The Lure Of Religion, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. No matter what religion it is or when you find it in history, religion has two motivations, fear and guilt. Those are the dual motivations of all religions. If you don't do this, then this is going to happen to you.

Always using fear, always using intimidation. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. If you were to Google the term fishing lures, you would find first of all that there are over six million sites dedicated to fishing lures. I learned a lot this week reading a couple of those sites. One is that fishing lures have been around for 4,000 years and there are many different kinds. There are surface lures, there are spoon lures, there are crank baits or called plugs or there are spinning baits, etc. But when you really get down to it, all fishing lures are exactly the same. Every single fishing lure has exactly the same purpose and that is it is designed to deceive a fish.

It is to make a fish think that the lure is actually food for the fish. And when the fish responds accordingly, he's hooked. And once he is hooked, he pays an enormous price for his mistake. That's the way it is for almost all human beings. Since Cain and Abel, there have been two ways to live life. There has been the way of Cain, which is the way of religion. And there has been the way of Abel, which is the way of relationship with God through faith.

And when you really stop and think about it, the entire history of the Old Testament has those two parallel lines. Cain, who offers a sacrifice of his own choosing, Abel, who offers to God what God has asked. One commentator wrote this, when Cain offered his sacrifice of grain to the Lord, he sinned both by disobediently bringing the wrong kind of an offering and by offering it in the wrong way. Rather than bringing an animal sacrifice as God had obviously commanded, he brought the fruit of his own labor, and then proudly supposing that this offering of disobedience was just as acceptable to God as the one he was told to bring.

He was the first act of religion, the forerunner of every such act ever since his time. Every person of every era who has ever tried to come to God on the basis of their own merits and works, or by some humanly designed religious prescriptions, has followed in the unbelieving, grace-rejecting steps of Cain. Abel, on the other hand, by obediently offering a blood sacrifice that God required, in faith leaped across the centuries and touched the cross.

God accepted his offering not because it had any spiritual benefit in itself, but because it was presented in faith and obedience. Since the time of Cain and Abel, the two divergent lines of works and faith have characterized all of man's religious life. The person who follows the way of man, whatever it is, is simply religious. The person who follows God's way follows the way of Abel, the way of grace and forgiveness.

That's really what it comes down to. And it's interesting, when you read through the Old Testament, immediately you see those who are following Cain, they build the tower of Babel. And they decide that they will build a tower so large and so impressive that they will walk into heaven, on their own terms, a tremendous religious act.

God countered that with the way of Noah, where by grace Noah and his family are delivered. All the way through the Old Testament, you run into the ites. They're everywhere. Canaanites, Amalekites, termites, everybody.

They're like everywhere. And every one of the ites have exactly the same inherent quality. They're incurably religious. They simply want to show religious acts in order to earn their way with God. God countered that with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham justified by his faith. Even when Jesus Christ showed up, Phariseeism, the pinnacle of Judaistic religiosity, and Jesus Christ spent most of his earthly ministry countering and confronting those people. You see, the lures are so good that even believers, even believers, can be enticed. And often, even believers take hook, line, and sinker and do it to our own peril.

It can happen to the very best of us. Open up your Bibles to Galatians chapter 2, verse 11. But when Cephas, that's Peter, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

Wow, pretty strong. I opposed him to his face. We're going to read on in a moment here that it wasn't private. Paul said, Peter, I want you to stand up in front of the whole church, and then I'm going to take you down. I'm going to oppose you to your face. And notice what he said. He said, because he stood condemned. He said, I'm not saying Peter's mistaken. I'm not saying Peter's entitled to his own opinion. I'm saying Peter is condemned from my point of view because of what he's doing. In other words, Peter couldn't be more wrong.

Well, that seems awful harsh, doesn't it? I mean, by the way, traditionally, in certain traditions, wasn't Peter the first pope? Isn't it interesting that Peter is being taken down by Paul publicly? Now, you would think that if you were absolutely the vicar of Christ on earth, how would someone dare take you down?

Well, I think it answers for itself. The apostle Paul took him down because he was condemned, because he was wrong. Peter's a wonderful man.

He's a great guy. But he bit into the lure of religion, and he never should have. I want you to hold your place here and go to Acts chapter 10 with me, the book of Acts chapter 10. We get an insight into Peter, and I think one of the reasons Paul is so upset. Verse 9. On the next day, as they were on their way, approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.

That's noon. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat. But while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance. Now, that's not exactly like the trance you're in now. It's a different trance. This one comes from God.

I don't know where yours comes from. Okay, but Peter is in a trance. And he saw the sky opened up and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners of the ground. And there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. And a voice came to him and said, Get up, Peter, kill and eat.

You don't understand from Peter's point of view. What's in this sheet? Pork.

