What is is Happening in America? Part 5 - Race, Riots and Social Justice

Now I think most of you know that for the past few weeks we have been in a small series dealing with one big question that has been on our minds really all summer, really over quite a few weeks. And that is what in the world is going on in our country. We have been working hard to interpret what's going on according to what God's word says. I've said this numerous times but it really needs to be repeated. You know we have a lot of loud voices around us, do we not? We have news agencies telling us how to understand what's going on in our country. We have politicians, they're telling us how to understand what's happening.

You know when we're talking about the riots, I don't know West Coast, specifically Portland, Portland, Oregon. You know there are some politicians and news agencies that just deny what's going on. They just say it's a myth. They're trying to tell us how to interpret what's going on. And you know we have churches and ministers trying to teach us and tell us some good and some bad. And then we're always dealing with our own opinions. We're dealing with our own ideas about what's going on in our land. But you know we've got to be firmly fixed here. We must be firmly fixed here.

No matter what others may say, we must allow God's word to tell us how to understand what is going on these days. We believe in the sufficiency of Scripture. And the Scriptures can answer questions in all matters of life. And the Scriptures are authoritative. So it doesn't matter how we feel or what someone else may say. We must always come back to what God's word says here. Now I started this off by showing us that our country is really under the wrath of God's abandonment. Our country is under the very judgment of God. We learned that in Romans 1 verses 18 to 32 and some other Scriptures. And the word plainly teaches this difficult reality.

But the reality is plain. If a people or a nation, they reject God, they will be judged by God. All peoples, all nations are obligated to acknowledge God and accept God as God. Or there will be judgment. No one escapes. I have referenced Psalm 2 several times. I've gone back and read Psalm 2 many times because that Psalm helps us put the nations in their proper place. But that's where we are as a nation. It's difficult to see, but it is the reality in which we live. But I also felt like we need to examine some specifics. There are a lot of things going on when it comes to race and these riots. And I believe God has helped us biblically here.

We learned that we really do not have different human races. There is only one race and that is the human race. We have different peoples and different people groups and different nations. But all people are created in the very image and likeness of God. Really and truly this word race is a human construct. I was talking with a couple in the life of the church this past week. And one of them just spoke up and said, "You know, Pastor, that word race isn't found in the Bible." And she went on to say, "I liked how you brought it out, but yet you corrected it." Because the Bible teaches about peoples and people groups.

But yet there is one human race all created in the image and likeness of God. But then when it comes to the riots and the protesting, we learn that Christians are not to riot. Christians are not to protest. This is difficult for some, but the scriptures command that we are to submit to governing authorities. We are to pray for kings and rulers who are over us. And yes, we are even to pay our taxes. But you know, inevitably a question arises. When do we as Christians disobey government? Do we ever disobey government? Now we will tackle that question.

We will examine that question when we get into the how of how we should live in our day as Christians and as the church. Now the past two messages, I have called them race, riots, and social justice. Really it's all under that one umbrella, that one question, what is happening in America. We've been looking at the racial issue. We've been looking at the riots and the protests. And I really wasn't sure if we were going to step over into this social justice issue. But I just feel like it is very, very necessary. And this morning we're going to address this third topic, the topic of social justice.

And we must understand this social justice movement biblically. Now if we have been paying attention to what's going on in our culture, you know we have been seeing this big push, this big movement for social justice. Again, we have many loud voices and many voices that are demanding social justice for certain peoples within our culture. Now before we get into the scriptures, I want to give a bit of an explanation here. We need an explanation of what all this is about. Now I'm not a sociologist, I'll never claim to be. But I do have a working understanding of how this movement works, what it looks like, and what it is.

Now within this movement today, there is this massive push to identify the disadvantaged groups in society. And really if you break it down within the movement, there are three identifiable disadvantaged groups according to the movement. You have racial minorities, which would include African Americans and Hispanics and Asians, really any racial minority. And then you have all of the homosexual groups, or the sexually perverted groups. The homosexuals, the lesbians, the bisexuals, the transgenders, and then all of the trans peoples. All of those that claim some type of what we would call a sexual perversion.

And you know, they just keep changing, do they not? And then we have women's and women's rights. Although women are not a minority within our population, women are portrayed as a minority, especially women who have been victimized and a part of a minority group. Now within this movement, there is a big push to identify and understand the outcomes of these groups within society. There's a big push to see how these groups have been abused and how they have been victimized.

