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Conversion in Christ (Biblical Sexuality Sunday)

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INTRODUCTION

On December 8th, the Canadian government passed Bill C-4 by royal assent, which means that with a little bit of bureaucratic shenanigans, it passed with unanimous consent. Bill C-4 effectively criminalizes Christian preaching, teaching, and counseling that upholds Biblical morality for all sexuality. It specifically prohibits “conversion therapy” and defines that therapy as any practice, treatment, or service that seeks to call individuals to embrace the body God created them with and heterosexuality, with a penalty of up to five years in prison. It also condemned historic, biblical teaching as “myths.” Having gone into effect last week, a number of faithful men have called for the pastors of Canada to preach messages today in defiance of that law, and many American pastors are also joining them to stand in solidarity with them but also to exhort and warn our own American leaders from going down this same path.

THE TEXT

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Here Scripture clearly teaches that the unrighteous cannot inherit the kingdom of God (6:9). And the surprising warning is that Christians can be deceived into thinking that they can live in these patterns of sin and inherit the kingdom (6:9). In particular, fornication, idolatry, adultery, effeminacy, sodomy, theft, covetousness, drunkenness, rage, and extortion are singled out (6:10). These practices characterized some of the Corinthians (6:11). But they have been changed, and they are not the same anymore because they have been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus, and by His Spirit (6:11).

THE SPIRIT OF DESPAIR

Our texts says: “do not be deceived” (1 Cor. 6:9). And the clear implication is that it is possible to be deceived. This is a real temptation, and it is a temptation for Christians in the church. The Devil is the Father of all lies and deception, and one of the central lies of the Devil is the lie of despair. This is the lie of the Canadian legislation, and it is the lie that has been growing in influence in our culture, even inside the Christian Church. In Revelation 12, we are told that the Accuser has been cast down out of heaven, where he used to accuse the brethren night and day (Rev. 12:9-10). While his power has been greatly diminished, his primary occupation is accusing sinners of their sin. And with those accusations comes condemnation: the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).

So the central lie is that it is too late, your sins and mistakes are too great, there’s nothing that can be done, and you cannot change. The next lie that comes right on the heels of those lies is that the best you can hope for in this life is to limp and hobble along with your sins and demons clutching at you and weighing you down. Paul was writing Christians who were making peace with certain sins, concluding that they could not be completely free in this life. But Paul says that if they are not free of those sins then they cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven (1 Cor. 6:9-10). In a sense, the Satanic lie is actually so insidious because it settles for a mild despair: this is as good as it gets, limping along. But the Bible teaches that you must completely despair. You must come to the end of yourself.

IDENTITY POLITICS & SALVATION

Ever since Adam, there’s a sick rebellious streak in all the sons and daughters of Adam that wants to be a tragic hero. We want to make terrible choices and then flop and claim we are victims of the universe. “That’s just who I am” is a proud, defiant claim, and we have taken that claim to new institutional heights in our culture by making them fundamental identity markers: transgender, bisexual, queer, lesbian, same-sex attracted, “gay celibate Christian,” etc. But all of it is a false gospel. The offer of this “gospel” is that if you find your “identity,” you will be at peace with yourself and the world, but there is no peace in sin, and the early death and suicide rates of these communities is off the charts.

Many well-meaning and soft-hearted Christians are swept along with this, not wanting to heap up shame or hurt on folks who struggle with these sins and temptations. Or we go soft on those sins because we have our own guilt and shame for “more respectable” struggles. While we must always be kind and patient, it is not kind or gracious to go along with lies or delusions, especially the kind that we are told explicitly in Scripture cannot inherit the Kingdom. The truth is that all the descendants of Adam do need a new identity, and that identity is found in Christ, and Christ alone. In Christ, every sin and sinful identity is washed away, and we are set apart as holy to God by the Holy Spirit and fully vindicated by the name of Jesus (1 Cor. 6:11).

CONVERSION TO CHRIST

So we preach conversion to Christ and conversion in Christ. This is not a “therapy” at all, but it is the supernatural power to change, to repent, to turn from sin and walk in the light. We proclaim liberty to the captives. We proclaim forgiveness of all sins in the blood of Jesus. And we defy and condemn every teaching, every legislation, every executive order, or court decision that says otherwise.

