Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16. I'd like to look at two verses
of Scripture. Proverbs 16, verses 25 and 26. The scripture says that there
is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death. He that laboreth, laboreth for
himself, for his mouth craveth it of him. The Lord Jesus Christ, in the
book of John 14, verse 6, declared Himself not merely as one who
shows the way, though He does, but He declared Himself to be
the only way. unto God. So he said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. There is no way but Christ. There
is no truth but Christ. There is no life but Christ.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me. All of the blessings of God also
come through the Son. Ephesians 1 verse 3 says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Spiritual blessings actually
It means non-carnal. He's blessed us with all non-carnal
blessings in heavenly places, in heavenly things, in Christ. I think about, someone starts
talking about how they've been blessed. The Lord's truly blessed
me. I know what they mean. They've
got a little money in the bank. As far as they know, right now,
at this moment, as far as they know, they're relatively healthy.
And as far as they know, everything looks good. They've still got
a job. Boy, the Lord's really blessed me. But I thought about
that. All those things are going to
perish. They're going to perish. I had a good friend. He was a good
friend. He was one of the founders of
one of the largest insurance companies right now. And I truly enjoyed being around
him, talking with him and things like this. He was just a very,
very humble man. I enjoyed talking with him. He just kind of gave me a little
background on how things were and how things with that insurance
company, how they struggled and how You know, how tough it was
for a while and the investments that he made and this, that and
the other. And this man was a, I mean, I don't know how many
millions this guy was worth. And he died. And he died. And you know how much he left?
I've said this before, every bit of it. Every bit of it. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
way. And all spiritual blessings come only through Him, non-carnal. He is the way to God. Because he is the only righteousness
that Almighty God accepts. There is one priest that Almighty
God hears. One priest. One. There is but one priest. There
is no other priest, I'm telling you. If you understood what a priest
is, a priest is one that approaches Almighty God and is accepted
by Almighty God on the merit of the priest. You tell me what mere man can
approach God on his own merit. and be accepted of God. I'm telling
you, you try to come into the presence of Almighty God and
you're not holy. Holy. And Almighty God is a consuming
fire. We approach Almighty God only
in our great high priest, the one that speaks to God on the
behalf of people like me or you. A prophet is one that speaks
from God to the people. A priest is one that speaks to
God on the behalf of the needy ones. He is the way. Almighty God accepts no other. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Outside of the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him representing me, Him answering for me, Him interceding
for me, do you know what Almighty God will do to me except for
the sake of His Son? I'll be in hell. I'll be in hell
and I deserve to be in hell. And you will too. So to say that He is the way,
what do we mean? Well, I know this. If He answers
for me as the way, then that means that we were everlastingly
loved. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. Does Almighty God love everybody?
No. No. I'm going to show you that. I'm going to show you that in
a minute. Everlastingly loved and chosen in Him. That word chosen, Ephesians 1,
4, He has chosen us in Him. Selected. He's selected. Someone might say, I don't think
that Election. Oh, what a word. What a wonderful word. He has
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy. That means have righteousness. And without blame. Meaning, my
blame has been taken care of. That's what it means. Holy and without blame. that
I have no sin to answer for, enrobed in His righteousness. Let me tell you why election
is so wonderful. That God would choose a people.
Let me tell you why it's so wonderful. Because if He had not left us
a remnant according to election, we would all have been like Sodom
and Gomorrah. I'm telling you, man as he's
born in Adam is an evil thing. Evil. There's none good. No, not one. He being the way. I am the way. Meaning this, that
the only righteousness, the only cleanness, the only obedience,
purity before God is His. Charged to our account. Robed
in Him. Oh, I don't want to stand before
God and plead my own merit. There's enough sin in every prayer
that I've ever tried to pray. There's enough sin in every message. I have never prepared a message
righteously. I can try to read these Scriptures
and I go back and I think, oh, wait a minute, let me back up
here. I don't even know what I just
read. I forgot. He is the way. He being the way
means that our debt of sin before an all-seeing God, all-knowing
God, the law, God's law, God's law is good. God's law is righteous. As I've said before, what's wrong?
What's wrong with loving the Lord your God with all of your
heart and all your mind and all your soul? What's wrong with
that? Nothing. What's wrong with a man loving
his neighbor as he loves himself? Nothing. What's wrong with a
man being faithful? Faithful to his wife and his
wife being faithful to her. What's wrong with that? Nothing.
