In Evangelicalism today, as in the broader culture, there are many issues being discussed that relate to human sexuality and racial relationships. How should Christians think through these things? As always, the Christian must examine all views and perspectives through the lens of the Word of God and discern what God intends for his people to do and believe. These issues are no different. The question is, as always, what has God said?

Just as a brief beginning to the day before Jason and then Bob come to preach, I want to take a few minutes just to discuss some of the common trends in evangelicalism today. If some of the things that I mentioned, particularly two areas of race and gender, if you're unaware that there's a conversation going on out there, then it probably won't be long before you are aware that it is going on. It's concerning, the conversation is concerning primarily because otherwise good men have appeared to have lost their bearings in these particular areas with regard to what the Bible says about them. And unfortunately, these otherwise good men have the primary voice in evangelicalism throughout our country, not exclusively, but they do have a primary, a large voice. And as a result, I think at the local church level, as well as in contexts like these, it's helpful for us just to take a few minutes to consider what is being said or my approach is just going to be to make a few pointed statements with regard to how we ought to think rightly about it.

Race and gender. God created man in his own image, male and female. He created all of them. The idea of different races is an absolute myth. This is not just some old Genesis type talk, even Acts 17 26.

He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth. We are from one blood. The distinctions that we have been trained by the world around us is being imposed from outside a biblical framework. That there is one human race. There's no distinction with regard to what we think about when we think about race.

Listen, anything else is evolutionary Darwinian nonsense. Any and all differences are external, Like ethnicity. At the end of the day, what we know as racial characteristics, there is a 0.012% difference between the most distinct people, one 10, 000 of a difference with regard to genetic makeup. Culture is not inside of us. It does not define us.

If you think that there's something inherently different about you or anyone else that makes you better Or worse, you are an arrogant, bigoted racist. All are created by God. We are all in Adam. All humanity, every individual is an image bearer made in the likeness of God, period. Christians are in Christ.

The transformation happens, and then we come together. We are unified in Christ and dwelled by the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that is the Holy Spirit of unity. Listen, if creation levels the playing field of all humanity, and it does, then the cross far more. It is unfortunate what is happening in modern-day Christianity. Whether man, woman, boy, or girl, the only distinction between humans is gender or sex.

There's male and there's female. These are the only distinctions that were created. That's what Genesis says. God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created them.

Male and female he created them. End of story. These are the two kinds of distinct people that he made. Male and female. And male and female are all fallen.

The only other distinction that comes into play is those who are in Adam and those who are in Christ. So I've created four quadrants here. Everyone fits in one of these four quadrants and there aren't any other options. There are lost men and lost women. There are saved men and saved women.

No other distinctions are known according to the Scriptures. While current trends fail to make this accurate distinction even or especially among good evangelicals, they are unfortunately succeeding in promoting a segregation among us based on all kinds of differences. Everything you can imagine. We're being encouraged to think of ourselves as on at some level of scale of how much we've been oppressed or how much we've been the oppressors or how much we've been victimized or how much we've been the perpetrators. The only biblical distinction is male and female.

God created us, male or female. And we've allowed this line to be blurred. The one that God made, we've blurred, and we've added all these other unbiblical distinctions among us as humans. We are made in the image and likeness of God. We, as men and women, are the crowning culmination of God's creation.

That's it in Genesis. Let's fast forward to Revelation. Worthy are you, Revelation 5, to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God, and they will reign upon the earth." In Revelation 7, after these things, I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one could count from every tribe and, pardon, every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands and they cry out with a loud voice saying, Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb." Why have we begun to read these amazing passages with a man-centered lens?

Why do we read it and see tribe and tongue and people and nation, that's the primary point of the passage. The primary point of the passage is you take the book because you are worthy. You were slain. Your blood was shed. You have made them to be a kingdom and priest.

You are standing before the throne and the Lamb. Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and the Lamb. Only a man-centered reading emphasizes the distinctions that are around the throne. Take it a step further. What about these differences?

Why are these differences here anyway? Why are there different tribes and tongues and peoples and nations? Back to Genesis. Sin, Why would we ever emphasize the distinctions among us that exist? Because of sin.

The point here around the throne is that all those differences are going to be done away with. The unity that we have and the one who sits on the throne is the point. It's the point of the gospel. It's the point of the Bible. It's definitely the point of these pictures of heaven that we see.

It's unity. Again, so much emphasis on so-called racial harmony. Harmony celebrates and magnifies differences. Christian unity denotes oneness, likeness, Commonality in Jesus. The gospel is simply this.

We are born in Adam. We have that in common. And the goal is for everyone to have commonality in Christ. All of the other rich and poor and black and white or purple and green or oppressed or victim. All of this.

Those are legitimate external realities. But they do not come into play with regard to the gospel and its application. That's my two cents on race. Gender, and we stepped into it already. I made them male and female.

It's not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him marriage as God prescribes in the scriptures is the foundational fabric of society me God himself says I will make a helper suitable, one that's fit for him, a corresponding opposite. What man lacked, what was not good in man, woman supplied, And vice versa. This aloneness that existed in Adam in the beginning was remedied with corresponding companionship. Now, this need was not a result of sin.

Sin hadn't entered in yet. The garden was a completely perfect environment. Adam was experiencing the unbroken presence of God. He was created with this need. You and I were created with the need of a corresponding relationship.

