Reformata Baptist Church's affirmation of the Statement on social justice and the Gospel

Here I Stand Theology

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encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the

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Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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Now this I say, lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

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As you have therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith.

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Not a faith, not just one of many faiths, but the faith. There is but one faith, one

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Lord, one baptism, one God, and one Father of all, who is in you all and through all, according to the word of God.

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The faith, rooted and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it, abounding in it, abounding in it, abounding in it, with thanksgiving.

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Is anybody thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ today? I'm thankful, praise

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God, for the gospel and for the church that Jesus Christ has established here.

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I am thankful that folks can come to the altar to seek help and hope and mercy and grace in time of need.

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Amen? Shirley, are you glad with that? Ain't you glad? Thank you, dear.

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Paul went on to say this in verse 8, Beware, lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit.

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And he further goes to define this, according to the tradition of men.

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There's a difference between the tradition of Christ and the tradition of men. According to the tradition of men.

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And then he went on to further define this. It's like at the beginning of this, don't let anyone cheat you.

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He gives a big, broad, general view of the faith. Then he said, don't let them cheat you through philosophy.

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Don't let them cheat you through empty deceit. Don't let them cheat you according to the tradition of men.

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And then he really narrows it down, according to the basic principles of the world.

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The church is separate from the world. But, and he said, and not according to Christ.

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He taught in Galatians, if any man come unto you preaching any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

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That word used, accursed, there means damned. That's not a cuss word, that's not a bad word.

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It literally means, if anybody comes and preaches any other thing than the gospel of Jesus Christ to men, for the salvation of their souls, that they themselves are damned and doomed for a devil's hell.

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But Paul is very clear, Paul is very forthright in this text of scripture.

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And he's wanting to encourage the Colossian church. This is the context of this. The Colossian church, that they are going to be folks who come in and try to bring in the world with what

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God has taught. Now, how does this carry over and how does this principle apply to us today?

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Because, friends, things are exactly the same today. There are those who will come in and try to bring in worldly ideologies, worldly ways and worldly systems into the church, so that the church can, quote unquote, grow and be more effective for the kingdom of God.

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Friends, let me tell you something, the church is not built upon the world's ideologies, the church is built upon the faith of Jesus Christ.

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The word of God tells us and the word of God teaches us clearly this. When Jesus came to the disciples, and we'll get to the statements here shortly, but when

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Jesus came to the disciples and he said, who do men say that I am?

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There were many who said, some say that you're Elijah the prophet, some say you're John the Baptist, come back from the dead, so on and so forth.

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But he said, but who do you say that I am? And the scripture clearly says,

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Peter stepped up, spoke up, and this is what he said, you are the Christ, the son of the living

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God. And Jesus said, upon this rock I will build my church.

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The church is not Claude's church, the church is not Tam's church, the church is

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Christ's church. Jesus Christ is the head of the body, his church.

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And so Paul warns strongly, urges them not to let worldly philosophy in vain to seek come into play, nor to sway them in their thinking.

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But friends, this is exactly what is going on today, and it is exactly the message that needs to be preached in the day and the time in which we live.

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I told Kenny this morning, it's really amazing. I know next week we're coming up on election day, and you'll see as we go through the statements on the social justice and the gospel, the church's job is not to preach political ideologies.

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Political ideologies. And we'll get into these things. I don't want to jump ahead on this too much, but the church's primary focus, the church's primary function in this world is to do one thing and one thing only, and that is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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That's our header for everything today. That's our overarching theme. We want you to get, as we go through these statements that were given, that I as your pastor, word for word, every statement that's made,

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I cling to this because every bit of it is backed by the scriptures. And so I can't necessarily say it's what you believe, but I'm telling you it's what

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I'm teaching and it's what I'm preaching. You can choose whether or not to believe what you hear today.

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So the first statement, let's look at that. Very first statement concerning the social justice and the gospel.

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It's what we affirm, what we believe, and what we deny concerning the scripture.

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Number one, we affirm that the Bible is God's word, breathed out by Him. It's inerrant, infallible, and the final authority for determining what is true and what is right.

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All truth claims. This is concerning this social justice movement that's creeping into the church.

