Sermon | Matthew 19:1-6 | Jesus on Transgenderism
INTRODUCTION
It’s Pride Month. You can’t watch TV or go to the store without seeing rainbow flags.
The purpose of Pride Month is to promote the acceptance and normalization of homosexuality and transgenderism. The message is clear: Homosexuality and transgenderism are morally good, physically normal and healthy, and societally beneficial. But as anyone knows, this is a highly controversial issue. A large portion of the country believes that homosexuality and transgenderism are sinful. And this controversy becomes most heated every June.
So, what does the Bible say about these issues? Would it surprise you if I said, “A lot”?
If you have a Bible turn with me to Matthew 19. On one occasion some Jewish leaders asked Jesus a question about divorce. Their goal was to get Jesus to say something that would give them justification to arrest Him, or to get Him to say something so obviously wrong that people would lose their respect for Him. It didn’t work. Not only did Jesus speak to the issue of divorce, but His answer applies to a host of issues, including transgenderism.
TEXT: Matthew 19:1-6
1 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he departed from Galilee and went to the region of Judea across the Jordan. 2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. 3 Some Pharisees approached him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?”
4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female, 5 and he also said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?, 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
THREE LESSONS ABOUT TRANSGENDERISM
1) The Bible is the authority.
Where should we get our answers about how to live happy and healthy lives? Where should we get our answers about what is right and wrong? About marriage, sex, and gender?
Notice what Jesus did. When the Pharisees asked Jesus about divorce, He quoted from the Bible.
Matthew 19:4 “Haven’t you read…?”
Read what? The Bible. He goes on to quote two passages from the book of Genesis (Gen 1:27; Gen 2:24).
Where do we get our answers about how to live and about right and wrong? The Christian answer to that question is the Bible.
Not political leaders. They aren’t infallible. Many times they just say things to get elected. And they flip flop all the time. Just a few years ago Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden all defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Then around 2015 they all flip-flopped in support of gay marriage.
Not celebrities. Just because someone is a great athlete, or actor, or musician, that doesn’t mean you should take their advice on how to live, and be happy, and on right and wrong. Celebrities look impressive when the cameras on, but often we find out that their personal lives are a wreck.
Not doctors and scientists. One of the popular sayings of the day has become “Trust the Science.” Unfortunately, scientists and doctors get it wrong all the time. Sometimes they make honest mistakes, but sometimes they make mistakes for malicious reasons – to drive an agenda, or to make money. And they constantly change their minds.
Jeff Myers and Brandon Showalter “Francis Galton was one of the most respected scientists of his day, yet his racist viewpoint led to the science of eugenics, which was practiced in the United States to forcibly sterilize sixty thousand women. Antonio Egaz Moniz won a Nobel Prize for inventing the lobotomy and promoting it as a remarkable cure for mental illnesses like schizophrenia. Fifty thousand people received the procedure. Many died as a result, and the others had their lives ruined. The science seemed settled in both cases, but we now see them as colossal horrors.” (Exposing The Gender Lie: How to Protect Children and Teens from the Transgender Industry’s False Ideology)
I’m not saying that scientists and doctors are useless, or that you should never trust them, but I am saying that they are not infallible.
But there is something that is infallible; something that is unfailingly reliable; something that is always true and never asserts a lie. The Bible.
People often say they want to be on the right side of history. There’s only one way to do that. Be on the right side of the Bible. Live in accordance with the Bible, and you’ll never regret it.
Ideologies come and go. Scientific theories come and go. We look back and we ask, “How could people have believed those things? How could people have done those things?” But the Bible never fails. It is always true. If you build your life on the Bible, an accurate interpretation of the Bible, then you can’t go wrong.
When a political leader, or celebrity, or “expert” says something that contradicts Scripture, pause. First, make sure that your interpretation of Scripture is accurate. Second, if it does indeed contradict the Bible, then reject the new idea and go with the Bible.
2) You were created by God.
Matthew 19:4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female.”
As I said earlier, Jesus is quoting here from Genesis.
Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.”
This verse teaches two big ideas:
First, you were created.
The Bible says you were created remarkably and wonderfully, by God, by Christ, by the Spirit of God, on the sixth day, from the dust, in the image of God, in the likeness of God, male and female (MacArthur Study Bible, p. 2003).
You are not here by accident or by chance, you are here by divine intent. You are not the product of evolution, you are the product of supernatural craftsmanship. You are not a descendent of apes, you are a descendent of Adam and Eve, the first human beings created by God.
This has two implications:
As your creator, God has the authority to tell you what to do.
