Religion 101: The Crucial Distinction Between Being Religious & Knowing Jesus

I. Introduction
A. Religion 101: What in the world is this series about?
1. I don’t know about you, but I never know what to tell people when they ask me if I’m religious.
2. There’s a problem with language here.
3. The word religion does have a legitimate meaning, referring to a system of belief about a supreme being(s), which is accompanied by a moral code and a set of religious rituals or practices.
4. And Christianity is a religion in this sense. And we believe it is the true religion.
B. This sermon series is about the powerlessness of religion to save.
1. First, let’s talk about what it means to be saved.
a. Man, born in sin, sins, and is therefore guilty before a holy and just God.
b. Accordingly, man is, at it were, on death row: guilty and waiting for his punishment from God, to be sent to the place of eternal death.
c. To be saved means to be saved from that punishment.
2. But this series is about the fact that religion does not save, even the Christian religion.
3. Don’t misunderstand: as Christians we believe that Bible Christianity teaches how we can be saved. But it doesn’t save.
C. In a few weeks I’m going to preach a three week sermon series kicking off our fall adult SS class on: What’s the Difference? (between the various branches of the Christian church)
D. But that’s not what we’re talking about in this series.
E. This series is about the futility of man’s quest to get right with God through religion.
II. Amos 5:18–27
A. Amos prophesied to the northern kingdom, Israel, during the days of the divided kingdom. Here he confronts God’s people with their empty worship.
B. He begins by pronouncing a woe upon those who hope for the coming day of the Lord: “Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD!”
1. What’s wrong with desiring the day of the Lord? Doesn’t Jesus teach us to do this in the Lord’s prayer: “Thy kingdom come!” And in 2Timothy 4:8 Paul looks forward to that Day, and praises those “who have loved his appearing.”
2. The reason Amos is pronouncing woe on those who desire the day of the Lord is given in verses 18 & 20: “Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light... Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?”
3. In other words, for them the day of the Lord would not be a bright day of glory but a dark day of gloom.
C. But this was obviously not what they were expecting when they anticipated the day of the Lord. They were very religiously active people, and had a lot of confidence in their religious practice, thinking that God must be very pleased with them.
D. But as it turns out God was not pleased with their religious practices but disgusted with their religious feasts and gatherings, their offerings and even their singing & music (Am.5:21-23).
E. This disgust is also seen in the terrible punishment God sees for them on the day of the Lord in v.19: “as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and leaned with his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him.”
1. It’s hard for most of us to imagine show scary it would be to be chased by a lion. You know that you don’t have very long before being caught. But the person described here, as he flees from the lion runs into a bear. And, as if that isn’t enough, even if somehow the person finds his way safely into his house, when he puts his hand up on the wall to catch his breath, a serpent bites him. This is a picture of the what the day of the Lord is going to be like for Amos’ hearers: horror upon horror, agony upon agony.
F. There are many passages like this in the OT prophets. Lets look at one more: Isaiah 1:11–15.
1. Here we see God’s chosen people doing what He told them to do: burning offerings, offering sacrifices, gathering together at His holy place.
2. And yet He doesn’t delight in these things as they expect.
3. Their religious activity is a burden to Him, an abomination to Him. He cannot endure it. He hates it. When they pray fervently He will hide His eyes and refuse to listen.
G. You don’t have to be an expert to know that the Bible condemns false religions. But what we see here this morning is that the Bible also condemns true religion just as vehemently, if that religion is merely a belief system with a moral code and a set of rituals. Christianity as a religion does not save.
III. Jesus and religion
A. In John 3:1-10 Jesus comes and speaks to Nicodemus, a religious expert, a strong believer in the true religion. What does He tell him? “You must be born again.”
1. Jesus is not talking about being really, really serious about your religion. That’s what Nicodemus thought was the crucial point. He was serious about his faith.
2. Some people are as serious as you can get about their Christianity and yet are not saved.
3. What a difference there is in the eyes of God between a person who knows Jesus and a person who is merely religious!
B. Jesus went on to tell the parable of the ten virgins in Matt.25:1-13.
1. The ten virgins had so much in common.
a. They were all in the same faith community.
b. They were all eagerly waiting for the return of the bridegroom.
c. They all expected to be welcomed into the wedding feast.
