JD Greear's Words - Sweet as Honey Smooth as Butter

The Sneakiness of Sin and the Need for Discernment

We all kind of know in our hearts and our minds that sin can be sneaky, right? Sin can be attractive. You know, we hear sermons about how Satan will bait the hook, so to speak, with whatever is enticing to us personally.

The Bible says he goes around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He's a snake. You know, that's why we have that phrase that someone's being a snake. They're being sneaky. They're being crafty and all that kind of stuff.

Sin can be attractive. Sin can be sneaky. And we all kind of know this about sin, you know, from the Bible and from our interactions with other people. But we act a lot of times like, for us, we're almost like exempt to that.

Like we don't have to be quite as careful as other people. And this works itself out in a few different ways, because you might be thinking, no, no, I don't do that. I know sin is sneaky, and I'm always on guard.

And good for you if you are. I mean, I'm not saying that you're definitely not. But what I am saying is, in my experience, sometimes I act as if sin, for me, is not as sneaky, as enticing. And let me give you an example, because oftentimes sin looks pretty good.

Oftentimes sin looks like a good idea, and oftentimes sin can look as if it's something that God has commanded, something that is biblical. But it's definitely not, and we need each other. We need people that, you know, can be objective, that are coming from the outside to look in to show us exactly why something is a problem.

J.D. Greear's Call for Ethnically Diverse Leadership

Let me give you an example of this. This is an article that Kentucky Today put out. I guess it started here. I don't know. It's about J .D. Greer. It's about J .D. Greer. And in this article, he's talking about gospel diversity, you know, the trademarked variety, that kind of thing.

This is my topic. This is what I'm interested in. And here's something that he says, and I want you to listen to this and really think about it, because this sounds pretty good. This sounds like it's a gospel imperative.

This sounds like something that would be biblical. And I'm here to tell you that this is a perfect example of sin that is so sweet in the mouth, but when you swallow it, it's bitter. It poisons you. It is poison to the church to think in this way.

Here's what he says. He says, Failing to take action in this area, Greer said, reveals a tone-deaf attitude that causes grief to brothers and sisters of color. Quote, We have to continue to empower ethnically diverse leadership.

Ethnically diverse leadership, Greer said. So this is a statement that I think most people would agree with. Most people would say, well, that's definitely biblical. The church is multi-ethnic, Adam.

How could you be against this? And there's a few reasons why I'm against this. I don't think this is biblical at all. In fact, I think it leads people to sin often. This kind of an idea, this kind of a statement, it sounds so good.

It sounds smooth as butter. Even when you taste it, it's sweet like honey. But when you swallow it, when you really start to work this out in everyday life, it is poisonous. It will destroy unity in the church.

Let me tell you what I mean. So, ethnically diverse leadership. We need to empower ethnically diverse leadership. Is there anything in the Bible that says that? Is that an imperative in the Bible that we, whoever we is, I guess to J .D. Hall, that's him and his leadership team or something like that, or the Southern Baptist Convention or something like that.

Could they point to a verse that says that it is an imperative to continue to empower ethnically diverse leadership? I would argue no. There is no command that God says you need to have ethnically diverse leadership.

There is a command that says you shall not be partial. But there is no command that says we need to continue to empower ethnically diverse leadership. And you might be saying, well, what's the big deal though?

I mean, isn't it a good idea to have ethnically diverse leadership? And I'm here to tell you that no, it is not a good idea to have ethnically diverse leadership unless what we're talking about is qualified leaders.

See, the Bible does have qualifications for elder. The Bible does have qualifications for deacon. And ethnicity is not part of the qualifications. There's a whole list of them. You guys probably know these, you know, husband of one wife, not a drunk, not quarrelsome, things like that.

Like, you know, someone who's got control of his family, you know what I mean? Like there's qualifications like that. Ethnicity is not one of them. And so we have no biblical warrant to believe what J .D. Greer has said here.

But still, it sounds like it makes sense in our minds. It's super sweet. It's smooth as butter. We're like, oh yeah, right on J .D. Greer. That is so loving. You're loving your ethnic brown and black brother and sister in Christ and all of that kind of stuff.

And I'm here to tell you, no, you are not. No, you are not. Because the reality is when you start to apply this imperative that J .D. Greer has invented, he didn't invent it, but this is not from the Bible.

We have to agree here that the Bible does not tell you to pursue ethnically diverse leadership. It has a lot of qualifications, but it does not pursue this. When you add this to the qualifications for elder, all of a sudden, even though it sounds loving, it sounds gentle, it sounds empathetic, it sounds good, it's sweet and smooth and all of that.

When you add ethnicity to the list of qualifications for elder, you are by definition adding a sin to the qualifications for elder, the sin of partiality. Because when you take into account the ethnicity of a leader, when you're deciding who to hire or who to follow or who to promote to leadership or eldership or deaconship, if you start to take into account ethnicity, then you are by definition being partial based on ethnicity.

Partiality, Qualifications for Elders, and the Corban Law

Let's just take it out of the ethnic example for a second. Let's say somebody said something like this. We have to continually empower diverse leadership in terms of money. So we need to have poor leadership and rich leadership.

