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August 22, 2022 8:00 am
Transgender realism removes the extramarital objectivity of truth and replaces it with a subjectivity that is based on feelings that approach to determining truth claims is a retreat into irretrievable darkness. The first gender clinic children open Boston back in 2007. In the past 10 years are now more than 30 clinics. Children with purported gender dysphoria in the United States alone.
High on bill like today on the truth. Pastor Don Greene continues teaching God's people. God's word with a series titled, the Bible, and transgender is done is always push for transgender activism, a case of the culture driving us further away from biblical truth will billets that and it's it's even more than that, you know the Bible says in Romans one that the God hands people over who denied him and hands them over to the lusts of their hearts so that their bodies would be dishonored among them, and that's what we see happening here. It's an outworking of the wrath of God on a godless society, and it's important for us to frame the issues in those ways. My friend, because when we frame it like that. We understand that the issue is sin, and the answer therefore is Jesus Christ. When we rightly understand transgender-ism were in a position to point people back to their creator and the provision for reconciliation to him that he is made in the sending of his son. Stay with us as we explain these things from Scripture today on the truthful. Thanks Don and Fred. Let's delve further into the topic of transgender-ism today as Don addresses it from God's word on the truthful Cincinnati Enquirer reported on what they perceived to be a new story Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Seale back an open homosexual had called for a boycott of the tri-health local hospital network called on tri-health to actually terminate the employment of a nurse who had made comments on her personal Facebook page, which challenged the reality of transgender identity. The nurses post was admittedly profane, but it was on her personal page matter of private expression. This story illustrates what is at stake in our social structure and helps illustrate why we are spending time examining the issue of the Bible, and transgender-ism at truth community church think with me for just a moment about what we just heard a homosexual elected official used his public position and access to media to pressure a corporation to fire a nurse for private comments that he disliked blood that is a chilling reality. You're not even allowed to voice disagreement and if you do, we will punish you even though you have not harmed us actually in any way whatsoever.
Tri-health quickly and predictably place the nurse on administrative leave and issued the standard statement on tolerance and diversity in bowing to the pressure of Councilman Seale back.
Beloved. Here's what I want you to see as we start the threat of this transgender activism in this transgender ideology. The threat is real the threat is immediate and the threat is local. Speaking from Cincinnati, Ohio here as I speak right this is our world in which we live and we need to be equipped to live in it and to respond to it in a godly biblical way and transgender ideology. If a man feels like a woman.
Whatever that means. Whatever means to feel like a woman half of you here might be able to help me understand that the man feels like a woman and he chooses to live like a woman, then society is now declaring that he is a woman regardless of his anatomical structure, or anything else corresponding to external reality, as we saw last time. As we looked at the sad path that led us to transgender-ism over centuries abandoning further and further God's revealed truth which was restored to us in the Reformation and reaching a point of postmodern so-called reality where the very concept of objective truth is denied, and truth is whatever you make it out to be transgender-ism is the logical outcome of that. If I believe if I think if I assert that I am a woman with the biological sex of a man then not only am I a woman you must agree with me and you must affirm that or you are committing a crime against humanity. The autonomy of the individual trumps everything else, including anything by which until just a few years ago. External reality was measured autonomy, the God of autonomy is supreme.
Now that's why we are addressing it here from the pulpit of truth, community church now with that said, beloved, I want to make one thing very clear. I'm under no delusion. As I speak. It is very difficult to take on transgender-ism today because postmodernism has created this radical relativity that allows men to determine truth for themselves what a few years ago would have been labeled a psychosis is now enforceable dogma upon the rest of the world is autonomy taken to an extreme. So last time we looked at the sad path that led to transgender-ism. We looked at the intellectual path which I've already alluded to how we drifted away from the Reformation's emphasis on revealed truth followed a pattern in human thought, a decline in human thought that led us to this postmodern age in which we now live then we also considered the cultural path that we followed in the United States and Western culture for the last several decades of the sexual revolution and everything that that has entailed people that I consider friends and people are certainly sympathetic with everything that I say I think that their approach is not helpful on dealing with this matter is not helpful.
