The Giant of Religion - Part A

Religion is rules without reason. It is a system without substance. It's belief without Bible.

Why do you do that? Well, we just do it that way. Those are the rules. Where does it say that? In the Bible. So rules without reason, system without substance, belief without Bible.

Religion is when people try to work their way to heaven and salvation in Jesus, but it's not what God intended for us. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how God equips you to overcome the giant of works-based religion. Now, we want to tell you about a resource that explores the epidemic of fatherlessness in our nation and how godly men can help turn the tide.

Your gift to this teaching program has helped us grow, and we want to do more in 2023. This month with your gift of $50 or more, you'll receive a download or DVD of a new critical issues video hosted by Skip, Where's Dad? The problems are clear. Teen crime, drug abuse, youth suicide, abortion, and a host of others. The question is, where's dad? Where's the man of the household when their boys are making life decisions about their treatment of women, their worldview, and their morals?

Why are legions of energetic teens channeling their time towards self-destructive and socially destructive behavior? And where's dad to guide them, to correct them, to be in relationship with them? We realize that single parent families are not exclusively a male issue. Fathers who do not take responsibility for their children are the critical problem. Where's Dad? looks at the problem of missing fathers in the home, tells stories of people who have been impacted by this plague, and looks at the possibilities of reconciliation at any age or stage of life. Get your DVD or download of the full-length video Where's Dad? hosted by Skip Heitzig and featuring Josh McDowell. Receive your copy of Where's Dad?

when you help us expand Skip's teaching with your donation of $50 or more, call 1-800-922-1888 or go to connectwithskipp.com to get your copy of Where's Dad? Okay, we're in Acts chapter 6 as we join Skip Heitzig for today's study. So there was a pastor and he was preaching on the book of Genesis chapter 28. You know the story about Jacob's ladder? The ladder that went up into heaven that Jacob saw and there were the angels of God ascending and descending on that. So preacher was given a sermon on that.

His young son was in the audience. He was very impressed with the message. A few days later he said, Dad I've had a very similar dream to this sermon you preached last Sunday. I also saw a ladder going up to heaven. And the dad said, oh really?

Well tell me more about it. He goes, well the only difference is, well one of the differences is at the bottom of the ladder there were pieces of chalk. And to climb the ladder you had to take a piece of chalk and you had to mark on the rungs of the ladder for every sin that you committed. Dad said, okay well that's interesting.

Well what else? He goes, well when I got on the ladder to climb it I heard a noise and I looked up and it was you dad coming down the ladder. And the dad said, coming down the ladder? Why on earth would I need to come down the ladder?

And the boy said, to get more chalk. So that that is how most people think of what it takes to get to God. You climb a ladder. You work your way to heaven. You do good deeds and you hope that your good deeds will outweigh the bad deeds that you have committed. That in essence is is religion. And so they kind of picture God like Santa Claus. He's making a list.

He's checking it twice. He's going to find out who's naughty or nice. And if you're nice you get in. If you're naughty you don't get in. Religion says you work your way up the ladder.

You climb your way into heaven. Now I've discovered that religion is an interesting word. I've discovered that unbelievers like to use that term to describe us. They describe people of faith as being religious people.

That's how they would picture you. You may disagree with them, but they would say you are religious people. They would say that I am a religious leader. It's their way of categorizing people that have dynamic faith. We are religious. It's also a word that religious people sometimes like to apply to themselves.

They're very comfortable with the term. I'm a religious person. You see it's a little more standoffish to say you're religious. It's a little more convenient to say that than to be fully committed and say I'm madly in love with Jesus or I'm a disciple of Christ.

I follow the Lord. To just say I'm religious is an arm's length description. It's even a term that shows up in the New Testament five different times the word religious or religion appears. Most often it is used in a negative not a positive sense.

