A Biblical View of Gender #2

The media says a person can be male or female based on their self-perception, regardless of their biological structure, so that if I think I'm a woman, I am a woman.

Scripture teaches the exact reverse. The body determines gender. God formed the body and assigned gender to each one.

Only a very small percentage of the population is now considered transgender, but this issue continues to influence what's happening in school, sports, the medical profession, and even public restrooms. Hi there, I'm Bill Wright. Today on The Truth Pulpit, Pastor Don Green continues teaching God's people God's Word in a series titled The Bible and Pride Month. And Don, how do you see this whole transgender ideology in light of God's perfect creation plan for humanity?

Well Bill, there's no way that I can soft pedal an answer to your question. It is in direct opposition to God. It is rebellion against God.

The ideology is completely at odds with what Scripture teaches, and the church is becoming kind of the last line of defense against these things. It's important for us to know that God created humanity, and that God created humanity male and female, and that that is based on our objective biological reality rather than the subjective feelings that we have inside. Anything else than that is going to lead you astray and lead you into much pain and confusion in your spiritual life. And so we're going to explain these things today and open God's Word on The Truth Pulpit. Thanks Don, I know you have a whole lot more to teach us today about this topic. So friend, let's join Don now as he specifically addresses a biblical view of gender on The Truth Pulpit. I want to address a matter that I believe is just essential for all of us to know, for all of us to have understanding and a perspective on as we walk through this world in which we live.

It's not so much that the issue itself is all-encompassing, but the issue is a symptom of what is all-encompassing. It's a whole matter of transgenderism. When I came out of seminary many years ago, the last thing that I thought I would have to teach on and to defend from a Christian pulpit is the idea that men are men and women are women.

Whoever thinks that you're going to have to make that point in the course of a pulpit ministry? I had never even heard the word transgender until recent years, and yet here we live in the midst of a society that is utterly confused and helplessly lost on what it means to be male and female. This is of most fundamental importance, and when you start to get into the matter as I've done over the past several months, I'll be honest with you, beloved, it's not that I'll be honest with you, beloved. It is very, very difficult to know just exactly where to begin. It's like having a 700-foot rope that's been tied deliberately into so many knots, and you're wanting to untangle the knots and straighten it back out again. Where do you even start when you've got this massive ball of twine in front of you that is so intertwined that there is hardly any place to begin? Medical professionals, and I'm going to have a lot to say about this in a couple of weeks.

I'm really stoked to talk about this. Medical professionals perform sex change operations. Sex change should be in quotes. You cannot change one sex into another. You can make cosmetic adjustments, but it does not change a male into a female or vice versa. Medical professionals perform these so-called sex change operations on adults and do horrific things to them with their scalpels.

They administer puberty-blocking drugs and hormones on children who claim that they think they're a different sex, and they interfere deliberately with the normal anatomical development of children based on a self-profession of identity confusion. Beloved, social implications alone justify the series and the time that we will be giving to this matter in the days to come. Well, today, what I want to do is to turn to Scripture to find our way back. And here's the thing, beloved. There's a method to—I'm not going to call it madness—there's a method to my approach here, is that as you need clarity in these things, it is important to recognize that we start with clarity not by trying to figure out what other people are doing or what other people believe. We find our clarity by going back to the Word of God and seeing what it has to say. For now, let's look at what our Lord Jesus Christ had to say. Now, beloved, all of God's Word is authoritative to us. It is all equally authoritative.

I'm not a fan of red-letter Bibles, although I don't make a big issue of it, because it gives an impression that certain parts of the Word are even more elevated in their authority than the others because they're put in red, the words of Christ. Well, the words of Christ are authoritative, but what we need to understand is that all of God's Word, all 66 books of the Bible, are Christ's Word. It's all given by revelation of the Triune God. But when we look at his earthly ministry, we see Jesus affirming this same truth in his earthly teaching while he was with us 2,000 years ago. Look at Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19, beginning in verse 4.

I'll give you a moment to get there. Matthew chapter 19. Let's start in verse 3, just to set the context. Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing him and asking, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all? And he answered and said, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh, what therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. Jesus appeals to creation and affirms the account of creation during his earthly ministry that humanity was made male and female and that men are not to try to alter the order of God's creation.

Now, for those of us that name the name of Christ as Lord and Savior, this absolutely settles the matter. Let me give you one more word here that you'll hear bandied about. It's the term binary, b-i-n-a-r-y, binary. Binary simply means that it's composed, something is composed of two things. Binary simply means composed of two things.

