Thank you for watching! Last week we covered the first point of Chapter 4 of the Westminster Confession of Faith on Creation, which says, "...and please God the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good." And the next point, which is also the only other point of this chapter, the next point of this great chapter is focused upon the crowning glory of God's creation, man. Fewer questions are more relevant to mankind than these. What are we? Who are we? And whose are we? Is man an animal? What does scripture mean by man being made as the image of God? How does that make us different from animals? No theory in the history of ideas has been more devastating to human flourishing and happiness than Darwinism, the notion that man is a cosmic accident with no more significance in the grand scheme of things than broccoli. And here is the teaching of our Creator on this matter. This is the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 4 of Creation, paragraph 2. After God had made all other creatures, He created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after His own image, having the law of God written in their hearts and power to fulfill it, and yet under a possibility of transgressing, being left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject unto change. Beside this law written in their hearts, they received a command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which while they kept, they were happy in their communion with God and had dominion over the creatures. In the depths of who we are in our quiet moments, when we are unplugged from earbuds and the internet, all of us know that something is very wrong with the world and with ourselves. Our nation's collective turning away from God has only made this more evident through the ultimate forms of rebellion in homosexuality and transgenderism. What is becoming clearer as time marches on, however, is that more and more young people, whose bodies have been destroyed and whose futures have been ruined by drugs and bodily mutilations, are beginning to realize that God did make them one biological sex or the other. This last election seems to have shown that at least a little bit of this country, people may be ready to hear the truth once more about biblical anthropology, the doctrine of mankind. What are we? Who are we? And whose are we? This is what we're going to discuss on today's program. I'm joined today by my regular co-host here. Eventually, hopefully, we can get a couple other guys from our denomination on the program, but Jim Thornton is the pastor of Reformed Faith Presbyterian Church in Clarksville, Tennessee. And Henry Johnson is one of the pastors at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Tazewell, Virginia. And I, of course, am Patrick Hines. I'm the pastor of Bridewell Heights Presbyterian Church in the Appalachian Mountains in Kingsport, Tennessee. So, gents, it's good to see you guys again. Good to have our two weeks in a row after the plagues of sickness have finally lifted, at least from us. But let's go ahead and get started. Jim, I'd like to pitch the first question to you. What does the Confession mean in the opening phrase? After God had made all other creatures, He created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after His own image. Would you comment on that for us? Well, first of all, God created us male and female in His own image. There are only two genders, and they cannot change. A man cannot become a woman. A woman cannot become a man. And that's the authority of God. And he also created us reasonable, it says. And one of the most important things here is what Augustine called the preformation of the mind, the way God created our minds. Reasonable Francis Schaeffer points to the law of non contradiction as being huge. And it's something that we live by every day a cannot be both a and non a at the same time and in the same way. And if you try to go from Johnson City to Knoxville on the interstate you're going west. If you mix up the two sides of the highway, if you say, well, it doesn't matter, you go down the left side going west, you're going to have a head-on collision, most likely, and be killed. The law of non-contradiction is very important. A male is not a female. A female is not a male. And it was Hegel who messed that up and said, there's thesis, there's antithesis, and then there's the middle ground. And so people have been trying to, and the devil has been trying to sow confusion and make man unreasonable. And he's been doing a very good job at that. And then we are immortal. Creatures who will exist forever. We are a soul living in a body. We have an immortal soul, eternal, everlasting. And then the knowledge, he created us in knowledge. And there is such a thing as truth. And Jesus said, I am the truth. And truth is an actual representation of what is, it's reality. And even that is under attack today. And of course it has been for a long time, ever since the Garden of Eden, really. And so we need to hold on to being created in truth. And we need to get back to that, those who are lost, And even us Christians, we need to pursue truth. And then in holiness, we were created good. God created Adam and Eve and all the creation good. And we have messed it up. And so we were created holy. Then our representative there in the garden, Adam, he sinned. He drug us all into sin. And then the Lord Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary without sin. Praise the Lord. He's the God man. And he was holy, and he is holy, and he died on the cross that we could be holy again, that we could be justified by faith, that we could receive his righteousness. But we have a propensity for holiness. I think even the lost people have a propensity towards holiness, but they get it all messed up and confused. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Man, there's so much in those opening phrases, isn't there? I mean, we could camp out on each one of those phrases, just thinking about reasonable. You're right. Even people who attack reason or who try to say, well, you guys are Western in your thinking, but I embrace a more inclusive Eastern idea. I remember listening to a discussion that was being related, a discussion between a Christian and a professor of philosophy at some university. And this professor of philosophy had heard this Christian lecture, and he said, you're just into this either-or philosophy, but we embrace the both-and. We embrace the both-and. We don't see contradictions. And this Christian brilliant guy says, so sir, are you saying that either I should accept the both-and or nothing at all? And the guy kind of leans back, the either-or does seem to emerge, doesn't it? It's like, to try to deny the absolute truth, you can't help but affirm it. If you open your mouth to say you believe anything, you're making an assertion. But human beings want that. We want consistency. We try to be consistent and logical in the way that we think, and that whole notion of immortality. You know, we live in a death culture, and suicide is such a big problem. That's just another deception, because people think that they can close out their existence by physical death, but we know from the Word of God, there is conscious existence that never ends after physical death. And so, yeah, there's a lot there, so much there that we could elaborate on, but thank you for that, brother. What does the next phrase of the Westminster Confession 4.2 mean when it says about mankind in His image having the law of God written in their hearts and power to fulfill it? Very, very profound truth. And we see, for example, in Romans chapter 2, the apostle Paul is unpacking his statement in chapter 1, verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. And he then, the rest of chapter 1, is showing, proving why Gentiles need the gospel because of the perverse rebellion against the living God, a self-conscious rebellion. And then in chapter 2 of Romans, he turns to the Jew, and he says that the Jew also, he's much more sophisticated in his expression of life, but he has the exact same problem. He has sin. and he dresses it up and pretends that he is righteous before God, but in his heart, and if you look closely in his life, he has the same problem. And so, in chapter two now, the apostle Paul is comparing how Gentiles and Jews both are in need of a savior outside of themselves, and the only savior that can really save is Jesus Christ, the Son of God come in the flesh. And so in verse 12 of Romans 2, the Apostle Paul, writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God tells us, for all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus." And so he points to the fact that the law of God is the standard of right and wrong. and that the Jew knows that standard. He doesn't live up to it. He needs the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Gentile also. is going to be judged by that same standard, and even though he doesn't have the Scriptures readily at hand like the Jew does, he has the law as all mankind since creation has the law of God, the moral law of God, written upon their hearts. And we talk about the law of nature. And the problem is that since the fall, that law has been perverted and maimed in the hearts and minds of people so that we can't just look. to the law of nature, because the fall has so distorted people's ability to know God, to know themselves, to know what's right and wrong. We need God's revealed written word. But this verse in Romans chapter two declares to us in verse 14, that even though they don't have the written law, they have the law of God written on their hearts. And so this phrase in the Confession that you refer to references Romans 2 verses 14 and 15. And it's always important for us to look at the context. When the Apostle Paul talks about how they're going to be justified by what they do, he's pointing to this whole matter of the evidence of a lively saving faith. It's faith alone in Jesus that is the tool by which God justifies us. It's not faith plus works, but true faith always will evidence itself. And so these Gentiles, they have the law of God written upon their hearts. They know in their heart of heart that they ought to love and worship and obey Almighty God. And we see that over in Romans chapter one, the same thing, that everyone is confronted with the truth and everybody knows that God is, and we ought to love and worship and obey him and love our fellow man. The problem is, because of the fall, we don't have a heart that is able to love God and love our fellow man, and we don't want to. And so we need a Savior, and the only Savior is Jesus. And we need the Bible, because this law that is written upon the heart cannot be understood rightly. since the fall because our minds, our wills, our whole being has been affected by the fall of Adam. So to summarize, when we talk about man and what God Himself who created man tells us about man is that we're made in the image of God, we have reasonable and immortal souls, we were created, as Jim pointed out, with a true knowledge of God, man was created righteous, not sinful, and man was created holy. Man was flawless. Man did not have sin. or did not have anything in him that gave him a bend to evil. So God created man. Man was designed for