What's the problem? I'm the problem. The problem
is not God's law. The problem is me. He is the
way. When He died, if I was chosen
in Him from before the foundation of the world, if God looked upon
me in mercy and chose me in Christ, put me in Him, what does that
mean? Now I know this, it means that
He's my surety. That God looks upon me in His
Son and He is satisfied. God Almighty looking at me in
His Son from before the foundation of the world justified me. You
know what that means? No blame. No blame. Whenever Almighty God chose His
people in His Son, He never looked at the sheep again to answer.
He looked at His Son. Your responsibility. It's your
responsibility to redeem them, to save them, robe them, bring
them to me. And the Scripture says that Almighty
God was the first one that ever trusted in Christ. He trusted
His Son. That's my beloved Son, whom I'm
well pleased. To say that He is the way is
to say that only those that come to Him, He is their way. All that cometh unto Me, Someone says, well, I thought
you said that no man can come. Not in yourself. No man can come
except it were given unto him of my Father. No man has the ability. No man
has the desire. No man has the ability. No other
way. There's no other way. Let me
show you this. Hold your finger there. Turn
to Acts 4. Acts chapter 4. There's no other way. Acts 4,
10-12. I was reading this again and
I was thinking about when a few weeks ago we were talking about
when blind Bartimaeus, I love that story, that old blind, stinking
beggar. But I mean, I just think, oh,
the mercy of God. God showed that old... That's
the only way I can say it. That old blind, stinking beggar. My brother. And he heard, you know, they
were saying, Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. Derogatory. That's what they meant. That
was a derogatory thing. But he cried out, Jesus thou
Son of David. I was reading again reminded
of that. Acts 4.10, Be it known unto you
and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by Him doth this man stand here before you. This is the
stone. which was set at nought of you
builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is
there salvation in any other, for there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." You
know what that means? That means including your name
too. That means no addition. No addition. You and the Lord
Jesus, or me and the Lord Jesus, don't have a good thing going.
And He's not the copilot. If He's not God, then I'm telling
you, you have no hope if He's not God to you. God to you. Now the truth, back in Proverbs,
is set forth in our passage. It was repeated. We looked at
this. That verse of Scripture, when you look at that, that was
recorded again also in Proverbs 14 too. But you know why the
Scriptures often, in the book of Proverbs, you'll often find
there'll be something repeated. It was said two or three chapters
ago and it's repeated. And then it's repeated again. You know why? You know why. Because
we forget. We forget. I need to hear this
again. I need to be told again, as I've
said before. Tell me one more time. Tell me
one more time. The older I get, the more I realize. I know this. I know. I'm going to die. I know that. I know that. And I'm going to stand before
God. I know that. Lord, help me to be reminded
of that again. I need to hear it again. I'm
going to die. And I know this, without a substitute,
I'm going to hell. I've told you this, I'll tell
you again. Remember me telling you the story about the woman
They were standing on the bridge. There's the bridge that connects
Ashland, Kentucky and Ohio. There's that bridge right there
in Ashland. I'm sure many of you have seen it. There was a
woman standing on the side of the bridge and she was getting
ready to jump off. All was lost as far as she was concerned.
Somebody went and got Brother Henry. He didn't know the lady.
He came and there she was standing on the side of the bridge. He came up to her and he told
her, he said, listen, I just want to, before you jump, He
said, I just want to tell you something. He said, I'll ask
you something. He said, do you know Christ? He didn't. He said, well, let
me just tell you what's getting ready to happen. He said, you're
going to jump. You're going to hit that water.
And he said, it'll probably take you about two minutes to drown. And he said, you'll be aware.
of while you're drowning, you'll know it and you'll realize you
can't breathe and water's coming into your lungs. And he said,
take about two minutes. And then he said, you're going
to be in hell. And he said, it'll all be over. She came down. Don't ever know what happened
to her. But I thought to myself, boy, the reality, you know, you
think it's bad now. No, it's not bad now. Brother
Henry was the one who said, be as nice as you can to unbelievers. This is the best they're ever
going to have. This is it. The Scripture sets forth in verse
25, Proverbs 16, there is a way. Now, I just said that Christ
is the way. Christ is the way. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man. But the end thereof are the ways
of death. There is a way. There's a course. There's a walk. There's a road. There's an action. There is a way that seemeth right. It seems right. It seems to appear
to look straight. It appears as though that it's
prosperous. It appears as though that it's
just. It sounds right. When you talk about it, it appears
as though that it's just. There is a way that seemeth right
unto man, but the end, but the future, but the remnant, but
the reward of it are the ways of death. Men have concocted. I think about these illustrations
and they come back to me and I hear again. I've said them
before, but that's fine. This one fits too. There's a
way that seemeth right under man, but the ways of death. Years ago, I met Darvin Pruitt.