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All truth claims and ethical standards must be tested by God's final word, which is scripture alone.

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I'm not telling you all anything new. You all hear this every week, week in and week out. But it's important, not only what we affirm, what we hold to, but what we firmly deny as well.

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We deny that Christian belief, character, or conduct can be dictated by any other authority.

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And we deny that the postmodern ideologies derived from intersectionality, radical feminism, and critical race theory are consistent with biblical teaching.

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We deny that the worldly teaching of intersectionality, which means this, that the whole thing today is about people playing the victim.

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Oh, I'm the victim. No matter whether it's race, no matter whether it's sex, whether you're male or female, and that's what

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I'm talking about when I say that, which is critical race theory is what is taught, that critical race theory basically says this, if you're of a specific color, then by nature you're automatically a racist.

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No, that's not what the scriptures teach. That's not what the scriptures teach. Intersectionality says that maybe if you feel like you're a victim, maybe you're a homosexual, you're a minority, you're poor.

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Maybe if you fit three of those categories, then intersectionality is saying that if you're a

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Christian and you're in those three categories, then you deserve to be treated special than other people need to be treated.

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Most people don't have any idea this is going on, but it's what is happening, and it's our responsibility to communicate this to you so you're aware of this, because you'll hear it, you'll see it in the things that you watch.

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You turn on TV, you can't hardly see a preacher on TV stand up and preach what they claim to be the gospel message without bringing this junk into it.

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Intersectionality, radical feminism. You are not better or you are not worse because you are a woman or because you are a man.

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That's what we're going to see as we move further here. So we deny that the postmodern ideologies derived from intersectionality, radical feminism and critical race theory, that they are consistent with the

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Bible. They are not. Let's go on to the next one. There's scripture references, plenty of them under here.

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The next one, we believe, we affirm that God created every person equally in his own image.

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I'm thankful for a Sunday school teacher that teaches this stuff. Amen. We learned this this morning in class, that God created every person equally in his own image.

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Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 and 27. In the beginning, God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness.

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That's what the word of God says. And so as divine image bearers, all people have inestimable value and dignity before God and deserve honor, respect and protection.

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That is what the scriptures teach us. Just so in case you don't know, that's what Jesus taught.

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The great commandments, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.

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And the second is like unto this, love your neighbor as yourself. Amen. Some would say,

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I can't believe that you're going over these elementary things with us. Folks, you need to hear these things.

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Amen. You need to know this. What we deny concerning the image being made in the image of God, we deny that God given roles, socioeconomic status, whether you're rich or poor, we deny that whether you're red, yellow, black or white, we deny that whether you're of one religion or another, we deny that whether you're one sex or another, male or female, we deny that if you're physical condition or any other property of a person, that it either negates or contributes to that individual's worth as an image bearer of God.

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Amen. In other words, we're all the same in the sight of God. Amen.

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Next, please. Image of God. We're made in the image of God. The third one is justice. And here's where the rubber really meets the road concerning this statement, concerning what we believe, what we hold to, because the world has their own idea of what justice is.

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Right? As a parent, when your child was small or if your child's big and you whipped your child, there's always somebody that says, oh, you were too hard on them.

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Or, oh, you were too easy on them. Everybody's got a fluid idea of what justice is.

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But, friend, we have the standard of justice in the Word of God. So that's why we hold to the

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Scriptures. We affirm that since He is holy, God is holy, righteous and just,

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God requires those who bear His image to live justly in the world.

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Or, Micah, one of the references there, Micah chapter 6, verse 8, it says this,

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And what are you to do, O man, but to live justly and walk humbly before your

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God? That's what the Word of God teaches us. And it goes on to say this, This includes showing appropriate respect to every person and giving to each one what he or she is due.

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We affirm, this is important, we affirm that societies must establish laws to correct injustices that have been imposed through cultural prejudice.

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What we deny? We deny that true justice can be culturally defined. How is justice defined?

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From the Word of God. Not by the political realm.

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Justice is not defined by social constructs. Justice is defined by the

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Word of God. And by the way, there are one of two categories when it comes to justice.

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Well, maybe one. Justice, and then there's mercy. There's no gray area.

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Justice or mercy. It goes on, and I want to read this to you. We'll skip to the underlying parts.

