28 Jun Romans #4 – Set Free Escaping Rules (Romans 2:1-11)
– Well what are you guys doing here? I preached on the wrath of God, gender, sex and marriage last week. I’m surprised anybody came back. And if you’re new, you came at the right time. Last week, those four people they’re still in counseling, it was rough, but we’re glad to have you. And if you’re new, we’re going through a book in the Bible called Romans. Today we’re in Romans chapter two, and we’re going to talk a little bit about judgment and being judgy. So we could just start by being honest. Is it true or false that today, there’s just a lot of judginess going on in America. True or force?.
– [Congregation] True.
– A lot of judginess, a lot of political judginess, a lot of mass judginess, a lot economic judginess, a lot of racial judginess, a lot of social judginess, a lot of moral judginess, judgy, judgy, judgy, judgy, judgy, judgy, judgy, judgy. We’re gonna talk about that because there’s something in us that looks at the world and says, things are wrong, they need to be made right. That’s called righteousness. Things are unjust, they need to be made just. That’s justice. Therefore someone needs to judge and bring justice and righteousness. And so as we look at this, I want to start with this, first principle that Paul has regarding judgment and justice and righteousness, it’s a very encouraging and uplifting idea that you are the problem, not the solution. That’s where he starts in Romans chapter two, verse one. How many of you find that very encouraging? Yay. I’m the problem. Okay. Let me say your spouse agrees with this principle, whether you do or not. Okay? This is the principle. So we look at the world where we tend to think is, there’s a lot of problems in the world and we need to say that we are part of the problem. Amen? All right. You’re not excited, you will be. Therefore you have no excuse. When he says that we look at the world and we judge, what we tend to do is we tend to judge the world and excuse ourselves. Oh, is this true? We have lots of reasons. Oh, it’s my personality type. I took the test. I’m a J-E-R-K. That’s just how God made me. I talked to recently, he’s like, I yell cause I’m Italian. My wife yells cause she’s Spanish. You both yell cause you’re evil. It has nothing to do… It has nothing to do with being Italian or Spanish. We make lots of excuses. I was tired, I was hungry. I was full, I overslept it’s… We have lots of excuses. And sometimes we make all kinds of massive excuses about our genetics and cultural conditioning and predisposition. You go to college, all you get is better excuses. That’s what they teach you in college. Therefore you have no excuse. There’s no excuse for our behavior. “O man or mankind, every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge practice the very same things.” What he’s saying is we look at the road and we say, “This is so messed up.” We never look at our lives and ask, where am I messed up? We’re always well aware of everybody else’s faults, flaws and failures. And we conveniently excuse and overlook our own. We also look at institutions and organizations and have judgment and criticism. And we don’t look at how we architect our own life, our family, our business, our finances, and have that same eye of scrutiny. This is a universal human problem. And what it tends to mean is, I see your problems very clearly, and I’m blind to my own. And things only get worse in our day of technology because we have a judgemental culture and much of social media and technology quite frankly exists to judge. Social media, like, unlike. What kind of emoticon do you get? Thumbs up, thumbs down, we’re all judging. Go to Yelp. Judge, judge, judge, judge, judge. Everywhere we go, everyone is encouraged to judge but no one is encouraged to judge themselves. I’ve yet to find the website where you publicly declare all the things that are wrong with you or the protest where everyone is carrying a sign with all of their failures. I’ve not seen that. Here’s all the ways I’ve ruined the world. I’m protesting myself. I’ve never seen that. The assumption is always those people are the problem, we are the solution. And what Paul says is that is in essence hypocrisy cause we tend to judge people by things we don’t do. So let me talk a little bit about a spirit of judgment. When a spirit of judgment comes, it brings a culture of criticism and it leads to a certain environment. And here are some things that happen when there is this spirit of judgment and this culture of criticism. Number one is autonomy. Meaning I like to be in authority, I don’t like to be under authority. This means that I like to tell people what to do but I don’t like to be told what to do. I like to tell other people where they’re wrong but I don’t want anyone to tell me that I’m wrong. In addition, this leads to pride. I’m a good person. They’re the bad people. If more people were like me, the world would be a better place. We make ourselves the standard rather than Jesus the standard. If people had my disposition, if they were of my orientation, if they picked up my cause, if they voted for my candidate, then it would be like heaven on earth. And you people are making my life hell. What happens then is war. We’re the good people, they’re the bad people. We need to defeat them. Now the problem is, the bad people think they’re the good people. We now call this America and it’s not fun. Amen?
– [Congregation] Amen.
– It’s just not fun. This leads to hypocrisy, which is law for you, grace for me. Look at all the things you did wrong. Well, you did some things wrong too. Oh no, no, no, no, no no. Nobody’s perfect. Thou shall not judge, right? That’s the only verse that the hypocrite knows in the whole Bible. Thou shall not judge, don’t judge. Jesus said, don’t judge and I’m judging you for judging me. So don’t judge me. So what happens then is deception. So then we get caught in our hypocrisy. I said not to do something, but I’m doing it. Okay. I’ll rename it. So we do this. I was watching the news the other night. Some guys broke into a business, looted it, dude is running out with an item. And the news reporter stops him. “What are you doing?” He said, “Oh reparations.’ No man, that’s stealing. And here’s how I know it’s stealing. Because if you stole the TV and took it to your house and then somebody broke into your house and stole the TV for the second time, you would call the police and not call it reparations. You’d say they stole my TV. Not they re reparationed my TV. See what we do then, we rename stuff. Well, it’s not adultery, it’s an emotional affair. It wasn’t lying, it was continuing forth the narrative. You’re adorable and evil. Okay. In addition, what happens then is blame shifting. If we are found in our guilt that we said not to do something and then we’re doing it and we’re judging other people, then we need to shift the blame. Well yeah. I got upset because you made me. I’m a victim. If you’re married, I just explained most of your conflict. Okay? I said, Oh, it’s the culture. The culture made me this way. This was my upbringing. I was culturally conditioned. All of these excuses and blame shifting. And the point is always this, I’m a victim. This is now America’s favorite pastime. It used to be baseball. It’s not baseball anymore. It’s being a victim. And what happens is, if I do something, my business succeeds, I win, I overcome, I was amazing because I’m a good person with hard work and dedication who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and achieved. And if my business failed or my life didn’t come together it’s your fault because you built the system in which I was a victim. Either way, I’m good you’re bad. If I win it’s cause I’m good. If I lose it’s because you’re bad. This is now the condition that we find ourselves in. And the hope and goal is give me power, give me some sort of compensation. Cause after all, I have an excuse, I’m a victim. This leads to character attacks. If we’re good, they’re bad, we’re against them, then what we need to do is we need to destroy them. Because if they show some things that we are saying or doing wrong, now they’re starting to look better than us. So we need to attack them so that we look better than them. That’s where we get negative ad