Let's take our Bibles once again
and turn to Proverbs 20, verse 17. Proverbs 20, verse 17. Bread
of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. Now, to a regenerate, the glorious truth of the gospel,
that is, Christ alone, grace alone, by faith alone, is the
message of life. The gospel of God's free grace. That message that is the glorious
declaration of how Almighty God can be just. And God justly dealt
with sin at Calvary. Christ died. He truly died. Why? He was made sin. And God Almighty dealt in absolute
fairness those sins of God's people. Now you listen to me.
They became the Lord's. Those were His sins. How God Almighty could be made
sin and be the holy, harmless Lamb of God. I can't explain that. But I'm
telling you, God did that which Almighty God demanded. He truly
put away the guilt of His people and those sins. The Lord said
in Psalm 40 that Neil read from. He said, He didn't say the iniquities
of my people, which they were. But they truly became His and
God Almighty dealt with them. How can God be just in dealing
with sin and justify the sinner? Declare that a sinner not only has no sin, but he never
had any sin. He had to make a brand new man,
created him in righteousness and holiness in Christ. And that
which is born of God doesn't sin. And I look within, all I see
is, as John Newton said, is dark and wild, filled with unbelief. Can I deem myself a child? And I love that verse in there,
he said, you that know the Lord. Is it so with you? Isn't that
the way you feel? We live by faith. But that message of the gospel
is the truth. Of how God's eternal will and
purpose to show mercy and compassion to a people of His choosing.
I'm going to have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'm going to
have mercy and compassion on whom I will. And whom I will, I'm going to
harden. And a believer says, Yes, sir. Yes, sir. You're right, Lord. Whatever
you say is right. It's the message of Christ. who is the bread of life. That's
what he said in John 6, 48. I am that bread of life. I'm the bread, he said, that
gives and sustains the life of my people. John 6, 51. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh that I will give for the life of the world. Everybody
in the world? No. He won't pray for them. Who did he say he died for? My
people. What did he mean right there,
the life of the world? Now you listen, you listen. If
I know that Christ said he died for his elect, I died for the
sheep. Told those Pharisees, he said, you're not my sheep.
I died for the sheep. Well that means that he died
for a particular people. But what does it mean when God
so loved the world? I've told you this before but
I need to hear it again too. What does it mean that God so
loved the world? God Almighty loved the arrangement
of mankind. He loved the order of man. He
loved the world. That's not everybody in particular. You tell me that Christ died
for everybody in particular and I can take scripture and I can
beat that down. That ain't right. That's not
right. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. The good shepherd giveth his
life. That's John 10. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. So when he said, God so loved
the world, he loved the order of man. And for Almighty God
to preserve the order of man, if God would not have sent the
Messiah to save a people of God's choosing, I'm telling you the
order of man would be no more. Almighty God is just. So God
Almighty loves the order of man. God so loved the world. He loved
the arrangement of mankind. He made man in His image. I don't understand the fullness
of that. I've got some thoughts, but I'll just take it that God
made man in His image. And God loved this order. And
He said, I'm the bread that comes down. I gave my flesh for the
life of the world that the order of man would not perish. He's
the truthful bread. John 6, 32, Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread
from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
He is the truth. Himself. He's not false. He's not deceitful. He's not
counterfeit. He's not defective. But He's
the true, genuine, faithful bread that keeps the souls of His people
from death. I am the true bread. So seeing
the Lord Jesus Christ, who gives Himself, sustains His people,
He who is the bread of power, bread of truth. We looked at
that verse a minute ago. Oh taste and see that the Lord,
the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit in covenant grace. That covenant that David said
this is all my salvation. He made with me an everlasting
covenant. ordered in all things ensured.
