Session 9: Irreconcilable Views of Reconciliation (Voddie Baucham)

she joined me Oh God how we thank you for and rejoice in Calvary's love thank you for reminding us of our great need and of your even greater provision grant by your grace that we might never become jaded or get used to the magnitude of CalPERS love and its implications in our lives and in our eternities now as we turn our attention to the preaching of your word continue to meet us in our worship for our worship is meaningless unless and until we commune with you teach us correct us rebuke us train us conform us to the image of your beloved son in other words let your word have its way for we pray in Christ's name Amen [Music] let me just say as I begin here that once again it is a great privilege to be here I am grateful for dr. MacArthur's ministry writ large right his ministry in the way that it has impacted lives the way that it has impacted families the way that has impacted churches the way that it has impacted a generation but like the rest of you I'm also grateful for the ways that it has impacted me personally and individually said at other conferences and at other times that it is a unique privilege for me to stand behind this sacred desk I was born and raised right here in Los Angeles the same year that dr. MacArthur started pastoring this church so I'm grateful for the fact that we get to celebrate our 50th together but I was I was born to a single teenage Buddhist mother and never heard the gospel until my first year at university so I was I was gone from Los Angeles before I ever heard the gospel and so for God and His Providence and by His grace to call me to himself to save me to rescue me from my sin and to bring me back to this place reminded all the while that the prophet is not without honor except in his own hometown and to give me the privilege of being able to stand here before you it means more than you could know and and more than I can say well my assignment today is to address the issue of the sufficiency of Scripture as it relates to issues of racial reconciliation this particular idea and concept of justice that has been on the minds on the lips of many as of late and I want to do that a couple of ways one way they don't want to do it is I want to bring a word of clarity a word of clarification many people again when we have discussions disagreements debates one of the tendencies is to mischaracterize or or oversimplify the arguments or the positions of those with whom we disagree and I certainly don't want to be guilty of that but I also don't want to be a victim of that and I want to be clear about what I believe and I can't speak to everyone who you know signed the statement it up crafted the statement on social justice in the gospel what I believe the importance of this moment in which we live and what I believe about who our real adversaries are and I do believe that we have real adversaries in some instances we have internal debates these these fraternal disagreements and arguments about specific issues right and and they can be small points and and those are incredibly important but what I had in mind when I became a part of the group that put the statement together was not those those that inside baseball if you will those those small fraternal debates that brothers have over minor issues but what I saw was a much larger issue a much broader issue and sometimes people have you know accused me of you know making veiled comments about this brother or that brother sometimes of responding to articles and I hadn't even seen yet all of you remember but I kind of live in Africa and I've got you know more than I can say grace over with with taking care of what God has called me to take care of there so I don't always see everything and I don't always see everything soon but here's another thing that you need to know about me I tend to not be scared of people just saying and when I want to say something and directed at someone I tend to just do that Amen I I believe that that's our duty our responsibility and I believe that we have a model of that and the New Testament I love you know when when Paul is writing to Timothy and second Timothy and he doesn't just say you know there's there's a brother who did me harm he owes you know Alexander you know the coppersmith down there on Main Street around the corner when you go you know you know who I'm talking about right that guy I believe we have a model for that and that's very important another issue is that there are some who've argued that what we've addressed is an effort to get away from the real issues or to to take something that is a big broad cultural systemic issue and to reduce it to something less than that I want to say something about that today as well but there's the other issue is that we're actually warring against straw men that this big boogeyman that we believe we need to address really doesn't exist so I want to address all of those things but I'm going to start by addressing this idea that we're fighting against straw men that we're creating strong men in order to strengthen our position I want to read something for you this is from Union seminary Union seminary is a real seminary they trained real people for real pastoral ministry in real churches and they responded to our statement and here is part of their response I won't take the time to read it all they begin misguided sociological psychological and political theories have long fostered biblical misinterpretation amen while we were what we wrote but we wish to address untruths this document proclaims any treatise that says social justice is incidental to the gospel badly misunderstands both so I want to be clear though I'm not taking this out of context these individuals are responding to our statement and to what they see as misrepresentations and untruths and errors in our statement point number one in the scripture while divinely inspired we deny the Bible is inerrant or infallible it was written by men over centuries and thus reflects both God's truth and human sin and Prejudice we affirm that biblical scholarship and critical theory help us discern which messages are God's this is no straw man this is a real seminary training real ministers for real ministry in real churches I've written about and addressed the critical