I've known Darvin Pruitt for 30 years. Years and years ago,
he was living in Louisiana, pastoring at Kitchens Creek. And Darvin
told me his nephew, I asked him one time. He said, you say that
the gospel of free grace is the only way. You say that God elected
a people. You said God predestinated a
people. You said Christ only died for the elect. You say that irresistible grace,
God's people that He chose to save, they're going to come to
Him. That's what you say. And you say everybody else is
wrong. That's what you say. But he said, I talked to them,
and they say you're wrong. They say that God's made every
man free, you know, with a free will, and they say you're wrong. He said, how am I going to know?
How do I know? And Arvid said, but for the grace
of God, you won't. And he said, I'll tell you what
will happen. He said, if Almighty God doesn't give you a new heart,
He said, you're going to settle down somewhere in some form of
preaching that sounds right, that seems right to you. And but for the grace of God,
you're going to die. And you're going to stand before God. And
Almighty God is going to judge you by this book. I'm telling
you, Does it matter what you hear? Absolutely. Take care what you hear. There's a way that seemeth right,
but the ways thereof doesn't matter. I've said before, there's
so many denominations. Who's right? I'll tell you who's
right. God. God Almighty is the way. The truth. Truth, Gene. Life. No man comes to the Father
but by Me. All these ways, no matter what
men label them, call them, apart from Christ, who is the way,
is a lie. It seemeth right. It seemeth
right. And but for the grace of God,
it always seems right. And folks by their own blindness
will go to the grave believing. It seemeth right, it seemeth
right, it seemeth... makes sense. Let me tell you
what seems right to the natural mind. It seems right that man is not totally Depraved. Now this is what I mean when
I say that it seems right that man is not totally depraved. It seems right to the natural
man that there is a little good in everybody. You know, what
we've got to do is we've got to get some social programs going
and we've got to, you know what, let's do all we can and feed
it. And I want to do what I can.
If somebody's hungry, I do. I don't want to see somebody
hungry. I don't. But I'm going to tell you something, me giving
somebody something to eat is not going to save their soul.
There's not a little good in a man as he's born in Adam. There's
none good. God Almighty looked. I'll prove
this to you. Psalm 14. I mean, there's a little
good in all men. That's what men say. Listen to
what God says. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children
of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek
God. They're all gone aside. They're all together become filthy. They stink is what that word
means. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. How many good people are born in
Adam? None! They all stink. Every one of
them stinks. It seems right that there's a
little good, and if I can convince you enough, if I can talk to
you long enough, that I'll be able to draw that good out. There's
nothing there to draw out. It seems right, secondly, that
God loves everybody and Christ died for everybody. It seems right that God loves
everybody. But the Scripture sets forth,
Jacob have I loved and Esau have I... Now let me tell you the
normal interpretation of this. Loved less. Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I loved less. The Scripture says, Jacob I hated.
Some might say, you mean to tell me that God would hate? He said
He did. He said He did. I'll read this
to you. Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12. Now listen to this. Hebrews 12. You know, the problem that we
have, all of us, is that we read things and we just don't see
it. We read it. Listen to this. Hebrews 12.6.
This is where I was studying the other day. I had it in Hebrews.
For whom the Lord loveth. For whom the Lord loveth. He
chasteneth. He teaches. And scourgeth. He spanks. Every son whom he
receiveth. If you endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons. Now let me tell you what that
just said. God has some sons. God has some sons. And those
sons, He's going to chase them. I'm going to tell you this real
quick. And Lord willing, when I preach
this here, whenever, I'll bring it up again. But do you want
to know the greatest chastisement? The greatest chastisement that
a believer goes through is when he realizes that there is a withdrawal
of God's Spirit from him because of my disobedience, of my rebellion. You that are married, you love
your wife, your wife loves you. Sometimes things, you know, you
get into a discussion about something. And things don't always, you
know, you're feeling you're right and she thinks she's right or
vice versa. And after a while, you know what,
you just don't say anything. Just don't say anything. I'm
telling you, you're thinking to yourself, you know what? We're
going to have to get this right. This is going to get over with.