There's a big push to identify how racial minorities have been victimized and how these sexually perverted groups have been abused and victimized and how women have been victimized. Now part of this movement is not only to identify how these groups have been victimized, but also to assign blame for their unfair treatment, to assign blame to those peoples and the institutions that have victimized these groups. But you know, we must see what's driving the movement. See, that can be hard for some to see. Really behind the movement is this socialistic Marxist agenda. There is this socialistic Marxist ideology.

And the goal behind it all is to deconstruct society, to destroy government and government authority. Really the goal is anarchy. That's what we're seeing. The goal is lawlessness. The goal is the destruction of society. And if you'll listen through their rhetoric, they really don't hear legitimate solutions. You don't hear that. You just see violence and the mob rule. Now if you have been faithfully keeping up with what is happening in our culture, that's what you're seeing. Anarchy, lawlessness, really an attempt to destroy society, no solutions offered, really just mob rule.

And if you look into these big cities like Portland and Chicago and New York and others, that's what we see going on. Now when I mention these groups, even though we would not agree with some of their lifestyles, we as Christians would never want to see any abused, any of them hurt, any of them victimized. See, that would be unchristian, isn't that right? Even if we disagree with our lifestyle, we would never want to see them abused. And you know that can pull on our heartstrings. That can really stir up a lot of emotions for us. But we must be careful here. We cannot allow our emotions and our desires to do good.

We cannot allow that to lead us to embrace this social justice movement. This term is nothing but a veneer. You know what a veneer is? It's nothing but a veneer that covers over this hideous Marxist movement meant to destroy society. My mom and my dad in their retirement years have developed a habit, and that habit is antiques. My mom has a little small antique business. I always pick on my mom. I always say that her business is really set up just to satisfy her addiction. I think she makes just enough money to satisfy her addiction, but it's a great hobby. And you know, a lot of times they will purchase a piece, and it needs a little repair.

And you know a veneer is an expensive wood or a pretty wood that covers over a secondary wood. And every now and then my dad has to repair a veneer. See, that's what we have here. This is just a veneer of an evil motive and an evil, evil movement. But a question, how should the church relate to this issue? You know, we want to do good in society. We want to love people. Yes, we want to meet needs. Isn't that right? But we must ask the question, how should the church relate to social justice and this social justice movement? Some of you may not know it, but many in the church today are saying the church should get involved.

I mean head first in this social justice movement. There are even some who say that social justice and the gospel message, they belong together. Some teach the church is obligated, even commanded from scripture to make social justice a part of the gospel message and the mission of the church. So a simple question must be asked. Should the church make social justice a part of the church's message and mission? Should social justice be a part of the gospel message and a part of the overall mission of the church? And the answer is a resounding no. A resounding no.

Adding social justice to the message of the gospel and the mission of the church is adding something foreign to what is taught in the scriptures. We do not find social justice as a part of the gospel message, nor a part of the mission of the church in the New Testament scripture. We don't even find something like that in the Old Testament. Now listen, folks, to attach anything to the gospel message and the mission of the church that is not commanded, taught, and exemplified in the scriptures is a perversion of the gospel and the mission of the church. No matter how noble the plan is and no matter how attractive it may be.

Now I want to show you how we can come to this rock solid position because I do believe it's rock solid. I'm really only going to touch on two subjects. I made a little joke earlier about the outline of the message. It's really rather simple, although I'm going to share quite a bit. Now I've already given us the title of the message, but we're really going to look at two things. The gospel and this word justice. The gospel and this word justice. Now, as I move through the message, you'll be able to take some notes. But as always, I say, if I stir up a question or two, you come.

We want to study these things together because we want to be right. And we want to deal with this subject scripturally and biblically, and we want to be the people that God wants us to be. So you see that we're going to look at the gospel and we're going to look at this subject of justice. So first, the first part of this issue, we need to examine the gospel. Now, go ahead and tell you as I continue through this part of the message, this term, the gospel will get a little bit bigger. You'll pick up on it as we go. Now, if I were to ask many of you here this morning to explain or define the gospel, most of you would probably get it right.

