Romans #4 - Set Free: Escaping Rules

[Music] [Music] 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 really and if you're new you 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 of the bible called romans today we're in romans chapter 2 and we're going to talk a little bit about judgment and being judgey 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 of us a lot of judginess a lot of political judginess a lot of mass judgingness a lot of economic judginess a lot of racial judginess a lot of social judginess a lot of moral judginess judgey judy we're going to 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 uh 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 as we look at the world what 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 oh it's my personality type i took the test i'm a jerk that's just how god made me i talked to a guy recently he's like i yell because i'm italian my wife yells because she's spanish you both yell because 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 you know i was full i overslept it's we have lots of excuses 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 oh 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 world 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 false 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 judgmental culture and much of social media and technology quite frankly exist 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 the assumption is always those people are the problem we are the solution and what paul says is that is in essence hypocrisy because 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 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 will you do some things wrong too oh no no no no nobody's perfect thou shalt not judge 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 okay so [Music] 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 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-reparation my tv see what we do then we rename stuff well it's 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 we need to 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 what's the culture the culture made me this way this was my upbringing i was culturally conditioned i had all of these excuses in 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 a system in which i was a victim either way i'm good you're bad if i win it's because 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 because 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 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 getting conditioned by this in media we're getting conditioned by this in our cultural political climate and if it comes into your family our church your marriage or 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 in 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 is a common enemy if you have this kind of culture this this critical culture this spirit and i will say 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 8 1 down the road this is accusation and condemnation and this spirit of accusation this spirit of judgment this culture of critique just give you some practical applications and this is what paul is warning against if it gets into a church this spirit of judgment and this culture of criticism what you get is a religious environment with lots of man-made 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 and what we would call harsh accountability i'm going to 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 judgmental 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 and it was oh that wasn't a sin that was just a mistake we all make mistakes how many of you have raised the kid right right kid do they do some things that are frustrating but not sinful yes just so you know they're gonna poop their neck they're gonna some of you are single you're 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 it's a lot of pressure i don't know what happened right it's a lot of psi you're like that's that's the craziest jump shot i've ever seen they poop their neck and they're going to do it on an airplane they're going to do it at the worst possible time you know why they schedule it that's what they do they schedule it they're going to get chickenpox on vacation right they are going to wet the bed in the middle of the night not before or after they could wet the bed at a far more convenient time instead it's always 3 a.m those are not sins those are mistakes because we're human kids are going to 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 because 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 because 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 them and even if i get caught i'm blaming my brother like i'm 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 is 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 because if i say or do anything that's the only thing that we're going to be talking about and when both people are fighting over who sits in the judge 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 want to 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 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 a 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 that was dumb bang what a coach does they draw near to you a good coach literally if you watch sports they put an arm around you hey i love you and uh we all know you messed up they showed it on a big tv so we agree on that all 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 gonna 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 in all the perils and all the problems and all the pains somebody needs to judge this jesus will judge it okay we know the judgment of god false rightly false so god judges rightly we all judge in varying degrees and 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 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 2 2-25 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 going to 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 5. he says the father judges no one he entrusts all judgment to the son here's what jesus is saying i seat 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 co-pilot 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 okay and if your child is alive they're stubborn and naughty okay 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 okay how many of you are really glad that god has been patient with you right i mean how many of us god 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 right i mean it's i i sometimes 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 a nervous eye twitch like 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 that 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 because here's the thing we like patience from god we don't like patience for others how many of you are like me and you're impatient any of you see i i yell at the microwave that's me okay i feel like god put a horn on my car to minister to others i mean i 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 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 okay 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 have 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 in to 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 judgmental 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 going to stand before god i'm going to 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 it for yourselves treasure