulness. It's just the quiet, steady consistency of living a daily life of faithfulness to Christ that helps communicate this truth to your children. Now, with that said, and on that positive way, now looking more at how to defend them and to help them through the transgender lives that are permeating our society so much. Need I say that it is going to be important for you to monitor what they are reading, what they are exposed to in the media, and to remember that television and smartphones and internet access are not actually necessary for productive childhood development? I know that's a shocking countercultural thought, but we've been doing this for millennia, raising families without those things, and so apparently it's possible to do that. And it's going to be important for you to be all the more aware of it, because it's so embedded in what's being communicated in our culture. To raise children in a transgender world, I believe, is going to take even a higher level of commitment and involvement from parents than what's even been necessary 10 or 20 years ago, because it is just so prevalent in what they are going to see and read. So you need to be aware of what's going into their minds.

Now, again, those are kind of negative, preventative things. I want to suggest to you also that there are ways for you to deal with your children in private as you're raising them over the course of time that can help protect them from gender identity issues. Without referring to transgenderism specifically, you can teach them things like this, that God made boys and girls, and God makes boys to be boys and makes girls to be girls. And one of the things that you can encourage them with is just your loving statements over time that tell them, I am so glad that God made you to be my boy, that God made you a little girl. I'm so glad that you're a little girl, and you reinforce and you lay a foundation in those early formative days of their mind that they are a boy, that they are a girl, because that's the way that God made them, and that you are very glad that God did that and that God gave that child, gave you my son, gave you my daughter to my family.

I'm so happy about that. And you give them a sense of security and identity from the very start that can help guard them from the counter influences that may come later in life. Now, with that said, there's so much.

I told you, I'm leaving out more than I'm saying. But at the same time, I would encourage parents along this line. I would encourage you not to overreact if your young boy wants to play with dolls for a time, or if your little girl likes to climb trees or seems to be a bit of a tomboy. It's going to be so important for us not to impose adult interpretations on those innocent acts of childhood development. And to not overreact to these things that this is just part of natural childhood development, and this isn't something that we need to make a big deal about or to panic over. The point being is that you need to be careful.

This is a very important point. You need to be careful about defining what boyhood and manhood mean simply according to your limited family experience. Boys and girls have different interests without trying to be wanting to be the opposite sex. So we just need to be aware of this and to not overreact if a child develops interests that are different from ours. If they're not saying, I want to be the opposite sex, I'm trying to be the opposite sex, then let's just go with the flow and raise them and shape them over time and trust the Lord to honor our efforts to be Christian parents here. While we want to be cautious about the worldly influences, we don't want to overreact to what's happening within our own family and to just love those children over time and trust the Lord to work it out.

And there's a lot more that could be said, but I'll leave it at that. Just remember this. Resist the temptation to impose adult interpretations on innocent childhood development. That's very important while you're protecting them in these other ways.

But the overarching advice here in terms of answering the question, how do we raise children in a transgender world? We come back to Christ. We teach them Christ. We love Christ before them. We elevate Christ in their eyes. We teach them the word of Christ and we lead them to Christ again and again and again.

We praise Christ to our children so that they develop a Christ-centered heart that we trust and hope and pray that one day the Lord would be pleased to bring and to use as a context to impart new life to them that they might be saved. So, those are my thoughts about raising children in a transgender world. Point number three, how do we respond to transgender people?

How do we respond to transgender people? Well, we start with this premise. We come back to Christ. You see the theme here. You see the recurring issues here.

And we start with this premise. We come back to Christ and we realize something very, very important. Loyalty to Christ may cost us personal relationships. And if it does, that's okay because Christ told us to expect this in advance. Look at Matthew chapter 10. And when I say he told us to expect this in advance, the this is that personal loyalty to him may cost us personal relationships.

It's a broader point than living in a transgender world. Matthew chapter 10 verse 34, Jesus said this to his disciples. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth, I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's enemies will be the members of his household. Christ is a dividing line that cuts through families.

Many of you, if not most of you, know this by personal experience. That relationships have been strained because of your commitment to Christ and sometimes even your doctrinal commitments within the framework of a broader biblical Christianity. Well in verse 37, Jesus says, He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And so we realize that ever and always the first priority of our heart is vertical to Christ and being loyal to him and loyal to his truth.

It is not worth the approval of the world. It's not worth the approval of a family member for even a moment of disloyalty to Christ. We are loyal to Christ and we recognize in advance, we settle it in our minds now before the flare-up comes that loyalty to Christ is more important to us than any human relationship ever could be. That is simply part of being a Christian, beloved. I'm not saying anything that is biblically radical or biblically controversial here. You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. That's the first and greatest commandment and so we start from that premise. And so what do we do then in light of that if a friend or a loved one comes out as transgender to us?

Well I would make a couple of suggestions here. This is kind of like an extended pastoral council session together here. I'd encourage you first of all to try to control your initial emotions and reactions and interact with them.

When did you first start feeling this way? Have you spoken to anyone else? What did they say? And just kind of draw out what they have to say to you. You're not compromising anything by simply hearing what they have to say but it's obviously going to progress beyond that. And when they ask you to affirm them, when they ask you to use their new identity, to call them by the opposite sex, to use other pronouns and what you've always done, beloved, here's where the rubber meets the road. At that point in the relationship, in the discussion, understand that that is the point where you need to hold to truth above the relationship. And in love, you tell them that you do not accept the transgender worldview. You can give them this whole series of messages to help explain that. You can ask them to listen to it before they go any further. You tell them there's so much more than they may realize about what they are saying. Now, I realize that if they're coming out at that point, they very well may not be receptive and that they may tell you that you have to choose between your religion and your relationship with them. If they break off the relationship, make clear to them that it is not you that is walking away. It is not you rejecting them. They are the ones who are ending the existing relationship.

They are the ones that are injecting change into the realm of your prior love and closeness. And to not allow them and to not accept the burden of guilt that they are trying to put on you in making that kind of threat. This is no relationship anyway, right?

If a relationship is simply you bowing down to the threats that someone else makes to you, this is not a relationship anyway. And based on the prior five messages that we've preached here, you should have a solid understanding of why loyalty to Christ and loyalty to the truth disallows you from embracing and endorsing the transgender life and the transgender ideology. We just have to be very strong and very firm on this. We have seen in the news just within the past day that any kind of corporate allegiance to prior Christian principles is subject to negotiation when the dollars get to be big enough.

And it's going to be up to common people like you and me. It's going to be up to churches that are trying to be biblically faithful to hold the line on this, and we should not count on any support from anyone outside the realm of true Christianity as we do. And so our convictions are going to be important here. As we do that, we remember Christ, and we come back to Christ, and we believe and we accept and we want His approval more than anybody else or anything else in the world. We want Christ to greet us when we enter into His presence and say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master.

I personally want to come before Christ, recognizing that the whole of my life and ministry is pockmarked with great imperfections, but that there was a spirit of willing faithfulness and a refusal to accept compromise where matters of truth were plainly in play. Those are the kinds of things I believe that strengthen your conscience enough to go through the emotional turmoil of this kind of conflict as you are dealing with transgender people. So we come back to Christ. Fourthly, it is reassuring that God never leaves us alone to deal with issues like transgender ideology. Remember to seek His word and church leaders for help with answers to questions, especially if someone you love is struggling with gender confusion. And we hope this series also better equips you with answers to some practical questions. And join us on our next program as Pastor Don Green continues this series titled The Bible and Transgenderism here on The Truth Pulpit. Right now, though, Don's back in studio with an important 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, I'm Bill Wright, inviting you to join us again next time as Don Green continues teaching God's people God's word on The Truth Pulpit.