Many of you would probably start off with a phrase that you learned when you were a child in church, and that is the good news. The good news about Jesus Christ, that's a good answer. But we need to understand that the gospel and the gospel message involves several elements or parts, and these are key. These are vital. First of all would be the sinfulness of man. That would be the first part. The sinfulness of man, the scriptures, Old and New Testament plainly teach the universal sinfulness of man. We see this plainly taught in the book of Romans.

If you glance at your copy of God's word, the book of Romans there, I want you to see that in Romans chapter 1 verses 18 to 32, we cover that. We learn that Paul is teaching the sinfulness of the Gentile peoples, the sinfulness of the non-Jews. Then over in Romans chapter 2, starting in verse 1, we see that Paul teaches on the sinfulness of the Jews, the Jewish people. And then in Romans 3 verses 9 to 20, Paul describes the sinfulness of all men. He takes Gentile and Jewalike and he puts them together. And then we have the climax of this teaching. Really we see the climax starting in verse 9 of chapter 3.

Because when you go from verse 9 all the way down to verse 18, Paul is quoting Old Testament verse after Old Testament verse. Psalm 14, Psalm 53, Psalm 5, Psalm 140, Psalm 10, Isaiah, Psalms again. What is he doing? He is communicating the ultimate sinfulness of man. But then second would be the penalty for this sin. See that's the next step. That's the next part. The penalty for this sin. If man is sinned against God, and he most certainly has, then there must be consequences for that sin. We see that later on in Romans 6.23. Many of you know that verse from Gospel tracks and witnessing classes. What does it say?

For the wages of sin is death. This would be a physical death as well as an eternal death. And we see this same standard taught in the Old Testament. Ezekiel 18 verse 20 says that the soul that sins they shall die. So we see first the sinfulness of man. That's the first part. And then second, the second part, the penalty for that sin. And then third, the third part, it would be the substitutionary death of Christ. The fact that Jesus came and he died. And he died in the place of sinful men. There are several passages which teach Christ paying the penalty for the sin of men. Many of you know Romans chapter 5 verse 8.

Paul says, "But God shows his love for us in that while we were sinners." You see that? While mankind was sinning, Christ died for us. Now you don't have to turn there. I really want to read this one. First John 1, 1 and 2. Notice what John says to the church here. "My little children, I'm writing these things to you that you may not sin." And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself, and this is a key word, is the propitiation for our sins. What does that word mean? He is the satisfaction. He was the atoning sacrifice. What does that mean? He died in our place.

He was that substitutionary death. So just with those few passages, we see the universal sinfulness of man, the penalty for that sin, and then the substitutionary death of Christ in the place for sinful men. But you know we like definitions, do we not? We like it when smarter men than we are take great truths and scriptures and bring them together and explain things just a little bit better maybe than we can. I ran across the definition of the gospel, and it does include some other vital pieces of information. You listen, and I'm quoting. "The gospel is the divinely revealed message." Let me pause there.

"Divinely revealed, revealed by God in his word," and I'm continuing, "concerning the person and the work of Jesus Christ, especially his virgin birth." Why is that important? Because if he wasn't born of a virgin, he would have been born of man. He would have been sinful. "Leading a righteous life, a perfect life, his substitutionary sacrifice, his atoning death," we've covered that. "In his bodily resurrection," that's important. Why? "Proving that he had victory over death and the grave," and I'm continuing.

"Revealing who he is and what he has done with the promise that he will save anyone and everyone who turns from their sin," that's repentance, "and trusting in him as Lord." Now, you could say that what I've given you is the gospel, explained the parts, and defined. But there are two things about the gospel that we must see. If we're going to understand the gospel, it can never be connected to the social justice movement. Let me say that again. There are two things about the gospel that we must see if we're going to understand that the gospel never, ever can be connected to the social justice movement. First, the word ownership.

Write that down. And then second, a warning. The word ownership and the word are the phrase warning. You know, this might seem subtle, but I'm going to tell you, this is the Continental Divide here. You know what I mean by the Continental Divide? If you get these two things wrong, you're going to go the wrong way. Now, first, I want to deal with the ownership of the gospel. Now, we can understand this ownership in many places in the Scripture, but I want to focus on Romans, chapter 1 again. Let's look back at the first two verses of the chapter. Notice what Paul's saying. He's writing to this church, and he identifies himself.

