Refuting the Social Gospel..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. As you're probably all aware we're continuing our theme which has been running for three weeks and this is our fourth week into the the area of the social justice movement. So we decided four weeks ago, actually a little bit longer than that, to commit four weeks and take an excursion from the book of Acts to deal with what we see is facing the church worldwide.

Satan is definitely attacking the church, we believe, through this movement. and he's causing these foreign ideologies, the worldly wisdom, to permeate into the Church of Jesus Christ. Now, it's no secret that the church in all ages has been attacked by Satan and his minions through different schemes and deceitful endeavors to defile what is holy, what is right, and what is good, and to obstruct the work of Jesus Christ, and to obstruct the work of Christ in and through his church. You see, Satan's goal is to tear down what Christ is building up. Now, we know that it's Christ who builds his church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail over it, but he'll do all he can to bring to destruction what Christ is building.

And see, brothers and sisters, the Lord Jesus Christ in His finished work upon that cross, not only did He pay the penalty of our sins, not only did He cleanse us of all unrighteousness, not only did He reconcile us to God, praise be to His name, but He also purchased with His blood a people that He will unite or has united in Himself. He's unified a people unto Himself. And beloved, that means that we become brothers and sisters in Christ. One household of God. One family.

The Father of our Lord becomes our Father and the Spirit in us testifies to our spirit. Abba, Father, calling our Heavenly Father, Our Father. So we need to be very vigilant about any movement that tries to come into the church to break the unity that Jesus has purchased with His blood. Any movement that tries to divide that which Jesus has united, we should be completely aware and vigilant We must not be asleep when we should be awake, wide awake in fact, when we see these dangers coming in to the church and we need to fight them off, not allowing them to penetrate into the church, not allowing them to break unity among the members. and not allowing the vain philosophies of the world to find their way into the Church of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul warned us of such matters. If you open your Bibles now, let's have a look at Colossians 2, verse 8. Colossians 2, verse 8. There the apostle Paul says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elementary spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Apostle Paul is warning the Church.

Be careful. When you hear about vain philosophies, when the world espouses what it calls wisdom, you need to be on guard, not allowing what the world espouses as wisdom to become the wisdom of the Church. We've been given a mandate. We've been given instruction, and that instruction of how we ought to stand firm in the faith is instruction that our Lord Jesus Christ has given us in His Word. We bring all vain philosophies or what the world brings as wisdom or any thoughts, and we bring them captive to Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 10.

Beloved, this is why we began this short series in the first place, because because it's reminding us of the foundational tenets that we uphold as a Church of Jesus Christ. Now, you remember, the way we began, our brother taught us a lesson. And the theme of that lesson was that the sum of all truth is found in God. And this God was pleased to reveal truth to his people in and through the incarnate word, of course, and also the written word of God. And that is the word that we have before us.

It is pure. It is inerrant. It is infallible. It's breathed out by God. And it will never fade away.

It will remain forever, and it is authoritative not only over the church, but over all mankind. And we will do well when we see these things happening in the world, not to look to them alone, but to interpret these things through the lens, through the filter of Scripture that is the words of Jesus Christ. Not only should we acknowledge that God's Word is the sum of truth given to His creatures, but we also need to acknowledge another point, which is that His Scripture, and that which He has revealed to us, His Church, is also sufficient. that God has revealed in fullness and completeness His Word that is required for His people, all that is required for His people for life and godliness, to live lives in a way that He intends us to live as Christians, as people who honor the triune God of the universe. The sufficiency of Scripture is especially, especially critical for understanding how one is to be saved, how one is to be reconciled to God in Christ Jesus, the gospel of course, how one is to live in light of that truth.

His word must not be added to and it must not be subtracted from. It's sufficient for all things. This, I believe, is one of the fundamental tenets that it's being violated in the social gospel or the social justice movement worldwide. I think this might be a tenet that is being violated as the church begins to examine what they're seeing in this movement. Because terms are being redefined based on a mix of God's Word and human ideologies.

The ideologies of the world are what the Apostle Paul says, empty philosophies. That must not be so. We must be known as the people of the Word. We must be known to understand the Word, to meditate upon the Word, to study the Word, and not to add to the Word, and not to take away from it. Because, beloved, we know that as human beings all we can do is corrupt it.

Our study in the book of Leviticus has shown us and revealed to us time and time again that exact point that simple people Sinful people can only corrupt that which is holy. Our hands are tainted with blood, they're dirty, they're defiled. We can only corrupt that which is holy, so we would do well not to add or to take away from that which is holy, the inherent, infallible Word of God. So we need to be intimate with the Word. It needs to be not only in our minds, but it needs to soak into our hearts.