theory critical race theory its cultural Marxist roots and have often been accused of going after boogie men that do not exist listen to this again this one I want to read again just-just-just marinate on this for a minute while divinely-inspired we deny the Bible is inerrant or infallible it was written by me so the Bible the Bible can be trusted the Bible's not trustworthy the Bible is not sufficient written by man over centuries and thus reflects both God's truth and human sin and again this characterization of the way that the Bible came to us the way that the Canon came to us this character ation is characterization is rooted in classical liberalism reflects human sin and Prejudice we affirm that biblical scholarship and critical theory help us discern which messages are God's so when we read the Bible we have to discern what of this comes from God and what of this comes from man and his sin and his prejudice and biblical scholarship helps us to do that but also critical theory helps us to do that critical theory which is a modern theory from the social sciences critical theory rooted and grounded in modern sociology and psychology and political science critical theory outside of the Bible helps us to read the Bible rightly and determine what God is saying versus what sinful man is saying so we have a new Canon here and when we're applying critical theory there's a couple of more of these points but I really want you to understand this one when we are applying critical theory because many times when we're having discussions about these issues people will say well you haven't done your homework and what do they mean what do I need to read and you get a list of books not from theologians but from sociologists and psychologists political scientists who are rooted critical theory and what many are now doing is they they go to critical theory critical theory says that there is a new unpardonable sin Jim Wallis actually writes a book about this new unpardonable sin and the title of Jim Wallace's book is America's original sin racism America's original sin now Jim Wallace from sojourners does not believe in the doctrine of original sin as it relates to Adam and humans but he definitely believes in it as it relates to America and critical race Theory so so we read this new canon right of scripture from sociologists political scientists right from psychologists and this new Canon of Scripture identifies for us this new unpardonable sin of racism then we bring that to the Bible and we bring that to other theologians and we dismiss theologians in history based upon what we find from our new Canon from sociology psychology and political science but that's just the beginning of it let me read a couple of more of these let's read the statement on syn we affirm that all people systems and institutions are affected by sin we deny however that we're only responsible for our own personal sins God calls us to understand how we benefit or are harmed by structural oppression and break sinful systems down salvation we deny that salvation is only found through Christianity that God's salvific grace is exclusive to any single faith or religion moreover in God's eyes there is no difference in spiritual value or worth between those who are in Christ and those who are not this is a real seminary training real people for real positions in real churches this is not a straw man me read another one sexuality and marriage we affirm science and theories confirmation that God created humans to live in various sexual orientations and genders the spectrum of human sexual experience attests to God's expansive love we deny that any love that does no harm should be rejected we do one more complementarianism we affirm that that that this doctrine has long been used to propagate christian patriarchy it amounts to separate but equal' cloaked in religious language we deny that women are unfit to lead as pastors and know the church desperately needs their leadership I could go on but I think the point has been made but this is not a straw man this is not the invention of my imagination this is real and I'm so grateful for the fact that it is in the open and then I can stand here and not stand here and not talk to you about you know egghead theories and how these theories are you know theoretically influencing people and how if we listen to this or that we can trace this theory but no no no wait that's not what we're doing here this is here they are open and honest denying the authority of Scripture denying the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture denying the sufficiency of Scripture and elevating ideologies that are antithetical to biblical Christianity and elevating things that the Bible clearly identifies as heresy and doing so based on the fact that there is an authority to them that is higher than the authority of the Bible and it is the authority of the social sciences to the degree that they support their presuppositions so what do we do well I'm glad you asked if you'd have your Bibles with you open them to the book of Ephesians the book of Ephesians Ephesians chapter 2 and again I mean we just we just be clear about this I am NOT arguing at all but one of the things that happens here is there some straw men here like the straw man that argues that the position in in in this document or the position at this conference or the position from from those who are fighting against the kinds of things that I read that our position is that the gospel only deals with how we get to heaven and has no implications for how we live our lives in relation to one another that that's a lie that's a straw man that is absolutely as from it but the problem is when we talk about the implications of the gospel and how we live in relationship to one another that the gospel is not just what we use in order to determine how we are made right with God and then put it over to the side when we determine how we live in communion with one another no no the Bible is sufficient on both sides of the equation and the way we approach the Bible is to submit to it not to call it to submit to theories in the behavioral sciences so if he's accepted - III call this the second half of the fees except to do that the The Forgotten section right we know and love Ephesians chapter 2 or we say we do right