When you turn back to Acts chapter
28, I have entitled this message, Barbarian Religion. Now the title
comes from verse two, and the barbarous people showed us no
little kindness. Verse four, and when the barbarians
saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves,
no doubt, they were sure of this, no doubt, this man's a murderer,
whom though he escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffers him not
to live. That's the name of their God,
vengeance. In our day, When we think of
the word barbarian, we think of cruel and savage, rude and
uncouth and uncivilized. But verse two dispels that myth. And the barbarous people showed
us no little kindness. Now it was winter, it was cold. The ship had wrecked. 276 people
get back to shore, all safe, just as God had said. And these barbarians treated
them with no little kindness. They treated them very well.
They kindled a fire and helped them, not knowing them, but they
helped them. They didn't speak the same language.
but they helped him. So these barbarians were not
cruel, savage, uncouth people. They were kind people. They were
nice people. I hope that's the way me and
you will always be seen, as kind, nice, helpful people. These barbarians were certainly
that. The initial use of the word barbarian
was simply one who did not speak Greek. That's all it means. We
think of Conan the Barbarian. You remember that movie? That's
about the only thing we know of barbarians. Arnold Schwarzenegger
with the big muscles and killing people and all that kind of stuff.
That's not what the word barbarian means. The word barbarian means
one who does not speak Greek. one who speaks another language. Now you've been in places where
people were speaking a language that you couldn't understand.
It happens to me every week. Somebody's speaking a language
I can't understand, they're talking about me. But the point is, that's all
a barbarian is. Let's look at the way Paul uses
the word in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse seven. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse
seven, and even things without life
giving sound, talking about musical instruments, whether pipe or
harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds. How shall it be
known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet given uncertain
sound, one that's not distinct and clear, who shall prepare
himself to the battle? So likewise ye, except ye utter
by the tongue words easy to be understood. Now, let me say this,
any sermon better be easy to be understood. You might not
like it. You might not agree with it,
but it better be easy to be understood. And if you go out scratching
your head thinking, what did that guy say? It was not a good
sermon. Every sermon should be uttered
in words, easy to be understood. I love when one syllable boards.
That's one of the things, one of the reasons I love John so
much. I am the way, the truth, the life, one syllable words. What infinite glory is in those
words. So likewise you, except ye utter
by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall be known
what is spoken? For you shall speak into the
air. There are maybe so many kinds of voices in the world
and none of them is without signification. Therefore, if I know not the
meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian. There's the word. And he that
speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. Now, if I can't understand
someone's language, that person's a barbarian to me. If they can't
understand what I'm saying, they're, uh, I'm a barbarian to them. Now we speak a language that
many do not understand the language of grace. And it sounds like
a foreign language to them. Now I could just as easily entitled
this message, natural religion. I called it barbarian religion,
but it is the religion that is natural to every man, woman,
boy, and girl born into this world. This is natural, it's
the way we naturally believe. I think that's seen so clearly
where they saw the viper fasten itself to Paul's hand and they
said, he did something bad. No doubt, this man must be a
murderer. Who although he escaped this
shipwreck, vengeance is not going to suffer him to live. That's
the way everybody thinks. Karma. You do good things, good
things will happen. You do bad things, bad things
will happen. That's most people's religion.
Karma. You do good things, it'll be
good for you. You do bad things, you're in
trouble. Something happens, you wreck
your car, you get into financial trouble, what have you been doing?
Kind of like Job's miserable comforters. That's all they did
was make accusations against him. What have you been doing?
There must be something you've been doing to bring this on.
Natural religion. Now, the religion of the gospel
is supernatural. It's supernatural. It's infinitely
beyond natural religion. And it's the opposite of barbarian
religion or the religion of the natural man. Now, let me remind
you of second Timothy three 16, all scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine. for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
truly furnished unto all good works. Now this passage of scripture
is a literal historical event. It's when they got to the shore
and all 276 arrived safely. And I love that number 276, means
something. Two, the number of union, the
two shall be one flesh. Seven, the number of perfection,
the number of completion. Six, the number of man. Everybody
who is united to Christ made it to the shore safe and sound. And when they get there, these
barbarous people meet them. Yes, this is a historical event
that literally took place. And the events of this literal
historical event teach us the gospel. Just like Acts chapter
27 was like reading an Old Testament type with regard to the gospel,
these verses teach us the gospel as well. Verse one, and when
they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called
Melita, or what we know as Malt. I've been there, I've been there,
had a place on, St. Paul's Bay. And it's when we
had those time shares and every one we tried to use was used
up and all that was left was Malta. It's not a place I would
have gone, but that was what we spent. But I thought it was
kind of cool being on St. Paul's Bay and knowing this is
the place that shipwrecked Malta. And the Barbarous people, verse
two, showed us no little kindness. Luke calls this an extraordinary
kindness. And you know, barbarian religion
can be very kind. It should be. We should be. Everybody
ought to be kind. Everybody ought to be helpful.
