The Lure Of Religion, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. And the other response I often get from people who aren't quite as religious but moral, here's their view. I think God's going to grade me on the curve. You see, and as long as I'm not one of the really bad people, I don't know how you establish that, but there are people much worse than me.

You can read about them in the newspaper. Those people. As long as you're not one of the bad people, you get in.

You can't. Scripture says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The Scripture says there's none righteous, not even one. 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. 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, what do we have? Do we have another word for that? Lie.

That's what he's saying. He said, When I saw that Peter is 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 punched 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 story, 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 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, then not only am I a sinner, but Jesus Christ is the minister of sin. And of course, then he writes, meganoita, 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, but and so that goes to the next question. And 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 in other places. Why did God give us the law then? If 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. In other words, the law's job was to let you know you're spiritually dead.

That's the law's job. Remember when Adam and Eve sinned, what did he say to them? If you do the knowledge of the tree of good and evil that day, what?

You will surely die. Did they die physically that day? No, they did die spiritually, didn't they? They died spiritually.

They're dead. You see, why did Jesus say to Nicodemus? When Nicodemus came to him, a very religious man, a Pharisee, a leader of the Sanhedrin, maybe the doctrinal teacher of the Sanhedrin, Jesus said, Nicodemus, you must be born again.

What do you mean by that? You're spiritually dead, Nicodemus. You see, the whole point of the law was to show you you were dead.

Here's the problem, though. Religious people get the law and guess what they do to it? We keep it.

So we're in. Remember the rich young ruler? He came to Jesus and said, hey, what do I have to do to have eternal life? So Jesus, understanding what's in his heart, said, hey, keep the law.

And what did he say? Now, understand something. We're not talking about the Ten Commandments. Six hundred laws and ordinances. There are six hundred laws and ordinances in the Old Testament. Six hundred. Jesus said, keep those.

And what did he say to Jesus? Done it. Kept it all. I've kept it all. See, notice the self-righteousness, and the law was never designed for that. The law was to show me the law was for me to come to the conclusion. I can't do it.

That's what the laws point. Here's the righteousness of God. This is what you need if you can have a relationship with me. I try it. I fail. And I go, God, I can't do it.

I need help. The rich young ruler said, I got it. So God said, wait a minute.

Let me tweak this a little. James writes that if you're guilty of one aspect of the law, you're guilty of all the law. In other words, if you violate one aspect of the six hundred laws and ordinances, you're guilty of the whole thing and condemned. And what do religious people do with that? Got it.

Done it. So Jesus says, look, let me try to take this one step further. Because he's talking to a religious audience.

And he says to them, how about this? You say that you shall not commit adultery. But I say, if you've ever had a lustful thought in your head, you are already an adulterer. You say the law says thou shalt not murder. I say, if you've ever had anger in your heart one time, you're a murderer.

Now, that makes it tough. I mean, that makes it tough because, by the way, who can sit there and say, I've never been angry with anybody. If you're religious, you're angry with me right now. You see, because that's the religiosity of it all. So you think Jesus had them, right?

How'd they respond? Let's get them. Let's kill that guy. We don't like that. By the way, you can always tell religion that way. Religion kills people. It kills people. It threatens people. There are places on this planet right now, because of religion, that if you declare your faith in Jesus Christ, they would kill you if they can. And the history of the church is not much better. What do you think the Inquisition was about?

It's an amazing thing. If you don't agree with me, we'll kill you. Or how about this? If you don't agree with me, I'll excommunicate you. We'll throw you out, and then you'll have no chance, because we have the power. You don't have any power. Jesus Christ has the power.

You see, that's it. But that's not religion. That's what Paul was trying to say. So, as Paul goes on, he says then in verse 20, one of the greatest verses in the entire Scriptures. He says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live now, he said, I live by flesh. He said, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. And Paul says, look, the question that religion would ask, well, then how do you get saved? If that's just it, if it's just faith, then how do you get saved? Notice what Paul said.

I have been what? Crucified. With who? With Christ. Whenever you put your faith in Jesus Christ and your trust in Jesus Christ, there's a wonderful thing that happens. And the Scripture uses a tremendous preposition for it.

It uses the word in. The Scripture says you are in Christ, and Christ is in you. And the ramifications of that are astounding biblically.

