here's our subject today my religion
my religion James wrote in James chapter 1 verse 26 if any man
among you seem to be religious and bridle it not his tongue
but deceiveth his own heart that man's religion is vain. That man's religion is vain. Now, I'm not particularly fond
of the word religion. It's been used to cover all sorts
of evil and all sorts of corruption. I know that. But James uses it
in the text. He uses it twice. Religious and
religion. And then Paul uses the word in
Acts 26 5. He talks about his religion.
His religion in which he Exceeded many his equals and in Galatians
1 13 he talked about his religion As I say I'm not particularly
fond of the world word religion that there's much religion in
the world all sorts of religion Good things are done today in
the name of religion People are fed people are clothed a lot
of good things are done in the name of religion a lot of evil
things are done in the name of religion Much evil is done in
the name of religion, always has been. Men even kill in the
name of religion. I was in Ireland in 1972 when,
in the thick of much of that religious battle over there,
in the name of religion, they kill people. They're doing it
in the Middle East. And men compete for fortune and
fame in the name of religion. So we've had enough that goes
under the name religion to turn all of us against the word, religion,
religion. But whether we choose to use
the word or not, now here's what I'm saying, it's used today.
Whether we choose to use it, whether we like it, whether we
want it, I much prefer being called a believer, or being called
a Christian, or being called a person who loves Christ, but
the word religion is here to stay. And to the world, and to
men in general, you're religious. If you believe in God, you're
religious. If you don't drink or gamble or curse, you're religious. If you go to church, you're religious.
If you carry a Bible, you're religious. So that's what to
say, you're religious. And you have religion. So-and-so
got religion. Somebody'll say they're saved
and say, well, you got religion. Got religion. Well, to men, I'm
religious. And I have a religion. But the
question I'm dealing with this morning is this, what is my religion? What is my religion? What men
call religion? What is it I believe? What is
my faith? What is my Christianity? What
is it that I believe? I want to define for you, as
best I can, my religion. As best I can. Oh, seven or eight
things. But if you wish to, jot these
things down. If you'd rather wait and hear
it later by tape, you can write to me, I'll send you the tape.
But this is my religion. Number one, my religion begins
where everything begins, where everything always has begun.
My religion begins with God. That's right, it begins with
God. True religion arises from a right knowledge of God. Now
everything begins with God. God is light. There's no light
without God. God is truth. God is love. In
the beginning. The Bible starts with God. You
pick up the Bible and open it to page one. It says, in the
beginning God. So my religion begins with God.
You ask the average person, what's your religion? He'll start, well
I'm a Baptist. No, no. My religion doesn't begin with
John the Baptist or any other Baptist. My religion begins with
God. In Psalm 115, verse 2 and 3,
they said, Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is your God? That's what David wrote. They
said, Where is your God? Where's your God? And David replied,
Now they knew where their gods were. They kept their gods in
their idol temples, in their heathen temples, on their shrines
or altars. They knew where their gods were.
They were right where they put them. And they stayed right where they
leave them. But David said, Our gods are in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. And in Psalm 135 he repeats that. He said, but our God is in the
heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Now let me tell you some things
about God. This is what I believe about God. My God is absolutely
sovereign. Now the definition of the word
sovereign is right in the word. R-E-I-G-E. God reigns. God rules. God reigns in creation. God reigns
in providence. God reigns in salvation with
total, complete authority. Almighty God doeth according
to his will, not according to the creature's will, but according
to his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. He said in Isaiah 46, I have
spoken. I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it. I'll also do it, God says. Can
anybody stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? My
God is immutably, infinitely, unchangeably, absolutely sovereign
in all things. Nothing takes place of which
God is not the first cause. He permits men to do what they
will, but in doing so they carry out his divine, eternal purpose
and will. Secondly, my God is holy. Isaiah
said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, his train filled the
temple. The cherubims, seraphims, the heavenly hosts cried, holy,
holy, holy. God is in his holy temple. Let
all the earth keep silence. Our God can accept nothing but
perfection. He's immutably, infinitely, immaculately
holy, holy. He cannot look upon sin even
when that sin is in His beloved Son. He spared not His own Son.
Our God is holy. And then our God is just and
righteous. He will in no wise clear the
guilty. The judge of the earth will do,
shall do, always has done that which is right. He cannot fellowship
with sin. He cannot commune with sin. He
cannot look upon sin. Our God is just and He is righteous. My God is love. He said, I've
drawn you with an everlasting love. For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But God,
who is rich in love, rich in mercy, rich in mercy for His
great love, wherewith He loved us. Herein is love, not that
we love God, but God loved us. God is love. I hear people always
saying God is a God of love. That's not true. God is love. There's no love apart from God.