It needs to form our conscience, form our convictions. It needs to be appealed to from within whenever we're thinking about any stage of life, any decisions we're to make, any philosophies or wisdom that comes our way, decisions we make. In all of life we ought to be thinking, what does the Word of God say? But more so, when we've swallowed it in, when it becomes a part of who we are, it becomes a natural part of our thinking, that we begin to think like Christ, because we've been given the mind of Christ. So we won't be given over to deceitful philosophies.

but rather we stand upon the Word of God, and that will give us an understanding of what it is that we're facing today, worldwide, in the social justice movement. Now, brothers and sisters, the title, social justice, is very, very deceptive. Because already with my intro, if there are any of us who are unfamiliar with the movement, and I must admit that I was a late learner to the details of this movement also, But if there are any of us who are unfamiliar with this movement or don't understand quite yet what this movement stands for or the ideologies that it espouses, then you might be thinking, what's all the fuss about? What's the fuss about? Justice is a good thing.

It's a biblical concept grounded in the very character of God. And you are right in saying that. God is for justice and not against it. And when one says that he may be against the social justice movement, does that not make one all for injustice? No, that's not what we're saying.

You see, that's exactly one of the, I think, main dangers of this movement. The title. Because of course Christians are for justice. We must be moved and broken over injustice and oppression in our world and in our societies. God himself is a God of justice and he has commanded that we do justice and love kindness or love mercy.

Micah 6, 8, that verse keeps coming up. The very heart of a Christian conduct is to be just towards his neighbor, is it not? And as we saw last week's study, the justice that is found in God's law is summarized to love God and to love neighbor. To love neighbor. Pure religion, we're told in the book of James, is to visit orphans and widows in their afflictions.

That is to show love and concern and compassion, and to be zealous to provide the needs of those among us who are underprivileged. That's certainly the Christian thing to do. Brothers and sisters, this ought to be our heart, is it not? It is a fruit of our salvation to love justice. Jesus is making us more like Himself, and He loves justice.

But beloved, this is the thing. When James said that true religion is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, he goes on in the same verse and he says, and to keep one from being stained by the world. You see, that means that justice that God requires is not always synonymous with the justice that the world requires or that the world espouses. The world could be asking for a justice that actually stains. and defiles Christians because in God's eyes, it actually may be sin to go down that path.

And it's clear that biblical justice is not what is being spoken of in the social justice movement. I hope I can show you that this evening. The social justice narrative once understood, I hope that you'll be better, you'll be able to see indeed that it is not. It's not, it doesn't align with what the Bible speaks to justice. Now the foundations I tried to lay down last week were to show that justice is found in God alone.

He's the creator and the relationship between his creatures and himself is to be one of complete joyful obedience. I hope you remember that from last week. That the only right response a creature has to his or her creator is a response of joyful obedience. It's God who lays down the rules. He's the Creator and we're the creatures and that is our obligation to obey the Creator God.

That's our obligation to obey His rules. Now that means to act justly. and to walk according to the rules and the precepts and the laws that the Lord has given us. Last week we concluded that all have sinned, right? All have sinned.

All have broken His laws, broken His precepts. We are all lawbreakers, unjust sinners. None of us can claim to be just in and of ourselves. None of us can claim to be a people who practice justice perfectly. And sinners deserve what, Beloved?

The Bible is clear. The wages of sin is? death, the soul that sins shall die. The Bible is pretty clear. But we also know that God showed us mercy, that God showed mercy to humanity and he allowed humanity to continue.

But that doesn't change the relationship man has with God, because all people are still accountable to God and all people are obliged to obey his law. Both laws relating himself and laws relating to one another. To live justly, beloved, is to live according to the law of God. A law that reflects his goodness and a law that promotes the very best for human flourishing. Because he is a good God, remember, and all that he does is good.

This evening, we're going to see that that's not the definition of justice in the social justice movement. They've hijacked the biblical term justice, which asserts that God alone is the one who is just. He's the lawgiver. He's the one alone who's able to articulate and explain the stipulations of his law. But they've redefined what justice looks like.

Beloved, the results are inevitable. If man takes what belongs to God and redefines it, then it's no longer. Well, God speaks to justice. It's no longer justice. It becomes injustice.

It becomes lawlessness. You see, the title social justice is, as I said earlier, a little deceptive and untrue to its cause. Sure, at the surface level, the goal of the movement seems to be noble. I mean, who doesn't want to see an end to racism? Who doesn't want to see equal opportunity in the world?

Who doesn't want to see non-partiality promoted? Who doesn't want to see the oppressed and the abused freed from their oppressions? We all do, at least we should. But do not judge by appearance, but judge righteous judgment. John 7, 24.

We must look beyond the facade, beyond the flags, Beyond what is being promoted, beyond the title, we must look deeper. We must make a righteous judgment, not a superficial one, but a righteous judgment about what is actually going on in this movement, because it doesn't take much digging, beloved, before we realize that this movement is actually antithetical to what the Lord has taught us in His Word. We must not be naive. as the Apostle Paul writes to the Romans in chapter 16 verse 17 and 18. He writes, through the pure and inerrant Word of God.

