The TImes They are a Changin' Session FIVE February 3rd, 2021 Emmanuel Baptist Church

we're on session five and so i just want to kind of recap the things we've been talking about uh the past four or five weeks so we've been talking about truths that are under attack today not only by the secular culture but also by progressive christians truth number one is that god is the sovereign lord and creator of all things that he's control of all things he's our creator we're accountable to him number two we talked about the bible being god's word it's absolutely true and then the third thing we talked about was jesus being the only way of salvation not just a good way but the only way and then last week we talked about hell the reality of hell the reality of the cross we talked about sin and so today we are going to talk about the issue of gender human sexuality and what our culture even what progressive christians um are are believing about that and so i wanna we're not gonna it's gonna take me a long time to get to the bible tonight okay because i want to set a i want to talk about things that are currently happening then i want to talk about how we got here historically and then we're going to talk about what the bible says but i want to kind of lay a groundwork for for where we're at so there's been some watershed events that have happened in the past let's say five or six years that have really launched us on a trajectory of confusion in our culture uh regarding human sexuality back in 2015 there was the transgender phenomenon of bruce jenner now i may get in trouble for saying this but i call him bruce jenner because he is technically a biological male even though he identifies as caitlyn jenner but he posed on the cover of vanity fair magazine in 2015 with the title call me caitlyn and from that moment when an olympic gold medalist transgendered or transitioned it brought this into the forefront of our culture where it's just all over the place it's taken our nation by storm there's a book written for four-year-olds called the gender fairy and this is what it states in the gender fairy book only you know whether you're a boy or a girl no one can tell you no one can tell you whether you're a boy or girl only you can do that now think about the concept let's say we sat down with somebody 150 years ago and i sat down with somebody 150 years ago and i said to them i feel like a woman trapped in a man's body back then they would have treated me for a mental illness because of it was something in my mind with the proliferation of technology technology hormone therapy surgeries all of these types of things we are now at a point where we can pretty much do whatever we want to do with the human body back in the fall president now president biden backed in canada biden was at a town hall interview i know if you remember this and there was questions from the audience and a mother of an eight-year-old transgender girl cited several of trump's trump administration's anti-transgender policies including the ban on trans people serving openly in the military asked biden the question how he would protect the lies and the rights of lgbtq people and here's what biden said i will flat out just change the law eliminate those executive orders there should be zero discrimination and the whole issue was in our president and vice president's worldview an eight-year-old should have the right to be whatever they want to be so the whole transgender confusion that's going on in our culture that kind of was launched by the whole bruce jenner caitlyn jenner phenomenon okay the second issue that's happened maybe over the past more like 10 12 15 years former evangelicals who have now embraced same-sex marriage and affirming all homosexual relationships have gone full bore on the lgbtq who needs more handouts what no i i recopied it so i could have it on extra pages okay so i'm going to ducking so she's not on the camera i'm i'm going to name drop like i said because i think it's important for you to understand these names um so these are these are evangelicals people we would say are bible-believing christians who at one point believed the way we do but now have shifted their view and have become affirming accepting celebrating of the whole homosexual agenda gay marriage matthew vines is a very important person that you need to know about he is the founder and executive director of the reformation project and he came out with a very famous book called god and the gay christian the biblical case in support of same-sex relationships so he went and did a lot of study and came up with the conclusion that the bible's okay with homosexual relationships he preached a sermon at his home church in topeka kansas he is now on the front runner of basically the one arguing for a biblical case for gay marriage and those types of things and so basically his reformation project is a pro lgbtq based christian nonprofit organization that basically helps pastors lead their churches to embrace the gay agenda matthew vines he's very very influential because he wrote a book the biblical case this is not a secular person this is a person using the bible to support his views okay another name is a person named dr david gushy dr david gushy was a former professor at the southern baptist theological seminary the seminary i got my doctorate from then he went on for many years at union seminary our union university which is a southern baptist university from 1996 to 2007. so he was one of the leading ethicist among southern baptists among our tribe then a few years ago he basically said we got our theology wrong and now he identifies as a progressive christian he's denounced all of the things he taught before and he believes that the bible is okay with gay gay marriage and things like that so david gushy was a seminary professor that a lot of southern baptist pastors sat under who's now said we got our theology wrong okay so that's more academia jyn hat maker i mentioned her a couple weeks ago she is an author of women's books she had an hgtv show my big family renovation in 2016 she came out in favor of gay marriage and she was on an interview and they asked her can a gay marriage be holy before god and she says oh yes gay marriage can be holy it's a holy expression of love before god and so now she's a supporter of black lives matter and she is a progressive christian and life away christian bookstores which is again our bookstore chain pulled all over books because of her stance on on that so again a former evangelical christian who basically says we got it wrong now they're embracing these things okay the one that saddens me is joshua harris i've known about josh harris all the way back in the late 90s because when i was a youth pastor in the late 90s he wrote an influential book called i kiss dating goodbye have you ever heard that one it was on courtship it was big in the late 90s early 2000s when i was a youth pastor he became a pastor of a mega church in maryland he spoke at a lot of the conferences that i went to especially in reform circles he was a big-time speaker he had a lot of young people coming to his um conferences i mean he was kind of like the poster child for he was like the poster child for the up-and-coming kind of like the next john piper-ish the next type of leader well in 2019 he came out as an atheist and said what i believed was wrong he pastored a church he said what i believe is wrong and i'm now in favor of gay marriage and he basically divorced his wife i'm not saying he's gay but here's what he said he wrote this on instagram he says i regret standing against marriage equality for not affirming you and your place in the church and for any ways that my writing and speaking contributed to a culture of exclusion and bigotry i hope you can forgive me what i said no that's what he said no he's talking to gay people okay okay sorry i'm not i'm trying to understand what you're saying jerry okay so the second big issue is former evangelical bible-believing christians who've either come out as atheists and said i've denied what i believed i got it wrong i've evolved i'm now you know i'm in a better place of understanding human sexuality okay the third issue this is where it gets dicey conservative evangelicals who are making confusing statements about human sexuality and gender so these are people that we would consider to be solid they're not heretics they're christians they're leaders but what they've said is confusing and i'm going to pick on somebody and i may get me in trouble the president of our southern baptist convention j.d greer he's been the president for the past two years he's pastor of a large church in north carolina he quoted jyn wilkin i don't know if you know who jen wilkin is she's also an author they're solid people but this is what he said that which makes it confusing in a