We're gonna look at verses three through five. We're gonna look at false sons and true, false sons and true. And let's read it first and then I wanna show you a couple of things.

Verse three, but draw near hither ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore. Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Against whom make ye a wide mouth and draw out the tongue? Are you not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the cliffs of the rocks?

Now, to show you that The sin that he's speaking of here is not trusting the Lord Jesus. That's the sin, not trusting the Lord Jesus. Look down at verse 10. Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way, yet saddest thou not, there is no hope. Thou hast found the life of thine hand, therefore thou was not grieved. He said, verse 12, I will declare thy righteousness and thy works, for they shall not profit thee. He says, when thou cryest, let thy companies deliver thee, but the wind shall carry them all away. Vanity shall take them, but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain.

Sin that he's speaking of here is not believing on the Lord. It's the sin of looking to one's own hand, one's own will, one's own works.

Now, I try to preach Christ, and that exposes everything that's false. When you preach Christ the truth, that exposes lies. When you preach Christ the way, One way to the Father, Christ the way, that exposes all man's many vain ways that always end in death. When you preach Christ the life, that exposes everything else being death. Christ the light dispels the darkness.

But we come to verses like this, and this is the word of the Lord. So we preach what he said. We preach what the Lord said. Go verse by verse. This is God's description of sinners who appear righteous before men. It's a picture of sinners who appear like they're holy men, zealous for God.

Just like we have a so-called church on just about every corner, they had a place under every green tree. And I just don't want you to think of this as some wild folks. This is Israel. This is Judah. Children of Israel, the children of Judah. They had God's law, but they didn't hear it declared them guilty. They thought they kept it. They thought they could come to God by it. They had the priesthood and ceremonies, but they didn't see Christ, our high priest. And they didn't come trusting him alone. They stopped coming to the temple even, where God said he'd meet with his people. The mercy seat, where God said, I'll meet with you above the mercy seat. They made them places more convenient, closer to home, more convenient. And liked those places because they were under the green tree, the shade was good. That's about what men look for in a church. about that vein, the shade's good.

But as you hear this description that God gives of every sinner attempting to come to God by their works, by their will, as we hear this, we're gonna try to contrast it with the work Christ has accomplished and the work that he works in his people by which we're saved.

So first of all, God says, will worshipers, work mongers, are children of the sorceress. He says in verse three, draw near hither ye sons of the sorceress. This meant they were children born of witchcraft. Children born of witchcraft. That's what God calls will works religion. That's what he calls Anybody who's trying to come to God because of something in us. No matter what name it goes by, no matter what the religion, the name of the religion, even if it calls itself Christianity, it's sorcery, it's witchcraft, it's disobedience. If the person is not solely trusting Christ alone, to do the saving, looking to Christ only to do the saving.

Now, God declares it's disobedience and he calls disobedience witchcraft. That's why he calls it sons of the sorceress. It's his witchcraft. That sounds bad, doesn't it? Well, you probably wouldn't think much of somebody who's sitting under witchcraft. That's what God calls false religion.

You remember in Galatians 3, the Galatians had heard this lie that once you believe on Christ for righteousness, then you go to the law and by your works make yourself holy. And Paul said, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? Bewitched, like witchcraft, sorcery. Who has bewitched you that you should not obey The truth. Before whose eyes the truth hath been evidently set forth. Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth, crucified among you. This only would I learn of you. Received you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Was it the gospel of Christ or was it your works by which God gave you the spirit? Having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?

Go with me to 1 Samuel 15. God told King Saul to utterly destroy Agag, the king of the Amalekites, and all the Amalekites and all their cattle. Now that's a picture of when God grants you true repentance from trusting anything in yourself, to trust Christ only. What we see here is what God calls it if a man is looking to one sacrifice that he's made, one work he's done, to add to what Christ has done. This is what God says about it.

God told Saul to go down there and kill Agag, kill all the Amalekites, all the sheep, all the oxen, everything. And then it says here in verse 13, 1 Samuel 15, 13, Samuel came to Saul and Saul said unto him, blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, what meaneth then this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears? Why do I hear sheep bleeding? And the lowing of the oxen which I hear. And Saul said, they have brought them from the Amalekites. For the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we've utterly destroyed.

Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, Was thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?

And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I've gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. See, he's saying, we just brought, we just spared these sheep to sacrifice to the Lord, and we got the best of them to sacrifice to the Lord. And Samuel said, hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. and to hearken than the fat of rams, to obey God's better than sacrifice.

He said, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, sorcery, sorcery, and stubbornness is as iniquity. Iniquity is good works, righteous works that don't equal the righteousness of God. He said, not obeying God is as witchcraft its iniquity and its idolatry. And because thou has rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected thee from being king."

