January 6, 2002
Parkview Church of the Nazarene
J. Richard Lord, Jr.
What Is Your Religion Worth?
I Peter 1:3-9
Is your faith genuine? It is worth more than gold?
Your religion is not worth very much:
I. IF IT DOES NOT MAKE A FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE IN YOUR ATTITUDE AND ACTIONS.
Some people wear their religion as if it were a coat, to be put on only when you need to feel warm, to make you feel good.
True religion not only changes you, it transforms you.
Some years ago, the science fiction show, “The Incredible Hulk,” was on TV. It was based on a comic book character by the name of David Banner, a scientist who was trying to develop a medicine that could help people control their anger. He was highly motivated to do so, because he had what is known as today as an, “anger management” problem.
But something goes awry and he is injected with this medicine that has an opposite effect. Whenever he got angry, he was transformed into the “Incredible” monster that wreaked havoc once a week. He was superhuman in strength and could easily defeat his foes.
This is a silly illustration of what happens when we accept Jesus as our Savior. We are “injected” by the Holy Spirit. The love of Jesus transforms us into the “Incredible Christian” making us spiritually stronger than our enemy Satan and are able to defeat him.
It changes the way we think and act and even changes our appearance. We see the world and ourselves differently. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. “ (II Corinthians 5:17 KJV)
If your religion has not transformed you, it is not worth very much.
II. IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE IT IS THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN.
One of biggest mistakes that religious zealots make is trying force people to believe as they do.
We have just seen in Afghanistan the result of religion at the point of a gun. But before we condemn those leaders in their guilt, we must look to our own history.
Many abuses in the name of Christianity have been committed. Constantine, in 333 AD, converted the Roman Empire practically overnight to Christianity, mostly at the point of a sword.
Many abuses occurred during the Middle Ages in the name of the church. Heretics, who were anybody who believed differently than the established religion, were burned at the stake.
Even in our own America, our hands are not clean. The pilgrims, who escaped religious persecution, turned around and punished anyone who did not follow their strict religious regimen.
This is not real Christianity. It is not even true religion of any sort. It is tyranny.
The rally cry today, however, is acceptance. We must accept everyone’s faith as legitimate. It doesn’t matter what you believe, we must accept everyone’s religion.
That’s wrong as well. It is completely at odds with scripture. Paul writes, “ When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (I Corinthians 1:1-2)
What we must understand is that there is a difference between religious intolerance and True Faith.
Religious intolerance is hate. Belief that you have the love of God and you must share it is True Faith. The writer to the Hebrews says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.“ (Hebrews 11:1) It’s being sure of what you know to be true. Religious intolerance demands allegiance. True Faith beckons to relationship.
Religious intolerance says, “you must believe as I believe or you are my enemy.”
True Faith says, “I love you no matter what you believe.”
But we also must understand that there is a difference between True Faith and pluralism.
Pluralism states that everybody’s religion is of equal value. It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are “sincere” and “peaceful.”
At a January 4, 2000 interfaith dialogue in the Chicago suburbs, Nobel Peace Prize nominee M. Cherif Bassiouni, a law professor at DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, said all religions lead to God using different paths. "The judgment is not by the choice we make, but by how we pursue the path of the choice we make," he said.
"Different religions and cultures are equal in the eyes of God and should be seen as equal in the eyes of man," he said.
But True Faith states, “I know what I know because of the Spirit of Christ living in me. I have seen His transforming power in my life. I am convinced that, as Jesus says, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6)
We love others, regardless of what they believe. We carry no animosity toward others, regardless of what they do to us.
Paul says, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:17-21)
James Packer, in his book, Your Father Loves You, states, “Hence we find in non-Christian religions a restless sense of the hostility of the powers of the universe; an undefined feeling of guilt, and all sorts of merit-making techniques designed to get rid of it; a dread of death, and a consuming anxiety to feel that one has conquered it; forms of worship aimed at once to placate, bribe, and control the gods, and to make them keep their distance, except when wanted; an alarming readiness to call moral evil good, and good evil, in the name of religion; an ambivalent attitude of mind which seems both to seek God and to seek to evade him in the same act.
Therefore in our evangelistic dialogue with people of non-Christian religions, our task must be to present the biblical revelation of God in Christ -- not as supplementing them but as explaining their existence, exposing their errors, and judging their inadequacy. “
Unless we know for certain that what we believe is the only way, then our religion is not worth very much.
III. IF YOU DO NOT SHARE IT WITH OTHERS.
The great violinist, Niccolo Paganini willed his marvelous violin to city of Genoa on condition that it must never be played.
The wood of such an instrument, while used and handled, wears only slightly, but set aside, it begins to decay. Paganini’s lovely violin has today become worm-eaten and useless except as a relic.
What was once a valuable instrument is now useless. That is the way our religion is. It is meant to be shared. If we put it on a shelf and never share the music of our soul with others, then our religion is not worth very much.
George Sweeting, in his book The No-Guilt Guide for Witnessing, tells of a man by the name of John Currier who in 1949 was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Later he was transferred and paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee.
In 1968, Currier’s sentence was terminated, and a letter bearing the good news was sent to him. But John never saw the letter, nor was he told anything about it. Life on that farm was hard and without promise for the future. Yet John kept doing what he was told even after the farmer for whom he worked had died.
Ten years went by. Then a state parole officer learned about Currier’s plight, found him, and told him that his sentence had been terminated. He was a free man.
Sweeting concluded that story by asking, “Would it matter to you if someone sent you an important message-the most important in your life-and year after year the urgent message was never delivered?”
We who have heard the good news and experienced freedom through Christ are responsible to proclaim it to others still enslaved by sin. Are we doing all we can to make sure that people get the message?
CONCLUSION
God’s purpose for us is to be changed and to change others.
If our religion has not made a transforming change in our life, if we do not believe that we are on the right path, and we don’t share it with others, then our religion is not worth very much.
