Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Hello, if you were watching online and we are at our Sunday
School hour and I'd invite you to turn your Bibles please to
Genesis chapter #3 this morning as we are in week one of our new
series. I am so excited about this
series. I had to be honest with you.
It seemed like there's a little bit of excitement from you about
this Sunday School series. And you know, when it comes to
Sunday school, Sunday School and excitement aren't 2 terms that
always go together. They ought to go together, but
they don't always go together. I'm a big proponent of Sunday
School. I think it's a wonderful time
for us to be able to be together.
It's not just for the children, it's for the adults as well.
But I'm really looking forward to this series on world religion
and cults. And I think it's important for
us to be broadcasting it online as well.
So for those who are unable to be here to be able to watch as
well. And if you're not able to be
here for a Sunday that you can catch up and stay up with where
we are. We'll make sure that this is
going to be on our podcast as well.
So you can catch it in podcast form if you don't get it on
video. But thankful for all these
opportunities that we're able to do.
And really all these opportunities are free for the
church pay to be able to live stream.
We don't have to pay to podcast. I'm thankful that the word can
go out at no charge. And to be able to let the
ministry of not just liberty, but the ministry of the word to
be able to go out. And I'm really, really thankful
for that. Well, I'm excited about this
series and we're going to be laying some groundwork for the
next few weeks. You say when do we get into the
specific religions or when do we get in the specific cult?
Well, it's going to take a few weeks for us to get there.
And so this isn't a bait and switch.
I'm not trying to trick you or anything like that.
But the idea is we have to kind of really get a base
understanding of what we're talking about.
What are we talking about when we talk about a religion, What
are we talking about? We're talking about a cult.
Where do these come from and why is it important for us to
discuss them? I do want to make something
clear before we begin. When it comes into our teaching,
when it comes to what we're going to discuss about these
things. We're going to attack the
articles of faith of these false teachings.
We're going to attack the authorities of these false
teachings. We're not going to attack the
adherence of these false teachings.
What I mean is this, we're trying to win someone who
happens to be involved in one of these cults.
We're trying to win someone that's involved in one of these
other religions. Does it really do us well to
talk about how stupid they are? So I'm just be, I'm being very
blunt right now. I'm being very blunt about this
and I hope you understand what I'm saying.
What, are we going to attack the articles of faith?
We will because they're heresy. They're straight from the devil.
Are we going to attack the authorities that are propagating
these things? Absolutely, we are.
But there's a lot of people who have just been, well, flat out
duped by a lot of these false teachings.
And we're not attacking these people.
We're trying to lovingly tell them Jesus Christ is the answer.
And we're not going to achieve that by telling them, Hey, what
kind, what a rube are you? I mean, what kind of a simpleton
are you that you would believe something like?
And there's going to be some really crazy things that we're
going to look at in a lot of these different religions and a
lot of these different cults. But we're not going to call them
out in the sense of how simple minded they are.
We're going to call them out to the love of Jesus Christ, which
is what saves the soul, the only thing that saves the soul.
Remember, these world religions and cults are not just other
ways to get to God. There's only one way to get to
God. That's Jesus Christ.
It's Christ alone. Jesus said that.
But at the same time, we're to look at these other types of
religions, faiths, thought processes, however you want to
look at it and realize they really all boil down to one
group, if you will, and that's error.
The truth is the Word of God. Error is, well, everything else.
And that's what we're going to look at this morning in our
series. And you'll see we're in week 1,
the difference between God and not God, God versus not God.
I asked you to go to Genesis chapter #3 because this is
really where a lot of the trouble begins, isn't it?
Well, it's really where all the trouble began, isn't it?
In the Garden of Eden. I know that you are familiar
with this passage, very likely. But I do think that it's good
for us to be able to look at it here in just a moment.
Now, I know that in preaching here at Liberty Baptist Church,
I've said many times that it's important for us to be more
familiar with the truth that it is with error.
You know, if you can't show a bank teller all the different
kinds of counterfeit bills that are out there because they're
constantly changing, but you can show a bank teller what real
money looks like, what it feels like, even what it smells like,
so that they are familiar with the truth.
So by being familiar with the truth, they can spot error.
I still believe that. I think that is the best way for
us to learn and grow about what falsehood is by knowing the
truth. Amen.
