Sometimes a magnificent waterfall waits at the end of a long trail. At least we can walk the trail together in this introduction.

At Men to Men last Monday night Jonathan prayed about how many pivotal and life-altering issues seem to be confronting us, and how quickly they keep coming. It is a great time to be a Christian, because we can see how laughable it all is to our God (Psalm 2:4; 37:13) and how “easy” it is to be light in the world. Courage is required but not much wisdom if all you have to do is tell the difference between a boy and a girl.

But, yeah, our government gamblers keep going all in on every hand. You’d think by now they’d be out of the game after now many times they’ve lost, but they’re playing with our money, and apparently there is more where that came from. So our hand has been forced to think about lockdowns and restrictions on assembling for worship, forced to think about forced vaccinations and religious exemptions. Then the State brings out new decks, and lays things such as quarantine camps and even tighter gun restrictions on the table. Maybe it would be less frustrating if so many of our neighbors weren’t cheering on the State’s cheating.

We are allowed to care as citizens and as (Kuyperian) Christians, and it’s a lot to care about. Can you even keep up with the forms to sign? Now is not a good time for reluctant life-long learners.

To the north of us it is worse. I don’t know much about the Canadian system of government, but I know enough to know that not enough Canadians even have guns to complain with. At least some parts of Canada have pushed the pronoun lunacy, other parts have been arresting pastors for having church services, and now their nation has criminalized conversion therapy. These three things do actually go together.

I don’t remember which source I heard about Bill C-4 from first, but an email was sent on behalf of John MacArthur about a month ago describing the legislation and calling pastors to consider joining their pulpits together against it. Not every dumb, let alone immoral and destructive, law necessitates a special sermon, and this law isn’t even applicable to us in the U.S., yet (though as of 2018 the WA State RCW does prohibit licensed health care providers from performing conversion therapy on minors). But this kind of threat by a government is uniquely targeted against humanity in God’s image, and directly against the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Bill C-4 is a law that prohibits the use of, or even promotion of, conversion therapy. (See the Parliament page here.)

From the Preamble:

Whereas conversion therapy causes harm to the persons who are subjected to it; Whereas conversion therapy causes harm to society because, among other things, it is based on and propagates myths and stereotypes about sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, including the myth 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; And whereas, in light of those harms, it is important to discourage and denounce the provision of conversion therapy in order to protect the human dignity and equality of all Canadians;

The Definition of conversion therapy:

conversion therapy means a practice, treatment or service designed to (a) change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual; (b) change a person’s gender identity to cisgender; (c) change a person’s gender expression so that it conforms to the sex assigned to the person at birth; (d) repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour; (e) repress a person’s non-cisgender gender identity; or (f) repress or reduce a person’s gender expression that does not conform to the sex assigned to the person at birth.

If you provide such therapy you are liable to up to five years in prison, and if you promote/advertise it you are liable for up to two years in prison. The definitions cover a lot, but only allow movement in one direction.

The bill passed unanimously, and went into effect January 8. A number of Canadian pastors decided to preach today about God’s truth on gender (male/female) and sexuality (man and a woman, heterosexuality), along with the truth of God’s judgment on sinners and God’s grace through Jesus Christ for all who turn from their sin and trust Christ. Conversion to Christ is the only hope.

One of the pastors helping to organize the group effort is James Coates, who spent 35 days in jail last year for having church services against lockdown mandates. He contacted MacArthur to see if MacArthur would join the protest, and perhaps ask others to do the same.

I know almost nothing about Mr. Coates except that he has paid a price for his pastoral convictions. I know more about Dr. MacArthur, and though there are always visible cracks the closer you get to a man, I wouldn’t be here apart from God’s use of him in my life. AND I thank God that at (82) he’s still wading out into the fray in Jesus’ name.

Would you be surprised if I told you that there are criticisms about this effort? I think it would be wise to consider some that have a ring of plausibility to them.

