False Religion and You #1

Welcome to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's Word. Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in The Truth Pulpit. Thank you all for being here this evening and joining us over the live stream as we continue a series that I've titled Unmasking False Religion, and we come to a message tonight that I've titled False Religion and You. False Religion and You. I had intended tonight to be the final message in this series, but as I was finishing my preparation, I realized that I wanted to do one more next week, which I'm already looking forward to, where I answer a number of practical questions that come up from a study of false religion. And so next week we'll be doing sort of a Q&A, but I'm not taking questions.

They're questions that I want to ask and answer, and so we'll finish this series next week after we have this time here together this evening. Now false religion, and false religions plural, as we've been saying all along, they differ superficially. You know, Mormonism is different from Jehovah's Witnesses, is different from Islam, is different from Catholicism and all of that. We're looking at things more broadly.

We're looking things in an umbrella way. We're looking at what false religions all share as their defining qualities as we examine them biblically and exercise the discernment that God has called us to do. You know, Scripture tells us to test the spirits.

Scripture tells us about noble Christians who examine the Scriptures daily to see whether the things that they were hearing were so. Jesus said, beware of false prophets who will come to you as dressed as sheep but inwardly are ravenous wolves. And so we're engaged in a biblical activity here. And as we engage in a study of false religion particularly, you know, understand that we are engaged in direct, close, hand-to-hand combat with the devil himself, because false religions are part of the devil's merchandise.

It's what he sells to unsuspecting people. And so to do something to expose false religion is to step into his turf, as it were, and to do what we can, in the words of Jim Elliott, the martyred missionary from several decades ago, to be a producing son of God in enemy territory. That's what we're looking to do here today as we talk about false religion. Just by way of very quick review, we said that every false religion shares this in common, these three things. They are all satanic, they are all sinful, and they are all sentenced to judgment. False teachers and false religions are blind guides leading blind people into the pit.

And so we must realize that this is a very serious matter that we're undertaking. As we saw last week, the effect of false religion is it takes away Scripture from us. It obscures the revelation of God, of himself, of Christ, and of salvation. It takes away Christ from us, because inevitably there is a false teaching about the person of Christ or the work of Christ, and often both. It takes away salvation from us. And so everything that we cherish as Christians about having eternal life and the forgiveness of sin and a hope of heaven, every false religion takes all of that away from you and gives you nothing in return except bondage, confusion, and a conscience that is bound to the teaching of men.

You know, these are serious matters. And the question that I want to ask to kind of frame things here this evening is why have we undertaken this series? What is it in me as a pastor that wants to teach things like this to you? You know, there are other things that we could be talking about from Scripture, but I just want to help you understand that behind all of the teaching is this thought that comes from the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 3. As he was writing to the church in Corinth, he said, I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Paul says there is a simplicity and there is a purity to devotion to Christ, to being a Christian, to loving Scripture and following the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is a purity and a simplicity to that. And false religion comes along and destroys all of that. It undermines all of that.

It injects fogs of confusion where there was clarity and sunshine and light and whatever other metaphors we could follow on that. As a pastor here, I don't want that to happen to any of you. And yet what we will see here this evening and what we've been seeing is that it's so subtle. It's so easy to be led astray. And we've seen people from within our own midst follow after false religion, after professing Christ. And that's something that just has disturbed me greatly as a pastor to see that happen and to feel a responsibility to step up and to do more, I guess, to protect unsuspecting people from the dangers that are at hand. On Sundays, we're doing a series on the gospel and on true faith, true repentance, true salvation.

Here on Tuesdays, we're doing a series on false religion. What we're doing, if you want to use the sheep metaphor, we're calling sheep into the fold. We're calling them into a place of safety in Christ and to gather together with the people of God around true salvation.

And we rejoice at what the Lord is doing in our midst. But at the same time as you call them into the fold, also we build a fence around to protect it. And so as we preach the gospel, we bring people into the fold. God brings people into the fold is what I mean by that.

But then we also build protection around by warning against dangers and helping people to see that they need to stay on the narrow way. So tonight I just want to further that work and help you develop a right mindset toward false religion. Some of you have come out of Catholicism. Some of you have come out of other religions and religious backgrounds. And the Lord saved us from a broad variety of different backgrounds. But we need to understand these things rightly.

