you Okay, if you could come on in and find a seat if you haven't found your seat yet. So far, it's been a great day. The Lord has blessed us with good teaching. We have two more sessions to go today, so we're where we can hang in there. We have the energy, we have the strength to stay in there for the next two sessions. But before we get back, I want to give a plug to Free Grace Press, a Reformed Baptist publishing company house that we have a few books in the fellowship hall, if you haven't been back there. I want to highlight a couple of them to tell you to go buy them, actually, because We have some books. We have this book called A Choice Drop of Honey from the Rock of Christ by a Baptist Puritan. He wrote in the 17th century. This book was translated in multiple languages immediately after it was published. It was reprinted for almost two or three hundred years. It's a classic. And it's been out of print. You have not heard of it, probably, because it's been out of print for the last 100, 150 years. And we have discovered it and brought it back into print. We've made it very accessible, easy to read. And I have to put it in my top five best little books I've ever read. And you say, well, Jeff, you're exaggerating. You want to sell books. I'm not exaggerating. If you read this and if you don't like it, I will double your money back. And then I'll tell you you're not a Christian. This is a little treasure, and it's helpful in many ways. It's the best little book on the doctrine of justification I've read. And I've read a lot of books on justification, but you don't have it as neatly, concisely put in a very easy to read pamphlet. And then one of the things he says that really stood out to me is that when you come to Christ, you don't just forsake your sins. You forsake your righteousness. And he is bold in declaring the fact that we have nothing but Christ and Christ alone. So it's a great evangelistic tool. It's a great for assurance. If you're struggling with assurance, this is the first book I tell people who are struggling. And I say, don't look at yourself, look at Christ. This is a great book. It's truly a choice drop of honey from the rock of Christ. I know there's churches, like the church in New Albany, Christ Church of New Albany, where John Snyder's a pastor. They order these things in the hundreds of these and give these out constantly. And we have done really well with it. It's on the $10 side of the books, but if you buy one, you can get one free. You can buy yourself one and then turn around and give. someone, the free one that you got. The same deal works with this other book. I've read this book three or four times. It's one of those books, along with Pilgrim's Progress, you should read once a year. It's The Life of God and the Soul of Man by Henry Scroogle. This was the book that was utilized in the conversion of George Whitefield. And where this one will teach you that salvation is by Christ alone in the finished work of his atoning death, This one will show you the beauty of Jesus. So maybe you're struggling with having a sense of warmth in your heart for Christ. You know you need to love Christ. You know you need to be enamored with the Lord, but he seems cold or indifferent, and you've lost a little bit of that personal excitement for Christ. Well, one of the ways to regain your love for the Lord is to meditate upon the person of Jesus as he is revealed in the Gospels. And Henry Scriggle does one of the best jobs at painting a picture of of not only the righteousness of Christ, the goodness of Christ, the love of Christ, all these wonderful attributes of the person, the man, Jesus Christ, but after he does it all, he paints Christ to be meek and lowly. And when you're done reading with this book, you can't believe that this man actually exists, that this man truly is the perfect man. And usually if someone's good, you don't like them because he's like, man, he's so good. Like no one likes Alabama football because they're so good. You would think that about Jesus. You would think that about the Lord Jesus because he's so good. He's so wise. He's so smart. He out cons everybody. He's just he's good at everything until you realize he's humble. He's meek. He's lowly. Then you come to the conclusion there's nothing not to love about this man. He truly is worthy of our worship. This book. Get this book. If you don't have it, I commend it to you. We have given everybody a copy of this book that's just come out. If you're a pastor or if you're not a pastor and you want multiple copies to take home, our goal in printing this book was not to make a profit from it. Our goal was to get this book distributed as far and wide as we can. We would be very thankful if you wanted to buy these in bulk. We will provide as many of these as you need to go home with and you can talk to us at the book table. about a deeply discounted rate for that. I don't need to introduce our speaker. We'll have a song after this, but Dr. Owen Strand will be speaking to us again after the song. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear God, we are thankful that we can love you as the perfect man. Wise as you are, loving as you are, smart, powerful, you can calm the storm. But how would you be so humble? How could you have all these wonderful attributes and be meek and lowly and be our friend? We're astonished at you and we're astonished at what you've done for us. Why would you be even mindful of us, we who put you on the cross? Why would you die for us? Why would you save us? Why would you come for us? Why would you Pull us out of our own blindness and our sins and give us a new heart and then given us an inheritance in heaven. Lord, we're truly unworthy to be associated with the man Jesus. We're even. More humble to be in his family. Thank you, dear God, we worship you today. We praise you. We're humbled. The fact that Christianity is true, God manifested in the flesh, given us hope for tomorrow, given us life, coming to dwell within us. Lord, we have no complaints. We have nothing to go, you've done us wrong. We've received nothing but your goodness and your mercy. And then in return to the Lord, as we bow to sing, we pray that Lord, you give us the heart a heart that worship you in spirit and in truth. Be with the last two sessions that we have tonight. Lord, your truth go forth. Lord, we pray in your son's name. Amen. Invite you to stand and sing trust and obey, and I love the course in here, it says trust and obey, for there's no other way. to be happy in Jesus. way. All we do is goodwill. He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey. To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies, but His smile quickly drives it away. Not a doubt nor a fear Not a sigh nor a tear Can abide while we trust and obey Trust and obey For there's no other way To be happy in Jesus trust and obey. Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share, but our toll He doth richly repay. not a grief nor a loss, not a frown nor a cross, but is blest if we trust and obey, trust and obey. To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. But we never can prove the delights of His love, until all on the altar we lay. for the favor he shows and the joy he bestows are for those who will trust and obey trust and obey for there's no other way To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Then in fellowship's suite we will sit at his feet, or we'll walk by his side in the way. What he says we will do, where he sends we will go, Never fear, only trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in but to trust and obey. Amen. Baby seated. Just a few days ago, an imprecatory prayer made headlines. In a book on prayer, Shaniqua Walker Barnes wrote the following, Dear God, please help me to hate white people, or at least to want to hate them. At least I want to stop caring about them individually and collectively. I want to stop caring about their misguided racist souls, to stop believing they can be better and they can stop being racist. Who did she have in mind? She said as much. Fox News loving, Trump supporting voters who don't see color but who make thinly veiled racist comments about those people. The people who are happy to have me over for dinner but alert the neighborhood watch any time an unrecognized person of color passes their house. The people who welcome black people in their churches and small groups but brand us as heretics if we suggest that Christianity is concerned with the poor and the oppressed. Free me from this burden of calling them to confession and repentance. Grant me a get out of judgment free card if I make white people the exception to your commandment to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. How are we to think about such a prayer? Instead of seeing this as an outlier, we need to see this as produced by a definitive system. Systems, as I argued earlier, must be understood, opposed, and destroyed by Christians. Toward that end, we're going to do three things in this session. First, we're going to look at how wokeness condemns people. Second, we're going to look from scripture at how Christians cannot be judicially condemned. Third, we're going to see the practical effects of this truth. First move in this evening talk, why white people are condemned. The key evil wokeness addresses is the problem of whiteness and white supremacy, as you heard me say some hours ago. According to woke voices, we fall prey to unrighteousness when we participate in and benefit from whiteness, which cannot help but produce white supremacy. We overcome this condition according to wokeness, not through justifying faith grounded in the person and work of Christ, but through performing acts of cultural repentance, specifically, as you heard me say as well, by becoming anti-racist. This anti-racist engagement must consist of concrete acts of secular penance. It is, in every sense, a works-based system. Strangely, it is being adapted in our time by evangelicals. We are told by many voices, including evangelical pastors whose names you know and I know, to do the work. We are told we need to confess our white privilege, if that applies. White fragility, as a book, has been recommended too many times to count, though it has profoundly incendiary claims. Sin undergoes serious redefinition in such a scheme as Vodie Bauckham has observed. Quote, not only are white Christians who fail to adopt anti-racist theology and repent of racism, in jeopardy of being alienated from God, but those who fail to elevate the preaching of the anti-racist message to the same level as the preaching of the gospel are apparently preaching another gospel, one that is not the true gospel at all," end quote. As I have said then, in the woke system, racism is not primarily an attitude of the heart. I pray you'll come out of this conference and my sessions understanding this. It's not the old racism, as you understand it. It's the new racism. Racism is a structural feature of society. It doesn't matter what you say about people of other colors. It doesn't matter what you have done in the past to build bridges. What matters is that this society is structurally racist, and it is so because of whiteness. Not long ago, Ibram X. Kendi, the leading woke voice in America today, encapsulated the ideas just mentioned. Speaking on how whiteness is killing white people, he said this to a