communion and fellowship with God. And man also has the law written in his heart. Adam and Eve had the law of God written in their hearts. And every culture in the world, whether, as you were saying there, Henry, whether they have the Bible or not, Everyone has always known that there are certain things that are objectively wrong. No culture has ever had people in it that thanked one another for stealing from each other. They've always known it's wrong to take what belongs to someone else. It's wrong to hurt people, to hit people, to kill people. That shows that the law of God is written on our hearts, as that passage in Romans 2 says, when Gentiles instinctively do the things in the law. Although they don't have the Old Testament scriptures, they don't have the law that God gave, they have that law in their hearts. But their thoughts either accuse them and they feel guilty, or their thoughts will excuse them because they try to think of themselves as righteous. There are no doers of the law. Verse 13 there in Romans 2 says that it's not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. And he goes on to point out in Romans 3 that there's no one Jew or Gentile that is a doer of the law, that everyone has sinned and fallen short. So that kind of leads to the next question, Jim. When Adam rebelled against God, this is such an important question for unbelievers and believers alike to have a biblical, what's called shalmartology, a doctrine of sin, and how that affected mankind is vital for us to know. Because if we don't understand that, we're not going to understand how the Gospel fixes this problem. So, Jim, when Adam rebelled, what happened to mankind? The Westminster Shorter Catechism says the Fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery. So what does the Bible teach about the effects of man's rebellion against God? Well, that is such an important question. As you said, Jesus said, men love darkness rather than light. And they love darkness. You know, one of the most shocking things to me in 10 years of being an evangelist is so many people think they're a good person. It's bizarre. And if you ask them about the particular commandments, have you done this? Have you done that? Most of them will admit that they've violated several of God's commandments. And yet they'll say, they'll switch the standard to, well, everybody does that. And so there is a strong delusion out there, as it says in Thessalonians, But not only do men love darkness and hate the light, they hate God. It says in Romans 1, verse 30, haters of God. And they have a strong dislike of God. It's amazing. They have in Romans 1, a depraved mind, a mind that has been muddled and darkened and messed up so badly. being filled with all unrighteousness. It says in verse 29, I mean, filled, that's a pretty strong word. It's not like they're half and half. They are filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. They are gossips, slanderers. Haters of God, as I mentioned, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil. You know, we can't even give a complete catalog of all sins because they're still inventing. It's amazing. disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they know this. And yet what do they do? Well, the Bible says, all those who hate me love death. And so they love death. I mean, it's a very dark picture. And so, that's so important for people to understand this. Man is capable of so much good. Even unregenerate men are able to do so much good, but the problem is in their hearts. There is no allegiance to God. There's no affection for God. There is, as you said there in John chapter 3 there, this is the condemnation that light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light. And so, there's this incredible this incredible attachment to sin. Mankind wants to be his own. He doesn't want to submit to or obey God's law. And so, yeah, that state of sin and misery, that's why the world is so messed up. And that was a good explanation for the effects of man's rebellion against God. So, Henry, let's talk about now Romans 5.12, this is an important topic for people to understand. A lot of people will kind of chafe at this, but this is the way it is. It's also why all three of us are going to die one day if the Lord doesn't come back. And every human being listening to this or watching this, you are going to die, because what we're about to discuss here is true. So, Henry, Romans 5.12 says, "...therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." What is covenantal or federal headship, and how is this foundational to a Christian understanding of the fall and of the gospel of Christ? As you said, this is something that particularly liberal, progressive, so-called pastors in our day and time, hate with a passion. But it is a very, very important basic truth of Holy Scripture and at the very heart of the gospel. And it is that If you look at the Bible, you see in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Over the space of those six 24-hour days, God formed and fashioned everything in the universe. And the crown of God's creation was making Adam of the dust of the earth, and then Eve from Adam's side. Adam is described for us not only in Genesis chapters 1 and 2 and 3, showing us he's the first man, the first man. Everybody descended from Adam and Eve. They're our first parents. But Romans chapter 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 talk about how there's something unique beyond Adam just being the first man, the first to exist. Adam holds an office, a position. And that position, you made reference to the term federal head. Most people don't realize