The Dangers of Religion

Well, this may come as a surprise to you, but Americans are actually more interested in religion than they are sports. A recent survey by University of California at Berkeley, which is not a conservative institution by the industry of the imagination, showed that in a recent year Americans gave $56.7 billion to religious groups and spent in that same year $4 billion on Major League Baseball, Football and Basketball. Also they showed that in a recent year church attendance for that year in the United States numbered 5.6 billion people, that's not all the same Sunday, but for the whole year 5.6 billion people went to church, total attendance for all college and professional sporting events, including everything from tennis to dog racing, was $388 million. 13 times less than the number of people who attend church. That's very dangerous. Now that may come as a surprise for you to hear a preacher say that that kind of statistic is very dangerous, but when you see what Paul says in Romans chapter 2, I think you will understand why I say that Americans' great interest in religion is very dangerous. Romans chapter 2, we're working our way through the book of Romans. Enjoying, I trust the journey as we see what Paul has to say about the righteousness of God. In developing his theme, a righteousness from God, which is the essence of the gospel, Paul first of all addresses why we need that righteousness. The reason why we need God's righteousness, Paul describes in the first three chapters, is because we are all sinners. We have all sinned. And so what Paul does, like a good prosecuting attorney in the first three chapters of Romans, is that he takes every segment of mankind and proves that he and she, all men, are sinners. In chapter 1, Paul takes first of all the ungodly immoral wicked, open sinner and says, that person deserves God's judgment. I would love to have been in Rome sitting in that assembly of believers when this letter was first read, watching people's reactions, maybe experiencing my own reaction. I'm sure that when Paul first of all started out with those ungodly wicked immoral people, the amen corner was warming up pretty good, or they were right with him. And then in the first half of chapter 2, Paul takes a different group of mankind and says, let's take now good moral people. It may not be religious, they may not go to church, but they're good moral law, biting family providing citizens, they too deserve God's judgment. And I'm sure that the amen corner got a little bit quiet. And then Paul says, let's take another group of mankind and that is people who are religious, people who go to church, people who are very interested in religion. And he's going to marshal the evidence in the latter half of chapter 2 that even that group of people also deserves God's judgment. And I'm sure about that point, there were looks of apprehension across the congregation, wondering where Paul is going to go with this. Well this is where Paul is headed. He is proving, he is showing that all people, all of mankind apart from Christ, deserve God's judgment. And in the chapter of the verse we're going to look at today, the verses in chapter 2, verses 17 through 29, Paul will talk about good religious people, people who go to church and he will pull together the evidence to show that even religious people without a personal relationship with Christ will end up in hell. I want to make that very clear today because one of my greatest concerns as a preacher of the word of God is that there may be people who come to church, maybe Sunday after Sunday, who would consider themselves good people, moral people, religious people, they have an interest in church, but they may not be in heaven someday. In fact, I believe there are people who attend church regularly, many places, possibly even here, that will someday stand before what the Bible calls the great, white throne, judgment of God, and hear these heart-rending words from the mouth of Jesus Christ Himself. Matthew chapter 7 records what some people will hear when Jesus says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, notice these words. Many will say to me on that day, that judgment day, Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles. Now, that's pretty strong religion there and notice what Jesus says. Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you away from me, you evil doers. I am greatly concerned that there are many church-going religious people who will hear those words someday and will be condemned to an eternity in hell. You say, John, is it really possible that true, earnest, sincere, religious people will be lost and condemned to an eternity of judgment in hell? Yes, it is. It is possible to be lulled to sleep by a false religious security that causes you to be unaware of your need of a righteousness that comes from God that is received by faith in Jesus Christ. It's possible to be religious and lost and on your way to hell. I want to explain what I mean by religious before we get into Romans 2. The New Testament uses the word religion or religious seven times, only one time is it used in a good sense. In James 1, pure religion and undefiled is this to visit the widows and orphans and to keep yourself unspotted from the world. That's the only time it is used in a good sense. The six other times it's used in a negative sense of people who are religious or have religion but are lost, unsaid, apart from Christ and head of tournity or tournity eternity of judgment in hell. So it is possible to be religious but lost and in our passage today in Romans 2, Paul describes, paints and awful, deceptive danger of religion, a picture of the danger of