2. But surprisingly five were welcomed into the marriage feast and five were shut out.
3. What was the difference? The five who were taken in had oil in their lamps and the left out five didn’t. The lamps seem to refer to the outer person. The oil refers to what’s inside the person. The five welcomed virgins had something inside that the other five were missing. And that was the distinction.
C. Before Christ’s birth, there was a community of those who were waiting for the Messiah, hoping for Him, seeking Him. They thought they were all believing basicallythe same thing. When Jesus showed up, His arrival revealed the fact that they were not at all seeking the same thing.
1. They were religiously united. But when the person of Christ showed up, the people were divided by their reaction to Him.
2. Why? Because some were just part of the religion and some had their hearts (and consequently their lives) miraculously transformed by the Holy Spirit.
IV. Conclusion
A. You see, just because you embrace the true religion doesn’t mean that you actually love God or know God.
B. There are people who unwaveringly hold to the Christian religion whose hearts are unregenerate.
1. Unregenerate? What does that mean?
a. Re = again
b. Generate = refers to birth
c. So regenerate is the same thing as born again.
d. Thus, unregenerate refers to a person who is not born again, who has not had his hard stony heart toward God turned into a heart of flesh (Ezek.36:26).
2. For some, Christianity is their religion of choice, but they remain unregenerate.
3. Why do they choose the Christian religion? They like the moral superiority. Or they like the supportive fellowship. Or they like having an explanation for how things are. Or they like the beauty of the worship. Or they like having a justification for their political opinions. Or its just what they were taught to believe growing up, and they never saw a reason to question it. There are lots of things about Christianity that even an unregenerate person could like.
C. You can be a devout Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist and not be saved.
1. You can be a devout Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox and not be saved.
2. You can be a devout presbyterian and believe the doctrine of the PCA, but that won’t save you.
3. You can believe that Jesus is the Son of God. You can believe the Bible is the word of God. You can believe everything the Bible says and still not be saved.
4. Nicodemus did. And Jesus said to him, “You must be born again.”
D. One of the PCA vows of membership is this: “Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the son of God, and savior of sinners, and do you receive and trust Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the gospel?”
1. You’ve must be able to say yes to the first part: “Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the son of God, and savior of sinners?”
2. But the first part isn’t enough. You also must receive and trust Jesus alone for salvation.
E. Hebrews 7:25 tells us simply whom God saves: “He [Jesus] is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him.”
1. This is the point: Christian faith is not just believing the truths of the Bible. It’s not just following its moral code. It’s not just observing its religious practices.
2. It’s drawing near to God through Jesus.
3. And how does that happen? God does it, as John 6:44 says: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”
F. There is a religious instinct in people. This is what Romans 1:19-21 is referring to. All people know about God.
1. But apart from the work of regeneration by the Holy Spirit in a person’s heart, this religious instinct does them no good.
G. There are no brownie points for being religious, or even for being very religious.
1. Many are devout and very confident in their faith and yet are unsaved and unreconciled with God.
2. This is true both in and outside of the Christian church.
3. Remember what Jesus told us in Matthew 7:22–23: “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ ”
H. Is this really fair? You have some people serving God so fervently, sacrificing so much for God, and yet they are unrewarded.
1. The fact is, God isn’t all about treating people equally.
2. Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 20:1-6 about a master who hired some workers early in the morning and agreed with them on a price they would be paid for their labors. But then all day long he kept hiring more workers. At the end of the day, he paid them all the same. The first workers objected: That’s not fair! We worked longer and you paid them as much as you paid us! But he replied, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn’t we agree on a price you’d be paid? Am I not allowed to do what I choose with my money? You are objecting to my generosity.”
3. God never gives anyone less than that person deserves. But He does give to some much, much more than they deserve.
I. You see, it’s not all about fairness. It’s all about grace.
1. And He’s not like a politician who’s out to please everybody so he’ll get their votes.
2. He’s out to show the riches of His glorious grace to the objects of His mercy. (Romans 9:23)
J. I know this isn’t popular today. But it’s what God tells us in His word.