The Bible Baptist Church located
at 2015 Eula Road in Madisonville, Kentucky would like to invite
you to listen to a message of the sovereign grace of God in
the Lord Jesus Christ by their pastor David Edmondson. The Apostle Paul told the church
at Corinth, I fear, I'm deeply concerned, that the same way
the serpent beguiled, the same way the serpent deceived Eve
through subtlety, that your minds should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth
another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another
spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel which ye have
not accepted, ye might well bear with him." Or in other words,
you might give him an ear. But since there's not another
Jesus and another spirit and another gospel, you better not.
Paul told the church at Galatia, he said, I marvel that you are
so soon removed from him, from God, that called you into the
grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another,
but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. This morning, my desire is to
simply make you aware from the scriptures, from God's word,
the Bible, what God says about false religion. And you can narrow
down every and all religions and every and all denominations
within those religions down to two groups, the true and the
false, the gospel and another gospel, which is not another.
The message of Jesus Christ and him crucified and the message
of another Jesus, which Paul declares to be a perversion of
the true gospel. There are those who believe in
God's grace in Christ, and those who trust in their own works
and in their own doing. And there are those who trust
in what Christ has done, and those who believe and preach
that salvation is of the Lord, and those who preach and believe
salvation's of man. You see, it doesn't matter what
I think, and it doesn't matter what you think. It only matters
what God says, and God speaks to us through His word. And what
I hope to show you from the scriptures this morning, and what I hope
God would divinely reveal to us from his word, is his total
rejection and displeasure of any perversion, any distortion,
misrepresentation, or deviation from his truth. Years ago, the
church where I attended used to sing that old song, give me
that old time religion. It's good enough for me. You
remember that song. It was good enough for mama.
It was good enough for daddy. It was good enough for grandma
and it's good enough for me. But the question is, is it good
enough for God? In order to be accepted by Him,
the Bible clearly declares and states that it has to be perfect
to be accepted. And they used to sing that old
song, this old time religion, it makes the Methodist love the
Baptist and the Catholic to love the Protestant. But is it enough
to make God love the sinner? The sinner's offering and sacrifice
to a thrice holy God has to be perfect. There's only one thing
that God will accept, and that's the perfect righteousness of
Jesus Christ. The perfect finished work of
the Lord Jesus. Nothing else is good enough.
Nothing we can offer is good enough. And there's nothing more
upsetting to a true child of God, a believer in Christ, than
to have someone lie on their God and make the efficacy of
their Savior's blood to mean nothing. What do I mean by that? Well, to say that Christ shed
his blood for sinners who can still be lost is to do just that. Today's religion says let's join
hands together. Let's go along and get along. Let's put away our differences
for the common good of the preaching of the gospel. But the problem
is they don't preach the gospel. Paul said it's another gospel,
another Jesus, and another spirit. And the God that I hear declared
today by mainstream religion doesn't even come close to resembling
the God of the Bible. The Jesus Christ that most in
religion preach is a pathetic failure compared to the true
God-man, the Christ of the Bible, that this word boldly declares. And it's true what the Lord told
David. Men and women imagine God and
His Christ to be altogether such a one as themselves. They thank
God to be like them. But in the end, God will reprove,
He'll dispute, convince, correct, and rebuke those who declare
such self-centered things. And it was then that the Lord
told David, now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear
you to pieces and there be none to deliver. God's nothing like
us, and He's certainly nothing like the God that false religion
preaches and worships. God is not wanting to save you,
God saves. God's not trying to save you,
God saves. He saves on purpose, He saves
with power. And God has a zero tolerance
concerning everything that's not the truth and is contrary
to his gospel. That's why Paul wrote, but though
we are an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than
the one we have preached to you, let him be accursed. We are to distance ourselves
and separate ourselves from false religions doctrine, their worship
and their practices. The gospel of God is singular,
and to involve ourselves with teaching that's contrary to God's
truth will in the end bring only eternal destruction. Now let
me say this, I know that there are some sincere people that
no doubt love Christ in the light that God has given them. There's
some people in religion today that love Christ. However, the
God that most folks in religion worship is not God. He's a figment
of men and women's imagination. He's too much like man to be
God. And it doesn't take long in talking
to someone to find out that you and them have two different gods,
two different saviors, two different hopes. Their hope is in doing,
and your hope is already done. Your salvation's already accomplished.
