Five Fatal Errors of Modern Religion

Q: What does the Bible say about God's judgment?

The Bible states that God's judgment comes when people change the truth of God into a lie, leading to moral decay (Romans 1:24-25). According to Romans 1:24-25, God's judgment is a profound reality observed among those who reject divine truth. The Apostle Paul explains that when individuals exchange the truth of God for a lie, they fall under God's wrath, resulting in a moral and spiritual decline. This judgment is not a passive observation; it is an active giving over to sin, leading to a state of uncleanness and perversion. Paul emphasizes that this scenario reveals a generation that worships elements of creation rather than the Creator, illustrating the severe consequences of such a choice. In essence, the moral decay we see today is a symptom of God's judgment rather than its cause.

Q: How do we know that perseverance of the saints is true?

The perseverance of the saints is confirmed as true through scripture, indicating that true believers are preserved by God's grace (Hebrews 10:36). The doctrine of perseverance of the saints asserts that true believers are eternally secure in their salvation. This is founded on biblical passages such as Hebrews 10:36, where it states that 'you need endurance so that after you have done God's will, you may receive what was promised.' This indicates that those genuinely saved will continue in faith until the end. Additionally, 1 John 2:19 addresses those who abandon the faith, clarifying that 'they went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.' This teaches us that those who fall away were never truly regenerated. Thus, the persistent faith of true believers is evidence of God's sustaining grace in their lives.

Q: Why is the doctrine of divine predestination important for Christians?

Divine predestination assures Christians that their salvation is secure and rooted in God's eternal purpose (Ephesians 1:4-5). The doctrine of divine predestination is significant as it highlights God's sovereignty in salvation. Ephesians 1:4-5 teaches that believers were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world for the purpose of holiness and adoption into God's family. This truth emphasizes that salvation is not based on human decision or effort but rooted in God's unchangeable will. Understanding divine predestination brings comfort and assurance to Christians, as it reassures them that their faith is not contingent upon their fluctuating feelings or actions. Instead, it rests entirely in the purposes of an all-knowing and merciful God who has set His affection on them from eternity past. This understanding enhances believers' gratitude and commitment to live for His glory.

Q: What does modern religion get wrong about the cross of Christ?

Modern religion often makes the cross of Christ irrelevant by teaching that it merely provides an opportunity for salvation rather than effecting it (1 Corinthians 1:17). Modern religion frequently diminishes the significance of the cross by suggesting that Christ's atoning work is simply one part of a collaborative effort for salvation. In 1 Corinthians 1:17, the Apostle Paul emphasizes that Christ sent him to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. This highlights a critical error: if the cross is seen merely as a potential means of salvation rather than the actual, effectual sacrifice that secures it for the elect, its power is nullified. The Scriptures affirm that the death of Christ was a substitutionary atonement, accomplishing the redemption of God’s chosen people, thus rendering the cross central and essential in the salvation narrative.

I want you to turn with me please to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 and verse 24. My subject this morning is of immense importance. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness. When God gives people up, they're given up. They're sure for hell as if they were already there under the wrath of God. God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. And here's the reason. Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator. who is blessed forever. Amen.

Now here the Apostle Paul lays the axe to the root of the tree and he declares to us that the moral decay and the moral perversion, the corruption, the vast, vast overwhelming acceptance as normal the perversity of an age such as the one in which we live is not the cause, but rather is the result of God's judgment. And the cause of the judgment is men and women changing the truth of God into a lie.

Our text speaks of a generation of men and women who are under the judgment of God, who are reprobates, given up by God to themselves, to their own heart's lust, to live in uncleanness and in moral perversion and in spiritual darkness. A generation for whom there is absolutely no hope. Bless God, there is yet a remnant according to the election of grace in this lost, ruined, damned generation who must be gathered. But I'm talking about a generation for whom there is absolutely no hope.

The cause of judgment. As I said, Paul declares in verse 25, they change the truth of God into a lie. and changing the truth of God into a lie, this is a generation that worships and serves the creature more than the creator. Now notice carefully, our text does not say, and it does not in any way imply, that these people openly denied the truth of God. Satan's far too subtle, far too crafty for that.

We are not much alarmed, we are not much concerned, at least I'm not, by the Madeleine Muriel hairs of the world. They don't bother me a whole lot. We're not much concerned by the infidels and the blasphemers who openly stand up and say there is no God, the word that we call the word of God is a fiction, it's a fable, it's all a hoax. We're not concerned by that. That doesn't bother me. I'm not the least bit concerned about anybody being deceived by those things.

