Religion or Relationship?

There is nothing more dangerous than religion apart from a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  For some odd reason, the natural man believes that in and of himself he is good enough to deserve Heaven without Christ's righteousness.  Most would say they are good people.  Everything about them looks right.  They come to church, sit in the pew, they dress right, they do things in the name of Christ, they look alive, but they are in fact, dead.  They are involved in spiritual activities, they talk about spiritual experiences, they use spiritual vocabulary.  They stand out and draw attention to themselves, they look good and clean.  But they are still without Jesus Christ, they are unregenerate, their spirit is dead on the inside, it has not been brought to life by Jesus Christ.  Just about everyone today has a religion.  They love the ritual, the liturgy, the ceremony, the form, the standards, the convictions, they look good, they look alive, but they have no true life in Christ.  False religion caters to those who can pay and look good, false religion can be a mega-church, a best seller.

False religion (organized religion) is the true enemy of the Gospel of Christ.   True religion could be a small group of people meeting in a basement or living room.   More people will enter Hell through the doorway of religion than any other thing.  False religion has always and will always be in the business of cleaning up the outside; it changes nothing on the inside, it merely focuses on the outside.  Religion tries to clean up the outside to hide internal misery.  Religion makes lost sinners look and feel better about themselves.  False religion will say nothing, whether Catholic or Protestant, of sin and depravity; it says nothing of true spiritual life, such as hunger and thirst for righteousness or repentance, of confession of sin to God, and a commitment to moral purity.  It will say nothing of the demands of discipleship and the internal and true transformation of life, lips, heart, motives, attitudes, appetites, and desires.   The world's Religions leave you whitewashed and on your way to the Lake of Fire.   You must Blood-washed before you are Heaven bound.

Church growth experts and specialists are in great demand today to be consultants to the church on how to invest in everything from telemarketing strategies to entertainment schedules; how not to offend the unbeliever; and how to market the church to the unsaved.   Plain and open declaration of God's word is offensive to them.  Their steeples are pointing toward Heaven, but their sermons are leading people to Hell.  Many people today go to church to pass around business cards, a place to meet new clients, and to enhance their reputation.  Spiritual activity for them is just another way of self-promotion.  They have 'churchianity,' but not Christianity.  Religion leaves you self-righteous, self-satisfied, self-confident, and self-deceived and following the road that leads to death and Hell.  They are religious, but they are not redeemed by the Blood of the Crucified One.  Salvation is found only by faith in the work of Jesus Christ alone.  The religious man is as equally lost and in danger of the judgment of God as the immoral unbeliever.  When you rest upon your religious faithfulness and confidence, it is a damning thing.

Religionists claim the name of "Christian."  Millions today, in America, are Christian in name only.  You see, calling yourself a "Christian" sounds better than atheist, or pagan, or unbeliever - they say, "Sure! I'm a Christian!"   They rest and depend upon the teachings and traditions and standards of their church, or what their parents believed.   They may even have a copy of the Bible in their house, they may carry it to church a few times a year, they are superstitious about the Bible, they think the Bible is going to help them somehow by having it around them.  They possess the Bible, but they do not deny themselves and do the Bible.  The know some of the truth found in the Bible, they are concerned over the wickedness  of the world and moral decay of America.  They are proud of their denomination and doctrines.  They encourage others to join 'their church,' be baptized at their church, and learn from them.   They speak respectfully of God, they pray over their food, they are not embarrassed about their God, but in private they are immoral and mean to others.  They have the ability to discern between moral good and evil.  They know and talk about the will of God, but they don't do it.

God's law and the true knowledge of it only makes you realize how unholy you are and how much of God's judgment you truly deserve.  Just because you know God's standard for your life doesn't make you safe at all.   The Law of God can only condemn us, it can never redeem us from sin.  The Law only reveals what a lawbreaker you really are.   The religionist today feels safe because of his religious title, his dedication to his church, his proud respect for his god, and his special knowledge of his god's will.  They have regulation upon regulation, conviction upon conviction, that they feel these things are essential to pleasing God.  But they miss the essential thing, they fail to truly bring true glory to Jesus Christ.   These religious do's and don'ts give them a misguided, false sense of safety.   There is an extreme danger of thinking that you are alright in the sight of God, just because you possess, rest, and trust in a denominational doctrine or hold to a set of convictions.