religion. If that's all you have, my friend, I hope you will see your need today of a different kind of righteousness that comes from God through faith in Christ. In chapter 2, let's look at what Paul says about the dangers of religion. The first danger of religion is that it will make you proud. Religion will make you proud and I think probably the single greatest obstacle to people being saved knowing Christ as savior is pride and we are all infected with pride. It's a part of our sinful nature. I think it is at the very core of our sinful nature pride. Even people who are not normally proud are afflicted at times with pride. Don Shula, who was the well-known coach of the Miami Dauphins back in the 70s and 80s, the last perfect season, undefeated season, Super Bowl champion, 1972 was the Miami Dauphins and Don Shula was their coach. He was well-known across America in those days and still is fairly well-known today. He and his wife were vacationing in Maine trying to get away from everybody, trying to find a place where they would not be recognized, where he would not be recognized. They thought this is a secluded little coastal town in Maine. Beautiful setting is the place to be. Nobody will know me here. One night they went on a rainy messy night to a movie theater to see a movie and as they walked in, there were about eight or nine people in the theater and they all applauded. And as they sat down, Don Shula turned to his wife and said, I guess there is really no place we can go where I am not recognized. And so he turned to the guy who was sitting next to him and said, I am really surprised that you knew who I was. And the guy said, am I supposed to know who you are? We are just glad you have got here. The guy who runs the theater said he wasn't going to play the movie unless ten people showed up. Well, that will bring you down a few notches, won't it? We all have some pride problems and that is probably what stands in the way of most people who are religious really admitting their need of a savior. Religion will make you proud. Notice what Paul says in verse 17, it will make you proud of your privileges. Verse 17, now you, if you call yourself a Jew, if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God. Notice he is addressing Jewish people, religious people, whereas before he has addressed good moral people or even ungodly wicked people. Now he turns his attention to those who are religious, who have the Jewish religion. He says, you call yourself a Jew. You bear the name Jew. That was the name which literally means, the word literally means praise to Jehovah. A Jew, the very name Jew, set apart someone who had been a part of that nation chosen by God to be his special covenant people. And so there was pride in that name Jew. In fact, many Jews use the name as a surname, Matthew, Jew, Nathan, Jew, Benjamin, Jew. Very proud of the name Jew. Is it possible there's someone here this morning very proud of the name Christian? Why sure I'm a Christian. I grew up in a home where people went to church. My parents went to church. I live in the United States, aren't we a Christian nation? Very proud of the name Christian. Religion will make you proud of your privileges and Paul goes on to say, you rely on the law, brag about your relationship to God. Jews depended on the very fact that they possessed the law. It didn't matter if they kept it or not, lived by it, but they had it. They were given the law by God and they felt that made them special. Put them on a different level than anybody else. And they had a special covenant relationship with God. They were his chosen people. It is very possible for people today in the United States of America to rest their hopes of heaven on the fact that they are Americans. After all, we are a Christian nation, aren't we supposedly? And the fact that we have the Bible. You see, the privileges that we may have may lead some people to have a false security that they're on the way to heaven. Religion will make you proud of your privileges. Second, it will make you proud of your knowledge. Look at verse 18. If you know his will and the proof of what is superior because you are instructed by the law, the Jews prided themselves on the fact that they knew God's law. They had his word, the Old Testament, and they knew that. And because of that, they were able to make superior moral judgments because they had God's law. They were instructed in what God wanted it. So they felt themselves far beyond those ignorant Gentiles because they had the word of God. They knew how to make superior moral judgments. Bible knowledge does not equal salvation. You may be very proud of how well you know your Bible. That does not mean you're going to heaven. There are preachers. There are Bible scholars who are lost who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. One of the finest commentaries on the gospel of John was written by an unsaved man, religious man, a man who is a scholar in the Greek language. And those, the words and what they mean and can explain to historical backgrounds and the background of the words, but he does not know Christ. He's a liberal who denies the person and work of Christ. It is possible to be very religious, to know your Bible from cover to cover, but it does not equate to salvation just because you have God's word does not mean you're going to heaven. Religion will make you proud of your knowledge. Thirdly, religion will make you proud of your position. Look at verse 19. If you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, the word convinced is an interesting word where in verse 19 he says, if you're convinced of these things, in other words, you have persuaded yourself. You are