Lip Versus Heart Religion

Q: What does the Bible say about lip and heart religion?

The Bible, particularly in Mark 7:6-7, emphasizes that true worship must come from the heart rather than mere lip service. In Mark 7:6-7, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees, saying, 'This people honoreth me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.' This passage illustrates the distinction between heart religion, which is genuine and heartfelt, and lip religion, which is superficial and ritualistic. True worship involves a heartfelt connection to God, not merely a performance of external rituals. Throughout Scripture, we see that God desires sincere worshipers who worship Him in spirit and truth, highlighting that the worship acceptable to Him flows from a heart transformed by His grace.

Q: How do we know salvation is from the Lord?

Salvation is from the Lord, as affirmed in scriptures such as Romans 8:30 and Ephesians 1:4, demonstrating that it is solely by His will and grace. The doctrine of salvation being solely the work of God is rooted in various Scriptures, including Romans 8:30, which states, 'Moreover whom He predestinated, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.' This clearly shows that from election to glorification, God's sovereignty is at work in our salvation. Furthermore, Ephesians 1:4 explains that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, establishing that our salvation is rooted in God's eternal purpose. This truth brings comfort to believers, as it assures us that our salvation does not depend on our merit or efforts but on God's gracious initiative.

Q: Why is acknowledging the Lordship of Christ important for Christians?

Acknowledging Christ's Lordship is essential for true faith, as it signifies our commitment to following Him wholly and recognizing His authority in our lives. Recognizing Christ as Lord is foundational to the Christian faith, as demonstrated in Romans 10:9, which states, 'If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.' This confession is not merely an acceptance of Jesus as Savior but an acknowledgment of His supreme authority over our lives. One cannot truly claim to follow Christ without submitting to His Lordship, which encompasses our entire being and lifestyle. Therefore, the call is for believers to fully embrace and submit to Christ's Lordship, prioritizing Him above all else, as salvation entails both the acceptance of His saving grace and allegiance to His divine authority.