sermon that he was preaching on romans chapter 1 which we'll look at later on he said this he said we ought to whisper about what the bible whispers about and we ought to shout about what it shouts about and the bible appears more to whisper when it comes to sexual sin compared to it shouts about materialism and religious pride now that's not heretical but it's confusing what's he saying so let me just ask you a question does the bible quote unquote whisper about sexual sin okay does the bible talk about pride does the bible talk about materialism does the bible talk about sexual sin okay is the bible clear okay so here's i hope i don't want to look into his motives of why he's doing this here's what i think the motive is right now okay this is where this is where i think good-hearted people are at solid evangelical good-hearted pastors and leaders want to reach the culture they want to reach non-believers and they don't want to come across as jerks they don't want to come across as unoffensive they want to make friends with the culture and that's admirable we want to see people get saved but let me just remind you is the bible a friendly book okay can't if you're going to stand on the bible are you always going to make friends with the culture no you're going to cut against the culture and so it's confusing statements like the bible whispers about sexual sin because if you take that to its full conclusion then you can kind of say well those sexual sins aren't that big of a deal because the bible's kind of silent what's the difference between whisper and silent you see the slippery slope there okay the other thing is the re-voice conference i talked about this a few weeks ago this is more in the presbyterian church of america which is another conservative evangelical denominations very similar to ours and the whole issue with this is that the pastor of the church that put on this conference at memorial presbyterian church in st louis back in 2018 the pastor greg johnson identifies as a gay christian he uses that terminology i'm a gay christian now he chooses to be celibate okay and we'll talk about that later on but the whole question is should you put the moniker gay before christian or is that confusing and so there's um this whole issue of i have same-sex attraction i don't act out on it but my identity is that of a gay man i'm not talking about myself i'm talking about him okay greg johnson would say i have same-sex attraction i don't act out on it i'm remaining celibate i'm not married to another man but my identity is that of i'm going to call myself a gay christian so if somebody comes to my church i'm going to say i'm a gay christian so how do you deal with language like that so issue number one is the whole transgender confusion with the whole caitlyn jenner phenomenon number two is former evangelicals that have abandoned the faith and have come out in favor of the gay gay marriage engaged into number three is current evangelical solid people making confusing statements that haven't helped and in the fourth issue the passing of grand sweeping legislation systemic grand sweeping legislation back in june of 2015 you all know the supreme court uh ruled on obergefell and hodges basically it made gay marriage legal in all 50 states across the land okay so once gay marriage was legalized codified embedded into christians or embedded into the nation's legislation the law things happened real fast think about how long it took for the gay rights movement to work in america think about how long it's taken since 2015 for the whole transgender movement to gain traction not that long three to four to five years now back in may of 2019 the house of representatives passed the equality act it was not passed in the senate now that the senate has a 50 50 split with kamala harris being the tiebreaker i think that there's going to be the passing or potential bringing up of the equality act very shortly um what is the equality act it basically denies freedom of religion to churches and religious schools or colleges based upon our biblical understanding of gender and human sexuality let me give you the actual wording of the bill this was this was the wording of the bill as it has passed in the house now they may reword it when it goes before the senate but currently the house bill's wording is this okay the bill prohibits the religious freedom restoration act of 1993 from providing a claim defense or basis for challenging such protections the bill prohibits an individual from being denied access to a shared facility including a restroom a locker room and a dressing room that is in accordance with the individual's gender identity okay okay here's the issue if you are a church or a christian organization you cannot under this law claim religious exemption and say that we have a religious exemption based upon the first amendment to say we're not going to do that it says you can't do that so basically what the equality act is basically doing is just going in and saying your first amendment rights to freedom of religion are being impinged upon because you can't as if you're a christian school and you basically have a stance on the whole issue of biblical sexuality you can't say well we're basing our decision not to abide by that on the first amendment it's going to force you to do it and it could possibly do this let's say we have a public meeting here at our church let's say we open up the church for a vbs carnival this summer and the equality act passes and somebody comes in to our building technically legally they could use whatever restroom they wanted to use if they perceive themselves to be a man or a woman they'd have to go into whatever restroom they wanted to do we couldn't tell them you have to go if you're a man you have to go in the man's restroom if you're a woman you have to go in the women's restroom those types of things and then there could be fines for pastors or people that speak out against homosexual practice or transgender and things like that with fines so that is coming possibly okay so those are some hot button issues that are happening right now that are kind of coming together as a vortex in the world in which we live okay so what is the truth that's under attack okay here's the truth okay the fifth truth we're looking at these these truths we're on truth number five tonight here it is god's written word remains the eternal and righteous standard which defines the issues of marriage gender and human sexuality god's written word remains the eternal and righteous and final standard which defines all these issues how is this under attack what's the attack today we've evolved over time to see that the bible is outdated on these issues and we must be open affirming and accepting on how people express their gender marriage and sexuality we need to evolve we need to be a little bit more understanding that's not really what the bible meant so let's ask the question how do we get here in america so i'm going to take us on a little history journey so tonight's going to be a little bit of history but i think it's important for you to understand how this has taken hundreds of years to get to okay so frederick or we can call him friedrich nietzsche if you want to call him by his frederick nietzsche for those of us that don't speak german was a philosopher back in the late 1800s who basically was famous for the philosophy that god is dead there should be no objective truth and basically argue that christianity is repressive and needs to give way to unlimited freedom so starting i was telling don the other day a lot of wicked things have come out of germany i'm not against germany but a lot of wicked things have come out of germany a lot of good things like martin luther and the protestant reformation but there's some strange things that have come out of germany and austria and kind of in that central europe so basically here's a movement that's coming afoot in okay so think about all the things that are coming together in the mid to late 1800s who else i didn't put this in here but who else came out with the major book that has catapulted the culture and science and history anybody know what was written in the late mid to late 1800s charles darwin the origin of the species okay so you got charles darwin origin of species you got friedrich nietzsche god is dead christianity is repressive and then also in austria during this time you have sigmund freud sigi sigmund freud if you ever watch bill and ted's excellent adventure and they call him sigiona if you've ever seen that movie it's funny sigmund freud okay the psychoanalyst the the famous psychologist psychiatrist and his big issue was that we should not have any guilty feelings if you have any guilty feelings those feelings need to be dealt with because you're repressing those feelings and he was very big on children