All right, it's 3.30 and I'd like to start so we can finish also on time. I have a bit of material to try to present to you and also hope for a little interaction and leave some time at the end for questions as well. I'm Mark Kelderman, I'm Dean of Students at Puritan Reformed, work with the students from day to day. It's a great privilege to be there and be able to do that ministry. My wife and I have also been involved with counseling for a number of years. I was in a pastorate in Burgessville, Ontario for 13 years. And since that time as well, we have involved ourselves, tried to serve in the way of counseling. And the whole area of sexuality, indeed, is one that impacts us today in the church in many different ways. I want to read simply a few verses from 1 Corinthians 6, and after a word of prayer, we'll begin. 1 Corinthians 6, mentioned by Dr. Thomas, and the idea of image-bearers and our self-image, who we see ourselves to be, is very important to this whole idea of our sexuality and the worldview that we ought to have. So 1 Corinthians 6, I'll begin at verse 15. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of Anharlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which is joined to Anharlot is one body? For two saith he shall be one flesh, but he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committh fornication sinneth against his own body. What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God? and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." Tying back to the idea of the indicative and imperative, you find it here again with the Apostle Paul. He is saying, you're bought with a price, therefore, live that way. Let's pray. Gracious God and Father, come to Thee at this moment to consider such an important topic in our culture, in our world, and in our churches today. I pray for wisdom, both in presenting as well as hearing what Thy Word has to say to us regarding this area of our lives, and give that we may be more fully in our minds and our hearts, persuaded of thy word and truth, and live out its realities if we are in Jesus Christ. And if we are not, that we would be convicted and desire to live in the way that leads to true peace and joy. Bless us in our churches as we increasingly find ourselves in this battle in which these sins in particular are coming to the foreground, not only around us and the world, but are present in our own hearts and in the congregation. So bless Thy church and help her to live in this world pure and holy. Hear our prayer, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to cover several points this afternoon. Four of them. First, why a workshop on sexuality? Why is that important today for us in our present time? I'd like to say, to just begin that, that if you go back to Paul's writing to the church at Corinth, really there is nothing new under the sun. Many of the sins, even the ideas of gender identity, we heard something of that, I believe, on Thursday night. These aren't new things, but maybe they put on a new face, but they are certainly facing us today. What are the worldview possibilities that we encounter as we labor in the church, as we live in this world? How do we arrive at a biblical worldview of sexuality? What does that look like? What is the Scriptures teaching us about our sexuality? And last, how does this practically unfold in light of the gospel? Well, there are issues that confront us in our world today that no matter how old you are, you probably can think only back a couple of years and maybe five years or 10. And certainly if you go beyond that, you realize the breadth of issues in our culture today that have so drastically changed over the last few years. Issues that at one time were never an issue for the church in many respects. If you go back probably 20, 30 years for most churches, the issues regarding sexuality probably only had to deal with divorce, maybe abuse. Today we're talking about homosexuality, transgender issues, so many things that affect our lives and the lives of those in the church. There are many unbiblical views regarding sexuality. And I want to have some participation at the beginning, and at the end I'll also hopefully have time for questions as well. But can you think of ways in which you maybe have been or you see others, Christians, who have been affected by the world's view, the worldview of the world, of sexuality? Anybody? Interesting. Posting on Facebook images that are immodest and coming from a girl who posted it saying she's beautiful, obviously, and wants other people to see it. Anything else regarding sexuality? How many of you have heard the expression, love equals sex. I think it's out there in our culture and many people buy into the idea that those two are synonymous when people are teenagers in school and a boy's going out with a girl is, if you love me, then... And so the two become very equated in movies and Hollywood and in our culture today. In marriage, sexuality in the marriage bed can be used in a manipulative way, a sinful way. There are those I have met, I've gone through the congregations in our own denomination, some in the free reform, presenting a biblical view of sexuality. And it was more or less a shock to me when an elderly gentleman came up to me and he said, after the presentation, my whole life, I've