No doubt about reptiles, amphibians, and even birds of prey. It sounds like a Cajun smorgasbord. Cajuns have no trouble with this. But Peter's not Cajun. He's Jewish. You see, that's his background.

Watch how he responds. And by the way, you would think when God showed you a vision and gave you a commandment, what should your response be? Yes, Lord.

Yes. Not Peter's. Notice, Peter said, By no means, Lord.

Absolutely not. For I have never eaten anything unholy or unclean. Again, a voice came to him a second time. Said, What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy. Let me clarify, Peter.

It's not unholy. Are you sure? I'm God.

I'm pretty sure. Now watch. This happened three times.

Three times they had this discussion. Three times Peter said, No, no, I'm a good Jewish guy. I'm kosher. I can't get into that. God said, There's nothing unclean, Peter.

You eat it. Now, God has good reason for this. We'll see as they read on. Now, while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, what else could it be? God told you no food's unclean. Peter is so religious in his background, he's like, I just don't know. This doesn't make sense to me. He says, Behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon's house, appeared at the gate and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. And while Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, Behold, three men are looking for you. He says, But get up and go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them myself. Peter went down to the men and said, Behold, I am the one who are you looking for. He said, What is the reason for which you have come? And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man, well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a holy angel to send for you and to come to you, to his house, and to hear a message from you.

And so he invited them in and he gave them lodging. God had bigger fish to fry than just simply Peter's appetite. You see, Peter viewed certain foods as unclean. He also viewed Gentiles as unclean. Goyim, he viewed the centurion as unclean. God says, There's no uncleanness here.

You go to the centurion's house. Now, Peter got this vision from God. Beside the fact that he was taught by the Lord, didn't the Lord say things, nothing that goes into a person can defile that person?

It's only what comes out of the person that can defile the person? But Peter was sort of steeped in his religiosity and he's still struggling. Now, let's go back to Galatians.

And Paul picks up the story. He says, For prior to the coming of certain men from James, these are the Judaizers coming from Jerusalem. He used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof. Why? The response is the response to every person throughout all the centuries since Cain. As to why? Fear. Fearing the party of the circumcision. Why did Peter eat? Didn't eat with the Gentiles? Fear. He was afraid of them.

Isn't that amazing? It doesn't matter what religion it is or when you find it in history. Religion has two motivations. Fear and guilt. Those are the dual motivations of all religion.

If you don't do this, then this is going to happen to you. Always using fear. Always using intimidation. And that's exactly what they do to Peter. It's hard to imagine that an apostle like Peter would be intimidated by religious Judaizers. But he is.

And it gets worse. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. Now the other Jews who believed in Jesus Christ won't eat with Gentiles. Notice what God calls a person who is saved by grace through faith and then decides to act religiously. A hypocrite. He uses it twice. They are hypocrites.

One who wears a mask on one side but the reality is on the other side. He said Peter is a hypocrite. And Barnabas is a hypocrite. And Barnabas, by the way, might be even more impressive than Peter. Hold your place here and let's go back to Acts chapter 11.

I'll give you some insight into Barnabas and what he was like. Acts chapter 11 and verse 19. So then, those who were scattered because of persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen, the first martyr, made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except the Jews alone. Remember, Christianity was born in Judaism. And in the beginning it's only Messianic Jews. Everyone who was in the church were Jewish.

But now they've been dispersed. Remember what Jesus said, you'll be my witnesses first in Jerusalem, and then Judea, then Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the world. Well, from the Jewish point of view, they said, we really understand Jerusalem and we kind of like Judah, but I don't think we want to go to Samaria or anywhere else. But that was the commission of Christ. By the martyrdom of Stephen, Jesus forced their hand. Notice, some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks, also preaching the Lord Jesus, the gospel. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. The news about them reached the ears of the church of Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas off to Antioch to check it out. And then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, notice he witnessed the grace of God among the Greeks, the Gentiles. He rejoiced, and he began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and considerable numbers were brought to the Lord. And he left then for Tarsus to look for Saul, who becomes his comrade in arms. Barnabas is an impressive man. He says he's a good man, full of the Holy Spirit. But when Peter joins into the religious hypocrisy, it says, back to Galatians 2, 13, it says, Then Barnabas was carried away. You see, it's easy to be religious.

It really is. It's easy to start thinking that religious activities somehow are very, very instrumental, and that believing in Jesus is fine, but I need to do something else. There's some other lessons in those first few verses. One is that past victories are no guarantee of future success when it comes to the lower religion in your life. Remember, we are incurably religious in our fallen state. It's one of the worst things about humanity. We believe we can invent a religion that will impress God so much that on the basis of how impressive we are, he would want to have a relationship with us. That's just religion, and it's been that way through the history of mankind.

