WWUTT 1285 Q&A Once Again on Masks, Biblical Responses Online, Eric Mason on Reparations

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Are wearing masks a matter of good theology? What are seven biblical principles to keep in mind?

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And do white Christians owe black Christians reparations? The answers to these questions when we understand the text.

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This is when we understand the text, celebrating five years of podcasting. As seven days a week, we study the word of Christ that we may be made into his image.

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Tell your friends about our website, www .utt .com. Here with Skid is Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky, who is not in studio with me this week. She's packing. We're actually in Texas this weekend, and at the time that I'm recording this, she's getting all of our stuff together.

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So God willing, she'll be back on the broadcast with me in a couple of weeks. Keep in your prayers, our friends down around the

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Gulf Coast who have been affected by this devastating storm. At the time that I'm recording this,

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Hurricane Laura has not yet made landfall, but I think by the time this episode publishes, if the prediction maps are correct, then

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Laura is currently a tropical storm in Arkansas. So we pray for those who have been affected by this harsh weather.

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Keep in prayer also those friends out in California being affected by the wildfires that continue to rage.

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And speaking of raging, we pray also for our friends being affected by these riots and the lawless devastation that's been happening in some of our major cities.

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May Christ be with you, and may his peace be upon your hearts, even as our world is in such a disarray, futility, as we have been reading about in Romans 8, in our study of Romans 8.

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All things have been subjected to futility by God as part of the curse because of mankind's sin.

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May these things remind us to cling all the more to Christ Jesus and long for his coming.

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We pray with the Apostle John at the end of Revelation. Come quickly,

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Lord Jesus. Before we get into some of the things we're gonna talk about today, taking questions from listeners,

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I want to read to you from Colossians 3. I think this is a great place to start, keep some things in mind for us as we embark on some of the topics we're gonna talk about today.

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Colossians 3 .12, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, that's you and me, followers of Christ, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another.

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And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.

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And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

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And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.

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And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

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And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

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Amen. It is the Friday edition of the broadcast. We take questions from listeners and you can submit those questions too when we understand the text at gmail .com.

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About midway through the program, I want to address this recent sermon that was preached by Dr.

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Eric Mason, pastor of Epiphany Fellowship Church in Philadelphia, also the author of the controversial book,

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Woke Church. I know that James White talked about this sermon that Eric Mason preached this last

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Sunday on reparations. James White talked about it on the dividing line earlier this week, but that episode

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I don't think has even dropped by the time I'm recording this program, so I haven't listened to it. We're gonna go through some of these clips of things that Eric Mason had mentioned in that sermon.

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I had attempted to ask him questions and he blocked me on Twitter. That's how friendly he's been to this whole discussion, to any sort of disagreement on his awful eisegesis.

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I mean, just ripping the text to shreds, not looking at it in context whatsoever. It is the epitome of taking things out of context and applying them in your own way to a topical sermon to make them mean whatever it is that you want them to mean.

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It was a masterclass in that, the sermon that Dr. Mason preached on Sunday.

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So we'll get to that here in just a moment, but I still want to respond to some questions from listeners here. So let's get to this one from Tony.

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We're coming back to the mask issue that we addressed two weeks ago, and we read an email from Tony in North Carolina.

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He follows that up by saying, Pastor Gabe, thank you for reading my email and answering my question on your podcast.

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I also thank you for taking the time to reach out again. I had responded to him by email. God knows this is what

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I needed to hear. I've been battling against my fleshly desire to pull away from church. The Bible is clear on being part of the body and serving in church.

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The timing of this, your email is God sent. Please pray that I continue to press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus and not withdraw.

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I thank you again. I praise God for you and I am praying for you and your ministry in Christ, Tony.

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Tony, I appreciate those words very much. Thank you. One of the things that I did address to Tony, well, in the podcast, if you listened to it two weeks ago,

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I said, there needs to be some mutual agreement between you and your pastor. You need to talk about these things. His pastor was implementing in his church that everybody had to wear a mask and Tony found himself very uncomfortable with the mask that he couldn't even worship in a proper way having to wear the mask.

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And so I told him, be respectful of your pastor, talk with one another and just freely express to him the trouble that you're having with wearing a mask.

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And I would hope in light of the Christian liberty instructions that we have given in Romans chapter 14, and I think we'd also read from 1

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Corinthians chapter 10 that your pastor would be understanding of that. And he would allow you to not wear the mask, but for the sake of everybody's conscience, maybe he's gonna ask you to be in a different part of the sanctuary so that no one thinks you're not wearing a mask could potentially infect them with something.

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There are differences of opinions here regarding masks. There is no evidence that the mask will actually protect you from COVID -19.