should be able to express their sexuality at an early age without any christian boundaries okay so do you see the theme here nietzsche christianity is repressive freud christianity is repressive how do you get rid of the repressive repression let them have the freedom to experience and express their sexuality okay in america alfred kinsey this is kind of in the the early part of the the 20th century the kinsey report he published the famous kinsey report the first was on male behavior it came out 1948 the second one was on female behavior came out in 1953. there's a lot of problems with his data if you go back and look at it but basically what he did he basically opened the door in america to normalize homosexual behavior i think in the kinsey report he basically argued that ten percent of the male population at that time he said was was homosexual there's been a lot of debate about that he also said that pornography should be normalized and he also basically gave room to the sexual revolution now 1953 i don't have the exact date but around that time maybe two or three years later what came out in america that changed history as far as sexual ethics the publication of playboy magazine hugh hefner i think playboy i don't know the exact date i don't have it in my notes but i think it's in the mid 50s so around the mid 50s you've got the kinsey report you've got playboy and you've got all of these things coming together um right kind of leading up to the 1960s which was the sexual revolution okay so that's kind of a trajectory of psychology and um sexual ethics let's talk about karl marx because it all comes together because i'm going to talk about marxism cultural marxism identity politics critical theory all these types of things and these these terms may not mean anything to you tonight and i'll explain them to you so karl marx born 1818 died 1883 obviously you know wrote the communist manifesto he basically he demanded the end of private property private property is bad you need to redistribute wealth to alleviate poverty and so he was rabidly against capitalism and he viewed religion as the opiate of the masses basically he popularized an atheistic worldview in europe so what's happening here with marx and nietzsche and darwin and a lot of these philosophies and world views that are coming out of europe they're basically saying we're taking god out of the equation christianity is repressive we need to have people be liberated to be able to express themselves now here's something you need to know about karl marx because he was anti-capitalist he said that the biggest impediment to having a redistribution of wealth or socialism do you know what the biggest impediment was to that what what what slowed it down that needed to be get gotten rid of the nuclear family he argued that nuclear families with a father with a father and mother married for a lifetime with kids that bred inequality because they were intact and because they were intact they had more resources they had more privilege they um it led to oppression so if there is to be equality of outcome where everybody has equality of outcome nuclear families needed to be eliminated to level the playing field because a single mom doesn't have the same chance as a intact family so then instead of having everybody aspire to an intact family let's get rid of the nuclear family and and just have everybody you know kind of dismantled there now frederick ingalls co-wrote the communist manifesto alongside with marx he argued that women are oppressed in traditional families and they need to be break free of these constraints by joining the workforce okay so he was kind of the beginning of the whole women's lib thing i'm not against i'm not against women working outside the home that's not my argument here but what his argument was back in the 1800s was this if you broke up the nuclear family and you got the mom outside of the home in the workforce that would force the children to be in state-sponsored schools so they could be indoctrinated to communism and socialism and then the nuclear family would be broken up and that these children would be able to express themselves okay so you have all of these issues coming together psychology sociology economics and capitalism sexual revolution all coming out of europe in the eighteen hundreds hits america in the 1900s and so karl marx's theory came to a head in germany in what's called the frankfurt school it birthed cultural marxism which is a little bit different than capitalism i'll talk about cultural marxism here in a moment it's based upon marxism these guys from the frankfurt school eventually moved to new york city and became teachers and faculty at columbia university and so cultural marxism got embedded right in the center of new york city in the education system and one of the key leaders of this was a man he was an italian man named antonio gromski gromski was born 1891 lived to 1937. so gromski argued that institutions like the nuclear family and the church oppressed people who needed to be set free he held to what is called a theory of cultural hegemony now cultural hegemony it's kind of a technical word in cultural marxism hegemony comes from the greek word to mean ruler so hegemony means there's a ruling class okay basically he's arguing that those who are in power those who are the hegemony those who are the ruling class they keep that power by enforcing their norms and values such as traditional christian morality on the masses and so these power structures must be overthrown so there's equity for those in the victim class so what cultural marxism does is it basically does not treat people as individuals but more as classes there's an oppressor class there's a victim class and i'll talk about that in just a moment herbert marcuse is basically the father of the modern progressive cultural marxist movement he was the one who basically instigated the sexual revolution in the 1960s across college campuses in america um basically he brought together the theolo he brought together the theories of karl marx and sigmund f freud together and basically influenced all those college students in the 60s the free love the sexual revolution that kind of erupted the woodstock type stuff he was kind of father of all that now he said people need freedom from repressive institutions such as the nuclear family traditional christianity he called for ultimate freedom and ushered in the sexual revolution where anything goes he's the father of critical theory okay so i want you to notice the two things that these leaders have been saying since the 1800s we got to get rid of god and we've got to get rid of the nuclear family and they haven't stopped so when you see these attacks happening in our culture they're going straight for the family because if they can disassemble the family which is the smallest building block of culture they can win the battle and if they can take god out of the equation they've won so it's a attack on god and its attack on the nuclear family and this goes all the way back to the 1800s so this has been happening for almost 200 over 200 years of these philosophies gaining ground in europe moving to america and now this is the water we swim in it's entrenched it's embedded in american culture now i want to talk about intersectionality and identity politics um are you guys familiar with the term intersectionality or identity politics let me kind of explain that um this is a view this is part of critical theory so this whole cultural marxism critical theory it's a view that historically in america at least let's just leave it in america there's been a hegemony again there's been a ruling class so historically since america's beginning there's been a ruling class of the privileged okay who have been the privileged oppressors all these years people that look like me and i mean that literally a white educated heterosexual judeo-christian male white christian heterosexual males have dominated culture for 250 years they have oppressed other groups and those at the bottom of the power structure are the oppressed victims so historically people of color people that are disabled lgbtq so intersectionality is the view that as many boxes as you can take off in the in the victim class the greater your victimhood so for example if you are a white heterosexual christian male just by virtue nothing about you individually but because you fit that class you're automatically guilty of privilege you're automatically guilty of oppression you're just basically systemically bad but if you are a african-american lesbian disabled person that gives you greater points in culture because you've been victimized and so intersectionality is bringing all these different groups together to bring your identity so it's no longer you're an individual if you're identified by whatever group you are