You know what that means? Where Jesus is, I am. In Ephesians chapter 2, it says, according to the Apostle Paul, we are seated in the heavenlies.

Now, I know Jesus is seated in the heavenlies, and the Apostle Paul says, yes, we are seated in the heavenlies because we are in Christ. Where Christ is, I am. Where I am, Christ is. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God indwells me. You see, the Spirit of Christ indwells me.

Not only where He is, I am, and where I am, He is, but where He was, I was. I am crucified with Christ. That's Romans 6. Paul said, don't you know that you were crucified with Christ if you have faith in Christ? Don't you know that you were buried with Christ? Don't you know you were raised with Christ? In other words, that's what faith in Christ does. So you say, well, who pays the penalty for the sin? Christ does. And when Christ was crucified, I was crucified. That's what the Apostle Paul says.

It's paid in full. And then he goes on in Romans 8 and says, can anything change that? He said, I am convinced that nothing can change it. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

Nothing. You see, that's what Paul was saying. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, but Christ lives in me. Martin Luther, in his commentary, wrote this.

He zeroed in on just two phrases. He said, read the words me and for me. Notice he said, Christ lives in me. And then at the end he says, in Christ, he says, the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Martin Luther wrote, read the words me and for me, with great emphasis.

Print this me with capital letters in your heart. And do not ever doubt that you belong to the number of those who are meant for this me. Christ did not only love Peter and Paul.

He said, the same love He felt for them, He feels for me. He says, if we cannot deny that we are sinners, we can never deny that Christ died for our sins. For Christ is joy and sweetness to a broken heart. Christ is a lover of poor sinners. And such a lover that He gave Himself for us. Now if this is true and it is true, then we will never be justified by any works of religiosity on our own. Luther got it.

It's a fantastic truth. Notice then that the Apostle Paul said, I'm not nullifying the grace of God. You see, I do not nullify the grace of God.

I do not set it apart. For if righteousness comes by doing the law or anything religious, even circumcision, then Christ died for nothing. You see, if someone says to you, I believe in Jesus, but I also believe that. And you say, but I just believe in Jesus. Well their perspective is, believing in Jesus isn't enough.

You only go to heaven by doing that. And so Jesus Christ crosses out of the equation. And men are saved by their own good works. By their own religiosity. And that sets the grace of God completely aside. The Apostle Paul is astounded by that. You see, our religiosity is so difficult for us to understand this. If you've witnessed to someone or you've come to faith or you're coming to faith now or whatever it is, you know that when you talk to someone, and inevitably you only get two responses, at least I do. The first response you get is, the one response you get, especially from a religious person, is that's too easy. Oh my. Do you know what Jesus Christ did at the cross? How is that easy?

How would that ever be considered easy? You see, in other words, I want a piece of the action myself. I want a little bit of the glory. I want a little bit of this. And the other response I often get from people who aren't quite as religious but moral, here's their view. I think God's going to grade me on the curve. You see, and as long as I'm not one of the really bad people, I don't know how you establish that, but there are people much worse than me.

You can read about them in the newspaper. Those people. As long as you're not one of the bad people, you get in.

You can't. Scripture says all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The scripture says there's none righteous, not even one. You see, if you're going to have an eternal relationship with a holy, righteous God, you've got to be one thing. Holy and righteous. You can't have it any other way.

Now the religious person says, I think I can. Maybe let me illustrate it this way, I've used it in the past. I want you to imagine the Grand Canyon at its widest point.

It's 15 miles across at the widest point. And I want to have two different people involved. I want one to be an 88-year-old woman in a walker. Okay? And the other I want to be Carl Lewis. Now if you remember Carl Lewis, he was a great sprinter and long jumper. The long jump record that he set some 30 years ago is still the record. 29 feet, 4 inches. Okay? That's how far.

He could jump further than anyone could jump. Okay, now I want you to imagine humankind's on this side of the canyon and God's on the other side and we want to have a relationship with God. So the first person to try will be the 88-year-old woman in the walker. Okay? She gets up to the edge.

How's it go? Just fall right over it, right? Now the best of us, the best who ever lived, Carl Lewis. World class speed, world class, hits the edge and goes 29 feet, 4 inches out there.

