March 28, 2021 | Dr. Jack Graham | The Problem With Religion | Romans 2 | Sunday Sermon

[Music] [Music] the worship experience is always an offering of praise and prayer to god isn't it when we are singing when we are worshiping we are offering uh our hearts to him and our praise to him and all of these songs that we sing remember they are like prayers that we lift up to the lord so take your bibles and turn to the book of romans chapter 2 romans the second chapter this is our series of messages called the essential gospel and we have landed at a very appropriate place uh in our study of of the book of romans in the second chapter because as we have been speaking of the gospel and remember the gospel is vital it is essential there is only one gospel it is the gospel of jesus christ and we know what the gospel is because the scripture tells us in the first corinthians chapter 15 verses 1 and 2 moreover i declare unto you the gospel what is it the good news how that christ died on the cross for our sins and was buried and rose again according to the scriptures the gospel of jesus christ you saw it demonstrated dramatically beautifully illustrated already this morning in the baptismal service in that every person baptizes is commending and confessing that christ died on the cross for my sins was buried and on the third day he rose again that is the gospel it is the core it is everything jesus is everything now in order for us to understand and properly appreciate and respond to the gospel this good news it is vital that we see the bad news the bad news is that we have all sinned and broken god's commandments and therefore in the love of christ in the love of god jesus came he lived he died and he rose again to be our savior but it is the problem of sin it is the darkness and the depravity of human sin that requires jesus the savior chapter one is a catalog of the depth and the darkness of human sin people who do not know christ and when we read romans chapter one we are seeing the human condition we are seeing the guilt of all the world and every person in it the depth of more and more sin deeper and deeper into sin romans chapter 1 is is a swamp if you will and it describes the human heart apart from god the heart is according to the scripture disease despicably wicked and in romans chapter one you see a gross and depraved sin abominable sin and immorality and the worst of the worst you see just the depth of every man woman boy and girl's sin that we've all sinned and broken god's commandments it is as though in the passage god is turning out the lights that god is just showing us the darkness and so in the darkness what are we to do how we to find our way out of the darkness out of this great guilt you would think the answer would be religion what we need some would say is religion however you name it whatever you call it get religion but here's the problem with religion and that's the title of this message today the problem with religion the problem with religion is religion cannot save there is no religion including the christian religion that can save a human soul in fact there is a dark side to religion hate and hostilities in the name of religion divisions and wars and separation all in the name of religion i've thought about preaching a sermon someday with this title how to be a christian without being religious how to be a christian without being religious this is palm sunday when jesus rode on the back of that donkey down the mountainside from the mount of olives when we go to israel and we're going to israel departing december the 26th we'd love to have you go with us the team is filling up so you need to you need to get on board with us if you can but one of the highlights of our trip is to stand where jesus stood and overlooked the city of jerusalem from the mount of olives on uh the hosanna trail the palm sunday trail and as he looked over the city of jerusalem a city of people that was filled with religion yes there was romans yes there were the pagans but there were the pious there were the pharisees there was the religious crowd and jesus looked over the city of jerusalem and he wept and the words describing his weeping describes a man who is heaving his heart is breaking tears flowing down his face and into his beard weeping and he said o jerusalem jerusalem how i would have gathered you to myself now this was the most religious city in the world and yet jesus is saying how i would have gathered you to myself but you would not and jesus mounted that cult and made his way through palm branches and shouts and cheers and hosannas and the crowd was cheering but the same crowd many of them religious people others standing in the shadows ready to condemn the lord the same crowd that said that was cheering him would soon say crucify him this is the fickle faithless crowd this is the religious crowd because they're all excited about the next fan favorite the next maybe messiah the next great celebrity person the crowd gets all excited about this and the palm branches go down now this was all in fulfillment to scripture according to the book of zechariah so this wasn't happenstance or chance and jesus knew what he was getting into jesus was riding into the city not to be the king that day though he is the king in all days but not to be the king on the earth but rather to die on the cross to rise again on the third day and people didn't understand it there and that's why ultimately they said crucify him crucified john chapter 1 and verse 12 he came into his own and his own received him not but to as many as received him to them to them gave he the right to be called the children of god even to them who believe on his name so religion name it any kind of religion rejects the gospel of jesus christ you would think of all people the jewish people jesus came to be the messiah not only of the jews but to the entire world he came into his own jewish people the gospel is according to romans 1 16 to the jew first and also to the greek so you would think as the religious people of this era here and of any era that the answer would be more religion if we're going to pull ourselves out of this depth of depravity of romans 1 these terrible pagans these profligates that what we need is more righteousness what we need is more religion and many who are religious who look at chapter one who see all this this wickedness and wrath that's coming against evil people they're thinking well i'm okay i'm