Biblical Sexual Morality

1:00No true follower of Christ ever wants to be put in that situation. To deny Christ is unthinkable. Look at what it did to Peter. It's a devastation of soul. And for a governing authority to bring a follower of Christ to this crossroads, to this Soul crisis is a situation that no government should ever bring to bear on its citizens. But this is what Canada has done. They have elevated their morality over God's morality by passing Bill C4.

1:51It's an amendment to the criminal code, or it amends the criminal code in Canada to ban conversion therapy. It will basically criminalize, among other things, and I quote, causing another person to undergo conversion therapy, promoting or advertising conversion therapy. Those are broad terms. Therapy is pretty much anything today, right? I'm in therapy. I'm in therapy a lot. But certainly, counseling is called therapy and fits under that. Any kind of promotion or advertising or any kind of counseling that causes a person to convert. But the bill defines conversion therapy as follows: a practice, treatment, or service designed to change a person's sexual orientation. To heterosexual, to change a person's gender identity to cisgender, which is to male or female, to change a person's gender expression so that it conforms to the sex assigned to the person at birth, to repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behavior, to repress a person's non-cisgender identity, or repress or reduce a person's gender expression that does not conform to the sex assigned to the person at birth. End quote.

3:43Well, obviously, this definition is very broad and it can clearly be used. It is a weapon, it is a tool that can be used against any preacher, any elder, or any counselor who speaks out against homosexuality, transgenderism, or counsels a person to obey Jesus Christ and abandon a homosexual or transgender lifestyle. As of last week, this bill became law. It is now against the law to preach, teach, or counsel a person regarding God's design for marriage and sexuality. Canada. In fact, let me read to you another portion of this bill.

4:37And I quote: Everyone who knowingly causes another person to undergo conversion therapy, including by providing conversion therapy to that other person, is guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years. Similarly, everyone who knowingly promotes or advertises conversion therapy is guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years. We might as well criminalize the Bible. This law is an overt attack on the gospel. Now, similar efforts have already occurred and are occurring here in the United States.

5:33And today, many pastors, as many of you know, in Canada and around the world are addressing this issue. Standing in solidarity, at some point, churches have to stand up and say, enough. Conversion is what we do. And we're not ashamed of the gospel. And the gospel calls us out of our world, out of our lifestyle, into another one, that of Christ. And we're not ashamed of it. It is the power of God. It is the good news.

6:12And this is not about me becoming political. This is about leaders becoming religious. And so men and churches around the world are standing in solidarity. And I'm sure many of those in Canada may very well end up in jail over it. Some that went to the same school that I went to. And I'm preaching this message tonight to voice biblical sexuality and to call upon people and legislatures everywhere to oppose bans on conversion therapy. I want to make a couple of clarifying points right at the outset. This sermon is not an effort to simply champion heterosexuality over homosexuality.

7:17It's more heterosexual sins that have plagued this earth than probably homosexual sins by and large. No, it's not. It's not about one changing their desires from heterosexual, I mean from homosexual to heterosexual. It's not the intent. No, it's the purpose of laying before all of us here today biblical sexuality and non-biblical sexuality. Biblical sexual morality is a mandate for everyone who professes to follow Christ. We are all called to come out of our non-biblical sexuality and embrace God's sexuality for each of us.

8:21If you are called to follow Christ, biblical sexual morality is not a preference, it's a mandate. And so tonight, in the time we have, I want to make three points. I want to talk about Jesus' teaching on sexual morality. I want to talk about the biblical concept of conversion. And then I want to give three reasons why no legislative Body or individual should support a ban on conversion therapy. First, Jesus' teaching on sexual morality. And I'll inevitably end up at Mark 10 if you want to turn there. But even before I look at that, I want to tell you what Christians fundamentally do. Christians fundamentally follow Christ.