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But there are some people are absolutely convinced if I wear this mask, I'm being protected and I'm protecting others.

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So for the sake of each other's conscience, let us not quarrel over opinions, but be in mutual agreement with one another.

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But I was sure to tell Tony that this is not a reason not to go to church. It's still better for you to put the mask on and struggle with it during church than it would be to not go to church at all.

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We don't go to church to be comfortable anyway. I mean, when it comes to hearing the gospel preached and hearing about our sin and need for a savior, those things are gonna be radically uncomfortable to us.

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So it doesn't matter whether you have to wear the mask or not, I still encourage you to go to church. We're commanded to go to church.

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Hebrews 10, 23 through 25, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.

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And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Just like we started reading from Colossians chapter three today, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

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And all the more as you see the day drawing near. So you have a responsibility to go to church.

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Pastor, let me tell you, I'm talking to the pastors now. You should not ever restrict someone from coming into your church because they're refusing to wear a mask because of what we read here in Hebrews 10, 23 through 25.

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You would keep someone out of the body because they either have like a preexisting health condition that actually makes wearing a mask problematic for them or because the mask is uncomfortable for them and they don't wanna be able to sit a long time while wearing a mask.

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This is a matter of a difference of opinion. And Romans chapter 14 says, do not quarrel over opinions.

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There was somebody that I saw recently on Twitter. They said, theology 101,

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I wear a seatbelt for my own personal safety in the unlikely event of an accident. I wear a face covering for other's safety in the unlikely event of a viral infection.

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The first is loving myself. The second is loving others as myself. No, that is not theology 101.

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That's the op -ed section in your local newspaper. Theology 101 would be, consider others more significant than yourselves.

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It would not be, I wear a mask for the love of my neighbor. There are others that are convinced they don't wear masks for the love of their neighbor.

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So don't quarrel over opinions. If a person wants to wear a mask, don't call them a

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Karen or that they're a sheeple being driven along by the government or something like that. Don't say that of a person who's wearing a mask.

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And likewise, those of you who are wearing masks should not point to a person who's not wearing a mask and saying, you wanna kill everybody.

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Both opinions are incredibly absurd. So do not quarrel over opinions regarding the mask days that we are in, the mask wars here in 2020.

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First Peter 4 .8 says, above all, keep fervent in your love for one another.

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It doesn't say above all, wear a mask. Keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins.

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Let's go to another question here. This is from David in Tennessee. He sent this via Twitter.

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What are your thoughts on CCLI CVLI streaming licenses? Well, the

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CCLI license, that's a Christian Copyright Licensing International. And I encourage churches to have one unless you are singing songs that are completely in the public domain or maybe you're singing out of like the

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Trinity hymnal. I think all of those songs are public domain, aren't they? Or you've got an old hymnal where just about all those songs are public domain.

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And if you're doing streaming of any kind, it is a good idea to have a CCLI license just for the sake of protecting you from any kind of lawsuit that might come against you.

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I wish that as churches, we didn't have to have such things, but these are the days that we live in.

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So a CCLI license is just a good idea to have. CVLI is a church video license.

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And you would only need one if you're doing something like movie night where everybody's coming to the church for a movie.

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And even then, I think there's kind of some liberty there. Or if you're showing these things streaming over Facebook or YouTube or something like that, in which case you would have to have a

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CVLI. But if you're just talking about the music that you sing being covered by like a copyright license, you only need the

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CCLI, you don't need the CVLI. All right, thank you for your question,

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David. This next one comes from Henry. Hello, Gabe, what happened to the Saturday scripture podcast?

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I've been waiting for the last few chapters of Luke to drop so that I could listen to the entire book in one sitting, but I have noticed that you haven't posted them in a while.

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Yeah, I've been really busy. And when it gets to Friday, that's usually the thing that gets lost is that Saturday scripture episode.

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However, I did not know until you sent me this email, I hadn't finished Luke. I didn't know that,

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I thought I did finish Luke. So I'll get that posted for this Saturday. What needs to happen next is

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Becky needs to record some more liners introducing the scripture reading because she had only recorded herself saying

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Matthew, Mark, and Luke. I don't have her mentioning any other books. So I've got to get her saying, here's our reading from the book of Acts, and then

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I can go on to the next one. That's part of the reason for the delay, but I did not know that I hadn't even finished

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Luke yet. I'll be sure to get those last few chapters up tomorrow. God willing, I say

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I'll be sure, but let's hope I don't forget before we hit the road for Texas. This next question, this is from Garrett in Wyoming.

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Dear Pastor Gabe, I believe I heard in a past sermon that you said you went to college on a debate scholarship.