But rather, our text describes a generation of men and women who, in the name of worshiping God, in the name of serving God with the Bible in their hands, reading from the Bible, preaching from the Bible, declaring the Bible, quoting the Bible, change the truth of God into a lie, and by making subtle changes in divine truth, cause men and women to worship and serve the creature rather than the creator.

What an awesome awesome word of judgment. Now in this message, I want by the grace and power of God the Holy Spirit, once more, to draw a clear line of distinction between the truth of God and the lie of Satan, between the religion of the Bible and the religion of the world, between the doctrine of Christ and the doctrine of Antichrist. Now please, please understand me. I am not talking about the difference between one religion and another, between one religious opinion and another, between one religious church or denomination and another.

I'm talking about the difference between knowing God and worshiping an idol. The difference between taking refuge in Jesus Christ and building your hope in a refuge of lies. Now the title of my message this morning is Five Fatal Errors of Modern Religion. Five Fatal Errors of Modern Religion.

I probably ought to tell you this message is born out of recent discussions with family and friends. who are lost and groping about in the darkness of our many and free will works religion and thoroughly convinced they're saved, sanctified and on their way to heaven. Thoroughly convinced. This message is born in part because of the death of my uncle, my father's half-brother just a couple of weeks ago. I'll talk about that in a little bit.

But I want you to see, I want you to see with absolute clarity, I want you young people to see with absolute clarity, five fatal damning errors, damning errors of modern religion. Now I'm going to show you five things that are true of all forms of modern religion, liberal and conservative, Baptist and Methodist, Presbyterian and Pentecostal, it doesn't matter. Call them by any name you want to. I'm talking about five fatal errors common to the religions of this world, common to the religion of man.

Now if these errors that I'm about to describe are true of you, if they are true of any sitting here, true of any who hear this message by tape or radio or television, then I'm telling you that your religion is idolatry. And I'm going to show it to you from the word of God. I'm not, I'm not, dear darling, I'm not here trying to just console men and figure out a way to get along with men. I'm telling you what's true and vital to your soul.

If these five things, any or all of them, describe the religion and the religious experience and the religious hope you have, your religion is a refuge of lies and idolatry, and you don't yet know God. Now listen carefully. Here is the first error of modern religion. The basis of belief in the religious world today is not the word of God, but rather emotion, tradition, and popular opinion. That's the basis of belief. I know folks say we stand on the book, the blood, and the blessed hope, and we preach Jesus. Folks say, well, it preaches from the Bible.

Everybody preaches from the Bible. I've never met a fool yet who would stand up, pretend to speak for God, and say, I'm not going to talk to you now from the Bible. I'm going to talk to you from this book or from that book. Anybody opens this book and reads it. Satan's ministers are ministers of righteousness. They transform themselves into ministers of light, and they stand behind pulpits just like I am, open the word of God and say, listen to me now, I've got light from heaven.

I'm speaking for God. But when you talk to people about what they believe, people who say we believe the book, when you talk to them about what the book teaches, Like nailmen of old, they respond, but I thought. I thought. How many times have you heard people say, I feel this way about that. I feel that way about what that says. This is how I feel about that text. This is what I think God means to say.

Now, often we hear folks say, well, but I have always been taught. I've always been taught. Why? Every preacher I ever heard told me this. My grandma and grandpa, they taught me this. My mother and dad, they taught me. I've always been taught this is the way it is.

And as a last resort, they'll say, well, nobody believes what you do. Nobody believes that. Nobody in his right mind accepts that. No church in this town believes that. You folks must be off base. Now, I don't deny that people are sincere. I don't deny that they claim to believe the Bible. They appeal to the scriptures, but they interpret the scriptures. That is, they give meaning to the scriptures according to their feelings, their traditions, and the opinions of men in the age in which we live. Is that not so? Is that not so?

You talk to anybody tomorrow, anybody in your family, anybody out there in the world, anybody on the job, you talk to anybody tomorrow, recite to them the word of God, I mean just recite the word of God, and listen to a good lot of it, by forcing the word to fit their opinions, their experiences, their traditions, and their own thoughts. Everybody believes this.

Our Lord Jesus spoke to the Pharisees of his day, And he said, they have made the commandment of God of none effect by their traditions. Made it of none effect. That doesn't mean they didn't quote the scriptures. They walked around with bumper stickers on their cars saying, smile if you love Jesus. They walked around with broad phylacteries in their garments with scripture text on them. They walked around, and they were the kind of folks you'd see at the ballgame, and they'd spread out a banner and say, God loves you, and we do too.