packed room in Manhattan. More white people are finally beginning to realize how white supremacy and how even whiteness itself is killing them. It literally is posing an existential threat to humanity. It always has. And so fundamentally, anti-racism is life. It literally is. It can save humanity." End quote. Kendi said this while laughing in the video quote that you can find online, but his open attack on image bearers of whatever skin color is anything but humorous. Actual white supremacy, this is me talking, is unquestionably evil. You should reject it wherever you see it. If you have an opportunity to engage somebody who is being drawn in one form or another, whether it's alt-right message boards or somebody joining an organization or slipping into racist behavior of various kinds, you should challenge them on the spot. You should call them to repentance on the spot. You shouldn't worry about being seen as nice. Where does the Bible say that you should worry about being seen as nice? What you should be and what you should be concerned about is being a Christian. That's what should occupy your attention. That's what you should care about. Not whether your coworkers, your peers, your classmates, your social media followers like you. Jesus did not say that you are sinning against God if people don't like you. Jesus told you that you are blessed if people hate you for righteousness sake. Jesus said you are blessed if you are persecuted for righteousness sake. So how do we navigate being a Christian in this strange new era of 2021? How do you navigate being in a secular workplace or educational setting? I have no idea. What I know is that Jesus has not given us a kind of play-by-play of 275 pages, where we know just when to speak up at work. Or when we know as a public school teacher, this is where I can't say this to my children that I'm educating. Or if we're in an HR session at a hospital, we're a doctor, we're a nurse, this is the moment when we speak up. I don't know when you should. But I know what the Beatitudes say, and so do you. And I know that you are blessed, not if people like you, but if people hate you for being a Christian. Brothers and sisters, We are in danger of nicifying the Christian faith. You are in danger of not sharing the gospel because you'll be disliked for it. You are in danger of going quiet on these kind of issues because people might tune you out, you might lose a hearing, you might lose a job, you might lose a career, you might lose a vocation, you might lose a family member. Where did God tell you that you should be calculating in that way? What you are called to do is lose your life for the sake of Jesus Christ. And we are playing it safe in this age and we are going quiet and we are trying to be nice and we are trying to be liked. I am not saying we should be mean in promoting Christ. I'm not saying we should fail to exhibit and practice the fruits of the Spirit. We better be. Our moral lives should cast not a little hint of a shadow on the gospel of grace, on the cause of Christ. So we should care a great deal about our moral reputation in a community, in a city, in a gathering of Christians. in a workplace. We don't want to be known as morally lax by anyone. We want to be known as gracious, furthermore. And yet, is it not fascinating that we are told that we are blessed if people hate us and persecute us and turn their back on us and despise us? 11 of the 12 apostles were murdered in the Christian faith. Which Christianity are you following? The best life now Christianity? Or the true one? Mark this carefully. Get ready. Stop trying to be liked. Stop trying to be liked. It is time for you and me, all of us, we all fail in this respect. It is time for us to pay the price. It is time for us to share the gospel in love. It is time for us to challenge unbelief when it comes up. It is time for us to stop worrying about saving our cultural chits so we can play them later. The hour for Christianity is now. Christianity plays in the key of now. It is time for us to be a witness. What are we saving our powder for? We're getting steamrolled. Be a witness now. Say something on your Facebook timeline now. Share the gospel with a family member now. Share a video about wokeness and CRT that actually will free somebody today. Today is a day of salvation. When we encounter material like this, we should have a response. We should be ready with an answer, and we should give an account for the hope that lies within us. This man is telling us to hate white people. This man is training white people to despise themselves. He is denying the image of God in white people, and Christian leaders are buying his book and telling their congregants to follow him, and we are in desperate times. We truly are. Kendi reminds us that wokeness is religious. It is a religion. That's what's pulling at you and me today. It's not just an ideology. I've called it that. Other speakers have called it that. It is a religion. It carries us like a tide. It causes us to see whiteness as our societal original sin and anti-racism as our new secular gospel. And it tells us, again, that we are structurally guilty of racism by virtue of our skin color if we are white, or by virtue of not challenging the existing white supremacist order, whatever pigmentation our skin may be. So says Ijeoma Oluo in the book, So You Want to Talk About Race, quote, if you are white in a white supremacist society, you are racist. If you are male in a patriarchy, you are sexist. If you are able-bodied, you are ableist. Do you remember that from earlier? If you are anything above poverty in a capitalist society, you are classist. That is a, end quote, that is a structural understanding of sin. Do you understand this? It is not that which flows from the heart. You're not guilty because of your actions, your thoughts, your ungodly desires, your unrighteous words. You are guilty because of how you are situated in a given society. The truth is, Oluo says, you don't even have to be racist to be a part of the racist system. So mark this carefully. In both Kendi and Oluo, and also woke Christian arguments, you cannot truly overcome the evil of whiteness. You, to use a theological word, are condemned. You are condemned. Even if you are born again, the person benefiting from whiteness is effectively trapped trapped by past American history, trapped by shared guilt. trapped by an utter inability to overcome their inherent racism. Racism is baked into American society, and every white person or person helped by it is guilty of benefiting from a racist order, because systemic injustice of this public order privileges whites in all sorts of ways. This ideology leaves an entire group of people without real hope of change, let alone salvation. The consequences of this view, especially when Christianized, could not be more momentous. In wokeness, according to this body of thought, you can be saved, you can be justified by faith in Christ, and yet you are still guilty of complicity in white supremacy. I trust this point is coming through. I trust this technical point is making sense to you at this time. So there is a problem. that the gospel does not solve. In woke Christian thought, the gospel can give us a new birth, but it does not overcome and defeat our inherent participation in whiteness. So again, there is a condition that the gospel does not make right. As a system then, we see that wokeness both adds to and subtracts from the gospel. there is more that must be done for white people than the simple gospel does. So, it is finished is not technically correct. Wokeness would have us correct Jesus in his dying breath at Calvary. There is more for sinners to do than just believe and repent. So wokeness adds to the gospel, but it also subtracts. It takes away the transforming power that is in the blood of Jesus Christ. We may get our ticket punched to heaven, but if we have bought into whiteness, we are not transformed. We need human ideology. We need critical race theory for this. We need anti-racism. We need to go further, even as believers, and overcome our condition of oppressor. Wokeness adds to the gospel. Therefore, wokeness subtracts from the gospel. The end result is a gospel that is thoroughly unlike the biblical gospel. Wokeness is not benign. This is not something, pastor, that you can just keep preaching and ignore and think, this will have no effect on my people. This is not something, Christian father or mother, that you can think, that sounds kind of complicated. I don't really know what's going on there. I'm going to sit this one out. This is not something college student, high school student, that you can think, eh, this is for, I don't know, theology geeks or something like this. I don't really track theology. I'm into sports or my friends or whatever it may be. No. This is coming for you. You haven't chosen this, as was said earlier. This has chosen you. We do not choose our battles. Our battles choose us. You don't get a menu from heaven when you're 15 saying, which ones do you want to fight? Which conflicts would you like to engage in? They get sent to you. It's like A very bad Amazon. It lands on your doorstep. You didn't even order it. You didn't request it. But it comes to you nonetheless. You and I, we all are tempted to think, why this one? I don't want this one. I want to sit this one out. This is too hard. You don't understand. I'm from the South. I'm from this region. We have a very tricky history. You don't understand. I have experienced racism or ethnocentrism in some form. So this is tricky for me. I don't want to handle this. I want to just shut my eyes and make this go away. This is not how the Christian faith goes. We are in a war zone. We have a devil who hates us. We don't choose our battles. Our battles choose us. This is a direct attack on the gospel. This is not something that is a out there reality for those who like sifting through societal disparities. This is theological. This is religious. This is a replacement gospel. Stronger still, this is a gospel, so called, that is anti-gospel. This is an anti-gospel system. There is no room for merging this teaching with the teaching of Scripture. This is not an analytical tool. This is anti-gospel. Choose one or choose the other. This is not a system compatible with Christian faith. This is a system bred for one purpose. to destroy Christian faith. Section two, second movement, how Christ frees us from condemnation. We're now equipped to understand what so few do today, that wokeness violates what the Apostle Paul expressly teaches. Turn with me, if you would, to Romans 8, one through eight in the New Testament. Romans 8, verse one. Would you stand with me while I read, since this is an extended portion of the word of God? There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. This is the word of God. Please be seated. Heavenly Father, as we turn now in this message to your word, I ask your blessing on our study of it by the power of your spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. In verse one here, we read some of the most joy-giving words in the Bible. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is one of those sentences in the Bible where we are dangerously close to the land of magical thinking, to something, in other words, that sounds too good to be true and almost can't be believed by normal flesh and blood people like you and me. But it is in fact true. What you and I need in our life is not good feelings. What you and I need in our life fundamentally is divine truth. You can't have your life be led by feelings, but your life is to be marked out, staked by divine truth. That will get your soul all the way to glory. The reason there is no condemnation, as this chapter and passage makes clear, is because of God's judicial verdict pronounced on the basis of our faith in the atoning work of the Son. That's a complex sentence. There's a lot going on here. We see in verse 1 that as Christians, God has united us to Christ. We are in Christ Jesus. We are no longer then united to the world. Once we were, but a believer is somebody who has lost their unity with the world. This is very important. This is one of those technical theological points that helps you understand how the Word of God is sufficient, as Tom powerfully preached earlier. If you understand your identity in Christ, your spiritual location, you are already cued up to understand that Christianity is distinct from every system. Wait, I shouldn't be looking to the world to understand justice or unity or equity or love. I'm not of the world anymore. I truly am not in the world in the sense of having spiritual identity with it. I'm here, but I'm not of it spiritually. This means that we are no longer in a state of condemnation, katakryma in the Greek. This is the worst state you can be in to be condemned. People think that the worst state they can be in is to be a sinner. The worst state you can be in in existence is to be under divine condemnation. There is nothing worse than to be condemned by God. And that is where every sinner is outside of saving faith in Jesus Christ. Everyone is here, naturally. Everyone is in the worst possible state they could be in, condemned before God. They will have all sorts of problems they face in their earthly life. There will be all sorts of effects of the fall that people of every kind face in this life. But fundamentally, we are not victims of this world. Fundamentally, in our sin, in Adam, we are criminals, all of us. One of wokeness' greatest effects is to convince us that we are victims, fundamentally. Because if you convince people they are victims, you will lose the entire system of Christian theology, which is premised on you and me being criminals, condemned. But you see, a therapeutic approach or a woke approach, the two work hand in glove, reframes all the Christian gospel. Oh, my problem is not that I'm condemned legally by God. No, my problem is that people have been mean to me. I have been in the wrong circumstances. I have had a rough life. People do have rough lives. Many people do. Suffering gets us all, doesn't it? And yet our fundamental problem is not our upbringing. Fundamental problem is not poverty. Our fundamental problem is not wrongs people do to us that can leave a mark. Still not our fundamental problem. This is a theological death match. Our fundamental problem is that we are condemned in Adam. All of us, without exception. You meet a fellow sinner, you know their foremost problem right away. It's condemnation. There is nothing a man can do to take away the sentence of condemned in God's sight. There is nothing we can do in our strength. This is not something a pill will solve. This is not something a more positive outlook will overcome. This is not a matter of habits or tips or healthy living you can embrace. There is nothing you can do in yourself to overcome the condemnation that is yours in Adam. But here's the thing. There is no condemnation for those who trust in Christ. And this is because God gives us what we could not give ourselves, saving faith. By the grace of God, you and I have trusted in Christ. And if anyone here has not, any children, any attendees have not trusted in Christ, again, as you heard me say a few minutes ago, Christianity plays in the key of now. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the hour to turn to Christ. Christ alone, for the believer, has set us free, verse 2, from the law of sin and death. The law, verse 3, condemned us for our sin, but verse 4, Christ has fulfilled all righteousness. What this means is twofold. Jesus lived a perfectly holy life. That's called active righteousness in theology. And then secondly, Jesus died a perfectly satisfying death to the Father. That's called passive righteousness. This all together means that we are freed from slavery to the things of the flesh. Everyone is naturally enslaved to sin. We don't just have a small problem with sin. It's not that once in a while we disobey our father and mother, and that's not ideal. It's not that we tell a little white lie, but we're basically a good person. Our culture is also lying to us by telling us that we are basically good people. We are not basically good people. We are evil people in our nature. We are damned because of it. But in Christ, that condition is overcome. We had a hostility problem with God, verse 7. The mind that is set on the flesh is ekthra to God in the Greek, hostile. Think about that. Think about what Paul says our minds naturally are. Our minds naturally hate God and want to come up with anything we can to justify ourselves in the sight of God. The natural man hates God. The unredeemed mind, Paul says here, is set on the flesh and is inherently at war with God. Why do unbelievers live fleshly lives? Is it by accident? No, it's because their mind is set there. It's because they don't have a transformed mind. They love the flesh. They think about the flesh. They are consumed by the flesh. This is why they live a fleshly life. If somebody in your youth group or your college group or your church more broadly has a continual flesh problem, it may very, very well be because they are not converted. They do not know Christ. They have not crossed the line of saving faith, not because they're fundamentally worse than you or me, but because they have not turned from their sin and repented. It's not that an unbeliever never gets anything right with an unredeemed mind. They can add up 2 plus 2. It does equal 4. That's not racism talking, by the way. But it is that we must not follow unbelieving minds and unbelieving men. Such men, verse 8. Straightforwardly, one of these straightforward sentences from Paul. He likes a lot of complex sentences, yes, and then he likes simple sentences. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. There it is. There's our fundamental condition. You can't please God if you're in the flesh. So Christian, be very careful about, in any sense, following those who are in the flesh. We have some intellectual engagement with them, yes. They do occasionally get things right, perhaps, yes, because God has given truth to all man, and there is such a thing as common grace, there is such a thing as general revelation, there's a broader conversation to have here. Nonetheless, do not follow those who are in the flesh. Fundamentally, they cannot please God, and if you follow them, you will not please God. Let's take a step back in our culture today We are breathing condemnation. We are inhaling condemnation. And we are exhaling condemnation. We are in desperate times. Many of us are confused and dispirited and disheartened. We fire up social media. We turn on the TV. If you still get a paper, you read the paper. Do papers still exist? Don't answer that question. OK. And you are just confronted. by anger and rage and hatred and condemnation. But know this, the truth of God is stronger than the opinions of men, including those who would condemn white people, those who are complicit in whiteness, any such idea. Please hear this, if you hear it nowhere else, Christ has fulfilled all righteousness. Christ has done the work. Christ has lived a perfect life and died an atoning death. The Father's wrath was poured out on the Son. and the sun drank it to the last. Jesus died in our place as a substitute sacrifice. Everybody says they want to follow Jesus. What is the problem with Ostinian prosperity theology? It is focused on Jesus. Lots of people say around us that they follow Jesus. The problem is it does not meet Jesus in the right place. It goes up to the clouds to meet Jesus. It wants to reign with Jesus in his glory without the cross. Where do you go to meet Jesus? You go outside the city gates. You go to a despised place that stinks and smells of death. You go to Golgotha. That's where you meet Christ. As a Christian, after you meet Christ, do you leave Golgotha? Do you abandon crosses? No. What does Jesus say you do? You take up your cross, you deny yourself, and you follow him. You smell Golgotha every day of your life. You have a cross on your back. and you look ahead, and Jesus is going before you. But this is not the high and mighty Jesus without a cross that prosperity theology tells you to follow. This is Jesus at his lowest. This is Jesus staggering and slain and sacrificed and crucified for us. This is the biblical Jesus. That's where you meet him. And yes, when he comes back, He will come back in power and glory, but there is no way to know Him without going to Golgotha, without meeting Him in the lowest of the low. As a result of the work of Christ on the cross, the finished work of Christ, and justifying faith given to us by God. God has removed his own just sentence of condemnation from us. In God's courtroom, all who trust Christ are not only not guilty, but innocent. These truths are not a feeling. These truths are a fact. This is objective truth. This is what God has done. It does not ebb and flow. It does not owe to us. It does not come and go. It owes to God. It is stable. It is purchased. It is our possession now and for all time. No one can take this from you. This is God's courtroom pronouncement. No one can edit it. No one can reverse it. No one can refute it. No one can overturn it. You are not condemned. You are not only not guilty, you are innocent as a Christian. You are innocent. And no one can make you guilty. There is nothing Satan and all his minions can do to make you guilty. But Satan will try. Satan will do everything he can to condemn you. Christian, this applies far beyond this conversation, as you surely know. You will face condemnation from within. for all sorts of reasons. You will feel shame over your past. You will remember your sin and think, oh, oh, the grace of God can't get to that. It can't have covered that. You will have a bad conversation with a spouse or family member or a friend. You will sin. Let me not be too polite. You'll sin. And you'll think, oh, I've done it. I've outrun God. I've gone too far for salvation. I've ruined a friendship. I've ruined a marriage. I've ruined a family. There is no hope for me. I am condemned. You and I can sin. It is true. We can even fall into a pattern of sin as a Christian. But we cannot be judicially condemned in God's sight. It cannot happen. We cannot be guiltified once we have been declared innocent. You need to remember this. You need this beyond wokeness. This applies to wokeness. It definitely does. It's one of the most devious effects of wokeness. But you need this beyond this consideration in this conversation. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Do not live in condemnation. Do not allow your household to be a household of condemnation. make every effort you can to have your household, your life, be a life that is flooded with the grace of God, not one that ignores sin. I don't think you think I'm that kind of theologian at this point. But please, please lay hold of this promise. If you are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. Well, I think we can see the differences now between Christianity and wokeness. This is our third and final movement of this talk. Practical effects of gospel truth. Practical effects of gospel truth. Wokeness, as I have said, let me just summarize a little bit and contrast. Wokeness announces guilt and unending condemnation. It is truly, as I have said, a system of condemnation. It specializes in that. It has a PhD in it. It foments and produces hostility, alienation, and grievance. It breeds resentment. It causes you to look at somebody you don't even know, size up their skin color, and think you know who they are, and think you know their sins and their failings. But in contrast, the gospel announces forgiveness and resulting innocence. It's not because of anti-racist penance. It's because of God's work in Christ that heals hostility. Wokeness is the ministry then, another contrast, of imprisonment. It tells ordinary people like you that you are an incurable racist. It defines you by your skin color, not by your heart. It makes the very mistake that people made for centuries in this country in different places and forms. It defines you by your skin color. That is precisely the lesson to learn from slavery and Jim Crow and segregation. Not to define people by their skin color, yes? That's the move it makes. And nobody seems to notice this, even people with seminary degrees. It calls people back to the altar to confess sins they never knew they committed, simply because of the color of their skin. But God's good news is the ministry of freedom. We are free in Christ. We are free from the law's condemnation. We are free from any other system that would render us judicially guilty in the sight of God. Do you and I still sin and dip back into slavery? Yes, we do. James 3, 2, we all stumble in many ways, but our judicial status Our standing in God's sight is immovable, it is unchangeable, and there is freedom there because we are no longer condemned, much as Satan and all his devils try to condemn us. This, after all, is the devil's own fate. This is the devil's own sentence. He is a condemned devil, and he would like to condemn you with him. But if you are in Christ, he cannot take you. If you are not in Christ, he can take you. If you do not know Christ as your Savior and your Lord, you are now condemned. And Satan can take you down to the pit with him. But if you will flee to Christ, he cannot have you. The work of Christ is too strong. The death of Christ purchased you back from the grave. The wrath of God is satisfied in your case, not because you're man enough to take it, strong enough to take it, not because you've shown up to church enough times to satisfy it, because of Christ. If you could find a cup that says wrath of God on it, if you found a goblet A huge goblin. And it said, wrath of God. There would be not a drop of wrath in it for you. It has been drained to the last drop. There is no wrath in it. It's gone. Jesus did it. Jesus drank it for you. It's not that you're not condemned because of you. It's because if you found a massive room, a hall with the title over it, Hall of Condemnation, and there once was all sorts of ammunition that would be fired at you to condemn you, it's all gone. It was all spent on Christ. There's none left. There's none. It's because of the work of Christ. It's because it's objectively accomplished. That term means accomplished by God, factually accomplished. So this is our standing now. This will be our standing until the end of the age when, because of Christ, we will be acquitted before the great white throne. Your status today of no condemnation, innocent by saving faith, is the exact same status you will have on the last day. You will see God in all his terrible holiness, in the beauty of his perfections. You will be in God's presence before you know it. you will not be able to believe that you are there. You will be before the living God before you know it. And before him, you will be innocent. And it is all because of Christ. All of it. It is your standing now, the verdict of end times, the verdict on the last day has been given to you now. It's yours now. How does that shape how you live? How does that shape a church of people who have nothing in common in certain ways but Christ? How can it not cause us to explode with praise and joy and worship when we come together as congregations? Are you not feeling this after being shut away and locked away for a year? Is it not a joyful thing to come together? We're not a church in here like one local church, but is this not a beautiful thing? We have Christ. We have Christ in common. We're in the process of having our freedoms whittled away one after another. They're probably going to keep taking them. But they can't take Christ. They can't do it. They can't take away no condemnation. It's ours. The verdict of the last day has come. It's landed. It's yours. It's ours. We're the church. This is impossibly good. Why would we divide? Why would we look at skin color and say, I can't be with you? Why would we trust Marxists who want to destroy everything good in this world? Why would we be led to believe that we're oppressed? Yes, there's sin in this world, but why would we be led to believe we're oppressed by people who hate God? and end up leaving settings like this, strong local churches like this one. Why would we do it? Don't do it. Don't leave loud. Don't leave a gospel preaching local church, but leave one that condemns you for your skin color and find a new one. and find a pastor and a team of elders who will shepherd your soul to glory without respect for your background, without respect for your skin color, without partiality, who love you in Christ simply because of who God made you as an image bearer and then remade you through the death of his son. Find a body of elders and pastors who will love you and shepherd you and preach the word and open the doors of the church even when Caesar says no. No worship. You say, yes, I will walk into that building and they can then cuff me the next minute. It does not matter. This, this is how worthy King Jesus is. I don't fear prison. I don't fear bad headlines about the church or whisper campaigns in a community. I don't fear losing my job. I don't fear it. Take my job away. I will fight and scrap to provide for my family. It may be hard, but we will do it. It worked for John Bunyan. It can work for you. It doesn't matter. I don't fear the world. I don't care what people think about me. I care about God. I care about the last day. I was reminded in conclusion of the power of condemnation recently. I was reading the new R.C. Sproul bio, and I learned of a student of R.C. Sproul's named Harvey. R.C. Sproul had a study center for many years in Pennsylvania called Ligonier, Ligonier Valley Study Center, I think it was called. Some of you know this. And so that was Sproul's original Ligonier setting before he went to Orlando, Florida. So Harvey showed up to Ligonier to study theology under Sproul. And Harvey had cerebral palsy. So he had a lifelong disabling condition that was very difficult for him. He hadn't chosen it. He didn't ask for it. Harvey came into contact with a group of students who believed in the ability to heal, that the spiritual gift of healing still applied. So this group of students, no doubt with a head of steam, tried to heal Harvey. They tried several times, but they couldn't heal him. They couldn't cure his cerebral palsy. Well, they got frustrated. And they told Harvey, they told Harvey that he didn't have enough faith. They told him it was his fault. They said he wasn't a Christian. They said he wasn't a believer. It was his fault because they couldn't cure his condition. R.C. Sproul was a kind man. And he befriended Harvey. And when they talked, R.C. realized this man lived under the power of condemnation. He had been condemned. He had been condemned by Christians who said it was his fault, his condition. So R.C. prayed this. This is an actual prayer he prayed. Lord, please help this man understand. that he is fully justified in your sight and is clothed with the righteousness of Christ. At the conclusion of a prayer, Harvey was weeping. He was weeping. Not the kind of polite weeping that you and I do, that I'm trying to hold back currently. You know, a few little sniffles and dabs of the eye, that sort of thing. Harvey was body shaking, weeping. because he had been wrongly condemned. And now he was no longer. He was already not condemned by God. He was seeking God. He was seeking teaching, the teaching of sound theology. You'd think people would look well on that. But no, they condemned him for it because supposedly their inability to practice the gift of healing today showed that he was ungodly. These are the stakes. If you follow this system, there are people all around us who will end up condemned. They will be condemned in the world's eyes. So we all have a mission. You ready? You have a mission. Your mission is to go and tell sinners that they are rightly and justly condemned in the sight of God. But once they have faith and trust in the finished work of King Jesus, they are justified and they are no longer condemned. And though they can sin, yes, in this life, no one can condemn them. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, the stakes are so high. It's so easy to look out at society and see real problems and think that social justice, wokeness, critical race theory, intersectionality, or other ideologies solve those problems. In reality, though, we have problems, but these are the wrong cures. These are in no sense the cure for what ails us. These will only make the condition worse. I pray tonight for those who are under conviction of sin. because they are truly, not falsely, but truly condemned in Adam for their sin and they have never trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior. And I pray that you would grant them saving faith. I pray for those who are Christians, but who must fight the feeling of condemnation in some sense all the rest of their life. And I pray that they would cling to Romans 8.1, And I pray that they would know it is true the rest of their days. And I pray finally that you would cleanse the temple afresh in our time and that the wolves would be driven out, the wolves who would come in to churches of the Lord Jesus Christ and condemn people for their skin color and divide the church and tell people who have found real unity in Christ that they have no unity. I pray, Father, that you would give us strong men who would use one voice to call the sheep and another voice to fight off the wolves. And I pray this in the strong name of Jesus Christ, the true man. Amen. Stand with me if you would. Sing, He Will Hold Me Fast. When I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast. When the tempter would prevail, I could never keep my hope through life's fearful path. For my love is soft and cold, He will hold me fast. for my Savior loves me so. He will hold me fast. He saves all His people. Christ will hold me fast Precious in His holy sight He will hold me fast He'll not let my soul be lost His promises shall last Bought by Him at