Man, right now, I don't like not talking. You're walking around
the house and it's just uneasy. I don't like this. I don't like
this. That's what David meant when he said, Take not thy spirit
away from me. Hide not your face from me. Show me why you're contending
with me. That's the greatest chastisement. Somebody says, well, I'd hate
to have to go through sickness. Let me tell you something. feel, know, realize the presence
of Almighty God and freedom, what difference does it make? Some people in here have been
sick. You know what it feels like to be sick. But I'm telling
you, with the peace of God that surpasses all understanding,
it's fine. It's fine. Our Lord does all
things well. Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. Deals with them as sons. But
if you're not being chastised, if you feel not the weightiness
of the loss of God's presence, there's the chastisement. You
don't care because you're not His. Illegitimate. Illegitimate. I'm telling you,
chastening is a realization I've offended God. And the Lord deals
with that as He does with children. Here's the third thing. It seems
right that God desires to save all men, but He can't unless
that man accepts Christ as his own personal Savior by his own
free will. That seems right. That seems
right to man. The Lord died for everybody,
they say. That seems right. Well, if He
died for everybody, if He shed His blood for everybody, and
paid for everybody's debt, and one person goes to hell, God's
not just. Because Christ died for everybody. His blood was shed for everybody.
But then they'll add, Well, no, I mean, you got accepted. He
died for you, but he got accepted. Well, then that means that your
salvation was based on your works. And it's not by works of righteousness
that we're saved. By His mercy, grace. Let me tell
you something. There's a way that seems right,
but the end thereof are the ways of death. That way that always
seemeth right is the way to damnation. There's
one way. Listen to Jeremiah. Lord, I know that the way of
man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh
to direct his steps, to establish, to fix, to apply. This way that
seemeth right to man has one end, and it's death. The way of death is for a man to think that he
is the author, the sustainer of his salvation. Verse 25 says,
"...there is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death." And quickly, this last verse, verse 26, back
in Proverbs 16, "...he that laboreth for himself For his mouth craveth it of him."
Those two words, he that laboreth, laboreth, they're two different
words. The first word, laboreth, he
that laboreth, that word laboreth means to toil in misery. To toil in misery. To labor. as a wicked workman. That's what it means. He that
laboreth to toil in misery, I'm doing the best I can. I read my Bible every day. I pray every day. I give tithes of all I have. If you think that that is your
salvation, you are laboring, toiling in misery as a wicked
workman. The second laboring means to
labor with severe irksomeness. You're just doing something and
it is just irksome. That way that seemeth right to
you. I've been faithful all of these
years. So here's what verse 26 is saying. He that is a wicked workman,
one that's laboring in misery, is laboring with severe irritation. irksomeness. Irritation to himself
because his labor is never going to stand before God Almighty. And it's irritating to God Almighty
because God Almighty is holy. He that laboreth miserably as
a wicked workman is just irritating. Irritating. Lord, we've done
all these mighty works, and yet I never I knew you. I never knew you." But the reason is that a false
professor, false hope, is laboring for his salvation. The reason
he's doing it, the end of that verse says, "...for his mouth
craveth it of him." The word mouth there is a word
that means to break in pieces. The word also means according
to his mind or to his wish. Craveth means to curve as with
a burden or to urge. So here's what it's saying. Man's broken mind, that mind
broken in pieces, In birth, in Adam, born dead, born broke. That mind that's broken in pieces
by being born in Adam and by my own transgression, I have sinned against God. You
have too. That mind that's broken urges
or presses with a burden. to establish his own righteousness. This is what I crave. This is
what I want. And he labors miserably. And this is going to be the end
of it. After he's done all he can do, and he's worked all of
his life, and he's just tried so hard, and he's gone to church,
and he's just one of the charter members, and I'm telling you,
he's always here, and he goes on Tuesday night visitations,
and he's just on and on and on. I told you about my uncle one
day. He came up to me. I saw him and
he just hated the gospel of God's grace. He came up and he opened
up his Bible right here at the front. I said, look there. Gave his name. Deacon. Deacon. Irksome. Just broken mind. wants to say that I'm saved because
I'm it. There's a way that seemeth right
unto man. But the ways thereof are the
ways of death. There's one way. Here's the last
Scripture. Matthew 11, 28. Come unto Me.
Come unto Me. Not your will, not your works,
not your church, come unto Me. All ye that labor, all you that
are struggling, heavy laden, I will give you rest." How does a man come to Christ? I can tell you how he comes to
Christ. God draws him. God draws him. God draws him. What should I do? Hear the Word
of God. Hear the Word of the Lord. What words should I listen to?
I want to tell you, I know that
everybody says everybody else is wrong, but I'm going to ask
you one thing. You search these Scriptures. If Almighty God is pleased to
save a man, save a woman, He's going to get them under the sound
of the gospel that gives the Lord Jesus Christ all the honor,
all the glory, all the praise. And if you hear anything that
gives man any honor, any responsibility to establish righteousness before
God, it's wrong. God Almighty is the author and
finisher of the faith of His people. Salvation is all of grace. If you had anything to do with
it, it's wrong. It's wrong. There's a way that
seemeth right. The end thereof is the way of
death. Lord, save me or I'm going to perish for Christ's sake.