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We'll focus on those to move quickly. Relativism, socially constructed standards of truth or morality and notions of virtue and vice that are constantly in flux cannot result in authentic justice.

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This is what we see in the world, the constantly changing justice. This group saying,

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I deserve justice. That group saying, I deserve justice. That group saying,

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I deserve justice. When we're taught from the Word of God that truly we all deserve justice and justice would be being in hell today.

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But God show mercy. Next please. Concerning God's law.

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We affirm that God's law is summarized in the Ten Commandments more succinctly summarized in the two great commandments.

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We quoted those to you. And manifested in Jesus Christ is the only standard of unchanging righteousness and violation of God's law is what constitutes sin.

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Not how you feel about a matter does not constitute or make it right or wrong.

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There's a lot of things that people have issues with each other that truly if we dig down to the core of those things they are nothing but pet peeves that you and I have.

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The Lord ain't concerned about our pet peeves and we ought not to be concerned about our pet peeves. We ought to be concerned about the righteousness of God.

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So we affirm that God's law is the standard of righteousness. Somebody wants to know if they've sinned?

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Show them the commandments. That's why the commandments were given to reveal the sinfulness of sin.

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What we deny concerning God's law we deny that any obligation that does not arise from God's commandments can be legitimately imposed on Christians as a prescription for righteous living.

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Now this statement was put in this statement itself for a reason because within the church world it is going on today within even some evangelical circles there are groups that are gathered at these big conferences and they're making everything about race, they're making everything about sexuality and they're even calling those for example and I told sir

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I'm just going to speak plain talk today there are those in the evangelical community and people who shouldn't be in positions of leadership over congregations and over bodies of believers because they're not what

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God has called to be a pastor or a bishop lead but they're actually standing up and they're saying if you are white you need to find black people and go apologize to them.

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This is happening. And it's all being proclaimed as a part of the gospel and it has nothing to do whatsoever with the gospel.

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Why are people prejudiced? Because of sin. Why are people prideful? Because of sin.

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Sin is at the heart of the problem in all people according to the word of God.

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So that's why that statement was put in there. We further deny the legitimacy of any charge of sin or a call to repentance that does not arise from a violation of God's commandments.

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Next one please. Concerning sin we affirm that there is no difference in the condition of sinners due to age, ethnicity or sex.

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Old sinners ain't no better than young sinners and young sinners ain't no better than old sinners. That's what that's saying.

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All are depraved in their faculties and stand condemned before God. All human relationships and systems and institutions have been affected by sin including this church.

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I can point the finger at other churches but I ain't in other churches. I'm at this one right now. So this is where I'll do the point.

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Sin has affected the church. If we get to the book and hold to the book friend it's still not going to be perfect because we all got our hand in it but it's going to be better than it was.

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We got to strive like Sir said to follow the Lord. So we affirm these things. We affirm this truth about sin.

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We affirm. I want to begin here with the denial. What we deny concerning sin.

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We deny that other than previously stated our connection to Adam that any person is morally culpable for another sin.

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That's what I told you. What's going on within churches. Leaders standing up and saying that you need to apologize for this or that.

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We're not responsible for your sin. And you're not responsible for my sin.

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When you stand before the Lord on the day of judgment and you will stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

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You will give account for you and no one else. Jesus is not going to say what about all soul and soul.

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He's going to say what about you. And you're going to be able to say

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I trust in Jesus. Or all you're going to do is bow your head and he'll say depart from me you that work iniquity.

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But for God each person must repent and confess his or her own sins in order to receive forgiveness.

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We further deny that one's ethnicity establishes any necessary connection to a particular sin.

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Next issue, the gospel. You'll notice that I have everything in this underlined.

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Because there's nothing that I intended to leave out communicating to you or to shorten this. We affirm that the gospel is the divinely revealed message concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ.

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Especially, these are primary doctrines, because especially his virgin birth, righteous life, substitutionary sacrifice, that's propitiation, atoning, atoning death and bodily resurrection, revealing who he is and what he has done with the promise that he will save anyone and everyone who turns from sin by trusting him as Lord.

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We deny that anything else, we deny that anything else, whether works to be performed or opinions to be held can be added to the gospel without perverting it.

