In this sermon titled '06. LGBTQ movement,' Michael Beasley discusses the contrast between heavenly wisdom and earthly wisdom, drawing from James 3:13-18. He explains that true wisdom is pure, peaceable, and gentle, while earthly wisdom is demonic and leads to disorder. Beasley relates this to the LGBTQ movement, warning against blending scriptural wisdom with secular philosophies. He critiques the notion of same-sex attraction as inherently non-sinful, arguing that it blurs the lines of biblical teachings. The speaker emphasizes the importance of adhering to the purity of God’s word and being wary of deceptive ideas infiltrating the church. Genesis 6:5 is used to illustrate the innate sinful nature of humanity, highlighting the need for divine grace. Beasley urges believers to remain firm in scriptural truths and resist societal pressures that promote ungodly teachings.

Well, good morning. I wanted to begin our discussion with the reading of the Word of God. James chapter 3 verses 13 through 18. Who among you is wise in understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.

This wisdom is not that which comes down from above but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Let's pray.

Precious Heavenly Father, we have before us in this text of Scripture a very important principle. We plead with you for grace to understand it. We plead with you for grace to be transformed by it. And we plead with you for grace to be conformed to the image of Christ in everything. And that it would be all for your glory.

We commend ourselves to you in this time. In Christ's name, amen. I almost said in the prayer in this hour, in this 20 minutes. I'm gonna try to pack this in as best as I can in the time that I have here. Why in the world would I read James 3, 13 through 18, with reference to the LGBTQ movement?

Clearly, James is talking about the sins of the tongue, and he has been talking about the sins of the tongue at the beginning of James chapter three. He will talk about it again in James chapter four. In the midst of that discussion, he talks about the difference between true wisdom, the wisdom that is from above, versus the stuff that we come up with. And this has much to do with respect to the issue of the tongue and the controversies that well up among brethren, controversies that are unbiblical and ungodly. And the thing that I really want to point out here is the fact that James explains to us that there is heavenly wisdom, the wisdom that is from above, and then you have everything else.

The wisdom that he says that is earthly, natural, and then he uses the word demonic. Lest anybody be confused about this issue. Let me point out the simplicity of what he has said in this text There are only two options You either have God's wisdom or you have that which amounts to demonic wisdom which is no wisdom at all. That's it. That applies to everything in life, not just the tongue.

And it is so important to indicate the fact that wherever you have this earthly natural demonic wisdom you have evil of every kind as he says. This is important to point out because we have in the modern day, and we have in our, this is throughout history obviously, but we have especially a preponderance of individuals who like to create third and alternative forms of wisdom. Where they'll take the wisdom from above and earthly wisdom and they'll put it in a blender and they'll have a mixture of the two. Or they'll say, well, you know, we're using the word of God and we also incorporate all sorts of different philosophies and ideas. Not much, just a little bit, just to help us along.

And the bottom line is, is that if you take the pure wisdom of God's word and blend in even just a little bit of demonic wisdom, you have a poisonous concoction. I doubt that anybody here would receive from me a smoothie that had added to it a half of an ounce of poison. You would know not to touch that. In the modern day we have again a preponderance of individuals who are offering such concoctions where they blend in earthly, natural, and demonic wisdom. And Satan deals with us in this realm of the gray.

The Apostle Paul writing to the church at Corinth says that he was afraid that as he says that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached or you receive a different spirit which you have not received or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. Throughout history we have seen and we have known and it has been demonstrated repeatedly that Satan comes to the church, he comes to God's people with deceptions that really pray on our uncertainties, our moments of weakness, and there's oftentimes the pretense of being helpful. The errorists in the Corinthian Church were being helpful with their advancement of modified forms of the gospel. And we have to keep in mind the fact that as we face this movement and it is becoming more and more of a growing movement of the LGBTQ movement. And as it especially moves into the ranks of the evangelical church, we need to be wary and clear with respect to Satan's tactics.

It makes me think of Pilgrim's Progress. How many of you have read Pilgrim's Progress? I'm assuming that most of you have. You remember worldly wise man and how it is that he came up to Christian in a very vulnerable moment in order to sell his bill of goods and how it is that Christian had just come out of the slough of despond. And he was weak, he was weary, he was confused about where to go, he was uncertain, he had fear in his heart, he was ready to be deceived.