They're the kind of folks that walk through the park and spray paint John 3.16 on the park. They stand on the book. But our Lord said, you make the word of God a matter of fact. That is, it doesn't mean a blooming thing to you because of your traditions. Your traditions. Turn to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2.

The Apostle Paul is speaking in verse 20. He has warned us to beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men and the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. And then he says in verse 20, Wherefore, if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, that is, from the elements of natural carnal religion, Why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances? And he's talking now about the ordinances of carnal religion.

And here they are. Touch not. Taste not. Handle not. Don't go there. Don't do this. Don't eat that. Don't touch that. Touch not, taste not, handle not. This is how you live for God. Touch not, taste not, handle not. This is how you live a spiritual life. Touch not, taste not, handle not. And they're so crass and so, so, so blooming arrogant in their touch not, taste not, handle not. Do this, don't do that. Which all are to perish with the using.

As though God's concerned about temporal things. after the commandments and doctrines of men. Now listen to what he says about it. You think I speak contemptuously of religion in our day? Listen to Paul. Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship. Worship the creature instead of the creator. And humility and neglecting of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.

Many women read this book, quote this book, preach from this book, recite this book, but just exactly like that sparrow I've told you about so many times, I was sitting in a study one day, talking on the phone, I turned around and looked up, my woman, that's that sparrow on the telephone line, wind was blowing, he was just gripping that line, holding to it with tenacity as though his life depended on it. But that sparrow sitting on the telephone line was totally ignorant of the conversation going through the line. And men and women today hold to the word of God, hang on to it tenaciously as though their lives depended on it, but they're utterly ignorant of the message running through this book.

It's a message of redemption, grace, and salvation through Jesus Christ the Lord. So how is that? Shelby and I were talking about this coming up the road the other day. How on this earth can men and women hear the scriptures and read the scriptures? And you sit down and talk to them and they nod and say, uh-huh, uh-huh. And the next one out of their mouth and say, uh-uh, uh-uh. They read the scriptures and they nod and say, yeah, I said that, but.

And they just don't understand anything. They don't understand anything. They can quote text, word for word, line for line, verse for verse, but they don't understand anything in it. I'll tell you why. Because in his infinite wisdom, God has made this book to be a parable to men. Remember, while our Lord spoke in parables, the disciples said, why are you talking to them in parables? And our Lord said, because I don't intend for them to understand. I don't intend for them to understand. This book has been deliberately written by divine inspiration to confuse, unregenerate, unbelieving men and women who will not bow to the authority of the word.

They've got to have something else to demonstrate proof. Now you listen carefully to me. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. I have said this so many times, and we say it almost without thought, but I want you to think about what I'm saying. I want you to get this thing. The basis of our faith is and must be the Word of God in its entirety and the Word of God alone. You got that? Not the Word of God alone, in my opinion. Not the Word of God and what I experience. Not the Word of God and what I feel. Not the Word of God and what I think I know. Not the Word of God and what other men have told me. But what does God say? That's all.

Look here in 2 Timothy 3.15. Paul says to Timothy, From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. Oh, I want to know this. Don't you? This book's able to make you wise to salvation. That'll make you pay attention. Not only you won't understand what this book says, make you wise into salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All scripture, all of it. beginning back in Genesis 1 going through Revelation 22. All scripture, all scripture, every line, every jot, every tittle, every word, every verse, every phrase, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. You don't have to open up this book and search and hope that maybe somehow you can discern the word of God in this book. This book is God's word. All of it.

It's given by inspiration. That is, holy men of old wrote or spoke as they were moved, as they were directed by God the Holy Spirit. Now we think about inspiration, and we almost look at it as an urging. I've got this message and there's some certain inspirations for the message, certain things that urged me to prepare and bring this message to you today. That's not the kind of inspiration that's here spoken of. The word inspiration here means breathed of God. The scriptures are God-breathed. They came by the breath of God flowing through the bodies of men writing the scriptures as they were directed by God the Holy Spirit.

And thus all Scripture is profitable, all of it. Old Testament news, the Law, the Psalms, the Prophets, the Gospels, the Epistles, all of it's profitable for doctrine, for the teaching. That's what doctrine means, it's teaching. For the teaching and for reproof, to reprove us for all manner of sin and unbelief, to reprove us for all manner of error. for correction, to correct our thinking and to correct our conduct, to correct our beliefs and to correct our behaviors, and for instruction in righteousness, teaching us the way of righteousness and the way to walk in righteousness, that the man of God, that you and me, not just the preacher, you and me, the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished. The word means furnished through and through, through the entirety of our beings, unto all good works. Now the conclusion of that is this.