confident in yourself leading you to be conceited and arrogant that you are above other people because you're religious and you have God's word. Did you notice the contrasts in this passage? Did you notice the four contrasts in these two verses? The Jews thought of Gentiles as those poor blind people, but we are guides. We can help them. The Jews thought of the Gentiles, those who were in the dark, but we have the light. We can help them. The Jew, in verse 20, thought of the Gentile as the foolish, but we are instructors. And the Jews thought of the Gentile as just an infant spiritually. Really doesn't know anything about God in his word. Oh, but we are teachers of infants. You notice the contrast? You notice the arrogant attitude? You notice the pride in their position because they had the word of God. They thought of themselves as far above Gentiles and they looked down on them with condescension and scorn. In fact, that was well known in the ancient world. Gentiles sensed that attitude and despised it. Tacitus, the Roman historian, said this of the Jews. He said, among themselves, their honesty is inflexible. Their compassion quick to move, but to all other persons, they show the hatred of antagonism. Gentiles were very much aware of the Jews pride in their position of being the people of God who had the word of God and thinking of everybody else as below them. It's possible for religious people today to feel the same way. Why, I'm a good church-going person and look at that person over there. Look at the way they live and to feel that you are superior, which can then blind you to your own need, your own sin, and your own need for a savior and the righteousness that comes not from yourself, not from your religious deeds, but a righteousness that comes from God and is given to you by grace through faith in Christ. It can blind you to all of that because religion can make you proud. Wealthy couple had boarded an airline to make a flight across the country. They were flying first class and as they settled into their seats, the stewardess came by and asked them for the long flight if they would like a pillow. The wealthy lady who had just been seated looked straight ahead didn't say a word. So the stewardess thought, well, maybe she's a little heart of hearing. I'll say it again. She raised her voice a little bit, asked if they wanted a pillow. And that, the woman's husband looked up at the stewardess and said, you just have to understand she doesn't speak to servants. Now, I can tell by some gasps how that makes you feel. Did you know religion can do the same thing to you? And it does to a lot of people. Religion can make people feel like I'm above other people. I don't live like those people over there who don't go to church, who live openly wicked and moralize. I think God, I'm not like that. I'm a good religious church-going people. My family's gone to church ever since I was born. Religion can make you feel proud and above other people. That should never be the way a true Christian feels. Certainly, one of the way Paul felt, notice what Paul says about pride and boasting in Galatians chapter 6, he says, may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. And here's how he described himself in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 10, he says, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Even what Paul would honestly recognize as diligent effort, he also attributed to the sustaining grace of God. You see, we are what we are because of God's grace, not because we're any better than anybody else. We have the position, we have the privileges, we have the knowledge that we have simply because of God's grace and it ought to humble us, never make us proud. Religion can make you proud. Too proud to admit that you have a need, that you are a sinner, that you need Christ as your savior. I love the story in the Old Testament of Naaman, the leper. The Bible says in 2 Kings chapter 5 that Naaman was a very important man in Syria. He was a captain in the army. He was actually what we would refer to as a general today. He was the head of the Syrian army. The Bible says he was an important man and was well thought of by the king of Syria. But then it adds this little tag at the end of the first verse, but he was a leper. So he was trying to find out what to do about that and he came into knowledge of a prophet in Israel, who supposedly could cure heal leprosy. So he makes his way down to where Elisha lives. And when he shows up at Elisha's house, Elisha sent his servant out to greet Naaman. And that ticked off Naaman. Naaman said, I thought surely he himself would come out here and wave his hand over me and cure me of leprosy. It would be some great dramatic thing because of who I am. So that didn't set well with Naaman. And then the message the servant gave him, he didn't like either. The message the servant gave him was, you need to go wash seven times in the river Jordan. And Naaman's response was, you gotta be kidding. We got better rivers than that. In Syria, a couple of them that I can think of. Me washing that muddy Jordan river down here in Israel, you gotta be kidding. I'm not gonna do that. Finally his servants persuaded him to humble himself and do what the prophet said. You see, he had a problem with pride because of who he was, because of his position. And it's possible for religion to make you proud and make you unaware or resist the very idea that you are a sinner in need of a savior. My friend, in order to get to heaven, you must first humble yourself. To recognize that you are a sinner, that you cannot gain acceptance with God. And you cannot gain entrance into heaven through your religion or through your