9:31The word implies being a little Christ. That means embracing His way of life, following Him. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus tells His disciples what He expects of them. Therefore, you are to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Therefore, you are to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Be holy, for He is holy. No category of immoral desire is off-limits to Jesus. He calls His disciples to moral perfection. Yeah, we're still in the flesh. Yes, we still fall. Yes, we still stumble. But His sacrifice that He has given is sufficient. To forgive us, to keep moving us forward, to keep agreeing with Him, to keep striving, to keep walking in His way. We learn discipleship, it's a process of growing in Christ's likeness, and no immoral desire is off-limits to Jesus.

10:57Look, we all have different desires that compete with God's supremacy. We all come from a whole background of desires that conflict with what God wants. And this isn't about preferring one sinful desire over another sinful desire. No immoral desire is off-limits. It's not what your desires or sinful inclinations are, it's what you do with them that makes you a follower of Christ or not. People from all kinds of backgrounds belong to Him. And He has called them out of a whole spectrum of evil and immoral desires.

12:00And if you're in Christ, at one time you walked in those ways, even if you were saved at a very young age. Whatever sinful desires a person is born with or acquired along life's journey must ultimately be brought under submission to Christ. We are to be perfect as he is perfect. That is the standard. It's not going to change. Followers of Christ follow Christ. There's not such a thing as a non-following follower. It's a contradiction, right? To deny Christ's rulership in any category of ethics is to reject him as the ultimate authority. When push comes down to shove, is it your desire that's going to take authority over Christ, or is it Christ going to take authority? And as Christ himself said, no one can serve two masters.

13:06For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. No matter how difficult the struggle is, no matter how many the failures, a true follower of Christ is not at peace with his or her sin. And if there is such Peace. There is no union with Christ. So, what is the standard of perfection that Christ is expecting? To be like Him. Matthew 10:24, a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher and the slave like his master. In other words, Jesus is telling his disciples, It's enough for you to become like me.

14:03You are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, and it is enough that perfection comes when you become like me. Think like me, walk in the ways that I walk in. It's enough for a disciple to think like Jesus. And Jesus wants his disciples to think the same way about gender distinctions and sexuality in the same way that he does. Because he certainly had opinions on this issue. You want clarity on this issue? Listen to what Christ has to say. Do you want the kind of heaven that he offers? Let his thinking become your thinking. Let his ways become your ways. Obey his gospel.

15:00Obey his words. Jesus certainly voiced his view on this matter. Well, what is it? Well, in Mark 10, Mark 10, Jesus clarifies, says, states his view on gender distinction and sexuality. Beginning in Mark 10, chapter 2, some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing him, wanting to catch him, and began to question him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife. And he answered and said to them, What did Moses command you? They said, Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away. But Jesus said to them, Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote this commandment.

15:54But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. Jesus affirms God's design for marriage right here in these verses. The context is certainly about divorce, but it involves a whole lot of other aspects. Aspects of union. When he says, they too, he forbids polygamy. They too shall become one flesh. The two of them.

16:46No other women, no other men. They too forbids polygamy. What about David? David walked in a perverted form of marriage. Just because you see it in the Old Testament, and David would not be qualified as a pastor. He would not meet the biblical qualifications. There's a perversion throughout. Polygamy is a perversion. It's perversion from the very beginning. But from the very beginning, it was not so. And when he says, they shall become one flesh, he articulates the place of sexual relationships.

17:44They too shall become one flesh and never to be separated. They are no longer two, but one. What God, therefore, God has joined together, let no man separate. Forbids divorce. He forbids polygamy, forbids divorce. And when he says, from the beginning, God made them male and female, he forbids homosexual union. And he recognizes only two genders. Only two. You want clarity on this issue? Two genders, male and female. In fact, Jesus is doing nothing more than citing some of the opening thoughts we read in Genesis 1 and 2.

18:41But we read these words in Genesis 1:26. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female. He created them. Man, male and female. Mankind, male and female. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply. The union. There is the blessed sexual union. God intended marriage to be between one man, one woman, for life.

