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American Pastors Stand With Canadian Christians, Preach About Biblical Sexuality Amid ‘Conversion Therapy’ Ban — Here’s What They Said

   DailyWire.com
John MacArthur
Courtesy John MacArthur

On Sunday, January 16, thousands of pastors across the United States preached about biblical sexual morality in response to a Canadian law that threatens to effectively criminalize evangelism under the guise of a “conversion therapy” ban.

Bill C-4 — passed unanimously by Canada’s Senate and House of Commons — could threaten pastors with up to five years of prison time if they remain faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Calling biblical teaching on homosexuality and transgenderism a “myth,” the legislation is meant to chill the proclamation of the free grace of God for those in sexual sin.

In response to bill C-4, John MacArthur — longtime senior pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California — led at least 4,000 American ministers in preaching about biblical sexuality on Sunday alongside their Canadian counterparts. They told Western governments that they are rebelling against the natural order of creation — and the Creator Himself — by endorsing and promulgating LGBTQ ideology.

For instance, Tom Ascol — senior pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, and president of Founders Ministries — preached a sermon centered upon 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, in which Paul notes that many believers in the church at Corinth had turned from homosexuality to follow Christ:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

“God shouts about the grave danger of sexual immorality,” Ascol explained. “What Paul writes here is nothing more than what the rest of God’s Word teaches. Indeed, in Genesis to Revelation, God is the one who created humanity, and God is the one who made mankind by Himself, for Himself.”

Referring to Genesis 1:27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them — Ascol said: “There are only two sexes. There are male and female image-bearers of God. God is the one who made Adam, and He made Adam a man. God is the one who made Eve, and He made Eve a woman. And God is the one who made you, and He made you what you are, and what you are is either male or female.”

“Friend, if you have been deceived — if you have been duped — into thinking you can have Jesus and your sin, hear the words of Jesus. Turn from your sin, and fall before Him today,” Ascol said later in the sermon. “Acknowledge that you need Him to save you from your sin… God shouts about the danger of sexual immorality, and He does this out of love and compassion for people. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Rather, His desire is that they should turn from their sin and live.”

Josh Buice — pastor at Pray’s Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, Georgia, and president of G3 Ministries — also preached a sermon on 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.

“Not only is the heart of man sinful,” Buice explained, “but that sinful heart is then manifested in various different ways. What we need to remember is that we’re all born with a heart that is a seedbed of human depravity… Some of us in this room have struggled with sexual sin. Some in this room have struggled with drunkenness. Some in this room have struggled with pornography… While we are all depraved from our mother’s womb, we don’t always sin in the exact same way.”

Buice explained, however, that “our culture today is not trying to normalize drunkenness” and many of the other sins listed by Paul. “But the culture is doing the opposite when it comes to sexual sin… We live in a postmodern society that claims that what’s wrong for one generation may actually be right and acceptable to another generation.”

Like Ascol, Buice emphasized that Christ changes His people such that they will no longer be enslaved to their depravity. 

“Jesus sits upon His throne. He is a jealous God! He will not share His throne with anyone else!” proclaimed Buice, pointing to 2 Corinthians 5:17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Meanwhile, James White — a pastor at Apologia Church in Chandler, Arizona, and apologist at Alpha & Omega Ministries — preached a sermon that examined Leviticus 18, Leviticus 20, Genesis 18-19, Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, and 1 Timothy 1:10.

In Leviticus 18:1-5, for example, God warns Moses that the Israelites would be tempted to engage in the sins of the surrounding nations:

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the LORD your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.”

“Let’s be honest — for most modern Americans, God saying ‘I am God’ is insufficient authority,” said White, pointing specifically to Leviticus 18:22:

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

“‘Oh, it’s just what I do in my bedroom.’ No — entire nations are defiled by violating God’s law about the blessing that He has given to us in human sexuality,” White preached. “God has made man to rule over the creation, and when man perverts himself and defiles himself, punishment is inevitable.”

White also issued a stern warning to governments willing to pass laws in opposition to God’s created order. “A governmental bureaucrat that comes along and says ‘That’s what you have to believe’ is putting themselves directly against the authority of Christ… and they need to be told that.”

“If, at some point in the future,” White continued, “you, because of your boldness and your committedness to Christ, are brought before a magistrate… then your duty is to look that individual in the eye and say ‘Sir, with all due respect to your position, you do not have the authority to contradict the very Word of God that He has preserved for His people down through the ages.’”

“‘That Word tells me what is right and wrong. That Word tells me that God created us in His image — male and female. Jesus confirmed that… and if you dare stand against Him, you will stand before Him someday, and you will have no one to intercede for you.’”

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