And it's not the same God, it's another Jesus. The Lord described
false religion as doing iniquity. He said, many will say, Lord,
Lord. These are not the words of an
infidel, those are the words of someone who professes to believe
Jesus Christ is Lord. And they start out well calling
him Lord, but they praise him with their lips and their hearts
are far from him. The truth of their hearts are
revealed when they ask, haven't we done? A true believer never
speaks that way. It's not about what we've done.
It's about what God has done. Haven't we preached in your name?
They said, haven't we cast out devils? Haven't we done many
wonderful works? Haven't we, haven't we, haven't
we? And the Lord said, depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. When we expect reward or acceptance
for something that we do, even if it's a good thing, it immediately
becomes iniquity. In salvation, it does. That kind
of religion does nothing but honor self, and God will not
share His glory with another. God will say, I never knew you. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul listed
several things that men and women are by nature. He said, neither
fornicators, Idolaters, adulterers, thieves, drunkards, rebellers,
extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And then he said,
and such were some of you, but you are washed, but you are sanctified,
but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and led
by the spirit of God. It's God who has sanctified us. That word sanctified means to
be made holy. By the witch will, we are sanctified,
made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all, Hebrews 10, 10. How are we sanctified? were sanctified,
made holy in Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all that in
every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both
theirs and ours." 1 Corinthians 1. Jude wrote, "...to them that
are sanctified, to them that are made holy by God the Father
and preserved in Jesus Christ and called." Jude 1. God's people
are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification,
being made holy, that's what the word means, being made holy
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Christ. You can only be made holy one
way, through Jesus Christ, only by the substitutionary work of
Christ. And this holiness is a state
of being, friends, not a progressive work of sanctification that the
sinner themselves do. There are no degrees of holiness.
You're either holy or you're not. And the believer is holy
because God made them so. We're made holy because God chose
us to be holy in the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 15, 16, Christ
said, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. We didn't decide
to follow Jesus. He decided to save us before
the foundation of the world. The Lord said, I have ordained
you. You have not ordained yourselves. Christ ordained us to go and
bring forth fruit. We have not ordained ourselves
to do so. Many believe that election is
a reason for pride. That's not so, it's just the
opposite. How can one take pride in something
that they had nothing to do with? You see, we're bought with a
price. We didn't purchase ourselves.
We've been bought with the precious blood of Christ. Where's boasting
then? It's excluded. By what law or
of works? No, but by the law of grace,
Romans 3 27. By believing and trusting in
Jesus Christ who loved and gave himself for us. Paul wrote, according
as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. We
are made holy because God loved us before the world was ever
made. The love of God for His people brought justice and judgment
and wrath upon our substitute because God loved us. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and he sent his son to be a propitiation
for our sins, 1 John 4, 10. Unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests
unto God. and His Father. To Him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Revelation 1, 5, and 6.
Our dedication to Christ is never the cause of our salvation. It's
always the result. We love Him because He first
loved us. Why do we love Him? Because He
first loved us. Those who love Christ are those
whom Christ has caused to love them. His love for us is the
cause of our love for Him. And if you know that, it was
God that revealed it to you. It's not in man's nature to believe
that. Man believes God loves them because
they loved Him. But that's backwards and that's
only known by divine revelation. God loved us. God chose us. Salvation does not come by the
great things that men and women believe that they do for God.
Religion uses all the right terms. They speak of Christ. They talk
of the Holy Spirit's work. They use all the right names
and terms, but they compromise what is most important, and that's
the perfect righteousness that Christ accomplished. And they
do so by going about to establish their own righteousness. The
only righteousness we have is in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have been listening to a
message by David Edmondson. the pastor of Bible Baptist Church
in Madisonville, Kentucky. If you would like a copy of this
message or to hear other messages of God's free, sovereign grace
in Christ, you can write to our mailing address at P.O. Box 652
Madisonville, Kentucky 42431 or log on to our website at FreeGraceRadio.com. If you would like to come and
worship with us, we meet at 2015 Beulah Road, Madisonville, Kentucky. And our service times are Sunday
morning Bible study at 10 o'clock a.m. Worship services begin at
11 o'clock a.m. Wednesday evening services at
7 o'clock p.m. Please tune in again next Sunday
morning at 10 o'clock a.m. for another message of God's
free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.