But at the same time, we would be remiss to say, you know, it's
not bad for us to understand what some of these other thought
processes are. And one of the reasons why is
because if I meet a Jehovah Witness and I want to help win
them to Jesus Christ, well, I should be able to know a little
bit of the thought process, a little bit of their doctrine.
So I would be able to talk to them in a way that would
resonate with them and help them to understand where their
doctrine differs from the Word of God.
If I talk to a Muslim, they might have regard for Abraham or
for Moses or even for Jesus, but we would show them that perhaps
their regard for them is not what the Bible teaches about
those same characters. And we will be able to, Lord
willing, lovingly be able to show them the truth of the
gospel, Jesus Christ. So there is value and
understanding error as long as we're not swayed by error.
There is value in understanding error as long as we're not
influenced by error. And my desire is for us to give
you this error, but then immediately give you an infusion
of the truth so that you understand this is where it's
wrong. But this is what the Bible says,
and this is where we should stand.
Where does all this come from? Well, our adversary, first Peter
5/8 you know this from our series.
Add to your faith, be sober, be vigilant, because your
adversary, the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about
seeking whom he may devour. That word adversary means an
enemy or foe, one who has enmity at heart.
Now, that word enmity is not one that we use very often.
It's a good King James word, but it's not one necessarily that
rolls off the tongue here in 2025.
But consider what this word enmity means, The quality of
being an enemy, the opposite of friendship, Ill will, hatred,
unfriendly dispositions. It expresses more than aversion
and less than malice, and differs from displeasure in
denoting a fixed or rooted hatred, whereas displeasure is
more transient. Do you hear what the definition
is saying there? Satan hates you.
Satan has no desire to be friends with you whatsoever, and
if his thought processes seem friendly, it's only to be able
to deceive you and to be able to draw you in to his own wicked
devices. Well, let's go and read our
text. We're in Genesis chapter #3
We'll look at this old serpent right here.
Genesis chapter 3 beginning verse one that says, Now the
serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the
Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yay
hath God said, A lot of Satan's issues come down to those 4
words, don't they? Yay hath God said, You shall not
eat of the tree or every tree of the garden?
And the woman said, Under the serpent, We may eat of the tree,
or the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the
tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You
shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die,
for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be open, and you shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil. When the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree
to be desired to make one wise, she took it the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did
eat. And the eyes of both of them
were open. They knew they were naked, and
they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Now drop down to verse #13 because the Lord enters the
picture here, and it says in the Lord God said unto the woman,
What is this that thou has done? And the woman said, The serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the
serpent, Because thou has done this, thou art cursed above all
cattle, and above every beast of the field.
Upon thy belly shalt thou go. Dust shalt thou eat all the days
of thy life. I'll remind you when it says
dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.
I don't normally see a snake eating dust.
I don't think that's normally what they say.
But may I remind you where we come from?
We're just of dust, aren't we? And what does Satan do?
He wants to devour you, and he wants to devour me.
And go back to chapter 2, verse 7, and find that we're made of
the dust, of the ground dust. Shall you return to the ground?
Verse 15, I'll put enmity between there and the woman.
There's that word again. And between thy seed and her
seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
In this text we see two very clear things.
First of all, Satan's lies to Eve hath God said, and then you
shall not surely die. It isn't that the way Satan is.
He starts subtly. That's the word that's used in
verse #1 Hey, let me just question the Lord just a little
bit. But then once you get a little
bit deeper, he shows his true intentions.
He bears his teeth. He says, listen, God's
misleading you. God doesn't love you.
In fact, God is doing this because He knows that if you eat
of that fruit, you'll become like him.
He's being territorial, he's jealous, he he doesn't care for
you like he says. And are these lies that he's
still using today about, you know, 7000 years later, they're
still the same type of lies that he's using about the Lord.
So we see first Satan's lies to Eve, but secondly, we see the
enmity that God placed between Satan and mankind.
It says there in verse 15, and I will put enmity between thee and
the woman. So think about this.
At some point there was a friendly relationship between
the serpent and Adam and Eve. I have to believe that because
Eve does not seem startled that the serpent comes talks to her.
Eve does not seem surprised that this takes place, that there was
to some level a friendly relationship.
Of course, Satan certainly had no friendly ideals to have with
Adam and Eve. But at some point there was some
level of commonality or there was some level of relationship,
certainly that have things in common in the sense that, you
know, he was not a bad person. We know we're going to find out
just a second what his origin story is.
But whatever relationship there could have been immediately was
over. It was done.