That's how we test things with right judgment. That's how we avoid making judgments based on appearance. That's how we see it, because this system, this movement looks noble from the outside. It looks like a movement of human benevolence. Actually, it's not.

It's actually a serious distortion to the truth and a serious threat to human flourishing. You'll see that it promotes what it teaches under the guise of eradicating racism, under the guise of freeing oppression. But this ideology actually promotes the very thing it claims to be stamping out. You might say nothing new here. We might say, well, if it's a system that the world espouses, then everything, all the wisdom that the world espouses is perverted and twisted.

Because the God of this world is, right? The prince of the power of the air, the God of this world is behind all deceptions in this world, we know that to be true. But beloved, the reason why we're addressing this, and I'll say this once again, is because of its influence in the church. In particular, its influence has been manifested in the church through what is called the social gospel, or its effects on the gospel, and we need to be aware. Now this evening, I wish to briefly define particular aspects of the social justice movement.

And it will be a very high view. This is a very complex movement and it's got a lot of nuances, a lot of detail. So we'll be looking at a very, say, 35,000 feet altitude. We couldn't possibly explore all the details of this movement and the nuances of this movement and the ideologies that it promotes in the space of a single Bible study. That's not possible.

But I will talk about key aspects of the movement to give you an overview and hope that you'll see through these aspects just a couple how destructive it is if this movement or any of its tenets are actually adopted by the Church of Jesus Christ. I'll be giving an overview of the social justice movement by touching on two key elements, two key characteristics that are inherent to the movement itself, and they come in the way of what we call critical theory and intersectionality, so as to show in that that it is indeed incompatible to the Word of God. is to show that it is indeed incompatible and antithetical to biblical principles. Now as I said before, social justice sounds noble. And the movement is identified as a movement that looks to or has identified social injustices in many areas of life.

Injustices in the areas of gender, they would say. Injustices in the area of race, in the area of wealth, in the area of status, power, and the list goes on and on. On the surface level, the movement claims to be trying to free people from oppression of these injustices. But what it proposes, beloved, is very dangerous. And this is where critical theory comes in.

It's one of the tools that is used to combat what they call would be a systemic injustices. You might have heard systemic racism and other things. So they combat these things through what is called critical Theory. Critical theory is a very complex system that examines authority or societal power based on historical and cultural research. basically identifying what groups of people have power in society, power in the realm of wealth, power in the realm of what race has more power than other races, and what gender has more power or authority than other genders, and in the area of sexuality as well, and the list actually goes on.

Its basic claim is to eliminate oppression and injustice, hear this, by stripping groups of their power. At its heart, it's Marxist theology or Marxist philosophy. In fact, cultural Marxism is a synonym for critical theory. You may already know that Marxism is the theory that pertains to economic and production. In a nutshell, Marxism is a theory that a society would thrive if the means of production was taken from under the control of the elite, the high economical class, what they call the capital class, and placed in the hands of the working people, the working class.

Wealth would also be redistributed from the rich or the capital class, and that wealth would be redistributed to the working class. And in doing so, they would see, or Karl Marx at least, saw this as being fruitful for societies and would provide equal outcomes. You see, Karl Marx, upon examining capitalist societies in Northern Europe, argued that wealth, power, and stature can be divided into essentially two groups. The haves, simply said, the ruling capitalists, the owners of businesses and factories, the ones who are from the middle to upper class who have the money, the haves, because they actually have, and the have-nots. These are the working class who have no choice but to exchange their labor, their time for a modest income, and that income would go towards them providing for their family needs.

So you have the haves and you have the have-nots. According to Marx, with money comes power, and power is the status. Power and status in all spheres of life, according to Marx, belongs to the ruling capitalists, and according to him, that needs to change. So capitalism needed to be demolished for a more social ideology. He believed this would distribute the power and guarantee equal outcomes and provide better human flourishing.

Now never mind the differences in education or the aptitude or the business sense of a particular person or how God has actually made them with their natural talents. That's all put aside. But basically, it was all divided into the haves and the have-nots. And by taking or redistributing the power from those who have it and wealth, because it's an economical system, to those who don't have it, Marx would say that only then would someone experience true freedom and equality. It's not equal opportunity, remember, but equal outcomes.

That's something we've got to keep in our minds. We have to remember that. Now we won't go into the error of that view, but critical theory is a sort of neo-Marxism view, in that it seeks to organise all people into social classes and groups also. Marx did this with the haves and the have-nots, but critical theory has many more groups that it structures all people into with the purpose, or at least the objective, of eradicating injustice experienced by those who are oppressed at the hands of the oppressors, those who are imposing the oppression on the oppressed. That was his view.