that the term federal is another word for covenant. Adam is a covenant head. And this teaching of Scripture is that there are two basic covenants in the Bible by which God relates us to himself. One is the covenant of works, and Adam is the head of that covenant. He's the representative. And whatever the head does, everybody who is on his team, so to speak, benefits from whatever he earns. And that is true for the last Adam, who is the head of the covenant of grace, the representative. Everybody on the last Adam's team benefits from what he earned. And so Romans 5 tells us that the first man, Adam, He earned death. Now, there was a phrase that we really didn't talk about much just a moment ago, and that is, with the power to fulfill the law of God. Adam and Eve, before the fall, were perfect. They perfectly loved God. They perfectly loved his law. They perfectly loved each other. And when God placed them in the garden, he told them, you can eat the fruit of every tree in the garden, but there's one tree you are not to eat up. And Genesis chapter 2 and Genesis chapter 3 gives us information about that tree. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve partook of that tree. And when they ate, they rebelled against God. And we refer to that as the fall. And so Romans chapter five now is describing for us the effects of that fall. And we see in verse 12, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, And we refer to this as original sin, that we were represented by Adam. I'll never forget one of my children, when they were about five years old, they had gotten into trouble, and Daddy and this little child had gone to the laundry room to have a little talk together. And as this little child was standing there, tears coming down her cheeks, and she said, Daddy, it's not fair. She said, I wasn't even in the garden when Adam sinned. And I said, well, before you keep going down that road, let's think about what God has revealed to us in the Holy Scripture. And when Jesus was tempted all through his life, were you there? And when Jesus sweated drops of blood the night before he went to the cross, were you there? And when Jesus died on the cross, were you there? And it was amazing how she looked at me and a big smile came across her face and she said, I'm glad God's not fair. I wouldn't have exactly phrased it that way, but she understood now that this, revelation of God, this is reality. People may not like it that God has ordered history, that we were represented, and we see this in all kinds of things. You know, a football team, at the beginning of the game, The captains of the team go out on the field and they flip a coin and they call heads or tails, and the fate of that team depends on the actions of that captain. Are they going to be throwing into the wind, kicking into the wind in the last quarter? Are they going to have the sun in their eyes? Well, that is determined by the action of that captain. And people don't sit there in the stands and go, well, that's just not fair that the captain, he chose heads. He should have chosen tails. I am upset. People don't think that way. But mankind doesn't like the truth. And what Brother Jim was talking about earlier, part of that truth about God is, this very truth that God made Adam and Eve, not only as our first parents, but as the representatives of the human race, of the covenant head. And as you go down through Romans chapter five, verses 12 and following, we read over and over that it was through one man's trespass in verse 15 of that the many died. Yes, we actually sin, and our sin deserves death. That's true. But the reason we are sinners is because we sinned in Adam, and our actual sins are evidences and proofs that we are guilty of original sin. that we are fallen in Adam. And praise God, the gospel is that God has put forth another head and his name is Jesus, the son of God. And whoever gets on his team, we get what he earned. And the Lord Jesus Christ earned forgiveness and life. And how do you get on the first Adam's team? Exist. You're born. How do you get on the last Adam's team? You have to be born again. You have to experience the new birth. And that is the grace of God. Over in 1 Corinthians 15, the Lord uses these terms. to describe these two heads, the first Adam and the last Adam. Now, obviously, Jesus is not the last man to make entrance into the world, and so why does God call him the last Adam? Well, it's because of these two overarching covenants, the covenant of works The mediator of the covenant of works was Adam, the first man. And the mediator of the covenant of grace is the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see that in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 22, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. And on end of the passage, he uses the term, the first Adam, and the last Adam, down in verse 45. Thus it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living, being the last Adam, became a life-giving spirit. So, that's what we see in Romans chapter 5. Yeah. Very good. So, to simplify it a little bit, really, everyone listening to this right now, and every human being on earth, is either in Adam or in Christ. And if you're in Adam, if he is your federal representative, and that would be anyone who has not yet come to faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, anyone that is still in rebellion against God and refuses to repent, they will get the eternal damnation that Adam, by his disobedience, merited for them. And that passage in Romans 5.12 is very clear, just as through one man, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned. When Adam