I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Proverbs chapter
17. Proverbs 17. I'd like to read one verse of
Scripture. Verse 23. Proverbs 17.23 says, ìA wicked man taketh a gift out
of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.î I have entitled this message
today, I don't want to be deceived, and I pray God have mercy on
me, on you. I don't want to be deceived. Our passage today begins setting
forth the character of an unbeliever, the wicked. the wicked. It means the wrong, he that is
wrong. And all the things that the world
might consider concerning a man to be right about, and I'm sure
that there's a lot of things that don't really matter that
men might be right about. But if a man is wrong on this
one issue, this one issue right here, here it is. How should a man
be just with God? It's the only thing that matters
right here. This issue right here, this may
be, as far as I know, for me, this may be the weightiest message. I'm sure it is. I don't even
have to guess. This is the weightiest message
that you'll ever hear. And every message best be the
same message. We'd better be preaching the
same message. Should man be just with God? How can God be just? God Almighty is just. He is a just God. You know what
that means. That means that the soul that
sinneth is going to die. God is just. Should God be just and justify
or declare blameless? Declare holy? Declare innocent
a sinner? Now that's a great and weighty
question. There's only two ways. No. There's only one way. Two statements. One way, two statements. There's
only one way, it's Christ. Here's the only way that God
Almighty can be just. My sin is going to have to be
dealt with. My sin is going to have to be
paid for. The guilt of my sin is going
to have to be dealt with in absolute justice and wrath. And secondly,
I must have no sin, that's the first point. My sin has got to
be put away. And secondly, I must be holy. I must be holy. And those two
things are only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He must be
made sin for me and put away God's wrath and justice on my
behalf. And He must robe me in His righteousness. I must be found in Him. That's
the only hope I've got. Neither one of those statements
originates with me. Salvations of the Lord. Now, to understand what I just
read, verse 23, a wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom
to pervert the ways of judgment. And we read that, and here is
what you think, just like me when I first read it. What in
the world is being said? Here is the literal. The wicked
taketh. The wicked man taketh, that is,
continually receives and accepts a gift. The word gift there is
a bribe, an unjust reward. You know what a bribe is. A wicked
man continually receives and accepts a bribe out of the bosom
or out of the heart or out of the care or from within. to pervert or to bend or to deflect
the ways of judgment. That is God's verdict. Man is born, I'm going to try
to just say it a little bit more simply now. Man is born with
a heart that willingly receives, continually receives deception,
a bribe, deception He does it, first of all, from his own heart.
The heart is deceitful. It is desperately wicked, deceitful
above all things. There is nothing that is more
deceptive than the old man's heart. My heart will lie to me. and send me straight to hell.
My heart is deceptive. Man is born with a heart that
will receive, gladly receive, gladly drinks, and drinks iniquity
like water. He gladly takes in deception. And he does it in defiance to
pervert God's Word The ways of judgment. That's what verse 23
just said. A wicked man taketh a gift out
of the bosom, out of the heart, from himself or from others,
to pervert the ways of judgment, to bend, to deflect. Man is born
with a heart that says, I don't believe God. I believe me. I believe me. Don't believe God. Now, as the case often is, and
I'll spend just maybe one sentence on this, you know, a judge taking a bribe, you'd say,
you know, that's just wrong. A judge taking a bribe from somebody
to kind of sway a verdict or something like that, that's wrong.
And that's what somebody could read. A wicked man taketh a bribe
out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. They'll say,
you know, this old world we live in is just so wicked, and the
judicial system is so bad and so wicked. And I agree with you. I agree totally with you. But
that has nothing to do with this Scripture right here. A lying bribe. to a man's soul
is the subject of this verse. Listen, we're going to stand
before God. Listen, listen to me. We're all
going to stand before God and everything else beside your eternal
soul, everything else about the eternal place of its residence. Everything else that deals with
anything else, I don't care what it is. We're all going to stand
before God and we'll either be eternally in heaven with the
Lord Jesus Christ in the glory of His presence, beholding Him,
knowing Him as we're known, or we will be in hell Eternally. Eternally. There is no end to
it. It will never end. This all started in the garden. Hold your finger, take your little
ribbon there, and turn to Genesis 3. Turn to Genesis 3. Genesis
chapter 3, verses 1 to 5. This is where... Alright, now remember what we
just read. A wicked heart just gladly receives,
just takes a bribe, takes a lie, takes a deceiving thought, and
just receives it, just takes it. And it does so to pervert
God's judgment, God's Word. That's what an old wicked heart
does. Listen to this, Genesis 3, 1-5,
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, you
know, before I read these next few words, I got to reading this
the other day and I thought, you know what? He was listening. He was right there listening
when God spoke to Adam. He just sat there listening to
it. How would he have known this? He said unto the woman, Yea,
hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Now there's the leading question right there. Did God say that?
The woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the
trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in
the midst of the garden, God has said, Ye shall not eat of
it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. Just look right
back at chapter 2, verse 17. She perverted what God said.
And you say, well, I mean, she didn't change it that much. She
did. She put words in God's mouth
that God didn't say. And we best be careful in the
perversion of God's Word. The Scripture says in verse 16,
chapter 2, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree
of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. That's what God said.
She began to embellish it a little bit. She said, oh, God said we
couldn't eat it. We can't even touch it. All that is is pride. She's going
to embellish. She's going to bring just, you
know, kind of flower it up a little bit, bringing honor to herself.
And the serpent, verse 4, chapter 3, said unto the woman, you shall
not surely die. That's a lie. That's a bribe. That's a deceptive bribe. For
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes
shall be opened, and ye shall be as God's. They'll have a free will. You'll
be the determining factor then, knowing good from evil. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her,
and he did eat." A bribe. A wicked man taketh a
gift out of the bosom, out of the heart. to pervert the ways
of judgment. That's what a man does. That
was Satan's manner. But he tempted the Lord in the
wilderness. He said in Matthew 4.3, Command that these stones be
made bread. If thou be the Son of God, cast
thyself down. Again, the devil taketh him into
an exceeding high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms
of the world and the glory of them, and saith unto him, All
these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship
me." A bribe, a lie, deception from
the bosom or the heart of the deceiver. That gift, that bribe
received for the simple perverting of God's Word, of God's truth,
that is what the wicked will do every time. The wicked taketh continually
a gift, a bribe out of the bosom of his heart, the heart, the
mouth of a false prophet. That's what she's talking about,
Carl. Beware the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace is preached. And they do it to pervert, to
deflect the ways of judgments. The natural man's ways. are calculated from within to
act in rebellion against God. Man does what he does to rebel
against God. It's just in his nature. The
wicked, the old man, the natural man, the man born in Adam, he
does what he does because that's what he is. A spiritually dead heart will
lie, and it will also lie to itself,
and it will offer a bribe of supposed life to prefer God's
Word, the revealed truth of God. We have God's Word, and a wicked heart will read
it, will see it, And he'll say, I don't believe it. I don't believe
it. I'm God. I'm the Lord. Hold your place there again.
Turn to Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32, verses 1 to 6.
Deuteronomy 32, 1 to 6. Deuteronomy chapter 32, verses
1-6, ìGive ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak. And hear, O
earth, the words of my mouth.î Now this is God Almighty speaking.
ìMy doctrine shall drop as the rain My speech shall distill
as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as
the showers upon the grass, because I will publish the name of the
Lord, ascribe you greatness unto our God. He is the rock. His work is perfect, and all
His ways are judgment, a God of truth without iniquity. Just and right is He. They have
corrupted themselves. Their spot is not the spot of
His children. They are perverse and crooked
generations. Do ye thus requite the Lord,
O foolish people and unwise? Is not He thy Father that hath
bought thee? Hath He not made thee and established
thee? Verse 4 says concerning God's
ways, their ways, of judgment. His ways are right. His ways are law. His ways are
justice. Verse 6, when he says, Do you
thus requite the Lord? His way asks him, Do you treat
Him disrespectfully? He that bought you, that owns
you. God created you. Here's the judgment of God. Here's
God's judgment. Here's His ways of judgment.
Verse 4, back in Deuteronomy 32, He is the rock. His work is perfect. This is
My beloved Son, whom I am well pleased you hear Him. Deuteronomy 32 says, they, the
wicked, have corrupted themselves. They believe the lie of their
deceived heart. They've taken that gift, that
bribe to pervert the ways of judgment, God's ways. Their spot, verse 5 in Deuteronomy
32, their spot or their mark, what's the word? Their mark is
not the spot of his children. The spot of God's children is
this, they believe God. Faith in Christ. The bribe or
gift of a deceived heart says this, I can. That's the mark of a deceived
heart. I can. I have. I've done. I've obeyed. I'm worthy. The spot or mark of a new heart
is, Lord, you have. Lord, you can. Lord, you must. And I believe Him. Now, here's
the question. Back in Proverbs. I've read that. Here's the truth. Here's the
truth of a wicked heart. A wicked man taketh a gift out
of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. Here's the truth set forth. Here's the only heart that will
confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is all in all. Here's the new
heart. Here's the setting forth. of God's way, God's judgment.