And one of the great things that I'm concerned about, if not the primary concern I have, is for people who, for perhaps new Christians or careless Christians, who would naively think that they can just enter into a study of false religion, come under the influence of books by false teachers, and not be affected by that. And that's what I want to help people see and understand is that these are things to recognize that are dangerous and that need to be avoided. If you think about it just in terms of toxic chemicals. Toxic chemicals. Well, the people that deal with toxic chemicals are extraordinarily careful with how they deal with them. They know that those chemicals are lethal if they enter into them in an unprotected state.

So that's why they have hazmat suits and they take great, great care to insulate themselves from the ingestion of those chemicals into themselves because they know that it's deadly if they do, even if it's not immediately apparent, that that would be the result. Well, false religion is like that. False teaching is like that. And Scripture is just abundantly clear that we are to have nothing to do with it. And so we want to have a right mindset toward it all.

So two points, two points for tonight. The first one is a little bit more introductory. And to address maybe somebody who's hearing the gospel, thinking through it, but is troubled by the fact that there are so many different religions that are out there. And there are so many different opinions about Jesus, about the Bible. And it gets even worse when people who are supposedly Christian professors and Christian teachers cast doubt on Scripture, cast doubt on true salvation, minimize the danger and threat of false religion. And so an ordinary person like you and me come to this and say, well, if the experts are in conflict, what hope is there for me of finding the truth? And in Christian academia, it's not unusual for people who profess, men who profess to be evangelical scholars, for them to abandon the faith.

There was one man a few years ago who was the president of the Evangelical Theological Society who abandoned the faith and turned to Catholicism. Well, for someone like you and me, how are we to look at that and say, if that can happen to him, then what hope is there of me finding the truth and holding firm to the truth? Well, our first point tonight is to give you a sense of confidence and a recognition that that is no barrier to you knowing the truth at all. The fact that there are men who have apostatized turned away from the truth, that there are conflicting opinions among so-called experts, that's no barrier for you to know the truth at all.

You don't need to be afraid of that or intimidated by that at all. And so the first point that I want to show you is the battle is not new. The battle is not new. And as you read scripture, this is very important to understand. As you read scripture, you will find that false teachers have always opposed those who spoke for God, every time without exception. And it goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden in the verse that I read. Here were Adam and Eve in their innocence created in an innocent state, and God had provided everything for them.

He had given them one commandment to keep, but had given them access to everything. They had communion with him, and Satan comes in the form of a serpent and opposes God, undermines the Word of God by casting suspicion on it. Surely God didn't say that. From the very beginning, there has been opposition to God. There has been opposition to the truth.

And so we need to realize that the battle is not new. And I just want to take you through a number of scriptures to help you see this. But just by general overview, think about Moses when he was speaking the Word of God before Pharaoh. Right there, right in front of him, there were the Egyptian magicians that were challenging him and duplicating false miracles in order to cast doubt on the real miracles that Moses was doing. Moses was challenged by the Egyptian magicians at the height of his important ministry of the Word of God.

The prophet Elijah was challenged by the prophets of Baal, and the ratio was something like, what, 450 prophets to Elijah? One man standing against hundreds of false prophets? And yet Moses had the truth.

Elijah had the truth. Think about the time of Jesus, and we'll look at several scriptures about this. But all through the course of his ministry, the Pharisees were challenging Jesus, undermining him, threatening him, and stirring up the people against him. And so this is Old Testament and New Testament. This is not a new battle. And so for us today to be in a pluralistic society where the concept of absolute truth is denied, every religion is supposedly an equal path to God, you have your truth, I have my truth, and all of that other nauseating false philosophy, what you and I need to do in the midst of that is to just step back, kind of push everything off of the table, and just come back to the simple word of God, and to realize that it's always been this way.

There has always been opposition to the truth. And so if you'll turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 7, and we'll just look through a number of different passages here, I just want to show you in many, many places that the battle is not new. There was confusion over Jesus in the midst of his earthly ministry. So in John, chapter 7, verse 11, Jesus was heading up to the feast. It says in verse 11, John 7, verse 11, the Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, where is he?

And look at verse 12. And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said he is a good man, others said, no, he is leading the people astray. Same Jesus eyewitnesses to the time, interpreting him differently.

He's a bad man, he's a good man. There was conflict there. And so this isn't new that we have confusion and conflict over the truth here today. Look in the same chapter, beginning at verse 40, John 7, verse 40. When they heard these words, some of the people said, this really is the prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that Christ comes from the offspring of David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was? So, verse 43, so there was a division among the people over him.