He says, "This is Paul, a bondservant or a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle." That was that unique calling that he had. And notice what he says, "Set apart, marked out for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures." Now, within these two verses, we really see four things about the gospel that we really must grasp. First, the source of the gospel. It was God himself who determined to send his son to die in the place of sinful man. That's the gospel. See, it came from God. I ran across a little small phrase from the Bible commentator, William Barclay, that just helped me.

And I'm quoting, "The gospel of God in Christ is that God did something about man's predicament." You see, man had a predicament, and God did something. So God is the source of this gospel. And then next, the promise of the gospel. In verse 2, it says, "This gospel, God's gospel, it was promised long ago by God's Old Testament prophets." And see, from Genesis all throughout the Old Testament, we see the promise of the Messiah, and Jesus was and is that promised Messiah within the gospel of God. And then next, there is the written Scriptures, which tell of the gospel. Paul mentions that there in verse 2 as well.

Here, Paul is talking about both Old and New Testament Scriptures. See, we must see that we have two Testaments but one message. Two Testaments but one message concerning the gospel. I'll give you a little New Testament reference that will help you see that. In John 5, when Jesus healed the man there by the pool of Bethsaida, you know the religious leaders always had a problem with everything Jesus said and did. And they were furious because Jesus compared Himself to the Father. See, that was blasphemy for them.

And He basically said to those leaders that the Old Testament was all about Him and they refused to believe even the Old Testament Scriptures that they knew. And then last, there is the testimony of men. That's what Paul was saying about himself here and others. In verse 1, he is saying that he was set apart 2 and set apart 4 God's gospel. And that was the case for Paul's companions like Barnabas. That was the case for all of the Old Testament prophets who rode of the Messiah that was to come and all of the New Testament men who spoke of the Messiah who did come. They testified to this gospel, God's gospel. But then second, the warning.

This warning. And this is a warning that this gospel should never, ever, ever be tampered with. Now we see this warning, "Beth" in the book of Galatians. Go ahead and turn there to chapter 1. Now specifically, we have a problem there in the Galatian church. And Paul is addressing this problem. Whether you know it or not, this is probably the one place in one book where Paul, scholars tell us, he is furious. He is mad. He really skips over a lot of personal information and he jumps in verse 6 right into their problem. Let me read verse 6 on down to verse 9.

Paul says, "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel." Which is really no gospel at all. Only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to which we preach to you, let Him be accursed. And as we have said before, and I say now again, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let Him be accursed. Now we need to see what's going on here. Here the Galatian church has a situation and a serious one.

These believers who were called to true, genuine faith in Christ here, they have a serious problem. Paul says these believers were deserting the faith for a different gospel. We see that in verse 6. This word deserting is a word that was commonly used to describe a soldier who deserted his military post, his military duty. So here we have Christians deserting the gospel. And listen, this was the gospel that they were taught, and this was the gospel by which they were saved, and they are deserting that gospel for another gospel. Now question, what was this other gospel? Very often there were groups that would come behind Paul.

They would come behind Paul. He would move into an area and teach and organize the church. And then there would be these false teachers that would come in behind Paul. Now one such group, they were called the Judaizers, and I'm going to tell you they plagued the early church. Now most of their doctrine was right. Most of it was right. Otherwise they could have never gotten into the churches in the first place. But they taught one big error. They taught that in adding back to the gospel of grace, they taught adding back an adherence to the Old Testament law.

They taught that keeping the ceremonies and the standards that were found in the Old Covenant, they taught that they were necessary for salvation. But notice what Paul is saying to the Galatian Christians in verse 8 and 9. He repeats himself. This is the warning. He says if an angel from heaven, even if he himself or one of his companions should preach a different gospel, let them be a curse. Do you know what that means? He is saying literally, let them be damned. Let them be damned to hell if anyone teaches something contrary to what I taught. Now this could never happen. Paul, nor his companions, they could never be sent to hell.

They couldn't lose their salvation. But Paul was describing the most unimaginable possibility to make a point. And that is no one should be trusted if they alter the gospel of grace, grace alone. Now I know this has been a lot of information, but notice our summary. It's real short. The gospel is God's gospel. It's God's gospel. And it should never be added to or reduced in any way. And Paul says that if anyone, no matter who they are, if they alter the gospel of God, he says let them be a curse, let them be damned to hell forever and ever. You see the warning? Now how does this apply to the social justice movement that we see?

