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Last Sunday morning I preached a sermon called Hinduism in Light of the Bible and this Sunday morning I'm going to cover another major false religion of the world and that is the religion of Buddhism. Now just a quick review of what I said last Sunday morning about which religions are the most popular in this world or which religions have the most followers. First of all number one would be Christianity with about 2.3 billion followers and of course that's counting all branches of Christianity not just truly saved Bible believing Christians. Secondly would be Muslims at 1.6 billion and then atheism has about 1 billion followers that would be number three. Number four would be Hinduism what we talked about last week 1 billion followers and then Buddhism has about 500 million followers the vast majority of which are of course in East Asia but it's becoming more and more prevalent here in our Western world as well. Now the first thing I want to point out about Buddhism is that number one it is a non-theistic religion meaning they do not believe in a creator God and that's why we turn to Romans 1 to start with here because I feel that this passage describes Buddhism very well. It says in verse number 18 for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has showed it unto them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened professing themselves to be wise they became fools and the Bible often uses the word fool or foolish about the person who does not believe that there is a creator God. Now one of the most famous verse in the Bible Psalm 14 one says the fool hath said in his heart there is no God but most people don't usually quote the entire verse there this is the whole verse it says the fool had said in his heart there is no God they are corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doeth good that's the full verse and that ties in perfectly with what we see in Romans chapter one how the belief that there is no God the denial of our creator leads to corruption and abominable works and all manner of wickedness as we see in Romans chapter one but notice picking up there in verse 20 two of Romans one it says professing themselves to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever amen so what do we see here a denial of the creator the fool saying in his heart that there is no God this is what the 500 million followers of Buddhism represent now not only that but it talks about the fact that they then would make an image of man as a replacement for God or even an image of animals and four-footed beasts and creeping things this is what we would know as idolatry go back to Exodus chapter number 20 Exodus chapter 20 see idolatry is a major feature of Buddhism they don't just deny that God exists and deny the creator but they also have a lot of idolatry in their religion the most famous idolatry associated with Buddhism would be the image of Buddha himself and you often see those statues that are usually made out of metal a molten image where you have Buddha sitting cross-legged lotus style and he's got a big smile on his face or a very stoic look on his face or what all the different styles of Buddha's that you see often you'll see Asian people that will wear a jade Buddha around their neck at the end of a necklace as well so this is a huge feature of Buddhism you go to restaurants that are owned by those who are Buddhist you go into the homes of Buddhist people you'll see all manner of idolatry molten images graven images this is a big part of the religion how does God feel about idolatry look what the Bible says in Exodus chapter 20 verse 4 this is one of the Ten Commandments the second commandment thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me now is it interesting that those who make graven images and molten images are associated with those who hate God why because of the fact that people don't want to acknowledge God they don't want to believe in the true God of the Bible so they form and fashion their own God and that's why those two things are associated there in Exodus chapter 20 you don't have to turn there but in Isaiah chapter 30 if you would you turn to 1 Corinthians 10 you go to 1 Corinthians 10 in Isaiah 30 verse 22 God uses very strong language in his condemnation of idolatry graven images molten images listen to how God speaks about idolatry he says in Isaiah 30 verse 20 ye shall defile also the coverings of the graven images of silver and the ornament of thy molten images of gold thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth thou shalt say unto it get thee hence I mean that's pretty strong language condemning idolatry in the book of Isaiah says in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 14 in the New Testament wherefore my dearly beloved flee from idolatry jump down to verse 19 what say I then that the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to devils and not to God and I would not that you should have fellowship with devils you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils you cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils so even though Buddhism denies the first point is that they deny the existence of the creator all types of Buddhist all denominations of Buddhism deny a creator God non theistic religion but although they do deny the creator they do believe in various deities or are basically demons that they that they will worship and things like that although they don't believe that any of them is really God or the creator and so they worship these devil that's what the Bible says about idolatry in 1 Corinthians 10 that idolatry is the worship of devils it is the worship of demons now secondly about Buddhism besides the fact that they deny the existence of the creator and by the way that's why Buddhism is becoming so popular in the United States today that's why amongst a lot of those who live an ungodly and wicked life Buddhism is appealing them they don't want anything to do with the God of the Bible and as our country becomes more and more atheistic and as children are being brought up in school with atheism and agnosticism well Buddhism is a perfect fit hey you can be spiritual but without God without believing in God without acknowledging the God of the Bible or really without believing in any God no creator this is why Buddhism is on the rise in the West in the last century and especially in the last few years but secondly this about Buddhism the goal of Buddhism is to achieve what's called nirvana which literally means extinguishment that's what it means the original language the word nirvana now basically