Why? Because God says you are on
opposing poles. Never the two shall meet.
What Satan wants and what God wants for mankind do not match
up. They're on parallel tracks.
They never connect with one another.
They cannot connect with one other because Satan wants you
destroyed and God wants you to live.
And it's just as simple as that, isn't it?
And so this origin story of Satan, how this all came to be,
helps us understand this issue. So we're going to turn our Bible
to several different places this morning.
Isaiah chapter 14, if you will. Isaiah chapter 14.
You might be familiar with some of these passages.
And that's OK because we're really setting the groundwork
for what's to come. Isaiah chapter #14 Blue verse
#12 Isaiah 14, verse 12. Says, How art thou fallen from
heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?
How art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the
nation's? For thou has said in thine
heart, I will ascend into heaven.
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.
I will sit also upon the mountain or the mount of the
congregation in the side of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
I will be like the Most High. You see Satan having an eye
problem here. It's all about I will, I will, I
will. And ironically, I know I've said
this before, but ironically, just the fact that he said I
will become was the admission that he was not right in what he
said. He was admitting he was not God
because God. God didn't have to grow up to
become God, He just always was. And here's Satan saying, Well, I
will become. That is a admission on his part
that he is not and will never be gone.
But yet in his absolute insanity he thinks that he will become
like God himself. Yet thou shall be brought down
to hell, to the sides of the pit.
They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and
consider thee saying, Is this the man that made the earth to
tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as
a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof that open not the
House of his prisoners. I truly believe that when we get
to heaven and we see this scene unfold that we find at the end
of the Book of Revelation that we'll look upon Satan and
realize that's the guy who caused all this trouble.
Like we're thinking of this big old monstrous muscle bound, you
know, mammoth looking character and it's going to be something
like him. He caused all this trouble.
Now listen, we know he's powerful.
We understand that he causes great problems.
But when we are in heavenly splendor and look at him and
kind of do one of these, thank God and look at him, say, why
were we ever worried about him? We just sort of stayed close to
him our whole life and we would have been fine.
And so we see here that there is this issue here that he started
before the fall as this. I will, I will, I will.
Ezekiel chapter 28. So go a few pages further in the
Old Testament Ezekiel chapter #28 You're gonna find it after
Jeremiah, Ezekiel 28 as we continue this origin story here,
Ezekiel 28, beginning of verse #11.
It says this. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, Son of Man, take up a lamentation upon
the King of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God,
thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty
that has been an Eden, the Garden of God.
Every precious stone was I covering the sardius, the Topaz,
the diamond, the barrel, the Onyx, the Jasper, the sapphire,
the emerald in the carbuncle and gold.
The workmanship of thy tablets and of thy pipes was prepared in
thee in the day that thou thou was created.
Now may I remind you that is also being told to us that Satan
is a creative being. Lucifer, the Angel who ended up
falling. Thou art the anointed cherub
that covereth, and I have set thee so.
Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God.
Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
Thou was perfect in Thy ways from the day that Thou was
created till iniquity was found in thee by the multitude of that
merchandise. They have filled the midst of
thee with violence, and thou has sinned.
Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of
God, and I will destroy the O covering cherub from the midst
of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up
because of thy beauty. Thou has corrupted thy wisdom by
reason of Thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground.
I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
Thou has defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine
iniquities. By the iniquity of thy traffic,
therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee.
It shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the
earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished
at thee. Thou shalt be a terror, and
never shalt thou be anymore. I believe Satan, or Lucifer if
you will, was created as an absolutely beautiful angelic
being. You see just how he was made-up
and his components there, but yet he lifted himself up in
pride again. He tried to be able to have his
wisdom exceed that of God and he corrupted his wisdom.
He defiled the sanctuaries. Here's a man who is all about
himself, if you will. Here is 1.
I think maybe better to say the man that to say here is a being
that is all about himself. He has no desire for you.
He has no desire for me other than our complete and utter
downfall. Pastor, I thought we were
talking about world religions and cults.
Why on earth are we spending time in Genesis and Ezekiel and
Isaiah? Wouldn't we be better talking
about all of these other world religions and cults?
And my question to you is, where do you think they came from?
Where do you think their origin derived from?
