God Never Said That Part 4: "It Doesn't Matter What You Believe As Long As You're Sincere"

Lean into what God may be speaking to you and allow His Word to shape your life.

Let's jump into today's message.

So for the past month, we've been in a four-part series called God Never Said That.

And what we've been doing is been looking at common sayings that so many believe

to be true, but in reality, God never said them.

We talked about the lie in week one that God just wants us happy. Anyone ever heard that?

God just wants me to be happy. And we talked about that lie.

Then we talked about the lie that says, God will never give me more than I can handle.

And then we found that that's not what scripture teaches. The Bible says sometimes

he does give us more than we can handle in order that we rely on him for his

presence and for his power.

And then we talked about the lie last week that says it doesn't matter what

you do as long as you aren't hurting anyone.

And if you missed any of these, I would encourage you to go online.

You can listen to them on our website. You can listen to them on Facebook or

Spotify, iHeart, iTunes, whatever your favorite streaming service is.

Today, we're going to be looking at one of the most relevant and culturally

believed lies that is so commonplace in our world today.

And so many people wrongly believe this. And you may have heard it.

You may have said it. You may even believe it.

But all over the world today, people will say, it doesn't really matter what

you believe about God as long as you're sincere.

Have you ever heard that? It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're

sincere in your pursuit of God.

And that quite honestly, it sounds kind of good.

It feels kind of good. It sounds like, man, our God is so big.

He's so loving that it, you know, it's okay.

He'll have grace for you if you're wrong in your belief system.

He'll be all right with that. Really.

It's what we would call feel good theology. It just feels good for me to believe this.

And we see all the time people talking to their friends and they'll just say,

you know, you're a good person.

You're better than most people around. And since you're a good person and you're

really sincere, things will be okay.

I've done a lot of funerals over the years, and someone will pass away,

and a loved one will say, well, he wasn't a religious person,

didn't really know Jesus, didn't know God, but he went to church every once

in a while, or he went to mass, and he was sincere.

And basically, all religions are the same anyway. As long as you're sincere,

it doesn't matter because all roads ultimately lead to God.

Is that what the Bible teaches, that all roads lead to heaven regardless of what you call God?

Imagine two people trying to get to the exact same destination.

Maybe it's a hospital or somewhere important where a loved one is waiting for them.

And the first person pulls up their phone and they get a GPS and they get the

exact coordinates and they follow it and they walk and they turn left,

turn right, and they follow it to that destination.

The second person, they don't use a map. Instead, they grab an old map that

is years and years old before a lot of the new roads had been built.

And he says, I sincerely believe that this roadmap will get me there. He's confident.

He's passionate about it. He's 100% sincere that he's going to get to the right destination.

But here's the question. What happens if they're wrong?

They can be completely sincere and still end up completely lost.

And meanwhile, the first person who followed the right directions arrives at the right destination.

And here's the truth this morning, is that sincerity doesn't determine your destination.

Truth does.

Sincerity doesn't determine your destination.

Truth does. You can believe something with all of your heart,

but if what you believe isn't truth, then it won't take you where you want to go.

It doesn't matter as long as you're sincere.

It's not biblical, but that's how truth works in every area of our lives.

You can sincerely believe in a wrong prescription, but it's not going to heal you.

You can sincerely believe that this bridge that says it's broken will hold you,

and you might drive over it, but it won't hold you.

You can sincerely follow the wrong map, and it won't get you there.

And you can sincerely believe the wrong things about religion or about God and

how to get to heaven and still be wrong.

Why? Because sincerity without truth will always fail you.

And what's interesting in our culture

today is that, have you noticed that spirituality is not controversial?

Like you can turn on the view or you can turn on another show or you can,

you can even watch the, the Grammys or whatever awards and who's, you know,

they're going to come out and they're going to be like, oh, thank you.

I like to thank my Lord Jesus Christ.

They don't even know him. I like to thank God.

You can watch somebody on a daytime talk show and they can talk about spiritual things.

They can talk about higher powers. And there's no controversy at all in our culture.

Nobody gets up in arms until someone brings up the name of Jesus.

You can talk about God. You can talk about higher powers. You can talk about spirituality.

But the moment you talk about Jesus, that's when things start to get interesting, don't they?

