The Grievance Gospel | Josh Buice

[Music] good morning if you would take your copy of god's word and open with me to colossians chapter 2 colossians chapter 2 and my assignment this morning is the subject of the grievance gospel the grievance gospel i will read one verse of scripture and then we will pray and we will dive right into this subject that is before us today which i believe to be extremely important and vital for us to understand what is taking place not only in the greater sphere of our culture but also and and most importantly within the church of jesus christ colossians chapter two one verse verse number eight will be the focus and paul writes this to the church in colossae he says in verse number eight see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to christ join me in prayer if you would father we do ask now that you would encourage us and strengthen us for this hour in which we live in church history that we would understand the importance of standing firm upon the gospel of jesus christ we pray that you would help us to exercise great wisdom and clarity and how we approach these issues but yet i pray that we would speak up and that we would stand up and that we would not stand down to the culture and the pressures that happened to be opposing the very gospel of jesus christ and infiltrating the church of king jesus we ask all of this in christ's name amen the editorial board of the wall street journal pointed to the problem of social justice in an editorial that was titled quote the democrats identity meltdown the editors stated that democrats have quote unleashed race gender sexual orientation and class as the defining issues of american politics it's no wonder that elizabeth warren a white woman from oklahoma has in recent days tried to self-identify as an american indian in order to gain sympathy points and political advantage because you see that's the rage of our present culture that's the rage of the day we use intersectionality and we use sympathy points and we use oppression to try to cause individuals to rise up in our current culture james lindsey and helen pluck rose in their book titled cynical theories writes the following quote it is becoming increasingly difficult to miss the influence of social justice or the social justice movement on society most notably in the form of identity politics or political correctness the tsunami of social justice has landed on america with a massive splash of destruction in the early summer days of 2018 i published an article on my blog titled the sbc at the intersection of intersectionality there was a a professor in one of the sbc schools that retweeted that article out and within a couple of hours russell moore president of the ethics and religious liberty commission of the southern baptist convention called his provost at his school and had him delete that tweet because he stated that it was spreading things that were not true about the convention that was in the in the early summer of 2018. just a few weeks later we would arrive in dallas for a meeting that was known as the or has become known as the dallas meeting where we sat around the table and we talked through the issues surrounding social justice we tried to drill down on these issues the movement itself this of course coming after and on the heels of the mlk 50 event and then the the downward turn of t4g and all of the social justice uh that was infiltrating local churches and evangelical conferences as we sat there and as we had these conversations and as we discussed these issues we decided to write a statement that would address these issues that happen to be impacting the evangelical church and so in the fall of 2018 we released the statement on social justice and the gospel immediately after we released this statement we received pushback from evangelical leaders within big eva suggesting that we were simply addressing issues that were not true they were saying things like what social justice movement are you talking about are you guys serious there is no such thing just one year later in 2019 the southern baptist convention adopted publicly resolution 9 which was stating that we should use critical race theory and intersectionality as analytical tools for gospel ministry so in 2018 we had russell moore calling down a professor for retweeting an article that suggested that the sbc was at the intersection of intersectionality and then just one year later here we are adopting those very ideas as analytical tools for gospel ministry and then within the last several weeks in the tsunami of the social justice movement on the heels of the the issues surrounding the cultural movement with george floyd and other issues we have those very same leaders within evangelicalism marching in the streets for black lives matter events and so here we are at this cultural controversy this dilemma and we must make very clear where we stand on the gospel of jesus by now it's no secret at all that we are swimming in this cesspool of victimhood at every turn there is a headline suggesting that this specific group has been victimized this specific individual is is oppressed and so on and so forth take for instance some newspaper headlines in recent days bloomberg opinion ran a headline under the title the theological roots of white supremacy published august 3rd 2020 the atlantic published an article titled white christian america needs a moral awakening published july 28 2020 the new yorker ran