considered anything, even with my own wife in this area, to be sin. There are those who are Christians who have a wrong view of sex. There are also those who simply see sexuality as a biological need, just like we have a need to eat or to drink. So all these form, in some way, our understanding of sexuality. And sadly, sometimes it shapes our worldview of sexuality. And there are going to be questions in your church that you are going to face in the coming years. I used to teach biology at a high school level. I would talk to the students and open the discussion to the idea of what I thought they would be facing in years to come. And the big things back 25, no, probably 35 years ago, where when does life and death really take place? How long do you try to preserve life or when do you face the reality that death has come? And we face that reality because in those days, we're beginning to prolong people's lives. You had machines to keep them alive. And so these were moral, ethical questions that our young people were facing. The other things we were facing, and I asked the question without an answer, genetic modification. What happens when we become so technologically advanced that we're going to be able to incorporate certain genes and genetics of animals and place that into humans and you have some sort of mixture of the two coming forth? Will God permit this? What does that mean for salvation? These were the questions I laid out before the students. 20 years ago, I had no idea that the questions that we're going to be facing today, what about same-sex attraction? Is that something that people are born with or is it something that's part of our sinful disposition? What about gender identity. How do we deal with these questions in the church? It's coming. Two ladies, lesbians, married, impregnated, have children. One believes she's a male, gets a sex change. God converts them. they enter the church? How do you minister to them? How do you witness and embrace them? Is this really a man? Could he, she serve in an office? These are the questions your children, maybe you, are going to have to answer. And we need a biblical foundation of an understanding of our sexuality. Now, sexuality isn't all. That's another lie that the world has presented to us, as if sexuality is everything. It's mind-blowing. It's the way it's presented on every tabloid as you go through the checkout counter. It's unavoidable in our culture. But what I hope to say to you today from the scriptures indeed ought to be so changing to our whole understanding of how God made us so vastly different than the world, because we have an answer for this identity crisis in some sense this world is facing, our culture is facing. Jesus today, I believe, would meet with the homosexual and the transgender and eat and drink with them. Would we? I was thinking of the last talk in regard to suffering. Many times suffering, we can see on the face of it, someone loses a son like the Block family, and you feel it, you see it, you observe it. There are people in our culture, perhaps in our lives, who struggle and suffer with these very questions in their own being. Who am I? What is my sexuality? And this is a real suffering and a real need for believers in the church to be understanding and compassionate and caring and loving and coming alongside and ministering. Because the believer and the word of God is the only answer to these questions. So our culture's unfolding since the mid 1900s regarding views of sexuality. There are tough questions we will face. We need to follow Christ in light of all those things we have considered. Let's move on to the second major point, which is to deal with worldview and possibilities. Ultimately, there are only two. There are many diversities of worldviews that are un-Christian, and then there is the one that is Christian, biblical worldview. Just as Jesus, for the children who are here to give you an example, Jesus said there were several different kinds of soil. But ultimately, at the end of the day, there was one soil that bore fruit and all the others didn't. The same is true in regard to worldview. There are many ideas about how to view the reality of life, how to view if we slice it down to the thing we're considering this afternoon, to sexuality at this height that was talked about by Dr. Barrett. What are we seeing scripturally? That's the one view that can inform us how we're to live and carry out our lives in this world today. Now, most of the other views deal with a naturalistic view, viewing sexuality like they view sex between animals. It's just a biological need and something that we have built in us by nature, not recognizing that we are, as we read from 1 Corinthians 6, the temple of God, if we are believers, and His Holy Spirit dwells in us. All other worldviews do not hold to what I just presented to you as the biblical worldview that if we are in Christ and our identities in him, we are the temple of God and his Holy Spirit and ought to live holy. All the other worldviews have no such conception or idea. Most all would have the idea that our sexuality is simply sheer naturalness. It's simply sheer evolution and part of our just being and existence in a body. But Paul is saying we are body and soul. Therefore, also, we see that... What do we mean by worldview? What