Religion, Reformation, or Relationship
Matthew 12:34b-50
Traditionally, on New Year’s Day, many people make resolutions. About 85% of those made are for some form of self-improvement. While most of those who make resolutions are sincere, only 8% ever achieve their goal. How many times have you heard someone say they are going to change only to remain the same or even become more entrenched in some habit, sin, or vice. Man thinks that religion or reformation is what is needed when the reality is that what is needed is a relationship.
I. Religion without true righteousness
A. In Matthew 12, Jesus Christ is having a discourse with the Pharisees dealing with their rejection of Him and their reliance on tradition and religion to make them acceptable to both God and men. This self-righteous attitude was commented on by Christ in Matthew 23.
B. Matthew 23:25-28 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
C. John MacArthur says of the Pharisees, “The Pharisees were classic moralists. There was no other group in existence at the time that was more committed to ethics, standards, principles of life, and morals than the Pharisees. They lived by a complex and demanding ethical moral code. Laws existed for everything, and their life was utterly and totally circumscribed by a mass of legislation and morality.” - copied
D. This attitude of the self-sufficiency of religiosity is seen in the prayer of the Pharisee in Luke 18.
E. Luke 18:10-12 “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.”
F. Matthew 5:20 “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
G. Multitudes of kind, honest, sincere religious church members, when they come to the end of life’s journey, will awaken to the fact that they have missed heaven because they were trusting in church not Christ.
H. Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name, have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
I. A man's religion will not carry him to Heaven. Good works, no matter how plentiful, will not outweigh one's sin debt. – John R Rice.
J. A relationship with God cannot be found through religion. In fact, religion is the biggest roadblock to seeking a relationship with God. Religion is simply Man trying to reach out to God by doing something that he thinks will please God. “If I can do enough, say enough, pray enough, give enough, sacrifice enough perhaps God will show me favor”. Every religion is based upon this “works theology”.
II. Reformation without transformation
A. Matthew 12:43-45 “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”
B. Here was a man that had been possessed was battling life’s dominating sins and resolved to change through self-reformation. Here was a man who attempted to clean up his act (swept) and put his life in order (garnished). The result was all he did was create a vacuum in his heart (empty) and no one can exist with such a spiritual vacuum within them. Whenever there is such a vacuum it must and will be filled by something. That is why changing behavior is never enough. Changing behavior without changing your deepest desires and belief is mere behavior modification. What this man and all men need is a changed heart. There will never be lasting or true change without a changed heart. Understand that the heart is central to life – physically, emotionally and spiritually. The heart of the problem is the heart.
C. Matthew 15:18-19 “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:”
D. Mark 7:21-23 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
E. Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
F. There is a story about two seminary students who, in their eagerness to please the Lord, went downtown in a large city and found the filthiest and most detestable looking homeless person on the street. They took him home, cleaned him up, put medicine on his sores, bought him a new set of clothes, and fixed him a nice hot meal. They even found him a job he could do, bagging groceries at a local market, and then bid him farewell. Two months later while passing by the same location where they had originally found the man, they were both shocked. There he was again, sitting on the same street corner, clothes torn, unshaven, filthy, and in the same state as before. The two seminary students rightly concluded that the outside of the man was cleaned up, but his heart was never changed. - Daniel W Blair, Guiding Principles for Biblical Counseling, p 40
G. Only God can change the heart of man. Only He can take a heart stained and hardened by sin and replace it with a new heart. It is only God can safely uproot the deep-seated sins of our hearts and vanquish them.
H. Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
III. Relationship through regeneration
A. Luke 12:46-50 “While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, ‘Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?’ And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, ‘Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.’
B. Mere religion, or reformation will not save. True change can only take place through a change of relationship with Christ through regeneration, the receiving of Christ into the heart.
C. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
D. 2 Corinthians 6:9-11 “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
E. As a follower of Jesus, you cannot change yourself, only God can do that through his Son. No matter how many self-help books that you read, true change only comes through your relationship with Jesus Christ. A true Christian, after conversion, will immediately notice an unavoidable change in sensitivity to his daily routine. They will begin to question their taste in movies, music, clothing, even their choice in friends. This is the beginning of a changed life.
Religion cannot change you from the core. You can make behavioral modifications, you can clean up the exterior and put on your Sunday best, but the real problem is within, in our hearts, and religion is unable to reach that deep.
Cleaning up your act, is not the biblical solution to a changed life. As sinners, we have violated God’s moral law and blasphemed his moral character. Our efforts to change will not earn us one iota of what Christ did for us on the cross. The benefits of Christ’s atonement are received through faith alone. It is faith, not works, that justifies a sinner before God and will establish a relationship with Christ as a child of God.
It is faith alone that saves, but the faith that saves is never alone. It will always be characterized by a humble repentance. Saving faith is a faith that turns away from sin in shame and turns to God in hope and love.
Disclaimer: I make no claims of absolute originality are made for this outline. I like what one man said, "I milk a lot of cows, but I churn my own butter." Please use this material contextually as the Lord leads.