If He created us, then we belong to Him. We are His property. He has the right to tell us how to live.
Many people today demand full autonomy. They want to define themselves as they see fit. They want to decide who they want to be, and the rules they want to live by. But if it is true you that you were created by God, then you have already been defined. God already has a plan for you to follow. He has already decided who you are, and how He wants you to live. And your role is to discover and fulfill God’s plan, not come up with your own.
If God created you, then He knows best how you should live.
The Bible says that God created your inward parts and knit you together in your mother’s womb (Ps 139:13).
If anybody knows how you should live, the best way to live, in the most fulfilling way, it is God.
Don’t get your ideas about how to live from doctors, or scientists, or celebrities, or politicians, or college professors. Even if they mean well, they didn’t make you. With all their intelligence they don’t know how to make a human being. But God does. God made you. He knows how you are supposed to function and operate. Listen to Him. Go to Him. Let Him tell you how to live.
Second, you were created in the image of God.
People are different from the rest of creation. Only people are made in the image of God.
Being created in God’s image has two implications:
First, to be made in the image of God means that you have infinite value and worth, and should be treated as such. And you should treat others the same, no matter who they are.
Second, to be made in the image of God means that people are created to know God and display God’s glory (to reveal who God is and what He is like). Human beings have the unique purpose of reflecting God’s moral character. Just as God is loving, patient, and faithful, and holy, and righteous, and just, and merciful, we are to be those things.
If you are made to reflect God’s glory, then you have a high purpose – higher than anything else on earth. Your purpose is to know God and to display His character through your life. Your purpose in life is not sexual fulfillment. Your purpose is not to pursue happiness. Your purpose is to know God and to glorify Him, and you will only be happy by living according to your God-given purpose.
And if you are made to reflect God’s glory, then it matters how you live. Your ethics, and morality, and choices, and lifestyle matter. It matters to God. You can’t just live however you want to live. You can’t just do what is right in your own mind.
3) There are only two genders.
Matthew 19:4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female.”
There are only two sexes, and two genders, and they are the same thing. Your sex is your gender, and your gender is your sex.
It is possible to have a gender identity that is different from your sex; that is, to perceive in your mind that you are a woman, but in reality you are a man. That is mental disorder called gender dysphoria. But there are still only two genders.
It is also possible for a man to express himself as a woman in the way he dresses and acts, and that is called gender expression.
But sex and gender are the same, and there are only two.
And this is not an unpopular opinion. According to a Rasmussen survey released this month (June 2023), 71% of American adults believe that there are only two genders, with 57% strongly supporting this view.
God only makes two kinds of humans – males and females. A male is a man, or a boy. A female is a woman, or a girl. A male has XY chromosomes and is biologically structured to mate with a female. A female has XX chromosomes and is biologically structured to mate with a male.
In other words, gender is binary, not a spectrum. “Binary” means two.
Scientists use the term “sexual dimorphism,” meaning humans come in two sexual forms – male and female.
This has two implications:
First, gender is discovered, not self-determined.
If God made you either male or female, then that means you don’t decide or change your gender. You discover it and live accordingly.
How do you discover your gender? You look to see how God created you. You can tell whether you are male or a female, man or woman, simply by looking at how you are biologically structured. Are you made to mate with a woman? Then you are a man. Are you made to mate with a man? Then you are a woman.
Second, gender is fixed, not fluid.
If God made you male or female, then you cannot change your gender any more than you can change your species. You cannot become a cat because God made you a human. You cannot be a female if God made you a male. You can change your appearance to resemble the opposite gender, but you can never change your gender. To change your gender is to reject the way God made you; it is to reject God’s will and plan for your life.
Five minutes ago, none of this needed to be spelled out. It was common sense; everyone believed it; it was completely uncontroversial. But a new ideology emerged in the mid-twentieth century that makes the following assertions: Sex and gender are different. (Sex is your biology, but gender is how you feel about yourself, or what you think you are.) Therefore, you can have a male body, but feel like a female, or think you are a woman. You can be a man trapped in a woman’s body, or vice versa. You can have multiple genders, or none at all. You can choose and change your gender.
All of this stems from two false ideas:
a) The body and the mind are unconnected.
Transgender ideology says that you can have a male body but a female mind. This is untrue. God didn’t just make your body male or female, He made your mind male or female. Every part of you is either male or female.
Your body has 37.2 trillion cells in it. If you are a male, then 99.9 percent of your cells say XY. If you are a female, they say XX.
Scientists have catalogued 6,500 differences between male and female cells.
