A New Reformation in America - Part II Ephesians 4:11-16

Ephesians 4 and the Call to Maturity and Unity

Last week we went through the first half of The sermon titled a new reformation in America. What the sermon is focused on is the importance of maturity and.

Unity.

That God calls the church to have and how that is lacking in many places because there has been serious compromise. The text we looked at as I already mentioned this morning was Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 through 16.

Last week, we looked at the first three verses and today we're going to look at the last three Verses 14 through 16 of that chapter where we are going to see the major problem that is dividing The American Church.

If you add have to ask the question, what is the one issue?

That is.

Tearing the church in half in America. We're gonna look at that issue this morning. Our big idea to remind you is this True growth happens in the church as it is rooted in God's Word. True growth happens in the church as it is rooted in God's Word and last week. We saw the first path how This takes place through following true teachers that leads the church to maturity and Unity, so unity only happens in a church that is first mature.

You need to be you need to be moving in the right direction then unity Can happen and you need true teachers to bring that about? Now this leads us to the second path how true growth happens in the church and that is through avoiding False teaching that kills true spiritual growth.

Let's begin by looking at verse 14 of chapter 4 in Ephesians. So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro. By every wind of doctrine by human cunning by craftiness in deceitful schemes a mark of maturity is That false teaching Does not pull you away.

It doesn't pull an individual away. It doesn't pull a church.

Away.

There are lots of people in churches that are professing Christians, but not born again and Those who are born again, but they are babies in the faith and these are the ones Who are most likely to be pulled away by every wind of doctrine?

They are susceptible to go after false teaching in the church. I See this all the time. I See people who are young Christians who seem to get pulled in a different directions all the time by strange teachings.

These people believe the gospel. But it seems like they are easily influenced by strange teachings that contradict The true teaching of God's Word where a mature believer can smell it from a mile away and say that's not right.

It goes without saying That unbelievers are easily pulled in the false teaching. But it is very common in the American Church That immature believers are susceptible to false teaching and this is why it is so important for churches to be rooted in the Word of God.

Strong believers rooted in God's Word as I mentioned they can smelt false teaching. They know it when it is there and as I mentioned in the introduction last Sunday false teachers and false teaching abound in the Evangelical Church in America.

Public Reproof in Galatians 2 as a Model for Addressing Error

Now let me say this very carefully. There there are indeed many false teachers in the church, and there are also true teachers who can go astray both exist. We see true teachers go astray in the Bible harming other Christians and This is my chief concern with the church in America people who were once credible who have now become a mixed bag as far as reliability and They got they get entangled with strange teachings that lead many Christians down a bad path.

There is biblical precedent biblical support. For what I am about to do and that comes from an encounter between two Christians In the Bible the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter in Galatians chapter 2 Verses 11 through 14 let me read this passage, and then we'll talk about it.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned Cephas being Peter for before certain men came from James. He was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came he drew back and separated himself fearing the circumcision party fearing the Jews and The rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

But when I saw that their content conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel I said to Cephas before them all if you Though a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How can you force the Gentiles to live?

Like Jews so in this text Cephas means Peter and what Paul is doing is confronting him. He is telling him that he was living out of step with the gospel and the way that he was doing it was by Separating from the Gentiles since he wanted to please the other Jews.

But in other words To understand what the false teaching was here. He was going along with the false teaching that Jews should not associate with Gentiles, but the gospel unites Jews and Gentiles and Paul saying to him.

What are you doing? He corrects him in that moment Peter Folded under pressure even though he knew the gospel made it so that Jews and Gentiles were to live among each other and In this episode Peter was a man pleaser and not a God.

Pleaser.

You know, you'll notice in verse 14 that Paul confronted Peter publicly that the verse says Before them all he confronted him. Every Christian at this time knew who Peter was. He was probably the most well-known Christian and it was very important that He was called out for the false teaching that he was sucked into momentarily here and he needed to be called out publicly and that's what Paul did.

Race, Equality, and the False Definition of Racism

I want to take The remainder of this sermon to warn everyone what to watch out for in the church right now. And we are going to focus on one issue that jeopardizes the gospel of Jesus Christ. The issue is the hottest topic in our society right now, and it's the issue of race.