the goal of Buddhism you're not even gonna believe this the goal of Buddhism is to die and never come back just to be dead just to be gone that's the goal now a lot of people misunderstand they think oh nirvana that's heaven or that's that's this wonderful place or a wonderful state that you get to it it's so great no no it's just to die and never come back that's the goal now I'm not going to re-preach my sermon from last Sunday morning where I covered Hinduism but I want you to understand that Buddhism comes out of Hinduism okay Hinduism goes back a lot further Hinduism goes back to at least 1000 or 2000 BC whereas Buddhism came around in a you know around 500 BC nobody knows the exact date and it started in India so it takes a lot of the same things from Hinduism and carries them forward into Buddhism so they also believe in the concepts that we talked about last Sunday morning with karma and with the reincarnation and the constant cycle of being born and dying and coming back and so forth all that stuff that we talked about and that's why I preached the Hinduism sermon first because that's the basis of Buddhism that's where this comes from so you have to understand that the goal of nirvana and if you would turn to Proverbs chapter 8 Proverbs chapter number 8 the goal of nirvana is to basically die and never come back the goal is to escape the cycle of keep on coming back now I don't know about you but that's not really aiming very high the goal is just to die it's just to be gone and you say well why in the world would somebody have that as their goal just to die and be gone and cease to exist well because Buddhism teaches that all of life is suffering all of human life is suffering everything about our law everything that we do everything that we experience is all suffering and so the best thing that we could do is just be gone just to die and never come back and that's what nirvana is now inevitably when I preach about this let me just stop and say this before I get any further inevitably when I preach about things like this here's what people say you just don't understand Buddhism you just don't understand Hinduism no I understand it and I reject it okay but here's what whenever you preach against false teaching and exposed lies people will just try to say oh you just don't understand no I understand it and I reject it as false as being contrary to the Bible as being contrary to everything that is righteous in this world I reject it people will say the same thing when you talk about the big bang and evolution and you talk about how ridiculous and foolish they are and how contrary to science they are oh you just don't understand the big bang no I understand it and I reject it here's the thing I don't go around claiming that everybody who rejects Christianity doesn't understand it I believe that there are many people in this world who understand the gospel perfectly well and choose to reject it but it seems that people who want to prop up these false religions of you know atheism and the big bang or whether it be Hinduism or Buddhism just like oh you just don't understand no I do understand it this is what Buddhism teaches they teach that the goal is to never come back to stop this endless cycle of reincarnation which by the way doesn't even exist and they believe that Buddha today has ceased to exist I mean that the person Buddha who started this religion you know he's gone he died and he said I'm never going to be born again by the way that's kind of a bad thing to say you know when the Bible says you have to be born again he said I will never that's the first thing according to Buddhism according to the legend the first words out of his mouth as a child were that he is the greatest person in the world and that he will never be born again now that's a wonderful thing to say you know I'd prefer mama or dada out of my kid's mouth as the first words but according to legend that's supposedly the first thing that he ever said so this is what they teach everything is suffering and so the way to end suffering is to enter this state of nirvana now they can enter nirvana in their lifetime as Buddha supposedly did where he just didn't suffer anymore but then he didn't reach the full nirvana till he died and never came back you know that was the ultimate goal now what does the Bible say about that well you're in Proverbs eight but let me read for you from job three this verse is that the first thing that popped into my mind when I heard this job 320 wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life unto the bitter in soul which long for death are you listening which long for death and it cometh not and dig for it more than for hid treasures which rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave that I mean that's Buddhism right there in the Bible but anyway look at Proverbs chapter 8 verse 32 now therefore hearken unto me O ye children for blessed are they that keep my ways hear instruction and be wise and refuse it not blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gates waiting at the posts of my doors for whoso findeth me findeth life and shall obtain favor of the Lord but he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul all they that hate me love death that's the goal now what is the Bible on the other hand teach as the goal what is our goal of you know what do we what do we receive when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and people say oh you know heaven nirvana whatever you know there's even a place called help me out juja T Vana is that what it's called there's a there's a tea shop a place where you go to drink tea and it's called tea Vana you know I guess you just go in there and die and it's just and you never come back you know you go in there and all desire for tea is extinguished you know I I don't know how they make any money because you walk in there and you go to buy the tea and then you know your desire is completely extinguished as you reach that nirvana and then you just die and you never come back but anyway you know people have a mistaken concept of what this nirvana is it's death it's death worship you don't understand I do understand it and I reject it as false and satanic and I'm going to expose more of it as we get into the sermon and we're going to get to the band nirvana just sit tight but anyway you know what does the Bible teach on the other hand the Bible teaches in Psalm 16 11 thou wilt show me the path of life in thy presence is fullness of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore that's what the Bible teaches Hebrews 12 to looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God first