Snatching Souls from Sexual Sin, Part 1 | Snatching Souls from Sexual Sin

Selected Scriptures

A bill in Canada has added a ban on conversion therapy to its Criminal Code. The bill in Canada is called Bill C4, and it not only rejects what the Bible teaches about sexuality, it threatens penalties for encouraging people to listen to what the Bible says, and to be helped by it. So that will be used to attempt to silence the truth of Scripture and to keep people enslaved to sins.

Bill C4 passed very quickly through both houses of Canadian Parliament. Unanimous vote from both Conservatives and Liberals in Canadian Parliament. It received Royal Assent on December 8th of 2021, became law on January 8th, 2022; pastors of faithful churches across Canada are preaching outlawed sermons. They are simply preaching what the Bible says about sexuality.

We’re joining them. This is our peaceful protest. Welcome to the revolution, folks. The counter culture. We’re telling everyone what we believe. We’re telling everyone what we confess. We’re telling everyone what God’s Word says about human sexuality, in obedience to the Lord’s compassion to rescue souls from the fires of sin. We will not bow to the state on this matter, or anybody else. We won’t abdicate our holy responsibility, because Jesus Christ is Lord.

I’m going to say some strong things, but I want you to understand that we are not angry protesters. We’re passionate for the truth, and we’re compassionate rescuers of souls. We have compassion for sinners, but even our compassion for sinners isn’t foremost in our mind. What’s foremost in our mind is being pleasing to God. Sin offends God, and that’s why it’s wrong. And when people commit sin and offend God, there are consequences to that sin that ruins the sinner, ruins the souls of men. So we don’t separate our passion and zeal for the truth of God and our compassion and our concern for lost sinners. They are properly spoken of in Scripture as one and the same.

We can see that in Jude 20 to 23. “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, 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.” Notice those words, the affectionate term, “Beloved.” See the “most holy faith” there, the faith “once for all delivered to the saints.” See the practice of prayer. A private, quiet, not known by anybody around, but a private practice of prayer before God, which is how we truly love people and practice our religion.

We keep ourselves in what? The love of God. And we wait for the mercy of Christ. Those terms, those virtues speak to the character of our God, and we know that it all points to and leads to, end of verse 21, “eternal life.” This is about life and death. There is a predominant prevailing attitude that is favoring right now, in a way that’s really hard to understand when you really know what’s going on, but it prevails and predominates toward the culture of death. It is a death culture out there, filled with death works that degrade, and dehumanize, and kill, and destroy. Who’s behind that? The Destroyer of Souls.

Verse 22, “Have mercy on those who doubt.” These are perplexing times. It bewilders even faithful people, faithful saints who are waking up and saying, whoa, this is not the country I was born into. What happened? Who moved all the furniture around? Have mercy on people who doubt. Teach ‘em the truth. Don’t let ‘em continue in doubt. Point ‘em to faith “Once for all delivered to the saints.” Have mercy on them. Do it mercifully.

“Save others by snatching them out of the fire.” That’s the verb, very strong, harpazo. Same verb that’s used for the rapture of the church, when the Lord Jesus Christ will snatch his church away from the earth and bring them to himself as a prelude to the end of days. Snatch people out of the fire. Harpoon them.

“And to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.” That’s why we do what we do. And here’s why. Verse 24, “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling, to present you blameless before the presence of his glory,” his shining, spotless, pure, holy glory, “with great joy.” Blameless, spotless, perfect standing before that one on that day. “To him who is able to keep you” from that, “and to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory and majesty and dominion and authority before all time and now and forever, amen.” That’s what we do. That’s why we do it, for his name’s sake.

The Church exists in the world today by the will of God, by the sovereign right of Christ, because he died to purchase the Church, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Church exists to snatch sinners from the fires of sin, to show mercy to a lost world. And so no one has the right to command our consciences otherwise. No one. No one has the right to tell us we cannot obey our Lord Jesus Christ.

Anyone who tries to keep sinners enslaved to their sins is on the Devil’s side, does the Devil’s works, because the Devil is a liar and a deceiver and a murderer from the very beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared, 1 John 3:8, was “to destroy the works of the Devil,” to obliterate them, and our salvation, our salvation is proof of that, because he set us free from the works of the Devil. And we will extend that same offer of salvation to other sinners as well, sinner after sinner after sinner, in different varieties of sin and different kinds of sin. All of us, all ground is level at the Cross. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

 So with that as my little preamble and introduction, let me tell you a little bit more about what’s going on. So, point number one, if you want to write this down: Snatching souls. Snatching souls, and then put a colon, The face of the battle. Snatching souls, and this is the face of the battle. This is what it looks like. This is what we’re facing out there.