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Have you ever done any debates since becoming a pastor? Would you ever consider doing any debates?

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Yeah, I did. I went to a junior college on a debate scholarship and I went to nationals in debate, but I, at least at that time in my life, with how cynical

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I was, I did not like what being a debater turned me into. As far as like my personality,

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I became just very critical of everything. And when I was coming out of that and really trying to adjust my attitude as being one that is more thankful toward the

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Lord and being a person that is more charitable in the way that I think about others,

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I actually asked God to take my cynicism away from me. And he did answer my prayer.

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And I became less negative and more positive and more grateful unto the Lord. So if I get into that debate mindset again,

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I'm worried about that happening again, at least in the place where I'm at in my life right now,

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I don't see myself being able to balance that. Debating is really hard. It's not an easy thing to do.

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It's not like somebody just has a knack for it and then they just sit down and they listen to other arguments and then just are able to pop up and destroy those arguments.

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Some people do have an ability to do that, but I don't. It would take a significant amount of prep for me. Even James White, before he goes into a debate, he does a lot of prep.

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And then when you're in the debate, the ability to listen to arguments, to write things down, to recall certain things.

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I mean, there's some topics that I wouldn't be able to debate on just because I don't think I know enough about those topics.

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But in debate of any kind, I just don't see myself doing right now. Maybe if my schedule frees up a lot more than it already is, and sometime in the future, perhaps when

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I have fewer kids at home, maybe then I might be able to invest myself in some debating.

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But no, since becoming a pastor, I've not done any debates. I was invited to a debate once with a local pastor who denied the

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Trinity. So we were gonna have a public debate on the Trinity. And I was invited to represent the

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Trinitarian side, obviously. But then Dr. Edwin D 'Alcor became available.

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And so he got invited to do the debate instead. We covered that on this podcast.

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I don't remember how many years ago that was now, but I played clips from that particular debate.

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I was gonna be in it originally, but Dr. D 'Alcor did a much better job than I would have done.

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So yeah, if you're interested in hearing me debate sometime in the future, I don't know, maybe pray that God would give me a mind to be able to do that again or something.

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I don't think I would keep my thoughts organized enough to be able to focus on a debate at the present.

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But we know debates can be a great thing. I still rely on past debates between different people for information.

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And we know that the Apostle Paul was a debater. We read about Apollos debating and refuting the

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Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus through public debate.

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That's in Acts 18 .28. So I love debates, but I don't think at the present

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I would be very helpful in that particular ministry. This next question comes from Eric.

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He says, hi, Pastor Gabe and Becky. I'll let her know you said hello. My sister -in -law just posted this on Facebook.

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It sounds like something from Joel Osteen, which unfortunately I think she might follow to some extent.

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I was really tempted to reply back in some way, but I thought better of confronting this publicly.

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I wanted to share a link to American Gospel, but maybe I will just recommend they watch the movies in private conversation.

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I would love to hear your thoughts about this. So here it is. Seven things to keep in mind. Go after your dreams, not people.

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That's number one. Number two, love yourself and the rest will follow. Number three, never lose your sense of wonder.

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Number four, you are capable of more than you know. Number five, no regrets in life, just lessons learned.

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Number six, your only limit is you. And number seven, life goes by in the blink of an eye.

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So live life. For your information, I'm really looking forward to the Cruciform Conference in October.

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I bought my ticket early, so I will get to see you there if the Lord wills. Yes, and thank you for reminding me,

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Eric. The Cruciform Conference, it's gonna be in Indianapolis in October, and you can find out more details by going to facebook .com

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slash cruciformcon, cruciform, C -O -N. Buy your ticket.

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Would love to see you there if you're in that part of the country for the Cruciform Conference. I'm speaking there.

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Jeff Johnson will be there, Michelle Leslie, Dwayne Atkinson from the Bar podcast, Justin Peters, and many others.

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Gotta check out the whole list of speakers that's there on the CruciformCon Facebook page.

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Okay, let's go back through this list of seven things to keep in mind that you gave me here. I think

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I can give a scriptural response to each one of these things. Number one, go after your dreams, not people.

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Is that what scripture tells us to think about? No, it says do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

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That's Philippians 2 .3. Number two, love yourself and the rest will follow.

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No, on the contrary, die to yourself and live for Christ. Luke 9 .23,

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Jesus said, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me, for whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

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What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

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Number three, never lose your sense of wonder. I don't really have any reason to disagree with that.

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I just hope that your wonder is in Christ. After all, as it says in Colossians chapter two, that he is all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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They're all bound up in Christ. That's Colossians 2 .3. Number four, you are capable of more than you know.