As a man you were created to be completed in this life with a wife, a woman. Differences are complementary. They are matching. They're not rivalry. The relative distinctions that exist are done so with essential unity.

Men and women are fundamentally, essentially one in human nature. However, God has also added clear distinctions between their genders. We don't make ourselves male and female any more than we make ourselves human. He made humanity in His own likeness. He made them male and female.

The image of God that we are stamped with when God fashions us is uniquely connected to our either being male or female. Bearing the image of God requires distinct masculinity for all men. Baring the image of God requires distinct femininity for all women. Rejecting this in any way whatsoever is a rejection of God. It's a rejection of His rights and a rejection of His will and of His word.

Gender clarity and biblical gender relations are essential to healthy human identity as well as our Christian witness for God, the God who made us. He made us for very specific roles in society, to have certain relationships with the opposite gender, and he provides restrictions to guide us into roles and the relationships that are found in his word. Marriage is a union between a man and a woman. It's physical, it's personal, it's covenantal, and it's permanent. These roles and relationships and restrictions are clearly delineated in the scriptures and any.

All contradictions outside of God's design for role, relationship, and restrictions is sin. Any and all contradictions at any level, any and all sexual desire contrary to the scripture is sin. Now again, very good, otherwise good men have lost their bearings on this. We've begun to redefine what sin is. Let's walk through a few of the clearly obvious issues that we're faced with with regard to sexual perversion.

Polygamy. Everyone's safe here, I hope. Having more than one wife or more than one husband. The two shall be one flesh, Jesus says. Polygamy is out.

Transgenderism or gender confusion. We're being told that identity and gender does not correspond with the birth sex or birth gender. It's contrary to the Bible. In the image of God He created them. Male and female he created them.

There's no confusion there. It's absolute brilliant clarity. Male and female he created them. Period. Any alteration to this, any confusion to this is a denial of God.

It's a denial of his word and his rights in our lives. Male chauvinism, having a prejudice against women, assuming in any way that men are superior in ability or intelligence, a helper suitable for him. We didn't have what it takes, men. So He made us women, corresponding and complementary, opposite and equal. In the same way feminism, which states all around us that it's based on equality for women.

Actually, it undermines the roles and the relationships and the restrictions of the Word of God. It undermines what women were created for. Feminism in a very real way has destabilized the American family more than any other sin. Homosexuality. Practicing or desiring sex with the same gender.

Listen, this one really hits home with regard to what we're facing. Legitimizing in any way same gender attraction or homo sex requires a different creation story than the one that's in the Bible. I will make him a helper suitable for him. God fashioned into a woman, the man and his wife. This is the story that's recorded for us in God's Word.

Homosexuality at the level of desire and at the level of practice perverts the created purpose that is revealed in nature. Same-sex attraction, same gender attraction, homosexuality, the desire we're being told is morally neutral. Mark my word, it will not be long before we will be told that same-sex attraction or homosexuality, not just in desire but in practice, can be acceptable to God if it's monogamous That's the slope that we're on It perverts at the level of desire and at the level of practice God's revealed will and his way Romans 1 24 the desire itself is perverse God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts, not the practice of their bodies, the lusts of their hearts. If anger makes you guilty for judgment, and it does, if lust condemns you for adultery, and it does, according to our Lord, then same gender attraction leaves you guilty before God. It is contrary to Him and the way that He has created us.

If malice-filled hearts and sinful lusts are unacceptable to God, then homosexual desires even more so because they are an affront against God and His created order. Now, so that we're not just thinking about those out there, the truth of Scripture must be applied to our own lives as well, not just with homosexuality, or feminism, or chauvinism, or transgenderism, or polygamy, but fornication, physical or sexual relations, even emotional, outside of marriage, with someone else. If you're married, it would be adultery. With anyone else, if you're not married, it's fornication. It is an offense.

It's a perversion of God's design for sex with man and a woman. Or pornography. Looking at, reading about, listening to sexually explicit material, primarily for the purpose of arousal or self-sex is an offense against God. I trust that you have a proactive policy against pornography. Briefly, in closing, God created us as sexual beings with clear intentions and specific parameters regarding sex.

Being an all-wise creator, He made us to enjoy the opposite gender within the confines of marriage. When sex is desired, pursued, or practiced outside of marriage, it is a distortion and a perversion of what God has willed. Sexual perversion of many different types is increasingly visible and even on the verge of being celebrated, if not already celebrated, in our day. Obviously, it's celebrated by the world. The big evangelicalism, big Eva among us is on the verge of celebrating it as well.

Therefore, All that to say this, we must be vigilant to know what God says about sexual sin. We must know what His Word says, what His will is, and we must seek to apply it in every area of our lives and our ministries. And we must promote these biblical truths, both with regard to race and gender, to our people and those that God has entrusted to us and given us a voice with. It's unfortunate, but it's not just the world that we're up against in this. There's worldly influence that have influenced these otherwise good men who are promoting these unhelpful views of both race and gender.

And it will be the undoing of healthy churches and of godly men in the long run. May God help us to respond appropriately and to stick to the text that He has wonderfully provided for us, preserved it, that we might know Him and His will, and we might expect people around us to live in light of it. Amen.