OT Sermon 122 The Curse of Religion
Isaiah 29:13-16 (GW)
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The Lord says, “These people worship me with their mouths and honor me with their lips.
But their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is {based on} rules made by
humans.
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That is why I am going to do something completely amazing for these people once again.
The wisdom of their wise people will disappear. The intelligence of their intelligent people
will be hidden.”
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How horrible it will be for those who try to hide their plans from the Lord. Their deeds are
done in the dark, and they say, “No one can see us” and “No one can recognize us.”
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You turn things upside down! Is the potter no better than his clay? Can something that has
been made say about its maker, “He didn't make me”? Can a piece of pottery say about the
potter, “He doesn't understand”?
1. A Profession But No Fruit
God is not asking for talk or some kind of display of worship. True worship consists of a heart that is
yielded to God. It consists of a lifestyle that matches up to the songs it sings on a Sunday morning at
church or around the house. These people spoken of in Isaiah are those whose hearts are far from
God. They have an outward show but inwardly they have departed from God. With their heads they
would tell you that they are Christians. They would talk a certain way and be able to explain lots of
biblical principles and quote scriptures. However, when you look to see the fruit of the Word in their
lives the only thing you can see are those things which the world equates with success rather than
spiritual blessings being included in their estimation of success.
At this time in history we have to be extremely careful of just going through the motions and not
yielding to God completely. We need to remember that God doesn’t need pretence and He sees
right through it. He has a desire for sincere heartfelt reverence not a show.
2 Timothy 3:5 (GW)
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They will appear to have a godly life, but they will not let its power change them. Stay away
from such people.
2 Timothy 3:5 (AMP)
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For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are
strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid
[all] such people [turn away from them].
AMP puts it clearly that these people have a profession but the way that they behave negates their
profession and makes it ineffective. Those in the world do listen to what we say sometimes but
more importantly they are interested in what we do. They want to know how Christ has changed
the way we behave.
Jesus Himself expects us to bear fruit. He says that we shall know how genuine people are or what
people truly believe by their fruit.
Matthew 7:16-20 (KJV)
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Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
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Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil
fruit.
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A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
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Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
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Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
The curse of religion is that there are lots of activities which all look spiritual but which are not
necessarily life changing. A sincere person engaging in these activities will find they are deeply
rooted in God. However, to the person who is merely or who has become religious, these activities
just keep them from facing up to the fact that they are now worldly. These spiritual engagements
give them enough of a mention of God and a feeling of a relationship with God to stop them from
going away and really confronting themselves about their lack of sincerity. The other thing that
these activities do is that they make others think that everything is OK. People who are religious
know how to get all the boxes ticked. They know how to talk about so and so who is the talk of town
because of this rumour or that rumour. Yet so and so may actually love God and obey Him. Or she
may love God but know in her heart that things are not quite right in her relationship with Him. So
rather than go through the motions and put on a show, so and so would prefer to sort things out and
then get back into outward profession rather than maintaining an outward profession with her heart
being far from the Lord.
However, what you will find in the church is that it will be so and so who will be talked about but not
the one who manages to get all the boxes of outward profession ticked.
A religious person can tell you what should be done or what the Word says but they do not or can
not follow through and do it. They cannot live up to the standard in God’s Word no matter how
much they talk about the new life they have received.
2. Hearts Far From the Lord
When we continue with the outward show it can be very difficult for people to see that our hearts
are now far from the Lord. We can give allegiance to God and make it seem as if things are OK but
He knows the truth. When we turn away from the Lord we tend to take up with something else as a
replacement. We might replace God with an interest or a hobby. We might put that energy we put
into God into trusting other people or things that we should not,
Jeremiah 17:5-6 (GW)
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“This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the person who trusts humans, who makes flesh and
blood his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
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He will be like a bush in the wilderness. He will not see when something good comes. He
will live in the dry places in the desert, in a salty land where no one can live.
The one who trusts in man is said to be cursed. When see flesh and blood as our strength it makes
us turn away from the Lord. This happens often with people who’ve been in religion or in a church
which became religious. Perhaps at the beginning they believed in God and His Word and honouring
the God of the Word no matter what. However, when things happened in church which shouldn’t
have happened they no longer held to the Word but just started to believe that what matters is
being a nice person. They begin to trust in man if they can find that somehow this or that person
seems to be good or seems to be nice. There are all sorts of things people will begin to overlook
once they have had a bad experience in a church. Things which they say no longer matter even
though they are clearly scriptural all because there were those who preached those things but who
were not sincere.
The only hope for the one who begins to trust in man is that they will not see when good things
happen. They will live in the desert and won’t survive. The truth is that religious people will not
survive the end times. They will either move over to satan and end up taking the mark of the beast
or they will be sold out to God. There is no half way.
3. Rules Taught By Men
When we trust in man rather than God we tend to go with tradition and sayings of men rather than
the Word itself or the Holy Spirit. The holy Spirit will be nudging and telling us one thing while other
people will tell us another and we decide to go with people instead of God.
Matthew 15:6 (GW)
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does not have to honor his father. Because of your traditions you have destroyed the
authority of God's word.
Pharisees were very good at making up their own rules and traditions but these traditions led people
away from God’s Word. Their traditions made people get their priorities wrong and gave people
false assurance. Their teaching also made it sound as if God could be bought.
God will not be second to any man’s idea or convenient doctrine. It will get to the stage where all
this human wisdom that people are trusting in will become their ruin and disgrace.
The wisdom of these wise people will come to nothing and their intelligence will perish. Those who
are trusting in this perishable intelligence will also perish along with it. It’s like trusting in man or a
man made defence against a natural disaster when your trust should be in God. If you are walking
with the Lod and obeying Him then you will not think of depending on man’s wisdom, though it can
be used by God. You will just depend on God and will allow Him to use the means He chooses.
4. Deception
It is foolishness to think you can hide from God. If you think that you cannot be caught out or
discovered by God then you are deceived. Even people who know they are not God but who have
His Holy Spirit can often see what those in religion are covering up. This means that God saw it ages
ago. He knew what you were going to hide before it even came to your mind. Sometimes we treat
God as if He is somehow deficient. As if He has a human mind which can miss something. If we
really respect God and love Him we would be sincere and if we can’t be sincere then we would stop
professing. Then we could find grace and mercy to repent and get our hearts right.