So these texts bring us to a place of understanding of the
basis of our series. Now, there's a commentator named
Bodie Hodge. And I will tell you that if you
are interested, there's a book that I have used called World
Religions and Cults. And it is not necessarily a book
that is a book of lessons. It's not a a book in that type
of way, but it is a book on, well, world religions and cults,
hence the name that I am using extensively to help in some of
my preparations for the series. And so you're going to hear me
quote him every once in a while, a couple times I think here in
this lesson. And the reason why is because he
just lays these issues out in a very logical but very biblical
way as well. And so Bodie Hodge, the
commentator and writer of that book, World Religions and Cults,
says this. There are really only two
religions in the world, Gods and not gods.
That's really what it boils down to.
There really only two religions in the world, Gods and not gods,
meaning that gods originates with God.
That's the gospel. That's where we get the word of
God. Not gods is well, everything
else. Because where do you think they
came from? Where do you think they
originated from? Again, I'm not trying to be
unkind to those who are in other belief systems.
I'm not trying to say, but to those that that they are
worshipping Satan or they that they understand that Satan is
the originator, Here's just the fact.
If it don't come from God, that's where it comes from.
That's just the bottom line. And so while some others might
think that the origin of their belief system comes from some
other source, really what the heart of man is apart from God.
Well, how did that heart of man get away from God?
Well, it's because Satan has seduced him or her into
believing a lot. Now let's be clear about
something. Religion itself is not the
enemy. I know a lot of times we use
phrases like, you know, I don't have religion, I have a
relationship. And I get that because truly
what we believe boils down to a relationship with Jesus Christ.
But the word religion in and of itself should not necessarily be
the enemy. It's often misused, isn't it?
It's often grossly misused. But the Bible tells us there is
such a thing as pure religion. I preached on this before here
at Liberty James 127 Pure religion and undefiled before
God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows
and their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the
world. So there is such a good thing as
good religion. What does it do?
It looks out for the needs of others and it respects the
holiness of God. Much of what's called religion,
even in Christian religion really doesn't have a lot to do
with that, does it? It's formalities, it's
traditions, it's all of these different things.
So religion in and of itself is not the enemy.
Pure religion is this. I am the way, the truth, and the
life. No man cometh under the Father,
but by me. That's Jesus Christ and John 14
verse 6. So where do all these other
religions come from? Well, they come from man which
is inspired by the Father of lies.
Psalm 118 verse 8. Is better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in man. Isaiah chapter 2 verse 22 CC
from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to
be accounted of? Man is so backwards today that
somehow man has tried to convince himself that he created
God in the 1st place. Now think about that for a
second, that the whole belief system of there being a God with
the invention of mankind. Now I have a quote here from
Charles Darwin from the Descent of Man and it says this.
I know you might be a little bit difficult for you to see, but
I'm going to read it. I'm hoping it will just give you
a little bit of visual stimuli as I read it.
The same high mental faculties which first led man to believe
in unseen spiritual agencies that in fetishism, polytheism,
and ultimately in monotheism, would infallibly lead him, as
long as his reasoning powers remain poorly developed, to
various strange superstitions and customs.
Many of these are terrible to think of, such as the sacrifice
of human being to a love, blood loving God, the trial of
innocent persons by the ordeal of poison, of fire, witchcraft,
etcetera. It is well occasionally to
reflect on these superstitions, for they show us what an
infinite debt of gratitude we owe to the improvement of our
reason to science and to our accumulated knowledge.
Now listen, I have no problem with science if science is
anchored in the truth of who God is.
Science is not the enemy. But much of what is considered
science today believes that God is not.
And so when you start from faulty premise, you get faulty
answers. And this is part of it right
here. The fact that Charles Darwin in
the Descent of Man about 150 years ago said something along
these lines, that man has just invented God because there's so
many things he doesn't understand.
But as we become more enlightened, as we learn more,
as we see more of a science, we will realize that God is not.
And I'll be honest with you, the more I see of science and the
more I see of the heavens and the earth, the more I realized
it didn't just come here by accident.
That we didn't just delude ourselves into there being a
God. It's that a creation has to have
a creator, and that it didn't just get here by accident.
But the world believes that the more you learn, you will outlive
the usefulness for God. But yet I would submit to you
that if you look at it with a true heart and you look at it
with a willing mind that you will realize, and it's had to
come here from somewhere. And is there hard questions?
There are hard questions. Are there some things about it
they're difficult to understand? Well, sure they are because,
well, God is. As we talked about on Wednesday
night, the the, the thought process of Jesus Christ and
salvation is so simple. A child can understand it, but
yet it's so deep that you could live your whole lifetime and
never really scratch the surface of who God is.