Now the groups come in to play, and there's many groups that he categorised. We have groups of race, we have groups of colour, the colour of a person, economical groups, and many more. There are many groups. There's sexual groups as well. And we probably think, okay, all right, so the theory is to get rid of oppression, to get rid of those who oppress and take the oppressed out of their oppressions.

And we're probably thinking at this point, well, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with doing that? Well, see, the problem here is the way this system is organized. the way the system is organized. Because the way they do this, the way the system is organized, is the groups are placed, there's several groups, and the more intersections into these groups, the more oppressed a person is.

So let me explain. This is the concept of intersectionality. You can imagine yourself, just imagine yourself that there's a road, and that road is intersected with many streets. Let's just call them many streets. And every one of those streets is a different group that people are placed into.

So it could be the race, it could be their color, it could be their economical status, it could be their gender, it could be their sexuality and so forth. The more intersections into that street, let's assume you're crossing the road or you're walking down the road, the more intersections that you might have cars coming through as an example, the greater the possibility of you being run over. because there's way more lines that are intersecting that road. And so in this theory, the more intersections means the more oppressed that you may be. For example, proponents of this view would espouse that we live in a patriarchal society.

Men generally have more positions of authority in society than women. This means by virtue of being a man, you're on the side of the oppressor. So you're an oppressor and being a woman, by virtue of the fact that you're a woman, you're an oppressed person. So being a white male, that's two intersecting lines, because you're a male and you're white, makes you an even greater oppressor. Now, of course, we know that in our world there is much evil because men who have exercised unjust power and authority over women is quite obvious.

We see that in history, and we should be disgusted at this. God created both men and women equal. They're equal in value in his eyes. They're equal in dignity before the Lord. But the social justice ideology simply labels every male in that group as an oppressor.

That's it. That's the group he's in. And if you're white, you're also an oppressor, because that's the group you're in. It doesn't matter if you're ethical in your work. It doesn't matter if you see all people alike.

You don't distinguish between black or white or ethnicities. You're all labeled into the grouping that they've given you, because that's their narrative. That's the group you're in. And that's who you are. That's just who you are.

You may deny it, but that's who you are, because that's what the narrative says. I hope you could see, begin to see how dangerous this is. Because people's individual sins aren't taken into consideration. You're lumped into a group, and that group is given a title, oppressed or oppressor, And depending what group you're in or how many groups you're in, then that's the title that you carry. Beloved, this doesn't take into consideration the Word of God, does it?

It doesn't take into consideration the headship. the male headship that God has instituted in the family, which is the bedrock of the healthy society. The system seeks to demolish that. No consideration that man is the head of woman and God is the head of Christ. 1 Corinthians 11.

The biblical family is being assaulted in this whole system and they have no regard for what God is. said already in what he has spoken in his word. Same thing can be said with the example of Marx with the haves and the have-nots. By taking the money from the the haves and giving it to the have-nots, then what essentially is being said is those who have are the oppressors. They're the ones with power.

They're the ones with high status. And that can't be the only way we can make things equal is to take from them and give it to those who do not have. Give the power and redistribute the money and the power so that we can have an equal outcome. As unnatural as that is, because it's manipulated, but that's what they're looking towards. And again, same thing.

Someone might be an owner of a factory or a company and they may be very, ethical. They may have employed just as many coloured people as white people. They might be incredibly ethical in the way they deal with their staff, in the way they've set up their business, the way they pay their wages more than fair, excellent working conditions. By virtue of the fact that the person is a ruling capitalist according to the system, then that person is an oppressor. It's just as simple as that.

He's an oppressor. Now this ideology carries from gender, to sexuality, to race, or people of color, education, and so on. So there's a lot of groupings that are seen. To be a person of color is to be an oppressed, and to be a person who is white means that you have white privilege, and by virtue of the fact you're white, it makes you an oppressed, or it makes you a racist, according to this view. Homosexuals are automatically oppressed because homosexuality was widely unaccepted in society and throughout history, and homosexual marriage, for the most part, was an illegitimate marriage until recently in our societies.

But heterosexuality is the norm, and therefore they're labelled as the oppressors. Homosexuals are the oppressed, and the heterosexuals are the oppressors. You see, the tides have to turn. There needs to be a redistribution of status and power. This is all happening, and society won't get any better, they think, until this all takes place.

This is the movement that is taking place. And beloved, it's dangerous. Because not only are these people to be affirmed, those who are oppressed, I'm thinking of homosexuals and other things, but they are to be also celebrated by others. That's the way the movement's going. Biblical principles, biblical laws, God's law is being thrown out the window for what they see is right according to their narrative.

Beloved, it's a dangerous movement, and we have to keep our eyes open. In a few moments, I'll show you how it's entering into the church. But does that say, is that to say that God doesn't punish the evildoer? Of course He does. God will punish the evildoer.