religious deeds or your good works. You must humble yourself and recognize that Jesus died for you on the cross to provide for your salvation. The only way you can be saved is to humbly receive by faith what Jesus did for you on the cross to wash away your sins. The only way you'll ever get to heaven, religion will make you proud. The Paul doesn't stop there. Paul says in addressing the need of the good religious man, religion will not only make you proud, religion will also make you a hypocrite. Religion will make you a hypocrite. Someone has defined a hypocrite as a man who is just not quite himself on Sunday. A hypocrite is a person who says one thing and does another who has a good talk but his walk doesn't measure up to what he says. That's a hypocrite. And religion can do that to you. What Paul does in verses 21 through 23 is he raises five questions to show the potential hypocrisy of religion. So notice if you will, this hypocrisy of religion as he describes it, verse 21, you then who teach others? Do you not teach yourself? You see the question? You have the word of God. You have religious knowledge and you teach other people. You are quick to condemn others to show them what they need to do. Do you realize your own need? Are you teaching yourself too? When you condemn others of sin, do you realize that you are also a sinner? Do you teach yourself also? In verse 21, you who preach against stealing, do you steal? You see he is trying to get the religious man to look very hard at his walk compared to his talk. Does it match up? It's easy to preach against stealing and cheat on your income tax. It's easy to preach against stealing and waste time at work and steal from your employer. It's easy to preach against stealing but carry out shady business deals that put more in your pocket. It's easy to preach against stealing but when someone gives you too much change back at the store, you walk out thinking, I had to charge too much here anyway. So you just pocket it and go on. It's easy to talk about others who steal. Oh, it's terrible people who take copper from construction sites. That's awful. It's terrible people to break in someone else's home and steal their things. But do you steal? You see the potential hypocrisy with good religious people who put their noses in the air at people who steal but may be stealing themselves in their everyday lives. Third question, verse 22, you who say that people should not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? And I'm sure the religious people's response would be why of course not. But remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, if a man looks on a woman to lust after her in his own heart, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So Jesus expands the definition of adultery a little bit, quite a bit. Those who preach against adultery are you guilty of committing adultery in your heart? The hypocrisy of religion. Fourth question, verse 22, you who abhor idols, do you rob temples? Now that expression has caused concern among commentators as they've tried to figure out what does he mean by robbing temples? Well in the Old Testament, there were prohibitions against the Israelites taking any gold and silver from the temples of towns that they conquered. For instance in Deuteronomy chapter 9, or chapter 7, there are some verses about don't take any possessions or gold and silver from temples of towns that you conquer when you go into the land. So there was a clear Old Testament prohibition against that, profiting from idol temples. But yet there's evidence that by the time Paul wrote this in the first century, the Jews have kind of relaxed their views on that. And they were melting down gold and silver that had been taken from temples that had been closed or those things weren't being used anymore. And so they were profiting from gold and silver taken out of idol temples. So Paul's point basically is you say you have whore idolatry but you're willing to profit from it. Do you rob temples? You take the possessions of temples? In other words, your professed abhorrence of idolatry really is insincere. You don't really mean it. Another evidence of hypocrisy. Question number 5, verse 23, you who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? In other words, you boast of having the law, but you don't really show any concern in your life for living according to the law. Remember what Jesus said of the foremost religious teachers of his day, the Pharisees? You buying burdens on other people that you're not willing to carry yourself, he said. You teach people the law, you teach people the commands, but you're not willing to live by them yourself. You see, that's what religion can do to you. Religion can make you a hypocrite, teaching, saying, professing one thing, criticizing, condemning, but really in your heart or in the privacy of your own life, really violating the same things you condemn others for. Religion can do that to you. The result is, verse 24, as it is written, God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Unsaid people, speak evil of God when they see us living hypocritical lives. If all you have is religion, and that's just a thin veneer, a thin cover for what you really want to do to serve yourself, other people see that, and they condemn religion and God because of the hypocrisy they see. I'm reading a biography of Abraham Lincoln, it's a very interesting book. Lincoln was a fascinating man, and I'm in the section now where Lincoln and Douglas were having their debates in 1858 when they were both running for Senate in Illinois. Douglas did everything he could because he knew the rising popularity of Lincoln. He did everything he could as the