Fundamentally, to deny the power of Christ to change sinners, to set them free from the bondage of their sin, is to deny the resurrection of Jesus from the dead: “… what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead…” (Eph. 1:19-20). What is this great power to change that we proclaim in Christ? It is the power of resurrection from the dead.

Elsewhere, it says that if Christ is not risen, then we are still in our sins (1 Cor. 15:17). We can make the inverse point as well: if we are still in our sins, and if our sins are impossible to remove, then Christ is not risen from the dead. This is what the Canadian government, Revoicers, and all the rainbow churches are fundamentally denying: the resurrection of Jesus. But Christ is risen, and we are free. Christ is risen, and all things are being made new.

And the particular newness that we are being made into is the newness of what we were made to be: new men and new women, new fathers and new mothers, new marriages, new families, new communities, new nations. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).

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Christian Basis for Freedom

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INTRODUCTION

Freedom is a thoroughly Christian principle. The ancient pagan world knew nothing of true freedom, and despite secular humanism’s attempts at claiming it, there is no other liberty apart from the living God. Christian liberty is grounded in freedom to worship the Triune God, and when our hearts are turned to Him, we are set free from all bondage and set free to serve.

THE TEXTS

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery… For you were called to freedom brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal. 5:1, 13-14).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

In context, Paul is warning the Galatians against Judaizing, that is, adding Jewish ceremonial laws to Christ perhaps as an attempt to feel more secure, perhaps as an attempt to avoid persecution from zealous Jews (Gal. 5:2-11, cf. Gal. 1:4-9).  But every form of legalism is a crushing yoke of slavery, and to return to Egypt is to sin against Christ who set us free (Gal. 5:1). The mentality of slavery is simple: just do as you’re told, but true freedom brings responsibility (Gal. 5:13). This means that true liberty is directed by God’s law of love (Gal. 3:14).

FREEDOM FOR WORSHIP

In the Exodus story, one of the fundamental lessons we learn there that freedom is for worship: “Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness” (Ex. 5:1, cf. 10:25). But Pharaoh instinctively knew that if Israel was set free to worship God, they would never be slaves again. True worship of the living God sets the captives free. This certainly begins as moral and spiritual freedom with regeneration (and hearts that can’t stop singing), but freedom from sin teaches men to think like free men. This begins with personal responsibility (confession of sin and forgiveness) and flows out to covenantal responsibility in the spheres of authority assigned to us by the Lord Jesus: family, church, and state.

When they are healthy, all three spheres mutually check and enforce one another, but throughout Scripture worship is the tip of the spear: Abraham built altars throughout the land of Canaan, the priests blew trumpets and carried the ark around Jericho, the choir went out in front of the army under Jehoshaphat, and Jesus sent us out into the world to preach and baptize and celebrate the Lord’s Supper as the vanguard of the Kingdom. Daniel shows us the centrality of free worship both in the refusal of the three friends to bow down to the statue (Dan. 3) and in Daniel’s resolute prayer despite the king’s decree (Dan. 6). Christians are free from every decree of man that would require idolatry or prohibit the worship of the living God. While there is freedom in some of the particulars of when and where worship is conducted, Christians must be zealous for freedom to worship because Christ is worthy and because all of our other freedoms flow from there. When you think about preserving freedom, first think about worshipping the King who grants all freedom.

FREED TO SERVE

This freedom that Christ gives is for serving one another in love, and that love is measured by the second greatest commandment: love your neighbor as yourself (Gal. 5:13-14). But Christians must not be simplistic or naïve in this. Remember first of all the gospel: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jn. 4:10-11). God did not love us in the way that we thought He should; He loved us in the way that we actually needed. And we must love one another like that. This is truly serving one another in love: doing what is needed for long term physical and spiritual health, blessing, and success.