in so cultural marxism or critical theory states that the greatest human problem is oppression by white heterosexual males christian who have historically been in power and have subjugated women people of color and lgbtq so what's the solution to this problem if the problem is there's a power class of white christian men what's the answer to get rid of them is it incremental change to electing the right politicians so it happens slowly over time no the oppressive class needs to be totally destroyed by burning down all existing structures down to the ground which are systemically racist or oppressive in order to redistribute wealth influence and power to the victim class how does this come about the cultural marxists the critical theorists must infiltrate and change every facet of society down to the judges at the court level the professors in academia the pastors in the pulpit the politicians that make the laws the media entertainment social media and most importantly the public education system so ultimately the only way systemic oppression can be overthrown is through a revolution so the oppressed class needs to be canceled overthrown or called out there's no wiggle room for oppressors to repent or to be innocent so the oppressor class by its very nature automatically is guilty of privilege they must be canceled censored or shamed not because of individual sins but by mere identification with the group okay in the past or a biblical view of it you commit an individual sin you're responsible for that individual sin you ask forgiveness for that sin and you repent of that sin now according to this view you're guilty whether you've committed of individual sin by virtue of what group you're in just by existing so the only way that you can atone for your sins is to become woke that's the term they're using now you need to join the clause you need to overthrow the power structures you need to affirm or join in with the victim class so your primary moral duty is to stand in solidarity with the victim class by protecting defending and accepting everything they do so if you disagree with gay marriage or you disagree with the transgender movement or you disagree with abortion or you disagree with anything that the bible speaks about you will be cancelled or labeled as a bigot hateful or even dangerous you must be silenced you must not be allowed to speak and you must not only accept these views but you must celebrate them and if you don't you must go through sensitivity training reprogramming indoctrination and other educational activities to get on board with this new worldview any dissent or disagreement brings shame cancellation and censorship to your free speech and freedom of religion victimhood becomes the highest moral virtue along with the idol of self-expression now i know this is a lot of cultural information and we're not getting into the bible but i want you to be aware of what the language is being used by the world right now okay the language is changing from equality to equity okay what's the difference historically in america and even by the bible equality means that all humans have dignity as created in the image of god everyone has the inherent or innately right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness we see this in the declaration of independence where all men are created equal we see this in the 14th amendment that all people are equal protection under the laws so traditionally speaking the word equality means that the government exists to protect those enable rights as well as to make sure those that nobody infringes fringes or violates those rights okay so here's the thing i've said this before the government does not give you these rights god gives you these rights it's the government's job to protect those okay in the new cultural marxism intersectionality critical theory the government's the one that gives you the rights and they can determine what is right and wrong and you better get on board whereas the traditional view is all men are created equal by their creator and they're endowed with certain enable rights among those are life liberty the pursuit of happiness now equity on the other hand not equality but equity means that each group should receive the same outcome as every other group everybody should have the same outcome so everybody should be the same and if somebody excels and does well you need to take away from them and give to those that aren't so that the outcome is the same for everybody so let me give you an example i'm never going to dunk like lebron james or michael jordan now all men are created equal i can go try out for the bulls or i can go try out for the lakers and i can try out and i can go on the layup line and do a layup but i have limitations i'm never going to get to be like those basketball players or football players or athletes because some people are just created with more talent and they're taller and they're faster okay so in the equity view we need to bring everybody down so that everybody gets a trophy you know that the kind of culture everybody gets a trophy because we have we can't have anybody excelling there's got to be a quality of outcome and if somebody does really well you take away from them and you redistribute that wealth and resources to others who don't have it so that everybody has the same thing that's socialism okay equity is just another word for socialism it's an infringement upon the god-given rights now let's talk about morality because nowadays when people say something's immoral or something's moral they mean something totally different than what we mean as christians so what is morality in this world of intersectionality critical theory and cultural marxism what is what is morality and what's what's moral and what's immoral okay it is immoral immoral to say that marriage is between one man and one woman because that's oppressive that's bigoted that's hateful it's immoral to say that you cannot say marriage is between one man and one woman that's immoral it's immoral to say that there are only two genders male and female that's a moral you can't say that it's immoral to say that sex outside of marriage is sinful you have no right to say that it's a moral but it is the height of morality it's the greatest thing to affirm and celebrate any and all forms of sexual behavior because it allows people to be free and be who they want to be now but that is a long introduction you guys are ready to get to the bible so i'm going to do three things tonight three questions number one what does the bible say about this issue number two what are the objections that people have to the bible and number three how should we respond okay so the bible speaks let's just go right to the very beginning so let's go to genesis 1 27 and i know this is rudimentary and fundamental but we've got to start with where god starts because god's standard god's created order how god did it this goes back to truth number one that the sovereign lord is creator and ruler of all things he created all things he governs the universe he sets the rules he sets the laws he sets how things are to be so genesis 1 27 so god created man in his own image in the image of god he created them male and female he created them this should not be under dispute who's the creator god how did he create male and female god created okay now when god created male and female what did he do with those two adam and eve that he created let's go into genesis chapter 2. start in verse 21 so the lord god caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh and the rib that the lord had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man now i want you to stop right there who was created first the man the woman was created out of the man but i want you to notice something at the end of verse 22 god brought her to the man okay here's the thing about eve that no but no other woman has ever had most women at their wedding who walks them down the aisle their dad their brother god walked eve down the aisle and brought her to adam kind of picture it that way god brought eve to adam now how did adam respond when he sees this not a monkey not a giraffe not a chihuahua what does he do it says this verse 20 the man said this at last in hebrew aha awesome that's really at last this is bone of my bones the flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh and the man and his wife are both naked and they were not ashamed okay so god is the creator god created the male and female god perform perform the first marriage from the very beginning god set up in his universe in his world how things are supposed to be so god's plan from the very beginning is that marriage would be a lifelong covenant union between one man and one woman anything outside the bounds of one man and one woman in a binding covenant of marriage is not biblical nor is it