Countless books have been written about the differences between men and women – not just their biology, but in the way they think. Some of the most popular marriage books are about this very subject. John Gray, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. Bill and Pam Farrel, Men Are Like Waffles—Women Are Like Spaghetti. These books deal in generalities, but they are best-sellers because they are true.
There are obviously some men who are more feminine, and some women who are more masculine, but that doesn’t change the fact that God made you either male or female.
You don’t just have a male or female body; you are male through and through; you are female from your head to your toes.
Therefore, you can’t have multiple genders. You can’t be a woman trapped in a man’s body. God created you either male or female, and that includes your mind and your body.
b) The mind is important and the body is not.
The prevailing method of treatment for people suffering from gender dysphoria is called gender-affirming care, which means agreeing with the patient that their mind is right, and their body is wrong. In other words, instead of seeing that the patient is obviously out of touch with reality and helping them embrace reality, the prevailing method of treatment is to tell the person that their mind is healthy, and their body is not. As early as four or five, these children are encouraged to socially transition – to take on a different name, different pronouns, and start dressing like the opposite sex. Then doctors prescribe puberty blockers at around 11 or 12 years old, and cross-sex hormones at the age of sixteen. Then they are encouraged to have top and bottom and surgeries. Girls as young as sixteen have a double mastectomy, and boys and girls can have genital reassignment surgeries.
In other words, transgender ideology says that if you are a biological male but think you are woman, then what matters is your mind, and not your body. Your mind is good, and we need to sterilize and damage and alter and mutilate the body so that it conforms to the mind. But this a lie.
God speaks to us through two books – the book of Scripture, and the book of nature. This is how He teaches us about Himself, the world, and ourselves. Your body is part of nature. Therefore, God’s purpose is to speak to you through your body. Through your physical makeup God wants to teach you who you are, and how to live. The body is not unimportant. It is not to be ignored and carved up.
Nancy Pearcy (Love Thy Body) “The physical structure of our bodies reveals clues to our personal identity. The way our bodies function provides rational grounds for our moral decisions.”
“Gender-affirming care” is a unique and novel approach to helping someone with mental problems. Some people have “body dissociative disorder,” which is when you believe you were born in the wrong body, and you want an amputation, or you desire a paralysis. But their requests are never affirmed. Instead, doctors tell them that they are wrong and help to fix their minds. Other people suffer from eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, in which a very skinny person believes they are fat. Once again, doctors never affirm these people; instead, they help them to fix their minds. We should treat people with gender dysphoria the same way. With love and compassion, we should help them fix their minds rather than destroy their bodies.
If this is true (that sex and gender are the same thing), and it is, then it answers so many of the questions that we are facing today. And they aren’t really tough questions anymore.
Are sex and gender different things? No. If a you think you are something different then your biological sex, then you are suffering from a mental disorder, and you need help.
Is a trans-woman a woman? No. It’s a man who has altered his appearance to look like a woman.
Can a man have a baby? No. Only a woman, a biological female, can have a baby. Not all women can bear children because of complications and age, but no man has ever or will ever get pregnant and have a baby.
Should we use preferred pronouns? No, because then you are affirming someone’s mental disorder. You are participating in their delusion and making it worse. You are not helping the person.
Should we use “gender-affirming care” on our kids? No. We need to help them accept their bodies as a gift from God.
Should trans-women be allowed in women’s sports? No, because trans-women are men, and if you allow men in women’s sports, then you are erasing women’s sports.
CONCLUSION
There’s no doubt that people with gender dysphoria exist, and they are suffering terribly. They need and deserve love and compassion help.
Just because you have gender dysphoria, that doesn’t mean you have to act accordingly. All human beings have feelings and urges that we shouldn’t act on. If I get angry and feel like punching someone in the face, that doesn’t mean I should do it. We all have feelings and thoughts that are not reality. Sometimes I feel like a failure and like I should quit, but my friends have to tell me, “You’re not a failure; don’t give up.” In the same way, the answer to gender dysphoria is not to follow your feelings, but to come to terms with the fact that your feelings are not in line with reality, and then to find a way to embrace reality.
The psychiatrist M. Scott Peck “Mental health is an ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs.”
When you choose to reject your God-given gender and live as the opposite sex, that’s called transgenderism, and that’s a sin. That is against God’s will, and sin is never the path to life, and freedom, and happiness.
The wonderful news is that God has a cure for sin. He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, paying our penalty. If we will choose to repent of our sins and accept Christ as Lord and Savior, He will not only forgive us, but heal and restore us and make us whole.
If you or someone you know is struggling with gender dysphoria, God loves you, and He can heal you. Will you turn to Him today?
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