So but no, we're not going to out learn God the more we learn.
I mean, you could try, but you will not.
God is not the invention of man's fancy.
God is, well, God. So know this.
All false religions are based on man's opinions as they
inadvertently or sometimes intentionally elevate man's
reason to be greater than God and greater than the 66 books of
his word. All these false religions, these
not God religions come down to this.
We know better than God. Well, who said that?
Well, that was Satan, wasn't it? That he was the one pulling the
strings all the way back in the garden and is still doing so
today. Again, quoting Bodie Hodge, he
says this humanism, the religion of man in its broadest form
would encompass all religions that oppose God.
This word When a religion elevates a book, books, or extra
teachings to be scripture, then they are taking man's opinions
and elevating them to be supersede or be equal to God's
word. When a religion deletes a book
or books, or otherwise subtracts teaching from scripture, then
they are taking man's opinions and elevating to supersede or be
equal from God's word. Listen, if you take away from
this, you say I know better than God.
If you add to this, you were saying I know better than God.
Why do we want to be Bible believers?
Because well, this is everything that we know about God here
within our hands. It's been preserved for us.
It was inspired. We'll get to look at some of
that this morning in second Peter chapter 1 and even more so
next week in the 11:00 hour. But when we take away or we add
to it, we are saying, God, I know what you have put here, but
I know a little bit more. Thomas Jefferson who famously
took the Gospels and believed that if he was to cut and paste,
and that was in the days before, you know, using a mouse and
cutting and pasting. But if he was only to take a
Bible and to cut out and paste the religious maxims that would
make a person moral but yet remove all the miracles, that to
him was just unbelievable. There was something that could
not be understood and certainly something that was not true.
He figured if he could take just the the religious teaching, the
Sermon on the Mount, those types of things, and put it in the
book, that would be a much better book than the Gospels.
And my question is, well, you know who died and made Thomas
Jefferson the president? Well, I made the president, but
you understand what I'm saying? I said that on purpose, but you
understand what I'm saying is that he may be present, but he's
not God and that we can't just take away what we don't think is
palatable and we can't add to smooth things over that we don't
necessarily care for because then we've said God, I know what
you said, but I know a little bit more.
Again, that's man's hubris saying I know more and where did
that come from? I will, I will, I will, I will.
And it's a corruption of wisdom is what it's called in Ezekiel
chapter 28. It's taking the pure wisdom from
God and corrupting it. And it defiles the sanctuary,
defiles true worship because it takes people away from God.
Let's look at 2 examples of this.
Go back to Genesis and go to Genesis Chapter 11.
Genesis Chapter 11 again, we can't just jump into religions
and cults without laying some groundwork here.
So I hope you understand that as we go through the next few
weeks. But I think this is important
for us. Genesis Chapter 11, I think
you'll recognize this. Look at verse one.
And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.
What are we talking about? The tower?
What Babel. That's right, the tower of
Babel. And it came to pass as they
journey from the east that they found a plane in the land of
Shinar, and they dwelt there. They said one to another, go to
let us make brick, burn them thoroughly.
And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
And they said, go to let us build a city and a tower whose
top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name that's BB
scattered abroad upon the face of the earth.
You say, Pastor, what's the big deal about this?
I mean, come on, It never really says that they wanted to become
like gods. It may not explicitly say the
fact that they were trying to become like God, but here's what
they were trying to do. They were trying to go to
heaven. They were trying to make
themselves a name. And they knew that God had
commanded that they were to scatter and that they were to go
and to repopulate the world. But instead they said, we know
what God has said, but we're going to do our own thing.
How is that not becoming like your own God?
This is what takes place here. And we know this is the case
because God takes a very dim view of what's happening here
with this construction project. And the Lord came down to see
the city and the tower which children, men build it.
And the Lord said, behold, the people is 1.
And they have all one language. And this they begin to do it.
Now nothing will be restrained from them which they have
imagined to do. Go to let us go down, and there
confound their language. They may not understand one
another's speech. So the Lord scattered them
abroad from hence upon the face of all the earth, and they left
off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it
called Babble, because the Lord did their confound the language
of all the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them
abroad upon the face of all the earth.
I was recording some of my Liberty Homes a few weeks ago
and those you don't know, Liberty Home is our five minute
devotional that Easton community access television broadcasts in
town and that we are able to put on YouTube.