campaigns. You see this every election cycle. You’re a bad person, well, I’m not as bad as them. And all of a sudden the standard becomes me or them not Jesus and both of us. And what happens is your critics present you on your worst day. Your friends present you on your best day. And the truth is we’ve all lived on planet earth and said, and done things, that if someone wants to put together a few snapshots and vignettes of our past, they can present us in the most negative light and destroy our reputation and character. It’s easy. Well, what happens then is a negative narrative gets set up, if you have a culture of judgment and criticism. And what that means is, I am always judging you. And the negative narrative is, it doesn’t matter what you say or do, I’m going to interpret the new data in light of the negative narrative. So even if you do something good, it’s because you’re trying to deceive people into thinking that you’re not bad. So whatever you say or do is in the negative narrative. We’re getting conditioned by this, with social media we’re being conditioned by this and media. We’re getting conditioned by this, in our cultural political climate. And if it comes into your family or a church, your marriage, your business, it is going to be as messy as it is in America. And then ultimately it culminates this spirit of judgment and this culture of criticism and an unholy alliance. They’re bad, we’re good. They might have more troops than us. We need to recruit others to the fight. We need to form an unholy alliance with people who will fight against them and with us, whether or not we agree with these people, all that holds us together as a common enemy. If you have this kind of culture, this critical culture, this spirit and I will see it is ultimately a demonic spirit. Satan is called the accuser and right, this is just constantly accusing. The Bible says that there is not no condemnation in Christ. We’ll get to that in Romans eight, one, down the road. This is accusation and condemnation. And the spirit of accusation, the spirit of judgment, this culture of critique, just give me some practical applications. And this is what Paul is warning against. If it gets into a church, this spirit of judgment in this culture of criticism, what you get is a religious environment, with lots of manmade rules and lots of judging. And it’s something that we call legalism. And all of a sudden everyone is just sort of biting and devouring. Paul says elsewhere. And attacking and criticizing one another. They’re beating one another down. They’re not building one another up. They’re not pointing out the things that are encouraging. They’re only focusing on those things that are discouraging. This also leads to a desire for perfection in what we would call harsh accountability. I’m gonna hold you accountable. That’s a spirit of judgment and a culture of criticism. If this also should get into a family system, particularly with parenting, it creates an impossible environment to raise a healthy child. If one or both parents are the judge, it means that the kids are always on trial. And what tends to happen in those environments, those judgemental attitudes and dispositions, they don’t distinguish between sins and mistakes. Everything is in the same category. We had a saying when my kids were growing up. Well that wasn’t a sin, that was just a mistake. We all make mistakes. How many of you have raised a kid? Right? You’ve raised kids? Do they do some things that are frustrating, but not sinful? Yes. Just so you know, they’re gonna poop their neck. Some of you are single, like, how do you do that? I don’t know. They will poop and then it ends up on their neck. It’s a lot of pressure. I don’t know what happened. It’s a lot of psi. You’re like, that’s the craziest jump shot I ever seen, that poop in their neck. And they’re gonna do it on an airplane. They’re gonna do it at the worst possible time. You know why? They schedule it? That’s what they do. They schedule it. They’re gonna get chicken pox on vacation, right? They are going to wet the bed in the middle of the night. Not before or after, they can wet the bed at a far more convenient time. Instead, it’s always 3:00 AM. Those are not sins, those are mistakes because we’re human. Kids are gonna spill their milk. Kids are gonna break their toy. Kids are gonna trip and fall. And what happens in a spirit of judgment and a culture of criticism, when it comes into a family, everything the kid does is dealt with, as if it was a sin and they’re being disciplined for being human. And it leads to a sense of perfectionism and total discouragement and defeat. Because the only two categories are, you’re perfect or worthless. As soon as you make even a mistake, you move categories. And you’re now worthless. What this leads to ultimately in a family system with kids, it leads to hiding. Cause if you do make a mistake or heaven forbid, commit a sin, not just break one of mom and dad’s rules, but one of God’s laws, the last thing you’re gonna do is come clean. Cause you’re gonna get hammered and busted. This is where you get sneaky kids. Some of you were the sneaky kids. You’re like, If I do it, I’m not telling mom. And even if I get caught, I’m blaming my brother. Like I’m out.” If you have a culture of grace and of love and of forgiveness, where Paul is ultimately going, it then encourages people to come clean before they get caught. Because it’s the kindness of God that leads to repentance. Okay? If this kind of spirit of judgment or culture of criticism gets into a marriage and I know it’s never gotten into your marriage, but we’re talking about those other people that have marital problems. So make sure you share this with them. When there is a spirit of judgment or a culture of criticism in marriage, what does it do to the relationship? It makes it completely painful. It feels like court is always in session. One person has always the judge , sitting up on the bench holding the gavel and just waiting for you to do or say something wrong so that they can render a verdict. And what that is, is that’s an impossible place in which to have love or intimacy. It beats people down, it does not build people up. And it causes people to live with anxiety and fear. Cause if I say or do anything, that’s the only thing that we’re gonna be talking about. And when both people are fighting over who sits in the judge’s seat, eventually that’s a cold, distant marriage. And because they’re acting like judges, eventually they hire lawyers. What happens when there is a spirit of judgment or a culture of criticism, in a friendship, now this can be where two friends are always criticizing one another or maybe your friend isn’t even the one that criticizes you but they are the judgmental one. So every time you get together with them, they’re always talking about everyone else and all the things… Did you hear what they did? And this is what they said. And all of a sudden, they’re keeping a record of wrongs and they’re talking about everyone and everything. And it’s totally exhausting. Every time we get together, it’s like the worst hits get played. And all I hear about is all of your opinions of everyone that we know and your verdicts and judgment of them. This is why for some of you, the holidays are so horrifying. I don’t wanna get together with my family. All we do is just hammer each other and talk trash about people. And if you say that that’s not right, it turns into a comedy central roast and you are the one getting roasted by the whole family. That’s a spirit of judgment that creates a culture of criticism. Well, there are two options. And I believe Paul is modeling this for us. When we look at other people, when we look at systems, organizations, institutions, ideologies and philosophies, Jesus tells us that we should treat our neighbor the way we want to be treated. And here’s the truth. Most of us don’t like being judged. Amen? How many of you you’re like, “I don’t tend to pursue for relationship.” Highly judgmental people, who think that criticism is a ministry. You and I don’t like it, but we do it. And what Paul is trying to create for us here, is a sense of empathy. As we’re judging everyone else, we tend not to judge ourselves and we tend to not understand what it’s like