19:38No divorce. And in there is the blessed place for sexual intimacy. That would become the fountainhead from which all of humanity would come. He blessed it. It is man who has perverted it. Well, Canada's bill calls Jesus' teaching a myth. Listen to this. In the preamble of Canada's Bill C4, it says: belief that heterosexuality, cisgender, gender identity, and gender expression that conforms to the sex assigned to a person at birth are to be preferred over other sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions is a myth.

20:38According to Canadian law that went into effect last week, the belief in God's design for marriage is a myth. Let me tell you what the real myth is. The myth is that one can change genders. That's the myth. No one can change their genders. God made them male and female, material and immaterial part, soul and body, male and female. You cannot change. That's the myth. I see a lot of news today about Bruce Caitlin Jenner. Many of you know who I'm talking about. Now, when I was a young man, he was a hero.

21:35He was the Olympian. He was the guy on all the boxes of cereal on our table. I mean, this guy was a man's man. I mean, he won the gold. He was something. He prefers the name Caitlin now, but he's still a man. He's still a man. What about his name? He goes by Caitlin. Isn't that a woman's name? Yes, he's a man who likes to be called by a woman's name. But what about the way he dresses? He looks like a woman. Yes, he's a man who tries to look like a woman, but he is a man. But what about his sex change? There is no such thing as a sex change.

22:20He's a man who has had his genitals surgically mutilated. But he is not a woman. Every cell in his body XY chromosome. His soul is male. He is a man who has been converted by LGBTQ transgender ideology. That's who he is. He is a man at war with God. He is a man confused and at war with himself. Pray that he hears and understands the gospel because it is still held out to him. No matter how bad we pervert things, the gospel is greater. God's sacrifice is greater.

23:23God's forgiveness is deeper. You see, to follow Jesus is to embrace his view of sexuality. It's only a two-gender creation. Marriage is between one man, one woman, for life, and the only place for sexual union blessed by God, that's where it is. Everything else is sexually immoral, and he calls his people out of all categories, all forms of immorality. Nothing is off limits. To the one who says to you, Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. He'll touch everything.

24:07He's no discriminator. The bottom line is: one simply cannot follow the Christ of Scripture and embrace LGBTQ, transgenderism, idolatry, ideology. Sorry. So that's Jesus' teaching on sexual morality. Next, I want to talk to you about the biblical concept of conversion. The biblical concept of conversion. Conversion really amounts to the call to follow Christ. It's to stop going your own way and to turn to His way. It involves being born again. It's that repent, believe. It's that leaving the domain of yourself, leaving the domain of your sinful self as master and embracing Christ, coming into the domain of Christ, being master.

25:05To ban conversion therapy, to ban conversion in any sinful preference, is to ban conversion. It can be very discriminatory. Why only them, right? Biblical conversion, it is the timeless message. And let me clarify something about the biblical conversation. Concept of conversion. It is not forcing, coercing a person to do anything or be anything that they do not want to do or be. There's nothing about forced change here. That's not the biblical notion of conversion. God does not convert us against our will.

25:57The grace of God and salvation begins by changing our wills, but he doesn't save us against our will. The Old Testament, there's two Hebrew words that are used to communicate this idea of repentance or of conversion. It's the word to return or to, and then a second word that means repent or to regret, be sorrowful. Isaiah 55, 6 and 7. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return. There it is. Return to the Lord. Turn to the Lord. That he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. That's The biblical call. Return, turn, turn from your way.

27:06God will have compassion and he will abundantly pardon. Ezekiel 33:11, say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? Do you hear the call? Do you hear the heartbeat of God? It's like he's looking, he's saying, Look, don't go your own way.

27:36I know so much more about you. I know what is good. I know what truly satisfies, and I call you to that. Turn. Don't keep going. Don't persist in your way. Turn. In the New Testament, two principal words indicate to turn. One is conversion. The word is about epistrapho, which basically means an about face, repentance. The word metnau, change of mind, change of disposition. You see this like in 1 Thessalonians 1:9. You remember the Thessalonians? Wow, Paul was so excited. He got there, started proclaiming the gospel. And keep in mind, this. Is in the shadow of Mount Olympus, pantheon of all the Greek gods. And there he is at Thessalonica, and he preaches. And wow, they embraced.