My subject tonight is lip or heart religion. Lip versus heart religion. Now this is a fact which all
of you know. We're literally surrounded in God. covered over by religion in this
country. Religion, American style, has
invaded every area of our lives, political, education, entertainment, medicine,
sports. There's no need to comment. All
of you know what I'm talking about. Religion, religion, religion. It's difficult for a man to get
elected to the office of president or any other office unless he
has some kind of religion that will pacify certain groups of
people. And it's really in Many towns,
I wouldn't say everywhere, because some of the major cities, well,
their religion is no religion, but they have religion, but it's
popular. It's popular in most towns today
to be religious. In fact, if a person does not
cooperate and go along with today's style of religion, In school, our young people know
something about this, the American brand of fundamentalism, religion. When a fellow makes a touchdown
at football, you've got to wait until he goes through his religious
ritual until he can get the ball back in play again. Religion is highly organized,
and if you don't cooperate, This is tough, but if you don't cooperate
with today's style of religion, you're dubbed either an atheist
or a fanatic. You fall in one area. Isn't that
true? If you don't go along with this brand of self-righteousness
and religion given over to appearance, then you're dubbed an atheist.
Don't you believe in God? Or you're dubbed a fanatic, a
radical. But this has always been the
case. This is nothing new. Nothing new. Religion, each country's
own brand of religion. I've been in a lot of countries.
A lot of countries. Japan, Mexico, Spain, France,
Russia. These countries are all religious. Each country has its own brand
of religion, and each country's religion has played and does
play a major role in the lives of the people. In fact, more wars have been
fought over religion than any other one cause. More people have died and been
persecuted, bloodshed over religion. than any other single cause. Persecution. Hatred. What's the problem? Well, our
Lord revealed the problem here in Mark 7. Here is the problem. Here is the problem. Man is by
nature a religious creature. We have various emotions. Human
beings experience love and hate, different emotions, and religion
is one of the things that we inherit from our fathers, religion. But here in Mark chapter 7, verse
6 and 7, our Lord reveals the problem. He says, He answered
and said to them, and they've just gone through this problem,
the disciples, picked up some food and ate it, and these Pharisees,
these religious fellows, became greatly alarmed. They said, you
didn't wash your hands. Don't you know the tradition,
the religion, the custom of our fathers is never to eat with
unwashing hands under any circumstances? If they don't wash their hands,
he said, they just don't eat. And it wasn't just a matter for
cleanliness, it's a matter of religion. This is a custom, a
tradition. They wash certain pots and pans,
tables and beds. And they do this as a purification
before God. And that's what it was all about.
And our Lord said in verse 6, He answered and said to them,
Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites. It is written,
This people honoreth me, God, with their lips. It's a lip religion. But their hearts are far from
me. Howbeit in vain they worship
me. They worship in vain. Christ
said to that woman at the well. She said, Our fathers worshipped
in this mountain. You Jews say you're supposed
to worship in Jerusalem. He said, You don't know what
you worship. The day is coming when you shall neither in this
mountain nor in Jerusalem worship God. God is spirit. They that
worship God do not worship God in mountains and buildings and
towns. They worship God in spirit and
truth, in heart. There's the problem. Lip service,
lip worship. In vain they worship me, teaching
for doctrines. commandments of men, the ideas
and thoughts and regulations and traditions and laws and rules
of men. And here's the problem that our
young people are faced with, and I want them to listen to
me now real carefully. Much of American religion And I know Catholicism is not
hard to deal with, that's just pagan idolatry. Buddhism is no
problem, that big fat god sitting over there in Kamakura, that
doesn't give you any problem. But modern fundamentalism, American
brand religion, uses the same words with their
lips They use the same terms. They use the same scriptures
that true believers use. This is the problem. They talk about the blood of
Christ. They talk about the incarnation
of Christ, of God. They talk about the blood, the
book, and the blessed hope. Talk about the Holy Spirit. Talk
about the power of God. They talk about grace and faith
and mercy and hope. Same words. Same words. Heaven and hell,
judgment. Mercy, see. Abraham, Moses, Isaac. And it takes a discerning eye. It takes a discerning ear to
know the difference. Our Lord said that. He warned
us. Turn to Matthew 24. Listen to this. Our Lord warned
us about this. He says in Matthew 24, verse
21, listen to it, Matthew 24, 21. For then shall be great trouble,
great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the
world, Matthew 24, 21. To this time, no, nor ever shall
be, and except those days be shortened, there shall no flesh
be saved. But for the elect's sake, those
days shall be shortened. Then, if any man shall say to
you, Lo, here's Christ, here's the gospel, here's the message,
here's the revelation, or there's Christ, don't believe it. For
there shall arise false Christ and false prophets and show great
signs and wonders, great followings, great powerful
impressions, influence. great crowds, multitudes, insomuch
if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." That's how close it is. That's
how close it is. That's how deceptive it is. John
said, you're going to have to try the spirits whether they
be of God. Peter said, Just as there were
false prophets in Israel in the days of our fathers, there are