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If anything is added to the gospel, it is a perversion of the gospel.

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And the gospel says to him who adds anything to that, let him be damned. This also means that implications and applications of the gospel, such as the obligation to live justly in the world, the legitimate and important in their own right, that they are not definitional components of the gospel.

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That we cannot make racism, that we cannot make intersectionality, that we cannot make feminism an issue, that we cannot make homosexuality the issue or the inroad to the gospel.

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The inroad to the gospel is that a man realizes he's lost before a holy God in his sin and he stands in need of salvation that comes from no other but by Jesus Christ.

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So concerning the gospel, that's what we affirm and deny. Next, please.

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Salvation. We affirm that salvation is granted by God's grace alone, received through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

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Every believer is united to Christ, justified before God, and adopted into his family.

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Thus, in God's eyes, there is no difference in spiritual value or worth among those who are in Christ.

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There's no high -level Christians. There's no Christians that are worth more than other

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Christians. Amen? That's what this is saying. But all of this is the

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Scripture. It's just put in succinct words. Let's go down to what we deny here.

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We deny that salvation can be received in any other way. We also deny that salvation renders any

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Christian free from all remaining sin or from even grievous sins in this life.

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Again, this is not anything new that you're hearing. You hear this week in and week out. Simply what this statement is saying is this.

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That just because you are saved does not mean that you are sinless. You don't have a license to sin because you're saved.

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Amen? Nobody said amen right there. You still sin, but you don't want to sin.

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It's what's in us. So we deny that ethnicity excludes anyone from understanding the

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Gospel. It doesn't matter if you're red, yellow, black, or white. It does not limit or exclude you from understanding the

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Gospel even though that's what's being taught in critical race theory. We further deny ethnicity excludes from understanding the

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Gospel, nor does anyone's ethnic or cultural heritage mitigate or remove the duty to repent or believe.

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Just because you're a specific color does not mean you don't need to repent. That group needs to repent.

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No, in Acts 17, God commands all men everywhere to repent!

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That's what the Word of God says. Next point, please, the church. This is where we are right now.

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This is why we're doing what we're doing. We affirm that the primary role of the church is to worship God through the preaching of His Word, the teaching of sound doctrine, observing baptism and the

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Lord's Supper, and refuting those who contradict, equipping the saints, and evangelizing the lost.

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We have a responsibility to do all of these things. You want to know why?

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That week in and week out, even though I'm dumber than most of you all,

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I stretch myself to study and to learn so that I can stand up here for an hour every week and preach and holler at you.

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It's so that in some hopes, you might take five minutes of what's been said and take it out into the world and tell somebody about what the

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Word of God says about them and their sin and their standing before a holy God. We affirm that when the promise of the gospel is maintained, meaning the gospel is kept center stage, when the promise of the gospel is maintained, that this often has a positive effect on the culture in which various societal ills are mollified, we affirm that under the lordship of Christ, we are to obey the governing authorities established by God and pray for civil leaders.

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Again, Sunday school, I told you, Kenny, how the Lord just put everything together.

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Romans chapter 13, 1 through 4. Kenny had served, was it served or read out? Who read that this morning?

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It was sir that read that. Obey the authorities that God has put over us.

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There are those that come into the church under the guise of the gospel that will tell folks, rise up against the government.

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Rebel, rebel, rebel. Know the Word of God tells us just the opposite. Submit to those that are in authority over you.

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Because the context of that text of scripture itself in Romans, Paul was writing under Nero's persecution.

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Nero was killing Christians and yet Paul said, submit to the authorities because God has ordained them to be so, ultimately for our good.

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We deny that political or social activism should be viewed as integral components of the gospel or the primary mission of the church.

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Political or social activism, we deny that. We stand completely against that being the primary function of the church.

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If you want to do it, that's fine, but don't tout it as the gospel command.

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It is not. Though believers can and should utilize lawful means that God has providentially established to have some effect on the laws of society, we deny that these activities are either evidence of saving faith or constitute a central part of the church's mission given to her by Jesus Christ, her head.

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We deny that regulations possess any inherent power to change sinful hearts. That statement is very, very important.