You start to see the theme, right? That he's a good man, no, he's a bad man. He's a prophet, he's the Christ. No, he leads the people astray. There's division over Jesus during his earthly ministry when Jesus was right there.

People couldn't come to a consensus or an agreement about him. Now, that's not all. Look at John chapter 9. John chapter 9, verse 16, and this whole chapter would be a wonderful study to add to this, and Phil Johnson has preached with great skill out of this passage.

You could find that message I'm sure online, a message or series of messages. But Jesus healed a man who was born blind, and the Pharisees didn't like that. They attacked the man born blind. They questioned the legitimacy of the miracle. His parents wouldn't stand up for him. They were afraid of the Pharisees, and so they said, he's of age, you ask him.

Don't trouble me with it. But all of this, just by way of simple background, in verse 15, the Pharisees asked the blind man who had been healed at this point, they again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, he put mud on my eyes, and I washed and I see.

Very simple. This man knew the truth, and very simple. He couldn't have contested the Pharisees on the fine points of the Mosaic law, but he knew the truth that he knew, and he clung to it.

He stuck to it. And so the division continues in verse 16. Some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.

But others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them. The Pharisees couldn't agree among themselves.

They had Jesus right there. They had an undeniable miracle that had been performed, and there's conflict and confusion and division over it all. And so, verse 17, they said again to the blind man, what do you say about him since he has opened your eyes? He said he is a prophet. And on and on the story goes.

Division, confusion, opposition, directly competing opinions that are irreconcilable and mutually exclusive. Look at the Gospel of John chapter 10, beginning in verse 19. As I often do, we'll go back a verse. Jesus said in verse 18, he said, no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

This charge I have received from my Father. And what's the response to that clear teaching of his sovereignty over all things, his sovereignty over his life, the fact that he would voluntarily lay down his life as an atonement for sinners. What was the response to that? Verse 19, there was again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said he has a demon and is insane. Why listen to him? Others said these are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon.

Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? And so once again, you just see this theme repeatedly in John's Gospel. And you know, it's what happened when Jesus asked the disciples, who do people say that I am? Some say you're Jeremiah. Some say you're one of the prophets. Some say you're Elijah. Who do you say that I am?

All of this showing that confusion and division marked the response to the ministry of Christ during his earthly life and his earthly teaching. And so again, I'm repeating myself because this point is so very, very important. It is. It's very important. That's why I said very, very, very important.

I used that adverb three times, I think, because it's so important. The fact that there are a multiplicity of religions in the world, that there are a multiplicity of competing churches teaching different things, even in our own region, even within this two-mile radius of this place, it's not new. It's always been that way, and it always will be until the Lord returns and banishes the deceiver into the pit. So it happened with Jesus.

Beloved, it happened. There was confusion over the apostles. Also, just to show you a couple of verses, couple of instances, turn to the book of Acts, chapter 14. Acts, chapter 14.

And at this point, you know, I've already established the premise. I've already proven the point from Scripture that this battle is not new, but I just want to add example after example after example because it helps us drive the point home to our hearts that we must expect there to be confusion and opposition to the truth. We expect it because it was true at the time of the Lord and at the time of his chosen apostles. Now, if you look at Acts, chapter 14, beginning in verse 1, now at Iconium, they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. This is talking about Paul and Barnabas. But despite the truth being taught, despite the fact that many were believing and there was progress in the teaching, verse 2, but the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

So they remained for a long time speaking boldly for the Lord who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But, verse 4, the people of the city were divided. Some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles.

The division. They're speaking lies. No, they're speaking the truth. I'm with the Jews. I oppose the apostles. I'm with the apostles. I oppose the Jews. This is nothing new.

This is always been the case. And then, skipping over many other things that we could have looked at, just go to the end of the book of Acts in chapter 28, near the very end of the entire book. Acts chapter 28. By this point, Paul is in Rome waiting for his hearing on his appeal to Caesar, and we read that some of the Christian brethren came to see him and to talk to him, and they wanted to hear what he had to say. They had heard about him in the past. Now he was in their presence.

And so Paul is explaining what happened. He says in verse 19, because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, though I had no charge to bring against my nation. For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain. And they said to him, We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you. But, verse 22, we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against.

It's spoken against everywhere. Here's the apostle Paul, the epitome of truth, the great apostle speaking the truth, and everything everywhere people are speaking against him and what he says. Who could ever convince anyone of the truth in an environment like that? Verse 23, When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers.

