The Two Religions of this World

Genesis chapter 4 verses 1 through 5 Genesis 4, starting in verse 1, and Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought the fruit of the ground and offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering. But unto Cain and to his offering, God had not respect. And Cain was very angry and wroth and his countenance fell.

Well, here in these first early verses in Genesis, we observe the only two religions of the world, only two religions, the true and the false. But what's interesting is if you go back earlier than four chapters or three chapters, we all started out in the false religion. When Adam fell, He plummeted the whole human race. As our representative, he plummeted us all in sin, in degradation, in lies. And God said, because of that, you're going to have to till the ground. You're going to have to.

And so Cain was, he didn't, he wouldn't do anything wrong that way. He was a worker. But it's interesting that we all started out in this false religion until God in his infinite mercy covers our fig leaf religion, which remember when they hid themselves from God and they covered themselves with fig leaves? And the Lord said, that's not going to do.

And he sacrificed an animal and covered them with the skins. So there's the gospel right there. God has to cover our fig leaf religion with the blood of an innocent animal that pictures the Lord Jesus Christ in his substitutionary work for his people and thereby blotting out our horrible rebellion and trespasses against him and washing us as the scripture says as white as snow.

So let's look at this a little bit closer verses four and five that Abel brought of the first lanes, there's only four people, right? There's only four people on the earth. And if you don't see depravity and you expand that to billions of how many billions of people this earth has now, and no wonder there's riots and there's disagreements and there's murders and there's all this stuff that goes on because we're depraved. But there's only four people here. We're only four people.

Abel brought the first sling of the flock. He brought an innocent animal and the father of, slew it, offered it unto the Lord. And it says the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering. But unto Cain, who did no wrong humanly, He was doing what the curse said he was gonna do, was gonna, you know, by the tilling of the ground, and I'm sure he was a hard worker, a good worker, et cetera, but God has a prescribed method in which he has to be approached. And I don't know, but everybody, you read this, everybody assumes that Adam explained to his sons how to approach God. But Cain, and to his offering, God had no respect. And Cain was wroth and his countenance fell. So again, in verses four and five, we got the story of Cain and Abel.

Here, my friends, are the only two religions You can slice it, dice it, talk about it, whatever you can talk about. And I look this up, you know, the four main religions of the world, Protestantism, and that's divided into, or Christianity, that's divided into Catholics and the Protestants, and then Muslims, it's Sunni, and then there's others, and then there's Confucius, and there's two or three there, and then there's Buddhism. Those are the four main religions. But however you want to cut it, Muslims, Protestants, Confucius, et cetera, we are either trusting in something we've done, Cain, the best we've done, are doing, are working for, or abstaining from, Or we're trusting in ceremonies.

We're bringing the best. And that's our nature. When we fell on Adam, our nature is to try to work for salvation. That's the religion of Cain. And God rejected. And he's always going to reject it. It doesn't make any difference what denominational tie head you're under. This is what's going to happen. God's going to reject it.

Or we are under the blood of a crucified Redeemer, which pictures this sacrifice that Abel brought, the firstling of the flock, an innocent animal. And there's only one innocent in this thing of humankind, and that is the man Christ Jesus. So we from birth in nature and practice are under God's wrath.

And we'll go there in a minute, Ephesians 2. Then by and by we've been graced or enlightened by divine unction, that's revelation, to see Christ aright and come to God through Him and His achievements. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2.

Verse one, and you, whoever that is, the elect, the remnant, the chosen, hath he quickened? Who were dead in trespasses and sins? We were like all men by nature. We were, that's that first religion. That's the religion of false, of works. Wherein in time past, this is speaking of us, walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now, works in the children's disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversations in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as other by nature." Born no different. No different.

And the believer will acknowledge that. The believer will own up to that, says, yeah, I've That sounds like me, but look at verse 4. but God, but grace, but mercy and love. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, excuse me, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace are you saved and hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us through Christ. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves." I remember when I first looked at this, well what does he mean, that not of yourselves? Well grace is obviously not of ourselves, so he's talking about faith. Faith is a gift of God.

We can't work for it. We can't earn it. We can't produce it. We can't do like Cain. He says, well, I'm bringing my faith. He's not going to accept it. We bring Christ, and he's going to accept us. And then by having Christ, we have faith. It's the object, or he's the object. Faith is the tool.