Religious sinners are unknown to God and lost and they are on that broad path that leads straight to Hell.  They claim the name "Christian;" because of their dedication to their church or denomination; because of their own special knowledge and insight into God's will, and because they have a basic understanding of the major doctrines, principles, and stories of the Bible.   Many religious people today fill the pews of churches, and they feel safe because they know the creeds, they know the verses, they know about the one and only true and living God.  They are sincerely religious and, at the same time, they are unredeemed and on their way to Hell.

The religious man communicates truth to others, without genuine personal and practical application to his own life.  Their religious creeds and sacraments do not produce righteous conduct and speech.  What they say to others about what they believe never affects how they behave in private.

If you look around long enough, you will find someone that you are better than.  However, if you look at the thrice holy God, and His Perfect Son, you are in deep trouble, even your righteous deeds are as filthy rags in God's sight, when compared to His holiness and glory (Romans 3:23).  The Holy Spirit pulls away the natural blinders over your eyes, and shows you your sinfulness.

Do you steal?  Are you a thief?  You may have stolen the affections of someone's heart that does not belong to you, your stealing the credit and praise for doing something that someone else did, stealing from God by keeping your money and your possessions mostly to yourself, stealing your children from God, by not encouraging them or perhaps, not even allowing them to serve Christ and His church, or stealing from your spouse the fidelity and devotion that belongs only to them.  Are you a thief?  You try to sound holy, but in reality, you're a hypocrite.   The religious man talks about integrity, but does not live honestly.  The religious man bad mouths immorality, but never work on his own heart.  The merely religious man will go on and on about how sexual sin is wrong, but he will not follow after moral purity.   He will claim the name of Christian, but have nothing of the life of Christ.   They are self-deceived and claim the name of Christian because it makes them feel safer and superior, but they are really unredeemed, they have nothing of the life of Christ in them or living through them.  Put right all your wrongs.

Remember, adultery is as much a matter of the heart as it is the flesh (See Matt 5:28).   You can commit adultery by watching the wrong things on TV or on the Internet, or by what you thought about someone you work with.  You commit adultery when you wish the wrong thing in your heart someone else sexually.  Your own nature is so sinful.   You must depend completely on the blood of Christ for cleansing from your sin; trust HIS GRACE entirely for forgiveness.  The Blood of the Lamb of God is your sin's only remedy.

The religious unbeliever looks and lusts all day and night and says, "Well, everyone does it, after all, that's the way God made us."  He is deceived by sin and Satan and your flesh.  You are religious, but not redeemed.  One of the greatest evidences of true conversion is a passion for purity of the heart and life, not perfection but passion.  One of the greatest evidences of true conversion is repentance and confession and sorrow over secret sinfulness (Romans 7:24).

Profit, greed, and materialism are the true marks of the unbeliever's unconverted, selfish heart.  It is easy to be self-deceived - look at the practical facts.  The checkbook is one of the most revealing characteristics between the religious and the redeemed.  Applying the Scripture to our income and our giving, our honesty, and our sexual morality are distinguishing marks of our true spirituality.  The religious man talks about character, but chooses cash.  When the choice between God and mammon comes around, God always loses.

One of the marks of the unbeliever is that whenever the choice has to be made - between money or God; business or faith; career or character - money, business, and career will always win the contest.   It is Cash over character, greed over godliness, these are the marks of an unbeliever's unconverted, self-centered heart (II Corinthians 13:5).   Religious people put on a good front, they have a lot of people fooled, they are not genuine, they are living a lie.  You are either living a lie, or you are spiritually alive.  They are merely religious, but not truly redeemed and regenerated.   You need more than fire insurance, you need forgiveness, friendship, and fellowship with God.  You need to take the Bible very seriously before its too late.