Corinthians 2 9 says but as it is written I have not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them that love him thank God for heaven thank God for all the blessings that we will enjoy as Christians thank God that we don't live a life where we just say you know it's just all suffering and the goal is just to never come back just to be dead that's what we seek it what a what a bizarre religion when you think of it in that way and that's really what it's teaching you know basically you know you've heard the saying life sucks and then you die this is like life sucks and if you're lucky you die like that's the goal is to die I mean it's bizarre and wicked but you know on to the band nirvana now like I said the word nirvana in the original language literally means extinguish meant and what they mean by that is that you know all desire is extinguished basically you don't care about anything because they claim that the reason why you keep getting reincarnated and coming back is because you you want to come back you know you have all this desire that's unfulfilled so you got to get to where you just don't care and then you won't come back anymore once you realize that nothing matters and that yourself doesn't really even quite exist and blah blah blah then you won't come back so it means extinguishment now is it interesting and who knows who the band nirvana is let me just say this when I was a teenager at victory christian school every single kid listened to nirvana this was one that was just universal if you ask for the top three bands out of virtually any student when I was a teenager nirvana was in the top three is usually number one I mean this was the most popular band who's about my age who's I'm 33 years old who's am I telling the truth about when you're a teenager I mean this band was huge okay when in that era in the 90s well it's amazing how in his suicide note okay and we're gonna talk about suicide in regard to Buddhism in his suicide note he put this quote it's better to burn out than to fade away now a lot of people would look at that and say oh he's just talking about as a musician you know he didn't want to just you know he wanted to end his life while he's at the pinnacle he doesn't want to fade away and become this burned out old rock star or whatever he said it's better to burn out than to fade away no this is actually the teaching of Buddhism okay to burn out extinguishment you see his suicide note there's an image of it online you know what it says at the top who the suicide note's made out to to bodah b-o-d-d-a-h and this was his imaginary friend buddha sounds like buddha okay he's talking to this demon named bodha he's naming his band nirvana and he writes a suicide note that says better to burn out which would be extinguishment than to fade away at his funeral a buddhist monk chanted this was a buddhist funeral for kurt cobain and his daughter francis bean scattered cobain's ashes uh into mclean creek in olympia washington he maintained a constant interest in buddhist philosophy the band name nirvana was taken from a buddhist concept which cobain described as freedom from pain suffering and the external world a concept that he aligned with the punk rock ethos and ideology cobain would regard himself as a buddhist during different points in his life so when you're you know gonna go out and say oh i'm gonna listen to nirvana you're listening to some satanic music by a guy who committed suicide and who followed the wicked teachings of buddhism now what is the relationship between buddhism and suicide well let me give you a quote from a very popular buddhist this is a vietnamese buddhist he's very famous his name and i'm sure i'm gonna pronounce this wrong because i don't know vietnamese thich nhat han is the best i can do with it so this guy thich nhat han he's 88 years old vegan buddy of martin luther king jr author of a hundred books etcetera turn to matthew 17 while i read you this quote here's the quote from one of the great most popular buddhist teachers of our day this vietnamese buddhist author of a hundred books famous popular well-known buddhists and he's referring to all these vietnamese buddhists who were committing suicide by throwing themselves into the fire okay let me read for you his quote to express will by burning oneself therefore is not to commit an act of destruction but to perform an act of construction it's very constructive to throw yourself in the fire according to this wonderful wise buddhist you just don't understand buddhism pastor anderson you ignorant uneducated fool that thich nhat han is so much smarter than you'll ever be see it's very constructive to throw yourself in the fire let's finish this quote here this is to die to suffer and to die for the sake of one's people no somebody already did that his name's jesus you don't need to throw yourself in the fire that's not going to help your people at all and why don't you throw yourself in the fire buddy you're 88 years old eating a bunch of vegan food you haven't thrown yourself in the fire yet but you like it when other people do it here's what he said this is not suicide suicide is an act of self-destruction this self-destruction is considered by buddhism as one of the most serious crimes the monk who burns himself has lost neither courage nor hope nor does he desire non-existence the monk believes he's practicing the doctrine of highest compassion by sacrificing himself in order to call attention of and to seek help from the people of the world so this is actually a wonderful it's not suicide you just don't understand buddhism lighting yourself on fire is constructive it takes great courage okay look what the bible says in matthew 17 14 and when they were come to the multitude there came to him a certain man kneeling down to him and saying lord have mercy on my son for he's a lunatic and sore vexed for oft times he falleth into the fire and oft into the water and i brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him then jesus answered and said oh faithless and perverse generation how long shall i be with you how long shall i suffer you bring him hither to me and jesus rebuked the what the devil and he rebuked and he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour you see the bible associates throwing yourself in the fire with being demon possessed that's what we see here and so that ties in perfectly with everything else we've seen now these eastern religions of hinduism janeism buddhism they're all technically against suicide but they make exceptions like for example if you're these vietnamese buddhas throwing yourself in the fire that's fine that's great