good because i'm a religious person but this is for you look at verse 1 of romans chapter 2. therefore you have no excuse oh man every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself because you who judge practice the same things the fact is that we've all broken god's commandment in either substance or in spirit jesus took the commandments of god a step further not just physical adultery but spiritual adultery not only murdering someone but vengeful wrath that rages in the heart we've all broken the commandments of god and when we judge others we judge ourselves you know when i when i point a finger out at you and say the judgment is coming there's three coming right back at me and that's what paul is reminding all the religious people and what you can do is just to substitute here the whole idea now paul is writing to the jews in this instance but you could just substitute for jews here all religious people church members christians with italics if you will people who have been baptized people who have observed the ordinances people who are religious but yet lost because they practice the same things they judge look at verse 2 we know that the judgment of god rightly that is justly falls on those who practices such things do you suppose o man who uh you who judge those who practice such things and yet you do them yourself that you will escape the judgment of god so he's saying there's no excuse and all of us there's no escape because we all stand as sinners before a holy god how will you escape the judgment of god the bible says it is appointed unto man wants to die and then what nothingness crawl in a grave a mausoleum and hide from god no way it is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment yes there is a judgment and it is the judgment of god not the judgment of men but the judgment of god verse 4 or do you presume very important verse or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience not knowing that god's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance it is the goodness and kindness grace of god that leads us to repent of our sins which means to turn from our sins all of us not to turn to ourselves or to continue to practice our sins but to turn to jesus christ and then he says something very frightening he says but because of your hard and impenitent heart and that word hard and penitent that word hard there means it's the word sclerosis the hardening of the heart now it's one thing for the arteries of the heart to have arthroscleosis sclerosis the hardening of the arteries but here he's talking about the hardness of the heart itself there is a condition a medical condition it's a very it's a very terrible disease where the heart the muscle of the heart can actually harden and calcify and so the scripture is saying here when you in the kindness and the goodness and the grace of god of what christ has done when you don't respond and repent of your sins and turn to him you are only hardening your heart and setting yourself up for the judgment of god it's a frightening thing to fall into the hands of a living god you're called a religious person you would consider yourself you wouldn't find yourself in romans 1 necessarily though the seeds of all sin are planted in every heart and there is no sin that any of us would not commit were it not for the grace and the power of god but the fact is if if you're filling out a form of some kind and and and you're asked what is your religion you would check many of you most of you watching listening right now most of you would just check christian you check the box but the christian faith hear me dear people it's not a religion the christian faith is redemption and resurrection it is redemption and resurrection there are so many people today in the world in churches who think they're too good to be damned too good to need to be saved or good enough good enough but no one is good enough i think of so many examples in the gospels where people religious people very religious people came to jesus and he said you know your religion is not good enough you're good but it's not good enough nicodemus the pharisee a superior man superlative man keeping all the law a teacher in israel a pharisee and yet jesus said to this very pious man nicodemus don't be amazed when i say to you you must be born again that's redemption that's regeneration it's resurrection what about that rich young ruler that young man that was so spectacular who came to jesus in the gospel of mark and and said good master he was a lawyer and he said what must i do to inherit eternal life notice this question it's all about what can i do to gain eternal life what can i do in order to go to heaven and jesus says to him well keep all the commandments and the young man said and jesus is setting him up the young man says i kept all the commandments since i was a child since i was a youth every one of them so jesus called him on it and he said to him all right then go sell everything you have now he was wealthy he was a leader in the community probably well known described as a rich young ruler jesus said sell everything you have give it to the poor and follow me follow me the point is follow me jesus didn't tell everyone that followed him to sell everything you have and follow me but this young man he knew that this young man had an idol in his heart and his idol was his money his possessions his positions and for him to break through and repent us that man was going to have to turn away from his idols and tear down his idols and follow christ and the young man couldn't do it there was a storm raging in his soul he bites his lips he frowns he looks around and he walks away as far as we know that that young man is now in hell because he refused to follow jesus you see he had religion but he did not know did not follow jesus no amount of good deeds good works religious expression can save us from our sins because a matter of fact none of us are good people i know that's not what the world tells us the world tells us we're basically good that at the heart the human heart that if you can just educate us enough if you can just give us enough money put us in the right neighborhoods if you can just give us a boost then everyone will be okay but god says we're not okay we're we're ko spiritually we're dead in our trespasses and sin think about judas judah spent three years looking into the face of god spending that time with jesus and and judas is not that