Any preacher, any church, any doctrine, any belief that is not according to the words of the prophecy of this book, is not of God, but of the devil. It arises not from light, but from darkness. If any man speak not according to the words of this book, Isaiah said, it's because there's no light in that man, none whatever. The basis of our faith is thus saith the Lord. If I cannot defend what I believe from the scriptures, defend it from the scriptures in their contextual setting, then what I believe must be completely discarded no matter how strongly I feel about it. What does that mean?

That means don't you, don't you dare pin your faith on my sleeve. Don't you dare do it. Don't you dare believe something because Don preaches it and preaches it with such earnestness. Don't you dare believe something because mom or daddy can read it.

Don't you dare believe something because you've experienced and felt and seen this, but rather search the scriptures and believe only what you can see clearly to you in the scriptures. And everything else, throw it away. Just throw it away. I'm so tired of hearing folks pop off about what they don't know, pop off about the Word of God as if they were referring to the latest edition of the newspaper and giving no more credibility to the Scripture, just using the Scriptures to buttress what they want to get across. Search the Scriptures and make certain that your faith is based upon and arises from the Word of God, the written Word of God.

I hear people say, but I've experienced. I've experienced things. I've experienced things in religion that people would look at and say, that's phenomenal. That's phenomenal. When I was a boy, I was burned severely. Burned severely. So much so that In any normal circumstance, there'd be severe scars left on the side of my body. My aunt came down with what she called a gift from God. She was raised in the mountains of North Carolina and religious superstition, but a Baptist all her life.

And doesn't know beans from apple butter about things of God. Now I'm just telling you the truth. And I expect someday somebody in my family will hear this message and be madder at me than they've ever been before. But I'm just telling you the truth. Don't know a bean smack of butter about things. But she blew the fire out of my arm. You look at it and I'm scarred.

Oh, boy, that'll convince you that's of God. I'm convinced it's not of God. It's witchcraft. It's sorcery. How can you say that? Because it's not according to this book. It's not according to this book. I remember when I walked the aisle. I remember how God got hold of me. Let me tell you something. I'm going to tell you something.

God has never led anybody to walk an aisle in any church and kneel at an altar in any house of worship and commit idolatry and call it salvation. Not God Almighty. God leads folks to an altar in glory. Thoughts, preachers, lead you to an altar down front. That's right. Oh, the preacher. Such a change came over me. You can go to Alcoholics Anonymous and go through a change. You can go to Charter Ridge or whatever that hospital is, and they'll take care of you. They can change your thinking real quick.

You must subject all experience, all thought, all doctrine to thus saith the Lord. Second, all modern religion makes God's sovereign operations of grace to be nothing more than opportunities to be saved. God's sovereignty had been reduced to a theory, and not even a theory, really just a word.

Folks say God's sovereign. God's sovereign. I hear preachers, I don't listen to them much at home, I don't have time to put up with the foolishness, but when I'm driving down the road, they help keep me awake at night. And I listen to them on the radio, and I hear them talk, and they'll say, God's sovereign, and then turn right around, everything they're saying, says, no, God's not sovereign, you are. They say, Jesus is Lord, and then everything they say turns right around and says, that's just a word we use, Jesus is not really Lord, you are. You have a means to be sovereign. Sovereignty means dominion. To say God's sovereign says God's in control. To say that Jesus is Lord, say He's the master of everything. Of everything. Salvation, commonly described by men, is described as a cooperative effort between God and man. God, we are told, has removed all the obstacles to salvation. and made it possible for man to be saved.

When I was in school, our theology professor kept telling us, hoping somebody would believe his nonsense, he said, Jesus settled the sin question, now it's the son question. Well, that's nonsense. If Christ Jesus removed all our sins, God ain't gonna send us to hell. He removed all of somebody's sins, but he didn't remove all everybody's sins. They say God just took the obstacles out of the way, made it possible for folks to get saved. We're told he gives everybody an opportunity to be saved. How many times have I heard that? Don't you believe everybody has a chance? Nonsense. Nonsense. The Word of God nowhere uses that kind of language. This is the language of the Bible.

Listen to it. Stand ye still. See the salvation of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. Listen to the word of God and ignore false prophets who deny the word. Now here are four things essential to our salvation that are completely perverted by men.

Divine predestination. Divine predestination ought to be the most simply, easily understood doctrine in all the Bible. Predestinate. Wonder what that could possibly mean. Oh, that means that God knew from the beginning how things were going to turn out in the end. Why, that's silly. That's silly. That's as silly as it can be. Predestinate means to determine beforehand the destiny of the thing. That's what predestinate means. And God, in sovereign predestination, has determined the destiny of chosen sinners, and it is this.

He predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son. He predestinated us to be like Christ Jesus in his glory. Predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. So, divine predestination. It's not just God knowing what's going to happen. Rex, it's God having determined your everlasting destiny for the glory of his name in Christ Jesus. Aren't you glad he did? He determined to make you holy. Determined to make you like his son. Determined that we should be conformed to the image of his son.

Divine foreknowledge. Folks like to jump on that. But they confuse foreknowledge with omniscience. God's foreknowledge is not his omniscience. Omniscience is an attribute of God. Foreknowledge is an act of God. His foreknowledge is his everlasting love for his elect in Christ. Turn to Romans chapter 8. Romans the 8th chapter, verse 29.

For whom he did foreknow. Now you listen to about anybody talk about foreknowledge and they'll say what he did foreknow. They'll say he foreknew that you were going to believe on Jesus and since he foreknew you were going to believe on Jesus he chose that he'd save you in response of him having foreknown that you were going to believe on Jesus. The scripture doesn't say anything about that. It doesn't say what he foreknew.

It says whom he foreknew. Do you see that? Whom he foreknew. What? What is this foreknowledge? The word has the idea of an acquired, experienced knowledge. Foreknowledge is not foreseen faith, but rather it is everlasting love. The scripture says Adam knew his wife Eve. Genesis chapter 4, verse 1. The word translated in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, new, is exactly the same word as here translated, no. Same word.

What's that mean? Adam knew who he was? Adam knew a name? Knew what she looked like? Knew what she did? No! You know better than that. Adam knew her. That is, he experienced his love for her. He knew her, like he knew nobody else. Our Lord Jesus says to men on the day of judgment, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting darkness. I never knew you. Same word right here. Same word. He knows all about them. He knows their works. He knows their hearts. He knows their evil deeds. But he doesn't know them. He never loved them.

Scripture says, I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Now that's what God's foreknowledge is. It is God from eternity having loved us in Jesus Christ. And because of his divine foreknowledge, the scripture talks about divine election. Election is God's sovereign choice of some to salvation and eternal life in Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus says you have not chosen me but I've chosen you. The scripture says God from the beginning had chosen us unto salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. The scripture declares that God blessed us according as he had chosen us in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. It is not God's choice to save. That's not election. Oh no. Election is not God's choice to save. Election is God's choice to save specific people in his everlasting mercy.

When I was in school, again, our theology professor tried to convince us that God just, what he did is he elected to save so many people. He didn't want to save this many. But none of them had any faces or names or addresses. They just, if you get in, God chose to save you. But that's not the teaching of the Bible.

Scripture didn't say God chose to save us, God chose you. And God chose you to salvation. And divine grace. Divine grace is God's almighty, effectual, irresistible work and operation by which salvation is wrought in sinners, not provided for, not given an opportunity to, but wrought in sinners. Turn to Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1. How on earth do unbelieving, lost, unregenerate, dead sinners come to life and faith in Jesus Christ? The Apostle in Ephesians 1 verse 18, praying for the Ephesians, says, this is what I desire of God.

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know, that you may understand What is the hope of his calling, Jesus Christ? What is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, our everlasting glory? And what is the exceeding, get it now, greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead?

What's it going to take to get you to believe what I preach? What's it going to take to cause a dead sinner to live? What's it going to take to cause an unbeliever to become a believer? What will it take to cause you to look to Christ and live forever?

The very same power that God wore in Christ when he raised him from the dead takes the power of God. Colossians 2.12 says we believe by the operation of God. by the operation of God. Face the gift of God. It's something God performs in us.

Grace is not God giving everyone a chance to be saved. Grace is God accomplishing salvation. Today we're told God gives everybody a chance. We're told that grace gives everybody an opportunity. But that teaching doesn't come from the Bible. Salvation is not by chance but by Christ. Salvation is not the result of gracious opportunity, but of gracious operations. The fact is, the fact is, God doesn't give everybody a chance to be saved. Never did, doesn't now, and never will. Turn to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. Oh, blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. But God doesn't do this for everybody. God doesn't do this for everybody. None of us deserve His mercy, and any of us who have His mercy have it because of His sovereign purpose and grace. But many perish without any mercy at all.

Verse 20, Our Lord began to abrade the city, where most of His mighty works were done. You know how the text goes, He spoke of Chorazin and Bethsaida, and He said if the works which are done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have been prepared a long time ago. He speaks of what was done in Capernaum, which is exalted to heaven. He says, you'll be brought down to hell for if the mighty works that are done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

What on earth does that text say? You see if he can make anything out of it but this. The Lord Jesus said, if I had given Sodom and Gomorrah what I've given you, they would have repented. But I withheld it from them, and I've given it to you. That's what it says.