actually but they also they they all make an exception for starving yourself to death like that's okay and i'm going to explain to you a little bit later why it's okay according to them to just sit there not eat and starve yourself that's fine that's not suicide i mean that's constructive once again but not only that the buddhists today literally because right now on this point because remember point number one was the fact they deny the creator they deny god and as a result they have abundance of idolatry point number two is that nirvana is the goal of basically dying and never coming back it's it's a death worship it's a love and pursuit of death and they can call it whatever they want that's what i'm calling it that is what it really comes down to but in regard to that the buddhists literally worship buddha's dead corpse literally you see when buddha died or as they would say he reached pare nirvana complete nirvana when buddha died they actually cremated his body and they made sure to divide it up in as many small pieces because they wanted to put it in all these different shrines where his dead corpse could be worshipped in as many places and by as many people as possible so that they could literally bow down and worship the dead corpse of buddha thank god for the resurrection of the lord jesus christ i serve a risen savior he's in the world today i know that he is living whatever man may say he lives he lives christ jesus lives today he walks with me and talks with me a long life snare away he lives he lives salvation to impart you ask me how i know sing it he lives he lives within my heart okay or you could worship the dead corpse of buddha and you know what just go to sedona because there's a place in sedona where they have one now i don't know if you can worship literally the dead corpse of buddha in sedona but it will be the dead corpse of some buddhist saint some famous buddhist monk because they have these things all over the world that are called stupas okay you can't make this stuff up it's called that's stupid but anyway uh these things called stupas and the the closest one that i could find and no i didn't go there no i'm not gonna go there but there is a stupa in sedona and it's funny somebody online here here's what somebody wrote online about this stupa i believe that it should be a requirement that if you come to sedona arizona you have to visit the amitaba stupa before leaving no matter what your faith religion or beliefs in a higher power may or may not be this is a place to reconnect with yourself and others and it is a sight to be seen and felt this stupa in sedona this is what a stupa is a mound like or hemispherical structure containing buddhist relics typically the ashes of dead buddhist monks and it's used by buddhist as a place of meditation so if you're lucky you can go to one of these really cool stupa the stupa stupa you know over in east asia you know i'm okay i made up that term it's really not called that but i i call the stupa stupa the one where it's actually buddha's dead corpse that you're worshiping you know and then there's the the lesser you know stupa in sedona where you're just worshiping some other dead corpse of some buddhist monk of of bygone era so let's get into the practice so that was number one the denial of of the creator god number two this this seeking after nirvana okay which we we saw you know uh play out so well in the life of uh the lead singer of nirvana but let me give you some other scripture before i get into the third point let me give you some scriptures on on christ's resurrection okay the bible says if you would turn to turn to romans 8 this is such a great scripture in uh romans 8 then we're going to go to hebrew 7 after this this is what sets apart christianity from buddhism from hinduism is that we're not worshiping a dead corpse and when you look at the catholic church and the they they parade around a dead corpse and they were you know and that's what they bowed down to and where's a molten image of a dead corpse you know we serve a risen savior and so we worship the lord jesus christ he's alive he hears our prayers they they worship buddha but they don't believe buddha can hear their prayers because they they realize that buddha is done that's the goal look at romans 831 what shall we say then to these things if god be for us who can be against us he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things who shall lay anything to the charge of god's elect it is god that justifies who is he that condemneth it is christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of god who also maketh intercession for us who shall separate us from the love of christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as it is written for thy sake we're killed all the day long we're counted as sheep for the slaughter nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us for i am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord this is the truth this is the gospel of jesus christ as opposed to this false religion of buddhism where you go to sedona and bow down and worship a literal dead corpse hebrews chapter 7 verse 22 the bible says this by so much was jesus made a surety of a better testament you know i was thinking about when we were filming marching to zion and we talked to these different rabbis and we talked to rabbi man this is one of those wonderful things that ended up on the cutting room floor just because there's only so much you can pack into a movie but rabbi man thought he was so clever because he said you know what you gentiles call the old testament we call the only testament you know so i got i got one for rabbi man what you jews call the new testament we call the better testament amen that's what it says right hebrews 7 22 by so much was jesus made a surety of a better testament and they truly were many priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death but this man because he continueth forever hath an unchangeable priesthood wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come into god by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them flip back just a few pages to hebrews chapter 4 starting in verse 12 for the word of god is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens jesus the son of god let us hold fast our profession for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need that's the god of the bible that's our lord jesus christ that's what we believe in as christians so let's talk about the practice of buddhism itself you say okay well what's buddhism all about how do these people think that they're going to get to this state of nirvana that's