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Who we vote for makes a difference, truly. However, know this, that Congress cannot legislate sin and righteousness.

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Praise God, that's true. There will never be a law passed by our government that makes sin, sin and righteous, righteousness.

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Jesus Christ calls sin, sin, and Jesus Christ is righteousness.

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And there are no two ways about it. Next point, please. Heresy. You all have heard this.

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We're just going to read this simple statement. We affirm the accusation of heresy should be reserved for those departures for Christian faith that destroy the weight -bearing doctrines, primary doctrines of the gospel, the redemptive core of scripture.

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We affirm that accusations of heresy should be accompanied with clear evidence of such destructive beliefs.

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If I stand before you, or you stand before anyone else, and you're going to call someone a heretic, know this, that if you do that, you are laying a heavy charge on someone.

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If there is the biblical evidence that they have strayed from the core truths of the gospel, then, biblically speaking, they are heretics.

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But if they have not strayed, and they just don't do something like you like, don't call them a heretic.

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Be wise. Be wise. Next point, please. Sexuality in marriage.

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Again, months ago, we addressed the issue of transgenderism and homosexuality.

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We had lined all of that out. That was a big, long thing, but it was important, very necessary.

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But I want to say this, what we affirm, the curse of sin results in sinful, disordered affections that manifest in some people as same -sex attraction.

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Salvation grants sanctifying power to renounce such dishonorable affections as sinful and to mortify them by the

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Spirit. We further affirm that God's design for marriage is that one woman and one man live in a one -flesh, covenantal, sexual relationship until separated by death.

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That's why in most marriages, you hear, until death do us part. This is what we hold to.

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We deny that human sexuality is a socially constructed concept.

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God, in the beginning, made them male and female. The socially constructed concept teaches that I know you say you're a man, but maybe you say if you identify as a woman, maybe you are a woman.

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That's the socially constructed concept. That's the great danger, and this is what creeps into churches nowadays, and that we must stand firm against these things.

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I don't know who that was.

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We deny that human sexuality is a socially constructed concept. We also deny that one sex can be fluid.

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We reject, and I'm going to say this in love. I'll try to tone my emotion down when

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I say this, but I'm saying it with the same level of firmness that I would say at yelling.

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We deny, we reject the term gay Christian as a legitimate biblical category.

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This is what intersectionality is bringing into the church. Oh, there's just different groups of Christians.

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No. No. No. There are Christians, and there are lost people.

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And you are saved from sin, or you are lost in sin.

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So we reject the term gay Christian as a legitimate biblical category. We further deny that any kind of partnership or union can be properly called a marriage other than one woman and one man in a lifelong covenant together.

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We further deny that people should be identified as sexual minorities. This is, again, this is more of the critical race theory creeping into the sexuality.

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Oh, I'm a sexual minority because I identify as this. Or I'm an ethnic minority because I'm this skin color or that skin color.

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No, there are no minorities. We're all in the majority of sinners needing to be saved by the grace of God.

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Amen. Next point, please.

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Complementarianism. This may be a term that some of you may never have heard and may never care to look at again. Tim, the other night, we were going through some of these with him, and he said, is that where you just tell somebody they're good too much?

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You compliment them too much? No. Complementarianism really is a theological term that the church, that I'll say the academics in the church world have used and it's taught throughout the

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Scriptures. It's basically this. We affirm that God created man, both male and female, with inherent biological and personal distinctions between them and that these created differences are good, proper, and beautiful.

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And here's the key. Though there is no difference between men and women before God's law or as recipients of His saving grace, we affirm that God has designed men and women with distinct traits and to fulfill distinct roles.

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Amen. These differences are most clearly defined in marriage and the church.

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Husband's role, wife's role. Men's role in the church and women's role in the church.

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In marriage, the husband is to lead, love, and safeguard his wife, and the wife is to respect and be submissive to her husband in all things lawful.

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So in marriage, that's how that's defined. The husband is to love the wife, according to Ephesians chapter 5, as Christ loved the church and gave

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Himself for her. And the wife is to submit herself unto the husband. Now in the church, qualified men alone are to lead as pastors, elders, bishops, and preach to and teach the whole congregation.