Everybody ought to treat every other human being with respect
and decency. And this Religion of barbarians
were very kind. You think of how miserable it
would be to come out of the ocean when it was cold and raining.
And they presented them with what they needed for their help. Barbarian religion quite often
is kind, but I want you to notice this word. And the barbarous
people showed us no little kindness for they kindled a fire and received
us, everyone, because of the Present, right. You see, barbarian religion only
helps with the present. This time is short. This thing we call time, it's
short. It's not even a blip in the screen
between the eternities. And barbarian religion only helps
with the present. There is no salvation in barbarian
religion. It's inherent adherence shall
not be in heaven. It may help them in this life.
You know, one of the great prophets of barbarian religion, Joel Olsteen
wrote a book entitled your best life now. That's bad. If this is the best, man, he doesn't realize that he exposed
himself completely just with that title. Your best life now. Understand, this is not life.
I love it when the Lord said, when you enter life, this isn't
life. When you enter life. Its adherents were not saved
in eternity past as the elect were, nor will they be saved
in eternity future. Abraham said to that rich man,
one who was in barbarian religion, son, remember that thou in this
lifetime had your good things. And he did have his good things
in this lifetime. But so what? Eternity awaits. Barbarian religion helps with
the present, and these people did some good things, but not
in the life to come. Now, notice these barbarians. Verse three, and when Paul had
gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the viper or on
the fire, There came a viper out of the heat. You know, they're
cold blooded. They get around heat and all
of a sudden they come to life. And this, uh, viper that was
probably very, um, whatever it is they are when they're kind
of sleep, you know, the cold blooded, all of a sudden it came
to life and it jumped up and it bit Paul on the hand and it
fastened itself to his hand. Hard to tell how much that hurt. And when the barbarian saw. the
venomous beast hang on his hand. They said among themselves, no
doubt. Barbarian religion speaks with
a lot of confidence. There's no doubt about this.
No doubt. This man is a murderer, whom
though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to
live. Now, the God of barbarian religion's
name is vengeance. He is a God who's gonna get you
if you do wrong. He's vengeance. He's a God of
reward. Now, if he did right, That snake's
not gonna bite him. He's a God of reward and he's
a God of vengeance. No doubt this man was a murderer. And vengeance did not suffer
him to live. No doubt, want confidence. But
there's a complete absence of the, and concept is not the right
word, the truth of grace. That is not present in barbarian
religion. In barbarian religion, you're
paid for what you do. If you can refrain from being
bad, this won't happen. But if you've done something
bad, this is what's gonna happen. You will be paid for what you've
done. What goes around comes around.
You ever heard that? What goes around comes around.
Like I said, it's karma is all it is. But this is the God of
barbarian religion. His name is vengeance. And he's not a God I want to
have anything to do with. I want to know the God of all grace. Now, This is works religion. That's
what it is. Works religion. Salvation in
some way, pleasing God in some way dependent on what you do. That is works religion. Now, if you believe any part
of your salvation is dependent upon your works, you're in Barbarian
religion. And your God's name is vengeance. And he's not much of a God. Not
a God I want to have anything to do with at all. Now, in barbarian
religion, there's a wrong concept of sin. Why do you say that? Well, first of all, barbarian
religion always sees sin clearly in other people. No doubt this
man is a murderer. No doubt. He had to have been
something. In barbarian religion, you can
see the sin, the wrongdoing of other people real clearly. And there's no understanding
of the fact that I am a murderer. I may have not killed anybody
physically, but I am a murderer. I've murdered men's characters.