is our view of reality? How do we understand things that happen? What's going on around us? There is the ungodly worldview, which all others who do not hold to the scriptures adhere to. And you know that your worldview, at least you perhaps have heard that, your worldview, how you understand things, what you think about things, will then give rise to what you do. How you understand what you think is going to give rise to what you do in practice. View of our humanness. Do we understand we are created in the image of God? The world holds today and is promoting the idea of no absolutes. There is no absolute morality, no right or wrong. It's what feels good and what's up to you and what's up to maybe a consensus of culture and the world in which you live. There is to be tolerance and no prejudice. That's the ideas promoted by our culture and unchristian world today. And when we hold as Christians to the view of sexuality the scripture teaches, we are often called homophobic or sexophobic. But what would happen if the church would say, The unbeliever is Christophobic. We would no longer be tolerant or not prejudiced. And yet they can accuse us when we base our views not on what we have to say, but what the Word of God and the Creator of all is saying. We're the one accused of being intolerant and prejudiced. What an irony. There is another view and God gives it to us graciously in his word. That brings us to the third thought, our most lengthy part, to establish an understanding of a biblical worldview of sexuality. I wonder perhaps if maybe some of the things even that I hope to set before you Though you may have not put it together in this way, I'm trusting and hoping when we leave we have a much greater sense of awe and wonder about this area of our lives in which we have been created by God. Because as we think about how God sets forth this area of our life, If there's any way we have been affected by our culture and the ideas that are wrongly set before us, and we've drunk them in, they need to be put aside and put off. And the right things, the true things, the biblical things need to be put on. And the first thing we need to consider is we look at the word of God. as our starting point. Creation. How did God create us? He created us male and female. If you turn to Genesis 2, this is the focused account, if you will. First chapter is the great account of all the creation that God made. And then we zero in, in this chapter two, to focus upon what God has made in man and woman. The end of the chapter. Verse 21, And God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, now many times when we read this, we think Adam's continuing to speak. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. But when you go to the New Testament and Jesus is unfolding this and quoting it in Matthew, he is actually saying God is making this statement. Therefore shall a man leave a father and a mother and cleave, be joined unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. When I was a student back in the 90s at PRTS, we had, some of you may have heard the name, Dr. Greer from the Baptist College across the street. He had taught us a course in ethics. He's since passed away. But that course, along with many other things along the way, has had a profound effect on my understanding in this area of our lives and sexuality. And some of the things I'm going to set before you come from Him. God created us in His image, male and female. He created man so that he, man, humanity, would reflect His divine being. He created man and woman as a unity with a difference. Which means that man in his manliness reflects something of the image of God. And woman in her womanness reflects something of the image of God. And as a man, I can't reflect that component of woman-ness that I've been created to reflect, and vice versa. And today, the world and our culture is coming to the place where we're going to wipe out all distinctions of gender and become androgynous, where we're sort of nothing, or sort of everything. But God created with a unity with a difference. And this ties into the very topic we had last night on the Trinity. There is image male and there is image female. Now we talk about the roles of male and female. And we think somehow that this helps us define maleness and femaleness. But our maleness and our femaleness goes far beyond simply our role. My maleness is my identity, who I am in some respects. And a woman's femaleness is her identity, how God made her in this way to reflect Him in that way. It defines. My being male or someone being female defines who you are, your being, your essence. It's not your role, your activity, your doing that defines you. It's how God made you. And so God created man, a unity with a difference. And He wants His creature, He wants us, as His image bearers, to reflect His glory. He wants a man to reflect that character which He has created man with. He wants a woman to reflect that character of being that has been created with the woman-ness and the man-ness. And of course, God exists on a very different level than we do. We are creatures. He is creator. But we are like a copy of God in a sense. We are like God's transcription in this world. We are the set apart ones in this world to rule over this world as the ones placed here by God. To