in heaven here paul says if you don't do that you're storing up for yourself wrath and 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 the your whole life is either being lived out of obedience to god through the power of gospel of jesus christ you love jesus and you're going to 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 it'll come in 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 fill with the spirit living a life that is honoring of god he will give 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 health those are your only two options that 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 hits in romans 1 and 2 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 you 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 going to stand and you're going to 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 throne 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 but ultimately he would 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 okay this is the unique perspective of the christian now that being said what i'm going to do now i'm going to do a deep study with you of the last 100 years of philosophy and thought and social theory on how what paul prophesies in chapter 2 of romans is ultimately being fulfilled today on the nightly news what i want to do is i want to take the word and i want to connect it to the world i want to take what is timeless and connected 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 gonna go deep together and i don't wanna 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 going to do we're going to look at a hundred years through the lens of judgment justice and righteousness and i'm going to look at the prophetic fulfillment of romans 2 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 and there are 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 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 it 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 shut the hell down to the football then hold on to the chili dog while you're criticizing the person who can't hold on to 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 failed okay all right 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 and 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 this isn't warm enough for you there are options you know at the end of the day it's easy to criticize amen it just is in our day of yelp and reviews and likes and unlikes we're just a whole culture of judgers my favorite i'm gonna 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 i wish hey if we're going to judge let's just all do it yeah i didn't feel like they were very filled with the spirit well you weren't because the first two fruit are love and joy so there you go all right by the way i'm going to write a review on tony tony never died he was always late his phone went off in the service and he was a little flatulent which made it uncomfortable during the service said okay the point is we like to judge we don't like to be 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 and perfect 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 and perfect so then the next generation of judges comes along and tears that down and then rebuilds something else but because they're imperfect they build 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 work historically 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 it'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 dollars 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 is founded the institute for social research it is the first funded marxist think tank it is pursuing utopia without god its 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 a utopian society heaven on earth without god they were considered counter-cultural radicals well then in 1933 adolf hitler becomes chancellor in germany and the 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 it now lands in america and it's upstream in a university you need to know this universities are upstream culture is downstream the culture flows down from universities if you want to 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 envision 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 could 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 fewer in 1939 he invades poland that ignites world war ii 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 and it let yeah 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 their assumption of 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 that heterosexuals are by nature homophobic the white people are by nature racist the christians are by nature religious bigots 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 says 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 we need to get rid of all of this because 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 about diverse real 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 one of 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 they tend to get more degrees and education those those jewish people they they hold positions of cultural influence it must be because they're privileged what we need to do is take their money in 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 as the just judge only leads to evil it only leads to evil and some will say but pastor mark there there are systemic problems oh i agree when sinners 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 it diagnoses the problem but because it doesn't consider god it does not give a healthy solution the second step or phase is post-modern deconstructionism post-modernism started as a philosophy in the arts in the 50s became a philosophical more or less kind of system in the sixties and seventies primarily in france liotard rority 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 post-modern deconstruction shares with critical theory is the spirit of judgment and the culture of criticism it only sees false flaws and failures and it doesn't allow itself to be judged and it's based i would surmise on three things relativism there is no true truth there's no god up there who is over all and gives truth instead all we have is our perspective our cultural interpretation our personal private feelings and experiences so then we move from facts to feelings well it's true for me this is how i feel and then that becomes sovereign that becomes the word not the word of god relativism and then rejection of the meta-narrative the the rejection of the meta-narrative 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 going to set up a kingdom that never ends and he's going to fix the massive mess we've all made because we're the problem he's the solution okay and if you reject that you're like i don't know why the world's a mess i 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 i'm 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 deconstruct you can only tear down until there's nothing left to tear down and once you tear everything down you're homeless and 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 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 a 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 was an equality of outcome not just an equality 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 on to it so you got to kill them to get their stuff so my son because he's my son he's like what about the mass murders yeah we skipped that just read karl marx now if you go to