to live under that kind of judgment. And some of you will say, “But what do you do when you see a problem?” Well, here’s what you can do. You could be a coach or you could be critic. This is with your friends. This is with your spouse. This is with your kids. This is in our church. A coach and a critic both see the same problem, they respond very differently. What does a critic do? They just shoot you from a distance and walk away. I was dumb, What a coach does, they draw near to you. A good coach, literally, if you watch sports they’ll put an arm around you. “Hey, I love you. And we all know you messed up. They showed it on a big TV. So we agree on that, right? We don’t need to argue about that, right? So here’s the thing, we believe in you. And we think you can do this. So let me give you a little tip. And now you go back out there. You’re going to get a second chance and I’m rooting for you. I want you to succeed and I’m here to help you do it.” The difference between a coach and a critic, is not what they see, it’s what they say. It’s not what they see, it’s what they say. You and I need to be very careful that in this social political, moral environment, we are not catching the spirit of judgment and contributing to the culture of critique. That instead, we need to be people who are about love, relationship, grace, second chances and coaching, not criticizing. Okay? So where he goes with that is he says that ultimately, as we’re looking at the world and all the people and all the parallels and all the problems and all the pains, somebody needs to judge this, Jesus will judge it. We know the judgment of God rightly falls. So God judges rightly. We all judge in varying degrees in ways, wrongly. God judges rightly and His judgment falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose O man, you who judge those who practice such things, yet you do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God, or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, like a loving dad who’s working with naughty kids not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance, which is a change of mind. Because of your hard and impenitent just stubborn heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. Romans two, two through 25. And what he is bringing up here is this theme of judgment. We look at the world and we see a lot of problems. Now we tend to be blind to our own. So if we’re gonna judge, we need to start by judging ourselves before we judge anyone else. But as we look at the world, we realize things are wrong, they need to be made right. That’s righteousness. Things are unjust, there needs to be justice. That requires judgment. And the point is, that someone needs to judge. But for those who don’t know Jesus, they think that they should nominate themselves to be the judge of others. Jesus says this in John five. He says the father judges, no one. He entrusts all judgment to the son. Here’s what Jesus is saying. I sit on a throne and I will judge everyone. Well Jesus is not waiting for you to get to heaven and sit on His lap and help. “Jesus I’m here, we can start judging now. Jesus doesn’t need you to sit alongside of him as a copilot. Jesus is like, I’m not sure about this one. It was your cousin. Why don’t you make this one? Jesus is not waiting to go get a snack and you to replace Him on the bench and then render your verdict for certain people that happen to have your last name. That ultimately Jesus is the judge and He will judge everyone justly and rightly. For the Christian, this gives us a long view of things. Now, in the meantime, as we look at the world and all the problems and pains and perils, the question is, well, why is God not judging people? It’s not because He’s indifferent, but because He’s patient. How many of you have a kid, who’s a little stubborn and naughty? And if your child is alive, they’re stubborn and naughty. That’s just the way they come. Sometimes their hearts are a little hard. They don’t want to listen, they don’t want to obey. They’re slow to come around and agree. What a loving parent does, they’re patient. Kindness, love, mercy. Because ultimately, it is the kindness of God that melts the hardness of the heart. And once you know that God is loving and gracious and merciful and kind, you’re willing to own your sins and your failures, because you know that He is going to help you, and He’s not going to hammer you. How many of you are really glad that God has been patient with you?
– If you’re honest, if you look at your life, you’re like, yeah I would have set myself on fire a long time ago, if it was me. Do you think God’s been patient with me? You’ve only been with me 20 minutes. He’s already been patient. Here’s what changed my perspective some years ago. I started asking what would it be like, to be married to me? Oh, I started getting PTSD and the nervous eye twitch. Two of me is far too many. How patient has God been with me? How patient has God been with you? How many of you, God’s been saying the same thing for a long time, you’re not listening. God’s been showing you the same lesson, you’re not learning. It’s not the He’s indifferent, that He’s patient. He’s like a father with a real kind disposition who cares about the kid and is trying to bring them around. And what he’s saying is this that as God is patient with us, how should we be with each other? Cause here’s the thing. We like patients from God, but don’t like patients for others. How many of you are like me? You’re impatient? Any of you?
– See, I yell at the microwave. That’s me. I feel like God put a horn on my car, to minister to others. I mean, I’m that guy. I like things to go quick, fast, let’s go. Hey, let’s do it. And then God looks at me and He’s like, “Yeah, I was feeling the same way. I’m a little frustrated with you son. So I’m being patient with you, you be patient with them.” And we also need to be patient with God. Because if God is still working on them, then we need to wait for them. Just to see what’s working on us and waiting for us. And so what He’s saying here, is that ultimately God is being patient to give people an opportunity to repent. Repentance is this. I am the problem, not the solution. I need to be judged by God, I need not judge others. Because if you don’t turn to God, you will turn yourself into God. If you do not turn to God as judge, you will turn yourself into judge of others. And repentance is, I am wrong, he is right. I am a sinner, I need a savior. They’re not just a problem, I’m also part of the problem. We all need Jesus. And what he says is this, that ultimately God is going to justly, judge everyone. So let me say this. You worry about you and you let them worry about them. We spend so much of our time and energy , worried, angry, upset, judgemental of other people. And the truth is, when we stand before Jesus the judge, we will not give an account for their life and they will not give an account for our life. We will each give an account for our lives individually. So you are gonna stand before God. I’m gonna stand before God. I should not spend all my time between now and then, judging you. I should be judging me, preparing myself to stand before the judge. And what he says we are doing, is that we’re either storing up wrath in hell or treasures in heaven. Paul here is echoing the language of Jesus in Matthew 6:19. Jesus says store up for yourselves, treasure in heaven. Here Paul says if you don’t do that, you’re storing up for yourself wrath in hell. It’s the exact same word. The point is this, that no one is getting away with anything, that everyone is storing up everything. That your whole life is either being lived out of obedience to God, through the power of gospel of Jesus Christ. You love Jesus then you’re gonna live a life for Jesus. What you’re doing then, you’re storing up your treasures in heaven. Your reward will not come ultimately in this life but they’ll come into the life that comes after this life. For those who reject Jesus, for those who live in rebellion, they are storing up wrath and their judgment in hell will absolutely and perfectly match their deeds on earth. And what he’s saying is this, Jesus knows everyone. Jesus knows everything. Jesus has got it all under control. And the judge knows exactly what