A pastor who feels “deeply uneasy” says it’s wrong to preach like this because 1) it is sin-selective, and to single out this issue is “ill advised.” It is true, sexual sin is not the only sin, but we can never say everything about everything every time. Besides, it’s not “selective” to send reinforcements to the north gate if that’s where the attacks are coming.

It is 2) “evangelistically tone-deaf,” since “the world already assumes that the chief end of Christianity is to talk negatively about sex” so that we are not known for the gospel. Yet the gospel is exactly for the sinfully deaf, and Paul didn’t worry about addressing sexual sins amont the Romans (Romans 1:24, 26-27) or Corinthians (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) or Galatians (Galatians 5:19) or Ephesians (Ephesians 5:3) or Colossians (Colossians 3:5) or Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

It is 3) “legislatively impotent,” doing nothing “whatsoever to turn that tide,” so instead we should have a united day of prayer. Why not both: prayer and the ministry of the Word? And so what if it doesn’t turn the tide, it does sound the alarm. And who else but the church is supposed to speak God’s truth to the world?

It is 4) “persecution baiting.” “The earliest messengers of the gospel were not called to spit in the eye of the governor, but to faithfully proclaim Christ.” John the Baptist, please call your office. And for that matter, this is a response to a clearly targeted pursuit. The Canadian government has thrown down, they are making the threats, and the church can say, “This is God’s lawn, get off.”

There are a few other criticisms out there, including more personal charges against MacArthur for thinking he’s too big for his britches, for not sticking with sequential exposition, and against the church in general for not dealing with sex scandals and sexual abuse anyway. Plus, maybe it’s drawing an arbitrary line between the faithful and the compromised depending on their sermon topic. Christians really are some of the hardest people to please.

By God’s grace we are dealing with sexual sins among us at TEC. We have not only taught explicitly about God’s creation and His distinctions, we’ve dealt with the dangers of sexual immorality and the blessed fruitfulness of sexual righteousness as well. The issue is pressing in our day in a different way than during the time when the Apostle’s Creed was necessary, such that we made gender and marriage definitions part of our What We Believe in Brief, required for sake of membership.

And will this sermon get me in trouble with the government? Unlikely, at least in the near term, though hate speech and blasphemy laws are headed our way like a glacier. Will it add another voice showing solidarity in such an obvious way that will get James Coates thrown back into prison. May it be, and may he return the favor for us someday if necessary.

So let’s be clear, get it on the record again, give the evidence necessary to convict.

God made man in His own image, male and female (Genesis 1:26-31). It is a sin, deserving death, to be unthankful for your God-given gender, let alone to refuse to acknowledge His gift to you of life as boy or girl, and to lie about something so obvious, or to seek to transition His image in you. This is from the first chapter of the Bible. These are creational realities from before Canada was even a recognizable land mass.

God formed woman for the man, and He instituted the institution of marriage (and family) between one man and one woman, in a permanent, life-long covenant of love and respect (Genesis 2:18-24). Acting like a married couple before making vows is sin (fornication, Galatians 5:19), acting like a married couple as two men or two women is sin (homosexuality, 1 Corinthians 6:9), breaking one’s vows with another partner is sin (adultery, 1 Corinthians 6:9), including divorce apart from exceptional circumstances.

Sexual sins were the primary cause of Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction. Sexual sins created the Moabites and Ammonites (Lot’s daughters). Sexual sins ruined Samson, David, and Solomon. Sexual sins, among others, keep men out of the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). Sexual sins are a sign of God’s abandoning wrath on just just individual men, but on a culture (Romans 1:24-27).

Sexual sins plague our nation, and this generation. Sexual sins have destroyed families, churches, schools, and women’s sports. Sexual sins have corrupted souls, and even caused the deaths of millions of babies through abortion. Sexual sins are not only celebrated as entertainment, they are being taught as alternative lifestyles and our affirmation is required unless we want to be punished.

It’s as if the serpent showed up again to a lonely man with low self-esteem and said, “In the day that you take these pills, you will be like girls.” But it is a lie, full of deception, and leads to more anguish on the way to death.