That's exactly how Satan works. And we need to be aware of these things. I mention all this, I begin with this and I begin with James 3 in order to point out the fact that we even had the reminder this week of the fact that we have been through this so-called sexual revolution of the 1960s with the death of Hugh Hefner who died on the 27th on Wednesday And with his death I was reminded of the fact that we have seen a remarkable transformation of our society We've seen this sexual revolution and who among us should be surprised by the fact that we now have amidst the sexual revolution Men who are saying that they are women and women who are saying that they are men and that we're now expected to say, yes, we agree with you. That's sad, I would never hate someone so much so as to lie to them and join them in their self-deception in that matter. We should not be surprised, nor should we be surprised of the fact that we now have, and this is an oxymoron, brace yourself, Christian polyamory.

There's actually a Southern Baptist pastor who is now preaching and proclaiming and promoting Christian polyamory. Interesting, I wrote an article that was a response to this whole issue, this whole movement, by a woman pastor who promotes gay marriage who is complaining about the idea of having multiple partners. That's the confusion that we now have in our society that you now have a promoter of gay marriage who's complaining about polyamory. Well listen, once you took the pure wisdom of God's Word and threw it out, you no longer have a basis to say anything about the subject. You don't have a foundation whatsoever.

And the arguments of these individuals get very, very confounding and confusing. And within this context, I want to bring up the subject of, and I'm picking out a particular subject of concern that I have with respect to the LGBTQ movement and how it has made advancements into the evangelical church. This one particular area that I want to bring up here has to do with something that is called same-sex attraction. It may not sound very problematic in terms of the expression itself, but you have to understand something. There have been many individuals who have written on this subject, and they have defined same-sex attraction to such an extent that I would call it a doctrine.

It is a well-defined doctrine and idea and the idea behind SSA, same-sex attraction, is this, is that for a man to be attracted to another man or a woman to be attracted to another woman, that that by itself is not necessarily inherently sinful. At least as long as they don't meditate on it for very long anyway. That's the way some of them argue. Nick Rowan is one individual who has written on this subject and he argues that same-sex attraction is not necessarily sinful, it just becomes sinful if it is dwelled upon for too long. And then at the end of one of his articles, he tries to reason as to how long it might be before it actually becomes sin.

James 3, you either have wisdom from above or demonic wisdom, but this teaching is a third category. It's trying to blend the two. And it is a dangerous concoction. Let me suggest the following here. First of all, there is a problem with the language itself, and I really am not going to be able to expand upon the whole problem here in this session.

But if you just think about the language itself, search out the English translations of the Bible, you will find that the word attraction is not used very much in English translations. One of the reasons why the word attraction is problematic is twofold, is that it doesn't have a strong history with respect to English translations, first of all, but second of all, we tend to use the word colloquially in a way that really is detached from the original etymology of the word. When you talk about attraction in its historical sense and connotation, you're talking about a powerful and overwhelming force. One force drawing another. It's even used to speak of lungs drawing in air.

That's an effectual process. But today people use it more in the sense of they're being drawn passively towards something. So somebody will say that, you know, I'm attracted to something and they're really speaking of this overwhelming force and now that instead of their being active in that process they're passive in that process. That's the way we tend to use the word in the modern day. Why is this a problem?

By the way I talked to my kids about Krispy Kreme donuts, which I have a weakness for, I confess it. And I'll choke with them about it, and I'll say, you know what guys, yeah, I showed up with donuts and there were only eight in the box, and I don't know what happened, but I was just so compelled to eat those donuts, I couldn't help myself. Yeah. Yeah, there we go. You share my weakness, I can tell.

My kids know I'm kidding when I say that. They know I'm kidding. They know that I had a desire for those donuts and I acted on that desire and I ate them. I did it and I can't claim to be a passive victim in that process. But in the language of same-sex attraction, passivity is there.

There's this notion of the fact that it's just there and I can't help it. Let me draw your attention to a text I believe that obliterates the argument. Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5. This is the passage of Scripture that we read that gives us the grounds and the basis for which, by which God destroyed the whole of humanity. Where it says, then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Now briefly, let me just say this about that verse. First of all, whenever I read that verse, it takes my breath away. Because I read that verse and I say to myself, oh my, that's every member of the human race. Every member of the human race has played with this disease. Let's go through these words here briefly.

Every intent, recall yetser. The word call, You know what it means? Every or all, that's what it means. And then Yetzir, the word Yetzir, is a word that means and speaks of this idea of forming or fashioning something. It's used frequently in scriptures to speak of the potter who uses clay to form and fashion a pot.

