Throughout the history of mankind and now emerging in the blog world of Baptist historicists, men and women have been about the business of creating a duplicitous sexuality, yet God has never shifted. In other words, God is not deliberately deceptive, pretending to be true in one sense while influenced by another for various reasons. He is faithful and immutable; God is not subject to change, He is invariable. One theologian has said, “To deny the immutability of God is to deny that He is God”. God has always and consistently revealed the truth concerning the sexuality of His body (the church: men and women) in the world, of which Jesus Christ is the head. It is in Jesus Christ where the church finds a singular foundation and holy distinction in sexual relationship. If any church begins to teach a message of duplicitous sexuality, it no longer reflects the truth of Jesus Christ in the midst of living out a motive of “exchange”. But, how shall we deal with this evil and destructive motive,..this duplicitous teaching?

1 Corinthians 3:9-11 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. (10) According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. (11) For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

The world is consistently testing the veracity of Jesus Christ and His church in the world, artificially crafting a new message that is opposed to the truth and then feverishly collecting votes for this newly aberrant and faulty establishment. Baptist congregations are casting votes against Christ without as much as a blink of the eye, willing to forgo truth for an evaporative twist on unity. In razor contrast, the remarkable genesis of sexual foundation is made by the Creator; its singular purpose is to bring glory to God and never to man. The creation of sexual passion is singularly holy by God’s design in basis and function, nameless to variation since the beginning of time, even as sin induces and recklessly desires additional definitions. Why then is this changing sexual passion harnessed by the world against the church?

Well, the Apostle Paul addresses this subject in a way that is not commonly addressed in our churches and is most certainly misunderstood in the world because of political maneuverings and self serving motives. The word that God breathed out for duplicitous sexuality is expressed as the term “degrading” in many English translations, announced by the Greek word atimia clearly expressing the idea of disgrace, dishonor, shame, vile, or evil. This difference in passion is important for the church to recognize, because it brings definition and definitiveness to the antithesis of God’s creation of sexual passion when compared to the counterfeit. The Apostle has given even more to inform us of “why” God reveals this truth. In other words, the church “knows” there is degrading or evil sexual passion, but the genesis and function of such is typically overlooked. This lack of patience, focus, and understanding leads to a fumble in the rebuttal process while addressing this “degrading passion”…..where most churches respond out of mere selfish emotion and not according to the foundation of truth.

In other words, the church rarely “tests the spirits”,…many churches are more than satisfied with targeting “those” who they have determined as the “evil ones” without truly addressing “the evil one”. Who is the fight really with anyway? There are churches that are busily about the wrong business of never “testing the spirits” and consequently delivering a “rare” display of Love for God. Let me try to explain this dilemma.

Loving God demands two things according to the Apostle John: (1) “do not believe every spirit, (2) but test the spirits”.

1 John 3:23-4:1 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. (24) The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (4:1) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

The Apostle John’s command to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ is married to the command to “test the spirits”. So it is true that any and all followers of Jesus Christ must test the “teachings” and determine their worth when compared to the truth of scripture; or if anyone decides “not” to test the spirits then they simply have little love for God and less love for one another. This is a simple reality in the church, yet it is clear in our present culture that we have a tendency to sidestep the reality of the truth and follow political and social agendas while using the church as a crutch for advancement to appease society or more often selfish whims. Of course this is nothing new in the church and has been written indelibly by the Apostles concerning the many promiscuous acts found among the earliest congregations in church history. Fortunately God has always provided a solution consistent with His nature.

So when anyone has love for God,… they are willing to uphold and act upon the truth that is revealed. As we look at sexuality, it is clear that:

Genesis 1:27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

And God created them for His purpose in the world. A Christ follower, known in the presence of the church, will understand this fundamental design as represented by Jesus Christ for His body. But make no mistake about it, a “change” in God’s revealed design of sexuality is born from evil (the evil one), not from God, ….truthfully defined in the great “exchange” written by the Apostle Paul to the Roman church.

Romans 1:20-23 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (21) For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. (22) Professing to be wise, they became fools, (23) and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

This “exchange” of glory is descriptive of the duplicitous sexuality where men long for the image of other men and women long for the image of other women. It is an image unlike that of the incorruptible God. Yet it is the “lack of sound teaching” that rings loudly among the churches upset with those lured in and participating in this degrading passion; targeting the sinner instead of “testing the spirits” through sound teaching. It is abundantly clear that God is not the architect of the infliction of their “degrading passion”; it is of the devil. God is the revealer of the truth against such; marking out the “exchange” in vivid color. But how then do Christ followers fight the pressures of society that are selfishly changing love into the image of man? How do we “test the spirits”? How do those that love Jesus Christ do as he commands and expose these anti-Christ teachings of duplicitous sexuality? The Apostle John gives a sobering reminder to those being redeemed and a staunch critique to the imposters.

1 John 4:2-4 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; (3) and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. (4) You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

The anti-Christ position of sexuality is found where a man pursues a man and woman pursues a woman and this evil is only “tested” and conquered through the “testing of the spirits”,..that is revealing the truth of Christ’s invariable design for Man: male and female. The testing of the spirits strikes at the very heart of Satan’s artillery of deception and destruction of lives. It is not carried out by attacking the sinner,..it is carried out by loving them with the truth through sound teaching… “testing the spirits”. Yet it is with increasing popularity that the spirit of the anti-Christ is coddled, finding sexuality abridged to man’s image in an attempt to lower God to a god of self interest, both personally and politically. It is no doubt a sexuality of “exchange”, anti-Christ in nature, found ushering in a perversion of worship and deception meant to carve out a new definition of love not found in Jesus Christ our Lord.

So how do you test the spirits?

Never attack the sinner; always “test the spirits” through sound teaching.
Invite all sinners to hear the truth of God’s Word; including yourself.
Study hard to show yourself approved unto God.
God removes the candlesticks; we must repent

Remember our Apostle’s words, “Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world”. Test the spirits so that you will Love God and be found diligent to restore those that Love God and His Word. Churches would do well to pray for each other, and provide tangible help (teaching) in a common goal to test the spirits and teachings of those that are hindering the local church…because God’s design for sexuality is not duplicitous in the least. God will not allow such in His Kingdom. We should all be of the same mind in the fight against the spirit of the anti-Christ. God will not be mocked. He has overcome the world!

Blessings,
Chris

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