I've murdered men by innuendo, by silence, by hate, by anger
without a cause. I am a murderer. Now, barbarian religion can see
other folks that are murderers. And you know, people generally
think, well, what's the greatest sin? I bet most people would
say murder. Murder, I mean, that tops them all, murder. For one
thing, All the law goes together. You break one, you've broken
them all. You break one once, and you break
them all, all the time. And if you don't understand that,
it's because God hadn't taught you who you are, and if that's
the case, you've just never seen who the Lord Jesus Christ is,
in His glory, in His holiness, in His love. majesty and His
transcendence. And you think, well, I can please
God by the things I do. If I can keep from being a murderer,
no viper's gonna get my hand. And it's foolishness. It's just no real understanding
of sin. I love that passage of scripture,
Romans chapter two. As a matter of fact, turn with
me there. I'd like you to look at this, Romans chapter two, just a few
pages over. Let's start in verse 29, being filled chapter one 29, I'm sorry. Chapter
one 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate. deceit, malignity, whispers,
backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of
evil things, disobedient to parents without understanding, covenant
breakers, Without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing
the judgment of God, that they would commit such things are
worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in
them that do them. Now, these people are really
bad, aren't they? These people are evil. What's he say next? Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. When he says, O man,
he's talking about every man. Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judges. For whereon thou judgest
another, you condemn yourself. For you that judge, doest. Doest. Now that's in the present
tense, the active voice in the original language. This is what
you do. You judge these people and they're
bad people. No doubt about it. But whatever
you judge anybody for, you do the same things. And that's what
God says. Somebody says, I don't do all
those things. God says you do. You'd be a lot better off, I'd
be a lot better off just believing what God says. If God says you
do that, you do it. You the judge do the same things. Now these men of barbarian religion,
they can look out, no doubt that man's a murderer, and they don't
understand that they are a murderer as well. There's really no understanding
of sin in barbarian religion. Now if I have any understanding
of sin, it comes from seeing who God is. The only reason someone
would not think I'm describing them is because they have not
seen the true character of God. If I ever see the true character
of God, I'm gonna see all I've ever done is broken every commandment
every time I'm nonstop in the process of breaking the greatest
commandment. What's the greatest commandment?
To love God with all your heart. And the second is likened to
it, to love your neighbor of yourself. Have you ever kept
that commandment? You know what that means? That means you are in the process
nonstop of continually breaking the greatest commandment. Now
that's the truth about me. That's the truth about you. Oh,
we can see sin in others real clearly. I can. You know, I preached
a message probably six months ago and I entitled it, Am I a
sinner? And I remember I introduced the
message saying, notice, I'm not saying, are you a sinner? I already
know you're one. Am I a sinner? That's the point. Am I the sinner? It's one thing to believe in
the doctrine of total depravity and see that the scripture teaches
it. And it's quite another thing to see that I myself am totally
depraved. Now these people could look at
Paul And so he did something bad. He must be a murderer. And there's always in natural
religion some sense of justice. He's gonna be punished for this.
You know, everybody is born believing God will reward the righteous
and punish the wicked. Now, they don't understand who
the righteous are and who the wicked are, and they don't understand
the concepts, really, but everybody has a certain sense of fairness
and justice and judgment. A two-year-old child learns very
quick to think, that's not fair. That's not fair. I'm not being
treated right. I'm not being given my due. That's
not fair. That's just as natural as breathing
to the adherence of barbarian religion. Barbarian religion
has no concept of the justice of God. Why do I say that? Vengeance will judge that murderer,
but there's no understanding in the righteousness of God in
judging me. or in the righteous of God in
saving me. Now understand this, the key
word to the gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ. We're at complete
agreement there. He is the gospel. He is the gospel. I dread the thought of preaching
a message where he is not everything in that message. I hope Oh, I
don't want to do that. That's one of the things that
scares me every time I preach. I'm scared to death of preaching
a message where he is not all in that message. And if I preach
a message where he's not all, it's not a good message. It's
a wrong message. It's an erroneous message. But I must understand