Now right from the start I want to say that every Christian following the Bible Believes that every human no matter who they are Where they are from or what one looks like is equal before God. Every human is created in the image of God and every human is equally valuable.

Doesn't matter how much money you have doesn't matter how important you are from society's standpoint. Doesn't matter if you're the poorest person there is.

Everyone.

Is equal before God because you're creating the image of God. And I want to say this right from the start because I do not want to be misrepresented in what I'm going to say. There is a false teaching out there.

That uses the issue of race to advance an agenda. In other words the goal is not equality like they say it is but rather the goal is to advance an evil agenda and Satan is behind this agenda. We need to recognize that we need to spot false teaching when it is there.

The false teaching that has been that has been spread goes by many names. The academic term is critical race theory. But this active academic term goes by other names. Such as social justice and let me say our Christians for justice.

Yes, we are. But social justice is not the same as biblical justice, and I'm going to explain that to you. It also goes by names identity politics a black liberation theology and historically Marxism.

That's where it all came from. And you might wonder Shouldn't I stay away from this since it is political? But the reason we cannot stay away from it is because this system of thought is a false religion.

And if it's a false religion, we must address it. In fact, I taught Marxism as a as a false religion alongside other false religions at our men's breakfast several months back. Just like Muslim Islam and in Mormonism and Jehovah Witnesses, and we talked about Marxism.

Because it's the most popular false religion in America right now.

In.

Churches Christian ministries Christian colleges and seminaries this teaching is being presented as biblical. This is why this is so deceiving. And this is why we need to be so careful. What they do is they go to passages in the Bible they call for justice and they falsely say That that the justice that society calls for is also biblical justice.

When it is not. So what is this teaching. I'm gonna I'm gonna explain this to you and it's kind of complicated. I mean, I'm gonna do my best to simplify it as best I can. At the root critical race theory is a false definition of racism.

Many people compare what is going on in America right now with what happened in the 1960s with the civil rights movement. But they are not the same. The movement that was focused on giving equal rights to blacks in the 1960s was addressing true racism and every Christian at that time should have been on board with it and Those who weren't were sinning.

Every Christian in the 60s should have been calling out of the inequality that that happened that was taking place in this country and. And sadly many did and they should have 100 as I mentioned every human should have equal rights because every human is created in the image of God.

Martin Luther King jr.'s most famous quote Comes from his speech that he made it at Washington title. I have a dream and it was an excellent speech. In this speech. He said that He wanted his children and all blacks to be judged not by the color of their skin.

Finish the sentence. The content of their character we say amen to that. That's what the Bible teaches. We're to judge people carefully by who they are and not by their unchanging Characteristics the things that they have no control over.

Like the color of one's skin. The definition of racism in America is not this right now. The present understanding of racism has been severely Infiltrated by the teachings of a 19th century German communist named Karl Marx and Not the Bible.

The true biblical definition of what our society calls racism. Is this okay. James to describes what racism is. He wrote my brothers. Show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory.

Okay, so what our society calls racism, you know what the Bible calls it partiality where you show favoritism to one group and not another. Partiality is when you look down on someone not because of what one has done.

But because of what one looks like or what their status in society is. But critical race theory. This teaching from Karl Marx teaches that people are put in two categories. They're they're they're either the oppressor on one side or the oppressed on the other.

Marx understood it according to classes. He wrote about this in the Communist Manifesto. He was thinking in terms of economics. The wealthy class is the oppressor while the poor class in society is the oppressed.

Now in America Marxism has taken on a little different form. The country is divided according to ethnic groups. We have lots of different ethnic groups in America. We're a melting pot. Everyone in a particular ethnic group is considered an oppressor and everyone in another ethnic group is considered the oppressed.

Right now in America all white people are Considered oppressors and any minority and truthfully blacks are focused on more than others are considered the oppressed. The white and black relationship is where I am going to have my focus here.

