Participants: Pr. Carlton Byrd
Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000183A
|
00:06 Today, Dr. Byrd speaks on the topic "You Must Have True Religion." And now, here he is, speaker/director of Breath of Life Ministries, Dr. Carlton Byrd.
00:12 speaker/director of Breath of Life Ministries, Dr. Carlton Byrd. 00:17 PB: John chapter 3, verse number 1. "There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 00:33 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: 00:42 for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, 00:52 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, 01:01 How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, 01:09 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 01:20 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is" what, everybody? 01:24 Aud: Spirit. PB: "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." Now, this text can be preached 01:34 a number of ways, but this way we preach this today, you must have that true religion. 01:41 Father God, bless us now as we preach Your Word. But even as we preach, Lord go to Huntsville Hospital right now, 01:48 touch Michael Monet's body, and Lord be with his wife right now, ease her worry. Because God, You've not given her, 01:54 You've not given him, You've not given us a spirit of fear. But God, we pray Your power on him right now. 02:01 Lord we ask that you would even bring comfort to Sister Benny Armstrong's family in this their time of loss. 02:08 But Lord, right now, we need You in the sanctuary of the Oakwood Church. We need You over the airways right now. 02:13 By the power of Your Holy Spirit, speak to Your people. Forgive us of our sins, hide us behind Your cross, 02:19 and Lord when we leave this place we'll be able to say it was good to have been here. So with that, 02:24 move during the appeal. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. 02:29 You must have that true religion. The world in which we live has different meanings, understandings and connotations of religion. 02:43 The four largest religious groups in the world are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, and if you ask the followers of any 02:53 of these four different religious groups to tell you what religion is, they will all tell you something different. 03:01 The sermon today declares you must have that true religion. So without turning this into a comparative religions class, 03:12 let me tell you by way of illustration why I'm a Christian. In the villages of northern India, a missionary was preaching. 03:22 After he had finished preaching and was getting ready to leave that village, a Muslim gentleman came up to him and said, 03:27 "You must admit, we have as Muslims one thing you don't have. And it's better than anything you do have." The missionary smiled and said, 03:38 "Well, if it's so good tell me what it is." The Muslim said, "You know, when we go to Mecca, we at least find a coffin. 03:49 But when you Christians go to Jerusalem, which is your Mecca, you find nothing but an empty grave." And the missionary smiled. 04:00 He said, "I got him now. That's just the difference," he said. "Mohammed is dead. Mohammed is in a coffin. And in other systems 04:15 of religion and philosophy, their powers, their deities are dead in their coffins, too." He said, "Buddha is dead. Buddha is in a coffin. 04:26 Confucius is dead. Confucius is in a coffin. Oh, but my Jesus," [Aud. reaction] 04:35 PB: "He's not dead. He's not in a coffin. I wish I had a witness in this place. 04:41 "He's not here. He is risen. He's alive. I serve a risen Savior, and because I serve a risen Savior, because I serve Jesus, 04:47 because I follow Jesus, there's no other way to salvation but by Jesus, I'm a Christian." Do I have a witness in this place? 04:58 [Aud. reaction] PB: But even within the Christian ranks we have different meanings of what religion is. 05:04 A Danish theologian identified two kinds of religion. Let's call them religion A and religion B. He said the first, religion A, 05:15 is faith in the name of religion only. These are people who Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:5, "have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. 05:26 " They act as if they are religious, but they reject the power that can make them godly. It's the practice of attending church without 05:37 genuine faith in the living God. Religion B, on the other hand, is a life-transforming, destiny-changing experience. It's a definite 05:47 commitment to the crucified and risen Savior, which establishes an ongoing personal relationship between a forgiving Savior and a gracious God. 05:58 It's the kind of religion where Paul says, in Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: 06:14 and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Hallelujah, somebody 06:21 [Aud. reaction] PB: That's true religion. Let me be clear today. Religion alone does not mean you believe in Jesus. 06:30 There are a lot of religions in the world, but there are a lot of religions in the world that have nothing to do with Jesus. 06:38 But not only that, religion alone cannot get you salvation. There's only one name under heaven whereby we can be saved, and that's the name of Jesus. 06:48 Everybody talking about heaven ain't going. Everybody talking about Jesus isn't serving Jesus. Being religious does not automatically make you righteous. 06:59 That's why you must have that true religion. In the text, quickly, we're reminded of a man named Nicodemus. Everybody say "Nicodemus." 