sinned, Henry, Jim, Patrick, everyone else on earth sinned with him, because he represented all of us. But when a person believes, they are taken out of being an Adam and are put in Christ. And then what Christ did, what Jesus did, which was never sin and always fulfilled all of God's commandments perfectly, and also satisfied that death penalty. You see, that's why the death of Christ is so foundational to the Christian gospel proclamation, because that penalty's got to be paid by someone. And you and I as sinners can't do it. That's why hell lasts forever. No amount of suffering on the part of a sinner can ever make atonement for sin against an infinitely holy God. Only a perfect righteous substitute can do it, and that's why Christ is our only hope, if we trust in Him to satisfy that penalty. Okay, let's shift gears just a little bit here. I want to move into one of the hot-button issues of our time, and pitch this one to Jim. Let me read from Romans 1. As Paul is going through the wrath of God, it's revealed against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. They suppress the truth and unrighteousness. And although they know God, God has shown himself to everyone through creation. They suppress the truth. But it goes on to speak about a giving over. So I want to read this passage and then get Jim's comments on it. Romans 1, 24 to 27. says about the fall here, Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness and the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature, likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due. So, Jim, why does the Holy Spirit, through Paul here, single out homosexuality as a grand illustration of mankind's rebellion against God and against his conscience? Well, I think the passage you just read explains everything. They suppress the truth and unrighteousness. In verse 19, we have the word evident two times that God has made it evident to them. Also, moving down, it says, that which is known about God is clearly seen, and then they are without excuse. Verse 21 says they knew God. So the sin is so blatant, and it flies in the face of all the evidence. It is such rebellion. In verse 24, and I'm looking at the New American Standard, it says, therefore, because of all these reasons God gave them over, in the lust of their hearts to impurity that their bodies might 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. And then in verse 26, again, for this reason, God gave them over. So he's emphasizing this truth that everything was clearly seen and understood. Even the word understood is in there. It's evident. And so they still refuse it. So God gives them over to homosexuality. And this is a sin of great magnitude. You don't see thieves having pride festivals and thousands, hundred thousand thieves get together and promote. stealing. But in Israel, in Tel Aviv, they have the largest gay pride festival anywhere in the world. Maybe 100,000 people are celebrating this sin. And that's not that far from ancient Sodom and Gomorrah, where God rained down fire and brimstone on this sin. And I think One thing about this sin is that it is the worship of the human body. And they refuse to worship God, so God gives them over, and they're worshiping the dust. Human bodies are made of dust. And so they go from worshiping the immortal God to worshiping dust. It is so absurd. And they are so ashamed of it. We've talked about sin and misery, that they're trying to psychological play by calling it pride. They're trying to be proud of it. And I've talked to many of them in my evangelism, and I've had them tell me, do you think we would do this voluntarily? We were born this way. And I'll say, well, is anybody forcing you to do it? And they'll say, no. And I'll say, well, why are you doing it? Are you not doing it because you want to, because you're getting pleasure out of it? And then they'll finally admit it. But this idea, you know, Lady Gaga, the singer, did a song, Born This Way. And they are so miserable and so ashamed of it, that they're trying to go to this idea of being born this way, which is not true at all. But there's a homosexual did a study years ago, where he said the brains of the homosexuals were different. And therefore they were homosexuals. Well, there's been several studies that show that behavior changes brains. There was a study in London where taxi driver candidates have to memorize the entire map of this huge city of London, have to know every street. And so they did a PET scan of their brains before they learned all the streets and one after they learned all the streets. The brain had changed. And there's many studies like this. So it's obvious that homosexual behavior changes the brain. And so they're trying to justify it on that basis. But it's just all out rebellion. And then it's an identity that is consuming. It's one of the grossest forms of idolatry that there is because it's so consuming. It takes on the person just completely identifies with this sin, and it's just consuming. And then their conscience is defiled, which I think ties into the shame thing that I've just been talking about. Yeah. Go ahead, Henry. Well, I was just going to say, The opportunities that I've had to share the gospel with people who have been captured by this hideous sin, it is just shocking. It's a fascinating thing. It is, in a sense, the ultimate sin, because it is a declaration to the creator. I refuse, in the most basic way that I could ever express, with my very physical being, I refuse to acknowledge how you made me to be in expressing my sexuality. And that's at the very heart of this sin of homosexuality. It is referred to in scripture