He will punish those who are truly oppressing the innocent. His word tells us this. But critical theory and intersectionality are not weighing up justice according to God's righteous standards. Rather, they're creating a new law for themselves. And that law entails people placed in groups, and the group is given titles, rather than people individually seen.

And this is a presupposition that there is systemic racism. Now, there's no doubt that there's racism in the world. None of us will deny that. But to put all white people into that bucket and say every one of them is racist, to claim systemic racism on that scale, then that is not biblical. According to the Word, every man pays for their own sins.

That's what God says. That's what His Word teaches us. This means that if we were as Christians to stand on God's Word, If we were to stand on God's word and say, no, no, we love those who practice homosexuality. We love them because they're the mission field. But what you're doing is wrong.

What you're doing is sin before the Lord. And if we were to stand up on God's word and say, no, the constitution of marriage is a covenant union between one man and one woman, that's how God has ordained it. And God is the creator, and He's the one who ordains what is right and wrong in the context of a marriage. If we stand up for these things, then according to this system, that's hate speech. According to this system, then we are unjust, and we're oppressive towards them.

We're oppressive towards those who don't look like us and don't believe the same things that we believe. We're oppressive towards the transgender and the gender fluid and the bigender and the trigender and the list goes on. Beloved, these are our mission field. These are people who are in desperate need of Jesus Christ. They're just as much in need of Christ as we are in need of Christ.

They are our mission field. But the Lord tells us that we ought to stand on what is right, and we ought to call evil, evil according to what He has declared in His words. And we ought to call good, good according to His word. We have no liberty to make that distinction on our own. He's revealed what is right and good and righteous according to His word, according to His law, and we stand upon that truth.

So when people or the system begins to say, hey Christian, you can't call sin for what it is. You need to accept whatever we tell you, whatever our narrative is saying. You need to accept that. You need to accept whatever gender a person identifies with and not only accept it, but celebrate it. And recognize that you're wrong for thinking otherwise.

Beloved, that's a system that is driven by the devil himself. What they want us to do, beloved, what the system wants the church to do is simply hang her head down and submit. Submit to whatever they say, whatever they say is right and good and noble, and not believe or not carry out what we believe is true according to God's Word. You see how dangerous this view is? Just scratching the surface.

So you're looking through the lens of critical theory and intersectionality. You don't see people as they are, but you see them as groups depending on where they fit. And beloved, if you fit in one of those groups where you are labeled as the oppressor, then you'll spend the rest of your life apologizing and repenting for sins that you may never have committed. but you commit, but you continue to repent because you're a bigot and you're a racist on the inside, even though you may not even know it, because you belong to one of these groups. It's an unjust system.

It's contrary to the Word of God. And in seeking to eliminate oppression, of the oppressed, the system has turned around and begun to oppress those who they deem to be the oppressors, even if it's untrue. And the more groups you're in, as I said earlier, the more oppressive you are by nature, so they say. Now from what I've seen, and that's just a skimming of the iceberg, but from what I've seen, the Evangelical Church has not subscribed to the whole system of social justice. I don't want you hearing me saying that.

No, I don't believe they have. The examples that I've seen and what I've read and what I've studied of what other churches worldwide, the Evangelical Church worldwide has done, it hasn't subscribed to the whole system. It's too erroneous, it's too obvious. But they have, in some sense, opened the door on some of the errors, some of the erroneous views that are espoused with this system. We're starting to see them creep into the church, mainly in the area of gender and racism.

In relation to gender, as we said earlier, male headship. is under assault, and also roles within the church. More and more we see a push within the evangelical church to an egalitarian approach, that is to say that both men and women have the right to equal roles within the church. And we have to have that distinction. We're not talking about value.

We're not talking about dignity, because we know before the Lord both are as valuable as one another. But we're talking about roles which are instituted by God Himself in creation, when He created male and He created female. So here we see in the evangelical church worldwide, what we're seeing is we're seeing doors beginning to open to allow women to become pastors and elders and preach and to be authoritative in the church. to have positions of authority irrespective of what the Bible says. There's a push to say, hey, because the groups that I was talking to you about, women are seen as the oppressed and the men are the oppressors, then what needs to happen is there needs to be a shift in authority, a shift in status, a shift in power, and the only way you can fix it is to have the seesaw go the other way.

So churches are starting to look at their leadership, at their eldership, and they're thinking, how can we even things up? Because if we are racist, if we are bigots, and we don't even know it because we're part of a system, and the system says, the narrative says that we are, we must be, we just must be in self-denial. Hopefully one day we'll wake up to it. So let's begin now. Let's fix this problem now.