an article titled american christianity's white supremacy problem this was published september 2nd 2020 nbc's news opinion section titled think ran an article titled racism among white christians is higher than the non-religious that's no coincidence this was published on july 27 2020 npr ran an article titled quote white supremacist ideas have historical roots in u.s christianity this was ran july 1st 2020. cnn ran an article titled this is a moment of reckoning on race for white christians and this was published june 19 2020. the social justice movement is not merely contained in the world of politics but it is moving rapidly throughout the evangelical church now as paul writes this very letter to the church at colossae there were issues that were facing the church that he wanted to address that they were experiencing pressures of vain philosophy of false teaching and his charge to them in verse number eight was this see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to christ and so it is that in our present day we need to take that very same charge seriously the church in america the church at large the church of jesus needs to make sure that we are standing firm on the gospel without compromise no matter what the winds of culture may say and so let's seek to drill down on this issue and for the next few minutes what i would like to do is seek to identify the grievance gospel and then move to the gospel of jesus the word grievance can be defined as quote a cause of distress felt to afford reason for complaint or resistance another definition of grievance is quote a real or imagined wrong or other cause for complaint or protest especially unfair treatment end quote the message of the grievance gospel does a couple of very important things the first thing that the grievance gospel within the movement of social justice wants to do is to explain who is guilty it wants to address who we are and how we're guilty of oppression the second thing that it wants to do is it wants to explain how those who have been wronged or oppressed deserve to be compensated for their oppression and so flowing right out of the grievance gospel is the idea of reparations it's the idea of promotion based on skin color it's the idea of open doors and open opportunities based on gender it's the idea of giving seat at the table of of administration or leadership based merely upon gender or may are based upon ethnicity it's this idea of advancing others not based on the quality of their character or their giftedness but based upon their melanin or based upon their own gender it serves as a form of religious affirmative action it promotes a culture of victimhood in short it points out the oppressor and explains what the oppressed deserve and such a message is divisive it is not unifying the grievance gospel is at the heart of the social justice movement and has a massive goal of deconstruction to dismantle denominations to dismantle local churches and to rebuild upon a foundation that they decide and that they build the rules and the blueprint thereof such a perverse message is impacting the whole of our culture when you consider the fact that the family has been impacted by the grievance gospel corporate america has been impacted by the grievance gospel the academy has been impacted by the pressures of the grievance gospel when two plus two equals five is something that harvard would argue for we understand right off the the bat that that is an absolute indicator that the grievance gospel is impacting the academy we're having conversations about pronouns and and whether we should use certain pronouns to address certain individuals based on their preference the world of athletics has been hammered by the grievance gospel both college and prof and at the professional level for instance in recent days the nba players association came to an agreement on allowing social justice statements to be worn on individual players jerseys for this season including some of these various statements such as black lives matter i can't breathe vote justice stand up listen listen to us say their names education reform equality freedom enough say her name i am a man speak up ally anti-racist justice now power to the people see us hear us respect us love us and get this group economics mind you that none of those nba players would ever arrive at a place where they experience such uh wonderful privilege through the ideas of group economics public health has been infiltrated by the grievance gospel the idea of health equity is on the voting block right now for this presidential election the legal world has been hammered by the grievance gospel but the point that i want to drive home this morning is this is that the church of jesus christ today is being affected is being attacked by the grievance gospel i want us to see in verse number eight what paul is saying to the church at colossae when he says first and foremost beware of the danger of these vain philosophies these empty deceitful teachings so we need to understand as a church in our present hour the danger of the grievance gospel notice what he says here he says see to it that no one takes you captive this greek word take you captive actually means to gain control by carrying off booty it means to make captive of it means to rob and so the idea here that paul is trying to drive home to the church at colossae is that no one would carry us away no one would rob us no one would take us captive douglas