He is doing. So then the question becomes very personal. And his question is this, how will God’s judgment go for you? How will God’s judgment go for you? The most important day of your life, is the day after your last day. On your last day, you die, and then the next day, you’re going to be into your eternal life. He says it this way. “He will render to each according to his works.” You’re saved by grace, but you’re rewarded for works. “To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality.” Filled with the spirit, living a life that is honoring of God. “He will give you eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil.” The Jew first, they got the old Testament. Jesus came through them. That’s where God started. And also the Greek, that’s the rest of us. “But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first, also the Greek.” And here’s the key. God shows no partiality. We tend to show a lot of partiality in our judgment. They’re like us, so we give them a pass. They’re on our team, so we look the other way. They hurt our feelings, so we’re going to double down. God is impartial and He judges everyone. There is a judgment for the non-Christian. There is a judgment for the Christian. Now you need to know that ultimately, judgment is taken care of and justice is taken care of, and righteousness is taken care of, in one of two ways, the cross of Jesus for you or Jesus ruling over you in hell. Those are your only two options. But ultimately, if we’re talking about judgment, then God needs to judge us. If we’re talking about justice, then God needs to deal with our sin. And if we’re talking about righteousness, we have to accept and acknowledge our unrighteousness. That ultimately Jesus Christ, our great God and savior, came to the earth and he lived without any sin. And he was perfect and altogether righteous and good. And we hated Him and we opposed Him. And we arrested Him and we crucified Him. The cross shows how bad we are and how good God is. And that ultimately on the cross, Jesus Christ, our great God and savior substituted himself. When He died and endured the wrath of God, that was judgment for our sin. That ultimately He brings about righteousness. That He pays the penalty for sin and He dies. And then He rises from death and He gives us His righteousness, which is a gift. And as a result, if you really want to understand judgment, you’ve got to look to the cross of Jesus. If you want to understand justice, you need to look to the cross of Jesus. And if you understand righteousness, you need to look to the cross of Jesus. And these are the three main themes that Paul here hits in Romans one and two. These are the mega themes. If you receive Jesus, His death is for your justice. It is the payment for your sin. In addition, if you reject Jesus, then you are storing up wrath for yourself for the day of God’s wrath, that ultimately will stand before Jesus. None of us is going to die and stand before a mirror to give an account to ourselves for ourselves. You’re gonna stand and you’re gonna stand before God. And one of two things are going to happen. You will belong to Jesus and enter into blessing, or you will not belong to Jesus, and you will enter into cursing. Those are the options. That one day all our little thrones get taken down and there’s only one thrown left and we all stand before His. So my point to you is this. You need Jesus. In a world where people are judging, they need to welcome God to judge them. In a world where people are demanding justice, they need to cry out to God, that ultimately He will justify them and give us His righteousness. That ultimately everyone who is longing for judgment, justice and righteousness is ultimately seeking Jesus whether they know Him or not. And so judgment and justice will be perfect for all, either in heaven or in hell through Jesus. Now that being said, Romans is a book, not just about what happened, but about what always happens. In addition, what he is talking about here, is not just ancient conditions but human conditions. He’s talking about the inclination of the human heart for judgment and justice and righteousness. And what he says is, for those who don’t know God, they don’t understand these things. And in our day, those who don’t know God, instead they think that these things are possible through government. Our highest view of authority, if we have no concept of God, is that government would ultimately be the one that would judge, bring justice and righteousness. And you need to understand that there is a God who is over government and our hope is not in government, but our hope is in God.
– [Congregation] Amen.
– This is the unique perspective of the Christian. Now, that being said, what I’m gonna do now, I’m gonna do a deep study with you, of the last 100 years of philosophy and thought and social theory on what Paul prophesies in chapter two of Romans, is ultimately being fulfilled today on the nightly news. What I wanna do is I want to take the word and I wanna connect it to the world. I wanna take what is timeless and connect it to our times. Now, if you are a nerd, you’re gonna love this. I’m your blue collar scholar buddy. Okay. So we’re going to go deep together. And I don’t want to lose you, but I do wanna stretch you. Because what happens today, is we react too much and we reflect too little. That we get very emotional before we really get any sort of contemplation or consideration of where the idea that frustrated us comes from or what our response might cause. So what we’re gonna do, we’re gonna look at 100 years through the lens of judgment, justice, and righteousness. And I’m gonna look at the prophetic fulfillment of Romans two today. Number one, first phase, it’ll be four phases. The first phase is called critical theory. You’re going to hear about this a lot in the news. It’s actually now an election hot button. Recently, certain departments in the government, were forbidden from teaching ‘critical theory’. It’s actually quite controversial. Critical theory is in its essence, if I could summarize it, the human pursuit of heaven without God. How could we have justice? How could we have equality? How could we have peace? How could we have unity? How could we have health without God? The truth is there is no heaven without God. So critical theory stands in opposition to something called traditional theory. I’m looking into the social sciences of philosophy. Traditional theory is how you build something. Critical theory is criticizing that which is built. You see the difference? Which one’s easier? Building something or criticizing something that was built?
– Criticizing is way easier. I’ll give you an example. You’re watching sports, there are the athletes on the field. Let’s say it’s Cardinal football or cowboy football. So the teams are on the field, way up in the booth, at a very safe distance from all the collisions, are heavyset, middle-aged men, who are commenting on the work of the professional athletes. And they will critique. It is much easier to say, “You should have run faster.” Than to run faster. It’s much easier to say, “You should have held down to the football.” Then hold onto the chili dog, while you’re criticizing the person who can’t hold down the football. The reason they dropped the football, they got hit by a grown man, who’s the size of a car and you spilled the chili and no one hit you. You just fell. Okay? All right. True?
– [Congregation] True.
– Okay. This is why it’s easy to go on Yelp and write a review. It’s really hard to run a restaurant, right? How do I know? One time I tried to cook. It’s tough. It’s really tough. I don’t cook now, for health and safety reasons and I don’t criticize cooks, because I have no business criticizing them. But it’s hard to buy a building, to get a bank loan, to build out a kitchen, to hire a staff, to put together a menu, to train those in guest services and those in cooking. And then it’s hard to order all the ingredients and to prepare the meals and deliver the meals. And it’s really easy to sit at the table on your phone and go on Yelp and say, “It wasn’t hot enough.” Well, hell’s hotter. You know, I mean, If this isn’t warm enough for you, there are options. You know, at the end of the day, it’s easy to criticize. Amen?