school before you can get to even your degree you've got to take all the prerequisites and i was saved in 1989 in this context every class i go to is deconstructing and criticizing christianity and i start 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 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 left 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 in pants he's a radical you know so then so then i started preaching at teaching and i get invited to one of my first conferences to speak at i get up i do a whole talk on post-modernism 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 know what that is google it used to be a thing it's how we listen 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 comes something called the emerging church that is seeking to deconstruct christianity and christian theology and reconstruct a better view of christianity 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 and 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 it's like i listen to your sermons huh that's weird he's like yeah we watched him in our women's studies class oh i'm not a woman why are you studying me he said yeah we're looking at toxic masculinity and uh heteronormative sexuality and patriarchy we watch your sermons and talk 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 going to wear a tutu eat tofu and drive a prius so the approach feels better like i'm you know it's not some of you are judging me don't we talked about that earlier we talked about that earlier just being true to myself this is how i feel that's how i feel i feel furry 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 where what is the where what do we do we're going to open romans we're going to think god's thoughts after him we're going to interpret everything in light of the word of god and have god's categories not the cultural categories and many of you have moved here from those cities we're the fastest growing city county and hottest real estate market in america and people are coming like oh i got out what do i do now welcome welcome see all the gun owners laugh they're all glad to see you we got your back okay good welcome to arizona phase four you ready doesn't matter i'm going to go there anyways the cult of locism has 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 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 because we're christians it's a secular cult it is a godless cult everything god creates satan counterfeits and so woke-ism comes from this concept it is the counterfeit of being born again born again i was dead now i was alive to quote the old hymn 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 in quotes pulled all of these disparate disciplines together under the guise of critical theory to quote romans 1 they exchanged the truth of god for the lie and they worshipped and served created things like their philosophical system rather than the creator who rules over all 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 post-modern 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 5 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 were born with a flaw you're automatically racist if you were born in the west you were born with a flaw you're born to be a colonialist if you are a christian you were born with a flaw and that's your religious bigot so the original sin is repenting not of 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 you're 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 in 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 are 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 at 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 the 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 2 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 ist you're racist you're a sexist you're a colonialist we just name you and shun you your heretic 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 there are also evangelists evangelists are the activists who take it to the street true or false the activists have taken it to the street 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 going to get on social media we're all going to get on the internet we're all going to go on to the news and we're all going to judge you and render a verdict quarters 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 going to hang for that there are also pharisees in the bible the pharisees are the religious neatniks 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 micro aggressor 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 spanked you need to ask them what pronoun that they want oh gosh oh my gosh can we drug test 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 and everything gets judged except for them could we look at the life of your leaders could 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 no because we are 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 going to 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 apostate that have worked with me in the past this is not the time to compromise the gospel of jesus christ this is not the time to apologize for the gospel of jesus christ i'm going to skip the next point and go to the last point romans 1. i am not ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ okay i'm not ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ that's what paul told us in romans 1. 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 he'd use the gospel of jesus christ 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 could be filled with the holy spirit because before you fix any problem god needs to fix you because you are a problem 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 to 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 and 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 lived by faith you want to be righteous you need jesus you are not righteous your works are not righteous your cause is not righteous it's only indicative of your unrighteousness and all of you woke social justice warriors and all you right-wing judgers 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 wouldn't it be great if romans 2 11 was true god showed us how much partiality none see we give these people a pass or an excuse because 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 living in the dead and you will know that his his patience is not his indifference that his patience is your opportunity to preach the gospel of jesus christ i'm going to bring up the band wouldn't it be great wouldn't it be great if we had a judge who was righteous oh we do his name is 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 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 it's jesus would it be great if we had a judge who was perfectly righteous we do his name is 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 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 and it wouldn't it be great if we had a judge who didn't just judge us and deconstruct all that we have made wrong but would reconstruct everything and make it right forever we do his name is thanks for joining us you

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 13,283

Rating: 4.9047618 out of 5

Keywords: Mark, Driscoll, ministry, thetrinitychurch, scottsdale, arizona, bible, teaching, gospel, theology, jesus, biblestudy, faith, bibleverse

Id: 5bFplD6ZbPU

Length: 74min 18sec (4458 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 05 2020