Defending Your Faith #3

I was having coffee with a friend. We were talking about the state of the world, you know, like grumpy old men do—and I said, “the problem with the world is a lack of faith. No one has any anymore. People don’t go to church, they don’t raise their kids in the faith.” My friend got kinda quiet—then he said, “well, I haven’t gone to church in years. I don’t think God really cares which religion you believe or whether you go to church or not. As long as you believe in something.”

I kept it friendly, I offered to buy him another fancy coffee, but I said “how do you know what God cares about or not?”

I was pretty good friends with my highschool band teacher. He was a beatnik—one of those cool cat artsy fartsy jazz guys who wore black turtlenecks and laid the groundwork for the hippies. He played the saxophone and had a little band that gigged at country clubs on the weekends—I played guitar with him. Sometimes he’d start talking about how the country was going down the tubes—this was the late 70s—and he’d always say the same thing: “The problem with America is a lack of religion.”

Now, I don’t know whether he said that because he knew I was a Jesus freak, or if he was thinking back to his upbringing. I’ve always thought it was interesting that he thought the problem in our society was a faith problem. But he probably wouldn’t have said it was necessarily a lack of faith in Jesus problem per say. Just religion in general.

A lot of people think “there may very well be a God, but how can we know which one is the real one?” Will the real God please stand up? Like the old “To Tell The Truth” TV show, or Slim Shady. Will the real Creator God please stand up, give us a break down here and let us know which religion is true?

Actually, they don’t say that.

They say “there’s all these religions, all of them claiming to be the real deal, how can we know which one is true?” So maybe nothing is true. Maybe they’re all true. Maybe all roads lead to God. Doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe in something.

If there was ever a religious idea that most modern people believe—this would be it. God doesn’t care which religion you believe. They’re all the same.

There are a lot of reasons why this is the most poisonous lie and dangerous idea in the world. Mostly because it keeps people from looking for the truth, and makes anyone who says they know the truth look like a crazy person.

I’m going to tell you something that’s going to sound really strange to modern ears. There are only two religions. Only two. They’re the oldest religions, and only one of them is true.

There is the religion that says God is everything. He is the universe and nature and inside us and ultimately he is us. God is impersonal. Empty yourself and become one with God. It worships creation rather than the Creator.

The other religion is the God who is knowable—personal. A person. The Creator who spoke the universe into being and revealed Himself to mankind. First through His Commandments and then through Jesus.

So there’s only two religions: the impersonal god of Eastern mysticism and the personal God of Christianity. One of these religions says all paths eventually lead to spiritual enlightenment and peace—the other one says the only way to God is through Jesus. 

They can’t both be right.

Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to God unless they come through me.” There is a way that might seem right to a man but the end of that road will be death. Jesus said you are either saved by grace through faith in Him, or you are forever condemned in your unbelief.

There are many roads that lead to death but only one that leads to life. 

So, how can it possibly be true that “God doesn’t care which religion you believe?”

That would only make sense if there’s not really a God at all.

But we all know better than that. God is real. He’s not an imaginary idea. We didn’t make Him up. Everyone knows deep down that there’s a God who created everything, that He’s holy, that we’re not, and we all know that’s not good. Everyone knows those things. 

The world is like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle that’s been dumped out on the ground. We all see that the pieces fit together somehow—someone made this thing—and it’d probably be something cool if we could figure out how to put it together. No-one thinks that somehow the wind and rain plus time and chance randomly spit out a perfectly machined broken puzzle all over the place. We might not be able to figure out what it’s supposed to be but no-one is so blind they can’t see that there is intention and design going on here. There has to be a Creator even if there’s no way to really know much about Him.

Then God sends His Word and His Son—kinda like the picture on the front of the box.

To say God doesn’t care which religion you believe is like saying “just put the puzzle together however you want, it doesn’t matter whether the pieces fit or not. Make whatever you want out of it.”

No, it's only going together one way.

No-one has any excuse for not accepting the revelation of God—both in nature and in Scripture. God has been perfectly clear. We might close our eyes and stick our fingers in our ears—like the three “see no evil’ monkeys—but we all know.

Romans 1:18-20 says

“But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”

Which is similar to Psalm 19 where it says

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”

Everyone knows there’s a God who made all of this, and made us—and we also know that He’s not happy with the way we’ve been behaving ourselves.

Like it says in Psalm 14,

“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”

Which is echoed in Romans 9:11-12,

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

The world is full of a bunch of monkeys saying “I don’t see anything, I don’t hear anything, and I’m not going to say anything,” except it’s not evil they’re trying to ignore—they’re trying to ignore God.

It’s a lie that God doesn’t care what you believe, as long as you believe in something. 

People think they’re okay because they say, “I do believe. I believe in God.”

James 2:19 says

“You believe in God? Good for you. Even the demons believe that—and shudder!”

So congratulations, you have the faith of a demon. James says that’s not good enough. But what does he know, he was just the biological half-brother of Jesus. The first leader of the church in Jerusalem. Wrote one of the books in the Bible. I’m sure your opinion is just as valid.

Believing in some generic god or some kind of general spirituality doesn’t do you any good. You have to believe in Jesus.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.

You have to believe in Jesus if you don’t want to perish, if you want eternal life. Most famous verse in the Bible, right?

Well, what if you don’t believe? What if you believe something else? Let’s keep reading:

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” So far so good, maybe everyone is saved, next verse, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” Uh-oh! If you don’t believe in Jesus—if you don’t believe the Christian faith—you are already condemned! This is the verse that made me want to go into the ministry.