– [Congregation] Amen.
– It just is. And our day of Yelp and reviews and likes and unlikes, we’re just a whole culture of judgers. My favorite I’m to unburden myself a little bit. I think it’s fascinating that we have reviews for churches. I wish they had another one, where the pastors got to review their people. Hey, if we’re gonna judge, let’s just all do it. Yeah. I didn’t feel like they were very filled with the spirit. Well, you were. Cause the first two fruit are love and joy. So there you go. All right? And by the way, I’m gonna write a review on Tony. Tony never tithed, he was always late. His phone went off in the service and he was a little flatulent which made it uncomfortable during the service. Send. The point is, we like to judge, we don’t like to be…
– [Congregation] Judged.
– Aren’t you glad there are people on Yelp right now reviewing you? Your mom’s at home going, “Can we do that?” “No, mom.” Okay. Here’s the point. Traditional theory is how to build something. Critical theory is how to critique that which has been built. And it’s a lot easier to criticize than it is to build. It’s easier when you’re single to tell somebody how to have a good marriage. It’s easier when you have no kids to walk up to parents whose kids are having a nervous breakdown in the Walmart and give them parenting advice. And what we have now is this critical theory. It’s basically two parts. It’s what I’ll call deconstruction and reconstruction. Meaning we need to tear down, tear down marriage, gender, sexuality, law, politics capitalism, academics. Tear it down because we see problems. Now there is a partial truth in this because we are imperfect people. Everything we build is to varying degrees imperfect, imperfect. And so you could tear it down and then have another imperfect person build something else. But the point is that too will be imperfect. So then the next generation of judges comes along and tears that down and then rebuild something else. But because they’re imperfect, they built something imperfect. We now call this America Tear down rebuild, don’t like it tear down, rebuild. Don’t like it tear down, rebuild. Don’t like it. Marriage, family gender, law, sexuality, politics, economics, and education. It’s deconstruction reconstruction. The reconstruction is this longing for heaven, for utopia, that things would get better. That the world would be as it should be. But it is heaven without God. One atheistic scholar says that, this philosophy is like a virus that mutates in every generation. And I thought that was curious because they wrote this before our current circumstances. And it may mean that part of our frustration today and our fear today and even to some degree, our fury today is that we have both a physical and a cultural virus that are attacking life and health. That we may have simultaneously, a physical and a cultural virus. Now that being said, all of this started… Let me walk you historically. In 1914 through 1918 in Germany, there was world war one. World war one left the German people economically and psychologically devastated, devastated Three million Germans died, that’s a lot of people. 15% of the men died. That means husbands, fathers, brothers. That means the next generation of providers and protectors. As a result, they were publicly shamed at the treaty of Versailles. They were blamed for the war and they were forced to pay reparations. The equivalent today was around $260 billion. It took them 92 years to pay off. The result is a culture of people who feel defeated. They feel robbed, they feel oppressed. They feel that their power and wealth has been taken from them. They are hurting and they feel like victims. As a result the philosophy that comes out of that time, has a particular emotional appeal to those who are feeling similar. The system is broken. I have been oppressed. My rights have been taken. My money has been stolen. My shame has been increased and my dignity has been decreased. What happens then is in 1923, has founded the Institute for social research. It is the first funded Marxist Think Tank. It is pursuing utopia without God, it’s anti-capitalism and anti-democracy. It is run by Jewish scholars who are Jewish by their birth but they are not walking in relationship with God. They are culturally Jewish. And what they’re seeking to do is to create their concept of deconstruction and reconstruction. What is wrong with gender, marriage family, education, capitalism, democracy. And if we were to deconstruct that, how could we reconstruct that into utopian society heaven on earth without God? They were considered counter-cultural radicals. Well then in 1933, Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor in Germany. This is also known as the Frankfurt school and or critical theory, that was their ideology. They were moved out of the country. They were displaced by the Nazis, first to Geneva, then to Paris, and then Columbia university in New York city, and now lands in America. And it’s upstream in a university. You need to know this universities are upstream. Culture is downstream. That culture flows down from universities. If you wanna know what the culture will look like, in the next generation, go and see what the university looks like, in this generation. The lawyers are going to graduate and come from the university. The culture makers and culture gatekeepers, are going to come from the university. The politicians and the lawmakers are going to come from the university. So what happens is they envisioned the best way to cause change in the world, would be to get to America and to get into the university, to create a curriculum that then get into other universities that eventually would allow their theory to change the future of culture. It was intentional, it was intentional. And if you want to know what this culture of critical theory at its maturation looks like, go to a university campus. What you will see is an erosion of civil liberties and civil rights. You will see an increase of politically correct rules and laws. You will see massive government dependence. You will see people who are in real poverty and also massive debt. They are with their choices of lifestyle of alcohol and sexuality, rebellious and self destructive, they’re very activistic and self-righteous they think they got it all figured out. If you don’t agree with me, when we’re done, just go to a university and ask anyone anything. And you’ll see that it’s true. If you want to know what a more advanced form of that culture making experience looks like, go into the major urban centers that are ahead of the rest of the curve, on the critical theory of deconstruction and reconstruction. See what happens to law enforcement. See what happens to private property ownership. See what happens to taxation. See what happens to drug use and criminalization and sex trafficking, and just look at the quality of life. Here’s the point. The only way to get heaven is with God. Any human attempt at heaven, without God, only creates another version of hell. What happens then is in 1934, Hitler becomes furious. In 1939, he invades Poland that ignites world war two. That goes until 1945. During that time, those critical theorists were then working on their critical theory in America. And I would summarize, five points. Number one, they looked at everything in terms of power. And they innately decided that power was bad. And their assumption was, if someone has power then they will use their power to abuse those that do not have the power. Therefore we need to eradicate power. Meaning we can’t have husbands lead their family. We can’t have parents lead their children. This led to a flattening of even the family system and a whole generation of parenting in the 1970s with a guy named Dr. Spock. That basically said that there is no right for a parent to lead a child. All they can do is be peers and friends with the child. If you have a child you’re laughing and that’s reality. And it is government shouldn’t have power and leaders shouldn’t have power and parents shouldn’t have power. So we had to get rid of gender, no men and women. We had to get rid of governments, no leaders and followers. We had to get rid of capitalism, no earners. And ultimately this was the pursuit, it’s power. Now the problem that they have with God, is God is the God of all power. Their biggest fear is that power would be centralized. Spoiler alert, it is. God is all powerful. And you can use your power for good or for evil. I can use my power to either bless or break my wife, to bless or break my children. I want to use my power in the way that God uses His power to bless, to