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Now what you'll hear in a lot of places, and you see it, you see it come on, is that how women, there's such a growth of women preachers and women pastors.

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You say, you don't believe a woman has any knowledge of God, and I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that when it comes to the setting of the church,

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God has ordained that men be over the church. Not because men are better than women, but it's just the way

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He chose to set things up. And so we have to adhere and hold to what God's Word has taught concerning that.

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We deny that God ordained differences in men and women's roles, disparage the inherent spiritual worth or value of one over the other, nor do those differences in any way inhibit either men or women from flourishing for the glory of God.

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So that's basically the issue of complementarianism. Next point, please.

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Race and ethnicity. We affirm God made all people from one man. That's what the

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Scriptures teach. Acts 17, I believe it's where He says at plainness,

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He has made one blood of all men to dwell on the face of the earth.

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Though people often can be distinguished by different ethnicities and nationalities, they are ontological equals before God in both creation and redemption.

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Race is not a biblical category. It is a socially constructed category.

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Read the Bible and you'll see. But rather a social construct that has often been used to classify groups of people in terms of superiority and superiority.

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Let's just read the rest of that. All that is good, honest, just, and beautiful in various ethnic backgrounds and experiences can be celebrated as the fruit of God's grace.

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All sinful actions and their results, including evils perpetrated between and upon ethnic groups by others, are to be confessed as sinful, repented of, and repudiated.

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Now here's the thing, and I want to say this. I want to take a stand on this as well. There's no place for white churches and black churches.

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There's no place for Korean churches or Spanish churches. You say, well, each of them have different needs.

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No, they all have the same exact need. They're sinners before a holy God who need the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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We deny that Christians should segregate themselves into racial groups. So don't say, don't go away from here misquoting or misunderstanding.

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We are saying that we absolutely deny that Christians should segregate themselves into racial groups or regard racial identity above or even equal to their identity in Christ.

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It's not right. We deny that any division between people groups from an unstated attitude of superiority to an overt spirit of resentment have any legitimate place in the fellowship of the redeemed.

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We reject any teaching that encourages racial groups to view themselves as privileged oppressors or entitled victims of oppression.

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While we are to weep with those who weep, we deny that a person's feeling of offense or oppression necessarily prove that someone else is guilty of sinful behaviors.

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Again, the feelings that we have are fluid. They ebb and they flow.

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They are not constant. God is constant. And His word is constant.

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Alright, concerning the last one I believe. The next one, maybe the last one, or was this one the last one?

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Okay. Very quickly, concerning culture, we affirm that whatever evil influences to which we have been subjected via our culture and must be overcome through conversion and the training of both mind and heart through biblical truth.

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Again, if you go to TV, you would think our whole purpose in this world was to change the culture.

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You'll hear this in teaching. That's all you hear. Oh, let's change the culture. Let's change the atmosphere, friends.

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We can change nothing but Jesus can. Jesus called us to proclaim the gospel to the world.

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And we absolutely believe and affirm that whatever evil influences that are in the world and that we've been subjected to and that our culture lives in and under, that they must be overcome through conversion.

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Except ye be born again, you shall in no way see the kingdom of heaven. That's what that says right there.

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Only by conversion. And conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit.

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And conversion being the work of the Holy Spirit coming through the preached message of the gospel.

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That is our duty. We deny that individuals and subgroups in any culture are unable.

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This is tricky wording, but I'll try to break it down. That subgroups in any culture are unable, by God's grace, to rise above whatever moral defects or spiritual deficiencies have engendered or been encouraged by their respective cultures.

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We absolutely deny outright and boldly that a man is outside of having his heart renewed and changed by the grace of God.

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Have a good day, Shirley. We love you. Okay? So if our culture is to be changed, it's going to be because of conversion.

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That's why. Last of all, racism. Racism seems to be the big issue.

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One of the driving forces in the social justice movement that's infiltrating and working its way into evangelical and Christian circles today.

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We affirm that racism is a sin rooted in pride and malice which must be condemned and renounced by all who would honor the image of God in all people.

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Remember, we affirm that all people are made in the image of God. And all people deserve respect and honor.

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Do you? Amen? That's what we believe. That's what the Bible teaches. And we openly affirm that racism is a problem.