Secondly, there's something else we learn. Right teaching or truthful teaching or right doctrine without right behavior is hypocrisy. Peter knew the truth. Barnabas knew the truth, but they acted differently. They said, no, I still want to go through the ritual.

I still want to be religious, like a good Jewish boy. And thirdly, we learn this from the Apostle Paul, truth is more important in harmony when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can't say, well, can't we all just get along? No, not when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, not when it comes to the grace of God. There are a lot of ways or places where we need to show great tolerance for one another, but not for the truth of the gospel, not for the grace of God. So it's easy to be religious, ask Peter. Secondly, religion needs to be confronted by truth. Just ask Paul. That's what he does, starting in verse 14. He says, when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel. Now, that's a nice way of saying it. Paul said, when I saw that they weren't straightforward about the truth of the gospel. Now, when you're not straightforward about the truth, do we have another word for that? Lie.

That's what he's saying. He said, when I saw that Peter was a liar, when Peter is lying, and Barnabas, he said, when I saw that they're lying, he said, I had to do something about it. I said to Cephas, in the presence of everybody, if you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, that's how you came to faith, you came in the freedom, you had the vision. He says, how is it now that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? Why would you want to put a religious yoke around their neck now?

Why would you do that? And the reason is, is because we're incurably religious. Paul goes on and says, look, we are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles. Look, I understand we're Jewish. We didn't live past lives like these people did. I understand we're Jewish, Peter.

I get it. I'm more Jewish than you are. And he really was. He says, I was the Jew of Jews. Paul understands that. He says, but nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law, Peter, you and I know that. Peter, you know that no man could be justified means to be declared righteous. Or if you want to put it another way, justified means you get your ticket punch for heaven. He said, we know that no man is declared righteous by God. No man is justified by the works of the law. He said, but through faith in Christ, even if we have believed in Christ, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. Paul says, I can't say this any clearer, but I'm going to try. Let me just keep repeating myself over and over again. You can't be justified before a holy God by works of the law.

You can't. There's no religious scheme by which you will ever be justified by God. Never. You are only justified by God by the grace of God through faith in Christ. He said, Peter, you've got to know that.

You've got to know better than that. How can you possibly say those kind of things? It is a tremendous statement. One of the great books that I've been reading through this study of Galatians is, I was able to download, and you can for free, Martin Luther's English translation of his commentary on Galatians.

If you went to Kindle, you could download it for free. It is a wonderful thing to read. To realize that this man is writing this nearly 500 years ago, and it is his awareness of what happens in this book that leads to the Great Reformation. This Franciscan monk reads the truth in these passages, and he changes the world.

The yoke of religiosity, he takes off. Luther said when he read that verse, he said this. He said, the truth exploded in my heart. He said, it was like seeing the sun at noon day. He said, once I understood what was really said there, he had been taught his whole life that a man is saved through religiosity, that a person is saved by good works, that a person is saved by going through the sacraments, and if you don't do that and you don't have right standing, you're out. Luther said, I saw it.

It changed everything. Remember, his original intent was not to leave anything. His original intent was to reform the church. That's why he pounded the theses on the doors of Wittenberg. He said, look, these are the changes we have to make according to the word of God.

But they tried to hunt him down and to execute him for that. Now, this is what John MacArthur writes about that verse. He said, all claims that salvation is through belief in Jesus Christ plus something else are blasphemous.

They are lies. There can be no effective or acceptable human addition to the work of Jesus Christ. This passage is a forceful and unequivocal a statement of the doctrine of salvation by faith alone, as you will find in the New Testament. That's what Paul said. Peter, you know this. You know it. You were saved by this. You understand it.

He's not finished. He said, Peter, let's look at it this way then. He says, but if, verse 17, but if while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, and what he means by that is this. Peter, if I'm wrong, if the gospel that Jesus Christ gave me, which is faith in Christ alone, he said, if that's wrong, then I'm a sinner. I'm the one sinning here.

He said, I understand that. But he said, look, he said, if that's the case, then is Christ then a minister of sin? Then Jesus Christ is the minister of sin because Jesus Christ gave me this gospel. If the Judaizers are right and it's Jesus plus something, it's a religious approach to God, and not only am I a sinner, but Jesus Christ is the minister of sin. And, of course, then he writes, may it never be one of his favorite phrases, absolutely not. Verse 18, for he said, if I rebuild that which I once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

He said, I would be the worst kind of sinner. He said, and so goes to the next question then, for through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. In other words, the question is, well, then why the law? You see, the religious person can ask, well, then why the law? And Paul says, well, it's real simple.

And it's not only here, but he talks about it in other places. Why did God give us the law then? If we aren't justified before him by keeping the law, why did he give it to us?

To show you, you'd never be justified on the basis of your own effort. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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