28:44They turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. And their reputation went far and wide. They turned to God from idols. That's the idea of conversion. They were turning to God from idols. That's conversion. They were turning from idols. That's repentance. They were turning to God, putting their faith, believing in Him, repentance and faith. That's conversion. It's that dramatic change that's brought about simultaneously by the repentance of sin and faith in Christ. It's two sides of the same coin. If you want to know what conversion is, it's really a two-sided coin. On the one hand, you have to turn away from. On the other hand, you have to turn to.

29:40And many good things happen in conjunction with conversion. The biblical concept of regeneration. It's all tied together. The turning, the being born from above, being renewed, all things becoming new. All sins being dealt with and removed. Forgiveness of sins, justification. And let me tell you something: when God justifies a person, that person is justified. Are you going to stand before God and say, you know, that guy isn't really justified? What do we think Christ's going to say? Well, was my sacrifice inadequate? No.

30:28Was my judgment off? Forgiven. When God justifies, it's done. Cleansed. Adoption. A place of belonging. Adoption. Specifically wanted by God in His family. Union with Christ. All of these things are all the good parts of all that the New Testament talks about. It's tied to conversion. We're not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm ashamed of the way I lived before I found the gospel of Christ. I was bent on my own way. And I could tell where that leads.

31:20Yeah, do we want a world where everybody's competing for their own desires? Well, that's what we have. Look around you: competition, sinful desires. Desires, nation against nation, people against people, person against person. But this is what Jesus' message was in Mark 1:14. Now, after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God, the good news of God. And this is what he was saying: The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God has drawn near to you. The kingdom of God is here. The king is here. It is drawn near to you. Therefore, be repenting and be believing the gospel. That was Jesus' message.

32:11When he draws near to people, he calls us, be turning away and be believing. Be leaving your old life behind and be walking in the new life that I give you. Be repenting and be believing. And we never outgrow that. That initially happens when we agree with Christ about what sin is. We agree with God about what sin is. We agree with God about sin and we understand why Christ went to the cross. Now we realize he wants us to be turning away from that. He's not standing there to condemn us, he's standing there to save us.

32:57Be turning away. You need to be saved from your own way. You need to return to the Creator of your soul. Be believing. The good news, God is drawn near because God does love you deeply. He treasures you. Be repenting and be believing the good news. Well, I've looked at Jesus' teaching on sexual morality. Looked at the biblical concept of conversion. Now I want to give you three reasons against bans on conversion therapy. Three reasons why any legislature anywhere, or any people anywhere, should not support these kinds of bans on conversion therapy. And they're coming to a town near us.

33:52I saw last week that Lafayette, Indiana, is dealing with this church and city council, specifically targeting their biblical counseling program, or will certainly impact their biblical counseling program. Number one, banning conversion therapy inevitably raises a double standard. First reason against banning conversion therapy is because it inevitably raises a double standard. Conversion from wild Why would conversion from biblical sexuality to an LGBTQ transgenderism ideology be allowed and one not be allowed to go back the other way? Right?

34:44Transgenderism is allowed, it is promoted, it is protected, but you can't speak against it. What's wrong with that? It's fair, is it fair to allow one ideology to convert the opposing ideology and not the other way around? LGBTQ is aggressive for conversion. That's why it's showing up in all the school books, and they want to get there at an early age. Can we do away with no sexual sexuality teaching, human sexuality, in schools? Why would we give preference to one and not the other? That's an unjust scale.