incumbent senator to discredit Lincoln. So he dug up everything he could to try to find about Lincoln to discredit him. And one of the things he dug up was the fact that Lincoln years earlier in Springfield had owned a store which he did, and that store sold liquor. You have to understand that was very, very much frowned upon in that day. And so in one of their debates, Douglas was just drilling Lincoln on that issue. Lincoln had a store and it sold liquor. Lincoln got up to speak and he was very humorous and often self deprecating humor. He got up to speak and he said, Mr. Douglas is right, I did own a store. And that store did serve liquor, sell liquor. And Mr. Douglas was one of our best customers. Hypocrisy, saying one thing, living another. But before we point the finger at religious people, what about the hypocrisy of believers? Is it possible that even those of us who are Bible believers who know Christ as Savior, who trusted Him as Savior, can give Christ a bad name because we don't live out what we say we believe. Is it possible? I'm afraid it may be. The survey by George Barnas says that 65% of Americans say that it's important to read the Bible. 65% of Christians, he says, say that it's important to read the Bible. But his survey says that only 13% read the Bible regularly. And that's only one evidence of what we may say is important, but we don't live it. We don't live it. The hypocrisy of believers, it is possible for us to be just as hypocritical as the person who only has religion. Nobody is going to be impressed by our claims. God certainly isn't impressed by our claims. If we are not living up to what we say, what the world needs to see is godliness, lived out in everyday small things in life. That's what this world needs to see. Religion will make you proud. Religion will make you a hypocrite. The thirdly Paul says, religion will keep you lost. It will keep you lost versus 25 to 29. Now in verses 25 to 27, Paul deals with the outward symbol of the very religious people that he's talking to and that is the Jews. Notice what he says about this outward symbol of religion in verse 25. Circumcision has value if you observe the law. But if you break the law, you have become as though you'd not been circumcised. If those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you, who even though you have the written code and circumcision are a law-breaker. Now Paul addresses the outward sign symbol of the Jews' religion. You see, circumcision was originally given to Abraham as a sign of the covenant that God was making with Abraham's descendants who would become the Jewish people. It was a sign that they were set apart from other people to be God's special people, to be dedicated to God. But through the years, through the centuries, the Jews put all of the emphasis on the symbol rather than on what it symbolized, rather than on what it stood for. And so the Jews actually came to feel that because we have the outward sign or symbol of circumcision, then we are okay with God. Listen to these two Jewish scholars, Minakim, who was the Jewish Rabbi in his commentary on the books of Moses said, our rabbis have said that no circumcised man will see hell. So in other words, all you got to do is be a Jew and you go to heaven, right? That's what they believed. The midrash, the Jewish commentary on the law, Tileem, said this, God swore to Abraham that no one who was circumcised should be sent to hell. So in other words, just be a Jew and you'll be okay. Just be religious and you'll be okay. All the emphasis put on the outward sign, but notice what Paul has said here in these verses, is you may have the outward sign and not be right with God. Now what does that mean to us today? Well there are outward signs of religion today. You may be baptized and not be right with God. And you may think, well I was baptized as a child, I was baptized as an infant. I was baptized whenever. So I'm okay, right? My sins were washed away in baptism. I'm okay, right? No, no, no. We'll baptize six people in the next service. And all those people we have talked to about the fact that this baptism does not save you. It is merely an outward symbol, an outward testimony to other people that you in your heart have trusted Christ as your Savior. Baptism becomes the outward symbol in our day or church membership. People think, well I'm a member of church, I'm okay, aren't I? Not necessarily. That doesn't save you. Going to church. Becoming a member of a church, that doesn't save you. That's just an outward sign. That's an outward symbol of who you are on the inside. If all you have is the outward symbol, it doesn't mean a thing. It doesn't mean a thing. There are other outward symbols, communion. Some people think that if I just go to church regularly and receive communion, then I'm okay. No, that's an outward symbol. And if that's all you have, if that's what you're putting a confidence in, you're faith in, then you are lost and on your way to hell. You see, it is quite possible for people to depend on the wrong thing. What would you say today if I were to come to you and ask you, are you going to heaven and on what basis would you say you're going to heaven? What would your response be? Would you begin by telling me about, well, you know, my parents were in church when they were young and I was just kid and I was brought up in church. Is that where you would start? That causes me to think you're placing your confidence in religion. Unless you can clearly tell me, when I ask, are you on your way to heaven and on what basis would you say that? Unless you can clearly say, I am on my way to heaven and it's because Jesus Christ died for my sins and I've placed my faith