We need to start taking your income into account, your wealth into account when we're deciding who to have as a leader. We would instantly know that the Bible doesn't put that as part of the qualifications.

We would know that, and we would instantly see that the Bible is completely against partiality based on wealth. The Bible specifically says you shall not be partial to a rich man. You shall not be partial to a poor man.

God is not partial, so there's no partiality with us. You can't give a rich man a nice seat or a poor man a nice seat just because they're rich or poor. In fact, you just have to treat everyone with impartiality.

That's a command. That is an actual command, and you see just like with the Corbin Law with Jesus Christ where he said you have a fine way of overturning the law of God with a law that sounds pretty good.

The Corbin Law sounded pretty good. It was one of these that when you tasted it, it tasted sweet. It sounded smooth as butter. I mean, I'm giving money to the Lord. Who could be against that, giving money to the Lord?

And Jesus says, well, you've overturned the law of God to honor your father and mother. And likewise here with J .D. Greer's smooth sounding words that will get him applause from the world. It'll get him applause by social justice warriors everywhere.

J .D. Greer is overturning the commandment of God. Sin is enticing, my friends. Sin can be enticing, and it can sound really good, and it can sound and it can taste sweet as honey, but in the end, it's like an adder biting you.

The Church, Minority Leadership, and Resisting Sinful Rhetoric

It will poison the church, you see, because what it's very easy to see how this kind of thing can poison the church. All of a sudden, you've got skepticism and suspicion because J .D. Greer says we should add ethnicity to the list of qualifications for leadership.

And so we're going to start hiring black people and Latinos and Asians and stuff like that. And that's the definition of partiality. Remember that. And all of a sudden, someone gets promoted to leadership, and they're Latino.

Let's just say I get promoted to leadership in the SBC, and they're looking at me. People are looking at me, and they're thinking to themselves, is he really the most qualified person, or is he getting positive points because he's Latino?

And all of a sudden, there's suspicion, and there's questioning of that leadership. And actually, just so you know, J .D. Greer, this actually hurts the minority as well, because when a minority is promoted, they start to think, am I even the right person for this, or did they just look at my skin color and say, yeah, you know, you're the right skin color.

This is gonna make me look really good if I promote you, so I'm gonna promote you. Like, we hate this kind of stuff. Like, clear-thinking, conservative, Bible-believing Christians of color hate this kind of stuff.

I don't ever want to appear on a list of the top 10 most influential Puerto Ricans in the United States. I don't ever want to appear, because it's almost like a handicap list. And that's the whole point of this rhetoric as well.

This divides. It's intentionally divisive. I know you didn't invent this, J .D. Greer, but the people who invented this language of empowerment were intending to divide, because guess what, J .D. Greer, I don't need the SBC or a bunch of white folks to empower me.

You understand what I'm saying? I'm just as much made in the image of God as you. And so when you, when you put this forward, like, these poor sad little minorities, they need to be empowered. No, we don't.

We have a commission from the Lord, just like you do. We have a commission from the Lord, just like you do. Don't treat us like we have a disability. My ethnicity is not a disability. I know that's the common rhetoric.

That's the, that's the rhetoric that'll get you a pat on the back by the pagans and the social justice warriors. But the Bible has none of that. The Bible has none of that. And it really makes me, and a lot of other people like me, angry when we hear this kind of language, that we need to be empowered, we need to be granted privilege from on high by the likes of you, J .D. Greer.

No, we don't. We have the same commission you do. The same authority is, is, is, is, is handed down to us from God as, as, as it is to you. I have the same authority in my family that you have in your family.

When I was a pastor, I had the same authority granted from God that you had in your mega church, J .D. Greer. We don't need you to empower us. And you see, this makes me mad. And this is an intentional thing.

This is an intentional thing, because when you start to talk like this, yeah, it sounds good in a soundbite, right? Sounds smooth as butter and sweet as honey. But when you get down to actually the application of it, it pisses people off.

And rightfully so, because it is sinful. This line sounds super good, but it's sinful. It's like the Corbin Law. People read about the Corbin Law, and they think, well, everyone knew the Corbin Law was wrong.

It was obviously wrong. Everyone was walking around saying like, look at these Pharisees, this Corbin Law, it's evil. No, they weren't. The Corbin Law made sense to people. It sounded the way this sounds.

Smooth as butter, sweet as honey. You seem so pious. The Corbin Law made you look good. But it was sin. Just like this J .D. Greer. It's just like the Corbin Law. We have to continue to empower ethnically diverse leadership, Greer said.

This is a statement trying to get you to sin like he is. Sin looks good. Sin can be enticing. Sin is sneaky. But we must not do it. We have to resist. We have to resist. And so I've seen a lot of tweets about how much turmoil is in the SBC.

Good. Good. Because here's the reality. We need to shake people out of their stupor. And this is just the beginning. Because we've got the SBC president here, speaking smooth sounding words to people.

He'll get pats in the back. He'll be promoted as this great prophetic person. And he's promoting sin the way the Pharisees promoted the Corbin Law. And we've had enough.