When you say God is a God of love, you seem to indicate that
the principle of love is here and God meets the requirements
or the standards. God is love. In Him we live and
move and have our being. He doesn't live and move and
have His being in us. In Him we live and move and have
our being. God created the world. Everything's
in God. God's in everything. God is love. God is light. Take away God,
there's no light. God is life. I see bumper stickers
that says God is alive. That's foolish. That's a foolish
statement. A man who cares a thing like
that doesn't know God. God's not alive. God is life. There's a difference. If you
say God is alive, you're saying here's life and here's God and
He meets the requirements. No, sir. God is life. If God
is not life, you don't have life. All life comes from God. Our
God is love. Our God is merciful. Merciful. Infinitely merciful. He said
to Moses, I will be merciful. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. I'd like to see your glory. He said, here it is. It's my
goodness. I will be merciful. I'll be merciful. The average
person tries to picture God as an unmerciful God. He's merciful. He's gracious. God's gracious. He takes no pleasure in the death
of the wicked. His justice will be honored,
His righteousness satisfied, but He delights to show mercy.
Delights to. Delights to forgive. My God's
eternal. He's unchangeable. He said, I
am the Lord, I change not. He said the gifts and calling
of God are without change. What He does, He's always done.
What He will do, He does now and always has done. God's unchangeable. He never forgets anything and
never learns anything. God declared the end from the
beginning and from age of times of things that are not yet done,
saying, My counsel shall stand, I'll do all my pleasure. Nothing
slips up on God. Nothing takes God by surprise.
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds
that Thy hand hath made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling
thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then
sings my soul, my Savior God to thee, how great thou art."
How big is your God? How big is your God? Is your
God an idol, a figment of your imagination, or is He the eternal,
invisible, almighty, infinite, immaculate, unchangeable, just,
righteous, holy God of the universe? who does what he will, when he
will, with whom he will, and worketh all things according
to the counsel of his own purpose, and according to his own will.
That's the only true God, and that's eternal life. That's my
religion. Then secondly, my religion accepts
the truth not only about God, but the truth about men. There's
no way you can exalt God too high. You can't lift Him too
high. You can't exalt Him too high.
The earth is his footstool. He considers the nations as a
drop in the bucket, the inhabitants as grasshoppers. He sitteth on
the circle of the earth. He doeth his will in all things. No way you can put God too high.
You can't brag on God too much. You can't put man too low. There's
no way you can put man too low. Listen to Paul. It is written,
there's none righteous No, not one. There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone out of the way. They're all together
become unprofitable. There's none good. No, not one. Not one. When that was written,
you were included. All the world is guilty before
God. All is sinned. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We've turned every one to his
own way, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
There's no soundness in you, nothing but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. The wise man said God made man
upright and he sought out many inventions. God created him high
and he fell low. By one man's sin entered this
world and death, spiritual death, passed upon all men for all sin. How can he be clean that's born
of a woman, Job said. Behold the moon, the stars, they
shine not. The heavens are not clean in
God's sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man who drinks
iniquity like water. He remembereth our frame, he
knoweth that we're dust. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. We're all as an unclean thing.
We all do fade as a leaf. Even our righteousness is a filthy
rag in God's sight. What the law saith, that saith
to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped.
And all the world become guilty before God. Therefore by the
deeds of the law shall no flesh, no flesh be justified in his
sight. That's my religion. You can't
put God too high and you can't put man too low. And then thirdly,
my religion recognizes, recognizes the preeminence and the glory
and the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the center of our religion. He is the heart of my religion. He is the high priest, prophet,
and king of my religion. Jesus Christ the Lord. I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believes it, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Jesus Christ is God. I didn't
say he's just the son of God. I said he's God. I didn't say
he was a messenger from God. Nicodemus said that. I said he's
God Almighty. I and my Father are one, Christ
said. I can't explain the Trinity.
Father, Son, Holy Spirit, I see it throughout the Bible. God
said let us make man. Who's he talking to? In our image,
let us create man. The father spake, this is my
beloved son, the Holy Spirit of God descended in the form
of a dove. There are three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. It's all the
way through the Word. I just know that unto us a child is
born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That's
right. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ
is man. And the Word became flesh. That's
incarnation. God became a man. You say, explain
that. Can't do it. Can't do it. I just
know that, behold, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. A virgin
shall be with son, child. You shall call His name Immanuel. What's that mean? God with us.