sinister character that he's often portrayed as the betrayer of jesus in fact judas was apparently selected elected appointed by the disciples to be the treasurer he was the money keeper as they were receiving offerings or putting their funds together to to to fund their mission with jesus christ he was the money keeper he kept the bag he held it so i mean you don't you don't make the church treasure out of a guy who's a bad guy on the surface everything about judas looked good but jesus said ultimately he was the son of perdition there was hell in his heart and he did what he did because he was who he was he was a religious man but but lost billy graham once estimated that 70 of church members around the world are lost i don't know what the number is but i know that millions of people are not lost in darkness but they're lost in religion religion without christ we have on our church roles over 40 000 members how many of those members are saved i don't know all of them profess to be saved when they came and joined the church some many were baptized i'm a member of the church how many of these have their names written in the land's book of life i don't know god knows that's why the scripture says all of us to search our own hearts examine our own faith to see if we be in the faith and i'm not here to sow seeds of doubt today always we want to build your faith and encourage you in your faith and lift you up in your faith to believe what you believe but before we go forward you need to know that you have repented of your sins and personally received jesus as your lord and savior because in matthew chapter 7 jesus looked at the end of the sermon of the mount to all those again religious people and he says not everyone who says unto me lord lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven he said many of you will say have i not performed many wonderful deeds have i done many wonderful works have i not been baptized didn't i join the church didn't i serve the poor didn't i speak the gospel didn't i preach the gospel and many of these on that day will hear me say lord lord when we say lord lord he said many on that day will hear me say depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire i never knew you that's a scary scripture because he was talking to people who genuinely believed oh i'm religious i've got this together i'm good enough but good enough is not good enough the prophet isaiah said even our righteousness the best we can do is as filthy rags before the sight of a holy god you see we don't we we tend to minimize our sin our behavior what we do we look at chapter one in romans and say yeah look at all the bad bad bad really bad people out there paul is saying reminding all the religious people yes you too you too because when you judge others according to the law of god you are judging yourself are you in christ or are you just in the crowd that's what happened on palm sunday so long ago there were people who believed that day and followed him all the way to the cross and beyond but for the most of it it was just the cheering crowd all the fans of jesus are you just in the crowd or are you in christ jesus had some of the harshest things he said for the words he spoke to the pharisees and to the hypocrites you know what a hypocrite is it literally means to wear a mask sorry about that no it was taken from the theater actually when the the greek and roman actors would play various parts and they would exchange masks for the character it's the idea of of a masquerade party you wear a mask that's the hypocrite nobody likes to be called a hypocrite i dare say you would many of you would rather be called anything rather than a hypocrite but so many people today are wearing spiritual masks they're hiding behind their religion where their hearts are far from god and their behavior within and without is unrepentant here's the difference between religion and the gospel you want to know the difference you may want to write these down number one religion is superficial the gospel is supernatural religion is all about the veneer it's all about the varnish it's all about looking good salvation the gospel is about being good in christ it's supernatural it's the new birth that happens within us religion is cultural every culture has its own brand its own kind of religion and all the religions of the world the world religions even the denominations among the christian religion we have these brand names and they're often cultural names but salvation the gospel is not just for one group it's not just for our group the gospel is global it's for the whole world religion is all about me and my group the people i hang out with the people i like salvation in jesus christ includes everybody it's global religion is external the gospel is internal jesus spoke to the pharisees and said you're like you're like whitewashed tombs you're like going to a graveyard and you clean the tombs on the outside everything is beautiful it's landscaped it's lovely but inside are dead men's bones he said it's like it's like a cup you wash the outside of the cup but you don't clean the inside who wants to drink out of a dirty cup religion is all about cleaning up the cup it's all about external the gospel of jesus christ is about the internal quickly the religion is about is temporal religion is temporal it may help you for a little while it may help you in this life to some degree some people are all into buddhism today in hinduism today because it helps them connect and feel better about themselves and find transcendent peace and all the rest well religion is like that religion is temporal it's temporary religion doesn't last but the gospel of jesus christ is eternal it is the everlasting gospel of jesus christ then religion is judgmental but salvation the gospel is just and there is a difference religion is very judgmental judging others and jesus said don't do that it says judge not lest you be judged now that doesn't mean we don't have discernment doesn't mean we don't call out sin when we see it the bible is full of calling out sin saying it by his first name calling people to repent of sin so it's not saying we don't judge in the sense of proclaiming the gospel but in our attitude we certainly don't judge the heart of another person but religion does religion is always presuming religion is so prideful i'm better than you and therefore i'm okay but jesus is just that is his judgments are impartial not