in Him as my Savior, my only hope of getting to heaven. Unless you can come with a clear testimony like that, I have to suspect that all you have is religion, that you're placing your confidence in going to church or being in church since childhood or in parents who went to church or in baptism or in receiving communion or something like that. In my friend, if you're trusting those things to save you, you will be in hell someday. You will not be in heaven. Can I make it any clearer than that? Paul is saying don't place confidence in the outward symbol. There has to be, verses 28 and 29, the inward reality. There must be the inward reality. Notice how Paul says it in verse 28. A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly nor is circumcision really outward and physical. No, he says in verse 29, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, not by the spirit, not by the written code, not by the law. Such a man's praise is not from men but from God. Paul said to the most religious people of his day, stop trusting in the outward symbols. They will never get you to heaven. They will never make you right with God. You've got to have a surgery on your heart. The surgery on your heart means that you humble yourselves and recognize yourself as a sinner. You admit I can't get to heaven by what I do. And so I recognize Jesus died for my sins on the cross. And with all my heart, I place my confidence in Him as my Savior. I trust what He did for me on the cross unless you have done that, my friend. You have religion and that's all you've got. And if all you've got is religion, then you will not be in heaven when you die. You know, this was even recognized in the Old Testament that there were people who came to hear God's Word who had really no interest in its message just showed up because it was the thing to do. Want you to see what was said to the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 33. God says this to Ezekiel. He says, as for you, Son of Man, your countrymen are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the house of saying to each other, come, hear the message that has come from the Lord. My people come to you as they usually do and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths, they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, God goes on to tell Ezekiel, indeed to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well for they hear your words, but do not put them into practice. It's possible to go to church just because you enjoy being there, but you see what's happening as someone who just speaks in a way that pleases you, but you're not really interested in the message. You've never accepted the message that you need Christ as your Savior. It's possible for a church service just to become like entertainment, and I'm not talking about the style of worship. I'm talking about, I mean, in Ezekiel's day, they're coming to your impregnance, but they just like the way it talks. That's all there is to it. Is it possible, my friend, that all you have is religion, that you've never really from your heart trusted Christ as your Savior? I want to urge you this morning to turn away from religion to Christ, and I want to remind you this morning that although you may be deeply religious, you may come to church every Sunday, you may be living a good moral life, you may cling tenaciously to the historic doctrines of whatever domination you grew up in. That cannot get you to heaven. It will not make you right with God. It will not cleanse you from sin. You stand condemned before God. If that's all you have, you stand condemned before God. Just like the immoral and godly wicked sinner, and the moral person who never darkens the door of a church. Paul's whole point is that all three groups, including the religious person, are sinners, and condemned before God apart from a personal faith in Jesus Christ. So we must ask ourselves, where does my confidence for getting to heaven lie? Where does my confidence for getting to heaven lie? Am I placing my confidence in my works, my baptism, my religious affiliation, the fact that I go to church every Sunday, live pretty decent. If so, my friend, you are deceived, and you will hear those awful words that we saw in Matthew 7. Many people, Jesus says, will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, surprise to be at that judgment. Lord, Lord, I did lots of wonderful things in your name. I was a church member. I've been baptized. I did this. I did that. And Jesus will say, I never knew you. There was a personal relationship through faith in Christ, depart from me. My friend, I don't want you to hear those awful words. I don't think you want to hear those awful words. If you really understand what that means, an eternity separated from God, in a place called hell, a place of eternal punishment, but God's giving you the opportunity right now to receive Christ. You're going to have to lay aside pride. You're going to have to lay aside what other people think. Humble yourself to admit that you are a sinner, and that you need Jesus as your Savior. But all my friends, what happens when you die? It would be worth whatever humility you have to have in order to make sure that you're going to be in heaven someday. Would you bow your heads in prayer, please? Father, if there are those in this room today, who may be very religious, who may have gone to church all their lives, but who cannot say, I know if I were to die today, I'd be in heaven because I've placed my confidence in trust and faith in what Jesus did for me on the cross. Lord, I pray that today they would humble themselves, turn to you as Savior. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.