It's use of the Lord, forming man out of the dust of the ground in in Genesis chapter 2. This is an active process. When you're thinking in the sense of yetzer, that's what you're doing. It is an active process. Our minds are active things.

In this Hebrew construct chain, you have several words that are joined together. So you have the word Yetzir, speaking of the active process of forming and fashioning thoughts. Then you have the second word, which is translated as thoughts, here, Mokshabet. This speaks more of an intentional sense of planning and so a man may think of and dream up of the idea of a piece of furniture, but then when he makes the blueprint, he's engaging in more of a process of laying down the details, an active process. And then it says, every intent of the thoughts of the heart, the lave, the heart.

In the Hebrew understanding of the word lathe, the heart, this speaks not just of the mind but of the affections of the individual. This is why when Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5, when he said that you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and then he inserts the word mind and strength. The addition of the word mind is giving us the fullness of the Hebraic understanding of the heart. It is not just affections, it is the connection between the mind and the affections. Everything with respect to the inner man is involved in this text when it says that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was, and then it says, rock-raw, Only evil.

That's all you get. What do you get out of the human heart and the human mind? Only evil. That's it. You know what the word only means in the Hebrew?

Only. Profound, I know. That's all you get. You don't get anything else. You don't get a little bit of good over here, a little spark of light that's good.

No, everything is tainted by sin. And then it ends with kol hayum, all of his days, all of his days. Until the grave, that's all you get out of a human being. This isn't any different than what Jesus teaches when he says in Matthew 15 19 for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness, slanders. It all stems from the human heart and by the way this is important because God not only indicts us for our actions, but mark this, He sees the heart and that's why he destroyed the whole of humanity, not just for the deeds of wickedness, but for what was in the mind and the heart.

So no one can stand up and say, I'd never committed murder. This text says, yes, you have. And you did it in the heart, and you're guilty. Well, Genesis 6-5 teaches us there are multiple lessons, but One thing we should at least summarize here is this, is that God is holy and he will not trifle with sin, every sinful thought and intention within the human heart. That the corruption of sin permeates every dimension of the human heart and mind and that no one is exempt.

By the way, the indictment of humanity was repeated in Genesis 821, speaking of the nature of mankind, that every intention of his heart was evil from his youth. Nothing's changed. We're all still under the indictment of these texts. And thirdly, only by God's redeeming grace can we be spared of the judgment that we deserve due to such evil. When read Genesis 6 5, the thing that I think of is the fact that God spared anybody.

And that's really the way we need to think about it. No one in his family was not spared because they were cut above the rest of humanity. They were spared by mercy. This text, I believe, as I just said, obliterates the idea of somebody saying, well, I have a desire as a man, I have a desire for another man, and it's not necessarily sinful. What difference would it be if a pedophile said, you know, I desire children, but It's not necessarily sinful as long as I don't act on it or don't dwell on it for too long.

Trying to avoid the laser blaster that I heard about earlier. Fear of God has been in my heart over this issue. Let me just summarize here. Satan knows that he can make his way into our lives in our moments of weakness and uncertainty as did worldly wise men with Christian weakness, uncertainty, fear. We live in a society that wants us to be afraid of speaking up against this issue.

We cannot give into fear and we must not be uncertain and the only pathway to eradicating uncertainty is gaining the certitude of scripture and learning it and understanding it enough so that we can apply it and then speak to the individual who are caught up in this lie, this demonic lie, and help them. And say, no, listen, let me read to you, let's read together Genesis 6-5, and as you read this, and this is my concluding counsel to you, as we read it to them, let's make sure that we're not saying to the homosexual or the individual who's struggling with homosexuality, we're not saying to them that we're singling them out. What we're saying is, is that we're all this way. And so whatever vice you have, we all are indicted by the text of Genesis 6-5 and others. And that's why we need Christ.

The last thing in the world I would ever want to do is to give someone an excuse to ignore their sin for the sake of my own soul I don't want that either I don't want to live in an environment where I can stand up to my congregation and say you know what I know I'm married but I'm attracted to other women but it's not necessarily sinful You would think I was a mad man if I said that. Brethren, beware. Fathers and sons, consider these things carefully. The scriptures are clear. God's word is pure.

The wisdom of this world and the wisdom of men, it is demonic. Do not blend. Let us not blend the two together. Father, grant us grace to apply your word rightly, to divide it rightly, to take in every jot and tittle of it every detail for we need the clarity and the purity of your word or thank you for the fact that you've given us a sure word. May we be sanctified by it for your glory in Christ's name.

Amen.