moo observes the following he says quote it vividly expresses the danger that the readers may be carried off as plunder by an alien and fundamentally anti-christian form of teaching i would simply suggest to you today that that is precisely what the grievance gospel is it is an anti-christian theology it is another religion make no mistake about it the social justice movement giving birth to this grievance gospel is a cult it is not the gospel of jesus christ it is raping the church of jesus the danger of the grievance gospel is that it seeks to destroy to deconstruct and to dismantle local churches it seeks to dismantle it see it seeks to destroy the very fabric of evangelical denominations once conservative once bold once standing firm are now being swept downstream in this grievance gospel tsunami the danger involves the attack upon the gospel itself what's at the heart of this issue is the gospel within the evangelical world today we have several different groups as we survey the scene if you will we have the woke warriors those are the individuals that know exactly what's going on they are the ones who are leading the charge in this movement you have another group that you might call the non-woke but yet sympathetic and confused and then you might have say a third group that could be classified as the non-woke unengaged these are the people that say well i'm not really interested in finding out about all this social justice stuff i'm not really interested in finding out about you know critical race theory and intersectionality all of that stuff i'm just gonna stay in my lane well if you're a gospel preacher your lane is to stand firm and to stand up and to speak up against anything that would attack the very gospel of jesus the danger to this woke philosophy this grievance gospel is that it confuses people and moves them by sympathy by emotion and by the pulling of the heartstrings by virtue signaling people to come to the woke side of the fence this is why many christians are encouraging church members to march in black lives matter events to show that they actually do care for black people well i don't know a genuine christian that i've had conversation with that would actually argue that black lives don't matter but it's the issue of saying that black lives matter first is where we are being driven along and swept away in this vain philosophy after the release of the statement on social justice russell moore suggested that the goal of the statement on social justice in the gospel was primarily about race he talked to look to lauren green on fox news in an interview where he stated the following about the social justice statement quote what we're really talking about is race and so i think we have a long a long-lasting issue within evangelicalism of people saying let's not talk about issues of racial reconciliation unity and justice that would be a distraction from the gospel that's exactly what was happening in the 19th century as it related to human slavery that's exactly what was happening in the 1920s and 1950s as it related to jim crow and it persists among us end quote well in that very interview what he was saying about us those of us who were the the original crafters of this statement is that we are to be alive and seen to be aligned with the jim crow era the main focus of the statement itself is actually not all about race out of the 14 articles the statement contains two that focus on race and 12 others that focus on other matters including biblical manhood and womanhood and the mission of the church which is christo-centric with this gospel of jesus the message of christ at the center the term woke has been defined by eric mason in a sermon at dallas theological seminary as in urban colloquialism used by black nationalists and those who are in the black consciousness movement end quote needless to say it doesn't have the very best beginning point eric mason goes on to author a book titled woke church in it he makes the following bold assertion he says quote to apply this we must be awakened to the reality of implicit and explicit racism and injustice in our society until then our prophetic voice on these matters will be anemic and silent being woke is to be aware being woke is to acknowledge the truth being woke is to be accountable being woke is to be active this is the call of god on the church and on every believer end quote so according to eric mason the church's commission the church's great commission is to be woke what a tragedy the christians are actually buying into this in evangelical conferences in recent days you can go back to 2018 you can go back to uh the mlk 50 event that was put on by the gospel coalition and the erlc of the sbc in that event a man by the name of preston perry was invited to the platform at the mlk 50 event to give a spoken word poem about michael brown the poem was titled dear mike brown now in the poem he says the following starts off by saying quote dear mike brown i don't know you i don't know if your unarmed body rose from his bed that morning planning to stick his hands in a squad car now notice how preston perry uses the carefully chosen language of unarmed body to just press forward this false narrative of police brutality keep in mind that the doj report stated emphatically that the hands up don't shoot was a lie it was not even true that if he did hold his hands up according to verified witnesses that were on the scene when it happened that he charged