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You're capable of more evil than you know. As we read in Jeremiah 17 .9,

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the heart is deceitfully, or sorry, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick, who can understand it?

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I don't know what that's supposed to mean. You're capable of more than you know. Let me come back to that one because there's another statement in here that sounds like that one.

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Number five, no regrets in life, just lessons learned.

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Well, think about James 4 .8 -9. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

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Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double -minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep.

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Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the

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Lord and he will exalt you. Does that sound like no regrets in life, just lessons learned?

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No, we should regret our sin and we should ask forgiveness for our sin. And as it says in 1

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John 1 .9, if we ask forgiveness for our sins, he is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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Now number six, and this is the one that sounded like number four, your only limit is you.

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Number four was you are capable of more than you know. That's really the same statement as your only limit is you.

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That's not even true of Superman. We're all limited by something.

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Physics limits you, okay? You don't actually have every opportunity in the world to do whatever it is that you want.

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No one hearing the sound of my voice is going to be elected president in 2020 unless whoever is listening to me is actually in the race and running for president in 2020.

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You cannot do whatever you want. You need to, as we just read in James 4, humble yourself before the

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Lord and he will exalt you. As we go on to read in James 4, come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and we'll spend a year there and trade and make a profit.

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Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

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Instead, you ought to say if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

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As it is, you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting is evil.

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So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. If we even boast in ourselves that we are capable of doing whatever, then if you boast in yourself that you have tomorrow guaranteed to you, that's sinful because it is only by God's will that you are able to take your next breath.

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So continue to submit yourself to Christ in all things. The last thing on here of seven things to keep in mind, life goes by in the blink of an eye.

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No, Jesus will return in the blink of an eye. Of course, as we just read in James 4, your life is a mist that appears here and then today is gone.

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So consider Psalm 90 verse two, teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

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So in response, I'm gonna give you seven biblical things to keep in mind.

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Number one, consider others more significant than yourselves. Number two, take up your cross and follow

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Jesus. Number three, never lose your sense of wonder in God's word. Number four, you are a sinner in need of a savior.

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Number five, ask forgiveness and walk in the righteousness of Christ. Number six, trust in the

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Lord with all your heart and in all your ways acknowledge him. And number seven, he will return in the blink of an eye.

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Thank you so much for that Eric and I'll be sure to send you a response with all of those verses.

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All right, without further ado, let's get to this sermon from Dr. Eric Mason that he preached this past Sunday at his church on reparations.

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Well, he didn't actually preach the sermon at his church. They aren't meeting right now because of the COVID restrictions.

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So he did this remotely and it was broadcast online, preaching outside from a rundown neighborhood in North Philadelphia.

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And it was from there that he preached on reparations. His starting text was in Luke chapter 19, the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus.

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I'm gonna begin with that here in a moment and then we'll get to the start of his sermon. First of all, let's talk about what reparations are.

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Let's get an idea of this before we get into the subject of reparations. What are we talking about when we use this word?

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A reparation is the making of amends for a wrong that has been done, paying money or otherwise in helping those who have been wronged.

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So it's making restitution. It is a compensation for damages or for theft or something to that degree.

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Now the Bible does absolutely talk about this. And in fact, if somebody robs from somebody else, they are supposed to pay back with interest.

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If a slave owner has a slave, when he releases that slave, he is supposed to load him up.

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This is what's talked about in scripture. In fact, I think it would just be easy for me to go ahead and play the what video that I've done on reparations before we get to this sermon on reparations.

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So here you go in 90 seconds, here's what the Bible says about reparations. Are reparations biblical?

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Absolutely. To pay reparations means to make amends for a wrong that was done. Another word for this is restitution.

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And the law required the person responsible to restore more than what was lost. For example, in Exodus 22, it says, if a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep.

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In Leviticus 6, an offender had to repay what was lost plus extra, plus take a sacrifice to the priest to atone for sins.

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In Luke 19, Jesus went to the house of a tax collector named Zacchaeus, who said, the half of my goods

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I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.

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And Jesus said, today salvation has come to this house. In view of Christ, Zacchaeus made reparations.

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But how about reparations for slavery? In Deuteronomy 15, it says when a master freed his slave, he was supposed to load him up.

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But anyone who was not a slave is not entitled to compensation. And anyone who did not own slaves is not required to make restitution.

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In Ezekiel 18, the Lord said that if a man fathers a son who sees the sins of his father and does not do likewise, he shall not bear the penalty for his father's iniquity.

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The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself and the wickedness of the wicked upon himself. All have sinned against God and owe a debt so great we could not pay it.