There are some who call for making social justice a part of the gospel message and a part of the mission of the church. Some even say that this is necessary. Did you know there are even some who have said we've never had the gospel until we've merged the gospel and social justice together? Let's see if we can't do that. God doesn't permit it. His gospel is simple. The message of forgiveness in Christ for man for his sin. That's it. You see? The message of forgiveness in Christ Jesus for man's sin. And anyone who alters that message or tags something on, even any little small agenda, they are tampering with God's gospel.

Now what about this second part? This second word, I think we really need to examine this. Probably more than you know, this word justice. Now again, if you follow along well, you can add to this second major truth about justice. Now when we start talking about justice, really and truly we immediately get into a problem. You see, society is sinful because mankind is sinful. Mankind is utterly sinful, sinful by nature. So at best, sinful man can right a wrong in society, but man cannot right every wrong. At best, man can right a wrong partially or temporarily. Now collectively, collectively even man, they can only do so much good in society.

You see, governors and rulers and kings and peoples in authority can set their collective minds to bring about justice in the world. But you know that's short lived. And it's even just partial justice. Or they bring about justice in one circumstance over here while bringing about injustice in another circumstance over there. Isn't that what we see with me in these world organizations? Think about NATO. You always hear about people embezzling money and just all of the corruption that is involved. See, they're set out to bring about justice in the world, but there's always corruption that follows.

One that's been in the news with all of this global pandemic is the World Health Organization. They're supposed to do good in the world, but there's corruption and mistakes and injustices involved. But you know, I'll take it to another level. Even if we're talking about a collective group of Christians, and even if those Christians are using the Word of God, and see the Word of God is perfect according to Psalm 119.9, but you know those Christians using the perfect Word of God, they can only bring about a limited social justice because of sin. Their sin and the sins of those they are trying to help.

So for mankind to speak about bringing about justice in the world, really it's only a pipe dream. Really it's only a fairy tale. Listen folks, look back at human history. I don't know if you're a student of history, but you should be. Look back at history. If we were to weigh out the justice brought about by man in comparison to the injustice brought about by man, the scales would be tilted to one side, tilted to one side, and that is the side of injustice. But we need to look at this thing from another angle. We need to look at this thing from another angle. Man can never bring about true justice because true justice comes from God.

Being sinful man can never bring about true justice. It's impossible. Partial justice I've said it best. Temporary justice I've said it best. But true justice, no, no, no. So if we think about justice or social justice horizontally between men, we can only do so much. But if we think about vertical justice, now hold on, only justice from the top down, from God down, then can we have true justice? That's the only way. You see, man is utterly sinful and can only do so much. I've said that over and over. But God is perfectly right. He is perfectly just.

Now when we are talking about the righteousness and the justice of God, really we're talking about the attributes of God. When we discuss the attributes of God, we're talking about who God is, His actual character. You see, God is wise and truthful and faithful. God is good and loving and gracious and merciful. And there are many, many more attributes which describe the character of God. But here we need to see that God is right and just. He is righteousness. He is justice. True righteousness and justice can only come from Him. Listen to what Ezra says.

Ezra 9.15, he's praying, "O Lord, the God of Israel, you are just, for we are left a remnant that has escaped as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for no one can stand before you because of this." What is he declaring? They cannot stand before the righteousness and justice of God. Psalm 119.9 speaks about the Word, but what do we see? "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." Psalm 116.5, "Gracious is the Lord and righteous, and our God is merciful." Now another question. Does mankind want God's justice? We really need to think about that.

Does humanity want God's justice? Again, we must understand true justice is coming from God. He is the only one that is right and just and fair. Ezekiel 18.20 says, "The soul that sins shall die." Then Romans 8.23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory, thus the standard of God." Then notice how Paul echoes Ezekiel in Romans 6.23, "For the wages of sin is death." Again, the question, does mankind want God's justice? I don't think so. God's justice demands payment for sin. Man does not want to fall under the justice of God. If he does, he will die both physically and spiritually, and he will be punished in hell forever.