what we really mean is we know and love Ephesians 2 the first paragraph can't say man you ought to say ouch right somebody says open - Ephesians 2:11 and we're like wait there's the first 11 I making this up right and I'll be the first to admit that reasons - 1 through 10 is that's as good as it gets Amen you don't even have to be Pentecostal to read Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 10 and feel like you need to shout Amen but it's not as though Ephesians 2 1 through 10 gives us the good stuff and then in verse 11 we get something less actually in Ephesians 1 through 10 we get the picture of our need in Christ for salvation from our sin because of the world the flesh and the devil were dead in our trespasses and sins and we have to be a made alive together with Christ amen and that's just good news we we must be born again we must have our sentence dealt with our sins must be nailed to the cross and we must be reconciled to God amen hallelujah praise the Lord but it doesn't stop there we are also reconciled to one another that's what we see beginning in verse 11 that this reconciliation to God opens up lays the foundation and is the source of our reconciliation to one another now sociology psychology or political science but the same gospel it's beginning in verse 11 look at it there therefore remember now therefore therefore harkens back to verses 1 through 10 therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands now remember you you Gentiles by the way there's he's dividing the world and this is this is important when we talk about the sufficiency of Scripture for our reconciliation right the efficacy of Scripture as it relates to justice in this regard between us as people first of all we see it's sufficiency in that it makes clear who we are and how we are divided we see two groups here Gentiles in the flesh and the circumcision remember that you were at that time three things separated from Christ secondly alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel thirdly strangers to the covenants and promises because of that we had no hope and without God in the world it does two things here that are incredibly important one is it identifies the distinctions that matter and secondly it identifies the division that exists now these distinctions that matter are important because oftentimes we talk about distinctions and we talked about being distinct from one another in terms of our race race is actually a social construct the concept of race is not a biblical concept it's not a biblical idea it is a constructed idea you won't find the idea of races in the Bible unless you find it in the proper historical context where we see number one that we are all the race of Adam Amen what one race one blood we are all the race of Adam there is less than a 0.2 percent genetic difference between any of us in this regard in fact we're not even different colors now amen technically from a genetic perspective from a biochemistry perspective we are all actually the same color our color comes from our melanin we've all gotten melanin just to differing degrees so it's not that some of us are you know this color some of us are that color some but no we're just different shades of the same color some of us just have more melanin than others and I want you to listen to me on this listen to me just because you don't have as much melanin as I do don't you dare think God doesn't love you as much as he loves me because he gave me more [Applause] you learn to be satisfied with the little you have but there is another separation there is actually a separation that we do have here in Scripture it's a real separation now the separation is that we have the racial categories that we have are artificial they are not biblical in nature nor are they genetic in nature they are artificial based on people's hair and their features and their skin color and things like that that is artificial it's not real we've been convinced that it is but it's not real but the bible does talk about a real distinction and that is between Gentiles and Jews now racial distinctions are things that we have made up to divide ourselves as individuals and it's crazy it's logically inconsistent that read these forms in people you know like watering what is your what is your race human actually actually no actually your your african-american how is that a race because one of them is a nationality Amen that's crazy talk how is that my race and how is it that I get to be an african-american but if somebody comes over here from Egypt or Algeria or Morocco they don't get to be african-american because the first part of our race is based on my continent well no not actually only the black part of your continent oh wow okay so why use the name of the continent right and in the second part is based on your you know your your nationality how do you get raced from nationality we made this up it's not real but this distinction is real and we didn't make it up God did follow me on this because it's going to be very important later on the distinction between Jew and Gentile is a real distinction and God made the distinction but it's a covenant old distinction not a racial one how do I know that because the first Jew had to become one he was of the same ethnicity and race if you will as all the rest of his kinfolk amen God didn't say to to Abraham be still I'm getting ready to change you at the genetic level so that your descendants will be genetically different from the other descendants this might hurt a little bit no he made an external adjustment circumcision did not change him genetically so the Jew Gentile divide is not a genetic one it can't be you can't try to make it one that dog won't hunt so God actually makes this distinction it's a real distinction and it's a coven ental distinction what why am i laboring this point because the question is scripture sufficient yes the scripture is sufficient because one of our big problems is we allow a man-made category to divide us but the all-sufficient Word of God says to us that's a lie stop believing it [Applause] but beyond that he goes to what's the real problem is the real problem is is is again this separation is artificial but the separation is covenantal and verse 12 remember that you are at that time separated from Christ there's