For by grace you say through faith, and that's not of yourself. It's a gift of God. Oh, incidentally, in case you don't understand that, it's not of works. Saved, you are saved, not of works, lest any should boast. All of grace by faith that says God's gift is unearned by us, not of works. Turn to Romans chapter 11, not of works. Romans chapter 11 verses 5 and 6.

Even so at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace and if it's by grace then it is no more works. If it's election is by grace is of Abel it's not of Cain. It's no more works. Otherwise grace is it's negated. It's no more grace. But if it be works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.

We understand works very well. We go, by the sweat of our brow, we got to earn a living. We go wake up every Monday morning, and then through Saturday or even more, we understand that. We understand works. Unfortunately, we can't let it go. We can't let it go. We got to bring it into religion. And we got to have rewards.

Metals and crowns and pins and all these different things to show how many good works I thought the scripture said you're not the right hand not supposed to know what left hands doing That's what I thought the scripture says, but we want to make sure what we use the left hand pat ourselves on the back That's works There's two religions It doesn't, don't tell me what, you know, when I ask people, if I say, oh, I'm a Presbyterian, or I'm this, or I'm that, that's not, no. Do you believe the gospel? Do you believe Christ? Do you believe in him, in him alone?

To further illustrate this, and I love this, I'll just read it, maybe make some comments, I don't know. Turn to Ezekiel 37. This to me is, You tell me, stop me when I'm reading and tell me where you see man's free will in this story. Ezekiel 37, starting in verse 1, we're just going to read 10 verses. What a beautiful picture of the salvation brought by God, unearned, unasked for, unsought after by man, who's depicted by these dry bones. Okay, Ezekiel 37. The hand of the Lord was upon me, Ezekiel, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a valley which was full of bones. He caused me to pass by them round about, and behold, there were very, very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry."

There's no life. That's what we do. We stand up here, whoever's up here, we're preaching to bones. Very, very dry. No life. And then God asks the preacher, He says, Son of man, can these bones live? And good answer, you know. You know, God. I don't know. I don't know anybody's heart in here. But I know God does, and I know he knows whether we're for him or against him. He knows whether we're in a religion of Cain or we're the religion of Abel.

Read on. He said unto me, prophesy or preach upon these bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones behold I who's that I back up to the first phrase God the Lord God I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall live and I will lay sinews upon you and will bring you up your flesh upon you and cover you with skin and breathe in you that and you shall live What's the purpose of the believer and you shall know that I am God. I'm the Lord That's the purpose of salvation is to know By divine revelation only not by your education not by your Bible trivia knowledge not by your studio Whether you know the Greek of the Hebrew But him by him only by him That I am the Lord verse 7. So the the faithful preacher does what he's commanded.

I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was a noise and behold a shaking the bones came together bone to his bone and And then I beheld, and lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them."

That's a lot of religious, that's church people. A lot of skin, a lot of flesh, a lot of bone all put together. can walk back and forth, can think, can read, but there's no life. Why? Because it's gotta be by grace. By grace are you saved through the operation of the preaching of the gospel, the operation of the Holy Spirit enabling. Let's continue on.

So I prophesied, but there was no breath in verse eight. Verse nine, then said the Lord unto me, prophesy unto the wind, The Holy Spirit bless the work of the preaching or it comes to naught. Son of man, say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain that they may live. So I preached as he commanded me, and the breath came on to them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Nobody stopped me while I was reading. So I guess there's no free will. There's no man's decision, no man's decision of regeneration, they call it. I don't know, that's the Armenians call that. Decisional regeneration. I don't there's I don't think the scripture says anything about that so Again my third point how if we're born in the false religion to working the religion of Cain How does anyone ever get out of false religion and get redeemed John chapter 1?