And so that's what we're seeing. Now, I'm not gonna dwell on this point for the sake of time. But the Word of God is clear on the matter, and it ought to be a joy, beloved, for both men and women to faithfully serve the Lord in the role that He has appointed according to how He has made you. If He's made you a male, praise the Lord. You go to Scripture and you see what your role is as a male, and you glorify God in living out that.

and has created you as a female. You go to Scripture and you read and study and you meditate and you find what the Lord has written for you as a female and you do that joyfully and you bring glory to God. Whatever, however, He has made you, male and female, and there's only those two genders. I think the last count I thought I saw 58 or 60 out there, but there's only two. There's male and there's female.

In the beginning, He made male and female. There's only two. What you ought to do, beloved brothers and sisters, is to glorify God through Christ Jesus by living out how He has made you and walk in His ways according to the light of His Word. Because if we don't do that, then what we're doing is we're assaulting His goodness. We're saying we know more than you, God.

I know your word says this, but this is an antiquated book. It's old. And everything that's written here is at best 2,000 years old. So we are in the 21st century. We should look at things more modernly.

And in these days, it's not like the old days. I'm sure God will accept. Actually, no. If we believe that this scripture is sufficient, if we believe that it's all that is required for life and godliness, as God says, then we believe that it is just as relevant as when it was written. It's just as relevant today in our society.

The other thing I want to see, I want to talk about this evening, another, I think, point that is permeating into the church is racism. Racism. And I think what I've seen is the church is at risk of compromise because this is a big deal. There's a lot of pressure in the world in regards to racism. Black Lives Matter and so forth.

There's actually a lot of weight. So churches are feeling the brunt of society. They're feeling the weight. They don't want to be politically incorrect. They don't want to make unnecessary enemies.

And so they're feeling the weight and they're making decisions Now, beloved, I don't want what I'm saying to come across as though I believe racism doesn't exist. It does. And it's a wicked thing before the Lord. It's an evil before the eyes of God. Christians must never, ever be racist.

against a person of color, because of the color of the skin, because of their ethnicity, or for any other reason. We should not show any partiality because the Bible says that is unbiblical. James tells us in chapter 2, but if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors of the law. But what he's in view in this moment is not individual racism, but which I certainly agree with, and I think most of you would too, but wholesale, systemic racism. The view that just because you may be born white, or because you're born white, let's say, you're inherently racist, because you've lived in that system, you've only seen the world through the eyes of a white person, and this world is created and it's been formed to cater for white people's needs is the narrative, and therefore you don't know anything other than to be racist towards people of colour.

But you may say, as a business owner I employ more coloured people than white people. You may say I attend a church with a large percentage of ethnicities and people of different color. You may say I love them all. I've examined my heart and I've come before the Lord and I don't see any racism in my heart. I don't see that I'm showing partiality to one group of people more than the other.

Before the Lord, my conscience is clean. I see all people as equal. Nope. The narrative says you're a racist and that's all there is to it. That's all there is to it.

Repent. Repent and keep repenting because that's just who you are. A racist. Can you see the danger in such thinking? Can you see the danger in a system that tries to bring everyone and categorize everyone by placing them in groups and then speaking to the group rather than speaking to individuals?

Can you see the danger? It's incredibly, incredibly dangerous. And it never ends. Because beloved, you can ask for forgiveness over and over and over again. And as a leopard can't change its spots, you can't change the color of your skin.

And because you can't change the color of your skin, you're always going to be racist according to this view. You're always going to be placed in that group, that group that is seen to be the oppressors. And all the repentance in the world will not atone for your sins. Do you see how antithetical that is to the Word of God? that the true gospel of Christ speaks volumes to this error, because in Christ there is true forgiveness for every sin you have ever committed.

He remembers your sin no more. It's taken as far as the East is from the West. It's gone forever. It's not always thrown back into your face. So you'll be reminded over and over again.

Every day you look into the mirror and see what color your skin is. You're reminded over and over again of how horrible you are, even though you've stood before God and stood before his word and you've repented over things over and over again. You can never see forgiveness because you're always going to be that color. Beloved, Christ remembers your sins no more. How dare anyone else say you need to continually repent and repent and repent and always be seen as an oppressor when Christ has forgiven you of your sins.

And those who have been forgiven, those who have come before the Lord and sought forgiveness, We're told, in his word, that we ought to be kind to one another, tenderhearted towards one another, and hear this, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you, Ephesians 4, 32. You forgive as you've been forgiven. And nowhere in scripture is it okay to harbor a victim mentality. But we are also commanded to forgive. Because you know that if injustice is being done against you in this age, that in the final day, in the day of judgment, the Lord will avenge all acts of injustice.

He will, because He's a just God. None of them will sleep under His judgment rule. And until then, it's not oppression that you wish upon those who have maybe caused injustice to come your way. It's not oppression that you seek for your enemy. It's not to strip them from anything, but rather your heart as a person, even if you have been dealt with in an unjust way, is to seek their salvation.

