On December 8th, the Canadian government passed Bill C-4 by royal assent; with a little bit of bureaucratic shenanigans, it passed with unanimous consent. Bill C-4 effectively criminalizes Christian preaching, teaching, and counseling that upholds Biblical morality for all sexuality. It specifically prohibits “conversion therapy” and defines that therapy as any practice, treatment, or service that seeks to call individuals to embrace the body God created them with and heterosexuality, with a penalty of up to five years in prison. It also condemns historic, biblical teaching as “myths.”
Having gone into effect last week, a number of faithful men have called for the pastors of Canada to preach messages today in defiance of that law, and many American pastors are also joining them to stand in solidarity with them but also to exhort and warn our own American leaders from going down this same path.
The Text: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:9-11).
Summary of the Text: Here Scripture clearly teaches that the unrighteous cannot inherit the kingdom of God (6:9). And the surprising warning is that Christians can be deceived into thinking that they can live in these patterns of sin and still inherit the kingdom (6:9). In particular, fornication (any sexual immorality outside of marriage), idolatry, adultery (sexual sin against marriage vows), effeminacy (soft men), sodomy (homosexual immorality), theft, covetousness, drunkenness, rage, and extortion (obtaining something through force or threats) are all singled out (6:10). These practices had previously characterized some of the Corinthians (6:11). But they had been changed, and they were not the same anymore because they had been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus, and by His Spirit (6:11).