What critical race theorists say is that every white person in America is racist. Either because one is complicit which means involved in or complacent, which means you're not calling it out. You're not calling out the ills of the black community in America.

Now I want to acknowledge that I don't know What it is like to be a black person. I'm not I'm obviously white. I've heard from black people Who tell me that they have been pulled over by police officers for no reason and watch closely by managers and grocery stores.

I have no reason to doubt what they have said. We should be sympathetic to blacks and we are told this this is true. Racism or what the Bible calls partiality and every Christian must condemn this. But while our society Operates in this way It's so more than often.

It's operating under a false definition of racism. Much more so than what I just mentioned where there are some things were happening where it's like well, I should happen. That's wrong, and we should call it out, but more than often.

It's Marxism that's driving it and not what I just said. Entire ethnic groups are called racist just because of their skin color and let me tell you why one ethnic group is called racist. What Karl Marx taught is that the oppressors and the oppressed are determined by output.

Results in other words the position that they find themselves in in life. Whether whether it's really good very prosperous or or very bad very poor. What this means is that this system concludes that many ills of one ethnic group are because the other ethnic group that has done well.

That has been more successful it must be their fault because they've been more successful. Historically in this group has not as much.

So.

The prosperous ethnic group is Put in the blame category in the less prosperous Group is put in the victim category. The problem with critical race theory is that it is not based on evidence. Once again, it's based on output.

It's based on the results. The plight that many in an ethnic group find themselves in is not explained by drawing wrong conclusions based on the stats. The stats that say more black people are in poverty than whites.

But to draw the conclusion that this is because of whites is. It's a long conclusion that conclusion to draw okay, so this is their position and it's because of This ethnic group that is oppressing them.

Now it could be that one group is oppressing the other. This happens, but you need to have evidence to show it. This was the case in the middle of the 20th century with the civil rights movement. There was oppression taking place from whites to blacks and the evidence was obvious.

The system was rigged against blacks. They did not have many of the rights of whites and therefore suffered as a result. But this is not the case in the present. For 50 years blacks have had equal rights with whites.

It is likely that the cause of Poverty in the black community has nothing to do with white people at all. Or at least not the people that they're blaming. But rather the lack of fathers in homes in black homes.

To lack an active father sets up a child very poorly for life. According to fathers comm. 57 of black children grow up without a father. A Very high number in comparison. Only 20 of white children grow up without a father.

Children without fathers are much more likely to end up in a bad place When they leave the home and then you can see how an entire ethnic group could have horror a horrible situation from this. If they're not set up well to succeed.

But if you say this is the problem, what will they call you a? racist. Now is that biblical?

No.

Not even close in The Marxist system the ethnic group that has done better is the reason for the ills of the ethnic group that has suffered more. But is there evidence. Once again we are people of the truth.

You have to look at the evidence. Now there there might be a company. Let's say let's say a company that there's white people who run it. They're racist. Everybody knows they're racist. Okay, that's evidence.

But to to draw a make a blanket statement and say well. It's because of all of you you're all a part of it. That's where the problem comes in. So in other words it needs to be taken on the individual basis.

It's interesting in fact actor Denzel Washington was in an interview where the interviewer assumed that whites were oppressing blacks in America. But Washington stopped the man and surprised the interviewer by saying They need a dad these homes need.

Fathers.

He said that is why we see more black people in poverty than whites. It's not because of some invisible racism that all whites carry with them. Now as I mentioned if a white man oppresses a black man, that's sinful.

But if you are doing well and a black person or any minority is not that does not make you the problem. That does not make you a racist. The Bible says that if you work hard you will often prosper from that hard work, and you don't need to apologize for that.

Proverbs is all about that right you. The farmer who is working hard is going to have a crop to show for it. What makes you a racist or what the Bible calls partiality is if you yourself Do something to another because you see that person as inferior and this does happen.

Yes, but we have to operate under the accurate Definition of racism not what society has created. What's interesting is that the biggest critics of critical race theory are in fact black people. If you talk to the right ones.

They don't like being placed in permanent victim hood. Where another ethnic group is blamed for their troubles and I already meant I mentioned one who criticizes it Denzel Washington in The Christian community one of the most well-known Christians who fights against this is a black man by the name of voddie bockum.