your problem alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel outside of this community strangers to the covenants and the promise having no hope and without God in the world that is as bad as bad news gets Amen what's our favorite part of the first half of Ephesians 2 a favorite part verse 4 but God amen because there's some bad news in verses 1 through 3 and then you get but God watch this verses 11 and 12 you get bad news verse 13 but now in Christ Jesus the news is bad in the first half but God the news is bad in the second half but now in Christ Jesus if what he says you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ what is this an allusion to this is an allusion to the temple so the worship of God's people you come up the steps in Solomon's porch and and you want to come in and and and and ultimately we know that inside the Holy of Holies it is it is there where where the presence of God is seen to dwell and nobody goes to dinner with the high priest and that only once a year and then outside of that there's a place where with a priest minister and then there's an area where the Levites can go and then this is the area where Jewish men can go and there's an area where Jewish women can go and then back here way far off you have the court of the Gentiles they've come to know and love Yahweh but even though they've come to know and love Yahweh they still when they come to worship Yahweh have to be way back there as far away from the presence of your way as you can possibly get but Christ dies and the veil of the temple is torn in two and now all of a sudden in Christ you who used to have to sit way back there have been brought near by the blood of Jesus christ has reconciled us to god that's the picture that's in mind here verse 14 why for he himself is our peace who made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of Commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility we were far off and we've been brought near what's that about that's about reconciliation to God we were far off from we brought brought near by the blood of Christ but the blood of Christ doesn't just bring us near to God and the blood of Christ doesn't just bring us near to one another notice what he says the blood of Christ makes us one man it's an amazing mystery it's very similar if you will to the mystery of marriage it's an amazing thing that you know my here my wife and I are not related by blood yet she's my closest living relative just just think on that for minutes she's my next of kin born of my bone flesh of my flesh she's my good thing you know why because of this mysterious supernatural work of God that has United us and made us one and the same thing happens with Jews and Gentiles God brings them together and makes them one listen to this we love Galatians 3:28 but we stop too soon Galatians 3:28 there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither slave nor free there is no male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus amen hallelujah praise the Lord don't stop reading and if you are Christ then you are Abraham's offspring heirs according to the promise did you catch that father Abraham and many sons hey man many sons had father Abraham I'm one of them and so are you back to our text it makes this one but before we do that before we do that let me make this point I told you I was believer in that point for a reason because the idea that we are many races right and we have we have different ethnicities and the Bible speaks to that raaah right the word ethnicity ethnos in a Great Commission we take this we take this message and we go and preach to pentatonic right every people group every every ethnic groups we do have different ethnicities but that's different than saying that we have different races there are there are different cultural distinctions among us and other things that distinguish us are our languages and things of this nature but but but that's different than saying we have real legitimate things that separate us why is this important because if the things that we believe separate us are made up and we see in this text that a real separation that God created is overcome by the blood of Christ if the blood of Jesus can obliterate a real distinction at grill distinction that God Himself created then how much more can it get rid of artificial distinctions that fallen men created [Applause] [Music] let's look at the next part of this all of all of this turns around verse 17 there 17 is incredibly important he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near since Christmas sufficient for us in this area of reconciliation yes absolutely absolutely and I think verse 17 it it may be the clincher for all of this he came in preached peace to those of you who were far off and peace to those of you who are near what one of the problems with a critical theory and again I don't want I didn't want to make this an expose on critical theory but but one of the problems is this idea that we we think about race and racism in terms of structures and there are people who are arguing that when you think about race and racism in terms of the individual you have a problem because you're not addressing those structures and what you think about others who say when you think about race and racism in terms of structures you have a problem because you don't address the individual but the new definition of racism right racism equals prejudice plus power what that new definition of racism basically says to me or anyone else who is not part of the cultural hegemony that this sin is one that doesn't touch us I can't be racist according to critical theories definition of racism I can't be racist the people in my family who when I went off to college said don't come back with no white girl they can't be racist and if we're not careful what we do is we foster this group identity us versus them thinking and we say yes the cross is powerful and important go get them Jesus because they need to be fixed and the Jew looks at the Gentile and says yes go get them Jesus I'm glad that you died so that you can make them part of us and the Gentile says yes go get him Jesus because because they they mistreated us they they they thought they were superior to us and you got both of these groups saying go get him Jesus and Paul says