Verse 25, At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. I don't know why men get upset when we teach this, I do know why, because we're proud, arrogant devils, and we think we've got a corner on God, and God owes us something.

Which of the angels that fell? Name me one, buddy, to whom God showed any mercy. Anybody name one? They're reserved in chains and darkness, under the judgment of the great damned. God showed mercy to some, for he kept many from falling. But to those who fell, he showed them no mercy. When Cain sinned, the Lord God didn't come and say, now Cain, Cain boy, you did wrong now. I'm going to give you an opportunity to accept Jesus. He said, Cain, you're a good man. And he gave him no mercy, no mercy.

When Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and God commanded him to build an ark for the saving of his household, Noah and his family were delivered from the wrath of God's terrible judgment in that horrible flood. Would it not have been the silliest thing on this earth for Noah to put a bumper sticker on the back of that ark and say, smile, God loves you? Silliest thing on this earth. God didn't love those folks.

He gave them no opportunity for mercy. When the Lord sent his angels to Sodom and Gomorrah, He rained fire and brimstone on the city. He gave Lot and his wife and his sons and his family deliverance out of Sodom, but the Sodomites perished under his wrath. Esau sold his birthright, and when he would have repented, he found no place for repentance. Korah, Nathan, and Abiram led rebellion against God and his servant, and God and his servant stood against Korah, Nathan, and Abiram, and God destroyed them.

There are multitudes today scattered throughout the world who are totally ignorant of the gospel of Christ. Men and women to whom God has sent no gospel preacher. Men and women who are ignorant of this word. Men and women who know nothing of the way of redemption and grace in Jesus Christ and the wrath of God's upon them.

No salvation, not by chance. Salvation is God's prerogative. It is God's prerogative alone, and it is the result of God's performance alone. So then, the scripture says, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

Thirdly, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. All modern religion makes the cross of Christ Lord willing, I'll come back to this in a week or two, but I'll make a few comments here. The Apostle Paul says in verse 17, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And notice his language.

Not with wisdom of words. lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Now, this is the heart of the problem. The heart of the gospel is the doctrine of the cross, and the heart of all false religion is its attempt to make the death of Christ upon the cross irrelevant and meaningless, of none effect. I do not hesitate to declare that all who make the cross irrelevant and meaningless in the affair of salvation, trample underfoot the blood of Jesus Christ. And I do not hesitate to assert that those who teach that Christ died for all men without exception, make the cross of Christ irrelevant and meaningless with the words of man's wisdom. With words of wisdom, the Arminian freewheeler blasphemes and makes the cross of Christ of none effect.

What do you mean, Pastor? If the Lord Jesus died to save all men and all are not saved, then he died in vain for some men. Does that make good sense to you? If he died to save all men and all are not saved, then he died in vain for somebody. If so, the cross is of none effect. The thing that accomplishes redemption and salvation is not the cross, it's something else in addition to that. If Christ, by his death, merely removed the obstacles to salvation, but does not obtain salvation, then the cross of Christ is of none effect in the affair of salvation. Something else must do the work.

But the Word of God declares that the cross of Christ effectually accomplished the redemption of God's elect. and secured their everlasting salvation. He, by his blood, purged our sins, and sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Our Lord Jesus Christ, with his own blood, entered at once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Now, the word of God always speaks of Christ's sin-atoning death, that which he experienced and performed on the cross as a limited atonement, always.

Nowhere in this book, nowhere, I defy everybody to find it, nowhere in this book is the death of Christ and his atonement spoken of as something done for all men universally, nowhere. Every picture in the Old Testament, every type under the law, limited the atonement.

Everyone else. For whom was the Passover slain? The Jews. The Egyptians didn't even know that. For whom was the Paschal Lamb slain year after year, in the holy place, in the holy of holies? For whom was the blood applied? The Jews alone. Nobody else was invited. Nobody else. That pastoral lamb was designed for that one particular people. And so it is that the blood of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, Ron, is slain for the Israel of God. Sacrificed for the Israel of God.

The death of Christ, the atonement of Christ, is limited to those who are loved of God. I know people who don't bother to read the book of God say God loves everybody. The fact is, God's angry with the wicked every day. There are some men of whom God speaks just as he did of Esau, and he said, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

The death of Christ on the cross is limited to those for whom the Lord Jesus makes intercession. In John 17, he said, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for thine they were. The death of Christ is limited to his sheep. He said, I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And the Jews turned around and said, we don't believe that. He said, you believe not because you're not of my sheep. He did not say, you're not of my sheep because you don't believe. He said, you don't believe because you're not of my sheep.