that God is righteous in condemning me, not just the murderer, but
me. I can't say it's not fair. I
can't say it's not right. He is righteous in condemning
me, but let's don't stop there. He's righteous in saving me for
Christ's sake. It's his righteousness that demands
my salvation, because his righteousness, his attributes have all been
honored in the gospel. And now, because my sin is put
away, and I have the very righteousness of Christ, and I stand before
God without guilt, the very righteousness of God demands my salvation. It's hard to say that. It's hard
to say that. Somebody says, you really believe
that? I really do believe it. It's so hard to say it, but I do believe
it. Come on in. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. That's gonna be said to every
believer because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now, barbarian religion just
doesn't see that. It just sees the other guy. No
doubt this guy's a murderer. They don't understand what sin
is in the first place. They just see the physical act
of murder and vengeance is not suffering him to live. Now I want us to understand if
our religion is contrary to any of the attributes of God, it
is barbarian religion. It's not saving religion. You
see the cross, this is one of the glorious things about the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know the cross glorifies
and exalts every attribute of God? every attribute of God. There's not, you know, so much
of, well, barbarian religion doesn't even care about ordering
the attributes of God. That's, you know, let's go on
to something more important. I mean, that's for theologians
to debate. And that's so ridiculous. God is who he is. And any gospel,
any religion that doesn't exalt his sovereignty EXALT HIS JUSTICE. EXALT HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. EXALT
HIS LOVE. EXALT HIS GRACE. EXALT HIS IMMUTABILITY. EXALT HIS INDEPENDENCE. EXALT HIS OMNIPOTENCE. EXALT
HIS OMNISCIENCE. EXALT HIS OMNIPRESENCE. WHATEVER
ATTRIBUTE OF GOD THAT HE'S BEEN PLEASED TO REVEAL, THE CROSS
OF CHRIST MAGNIFIES EVERY ATTRIBUTE OF GOD. Another thing that I would notice
is barbarian religion is based upon sight. Look in verse four
of our text. And when the barbarians saw,
everything they believed was based upon what they saw. They
saw this venomous beast hook on to Paul's hand and they drew
their conclusions from what they saw. Verse six, how be it they
looked when he should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly,
but after they had looked a great while and saw no harm come to
him, they changed their minds. Now, this is interesting. This
word change their minds is only found here. The word repentant
is found so many times. in the New Testament, and it
means a change of mind. But here the word is more, they
change their opinion. They change their opinion. You
see, there's no absolutes in barbarian religion. They can
go back one way or the other, change their opinion depending
on what they see. They change their opinion, no absolutes,
no scriptures alone, no Grace alone, no faith alone,
no Christ alone, no glory of God alone. There's no absolutes.
They can change their mind based upon what they see. And the fact
of the matter is what we see, we just don't get it. Everything
we see, we don't see clearly. Any judgment we make with regard
to anything based upon what we see is a wrong judgment. You know, anytime I judge you,
I do it. It's evil. It's sin. It ought
not ever be. I pray that I never judge anybody
again, but I always do it. And anytime I judge anybody for
anything, it's always based upon wrong information, lack of information,
not knowing the circumstances. And you know, Paul did say, let's
not judge one another anymore. Not anymore. The barbarian religion
still makes all of its judgments based upon what it sees. At first he must be a murderer,
and then when he doesn't fall down dead with the venom going
through his, he must be a god. That's another thing barbarian
religion does. It makes a god out of men. It makes man
way too high. You know, all you gotta do is
believe in free will, and you make yourself higher than God.
You can trump God's will. You can keep God's will from
being done. God wants to save you, but you can keep it from
happening. Well, my dear friend, that makes you more powerful
than God. That makes your will able to trump God's will. That
is so ridiculous. It's just so not true. But barbarian
religion always puts man in control. Whose ultimate destiny determines,
or what determines your salvation? Me, me. That's barbarian religion. It goes by what it sees. Now
faith, the opposite of this faith, we want by faith and not by sight. I wish I could say this the way
I'd like to say it. I believe that I stand before God
right now without guilt, without sin. The scripture says holy
and unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight. I believe that. I can't see it. I can't look within my heart
and say, oh, you have reached this attainment. You're now holy.
Why? You're unblameable. You're unreprovable. I can't see that, but I believe
it. because I'm relying on Jesus
Christ as my righteousness before God. I don't see him. Whom having not seen, you love. I love him. I admire him. I love him. I've never seen him.