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But by faith in Jesus, we are forgiven our debts. So we must forgive our debtors when we understand the text.

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And there you go, reparations in 90 seconds. I don't know that I even need to read the Zacchaeus story now because I just gave it to you in the abbreviated form in that video.

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But let's come back to that verse that I mentioned there from Ezekiel 18. And this is a principle that you will not hear in Eric Mason's sermon.

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Ezekiel 18, starting in verse 19, yet you say, why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?

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When the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live.

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The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son.

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The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

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You will not hear that in Eric Mason's sermon, nor will you hear this from Colossians 3, exactly the way that we began today.

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Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another.

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And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you.

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So you also must forgive. Let's go ahead and begin here with Luke 19, verses one through 10.

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Since this is the way that Dr. Mason begins, I wanna make a point about this before we get to his comments that follow his reading of Luke 19.

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Jesus entered Jericho and he was passing through and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.

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He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small in stature.

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So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him for he was about to pass that way. And when

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Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for I must stay at your house today.

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So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, talking about the

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Pharisees, they all grumbled. He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.

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And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.

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And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of Abraham for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost.

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Now this particular story, I've also heard Thabiti Anuobwile use to talk about why we owe reparations as an argument for reparations.

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But this is not a text arguing for the government to then come in and take from one group of people and give to another group of people.

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That is not what this text is about. Zacchaeus personally was convicted of his sin.

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The fact that he had used his position as a tax collector to rob from others. And after being convicted of that sin, he said,

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I'm gonna pay back what I have taken from others. And he paid it back even more than what the law required of him.

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And Jesus said, seeing a demonstration of the genuine transformation that had happened in this man's life.

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Today salvation has come to this house, not because of what Zacchaeus did. It was because of Christ who was with him.

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But the thing that Zacchaeus did confirmed this transformation that had happened in his heart.

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So Jesus declares that today salvation has come to this house. And the son of man, speaking of course of himself, came to seek and to save the lost.

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Zacchaeus who was once lost has now been found. And he is a follower of Jesus and is saved.

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This is not under any circumstance, an argument for the collective taking from one group of people and redistributing it to another group of people who have made a convincing argument that they've been wronged and they deserve the first group of people's money.

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We are told in scripture that the church should not be involved in this forceful taking and redistributing.

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Second Corinthians 9 .6, the point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

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And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

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And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

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But nothing that you hear from Eric Mason has anything to do with grace. It's all about you owe me.

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And so let's get to it. This is the beginning of his sermon right after he had read that story from Luke 19 about Zacchaeus.

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He talks about his study in reparations. If I'm honest about reparations over the years,

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I haven't thought a lot about it as much as I would have liked to as one of the outworkings of what it looks like to kind of fix things and deal with some of the racial tensions in our country.

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You know, I started thinking about it a few years back when I was asked to speak on it.

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I've heard people talking about reparations. I've even talked a little bit about reparations, but hadn't thought deeply about it biblical.

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I've even had people tell me reparations isn't a gospel principle. To claim that somebody owes you something because of their sin against you, forgiveness is enough.

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But the question is, if that's true, does the gospel work that way?

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And we're gonna see how that works. Is our forgiveness enough in relation to our relationship with God? Does God call for any type of, anything that not is a requirement for salvation, but an outworking of salvation.

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And so one of the things that we wanna do and that we wanna begin to dig into today is this idea of a case for reparation.

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If you see me peek over to the side, I'm just looking and just seeing what's going on.

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Cause you know, we out here, we out here. And so anyway. Yes, so keep in mind he's outside.

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That's why you hear the wind blowing. He's preaching from an abandoned parking lot in North Philadelphia. It's being videoed and then it will be streamed to his church.

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Something's coming up here in just a moment. He's gonna say something to somebody outside. So I just wanted you to remember that he's outdoors.

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But in this clip, he's asked this question, or he said this, that people have told him reparations is not a gospel principle.

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Forgiveness is enough. But does the gospel work that way? And the answer is yes.

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Forgiveness is enough. The forgiveness of God is enough. Colossians chapter two, you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,

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God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

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This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

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That's Colossians chapter two. Verses 13 through 15. So yes, forgiveness is enough.

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The forgiveness of God is enough in a person's life for their salvation. But he goes on to say, but what if reparations is something that's like a gospel issue, an outworking of the gospel in our lives?

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Well, I would say that if somebody has done somebody a wrong then they should owe them what they've done wrong to them.

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Well, if somebody has done wrong to someone else, the Bible does give us standards that we are to follow, just weights and measures regarding how we are to pay back the person that we have wronged.

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But yet the person wronged, especially as believers in Christ, we are still to forgive others as God has forgiven us.