And we've gotten some good response from it over the last
couple years. Done almost 70 episodes just at
ECAT before the about 100 or so we did, you know, on my phone
here at the church during the pandemic.
But I I talked a few weeks ago about Jesus Christ being the
same yesterday, today and forever that he's unchanging.
And as soon as I was done recording, I usually record 3 or
4 episodes together just so you know the magic of television.
I just changed the shirt in between each one.
That's all it is. But I know it's some of you are
really some of you like I don't care.
But anyway, I just want to think some of you are really wondering
how that works. But that's OK.
I understand. But change shirts in between.
But when I was done, I, I went to the control room and they had
two interns from the high school that were there two really nice
young men that I got a chance to talk to over the course of much
of the year. And one of them said something
like this. You know, Pastor, let me ask you
a question. Let me tell you, there's nothing
that starts getting the mind racing immediately.
Like pastor, let me ask you a question because I don't know
where it's coming from. I don't know what direction it's
coming from, but here it comes like a fastball right down the
middle. Let's get ready.
And so he says, if God never changes, then why was he upset
at the people for building Babble?
But yet we build skyscrapers today.
You know, to me, I don't know about that question.
That's kind of, but you know what?
To him, that was a real question.
He was really curious about this.
If God never changes, why was he mad about that?
But he's not mad about us building skyscrapers today.
I said, you know, it really wasn't about the issue of it
being a building project. It was really about the issue of
the heart, I said, because everything that deals with the
Lord always comes back to the heart.
The issue was not that they were building the issues why they
were building and what they were trying to do.
They were trying to elevate themselves as gods.
And he seemed to be happy with that answer.
Well, it was the truth because that's what the word says here.
What's going on? Man made religion.
We know what God wants, but we have our own way.
We're going to become like Him. We are going to go to His
dwelling place. We are going to take our own
counsel instead of doing what God has commanded us to do.
That's false religion right there in Genesis Chapter 11.
Now go to 1st Kings chapter #12 First Kings chapter #12 We're
trying to give your Bibles a workout in the series.
I think that's a good thing. First Kings chapter #12 look at
verse #25 and I know with a lot of these texts that we're not
going to be able to give full explanation, like we're going
through a sermon. But at the same time, I hope
that you understand a little bit of where we're going and how it
all connects. Jeroboam is king.
You remember that Solomon was the king and then Rehoboam took
the throne. And Rehoboam was a fool.
He wanted to make things harder for the people instead of
easier. He took counsel from his young
friends instead of from the wise older men.
And so because that the nation splits in two, there's one
problem. Jeroboam is now the king of the
top 10 tribes, or the when I say top 10, not like the top ten
list, but the northern tribes, if you will.
But there's only one problem. He may have more people, but he
lacks Jerusalem. And everything in the life of
Israel is around Jerusalem in the temple.
So he realizes, well, look at this here.
Verse #25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in Mount Ephraim and
dwelt therein, and went out from thence and built Penuel.
And Jeroboam said in his heart, now shall the Kingdom return to
the House of David. If these people go up to do
sacrifice in the House of the Lord of Jerusalem, then shall
the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord, even
under the Rioboam, king of Judah.
And they shall kill me and go again to Rioboam king of Judah.
He says, I got to do something. Because the first time they go
back to Passover, back in Judah, they'll remember how good the
times used to be, and they won't want me, they'll want Rio Bohm,
and the Kingdom will be back together again.
And that means I'm dead. So instead of doing the right
thing, what does he do? Well, where?
Until the king took counsel and made two calves of gold, because
that always worked well, right? And said unto them, Is it too
much for you to go up to Jerusalem, the old by gods, O
Israel, which brought the up out of the land of Egypt.
And he set one in Bethel and the other he put he and Dan, those
would be the northern and southernmost parts of his
Kingdom. And this thing, look at this,
became a sin for the people went to worship before the one even
unto Dan. They made a House of high places
and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not
the sons of Levi. What did he do?
He made his own religious system.
He said, hey, remember these calves?
He was hoping they'd be biblically illiterate.
By the way, if you want to get involved in another religion or
cult, we don't know the Bible because that's what happens
here. Hey, remember those calves?
Like, I remember something about calves in Egypt.
I don't remember what it was. I guess it's good.
And they said, you know what, We'll go worship these calves.
We don't have any priests. The priests are down in in Judah
and Jerusalem. What do we do?