the goal remember nirvana now in order to understand this one thing that i've heard buddha say is that we christians believe in a god who created something from nothing and that's the truth in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth and we believe that he created it from nothing by his own word by his own power that god is the creator well the concept of buddhism on the other hand is to make nothing from something isn't that great so instead of making something from nothing their goal is to make nothing from something oh so deep so wonderful now they say well you know you christians you value great creativity and you value you know going out and and creating things and making something you know starting a business or you know writing a book or uh just you know building a family whatever just going out and making something out of your life and being creative and building something and making something from nothing whereas you're you're not even gonna believe this stuff this is what buddhism teaches to cease activity is the goal of human life to cease activity is the goal of human life and human life according to buddhism okay so let's get into the the the three kind of categories of of the practice of buddhism first of all they have their moral precepts that they follow okay the rules by which they're going to live their life but they're not really rules these are just suggestions you know with god it's the ten commandments he said and then jesus said if you love me keep my commandments but with buddhism these are not imperatives they're not really rules or commandments these are just things that you can do voluntarily that are going to help you live a happier life and you know things are going to go good for you so those are the moral precepts then there's the mental concentration that they work on which we would know as meditation and then of course there's wisdom gaining wisdom which is to finally come to grips with the fact that there is no self that's their ultimate wisdom we'll get into that but let's start with these moral precepts they give the actual layman of buddhism the layman just pretty much has five moral precepts that he needs to follow you know not to be the the monk but just to be the layman these are the five you know number one is not to kill okay number two don't steal these sound kind of familiar number three refrain from sensual misconduct of course that's not defined so that's kind of i guess just open to interpretation whatever you think that means unlike god's clear commands to flee fornication thou shall not commit adultery not to look on a woman to lust after her and so on and so forth number four would be not to lie and number five would be to refrain from intoxicants which would lead to a loss of mindfulness you know specifically drugs and alcohol okay so these are their five moral precepts now it's interesting that some of them are similar to the ten commandments but what's missing well thou shalt have no other gods before me thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain remember the sabbath to keep it holy honor thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live along on the earth you know there's no shadow of the first five there they're just taking the second part about you know basically doing right by your neighbor that's pretty much the only part that they seem to retain now a major teaching of buddhism is what's called the middle way now go to revelation chapter three the middle way this is what buddha figured out on his path to enlightenment or awakening let me just while you're turning there let me just tell you who buddha was okay just so that you can understand this his real name was siddhartha gautama okay and supposedly legend has it that he was the son of a of a great king in india so he was a prince and he had all these prophecies and all these signs and wonders about his birth you know i told you about his first words okay a little bit earlier in the sermon but he had these wheels imprinted on his hands and on his feet and so forth and some hindu prophet had said that he's going to become a great religious leader or he's going to become a great warrior king one or the other obviously he took the religious path so this guy siddhartha gautama he basically decides one day that he's going to go outside the palace his parents had tried to keep him a really sheltered life they didn't want him to go the holy man route they wanted him to be a great warrior conqueror so he decides to go out of the palace and he goes out and he sees these great four sites of a sick person an elderly person a dead corpse and a wandering holy man ascetic and when he sees these four examples of human suffering he decides that he's going to renounce everything and you know seek after a spiritual goal and become a wandering ascetic holy man himself so he leaves the palace renounces everything shaves his head and and goes out wandering as a poor begging mendicant so he goes out and he does this and at first he tries this route of just extreme asceticism where he's just going to just suffer and so he got to the point where he's not even eating anything and he just keeps getting skinnier and skinnier and he's eating so little and he's starving himself and he becomes completely emaciated but he doesn't reach his goal he's not awakened he's not enlightened so a child offers him a bowl of rice pudding and he decides to take it and survive okay so he eats the rice pudding and he continues his quest for awakening or enlightenment you know finally of course to make a long story short he sits under the great fig tree and he's not going to get up until he's enlightened and he achieves this great awakening under the fig tree where he realizes that all of life is suffering and that the greatest goal is just to realize you know we can't hang on to any just let go just die just be done with it there is no self you know whatever so he's sitting under there and he has this great awakening and he's tempted he's tempted to just sit there and never get up because he's there I mean he's at nirvana might as well just starve to death under that tree just sit there with a you know just totally at peace no desire no suffering and just slip off into pare nirvana but no he must teach the people so he get you know he's like 40 years old approximately or whatever so he gets up and he goes out and he finds all these wandering messed up Hindus that are already worshiping Satan and mixed up and and punishing themselves and living this bizarre aesthetic life and he goes and he you know starts to teach them and he starts to gather he spent basically the next 40 