Oh, taste that He's good! Blessed is the man that trusts
in Him. And concerning that taste of Christ by faith, here's what
a believer says concerning God Almighty as He's declared in
this book to be. Psalm 119, 103, How sweet are
thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my
mouth." A believer's got a new taste. He's got a new taste. It's a divine, it's a supernatural
taste. It's a taste for Christ. He hears the gospel preached
and he savors that which the natural man cannot perceive in
the sweetness of mercy. compassion and grace. And every
time he hears the message of life, he doesn't hear men bragging
on man, he doesn't hear men telling men how wonderful they are and
how great, you know. I know better than that, you
do too. But the regenerate perceives when he hears the gospel of Christ,
mercy, mercy, mercy. And that sweetness, it's fresh
to him. And it's fresh every time he
hears it. And he doesn't want to hear anything
else. Don't tell me anything else. You tell me, when I stand
up and preach, I'm going to take a scripture. I'm going to start
at that scripture and I'm going to do Lord willing like Philip
did. Beginning at that scripture with that Ethiopian eunuch was
reading. He was reading out of Isaiah
53. And Philip took it and it says, and where he was, he preached
Christ to him. And you find Christ in it. You
find Christ in that scripture. That's what a believer wants
to hear. Jeremiah 15, 16 says, Thy words were found and I did
eat them. And Thy word was unto me the
joy and rejoicing of mine heart. For I am called by Thy name,
O Lord, God of hosts. A believer hears the gospel and
it's sweet to him. And let me tell you what that
taste of sweetness really is. Now let me tell you what's sweet
when you hear the gospel. When a believer hears the gospel,
I'm going to just make one statement out of scripture, out of Jonah
2.9. This is the sweetness of the
gospel. Salvation is of the Lord. Isn't that sweet? Salvation is
of the Lord. From its inception, to its procurement by the blood
of Christ, to its application to God's people by the Holy Spirit,
salvation is of the Lord. And how much of that was man
involved? How much did man contribute to
that? How much? Nothing. Nothing. God chose to save, God saves,
and then God tells him, I saved you. And I believe it goes the
rest of his life, wanting to hear the sweetness of that message.
Just tell me, tell me one more time now, tell me one more time
how God saved me on purpose. Tell me how God Almighty never
looked to me for satisfaction. And tell me one more time how
He doesn't look to me right now for satisfaction. And tell me
again how He's keeping me by power. Tell me again how the
Lord has stood for me as my surety and answered every demand for
righteousness. Tell me that one more time. Tell
me one more time those words of the Lord from the cross. It
is finished. It's finished. It's over. And
according to God's Word concerning those that's been made willing
in the day of God's power, they shall not be ashamed in the evil
time. In the time of affliction, in
the time of old age, in the time of God's judgment, they're not
going to be ashamed for in the days of famine, they shall be
satisfied. The Lord will provide. So the
glorious gospel of God's grace is sweet to the taste, to the
spiritual taste of God's people. But according to our scripture
today, this gospel of free grace that doesn't give man any credit,
any credit, but I'm telling you right now, If there's anything
that we did, or we thought we did, that made salvation to be
completed, we're going to brag. We're going to brag on me. I'm
telling you, man's a bragger. He just, whatever he does, whatever
he finishes, whenever he finishes with a project, back up. I did a good job. Like I said,
man by nature, here's what he's going to say if he thinks that
he's done something to contribute to his salvation. He's going
to say, I know I didn't do much, but at least I... Not by works
of righteousness that we've done. So this message of free grace,
it's not sweet to the unregenerate. Proverbs 20 verse 17 says, bread
of deceit is sweet to a man. Bread of deceit. Now we've been
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ who is the bread of heaven,
bread. That which we eat, that which
we savour, that which we enjoy. But here, bread, you know, is
that carnal attitude, that sin within every man, The bread that
is sweet to a man, apart from the grace of God. Let me tell
you what that bread is. Turn with me. 2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians. I'm going to show you exactly
what it is. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 13-14. 2 Corinthians. I'm at 2 Corinthians
11. I may have written down the wrong
scripture. I've written down the wrong scripture.
I'll tell you the scripture I'm looking for if one of you can
give it to me. It's talking about another Jesus. Another Jesus. The Apostle Paul said in Galatians
1, 6 and 7, I marvel that you so soon removed from him that
called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which
is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would
pervert the gospel of Christ. Now this other Jesus that I was
looking for, that particular scripture, Paul is rebuking those
that were listening to men that would preach a gospel that mixed
man's works with God's grace. Now let me tell you how this
another Jesus is set forth. Men speak of grace. They talk
about grace. But when they give their explanation
of grace, what they make it to be is this. It's a gracious offer
that God gives. But they're needing for you to accept
that gracious offer. They speak of Christ, they use
the word grace, but when they give an explanation for what
they're saying, it works. It works. If I offer you something and you've got to take it to
get it, then you've got to do something in order to obtain
it. But Almighty God gives that which
men by nature can't accept, what they cannot possibly receive. And then He gives them a heart
to realize and to know what He's done for them was something totally
apart from their ability. So it has nothing to do. A bread of deceit is that proclamation
of that another Jesus, another gospel that makes man's works
to be mingled, which you can't do. with God's grace. Romans 11, 5, and 6, even so
then at this present time also, there's a remnant according to
the election of grace. And if by grace, Paul said, it's
no more by works, the message that makes man's work to be vital
to salvation, that makes God's will to save a man from his sins
dependent upon a man's will or ability to make a decision. That's
the bread of deceit. That's not the bread of heaven.