such a cost He will hold me fast For my Savior loves me so For my life He bled and died, Christ will hold me fast. Justice has been satisfied, He will hold me fast. Praise with them to endless life, He will hold me fast, till my faith is turned to sigh, when He comes at last. He will hold me fast, He will hold me fast, for my Savior loves me so. One of the most impactful pastoral theology books I've ever read was a book on World War II called The Men That Made the War, or The Men That Won the War. Had nothing to do with pastoral theology. But it talked about D-Day, and it talked about one man in particular who made it ashore, got to a safe spot where He could be protected. In fact, he was with three or four other men, and they were hiding behind this bunker. And as long as they stayed there, they were safe. But they were watching the bullets fly over their heads, killing the soldiers behind them, getting mowed down. And they had a choice to make, to sit there, stay safe, or go charge. the gunner that was up at the top of the hill. And they were just sitting there terrified, scared. One man, who wasn't the captain, he wasn't a leader, he was just a common private soldier, he stood up and he charged. The others did not know what he was doing. But after he stood up, faced the bullets, they stood up behind him. and charged behind, and they took out that gunner and saved many, many lives. I get the privilege to introduce to you a man that's charged the hill, and he's taking bullets for the rest of us. And eternity is only gonna reveal the lives that potentially have been saved by him charging the hill for the rest of us. And this is Tom Askell. And I was with Tom Askell in his church about a year ago. And I have known Tom Askell like you may have heard about Tom Askell, the president, founders, ministry, a ministry that we all love and we cherish and we're thankful for their strong stand. But I didn't know Tom Askell as a person until I went to his church and then saw that this is a man that will charge the hill, but here he is a man that will take a sheep and hold the sheep close to him. And I saw a church love their pastor as if this pastor was a father to them. And I saw him love the sheep. And I said, this is a perfect example, or a good example. We only look at Jesus as the perfect example, but we look at Tom Maskell as a man that is willing to be brave at the risk of his own life, and a man that will also have a tender heart, a shepherd's heart. And so here you get the privilege to listen to such a man. So Tom Maskell, come and preach to us. One of the reasons I love John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is because he understands the nature of the Christian life. He knows the Christian life is indeed a dangerous journey. And it's a great book, and you heard Jeff talk about it earlier this evening, that it ought to be read once a year. Spurgeon did that, read it over a hundred times in If you've not read it, then you really need to read it before the next week is up. You probably can go to heaven without reading it, but you shouldn't take that chance. You should read the book and just make sure that it's in your heart and mind. But the book's so good because Bunyan, it's an allegory and it tells of a journey from this life to the celestial city. And he allegorizes places and people that graphically illustrate some of the threats, some of the dangers that Christians face in this world. So we read about places like Hill Difficulty, and the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and Doubting Castle, and Vanity Fair. And you meet people like Mr. Looking Both Ways. We all know who that is. Or Mr. Buy-Ins. or Madame Bubble, or worldly wise man. And what Bunyan does is he tries to help us understand what the Bible actually teaches about the threats, the dangers that are all around us as we follow Christ through this world toward the world to come. The scripture so regularly depicts the dangers that are all around us that sometimes I wonder how anybody ever makes it to heaven. We have enemies within us, the flesh. We have enemies around us, the world. We have enemies above us, the devil and his demons. Unholy Trinitarian enemies are always plotting, strategizing, cooperating together to try to knock us off of the path. The Christian life in this world is indeed a dangerous journey. And yet, I fear that too many Christians don't really take that to heart. We don't recognize what we are up against. We prefer to think of our lives as somewhat safe. We like to think we're okay, that we really don't have much to fear about. But scripture contradicts those very thoughts. In both the Old and New Testaments, we find warning after warning given to God's people telling us that we need to be on guard against the dangers that are all around us, within us, and above us on the way through this world to the celestial city. In the Old Testament, we find false prophets regularly being pointed out as a threat to God's people. In Deuteronomy 13, Moses gives specific instructions to resist false prophets. He calls them worthless fellows in verses 12 and 13. And he says that they will try to lead God's people astray to keep them from the promised land. In Jeremiah 9.6, We read that false teachers heap oppression upon oppression and deceit upon deceit and that they themselves refuse to know the Lord. We see in Jeremiah 23, 16, the Lord saying, do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. I mean, Jesus plainly warned against false teachers in Matthew 7, verse 15. He said, beware false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Psalms and Proverbs are filled with these kinds of warnings telling us to be on guard against people who will lead us away from God, including those who show up with smooth-sounding words, with flattery. Paul warns against smooth talkers in Romans chapter 16 verses 17 and 18 where he writes this. I appeal to you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you've been taught. Avoid them for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. Peter says that the devil walks around roaring like a lion seeking whom he may devour. We need to therefore be sober minded. We need to be watchful. Peter admonishes us in 2 Peter 3 to take care that we're not carried away by the error of lawless people and thereby lose our own stability. And one of the most touching scenes in all the Bible Luke records in Acts chapter 20 where Paul calls for the elders from Ephesus to meet him at Miletus. And he reminds them of the kind of ministry that he had among them there in Ephesus where he spent more time than any other city where he went to plant churches. And he looks at these elders in the eye And these are men that from all accounts, he himself probably put into the office of elder. And he says to them in that scene, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God that he obtained with his own blood. For I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Elders, do your job, protect the flock from fierce wolves. But then he looks at him and he says this, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. I've often wondered what must have been going on in Paul's mind and in the minds of those men. He knew him, he loved him. And he looks at him, he says, you men who have been trusted leaders. From among yourselves. They're going to arise false teachers, those that will say perverted things and lead disciples away. Later in his last letter, the last we have from him in the New Testament, just a few months before he died, he writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4 to preach the word. And then he tells him why it's so important for him to do that. He says, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. Now, I can multiply these kinds of warnings and these kinds of admonitions to be on our guard, but I trust that you're at a conference that's going to be built on the Bible, has been built on the Bible, so you probably know these warnings as well as I do. But as I reflect on these warnings, and I think about how it is indeed a dangerous journey that all of us are on as we seek to follow Christ in this world, I think Luther was right. This world indeed is filled with devils, and they do threaten to undo us at every step. And failure to recognize this, to remember this, has set modern evangelicals up to be manipulated. to be played. And what I mean by that is that we are in the midst right now of a very subtle, intentional, deadly maneuver by the devil that's designed to lead pastors, evangelical leaders, and churches away from the allegiance to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to the sufficiency and authority of his word. Theologian Kevin Van Hooser has wisely noted that pastors and churches today must particularly brace for a specific kind of spiritual warfare. He puts it like this. For, he says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, matters in motion, but against isms, against the powers that seek to name and control reality. And that's precisely what's going on today. We have ideologies that are godless, that have spread throughout Western civilization, and in recent decades have begun to infiltrate evangelical churches. And these ideologies seek to name and control reality. They tell us what we are supposed to see. They tell us what we are supposed to value as right, good, and true. They tell us then what we are supposed to feel about it. They name reality, define it for us, demand that we reorder our lives on the basis of this new supposed reality that, in truth, eviscerates the revelation of the one true, almighty, transcendent God who created the world and everything in it, who alone determines what is real. Over the last five to ten years, many of these ideologies have been smuggled into what had been heretofore trustworthy evangelical churches and organizations. And they've been smuggled in through the Trojan horse of what is called social justice. In the name of racial reconciliation, in the name of honoring women, in the name of showing love and respect to sexually confused people, Evangelicals have welcomed ways of thinking that undermine the very teachings of God's Word that actually do promote true love and true justice through the life and death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus. The devil has been very effective in confusing people about what constitutes genuine justice and what working for justice actually entails. And we're being played, manipulated at precisely this point. Because God himself is the one who is the only true source of justice. He is the one who is righteous. He is the one who created the world and who defines what justice looks like in his world. Yet in the name of seeking justice, many evangelicals are being told that we must see the world differently and work for certain outcomes on the basis of ideas, on the basis of philosophies that are contrary to the written word of God. So we're being manipulated. We're being maneuvered. We're being deceived. Proponents of hollow and deceptive philosophies are telling us what we should see, what we should think, what we should do. And if we're going to be faithful to justice and faithful to the way that they describe God, then we must follow the agenda that they set out before us. Well, in Colossians 2, verse 8, Paul specifically warns us not to allow anyone to deceive us in this way. And I want to look at that verse with you this evening. I hope to meditate on it with you to understand more of what is going on under the guise of social justice, and more importantly, what we must do about it as followers of the one true Lord. In the letter of Colossians, Paul begins with an introductory expression of thanksgiving and prayer for the church. He then launches into a profound explanation of the supremacy of Christ, starting in chapter 1, verse 15. Beginning in verse 24 of chapter 1, he describes how that awareness of Christ informs his own ministry as an apostle and minister of the gospel. And our text is found right in the middle of that description. He gives an admonition in chapter 2, verses 6 and 7, and then a warning in verse 8, that's our text, followed by reasons to heed that warning in verses 9 and 10. So, in order that we might see our text, verse 8, in its immediate context, let me begin reading in verse 6 of Colossians chapter 2. And I'll read down through verse 10, but just note that we're going to zero in on verse 8. So hear the word of the Lord. Colossians 2.6. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. I like the way that J.B. Lightfoot has translated verse 8, our text. He puts it like this. Be on your guard. Do not suffer yourselves to fall prey to certain people who would lead you captive by a hollow and deceitful system, which they call philosophy. They substitute the traditions of men and the truth of God. They enforce an elementary discipline of mundane ordinances fit only for children. Theirs is not the gospel of Christ. In our text, what Paul is doing is calling us to be so grounded in Jesus Christ that no one will be able to take us captive by hollow, deceptive philosophies. And he sticks with his theme of the greatness and sufficiency of Christ as he admonishes us this way, beginning in verses six and seven, when he tells us to walk in Christ. Just as we received Christ in faith, which means what? Taking God at his word, believing what God says. So we are to continue to live in him, that is by faith. We're to be rooted, built up, established in the faith, just as we have been taught that faith from the beginning of our relationship to Christ. Verse 8, he warns us not to be taken captive by hollow and deceptive philosophies which are not according to Christ. Then in verses 9 and 10, he buttresses his argument by reminding us that in Christ the whole fullness of the deity dwells and we have been filled in him. In other words, you have everything you need in Christ. Why in the world would you chase after anything else? Why would you let anybody convince you that you're somehow lacking something because all you have is Christ? He wants us to remember who we have in Christ. fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Christ. So let's look at our text more closely, verse 8. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Well in this verse Paul reveals to us the goal of our spiritual enemies. What is it? They want to take us captive. They want to have us. Now that word captive is a rare word. It's found only here in the New Testament and it's not found very often anywhere else outside the New Testament. It means to plunder. It means to take the spoils that come from being victorious in battle. which immediately indicates to us that Paul sees what we're up against, what he's warning us about, as warfare. It is spiritual warfare. And he says, you must not allow this to happen. See to it. Watch out. This is the kind of admonition that a lieutenant would give to his platoon as they're trying to maneuver their way through enemy territory. Be on the alert. Keep your eyes peeled, he says. Paul says we must do this to make sure no one takes us captive. Now when he writes this to the church at Colossae, he may have had specific people in mind who were propagating dangerous ideas in that city. But we must remember that such teachers spread deceptive philosophies as instruments of the devil. whether wittingly or, more likely, unwittingly. And the devil's desire is always to take people captive to do his will. Paul says that very thing in 2 Timothy 2, verses 24 through 26. And so knowing this, Paul says to Christians like you and me, make certain this doesn't happen to you. Be on your guard. so that the spiritual enemies that we have in this world will not so maneuver you that you wind up getting hoodwinked by bad ideas. Not only the goal of our enemies do we find in this passage, we also see the methods that they employ. How would they take us captive? By philosophy and empty deceit. Now this is not a prohibition, by the Apostle Paul of philosophy. It is the only time that he uses the word, but he's not saying that a system of thinking and teaching in the world is inherently bad. What he means by this word is a certain sort of system of teaching, a system that enemies of our souls would employ in order to ensnare us. He is talking about ideas. He is talking about intellectual arguments as Owen mentioned in his first talk today. There is a prohibition in Paul's words here of a particular kind of philosophy. One that is empty deceit. The description that Paul employs here uses three words that are very tightly woven together. They're qualified by one definite article, the philosophy and empty deceit, which is why I take it to mean Paul is referring to any hollow and deceptive philosophy. It's a way of thinking that when evaluated in the light of what God has revealed is spiritually bankrupt. It's deceptive, which means It sounds impressive. It sounds helpful. But it's deadly. There are three sources that he speaks of with regard to this hollow and deceptive philosophy. Each one of them is introduced by the same preposition. According to. According to human tradition. Now there's nothing inherently wrong. with tradition. Paul commends tradition in other places like 2 Thessalonians 2.15. The problem is this is human tradition or merely human tradition. In other words, tradition that is not in keeping with, not consistent with what God has revealed. This was precisely the problem of the Pharisees as Jesus pointed out whenever he applied Isaiah 29 13 to them in Mark chapter 7 verses 6 and 7. He says, well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written. This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Saying oh you must do this You must think this when God has not said do this or think this. As the Huguenot pastor John Daly put it. Teachings coming from mere human tradition are all of them nothing but folly and vanity in the sight of God. And though men boast of their utility, they are extremely hurtful as they pester consciences and busy them about things which God has not ordained and turn them aside from his pure service to things which do not profit. So, ideas, ideologies that are according to human tradition, mere human tradition. A second source is according to the elemental spirits of the world. This is a difficult phrase to know exactly what Paul means. It could mean basic elements of the world like earth, wind, and fire. Probably doesn't mean that. But it could mean the basic ideas of any kind of philosophical teaching, the ABCs of a system of thought. It might mean that. I'm convinced it most likely means being connected to some supernatural beings. Paul later will refer to angels just a few verses later in this context. And this fits in with the idea of spiritual warfare. But whatever the precise meaning of this second according to, The real danger is found in the third description of this hollow philosophy source. It's according to human tradition. It's according to the elemental principles of this world. But it's not according to Christ. And that's the problem. It doesn't come from Christ. It's not revealed by God. It's not compatible with what God has revealed to us in Christ. In other words, it's incompatible with the gospel. I love what my late Greek professor Curtis Vaughn said about this. Christ is the pole star of theology, the standard by which all doctrine is to be measured. Any system, whatever its claims or pretensions, is to be rejected if it does not conform to the revelation which God has given to us in him. And brothers and sisters, this is always the danger that we face. That we will believe things, that we'll buy into things, that will lead us away from what God has given us in Christ. So that we start harboring ideas contrary to the revelation of God in Christ. Or we start insisting on practices and ways of living. that do not conform to what God has given us in Christ. This is the very concern the Apostle Paul expresses to the church in Corinth that he had for them. In 2 Corinthians 11, verse 3, he says, We need to work hard. to be so grounded in Jesus Christ that no one can take us captive by hollow and deceptive philosophies. Well, how can we do that? How can we guard ourselves from being taken captive in this way? By having an unwavering unqualified, unembarrassed submission to the Holy Scriptures as the authoritative, sufficient, final Word of God. To be willing to say, whatever God has revealed to us in this book is His Word to us, and we will stand on this Word regardless of cost or consequences. Our cry should be that of Isaiah 820, to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, it's because there is no light in them. I believe that what Paul writes by way of warning in Colossians 2.8 directly applies to what we are facing today in this so-called social justice movement. This is a movement that has its origins in the unbelieving world. It is made rapid and at some points very deep inroads to Christian institutions and churches. Colossians 2.8, in fact, is a significant verse that was a part of the main impetus behind the statement on social justice in the gospel that was published in 2018. I had the privilege of being involved in the crafting of that statement. It consists of 14 articles, and there were 13 other men and myself that met in Dallas in June of that year to try to figure out how we should respond to what we were seeing in this social justice movement. The first line of the introduction of those articles explains the concern of the original framers of it and presumably now of the more than 16,000 people that have signed it. If you've not ever seen the document or the articles that go with it, I would encourage you to go to the statement on socialjustice.com, and you can look it up there. But here's the beginning statement to those articles. In view of questionable sociological, psychological, and political theories presently permeating our culture and making inroads into Christ's church, we wish to clarify certain key doctrines and ethical principles prescribed in God's word. Those questionable sociological, psychological, and political theories need to be identified, they need to be understood, and they need to be kept in their proper places. And in the time I have left this evening, I want to do exactly that by looking at the worldview of the modern social justice movement and see how that worldview is driving these practices, these teachings that fly under the banner of social justice. It is at its heart antithetical to biblical Christianity, as we just heard. And as a result, When Christians uncritically embrace and promote today's social justice movement, they're in danger of being taken captive by ideologies and led away from Christ. Professor Thaddeus