years until he's about 80 years old gathering disciples and teaching them all this garbage that culminates in today 500 million people being deceived by Buddhism so he goes out and teaches all this and so on and so forth well one of the great things that he understood at his awakening was what they what Buddhists called the middle way and it's so amazing how this concept has just really permeated into our society today where everybody wants to be a moderate have you noticed that that is held up now as just the ideal everything is just moderate balance and these things and look of course there's a place for moderation and balance don't get me wrong obviously there's a little bit of truth in every lie but this idea of just everything that's bad is extremism have you heard this where it's just like oh you're an extremist oh you're fanatic or oh you gotta stay away from this extreme oh these extremist Christians these fanatics these zealots are you know extreme this extreme that and and and we need to be moderate and politically everybody wants to be a moderate and Christian they want to be a moderate Christian and a moderate this and that okay what does the Bible say revelation 3 15 I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot I would thou work cold or hot so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth so God is not just advocating across the board the middle way the lukewarm way the moderate way across the board okay and what they teach with the middle way is they just say well we don't want to go through a life of extreme self-indulgence or of extreme asceticism but then beyond that they say well even in our doctrine we don't want to be too extreme you know when we say that there's no self that we don't really even exist we don't want to go too extreme with that but we don't want to go to extreme affirming the self either the middle way do things exist do they not exist half so the middle it's like it's the middle way okay and you can see how this doctrine creeps into Christianity as well where people are always looking for the middle way and the middle way is also known as the Hegelian dialectic for those of you who've heard of that that's the middle way thesis antithesis synthesis okay so this middle way is this teaching of all way you know we don't want to go to these extreme but look God is a God of extremes heaven hell those are two really extreme places I mean think about and plus we don't want to half believe in Jesus well you know we don't want to affirm Jesus too much no we believe in him with all of our heart okay so when it comes to our doctrine we will go to an extreme of talking about how we believe in Christ with all of our heart and that Jesus is the way the truth and not some middle way no Jesus is the only way and these other religions are false they're not kind of false they're just false okay and when we live our lives we want to live a life that is godly and righteous we don't want to be half in half out we don't want to be like Eutychus in the book of Acts who fell out the window because he was half in and half out we want to get all the way in you know you've heard a lot of Christians described as having one foot in the world have you heard that hey he's living for God but he's got one foot in the world that's not where God wants us to be God wants us to live a life that is hot that is on fire for God and not to be lukewarm about our Christianity now of course are there certain areas of life where moderation is taught by the Bible yes but it's taught by the Bible where the Bible teaches for example give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me where the Bible talks about things of that nature but not the Buddhist philosophy of our doctrine being lukewarm of our beliefs being the middle way half in half out or you know politically the middle way or oh well how do you how do you feel about the sodomites well I'll take the middle way all right you know oh what do you think about freedom and liberty in our country oh the middle way taxation the middle way but this is what our country is like now where the middle way is exalted and anyone who takes a firm stand and gets firmly on the side of right of righteousness of goodness of godliness is considered extreme fanatic zealot right and condemned for not taking the middle way this is Buddhism this is not Christianity that teaches the middle way so when we see their moral presets we see a basically halfway moral teaching because it's not even thou shalt not steal it's not even thou shalt not kill it's like well these aren't really commands it's this middle way of well they're kind of suggestions you know they're rules but you don't have to do them and they'll frequently break these rules and so forth for example you know the monks are supposed to be celibate in Buddhism but then they're like well but you know it's more important to become a Buddha it's more important to achieve awakening than to you know follow our vows so you know once they get real high up you know then they have some illicit you know what going on and you know that's just all part of reaching nirvana folks and that's more important than our vow to celibacy this is in Tibet where that goes on this is wickedness the middle there's no you know don't take a middle approach on stealing and murder and adultery you know I'm just gonna take the middle way in regard to my vows to you I mean isn't that just ridiculous you just don't understand it yes I do I reject it and the Bible condemns it so that's their moral teaching is to follow these moral rules and look obviously some of these are great yeah don't kill don't steal don't lie you know refrain from sensual misconduct don't drink don't do drugs I mean I agree with that I'm not against that okay but just because something has one thing right doesn't mean that the whole thing is not wickedness even a broken clock is right twice per day you could look at that clock and it will tell you the exact right time twice a day but does that make it a functional right clock no it needs to be thrown in the trash it needs to be replaced with a working clock called Christianity called the Holy Bible but secondly besides their moral precepts in regard to their practice they have this practice of mental concentration the meditation that they do and where they just totally empty themselves and and go through these processes of sitting there and meditate you know what the Bible teaches about meditation because don't get the wrong idea that meditation is a bad word meditation is not a bad word in fact I preach a sermon a while back called thou shalt meditate but I wasn't talking about