And I don't think that it's the teachings of Jesus, because pretty much even

those people that are against Christianity, they don't deny the fact that Jesus really lived.

They might disagree with who he was. He was just a good teacher.

But most of the time, they'll even affirm what he taught.

They'll say, yes, we should take care of the poor. We should feed the hungry.

We should give drink to the thirsty.

We should clothe the children. We should take care of the widows.

We should forgive. We should do unto others.

We should serve one another.

So it's not the teachings necessarily of Jesus or even his existence.

So why does everybody get so upset?

And the answer falls basically in the exclusion claim of Jesus Christ.

It's the exclusive claim of Jesus that gets everybody rattled up and bent out of shape.

In fact, it's in John 14, 6. Jesus is talking to the disciples.

He's saying, I'm going away.

He's already been crucified. He's been resurrected.

Hundreds of people have seen him, have testified that he is alive.

And he says, I'm going away to my father, but hey, I'm going to come back and I'll return to you.

And I will take you home so that you can be with me forever.

And Thomas, he was a little slow. I think I relate to Thomas a little bit. He was the doubter.

He didn't understand what Jesus was talking about, where Jesus was going.

And he asked Jesus, how do we know where you're going?

Where is this place that you say you're going to?

And Jesus answered him and said this, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father, and here's the exclusivity of the gospel, except through me.

He just dropped a truth bomb, baby. It doesn't matter what you believe.

This is the only way to get to heaven. This is the only way to God, Jesus says.

And that's where we find a problem.

And this is what sets Jesus apart from all other world religions.

It's the exclusivity that he claims, that he's the only way to the Father.

One of Satan's greatest and most effective tools is imitating God.

And because of that, we have to acknowledge that no matter what religion someone

believes, you're going to find some small elements of truth.

There's going to be elements of truth disguised with false theology.

There's going to be beauty in some of the world religions, but they're not the same.

Let me give you just a real brief overview.

I want to give you some high points of a few of the major world beliefs.

The first one is Buddhism.

Buddhism. At first glance, Christianity and Buddhism have some similarities.

They both address brokenness of the human condition.

And they offer a path forward. But at their core, they're fundamentally different.

Buddhism teaches that the problem is suffering caused by desire,

and the solution is to eliminate that desire through personal effort and discipline

and practices in order to reach nirvana.

Christianity, however, teaches that the problem of sin separates us from a holy

God, right? And that our solution is not more self-effort, but the solution is a Savior.

That it's grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

One says, fix yourself by letting go.

While the other says, you can't fix it yourself. And that's why Jesus came.

Jesus is the way. Simple. Jesus is the way. What about Hinduism?

Hinduism is a belief system that teaches there are many paths to the divine rather than just one.

There's no single founder. There's actually many, many, many gods.

And the problem of humanity is not our sin that separates us from God.

It's our karma and our cycle of rebirth.

We just go through life and there's good karma and bad karma and then we die.

And then we fail. So we're born again, not born again.

We're born for a second time into this earth reincarnation.

And we have this continual cycle and you may have lived life a hundred times

already and you're still trying to get to the truth, this freedom from the cycle.

They seek liberation or moksha through rituals and devotion.

And instead of Jesus Christ being the path, it's various yogas and spiritual practices.

When it comes down to grace and works, liberation is through one's own effort.

And there's many paths to divine. What about Islam?

We know Islam was founded by Muhammad.

Muslims worship one God whom they call Allah.

He's considered a personal God. There's a lot of similarities between Islam

and Christianity. There are no secondary gods, and there is a total ban on idols,

unlike other religions.

And your standing with Allah depends on your religious devotion and your works.

Muslims believe that God sent many prophets to guide humanity.

Those would include Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus.

Just a man, just a good prophet.

And Muhammad, the greatest prophet and final prophet.

Islam denies that Jesus is God's son, denies that he is God,

denies anyone can worship him.

And the worship of Jesus is actually blasphemy.

Islam denies the gospel, denies the crucifixion, denies the resurrection,

denies salvation is based on Jesus Christ.

Instead, it's based on faith plus works plus Allah's mercy.

And they live according to something called the five pillars of Islam.

These are the core practices in order to get to their final destination.

