the Lord our righteousness. We confess to you, Lord, that
we have no righteousness outside of him, that our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags before thee. And oh, how we hope and pray
this morning that you would enable us once again to look to him,
to rest in him, to find our hope and all our salvation in his
glorious person and in his accomplished work. We pray for our brother Jerry
and for the brethren in Australia and ask, Lord, that you'd give
them safe travel and give them good fellowship in the gospel. And Lord, we ask that you'd be
merciful to little Abigail. We pray for parents and sisters
and ask, Lord, that you would speak peace to their hearts Pray
for the physicians and ask Lord that you give them wisdom and
give them understanding and we ask for your hand of healing
to touch little Abigail and give her good strength and life. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I know from the very outset that
I'm going to be misunderstood by some in this message, but
so be it. I know that some will criticize
me as they have in the past of being too judgmental and too
critical and too narrow-minded, but so be it. God's people will
hear the truth of God's Word And I believe, I know that what
I have prepared to speak this morning is confirmed by the word
of God. And I pray that it will be confirmed
to the hearts of God's people. I know it will be. I've titled
this first message, Christianity, and that's in quotes, Christianity
is not Christian. Christianity is not Christian.
And it's so well illustrated in Daniel chapter 5 what the
vast majority of the world calls Christianity is actually Babylonian
paganism using the holy things of God to praise the gods of
silver, and of brass and of gold and of iron and of wood and of
stone. They've stolen the holy things. That's exactly what Belshazzar
does in Daniel chapter 5. He takes those vessels that his
grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem
when they sacked Jerusalem and brought them back to Babylon
and now Belshazzar in an attempt to worship the pagan gods of
Babylon brings out the vessels, the holy vessels, the things
that have been anointed, the things that have been set apart
for the worship of God and involves them in the worship of his pagan
gods. The world has never been more
pagan than it is today, never. There's never been more of a
variety of man-made gods than there are today. And what grieves my soul and
what grieves the heart of every believer is when they take the
name of our God and use His name and His word and His ordinances
to worship the God of gold, The God of silver, the God of brass,
the God of iron, the God of stone, and the God of wood. But that
is exactly, exactly what's going on in the world today. The Lord
warns us of this. He tells us to be on guard for
many false prophets will go out into the world. Satan by profession
is a counterfeiter. That's all he knows to do is
counterfeit the things of God and counterfeits regardless of
how close they are to the real thing are all worthless. They're worthless. Daniel chapter 5, Christianity
is not Christian. There's nothing Let me go a step
further. There's nothing Christian about
the Christianity of our day. Nothing Christian about it. Daniel chapter 5 verse 1, Belshazzar
the king made a great feast to the thousands of his lords and
drank wine before the thousands, Belshazzar. Now Belshazzar in
this passage is referred to as the son of Nebuchadnezzar But
in the language of the Bible, grandchildren or great-grandchildren
are often referred to as the son of. And we know that Nebuchadnezzar
was, in fact, Belshazzar's grandfather. But be that it is, Belshazzar,
while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver
vessels which his father, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken out of the temple which
was in Jerusalem that the king and his princes and his wives
and his concubines might drink therein. Then they brought the
golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house
of God, which was at Jerusalem. And the king and his princes
and his wives and his concubines drank in them. And they drank
wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver and of brass
and of iron and of wood and of stone. And in the same hour came
forth fingers of a man's hand and rode over against the candlestick
upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the
king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance
was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints
of his loins were loosed and his knees smoked one against
the other. And the king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers,
the Chaldeans, the soothsayers, And the king spake and said to
the wise men of Babylon, whosoever shall read this writing and show
me the interpretation thereof shall be clothed with scarlet
and have a chain of gold upon his neck and shall be the third
ruler in the kingdom. Then came in all the king's wise
men, but they were not able, they could not read the writing
nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof. Then
was King Belshazzar greatly troubled and his countenance was changed