35:38You know what God has to say about double standards? A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. Over Christmas, I was in the mall doing some Christmas shopping, and there was this rainbow kiosk. And there was all these, you've seen the rainbow flag, right? There was a rainbow kiosk with all kinds of rainbow paraphernalia. And all these little kids. I mean, who does it? I mean, it was beautiful. I mean, if you look at all the colors, I mean, it's just, wow, can anything that's so bright and cheery be wrong?

36:23You see this host of little kids running around, and you see the conversations. Yeah, no, LGBTU is very aggressive on conversion. And a government that bans conversion therapy inevitably raises a double standard. Proverbs 20:23, differing weights are an abomination to the Lord. It's not just second reason against bans on conversion therapy. Banning conversion therapy emboldens homosexual tyranny. It emboldens homosexual tyranny. Early in the Bible, we get a look at homosexual tyranny. You can turn to Genesis 19 if you care to follow along. But you know the account: Sodom and Gomorrah.

37:25Genesis 19:1. Now, the two angels came to Sodom in the evening. Evening, as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. So the angel's about to destroy. God's going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Angels go to get Lot out. So these two angels come down, and when Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. And he said, Now, behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servants' house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise early and go your way. They said, However, no, but we shall spend the night in the square. Yet he urged them strongly. So they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread. And they ate. Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, and all the people from every quarter. And they called to Lot and said to him, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them, sexual relations with them. But Lot went out to them at the doorway. Now think about that scene. Surrounded the house, young and old.

38:52Deep-seated perversion, deep-seated tyranny. And look what Lot does. I mean, this frightens Lot. But Lot went out to them at the doorway, verse 6, and shut the door behind him and said, Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. Boy, that word got him in trouble. Do not act wickedly. Now, behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man. Please, let me bring them out to you and do to them whatever you like. This isn't just a picture of a bad father. This is the picture of a very desperate situation. What would move a father to make such a crazy suggestion?

39:59It's unthinkable. I mean, he had kept the girls this long. What is going on? This is a, he is frightened. It speaks to the desperation of the situation. Only do not do nothing to these men in so much as they have come under the shelter of my roof. But they said, stand aside. Furthermore, they said, This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge. Now we will treat you worse than them. Who are you to say that our deeds are wicked? Who are you to judge us?

40:58We're going to make you pay for that statement. You are the judge. Sound familiar? So they pressed hard against Lot, came near to break the door. That's where humanity goes when sexual perversion runs its course. Now, listen, I want to clarify something here. Not everyone with homosexual tendencies, or even many who are sympathetic to the LGBTQ movement, are like this. I do not intend to suggest that. The LGBTQ ideology is a spectrum. But there is within that movement a very brutal and ruthless.

42:00And control-minded and tyrannical group of perverted men. I remember one time when we were touring San Francisco, our tour guide was taking us through some districts. He said, I am not a homosexual, but in this town you do not dare speak against them, for they are very powerful. I thought for a moment, I looked at Nancy, I'm like, Is this Nazi Germany? Listen, behind every tyrannical system, you can bet there's a bunch of perverted men. And it's already here in America.

42:56The homosexual tyranny. People are afraid of them in our country. Listen, women's sports are being destroyed right before our very eyes. Look in the news about the swimmers, right? You've probably been watching that one. Swimmer, transgender. This is the man that couldn't beat the other men, and so he wants to race against women. And all of his teammates are to stand on the side of the pool, cheering him on, pretending he's a woman. And deep down, all of them know that he is a man. And he's breaking all kinds of records.

43:50Everything the feminists built up is being destroyed by these perverted men, by homosexual tyranny. And I can tell you how you know it's here because people are very afraid. Even the coach won't say anything. It's like the emperor has no clothes, and no one's brave enough to say that's a man. Why? We're afraid. We're afraid. The shadow of homosexual tyranny, we're afraid. So much for freedom of speech. So I would say this, and I would say many of the legislators that have voted this in are not homosexual tyrants, but they submitted themselves to them out of fear.