false prophets among you, many of them, and they shall deceive
many, and many people shall follow their pernicious ways. Let me
show you a powerful scripture here in 2 Corinthians chapter
11, a warning, 2 Corinthians 11. Turn over there a moment.
2 Corinthians chapter 11. Look carefully at this scripture,
2 Corinthians 11 verse 13. For such are false apostles,
they called apostles, they call themselves apostles, deceitful
workers, changing or transforming themselves into the apostles
of Jesus Christ. And no marvel, this is no marvel
really, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of
light. He operates in the spiritual realm. I hear people talking
today, the religious people and all, talking like Satan was some perverted, drunken, thieving bum out there. Satan's in the pulpit. That's
where he operates. He quotes Scripture. He met our
Lord in the mountain of temptation. Forty days Christ fasted and
was tempted of Satan. And how did he come at him? He
came at him with the Word of God. He said to the Lord, he
said, He said, if you want the world
to worship you, you want people to know your power, jump off
this mountain. For it says in the Scriptures,
he'll give his angels charge over thee, lest thou dash thy
foot against a stone. You know what the Bible says?
That's what it is. Told our Lord, said, you've got
the power, change these stones into bread. He's a quoter of Scripture. He's an angel, changes himself
into an angel of light. Listen to verse 15. Therefore
it's no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers
of righteousness, goodness, morality, whose end shall be according
to their works. I tell you, it takes a discerning eye and a
discerning ear But the difference can be seen and heard if you're
interested. And there's much that goes under
the name of God and always, this is no new thing. You say this
is powerful in our day, it's powerful in my day. It's powerful
in my grandfather's day. It's powerful right here when
our Lord walked this earth. It's powerful. all these Pharisees
and Sadducees. It was powerful in Elijah's day,
there were 450 prophets of Baal, and he is one, prophet of God. You see, there's much that goes
under the name of God, the name of Christ, and the name of faith,
which is confined totally to the lips. Totally to the lips. It's word and will worship. And throughout scriptures, young
folks, you have many examples of people who had what looked
like faith, who had that which went by the name of faith, who
had that which they called faith, who had what others thought was
faith, but which was nothing but the outward form of religion. I can show you going through
the New Testament, and I would like for you to turn to John
8, and let me show you some of the characteristics of these
people. They claim the old fathers. They claim a kinship with Abraham
and Moses. They talk about the old fathers,
Abraham and Moses and Elijah, and they quote these men. Here
in John chapter 8, verse 39, They answered Jesus Christ and
said to him, Abraham's our father. Abraham's our father. Jesus said,
if you were Abraham's children, you'd do the works of Abraham.
They not only claimed their old fathers, but they claimed God
as their father. Look at verse 41. Christ said,
you do the deeds of your father. They said unto him, then said
they to him, we be not born of fornication. We have one father,
even God. God is our father. We believe
in God. Jesus said, if God were your
Father, you'd love me. I proceeded forth and came from
God, neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Tell you another
thing, they speak well of Christ. Nicodemus said, no man could
do what you do except God be with him. We know you come from
God. Pilate said, I find no fault
in him. Pilate's wife said, he's a just man. The men who came
to arrest him said, no man spake like this man. These Pharisees also, these religious
fellows, not only claim the fathers and claim God as their father
and speak well of Christ, but they reformed the outward man.
The Pharisees said, I thank you God, I'm not like other men. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not even like the publicans.
And they're religious men. He said, I tithe. I fast more than is required. I fast twice a week. I give alms
to the poor. I do all these things. That's
what religious people do. They do great and mighty works.
They also get excited over a kingdom. When our Lord rode the donkey
into Jerusalem, it says they put palm branches in his path.
Some of them took off their coats and laid across the road and
said, Hosanna! Hosanna! Here comes the Son of
David! Here comes the King of Israel!
We're going to have a Jewish kingdom! We're going to restore
the temple worship! And that's what they're preaching
today. They hold high offices. Diostrophes, Alexander, Judas
Iscariot. The disciples didn't have but
one officer. Did you know that? Only one officer.
It was Judas. He was the treasurer. Did you
know that? The disciples didn't have any officers except one. That was the treasurer. That
was Judas. Demas was a companion of the Apostle Paul. Also these
people give large gifts to the church. Ananias and Sapphira
sold their property and gave it to the church, part of it.
Lied about it. These people are baptized. Simon
Magus was baptized. They performed good works. They
stand at judgment and talk about their good works. So, this is
what I'm saying. I'm saying this religion has a lot of things that look
like faith. A lot of things that go by the name of faith. A lot
of things that are commendable. Morality is commendable. Giving
is commendable. Some of these things are very
commendable. But our Lord said it's lip worship.
And the true believer is grieved over these things. He's grieved
over false religion. He's grieved over these conditions.
He feels pity and compassion for people who are caught up
in this false religion. This religion of works, religion
of self-righteousness, religion of lip worship. It's a heartache! Because if it weren't for God's