He took our nature. He took our place. He took our
guilt. He took our sin. Jesus Christ
is the Messiah. All the way through the Old Testament,
the prophecies and the promises and the pictures set forth a
Christ, a Redeemer, a Messiah, the Righteous One, the Prophet
like Moses, the Priest like Melchizedek, the King like David, who will
come and redeem a people. Do you know who that is? Jesus
Christ. The Old Testament says someone's
coming. The four Gospels say He has come. Jesus Christ is
our representative. As in Adam I die, in Christ I
am made alive. By one man's disobedience I was
made a sinner, by his obedience I was made righteous. As we are
born the image of the earthly, we shall bear the image of the
heavenly. By man came death, by man came the resurrection
from the dead. He is our representative, Jesus
Christ. And Jesus Christ is our righteousness. It says in the scripture of God,
He of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. All the holiness I need is in
Christ. Now listen to me. I know that when we come to know
Christ, our hearts are changed, our lives are changed, we have
a new nature, we walk in righteousness and truth, we want to please
God, the love of Christ motivates us and constrains us. But our
acceptance with God is Christ. Our holiness before God is Christ.
Our righteousness before God is Christ. And Abraham being
in Christ was just as accepted in the sight of God when he was
offering Sarah to Abimelech as when he was offering Isaac on
Mount Moriah to God. That's right. Christ is our justification,
our sanctification, our holiness. And you take it out of the hands
of Christ and put any of it in the hands of man, you don't have
any holiness and you don't have any righteousness. Now that's
so. He is our righteousness. He's
the center. He's the heart. He's the mountain
peak. He's our righteousness. Jesus
Christ. He's our acceptance. Wherever
I am, I'm accepted in the beloved. Jesus Christ is our substitute.
That's what Paul said, I preached the gospel to you, how Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures, he was buried
and rose again according to the scriptures. And we're redeemed
in him, Jesus Christ is our great high priest. We have the privilege
of coming boldly before the throne of grace one way. Not in an earthly
tabernacle, not through an earthly priest. not through our deeds
and not through our religion, but we have the right to come
bold into the presence of God with Jesus Christ, our great
high priest, as our intercessor and as our sin offering, as our
substitute. Jesus Christ is our mediator.
The scripture says there's one God and one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Now fourthly, I want you to listen. My religion consists of a total
commitment to Christ. A total commitment to Christ.
I'm not just talking about a decision. I'm not talking just about walking
an aisle and shaking a preacher's hand. I'm talking about a personal,
inward, willing, loving commitment to Jesus Christ. Now listen to
Paul. Here's your definition of faith if you're interested.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1.12, I know whom I have believed. You see, he didn't say I know
what I believe, though he did. He didn't say I know when I believe,
though he did. But he's saying that I know whom.
My faith and confidence is in a person. The object of my faith
is a person. I know whom I have believed.
I am confident, I am persuaded that He is able, able to do all
that He said, all that He promised. He's able to keep, redeem, keep,
and justify. That which I've committed. You
see, salvation is a committal. David said, the Lord is my shepherd. I don't know whether He's yours
or not, but He's my shepherd. He's my shepherd. I shall not
want. Christ is not just first, He's first and last. He's not
just the most important part of a man's life, He is that man's
life. Everything here is just filling
up space and time until God destroys it and makes all things new in
Christ. When a man commits to Christ,
he's not just turning over a new leaf or getting religion or quitting
a few habits. He is making a personal, inward,
sincere, eternal commitment to Jesus Christ. He's Lord. He's Lord of all. He's not Lord
at all. And this generation doesn't know anything about the Lordship
of Christ. It's accepting Jesus as our Savior and doing our own
thing. Going where we want to go. Do what we want to be. Do,
be what we want to be. Just say what we want to say.
I've made my decision for Jesus. Salvation is the Lordship of
Christ. It's the reign of a person. Christ
said, He that cometh to me must forsake all that he hath, or
he cannot be my disciple. If any man loves husband, wife,
brother, sister, mother, father, his own life more than me, he's
not fit to be my disciple. No man, having put his hand to
the plow and looks back, is fit for the kingdom of God. These
are the words of Christ. He's Lord. It's a committal,
it's a total commitment. I hear them say, try Jesus, you'll
like Him. You don't try a Lord, you don't
try a king, you bow to a king. You bow to authority, you submit. Christ is Lord. Then my religion,
fifthly, is not a creed, it's not a doctrine, it's not a denomination,
it's not a system of theology. My religion is a living principle.