44:48So I would say to all legislators, do not submit yourself or the people you are called to govern to homosexual transgender tyranny. The third reason. Third reason against bans on conversion therapy, the third reason is that banning conversion therapy criminalizes the gospel. And that's where we come in. That's what we're about, is the gospel. We defend the gospel. We stand on the gospel. And that's why we exist. And we do take it to the end. Because the gospel is at stake.

45:46Banning conversion therapy criminalizes the gospel first by confusing it. It confuses the gospel. Listen, the good news is not that you are not a sinner. That's not the good news. Because you are a sinner, and you know it. The good news is not that there is no such sin, such thing as sin. Just a bunch of white males, right? Who believe the Bible. No, the good news is not that there is no sin. And the good news is not that there is no God.

46:44The good news is not that there is no judgment. The good news is that there is a God. There is a separation of good and evil coming. And already is. The good news of the gospel is that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. The good news of the gospel is that God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

47:20There is a God. There is such thing as sin. And you should be ashamed of it because it is sinful. But the good news of the gospel is that God calls you to himself anyway because he loves you and he poured his blood out on a cross for you so that you can be made right and holy and clean and have a brand new start so that you can agree with him and say, it is not good for me to go my own way.

47:57So banning conversion therapy, criminal. The gospel by confusing it. Second, by keeping people from hearing it. Listen, homosexual tyranny wants to keep those it converts. They like the one-way conversion. One of the strongest arguments against homosexual, transgender ideology, and idolatry come from those who have come out of it. Those who have found forgiveness. Those who have lived the gay lifestyle and have come out and said, it's not gay. It's painful. It's sorrowful. It doesn't satisfy. And God forgives. I am a new creature.

48:55I have found forgiveness. I have found the joy of being in God's favor. I am fully satisfied. He has satisfied me. Yeah. We want to silence those voices. When I was little, there was a song called Hotel California. I don't remember much about it, but I remember one scary line that you can check in. That's easy. You can check out, but you can't ever leave it. Homosexual tyranny incarcerates its victims, does not want them hearing the gospel.

49:41But people need the good news that God loves them, that God forgives them. We all need that, right? I don't care what your sinful preference or sinful background is. We need forgiveness. We can start over clean, fresh, renewed, and with a glorious purpose of imaging God. Can there be anything higher than imaging God? Listen to what Paul says. Do you not know that the unrighteous, this is 1 Corinthians 6:9, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, those who engage in all kinds of sexual activity outside of marriage, for marriage, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the infeminate, those on a trajectory, man toward the, to act like women, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

50:49Do not be deceived. These don't inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you. You were like this, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. Listen, some of the people who love Christ the most on planet earth are those who come from a lifestyle of gross sexual immorality. And you know why I can say this? Because Jesus Himself told us this. You remember the sexually immoral woman of Luke chapter 7?

51:32Jesus says, This, for this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. Her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much. The one who has been forgiven little loves little. Why do we talk about sin? Why do we set forth the horrors of sin? Because it is horrible. What sin has done to this world, perverted, crooked, twisted, hurt, harmed, but at the backdrop of the cross, and I don't care who you are or how old you are, sin is an awful defection from God.

52:30You can become any kind of manner of sinner if you just progress in that way. But the good news is that if you've been forgiven much, you love much. And so it's important for us to always raise the standard of sin, the grossest affection, because God's love covers it. And so we don't want to say, oh, I haven't sinned, haven't sinned, yeah, you love little. But criminalizing the gospel, banning conversion therapy criminalizes the gospel by confusing it, by keeping people from hearing it, but by punishing those who proclaim it. I'm going to go a few minutes long, not real, real long, but a few minutes.

53:38Years ago, I was called upon to do the funeral of a man who died. At one time, he was a very promising young man, very musically talented. And he fell into the gay lifestyle. And for a while, things seemed gay. But over time, the lifestyle took everything from him. He found no satisfaction there. Touched his body, touched his mind. By the time I buried him, his body had been so abused, he didn't even have a rectum anymore.

