The Sin of Racism

Black is only beautiful if it's biblical, and white is only right if it agrees with holy writ. Dr. Tony Evans says we've excused the sin of racial bias far too long.

It is your culture conforming to Christ, not Christ conforming to your culture, and that is what God is asking for today. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. There's something in the news almost every day reminding us that it's past time to face up to some biblical facts about racism, so that's what we've got in store for today.

Dr. Evans, tell us a little bit about where we'll start. Well, Dave, it's become evident that the racial tension in our nation is spreading like wildfire or manifesting itself in a very challenging way. Everybody has a view on it. Everybody has a perspective. I wanted to give God's view on race and racism because, you know, He has not stuttered on this subject. He is very clear that His standard is to judge our human relationships, not our standard, because our standards get warped. It gets warped by sometimes how we were raised. It gets warped by the influences that have been in our lives, but God wants to be the dominant influencer since He created the races. He created them on purpose, and He acts as judge when we take a role regarding other people that is outside of His standard.

So I want to give His standard, communicate His standard, clarify His standard so that we can begin adjusting ourselves to His standard and not trying to get Him to adjust Himself to us. All right, well, we'll learn more as we join Dr. Evans for this special message delivered at a live rally called The Sin of Racism. There's a mad person in history called the devil, and he's come on territory he did not create and does not own, and he has brought with him death and disease and destruction. But God built a coalition.

It's a coalition made up of black people and white people and red people and yellow people, inner city people and suburbanites. God has been made up of Protestants of all hue and color and all background, and He has formed this coalition called the church to serve. Notice on this mad man that not only can he not have any more territory, he must now give up the territory he lays claim to. If you name the name of Jesus Christ, you have access to high-tech weaponry. You've got the power of God. You've got the person of Christ. You've got the presence of the Spirit. You've got the authority of the Word. But the question is still unanswered.

Does this stuff work? Because on one hand, we say when we're together, we've got all of this power, but somehow when we go to war together, we're not the one people of God drawing the one line in the sand to serve notice against our common enemy. No more, Satan.

No more. Satan has done a yeoman's job in splitting up the people of God along racial, class and cultural lines. He's done a magnificent job of keeping us from being the one people of God. And as a result, man, we haven't seen the revival in this country. Everyone's praying for God will not bring a revival to part of his church. When the Atlanta Falcons take this field, there are black people on the team and white people on the team, but they all wear the team colors.

It doesn't matter whether they were from the inner city, from the loop around the city, from the suburbs outside of the city, or whether they are farm boys. When they come on this field, they all wear the same colors. And what they must do is subject whatever their humanity is to the bigger agenda of the game on the field. And until the Church of Jesus Christ is willing to subject their humanity to the color red, the precious blood of Jesus Christ, until we're willing to subject what God has made us into being the people of God, we will never see what God can do in our culture and in our country.

If people would take seriously what it means to be the one people of God. You know, the Bible says that Satan is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. But I've discovered that many Christians don't know when lions roar. Lions don't roar when they're getting ready to kill their prey. Lions sneak up on their prey. Lions only roar after they kill their prey. And the reason why is because lions rule by intimidation. You see, lions are terrified of hyenas and jackals who travel in packs of five and ten and are scavengers. And so, in order to scare them off, the lion will roar over the deer he's killed to keep the jackals and hyenas from coming and taking over the carcass. The jackals and hyenas are so terrified by the roar of the lion that they back up and don't bother to come and take over the carcass. If those hyenas and jackals only knew that all they had to do was show up, if they would simply just keep on coming in spite of the roar, in spite of the loud noise, if they would just keep on coming, the lion would gladly give up the carcass rather than tangle with five or ten jackals or hyenas. Satan has got a big mouth.

He's got such a big mouth he's intimidated us. Oh, but if we only knew if all we just did was keep on coming, if we just came as the one people of God, he'd have to give us back our cities, give us back our communities, and give us back our families because we stopped letting him intimidate us. One of the problems we're having is that we've allowed Satan to set the agenda for the church. When you're in a war, you don't care about the color, class, or culture of the man fighting next to you as long as he's shooting in the same direction you are.