07:09 Aud.: Nicodemus. PB: Nicodemus was a man of great prominence who was also very religious. How do we know he was religious? 07:17 Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and Pharisees were religious people who prided themselves in external acts of religious service. 07:27 But not only was Nicodemus a righteous man, he was a good man. So somebody's sitting here and saying, "Well, Pastor Byrd, you already said he was righteous. 07:36 And so if he's religious, he's automatically must have been good." No, no, no, no. Everybody that's religious is not good. I wish I had a witness in this place. 07:47 [Aud. reaction] PB: It's possible for a person to be caught up in religious ceremonialism and ritualism and still be no good. 07:57 I know some church folk--not in Oakwood. Come on, say amen. [Aud. reaction] 08:02 PB: Who are very religious. They know when to say amen. They know when to say Hallelujah. They know when to say thank You, Jesus. 08:14 They know when to stomp their feet. They know when to stand and sing the hymns. They know when to recite the fourth Commandment. 08:22 They know the Communion table is for bread and wine. They know you eat bread first, drink wine second. Religion is your rituals, 08:30 your customs, your habitual activities, but being outwardly religious does not necessarily make one good. 08:37 [Aud. reaction] PB: Even the devil was religious. [Aud. reaction] 08:42 PB: The devil knows religious language, religious rituals, religious customs. The devil can out-religion you. 08:53 Too many religious people have been pretty packaging, have pretty packaging on the outside but have downsized the 09:01 amount of spirituality on the inside. Ritualistic religiosity can lead to shrinking spirituality. We can be strongly 09:12 and staunchly religious to the detriment of our spiritual sensitivity and life and fellowship with God. Let's be real today. 09:20 When was the last time you were moved by the message of an old familiar hymn? When was the last time you wept over Amazing grace, 09:30 how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. When was the last time you were overwhelmed by the power of the 23rd Psalm. 09:39 When was the last time you got excited when you prayed the Lord's Prayer. When was the last time you felt the joy of God, 09:49 just because you were able to get up on Sabbath morning, put on your clothes, come into the house of God and step into the 09:58 sanctuary and walk up before Christ. When was the last time you rejoined in the depths of your heart, not because you heard a great sermon, 10:07 not because you heard great singing, not because you came to this great church, but because you serve a great Savior. And a mighty great God. 10:19 According to Matthew 26, there were some religious folk in Jerusalem. Chief priests, scribes and Pharisees who devised a plan, church folk, 10:26 to kill Jesus. Pharisees were church folk, and remember, you couldn't beat them at being religious. They sang the right songs, 10:34 they prayed the right prayers, they preached the right sermons, they adhered to the right rituals, they observed the Sabbath, 10:39 they went by the book but it was all sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. Remember, it was Jesus who said, "Not every one that saith unto me, 10:47 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, 10:55 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?" I will then, 11:02 He said, "profess unto them, I knew you not: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Modern-day translation, Relevant Word, the Byrd Bible. 11:11 It's possible to go straight to hell right through the doors of the church. [Aud. reaction] 11:16 PB: You can be religious, but that doesn't make you good. Intelligence does not guarantee integrity. Education does not always guarantee truth. 11:29 Democracy does not guarantee justice and religion does not guarantee God. Sometimes, religion becomes an enemy to God and an oppressor of humanity, 11:38 and that can easily happen when religion takes at its center anything but God. The Pharisees had biblical religion, 11:48 but they rejected the very One that their religion was centered around, Jesus. We can know so much about the Bible, 11:55 but really, do we know Jesus? We can know the 23rd Psalm, but do we know the Shepherd? We can know the Lord's Prayer, 12:03 but really, do we know the Lord? Nicodemus flunked the test because he was too familiar with the material, but he never 12:11 got into the real meaning of it all. Religion alone focuses on the things others can see and forgets that God can see 12:18 everything about them. Religion alone worries about what others may think and wants to be perfect. Religion alone seeks 12:24 to find loopholes in the Word of God in order to avoid obeying the Word of God. Religion alone hones heroes of the past 12:34 but rejects God's work in the present. Religion alone seeks a deeper message in the Bible in order to be in control. 12:44 Religion alone prevents people from becoming genuine Christians. But today, you must have that true religion. 12:57 There's a whole bunch of dangerous, bad, false religions in the world. Bad, false religion can make you hard, cold and mean. 13:06 A bitter world cannot be sweetened by a sour religion. Bad religion will make you snap at the ushers, will make you act demanding 13:16 toward volunteers as if they were your hired servants. Bad religion will make you tighten your fists when the deacons come by to 13:23 collect the tithe and offering. Bad religion will make you sit up and hear, refuse to sing, refuse to smile, refuse to speak, 13:34 refuse to shake hands, refuse to pray, refuse to praise God, refuse to thank God, as if God hasn't blessed You, God hasn't kept you, 13:43 God hasn't delivered you, God hasn't raised you, God hasn't redeemed you, God hasn't brought you out of the miry clay and placed your 13:50 feet on solid ground and safe. In fact, bad religion is worse than no religion at all, because no witness is better than a bad witness. 