love, to serve and to protect. And my power is for their good. Now that being said, the second thing is systemic oppression. The assumption and presumption is, everybody who has power helps contribute to make organizations, institutions, and ideologies, that then oppress those who are under their power. So men are by nature, sexist. The heterosexuals are by nature homophobic. The white people are by nature, racist. The Christians are by nature, religious begets. And the systems that are built, perpetuate the oppression. In addition, then they critique, point three. The critical theory then looks at marriage, gender, sex, family, law, politics, education, religion, it starts to critique it. This is wrong and this is wrong. And we think this is wrong and you could have done this better. And we would do this better, given the chance. This leads to point four, the concept of justice. Justice is we need to tear it all down because we can build something better. We need to get rid of men and women. We need to get rid of marriage. We need to get rid of heteronormative thinking. We need to get rid of the nuclear family. We need to get rid of democracy. We need to get rid of capitalism. We need to get rid of private property ownership. We need to get rid of all of this, cause we can do better. We can do better. And then ultimately the answer is this, government. The government will be the means by which that we can create this utopian society. We could tear down what was and rebuild something better. This is going to be very controversial. I haven’t said anything controversial yet. So I feel like it’s time. I believe that critical theory, is the likely best explanation of Nazi, Germany. Grace and I were in Germany. We went to the one of the concentration camps and visited the museums and did all the research last year. What happened in Germany is that some people took the concept of critical theory and they said, “You know what? That’s right. Those Jewish people, they have too much power. Those Jewish people, they have too much money. Those Jewish people, they tend to get more degrees and education. Those Jewish people, they hold positions of cultural influence. It must be because they’re privileged. What we need to do is take their money and power. What we need to do is deconstruct their synagogues and their businesses and their communities. And in the name of justice, we need to tear those down, redistribute the wealth and power, and then give it to other people to build something that they would prefer. And we got something called the Holocaust. The pursuit of justice apart from God who’s the just judge only leads to evil. It only leads to evil. If somebody say, “But pastor Mark, there are systemic problems.” Oh, I agree. When centers make systems, those systems have problems. Let me just fully confess. If you take a father out of a family and you make them slaves, and then you take away the ability of that family to pass wealth on from one generation to another, you have created a horrific systematic problem for generations. And part of the problem with critical theory, is that diagnosis the problem. But because it doesn’t consider God, it does not give a healthy solution. The second step or phase is postmodern deconstructionism. Postmodernism started as a philosophy and the arts in the ’50s became a philosophical more or less kind of system in the ’60s and ’70s, primarily in France, Lyotard, Rorty, Derrida, Foucault, various philosophers. I read them in college, they give you a headache. It is what it is. Nonetheless. One of the things that postmodern deconstruction shares with critical theory, is the spirit of judgment and the culture of criticism. It only sees faults, flaws and failures, and it doesn’t allow itself to be judged. I would surmise on three things, relativism. There is no true truth. There is no God up there who is overall and gives truth. Instead all we have is our perspective, our cultural interpretation, our personal private feelings and experiences. So then we moved from facts to feelings. Well, it’s true for me, this is how I feel. And then that become sovereign. That becomes the word, not the word of God. Relativism and then rejection of the metanarrative. The rejection of the metanarrative is literally the rejection of the Bible. The Bible is the big story. Under God’s big story, we now have the data by which to interpret the little story, that is our life. There is a God. Okay. I’m not, God. God is creator. Okay. So we’re not here by accident. God made us male and female. Okay. So we have gender and marriage and sexuality. God made us to obey him and live in relationship to Him. Okay. So we’re dependent beings. Oh, we sinned against God. Okay. So we’re rebels, our sin infected the whole world. So everything that’s broken and painful, that’s our fault, we did something wrong. Oh, God came down and He tried to make it right through His son, Jesus Christ. And He did. And Jesus died for our sin and He rose as our savior. And He’s coming again to judge living in the dead and He’s gonna set up a kingdom that never ends. And He’s gonna fix the massive mess we’ve all made. Cause we’re the problem, He’s the solution.
– [Congregation] Amen.
– And if you reject that, you’re like, I don’t know why the world’s a mess. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do. I don’t know who I am. So I’ll create an identity for myself, not receive one from God. I’ll blame everybody else as being part of the problem rather than acknowledging that I too am part of the problem. And then I will vote for government, rather than trusting God to fix all our problems. The third point is then deconstruction. Tear down. Tear down, gender, marriage, sexuality, law politics, economics, tear it all down. Now this continued up until the point where basically everything had been deconstructed. You can only tear down until there’s nothing left to tear down. And once you tear everything down, you’re homeless. So what happens then is phase three. They go back and they grab critical theory for the reconstruction project. And now we call it social justice. This became very popular at the universities upstream in the 1980s to the 2010s. This is where you started to see gender studies, women’s studies, fat studies, native American studies, post-colonial which is post Western studies, black studies, queer studies. This is where campuses became fully entrenched with very strong affirmative action codes and also politically correct speech requirements. As a result, what comes out then is a push to add sexual orientation and gender identity to civil rights. What comes then is the push for gay pride parades, and the push for legalization of same sex marriage. And what’s really weird in my journey. So I got saved. I became a Christian in 1989 in college, at a state university. I didn’t come from the evangelical subculture. I didn’t go to youth camp. I didn’t speak in tongues for my seventh birthday. I didn’t accept Michael W. Smith into my heart at age 11. I didn’t do any of that. I’m on the outside. I get saved in college and I go to the classes and these were at that time electives, and now they are mandatory classes. One of our kids went to get an economics degree at the university. First class talked about gender spectrum. Second class was a class on economic theory and finances. And the first text they were given was from Karl Marx. And the teacher talked about how great it would be, if we could redistribute wealth for the purpose of equality. As if there wasn’t equality of outcome, not just inequality of opportunity. They forgot to mention that he was a genocidal mass murderer because when you go to take people’s stuff and give it to somebody else, they tend to hold onto it. So you’ve got to kill them to get their stuff. So my son, cause he’s my son, he’s like, “What about the mass murderers?” Oh, yeah, we skipped that. Just read Karl Marx. Now, if you go to school, before you can get to even your degree, you got to take all the prerequisite. And I was saved in 1989, in this context. Every class I go to is deconstructing and criticizing Christianity. And I started asking the question, ‘Well do you have a better idea?” You got anything better than Jesus, forgiveness, grace, eternal life, hope, peace. Nope. Just complaining, okay. So I studied under heavy enemy fire. And then I graduate, we get married, I start doing college ministry on a college campus. Fighting these demons for most of my adult life in a major urban city that is very, very loved. And then I got invited to some media interviews. Next thing I know, Mother Jones national public radio, way out there