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[0:00] If you would please take your Bibles. We're gonna look at two passages and stay with the second one. But the first passage I wanna look at, go to book of Colossians chapter three.

[0:14] If you're visiting with us and you left your Bible at home or your cell phone at home, you can pull out the black Bible in the chair in front of you and go to the back and find page 155, Colossians chapter three.

[0:28] Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three, starting in verse nine. Again, page 155 in that black Bible. Colossians chapter three.

[0:41] Again, there's gonna be two passages we'll read. We're gonna read a passage from Colossians and we're gonna go back to Galatians. But first, Colossians chapter three. Look at verse nine with me.

[0:53] Starting in verse nine, nine through 11. Colossians three, nine. Do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old man or the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed to true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him, in which there's no Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free man, but Christ is all and in all.

[1:29] And then go back a few pages to Galatians and that black Bible is page 148. Galatians, go to Galatians chapter three and we'll stay here on purpose.

[1:44] Galatians chapter three. Look at verse 27. Galatians 3, 27, which we'll hit on in our first hour next week. I think I'm doing that one.

[1:55] Yeah, I'm doing that one. Galatians chapter three, start at verse 27 to 29. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

[2:07] There's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free man. There's neither male nor female. For you're all one in Christ. If you belong to Christ, you're Abraham's offspring.

[2:22] His seed errs according to promise. Nate and Damien Blue.

[2:35] They were good friends of mine in high school. And they were brothers. We hung out together. Actually, Nate and I became really close friends. Matter of fact, I was messaging Nate through WhatsApp just on Thursday.

[2:48] I think it was. It was Thursday. Wednesday or Thursday this past week. And him and I still keep in touch. He lives in Spring, Texas. We did everything together. And we would ride everywhere in what Nate would call his Japanese Cadillac.

[3:07] A 1972 Toyota Supra. He called it his Japanese Cadillac. There's lots of fond memories in that little Supra. Good times.

[3:17] Good times. We did everything together. We did crazy. Oh, I was gonna tell you. Nate, for those of you 30 and under, you'll have no idea what I'm talking about.

[3:34] For those of you maybe 35 and older, you'll know what I'm talking about. Remember the old cell phones they would put in the middle? They're in the dash. And then they would have the little antenna up above on the cars.

[3:47] And then you would drive. You would know somebody had a car phone because they had that little antenna. So what Nate did, he bought one of the fake ones.

[3:59] And it would light up and everything and glow. And so we'd be driving. This is in San Jose, California. We're driving all over the place. He'd go, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, act like you're, act like you're, he'd always call me Jimmy. Do you act like you're talking on the phone?

[4:11] I'd be in the front. Nate's driving. I'm in the front seat. Damien's in the back. He's sitting like this, you know, or just like that. And so I'd get on the phone and be like, yeah, that's what I'm talking. So we'd pull up next to somebody and he's, it would usually be like a BMW or something like that.

[4:23] He would do, and, excuse me. So then he would pull up next to a BMW and I'd be like, I'm talking to him. I'm going over. And the people would be like, you know, because to see this 1972 and he had his cell phone is just funny and we just did stupid stuff like that.

[4:43] It was just kind of. A note about Nate and Damien, they're black, dark skinned. dark skinned.

[4:56] But the whole race thing never came up between us. Maybe within the families. But it was not something that ever crossed our minds.

[5:08] Matter of fact, when I was messaging Nate, I was telling him, I said, you know, it never even was something that we even thought about that. And he messaged back, he said, I know. We didn't think about that.

[5:20] We were brothers. Matter of fact, Nate, he created, started his own rap group and so we were, the three of us were a rap group and we had thought about calling ourselves Oreo.

[5:34] I'd be in the middle. And it would stand for Our Redeemers Eliminating Our Oppressor. Never went anywhere. But it never came up with us.

[5:47] It just wasn't, we didn't think that way. But now, according to Black Lives Matter and critical race theory and intersectionality, I'm racist against blacks just because I'm white.

[6:06] Actually, I'm half white. The other half of me is Mexican. I told you, I wanted to do a response, a biblical response to Black Lives Matter critical race theory and intersectionality.

[6:22] I had a friend of mine who told him I was preaching on this, he messaged me back, he said, about time. I'm like, okay. But I didn't want to go with the flow in May or June, July, August or even last month.

[6:34] but I decided to wait till now. Especially with the election coming up and the things that you're being bombarded with by both sides. What does the Bible have to say about Black Lives Matter?