How does Scripture teach us to love like Christ? It says husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies, like Christ has loved the church and gave Himself up for her, providing for them and protecting them (Eph. 5:22-33), and fathers are to provide for and raise their children in the nurture and admonition of Jesus (Eph. 6:1-4). This includes the duty to care for the health, safety, medical decisions, welfare, and education of all in the family. Failure to do so is functional apostasy and worse than a run of the mill pagan (1 Tim. 5:8). This spiritual and religious duty to care for your family is why Christ set you free. This is what your Christian freedom is for. And you are under orders not to relinquish this freedom. Wise men will need to consider various tactical courses to protect this freedom but protect it we must.

CONCLUSIONS

One of the ways our freedom is under attack is through well-meaning appeals from other Christians that we need to be willing to lay our freedoms down for the sake of the gospel. Don’t be selfish! This is one of those half-truths that can sound more godly than it actually is. The half truth is: do not use your freedom for the flesh, to serve yourself, to serve your lusts, to bite and devour one another (Gal. 5:13-15). Don’t use your freedom to act like Egyptians. But keep the image of the Exodus firmly in mind. Christian liberty is fundamentally freedom from Egypt (sin, death, the Devil) and freedom to love our people in obedience to Christ. Therefore, no Christian is free to go back to Egypt. Lay our freedom down? That’s like saying lay your obedience down, lay your duty down, lay your family down. God forbid. Christ has set us free.

For another example, when drag queen story hour first burst on the scene in all of its lugubrious shame, some of our most prominent conservative, even “Reformed” leaders told us that this was merely the price of “freedom” in a country like ours. If we want to continue to have the freedom of speech, the freedom to express our religious convictions then we have to make room for gaudy perverts. Notice the hidden unbiblical assumption here is that “freedom” is merely power of choice. But that is like saying that in order to be a truly free country you must allow for the option of slavery. Not hardly. True freedom is walking in the light of Christ, walking in the relief of forgiveness of all our sins. No, the price of freedom was paid by Jesus on the cross, and He died to set us free from all that darkness. And loving your neighbor means doing all in your power to share that freedom with them.

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Of Lords and Laughter

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INTRODUCTION

Sarah only calls Abraham “lord” one time in recorded history. “Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself saying, ‘After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?’” (Gen. 18:11-12). This ought to catch our attention. Why use Sarah as the example of submission? And why appeal to her address of Abraham as “lord?” This isn’t exactly Sarah’s shining moment. What is Peter doing with this reference?

When God appeared with two angels on the plains of Mamre, He did so to make two announcements: to reiterate that Sarah would have a son (Gen. 18:10) and to tell Abraham what He was about to do to Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18:16-17). Those two announcements were not unrelated: What God was doing with the womb of Sarah was not unrelated to what He was doing with the nations of Canaan (Gen. 18:19). This is in the background of Peter’s instructions to slaves and wives and husbands. What God is up to with kings and governors is not unrelated to what He is up to in homes and families.

THE TEXT

“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps… Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands… as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror” (1 Pet. 2:21-3:6).

THE TUMULT SURROUNDING ISAAC’S BIRTH

The entire Isaac-birth narrative is sandwiched around two tumultuous political events. First, comes the Sodom and Gomorrah story, beginning with Abraham’s famous appeal to God to make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked (Gen. 18:23), securing His promise not to destroy the cities if there are ten righteous there (Gen. 18:32). This is followed by the revelation of just how wicked Sodom is, and that there are not even four righteous there, but God mercifully delivers Lot and his family before the cities are destroyed (Gen. 19:29). We learn that the nations of Moab and Ammon originate from the fearful incest of Lot’s daughters (Gen. 19:36-38). That story is followed by Abraham’s sojourn into the land of Gerar where Abraham says that Sarah is his sister and King Abimelech takes her into his harem (Gen. 20). When God appears to Abimelech and announces that he is a dead man because he has taken another man’s wife, Abimelech appeals to God’s justice (Gen. 20:5), and the Lord spares Abimelech who restores Sarah to Abraham (Gen. 20:17-18). The next verse says, “And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said… For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age…” (Gen. 21:1-2).