according to race or face or behavior or rather uh uh uh culture or religious preference it is just it is right it is righteous religion is hypocritical the gospel is honest now are it's authentic now are there hypocrites in church yes but don't let some hypocrite in church keep you from discovering the life-changing power of jesus christ religion is hypocritical says one thing does something else but the gospel is authentic religion is legalistic that's what this is all about here in romans 2 if you're just summarizing it's about the law and keeping the law and keeping the ordinances and circumcision and all the rituals and all the things it's all that legalistic but redemption salvation the gospel is life-giving and one final thing religion is dead but the gospel of jesus christ is alive alive alive because christ is alive oh the dread the dread of a dead religion isn't it about time you stop enduring religion and start enjoying salvation in jesus christ get you don't need more religion you need jesus in your life there's nothing wrong with traditions especially biblical traditions just i mean baptism is a ceremony last night i was at a beautiful wedding and and and the traditions of a wedding that are passed from generation to generation often the words i you know i don't like messing with a wedding ceremony a whole lot you know there seems today in some ways we want to get rid of all the traditions and all the ceremonies and and and just do it our way there's there's nothing wrong with with great traditions and and and and symbols of the faith the symbol of the cross and behind me this great stained glass pointing people to the victor's crown there's there's nothing wrong with these rituals and traditions that we pass from generation to generation again especially when they are biblically based traditions but we're not saved by the symbols we're not saved by sitting in church we're not saved by by hanging out and associating with with other religious people the problem that we all have may not be the problem of immoral indulgence as we see in chapter 1 but duplicity and hypocrisy because we're all going to be judged by jesus christ would you look finally we're going to close it verse 16 of chapter 2 on that day what day the day of judgment the day christ returns because the christ who rode into jerusalem that day on palm sunday in humility is coming back with great glory and power to judge the earth there will be a great white throne judgment and on that day when according to my gospel god judges the secrets of men how by jesus christ pilate looked at the fickle crowd and said what shall i do with jesus who is called the christ jesus was on trial that day he was under judgment that day our condemnation our judgment the wrath that would fall upon him but when christ comes again no one will sit in judgment of jesus again but jesus will sit in judgment upon the whole earth news flash there are no good people there are bad people who get judgment and there are bad people who get jesus which one are you do you get jesus the goodness of god leads to repentance jesus went to the cross and on the cross he bore our sin the wrath and the judgment of god our hell what we deserve even as quote religious people he took it all he bore it all i've said it i say it almost every sunday he did not only die for your sin but as your sin he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of god receive christ get rid of your religion it's only making you miserable and give jesus christ your life to follow him would you bow your heads with me in prayer every head bow every eye closed some watching online on television and right here in this room if you will receive jesus as your lord and savior today the holy spirit i can't convict you of sin but the holy spirit is convicting you of your sin and your need for christ and today's your day of salvation would you just pray lord jesus come into my life i believe you died on the cross for me and that you rose again and right now today i ask you to be my lord and my savior when a man came up to the apostle paul and said what must i do to be saved what must i do to be saved say from what the wrath to come the judgment that is to come saved it's an old-fashioned word for many people i presume you better be saved you better know that you're saved saved by the lord jesus christ and that the apostle said here's how believe on the lord jesus and you will be saved the lord jesus christ trust him as your savior follow him as your lord so say jesus come into my life i will follow you and in the power of your spirit live for you beginning today until you come for me thank him say thank you lord for my salvation if you're already a believer this would be a good time to say it again and again jesus thank you for saving me i was no good i was lost more lost than people know the lord you saved me lord you forgave me lord you live in me and you've given me a promise of heaven are you facing the judgment come to jesus come to jesus no excuse no escape come to jesus lord thank you for your word the power of it the life giving power jesus thank you for redemption salvation resurrection new life thank you that you saved us out of our sin and even out of our self-righteousness so that we can know and follow you for we pray in jesus name amen thank you for joining us for worship at prestonwood as you heard earlier if you made a decision for christ please text jesus to 747-8888 we would love to connect with you and give you these great resources to help you grow in your faith one is a new believer's bible with helpful notes to help you study god's word the other is a book by pastor jack graham on the next steps to take as you pursue this new life in christ as we close i'd like to thank you for your faithful giving to support prestonwood and the work god is doing through our ministries if you would like to give text word give to 7478 or visit prestonwood.org give it's been a joy worshiping with you and we look forward to seeing you again soon

Channel: Prestonwood Baptist Church

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Keywords: YouTube, Prestonwood, Baptist, Church, Non-Profit, Ministry, Ministries, Jack Graham, Jack, Graham, PowerPoint, PPT, PowerPoint with Jack Graham, Dallas, Texas, Jesus, Christ, Bible, PBC, USA, America, Media, TV, Show, Offers, Daystar, TBN, 2020

Id: _UHuLsoRah8

Length: 37min 49sec (2269 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021