right but yet what i just said is considered hateful but what have i just done i've read the first two pages of the bible where god defines the terms now we know what happened with adam and eve they brought sin into the world okay so we have to wrestle with that romans 5 12 just as sin came into the world through one man that's talking about adam death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sin okay let's let's level the playing field here okay because i do not want to come across tonight as one who's picking on a particular sin and not being honest with the fact that all of us are born sinners okay so we're gonna level the playing field tonight and say that because adam and eve sinned because adam sinned and brought sin into the world we talked about this last week every single one of us is born sinful we're born corrupt if not for the grace of god you and i could do a whole lot worse than what we've done because there's the the desire in there to act out upon that we may not ever act out upon it but there's that desire so all of us are in need of grace all of us are sinners all of us have fallen short okay we're born with a sin nature but we need to be very careful just because we're born with a sin nature god does not lower his standards of behavior i've heard some people say i'm just born that way i can't help but i'm born that way okay let's just say for instance it was scientifically discovered that there's an alcohol gene or an adultery gene or even a homosexual gene that causes a person to be born that way does it still make the behavior right i got drunk i killed somebody you go before the judge well i'm just born that way i had an alcohol gene yeah but you still got drunk and killed somebody so you and i were born fallen and here's the point every single person is going to struggle with some type of sin for some it is sin for some it is gender dysphoria where they're confused for some it is alcoholism for some it could be gossip for some it could be anger for some it could be pornography for some it could be um cussing i mean every single person is born with some type of struggle so we're all sinners in need of grace but the point is god never lowers his bar on what he says is is required just because we're born sinful his standards still still there now the old testament says in leviticus 18 22 you shall not lie with a male as with a woman it's an abomination i don't have time to go into that word abomination the hebrew word but it definitely means something that is grievous horrendous corrupt flagrantly against god's plan it's an abomination something that god hates something that god does not approve of so what i want to do tonight is i want to take us to three new testament passages that teach on the issue of homosexuality what does the bible say because remember matthew vines wrote a book the bible in homosexuality and he's made a case saying it's okay so what does the bible say so let's let's turn to romans chapter 1 and i hope that you understand that when we read this the bible does not whisper okay about this especially when verse 18 says the wrath of god's being revealed from heaven i don't think that's a whisper when it talks about god's wrath being revealed okay so let's turn to romans chapter 1 verses 24 through 32. therefore god gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about god for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who's blessed forever amen for this reason god gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error and since they did not see fit to acknowledge god god gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness evil covetousness malice they're full of envy murder strife deceit maliciousness their gossip slanders haters of god insolent haughty boastful inventors of evil disobedient to parents foolish faithless heartless ruthless though they know god's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die they not only do them but they give approval to those who practice them i'm going to just talk about a few things that this passage teaches first of all i want you to notice that it addresses both male and female homosexual conduct gay male as well as lesbian behavior second and this is the big thing in this passage of scripture in verse 26 the reason that homosexual conduct and passions are prohibited is because paul calls it in verse 26 contrary to nature contrary to nature now what is natural versus unnatural okay what is what is paul saying here when he says homosexual desire homosexual relationship is contrary it's against nature why would he say that what did god do when he created adam and eve from the very beginning he established by created order by the nature of how things are the way humans are to relate to one another sexually now what matthew vines and others that are not buying this passage would say they'll say that when paul uses natural and unnatural he means that a person is acting in a way against their innate sexual preference so let me just say it the way they would say it if you're heterosexual and you engage in homosexual acts that's against your nature but if you're born a homosexual you're not acting out against nature because you're doing what you were born to do so the homosexual behavior is not unnatural that's just the way you were born you understand what they're saying so that they're saying if you're a straight guy and you have a gay relationship that's against nature because you're born straight but if you're born gay and you act out upon that that's natural because that's the way you were born that's not what paul's saying here because there's some key words here that are also used in verse 26 god gave them up to dishonorable passions for the women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature they exchanged they exchanged verse 27 the men abandoned the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passions for one another committing shameless acts with men and receiving themselves a due penalty of their error they were consumed with passion literally to burn he calls these acts shameless so paul deals with passions desires and actions and how does he describe the homosexual behavior and actions here how does he describe it he calls it impure he calls it dishonorable passions contrary to nature and shameless acts okay so let me just ask you is the bible whispering here about homosexual conduct or behavior it seems pretty clear what paul is saying now he says there in verse um where are we here yeah and verse at the end of verse 27 they received in themselves the due penalty for their error he calls it an error and a penalty what's the penalty for their error well there's two two ways you can look at this some scholars think it could be the sexual perversion itself as the punishment i think it's speaking of eternal punishment on that final day either way paul calls it impure dishonorable contrary to nature shameless and an error worthy of punishment okay then in verse 32 after he lists you know homosexuality he listens all these other things are kind of basically against the ten commandments he gets down to verse 32 and he addresses two issues here first those who practice such things deserve to die practice the word practice is in the present active tense in the greek which means a lifestyle in other words if you be very clear here if you live in an unrepentant lifestyle of homosexual behavior and activity that is shameful and it is under god's wrath because if you go back up to verse 18 the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and righteousness okay so the second one i think is the one that most christians struggle with not only do they do them but they give approval to those who practice them i'm not gay but it's okay that they do it i'm not going to judge them those who give approval or condone homosexual practices along with these other sins are also committing a sin so even if you don't engage in homosexual behavior by condoning it you're committing a sin according to the bible that's where the rub is because in today's culture i'm not going to be a homosexual i'm not going to act out on it but what they do behind closed doors that's their business i'm not going to call it out i'm not going to condemn it i'm not going to call it a sin you know if they want to get married you know gay marriage that's up to them i'm just i'm going to be silent i'm not going to say anything about it what does the bible say here if you give approval to those who practice them you're sending to give your approval all right let me stop because i think i've talked a lot are there any questions before we go on because we'll look at two other verses that teach this issue i just need to take a drink all right let's turn to first corinthians 6 9-11 this is another so this is i'm giving you the top three big ones in the new testament