Well, we'll just pick anybody. They took the lowest of the
people. And that's not talking about, I
believe, money or social status. I means that it was of low
character people that were yes men.
They, they knew this was wrong, but they were in it because they
were going to get something in return.
And So what did he do? He created his own religious
system. And so we see this throughout
the word of God and it is still continuing today.
So with all that being said, what is a religion?
What is a cult? So we see some background here,
but what is a religion? What is a cult?
Well, let's start with a religion.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a religion is a
system of beliefs and practices, often centered around questions
of existence, morality, and the supernatural, typically
involving worship of a divine being or beings, moral code,
rituals, and often a community of adherence.
Now, again, we're talking about religions in general.
Understand this. We're talking about anything
that calls itself religion. I believe that's probably a
pretty good definition, a pretty good working definition of what
a religion is. There's questions about
existence, about what is moral, the supernatural, codes,
rituals, a community of people coming together.
You're going to find all of these in pretty much any
religion. There's a lot of world
religions. I don't know if you're aware of
this, but there's a lot of religions that are out there
today. For instance, there is, well, we
are thankful for biblical Christianity and I'm very
careful in the way I say biblical Christianity because
we're not talking about counterfeit Christianity.
But there's biblical Christianity, there's Islam,
there's Judaism, there's universal Unitarianism,
Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikism, Shintoism, Witchcraft, Taoism,
the Baha'i faith, the Unification Church.
Some of you are know the Moonies from back in the day say are
that really a thing anymore still around today?
There's still adherence. In fact, it wasn't just, I think
about 5 or 10 years ago that there was a large Conference
Center and camp up in New Hampshire that was for those who
were still part of the Unification Church, Deism,
Satanism, Scientology. You realize that just scratches
the surface. I mean, that's just a very small
sampling of the types of religions that are out there.
Some of them are more organized, some of them are more thought
processes, then they are actual organized religions.
But all of them, I think we could argue a religious systems
in one way or another. Now religions can also be
slaughtered in different categories.
I think most of them could be slaughtered into three different
categories. First of all, there's the
mystical religions. The mystical religions, that's
Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Gnosticism, the Kabbalah, which
is a mystical offshoot of Judaism.
These are more mystical. They're more states of mind than
they are anything else, that there's lots of different paths
even within those belief systems.
They're more mystical religions. Then there's moralistic
religions, which would be Confucianism, Judaism,
Christianity, Islam, Jainism. These are dealing with more of
morals that they are setting down moral laws.
And again, this is Christianity would be, I believe, a
moralistic religion that the Bible tells us who God is, tells
us what holiness is, tells us how we are to be saved, tells us
how to live. But our moralistic religions,
there's also materialistic religions, secular humanism,
Marxism, scientism, atheism, objectivism.
These are more materialistic and they deal more with the here and
the now than they do necessarily the hereafter.
Marxism doesn't really deal with the afterlife, does it?
But I would say this, it's a religion just as much as Islam
is. When you start to study how the
thought processes work and all those different things, those
are religions in and of themselves.
I'm not saying we're going to study all of these ones that
we've just mentioned. I'm just telling you there are a
lot of them that are out there and they come from all kinds of
different angles. So we ask ourselves then what is
a cult? OK, that's a religion.
Then what is a cult? Well, the cult is typically
defined as a religious offshoot of a major world religion that
no longer holds the core tenants of that world religion.
A cult is typically defined as a religious offshoot of a major
world religion that no longer holds to the core tenants of
that world religion. Now again, in his World
Religions and Cult series, Bodie Hodge further explores this
concept by examining groups that claim Christian identity, but
they deviate from foundational doctrines like the Trinity, the
deity of Christ, salvation by grace through faith.
These groups are considered counterfeits of Christianity
because they distort biblical truths.
They might even use a Bible. They might even use some of the
same phrases that we use. But at the same time, you got to
talk to them about exactly what they believe and you start to
realize they deviate quite far from where we are.
I'll be honest with you, if you watch a video from the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, if you were
to just watch a general video, they are very sly in the way
they present themselves. They want to be considered
mainline Christians. That's why they're moving away
from the term Mormonism. They don't want to be called
Mormons. They want to be called the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
You see that on all their materials.
Now Mormonism is being phased out in anything official out of
Salt Lake City, but they want to be considered mainline.
You watch some of their videos, they see mainline.