officer wilson which resulted in him being shot multiple times voted backham penned an article after that tragedy in ferguson that was published on the gospel coalition's website titled thoughts on ferguson where he traced the narrative of a life of a thug that ends in disaster votey's main point was that he reaped what he sowed well he received massive pushback from that and in this very poem coming years after that article was was pinned by votey preston perry at the mlk 50 event an evangelical conference stated the following he said forgive us for the loud sort of wars that we raged in your name during your wake rest in peace be still in your grave don't let your skeleton roll over for those loosed tongue insensitive individuals like the pastor who wrote in the blog that you reaped what you sowed i wonder if mercy was anywhere in his mouth when he spoke of you did he think of his sons and how it could have been their bodies shadow boxing bullets on the other side of that gun end quote notice how he continues to to push this false narrative this narrative of of victimology this narrative of oppression this narrative of injustice at the hands of police officers is there any reason whatsoever you can imagine that here we have police officers doing their job standing on the line in american cities as they're being set on fire for what one officer did in a state far removed from their context being spit upon called all sorts of ungodly hateful names in the name of what social justice t4g 2018 league duncan in his sermon stated the following as he's talking about his understanding of social justice he said friends this isn't about some social gospel there are a lot of he says there are a lot of things that you can worry about in life don't ever worry about worry that lig duncan really grooves on cultural marxism okay this is the dadgum second commandment end quote needless to say at the very least lig duncan is conflating social justice in the law of god no it's not the dadgum second commandment it's the grievance gospel of social justice at the crew 19 connection weekend on july 20th 2019 the speaker for the event to thousands of college students was sandra von opsdal she is a second generation latina grew up in a catholic tradition claimed to be born again in a southern baptist church was discipled through intervarsity and now serves as a pastor at grace and peace community on the west side of chicago according to her own website she is a preacher a liturgist an activist who is reimagining get this the intersection of worship and justice speaking to thousands of college students she says the following she she spoke from the book of amos and she weaves into the talk a narrative about the dominant white culture and how this is problematic she talks about injustice in various spheres from oppressed women and people of color along with those who are serving time for crimes they committed as a teenager she points people to be engaged as activists and to seek justice and at one strange point she actually caused for thousands of teenagers to abandon their local church to do what she claims is the lord's work within the church today we have evangelicals who are promoting this grievance gospel scholars have now been replaced by sociologists pastors have been replaced by community organizers churches have been downgraded into community centers denominations have been twisted into liberal political action committees theology has been replaced by victimology and the gospel of jesus has been replaced by the grievance gospel it was john calvin who said quote a dog barks when his master is attacked i would be a coward if i saw that god's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent yet that is precisely much of what we're hearing from big eva leaders in our present culture silence crickets no guarding of the gospel no silencing of the hucksters no faithful shepherding of and protecting of the sheep complicity capitulation and compromise we are living in the days of the greatest threat to the gospel and at least the last 100 years and yet we're witnessing the greatest downgrade of evangelicalism while men remain silent where are the men where are the courageous soldiers of the cross where are the men of valor where are the men we are living in an age within evangelicalism where we're suffering from a man's shortage this is the danger of the grievance gospel but notice also in verse number eight he speaks about this philosophy calling it empty deceit empty deceit now as we consider this this idea of the grievance gospel and the goal of it the deceitful aspect of it is it's consistently pressing us to these categories suggesting that certain people are guilty guilty of of white supremacy merely because of the fact that we were born with white skin this idea of whiteness as being sinful in the sparrow conference for women ekimini uwan on the platform said the following to women she said so then when we talk about white identity then we have to talk about what whiteness is well the reality is that whiteness is rooted in plunder in theft in slavery an enslavement of africans genocide of native americans we are sitting on stolen land if you are in america we are sitting on stolen land everywhere in america this is the reality of the land that was stolen from native americans and we have to recognize and acknowledge that it's a power structure that is what whiteness is and so that the thing for white women to do is you