and of course somebody's going to argue these are all from paul and paul was a repressive christian and you know we'll get to the objection here in a moment which jesus didn't say anything about it progressive christians have problems with paul anyway first corinthians 6 9-11 all right do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of god okay paul who are the unrighteous and what are you meaning here they won't 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 greeting or 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 now let me just say that homosexuality is one sin listed among many there so we don't want to just pick on that but since we're talking about this issue tonight we need to be very careful that we read what it says here if you continue in these things in unrepentant sin you'll not inherit the kingdom of god what does that mean you won't go to heaven it'll prove out that you're not saved if you continue in these things now the esv uses the terminology men who practice homosexuality there's actually two greek words that are used there in the original language and i wanted to find them for you and we need to be technical tonight because the bible's technical and we're all adults here okay so the first greek word used there is literally man-coitus man sex sexual relationships between men men sleeping in the same bed together it means sexual acts between two males man coitus that's the first word used there there's a second greek word used there which means soft referring to the passive or the effeminate partner who plays the role of the female or of the the softer i don't even know what you want to call it partner so the esv kind of cleans it up men who practice homosexuality but literally if you want to read the little text it's men having sex together and those who are the softer i don't know what the terminology is the effeminate one yeah so it takes both both parts there now it is consensual sex between two men it's talking about here and by extension i think if you go back to romans it could be two women but literally the word that's used there is man coit it's not woman coitus but man man sex okay now some have argued that paul here was referring to what was popular back in that greek roman culture a master slave relationship it was called pederasty a pederasty was where you would have adult males like a slave owner or somebody in nobility would have sex with younger boys and basically what some would say is that's what paul's calling out here paul's calling out abusive sexual relationships where like kevin spacey like an older homosexual man's taking advantage of a younger sexual boy there's a predator that's what paul's calling out he's calling out pederasty okay here's the problem with that there is a special greek word for pederasty and paul could have used that if he wanted to and he did not he used mann coitus soft partner so what paul is doing here is he's saying that the bible condemns consensual sex acts between two males but i want to be very careful that we minister the gospel here because i want you to notice verse 11 and such were some of you okay in corinth corinth had temple prostitutes that would go and there were male and female and homosexual temple prostitutes as a matter of fact if you lived in corinth back in that day it was almost like a pejorative term like corinth would be like what happens in vegas stays in vegas the town was so notorious for its sexual immorality that if you it had a nickname if you were sexually promiscuous you were called you played the corinthian you were from corinth automatically and so out of that culture of homosexual behavior paul says some of you have come out of that some of you've been saved from that that's what you were notice what he says there and such were some of you but you're washed you're sanctified you're justified in the name of the lord jesus christ and by the spirit of our god so here's what this passage teaches homosexual sin can be repented of you can be delivered from it god can save you out of that you can repent from that you can be washed you can be delivered and you can be set free from that the flip side is if you continue in that in unrepented sin you will not inherit the kingdom of god so there is hope of forgiveness there is hope that god can save you out of that because paul says some of you were this some of you were homosexuals but god saved you out of that let's look at one more passage of scripture let's go to first timothy 1 8-10 very similar to what paul said in first corinthians chapter 6 but he makes a little bit of a difference here he's going through the 10 commandments basically talking about lawlessness so first timothy chapter 1 verse 8 now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully understanding this the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and sinners for the unholy and profane for those who strike their fathers and mothers for murderers the sexually immoral men who practice homosexuality enslavers liars perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed god with which i have been entrusted okay again it's a list there that he gave back in first corinthians but notice again he has men who practice homosexuality it's the same word used back in first corinthians chapter six man cortes coitus a man who practices sexual intercourse with another man but i want you to notice what paul adds there at the end of verse 10 whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine and not in accordance with the gospel so is homosexuality in accordance with the gospel and is it sound doctrine no okay so if we take these three passages together romans 1 the wrath of god is coming it's shameful it's dishonoring it's an error um it's unnatural first corinthians 6 you'll not inherit the kingdom of god first timothy 1 it's contrary to sound doctrine so let's just let the bible speak for itself and ask the question has the bible whispered on this issue or has it been clear it's been very clear and so any christian that would say gay marriage or homosexual activity or any of these types of things is okay they're not taking the scripture at face value for what it teaches you just kind of have to be rebellious against it and out and right deny what it says because it's very clear okay now let's dive into another issue that's very new and i'm not disversed in this because it's it's a transgender issue um 2007 a group of human rights activists yes jeff go ahead jesus didn't say anything about we're going to get to that we're going to get to objections and that's one of the objections so hold that thought you're thinking ahead hopefully we get to it i'm sure i'm sure we will all right so in 2007 there was a human rights group of activists that met in yogyakarta indonesia they drew up a series of demands they came together and said we want some demands and these demands were drafted and they're known as the yogyakarta principles and this these principles have been adopted by the u.n okay the u.n the european union i think canada and other governments around the world that basically says we're going to just wholesale embrace transgender and queer theory into culture and so they want it unlawful to hold to any christian traditional values related to what we believe about the bible um so let's let's let's talk about trained let's talk about definitions used by transgenders okay because this gets confusing sex this is the actual physical body parts your sex genitals chromosomes okay that's kind of the traditional way we would understand like there's male sex there's a female sex gender is a fairly new term in culture it's always been more your biology your biology you're you're biologically chromosomically physically a male biologically chromosomically physically a female okay gender identity is your own sense of self that's who you and your head feel yourself to be in other words you could be a physical biological chromosomal male but in your head and in your heart you feel like you're a female that's your gender identity and that's who you want to be regardless of your biological sex now that's that's just kind of in your head how you perceive yourself to be now there's gender expression that's how you present yourself to others by the way you dress by the way you talk by the way you act and then there's attraction who you're physically and romantically attracted to now there are some false claims of gender theory binary is bad what is binary binary means what two what does the bible say god made them male and female there are only two sexes gender whatever you want to call it i tend to use the word sex because genders can be whatever you want it to be there are only two biological chromosomal created beings male female but that's you can't say that that's bad gender is a spectrum back in 2018 i don't know if you know this