I mentioned a few weeks ago or maybe a few months ago now, the
back around Christmas time in Times Square, there was this
beautiful video about Jesus Christ and you watched it and
his birth and you thought this is absolutely amazing until you
get to the end and it says that it's from the Church of Jesus
Christ, the Latter Day Saints, that you do not present any of
their beliefs that are different from what we believe is mainline
Christians is biblical Christians.
But yet that's what they want you to do.
They're going to give you a little bit of truth to be able
to allow the hook to set. And that's when they pull and
that's when it's too late. So these cults are versions of
Christianity that deny traditional Christianity.
Walter Martin said this in the Kingdom of Cults, which is
considered a definitive evangelical resource.
He says a cult, as defined from a theological perspective, is a
group of people gathered about a specific person or person's
misrepresentation of a Bible of the Bible.
He emphasized that cults reject orthodox Christian doctrine,
particularly regarding the nature of God and the Gospel.
Scholars like sociologist Roy Wallace and religious studies
expert Jay Gordon Melton distinguish cults from religions
based on these 4 characteristics.
And this isn't in the Bible, but this is just kind of a way that
you can tell what a cult is. First of all, novelty cults are
often new movements. Jehovah Witness, Mormonism,
they've not been around very long, 100 years or so, some even
less than that. Deviation from mainstream
religious norms, meaning that they reject the core tenants of
the Word of God, a level of control over members, the cult.
And we talk about the cults, right, and how there's a cultish
like following in, well, cults. And there's that level of
following, the level of control. And usually there's charismatic
leadership. And we're not talking about a
pastor who enjoys preaching the Word of God or anything like
that. We're talking about someone who
has absolute control over a group.
That is often the case. I will give you one name and for
many of you, it'll settle the matter right there.
Jim Jones, When you think of Jim Jones and he started as a
preacher, that was not a great preacher, but certainly not what
he ended up being. By the time he got to Guyana, he
absolutely morphed into a A. Basically, he says it, you do it
to the point of drink the kool-aid.
You ever heard that phrase drink the kool-aid?
It came from somewhere. It's because that there was
going to be a federal agents coming in and trying to take
care of some very, very dark things that were taking place
there on that compound. And he said this, you die with
me and we'll all be together in celestial realms.
That's disgusting, but that's what we're talking about,
cultish leadership. There's oftentimes A charismatic
leader, a Joseph Smith who was the first leader of Mormonism,
or a Brigham Young. You ever heard Brigham Young
University and you think of maybe football or basketball.
That's a Mormon school that is gathered around the second
leader of Mormonism, Brigham Young Christian cults include
we'll finish up here shortly. Christian cults includes Jehovah
Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or
Mormons, Christian Science, Church of Christ, Scientists the
way international 12 tribes. So that's a that's a group that
actually is out in Plymouth. They have a, a store, a deli out
there, some delicious food, but I'm just saying there's some
literature there that is is very much apart from the word of God
and the people's temple, which would have been Jim Jones.
So what's the answer to all this?
Because this could be quite overwhelming.
We just scratched the surface. We just scratched the surface.
This could be overwhelming. What's the answer?
Well, the good news, the answer is our text for this morning
here at church. Second Peter one verse 16
through 21. For we have not followed
cunningly devised fables. We made known unto you the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of
His Majesty. For he received from God the
Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to Him
from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, and whom
I am well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven we heard, and we were with Him in the Holy Mount.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy.
Where until you do well, that you take heed as unto a light
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn of the day
star arise in your hearts. Knowing this first, that no
prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation, For
the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Consider this quote. Some religions mimic God's Word,
but do not respect God's Word as coming from God.
Only those who stand on God's Word as the absolute authority,
inerrant, inspired, and sufficient in any way will be in
a position to see God's true religion from God's perspective.
God will never be wrong and what He records in His Word, but man
can and will be wrong as he seeks to stand in God's place.
In the end, there's two religions, There's God, and
there's not God. Now that doesn't make us
haughty. It should make us proud.
It should just make us understand we stand for
something, that we believe something and we believe.
If what we believe is true, it's to the exclusion of Satan's
teachings. Consider these verses and we're
done. Galatians 51 Stand fast,
therefore the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.
Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Psalm 119, verse 160 Thy word is true from the beginning, and
every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever.
And as we close this morning, I just wanted to say once again,
this is not an attack on any adherent of any type of false
teaching. This is an attack on the one who
it all comes from, which is Satan and the authorities and
the articles of Faith, of which those false doctrines rest.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless bless you as
you grow in His Word.