I want you to take your Bible and turn to 1 John 4. And I'm
going to read the first three verses. Here's the question. You know
that it's pleased God through the foolishness, or what the
world calls foolishness, of preaching. Save them that believe. Is it
necessary for a man to hear the truth through preaching? Yes. It please God through the
foolishness of preaching. Is it necessary to hear a preacher? Yes. Yes. Preaching. Now, here's the dilemma. There are a lot of people standing
in pulpits. And the Apostle John, in 1 John
4 verse 1, under the inspiration of God's Spirit, says, Beloved,
believe not every spirit. Now, there are spirits out there,
preachers. When it says, believe not every
spirit, preachers. Those proclaiming, or those claiming
to be under the inspiration of God's Spirit, led by God's Spirit. He says, do not believe every
spirit. There's a lot of deception. There's
a lot of untruth being preached. And He's getting ready to tell
us, here is the only true test. of a true preacher. This is it. This is the only true, infallible
test by which you know. There's a lot of men standing
right now in pulpits right now, and this Word right here is going
to tell us. There's a lot of gifts, a lot of bribes being
put out there. And I'm telling you, but for
the grace of God, every man, every woman will take it. but
for the grace of God. Now, how do you know? How do I know? That's why I've
entitled this, I don't want to be deceived. I don't want to
be deceived. Here is for sure the only truth. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits. whether they are of God, because
many false prophets are gone out into the world. Now, verse
2, here it is. Hereby, by this, know ye the
Spirit of God. This is how you know. Every spirit,
every preacher that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh is of God. Somebody will stand up and say,
oh, God, okay. I know I'm clear. Because I know
this. I believe, I believe that God,
I believe that God came in the flesh. That's not what John said. That's not what he said. That
is true. That is true. But that's not
the way He said it. You won't find one person that
says that they don't believe that there was, historically,
Jesus Christ that walked on this earth. The devils believe that. Everybody believes that. What
was John saying? There is something that is so
wonderfully, gloriously being set forth here that we will read
this and miss what it's saying. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh. Do you know what he just said?
The name of our precious Lord, Jesus, means the Savior. Christ means the anointed of
God, meaning God, man in one Christ. The Savior, the anointed, The
glorious Messiah, Jesus Christ, is come in the flesh, which means
that the Lord Jesus Christ had to have been before He ever came. It means that Jesus the Christ,
Jesus Christ, has eternally existed. Now, before I go any farther,
Let me tell you what he is saying right here. The Lord Jesus Christ,
His person, who He is, and His work, He is the anointed of God,
God and man, one Christ. And He came here for a purpose. He was sent of God for a purpose. This is what John is saying. God and man. God and man. In one Christ. I can never say
God and man and not set forth the Christ, the Anointed, the
Messiah has come to save His people. God and man, the Christ. He existed. eternally. The one that his disciples touched
and felt. A body was prepared for him. He was, the scripture says, made
flesh. He took to himself the nature
of His people yet without sin. But He has always been the eternal
Messiah. Has eternally existed. Made flesh in time. He was not always flesh. The
Word was made flesh. In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God. The Word was God. Eternally. Who is the Christ? Now this is the way you know.
Establish who came. Jesus Christ came. He who always is. Came in the flesh. He was somewhere
else before He came. How long has He been? Just stay
right there, 1 John. Just turn over to Revelation.
Just a few pages. Revelation 1, 8. How long has He always been?
Revelation 1, 8. I am Alpha. Now this is John.
This is the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos, and the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Ascended, the One who was taken up from the
mount on the day that the Apostles sat there and watched Him go
up. And they watched Him ascend right
into the clouds. The angels that were standing
there said, You men of Galilee, why stand ye here gazing into
the heavens? This same Jesus that you've seen taken up into
heaven? shall likewise in the same manner return." Just like
this. He took upon Himself flesh, our
nature, the nature. It means a body, flesh, but that
flesh also means the nature of His people, yet without sin. How long has He existed? Look
at Revelation 1.8. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which
is to come, the Almighty. Back in 1 John, verse 4. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh. God-man, as Brother Scott used
to say, rightly so. As much God as if never man,
and man as if never God. God-man, perfect union, not half
and half. Perfect God. Perfect Christ. Perfect man. The union of both
natures. eternally existed. Wisdom back in Proverbs 8. We've
read it so many times. I was ever before Him. I was daily His delight. Our delights were with the sons
of men. Who has come? Jesus Christ. Made flesh. Took a body. But He always was. Come in our nature. Now, that's His person. Why did He come? Why? Now, I'm telling you, any spirit,
any preacher, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is
come in the flesh, What was his work? Why did he come? Where would we end? But just
suffice it to say, he shall save his people from their sins. God, man. Man had to obey God. disobedience, many were made
sinners. By one man's obedience, many
were made righteous. This Christ, the God-Man, Jesus
Christ, is come in the flesh. Ephesians 1-4, the Father had
given Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world, we were
chosen in Him for this purpose. What was the purpose? We'll read
it again. Ephesians 1-4, here was the purpose. According as He, the Father,
hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy without blame before Him in love,
in Christ. Why did He come? Because God,
having predestinated us, Ephesians 1-5, unto the adoption of children.
How? By Jesus Christ, to Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will. Why did He come? He had a people. Where do they come from? The
Scripture sets forth the Father as being electing God. Who is Jesus Christ? He is the Redeemer. He is the Redeemer. Every spirit that confesseth
that the Redeemer The surety, the federal head, God-man, the
Christ is coming to flesh to finish the work given Him of
the Father. Every spirit that confesseth
that God Almighty sovereignly, everlastingly, purposed to save
His people, to honor Himself, in the person of His glorious
Son, the Christ. Every spirit that declares that
God Almighty's will shall be done, that He's the Lord, that
He's God, and men are nothing in themselves. Sinners. is of God. And every spirit that confesseth
not that Jesus Christ in His person and in His work is come
in the flesh is not of God. Not of God. It does not matter how sweet
they sound. It does not matter how much it's
sugar-coated. It does not matter how much work
they're trying to do in society. The issue is not to wipe out
abortion. The issue is not to wipe out
gay marriages. The issue is the glory of Almighty
God and the proclamation of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the
issue. The issue is the gospel. Everybody's
on a mission. Everybody is going to pat you
on the back and tell you how much they love you. We love you. We just have one big happy family
here. If they are not preaching the
person and the work and the accomplishment and the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ, they are not of God. They are not of God. And they
are deceiving. They are deceiving. Deceptive. What is His work? What is his
glory? Here it is, last verse, Daniel
9.24. Daniel 9.24. Daniel 9.24. My friend, here is the bottom
line. Here is his work. He said, I finished the work
that you gave me to do. Here is His work. Daniel 9.24.
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy
holy city. His holy city. Jerusalem. Heavenly
Jerusalem. God's people. The city of the
living God. The elect. God's bride. To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins. To make reconciliation for iniquity. And to bring in everlasting righteousness. To seal up the vision and prophecy.
Anoint the Most Holy. What did He do? He put away the sin of His people. He put it away. Every preacher that does not
confess that Jesus Christ, God, Man, the Anointed, the Christ,
who eternally is, the eternal God, is come in the flesh and
took to Himself a body. He always was. He always is. But he took a body, prepared
him, and in that body, as the man, Christ Jesus the Lord, he obeyed
God. He established righteousness
for his people. Who? Those chosen in him from
before the foundation of the world. Those that He laid down
His life for. I laid down my life for the sheep.
I told those Pharisees when they told Him, they said, be plain.
He said, I'm plain. He said, you don't believe Me
because you're not My sheep. My sheep hear My voice. Listen. If the Spirit of God has given
you a heart to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ as your only
hope, You know what I'd recommend? Confess Him. Confess Him in baptism. Call upon Him in your heart.
That's the only place you can call. That new heart given, if
He's given you a heart, you'll call. You'll come. You'll be
like that old leper that we looked at last Wednesday. One out of
ten. What did he do? He turned. went to Christ, fell at His feet,
praised Him, exalted Him, thanked Him. Lord God of Heaven, have mercy
upon us. Lord, keep us from the deception
of the bribe of this world. For Your honor, for Your glory,
for Christ's sake and for our eternal good, amen.