The whole context is about cities and nations and politics. It’s about the struggle and destruction and birth of wicked nations, and the punchline is God’s laughter: the birth of a little baby boy named “Isaac” (which means “laughter”) by an elderly couple. While nations rage and churn, God is bringing their plots to nothing and laughter is being born into the world.

CHRIST AND POLITICS

This brings us back to Peter’s exhortation to wives and all of us. Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him “lord,” whose children you are as long as you do well and are not afraid of any terror. But Sarah was afraid, and so she lied about her laughter (Gen. 18:13-15). How is that an example of obedience and courage? The answer is: she repented. She says after Isaac’s birth, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me” (Gen. 21:6). And if Sarah can look back in faith at her laughter as God’s good joke on her, then the same can be said about her incredulous address of her husband as “her lord.” Would she have pleasure with her husband, her lord being so old? The answer was a glorious and hilarious yes – because God is Lord.

Now apply this to Christ and politics. It’s easy to read this passage superficially as though Peter is merely saying make sure you obey everything. But remember: Christ suffered at the hands of soldiers, governors, and priests (authorities all) because He would not obey various ordinances of man. Why did Christ suffer? In order to break the back of the greatest tyranny of all, that we being dead to sins, might live unto righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24). Why did Christ suffer? Because in His righteousness, He was in full submission to the will of His Father, committing Himself to the One who judges righteously (1 Pet. 2:23). Why did Christ suffer? Because this righteous obedience to God brought Him into direct conflict with the authorities. But that resistance was not full of cursing and reviling (1 Pet. 2:22-23). The resistance of Christ was full of peace and joy: And this is because the obedience of Christ was an appeal to a higher authority, the Shepherd and Bishop of His soul, and so is ours (1 Pet. 2:25).

APPLICATIONS

What God is up to with kings and governors is not unrelated to what He is up to in homes and families. And God is Lord of the details. He does not destroy the righteous with the wicked. He is busy restoring and healing the righteous, blessing the righteous and making them fruitful, even while He carries out divine bombing runs on the wicked. God’s judgments fall with laser precision, and His mercy is far greater than we can imagine (Lot? Lot’s daughters? Abimelech?). There are more than 7,000 in our land who have not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kgs. 19:18).

Do justice in your homes. Obey your husbands. Love your wives. Honor your parents. Bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Repent of all known sin quickly. Forgive quickly. Remove the logs from your eyes so you can see clearly. Have you been living in fear? Repent. Christ is Lord. Has your laughter become cynical and bitter? Or is it the laughter of faith and repentance? You are the children of Abraham and Sarah by faith in the Lord Jesus. We walk through this world as their starry-host descendants. Hold your head up high. “Strength and honor are her clothing; she laughs at the future” (Prov. 31:25).

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel against the Lord, and against His Christ… but He that sits in the heavens laughs… (Ps. 2:2, 4) All authority is from the Lord of Heaven, and therefore, the same standard applies to all authority. Our submission to lawful authority is in the Lord. Do you have to swallow hard at the thought of a wife obeying or disobeying her husband, a parishioner obeying or disobeying a pastor, obeying or disobeying a police officer? But we have only one Lord. He is the Greater Isaac, the Great Laughter of God.

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Idols and Tyranny

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INTRODUCTION

One of the reasons we have trouble dealing realistically with evil in this world is that we have drawn mental cartoons of the evil beforehand. When someone says “tyranny,” we think of goose-stepping armies, missile parades, and funny looking helmets. But then, when something genuinely bad happens in our own lives, and we see it with our own eyes, because it doesn’t match the cartoon we treat it as an anomaly, a one-off occurrence . . . a thing we don’t have a category for. But we need to have a category for something this common.

I am a child of the Cold War, and my first glimpse of an actual communist country taught me this lesson. The lesson should be “don’t fight the caricature—fight the real thing.” In the early seventies the submarine I was on was pulling into Guantanamo Bay, and when I came topside I was astonished and taken aback because this commie land was emerald green. Bright green. But all my childhood images of communist countries resembled something like a grainy black and white newspaper photo of Budapest in the rain.