and his lords were astonished. We're going to stay in this chapter
both hours and we'll see the end of the story is that the
handwriting on the wall was a judgment by God against Belshazzar and
that judgment was carried out that very night. That very night,
Belshazzar died. And the beginning point of this
story is that The Lord would have left Belshazzar and his
wives and concubines alone until he brought the holy vessels into
his pagan worship. What I understand from that is
that the most evil and the greatest judged
thing that's happening in this world is not the bad behavior
of the irreligious people that the religious point their finger
at. But it's what's going on among those who call themselves
Christians who are using the holy things of God to worship
God's fashioned with their own hands. You've heard me say this
before, I'll say it again, God is much more grieved. Listen carefully, God is much
more grieved by what happens in brightly lit religious houses
on Sunday mornings than he is with darkened, smoke-filled rooms
on Saturday nights. God is much more grieved. That's
the point of this. The judgment of God is going
to come against all those who take the holy things of God and
use the name of our God to worship the God of their own making. What does gold and silver and
brass and iron and wood and stone have in common? Well, one thing they have in
common is they're all inanimate. They're not alive. They're dead. And so is the imaginary god of
men's minds. He's a dead god. He cannot save. Look at, look at verse 23 of this chapter,
but thou hast, Daniel's going to be, you know Daniel's brought
in and he interprets the dream. And he, I mean the vision, he
interprets the writing on the wall. And we'll see what that
interpretation is, but here's Daniel's judgment against, against
Belshazzar. Thou hast lifted up thyself against
the Lord of heaven. and they have brought the vessels
of his house before thee. And thou and thy lords and thy
wives and thy concubines have drunk wine in them. And thou
has praised the gods of silver and gold and brass and iron and
wood and stone, which see not." So these gods are blind. They're
blind. And so is the God. of man's imagination. He's a
blind God. He's an inanimate God. He's a
figment of man's imagination. The scripture says there are
many Jesus's in this world. There are many gospels. There
are many spirits. And so it is. And oh how I want
you and me to believe on the one who sees. He sees everything. He's not blind as the gods of
gold and silver and brass and iron, wood and stone are. Oh,
he sees. He sees the perfect righteousness
of his glorious son as the only hope of our salvation. And he gives those who are by
nature blind the ability to see. Not only are these gods, Daniel
says, blind, but they can't hear. They're deaf. You can pray to them all you
want. They're not able to do anything because they're blind,
they're deaf, and look, nor know. They're dumb. They don't know
anything. They don't know your needs. They
cannot respond to a sinner's need. men, the majority of men
in this world are praying to a God who doesn't exist. A God
who cannot see, a God who cannot hear, a God who knows nothing. A God that is just as dead as
these inanimate objects. In whose hand and the God and
here's what Daniel says at the end of verse 23, and the God
in whose hands thy breath is and whose are all thy ways, him
you have not glorified. You've not glorified the God
who is. You've glorified yourself. You've glorified your religious
practices. You've glorified your knowledge.
You've glorified your works. You've glorified your will. You've
not glorified the God who is. This is a description of the
rank paganism that's taking place in the world today by people
who call themselves Christians. Turn to me to Psalm 115. Psalm
115. You listen to the message of
those who call themselves Christians today, and it's all about them. It's all about them. You listen
to their testimony. You know, I was doing this, and
I was doing that, and I accepted Jesus, and I'm, and now I'm,
and you listen to what they're doing for God, and I, it all
starts with I, doesn't it? All starts with I. That's the
problem with pagan religion. They're blind, but they've got
an eye problem, don't they? They just think it's all about
them. And look what the Lord says in Psalm 115. Not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy
and for thy truth's sake. The truth of the gospel. Now,
we're not here to just stand in judgment against the
false gospel, we're here to see the truth in contrast to that
false gospel. And we're here in hopes that
we'll be warned by God's word. So false religion is all about
man. It's not about God. Not about
God, not about His glory, it's about my glory. It's about my
works, it's about my will, it's about what I'm doing for God,
it's about what I've done and where I've been. And what do
the heathens say? What do they say when they look
at a group like this or they look at a small group meeting
in a home somewhere? across the country and different
places in the world and what are the religious groups that
have such political and social power and wealth in this world?