reflect, to image. This foundation is set before us in the first chapters of Genesis. We saw that again last evening, the Trinity, three persons in one, three in one, not three gods, but one God, but three. And there is this relationship and community in this triune being. There is love, there is respect. But they don't all do the same thing. They don't all serve the same function. The Father is a different function, if you will, than the Son. But they're all truly God. And in our culture, and we have subtly tied into that, and Dr. Murray also related to this in some respect. We begin, because of our experiences and our culture, begin to live like our worth and our value is dependent on what we do. What's the first question you probably ask someone when you meet them on the first time on the airplane? Other than your name, perhaps. What do you do? Because we have this subtle understanding of our worth, our value, our importance is linked to doing. And the real question, if we want community, if we want to know someone is, who are you? And we need to realize we are defined first of all not by what we do, but in who we are as God's image bearers. We are bearing the image of God. We're related to the Trinity. Our identity is reflected in our creation. And our world today has come to the point where this is so confused, so misunderstood, so that you see things like this. What is your identity? This woman has an understanding in fallenness of sinfulness, she believes she is a cat. We miss in our culture today the fundamental understanding of God and who we are. And once we are believers in Jesus Christ, we have heard that throughout this conference already, my identity changes from a servant and a slave to sin, to one who is set free and a child of the King. That's how we've been created. And now, though we've been in bondage, though we've been sunk in iniquity, we are now set free. Also in regard to our sexuality. Who we love, who I am, will determine what I do. So being a father, if there's a knock on the door at midnight, part of my being is, with fear and trepidation perhaps, to go to the door, see who's there. If a mother hears a child crying, part of her very being is to wonder what's wrong and to comfort. Marriage is said by God to point to this very thing of a union of man and woman, and it's to reflect something also that speaks of God himself. How doesn't God in many ways describe his relationship with people in this idea of marriage, which he created from the beginning to image him? And he compares himself in the Old Testament as the husband of his people, Israel. Isaiah 1, 21, Jeremiah 2, 20, and 3, and Ezekiel 16, and so on. You see, if we are in Christ, our identity, we've heard this in the past topics, our identity is with Him. We are one with Christ. And Paul fleshes that out in Ephesians. Not only is our identity in Him, but we are married to Him. We are His bride. And this picks up on the idea of this oneness in marriage, of not simply in sexuality, but how marriage has been designed by God for two, created distinct, yet in His image, to reflect Him, to be joined together as one. And communion, as the Trinity is in communion, in fellowship, in love, in service? Are we still basing our identity on what we do rather than who we are? Every human being has intrinsic value and importance. We are created in God's image. Think about this for one moment. In the Godhead, in the Trinity, we heard about Thursday night. Is the Spirit of any less value, importance than the Father or the Son? Or is the Son of any less value and importance than either of the others? No, their essence, who they are, constitutes their value. They are God. Who you are constitutes your value. If you're five years old, if you're a weak paraplegic because of an accident or disease, your value is who you are created in the image of God, impacted by sin, yes, but nevertheless of immense value. This is how we're to live. And God's creation is based upon, as we are seeing, two genders, male and female. And that gender is based upon our physical identity and our bodies that He's given to us, not according to our feelings or what we may think. And in light of these relationships then that we have been talking about that bring a man and a woman together in God's marvelous providence and give them to commit to each other in this covenant bond of fellowship and union and marriage all the way to oneness and sexuality is a reflection of the glory and grandeur of God. Have you ever thought about why God in Scripture especially hates sexual immorality. It's because our image and our whole being is a reflection of who He is. And we are called to reflect Him. Could you ever imagine the Son saying to the father so long. It's blasphemous. And yet in marriage today, why does God say, I hate divorce? Why does God say, keep this bond pure? Because image, male and femaleness in the bond of marriage is to be a transcription, a revelation of His glory to this world, to this fallen world. Just as that was impossible, perhaps, to think that the Son would say to the Father or the Spirit, goodbye. So we ought to consider in our relationship, especially in marriage and sexual sins. That's what Paul is getting at in first Corinthians six. Coming back to Genesis two, what we see. Is that there is an identity that