He has been maligned by many people who support critical race theory because of his strong stance against it. And people don't even consider him black by the way. Thank you, you're not a you hear that because because you don't agree with our false narrative, then you're not one of us.

You sure looks black. Voddie bockum understands the true biblical definition of partiality. He is writing a book titled fault lines in it. He's going to talk about this reformation that is happening in the American Church and critical race theory is The issue that is separating the church right now.

Another black man, his name is Daryl Harrison. He works for the ministry. This is John MacArthur's ministry grace to you. He's another man who's very outspoken against this now critical race theory is A threat to Christianity because it is a false religion and every false religion has a false gospel.

What it teaches is that one group is permanently the oppressor while another group is permanently the oppressed. So in other words, if you're a white person, you are permanently guilty and blacks are permanently victims.

In this what we see is a new form of racism toward whites, which is the great irony in this. Whites are considered morally inferior not because of anything they have necessarily done but because they're white.

No one talks about this because it's politically incorrect to say this. And by the way, if I if I did it if I did this sermon in some places, they'd probably run me off the stage. But it's true and as Christians we should always be people of the truth.

No matter what the consequences are no matter how many people how people think about it. We need to call out falsehood when we see it because who is the one behind falsehood it's Satan and his goal is to tear apart the church and he is using this issue to tear apart the church and Pastors need to call it out.

Even if they cancel you even if they call you Whatever name is they want to call they can call you a racist. That's okay. Because I know that in my conscience I am NOT right and anyone else can say the same who truly treats everyone equally no matter who they are.

But many are afraid to. Because no one wants to be called a racist. No one wants to be canceled. But if you're cancer Christ's sake who cares? Critical race theory violates the gospel because anyone who belongs to Jesus does not carry permanent guilt.

Romans 8 1 says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Nor is anyone permanently a victim as Romans 3 23 says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Trying to share the gospel with someone who believes he or she is a permanent victim is very difficult.

Everyone must first understand that they are first an offender before they are a victim. In fact during some of the The riots that followed the George Floyd thing. There were there were some Christians who said don't go there to share the gospel.

Just go there to to to to grieve with the people. And and that's what that's where this is coming from. You must see this. You can't you can't share the gospel with someone who is put in this category where they are permanently a victim.

They must understand that they are a great offender before God everyone on planet Earth is everyone always has been since the Garden of Eden. And everyone must understand that and not only that but a permanent victim.

Will blame God for putting one in a place where no one can ever be freed from while on earth. This is just your plight. This is how it's always going to be furthermore. Everyone is responsible for his or her own sins.

You're not guilty by association. That's not biblical. The prophet Ezekiel told the rebellious people of Israel in Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 14 the soul whose sins Shall die and in the whole chapter He goes to pains to say That you're only judged for your own sins.

Not the sins of your father. Not the sins of anyone else just your own. So if you're committing the sin of partiality you need to repent but the Bible never says. Everybody in the ethnic group needs to repent.

Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 2416 Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.

Now there are cases in Scripture where God calls out the sins of a community. It's true. That is true. But the call to repent is still only to the guilty individuals and not the righteous. In Ezekiel 14, he's saying I'm not good.

I'm not gonna judge these godly men. I'm gonna judge the ones who did this the ones who actually Sinned in this case and we know from the stories of Noah's Flood and Sodom and Gomorrah where God brings great judgment on these people.

What does he do though? He spares the innocent. The Bible says nothing of a permanent stain of racism that a child of God Carries with him and some are using that language out there. Sane would love to think that a believer thinks that they have a guilt that can never be removed.

And that is what this false teaching says here. You are you are among the oppressors. This is how you're always gonna be and and there's no hope of ever leaving that.

Like I said.

If one indeed does commit the sin of partiality by God's grace One can grow to the point where it has little or no hold on the child of God. That's much different than the system of Marxism where that's where you are the Bible talks about sanctification where you can grow out of it if indeed you were guilty of this sin in The Marxism system there is no hope that's who you are and They and they talk about equality, but if that's how it's always gonna be how could you ever have equality?