[6:48] What does the Bible say about critical race theory? What does the Bible have to say about intersectionality? I have, sorry, I didn't put the title there. and I wanted to land just to make sure that we're here.

[7:02] We'll launch from this into definition of these ideologies. That's what they are. I wanted to make sure we camp here because as far as Paul is concerned, in the gospel, he says there's neither Jew nor Greek and so that's Jew.

[7:23] You're either Jew or you're not. that's all color, shades of skin. And the end of verse 28, you are all one in Christ Jesus.

[7:43] What unites us is the gospel and the church needs to remember that. They've lost sight of that. Reasons.

[7:55] What are the reasons and the importance of this message? I've got three. I'm actually centered upon two, but first, some Christians may use these terms but don't really understand what they're saying.

[8:11] So this message will inform but also help you notice to be gracious to them. Christians are using these terms and throwing these terms around and speaking about these ideologies and thinking they're of God but they really have no idea what they're talking about.

[8:30] Now some do but there's some Christians that don't and so this will help you, it will inform you but also help you not to tell them what's, where they're off but to be gracious to them.

[8:43] the second reason and it's, this is, the most important reason is going to be the third reason. The second is church disunity.

[8:55] What has happened in the political realm has now happened in the church among Christians. We are a Southern Baptist church so it's even happened within the SBC, Southern Baptist Convention.

[9:06] and you might say, what do you mean in the political realm or in the church? This is what I mean. In the political realm, there is no room for a healthy, civil, calm, peaceful discussion or debate about these things or anything else for that matter.

[9:30] There's just name calling, anger, hatred, rage, blowing the person off as a racist, bigot, Marxist, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, white supremacist.

[9:45] That's all that is. And that's what's happened within the political realm. You cannot have a civil, calm, peaceful discussion with somebody. But we're not going to be talking about the political realm in this message.

[10:01] In some sense, quite honestly, understand what I say. In some sense, I don't really care about that, nor should you. We are Christians who care about the kingdom of God.

[10:14] America can go to hell and everything else. All the can go to hell, but it's going to last forever is the kingdom of God. It's for eternity. So keep that in mind.

[10:27] But this is why it's a problem because this is happening in the church. even to the point of saying that you're not a brother or sister in Christ if you reject, throw out, or even question these viewpoints or ideologies.

[10:42] Even if you ask questions about Black Lives Matter, even if you ask about critical race theory or intersectionality, you're a racist. You're a white supremacist. You're this.

[10:54] You're a bigot. Wait a second. I thought we were Christians here. it has created major tension within the church.

[11:07] And plus, a Christian can now play the race card or the BLM card or the CRT card or the intersectionality card.

[11:21] You can play that card now. Well, you're just being. Well, you're just being. And that doesn't. You are all one in Christ Jesus.

[11:32] Remember what Paul said? This is happening within churches. You know what's also connected to this? Is that now, real issues, real hurts, and real pains and suffering don't get addressed and handled.

[11:54] Real people don't get the help that they need. Now it's just a matter of debating. You know what? Racism is real. It does happen. And you know what? It is sin. It's sinful.

[12:05] It's wrong. Oppression is real. It happens. It's sin. It's wrong.

[12:19] Real people need help. There's creative church disunity. And then of course what's going to be the last one which is most important.

[12:31] The gospel is at stake. The very gospel itself. This very truth. What unites us is the Lord Jesus Christ. You were baptized into Christ Jesus.

[12:42] You're clothed with Christ because we've turned from our sin and we've put our trust in Jesus alone. You should be condemned. Somebody asked me on Friday, do you have homosexuals should go to hell?

[12:54] I said everybody should go to hell. Everyone should go to hell. We should all be condemned forever.

[13:06] But God is gracious and kind. God is merciful and gentle. He sent Jesus who took on flesh. He lived the perfect life. The darker skin, Jesus.

[13:19] He wasn't white with blue eyes. Sorry to burst your bubble. Probably dark eyes like me. He died for sinners in their place.

[13:30] He physically resurrected from the dead. Repent and trust Christ. It doesn't matter what shade of skin color you are. Trust Christ. Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest says Jesus.

[13:43] But that very gospel is at stake because now I'm trying to oppress you because I'm an authority. I'm a pastor. I'm stained by my half whiteness now.