is for male and female, so he creates the man and woman. He created man first. You remember that event? He told Adam to name all the animals, and so he passes all the animals before him. And after they've all passed by, there's nothing comparable, compatible to him. So what does God do? The only time it said in all of the creation, of all the beauty and the glory of the days of creation, there's one time God said, it's not good. It was when he saw man without one by his side. It's not good. And so he reaches down to the earth and he forms Eve, right? He put Adam to sleep, and he took out of his side a rib, and it formed woman. It's one flesh. It's a reflection of God. And so when we speak of this union in particular, in marriage, when young people make a decision about marriage, it's not, well you make me happy, We ought to understand rather that marriage is there's nothing for you that needs to change. I receive you as my compliment that God has given as a gift to me that together we will be united to reflect God's glory. That union in marriage is said to be knowing one another. And that's, you know, when Adam knew his wife, Genesis 4-1, we knew that they had this physical intimacy as well. But God uses this word to describe also his relationship, not in a sexual sense, but in a most intimate way with his people. Exodus 33, Moses says to the Lord, Therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee." Know Thee at the most intimate, the most deep level of knowing and understanding and relation that we can have. In Isaiah 43, We read, "'Ye are my witness,' says the Lord, "'and my servant who I have chosen, "'that you may know and believe me "'and understand that I am he. "'Before me there is no God formed, "'neither shall there be after me. "'Even I am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior.'" We have been conditioned by our culture to think along the lines that sexuality is an act. And it's not. It's not a moment. It's an ongoing, unfolding, dynamic oneness in relationship of two as one. Anything in our marriage in our lives that is eating away at this union flies in the face of the image we are called to reflect of our God. And our culture has become so sexualized that we hardly can understand any other kind of intimacy of two women or two men embracing and hugging and holding and crying and loving one another, conversing with one another. We've lost this sense of intimacy because it's perceived so often sexually. We were made, we were created to reflect God in our intimacy, in our love for one another, to give and receive physical affection without the connection of the final act of this consummation reserved alone for one man and one woman in marriage. And so our culture has also not only sexualized everything, but they've desacralized sexuality. The act of the marriage bed of one man, one woman in union is no longer understood to be a sacred, holy, beautiful thing. So that before that act is even engaged in, the couple may come with joy. to their Creator God and ask His blessing. If we are in Christ and we love Him, our affections are for Him. We are one with Him. And the ideas of our sexuality fade away in the oneness. Father, I pray that they be one even as we are one. And the intimacy where Spirit touches Spirit is the fullness of this oneness. Heart focuses to heart. Goes beyond what we often conceive of a momentary, selfish, pleasure. And so we have people today debating for hours what's the proper age for consensual relations. They defy the meaning and understanding of a biblical world We have value. We have two that have become one and the culture today wants to paint a very different picture. I want to show you this diagram. This is how our culture today, this is the third or 3.2 version of the gender bred person. They used to have one line with your gender identity as being man or woman and you somewhere along that continuum. Now they have two lines and you can move that circle along that bar of blue to any degree. So you could be 60% woman and 40 or 40, maybe 45. I don't know. Today, math doesn't work either. So identity is considered up here in your head. That's who you identify as. Your attraction is who your desires are for, who you're romantically attracted to. Or you're asexual, you have no attraction for anybody, you could be bisexual, you're attracted to both sexes, and so they have everything under the sun. And your actual physical, biological sex can be male or female, and your expression of how you live out your sexuality is also a varying degree. You see the confusion when you depart from the fundamental and glorious truth of our creation. Sex is not the act but an expression of who we are. Lastly, I want to cover just briefly how this unfolds practically in light of the gospel. When you pick up your newspaper and you read about all that's happening, the Supreme Court decision and all these other things, in some respects it's a cry of rebellion and defiance to God. We will not have God over us. On the other hand, I believe it is also in many respects a groan and a cry from the hearts of sinners who need to be transformed, who need to be new creatures, who need the grace of God. We have come to know unasked for. And one of the ways this world and our culture is going to begin to know, yes, by the Almighty working