This is why it's called class warfare. Because one class fights the other right the oppressor fights the oppressed and then there's this tension and we have never seen More tension in America on race relations than we do right now, and there's been all these efforts.

What's equality. Equality, but when you have the wrong solution there will never be equality. We must understand that. So as you can see Critical race theory pollutes the gospel and so many in the evangelical church embrace aspects of this.

They look at the plight of many black people and they say that white people are responsible and there needs to be this continual repentance. There needs to be this continual lament. In fact this past summer There were some churches that weren't even holding services because of kovat.

But after what happened with George Floyd they decided to hurt a hold a lament service. You can see this like there's this there's this deep guilt that runs this it's called white guilt that runs. But we have to do something here.

And that's why people are posting things on Facebook and Twitter saying I'm against I'm against racism. But again look at the evidence is it racism based on what the facts say? We are people of the truth.

I know it's not popular to say that but but truth doesn't go out the window because it's a controversial subject.

Right.

Critical race theory social justice is a false gospel and the Bible takes a strong stance against false Gospels. And we would be wise to listen to the Apostle Paul's words about false Gospels. He wrote to the churches in Galatia in Galatians chapter 1 Verses 6 through 8 he said.

I am astonished That you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one. But there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel Contrary to the one we preach to you let him be accursed. Let him be condemned. This is very strong language. If you bring a gospel different from other Gospels or Different from the true gospel you are accursed and this is what we see in America.

We have whole denominations that are engulfed in social justice. These are liberal Protestant denominations. These are not true church true true churches by biblical standards we measure the definition of a church by what the Bible says not by what society says and.

Then there are also True churches that are letting this come in to their churches. There's churches today. If you were to go to the services right right now, you would find elements of this false teaching in those churches.

My great concern and the reason why I called this sermon the twilight zone In the American Church is that many evangelical churches have embraced some of this and what I believe is that Satan has planted false teachers in the American evangelical church that are actively spreading critical race theory and Sadly true teachers have been influenced by aspects of it and they are hurting the church dearly.

So who are these people who are embracing aspects of critical race theory? Earlier I shared with you that The Apostle Paul publicly rebuked the Apostle Peter because he was not walking in step with the truth of the gospel.

My conviction is that pastors all across America should be doing this. To those who are being influenced by this dangerous teaching so I want to do my small part. Okay, and I do this at the risk realizing that I could offend people.

I I fully understand that but we're at the point where we just can't we don't we shouldn't care anymore. Okay? If we want to be faithful if we want to do what God calls a shepherd to do, that's what I'm gonna do here.

So there is biblical support for calling out ministers of the gospel in pleading with them to turn For their own sake and for the sake of those they influence and for the sake of the future of their ministries.

Christian leaders need to be clear on major threats to the gospel. So here are some men from churches Christian colleges seminaries and Christian organizations. That have embraced aspects of this and I've let it advance in the places where they lead now.

This is not an exhaustive list. But all of them have been influenced in some way and before I say some names here. I want to say I consider these Brothers in Christ again. This is the Galatians to thing Paul calling out Peter and I want I want I want to be clear on that before I say anybody's name here.

I Want to be fair? Many things that they have written that are very good.

Okay.

So I'm not saying throw everything out but what I am saying is that where they have gone with this is very dangerous and it needs to be addressed and Some have dabbled in it more than others. But all of these have dabbled to some extent.

These Christians are Tim Keller David Platt Matt Chandler Al Mohler John Piper Mark Dever and Paul Tripp on the female side Beth Moore and I want to be very careful as I think these are brothers in the Lord and and I don't want to.

I I'm not being slanderous as I say, I want to be very clear. I'm telling the truth here. Okay slander is when you lie about someone I'm not doing that and More than anyone on this list John Piper has influenced me more than any and it's it's really hard for me to put his name On there, but it's true.

He has embraced aspects of critical race theory and I'm going to show you a quote by him in a little bit. But frankly, I don't think these men realize how much damage they are causing. I Think on this very important issue they are doing what Peter did as I mentioned and the they need to reject the ideas of critical race theory and They need to do it publicly before it advances even more.