on the left. They want to interview me. What do you think? And I’m saying things like, I’m a man who believes the Bible. Like that’s crazy. So it’s newsworthy. He’s got a Bible and pants. He’s a radical, you know? So then I started preaching and teaching and I get invited to one of my first conferences to speak at. I get up, I do a whole talk on postmodernism, deconstructionism trying to anticipate the reconstruction that will come because what I’m seeing on the college campus, I believe is prophetic for the future. It became the number one selling tape that year at this major Christian camp. It was a tape, if you don’t know what that is, google it. It used to be a thing. It’s how we listened to stuff. Okay. They would deliver to your house on a dinosaur, if you ordered it, before we had the internet, that’s how it worked. So then I started preaching and teaching and writing and then come something called the emerging church that is seeking to deconstruct Christianity and Christian theology and reconstruct a better view of Christianity and a new kind of Christian. And I’m battling that battle for years, head on. And then I’ve lived my whole life under the criticism of critical theory in deconstruction. There was even a class on me, at a university where we lived. I was at a bank. I go to the teller, young guy. He’s like, “Pastor Mark.” “Yes. Good to meet you brother.” Oh, he’s like, “I’m not a Christian.” Okay. I said, “Well, how do you know me?” And he’s like, “I listen to your sermons.” Huh? That’s weird. He’s like yeah. We watch him in our women’s studies class. I’m not a woman, why are you studying me? He said, yeah, we’re looking at toxic masculinity and a heteronormative, sexuality and patriarchy. We watched your sermon, you talked about it. I was like, really? Really? He said, “Yeah yeah.” He said, “You’re our case study.” I wear boots, I drive a truck, I eat meat. I didn’t know that was toxic. I thought it was awesome, that’s what I thought. And I’m not gonna wear a Tutu, eat tofu and drive a Prius. So the profit feels better. Some of you are judging me. We talked about that earlier. We talked about that earlier. Just being true to myself, this is how I feel. It’s how I feel. I feel and masculine. That’s how I feel. And so then we transition. I’m like, Lord, what are you doing? What are we doing here? Now I know, it’s really weird. Now the whole culture is dealing with what I’ve been battling my whole adult life. And now we moved to Arizona and I get to be a voice crying out in the desert, which is fun. And as all of this is happening, many Christians are asking what is happening? What is going on? What do we do? We’re gonna open Romans, We’re gonna think God’s thoughts after Him. We’re gonna interpret everything in light of the word of God and have God’s categories, not the cultural categories.
– [Congregation] Amen.
– And many of you have here from those cities. We’re the fastest growing city, county and hottest real estate market in America. And people are coming to like, “Oh, I got out. What do I do now?” Welcome. Welcome. All the gun owners laugh. They’re all glad to see you. We got you back. Okay. Good. Welcome to Arizona. Phase four, you’re ready? It doesn’t matter. I’m gonna go there anyways. The cult of wokeism as secular religion. What we now have is social justice is a few hundred year old term and it means fixing errors and problems in systems. And what we see now is that it has become the new religion. This is what an atheist commentator says. He says, it’s a new religion. Which explains the zeal and the controversy and the legalism and the pressure to join. You and I can call it a cult cause we’re Christians. It’s a secular cult. It is a godless, cult Everything God creates Satan counterfeits. And so wokeism comes from this concept. It is the counterfeit of being born again. Or again, I was dead, now is alive. To quote the old him, I was blind, now I see. I was asleep and now I’m awake. I didn’t see all of this. And now, thankfully my mind has been opened by the critical theorists and the social justice activists. And now I see like God sees. I see clearly and I judge clearly, I don’t need God, I am awakened. I am a little God. And I’m here to judge, pour out wrath. What happened to the 2010s is “social justice scholarship” hold all of these disparate disciplines together under the guise of critical theory. To quote Romans one, they exchanged the truth of God for the lie. And they worshiped and served created things, like their philosophical system, rather than the creator who rules overall. And claiming to be wise, they became fools. But you can’t tell them that, because they don’t have a sense of humor. So let me show you how this new religion is really now the greatest threat to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Number one, they have their own Trinity. It’s postmodern deconstruction, critical theory reconstruction, and social activism. They also have their version of the Bible and that is their feelings. You can’t argue against my experience. What I feel, what I experience, that’s true for me. They also have a concept of original sin and Christianity. Our father Adam imputes his sin nature to us, we’ll hit that in Romans five, 12 through 21. And they would have something similar. If you were born a male, you were born with a flaw and you’re automatically a sexist. If you were born white, you’re born with a flaw. You’re automatically racist. If you were born in the West, you are born with a flaw. You’re born to be a colonialist. If you are a Christian you are born with a flaw and that’s a year religious begat. So the original sin is repenting, not a things you have done, but repenting of things that God has done. It’s selecting your gender and your race and the time in which you were born. In addition, there is the accuser, but it is not Satan. It is Satan speaking through others to be the accusers. And so now it’s your guilty. And you said this, and you said this, and you said this, and you said this, and you said that. And it has many pastors filled with fear and running and cowardice and apologizing for the word of God. And let me just tell you, having battled this demon for more than two decades, it feeds on fear and it flees in faith. That you and I need to be very careful that we love people but we understand that our war is not against flesh and blood, but powers, principalities and spirits. And the accuser speaking through others, means that they are simply captives in war, whom Jesus needs to set free because they’re echoing the enemy. There is also a counter cultural view of the demonic. Our view of the demonic is that there are ungodly unholy and unhelpful spirits that work in the world. And they would say that there are similarly invisible, immaterial forces at work like prejudice and privilege and bias. They’re invisible, you can’t see them, but they’re very real and very powerful. There’s also a concept of spiritual warfare. Jesus says, there’s two categories. You’re for me or you’re against me. They would take Jesus’ place and say you’re for us or against us. They’ve taken Jesus’ place. In addition, there is a concept of victim and it is not that Jesus is a victim of our sin, but the you are Jesus and you are the victim of their sin, that you are the holy one, that they are the unholy one, that they have sinned against you. Therefore they need to give an account to you. Not that we’ve all sinned against Him and need to give an account to Him. Also a concept of righteousness, not based upon character or conduct, but based upon depression. It’s called intersectionality within critical theory and social justice activism. The more categories you were in, the more oppressed you are, the more righteous you are. In addition, there is a concept of repentance. We don’t repent to God, to echo Romans two. We demand that others repent to us. You need to change how you think. You need to change who you are. You need to change what you believe. You need to change how you vote. You need to change and you need to agree with me. As I sit in the judgment seat, I bring with me the spirit of judgment and I create around me the culture of critique. There’s also heretics. Well, if you disagree with us, you’re shunned. You’re an outcast. You’re an atheist. You’re a racist. You’re a sexist. You’re a colonialist. We just name you and shun you, your As I said, there is a concept of being born again. I was asleep, now I’m awake. I’ve been born again, I’m new. It’s counterfeit. They’re also evangelists. Evangelists are the activists who take it to the street. True are false? The activists have taken it to the street.