but facebook began offering 71 different options for gender you know when you go fill out a form male female other facebook has 71 different ones you can identify as okay 71. that's getting a little extreme okay the concept of being a boy or a girl or a man or a woman that's just a social construct that's what society especially christian biblical societies has oppressively set upon you in culture that there's boys and there's girls there's men and there's women there's only two and then they also say that everyone has a gender identity that may be separate from your sex so all of you have a gender identity you just don't know it yet and it may you may be a male biologically and you may be a male gender identity but you may not be and so you need to discover that okay that's kind of the the false claims of gender theory okay let's look at their contradictions there's some logical contradictions in this okay let me ask you the question t lgbtq what does l stand for lesbian l g what does g stand for okay b bisexual t transgender q queer plus okay so okay let me ask you a question there's there's an internal illogic in that whole acronym because if you're lesbian and you're gay what does that assume you're a male you're a male attracted to males you're a female attracted to females but transgender says you can't just say there's male and female you understand what i'm saying so if you say lgbtq you're self-defeating the l and the g by adding the t because according to transgenderism there is no such thing as two does that make sense so so anyway there's like a logical yeah it's weird okay so here's some contradictions gender theory holds that gender is independent of biological sex and yet expects that biological sex may be altered to fit the individual's subjective sense of gender you understand what i'm saying i can think in my head that i'm a woman but i actually need to change my body to reflect that okay activists do not want gender dysphoria to be regarded as an illness yet they also demand costly medical interventions paid for by the taxpayer gender theory celebrates each person's freedom to live out their gender identity but if you want to detransition back to your original biological sex this is disallowed those who regret their sex change and want to get back they're shamed into silence i can tell you some stories about people that went through i've read read these people who went through transition transgender that either became a christian regretted it got saved and they went through the painful process of re-transitioning back to their original so they started out as a woman they became a man they felt convicted became a christian they transitioned back to a man they have been silenced and shamed for going back because they reneged on who they really were and so there's some shaming and some silence silencing okay let's talk about some common objections to this whole issue okay common objections that you may hear there's probably more but for the sake of time tonight okay objection number one what's the harm in two consenting adults choosing to live a homosexual lifestyle they aren't hurting anybody why should we interfere what happens behind closed doors is nobody's big business um i've heard people say you know abortion is definitely bad because it's killing a baby in a womb but but you know homosexuality is not hurting anybody there's just two people consenting you know it's not a big deal why should we be so rigid about that okay let's just say this we are not espousing an opinion we are simply declaring what god's word says on the issue so if we're to be faithful to the scriptures and stand before god on the day of judgment we need to be honest with his word and hold fast to what it says because paul said if you can if you approve of these things you're committing to sin now that doesn't mean you're a jerk that doesn't mean that you um hate them that you're bigoted and we'll talk about that later it just means that in all honesty if you're going to be honest with god and his word you've got to call it out as a sin and not be afraid to do so okay now this is something that's touchy i wrote the word we cannot i cannot in good conscience call homosexual marriage a true marriage because marriage has been defined by god as one man and one woman for a lifetime the culture obergefeld and hodges calls it a marriage but we can't call it marriage so here's the terminology i use it may not be nice but i don't know any of the terminology so called gay marriage if you put gay before marriage you're nullifying the meaning of marriage because god doesn't define it that way so if you're going to use the term gay marriage you've already bought into what the culture is saying you've already co-opted you've already you've already approved of and bought into the culture's definition of marriage um so you may have to change your terminology um of saying so-called gay marriage because it's not really now they perceive it to be but in god's eyes it's not all right objection number two it's hypocritical at best and hateful at worst to call out gay's ascending when you are also a sinner it's the height of being judgmental hypocritical why are you calling out the homosexuals when i know what you do on friday night when nobody's watching when you go to the bars and hang out your sins no different than these homosexual sins you're being hypocritical and yes if you are being hypocritical you're being hypocritical we talked about this a few weeks ago this is matthew's version of it matthew 7 3-5 why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but do not notice the log that's in your own eye how can you say to your brother let me take the speck out of your own eye when there's a log in your own eye you hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye if you're quick to be judgmental and call out homosexual behavior you better be careful that your lifestyle is not one that has a log coming out of it where you're doing something flagrant because in verse five once you take the log out once you repent once you're once you're not sin free but once you've repented and humbled yourself before the lord notice what jesus says in verse five you'll be able to take the speck out of your brother's eye he doesn't say that we can just brush sin under the carpet that we never need to address it or how dare you confront my sin now he says if you are a humble forgiven repentant sinner whose lifestyle is consistent you have every right to go take the speck out of your brother's eye you can confront their sin and gentleness another thing we need to be very careful of as christians is that we watch our language we need to announce all violence and derogatory statements against homosexuals and transgender people offensive language i'm not obviously i'm not going to say what they are here but you know what some of those are we need to be very careful that we don't advocate for violence or or hateful speech or any type of things that would there's still people created in the image of god that need salvation and we need to love them not accept or affirm what they're doing but love them okay now this gets to number three this gets to jeff this gets to your your statement jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality an argument from silence means that jesus condones it now let me just show you to show you the difference between jesus and paul jesus was living in jerusalem caesarea philippi predominantly jewish culture where they had the old testament and it was pretty much culturally accepted that homosexuality was wrong so a lot of times jesus didn't have to address it because his audience were jews that knew it was wrong paul on the other hand was going to these greek cities corinth philippi ephesus thessaloni thessalonica all these different places where they had major um homosexual issues where it was commonplace they were temple prostitutes and so the reason paul addressed it was because those people didn't have the old testament they didn't know god's law but even though jesus doesn't explicitly mention homosexuality he does mention sexual immorality mark 7 21-23 for from within out of the heart of a man come evil thoughts sexual immorality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit sensuality envy slander pride foolishness all these things come from within and they defile a person okay jesus uses the word sexual immorality which is the the greek word porneia again we we get our word porn or pornography from porneia and that word means any consensual intercourse between two persons who are not married to each other which although jesus doesn't come right out and use man coitus or the words that paul does his audience there in israel would understand that sexual morality included any type of sex that was not confined to one man and one woman in a covenant