Date of sermon, 1-20-22
SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU, 72 minutes
The purpose of this message was to address bill c4, Canadian law that makes it a crime to attempt to convert a transgender or a homosexual; punishable with up to 5 years in prison
Pastor James Coats contacted Dr. MacArthur to ask if he would join them in resisting this law
SERMON HIGHLIGHTS [Bracketed statements, underscoring and emboldening of scripture are mine]:
- The church is called by the Lord to convert sinners
- 1 Corinthians 6:9-11: the apostle Paul described the types of people (in every church) that have been or will be converted: 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor 6 effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. [NAS]
- The church IS a congregation of converted sinners
- Government will never dictate to the church, its mission
- James 5: 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.
- Psalm 51: 12 Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners will be converted to Thee.
- Converts in the church know that they also have this mission
- Those who block this purpose of the church are attacking Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Bible; they will be met with resistance by the true church
- SINNERS MUST BE CONVERTED TO ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD
- Acts 15: 3 Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brethren.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:9 9 For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
- There is much confusion in the contemporary church about it’s God-appointed role; many of those need to be converted
- THE KINGDOM OF GOD CONSISTS OF THOSE CONVERTED BY HIS SPIRIT
- MacArthur goes through each type of sinner, from the red print above, specifying why they cannot enter into heaven
- Has the government made any laws to prohibit Christians from converting [preaching the gospel to that they might be converted by the Holy Spirit] swindlers, slanderers, drunkards or thieves?
- Why has the govt. selected two of the above sins to protect (effeminates and homosexuals)?
- Government is under Satan’s sway; the damage done by these two sins is massive, substantial and seminal: destroying human identity, marriage, family, children and society
- That is, the kingdom of darkness makes laws to protect the most destructive behaviors
- Effeminate: soft (re clothing); the passive member of the homosexual encounter; the transvestite, cross dresser, the transgender person
- Homosexual: = man + bed (GK) = man in bed with man
- 1 Timothy 1:8ff 8 But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers 10 and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, 11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.
- Via the legislation of the current administration, these two groups are protected such that they are free to prey on your children, seducing them into the same kind of lifestyle
- The Metropolitan Community Church was started for homosexuals by Troy Perry; 222 churches in 37 countries. Although he tried to pass himself off as a noble homosexual in a debate with MacArthur, his arrest record was long, with many arrests for anonymous sexual acting out on the streets of Hollywood.
- Perry was honored by LA Dodgers with a life-time achievement award; what did he achieve?
- Transgenderism is addressed in the Old Testament: Deuteronomy 22:5 “A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.
- 23:1 “No one who is emasculated, or has his male organ cut off, shall enter the assembly of the LORD.
- That is, transgender surgery is nothing new, Moses wrote around 1400 BC
- In Paganism, during biblical Old Testament times, people were castrated for their gods; many became temple prostitutes; doing so at age 8-10 and older, was typical
- People were so deep into Paganism, they would offer their children to their gods to be emasculated male prostitutes – to be raped by male “worshipers”
- Is there any hope that such an emasculated child could enter into the assembly of the Lord?
- Or, what if they regretted being emasculated is there a way back to God?
- Isaiah 56:3ff Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from His people.” Neither let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” 4 For thus says the LORD, “To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant, 5 To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial, And a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off. [IE, to those eunuchs that are converted, God will remember favorably]
- Acts 8:6ff 26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Arise and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) 27 And he arose and went; and behold, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship. 28 And he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” 30 And when Philip had run up, he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: “HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO SLAUGHTER; AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT, SO HE DOES NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH. 33 “IN HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY; WHO SHALL RELATE HIS GENERATION? FOR HIS LIFE IS REMOVED FROM THE EARTH.” 34 And the eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself, or of someone else?” 35 And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. 36 And as they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch *said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 37 [And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”] 38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch; and he baptized him.
- New Testament teaching was: repent, believe the gospel and be baptized = conversion
- The Old Testament was clear about the sinfulness of any kind of transitional surgery, clothing, or anything that caused confusion about ones sexual identity = abomination to God
- Leviticus 18:22ff ‘You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination. 23 ‘Also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.
- Leviticus 18:24ff 24 ‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. 25 ‘For the land has become defiled, therefore I have visited its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants.
- God was judging the inhabitants of Canaan for these things, He was giving their land to Israel and Israel was to slaughter those sinful people who persisted in their evil ways
- Leviticus 19:2ff “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. 3 ‘Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am the LORD your God. 4 ‘Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods; I am the LORD your God.
- Leviticus 20:13 ‘If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.
- In Genesis, after the fall, marriage was corrupted in chapter 12; incest occurred in chapter 19; rape in chapter 34; and prostitution began in 38.
- Genesis 19 reports God’s judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah [if you do not know this chapter, then please read it, what follows is a summary statement]
- Two angels visited Lot in Sodom, the homosexuals of the town surrounded Lot’s home and wanted to have sex with the angels, even though the angels blinded the men, in their raging lusts, they persisted in attempting to sexually assault the angels. Lot and his family were required to flee the city and God rained down fire and brimstone, destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, it was never built up again
- That event is seemingly the strongest statement about God’s thoughts regarding homosexuality in the Bible
- MacArthur spent a few moments talking about all of the nations and cities God judged or destroyed which are recorded in the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel – the point was that when a nation sins such that it crosses a threshold established by God, He brings it down [for example, in Genesis 15:16, one such statement by God indicates He is waiting to judge the Amorites, until their sinfulness exceeds a preset limit: 15:16 “Then in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”]
- He also spent time in Isaiah 3, wherein Isaiah specifically described how God brought down Judah before He exiled them to Babylon. Read the initial 15 verses; the summary is that God took away necessities like food and water; removed all leaders of consequence such as great military leaders, politicians, counselors…leaving them with very incompetent leaders, which Isaiah describes as children and women, as they were weak an ineffective. [I believe we are seeing that in America presently, study that chapter and study current events and you may see the same thing?]
- That same text, Isaiah 3, talks about the people being oppressed by each other, living in chaos and in ruins.
- That was the case, because they had turned from God and were being punished.
- Romans 1:24ff specifically describes the judgment of God on wickedness and rebellion against His law; it pictures this nation: sexual revolution –>homosexual revolution –>reprobate mind
- MacArthur has preached on this topic before, “We Will Not Bow Down”, therein, he emphasized that righteous people in this culture will be pressured to become unrighteous because the reprobate mind has ascended to the highest offices of the land. In the past year, the has been abundantly clear to anyone monitoring current events; it began to be very obvious during the summer of burnings
- Transgenderism is insanity, not knowing whether one is male or female – that in itself is a judgment
- The good news, 1 Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.
- That is, they had been converted; once great sinners, now forgiven and being sanctified; such that the apostle Paul called them saints in Corinthians 1:2
- Closing story: Robert Lagerstrom, [spelling?] the gay pride leader in Hollywood, discovered he was dying of aids and was terrified. He enquired among his friends where he might go to find solace, they sent him to Grace Community Church. That morning MacArthur read Psalm 107, and the following words excited Robert [below] and he couldn’t wait to see Dr. MacArthur after the service. He was converted; thereafter he opened his home to the gay parade, as he lived on that route, and witnessed the gospel to whoever entered.
4 They wandered in the wilderness in a desert region;
They did not find a way to an inhabited city.
5 They were hungry and thirsty;
Their soul fainted within them.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble;
He delivered them out of their distresses.
7 He led them also by a straight way,
To go to an inhabited city.
8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness,
And for His wonders to the sons of men!
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