as a sin against nature. And what that's getting at is that God did not make men to express their sexuality with other men. Physiologically, it is destructive. And the diseases that are prevalent in the homosexual community, the life expectancy for an average male in the United States of America is around 72 years of age, and the life expectancy for a male homosexual in the United States is around 45. Why? Well, it's because of the diseases that are associated with the way sexuality is expressed. And I'm trying to be very, very careful so that this podcast is family friendly. But God did not make us to do what homosexuals do. And it is an expression of defiance against God. I hope we can, we'll probably have to do another segment podcast on this whole thing of the transgender movement. But it is part of, and even in the declaration of the LGBTTQ movement. That stands for transgender. That's part of this, if you will, family of sins that is shaking its fist in the face of God and saying, I refuse to be what you created me to be. I refuse to express my life. And as we read in 1 Corinthians 6, The Lord has the power not only to forgive, but to change people who have given themselves to this sin of homosexuality and transgenderism. The Lord declares there, and such were some of you. And in that list, some of the people were homosexuals. So I wanted to just throw that out, that even though it is a hideous sin, a powerful sin that captures, Brother Jim, you mentioned, it's a consuming sin. But praise God, Jesus has the power to forgive those who repent and turn to him and change them to be a new creation in Christ. Amen. And I want to add just a word to that. We have a common salvation. We had a man come to our church. He said he was a PCA army chaplain and he was promoting homosexuality. And he was saying that what God did for Rosetta Butterfield, he doesn't do for everybody. But the truth is we have a common salvation and everyone who is born again is delivered from that sin and other sin too, as far as they practice. Yeah. Yeah. That's so important. And Man, listening to you guys, all the things you're saying, I wonder what direction to go here. One of the big problems of our day is that people have accepted that the concept of sexual orientation is a real category of human personhood, and the fact is, it's not. You and I have a biological sex that God gave us, and the parts that God gave us are designed to work a certain way, and everyone knows how that works. And people really do think, because they don't believe in creation, and they don't believe that man is made in God's image, and that God makes us male or female, that at some point in your life, you discover your orientation. And it might be heterosexual, it might be homosexual, it might be bisexual. Bisexual assumes there's only two biological sexes, and now they've got pansexual, I'm attracted to everything. And you think, you know, the first thing we've got to get people to see is that the idea of sexual orientation is a myth. And I've had the pleasure, by the grace of God, to have watched two men go from—actually, they had come out as gay, and they have now rescinded it. They've actually taken it back, and taken it back from the churches they came out to, and have told them, I'm not gay, I'm a man. And one of them actually emailed me and asked me to pray that God would find him a godly wife. I thought, isn't that amazing? It's not a matter of, well, we've got to figure out a way to make these guys attracted to women. We've got to figure out a way to get these women attracted to men. You've got to help people understand that God is the one who graciously assigned you your biological sex, and He is not going to ask you to do something that He has not equipped you to do. And, you know, R.C. Sproul lectured on this, I think it was way back in the 1980s, and it's a free lecture on homosexuality. You can listen to it on Ligonier.org's website. there, and Sproul made that comment, he said, the first thing you've got to do with someone who's making this claim is you have to let them know, here's his exact phrase, you've got to let them know that intrinsically, inherently, and biologically, there is no such thing as a homosexual. And then he repeated it. Intrinsically, inherently, biologically, there is no such thing as a homosexual. And there is freedom from that kind of sin. And it's a sin that comes up again and again. We all know the narrative about Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember when the men of the city, everyone in the city, comes to Lot's house, and Lot goes outside and says, do not do this wickedness. And then they all say to him, this man came here to sojourn, and he keeps acting as a judge. And isn't that the kind of thing we hear today? You guys are judgmental. The men of Sodom said about Lot, he's so judgmental. Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. And people want to parade it in the streets. Isaiah chapter 3, verse 9, God's rebuke of Israel. The look on their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom. They do not hide it. Woe to their soul, for they have brought evil upon themselves. So, it's a sad thing that so many in the PCA, this is one of the reasons we left the PCA, think that it's compassionate to affirm people in a mythological category of sexual orientation as if it's real, when what we need to be doing is calling people to obey God, and to put this behind them, and to obey His Word. That was the thing with Greg Johnson in the PCA, and he made that speech in front of the General Assembly, told the whole General Assembly he's gay. And I remember listening to that speech and thinking, no one ever pulled him aside and said, Greg, if you don't have the gift of lifelong celibacy, you need to ask a girl out, a Christian girl out to get coffee and read the Bible together and just obey God and see what happens. You know, isn't that the kind of thing that we should be doing? Just trust God. He's not going to ask you or equip you to do something that you're not able to do. So this is a crisis that we have. Either you want to make any more comments along those lines? Well, I'd love for us to just look for a couple of minutes at 1 Corinthians 6, because I think it's really important to see that it's not a self-help program of people just reorienting their thinking. Yes, God does call us to think biblically, to think accurately, but what we need is the saving presence of Jesus Christ. What can deliver people from rebellion against God, whatever category it may be? There is only one Savior, and so we read in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9, or 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 greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And so homosexuality is not the only sin that will take people to hell. But it is a sin that will take people to hell. And it is a sin that, unlike fornication and unlike adultery, is a sin against nature itself. We've already talked about that. I say no more. But notice it's in the church at Corinth that the apostle Paul says, don't let anybody fool you. Do not be deceived. If you are living out these sins, any or all of them, you can't go to heaven. You're not right with God. If you are a fornicator, if you are committing heterosexual sexual activity outside of the bonds of marriage between a man, a male, a husband, and a woman, a wife, a female, as God defines marriage. God says you can't go to heaven. You need to repent. Idolaters, worshiping idols. Either a statue or some idea of who God is that is not in keeping with the Word of God. Adultery. You're married, but you're sleeping with someone other than your husband or your wife. God says you can't go to heaven if you're living this way. And then he talks about the effeminate, those who are pretending to be what God has not made them to be. A man who is pretending to be a woman. God says you can't go to heaven if you are thinking and living that way. A homosexual, a man who is sleeping with other men, expressing his sexuality. God says you can't go to heaven. You're not right with God. He goes on, thieves, we know what a thief is, greedy. We know drunkards. But you know, the problem with AA is they don't have hope. Because your problem is not just, I'm a drunkard. What good does that give you? Well, you need to run to Jesus and repent and ask for forgiveness, and he will forgive you of the guilt of that sin and make you a new creation in Christ, so that you have the power in Jesus to turn your back on what God says is wrong. And so revilers, swindlers, none of these. And this is not an exhaustive list of sin. But if you're living against God, you can't go to heaven. You will not inherit the kingdom of God. But verse 11 is the great good news. And such were some of you. Well, what changed them? Verse 11, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. And so that's the message that we have, that God made you either a man, a male, or a woman, a female, and we can talk more about how we know that. God tells us, and it's illustrated by medical science, biology. You either have XX chromosomes, in your body and that is what identifies you biologically as a female or an XY. chromosomes, and that's what identifies you as a male, a man. And no amount of hormone treatment, no amount of chopping off body parts or trying to, in a Frankenstein fashion, create new body parts will change your chromosomes. That's how God made you. And sin is saying, I refuse to acknowledge who God made me to be. But in Jesus Christ, if we repent of living against God, he will forgive us and he will restore us so that we do have peace with God and we understand who we are. We do need to identify ourselves. We need to identify ourselves as God. identifies us. And that's what the gospel enables us to be and do. And that's the message of hope that we have to give to people. Jim, do you want to add anything to that brother? I do. A lot of people will say, well, Jesus never mentioned homosexuality, but the truth is, take Mark chapter seven, for instance, where he talks about that which proceeds out of the heart of man, that is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts. Fornications, that word fornication is pornea, which stands for all sexual sin. So it is mentioned in here. And they ignore that to their own peril. And we need to proclaim that as we do. That's a great point. And Jesus also said to his apostles, he who hears you, hears me. You can't just go with what Jesus said. If you reject the Apostle Paul, Jesus said, you are rejecting me. Now, just real quick here, one of the things that came up in the PCA with Greg Johnson, Greg Johnson said he was the gay pastor who said he was gay. You know, he needs to identify himself as gay. He said that was the key to overcoming the sin, was kind of owning it and identifying as it, because the Nashville statement said that it's a sin to adopt a self-conception as homosexual, which it is a sin to do that. And he said, no, no, no, no, it's not. It's good for me to do that, because it's the first step to overcoming it. But the thing is, we are told in Scripture how to conceive of ourselves. We are specifically told by the Word of God how we are to think about ourselves. And Paul said in Romans 6-11, likewise you also, reckon