The death of Christ is limited to us all. from whom God promises that he will withhold no good thing in Romans 8 32. If God gave his son for you, mark it down, he will withhold no good thing from you. It's absolutely impossible to rationalize that God would sacrifice his son for you and yet send you to hell. Read the book of God. The death of Christ is limited to those who are actually saved by it.

Look over in Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. Verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That. Now you ought to circle that. It's connected. That, this is why he gave himself for his church. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. If he doesn't, he's a failure. That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot of sin, or wrinkle of infirmity, or anything like a vestige of sin left upon it, but that it should be holy and without blemish. That's what Christ does in his death.

Fourthly, all modern religion reduces the work of God the Holy Spirit in conversion to a moral persuasion, no more. A moral persuasion that depends entirely upon the will of man, salvation is to be the result. We are told constantly that God the Holy Spirit calls all men to repentance and faith. People tell us, now I know, I know, Nobody can believe unless the Lord draws them. But then they quickly act. But the Lord draws everybody out.

And man must make the decision whether or not he will come. And we are told very adamantly that it is not the Holy Spirit's call, but the sinner's decision that determines the issue. We're told the sinner's will is both able and free. There's a problem being exalt the will of man as if man's will is free. Free! I believe in the free will of man! I don't even absolutely believe in the free will of God. Can God lie? What does the book say? God cannot lie.

He can't do it. Say, well if he wanted to he could, I know that. But he doesn't want to. It's contrary to his nature. Do you understand that? So God cannot lie. Can man choose to be sane? Can man choose to live? Can man choose of himself to be righteous? Nonsense. He doesn't have the ability to do so. He can choose to say it. He can choose whether he wants water or Pepsi-Cola to drink. He can choose whether he wants his steaks rare or his hamburgers well done. But he cannot choose to make himself alive. Because men teach us that the will of man is both able and free, and that God will certainly never interfere with the will of man, preaching is reduced to the preacher trying to overcome the center's will.

And preaching becomes a sales job. That's all it is. I go out sometimes to a golf course and play golf. And invariably, if you go with one or three, they're going to put somebody else with you. And I hate it. That's the reason I don't go by myself. I just, I hate it.

Because the fellow walks up and he introduces himself and says, I'm Joe, salesman. I work over here and I sell this. If I say, I'm Don Fortin, I pastor at Grace Baptist Church. You say, well, we're in the same business, brother. We're both salesmen. And I want to pop him. I ain't selling anything. I ain't selling anything. I'm not about to. But preachers today, that's what they do. They're selling. They're selling Jesus at a cheap price.

And therefore every means is used, and any means is justified. Excitement, emotionalism, and trickery, that's all right, as long as it gets folks to believe in Jesus. In our evangelism classes in the school, they teach us, now fellas, you prepare your sermons, and you present your sermons, and you illustrate, and you tell your stories, and you come to your climax, and you strike while the iron's hot. Or you go out and you witness to folks and you get them to agree to this and agree to that and agree to the other thing and they can't say no when you come to the punchline. They can't say no when you get to the close. You know how salesman does? You have fellas come to your house and they want to sell you that thousand dollar vacuum cleaner.

Now, Bobby, you want best for your wife, don't you? Well, yeah. You'd sure like to have your room as clean as possible, wouldn't you? Sure would. You wouldn't want to breathe dirt and dust all the time, would you? No, no, no. If I can show you a vacuum cleaner that'll get up ten times the dirt your current one gets up, and make it easy for you to wipe the vacuum so she doesn't hurt her back, and I can give this thing to you right now, would you be interested? Oh, I think I would. Well, you wouldn't mind if it cost you $1,000 a week. You said you loved your wife, you know what $1,000 do you?

And that's exactly what folks do with religion. You want to go to hell? Oh, no. You recognize your sinner, don't you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, you sold something, you said, boy, you cheated on the test. You did. You recognize that, don't you? God said he's going to send sinners to hell. You don't believe in Jesus? Oh, believe it will.

It's a sales pitch. That's all. to the preacher in Winston-Salem. North Carolina, he was in our home church. They called him his pastor after I went away to school in Missouri. I got back home and found out some of the trickery he used. He was a scoundrel, a lying cheat. I told him so to his face.

One Sunday, had services, and I had Somebody from the funeral home to bring a coffin. Put it right down here at the altar. And they got done preaching, had everybody to come look in the coffin. And they looked in the coffin, there's a mirror there. And they saw themselves laying in that coffin.