They have to have shahada, which is their faith. That says, there is no God

but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.

Total denial of the one true God and Jesus Christ.

Then they have number two is the Salah, their prayer. They pray five times a day facing Mecca.

Number three is Zakat, which is charity. A beautiful thing, right? A good and noble thing.

We can look at them and say, wow, man, that's great.

They give a portion of their wealth to the poor.

They even practice fasting or psalm. During the month of Ramadan, they regularly fast.

And number five, their pilgrimage or hajj, they journey to Mecca at least one

time in their life if they're able to.

And then maybe if they keep all of these things.

Maybe they've gained the mercy of Allah, and Allah will allow them to come into paradise.

Even in Islam, there are very good, moral, sincere people, but their sincerity is wrongly placed.

What about New Ageism? New Ageism is pretty popular in a lot of parts of the world.

New Agers have no personal God. God is not a personal being,

but it's an impersonal force. or energy.

New Ageism teaches that everything, people, nature, the universe, we're all part of God.

We're divine in ourselves.

Everything is God. In fact, humans are not sinners in need of salvation.

Instead, what we need is for our divine beings to be awakened to the reality

of who we are, that we are gods.

And the goal of New Ageism is not forgiveness.

It's self-realization of our own divinity so that we can become one with the universe.

And they would say that the problem is not ignorance or sin.

It's the fact that they need to come to have a higher consciousness and they

need to come to a point in their life where they have a spiritual awakening.

And in order to attain these things, they practice meditation and yoga,

channeling spirits, energy healing, a lot of things that are outside of God's

will for his kids and are actually demonic.

With all these religions, we have to acknowledge that although there may be

small bits of truth within them, they are not the same.

And so when someone comes up to you and says, it doesn't matter what you believe,

as long as you're sincere, you've got to say, stop.

That's not what scripture says. That's not what God said.

God never said that. And it's simply not true.

Let's be honest. This is where things start to get uncomfortable, right?

Because when Jesus says, I'm the way, I'm the truth, and I'm the way to God,

I'm the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me,

that immediately raises questions in our culture.

And they're not small questions. They're big questions. They're emotional responses.

They're real questions.

See, like I mentioned early, most people don't reject Jesus because they've

studied deep theology or they've even read the Bible.

They reject him because how they feel about what he claims.

And this morning, I want to walk through four of the biggest objections people

have against the exclusivity.

It's very hard to say too.

The exclusivity of Christ.

Number one, the sincerity objection. In other words, what about sincere people in other religions?

And this is probably the most heartfelt objection. People will say,

are you telling me that someone who sincerely believes something else,

someone who's trying their best to get to God, could still be wrong?

And the assumption underneath what they're really saying is the question,

if you're sincere, then you must be right.

That's what the assumption is. If they're sincere, they must be right.

But we know that's not true in everyday life.

And this objection centers on the perceived injustice of excluding those who

are sincere from other faiths.

And it assumes that genuine sincerity guarantees correctness,

that people cannot be authentically wrong while earnestly pursuing God.

Besides, aren't they trying to get into heaven too?

Yet sincerity and error coexist in the human experience.

Let me give you an example of that. Imagine you're at the airport.

You walk up to the gate, and I'm sure no one's ever done this before.

You walk up to the gate. You're confident.

You're relaxed. You've got your tickets. You've already checked your bags.

You're not stressed because you're completely sincere about where you're going.

You boarded the plane. You found your seat. You haven't told the person next to you.

I'm so excited to get to Florida.

There's just one problem. The

plane that you got on isn't headed to Florida. It's headed to New York.

You got on the wrong plane. Anyone ever did that? Just so we can laugh at you

or make fun of you. One of you looks guilty.

Now, let me ask you, does the sincerity that you planned on getting on the right

plane get you to the right destination?

Does your confidence change where the plane is headed?

Does believing you're going to Florida actually get you to Florida,

even though you got on the wrong plane?

So does sincerity determine your destination? No, truth does.

Truth determines the destination. And you can be completely sincere in what

you believe about God and still be headed in the wrong direction if what you

believe is not in fact true.

Number two, the second objection is the relativism objection.

This says, isn't religion just a personal preference?

Relativism is everywhere today, and it's one of the most common ways that people think about life.