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It doesn't matter how great the debt. Peter had asked Jesus, how many times do I forgive my brother?

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Seven times? 70 times? And Jesus says, I tell you not seven times, but 70 times seven times, right?

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So we forgive, we just forgive because the greatness of the forgiveness that God has given to us in Christ Jesus, our

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Lord, we will never be doling out enough forgiveness to equal the forgiveness that God has shown to us.

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He has given us so much more and it must be all of grace. Remember, as we read in 1

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Corinthians 13, that love does not keep a record of wrongs. You may have a completely justifiable reason for pointing at a person and saying, they've wronged me and they owe me, but you may never get it in this lifetime.

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And you have to rest upon Christ and know as Jesus said to Paul in 2

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Corinthians 12, my grace is sufficient for you. Praise the

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Lord that you are forgiven your sins and given an eternal reward of the kingdom of God in glory.

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We are fellow heirs with Christ of his kingdom, but that's insufficient to the woke evangelical reparations argument.

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1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18 says, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

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I would love to hear one of these woke evangelicals tell their congregation that, that you have the command of God for you.

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His will for you is to be thankful in all circumstances, but I never hear it. In Matthew chapter five in the

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Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

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If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

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Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. But you don't hear that from these people who are demanding reparations.

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They're not telling their own people be filled with grace, be forgiving of one another.

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If somebody's demanding something from you, you feel like you've been wronged because the white man has oppressed the black man and has taken this from you.

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Or you can say the white man has oppressed the native American, whatever it might happen to be. You believe that they have oppressed you and they've taken this from you.

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Well, you must forgive. Turn to him the other cheek also, give him your cloak. You don't hear that message from those who are preaching reparations.

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You see them shaking a fist and pointing a finger and saying, you owe me. But the thing about that in this particular discussion is

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I have not wronged Eric Mason. Just because I'm white does not mean that I owe

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Eric Mason anything. In fact, if we're talking about the sins of the fathers being passed on to the sons, if he wants to even attempt to make that argument,

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I still wouldn't be guilty because slavery does not exist in my family lineage. In my dad's lineage, he's taken it all the way back to our first ancestor who set foot on American soil.

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We have never been slave owners. As a matter of fact, we were Quakers. In my ancestry, it's

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Quakers who were what? They were abolitionists. They were staunch abolitionists.

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They wanted to free the slaves. They didn't want to own slaves. So in my heritage, I've helped free the slaves.

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Now, I haven't done that. I don't take credit for that. But if Eric Mason wants to say that the guilt of someone's lineage is passed on to the sons, well, then you would have to say the same thing for righteousness.

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And I would be able to say, I'm innocent, man. I don't owe you anything because my ancestry helped to set your ancestors free.

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So therefore, there's nothing that I owe you. But there's no consistency in this argument. And it's strictly a color of skin argument.

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You're white, so you owe me because I'm black. You hear him talking about, if somebody's been wronged, then they owe.

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And I would agree with that. If someone has been wronged by somebody else, justice should be done.

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But in this particular case, you cannot say that all white people have wronged all black people, which is exactly where Eric Mason goes in this sermon.

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He gets to it toward the very end. I don't know that we'll get that far. But let's continue on with this stuff here in the beginning.

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When you look at history, you'll hear people like Dick Gregory and others, and particularly the conscious community, tell them

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I'm talking about reparations for black people. Yeah. And so, leave that in there.

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And so. Okay, so remember I said he's outside and to keep that in mind, because something was coming up.

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So there's somebody's passing by and he's calling out to them what he's doing out there exactly. And what does he tell them?

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What does he tell the passers by what he's doing out there in that parking lot? He says, tell them

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I'm talking about reparations. Not I'm talking about Jesus, not

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I'm preaching the gospel out here. He says to them, tell them I'm talking about reparations for black people and leave that in there.

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Leave it in the video as it's gonna go out to his church. That was, that's just, I mean,

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I don't wanna say more than what is really being revealed to us in that video, but it just seems like all the way through this message, not just in that part, it just kind of characterizes the message, but Eric Mason's heart here is for reparations.

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It's not to proclaim Christ in his glory. This message is not pointing back to Christ in his glory.

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It's pointing back to what is owed me and who's at fault for this. It is partisan politics is all it is, which constantly divides, never unifies.

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Only Christ brings us together. This talk and conversation about reparations does not. Anyway, I wanna skip the rest of this introduction because it does go on for a while.

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He's actually gonna go on to talk about conspiracy theories, which he doesn't shut down. He presents them as, here's some plausible theories for you that Martin Luther King Jr.