That's why they need the gospel. So in summary, what do we see here? Listen, it is impossible for man to bring about true justice. The only true justice is God's justice. At best, man can bring about partial justice or temporary justice. At best, man and mankind can bring about justice for some but not for all. Now how does this apply to this social justice movement that we are seeing today? This social justice movement is nothing but sinful man's attempt to bring about partial justice or temporary justice for some. And listen, if you pay attention, we are seeing nothing but injustice in the name of justice.

We are seeing justice for some at the expense of injustice for others. In many of the circumstances, today's social justice is brought about even by lawlessness. Again, going back to God's justice, if we had true justice, we would see every homosexual punished in hell. We would see every one of these racists punished in hell. We would see the abusers of women and little children and rapists. All them would be in hell. But we don't need to stop there. We would see that every murderer and adulterer and liar, they would be in hell. That includes us too. You see? You see? If we had true justice, we would all be in hell.

Now before we move into some specific application that's much needed, we need to ask another question. How should we see and understand true injustice in the world? That's legitimate. Many of you have been asking that. How should we respond to and see and understand true injustice in the world? How do we interpret these injustices, poverty and abusive minorities and children's suffering? And look, I'll take it to another level. War and genocide and those horrific things. We must see everything against the canvas of God's sovereignty and the backdrop of God's providence.

See, that means that God is the all-powerful creator and He governs all things. God governs the entire universe, the things seen and unseen. God governs the nations. He governs when a man is born, how he lives, and even when a man dies. He governs the things that seem to be accidents in life and even the small, seeming unimportant things of life. He governs the provisions for God's people and the prayers of God's people. He even governs the judgment of the wicked both on earth and in eternity. And that's just a partial list. And within God's providence we do see sin. Although God is not the author of sin, He is not.

We see God's complete sovereignty, but we also see man's responsibility. He's exercising His will, and that does include sin. And I know that's paradoxical, it's a seeming contradiction, and it is a great mystery attached to all of that. I have a friend of mine right now, and he's in the hospital, Jackson, and he's recovering from a brain tumor. Pastor, godly man, godly family. And you know, this is so sad. While he is in the hospital being prepped for surgery, his father-in-law passes away from the coronavirus. And his wife there is all alone having to carry that burden all along. Why? Some of you have been through difficult things in life.

Some of you have been through horrible divorces. I've seen people desperately try to save their marriage, work hard to do it right, but yet it ended up in divorce. Why? You know, we have quite a few children we've ministered to through the years. Many of them come from terrible homes. Many of them go into homes that are drug-infested, filled with immorality and poverty. I'll never forget, a few years ago, one of the men of the church took two of the little kids home. We normally took them home. He had never taken them home.

And he came back to me with big tears rolling down his face, and he said, "I really couldn't let them walk in the door of that house." Why? But you know, let me turn that around. Many of you have had a good life. Many of us have had a very good life. Many of us have had great parents. We've had opportunities for education. We have many opportunities in life. Many of us have more wealth than most in the world. Why? Listen, folks, it's all part of God's sovereignty. It's all part of God's providence. And listen, it's a great mystery attached to it all, but it's a part of God's providential plan for the world.

Now, at this point, I want to give you what I call five musts. These are very helpful for you. This is just a continuation of what we've studied. And this really gets into the area of applying what we have learned here. And I really want you to follow me. Number one, we must understand that we will always have injustices in the world. Listen, folks, we live in a sin-filled, fallen world. Not only did sin affect humanity, sin affected the world, the world is fallen, and it's filled with fallen men, sinful men, evil men. This world and the world system is evil, and we live. We will always have injustices in the world.

And number two, we must accept God's providence. Some people are very poor, while some are very rich. Some are educated, while some in the world are totally illiterate. Why were we born in this day and in this time and in this culture when some were born in primitive cultures and they never heard the name of Jesus? Just putting those two together. The world is sinful. It's full of injustices. But we must see this against the backdrop, the canvas of the providence of God. And although it may break our heart and stir up many questions, it's the way God has ordained things. Yes, even the sinfulness.

And then number three, we must trust the gospel. We must trust the gospel and the gospel alone. Yes, it's simplicity and it's purity, period. You know, if you really look at how people abuse the gospel, there are really two basic mistakes people make. One, people try to help the gospel. They all do the gospel because they want to help it. You know, it just needs to be modernized, you know. We just need to put it in this day's language. And we just need to help this old-fashioned gospel alone. No, no, no. And the other mistake is there are people who try to accommodate the sinner.