getting in the Lotus position and emptying yourself of everything and focusing on your breathing okay what I was actually talking about is what the Bible talks about where it says this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night then will God make thy way prosperous then shalt thou have good success this book of the law he said blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in a season his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper that's the meditation that we need have you ever heard this term an idle mind is the devil's workshop this is true of Buddhism when you make your mind idle and empty yourself you know what they're doing they're opening themselves up to demonic influence that's what they're doing because the idle mind is the devil's workshop and that's why some of them in Tibet when they go into these you know meditative states will often receive all these revelations of lost scriptures and things that demons are giving them because of this meditation no we need to meditate on the word of God not sitting around meditate on nothing not sitting around thinking about nothing we need to think about the Lord and his word and the teachings of the Bible that is the meditation of a Christian you know when Isaac was meditating in the field when he first met Rebecca what was he meditating on the word of God that's what we're supposed to meditate not just meditating oh and by the way that is the most magical word of Hinduism oh and then you're like what does it mean I don't know they don't know nobody knows but it's magical it has power I mean this is this is a fairy tale this is lies that have been concocted cunningly devised fables is what they are but then beyond the mental concentration thirdly there's the pursuit of wisdom so we have the moral precepts okay which again are more like suggestions half in half out the middle way they're not really condemning drugs and alcohol totally I mean take a middle way you know take a middle way on murder stealing adultery whatever okay secondly the mental concentration or meditation which I believe is demonic because I'm not saying it's demonic in and of itself to just sit there and breathe but but what are they opening themselves up to when they're emptying themselves and doing all this they're opening themselves you know and especially when they're sitting in front of an idol and doing it especially when they're sitting in front of a dead body and doing it and worshiping these demons but thirdly wisdom now I'm gonna close the sermon with this point because I have way too much here I'm gonna have to finish this I might finish this tonight because there's a lot of notes here but go back to Romans 1 let's let's end where we began let's go back to Romans chapter 1 where we where we started in Romans chapter 1 the Bible talked about people who reject the God of the Bible and it said in verse 21 because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened now isn't it interesting that it says they became vain and another word that's often associated with vanity is emptiness isn't it and when we think about you know Solomon saying vanity of vanity saith the preacher all is vanity nothing matters that's the teaching of Buddhism but what does Solomon realize at the end of his philosophical undertaking in Ecclesiastes he said fear God and keep his commandments this is the whole duty of man and God's gonna bring every work into judgment he said childhood and youth are vanity he taught that seeking after money and pleasure and wealth were all vanity and emptiness but wait a minute he said following the word of God is not vain is not emptiness the Bible says be therefore steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord not ceasing from human activity no always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord it's not empty it's not worthless and of no value it's not vain it's not empty it is of great price to the Lord our God so it says here that they became vain in their imaginations and think about what your imagination is what you think about sitting there just vainly boo you know you say well I still I still think it's okay for Christians to take part in this excitement you know I don't want anything to do with it any of this stuff I just I would just stay away from it well but you know there's a lot of good stuff with the yoga and the meditations you know it doesn't have to be Buddhist and whatever just stay away from it you don't need this stuff you know what there's you want to just relax and focus on your breathing or something you know why don't you pray to the Lord or read your Bible or you know if you're looking for peace and calm and tranquility you could always read your Bible you know you can go out and get some exercise go running whatever you do to calm down and unwind and relax but you know you don't need to go to these practitioners of yoga and transcendental meditation there are plenty of there are plenty of other ways to get a good stretch and by the way stretching is overrated you know many you know this is totally unrelated to sermon many coaches and and and you know scientists and athletes are starting to realize that stretching before exercise is actually harmful it's actually not preventing injury and so you know you're going to you know you're like well I'm gonna I'm gonna do the yoga even though it's you know has roots in this weird religion and even though you know sometimes my my yoga teachers saying some creepy things and so forth but here's the bottom line though it's not even as good for you as as people have been trying to make it out maybe you just weren't intended to sit in that Lotus position okay maybe that's just a weird position for a man to jam his legs into and maybe it's just not worth working toward you know and I I stopped stretching years ago okay and I run all the time and I never stretch before I run and I don't have any problems just not stretching okay and this is not a sermon against stretching but I'm just throwing that in you know you don't need to do this meditation you can meditate on the word of God you can pray you can read your Bible you can quote scripture and if you want to get a good stretch well you know what read the literature it's not what it's cracked up to be but they said their foolish heart was darkened and it says in verse 22 professing themselves to be wise they became fools first Corinthians chapter one says it this way it says for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but in us which are saved it's the power of God but then it says in verse 25 because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men the Bible