The church of the living God is the “pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). The church must equip the saints and call Prime Ministers and Parliament members to convert to Christ. These “rulers” are the guilty ones, causing harm, denying science (biological nature and anthropological history), attempting to be god rather than submitting to Him. The church can and should preach that Jesus is Lord, that legislators and law enforcement officers will give a greater account.

And such were some of you (1 Corinthians 6:11). This is the good news. We talk about sin because we see what salvation cost: the Son of God’s life. Jesus died for the spiritually dead, but there is no hope in your sin. You must convert.

Conversion therapy is not the name we give to preaching the gospel, but conversion is a goal of preaching. To convert is to turn from one belief to another. Turn from the enslaving, lying idol of self-definition and pretend autonomy to the embodied, living and true God who delivers you into holy freedom and makes you one of His children. This is good news to be received by faith.

The gospel brings conversion from sin, from the world, from the unnatural, from death.

And it completely belongs with our liturgy of worship. Things happen when we assemble to worship that aren’t limited only to a given statement. We become like who we worship (Psalm 115:4-8; 2 Corinthians 3:18). The call to worship assumes God’s existence, it needs no argument. Our singing and kneeling and hearing and walking and eating and drinking (and under the minister’s raised hands receiving) corroborates that God cares about our hearts and parts, including our private parts.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; (1 Thessalonians 4:3–5)

And:

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body , but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body . Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body . (1 Corinthians 6:18–20)

We are in territory now where the exhortation is “flee sexual insanity.” Homosexual behavior is unnatural, and unrighteous. Attempting gender transition is unnatural, unrighteous, and impossible. We are making men (into ugly women) with artificial silicone chests and expecting them to be virile. We are castrating via hormone therapy and bidding the geldings be fruitful.

when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed ? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. (Romans 6:20–22)

There will be shame, either in what we needed to convert from, or in the good news of conversion. It seems even some professing Christians are now ashamed of Christ’s call to conversion. Let us not be ashamed of the gospel.

Conclusion

There is an important distinction to make between the blustering and the broken, between liars and the lost, between crusaders and outcasts. God laughs at the defiant, He is near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18), He heals the brokenhearted (Psalm 147:3). The gospel is for the broken and lost. Jesus is the Friend for sinners.

Bill C-4 is a measure by the State to define what can be said. May pastors, today, and every day, fill up Canada with teaching on true freedom and fruitfulness (like in Acts 5:28), and may God bless them with rejoicing that they are counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Christ’s name (as in Acts 5:41, Philippians 1:29) or may God bless them with deliverance from their enemies.

Gender identity and sexual relationships are clear and crucial truths in God’s Word. We are willing to be thrown by limp-wristed legislators into the fiery furnace of cancel culture. We will not worship Leviathan or the mob or their gods or the rainbow images they have set up.

As we look around we may wonder, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3. We remember that the LORD is in His holy temple, His eyes see, His soul hates the wicked, He loves those who do right (Psalm 11:4-6).

John Bunyan was emboldened in prison, not gutted. When he thought he might get out near the end of 12 years, he said,

I have determined, the Almighty God being my help and shield, yet to suffer, if frail life might continue so long, even till the moss shall grow on mine eyebrows, rather than thus to violate my faith and principles. (A Confession of my Faith, and a Reason of my Practice, quoted in John Brown, John Bunyan, 231)

So let our convictions be deep and our preaching of the good news of forgiveness and eternal life for all who convert to Christ be clear.

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Charge

I used to think that you had to stand alone to really prove your conviction. A lit match in the wind contra mundum, and all that. Should you be willing to stand alone? Yes, be willing. But a sniper out on his own isn’t more courageous than those shoulder-to-shoulder on the front line. So stand where you’re supposed to be. Stand firm for the Lord’s sake. Stand together. Withstand with.

Benediction:

A running start, with good exhortation leading to the doxology:

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:20–25, ESV)