Canadian bill C4, as I said, it amends the Criminal Code in Canada to outlaw what it refers to as, conversion therapy, conversion therapy. And the bill defines, conversion therapy as A practice. I’m reading from the bill here, “A practice, treatment, or service designed to,” and then it lists six points, “A) change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, B) Change a person’s gender identity to cisgender, or C) change a person’s gender expression so that it conforms to the sex assigned to the person at birth.

Pausing there in the middle of those points, so first, this is a saying it is against the law to “change a person’s sexual orientation” (that already is capitulation language to the culture), but “sexual orientation to heterosexual.” Second, it is against the law to “change a person’s gender identity to cisgender” (yet more capitulation language to the culture).If you’re wondering what cisgender means, I’ll come back to that.Third, it is against the law to “try to change a person’s gender expression,” to encourage him to express his gender “in conformity to the sex he was assigned at birth,” or to tell her she must live in conformity to the gender that she was assigned by God (they don’t say that), by God at birth. Crime to do that.

In addition, Bill C4 also criminalizes, quote, “Any practice, treatment or service designed to” here are the last three, “letter D) Repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behavior, or E) Repress a person’s non-cisgender gender identity. F) Repress or reduce a person’s gender expression that does not conform to the sex assigned to the person at birth.” So, it’s against the law “to change or to repress.” It is against the law to try to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. And it is against the law to try to repress any of the same. In other words, in biblical language, it is against the law now in Canada to encourage repentance. Repentance of any sinful sexual perversions, that’s unlawful. To discourage the expression of sexual perversion, i.e., “Beloved, live holy lives.” Saying that, in this climate is unlawful.

Guess it’s a good place as any to stop and explain what the word cisgender means: C-I-S-gender. It’s a made-up word, it was coined in order to explain and support and promote the sexual revolution. The prefix C-I-S is Latin, Cis means on this side, and it’s used in contrast to the Latin trans, which means, on the other side. So what’s This side? What’s the other side? Well, transgender, the word transgender means on the other side, that is, on the opposite side of the gender, God assigned at conception, and cisgender means, on this side, that is, to live in agreement with the gender that God assigned at conception. So if you’re confused, cisgender, that’s what they call all of us Bible-believing Christians living according to the sex that God assigned at conception.

I looked into the etymology of that word, cisgender. Came across the work of someone named Avery Dame, D-A-M-E. And though Avery Dame was born female, she now looks and sounds like a man. And she says that she came out as, trans, in 2007, and since then she’s adopted a, very clearly, a male persona, obviously using hormone therapy to deepen her voice and grow some scrawny facial hair and appear masculine in number of ways. In 2017, Avery Dame published an article for the American Historical Association called Tracing Terminology, researching early uses of, cisgender. And in the article, she says that the Oxford English Dictionary only added, Cisgender, as an entry to its dictionary as recently as 2015.

The Oxford English Dictionary cites, as justification for doing that, a 1994 post online by Dana Leland Defosse, in a Transgender Usenet Newsgroup. Usenet Newsgroup, that refers to connection, interconnection around the world with people in different chat rooms and groups before, kinda, the World Wide Web that we know. So Dana Leland Defosse is, in a Transgender Usenet Newsgroup, is the first to use the term cisgender, according to Avery Dames’ Research. Avery Dame also cites another origin story that credits a Dutch transgender man for creating the term in 1995. So 94-95, mid 90s, the use of, cisgender, became from there more widespread among those who sought to make transgenderism socially acceptable, part of common language.

As a society, you have seen this. We have been forced to learn. I’m giving you an education on terms, speech, definitions. They want to force everyone to use an entirely new vocabulary. This is how revolutions go. Whoever defines the terms, frames the debate. Whoever frames the debate wins the debate. These are lawyer tricks. LGBTQ revolutionaries, they’ve already won the debate in this culture. Everyone is using their terms, speaking their language, accepting their definitions, and conforming to them. And it’s happening in the school systems.

If it were for that reason alone, I want to encourage you not to use the term, cisgender, in order to describe normal biological, God-designed masculinity and femininity, because by using their language we’re handing over the keys to them, to the sexual revolutionaries, letting them define the terms, frame the debate, and win. But it’s more than that. It’s not just a protest. More than that, according to Avery Dame, she says that the gradual adoption of this term cisgender has become a sign of allyship. It’s a made up word too. Allyship, means to be an ally.

But those adopting cisgender language, they were allies back in the mid 90s with the transgender, the “T” in the LGBTQ movement. They affirm acceptance. Dame writes this, “These individuals push to establish transgender individuals not as abnormal, but as one part of a value-neutral binary with cisgender.” End Quote. One part of a value-neutral. You hear that language all the time these days. Value-neutral means, I’m not going to judge you. You can make up whatever you want, and I’m not going to judge you for it. But notice it’s a value-neutral binary. So they’re trying to say there’s a binary: cisgender, sex God assigned you at conception, and transgender, not conforming to the sex God assigned you at gender. They say it’s a binary. You know what they’re saying now? Uh-uh. It’s not a binary; there are a whole bunch of options.