And you'll see this word a lot. If you see news reports of transgender activists, you'll often see signs carried by protesters saying, Break the binary. What they're saying is, Do away with the male-female distinction and no longer evaluate the world in those categories. It is a statement of colossal, colossal implication and rebellion. Break the binary is nothing less than saying, Reject how God has created humanity. This is of great consequence, but that word binary comes up in this discussion.

I say that simply so that I can make this statement, which is just a repetition with different words of what I've been saying all along. God embedded binary sexual distinctions in humanity at creation and nothing has changed since then. Now, Scripture, oh, stay with me here.

Don't anybody check out here. Scripture and human language reflect that binary reality at every stage of life. You cannot separate this discussion from everything else that is embedded around it. This hub of binary sexual distinctions like a bicycle wheel, the spokes go out everywhere from this in a way that is utterly undeniable. Think with me about common basic language that we use and the binary duality that is embedded in all of its assumptions and what it reflects. Okay?

This is really easy. Boys and girls, you can understand this and follow it without any trouble. Just hear these pairs. Man and woman, boy and girl, son and daughter, brother and sister, bridegroom and bride, father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, uncle and aunt, prince and princess, king and queen.

You could probably go on and expand the list, but that's more than enough. These pairs are built on biological anatomical distinctions. They reflect the binary distinction that God embedded into humanity from the beginning. Look, if you want to break the binary, you're going to have to undo human language.

You're going to have to undo human relationships. And that's what I want you to see here in this room today, Christian brother, Christian sister, is when people talk about breaking the binary and disregarding what God embedded into humanity, it is nothing less than an assault designed to create anarchy and chaos throughout all of our existence. This is a declaration of war against God. Regardless of however any individual, transgender individual, may feel about things, they may not be thinking about it. I want to assure you, the activists and the writers who are promoting this are fully aware of the implications.

I may bring quotes in future weeks to prove my point. So you have creation. God created a male and female. You have Christ.

He made the same affirmations. Thirdly, as we consider a biblical view of sex and gender, let's just talk briefly about conception. Conception. And this brings it all down to the individual level right here, okay? As we're developing, we're developing a biblical view of gender. We don't care what the world thinks about what we're saying here today. We're not afraid of what the world has to say to criticize this. Our only concern is, God, you have given us your word.

What do you say about this? I believe we come to God's word in this area in particular, and we say, Lord, speak. Your servant listens. So what does God's word say about it? Well, look at Psalm 139. Psalm 139, beginning at verses 13 and 14. David, the psalmist, speaking to God and praising Him for His majesty, His wisdom, His omnipresence, His omnipotence.

He makes it personal. He says in verse 13, for you formed my inward parts. You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.

Beloved, here's what I didn't want you to miss. This is a key takeaway in response to this text. At an individual level, we've talked about it at a macro level, at a humanity level, the whole nature of humanity. What's true at a macro level at humanity is true at a micro individual level of you and me. At an individual level, God forms each one in his or her mother's womb.

He forms each one. And so, back in time, your parents came together, and God in that moment fashioned you in the womb. He determined in that time, in accordance with his pre-existing eternal plan for you, but in time, God shaped the direction of conception and gave the identity to you that is now reflected in your biological sex. God determined in the womb what your biological sex would be, which means that God assigned that aspect of identity to you in an irreversible way that is not to be attempted to be changed or altered and which is not to be rejected. Those of you with beards, God made you a man. Those of you on the softer side of humanity, God made you a woman. In creation, God assigned humanity a dual existence, male and female, which Jesus affirmed. Now that it just comes down to an individual level, God makes us in the womb, and he makes us male or female, and that is assigned, and it is not for us to reverse. You know what that means?

You know what that means? It means that a person's, this is really important. It means that your physical body reveals what God made you to be. If your physical body has a male anatomy, he created you to be a man, to be a boy, to grow into a man. If your body has different features, I told you I'd be delicate and discreet, right?

I'm just delivering on my promise here. If your body has different features, God created you to be a female, and your physical body reveals what God made you to be, and your mind is to respond to that and to conform to what the biology is that God has given you. It is not that, and we'll talk about this more, it is not that God makes a mistake and gives a male body to somebody with a female mind, or vice versa. Those two are woven together, and that means that biological males are to live as boys and men, biological females are to live as girls and women.

This isn't difficult! And what this means, beloved, is that one only understands humanity from a God-centered perspective. One writer says, and I quote, a person's biological sex reveals and determines both their objective gender, what gender they in fact are, and certain key gender roles. That is, human males grow into men, and potentially husbands and fathers, and human females grow into women, and potentially wives and mothers.