It is not constructive to simply hold up transgender-ism to ridicule and say how you'd have to be out of your mind to believe this, in a sense that's true, but that does nothing to explain why people believe it and it does nothing to answer it. To simply insult people for what they think and what they believe is no answer to it, and provides no no stable philosophical basis upon which to respond to it and to move forward, we need to do something more than that, we need to do more than simply experience moral outrage at it. We have to be able to look at this objectively and say what is the answer to this so if there was any merit to what I said last week about the intellectual path in the cultural path that led us to this point. Today's message now is forward-looking and the title of tonight's messages answering transgender-ism, by which I mean how do we respond to what is the Christian response to transgender-ism on a biblical philosophical level. How do we break the stalemate.
When people are saying that your reality, I've got mine leave me alone. You can't question what I think about myself. How do you begin to answer something like that. It's almost self insulating from critique or or review is in it well. So what I want to do tonight is just parallel the points tonight. We looked at the intellectual path in the cultural path last time. Tonight I want to give you an intellectual answer in a cultural answer to this phenomenon. This ideology and hopefully give you some perspective that will give you a sense of how we move forward from here.
So let's just take a moment to discuss the intellectual answer to transgender-ism. As I said last time transgender-ism rests on a worldview. All this is so important.
Beloved. This is everything.
What were about to say here in the next few minutes, transgender-ism rests on a worldview that believes the truth is found in the heart of man that what you think and what you feel is the ultimate determiner of reality.
Men can decide for themselves what is true and some people would be shocked to think that that presupposition of theirs is even open for discussion, but it is an and Scripture responds with a twofold answer that is a collision of cosmic proportions between biblical thought and humanistic thought and I'm convinced that we have to understand and deal with this issue at this most fundamental level we have to challenge that assumption that men can know what is true by looking inside their hearts. That is not true that is fundamentally false. That is a lie from the pit of hell itself.
The Bible teaches on giving you a twofold response. A twofold intellectual answer here and negative and a positive, first of all, the Bible teaches that mankind does not know what truth is. And further, that mankind does not want to know what the truth is the mind of man is utterly broken is out of order. It is distorted and cannot be reclaimed to anything functional. By human effort alone.
The mind of man is broken and the will of man is perverted and this cannot be avoided in this discussion because if you understand that the mind of man is depraved and lacking truth and not seeking truth, then you can understand why it is not possible for truth to be found in the feelings of a man or a woman in what they think and believe about themselves. What they say about the world about them. Feelings are no source of truth whatsoever. Jesus Christ himself made this clear in the Gospel of John. Look at John chapter 3 verse 19 with me as we turn to some Scripture now John chapter 3, beginning in verse 19 Jesus said this is the judgment that the light has come into the world, meaning that Christ himself has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. The heart of man is diametrically opposed to what truth is truth found in Christ.
Truth found in the word of God revealed in Scripture says that men do not want the truth, but rather they prefer to love the darkness in which they find themselves in. They love their sin and therefore they are morally opposed to the truth.
And this means that the heart of man is no vessel by which truth could be communicated whatsoever.
Jesus goes on to say, but he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. And so part of the beginning of our answer to the intellectual challenge of transgender-ism is to say that your whole premise of what is true and where truth is found is fatally flawed. You cannot find truth in the heart of man whatsoever.
Jesus is apostle Paul was even more explicit and instructive on the point turn to Romans chapter 1 with me Romans chapter 1 verses 18 through 23 is a start. The word of God says that the wrath of God. Verse 18 is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them. For God made it evident to them.
For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse for even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures that stop there for just a moment what Scripture says about the nature of man. The nature of humanity as it is the nature of man to suppress the truth to oppose the truth in a manner that leaves them morally and spiritually culpable. They are without excuse for this. It is a moral choice that is been made and as a result of that there heart is foolish and it is darkened now beloved, I want to tell you that when we see based on the light of the trustworthy word of God that the heart of man is suppressing truth with the heart of man is foolish. The heart of man is darkened.
There is no possibility that truth can be found there. That is not the place where truth is made known man has rejected the God of truth and once the God of truth has been rejected by man. The only thing that's left to fill the void is his lies and that's what we are seeing in transgender ideology and as a consequence of the rejection Scripture.
Paul here goes on to say that God has handed man over to a depraved distorted mind which has left him in darkness and in wrath. Look at verse 24 with me.
