Do you believe in fables? We smile at our children when they believe
the fables that they are told, because we know they will soon know better. Yet,
many adults who should know better believe religious fables that are contrary
to all reason and contrary to Holy Scripture. The Apostle Paul plainly warned
us that this would happen. He said, "The time will come when they will
not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears
from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables"(2 Tim. 4:3-4). I am
afraid that day has come. There are many preachers and teachers of religion who
have turned the truth of God into a lie and caused people to turn away from the
truth to fables. A fable is a story that is not true. It is a myth. It is a
falsehood. Here are three popular religious fables. You have heard them so
often, for so long, from so many people that you may have begun to think they
are true. But they are not true. They are only popular fables.
The first fable that is of great popularity today is
this -- "GOD LOVES EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD." The Bible
certainly does not teach that. The Lord himself says, "Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have hated." You have read the Scripture, "God
is angry with the wicked everyday." God's Word is very plain. He says,
"I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." This
idea that God loves everybody in the world is without foundation in the Word of
God. It makes the love of God nothing more than a helpless, sentimental
passion. Does God love the multitudes of the damned in hell, upon whom he pours
out his vengeance and wrath forevermore? Did God love those millions whom he
drowned in the flood? Did God love the people of Sodom and Gomarrah, whom he
destroyed with fire and brimstone. Certainly not. What cruel love could that
be? There are some people in this world, of every nation, kindred, tribe, and
tongue, whom God loves with an everlasting love; but he does not love everyone.
God loves his own elect, those who were chosen as the objects of his grace
before the world began. God loves all those who were redeemed by his Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, at Calvary. God loves every sinner whom he has purposed to save.
God loves every sinner who believes on Christ. But he does not love those who
perish in their obstinate rebellion and unbelief. He never did and he never
will.
Another popular fable is that "CHIST DIED
FOR EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD" He did not. You will not find that fable
in the Word of God either. The Bible never uses language like that. Our Lord
said, "I lay down my life for the sheep." Paul tells us,
"Christ loved the church and gave himself for it." To say that
Christ died for everybody in the world, even for those who perish in their sins
and go to hell, is to say that Christ died in vain, that he shed his blood for
nothing!. We cannot accept such a foolish notion. If Christ died for those who
perish in hell, how could he ever "see of the travail of his soul and
be satisfied"? No, Christ did not die for everybody. He died for his
own elect. He died only for those who are actually redeemed, saved, and brought
to heaven by his grace. The Lord Jesus Christ died for every sinner who
believes on him; but he did not die for any who refuse to believe and perish
forever in hell.
Here is a third fable that is very popular among
religious people -- "GOD IS TRYING TO SAVE EVERYBODY". You
know that cannot be true. If God Almighty were trying to save everybody, everybody
would be saved. If God were to try to do something that he could not do, he
would not be God. Where in the Bible do you read that God tried to do anything?
Our God does not try to save. He saves. He saves all those whom he intends to
save. He saves his own elect, whom he loved from eternity and redeemed at
Calvary. He saves all who come to him by faith in Christ; and even the faith by
which we come to him is the gift of his saving grace. Let us not be turned away
from the truth of sound gospel doctrine by these popular religious fables.
Those who are men and women in faith must not and will not accept these foolish
fables.
Amen.