Williams of Biola University explains it this way. The problem is not with the quest for justice. The problem is what happens when that quest is undertaken from a framework that is not compatible with the Bible. And this is a very real problem because to the extent to which we unwittingly allow unbiblical worldview assumptions to shape our approach to justice is the extent to which we are inadvertently hurting the very people that we seek to help. It's precisely for this reason that I oppose the social justice movement. Let me be just crystal clear. I oppose the social justice movement because I am for biblical justice. And where the social justice movement prevails, true justice falls and people are hurt. I'm not saying that I deny the existence of injustices today or that everything's just the way it ought to be on relationship between men and women or on human sexuality concerns or in race relations. It's not at all what I'm saying. I'm saying that whatever problems and injustices exist in those or any other areas, they cannot be served well by the social justice movement. they'll be exacerbated. What is meant by social justice? Well, it's a difficult term to define with any precision because it's used in so many different ways by its proponents. Antonio Martino recognized this. He's an Italian economist and politician, and he has noted that social justice owes its immense popularity precisely to its ambiguity and meaninglessness. It can be used by different people holding quite different views to designate a wide variety of different things. Its obvious appeal stems from its persuasive strength, from its positive connotations, which allow the user to praise his own ideas and simultaneously express contempt for the ideas of those who do not agree with him. That's pretty much what's going on today. Luigi Taparelli was an Italian Jesuit priest who was the first to use this term in the late 18th century. And he used it to describe principles in what he determined to be a just society. But I dare say that most of the folks that talk about social justice today are not thinking in terms of 18th and 19th century Roman Catholic social theory. Most people today who speak of social justice have a less sophisticated approach to the issue. And usually what they mean by it is the laws and cultural practices and economic policies in the world being better than what they judge them to be. In other words, things should be just and fair. And of course, that leaves us asking, well, yes, but just and fair by what standard? Whose rules? One of the standard college textbooks on this subject, a book entitled Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, an anthology on racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism defines social justice this way, as the elimination of all forms of social oppression. So where social oppression exists, social justice tries to eliminate it. Well, that's a good thing, right? I mean, God calls us to stand against unjust oppressions. We read in Isaiah 117, he says, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. In Psalm 82.3, give justice to the weak and the fatherless, maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. I mean, this is the word of God. But you see, it's precisely at this point where the sleight of hand comes in that results in many Christians being duped. Because the question that must be answered is this, who gets to determine who the oppressed are? And what does it mean to seek justice for the oppressed? Or again, you could just ask the question, by what standard? By whose standard? Well, behind the social justice movement, is a history of thinking, as we've already heard today, traces its roots back to Marxism. And attached to Marxism is a way of looking at people in relationships. It's come to be known out of the legal field into other fields of sociology now called critical theory. For more than 150 years, Marxism has been offering answers to these questions of what is justice and how is justice to be pursued. But classical Marxism considered this in terms of economics. It's been in more recent decades that Marxist ideas have infiltrated into sociology and moved beyond the realm of economics. This latter neo or cultural Marxism has been a dominant influence in the academy and in politics in helping shape our understanding of oppression in society. Two years ago, Joe Carter, who at that time was a fellow at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, published an article at the Gospel Coalition about the shooting at a San Diego synagogue. And the title of his article is, Kenism, Marxism, and the Synagogue Shooter. And in that article, in some later exchanges that I had with Joe about his article, Carter said that the term cultural Marxism is racist jargon that originated from a racist worldview and was perpetuated by anti-Semites. Now, in an online exchange that I had with Carter about this, he said, the use of cultural Marxism is a racist and anti-Semitic dog whistle that should be abandoned by Christians. And he urged me to quit using it. And he tried to intimidate me into not using it anymore. Obviously, I'm not acquiesced to his request. because it's a legitimate category in which to understand how these ideologies have come to be and are being foisted upon us in Western civilization. I believe that thinking in terms of neo or cultural Marxism remains a helpful way to understand the play that is being made against our culture and increasingly against evangelical and reformed churches and organizations. Now, Al Mohler has written about cultural Marxism, and he's done so in a way that helps us to understand why Carter and those like him object to the use of the term. Mohler has described how widespread cultural Marxism is in the academy. He was commenting in 2018 on an article by David Brooks in the New York Times, and this is what Moeller wrote about that article. He says, many on the left are saying that cultural Marxism is the boogeyman of the right. That's what Joe Carter was saying. that it's an invented position amongst conservatives, but that is not so. What is driving the left is indeed nothing less than a form of cultural Marxism, which has been taught on college and university campuses for a long time and is now the lingua franca. It is the symbolic universe in which the younger progressives live. Cultural Marxism is an adaptation of classical Marxism, moving from economic theory to a cultural and social theory. Classical Marxism saw class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, or the haves and the have-nots. Cultural Marxism views such conflicts as between the oppressed and the oppressors, between those with privilege, those without it. The working class has been replaced by minorities. Majority groups are defined as privileged and oppressive. Minority groups are regarded as underprivileged and the oppressed. So what this means is that those who are at the top of the oppressive categories are responsible for the oppression of those at the bottom. So whites, males, heterosexuals, cisgendered, that means you agree with the sex that God assigned you at birth, and all majority groups are inherently oppressive. They are part of the dominant culture. They wield what is called a hegemonic power. against subdominant cultures. Hegemony comes from a Greek word which means to have dominance over, to give leadership to. And those who do not fit into these categories of dominance and oppression, they are the subdominant minorities. And by definition, in this neo-Marxist scheme, they are oppressed. Those in the dominant culture exert their power over minorities by manipulating them. often inadvertently. They just rig the game so that they benefit and those who are not like them have to suffer the consequences based on cultural assumptions and mores and values. This way of viewing the world, this Marxist, neo-Marxist way of view of the world has given rise to a philosophical movement known as critical theory or critical social theory. Critical theory is social theory that is oriented toward critiquing and changing society as a whole, in contrast to traditional social theory, which is oriented only to understanding and explaining it. I took a degree in sociology when I went to Texas A&M. But I got it at a time when critical social theory was just beginning to get its head above the water. So I had a couple of profs that thought that was something we needed to know, but most of them were still operating on the basis of this traditional social theory. And so we were taught to think about people in groups and relationships and dynamics that happen in different types of groups. But critical social theory says, no, it's not enough. to understand those dynamics. You must recognize those dynamics are the problem and they have to be deconstructed and overthrown so that we can have a better world. Critical theory is always oriented toward deconstruction. Its agenda is to see the overthrow of oppressive groups the deconstruction of those structures that enable these oppressive groups to wield their power. And they do this all in the name of love and justice for the oppressed. Now, this ideology is on full display in our culture. We see it in the political system. Just watch and listen to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It just comes out of her because it's the way she views the world. It's on full display in our college and university campuses today. If you haven't done it or are not familiar, just Google Brett Weinstein of Evergreen State University. There have been documentaries made about this atheistic professor. and what happened to him when he dared to challenge these ideologies as they were coming across that very liberal campus. We see this way of thinking and viewing the world and everything from the innocent-sounding diversity departments that are popping up everywhere now to the violent silencing of those heretics who would dare to question its orthodoxy. Well, you can see how problematic this ideology becomes if it's allowed to define who the oppressed are and what constitutes seeking justice for them. Yet that's precisely what is happening across our nation. And this is what is making inroads into the evangelical world. That's why when we saw so many riots and so much looting, even as recently as last week, but all last summer, there was justification given for it. Well, this is just the voice of those who are unheard. They're just getting what has been withheld from them for so long. There were all kinds of those arguments being made rather than just looking at the lawlessness that was taking place on our streets and saying, you know, this is bad, this is wrong. Even evangelical voices suddenly lost their tongue whenever the question would be raised. Are these things wrong that they're doing? Neil Shenvey has distilled a massive amount of research on critical theory from primary sources. And in his distillation, he has come up with seven basic principles of critical theory. Now these track in parallel with more recent series of articles by a friend of his and colleague, Pat Sawyer, who is a Christian sociologist of 15 different disciplines. basic tenets of critical theory, but I just want to highlight three of them that as evangelical Christians we ought to be especially concerned about. One of those tenets is this. Critical theory teaches that your fundamental identity