There is this judicial handing over that God has done to mankind because they have rejected what he is clearly made known about himself even in the created order of things, so that in verse 24, it says therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them, for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. He goes on to say. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions. For their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural in the same way. Also, the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. Stay with me as I read verse 28 and following. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer. Here it is beloved God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. They are gossips, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant and boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding on trustworthy, unloving, unmerciful, and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same but they also give hearty approval to those who practice them. The judgment of God on the mind of humanity is, is that it is depraved and it is incapable of thinking anything proper and in the place of the truth of God. What has been replaced instead is a mind devoted to all kinds of depravity and deceit and so beloved. What were doing here far transcends the issue transgender-ism understand what were doing here is that we are cultivating and developing and reinforcing a biblical worldview to understand what is happening around us. We are not directing this attack at individual transgender people we are assaulting an ideology that undergirds the delusions in which they live. We are in the words of the apostle Paul in second Corinthians chapter 10 verse four using the word of God to destroy speculations that are raised up against the knowledge of God with weapons that are divinely powerful for that purpose. And so, brothers, sisters in Christ friends who will hear this later on fact, I just I just want to be playing that even as I'm stating these things plainly. I'm stating them with a hand open, extending the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who hate what I'm saying.
I'm extending the offer of salvation through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, even as they despise what's being said here from the word of God. I am not hostile to individuals, but I have to speak against the ideology that undergirds it all. Man's heart is not where truth is found to the exact contrary let me take it to three or four familiar passages go back to Genesis chapter 6 if you will. Genesis chapter 6 beginning in verse five, all the way back prior to the days of the flood since the fall.
Genesis chapter 6 verse five the testimony of the word of God is this is that the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
That's the heart of man for you in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse three you can just jot the reference down Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse three it says that the hearts of the Son of Man are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives evil and insanity is the mark of the heart of man. There is no possibility there is absolutely no possibility that anything truth could be based on what someone feels Jeremiah chapter 17 verse nine it says the heart of man is desperately wicked who can understand it and then turned to Mark chapter 7 verse 20 mark chapter 7 verse 20 is your turning their Jeremiah 17 nine specifically, I paraphrased it. Jeremiah 17 nine says the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it, or chapter 7 verse 20 Jesus said that that which proceeds out of the man. That is what defiles the man for from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornication's thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.
Beloved, but that means is when you understand the testimony of Scripture about the nature of the heart of man and his fallen, sinful condition for somebody to say that I premise the truth of Mike and my condition. The truth of myself identity based on what I think and what I feel inside.
It is a completely self refuting statement they have contradicted themselves biblically by saying that the truth about me is found within me know know within you are lies and deception. No matter how strong your feelings are. They are not a guide to what the truth is, your heart is fallen, your heart is is desperately sick your heart cannot be fixed by human means and therefore to build a worldview to build a life approach based on what you feel inside is to build on quickly collapsing quicksand that will engulf you in the end, answering transgender-ism than in light of these things means this the sad path to transgender-ism. Last time the hard path from transgender-ism going forward means this is is it's no less than this.
This is an ultimate collision of reality. Christian preaching and Christian witness on an individual level must tell men that their minds are warped and incapable of finding truth on their own. We have to answer transgender-ism on this most fundamental level, because it premises it's truth assertions its truth claims on what people feel and we have to answer that truth claim with the biblical truth claim that truth is not found in your feelings. It is not found in your heart, your heart is full of deception and you cannot trust what you feel is a guide to what is true in other words, we have to buy the postmodern spirit of our age. Whether anyone is standing with us as we do or not, will the Bible is clear they will never know what is true by looking inside our hearts. Instead, we must always seek God's word for truth that's important to remember as we interact with those who promote the transgender worldview on our next program. Pastor Don Greene will continue his look at the issue of transgender-ism join us then for more of our current series. The Bible, and transgender-ism here on the truth pulpit but right now Don's back here in studio. Eddie has an important message for you friend I invite you to our website.
The truth pulpit.com to request your free CD album or find audio downloads of all of the messages that I did on this matter.
Transgender is again look for the series, the Bible, and transgender-ism at our website.
The truth pulpit.com thanks Don friend were out of time for today. I'm Bill Wright inviting you back. As Don Greene continues teaching God's people were truthful