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and Malcolm X were both assassinated because they were about to present reparations and the government was trying to shut them up.

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Total conspiracy theory. And Eric Mason absolutely pushes that theory at the beginning of this.

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He doesn't shut it down. He says it's interesting and to look stuff up about it. The name that he mentioned there,

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Dick Gregory, he wasn't a historian. He was a conspiracy theorist and an entertainer.

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He was a comedian. He didn't make a living recalling history. He made stuff up to entertain people.

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Anyway, let's actually get to some of the text that Eric Mason abuses here.

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When he quotes from scripture, he goes to the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.

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And in Exodus chapter 12, beginning in verse 33, we read this. The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste after the plagues that had come upon Egypt for they said, we shall all be dead.

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So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.

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The people of Israel also had also done as Moses told them for they had asked the

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Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the

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Egyptians so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the

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Egyptians. After reading that text, listen to what Eric Mason says here.

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I wanna give you that. I'm gonna let you, I'm gonna give you some of this for free. Now, some people don't believe Christians should protest.

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Do you know that this reparations was prayed because God initiated Moses and the

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Israelites to protest Pharaoh and Egypt? How did they protest? Every, the 10 plagues was protest.

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When Moses went there and said, let my people go, that was the sign. That was the protesting sign. And so with that in mind, that's beautiful to me that we see that this reparations here in this passage is a direct result, listen, of protest, of vehement protest where God used the protest and God anointed the protest to break down the leadership, to open their hearts, to do what he called them to do because he turned the hearts of the king wherever he wants to.

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Do I really need to explain how bad this eisegesis is? Taking his own ideas and imposing them onto the text?

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This is not a historical grammatical approach to hermeneutics. He is bypassing the author and the author's intent or even how this points to the cross and he makes a beeline right for modern day application and ties the 10 plagues of Egypt into modern day protests.

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The 10 plagues were not a protest. They were the judgment of God. And how do we understand this?

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Let's look at Romans chapter nine, starting in verse 14. What shall we say then?

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Is there injustice on God's part? By no means, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom

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I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who has mercy.

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For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

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So then he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills.

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Now, given that he has tied the 10 plagues of Egypt into modern day protests,

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I asked a question on Twitter and I tagged him in it. And I said, because I believe that he owes an explanation here.

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Is he using the 10 plagues of Egypt to justify the rioting, looting and destruction of public property that's happening in our major cities in America right now in the name of Black Lives Matter?

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Is Dr. Mason calling that a godly thing and that it's reparations or it leads to reparations?

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But he responded to that question by blocking me. Back in Exodus 12, the

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Israelites asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing and the

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Egyptians gave them whatever they asked for. And as it says in Exodus 12, 36, thus they plundered the

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Egyptians. Where did the Israelites go after that? They left

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Egypt and they went to the promised land, the land of their forefathers,

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Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So if Dr. Mason wants to use this text as an argument for why white

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Americans owe black Americans reparations, he would be making an argument for black

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Americans receiving those reparations and then going back to Africa. Now, I'm not making that argument.

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I'm not asking any black American to go back to Africa, the land of their ancestors. That's not what

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I'm saying. That's just logically how that would play out in Dr. Mason's argument, if that's the text that he wants to use.

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This next portion, he takes Ezra 1 .4 out of context.

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I'm gonna go ahead and play the clip and then I'll give you Exodus 1 in context.

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Israelites got themselves into captivity because of their idolatry and sin, but look, they still got reparations because of the time they were in, look what it says.

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It says, let every survivor, wherever he resides, be assisted, listen to this, by the men of that region with silver, hallelujah, gold, hallelujah, goods, hallelujah, and livestock.

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I feel God right there. Along with a freewill offering, they talking about stacks. They giving the people of God drip coming out of there.

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It was dripology coming out of the ministry. And so it says here, it says freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem.

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So notice the freewill offering is for the house of God, but the silver, the gold, the goods, and the livestock are for the people.

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In other words, this is for the, they knew that when they sent them back to their land, that they had nothing. And so it would be unjust to send them back to their land without anything to be able to begin to build their own independent economy.

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That's what I love about this, is they set them up to build their own independent economy. And so it's because they knew that they were gonna need to do that so that they wouldn't be long -term dependent on them.

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The reason why there've been so many challenges in America is because people are talking about welfare and all that.

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First of all, welfare and social security was created for white people, but we're quote unquote benefiting off of it.

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But there's nothing that's been done in this country comprehensively as a system beyond a handout versus a hand up to help there to be economic independence among black people.

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Once again, just like with the Exodus 12 passage, he's using Ezra one for the

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Israelites going back to the promised land. So he would be arguing for black Americans receiving reparations and going back to Africa.