yourselves, think of yourselves, adopt the self-conception of. Dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's how we are supposed to think of ourselves. I am not a thief in Christ. I'm not a porn addict in Christ. I'm not an alcoholic in Christ. And I'm not gay in Christ. I am, as a Christian, dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is the self-conception that the Bible tells us to adopt. And to Henry's point there, 1 Corinthians 6, 9-11 is so relevant to this whole issue. Because there were people at that church in Corinth who came out of those lifestyles. Every single sin that's listed there, that's what they once identified as. that those sins consumed them to that point, that that's how they were labeled. That person's a fornicator, a drunkard, covetous, effeminate, a homosexual. Now, it's not to say that you're not going to struggle with everything in that list once you become a Christian. It's not like now the desires are completely gone. But you are liberated, once and for all, from slavery to sin. And our understanding of sanctification and the new birth is not that sin's presence is removed from our lives, but we would deny that we are mastered by any sin any longer. Struggle with it? Sure. But mastered by it? No way. That's what we used to be. Now we've been washed, sanctified, justified, and God has liberated us from slavery to any sin. We still struggle with it. We'll always struggle with it until We draw our final breath and arrive safely in the presence of our Lord. But that's what we used to be, was those things. And now we're dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ. So let's wrap it up here. I want to hand it off to Jim. Jim, what is the good news for Fallen Man? Well, just like what you just alluded to, Patrick, I've heard homosexuals say, well, I tried to pray the gay away and it didn't go away. So therefore I gave into it. Well, that's not the answer. The temptation may remain, but the slavery to the practice is not there anymore. We are set free in Christ. The good news is that we are saved by grace. Christ came to die for sinners. He knows what we've done. He knows what we're tempted to do. He knows everything about us and still loves us. And for God so loved the world. that he sent his son to die upon the cross for our sins and to rise again for our justification. And he ascended into heaven, but he did not forget the people that he came to save. He's interceding in heaven. He's praying daily in heaven. He's preparing a place for the believers. And in heaven, there's no more death, no more disease, no more defilement. We will finally, we Christians will be finally made perfect in heaven. We have a perfect righteousness in Jesus Christ now, but we've still got those temptations that you mentioned, Patrick. And we will fight that fight till the day we die. But praise God, a day is coming where we won't have that battle anymore. That battle will be over. And he's going to wipe away every tear and there will be pleasures forevermore at his right hand and fullness of joy and a new heavens and a new earth. So we we invite you to come today, dear friends who are listening to this and watching it. The spirit and the bride say come. Jesus stood out in the street and he said, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. And so, you know, you're you may be burdened with sin today. You're weary and you're some of you are weary of fighting the fight. But he says, come unto me and I will give you rest. And there's no better rest than to rest in the savior. Amen, well said. And just real quick, you mentioned people say, I've prayed and prayed and prayed, and that gay thing just won't go away. Have the two of you noticed that every sin you've ever prayed against in your own Christian life has not entirely gone away either? People have said that to me too, like I've prayed and it just won't go away. I'm like, yeah, every sin I've ever prayed against for the last 31 years is still there, greatly weakened and mortified, but it's not gone yet. Not exercising dominion over us. That's right. So as Jim just said so eloquently there, if you're weary, if you're struggling, you need to understand you're looking at three weary men. Because all three of us are weary of sin, and weary of struggling and fighting. And we still fight it, and we still struggle with it, but it does not enslave us any longer. Amen, brothers? All right, well, let me close with some prayer. Our gracious Lord and God, we thank you for making us, and making us in your image, and making Adam with true righteousness, knowledge, and holiness, and giving him dominion over the creatures, and entering into that covenant. And we know that he broke it, as we feel the effects of sin and age, and we know that one day we're going to die. But we bless your name for sending a second Adam, one who came into the world just as the first Adam did, free from sin and withstood all the temptations and never sinned and has achieved a perfect righteousness, which is credited to our account by faith alone and not by working. and who went to the cross and satisfied your justice by dying for us, taking that punishment away, and being buried and rising again from the dead. Thank you for my brothers, and we do pray that you would bless this message, this podcast today, that it would be a blessing to those who hear it, that you might glorify yourself in liberating people from slavery to sin and justifying them before you by faith alone and drawing them into your family. We ask in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen. Amen. Thank you, brothers. Thank you, brothers. We'll see you next time.