We better take our hands off our ears and listen.

Since God is real—Since He is all-wise—Since God is Good—He cares what you believe. He cares which religion you attached yourself to, what you put your hope in, because the only religion that leads to Him is Jesus.

If this is true then it’s the most important thing in the world. 

If every other religion leads to an absolute dead end—like really dead and hopeless and everything—then shouldn’t it be our top priority to figure out how to let people know?

Not to argue with them. Not to fight with them. We want people to hear the truth, not get mad at us. We’re not trying to win a fight—we’re trying to win a war. And the only victories that matter are how many people defect from the other side and join us. 

They’re all over there on the dark side saying “It doesn’t matter which side you fight for, as long as you fight for something.” But Jesus is saying something very different. 

He says they’re all prisoners of an ancient war and He came to set them free. He came to save them. To bring them into the light. How can they be saved? How can you be saved? What is the message of the Gospel?

It’s very simple. 

“If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

That’s pretty much the whole deal. And you don’t have to convince them of anything—you just have to tell them. God is the one who puts faith in people’s hearts. You can tell them about Jesus but it’s up to God to do the heavy lifting—He’s the one who makes the miracles happen. He opens their ears, you just have to be willing to have a respectful conversation. 

There’s a place I like to eat that has the best chicken shawarma, the guy who owns the place is named Moe—which is not short for Moses. Sometimes he’ll sit with me when I’m by myself and we’ll talk about family and whatever. One day he told me that he likes to visit churches on Sunday. He’s a Muslim and likes to visit churches. He said, “I don’t want to stop being a Muslim because that’s who I am, that’s who my family is, but I feel like Jesus is listening when I pray to Him.” I said, “Moe, I think you’re onto something there. You just keep praying to Jesus and let Him sort it out.”

[“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13]

Now that might not be the most theologically clean conversation I’ve ever had but I wanted Moe to know one thing, if he calls on the name of the Lord, he’ll be saved.  

Because here’s the deal, [“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?”] How can anyone call on Jesus to save them if they don’t believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they’ve never heard about Him? Someone has to tell them.

We have to let people know. I know we’re all nervous about talking to people about our faith but it’s the only way. We need to have more confidence in what we believe so we can defend it better.

In Acts 18 the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision. Paul was in a city called Corinth, a very pagan Roman city, a place where people wanted to do what they wanted to do—think of it as Roman Las Vegas. It was a freaky place that wasn’t particularly interested in hearing about some Jewish Messiah who wanted them to stop sleeping around and partying like there was no tomorrow.

Paul must have been a little timid when it came to sharing his faith in Jesus with people who didn’t seem very interested because God told him,

“Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent! For I am with you, and no one will attack and harm you, for many people in this city belong to me.” So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God.” Acts 18:9-11

My NewChurch friends, God is saying the same thing to us. We’re surrounded by freaky pagans who aren’t particularly interested in what we have to say about Jesus. They think they’ve heard it all before. They don’t think they want anything to do with it.

The world has fallen into unbelief. People think it doesn’t matter what they believe. It doesn’t matter if they believe. They’ve convinced themselves that faith is irrational. 

Faith is not irrational. Doubt is irrational. 

Doubt requires a leap of faith—faith doesn’t.

Christian faith is the only rational position for people to hold. Anything else requires too much pretending like you don’t see the way things are. 

There are no puzzle pieces. There is no spoon.

Christian faith isn’t “just as good” as other beliefs, it’s not just “better than” unbelief. It’s the only position that doesn’t make nonsense out of the human experience. 

It’s the only position that accounts for the uniformity of reality—the consistent nature of the universe that science needs to function at all. The only way medicine works. The only way psychology makes any sense. The only way philosophy and the possibility of meaning at all can exist. Without faith there is no logic. Faith is perfectly rational.

I understand that unbelievers aren’t going to see this. They’re blind to it. Like the song says, I once was blind too, but now I see. 

I know people think they are enlightened. They think they’re progressive. They think they’ve evolved beyond the need for something like religion. Everyone thinks they’re so smart. I see the news. I watched the debate the other night. I’ve been paying attention to the advice of all the experts. Do you really believe there’s wisdom in the ways of men? Really?

I’m talking to the skeptic.

Be honest with yourself for once. You know there’s a God who created all this—it all fits together too well to be some random accident, the jigsaw puzzle didn’t just happen on its own. You know in your heart there’s a God, and you know He’s better than you, you know He’s holy and you’re not. You can sense that much. 

I’m trying to show you the picture on the box. That God you can sense has a name. 

My highschool teacher was right, the problem with the world is a lack of religion—too many people are not connected to God. But my other friend is very mistaken, God cares very much which religion they believe in.

We have to let people know. 

We have to find a way. We have to defend our faith. From attacks, from confusion. We have to be able to give a defense for why Jesus gives us hope and peace and meaning. Defending your faith is the same thing as evangelism. Don’t be afraid. Speak out. Don’t be silent. The Lord is with you. There are so many people in this city that belong to Him—how will they know if you don’t tell them? Let them know that if they call on the name of the Lord they’ll be saved.

[If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. Romans 10:9-10]

If you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and if you openly declare your faith, then you’ll be made right with God.

The problem with the world is a lack of faith. Next week we’ll talk about how we can know that the Christian faith is true. Until then, keep this in mind, you don’t have to know everything. You just have to know Jesus. Know Jesus and always be willing to buy the next cup of coffee for a friend. AMEN