grace, that's where we'd be today. Every one of us would be in the
same traditional religion. That's where we were when God
found us. But really and truly, I experienced two feelings about
it. It's all around me. It's everywhere.
I can't cooperate with it. I can't take part in it. I know
the difference. I was in it one time. And the
Lord revealed Christ to my heart. He revealed His grace. He revealed
His sovereign mercy to my heart. Brought me out of that stuff.
And I'm still surrounded by it, but I see the difference. And
I have two feelings toward it. One is pity and sorrow and compassion. And the other is thanksgiving
that God brought me out of it. And I'll tell you what it does
for me when I look and when I listen to this false religion in this
flesh and this religion in appearance, you know what I'm talking about,
this religion in appearance, talk, lip service. The gospel
shines more brightly in the midst of that dunghill. That's right. You take a diamond a pearl of
great price. And boy, you put it on a dunghill,
it sure does look pretty, doesn't it? And that's what it is, the
dunghill of human works, how the grace of our God and the
gospel of His mercy in Christ shines so brightly, shines so
brightly. Secondly, the more I see of this
lip worship and will worship, the more confidence and hope
I have in Christ. That's right. The more people
tell me what to do in order to be saved, the more I hope I have
in Him who did it all and gave it to me as a free gift. That's
right. It makes Christ more precious. That's right. Let them play their
game. Let them play their game. And
while they're playing their game, it takes me back to Calvary and
I hear that voice say, it's finished. It's finished. And I know that
my debt is paid. And I'll tell you another thing,
thirdly, the righteousness and blood of Christ becomes more
precious to me the more they talk about their righteousness.
I'll tell you, the more I look at His righteousness, the more
I see of my own unrighteousness. That's right. That's right, the more I see
of His righteousness, the more I see of my unrighteousness,
makes it shine more brightly. Fourthly, as I watch, and I want to be
careful, I don't want to be a negative preacher, but I tell you, the
more I see of this exhibitionism and hand-waving
and whoop-de-doo, that they call worship. The more delighted I
am to sit here with you in a solemn, sane, and sincere worship of
Almighty God, and hearing thy love lifted me, and hearing you
sing, Faith Eats Earthly Jaw, and hearing the reading of God's
Word and the prayers of these men, lifted to God's throne. Oh, the more happy and content
I am that I'm not in that exhibitionism, emotionalism and entertainment.
How sweet it is. A few Sundays ago, about two,
I guess, after I preached, we had such a good service one Sunday
morning. God was here. Presence of the
Lord was here. The Spirit of God was here. There
was worship and a quietness of spirit and the lifting of our
hearts to God and the preaching of the gospel. And I stand back
by the door and one of these dear ladies came by and looked
at me and tears glistened a little bit in her eye and she said,
this is a wonderful place to be. This is a wonderful place
to be. And it is, isn't it? It is. I know whom I have believed.
I'm persuaded He's able to keep that which I've committed to
Him. John said, The Son of God has
come and given us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true. That we may know Him that is true. This is the true God. This is eternal life. Isn't that
it? And let me say this. And you
listen to me now. Whatever claims the religionists
make, whatever claims they make, whatever feelings they claim
to experience, whatever works they profess to do, whatever
noise and clamor they make, whatever crowds and followings they attract,
There are five things, now listen carefully, there are five things
that they cannot produce. There are five things they cannot
experience. Like Brother Shelton used to
say, come flame or flood, there's five things they can't experience,
which you have experienced. I'm going to give them to you.
Now you listen, there are five things that they cannot produce
and cannot experience. This is of God. This is the work
of God. This is true faith, heart faith. This is the work of God in here.
It's not something a man pops off about, it's something he
experiences. Here it is, five things. I'll give them to you
briefly. Number one, religion cannot produce a heart which
is genuinely broken and repentant over sin. Can't do it. Can't do it. Turn to Psalm 51
and listen to David. This is what I'm talking about.
This is not religion talking. This is not lip service. This
is heart praying. That's Psalm 51. Have mercy upon
me, O God. According to thy lovingkindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions, wash me throughly from my iniquity, cleanse me
from my sin. If I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin as ever before me, Against thee, and thee only,
have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou
mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou
judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and sin, my mother, conceived me. Behold, thou desirest truth
in the inward parts, in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know
wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, sprinkle me with the blood, wash
me, and I'll be clean. Wash me, and I'll be whiter than
the snow. That's the heart praying. And
this man's not speaking of sin in general. This man is grieving
over and confessing and repenting of and mourning over his sin,
my sin, my sin, my sin. And he's acknowledging that his
sin's against God. And he's justifying God in his
condemnation. The Apostle Peter, one day, our
Lord performed a mighty miracle. And this was the Apostle Peter's
response. Listen, you'll find it in Luke
7, Luke 5, 7 through 9. And Peter, when he beheld the
power of Christ, he said, Depart from me. I'm a sinful
man. Now, brother, let me tell you
something. That ain't religion. That's grace. That's grace. That's the reason