It is used to describe people who have an outward show while what's going on on the inside is very very different. So for example in James chapter 1 James says if any one among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart this one's religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted with the world. Now James uses the term religion in that passage to describe an outward form of worship. He's saying basically look you guys think you're religious but it's all outward show and there's no real change on the inside of the heart as evidenced by change in your lifestyle. That's worthless. So most of us probably I'm just going to speak for myself I'm not a big fan of the term religious and I usually correct people in this oh you are a religious person no I'm not believe me I am not well you you certainly are you you teach the Bible you're religious no I'm not so I'm not fond of the word I'm not a fan of the word and here's how I'm describing religion in the context that we are dealing with it today religion is rules without reason it is a system without substance it's belief without Bible well why do you do that well we just do it that way those are the rules yeah but where does it say that in the Bible where does it say that in the Bible so rules without reason system without substance belief without Bible let me remind you that Jesus biggest enemies were religious people not terrorists not prostitutes not drug addicts religious people he had most trouble with them it says they sought to put him to death and the religious crowd was so glad when he finally died also Jesus harshest words were for religious people especially leaders religious leaders what when do you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites let me remind you also that it was religion that motivated the blood lust of the crusades 200 years of history from 1095 a.d to 1291 a.d that pitted belief system against belief system at the point of the sword it was religion that brought civil conflict to Ireland between Catholic and Protestant for years even to this day it was religion that brought airplanes into the twin towers 20 years ago on September 11th it was religion that motivated Isis to take Christians and behead them on the beaches of northern Africa and also it was religion that motivated them to put other Muslims in cages who didn't agree with their religious beliefs and burn them to death that was religion so in that context I think it's safe to say y'all not religious it's not that you have religion you have you have if you're a believer in Christ you have a relationship with the living God through his son Jesus Christ as many as received him the Bible says to them he gave the right the power the authority to become children of God to those who believe in his name well with that as an introduction I take you to our passage where we have the hero of the story is a guy named Stephen he is a young man he is religious that's his background he's a he's of the Jews religion and he confronts in the synagogue the religious system that is opposed to his belief system and what I want to show you I want to give you four ingredients that that Stephen had in his life and I'm going to show you that to be able to stand up to this giant of religion he was spiritually equipped he was scripturally adept he was skillfully direct and he had sacrificial respect I'm going to go through those four first of all let's see let's see what he had let's see who he was we begin in six and let me just kind of set the story for you the church is experiencing a good problem it is growing there are more and more people coming but with that growth comes some problems and the problem was some people felt neglected some of the widows felt neglected especially non hebrew-speaking jewish widows felt neglected in the early church and so they decided they needed to solve the problem so in act chapter 6 verse 3 says therefore brethren seek out from among you seven men and here's their qualifications seven men of good reputation full of the holy spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business we need deacons we need helpers we need workers but they have to have certain qualifications so everybody liked the idea look at verse five the saying please the whole multitude and they chose Stephen he's first on the list and he will occupy center stage for the rest of the story in the next two chapters they chose Stephen look at this a man full of faith and the holy spirit and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas a proselyte from Antioch so when I say Stephen was spiritually equipped this is what I mean go back in verse three and look at that description of these seven men Stephen being first on the list they have to be from among you and they have to have a good reputation so obviously they're involved in the church and and their their life is observable then they have to be full of the holy spirit the idea of being filled with something is to be dominated by something so he is filled with the spirit he is filled with wisdom he is filled with power these things dominate Stephen's life and then it says full of wisdom do you understand the difference between wisdom and knowledge you can be a smart person and be a fool or you can be a smart person have knowledge but then have wisdom and wisdom is the application of knowledge and in this sense it means the insight into the heart of things Stephen had that he had insight into the heart of the matter and though he was a young man he was spiritually equipped and that spiritual equipment will help him stand up to this giant of religion now go down to verse eight because we have Stephen Moore fully introduced Stephen full of faith and power did great wonders and signs and signs among the people then there arose some from what is called the synagogue of the freedmen and it describes who those are Cyrenians Alexandrians those from Cilicia and Asia disputing with Stephen so they get into an arguing match and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke so this young greek-speaking jew by the name of Stephen now takes center stage and now has this disagreement argument confrontation with religious judaism by the way it's the first time we read in the book of acts that the gospel is preached inside a synagogue up to this point it has not been up to this point they spoke in the courts of the temple they did it from house to house but now Stephen goes into the synagogue and somebody who is listening that day will do exactly the same thing later on his name is Saul of Tarsus he will be Paul the apostle whenever he travels he's going to first go into the synagogues this is the first occurrence of that go down to verse 11 we are told then they secretly induced men to say so you get the pictures like hey come here come over here you should say this here's the message we have heard him him being Stephen speak blasphemous words against moses and god okay this is fake news this is fake news didn't happen it's fake news but that's the spin make this story up say these words and they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and they came upon him seized him and brought him to the council the council is the jewish council it is the sanhedrin it is the high court of the religious system they also set up false witnesses who said this man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which moses delivered to us and all who sat in the council looking steadfastly at him saw