[14:02] Tom Nettles said this quote theology becomes an expression not of closely reasoned biblical exegesis open to and true for all but a contest between different cultures races ages and genders none of this encourages Christian unity and humility but suspicion and fragmentation end quote.

[14:27] This is why we need to understand these terms these definitions this is why a message like this is important because the gospel and its promises are at stake and if you know anything about Galatians Paul says you as church members should be so radically against anything that's going to be against the gospel that's your job as a church member you should hold fast to the gospel and don't go after some other gospel where there's really no gospel at all.

[15:07] Dr. Al Mohler president of Southern Theological Seminary he said this quote in quotes black lives matter taken as a sentence is profoundly true God made every human being in his image which means every life on the planet at every stage matters every human being possesses full human dignity and by extension full human rights but it's not that simple black lives matter now capital B capital L capital M did not emerge merely as a sentence those three words function as a message and a platform making a significant political statement and yet the president of the Southern Baptist Convention J.D.

[15:56] Greer last year openly endorsed black lives matter he posted a video on Facebook and he said Southern Baptist when you say it clearly as a gospel issue black lives matter what now to his credit J.D.

[16:12] Greer at some unspecified level does not endorse all the policy prescriptions and rule view which we'll look at in a moment of BLM as presented in their statement of belief but this is concerning this statement that he makes brought division so should we endorse black lives matter should we march with them should we endorse and promote critical race theory using it as it said in the resolution nine from last year in the national convention of the southern baptist convention but resolution nine said they are analytical tools is that what critical race theory is should we use the mindset of intersectionality let me be blunt for you and say this graciously again remember we're doing this to inform us but also help us to be gracious right let me be blunt black lives matter critical race theory and intersectionality these ideologies contradict scripture and are antithetical to the church and the advancement of God's kingdom period they should not be endorsed at all they are godless god hating gospel denying church destroying ideologies this is serious we need we need the

[18:03] Jewish darker skin savior named Jesus who is the Messiah to save us from the evil tendencies of all skin colors we need to see each other as saved loved by Christ within the church friends there's there's there's really two races there's a race under Adam and then there's the new human race in Christ God is establishing his kingdom we as Christians are the new race of humanity where you have all nations all languages of all different shades of color skin color they're all one in Christ worshiping him together we're the new humanity we need to look at these ideologies through the lens of scripture as we sang the ancient words with the gospel at the forefront of our minds and Christ as our focus we are all at the same level we are sinful beggars in need of redemption no matter how much melanin you have in your skin

[19:23] I have more melanin than some of you because I'm half Mexican although you wouldn't know it from some of my kids you're like wait is that your kid like white skin you know and everything you know look at one of my kids one has whiter skin lighter skin the other is like darker yeah that's the melanin I don't know God does that no matter the level of melanin you have in your skin we are all at the same level we're just sinful beggars we need Jesus to save us so with that said we need to define black lives matter which I've referred to already BLM critical race theory which I'll refer to CRT intersectionality must define you'll immediately see how contrary they are to God's word and how much we need the gospel to free us all and this is really this is just a tip of the iceberg type message

[20:29] I would encourage you because my information relied on articles from the founders ministries go to founders ministries a critical analysis of resolution nine there's three parts on that by Tom Nettles an exposition of black lives matter which is really helpful then there's other related articles I would encourage you as well if you got an hour to spare watch Votie Bauckham's message on cultural Marxism cultural Marxism that is I watched it twice I've watched it before like months past and then I think it was from last year that he did a message it's pretty fresh and I watched it again this week Votie Bauckham does a great job especially to find the intersectionality which I'll use that from Dr. Bauckham thank you Dr. Bauckham for doing that it's just very helpful so I would encourage you founders ministries those articles do searches on with those words you'll find lots of information and I would encourage you watch Votie Bauckham's message on cultural Marxism and it's heavy he gets into a lot of things but then he shows you some practical outworkings of that of the ideology of cultural Marxism it's very helpful and again

[21:46] I want to make sure you're understanding something remember we're not evaluating this from a political viewpoint but how they contradict a Christian world view so keep that in mind as we go through these things black lives matter I'll start there BLM we need to understand the undergirding of this thought which is rooted in Marxism classical Marxism but even more so with cultural Marxism go to Votie Bauckham's message you'll see how he defines that in Marxism the basis is this there's those who oppress the oppressors and those oppressed the oppressees apparently BLM has recently removed what we believe from their webpage you can't find it anymore I've looked everywhere on it you will no longer find these statements on their website but they still hold to the following ideas they took it off because I think we catch a lot of heat from it but this is what they say first we are unapologetically black in our positioning in affirming that black lives matter we need not clarify our position what does that mean what do they mean by positioning