You'll hear, whatever works for you, or that's just your truth.

All paths lead to God. You have your truth, I have mine.

And on the surface, it sounds humble, and it sounds very tolerant,

and it sounds kind, and it sounds loving. But if you really think about it,

all other religions attempt to redefine what truth is.

At the core of relativism is the objection that belief equals fact.

Truth is something I create, not something I learn or discover.

But truth is not something we can create. It doesn't work that way in real life.

You can't say, for me, gravity doesn't exist.

And so I'm going to jump off this building. I'll be fine.

For me, red lights mean go. I know some of you are like, well,

red lights means go faster so you can try to get through it faster.

Or for me, two plus two equals five.

Because those things are true whether you believe them or not,

right? And so when it comes to Christianity, Christianity doesn't say,

here's one option among many.

Christianity says, this is what's actually true about reality.

God really does exist. Sin really does separate me from God.

Jesus did really die for my sin.

Jesus did really pay my penalty.

Jesus really did rise again from the dead.

Jesus really did ascend back into heaven, and he's coming back soon again.

Guys, these aren't just preferences of Christianity.

This is the reality. This is the truth.

It's the truth about what actually happened. It's like medicine.

We don't walk into a doctor's office and say, I'd like to choose the treatment

that just will make me, you know, whatever I want.

I just want something that's going to make me feel happy or no,

we don't walk in, you know, picking a medicine on what feels right.

You want what is actually going to heal you.

And here's the heart behind it is this isn't about winning an argument or a

battle with the other side. It's about getting to the truth.

And getting to the truth with someone about salvation is the most loving thing

you can do. Now, we do that with grace and mercy.

Truth isn't determined by what feels right to you.

It's discovered in what is actually real. You with me?

Truth is not determined by what feels right.

The third one quickly, man, time flies. The narrowness objective.

People will say, isn't it too narrow-minded to say that Jesus is the only way?

This is one that our culture really struggles with.

People hear only way and immediately think that sounds arrogant,

that sounds bigoted, that sounds exclusive, that sounds wrong.

But here's what we need to understand about truth. Truth at its very nature is exclusive.

If something is true, it automatically rules out everything else that contradicts it, right?

So if two plus two equals four, is it hateful for me to say, no, it's five?

Or if someone says it's five, is it hateful for me to say, no, it's really four?

No, the truth is the most loving thing I can do.

A door is either opened or it's closed. A statement is either true or it's false.

Exclusivity doesn't make something false. It actually marks the truth.

And so the real question isn't, is Christianity too narrow? The real question is, is it true?

And we're going to get to that in a moment. The fourth objection is referred

to as the demographic objection.

That says, what about all the people in other religions? If Jesus alone saves,

then billions and billions and billions of people throughout history are all in hell.

And they face damnation. And that hits deep, doesn't it?

Because now it's just not philosophical. It's personal.

It's our friends. It's our family members that didn't know Christ.

It's our neighbors who don't know Christ.

It's all the Muslims. It's all the Buddhists. It's all the Hindus.

It's the billions and billions of people.

Surely they can't all be wrong and we're the only ones that are right.

And the undergoing assumption with that is that the majority must be right.

But history tells us something different, that we have to understand that culture

does not determine truth.

Culture does not define what is right and wrong. God does. And he's given it to us in the word.

We also have to understand that popularity doesn't equal accuracy.

The most popular answer does not automatically mean that it is the truth.

Popularity doesn't equal accuracy. And the Bible actually explains why this happens in culture.

You see, we're not naturally bent towards God.

In fact, we have a natural bent away from him, Scripture says.

Jeremiah 17.9 says, The heart is more deceitful than anything else and incurable.

That's, Jeff, naturally in my sin.

My heart is more deceitful than anything and incurable. Who can understand it?

In other words, left to ourselves, we don't drift towards truth.

We drift towards what we want to believe, which is why it's so important that

we understand what the truth really is.

And that truth is that there's only one way to the Father and that is through Jesus, his son.

Yes, Jesus made the explicit claims to be the sole access to God.

We've already read that in John 14, 16 where Jesus said he's the way and he's

the truth and he's the life.

As we wrap up this morning, I want you to see the truth of this statement that

Jesus made found in Scripture.