– [Congregation] True.
– And there is the rendering of court and judgment, but it’s not the court of God, it’s the court of public opinion. We’re all gonna get on social media. We’re all gonna get on the internet. We’re all gonna go onto the news. And we’re all going to judge you and render a verdict, court is in session. There’s also a counterfeit of crucifixion. If we don’t like what you’re saying or doing, we’re going to crucify you. We call it cancel culture. Your show’s coming off the air, your business is getting shut down, you’re getting fired, you’re losing your deal, you’re dead to us. We’re going to crucify your reputation your future, your family, your income and your opportunity. You’re gonna hang for that. There are also Pharisees. In the Bible, the Pharisees are the religious neat necks and the nitpicks. And they’re all into the details. And they’re always looking for a safe space and you’re always violating them. This is where they’ll talk about microaggression. I read one list. What’s microaggression? People who think they’re right, they raise their voice and use their hands a lot. Holy smokes. I am a professional microaggressor. Also things like these gender pronoun police, “Hey, what’s up bro?” How do you know they’re a bro? You don’t know how they identify. That’s very binary and judgmental. Their inner child feels spank. You need to ask them what pronoun that they want. Oh, gosh. Wow my gosh. Can we drug test to you? This is crazy. Okay. There is also a view of the kingdom and that is give us all the wealth and power and we will distribute it as we see accordingly. God doesn’t need to reward. We will reward. There is also a concept of jihad. Jihad is where religion is imposed not proposed. You either convert or die. That’s where we’re at. You join us or we destroy you. There is also a concept of judgment and everyone in everything gets judged, except for them. Can we look at the life of your leaders? Can we look at their behavior? Could we see their marriages their children, their finances? Can we put them under the same scrutiny that everyone else has? No, because we were in the God seat. We judge, we’re not in the center seat, we don’t get judged. Concept of heaven, we’re making heaven on earth. Concept of hell, if you don’t join us, we’re gonna come and set your stuff on fire. Let me say this, to my pastor, friends, whom I love with my whole heart including some guys that have gone to that have worked with me in the past, this is not the time to compromise the gospel of Jesus Christ.
– [Congregation] Amen.
– This is not the time to apologize for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m gonna skip the next point and go to the last point. Romans one, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
– [Congregation] Amen.
– I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s what Paul told us in Romans one. For it is the power of God. Critique can point out the problems but there is no solution without God’s power. If you want to see justice, if you want to see judgment if you want to see righteousness proclaim, preach, obey, heed, use the gospel of Jesus Christ.
– [Congregation] Amen.
– That everyone is a sinner. And that Jesus is the only savior. That our hope is not in government, but in God. And God is not being slow, He is being patient. And he will return to judge the living and the dead. There will be judgment, justice and righteousness for the believer and the unbeliever for all eternity. God is not being slow, He’s being patient. So that right now, you can get right with God. Right now you can receive Jesus Christ. Right now, you can be filled with the Holy spirit because before you fix any problem, God needs to fix you because you are a problem.
– [Congregation] Amen.
– Before you can be any contributor to goodness on the earth, God needs to take the badness out of you and put the goodness of His spirit in you. He says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the salvation that everyone who believes. To the Jew and to the Gentiles, these people didn’t like each other. They criticized one another. They judged one another. They opposed one another, but they both needed Jesus. Here’s what I’m telling you, black people and white people need Jesus. Rich people in old people need Jesus, strong people and weak people need Jesus. Men and women need Jesus. Young and old need Jesus. Republicans and Democrats need Jesus and people with a mask and without a mask, they all need Jesus. That’s what I’m telling you. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed, for the righteous live by faith. You want to be righteous, you need Jesus. You are not righteous. Your works are not righteous. Your course is not righteous. It’s only indicative of your unrighteousness and all of you world social justice warriors and all you right wing judges of the social justice warriors, you’re all just keeping judgment upon yourself, unless you judge yourself and give your sin to Jesus, your savior.
– [Congregation] Amen.
– Wouldn’t it be great, if Romans 2:11 was true? God shows how much partiality?
– [Congregation] No one.
– None. See we give these people a pass or an excuse, cause they’re like us or on our team. Friends, here’s where we’re coming. Bottom line. You have two options. You look down on others or you look up to God. If you look down on others, you will be a judge. If you look up to others, you’ll meet the judge. You’ll see Him hanging on a cross, suffering and dying in your place for your sins, taking the judgment and justice that you deserve to give the righteousness that He has earned and you have not. And if you look up, you will see Him high and exalted, seated on a throne, coming again to judge the living and the dead. And you will know that His patience, is not His indifference. That His patience is your opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m gonna bring up the band. Wouldn’t it be great? Would it be great if we had a judge who was righteous? Oh, we do. His name is?
– [Congregation] Jesus.
– Jesus. Well, let me ask you another one. Wouldn’t it be great, if we had a judge who was impartial, wouldn’t that be…? Oh, we do. His name is his name?
– [Congregation] Jesus.
– His name is Jesus. Wouldn’t it be great, if we had a judge who was all knowing and knew all the facts? We do, His name is?
– [Congregation] Jesus.
– Is Jesus. Would it be great if we had a judge who was perfectly righteous? We do, His name is?
– [Congregation] Jesus.
– You’re gonna see a theme here. Wouldn’t it be great, if we had a judge who loved us so much that he was willing to be a victim for us? We do. His name is?
– [Congregation] Jesus.
– Jesus. Wouldn’t it be great, if that judge was willing to give us grace and not just justice? Oh, He does. His name is?
– [Congregation] Jesus.
– And wouldn’t it be great if we had a judge who didn’t just judge us and deconstruct all that we have made wrong, what would reconstruct everything and make it right for ever. We do. His name is?
– [Congregation] Jesus.
– Thanks for joining us.