is not who you are as an individual, but the group to which you belong. What matters most about you is whether you are part of the privileged dominant oppressor group, or a subdominant oppressed group. And this is how you can be racist, misogynistic, homophobic, even though personally you harbor none of those sinful attitudes within yourself. If you're part of the white, heterosexual, cisgendered, male hegemony, you are guilty of systemic oppression. As Robin DiAngelo says in her book, White Fragility, there doesn't have to be a racist in the room for racism to exist. It's just a part of the air that we breathe, and if you happen to fit into those categories, you're responsible. A second principle is this, your fundamental moral duty is to work for the liberation of oppressed groups. And this is what it means to do justice. You have to buy into an agenda that is set up for you to work for having oppressed groups liberated. And if you don't do that, and you don't do it for all oppressed groups, then you are complicit in their ongoing oppression. This is why Black Lives Matter had, up until it became politically inexpedient for them any longer, on their website, it's not enough to stand with Black Lives Matter, you must stand with LGBTQ+, because they also are oppressed. This is why Ibram Kendi, Owen talked about earlier in his book, How to Be an Antiracist, says there's no such thing as being not a racist. You're either a racist or an anti-racist. And I define what an anti-racist is. And if you don't do the things I tell you must be done to participate in anti-racism, you're a racist. And if you say, well, I'm not a racist, that just proves the point that you really are. It's a Kafka trap. There's no way out of it. A third principle is this. Lived experience is more important than objective evidence and reason in understanding oppression. In fact, according to this category of standpoint epistemology, the argument is made that objective evidence and reason is actually exerting hegemonic power over those in subdominant cultures and is itself an act of oppression. So for you to say, you know, the Bible says this, and that's true no matter who you are, what sex you are, how old you are, where you were born, what your identities you might buy into are, this is what the Bible says is objectively true, that is considered to be a part of this oppressive activity from those who have power over the powerless. This is why The hegemony, those in power, need to sit down and listen rather than speak. Because the more oppressed a person is, the more authority that person has to speak about justice. Well, I want to just give you a couple of examples. of evangelicals writing about justice issues in ways that betray that they have been influenced by critical theory and neo-Marxism in their thinking. Timothy Isaiah Cho is a graduate of Westminster Seminary. He's a contributor to White Horse Inn. He's involved in a group called Core Christianity. And he says this, the Bible is written from the lens of the marginalized. If you come from a group or community that is historically not marginalized, you need these voices and perspectives or else your understanding of the word and the gospel in the Christian life will be thin and weak. He goes on. If the references in your pastor's sermons, the books used in small groups, the resources passed between the laity, the music sung in worship, and even the reflection quotes in your worship bulletins are predominantly by white men, your church is promoting a truncated Christianity. Isn't that crazy? It doesn't matter what the content is. It's just where does it come from? Andy Dracott, an associate professor of theology and Christian ethics at Talbot School of Theology in Biola University, presented a paper in 2018 at the Evangelical Theological Society. And this paper is entitled, Walking Across Gender in the Spirit? The Location of the Church and the Transgender Christian. And in this paper, in this presentation, he asks this question, should we consider transgender Christians as having a good self-understanding? And he spends the rest of the paper giving it an unqualified yes as an answer. Furthermore, in the paper, he used the ordinance of baptism as an analogy to describe how we need to think about transgendered Christians. They have died to their old biological identity. the one they were born with, and they have risen to a new life as a transgendered person. If I'm lying, I'm dying, okay? Now the pushback on Draycott's paper was so severe that he finally had to, the administration got upset because they were getting bombarded, as you would rightly hope would be the case once it became public. He finally had to issue a statement of apology Christians need to know how to apologize, okay? Let me just, this is a parenthesis right here. Don't let, don't ever say this, and don't let anybody say this, say, look, if I offended you, I'm sorry. Either you offended or you didn't. If you did and you were sinful in doing it, apologize. If you didn't, don't apologize, but don't do that manby-pamby, if I offended you, I'm sorry. Or, you know, I'm sorry you were offended. Well, what is that? So here's his apology. He says, I apologize for the lack of clarity in my presentation. Well, I understood it perfectly well. Lack of clarity was not the problem. It was what he said. The last few years have been a growing number of evangelical women who have publicly celebrated their preaching in churches and chapel services of evangelical institutions. Happened right here from someone in this community last week or two weeks ago at Criswell Chapel in Dallas, Texas. The most prominent among these women has been Beth Moore, who has famously renounced complementarianism, calling it a doctrine of man. And those who criticize this promotion of women preachers and women pastors have been met with accusations of being misogynistic, being oppressors, and being told that we should work now for the liberation of women from such oppression. What's going on there? There's some other category at work to define what constitutes oppression. And it operates on the basis that a woman's value and worth and her sense of well-being is determined on the basis of what a man is. And a man's value and worth and sense of self-being or well-being is measured on the basis of what a woman is, rather than saying, has God created men and women differently? Has God said what ought to be done in churches by certain men, and not all men, and not women? Now, not everybody I've named would I necessarily say, oh, these are neo-Marxists, undoubtedly. Neither are they all consciously promoting critical theory. But what is clearly evident in these, and I can multiply the examples many times over, what's clearly evident is that they have been influenced by this worldview that undergirds the positions they're advocating. And it's made apparent by the way that they contend for what they are contending for in the name of justice. My main concern is not to highlight all the ways and places that this philosophy has infiltrated the evangelical world, but to sound the alarm that it has done so. And to call for Christians to recognize that viewing the world this way is not according to Christ. You cannot buy into the worldview of Neo-Marxism, critical theory, and what is promoted today as social justice and maintain a commitment to the Bible as the Word of God written. I'm not saying people don't try to do it. I'm just saying we haven't given it enough time yet to see where the departure will come, although it is already happening among some. Christ has given us his word. That word is authoritative. It's sufficient. It's final. It teaches us that God's the creator of this world. He ordered it. He has done so in a variety of ways, including ways that include hierarchies in various relationships and distinctions between people. He made men generally stronger than women physically. He made adults generally to have more maturity than children. Generally, he created human sexuality to be binary, two sexes, male and female. He created them. He providentially orders the times and places of our existence. He's the one who says plainly in his word that the office and function of elders is to be restricted to qualified men. He alone is the righteous one, and he has revealed his righteousness in his moral law. Sin is any transgression or lack of conformity to that law. To live justly in this world is to live lawfully. It is to live in accordance with what God has revealed to be right. Injustice is a failure to live lawfully. In other words, this is God's world, and if we want to live well in His world, we must live in this world in keeping with His design. And our fundamental problem is we haven't done that. We've shattered His design. We are all guilty before Him by nature. We have all sinned and fallen short of His glory. So we do not have the righteousness that He requires of us. And the only way that we can gain the righteousness that He requires for us is by His providing that righteousness, which He has done in His Son, the Lord Jesus. And it's because of Jesus Christ's complete righteousness, justice, his life of obedience to God's commandments, and then his sacrificial death under the curse of those commandments against sin, which he himself never committed, but he did so as a substitute for sinners. It is only through him that we are rightly related to this Creator in whose world we live. And being rightly related to Him, we come to Him humbly to seek His wisdom from His Word as we bow to His Son as Lord. And we determine that God and God alone will set the agenda for what is right and good and true and just. And we follow that. Our world is a spiritually dangerous place. It has been so since the fall of our first parents. The dangers confronting us are particularly insidious because of the subtlety which they have entered into our ways of thinking. So let us face these days with boldness, with confidence, with humility, but with the determination that we find when Martin Luther penned these words in his hymn. And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little word will fell him. That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them abideth. The spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us sideth. So let goods and kindred go. This mortal life also. The body they may kill. God's truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for how you speak to us clearly, simply, understandably, authoritatively. And we want to be faithful in receiving that word, humbling ourselves before it, believing it and ordering our lives according to it. So come by your spirit and seal truth to our heart from scripture and help us to be wise not to be taken captive by any kind of empty, deceptive philosophy that would come toward us in this day. For Christ's sake, we pray. Amen. We have did it. We have made it past. We have made it through the first day. And I want to thank you for your being here again and for all the people who are helping out. One more time to remind you that the breakfast for those who would like to know more about the seminary is at 8.30, but you do need to register. You need to let us know if you're coming by using this card that we have handed out to you. That's at 8.30 here, and then the first session starts tomorrow at 9.30. So we hope you have a good night. We'll see you in the morning.