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Logically, that's his argument. I'm not saying that, and that's not what I'm asking for.

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I've got black friends, I don't want them to leave. I'm saying that that's what his argument is if that's the way he wants to twist these texts.

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But Ezra chapter one is not about what he says that it's about, setting up some sort of economic prosperity for the children of Israel.

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Ezra chapter one, starting in verse one. In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the

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Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing.

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Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

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Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the

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Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. And let each survivor in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.

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There you go. That's the beginning of Ezra chapter one with the decree of Cyrus, king of Persia, made by God through Cyrus, that the people, the children of Israel would go back to their land and resettle it and set up the temple, the house of God.

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Now, when those children would go back into that land and settle it, it was not as good as it was when they left it.

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And we talked about this when we were going through Ezra and Nehemiah. I don't know how long ago this was now because we've been in the

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Psalms for a year and a half. But when we were going through those texts, we talked about that and how the lament of the children of Israel was that this was not as great as we had it before we were conquered by our enemies for our sin.

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Just as Dr. Mason had said, they were exiled because of the sin that they had committed against God, worshiping false gods.

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And after that, when the children of Israel were able to come back, it was never as great as it was when they were exiled.

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And the Israelites, the Jews, the Hebrews were always looking for that kingdom to become great again as it was under David and Solomon.

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And as they were looking for an earthly king, they missed the heavenly king, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, the carpenter's son, born of the

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Virgin Mary in Bethlehem of Judea by way of Nazareth in Galilee.

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He who was promised and foretold according to the scriptures, despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one from whom men hide their faces.

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He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

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Yet we esteem him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions.

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He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

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And with his wounds, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.

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We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him,

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Jesus Christ, the iniquity of us all. All who believe in Jesus, we have something so much greater than whatever we could be promised here on this earth.

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We have not an earthly kingdom. We have a heavenly kingdom. And everything that God has promised to the son, we have been made fellow heirs with Christ.

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Reparations can't promise you that. Wokeology cannot promise you that, especially cannot promise you that because it's full of envy and dissension and evil suspicions and slander.

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That's where Dr. Mason is leading people with this teaching that he's giving. He's not leading anyone to Christ.

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He's leading people to their own bitterness and the hardness of their own hearts. Listen to what we have here in 1

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Timothy 6, starting in verse three. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our

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Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with or produces godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

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He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

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Like Eric Mason is proclaiming, what imitation of godliness he is proclaiming he's doing so as a means of gain, as a means of financial and economic gain.

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Remember how at the beginning of this sermon, he said that reparations are not a requirement for salvation but an outworking of salvation.

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Well, listen to what he says here at the close. How many of you are under the sound of my voice talking about it wasn't me and I don't need to pay reparation and all of this type of stuff.

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If you're under the sound of my voice and you're resisting restitution for black people because of what's happened into this country, you may wanna check your justification monitor.

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I know because some of y 'all call me a heretic because I deal with racial injustice. Well, I'm still preaching the gospel.

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Matter of fact, we hit the block out here. We preach the gospel to see people come to spiritual death and spiritual life. However, we believe that the gospel has outworkings that impact the way we relate to one another,

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God and one another. Notice that he says there that if you don't agree with him about reparations, you might wanna check your justification monitor if you're even justified.

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Then he goes on to say, well, hey, people call me a heretic but we're out here preaching the gospel all the time.

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Well, we just saw at the beginning of this sermon, he was standing right there, people walked by, he didn't share Christ, he shared reparations.

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That's what he preached to them. But I also have to doubt what kind of gospel he's proclaiming. If he's telling us in the same breath that if you don't agree with him on reparations, you may not even be justified.

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You're probably not even saved. What a graceless message this is.

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And how can anyone expect to hear the gospel of Christ as a free message of grace from a pastor who preaches, if you want your salvation to count, you owe me what

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I say you owe me. Now let's join hands and sing amazing grace.

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Coming back to 1 Timothy chapter six here, starting in verse six, but godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world.

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But if we have food and clothing, with these, we will be content.

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But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

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For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that many have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

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But as for you, oh man of God, flee these things, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness, fight the good fight of the faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

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I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our

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Lord Jesus Christ which he will display at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the

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King of Kings and Lord of Lords who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light whom no one has ever seen or can see.

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To him be honor and eternal dominion forever. Amen.

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God bless you, friends. That's our program for today. Thank you for listening and for letting me take a week off.

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We'll be back on the program, God willing, September 7th, picking up our study in Romans 8.

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This is when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours, but this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

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Find a good gospel teaching Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again tomorrow as we continue our