Gods Gospel vs Human Religion

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Galatians 1 verse 11, Paul writes,. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, I ask that you would teach us this morning through your word. You gave Paul revelation, and I ask that your spirit would show to us and give to us illumination.

Open our hearts and minds. Give us understanding. Give your people ears to hear. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Continuing in the book of Galatians, one thing that immediately stands out here in this passage is the claim by Paul that the things he learned, the things he received, the things he taught, he did not receive them from others.

He received them. He received the gospel from the Lord himself through divine revelation, making the gospel God's gospel. This was not Paul's gospel. This was God's gospel. This was not Paul's message.

This was God's message. It came through, he says, the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, we just went through the book of Revelation several weeks ago, so hopefully you know what the Greek word is, translated revelation.

What is it? Apocalypsis.

That's the Greek term, and it means an unveiling, a revealing. It's being laid bare. Things that were previously unknown are now being revealed. That's what happened with the book of Revelation. That's what happened to Paul.

These were mysteries not understood, and God is showing Paul this truth. Paul received it from the Lord himself, and then Paul will talk about this at some later time. Paul received other things that people in the past didn't understand.

The mystery of the church, for example. The rapture of the church. People didn't know about this, but then the Lord revealed it to Paul. So, what happened here? Paul received direct word from the Lord in heaven, which makes Paul very much unique.

So, the gospel, here's the point. The gospel is not the product of the human mind. It is not man's attempt to reach up and grasp after God. Rather, the gospel is God reaching down to man. So, let's go back to the book of Genesis.

We're going to look at an example that hopefully illustrates this. Turn to Genesis 3. We'll look at that briefly. Hopefully, we'll see the contrast between God's ways and man's ways. What man attempts versus what God accomplishes.

You know this, I think, that man's ways are very different. The way man thinks. Man's solutions are very different than God's solutions. Can I get a witness on that? Man's gospel, which is really no gospel at all, is very different than God's gospel.

Man's message, man's gospel, if you want to use that term, quote, unquote. Man's gospel, man's attempt to reach after God, this can really be described with one word. The word religion. The word religion.

Now, the word religion, depending on how you use it, can either be a good thing or a bad thing. When you think about man's useless attempts to reach God, and these false religions certainly is something bad, but it can be used in a good way.

James, in his epistles, talked about true religion before God. So, depending on how you use it. But the point is, most religion is nothing more than mankind's attempt to bridge the gap that nothing and no one can bridge except Christ himself.

So, here's the thing. One reason why Paul is stressing this message that, hey, it's not my message. I did not receive this from someone else. I received it from the Lord. One of the reasons he's doing that is because if this was man's message, it would look like every other message.

It would look like every other religion. Christianity would look like every other religion. And if you look at Christianity and you think it does resemble every, you're looking at a false version of Christianity.

Genesis chapter 3, look at it, starting in verse 6. Eve, at this point, has been deceived by the serpent. Genesis 3, verse 6, it says, So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And then they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So what is happening here? God gave them a commandment. He gave them one rule, really. Do not eat.

And because they disobeyed God, because they sinned, instantly, as soon as they did it, they were made aware of their guilt. They were made aware of their guilt and shame and the fact that they were going to die.

I think it hit them all at once. And you know, this is why religion exists. This is why religion exists. Because man knows that he is separated from God, and every person knows that they are going to die.

That's why religion exists. So what is human religion? It's all man's response to the threat of death. You know something's wrong. What are we going to do about it? That's the wrong way of thinking, because you can't do anything about it.

So Adam and Eve have had their eyes open to the truth. They realize they're naked, awareness of guilt and shame. So they attempt to do something about it, right? Is it good enough? Well, we're going to see.

So what was their approach? Well, hey, let's make some aprons of fig leaves and cover ourselves. Of course, they hear God coming through the garden.

They run and hide.

And this is kind of the story of mankind in a nutshell. And whatever man does to try to remedy the issue, it is not good enough. Man's works, his solution is portrayed in the sewing together of the fig leaves.

God's solution, altogether different. Look at Genesis 3, verse 21. So that was their solution. Let's work and sew together some fig leaves and cover ourselves. Look at God's solution. It says, Genesis 3, verse 21.

Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. So this proves that those fig leaves that they made wasn't enough, wasn't good enough. It was not sufficient in the eyes of God.

You realize all of this is symbolic for something. So it wasn't sufficient in the eyes of God. So God out of His grace, because He's not obligated to do this, the Lord out of His grace kills an innocent animal.

Where do you think the skins came from? God killed an innocent animal, I believe probably a lamb, and He takes that skin and He clothes Adam and Eve. An innocent lamb gives its life to cover the sin and shame of the guilty.

What is this?

This is the gospel. Man sins against God. The only solution is God. Whatever man tries to do about it, it's not enough, it doesn't work. The only solution is God Himself. The Lord intervenes, innocent blood is shed, and from that sacrifice God forgives sinners, clothing them, here's the picture, clothing them with the righteousness of Christ.

Now let's turn to the next chapter, Genesis chapter 4. You say, well how do you get all that from this? Well, if you know the whole story of the Bible, it's pretty obvious. There's a couple other passages in Genesis we could look at that kind of speak to this subject.

The Tower of Babel, right? There's another great story. What does man do? We're going to build a tower that reaches up to heaven. Good luck with that. But that's symbolic for what? You can't work your way to God.

You can't build anything or do anything to reach up into heaven. There's only one path to God, and that path goes right through the cross. The religions and false gospels that men come up with, they fall short, they fall far short.

So the only solution is God's solution, and this runs contrary to the way men think, which again is one of the reasons why Paul is stressing this isn't my message. This isn't something I came up with or someone else told me about.

This is from God himself. And by the way, when I say these things are symbolic, you understand what I mean. They point ahead to something else. I am not saying that they didn't happen. No, they actually happened, but they also speak and point ahead to something else.

Adam and Eve are real people. What do you call a Christian who doesn't believe Adam and Eve were real people? Not a Christian. They were real historical figures. So are these next two, Cain and Abel. Genesis 4 verse 1.

Look at it.

Genesis 4 verse 1. Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain. Instead, I have acquired a man from the Lord. And she bore again, this time, his brother Abel. Now Abel, this is significant.

Now Abel was what?

A keeper of the sheep.

But Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.

And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering.

Why?

There may have been several things going on. But the primary reason why he did not accept Cain's offering is because it was not an offering of blood. Abel offered what?

A lamb.

A lamb.

Picturing Jesus Christ, who is the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world, John 1 29. Cain offers what? The works of his hands. He tills the ground, you know, works hard, and that's what he produces before God.

Here's what I have done. Here's what I have produced.

Was it good enough?

God didn't respect that offering. All right, now let's turn back to Genesis 1. And hopefully you can see the contrast here. Man's solution is what?

Works.

God's solution is the blood of the Lamb. Man's gospel tries to bring about reconciliation through religion or rituals or good deeds, works. Man's attempt to reach out to God with the gospel of Christ is God coming to earth in the person of Christ and dying on a cross.

I don't believe any human being would ever come up with that as the solution to the world. This is the gospel. God so loved the world. You matter. He loves you. He loves you so much that he sent his only begotten son to suffer and die so that you could be forgiven of your sin and inherit everlasting life.

That is not man's message. That is God's message. And we have the privilege to proclaim it.

Let's close.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word, which tells us these things. We don't have to wonder. We don't have to guess. And Lord, the more we have our eyes opened to your truth, Lord, the crazier this world seems.

And Father, I don't want to be a part of it. But Lord, you have us here. You have us here to do your will and do your work. So give us opportunities throughout the week, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornickchurch .com.

We'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.