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Israel Folau has spoken out against transgender ideology in a sermon at his church.

Folau has been under intense media pressure over the past couple of months after an April 10 Instagram post in which he warned a number of classes of sinners, including homosexuals, that if they did not repent they would go to hell.

In a sermon at his Sydney church, Folau expressed concern about children “gender transitioning”:

In today’s youths and everything, they are allowing young kids in primary school to be able to have the permission to change their gender if they want by taking away the permission of the parents.

Now they are trying to take control as a government to make those decisions for young kids who are basically 16 years old or young, they don’t even know what they are doing.

This is what the devil is trying to do to instil into this government, into this world, into society, and it is slowly happening.

Folau also pushed back against same-sex ‘marriage’:

They say that a man and a man should be able to be married and there is nothing wrong with it. This buys into the theme of pleasing man rather than pleasing God and standing up for the truth.

In May, Rugby Australia terminated Folau’s four year contract worth $4 million for his comments on Instagram.

Folau has launched legal action which, if successful, could bankrupt Rugby Australia.

It’s not the first time Folau has been under pressure for dissenting from LGBT orthodoxy.

Last year the media piled onto Folau over a response to a question on social media asking: “what was gods [sic] plan for gay people??”.

Folau responded: “HELL.. Unless they repent of their sins and turn to God.”

In response to the post and the firestorm, Folau wrote a PlayersVoice piece in which he spoke of his faith in Jesus Christ:

I would like to explain to you what I believe in, how I arrived at these beliefs and why I will not compromise my faith in Jesus Christ, which is the cornerstone of every single thing in my life.

I hope this will provide some context to the discussion that started with my reply to a question asked of me on Instagram two weeks ago.

I read the Bible every day. It gives me a sense of peace I have not been able to find in any other area of my life. It gives me direction. It answers my questions.

Folau has had an extraordinarily successful football career.  He has played across three different codes: Rugby Union, Rugby League and AFL. Folau is Super Rugby’s highest Australian all-time try scorer in the competition.