relationship and jesus also hearkens back to god's original plan in matthew 19 4-6 he answered have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh so they're no longer two but one flesh but therefore god has joined together let not man separate notice that jesus goes all the way back to creation says from the beginning god's original plan from the beginning was one man and one woman so he doesn't speak he doesn't necessarily use the word homosexuality but he goes back and he addresses god's original plan for marriage being between one man and one woman okay the other issue that's kind of become more popular now in evangelical circles is this it's okay to have same-sex desire as long as you don't act out on them that's more of a roman catholic view the roman catholic view says the desire is not sin as long as you don't act out on it which which would be let's take it to let's take it out of homosexual practice and put it heterosexual if i lust after a woman but yet don't commit adultery that lust is not a sin until i act out on it what some proponents are now saying is if you have same-sex attraction or you have desires for this person the same sex or you have a desire to change your gender but you don't act out on it that's not sin unless you act out on it but the bible teaches that impure and ungodly thoughts or desires arise in us even though we may never act out on them i don't think we're going to finish because we've got a few moments here let's um for the sake of time i'm just going to paraphrase there's there's these passages you guys can look at when you go home from romans 6 from romans 8 from colossians 3 first peter it all talks about how we are to put to death or that there are internal sins of the heart that aren't necessarily sins that you act out on so the bible is very clear that you can have passions you can have desires they're just as sinful as the actual acting out upon them so we don't make a distinction between the desire and acting out upon them but it seems like it's creeping into a lot of the evangelical world today is you can have the desires they're not sinful as long as you don't act out on them and what the bible teaches is both the desires and the actions are sinful and you need to deal with both okay how should we respond to this unbiblical world regarding sexual morality and expression let's talk about those who claim to be christians those who claim to be christians that are dealing with this issue okay there are two categories of saved people and i think we need to respond in two different ways the first category is a christian who struggles with same-sex attraction and identity issues but has never acted out on them with another person and has not crossed the line of physical sin okay there are those in our churches christians who do have that internal struggle they struggle with same-sex attraction they struggle with their identity but they've never crossed the line and like gotten into a relationship with somebody else or done that you need to come alongside them and let them know like i said earlier both the desire and the action are sinful and that even though you have those desires those desires need to be killed those desires need to be dealt with you need to ask god to give you strength to overcome those desires so that you don't act out on them we need to be willing to walk through that with people let it be a safe place for people to come share those hurts come share those struggles but we need to to not affirm them in that same sex attraction but to walk alongside them and say it's awesome that you haven't acted out upon it but still the desire is still simple too when we need to repent we need to work towards that okay but there's a second category i'm fearful this is becoming more the category among christians especially many that i know have grown up in this church not many but a few there are those who claim to be christian but yet have chosen homosexuality as their identity and have come out of the closet and are willfully living in open rebellion to god's command by engaging in homosexual conduct okay if you are a christian and you claim to be a christian and you're living a homosexual lifestyle that is sinful you need to repent you need to come back to the lord because there's those warnings of first corinthians that says you will not inherit the kingdom of heaven you will not go to heaven the wrath of god is upon you you need to repent you can't say i am a christian and continue in unrepentant sin as your lifestyle so i think we need to use some cautions in language i don't think we should use the term gay christian even if it means same-sex attraction that's never acted upon because the same sex desire and the action are sinful and should not be used as an identifying label ii corinthians 5 17 if anyone's in christ he's a new creation the oldest passed away behold the newest come let me just move down here to the biblical teaching anytime christians experience sexual attraction whose fulfillment in action or behavior would be sin they should recognize that attraction is something to be rejected and repented of this is true for all believers regardless of whether those attractions are the same sex or the opposite sex does that make sense if you have a desire that you know you're going to act out upon and it would lead to sin that desire itself is sinful as well it needs to be repented of whether it is same sex or opposite sex and we should not base our identity in our sexual identity but as the book i wrote we need to find our identity in the trinity and so if you want to know kind of the basis of the book i wrote were chosen adopted accepted by the father purchased forgiven righteous in the son regenerated and dwelt and sanctified by the spirit the most important part of our personhood is not found in sexual desire our identity our orientation but rather in our identity in the trinity and of course you've got another passage of scripture there i'm sorry that we went so fast and i didn't get through all the notes but i want to leave like three minutes for questions on such a deep topic two minutes for questions are there any man i know there's probably tons but we got two minutes any questions tonight dennis what's different than it was in sodom and gomorrah well if you go back to what i taught you earl what i said earlier about going all the way back to nietzsche and all these different societal factors there's been a whole cell effort by secular culture to indoctrinate the culture starting at a very early age when you have books for four-year-olds called the gender fairy and when you start introducing gay characters into disney movies into children's television and um when the equality act comes out and parents are gonna i mean schools are gonna have to start teaching that you've got a whole systemic indoctrination into the culture which makes it very very difficult to stand against it because to stand against it means to be shamed to be silenced to be maybe punished if you're a student in school to get a bad grade to be sent to the principal's office if you disagree you know go to sensitivity training a lot of different things are gonna you know yeah we are not in a majority at all the biblical worldview is in the minority and culture and it's seen as not only oppressive but dangerous and if you're viewed as oppressive and dangerous then the way people treat you is going to be very different so we need to be prepared for that so there's two ways you can live you can you can live according to the bible or you can give in which a lot of these former evangelicals have just said you know i'm just going to give in because i don't want to i don't want to stand up i don't want to pay the price it's easier just to go with the flow but here's what i say this is what i end with it may be easier to go with the flow but on the day of judgment who you're gonna stand before stand before god on that day were you on god's side or were you on the culture side yeah yeah well we could talk a lot about this subject so hopefully we didn't get turned off on facebook it's still is it still streaming okay good let's pray father thank you for this time lord help us to um it's a difficult subject and it's there's a lot of components we need compassion we need understanding we need truth lord we need courage there's so much confusion there's so much just years and years of things in our culture that have been like compounded to bring us to where we are today and it and lord we are truly swimming against the tide but lord we want to be true to your scriptures even if that means it costs us or we we need to be ready for

Channel: Emmanuel Baptist Church- Sterling

Views: 31

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: TjvK-biTGEg

Length: 89min 50sec (5390 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 04 2021