You start monkeying with the definitions according to human feelings, it’s gone. This is how revolutions go, so Christian, don’t use their language, don’t accommodate to their revolution. Don’t speak in such a way you conform to the internal delusions of the psychologized self. These people are self-deceived. They are lying to themselves, and they demand that you live by their lies. Don’t do it. Why? Because we don’t want them to win the revolution? Forget the revolution. It’s because it’s not loving.

Far from speaking with compassion, that’s not compassion to affirm that. It’s like affirming the cruelty of someone’s jailer. They’ve just come out of the Holocaust and the Nazi concentration camps, or come out of the Gulag and Soviet Union, and speak about how great their jailers are, how wonderful those people are. No! Speak the truth in love. Inform the conscience. Remind people of the truth that they’re trying to suppress in unrighteousness. Point sinners, all sinners, sexual sinners and everyone else, to the only hope, the hope of Christ’s Gospel.

And by the way, that’s Canada. There are actually many jurisdictions in the United States that are already there in some form or another. You can look it up on Wikipedia and see the list of jurisdictions in the United States that have bans on conversion therapy.

State of Colorado banned conversion therapy on minors in February of 2019. Just three years ago. These governments, and especially Canada, has codified, they have codified their rebellion against God. They have put in print, and published for everybody, and made it a law of the land to reject God and his Word, to defy God’s created order. That’s now law.

They have torn up the blueprint of God’s good design for humanity, and they consider themselves charting a course for humanity toward a brave new world. It is a delusion. All they are doing is tightening the bonds and the chains of sin and corruption on people. It is cruelty to the Nth degree. And they are speaking words of peace and harmony, and unity, and love, and compassion, and mercy and, and all the rest while they’re sticking a knife and twisting it. Don’t believe the lies.

 Bible says very clearly in Genesis 1:27, “God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female he created them.” Listen, this is a blessing. It is a protection from defilement, degradation, and sorrow, to live according to the design that we’ve been given. On the basis of human ontology of this gender binary, male and female, this biological binary, each one, male and female with their own distinct biology, on the basis of this complementary relationship between the man and the woman, Genesis 2:24 says, “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife.” The verb there is talking about glued together with his wife or, even stronger, welded together with his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

This has several implications, what God says in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, including a number of the sexual and relational sins that’ve become common in our day. Jesus said in Matthew 19:4-6, going right back to the Creation ordinance, Genesis 1 and 2, Jesus said, I’m gonna bypass all of your controversies and arguments and questions and opinions, and I’m gonna go right back to the source. “He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and he said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and two shall become one flesh, so they’re no longer two, but they’re one flesh.’” They are no longer two independent sexual expression creatures. They are one flesh. “What, therefore, God has joined together, let not man separate.”

So, verse 9, Jesus said, “I say to you,” to answer your question, “Whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another, commits adultery.” It’s just one of the implications of the one flesh relationship. The divorce, the severing of that one flesh relationship, divorce is a sin. It is a violent rejection of covenant before God, and any unsanctioned remarriage after divorce that is outside of the exception clauses of unrepentant adultery and abandonment of the marriage by an unbeliever, that is also adultery.

God gave Adam one option for a wife, one option. Her name was Eve. And Adam wasn’t like, man, only one to choose from? Where’s that dating website?” You know, start to scroll through all the faces. Get off the dating websites. Get off the dating apps. They are garbage. That’s French for junk. Don’t look at them. It’s teaching you a frame of mind, a pattern of thinking that prefers what you see rather than what you know. It’s decoupling relationship by putting an image before you and making you disconnected from the start. Don’t start relationships that way, young people.

If dating apps and options and all kinds of faces were the good, God would have put it there in creation. He didn’t. He gave Adam one option for a wife. One and one only. And he called it good, and at the end of the whole thing he called it very good. Adam was thrilled to meet her, to be fruitful with her, to multiply with her, to exercise dominion over the entire earth with her. That’s the pattern, one man marries one woman and stays married for life. It’s one obvious implication of that one flesh relationship.

There are other implications that come from the pattern of creation, the one flesh relationship between a man and his wife, but we can sum everything up by saying this: Every extramarital sexual desire, sexual thought, and sexual behavior is sinful. Let’s repeat that. Every extramarital (outside the bonds of marriage) sexual desire, sexual thought, and sexual behavior is sinful. Any form of sexuality, if it’s outside the boundaries of marriage, it transgresses God’s design for marriage and design for sex and is therefore sinful, degrading, and defiling. If it severs the act of sex from the marital relationship, which sex is designed to serve and strengthen, then it’s sinful, and it’s harmful, and it’s defiling.