What do they say about us? Where is your God? Where is your
God? Look at what our God's done for
us. Wherefore should the heathen
say where is now their God? I'll tell you where our God is,
our God is in the heavens and He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. I want you to notice the verb
tense there, not He will do what He wants to do but He hath done
whatsoever He pleases. In God's time it's already done.
Purpose of God, you remember what Nebuchadnezzar said in chapter
4 of Daniel chapter 4 that the Nations are nothing in thy sight. And you rule sovereign over the
armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth and
no man can stay your hand, no man can say unto you, what doest
thou? Our God is sovereign. And that's what David is now
saying. But our God is in the heavens
and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. He hath accomplished
the work of salvation in the finished work of his dear son
on Calvary's cross. He hath done. It's finished.
It's done. God was pleased to save. God was pleased first to choose
that particular people in the covenant of grace. His elect,
he was pleased to do that. He was pleased to write their
names in the Lamb's Book of Life. He was pleased to send his son
to accomplish the redemption of his elect. He was pleased
to send his spirit to work out regeneration in all those for
whom Christ died. He's not going to be pleased
for any of his children to be lost, every single one of them. What God hath done whatsoever
He pleases. Look at verse 4 of Psalm 115. Their idols, now David wrote
this long before Daniel, their idols are silver and gold the
works of men's hands the works of men's hands now that's paganism
that's idolatry and every single one of us come into this world
with an idol factory already beginning to fashion idols in
our own imagination, don't we? Our darkened imagination. God
said you thought that I was altogether as thyself. And if the Lord doesn't
shine the light of the gospel in our hearts in the face of
the Lord Jesus Christ and reveal to us the finished work of Christ,
You've made these gods after your own hands. Who can stand
in the presence of God? Them who have clean hands. How do your hands look? Our hands
are a picture of our works. Are you willing to present something
you've done to God for the hope of your salvation? He who has
clean hands and a pure heart and has not lifted up his soul
to vanity. Man in his very best state is
altogether vanity. We're just vain people, aren't
we? That's why David says, not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory. Lord,
you get all the glory. You get all the praise. You evaluate
the truth of the gospel in light of what's being called Christianity
today, and you will come to the same conclusion I've come to.
Christianity is nowhere near being Christian. verse 5 they have mouths but
they speak not. An inanimate object can't speak,
gold can't speak, silver can't speak, stone can't speak, wood
can't speak. The Lord is saying your gods
are just gods that you fashioned with your own hands. Gods that
you've relied upon your own works for and they have mouths but
that You shape them so that they have mouths. You say they have
mouths, but their mouths are silent. They can't speak the
truth of God's word. Eyes they have, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but
they smell not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk not. Neither speak they
through their throats. Look at verse 8. They that make
them are like unto them, so is everyone that trusteth in them. Oh, child of God, trust not in
the works of your own hands. Seek not your own glory in salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ did it
all. He gets all the glory and all
the praise. And don't be confused about those
who take the precious name of our God and mix it with the worship
of gold and silver and brass and iron and stone and wood.
Those are gods that they fashioned after themselves. And they're
just like the gods that they have. They can't hear. They can't
speak, they can't see. The seeing eye and the hearing
ear are from the Lord. God's got to give that and he
gives that through the hearing of the gospel, the gospel of
God's free grace in the glorious person and accomplished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This story in Daniel chapter
5 tells us the condition of the world in which we live. It's never been any more pagan
than it is now. The heathens, the heathens, the
godless heathens are everywhere. Someone said, well that, you
sound, you sound, oh no, who maketh thee to differ? What do
you have that you've not received? And if you've received it, why
do you boast as if you didn't receive it? If God makes us to
differ, if he makes the Israelites to differ from the Egyptians,
and he did, then he gets the glory for that, doesn't he? Lord, you've caused me to see
the difference. I cannot tell you how many people have listened
to the gospel that I've talked to, and they can't discern the
difference. They can't tell the difference.