[23:07] Tim and Klein he was evaluating Founders Ministries there's a whole three part series on black lives matter listen to what he says about this quote the central bias considered when discussing positionality or positioning has to do with how an oppressor white heteronormative cisgender male that's going to come up later so don't forget that how an oppressor is committing epistemic violence against marginalized persons by intentionally or not disregarding and thus disvaluing their experiential truth claims and therefore their unique status as knowers what does that mean in other words quote he says again because the knowledge of the oppressed is derived from their experience as the oppressed to reject the knowledge is to reject the person and because of modern therapeutic conceptions of the self to reject or devalue a person is to do violence to them for example if you denounce gay marriage you're now not just devaluing gay marriage but you're devaluing the person so now you're doing violence against them that's what's meant by this positionality their position is black the oppressed that is why there cannot be a conversation especially any kind of disagreement if you don't come from this black position then you're being oppressive see then you're doing violence you're just being white and that's final here's two more statements one is longer than the other from BLM and they're very self explanatory listen quote we are guided by the fact that all black lives matter regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity gender identity gender expression economic status ability disability religious beliefs or disbeliefs immigration status or location we make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead we are self reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift black trans folk especially black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans antagonistic violence the transgender is really the ideology that's behind black lives matter later we disrupt the western prescribed nuclear family structure and later on we foster a queer affirming network when we gather we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking or rather the belief that all in the world are heterosexual unless she or he or they disclose otherwise those are the beliefs that's the agenda of BLM that's what they believe that's their focal point again in reference to politics that's one thing but notice how this is contradictory to God's word to scripture critical race theory defining that

[26:54] Tom Askell wrote the following in an article in Founders Ministries listen to this critical race theory quote it's a collection of activists and scholars interested in studying and transforming their relationship among race racism and power it not only tries to understand our social situation but to change it it sets out not only to ascertain how society organizes itself along racial lines and hierarchy but to transform it for the better and that's from the book critical race theory and introduction that he quoted Tom Askell later on in his article he says arising from a Marxist and therefore an atheistic and materialistic viewpoint critical race theory and BLM they're coming from a Marxist viewpoint which is atheistic and materialistic that's contradicting to God's word right CRT assumes that quote racism is ingrained in the fabric and system of the American society this assumption means that quote the individual racist need not exist in order for institutional racism to be pervasive in the dominant culture now he's quoting from

[28:06] UCLA's school of public affairs now this presupposition combined with the Marxist view that all relationships are best understood in terms of power dynamics causes CRT to assert that existing power structures quote are based on white privilege and white supremacy which perpetuates the marginalization of people of color end quote again quoting from UCLA's school of public affairs so as Robin D'Angelo says in her book White Fragility you don't ask yourself if you're a racist you don't ask yourself that but more of quote how and where our inherent racism manifests itself now what's the problem with that listen Tom Nettles talks about this in his analysis of Critical Racer he says this quote the entire project of critical theory emerged out of and is predicated on a rejection of basic biblical worldview it's impossible to view our fundamental problem as our innate sinfulness and simultaneously to believe that we can achieve true liberation through political action or economic reform he says it's impossible to accept the doctrine of scripture and to simultaneously reject the notion of objective truth he says it's impossible to adhere to the doctrine of the imago dei the image of God and to simultaneously hold that our most basic identity is self or socially created what's happened now is that has become a poison that's moved into the church again we're looking at these ideologies we're looking at how these ideologies contradict

[30:11] God's word not the political results of these ideologies that's one thing we're not talking about that in terms of politics we're talking about how this idea is moving into the church now I will say this this should also cause us to realize how many different shades of skin color do we have within our church we should think about that we should be considering are we all just white are we thinking about how is the kingdom just white there's different shades right it should cause us to think about that but keep in mind black lives matter BLM and CRT is infiltrating into the church and the very gospel is at stake and now last intersectionality that phrase at word was coined by Kimberly Crenshaw 1989 what is intersectionality it's based upon the hegemony hegemony hegemony is the dominant sort of leadership what is the hegemony of our culture and this is from