we say a man will never be saved until he's lost. A man will never
be clothed until he's stripped. A man will never be raised until
he's damned. He'll never have sight until he's blind. He'll
never be exalted until he's broken. Let's try. Secondly, and I'll
tell you something else. You read Romans 7, the Apostle
Paul. The things that I would do, I
do them not. The things I would not do, that's what I do. And
this religious crowd says, he is unsaved then. No, he wasn't
either. He said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ,
my Lord, I have been delivered. That's not a lost man talking,
that's a redeemed man. But religion can't produce a
broken heart. It produces a cocky, presumptuous,
arrogant, proud, religious veneer that covers dead men's bones. That's what it does. But I'll
tell you about a true believer. He knows he looks like a shack
on the outside, but he's got grace on the inside, gold on
the inside. You look at him and he's mourning
over his sins and over his weakness. He doesn't claim to be anything.
He has a broken heart, but if you could see in his heart, you
could cut into his heart, you'd find a love for Christ Jesus
and a love for you. That's right. That's the difference.
Religion is outside, grace is inside. Religions of the mouth,
grace is of the heart. Religion does all this talking
and grace does a lot of listening. That's the difference. That's
right. Here's the second thing religion can't produce. It cannot
and will not acknowledge that even our best deeds and our best
works are sinful. and unacceptable to God except
through Christ Jesus. Religion can't handle that. That
makes people mad. It upsets them. But this is what
Paul said in Philippians 3. Paul was one of the most outstanding.
Do you know that Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee? He was a member
of the Sanhedrin. He was of the strictest sect
of the Jews. He said, I was circumcised the
eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. Concerning
the law, I was blameless. My heritage and my ancestry was
pure before men, and my works were greater than many my equals.
But all these things I count but dumb garbage, rubbish, that
I may win Christ and be found in Him. And that's where a believer
starts. Those Jews, Christ said, they're
going about to establish their own righteousness. And that's
the first thing that goes when a man comes to Christ, is his
own righteousness, his own works. They're no good. Paul said, in
the flesh, no man can please God. No man. But religion brags about what
to do. I told you about that this morning.
You know that. The more they do, the more they
brag. The more they do, the more they boast. And we know that
when we've done everything we can do, we're still what? Unprofitable
servants. You see, the reason why our works
are not acceptable to God, except in Christ, is because to be accepted
of God, they've got to be perfect. And we realize that. We realize
that. And because of who Christ is
and what he did, our works have been perfected, our prayers.
We don't just pray in the name of Christ as a token allegiance
or honor or respect. We're actually praying in the
name of Christ. There's no way that God can hear
us except through Christ. Somebody said one time, I believe
it was Rutherford, he said, Even our repentance needs to
be repented of. He said that there's enough sin
in our best deeds to damn us, except by the blood of Christ.
And we know that. Thirdly, religion cannot and
will not acknowledge, unless they won't do it, they will not
acknowledge that salvation is of the Lord. From its origination to its conservation,
from Alpha to Omega, from beginning to end, the salvation of any
sinner is of the Lord. Now, they won't acknowledge that. God is sovereign in all things. He declares the end from the
beginning. Is anything too hard for God? My arm's not short that
I can't save. He said my ear's not heavy that
I can't hear. He said I'll be merciful to whom
I will be merciful. I'll be gracious to whom I will.
God did elect a people in Christ. That's right. We're chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world. And we're not chosen
to service, we're chosen to salvation. Our Lord said, all that my Father
giveth me will come to me. Him that cometh to me I'll in
no wise cast out. Without apology, the people of
God believe that they're saved because God willed it, not because
they willed it. We're born of the will of God.
And Christ Jesus came and redeemed those people. He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him by His stripes we're
healed. And He justified many because
He bore their iniquities. And those whom He chose and redeemed,
He called. Whom the Lord foreknew, He predestinated
to be conformed to the image of His Son. Whom He predestinated,
He called. Whom He called, He justified.
Whom He justified, He glorified. And He'll keep them. He that
hath begun a good work, In you shall perfect it until the day
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He'll keep them. This is the
truth. But religion just won't have
it. They've got to have a part somewhere in their salvation. That's all there is to it. And fourthly, religion can accept Jesus as
their Savior. but they will not bow to him
as Lord. Now I know they put up signs,
Jesus is Lord, but that's lip service too, that's not heart
allegiance. If you listen to the invitations
and exhortations of preachers today, it is always in this vein. Will you accept Jesus as your
personal Savior? If you'll accept him as your
personal Savior, he'll put away your sins and take you to heaven.
And what this amounts to is putting Jesus on the shelf with all your
other gods and idols. That's all it is. That's what
we're doing. We're just putting him up there
with all the other items, family and job and friends and hobbies
and entertainments and investments and all these other things. Jesus
is my personal Savior. My life is this way, this way,
this way, that way, and on Sunday, Jesus is my personal Savior. And that's not according to the