It's a living Lord. It's a living union with Christ.
I don't just believe there's a God. I believe God. There's
a difference. The devil believes there's a
God, but he doesn't believe God. I don't just believe in Jesus
Christ. I believe Christ. Anybody that's got a calendar
believes Jesus Christ lived on this earth, but they don't believe
Him. We don't accept Jesus. We receive Him. We embrace Him. We live by Him. We live from
Him. We don't just believe in the
resurrection, we walk with the living Lord. Actually, believers
never die, they sleep. Death hath no more dominion,
because death can't touch Christ. And Christ is my life. Christ
is our life. When Christ who is our life shall
appear, then shall ye appear with Him in glory. Our religion
is a living principle. Somebody says, well, this is
my doctrine. This is my denomination or this is my creed. That's not
our religion. Our religion is a person. Now
watch this. Fifthly, my religion, this is
sixth, my religion produces a principle in the heart. It produces something. Our religion in Christ is not
dead. It's living. It's a producing
religion. It produces a principle in the
heart of love for God and love for one another. We love Him
because He first loved us. He did love us, but we also love
Him. God seeks His people and they
seek Him. God calls His people and they
call Him. Anytime you find a seeking sinner,
you find a seeking Lord. Anytime you find a loving sinner,
you find a loving Lord. Anytime you find a calling sinner,
you find a calling God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. And this religion, of Christ produces an inward principle
of love for God. It's not just a profession. It's
not just a claim. It's an experience. It's not
just a profession. It's an experience. Listen to
Ephesians 4.32. And this is the principle that
acts toward others. In other words, John said, he
that hateth his brother, how can he love God? He that loveth
not knoweth not God. You see, God is love, and where
God dwells, love dwells. That's what I'm saying. You see,
this relationship with God is God dwelling within us. Christ
said this, I and my Father will come and dwell with you. And
this God of love, God who is love, dwelling within us, produces
love. Listen to Ephesians 4.32. Be
ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake. have forgiven you. Paul said
the love of Christ constraineth me. The love of God is not only
our motive for godliness, our motive for obedience, but it's
that motive that produces love from us to others. Men will only
love when they love God. They will only love others when
they love God. Men will only obey God when they know God.
Men will only preach Christ when they love Christ, and seen Christ,
and known Christ. It says of Isaiah, when he saw
his glory, he spake of him. Now last, my religion impresses
upon me three goals. They're not attainable in this
life, but they're goals which will be realized in eternity. My religion presses upon me three
goals. Now this is the three goals.
Listen to it. This relationship with God presses upon me this
goal, total commitment to Christ. No man has a total commitment
to Christ in this life, but that's what we want. That's what we
desire. That's the very beat of our hearts,
total commitment to Christ. That's what Paul was saying in
the book of Philippians. Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in him. Oh, that I may know Christ and
the power of his resurrection. He knew Christ. He wanted to
know Christ better. Paul was in Christ. He knew he
was in Christ, but he wanted that relationship to be stronger,
to be richer, to be truer. Oh, that I may know Christ. Total
commitment. No believer is satisfied with
his thoughts, or satisfied with himself, or satisfied with his
progress, or satisfied with his righteousness. He's satisfied
with Christ, but never with himself. Total commitment. We want total
communion with Christ. Total communion. Someday we will.
John said, when he comes, we're going to see him as he is, and
we're going to be like him. We're going to be just like him.
Total communion with Jesus Christ, and thirdly, total commitment
to Christ. Commitment, communion, and conformity
to the Lord Jesus Christ. When we see him, we'll see him
as he is, we'll know him, and we'll be like him. Now let me
give you a summary. This is my religion. Number one, God is
God. God is God. Secondly, my religion,
man, is lost. He needs a savior. He needs mercy. He needs grace. He needs forgiveness.
Thirdly, Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There is no other. Almighty God
has exalted him and given him a name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, every tongue
should confess that he's Lord. Fourthly, salvation is a new
creation. It's not a profession, a decision,
it's a new creation. Faith is in a person. The object
of faith is Christ, and salvation produces the fruit of the Spirit.
It produces a godly walk, conversation, and conduct, and last of all,
Christ is coming to make us like himself. And he that hath this
hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. Now I have
two messages on this tape. The one I preached last week
entitled, Plain Preaching to My Generation. And the one I
just brought on My Religion. If you want them, send two dollars.
That's what it costs to produce them and send them to you. We'll
mail them by return mail. the same time, may God bless
you, everyone.