Jesus repeatedly teaches us the same truth in different language and different images.

In Matthew 7, he's the narrow gate.

Or the narrow path. He said, enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is

wide and the road broad that leads to where? To destruction.

And there are many who go through it. Oh, but how narrow is the gate?

How difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

Few find it. There are not many paths. There is one narrow.

John 10.9, I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved.

By me, Jesus said. One entrance, not multiple options. The only way to the Father

is through Jesus Christ.

John 8.19, then they asked him, where is your Father?

Jesus said, you know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me,

you would also know my Father.

Why did he say that? Because knowing God is only through knowing Jesus.

There's an exclusive relationship with the Father, and there is no other way

to the Father except through the Son.

Matthew 11, 27, no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the

son desires to reveal him.

You see, access to God is through Christ revelation and through the spirit of

God as the Holy Spirit draws people unto himself.

He also said he's the cornerstone. I'm not going to take the time to read Matthew

21, 42 to 44, but Jesus presents himself as the stone that everything stands or falls upon.

Over and over again, we see that belief in Jesus alone determines life or death.

John 3, 36, the one who believes in the son has eternal life,

but the one who rejects the son will not see life.

So what about those billions of people that reject the son. What does scripture teach?

Scripture teaches they will not see life.

Is that sad?

Absolutely. Is God heartbroken over this?

Absolutely. Did he do something about it? Absolutely. Has he commissioned people to go tell others?

Absolutely. Why are their spaces in this auditorium this morning,

we've got to bring them in that his house may be full because people matter.

And Jesus is the only way and their eternal destiny hinges on Jesus alone.

I want to close with this final verse in Acts 4.12.

This is what it says. There is salvation in no one else.

No other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.

Don't miss this. Jesus is not a way.

Jesus is not one option among many. Jesus is the way.

And I know that's hard for people.

It's a hard and it's a difficult truth to swallow because we live in a world

that says all paths lead to God. Just be sincere.

Believe whatever works for you. But Jesus lovingly says, there's a way.

I am that way. And then he did something about it because he laid down his own

life for you and for me so that we could be saved.

Imagine you're inside a building late at night. Everything seems normal until

suddenly you smell the smell of smoke.

Within moments, the alarms, they start going off, and you open the door,

and the hallway's filled with flames and smoke, and there's panic setting in.

You run to a window, but it won't open. You try another door, and it's blocked.

And there's another hallway completely engulfed. And then through the smoke,

you hear a voice, and it's a firefighter. and he's outside yelling, there's one way out.

There's one way out. Come to me. Follow my voice. This is the path. Walk this way.

Is he being narrow-minded?

Is he being intolerant? Is he being unloving because.

He's being loving enough to tell you the truth. Because in that moment,

it doesn't matter what you prefer.

Preference and sincerity is not gonna save your life.

There's one way. He doesn't say, pick your path. He doesn't say,

follow your heart. Follow your instincts.

All roads lead to God. He says, I am the way.

And he doesn't say it to live.

Building, maybe you're still in that building. Not physically, but spiritually.

Because the Bible says sin separates us from God and left to ourselves.

We're not moving toward life. We're actually moving away from it.

But the good news is that God didn't leave you in your sin.

He didn't watch from a distance. He didn't shout instructions.

He came for you.

He stepped into the fire. He took the weight of your sin on the cross and he

made a way where there was no way and now he stands here just like he did at

the cross and he says this is the way come follow me i'm the way,

i'm the truth i'm life it's not an.

Your Savior, as your Lord?

Not your parents' faith, not attendance at a church, not trying to be a good

person. Have you placed your life,

believe you are the son of God. I believe you died for my sin.

I believe you rose again. And today I'm choosing.

I choose your way. I run from my own way and I trust in you.

Now is my friends are here. I know a lot of them have chosen to seek you.

They've walked through that door.

But if there's one person in here that hasn't said, I surrender everything, I choose to rest in you.

I don't have to continue trying or working off salvation, but I want to receive that gift.

God, I pray that they would call out to you right now and.

Our sins are forgiven, we have joy. We have peace.

We have an excitement because when our sins are forgiven, we can't help but tell others.

We can't help but invite them.