Most people today don't want the Bible to control or direct their life.  They don't want the Scriptures to determine what is right and what is wrong in their day to day lives.  They just want to have a copy somewhere in their house as a good-luck charm, they think the Bible is a good Book to own, it is a nice thing to quote at weddings, funerals, and family reunions.  They say the Bible has nothing to do with here and now, it was all for back then and there.  They may use the Bible for ethically training their kids, but they don't believe it to be the word of God.  They think it is just a collection of moral stories, at best, and not to be taken too seriously.

Maybe they can even quote a verse or two, they don't read and learn it, they don't obey and apply it, they don't take it seriously.  The Bible is a living book, take the it seriously, or you will end up eternally wrong and damned.   Don't take an eternal risk with your soul by rejecting Christ, you will be very sorry.  If you don't take the Bible seriously, the lost world will take God seriously.  Your daily attitudes, habits, conversation, responses, and decisions of your lifestyle either honor or dishonor God.   Ethical conduct reveals your inner character:  don't falsify your income tax returns and expense reports, commit plagiarism, bribe to obtain a building permit, ignore building specs, illegally copy a computer program, steal time at work, commit phone or cable TV theft, exaggerate a product.

It is possible for religious exercises and ceremonies to touch the mind and emotion of a lost man without ever changing their heart.  It is possible for a person to be emotionally moved by religion without ever being spiritually awakened by the Bleeding and Risen Redeemer, and to be religious, but not redeemed by the Blood of God.  You soul is lost in sin, and it needs saving by Jesus Christ Himself.  You love darkness rather than light, because you love to wallow in sin.  You are headed for hell, even if you don't feel like you are.  If you do not trust in Christ Jesus' precious blood alone, you will be damned forever and ever.

Man wants a religion where he can remain comfortable in his favorite sins.  Man wants to whitewash his life with religion, he doesn't want to admit his sin and guilt.  Ask the Lord to strip off all your filthy rags of religious self-effort.  Ask God to take it all off.   Stand guilty and exposed before God, with your sin ever before Him and admit your need for cleansing from your sins.  Be willing to face the uncomfortable truth and acknowledge you are lost in your sins.  Forsake your false security and false hope and admit your utter need for Jesus Christ.  Right now, while there is still time, repent of your sinful wretchedness and place your soul in Christ's redeeming hands.  Receive Christ into your heart of hearts - believe ON HIM alone.  Confess your sins to Christ, ask Him to forgive you, redeem your heart, and save your soul.  Lord Jesus, please cleanse me now in Your shed blood, wash my heart and make it whiter than snow.

These religious people possess the hardened heart, the crowded heart, or the insincere heart.  They have no sincere desire and appetite for the word of God or the will of God, no heart for the character of the church of God, no personal walk with Christ, and no spiritual fruit or passion for Christ.  A churchman and a Christian are two entirely different races.  One is religious, the other is redeemed.  Both are sincere, but only one is saved.   Both have a form of religious exercise which is external, but only one of them has been truly regenerated by the Spirit of God.  Our spiritual life should measure up to the lips, the walk should match the talk.  (I John 2:4-6; 1:6; Titus 1:10,16).  The fact is - Divorce, abortion, fornication, adultery, and pornography is running rampant in so-called Christian lives today.

Religion only whitewashes the gravestones of dead men’s lives.  The only thing Religion can do is put make-up and clothes on a dead corpse; it can never give Life.  Religion makes you look sanctified, sound holy; they appear to be alive and to be able to give life, but underneath, there is only death and coldness.  They are sincerely religious, but unregenerate.

They consider themselves to be spiritual guides of the blind, but they are actually blind guides.  They consider themselves to be the source of enlightenment, but they have rejected the  true light.  They consider themselves to the standard of morality.   They think they can referee, draw the lines, blow the whistle, moral policemen, but they failed to police themselves.  They consider themselves to be the fountain of wisdom.  They have a a false sense of safety and superiority; they teach their rituals and traditions as doctrine instead of a true relationship with a holy and loving Creator God.  They know the standards of morality, but in fact, they do not know God.   They teach the word to others, but they do teach themselves, they don't apply truth to their own life in private.  They have a religious creed, but not righteous conduct.  What they believe never affects how they behave; they don't apply the truth to their lives and daily conversation.          