Indeed, it is this set of binary connections that makes human marriage possible, end quote. Now, our society rejects all of that. The media says a person can be male or female based on their self-perception, regardless of their biological structure, so that if I think I'm a woman, I am a woman. My mind determines what the reality is, not my body. Scripture teaches the exact reverse. The body determines gender.

God formed the body and assigned gender to each one. Beloved, here's what you have to see. This issue of transgenderism is a colossal collision of biblical and humanistic philosophy, and we can't run from the battle. We can't pretend that this issue doesn't exist, and we cannot coexist with it, by which I mean we cannot yield to it, even if ultimately society tries to enforce it upon us by penalties. This is the very heart of biblical revelation. We can't betray this without betraying Christ. We're left with no option except to proclaim the truth in love and trust God to protect and help us and be merciful to sinners in the process. So who defines gender?

That's the million-dollar question here. Who defines gender for us? The Bible says that God does. Denny Burke said this, and I quote, God created sexual differentiation. The terms male and female are not cultural constructs.

They are not social roles foisted upon mankind by culture and tradition. Male and female designate the fundamental distinction that God has embedded in the very biology of the race, end quote. So, beloved, let's just lay it all out on the table here, shall we?

Let's just work it through to its spiritual conclusion. To reject this concept of gender at either a philosophical level or at a personal level, adopting a transgender identity. To reject this concept of biblical gender, beloved, is nothing less than to sin in the most fundamental way against God. It's a different context, admittedly, but the spirit of what is said in it certainly applies. Listen to me.

You don't need to turn there. From Romans chapter 9, verses 19 and 20, where Paul is talking about election unto salvation, but the spirit of it certainly applies to what we are finding in this discussion of gender. Society says, why did you make me this way? I don't want to be this way.

I don't know. I refuse this. I reject it. And you can't tell us what we are, God. Romans 9, verse 19. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault, or who resists his will? The biblical response to this whole transgender ideology, I'm distinguishing between the activists and the individuals here, speaking particularly to the ideology. Scripture says, on the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this?

Will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? The maker has the prerogative to do what he wants with what he makes. The creator is able to do, and has free, sovereign, unhindered, unrestrained prerogative to make things as he pleases. It pleased God to make humanity male and female. It pleased God to make you male or female, as the case may be. It is not the position of man to reject that, to speak back against that, to argue against it.

That option was not included in creation. And so, come to a closing question then. How do we help those who are in a transgender state of mind? How do we respond to the ideology more thoroughly?

How do we raise our children in this very mixed-up world? Well, beloved, first of all, we stay close to Scripture, as we have tried to do here this morning, and we must also stay close to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sin is serious, and transgenderism is a very serious fundamental sin against God.

But you know what? Sinners of every kind can find forgiveness in Christ. While God convicts men of the lies that undergird this whole system of thinking about reality, there is simultaneously a window of offer, a window of opportunity for men to turn from that and to come to Christ for forgiveness. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9, you see both sides of this. It says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. But here's the blessed hope and promise that's embedded in that declaration of judgment. Verse 11, Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God. That tells us that when Paul wrote this 2,000 years ago, there were sinners of all those different stripes finding forgiveness and new life in Christ. Praise be to God. And the glory today that you and I have the privilege of proclaiming is that same Christ is offering that same kind of absolute forgiveness for those who will turn from the world, turn from sin and embrace him by faith alone. The way forward for the world, the way forward for the church universal, the way forward for this local body, the way forward for you, it's all the same to the extent that we are afflicted by these issues.

The way forward is all the same, and it's all premised in the promise of Christ when he said, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The most hardened transgender activist has an invitation directly from Christ to come out of that and come to him, and he'll receive them in forgiveness and change them. The ones suffering so much under the mental affliction of gender dysphoria, the way forward is not to go with a checkbook to doctors and to submit to their knives and their drugs the way, difficult though it may be, is found in Christ.

That's the hope, to let him restore that which the condition of sin has marred. So despite what the media says pushing the increase of transgender ideology, we can rest assured that Scripture remains unchanged about gender. Rejecting God's creation of humanity as only male and female is, in fact, a rejection of him. It's also a great reminder that we need to pray for those people who are trapped in this confused ideology and who need a work of the Holy Spirit. On our next program, Pastor Don Green will specifically address the topic of how to answer the issue of transgenderism. Join us for more of our current series, The Bible and Pride Month, next time here on The Truth Pulpit. But now, Don's back 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 that it's a matter of false advertising, and many lives and families are being torn apart by it. We need 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, for Don Green, I'm Bill Wright. Looking forward to seeing you next time as our teacher continues teaching God's people God's Word from the Truth Pulpit.