Sam Allberry, a self-proclaimed “Christian who experiences same-sex attraction,” was recently caught in a homosexual relationship, causing him to resign as Associate Pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, TN, where he served with Gavin Ortlund, Russell Moore, Ray Ortlund, Barnabas Piper, and others. Allberry has taught across the country that homosexuality in your heart is not sin, if you don’t act on it. And because he said it wasn’t sin, and traveled the world telling people it’s not sin, eventually this “not sin” came out and killed his ministry. He voluntarily deceived himself and has deceived countless others.
How did he deceive himself and others? With unbiblical teachings:
First, he used unbiblical language to refer to his flesh. The apostle Paul calls his flesh sin repeatedly in Romans 7:
Romans 7:8 – But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
Romans 7:9 – …sin came alive and I died.
Romans 7:11 – For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Romans 7:13 – It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
Romans 7:17 – So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Romans 7:18 – For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh…
Romans 7:20 – Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Romans 7:23 – …the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Romans 7:25 – …with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Paul called his flesh “sin,” but Allberry calls his flesh, “a capacity to be tempted” that is temptation but not sin. And he only uses this evil rhetoric to talk about his sin not about what the Holy Spirit is doing in his heart. To apply his rhetoric to the Spirit within him, he would not call Him the Holy Spirit but rather, “the capacity to be holy.” If you describe the root of sin in your heart as a “capacity,” you must describe the root of righteousness in your heart as a “capacity.”
Second, because Allberry refused to call his flesh sin and its motions sin, he refused to repent of his indwelling sin. He believed and taught that he is a sin-manager rather than a sin-killer, as the Bible says:
Romans 8:13 – For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Colossians 3:5 – Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Allberry refused to agree with God’s word and call his evil desires “sin” as the Bible does, which kept homosexuality burning in his heart. Christians cannot disagree with God and expect it to end well for them. If you refuse to kill sin, it will kill you. And if you’re a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit and the ability to repent, to put to death all evil motions of the flesh within you:
1. Sexual immorality, or any sexual activity outside of marriage.
2. Impurity, or any lawless sexual impulse.
3. Passion, or any lawless sexual desire.
4. Evil desire, or any lust.
5. Covetousness, or any motion of the flesh (Col 3:5).
Christians are commanded, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to put these sins to death. Allberry refused to and traveled the country telling people he didn’t have to, and they didn’t either. Whenever you reject God’s word and consider yourself a sin-manager rather than a sin-killer, your sin will eventually kill you. You cannot reject Gods word and hide sin in your heart and expect it stay there!
James makes this clear in James 4:1-10:
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
James told his hearers that the reason why they did evil things was because they had evil desires that they refused to repent from (James 4:1-2). And what is James’ remedy for these desires? They must,
1. Submit to God, resist the devil, and draw near to God.
2. Cleanse their hands and purify their hearts.
3. Be wretched and mourn and weep and not laugh or be joyful in their sin.
4. Humble themselves and God will exalt them (James 4:6-10).
Allberry partially submitted to God, living an outwardly godly live as far as we know, but he did not submit his homosexuality to God. That, he kept in his heart, keeping it burning by calling it “not sin.” He cleansed his hands for a time by not participating in homosexuality but did not purify his heart. He did not consider himself a wretch because of the homosexuality in his heart, for he justified it by labeling it “not sin,” and he did not mourn and weep, but traveled the country laughing and being joyful, even as he harbored homosexuality in his heart. His lack of humility in agreeing with God eventually harmed him publicly. He kept a lion caged, fed it with comfortable lies, and then was surprised that it consumed him.
The lesson we learn from Allberry’s public homosexual sin is that we must agree with God’s word entirely, giving sin no place in our hearts. We must humble ourselves and go to Christ every day, multiple times per day, agreeing with who He says we are instead of who our flesh tells us we are. Allberry is not a homosexual, but merely a man with a sin-pattern like any other man with indwelling sin, that Christ can change. The difference is that Allberry refused to call his sin, sin. He thought he could manage it, but sin cannot be managed. It must be killed. And all Christians have the power of the Holy Spirit to put to death all that is evil within is.
The question is if you and I will be humble, agree with God, and give no quarter to our indwelling sin; and instead, kill it at the root by repenting and living the opposite. Notice James’ remedy to evil passions and desires: Draw near to God. The man who harbors sin in his heart is always far from God. And, if you humble yourself and go to God, He will tear the idols from your heart, because His beauty exposes the ugliness of sin, and His life exposes the death and decay of sin.
When you look at Allberry’s public sin, I hope it sends us running to Christ. Pray that he runs to Christ and repents fully, not merely repenting of his sinful actions but his desires, impurity, and covetousness too (Col 3:5). Only then will Allberry live a victorious Christian life. And only then will you and I live victorious Christian lives as well.