says in verse 20 where is the wise where is the scribe where is the disputer of this world hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God so when the Buddhists talk about wisdom as their you know their third path here you know I'm just categorizing it into three sections just to make it easier to understand how on one hand they're following their false morality which leaves out a lot of God's commandments and is a halfway type morality and they've got their mental concentration of training the mind and so forth but then on the third one they have wisdom but listen this wisdom is a joke to those of us who are saved because the wisdom of the world's foolishness with God and to those of us who've been truly and you know what a lot of people will translate the word Buddha as the enlightened one you know what the Bible calls us as born-again Christians enlightened we're the enlightened ones and now they've changed it well it's actually the awakened one no we're the awakened ones because what did the Bible say he says therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober watch means to be awake he says they that sleep sleep in the night they that be drunken or drunk at night but let us who are of the day be sober putting on the breastplate of faith and love and fur and helmet the hope of salvation for God has not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ he says let us not sleep as do others he what is sleeping being ignorant of the Word of God what is it to be enlightened it's when you understand the Word of God when you get saved in the Holy Spirit lives inside of you the Bible calls it also being illuminated he says in Hebrews after you were illuminated you received you endured a great fight of afflictions talking about salvation see the light bulb coming on the enlightenment the illumination comes when you receive Jesus Christ as Savior and the Holy Spirit opens your understanding of the scriptures that is enlightenment my friend that is awakening and when you want to talk about wisdom the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom meaning that Buddhism has no wisdom they don't have the beginning they don't have the foundation they don't even have the basis because the basis is faith in the Lord okay so when they have their wisdom it's the stupidest thing that you've ever heard in your life for example I was listening to this guy talk and he was an Ivy League professor he was explaining Buddhism and he talked about his wonderful experience when he was at Harvard how his holiness himself the Dalai Lama came and spoke to them at Harvard when he was there and he had the privilege of introducing the Dalai Lama to the student body as he spoke and he got up and spoke and he spoke on the great truth that Buddha understood sitting under the fig tree when he understood that there is no self because the main teaching of Buddhist wisdom is that there is no self and he got up and expounded a great long speech of the seven reasons why there is no self and just how much happier you'll be when you just realize that you don't even matter you don't even have a self you are no one it's just so great so he expounded this for like seven long drawn out points as the students hung on every word from his holiness and soaked in his wisdom and then he got done with these seven great points and he said but if there is no self then who is it that has just explained this to you and then he gave this most profound answer just me it's amazing I mean just because he's taking the middle way the middle way my friend the Bible is true when it says the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God we have an anchor we have a firm foundation you know blessed is he that heareth these sayings of Jesus Christ and does them he's going to be like a man that built his house on the rock and this word of God is unlike anything else in this world and people well how do you know that your religion is the right religion I mean what about Buddhism what about Hinduism what about Islam look they're foolish and to even compare the Bible to Buddhist scripture to even compare the Bible to the Quran to even compare the Bible to Hindu scriptures or to the Book of Mormon or to the Tao Te Ching is ridiculous because the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword and listen their rock is not as our rock not even close and the wisdom of this world is truly foolishness with God well but if five hundred million people believe in it no there are five hundred million people watching the stupidest things on TV today there are five hundred million people who are watching you know American Idol and all this other stupidity and rotting their brains on all kinds of ridiculous nonsense just because five hundred million people believe in something does not mean a thing broad is the way that leaded to destruction and many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leaded unto life and few there be that find it say well there's two point three billion Christians yeah but half of them are Catholic and tonight in my sermon I'm going to go into the multitude of things that the Catholic Church has taken directly from Buddhism and once you understand that Buddhism is from around 500 BC and then you see just the crazy amount of similarities and how whenever we look at stuff in Catholicism and we're saying where did this come from this isn't in the Bible and we're thinking to ourselves where what is the basis here you know where it's coming from Eastern religion and let me tell you something the reason why all these things are in Catholicism that are also found in Eastern religion is because it's the same devil that's behind both and you look at the teachings of Catholicism that kind of boggle your mind they are straight out of Buddhism and Hinduism but we'll go into that tonight let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for the death barrel and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we thank you for the wonderful teachings of the Bible that we can meditate upon day and night we thank you for heaven and for the things that you prepared for us that are beyond our comprehension how marvelous they are all the joys and pleasures that await us Lord thank you that we were born in a country where we heard the gospel clearly presented and that we got saved Lord help people to to bring the gospel to those that are steeped in this false religion Buddhism Lord that they would get a clear presentation of the gospel so that they could stop worshipping death and worshipping a dead body and serve a risen Savior and have eternal life in heaven and in Jesus name we pray amen