How's it going for Carl? That's the problem. You see, that's the problem. We're a lot further away from God than 15 miles of the Grand Canyon.

You see, you cannot by human effort gulf that gap. That's what Jesus Christ did. Jesus Christ, the God-man who lived the perfect life at the cross spanned mankind and God.

And if you want an image in your head, it's the cross across the Grand Canyon. And what's that called in the Bible? Reconciliation. God reconciled a holy God to a sinful people through Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross.

It's not that Carl Lewis isn't a great human being and can really jump. It's just that there's not a chance he could possibly make it to the relationship with God. And that's exactly what happens with religious activity. You may be dedicated religiously. You may be devoted. You may show up every chance you get.

You may do things ritually. It won't matter. You're not getting there. You're not righteous enough. Only Jesus Christ is. It's easy to be religious, ask Peter. Religion needs to be confronted by the truth, ask Paul.

I told you this is not easy because religious people, if they follow my analogy from the beginning, they don't get it. Why? Because they think the lures are real. They think the lure is the real thing and that's why they bite it. But the consequences of the lure are disastrous.

And I know they think the lure is the real thing. I remember my early 20s when I came to Jesus Christ and put my faith in his finished work on the cross on my behalf. Do you know what so many people that knew me said? He found religion. I found religion. And then they said, boy, Gebhard's really religious. Now I can tell you one thing.

That's like one of the worst insults anyone's ever given me. Because I can tell you one thing. I didn't find religion. I found relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And I am not religious at all. I am anti-religious. And I don't live my life a certain way because I'm afraid or I have guilt. I live my life the way I live it because I love Jesus Christ and I'm so grateful for what he did for me.

I would put my life up against the life of anyone who is so-called religious. Because that's not the way it works. Love and gratitude are way stronger motivations than fear and guilt. You see, that's the way it is.

It's such a better way in which to live your life. So, I want to leave you with asking yourself three questions. The first question is, ask yourself the question, have I been saved by the grace of God? Just by the grace of God.

I'll even use the Donald Gray Barnhouse question. If you were to die this very night and you are all of a sudden right at the gate of heaven and God himself is right there. And he looks you right in the eye and he says to you, on what basis should I let you in here? What are you going to tell him? You see, what are you going to say to him?

Be careful. Because what you should say to him is, I'm here simply because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross on my behalf. I have put my faith and trust in Christ and Christ alone. And I bring nothing to the table but faith and gratitude.

That's the key. You start telling God what you've added to it, you've changed it. You see, you discredit Jesus Christ. You're saying, it wasn't enough.

I had to add a little bit for myself. Secondly, do I try to mix law or religion and grace in my own life? Do you ever find yourself compromising? Do you ever find you're in a situation where you're doing something religiously? Just because you're afraid of what some family member or somebody is going to say? So you find yourself going through religious rituals?

Not because it's your conviction, because you're afraid. That's what Peter did. That's what Barnabas was about to do.

Don't do that. And the third question, am I willing to defend the gospel when it comes to religion? Am I willing to defend the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ? That's what Paul did.

Am I willing to stand up and give an account for the hope that's in me? Because when it comes to the gospel, the truth is everything. And the consequences are overwhelming. You see, there's an awful lot at stake in this.

It's serious business. Martin Luther knew it. He said this early on in the book of Galatians. He said that chains of religion are so light we can't feel them.

Until they become so strong, we can't break them. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the courage of Paul to rebuke Peter in a public format. Father, knowing the rest of the story, I thank you for Peter's heart because he changed.

He realized what he had done. He realized that he was compromising your grace for his religious background. Father, I thank you for the truth of the gospel, that we don't bring anything to the table except our faith, that Jesus Christ did everything that is needed for us to be saved. He gets all of the glory for our salvation.

And we live forever with a deep sense of love and gratitude for him. Father, I thank you for the good news of Jesus Christ because it was the best news I ever heard and the best news I ever put my faith in. Father, if somebody is contemplating this very morning whether they've really stepped across and put their faith in Jesus Christ and has finished working the cross, I pray that they do so this very morning.

All they have to do is affirm that they put their trust in you. And the promise of scripture is that they are born again into the family of God, that their eternity is secure, and the promise of heaven is theirs. I pray this in Christ's name.

Amen. For more information, you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.