That's the only issue in a war. And the only thing that matters is whether the man next to you loves Jesus like you do. And if he loves Jesus like you do, color should not matter. We may have all come over here on different ships, but we're in the same boat now. So it's time for us to be the one people of God. It's time for us to come together and be the one people of God. It's amazing that we have failed to see that until we become the one people of God, until we become a unified church, until being Christian is more important than the color and race and class that you are a part of, forget the revival, forget the cultural transformation, and get ready to hand this over to Satan because God's Spirit will only work in an environment of harmony and unity.

And until we become that kind of people, nothing else will work. Don't misunderstand me, and I am not asking that you give up your culture. I am not asking white people to become black, and God is not asking black people to become white. God has created all of this variety because he likes variety, and he wants it this way. Maybe you didn't know it, but whatever race you are now will be the same race you are in heaven. White people now will be white in heaven. Black people now will be black in heaven. Asians now will be Asians in heaven.

Why? Because John said, when I saw them around the throne, I saw people from every nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue. So since that's how it's going to be, let's practice right now. That is the way it is.

That's the way it is. So listen, God is not asking blacks to become whites, or whites to become blacks, or Hispanics to become Asians, or Asians to become Hispanics. He's just asking all of you, whatever you are, be biblical. Black is only beautiful if it's biblical, and white is only right if it agrees with holy writ. There is a standard that governs who we are, and unless that standard overrules what our families have taught us, unless that standard overrules what our community has taught us, unless the biblical standard rules, then we're going to be in this chaos and never see revival. God is not asking you to like soul music, and he's not asking me to like country and western, thank God.

But he's asking all of us. He is asking all of us to love him more than we love our race, our culture, or our class. In fact, it's technically incorrect to call yourself a black Christian, white Christian, Hispanic Christian, or Asian Christian. Once you introduce color, you make color an adjective. Black, white, brown, yellow becomes an adjective. Christian becomes a noun. It's the job of the adjective to modify the noun. So you must always make the noun whatever the adjective said it should be. No, Christianity must always be in the adjectival position.

Your color must always be in the noun position so that if anything changes, it is the noun of your humanity and not the commitment of your faith. It means Jesus Christ must always be the defining adjective of your life so that if anything conforms, it is your culture conforming to Christ, not Christ conforming to your culture. And that is what God is asking for today. He's asking for radical Christianity. He's asking for men who will intentionally, that's the word, intentionally build a bridge cross racially. Who will go out and say, I will not live the rest of my life never having built an intimate bond with another part of the body of Christ who's different than me.

And it's got to start with us. Listen. If you are a messed up man, and you don't get this thing right, then you're going to contribute to a messed up family. And if you are a messed up man contributing to a messed up family, and your family goes to church, then your family will contribute to a messed up church. And if you are a messed up man contributing to a messed up family that results in a messed up church, and your church is supposed to be the light to the neighborhood, then your church is going to contribute to a messed up neighborhood. And then if you are a messed up man contributing to a messed up family resulting in a messed up church that is leading to a messed up neighborhood and your neighborhood is in a city, then your neighborhood is going to contribute to a messed up city. And if you are a messed up man contributing to a messed up family resulting in a mess up church causing a messed up neighborhood leading to a messed up city and your city is in a county, then your city is gonna contribute to a messed up county. And then if you are a messed up man contributing to a a messed up family, resulting in a messed up church, that's bringing about a messed up community that's a neighborhood leading to a messed up city, resulting in a messed up county that's causing a messed up state.

And your state's in the country, then your state's gonna contribute to a messed up country. And if you are a messed up man contributing to a messed up family, resulting in a messed up church causing a messed up neighborhood, leading to a messed up city bringing about a messed up county causing a messed up state leads to a messed up country and your country's in the world, then your country's gonna contribute to a messed up world. So if you want a better world composed of better countries made up of better states inhabited by better counties composed of better cities made up of better neighborhoods illumined by better churches made up of better families, it starts with you becoming better men. It starts with us.