How does it how does anybody ever say? Well, first of all, by sovereign revelation, by his revealing the word of truth to us. John chapter 1 and verses 1 through 5, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. the same in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made in him was life and the life was the light of men life and light of men and the light shineth in darkness but and the darkness comprehends it not can't be done can't be done we'll look at the same chapter chapter one verse eleven through fourteen Christ came into his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, born from above, born of Abel, not of blood, can't be saved because your mom and dad are saved, nor of the will of the flesh, not because you want to, nor of the will of man, but of God. In another place he says he makes us willing in the day of his power. Psalms 110, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

That's one. Secondly, how does anybody get saved? By a true and faithful hearing of his truth or his gospel. Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11 through 13, verse 11 through 13, in whom in Christ we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, excuse me, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom we trusted in Christ, in whom we also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also that you believed and were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

I'm myself promoting. The Lord will take me out, bring somebody else in. It's not the, I'm just an instrument. He's the object of faith. He's the one who we repent of our sins, but repenting to him. So it's by, how are we saved? It's by divine revelation. And it's by a true and faithful hearing of his truth, his gospel, the gospels. The truth has to be preached, has to be spoken, witnessed. And thirdly, by Holy Spirit enabling, to hear and receive and belief of this truth of specifically Christ and Him slain. Specifically deals with the blood and righteousness of Christ.

Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3. verses 5 and 6. Titus 3 verses 5 and 6. Not by works of righteousness, there's again, there's Cain, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior and John chapter 14. John chapter 14 and verse 26.

You cannot sidestep the Holy Spirit because the Trinity, the God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Spirit, all working together to make us new creatures in Christ. John chapter 14 verse 26 Christ himself says, but the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name, this is Christ speaking, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.

And that's why it's so important in preaching is simply to preach the scriptures, not other men. Now other men may be good in their outlines, but stick to the scriptures. The word of God is sharper than the two-edged sword. Not what I say. Now, sometimes his tongue is sharp and it needs to be subdued. But the Holy Spirit, using the word, that's the quickening agent.

So by sovereign revelation, by a true and faithful hearing of his truth, his gospel, and by Holy Spirit enabling to hear, receive, and believe of this truth, this truth specifically of Christ and him slain. Now, lastly, these two religions are diametrically opposed. That's the problem. That's the problem since the time began is we try to mix them together and God will, he'll have respect to the pure gospel, to the pure truth, to his perfect truth.

The scripture says every word of God is pure. He has respect under that because he's talking about Christ and his sacrifice. He does not have respect. Yes, God is a consuming fire. Outside of Christ, he's a consuming fire. So these, but these two religions are diametrically opposed to each other as we stated in Romans 11. It's works or either works or it's grace. It can't be both. It's oil and water. It's heaven and hell.

Turn with me to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three and verse 20. And verse 28, verse 20 says, therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight, for by the knowledge of the law, by the law is the knowledge of sin. In verse 28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, and we face the gift of God. You gotta go to God for everything. You don't rely on yourself for anything. The heart, matter of fact, the scripture says the unrenewed heart is desperately, Isaiah is desperately wicked above all things. Who can know it? You can't even know it. We can't even know it.

And verse 28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. I want you to notice that word deeds is both in verse 20 and in verse 22, it's the same word. And what it means, interestingly enough, it means toiling. or doing or working. Without it, don't work. Matter of fact, the believer who's trusted in Christ, the scripture says, has ceased from his works. And we have trusted Christ.

And I will say this, and I've heard this before, and I brought this up several Sundays ago in some Bible class, just because the word grace is in your church marquee, doesn't mean that you believe in grace. I know of a Grace Methodist. I know of a Grace Lutheran. I know of Grace, just Grace Church. It doesn't mean you know the truth. Is the truth being preached? Is the religion of Abel what we're centered on? So I close with this. Which religion are we? Which religion are you? Which religion am I? I do know this.

God will not require more of you than he himself will supply. He will, if you, I can't, if you're telling me preacher, I can't save myself. That's what I'm telling you. I'm telling you, he requires perfect obedience. He requires holiness. He requires in the inward parts, he requires all these things. How do he, what he requires, he provides in the beloved. in Christ. Look to Him only. Trust in Him solely. There's absolutely no redemption or salvation in any other.

Or as this book states in Isaiah 45. Turn to Isaiah 45 with me. We'll close with these verses. 22 through the end of the chapter. As this book states, Isaiah 45 verse 22 forward, look unto me, this is God speaking, look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there's none else.

I'm so thankful there's not two, there's two religions. I'm so thankful there's just one, one God to, we can view He remains in focus. When that serpent bit those people, Moses didn't put two or three, and then Aaron, go grab another couple. No, he had one icon. He had one item, one person, one representative to look and live. Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.

For I am God, there is none else. I have sworn by myself the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall can swear. Surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall men come and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. May we glory only in him and his accomplishments and his person and in his relationship with us. Amen. Bruce, would you close us? Father, we can talk about this in the world and do not understand.

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