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.

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:

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