It starts with us becoming better men. Dr. Evans will come back in a moment with more on how mixed up our spiritual values can be when it comes to the area of race. Right now, though, I want to urge you to follow up on what we're hearing today by requesting a copy of his current message compilation, Faith, Hope, Unity.

This tribute to Black History Month explains how to dig up the root of personal prejudice, build healthy, authentic relationships with other believers, and set an example for the world of what real community looks like. We're making it available as a thank you gift to anyone who comes alongside our ministry with a financial contribution. And as an added way of saying thanks, we'll even include a copy of Tony's powerful and newly revised book, Oneness Embraced.

So don't put it off. This special offer ends Monday. Drop by tonyevans.org today, or let one of our team members help you when you call 1-800-800-3222. Our resource center is open 24-7, so there's no need to wait.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, Dr. Evans, we'll come back with more of today's message right after this. I'm standing here in Alaska, one of the most glorious places in God's great creation, and I want to invite you to join me and our Urban Alternative family for the Alaskan Cruise. We're going to have a magnificent time in God's Word and in God's creation. We're going to enjoy great fellowship, great fun, great food, and I'm looking forward to meeting and greeting you on our TUA Alaskan Cruise. Register to be there.

Can't wait to be with you. To find out more about this unforgettable Alaskan Cruise, visit tonyevans.org today. That's tonyevans.org. I know this won't make you feel good, but some of you would rather your children marry a person of the same race unsaved than marry a person of a different race saved. That's how mixed up our spiritual values are.

Until we're willing to say, yes, they're problems, and yes, they're difficulties, but I'm going to trust the sovereign hand of God that if I build relationships according to His will, that He'll raise up a balanced family that will impact the world. And then if we ever get our churches to cooperate with one another. See, all the churches don't have to be integrated, but they have to be cooperative. If we got every suburban church to develop a sister relationship with an urban church.

So here's what you do. The urban church sets up a job bank so that every unskilled person in that urban church can now go and learn a computer skill, get their GED, and the suburban church provides job opportunities for the people that come through the urban church and they partner and they show the world what the church can do in getting people off of welfare so that some of you men become big brothers to boys in the inner city who don't have a father and they're not enough men in the inner city to be a surrogate dad. You say, okay, one of the ways I'll expose my kids is by taking one of those kids who's the son of a Christian single parent and including them in things I do with my kids so that I expose my kids to them and give that kid some exposure he'll never get. You're talking about turning things inside out, upside down when the churches get together and demonstrate the oneness of Jesus Christ. And that is what it will take.

The people of God. That is what it will take. I know, I know some of you are scared. You shaking in your boots. You saying, look, I came here to just get some nice spiritual nourishment. I ain't come here for all this.

Well, you'd better have come here for all this because I'm gonna tell you something. If the Christians don't step forward and do something about this madness and there's no way you can run, there's no suburb you can go to anymore, it's tracking you wherever you go. So unless the Christians stop running and start turning and fighting in the name of Jesus Christ, then you won't have much to turn over to your kids the way Satan is ruling the day to day. If Jesus doesn't come back for 200 years, that's five more generations that's got to grow up in this world.

It means that we will hand them nothing unless Christians take the lead. And by the way, a word to my black brothers who are here, listen, when a white man comes to you and repents, when a white man says I was wrong and I'm sorry, don't you then go back to what his great granddaddy did. You don't bring that up again. You let that forgiveness start with where that confession began and you never bring that up again. You let that sin go as far as these days from the West. Because we have a lot of guys who are making black people like me try to feel guilty because we're willing to forgive. Well, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. And if we've got to tell our white brothers to repent of their racism, we can't then jump and then ask, okay, God to okay that. It works all the way around. It's got to be even handed righteousness that we demonstrate as the people of God.

That's what we need. And so I know this is difficult. Some of you are going to be intimidated to go down the street if there's a neighbor in your street or to invite a person at work over for dinner to get to know them and their family. You're going to be intimidated. That's why I like Paul.

You couldn't intimidate him. They came to Paul one day and said, Paul, we're going to kill you. He said, that's cool to die of gain. They said, well, since you're that nonchalant about it, we're not going to kill you. We're going to let you live. He said, that's cool to live as Christ. They said, well, since you're that nonchalant about it, we're not going to let you live or die. We're going to make you suffer.