I told folks Wednesday night, I was talking to a man Wednesday
and sharing the gospel with him. Oh yeah, I listen to Joel Osteen
all the time. And I thought, oh no, you can't
tell the difference between what I'm saying to you right now and
what Joel Osteen is saying. You can't tell the difference.
Joel Osteen talks about God. He talks about Jesus. He uses
the word grace. That's exactly what's happening
here in Daniel chapter 5. And the judgment of God comes
against them. I don't want anything to do with
God's judgment, do you? Lord, I want to know the truth.
I don't want to be deceived. This is life eternal that they
might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. And Paul said, I know whom I
have believed. and I'm persuaded I'm persuaded
that he is able these gods are not able to do anything they
don't exist John said men many antichrist
shall come even now There are many whereby we know that is
the last time. Now John wrote that 2,000 years
ago. Antichrist is not Islam. Antichrist are those who take
the name of Christ and deny the very essence of who he is and
what he did. That's the antichrist. And the
heresies were already among the people and already in the church
2000 years ago, and they've only gotten worse. They've only gotten
worse. Turn to me to second Thessalonians.
I pray the Lord will give me grace to speak the truth
here. Second Thessalonians chapter
2, verse 1. Now we beseech you, brethren. And that's what I want to do
right now. I want to beseech you. I want to come along beside. I want us to beseech one another,
encourage one another, help one another. I beseech you by the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together
unto him. He is coming. And when that trump
of God sounds and the dead in Christ are raised, the Eastern
sky splits and those of us which are alive are caught up together
with them in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. I wanna
be a part of that, don't you? I wanna make sure that I'm a
part of that. Verse two, that you shall not
soon be shaken in mind or be troubled
neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us as the
day of the Lord is at hand." Now there were, what Paul's referring
to is there's some men that are sending letters out saying that
they're from me and they're not from me. There's some men out
there saying, well I said this and I didn't say it. And there's
a spirit out there that's not the spirit of God. Don't be deceived
by it. Let no man deceive you, verse
three, by any means. For that day shall not come except
there come a falling away first and the man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition. Who's the man of sin? Who is
the son of perdition? Who opposeth and exalted himself
above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that
he as God said if in the temple of God showing himself that he
is God that's that's modern-day Christianity man claiming to be God so well
how I'm heard Christians talk like that. Sure you have. Sure you have. When they say
God loves everybody, what are they saying? God loves those who die and go
to hell as well as He loves those who end up in glory. What are
men saying? Here's what they're saying. They're
saying the love of God has absolutely nothing to do with one's salvation. has nothing to do with it. What I do with God's love has
everything to do with my salvation. Now who's on the throne of God?
They say God wants everybody to be saved. He wants those who die and go
to hell to be saved. He wants those who are saved
to be saved. He wants everybody to be saved.
What do they say? They're saying the will of God
has nothing to do with a man's salvation. That's my decision. I put myself on the throne of
God. Modern day Christianity is simply
not Christian. It is the farthest thing from
Christian. Man is setting himself up on the throne of God in the
temple of God, in what he calls the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where it's happening.