They claim the name of "Christian" but they steal - plagiarism, employee pilferage (stamps, office products, computer software and media products), falsify business expense reports, falsify time cards, embezzlement, insurance fraud, burglary, shoplifting, computer fraud.  Honesty and integrity is a true distinction between the religious person and a true believer.   An unbeliever may tell a lie to get his way; but a believer will tell the truth, even if it means he does not get his way.

The merely religious man will talk about how sexual sin is wrong, but will not seek to  deny himself and purify his heart.  (Eph 4:17-22)  One of the main characteristics of the unbelieving world is its utter abandonment to sensuality, sexual license, and sexual fulfillment.   There is a line you cross between a simple look and the fantasy of the heart to sin.  The line between temptation which is not sin, and lust which is sin is this:  lust is the desire that conceives a plan to possess.  When a look turns into desire you have crossed the line.  Adultery in the heart is lust that mentally engages in sexual fantasy; adultery in the flesh is lust that carried out the fantasy.   Lusting and scheming about sexual relations with someone other than our spouse is sin.  One of the greatest evidences of true conversion is a passion for a pure heart and a passion for moral purity, a pure thought life.   There should be a practice, a passion, a lifestyle of holy living, so much so that even the thought, even unclean lust in the heart brings you to confession, brings you before God in guilt, remorse, and true repentance.

Your spiritual soil may be very shallow, one day soon a crisis, or confrontation, a crossroads, some decision, some difficulty, sickness, or trial, and you turn your back on God and openly walk away from any appearance of a relationship with Christ.  You will reveal to the world that you too were once involved in "churchianity," but not true Christianity; you were religious, but unredeemed and on the broad road that leads to the Lake of Fire.  Examine the sincerity of your faith in the living Christ, examine the reality of your salvation, maybe this will arouse your conscience and reveal the potential for self-deception.   Are you living a lie - or are you truly alive in Christ?  Are you religious - or are you truly redeemed?

The greatest attraction to Christianity is humble and holy living.  The greatest drawing force to Christ is a man or woman who lives like Christ.  The reputation of God is at stake.   The greatest obstacle to Christianity is hypocritical Christians.  We talk so much about what we believe, but the world is watching very closely the way we behave.  The way you behave speaks much louder than what you are saying.  Don't just have a bunch of beliefs, have godly behavior.

People often say, "The reason I don't go to church is because of all those hypocrites."  But they are just the people that need to be saved.  Why?  Well, because if they don't want to spend a hour with the hypocrites in church, you don't want to spend forever with them in Hell.

You can teach any subject or work any kind of job while living an immoral life, and today you can still be qualified to teach that subject or do that job.  But if you teach Christ or work for Christ and then live an ungodly life in private or public, this will stop the ears of the lost world and cause them to mock God.  Evangelism and holy living are inseparable.  This is the time in history for the true believer, the born-again Christian to be different, distinctive, genuine, holy, passionate for purity, ethical, honest, self-controlled, hard working, and gracious - the time is now.  Don't be bought by this world, keep your word, put character above wealth, put your testimony before your income, don't lose your purity in a crowd away from home, be honest in small things as in big things, don't compromise with sin in private, don't do thing just because everybody else does it, be true to your family, friends, and church; be faithful in adversity and prosperity; resist being cunning, shrewd, and hardheaded; be not ashamed or afraid to stand for the truth when it is unpopular; say "No" when the rest of the world says "yes."

Now understand - There is good and pure religion - it is centered on the Scripture and Christ Himself, preaching of the Cross, the Blood, warning of Sin and Judgment to Come, the New Birth, Godliness and Contentment, and acts of selfless love toward others.