We want the sinner to feel welcome and we want them to be our friends. And see, we can't do that either because what does the Scripture say? Men without Christ are sinful and they're one heartbeat away from a devil's hell. No, it's not a devil's hell. It's their hell. See, we must not alter the gospel. We trust the gospel, the gospel alone. It's simplicity and it's purity. And the old-fashioned gospel doesn't need our help.

And we must be willing to look at people in the face, our sons and daughters and our neighbors and friends, and say, "You're a sinner and without Christ and you have only one hope." And then number four, we must truly believe that man's most important need, his greatest need is Christ. That is man's greatest need. And how is that going to be meant? Only the gospel. And then number five, we must warn law sinners that their true condition according to God's standard, his justice and his righteousness, listen, they are one heartbeat away. What good does it do to clothe them and feed them if they die and go to hell?

And look, when we look at number five and number four together, what do we see? What do we see? We see that man's most important need is to see their true condition. Turn back with me to Romans chapter one. I want to show you what Paul did. We read verses one to seven. It's all about God's gospel. It's all about God's gospel all the way down to the end of verse seven. And then in verse eight, all the way down to verse 15, it's all personal. He's saying, "You know, I've never been there and I want to come to see you." And then in verse 16, he gives these famous verses. They are the theme of the entire book. Notice what he says.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, God's gospel, for it, the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, the Jew first, then to the Greek. For in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith." And then what does he do? He takes verse after verse after verse after verse, and what does he do? He methodically and purposely unfolds the universal sinfulness of man. And see, this gospel is not unleashed in its great power until men see their damnation before God.

You see, we must truly believe that man's most important need is salvation and we must communicate their number one need and their condition. Now as I conclude the question, what do I do? What do we do as Christians? It's really rather simple. First, we love God, and second, we love our neighbor. It's the greatest commandment, folks, and the second greatest commandment. It's all in the gospels. We love God first and foremost with all our heart, soul, and being, everything that we are, and then second, we love our neighbor as ourself. And let me tell you, if we love God first, we will love our neighbor no matter who they are.

And what does that look like? We see needs, we see hurts, we see wrongs, we see injustices. We do our dead level best to meet those needs. But that's not the primary goal of why we meet those needs. We want to give them Christ. You give them the gospel, they are sinners, they're headed to hell fast. Our goal is to evangelize the lost, then our goal is to bring them into the church as they come to faith in Christ and to grow them into faith. See, that's the great commission, and it's meant for all Christians and all churches. And then as you are living out God's plan, you begin to see needs, and you begin to meet those needs. Why?

Because you are loving and merciful and good, and look, you can then bring justice to injustices. And you know, I know how some of you are. Listen, God's made us all different. Some of you have real big hearts. I mean, you have all of the emotions. You see all these needs. Your heart just goes out, and you say, "Pastor, I can't help it. I must help the hurting. I must touch the sick. I must go out and touch those in society. They are trampled on no matter who they are." Listen, you use those gifts and those desires and those emotions in the local church. We've got needs all in this church.

You get near some of these children that we minister to, you'll be able to meet some of those needs, and you'll be able to go into those injustices and bring about a little bit of justice. You might not be able to ever fix it. Look at some of the programming that we try to do in the life of the church, their own hold. Things like vacation, Bible school, and minister to our teenagers. Many of the teenagers we minister to don't have godly homes. Sometimes God brings people in the life of the church next to young people to be that surrogate mother and that father. And look all out in our community.

There are needs everywhere, and our goal is to take the gospel to those people, yes, meet those needs, bring them into the life of the church, and in the community of the believers, they'll be discipled and turned into the people that God wants them to be, and then they'll go out and do the same thing. That's called the Great Commission. And listen, it's a byproduct. True Christians right wrongs. But our number one right must be the gospel. And then as we live life, we just go do right because we love people. It's just a byproduct of what God can do. Now I know that we've tackled a lot this morning.

I know it's been rather lengthy, but this is the last of the three specifics that we are looking at. What have we been looking at? Race, how to deal with race properly, how to deal with these protests and these riots, and then how to deal with this massive push to see justice in society. And you know with all of these needs, I believe God can raise us up right here, right here to be a testimony to what real true Christians in the church can do. It can happen in us.