This isn't happening in some temple in India, or in some pagan
practice in some far flung place in the world. This is happening
in what men call Christian churches. Verse five, remember you not
that when I was yet with you, I told you these things, and
now you know what withholdeth. that he might be revealed in
his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth
already work." The mystery of iniquity. Now in Revelation Chapter 17,
this Babylonian church is called Mystery Babylon. Mystery Babylon. She's got a works gospel. She's
got a free will gospel. She has set herself up on the
throne of God. And now the Lord is saying she's
going to be revealed in her time. This is the man of sin. This
is the mystery of iniquity. This is the son of perdition. All
these terms are being used to describe the same person. It's
a false gospel. For the mystery of iniquity doth
already work, verse 7, only he who now letteth will let until
he be taken out of the way. Now persecution began very early
in the church. Herod had James killed and And
he saw that it pleased the Jews and Saul of Tarsus went out to
arrest and murder Christians and most of the persecution in
the first generation of the church was done by the Jews. But then
after that, after that, the Roman emperors persecuted the church
without mercy for the next 250 years. and uh... it was until well was
in it was in three thirteen actually eighty when augustine uh... uh... uh... uh... constantine
that roman emperor had a vision of a of a cross in the cloud
in a battle that he was and he won the battle so he decided
that you know well that must be my sign from god that i'm
a big and and he forced the entire roman uh... world to become Christian. Christianity became the religion
of Rome and the man of perdition was set
up on the throne of God. What was withholding this man
of position, what was letting this man of perdition until he
was taken out of the way was the persecution of Rome. What
happened to the Roman Empire is that it morphed into the Holy
Roman Empire, didn't it? And when we speak of Christianity
today, it's not so much a, it's not so popular here in America,
but in the world, the Catholic Church is Christianity. And she
is the mother of all harlots. And she's the one being spoken
of here. And she's got a lot of children. She's got a lot
of children. And every, what came out of the
Reformation was just a change of Catholicism. And men call
it all Christianity. They're taking the holy vessels
out of the temple of God and they're using them to worship
the gods of stone, the gods of wood, the gods of gold and iron
and brass and silver and the judgment of God is coming against
all of it and God calls it paganism, Babylonianism. Verse 8, In 2 Thessalonians 2, and then
shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of
his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders. This is the devil, it's not God. What men call Christianity today
was birthed and hatched out of the pit of hell. There's nothing
Christian about it. Verse 10, and with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish. Why? Why are they deceived? Why are they trusting in their
works and their free will and their righteousness as the hope
of their salvation? because they receive not the
love of the truth that they might be saved. Now, here's my question
for me and for you this morning, have received the love of the
truth, the love of the truth. Now, there are some people that
are gonna hear this message and that, well, yeah, you're right,
you're right. you love Christ love him love
salvation by grace Lord I don't want anything I want anything
to do with my salvation if you look to me for anything I won't be saved that they might
be saved and for this cause verse 11 and for this cause God shall
send them strong delusion you said that they believe themselves
to be christians yeah they do when god sends you a strong delusion
you're just deluded there's no get around i mean you you're
going to believe when god when god sends a strong delusion that's
it for this cause god shall send
them a strong delusion that they should uh... believe the lie. The lie. They believed it. They
believe they have a free will. They believe there's some virtue
in their righteousness. They believe the lie. Verse 12,
that they might all be damned who believe not the truth but
had pleasure in unrighteousness. Now that doesn't just mean that
they had pleasure in their acts of shameful rebellion against
God. It means they took pleasure in
the fact that what they were calling righteousness God called
unrighteousness. They're taking pleasure in what
they're doing for God and what they've done for God. They're
robbing Christ of His glory and trusting in themselves for
the hope of their salvation. The world in which we live The
nation in which we live, the city in which we live has never
been more pagan. It's never been more heathen. The Greeks in all of their mythological
gods never imagined as many gods as we have today. But they are
all inanimate. They are all blind. They are
all deaf. They are unable to save. let
them call their gods whatever they want they are babylonian
gods and uh... all child of god don't be deceived
by them don't be deceived say well but my grandmother and my
parents you know they're good people they're good people How
could they be pagan? How could they be heathen? How
could God exercise that judgment against them? Well, the Lord
just told us because they had no love for the truth. You see,
when we call somebody good, all we're doing is comparing them
to other people. No man is good. The Lord said
to the to the rich young ruler, why callest thou me good? There's
none good but God. We have a different standard
of goodness when we call someone good, don't we? God has a completely different
standard. His goodness is the perfect righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ and He alone, He alone is able to save. Alright, let's take a break. Okay.