Scripture. Turn to Romans 10 with me. I don't find anywhere
in the Scripture any apostle or preacher talking about accepting
Jesus as your personal Savior. But I find throughout the Scripture
this exhortation in Romans 10, verse 9, that if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, Jesus to be Lord. Whose Lord? My Lord. My Lord. and shall believe in thine heart
that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. The man who found the pearl of
great price sold all that he had and purchased the pearl. Christ said, If any man come
after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow
And he that loveth father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wife,
yea, his own life also more than me, he cannot be my disciple.
Christ is Lord. That's the reason he exhorted
people to count the cost. He said a man doesn't build a
house unless he first sits down and counts the cost, says he's
got enough to finish it. And he said a man doesn't go
forth to meet another man in battle if he doesn't have enough
forces to conquer him. So he sits down and counts the
cost. And that's what true ministers of Christ preach. They don't
appeal to people, invite people, accept Jesus as their personal
Savior. They talk about the Lordship
of Christ, submission, commitment to Christ. Commitment. One hundred percent, lock, stock
and barrel, sold out to Him. Bow to Him. Enthrone Him. Worship Him. Love Him. Follow Him. Now go home and sit
down and count the cost. And while you're counting the
cost, it's not just a one-sided counting the cost of what it'll
cost me to follow Him. You count this cost, what it'll
cost you not to follow Him. Count both costs. Or shall a
man profit if he gain the whole world and lose his soul? So this thing of salvation, believe
me, honestly, it's not accepting Jesus as your personal Savior.
That's a pretty good deal for some folks. I'll just take Jesus. Like the
preacher said the other day, he said, try Him for a few days.
We heard that, didn't we? He said, try him for a few days.
If you don't like him, just let him go. Take it on a 30-day trial
basis, no cost. Just sign up, we'll send it to
you, and you try it out. If you don't like it, send it
back. But that's not salvation. That's religion. That's the lip
service. Salvation is counting the cost. Counting the cost. Counting the cost. Christ, salvation,
eternal life, Lordship. Lordship. The things with Him
we don't do, places we don't go, people with whom we don't
associate, things we do, things we enjoy, fellowship with Christ. There's a cost. It may cost you
your dearest friend. It may cost you some relatives. It may cost you your job. But it's Christ, we sit down,
it's like somebody said to me not long ago, not too awful long
ago, they were talking, they were in a church where the gospel
is preached and they talked about moving, going somewhere else. This was a good while ago. And they took the position, resigned
where they were, planned to leave, all these things, and then said,
is there a church down there to go to hear the gospel? Now
that's not what a believer does. This is what a believer, a person
who knows Christ, for whom, now that's a person, what a person
does who's accepted Jesus as his Savior, this is what a believer
does. When he's offered a position, a promotion, or whatever, He
says first, is there a church there where I can worship God
and hear the gospel? And the man says, no. He just
said, well, thank you anyway. Yeah, but what about the job?
What about the job? That's count the cost. That's
what I'm talking about. The job doesn't enter in. The
promotion doesn't have any effect. It's Christ is my Lord. This is salvation. And he says
you count the cost. If you're not willing to pay
it, if you don't want to pay it, fine. But you better count
the cost of not bowing to it. Because that's a terrible price
to pay. But religion doesn't, they don't
preach that. They just don't preach that. Folks don't like it. Just don't like it. Well, here's
the fifth thing. I'll tell you what religion cannot
do. It cannot break the heart, number
one, over sin. It cannot acknowledge that my
righteousness still is filthy rags. It's still filthy rags. It cannot acknowledge that salvation
is of the Lord. Totally, completely. He chose
me. I didn't choose Him. He called me. And I called Him
because He called me. And I'm here because He put me
here. I am what I am by the grace of God. He gets all the glory.
Fourthly, they'll accept Jesus as their personal Savior, but
they're not going to bow. You're just not going to tell
me how to live and where to live and what to do, and He's not
going to reign over me. I've got my rights. That's right. They're not going to bow. Religion can never consequently,
because it's all external and outward, it therefore cannot
give a man peace. Can't do it. Can't give him peace. Oh, it'll give him peace, peace,
when there is no peace. But he knows there's no peace.
He knows. Isn't that right, Gerald? In
religion, we talked about that before, there's a, there's a,
but there isn't it? But down in here, it's not there. There's no peace there. Christ
is our peace. You can't find peace without
the Prince of Peace. There's no peace in activity.
There's no peace in involvement. There's no peace in organizations.
There's no peace in all of these outward commitments. There's
peace and rest in Christ. I'd like to tell the religious
world, not stand up for Jesus and pop off, sit down and shut
up! Wouldn't you? Sit down and shut up, everybody! Let's hear from God.

Lip Versus Heart Religion

What does the Bible say about lip and heart religion?

How do we know salvation is from the Lord?

Why is acknowledging the Lordship of Christ important for Christians?

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Lip Versus Heart Religion

What does the Bible say about lip and heart religion?

How do we know salvation is from the Lord?

Why is acknowledging the Lordship of Christ important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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