I can't tell you what he looks like. I don't even try to imagine
what he looks like. I know that he was, according
to Isaiah 53, not what we would consider impressive
looking physically, but what difference does that make? I
am relying completely on Him because I believe He is the Son
of God. He's the uncreated Son of God
who's created the universe. He came in time, God was manifest
in the flesh, and in the flesh, He kept the law for me. He put
away my sin, made it to not be. was raised from the dead for
my justification and all my eggs are in that basket. I'm not looking
anywhere else. And all of that, I don't see. I believe, I believe the word
of God, but barbarian religion goes simply on what it sees. Now, This is interesting. Look in verse six, how be it? They looked when he should have
swollen or fallen down suddenly, but after they looked a great
while, no harm came to him. Look back in verse five and he
shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm. Now that
word harm is the word that is generally, generally It's got a broad meaning. It's
the same word where the Lord said to his disciples, if you
then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children.
Everybody here knows what that means, don't you? If you then being
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. But they could
not conceive why no evil came upon him. They just couldn't
conceive that. I mean, he should have died.
He must be a God. He must be a really good person.
He must be a God. But the point of this is, in
barbarian religion, there's no concept as to how that venom
did not affect Paul. No concept. Let me give you the
reason. Number one, because the Lord
said it wouldn't. Remember there in Mark chapter
16 where he said you'll take up serpents, you drink any deadly
thing, it won't hurt you. All the things he said that they
would be enabled to do by grace, the Lord said that would not
take place. The reason that venom did not
affect Paul is because Christ bore that venom for him on the
cross. That's why. Now, let me remind
you. There are three crosses on Calvary's
hill. The one in the middle is the
son of God. The one on his right hand is that thief that he saved. The one on his left hand is the
one who died cursing Christ and hating him. What was the difference
between those two men? There's only one answer, the
man on the middle cross, the Lord Jesus Christ, The one, he
took his sin and he put him away. The other one was left to be
what he was. The difference was the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That pretty much summarizes human
religion, doesn't it? I think the best way to name
it is karma. It's karma. Really, that's simplistic,
but it's so. It's karma. Do good, you'll be
rewarded. Good things will happen to you.
Do bad. Commit real bad sins. A viper
will come up and bite you. And then if you're not affected,
all of a sudden they think you must be some kind of super Christian,
some kind of super religious great person. But the gospel
is the opposite of all those things. The gospel is beyond
this life. In the life to come, I will enjoy
perfect holiness, perfect likeness to Christ forever. In the gospel, there's a true
understanding of who God is from the scriptures, not this God
named vengeance. In the gospel we know the living
God as he's revealed in his word and all of his attributes. There's
a true understanding of sin where we see I'm the murderer. I am the murderer. Right now. Right now. Not the way it used to be. Right
now. In the gospel, there's an understanding
of the justice of God demanding my salvation and why I don't
go to hell. It's because of what Christ did
for me. And you know what, in the gospel,
our minds don't change, do they? It's only by the grace of God,
but you know, the scripture says, meddle not with him that you're
given to change. Somebody that has one doctrine one day and
another doctrine the other, stay away from that person. Meddle
not with them that are given to change. But why would we change
perfection? Christ is all. I have no desire
to change that in any way. I love being complete in him,
don't you? I love being accepted in the beloved. I love being
saved in a way where he gets all the glory, and I have a two-fold
reason for loving to be saved in a way that he gets all the
glory. Number one is because all glory goes to him. But number
two, that's the only way I'll be saved. Because if he doesn't
get all the glory, there's something expected out of me that I can't
come up with. So I love his salvation. I'm not tempted to change. Barbarian religion cannot understand
the language of grace. It's a different language. And
when they hear the gospel, It's another language to them that
they do not understand. But when God opened your heart
and when God gives you eyes to see, you understand. You're given
a new language, the language of grace. And every believer
knows that language. Let's pray. Lord, we give thanks For the
clarity of your word, Lord, deliver us from barbarian religion because
it's as natural to us as it is to breathe. We ask that you would
be our teacher for Christ's sake. Lord, as we face this coming
week, we ask that we might walk by faith and not by sight. We
ask that we would be given grace to walk with our Redeemer. We ask that you would open up
doors according to your will for us to preach your gospel
to others. And Lord, how we thank you for who you are and how you
save sinners by your son. In his blessed name we pray,
amen.