Trying to get folks scared into the kingdom. A few years ago folks got together, all the churches in town, and showed a movie out here at the high school, The Burning Hell. Tried to get me to join up. I said, no, I'm not interested. Why not? And I said, you can't scare the hell out of anybody. You can't scare the hell out of anybody. Can't be done. Don't you wish you had joined up?

No. But look at the results. Yeah, go look at them on the day of judgment. Go look at them on the day of judgment. The preachers make the will of man. to be the determining factor in salvation. Totally contrary to scripture. Listen to the book of God. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. So I preach to you. And I'm not going to try to sell you on anything. I'm going to plead with God to open your heart and make you willing.

Those who are born of God are born not of the will of man, nor the will of the flesh, Nor of blood, but of God. The wind bloweth where it nesteth. Thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, for when it doth, so is every one that's born of the Spirit. We're saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God.

One last thing, and I'll quit here. All modern religion perverts the doctrine of perseverance, makes the perseverance of the saints either a matter of carnal security or a spiritual probation, and both are wrong. Some say what's saved always saved, giving unregenerate souls assurance, assurance based upon an empty meaningless, insignificant profession of faith. And here I'll come to my uncle.

Like almost all boys raised in religious homes, he made a profession of faith when he was a boy, got baptized and joined the church, and spent the rest of his life living like hell. Spent the rest of his life living like hell. on one occasion said to his mother and aunt, my great aunt and my grandmother, he said, I don't need God. This is my God. This is my God. And he had plenty of it. A couple of years ago, he got cancer, got scared to death, got scared to death.

Went over and joined up one of the churches in Western Salem and never went back. Never went back. And the lying demon of a preacher, the lying demon of a preacher who preached his funeral, got up and talked about him being in a better place now and better off now.

Let me tell you something. Religion that doesn't last is useless religion. It's useless. All it is is a delusion. Don't ever, don't ever say with reference to mother or father, brother or sister, husband or wife, son or daughter, who has no interest in the gospel, who has no interest in the things of God.

When they're dead, well, they're better off now. Well, what's wrong with saying that? I'll tell you what's wrong with saying that. You tell everybody around them, you tell everybody within sound of your voice, this stuff of the gospel of Christ is meaningless. It's meaningless. Don't really believe it. It's just meaningless.

When Adolf Hitler was a young boy, Preachers have made a big deal of the fact he was a religious fellow. So what? Who isn't? Nikita Khrushchev, we're told, I read a book some time back, told about how he used to be a very religious man before he became the dictator, the Secretary General, whatever he's called over in the USSR. The son of Sam, he's got religion again now. When he was a little boy, he was a member of a church I'm very familiar with. David Buckworth, was that his name? He was a member of a church I'm very familiar with, made a profession of faith.

But hell's still in his heart. A profession of faith is meaningless. It's meaningless if it doesn't cause you to walk in faith. You understand that? Some say once saved, always saved. And so they say, if a man made a profession, everything's all right. Go back to that profession.

I remember when. I wish folks could forget when. I wish nobody here, I honestly wish nobody here could remember when they first met the Lord. The time and the date. I wish you could forget it. Don't forget the experience, but forget the time and the place. Forget it. Others say, no, that's not right. Though you're saved, if you sin, you might lose your salvation. You might fall from grace. Well, you know better than that nonsense.

It's impossible for a saved man to be lost. This is what the word of God declares. All true believers are saved forever. And being saved They are preserved and kept by the grace and power of God, and persevere in the way of faith and holiness. The righteous shall hold on his way, shall act stronger and stronger. You're done. You're saved if you continue in the faith. He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.

But pastor, what about those folks who quit? When the Apostle Paul describes those great men of faith in Hebrews 11, he says, these all died in faith. And I'm going to tell you, God's people all die in faith. They live in faith, they walk in faith, and they die in faith. And those who quit Christ, never knew Christ. Those who quit the gospel never knew the gospel. Those who quit the church of God were never part of the church of God. They went out from us, but they were not of us.

For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us unto this day. These are the things that distinguish us from the rest of the religious world. And these are the things that make what we're doing here vital and necessary for the furtherance of the gospel, to the saving of men's souls.

Five Fatal Errors of Modern Religion

What does the Bible say about God's judgment?

How do we know that perseverance of the saints is true?

Why is the doctrine of divine predestination important for Christians?

What does modern religion get wrong about the cross of Christ?

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Five Fatal Errors of Modern Religion

What does the Bible say about God's judgment?

How do we know that perseverance of the saints is true?

Why is the doctrine of divine predestination important for Christians?

What does modern religion get wrong about the cross of Christ?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

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