THE TEXT

“And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it . . .” (Judg. 6:25–32).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Earlier in this chapter, an angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and told him that he would be the instrument for saving Israel from the oppression of the Midianites. After his interaction with that angel, that same night the Lord spoke to Gideon and told him to use his father’s bullock to tear down his father’s altar to Baal, along with the grove next to it (v. 25). The groves were part of the way the idols were set apart as holy. They would have to have been planted, and tended, and cultivated. Idol worship does not occur in fits of absent-mindedness.

Gideon was then to take the bullock and sacrifice it on an altar to God, using wood from the grove he cut down (v. 26). Gideon took ten of his servants and did it at night, and presumably that night (v. 27). The men of the town arose in the morning, and discovered that a reformation had occurred while they were sleeping (v. 28). They made inquiries and found out that Gideon was the culprit (v. 29). The men of the town told Joash (whose altar it was) to bring out Gideon to be executed for the sacrilege (v. 30). This shows that Gideon’s family had significant influence—their altar in some way “belonged” to the town. Joash turned the tables—how dare you defend Baal! Defending Baal should be a capital crime. Shouldn’t he be able to defend himself (v. 31)? So Joash then named Gideon Jerubbaal, which means “let Baal contend.”

THE ARCHETYPICAL PATTERN

This incident records a pattern which happens in Scripture again and again. When the people serve the true God, they live under His blessing. When they veer off into the worship of false gods, they come under His chastisement. We have countless historical examples of this pattern in Scripture, but we are also taught this truth as being proverbially true. “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn” (Prov. 29:2). This means that the pattern remains a pattern down to the present. Being ruled by rebellious fools is never a picnic.

THE VENDING MACHINE PROBLEM

Wisdom in this world largely consists of learning how to read cause and effect. We can only learn to do this right by reading what Scripture teaches us, and then reading that into our lives, our histories, our family stories, our politics, in the light that the reading lamp of Scripture supplies.

This means that causation is not to be read in a simplistic vending machine sort of way—put the money in, and get the product out. God frequently tests the wisdom of our faith by having His causal intervention act very much not like a vending machine. Nevertheless, it is still recognizably causal. What is the causal relationship, for example, for countless hours of piano practice as a child and wining a music competition twenty years later? Is there a causal relationship? Of course, but it is not like putting the 8 ball in the corner pocket.

In short, our choices are not simplistic causation on the one hand, or randomness on the other. Now, with all that said, idolatry causes tyranny.

BACK TO TYRANNY

An abusive marriage is not to be defined as one in which a husband is beating his wife in a non-stop or constant way. Rather, an abusive relationship is one in which the abusive spouse reserves the rightto behave this way, whenever he feels like it. This kind of marital tyranny need not be a 24-7 thing. Often the worst situations are the most erratic, and extended periods of time can pass between explosions. But the relationship is a mess all the time, whether or not something really bad is actually happening right this minute. The thing that makes it a mess is the arbitrary and capricious nature of it.

JESUS AND THE TYRANTS

The fundamental Christian confession is this: Jesus is Lord. This confession excludes, of necessity, the equivalent lordship of anything or anyone else. If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not. If Jesus is Lord, then Mammon is not. If Jesus is Lord, then porn is not. If Jesus is Lord, then ungodly search and seizure raids are not.

When there is no God above the state, the state becomes god—the highest authority in the lives of those governed. When the true God is recognized, then the law becomes stable, something suitable for finite creatures. This is because we become like what we worship. God is immutable, and worshiping Him establishes us in constancy.

The true Christian serves the one who will judge all kings, presidents and emperors at the end of all things, and so the true Christian knows that there is always a court of appeal. We can always say (and must always say) that it is necessary for us to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).

One more thing. Jesus established His authority by bleeding. The tyrants establish their authority by blood-letting. Jesus fed the multitudes by the sea, and did this just after the episode where Herod had John the Baptist beheaded, and his head was brought out on a serving platter (Mark 6:32). The Lord Jesus feeds the saints of God, while the godless rulers feed on the saints of God.

And this is why our fundamental political activity is that of giving our lives away to one another. This is imitation of Christ, and is truly potent.

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