There's nothing in it but deceit. Proverbs 4.17 declares that the
carnal man will eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine
of violence. They eat or they savor that which
will not satisfy. And this is what I mean. It may
satisfy a man's pride right now. But what about satisfy God? It
may soothe the man's conscience for right now. That message, that bread of deceit
that is salvation by man's ability, And what they drink, the Scripture
says in Proverbs 4.17, is the wine of violence. That means
wrong. Everybody can't be telling the
truth. The wine of the great whore, Scripture reveals in Revelation
17, who has made the inhabitants of the earth drunk, or intoxicated
with the wine of her fornication. That is spiritual adultery against
God. You know, too much intoxicating
beverage, man, you're not thinking, you're not reasoning. And spiritually,
if a man is drunk, spiritually intoxicated, he thinks himself
to be right, invincible. And the sad truth concerning
this scripture right here, is that that message, the bread
of deceit, is sweet to a man. I know that for a fact. I've
experienced that. It's sweet. It feeds his flesh. It puffs him up. But afterwards,
the scripture says, his mouth shall be filled with gravel. Whenever, take an old millstone. If it's a new one, especially
if it's a new one, and you start grinding, you know, grinding
that grain and making, you know, making grain, make bread, and
that new stone, it grinds and there's little pebbles and rocks
and it gets off until that millstone is worn down. And you make bread
out of that and you start eating it. And it, you know, you ever
eaten an egg and it's got a little piece of eggshell in it? Don't
you hate that? I hate that. I love eggs. I hate to get an eggshell in
that thing. I love mussels, the little fishy stuff, but I hate
to bite down on a grain of sand. Man by nature, he loves the bread
of the sea, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. And what the Spirit of God is
relating to us is that the sufferings, the affliction of all those who
will not bow to the Lord Jesus Christ for life, bow to Him,
for all those that are enjoying this temporal sweetness of man-centered,
man-honoring, free-will gospel afterwards, afterwards. And all
the horror of afterwards revealing or having it revealed that what
you've eaten has been deceitful. My heart breaks. I'm serious. I've got people
that I know, people you know in my family, and they're so
sincere. And I love them. I love them.
I want them to hear the truth. And they mean well. I know they
mean well. But I know what they're holding
to is contrary to these scriptures. And it does. It grieves me. And I pray God have mercy. I
know He's the only one that can. I can't convince Him. But I think
if you die, You believe in what you're believing. According to
these scriptures. Not according to what I've made up. What difference
does it make what I think? But what God Almighty has said.
If you eat that bread of deceit, it's sweet to you right now.
And I know you're proud. I know you're thankful that you've
been so faithful. You're just on and on. I understand
all that. But there's coming a day afterwards.
Afterwards. His mouth is going to be filled
with gravel. Now, I want you to turn with me to Lamentations. Lamentations. Right after the
book of Jeremiah. Lamentations chapter 3. Lamentations 3. Now this particular chapter right
here, the Lord Jesus Christ is being set forth. This is Christ
speaking. I know Jeremiah pinned him, the
weeping prophet. These are the words of Christ.
Lamentations 3 verses 1 to 3, and I'll show you, I am the man
that has seen the affliction by the rod of his wrath. Now
you know what? Nobody, nobody But the Lord Jesus
Christ could pin those words, Mike, because if a man has seen
the rod of God's wrath, he's not around to write about it.
He's not around to write about it. That man's in hell. So that
man's words are not going to be around here. But I'm telling
you, the Lord Jesus Christ, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
years, before He ever actually went to the cross. These words
were written. These were Christ's words. The
Lamb slain from the foundation of the Word. I am the man that
has seen the affliction by the rod of His wrath. He has led
me, brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against
me is He turned. He turneth His hand against me
all the day. And you read all the next few
verses. And it's a continuation of the Lord's speech and His
words of His affliction at Calvary for His people. But I want you
to look at verse 16. He hath also broken my teeth
with gravel stones. He hath covered me with ashes. Now let me tell you what He just
said. Every man, every woman, back
in Proverbs 20 verse 17, that eats that bread of deceit that's
sweet to him, and afterwards, unless God calls him out of darkness,
his mouth shall be filled with gravel, with affliction. The Lord Jesus Christ says in
Lamentations 3.16, I experienced exactly what every
one of my sheep would have experienced but for my grace. He suffered
exactly what every one of his people deserved. He tasted the
wrath of God for exactly all that he everlastingly loved.