54:46It's not gay. He died alone. And of the hundreds or more, multiple hundreds of partners he had, none of them showed up at the funeral. Few family members, few people from his church when he was a little boy. A very solemn situation, occasion. It's not gay. Let me ask you: do I become the criminal by telling such a man? That his Creator still loves him? Am I a criminal by telling him he can be forgiven? Redeemed? Renewed?

55:48It took everything from him and left him alone. Do I become the villain? Do I become the enemy of state by repeating the invitation that Jesus Himself gave? Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I don't care who you are or where you're from. I know who you are. I know how to give you rest. Come to me, and I will give you rest. Am I the criminal? Am I the enemy of state by watching these poor lives absolutely wrecked by sin?

56:36And I have become the criminal. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Am I the criminal? Oh, America, we can do better than this. Oh, Canada, these are not your enemies of state. These men who proclaim the glorious gospel are not the criminals. They are not the enemies of your state. They are the blessed ones in whom your nation will be blessed through. Do not criminalize them.

57:34Well, it's clear that this message isn't just for homosexuals, is it? Or for transgender? It's for, and let's get real. The world isn't listening to me. It's just y'all. The legislators, they're not listening to me. The church is my concern. And biblical sexual morality is a mandate for everyone who professes to follow Christ. Let me read to you some words that I hope will help you truly look seriously at your own sexual sin and all sin.

58:22Matthew chapter 11, verse 20. Jesus begins to denounce the Cities in which most of his miracles were done. Why? Because they did not repent. Matthew 11:20. He says this in verse 21, Woe to you, Khorazin, woe to you, Besaida. For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades. For if the miracles had occurred in Sodom, which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.

59:23Nevertheless, I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. And if you think back, look around, we would probably all prefer to live in Capernaum during Jesus' day than the land of Sodom during Lot's time, wouldn't we? But as Jesus made it very clear, the people's heart were much harder against God in Capernaum than in Sodom. You see, some sins are more socially acceptable than others, which makes them easier to excuse.

1:00:09We have a tendency to say, well, I'm not as bad as the others. That sin is really gross. Mine's not. But let me remind you that polygamy, and let's throw pornography in there with it. How many women are in your life? How many men? What do you look at, whether that individual is live print or whatever? Don't think if you are justifying your sin of pornography, don't think that you are not going to be held accountable for that.

1:00:56And divorce. I'm surprised at how many can come in with earshot of my sermons and go out and divorce. See, divorce is something we just have kind of gotten, okay, it's fine, right? In fact, I was talking to an attorney one time, talking to him about the problem of no-fault divorce, and boy, he came down on me hard. Came down on me hard. I said, look, if you're not going to be a dad, Any of you have divorced and not having, and especially if you've divorced with the intention of having union with somebody else, or if you have been in a marriage and you have then sought union with someone else and you have not repented of that, and I mean thoroughly made it right, don't expect your current relationship to be blessed.

1:01:58Did you send somebody? Listen, divorce isn't a noun, divorce is a verb. Did you send somebody away? Adulterers, fornicators. Listen, there is no greater threat than the danger of a hardened heart liking Capernaum. They thought they were okay. They knew enough theology to justify and move themselves out, put themselves in the safe zone. Listen, I pray that that will not be us. I pray that you'll find this message, one, as an invitation that God wants you to make all things right because he is a good God, because he loves you.

1:02:54He wants you to be confessing. He wants you to be coming out of your sin because you have a God who loves you and He knows. How to satisfy. He knows how to give good things to you. No sexual immorality, no immorality at all is off limits to him. He puts his finger on all of it. Well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you and we ask you to help those churches in Canada to stand. Help us, Father, to rid ourselves of our sexual sins, our double standards. Help us to truly embrace your view of sexual immorality.

1:03:46Help us to make things right, where things can be made right. Help us, Father, to be that people that are like Zacchaeus, a repentance with restitution where possible. Help us to be ever turning away from our sin. Thank you. Go with us now in Jesus' name. Amen. You are dismissed.