here stop both of you I want you to understand Christ did not come because he needed to die in order to reconcile this group or that group it's both and the ones who were close needed to be reconciled just like the ones who were far off needed to be reconciled because the reconciliation was a reconciliation to God because of the sinfulness in your heart and your ethnicity does not excuse you from that sinfulness in your heart [Applause] listen the hatred and mistreatment of the other is not something that you have to have power it was a be guilty of am I saying that these issues writ large or not problematic I'm absolutely not saying that and when we find these issues writ large we can should must speak truth to them we must but we can't be bullied into an either or Christ comes in the cross and preaches peace to those who are far off and peace to those who are near and then what does he do remember our problem before separated from Christ alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of prompt and promise and from verse 18 for through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father he took care of the separation issue verse 19 so then you are no longer strangers and aliens that takes care of strangers to the covenants of promise but you are fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God that takes care of alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel in other words it wasn't just small or individual issues that were dealt with but all of them were dealt with first twenty built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Holy Spirit we can't lose sight of this one of the things that we can't do with this issue or any other issue is have an over realized eschatology an over realized eschatology simply put means that we look at the promises of God for the age to come and assume that if we try hard enough we can create them in the here and now we live in a broken and fallen world now hear me I've already said that I'm not arguing against attacking sin err we're not just everywhere err we're that's beyond everywhere right it's born and raised in Los Angeles spent most of my life in Texas amen but we fight this without an over realized eschatology we live in a broken and fallen world and so we fight recognizing that we're going to have to continue to fight we fight recognizing that that that we're like the boy who puts his finger in the hole in the dike that there are other holes that show up what that means is we don't fight as though this is the only area an issue that we have to fight and if you listen to some it sounds like that it sounds like this is the only area and issue where we have to fight I'll end with this before we left in moves - lusaka plantation was pastoring a church in Houston and you may or may not be aware of this most people are not aware of this but Houston is the most ethnically diverse city in the United States not Los Angeles not New York Houston Texas the most ethnically diverse city in the United States there was a pastor in a church in Houston was about to break his arm patting himself on the back because of his diverse multi-ethnic church about 60% of the church was mainly white people melanin challenged people and about 35% of the church were high melanin folks listen to this in the most ethnically diverse city in America someone was applauding himself for having a diverse multicultural church because it's made up of two ethnicities I mean over there here's his church you know just all stuck out look at this black people white people here together and I'm like okay that fine good for you but what about the Laotians who live over there and the Samoans who are back there and and and and and what about the Russian immigrants over there and and what about the and what about the and what about the and what about the and what about the see I'm afraid that what's happened is we've been lulled to sleep and we think the only issues that we need to tackle our issues between high melanin folks and low melanin folks and meanwhile as a bunch of other people out there going [Music] but here's the beauty in the sufficiency of Scripture as it relates to these issues it doesn't matter what causes the divisions between us the answer is the same Christ is our peace the answer is simple Christ is our peace I didn't say it was easy I didn't say it was easy I told you I would give you that and then I'd leave you but I lied again okay Jesus died for my lies y'all so let me connect this dr. MacArthur is talking about pastoral counseling in psychology and other psychology movement and all this there was this period where we didn't believe that descriptions were sufficient to deal with people's problems and so we needed people trained in psychology in order to deal with people's probably remember that it's the same issue because we don't believe in the sufficiency of Scripture and what happened with some of those folks is they heard this clarion call that the Bible is sufficient to deal with people's problems and so people would come to them and say depressed or I'm schizophrenic or you know I'm addicted to drugs or I'm addicted to alcohol and some people very simplistic simplistically would pick up their Bible and say read these three verses and call me in the morning not sufficient that's not what's meant by biblical counseling amen the answer is simple in that the Bible is sufficient to deal with people's problems large and small but it is very difficult complicated and messy in that applying this takes a lot of work the same is true here hear me saying that on these issues that divide us race and ethnicity and so on and so forth the answer is simple what I do not mean by that is we can just say read three verses and call me in the morning there are generations of mess to be dealt with and dug up and worked through and that's hard work to do but hear me saying this the Bible is sufficient for the heavy lifting and the hard work it's simple but it's hard but God in His Word are sufficient [Applause]

Channel: Grace to You

Views: 56,967

Rating: 4.9505563 out of 5

Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ, Grace to You, Truth Matters Conference, The Sufficiency of Scripture

Id: 1qZdIseCkZc

Length: 53min 44sec (3224 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 09 2020