14:00 [Aud. reaction] PB: Bad religion took apartheid to South Africa. Bad religion brought slavery to America. It organized the Ku Klux Klan, 14:10 destroyed Iran, devastated Iraq, killed Martin Luther King. Bad religion crucified Jesus. When you practice bad, false religion, 14:17 the continuity of the Bible is denied, the voice of God is ignored, the vision of the kingdom is blurred, the agenda of 14:22 the Holy Ghost is disturbed, and the salvation of Christ is rejected. You must have that true religion. True religion means 14:31 you're sold out to Jesus. True religion means you're in a relationship with Jesus, that you fall in love with Jesus, 14:42 that you're getting ready for the Second Coming of Jesus. And so, Jesus says, "If you want to practice true religion, 14:51 if you want to live true religion, if you want to model true religion, you must be born again. That's true religion today. 15:02 Being born again. Nicodemus, you must be born again. But Nicodemus said, How can a man be born when a man is old? 15:13 How can a man enter a second time into his mother's womb? How can a man go back. Jesus says, "You're misunderstanding 15:26 what I'm trying to say. You don't understand what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about going backward, he says, 15:32 I'm talking about going forward. You must be born again. If you look at the Greek root word here, you see the double 15:41 meaning of the word. Here, referring to the second birth, you must be born again, is a no saying. Which means two things: 15:51 a no saying, You must be born again, means two things: Number 1, it's being born a second time, and then number 2, 15:58 it's being born from above. You're born a second time, and you're born from above. You must have that true religion. 16:12 You've got to be born a second time, and you've got to be born from above. Nicodemus, you're a religious man. 16:20 You are a good man, but have you been born a second time. Have you been born from above. 16:27 You see, the first time I was born, I was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Our Lady of the Lake Hospital. 16:34 But the second time I was born, I was born into the life of Christ, the hope of the church and fellowship of the faith. 16:41 The first time I was born, I became a citizen of the United States. But the second time I was born, I became a citizen 16:50 of God's kingdom. The first time I was born, I became eligible for Social Security, but the second time I was born, 17:00 I became a recipient of God's eternal security. [Aud. reaction] 17:04 PB: The first time I was born, they brought me home from the hospital to be cared for, 17:10 but the second time I was born, I brought my whole family to the Elam Seventh Day Adventist Church in 17:16 St. Petersburg, Florida, on August the 8th, 1980; 8016 Avenue South, to see me get baptized! The first time I was born, 17:28 they wrote my name in the United States Census, but the second time I was born, angels in heaven wrote my name 17:37 in the Lamb's Book of Life. The first time I was born, I was born in the flesh; the second time I was born, 17:46 I was born in the Spirit. The first time I was born, I became a human being, but the second time I was born, 17:55 I became a living soul. The first time I was born, I became a pilgrim of time, but the second time I was born, 18:03 I became an heir of salvation, purchased of God, born of His Spirit and lost in His love. You must be born again, 18:14 and that, my friends, is true religion. You practiced religion before, but now God is calling you to true religion. 18:22 Not going through the motions but going through Jesus, because if you don't practice true religion, if you're not born again, 18:27 your faith will become faulty, your praise will become passive, your witness will become weak and your 18:32 testimony will become tired. If we would enter heaven, we must be born again. Salvation is a gift, my friends, 18:42 from God that is not based on being religious or our good works. There is nothing that you and I, there is 18:48 nothing we can do to deserve or earn salvation. Our righteousness in the sight of God is but as filthy rags. 18:54 As wonderful as it is to visit the sick, that won't get you in. As good as it is to gins in a choir, that won't get you in. 19:05 Even though you're on the elder board, the deacon board, the deaconess board, that won't get you in. So, let me 19:12 give you some advice. Before you get on the elder board, before you get on the deacon, deaconess or usher board, 19:18 make sure you've been born again. Don't put on a choir robe or stand and sing in the praise team unless you've been born again. 19:27 You can't sing your way into heaven, you can't usher your way into heaven, you can't give the call to worship on your way into heaven. 19:37 You cannot greet your way into heaven, you cannot elder your way into heaven, I can't pastor my way into heaven. 