of God by His Spirit in powerful ways, but they ought to begin to see God's glory lived out in the lives of those who confess His name. And the lives of those who say my identity, who I am, ultimately is united to Jesus Christ. I am a creature, a part of the creation of Almighty God as male and as female. I know there's other things we can talk about afterwards that regard that, but let's leave that for now. And we need, therefore, to understand what God is saying is our veil to be taken off of our eyes. People who live in these sins today in our culture are no different than you or me, what we were outside of Christ. They need the same God, they need the same grace, they need the same salvation. And so in the remaining time, just briefly, I want to cover four things that come from Boston. We are groaning, everyone, a fourfold state. First of all, we've covered the idea of our creation. Pre-fall, Genesis 1, 2, and part of 3, what we see indeed is that man and woman in that marvelous union were accurately reflecting and enjoying this image of God. But sin has come in. Corruption has ensued. We are sinners. We live in rebellion against God. The image we were once created in is tarnished and broken. The fall has taken place, and we've spent a good deal of our time talking about what that looks like, the culture we live in today as well, being slaves to sin under the judgment of God. There's nothing new. Really, we could say we live in a fallen world in which we can no longer use the gifts that God has given to us properly. But there's grace. Grace has been spoken about, redemption in this conference. Those of you who have come to Jesus Christ by faith have tasted also of this forgiveness, even in the area of sexuality. The earlier part of 1 Corinthians 6, Paul says to those at Corinth, and such were some of you. But you are washed. You are sanctified. You are justified in Christ, alone through Him. If we have come to Christ, we have a new identity. We are called to live to Him. We are made alive by the power of the Spirit. We are called to live a new life. Go through the Gospels. Paul is saying if you are in Christ, if you're risen with Christ, this is how you are to live. This is who you are, therefore live this way. It's nothing different than the Old Testament. The Old Testament saint God had chosen Israel, brought them out of bondage. As he took them into the wilderness, he said, and the law given to them, I am the Lord your God. These are my 10 words, walk in obedience to me. And when you stumble, when you fail, there's blood, there's mercy. There's forgiveness. But trust me, when you bring that sacrifice and you lay your hand on its head and you confess your sin and you see the knife come. It's what you deserved. But that lamb has taken your place. It points to Christ, to Christ. And in the New Testament, the veil has been lifted as it were. And we see more clearly, but we need the same conviction. We come short of the glory of God. We broke his law. We need mercy and trust. We need to trust him and obey his word. And in doing so, we will live and we will have a desire to look for glory, glory. Closed with this word picture. And the Old Testament was the temple. And everyone here knows that in Israel, it was the center of everything that took place. And there in the heart, in the inner, the holy of holies, when it was dedicated and when the temple and tabernacle were dedicated, the glory of God and the presence of God came down. When the people sinned, there were times in which that glory departed. But the idea was that God dwelt among his people in this temple, in the Holy of Holies, and once a year, the high priest would come with blood through all kinds of ritual and things he had to do, and he would come in to this very presence of God, and he would be able to come out again and bless the people. And when Christ came, All these shadows, these pictures, are done away. The reality had come. And He, by His own blood, has entered into the holiest of all, which is the presence of God, with His own blood. And we are in Him. He takes us there. But not only does He take us there, if we are in Christ. But he has said to his disciples and to us, I'm going away. Prepare a place for you. I will come again. But in the meantime, I'm going to give you my spirit. And he's going to live in you. If you are a believer, the God who created you and remade you lives in you. Paul is referring to that in 1 Corinthians 6. And so he's saying to the Corinthians, how can you imagine to go to the prostitute's house when the holy God who rescued you and showed you mercy lives in you? If you are the temple of the spirit of God. Live that way. Let's pray and then we have questions. Our gracious God. Impress upon us these truths so that we might rightly understand even this slice of our lives in sexuality. We were created perfected in Thy image and to reflect Thy glory, and we know that sin, whether it be our own or even sin against us in this area, have affected us and warped us and changed us. But Thy grace and mercy overshadows and cleanses and makes new. Help us to have this understanding to live in light of this truth day by day. Be with us also now in a time in which we have some reflection or questions or thoughts shared. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.