It's for them to know Christ. It's for them to come and bend the knee to Jesus who is able to forgive their sins once and for all, even if they don't forgive your sins. Beloved, it's to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. They're the words of our Lord on the Sermon on the Mount. It's to love your neighbor as yourself.

And as I said last week, the greatest love that you can show is to proclaim to these people the gospel. And that gospel, beloved, undefiled, and pure, speaks to the fact that it is, in the ultimate sense, we are all indeed unjust. All of us. No matter what group we find ourselves in, we are all unjust. In the ultimate sense, the only person in the universe, and I said this last week, the only person in the universe that has or who has his rights violated is God.

God, because everyone has sinned. This is His law and we have violated His law. So in the ultimate sense, we are all unjust. And beloved, that's where we need to start with the whole conversation of injustice. That's where we need to start.

That's the starting point. Because the penalty of that injustice will be paid for either by the sinner himself or put on the cross. We don't deny that injustice and oppression does occur. I said that. Is there a greater injustice in our time than killing millions of babies in the mother's womb?

I ask. It's a great level of injustice, killing a child. That's murder. That's murder. Of course, as Christians, we should be deeply concerned with this and other injustices that we see before us.

We should be moved to act. But that concern, as serious and as necessary as it is, must never come with a neglect of the spiritual reality and the spiritual concern we have for those who are not in Christ. Because we can clothe a person, we can feed a stomach, we can defend the weak, we can even talk a mother from killing her child. But if that's where we stop, then they are still on the same trajectory, a trajectory to hell apart from Christ. Beloved, we must never neglect the gospel of Christ.

It is the truth that the world desperately needs. It's that truth. Because what we are seeing in the world is now mass confusion. The social justice movement just adds to the confusion. The solution is not redistribution of power, or the redistribution of resources, or production, or to oppress the oppressor, as the system says, or to demand continual repentance for sins of individuals, even if they haven't committed the sins.

No, the solution is Christ. The solution is to see that all have sinned and all have fallen short of the glory of God. The solution is to recognize that the greatest account of gross injustice, an injustice that dwarfs any injustice experienced against a fellow human being, is the injustice of our sins committed against a thrice holy God. That's the greatest injustice. And for that injustice, well, All the gold and silver in the world would not absolve a person from even a single sin.

No. The price? The price is too great. The only price that would be accepted by a thrice holy God who has been infinitely offended by our sin is for His Son to become flesh and to shed His blood on that cross. The only price acceptable to God is the precious blood of Jesus.

And beloved, we ought to be infinitely concerned that everyone is covered in that blood. Because he gave himself up as a substitute for many. Because God's rights were violated with our injustice. And that's the only price that God will accept. And the beauty is this, those who have come to know Christ in this way, they've been added to his body.

They've been added to the church. They've been unified in Christ to his people, both black and white, male and female, both slave and free. They all sit on the one table because of what the Lord has done. Look around beloved. No one in this room and no one hearing my words online, none of us is worthy of that salvation.

Not a single one of us has reason to boast. No matter how much money we have, no matter how smart we are, no matter if we're male, female, where we're from, it matters not. Even your greatest strength, put that in the mix. It doesn't matter. None of it was considered when Jesus redeemed us upon that cross.

None of it was considered when he saved us in real time and vitally united us in himself and into his church. None of that was considered. Nothing that you had was considered. Therefore you cannot, I cannot boast. And to think otherwise is just ridiculous.

And now because we are all We are all equally unworthy. There must not be even a hint of discrimination or racism amongst the people of God. It would be an insult to the blood of Christ. Brothers and sisters, in preparing this study, I was made aware of some of the effects of the social gospel and the agenda and the movement worldwide and how it's permeated into the lives of Christians and churches at large. Of course, not all evangelical churches have been affected, but some have, and some have been quite vocal about it.

And beloved, as I was reading and as I was studying, I was literally appalled by what I heard and by what I read. People are buying into this demonic narrative, even though it's clearly anti-biblical. People of color have even suggested with their mouths that they would like their own space at the Lord's table. People, some have actually said that they are now afraid to worship in a predominantly white church because of this. These errors are creeping into the minds of Christians and it's defiling them.

Because none of this is found in the Word of God. None of it is found. pastors making statements like, we must be intentional to make sure we have people of color in our church leadership. Now that doesn't sound too bad until you hear one prominent pastor say that he would rather employ a black person for church leadership, if there's an opening in his leadership, he'd rather employ a black person than a more qualified white person. As long as the difference is not too great.

You see how dangerous this is if it creeps into the church. You see how the very solution of combating racism, which is the systemic racism that this whole movement really wants to combat, probably predominantly, is now producing racism itself. Could you see that? Think about it. Think about what that pastor said.