have to divest from whiteness because what happened was that your ancestors actually made a deliberate choice to rid themselves of their ethnic identity and by doing so they actually stripped africans in america of their ethnic identity end quote this consistent narrative of oppressed and oppressors and who is guilty and were guilty merely because we were born with white skin then moves to this idea that we deserve to pay for it the grievance gospel promotes the idea of reparations it has been well said in recent days quote the whole gospel of karl marx can be summed up in a single sentence hate the man who is better off than you are end quote phibiti anjabile on reparations arguing from the book of ezra stated the following if god who is just and only does justice has acted in this way then it cannot be unjust for nation states to voluntarily repay its own citizens for crimes suffered at its hands no matter when the crimes occurred eric mason author of woke church on reparations stated the following africans were released from slavery without any counseling without any economic plan without any opportunity he went on to say left out there in a way that we would say wasn't restorative for them being kidnapped by their kidnappers and imported into this country as an import versus an immigrant end quote in a sermon from ezra eric mason stated the following when commenting in the early verses of ezra 1 he said silver hallelujah gold hallelujah goods hallelujah and livestock i feel god right there end quote church services and evangelical circles are being held where they're burning candles on the platform and inviting people to come forward to bow their knee and to repent of systemic racism and systemic injustice well it's not just the ethnicity issue it's also the gender issue russell moore the president of the erlc of the sbc stated the following quote there would be no southern baptist convention without lottie moon and annie armstrong we desperately need a resurgence of women's voices and women's leadership and women's empowerment again it is way past time end quote notice the word empowerment it's key language in the social justice movement the president of the southern baptist convention jd greer tweeted out the following to beth moore regarding her article where she was writing about uh her own oppression that she said that she's experienced within evangelicalism this is what j.d greer said quote thank you beth hoping that we are entering a new era where we are where we in the complementarian world take all the word of god seriously not just parts about distinction of roles but also the tearing down of all hierarchy and his gracious distribution of gifts to all his children you see the problems here these are major evangelical leaders who are cramming the social justice grievance gospel down the throat of local churches but not only the danger and the deceit notice the depravity of these philosophies paul says to the church at colossae it's not only empty deceit but it's according to human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world this idea of human tradition the content of instruction that has been handed down this idea of tradition of course coming out of human tradition which is depraved this idea of elemental spirits of the world this transcendent powers that are in control over events in this world well that's precisely what we're facing in our own day as it pertains to the grievance gospel the social justice grievance gospel is controlling dividing impacting impacting businesses athletics education the academy but most importantly the church of jesus christ the problem within this woke movement is that many people are overly informed and under-educated cultural cultural awakening has taken the priority over spiritual awakening in our own grievance gospel circles where we're pushing people we're seeing these leaders press people to be woke rather than being born again you're hearing words like churches need to be multi-ethnic multicultural diverse ed stetzer and many others within evangelical circles are setting up a way and pressing upon churches to figure out their level of health based upon diversity and in all of this diversity by the way is always and primarily focused on ethnicity not age diversity it's skin color that's really the issue but j.c riles said it well years ago when he said quote whenever a man takes upon him to make additions to the scriptures he is likely to end with valuing his own additions above scripture itself and that you see is exactly where we are within this idea of the grievance gospel within evangelicalism is that we have now arrived at a time where these social justicians have encouraged and educated and discipled pastors in local churches and seminary students on in their institutions on their campuses to embrace these ideas these ideologies over scripture itself is the grievance gospel and it must be seen as something other than distinct from the gospel of jesus christ and any knowing professor or evangelical leader within big eva that's leading the church of jesus christ astray needs to repent and if they're unwilling to repent then they need to be removed from their positions immediately the gospel of jesus is what we're called to notice the call the charge here it says see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to the human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to christ the church of jesus is to be identified with christ to be identified with christ the gospel has been repackaged as sort of a a tagline for marketing we must abandon this idea of a gospel movement it's a message the message of jesus and yet if we if we embrace any other message in the gospel of jesus remember what paul said in his opening words to the church in galatia he said quote i am astonished that that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of christ and are turning to a different gospel not that there is another one but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of christ but notice what he says here in galatians 1 8 he says but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you let him be accursed as we have said before so now i say again if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received let him be accursed anathema let him be damned to hell the gospel of jesus explains our guilt and it reveals the fact that our works are worthless to get us to god nothing in my hand i bring simply to the cross i clean but it's the grievance gospel that explains our guilt and then lectures us that we should be ashamed and that we should work to achieve equity of status among differing groups this idea of penance this idea that's interwoven throughout this false religion that we know as the grievance gospel but the church you see as paul would say is to be identified with christ and the church must be identified with the message of christ as we proclaim it the issue of the grievance gospel is a sufficiency of scripture issue standpoint epistemology is this idea that well if if if you don't have a certain color skin then you have no real ability to to speak to the issues of oppression and injustice within this social justice climate you need to have a lived experience resume before you can actually address those issues that's what we call standpoint epistemology now if that were true then then you would say that paul would have been saying to timothy timothy i can't send you to ephesus i can't send you to to pastor the church in ephesus because you don't have a lived experience that's identified with that culture so well so we're gonna have to find someone else resolution nine on critical race theory and intersectionality as analytical tools for ministry is a flat denial of the sufficiency of scripture truth matters doctrine matters theology matters and all throughout god's word we see this definite article when it's referring to the gospel of jesus the gospel john 14 6 jesus said i am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me in john 17 17 jesus said sanctify them in the truth your word is truth not a truth it is the truth it is the truth of the gospel of jesus we have gone through all sorts of stages within the history of our nation we have gone from rationalism and rationalism moved to empiricism empiricism to existentialism existentialism to post-modernism and post-modernism has given us the birth of the grievance gospel this revolution of social justice must be opposed it must be rejected as another gospel the word gospel in the new testament euangelion it literally means good news or glad tidings it is the announcement of salvation of mankind through jesus christ the gospel could be defined as the message of hope centered on the fact that the second person of the godhead jesus christ infinitely holy god of all creation took upon himself human flesh and was crushed by the father on the cross in a painful substitutionary death for hopeless sinners and on the third day jesus was brought to life in victory over death and the grave proving the fact that he alone is the exclusive means of reconciliation for guilty rebels and lawbreakers to receive the forgiveness of sins and the mercy from a holy and wrathful god in galatians 3 13 this is what paul said he said christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree you see paul boasted in the cross not his jewish heritage paul boasted in the cross not his gender paul boasted in the cross not his religious pedigree paul boasted in the cross not his status as an apostle paul boasted in the cross not his work as a missionary or a church planter or his abilities as a theologian he boasted in the gospel of jesus in first corinthians 1 he wrote to the church at corinth in verse 18 and said for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of god now on the basis of that verse i want to ask this question why would we trade the gospel of jesus that is the power of god for the grievance gospel in his most important letter in the new testament the book of romans paul writes the definite article before the word gospel in numerous verses in romans 1 9 it is the gospel in romans 1 16 it is the gospel romans 2 16 the gospel romans 10 16 the gospel romans 11 28 the gospel romans 15 16 the gospel romans 15 19 the gospel romans 15 20 the gospel romans 16 25 the gospel it is the gospel of jesus that is good news it is the gospel of jesus that unifies it is the gospel of jesus that saves but it is the gospel of grievance that damns the church of jesus doesn't need to be called to a new revolution a new movement or awoke revival the church of jesus doesn't need intersectionality ethnic pragmatism critical race theory or social justice we need the gospel of jesus it is the gospel of jesus that brings together in the church in the community of believers in the ecclesia jew and gentile bond and free male and female circumcised and uncircumcised red yellow black white rich poor