He said, that's cool. I reckon that the suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed unto me. Now, basically what he was saying is if you kill me, I'm going to live with Christ. If you let me live, I'm going to stay here and serve Christ. If you make me suffer, I'm going to get more reward from Christ. Bring it on home.

It don't matter to me. It's all Christ. And that's what we need. That's what we need.

That's what we need. I'm looking for some men who will start the day and say, Lord, I'm sorry. I've been raised my kids to be racist. I didn't accept the racism in my church. I let my neighbors get away with racist jokes.

And I laugh instead of condemning it as wrong. And I've made myself comfortable with racism no more. I'm going to build bridges. And if I got to lose some black friends, so be it. If I got to lose some white friends, so be it. As long as I gain Christ, so be it.

That's what it's going to take. My favorite program growing up was Superman. I love me some Superman. As Clark Kent, he was a bumbling idiot. Lois Lane couldn't stand him.

Jimmy Olsen didn't respect him. Perry White wouldn't use him. But oh, Lord have mercy, don't let him find a telephone booth. The criminals and metropolis would come out wreaking havoc in the city. Somebody would say, where's Superman? I'd be sitting on the floor next to my brother. Clark Kent would take off his glasses, unhook his tie.

I look at my brother and say, there you go. My man would go inside a telephone booth or closet and come out and come out with a red and blue jumpsuit on. He wasn't Clark anymore. Now he was faster than a speeding bullet. I mean, this guy now was more powerful than a locomotive. I mean, he had now the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bow.

My man would go streaking across the sky. They say it's a bird. No, it's a plane. It's Superman. All of a sudden, the topography of metropolis was transformed because this guy would catch bullets with his bare hand, break knives in half and squash guns.

You know why? Because he wasn't from here. He was from a place called Krypton. But when he got transferred here, he brought the power of the other place and made it work down here.

He brought the power from up there and made it come down here. And when that man changed clothes, the environment in which he lived was transformed. Some of you need to take off those old clothes. You need to take off that old way of thinking, that old way of walking, that old way of talking and take a trip to God's telephone booth and come out with your red and blue jumpsuit on. Come out. And when you come out, come out faster than speeding sin, more powerful than public unrighteousness, able to leap racism in a single bound so that when they see you coming, they say it's a bird.

No, it's a plane. No, it's God's super saints on the move. It's time to go public for Jesus Christ and that men see that you're saved, sanctified and are a saint. It's time now to take the power of heaven and bring it down to earth so that men see what a promise keeper looks like when he takes to the sky for Jesus Christ. God bless you as you take back our communities for God.

Dr. Evans, you can tell that the people in the audience were excited about what you had to say, but excitement is no substitute for action. What's the first step we need to take to start reversing the race crisis in our country? Well, first of all, Dave, we've got to go to God in prayer and ask Him to change our own hearts and to open us up to have His perspective on this subject.

And then we've got to act in our spheres of influence to encourage others to do the same. So why don't I pray to that end right now? Father, I just pray that you will open up our hearts to have your heart about our fellow man, that you will enable us to love as you love and to care as you care across racial divides, and that you will allow our influence to touch others to do the same. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Thanks, Dr. Evans. Now, another practical step you can take is to pass this message series on to your friends, your family, and your church leaders. It's available on both CD and downloadable MP3s and includes more material than we were able to present on the air. Just visit tonyevans.org, where you'll find a link on the homepage for this collection called Faith, Hope, Unity, a tribute to Black History Month. Along with the audio messages, we're also including a copy of Tony's signature work on Christian unity, the newly revised Oneness Embraced. This special package is available through Monday as our gift, when you make a donation to help support the work of the Urban Alternative. Again, the details are waiting for you at tonyevans.org, or let one of our team members help you by calling us day or night at 1-800-800-3222. A dream can be powerful enough to set a whole new direction for our lives, if we don't allow discouragement to crush it. Join us next time as Dr. Evans takes a look at the amazing difference we can make when we dream and follow God's dreams. In the meantime, be looking for ways to spread kindness to those you encounter throughout your day. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.