THREE POPULAR RELIGIOUS FABLES

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.