[31:28] Lodi Bakum which was very helpful the hegemony is this white male heterosexual cisgendered able-bodied native-born American that's the hegemony and if you're not that then you're a minority he Vodhi Bakum asked this question you ever thought about the fact why are women considered a minority there's actually more women than men in population he says because they say it's the hegemony it's the hegemonic power now if you are that white male heterosexual cisgender able-bodied native-born American if you are that excuse me if you're not that you're a victim of cultural hegemony which is established by the white male heterosexual cisgender whatever established by them if you are that white male heterosexual cisgender able-bodied

[32:47] I have to read it because I can't remember all the terms if you are that then you're privileged period so what does intersectionality have to do this the idea that you don't have those things you are oppressed and the level of oppression and the kind of oppression you experience combines itself in these areas or with these intersections for instance what if you're white female heterosexual cisgender able-bodied male-born American now that intersects here you're female so there's a level of oppression that you have here but what if you're black female transgender heterosexual cisgender able-bodied able-bodied notice it's those two now now you're being oppressed even more there's the intersection there but what if you're black female transgender white black female you're gonna be heterosexual maybe transgender notice the intersections of that it's gonna change in how much you're being oppressed that's intersectionality again I advise you watch

[34:11] Voddie Bauckham's message on this because he really shows what's happening here and so now you have a level of oppression that's being based upon these people and now they're the ones that have more of an experience of what really true suffering is versus somebody else who doesn't how does that correspond with God's word it doesn't so why is all of this such a big deal why because now church unity under Christ our Lord and King goes out the window now I or you can use the race car as leverage on the race side there can be domination on the white side there can be fear let me explain this to you and Votie Bogdan does a great job explaining this he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he can use that card against

[35:17] Tom and say you're just being white if there's something really going on in his life that Tom needs to address in his life you're just you're just being this he can do that to him or flipping around Tom might not share anything with Votie because he fears the repercussions of that and that he might say oh you're just being a racist see see what happens now that's not creating unity within a church it's just creating disunity this is what's happened this is happening in churches now and if you're not woke which means you're alert to racial injustice then you're a denier you're a skeptic and they should probably be a racist to disagree means you're a racist friends we really need to understand something here this is what we need to understand Riley and I we've been going through this started going through this book about the church by

[36:23] Sinclair Ferguson and in the first chapter Sinclair Ferguson says this about the church the church is the expression of the presence of God's kingdom the church we are the expression of the very presence of God's kingdom this is who we are and if these ideologies begin to filter in the church that is not going to create a kingdom that's worshiping Christ it's just going to divide us based upon this color of our skin thus the gospel is at stake it can be questioned it can even be denied and the nature and the centrality of the church as the expression of God's kingdom is undermined by the very fabric of these ideologies what do we need to remember that God is a just God he should condemn us all and yet

[37:37] Jesus died in the place of sinners no matter how much melanin they have in their skin he died for all those who do what who repent and trust Christ and that's what we as a church should foster we should say come all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest we just say that to everyone come and fill this room with all the different shades of color and let's do this let's show the world what it's going to be like in the future Riley and I think we were talking about that what the future is going to look like let's show that to the world let's have the white and black and the browns like me and shades let's let's let's let's let's have us be within the church merged together as one in Christ and show the world that their thinking and their thought process and their worldview is wrong and it does not create unity but we have unity in Christ that's we need to remember remember the gospel can we pray father help us our tendency is to allow the culture to infiltrate our minds to allow the world to infiltrate our minds and lord we do admit there's times of sin of racism that we have in our hearts so we admit that we confess that and we repent and we thank you that you bring forgiveness only in

[39:36]  Christ we pray for us as a church help us to be united in gospel truth not in ideologies by godless gospel denying god hating church destroying people but upon your word as we just sang the ancient words changing me changing you father we come with open hearts let your word change us do that by the power of your spirit we ask thank you for your faithfulness thank you that jesus you will build your church and the gates of hell will not stand against none of these ideologies will stand against or destroy it though countries and political kingdoms and powers rise and fall may your kingdom and we know it will remain firm help us we pray i encourage you to take a few moments of silence you know i like to do that blocking out everything else from your mind maybe this might be a good time for you to recite the gospel remind yourself of gospel truth maybe the spirit brought to your mind a sin of racism in your own heart maybe you need to repent of that i don't know but take this time between you and the lord just a few moments quiet you can reflect upon god's word his truth we're all one in christ jesus and after a few moments we'll we'll sing and we'll pray but just a few moments of silence between you and the lord please do that it trek so up he he it has much to speak to can breathe