From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets. And here we see it again. And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. Confusion, disagreement, different conclusions, different opinions. And so we see all of this, and we can easily draw the conclusion going all the way back to the garden, going back to Moses, going to the prophets, through the life of Jesus, through the apostles.

It's always been this way, beloved. Truth is always challenged. You don't have any trouble finding somebody that will argue against the things that you believe or the things that are taught from the pulpit of your church. Now what does that mean for you then? And what does it mean for somebody who's maybe new to reading scripture? You know, there's new desires in her heart to be looking for truth and to be exploring things and all of that. And you're met with resistance. Well, here's the thing that I would say is that you cannot resist the need for discernment. You can't resent the fact that discernment is necessary. You can't resist discernment.

Scripture calls us to it. And another thing to say about it is you cannot, you cannot, it is not morally justifiable to just throw up your hands and say, oh, who can know? You know, if people can't agree, if the experts can't agree, there's no help for me.

I'm not even going to try. That's not a legitimate response because you're called to seek out the truth and to know it. And so you don't resist discernment.

You don't resist the practice of discernment. Rather, what you do is you resist the force and the reality of false religion instead. Don't resent the fact that you have to search out the truth and know it for yourself. Don't resent that. Resist the fact that there are false religions, false teachers, false Christians even who undermine the Scripture, resist them and resent the fact that people are obscuring the truth.

To the extent that you're prone to frustration, know the object where you should take out your frustration. It's not on the truth. It's against the false things that undermine the truth. Now along with that, I would just say, the other thing that I would say is this, is that, and I just plead with you, those of you that maybe are on the front end of sorting out what you think and believe especially, and by way of helping those of you that are settled in Christ to know how to help others who raise this common objection, you know, there's so many opinions, how can I know what's true? Listen, if you wait to determine what you believe until the crowd agrees, the crowd is all in agreement, you're going to die in your sins because the crowd will never come to an agreement. There will never be an agreement about Christ. There will never be a consensus in the world about the true way of salvation. You have to look at all of those things that are out there and taking place and realize that ultimately the question that comes to you is this. It's the same question that Jesus asked his disciples after they recited the many conflicting opinions about who the person of Christ was.

It comes down to this. Jesus says, in effect, he says, okay, forget about the crowds. Forget about the conflict. Forget about the confusion.

The question becomes this, who do you say that I am? You have to take personal responsibility, and Christ calls you to come to your own conclusions. Read the scriptures. Read the New Testament in particular.

Read his authoritative words. See the display of his miraculous powers. See his assertions of deity.

See him hanging on the cross and crying out, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing. And then you answer the question for yourself, is this book a lie or is it true? Is Christ Lord or is he a deceiver who is controlled by demons? You have to answer that question for yourself, and you cannot shuffle off responsibility for your own response to Christ by saying, well, there's a lot of conflicting opinions out there. The disciples weren't excused from drawing their own conclusions, and neither are you. Jesus Christ comes directly to your heart, directly to your conscience, and asks you directly, personally, and you will be accountable for the answer that you give to him. Christ says, who do you say that I am? And that's the proper way to frame the question and realize that what the crowds say is no excuse to avoid the question, and perhaps more encouragingly, what the crowds say is no barrier to you coming to a settled knowledge of the truth for yourself that becomes your own personal possession as you look to Christ and trust in him. The fact that there are many opinions is no barrier to you knowing the truth.

The fact that there are many false religions out there is no barrier to you knowing the truth, and so the battle is not new. That's the first thing that we wanted to say here this evening. My friend, I want to let you know of a special ministry that we have at thetruthpulpit.com that's very near to my heart. We have a ministry to those who are in prison, and in the nature of life, sometimes we have loved ones that go astray and find themselves behind bars and spending significant time in incarceration. Well, we have a ministry to them. We send them transcripts of messages that I've preached from the Pulpit of Truth Community Church. We do it on a weekly basis.

They get mail every week. If you have a loved one in prison that you would like to have us reach out to in that way, do me a favor. Go to our website, thetruthpulpit.com. That's thetruthpulpit.com. Click on the link that says About, and you'll see a dropdown menu that will take you to our prison ministry. You can fill out the form, and we'll be happy to respond and then join in with you in ministering to that one who is outside the normal course of society. So that's thetruthpulpit.com, the About link for our prison ministry.

That will do it for today. We'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.