I don't really like that word racism or race. Because I believe we are all one race, right? We're not several. We are one. We're all sons and daughters of Adam.

Acts 17, 26 makes that clear again. And He, that is God, made from one man every nation of mankind to live in all the face of the earth. That's God's doing from one man, one race, one blood. One race. But to prevent confusion, I'll continue to use that word.

And you know what I mean. But there's a problem in that in and of itself. The system's trying to pull apart that which God has joined together. And the very definition, if you go to the dictionary, and the very definition of racism is prejudice or discrimination based on a particular racial or ethnic group. Think about that.

Prejudice or discrimination based on a particular racial or ethnic group. So let me ask you, this pastor who was seeking to to combat racism and injustice by wanting to employ a man of color rather than a white person, even though the white person is more qualified. What is that called? And beloved, it'd be the same if it was the other way around as well. If he employed a white man when the black man's more qualified, that's racism also.

Because we as a Christian, as the body of Christ, we ought not to seek color or ethnicities. We are made one in Christ. One in Christ. And this is what the social justice movement is doing. It's creating division.

And that division is coming into the church. And for the church to think like this, it's to defile the church. It's to blaspheme the gospel. It's to defile the very Word of God. And it's seeking to destroy the unity that Jesus bled and died to purchase.

It's divisive and it must be seen for what it is. And although we must always give charity when we hear our brothers and sisters using terms, because we need to back off and listen to what they mean. Because sometimes we use terms and labels and titles, but we actually don't mean exactly what they're meant by others. So we need to give charity and we need to Hear those terms defined by our brothers and sisters. Don't jump to conclusions.

Don't jump to conclusions just because someone's using that title or those terms. But we ought to see that this is a dangerous movement if it creeps into the church. It's a very, very dangerous movement. Because unfiltered, the social justice movement is not freeing, it's enslaving. This must not be so for the church, and we must not allow the world to contaminate that which Jesus has purified with His blood.

Let me end with this. Let's open our Bibles to Colossians 3, 5 through 11. We'll end there. Colossians 3, 5 through 11. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

On the account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator." Here it is, 11.

Here there is no Greek and Jew. There is no circumcised and uncircumcised. Barbarian and Scythian. Slave-free. But Christ is in all is all and in all.

Did you hear that? Neither Greek or Jew. I don't need to tell you how much the Jews despised the Greeks or the Gentiles. These are dirty, uncircumcised people as far as they're concerned. But in Christ there is neither Greek or Jew, neither Gentile or Jew in the body of Christ.

That distinction completely dissolves in the body of Christ. Beloved, he goes on and says, there's no slave or free. There's no barbarian or Scythian. Beloved, these were really, really violent men, violent nations. The barbarians were men of war.

And the Scythians, well, they're the residents of the northern shore of the Black Sea. They were even more violent, more uncivilized, and more savage than the barbarians themselves. They committed atrocities in violence, atrocities that I cannot even mention, because if I did, I'm sure some of you would get nightmares. But Paul's point is this, no matter who you were, no matter how bad you may have been, no matter how evil your actions were, no matter who is your enemy, when you come into the body of Christ, when Jesus covers you with His blood, You're forgiven of your sins. You're reconciled to God.

You're united in Christ to his people. You're a new creature. The old has gone, the new has come. And beloved, that means your brothers and sisters don't see you for what you once were. They see you now.

in Christ. They see you covered in the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We don't know if any of these Corinthians had relatives or had known people who were beaten or abused or who were affected by these barbarians or Scythians. We don't know. But even if that's the case, even if you're staring in the face of one of your enemies, let's say Paul, And the apostles who originally wanted to stay away, they were shying away from, but then you have Barnabas, man of encouragement, come and bring him to the church and say, no, Jesus has saved this one.

He's covered by the blood of Jesus. He's one of Christ's, no matter how you thought of him. He killed Stephen. Well, he was behind the killing of Stephen. He approved of it.

Stephen was one of our own. We love that man filled with the spirit. How can we accept Paul into our fellowship? Well, you do, because Jesus accepted him into his bride. And who are we to put barriers greater than that of Christ?

We've come into the kingdom with no barriers because as I said earlier it's not what you have done or what I've done it's not because we had aptitude or potential that he saw us and he said I can use you because you're good work or you've got an influence you know a lot of people. None of that. His sovereign elective purposes were eternity past and they're not based on anything that is in you and therefore those who have come into the church or to be seen as our brothers and sisters with no distinction Brothers and sisters, I pray that none of us see colour or ethnicity or anything else. I hope we only see brother, sister. And may the love of Christ permeate our hearts and may this be a congregation of love.

This is the Church of Jesus Christ. And if we allow vain philosophies to even start to creep into the church, we will see nothing other than division for what Christ shed His blood to unite. May that never be. Let's pray.