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It's not a skin problem. It's a sin problem. Not a skin problem.

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A sin problem. Such racial sin can be suddenly or overtly manifest itself as a racial animosity or racial vainglory.

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Such sinful prejudice or partiality falls short of God's revealed will and violates the royal law of love.

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We affirm that virtually all cultures, including our own at times, contains laws and systems that foster racist attitudes and policies.

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The church's job is not to hide ourselves and to do like ostriches, hide our heads in the sand and pretend like this problem don't exist.

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Nor are we to set this problem and this issue up as though it's something that can be fixed by socially constructed standards.

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But we are to admit that this is a reality. And yet, we deny that treating people with sinful partiality or prejudice is consistent with biblical

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Christianity. We're not to show respect to... You're not to show respect to a white person more than you do a black person.

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You're not to show respect more to an Asian person more than you do a Spanish person. And see, there'll still be folks who got offended because I only listed four people groups there.

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Those are the people I'm talking about right now. That's the problem. Sin is the problem.

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You are not a minority or a victim. You are a condemned sinner before God standing in need of salvation.

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We deny that systemic racism is in any way compatible with the core principles of historic evangelical convictions.

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Do not let people tell you that historically, if you go back and study Christianity, that Christianity was all about oppressing one group of people or another group of people.

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No, it's not. When you go back and you go to the roots of Christianity, you'll find that it has always been sin as the problem.

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We deny that the Bible can be legitimately used to foster or justify partiality, prejudice, or contempt toward other ethnicities.

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There are churches who will use the Scriptures as a quote -unquote stand to be racist, to show partiality to one group or another group.

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Friends, that in itself is heresy. And that is why we stand today to proclaim this to you.

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We deny a contemporary evangelical movement has any deliberate agenda to elevate one ethnic group and subjugate another.

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Again, that was put in there because of what's going on in larger evangelical circles today.

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That the church's agenda is not to try to elevate one group above another, to make one group more important than the other group.

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And we emphatically deny that lectures on social issues or activism aimed at reshaping the wider culture are as vital to the life and health of the church as the preaching of the

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Gospel and the exposition of Scripture. It's got to be the

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Gospel as the centerpiece. It's got to be the Gospel as the framework. During the

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Reformation in the 1500s, they laid out those five principles of the Reformation.

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The five principles were this. Sola Scriptura. That the Word of God alone is our rule and standard for all of faith and life.

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It was Sola Scriptura. It was Sola Christa. That a man is saved by Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone.

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And then that overarching principle for the Reformation was this. Sola Deo Gloria. To God alone be the glory.

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And we're a Reformed church. That's what we stand on. And that's what you, as a body, need to know these things.

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So that when this little bit, this half -truth comes in, enter your ears, that you can tell.

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You can tell if the focus ain't Jesus Christ and Him alone, there's a problem. And I want to encourage you as a body, do not settle for any less.

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So Paul said, Beware lest any cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

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Stand with us if you would this morning. I thank you for being patient with me. I know this may have been actually a little longer than normal.

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But I feel that it's vitally important and necessary for us as a body to know these things.

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To have these things clearly defined. To set these things forth before you.

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So that when you do hear these things, and you're going to hear them, it'll get more and more as we go along. And certainly, it's not going to be popular.

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It'll never be popular for the church to be the church. However, we must be the church.

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If you are saved, you don't have another option. You don't have another choice. And I'll tell you,

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I'll quote John Calvin here and I'm done. John Calvin said this, There are a lot of men who preach the gospel better than I do.

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But there are none who preach a better gospel. There are a lot of better preachers in this world than what you've got standing before you.

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But if they are not preaching the gospel, you might as well be kicking against the priest.

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You might as well be beating your head against the wall, or swinging at the air. Stand for nothing but the gospel.

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Accept nothing less than the gospel. Continue to test what you hear week in and week out according to the gospel.

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Stand firm on nothing but the gospel. Kenny, would you dismiss us in prayer, sir? Father, we thank

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You for this Word we've received today, Lord. And I pray that You teach us and show us, remind us to keep it in our heart,

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Lord, and to use it daily. Be able to recognize when we see false doctrine, when we see false practices around our church,