19:45 [Aud. reaction] PB: You might be genuinely a good person. We've got a whole lot of good folk. You might have a good heart, 19:51 but you can't make it to heaven with just a good heart. If being goodhearted were all it took, Jesus wouldn't have had to come. 19:57 Some people were born with good hearts, but some of us are better by nature than others are by practice. Some folk will give you 20:03 the shirts off their backs, but they still must be born again. When you were born again, and when you're born again, your facial 20:09 features will remain the same. Your hair texture will remain the same. Your hands, fingers, eyes, lips, souls remain the same. 20:21 All of your physical features will remain the same. But when you're born again, when you practice true religion, something takes 20:32 place on the inside. Something within me that makes me want to move beyond surface, ritual religion, something that makes me want 20:44 to make my relationship with Jesus so real that I've got to be born again. This change occurs when Jesus takes up residence within you. 20:55 That's when you know you've been born a second time, and born from above. That's when you know you've got true religion, because you 21:03 don't talk the way you used to talk. You don't go where you used to go. You don't hang out with whom you used to hang out with. 21:10 Your conversation is not what it used to be. Your attitude is not what it used to be, because if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. 21:19 Old things are passed away, all things become new. What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought, since Jesus came into my heart. 21:27 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 22:55 PB: So Pastor Byrd, how do I practice true religion? How am I born again? The answer to that interrogative 23:09 question is number one, you've got to live what you say you believe. No matter what. Live what you say you believe. 23:19 A man's word is a man's bond. If you believe in Christ, then act like it. [Aud. reaction] 23:25 PB: Live like it. Love like it. Number two, practice what you preach, and when you don't make it right. 23:37 The greatest sermon ever preached is the one that's lived. If I were standing up in this pulpit, preaching one 23:44 thing and living another during the week, you'd look at me like I've lost my mind. And when you don't live right, 23:50 make it right. When you don't live in accordance with what you preach and teach, make it right. This can't be do 23:54 as I say not as I do. Number three, you've got to be committed. Not halfhearted, but completely committed. 24:05 God does not need any wishy-washy soldiers. Choose you this day whom you're going to serve. But as for me and my house, 24:18 we're going to serve the Lord. Do I have a witness in this place? [Aud. reaction] 24:22 PB: Number four, make sure you have a relationship with Jesus, not just religious rituals. 24:28 Are you just coming here to go through the motions? It's time for everybody to make sure you have a real 24:34 relationship with Jesus Christ, because if you don't, when the house burns you're going to need a relationship with Jesus. 24:41 And finally, number five. Grow on the inside so it shows on the outside. Now, most of us look pretty good on the outside. 25:02 I tell Oakwood, I tell people all the time I travel, Oakwood is a pretty church. Come on, say amen, I'm talking about you. 25:09 [Aud. reaction] PB: Oakwood is a handsome church. But all that glitters is not gold. Stop trying to make your product 25:19 look pretty while your insides are withering away. Remember, ritualistic religiosity leads to spiritual shrinking, 25:27 but when we practice true religion we will not be discouraged by anyone, defeated by anything, or destroyed by anybody. 25:41 Martin Luther summed true religion up this way--I'll say this and then I'll take my seat--Luther said, "A religion that 25:49 does nothing, that saves nothing, that gives nothing, that costs nothing, that suffers nothing is worth nothing." 26:08 But I'm so glad that Jesus thought I was worth something. I'm so glad that Jesus went to Calvary to save a wretch like you and me. 26:25 And I'm so glad that 2,000 years ago He sacrificed His life so I could be born again, so I could live again, so I could practice true religion. 26:38 Friends of mine, the days we live in are evil. But there is hope. Violence in the world is increasing. But there is hope. Terrorism is on the rise. 26:52 But there is hope. Racism in 2015 is becoming more pronounced. But there is hope. Tragedy comes to everybody, sickness comes to everybody, 27:10 death comes to everybody, but as sure as there is God, there is hope. There still is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole; there is still a 27:26 balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. Sometimes I get discouraged and think my work's in vain, but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again. 27:39 There is a God on earth, there is a Christ in time. Jesus has come down, He's come near, He's come into the pain, the problems, the perplexities of life. 27:51 A door to the future has been opened. And it's not a principal, but it's a person. It's not a creed, it's a Christ. It's not a sound doctrine, 28:06 but it's a strong Deliverer. It's not a religion, but it's a Redeemer. His name, His name, His name is Jesus. He began His ministry by being hungry, 28:08 Thank you for joining us for another exciting broadcast. We'd like you to partner 28:11 with us as we offer the Breath of Life to a dying world. All of our sermon titles 28:16 and DVDs can be purchased at www.BreathofLife.tv. Until next time, God loves you. |
Revised 2016-08-18