young and old and any and all who bow to jesus will be saved and the greatest mark of privilege since we're talking about privilege within this social justice climate mind you that the greatest privilege in this world is to be identified with jesus christ to be a christian is the greatest privilege that anyone will ever experience angels fallen angels will never experience it to be a child of the king what a wonderful wonderful thing it's nothing to be ashamed of isaac watts said it this way alas and did my savior bleed and did my sovereign die would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as i you see it's the gospel that puts us as worms but it's the grievance gospel that says you deserve something get what you deserve the answer to reaching a lost culture the answer to uniting a christian community is not the cult of the grievance gospel it is not the the cult of postmodern power it is not the cult of deconstructionism it's not the cult of systemic power it is the gospel of jesus during the downgrade controversy charles spurgeon stood as a champion for truth in his ministry he accomplished many things he preached more than 600 times before he was 20 years of age his sermons sold some 25 000 copies per week and were translated into 20 languages he read six books per week as he sought to sharpen his mind for the preaching of the word it said that he read john bunyan's pilgrim's progress over a hundred times he saw more than fourteen thousand four hundred people added to his church during his ministry he founded a a pastor's college he trained approximately 900 men for the ministry he founded an orphanage produced more than 140 books edited a magazine responded to 500 letters each week before word processing technology he often preached some 10 times each week combined through guest appearances and those within his own local church context and he labored to spare the baptist name from the liberals of his day and he died at 57. many historians believe that if spurgeon had not engaged in the social justice fight or the the the liberal fight of his day the liberalism that was engaging on on the baptist of his day that he would have he would have lived beyond age 57. so what should we do in our own social justice fight of our day should we sit back and be quiet should we just go along with the flow what should we do well at one point spurgeon said the following related to this idea of the downgrade and the liberalism of his current context he wrote and said be ready for a bad name be willing to be called a bigot be prepared for loss of friendships be prepared for anything so long as you can stand fast by him who bought you with his precious blood god give you courage more and more of it through faith in himself may you be willing to put your religion to every proper test the test of life and the test of death to end quote in his sermon on matthew 4 4 this is what spurgeon said he said this weapon and he was talking about the bible the scriptures this weapon is good at all points good for defense and for attack to guard our whole person or to strike through the joints and marrow of the foe like the seraph sword at eden's gate it turns every way you cannot be in a condition that the word of god has not provided the word has as many faces and eyes as providence itself you will find it unfailing in all periods of your life in all circumstances in all companies in all trials and under all difficulties were it fallible it would be useless in emergencies but its unerring truth renders it precious beyond all price to the soldiers of the cross end quote continuing to fight in the downgrade controversy said the following this is my my final charge to you you men who preach the word in this room you students of the word of god you fellow christians brothers and sisters in christ here's my parting exhortation from the words of spurgeon a chasm is opening between the men who believe their bibles and those who are prepared for an advance upon the scripture the house is being robbed its very walls are being digged down but the good people who are in bed are too fond of the warmth to go downstairs to meet the burglars may it not be said of us that we are complacent and that we are too comfortable in our own little circles to get out of bed and to go down the stairs and to stand for truth i've been on calls with evangelical leaders with tom maskel where they questioned his sanity for leading the founders to oppose the issues of social justice i have had people tell me that the the g3 conference would tank if we stood firmly against these issues is that possible sure it is if it tanks god is still sovereign jesus is still seated upon his throne and we have much work yet to do don't be a compromiser don't sit on the sidelines get out of bed march down the stairs and stand for the truth of the gospel of jesus christ jesus's bride is being raped don't allow these individuals to continue to infiltrate local churches in denominations with the grievance gospel be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the lord knowing that your labor your labor in the issue of the grievance gospel your labor and social justice is not in vain may god bless you

Channel: Sovereign Nations

Views: 18,518

Keywords: sovereign nations, josh buice, g3 conference, baptist, Christian, woke, Christianity, gospel, great awokening, speech

Id: 5YyubxG8OFI

Length: 53min 42sec (3222 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 30 2020