He said, my teeth, I suffered that. So what we deserved, he
bore. So you that will think that you'll
enjoy the sweetness of that bread because of its promises of pleasure
and profit and honor and liberty and life, listen According to
this word right here, it's going to produce nothing but shame
and distress and disappointment and destruction. You think, how
can I know whether or not I'm eating the bread of deceit? How
can I know whether I'm eating that bread? Let me just ask you
this question. Who gets the glory for your salvation? Who gets the glory? Does Almighty
God get all the honor and all the glory and all the praise?
Or is it something that you think you're doing to merit your salvation? If you've got one speck of your
works involved, you're eating the bread of deceit because salvation
is of the Lord. closing here. I want to close
with that in Proverbs 7. You can go back and read this,
read that chapter if you want to. Proverbs 7, it was setting
forth a truth about a man that was void of understanding. I'm
going to just tell you what happened for the sake of time. The scripture
says he was passing by a harlot's house. She was subtle. crafty, subtle of heart, loud
and stubborn, and one that caught this man, kissed him and promised
him pleasure and love, like the message of today's man-centered
religion. Remember, ask yourself this,
who gets the glory? And with her fair speech, the
scripture says, she caused him to yield. With her flattering
of her lips, she forced him And he went after her straightway,
that is, he went after her suddenly, like an ox to the slaughter,
till it was too late. And her wooings and promises
of pleasure, like that bread of deceit that's sweet to a man,
had a bitter end. After it was all over. He spent his time with this Harley
and he realized what has happened. It's all about spiritual, spiritual
adultery. This woman is a picture of spiritual
adultery, false religion. And it entices people. I'm real. I'm sufficient. I'm this, I'm
that and the other. And when it was all said and
done, he was struck through the heart. with a dart through his
liver as a bird that hastens to the snare. And he never realized
that everything that she was doing was for the destruction
of his life. False religion. It's so subtle. It has so much truth. There's so much truth in it.
There's so much in it that's true. But that little leaven
That little bit of leaven. Almighty God wants to save you. I'll go along with you, even
if you're talking about God's leg. Christ died on the cross. I'll go along with you. You're a sinner. I'll go along
with you. I'm with you. God wants to save you if you'll
let Him. You just nullified everything. You nullified everything you
just said. A little leaven, just a little leaven, it leavens the
whole lump. This bread of deceit is like
a man putting a sweet marshal, a good piece of candy or something,
you know, under his tongue, rolling it around. He's just not willing
to forsake it. He's not willing to forsake it,
he's just not going to forsake it. Years ago, my mom and dad
had, we all worked there, mom and dad had a restaurant, and
there was a little fella, a little boy, one night, They were getting
ready to leave, and they had on the line there, they had little
half ears of corn. You could go down and go through
the buffet, they had a seafood buffet. And you could go through
and get what you want, and stuff like that. And this little fella,
he had a half-eaten ear of corn. Mama, you'll remember this. And
that little boy would not let that, his dad and mom was wanting
to go. He was wanting to go. And that little fella had that
piece of corn in his hand and he kept gnawing on it and stuff
like it and it was running all over. And his dad was trying
to get it out of his hand. And that little fella was just,
I mean, he was having a fit. He was not going to let that
corn go. And my dad came up to him and
gave him a little piece of candy. He said, I'll trade you. That
little fella just gave him the corn. My dad gave him. Henry
was there. Henry was standing there and
he said, I'm going to use that as an illustration. I did too. And man by nature, he'll take
that sweet morsel of false religion, sweet to him, and he'll put it
under his tongue. I'm not going to give that up.
Listen to what Job says, Job 20 verse 12 to 14. Though wickedness
be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,
though he spare it and forsake it not, but keep it still within
his mouth, yet his meat in his bowels, it is that food that
he thought was so sweet, is turned, that is, to poison. It's the
gall of asp, of snakes, that's within him. Oh, my friend and
my brethren, there's one that promises life. You listen. Matthew 11, 28. Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You won't earn it. You can't
earn it. I'll give it to you. John 6,
50. This is the bread that cometh down from heaven that a man may
eat thereof and not die. and the promise, in closing,
of the Lord to all those that have been made to bow. Listen
to this out of Revelation 1, 17, 18. And when I saw Him, John
said, I fell at His feet as dead. Now this is what a believer does,
spiritually, whenever they see the Lord, who God is. When I
saw Him, I fell at his feet as dead, he laid his right hand
upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. I have the keys of hell
and death." I pray God bless this word to our hearts. Help
us to hear, help us to see, and ask yourself that whenever you're
thinking about men. Everybody's eating spiritually,
eating something, you know. Whatever I'm eating, does the
Lord get all the glory for it? And if He does, that's the bread
of heaven. If I'm eating that bread that
makes me to be a contributor, that's the bread of deceit. For
Christ's sake, bless these words. Amen.