his face as the face of an angel here's what i want you to see about Stephen Stephen was not an apostle Stephen was not a prophet Stephen was not an elder he was not a theologian we have no record of him having any formal theological training whatsoever but he is spiritually equipped he is from among them good reputation filled with the holy spirit filled with wisdom filled with faith filled with power i tend to think that most of you are more spiritually equipped than you think you are in fact i would say that you probably know more bible than 90 percent of the christians on earth just because you live in this country and you are exposed to bible teaching more so you are equipped you are also filled with the spirit i think god gives you wisdom as well now let me take you back to a time in my life when i was 18 years of age i think most of you would admit and agree that that was a long long time ago but one time i was 18 and i was raised in a religious system most of you know my background and i was at 18 years of age asked to speak to a group of religious leaders in my church at what they called a synod it was a gathering an ecclesiastical church gathering to talk about faith and morals and in particular they wanted to know why so many young people like myself were having this religious experience with jesus and we were so happy and carrying our bible they wanted to know what what's happening so they had this synod they asked me to speak i was very nervous because at this synod meeting was my father was sitting like in the front row with his arms folded he also wanted to know what's happening to his son there were several nuns there were some priests monsignors even a bishop and uh i did not have a good reputation up to that point i don't know how much wisdom i really had i probably not much but i did know that i was saved that i knew and i knew that my experience with jesus was vastly different from the religion that i had grown up with that i knew and that i was able to testify to but that experience galvanized for me the need to be ready in season and out of season not to simply believe but to be able to know why i believe what i believe and to be able to articulate the difference between biblical faith and religion by the way let's do that let's just make known some differences between religion and biblical faith let me give you a few first of all religion emphasizes the outward religion emphasizes the outward the gospel always emphasizes tell me what the inward always the inward go down to verse 13 and notice something they also set up false witnesses who said this man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy what what's the word place yeah you you can in their mind you can actually blaspheme a place this holy place and law again verse 14 for we have heard him say this jesus of nazareth will destroy this what this place and change the custom which moses delivered to us what are they concerned with a place they're more concerned about property than they are about people they're they're more concerned about buildings than building lives they're more concerned with form than they are with function remember paul the apostle will say they have a form of godliness but they deny the power thereof their focus is externals that's religion religion emphasizes the outward gospel emphasizes the inward there's another difference religion emphasizes what you can't do the gospel emphasizes what you can do paul said i can do all things through christ who gives me the strength religion is about keeping rules i do this i don't do that i don't smoke i don't chew i don't go with girls that do well whoopty do see the trouble is you can keep all the rules you can keep them all and your heart can be far from god even after keeping all the rules you can still not be saved it's not something that is real you can go to church carry bibles sing songs serve and in your heart you can be dead towards god moves the music doesn't move you the sermon doesn't convict you the experience doesn't change you that's just religion and there's another difference religion sets up barriers the gospel breaks down barriers with the gospel there's neither male female cithian bond or free we are all one in christ the gospel is a great bulldozer the cross brings us all down to the same level ground religion sets up barriers you're speaking against this place it's about this place and this place is the temple and in the temple there were courtyards and there were walls there were walls and if you were a jewish man you could go to one place if you were a jewish woman you had to go to another place if you were a non-jewish person a gentile you were in the nosebleed section way far away there were barriers so if it's not outward or if it is outward but not inward if it's all about rules instead of relationships if it's all about barriers rather than bible verses you will produce people who trust in themselves because they keep the outward they keep the rules they have the barriers i don't do this i don't do that so you'll end up with people who don't trust god for their salvation they trust in themselves for their salvation remember jesus told a story about a guy like this in fact two guys in luke 18 he said two men went up to the temple to pray a pharisee religious dude and a tax collector non-religious dude and the pharisee religious dude prayed thus with himself here's his prayer lord i thank you that's a good way to start your prayer with thanksgiving but that that prayer went into the ditch pretty quickly because he said lord i thank you that i'm not like other men or even like this tax collector non-religious dude and then he said this i fast twice a week check i give tithes of all that i possess check kept the rule kept the rule kept the rule but jesus said that the tax collector wouldn't even raise his head up but he pounded his breast and he said lord be merciful to me a sinner jesus said that guy non-religious dude went away justified religious dude did not justified religious dude did not that's Skip Heitziging with a message from the series hunting giants now we want to let you know about a special opportunity you have to pursue biblical studies in a way that works with your schedule going to church is a great way to learn about god but what if you want to learn more go deeper this spring calvary college is offering classes in spiritual growth classes like spiritual foundations learn how to joyfully walk with jesus take evening classes on campus or online and transfer credits to calvary chapel university or veritas international university for an accredited degree that will impact your spiritual life for the rest of your life apply now at calvarychurchcollege.com it's easy to be overwhelmed by anxiety and fear in our world today but god has promised us peace if we rest in him we want to connect listeners like you to promises like this and all of god's promises in his word and through your generous support you can help others discover the treasures of scripture and boost their faith just call 800-922-1888 to give a gift today again that's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate connectwithskip.com slash donate thank you tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzigs of shares how you can engage religious people in truth and love you don't want to miss that connect with Skip Heitzigen is a presentation of connection communications connecting you to god's never changing truth in ever-changing times