And more people need to say you need to repent you need to turn. All of these have documented beliefs that are in line with this and if you want to see it for yourself I will show you I'm not making this up.

All of it is on record and they have not renounced their embrace. This is very serious. And by the way, no Evangelical teacher says that they believe in critical race theory. If you ask them, do you believe in critical race theory?

They would say no, of course not but their ideas are consistent with it and That's what we need to look at and since time is brief I'm going to show what one man has said that lines up with critical race theory and is foreign to the Bible.

This comes from John Piper. In fact, I think he's probably less in this than a lot of these men are but what he says what he says here is alarming. This is his quote Bible shaped people should expect to see structural racism almost everywhere in a fallen world structural racism is the cumulative effect of feelings beliefs and Practices that become embodied and expressed in the policies rules regulations procedures expectations norms assumptions guidelines plans strategies objectives Practices of values standards narratives histories records and the like which accordingly disadvantaged the devalued race and privilege the valued race.

Implicit in this definition is the important fact that structural racism racism Therefore may have its racist effects. Even if non racist people now inhabit the institutions where the racist structures Still hold sway.

That's the end of the quote one Christian apologist against this movement Commenting on this quote said this could be straight out of a book on critical race theory, but this is John Piper Pastor 33 years the Bethlehem Baptist Church, and he is saying things that could be in a Marxist book now.

Let me repeat something. I've already said There can be systemic or structural racism in a society it can they can be there. In the middle of 20th century it was it was in America. But when it happens, it's obvious and you could point you could point to the evidence you could point to the facts.

Like slavery or the civil rights movement. But what Piper is saying and critical race theorists say is that just by being white in America. You are taking part in a racist structure that you are somewhat responsible.

Even though you don't even know it and like I said No evidence is pointed to but rather a narrative that has been constructed by this false religion. And here is my great concern. You cannot combine a false religion with true biblical Christianity.

You cannot embrace some tenets of critical race theory. All of it must be rejected. There is nothing in it. That is biblical and nothing in it. That is redeemable. Just like there is nothing redeemable in Islam.

For example, it's a false religion. You don't you don't mingle Islam with Christianity. This the whole system is false and it must be rejected. This influence of critical race theory on American Christianity is only one step away.

From a generation that rejects the gospel entirely. That's how dangerous this is if the evangelical church is not careful these churches and Organizations will turn into the show the social gospel and not the biblical gospel, but the social gospel the social gospel is a false gospel that is only focused on social action and not on saving souls and Much of the social action is in fact immoral according to Scripture.

And what we see in our country is social action based on a false definition of racism. And of course true churches are going to be are going to care about social needs. Yes. But not false ones. We don't do any good when we take part in that.

Historically when the gospel is lost usually it's never recovered. There are numerous Christian churches denominations colleges and seminaries. That were once conservative that once upheld biblical truth.

But eventually caved and now to this day they are steeped in secularism. I mentioned Harvard and Yale last week if you give Satan a foothold He will over time Completely take over a church or an organization and this has happened so many times down through history, right?

History repeats itself. It's happening right now. And if it's not stopped, it'll happen again. You don't want your ministry to be a mixed bag. Where some people benefit from the good things that you have done through your writing and through your speaking.

But you also help push forward teaching that is out of step with the gospel and the men I mentioned above they are all doing that right now and They need to repent. Many Christians see what is happening and have been sounding the alarm for a couple of years.

A couple years back there was a detailed statement put out Known as the Dallas statement on social justice that lays out how critical race theory is completely incompatible with the Bible. And you can find this statement on the internet and anyone can sign it if they agree.

I signed it and and I have many friends who have signed it as well. Now above I mentioned Christian leaders who are pushing forward tenets of this false teaching. But there are thankfully men and women who are fighting against it.

And some of them were involved in writing this Dallas statement. Let me give you some names of Christian leaders who are trustworthy during this very murky and strange season. Some of these men have been fighting more on the front lines than others.