Now, here's a question I have for you. I've heard men use that to speak just the opposite of what it's saying. I've heard men use that passage of Saul and speak of obedience. and speak of doing, making good works and sacrifices for God. Well, what he's saying is obeying God's better than anything you can offer to God, any sacrifice you can offer. So here's my question. What does God say in his word for you and me, the sinner? What does he say is true obedience? What does he say is obedience?

With holy God, obedience is to come to God one way. Casting all your care into the hand of his son, the Lord Jesus. Believing on his son, trusting his son. to make you righteous by His obedience, not your sacrifice, not your works. Trust in the Lord Jesus, and we give God the glory for even giving us the heart and the spiritual life and the heart to believe on Christ. We don't even take glory for that. It's all of God. He gives us faith.

With holy God, a sinner is obedient to God By the power of the Lord Jesus, we made willing in the day of his power, willing to do what? To renounce ourselves as utterly, totally sinful. To confess to God that our very best works are filthy in God's sight. Not only that, our own nature is nothing but sin, wickedness. By nature, we're the son of the sorcerer. Witchcraft. Born of witchcraft. That's how bad we are in our flesh. It's to come to God confessing in my flesh dwells no good thing. Father, I need mercy. I need mercy in your son. I need his righteousness. I need him to save me and him alone. That's what God says is obedience. Coming to God and confessing our sin. Coming to God and confessing that all our former confidence Everything that we look to and thought was salvation is only dung. We count it loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. We want to be found in his righteousness alone, not having any righteousness of our own. That's what God calls obedience. That's killing the Amalekites. That's killing Agag. That's killing the sheep and the oxen and coming with nothing in our hands. trusting Christ only. Our Savior declared, that's obedience to God. He said, that's what God commands. And that's what he teaches us through this gospel.

That group came over, Christ fed them with the fish and the loaves, and they followed him all the way across the sea because they wanted to get their belly full. And they came to him and they said, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? And Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent.

Over and over the Lord says what he said there to Saul. He said to Ephraim, he said, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. I desire to save by mercy, not your sacrifice. The knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. That's what our, and our Lord Jesus said that. He told them, the Pharisees came and they saw him sitting there in the house and they said, why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? And when Jesus heard, he said unto them, they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

You see, by nature, every one of us is the son of the sorcerer. By nature, you know, there was a time I might have preached this passage and preached about false religion and idolaters being out there, the will worshiper out there. You know what I am in my sinful nature? An idolater. In my nature, I'm a will worshiper. I'm a workmonger, am I? I'm a Pharisee in my sinful nature. I have to be saved for me every day. Coming to God with no sacrifice, with nothing in your hand, coming to God begging mercy. The sacrifices of God are a broken heart, a broken and a contrite spirit. Coming to the Lord empty, empty, empty.

The Lord Jesus Christ obeyed God for his people. He alone fulfilled the law. We're made righteous by the obedience of one. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Go to Romans 3. God's not gonna save us because any sacrifices we make. It's because of the obedience of his son. The last verse here in Romans 3. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law through faith. The only way you and me establish the law, that is the only way we're righteous. The righteousness of God is because Christ fulfilled the law. He established the law for us by his obedience. Our faith looks to him to establish righteousness for us, and we know that because just keep reading.

He says, what shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? Abraham lived 430 years before the law was given. How was he made righteous then? How did he establish the law? If Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before God. God's not gonna share his glory, not the glory that belongs to his dear son. What saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not imputed of grace but of debt. If you're working for, if you're sacrificing, it's not of mercy, it's not of grace, it's a debt owed. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. God imputes righteousness to his people through faith, not by our works.

Even as David described it, the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. God only imputes what a man has been made. The reason God imputed sin to us is because Adam made us sin. By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. And when God imputes righteousness to us, brethren, it is because Christ made us righteous by his obedience. It's not because of any works we did. It's not by sacrifice. It's by the blood of the lamb. It's by the Lord Jesus, by the obedience of one. God's not, he doesn't, I can impute, I can impute a crime to you. That doesn't make you commit the crime. You don't make anybody anything by imputing it to them. That's the true use of that word in the scripture. When God imputes, it's because of what a man's been made. When He imputed sin to us, it's because Adam made us sin. When He imputes righteousness, it's because Christ made us righteous by His obedience. That's the blessing, by the obedience of one.

That's what He means when He says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. He saves by mercy. Me and you didn't do anything. We are the ungodly, and it was pure mercy, pure grace by which we're saved. And when he gives you a new heart by his power, by the Christ being formed in you, causing you to look away from this sinful, wretched body to him alone, he makes, he says, this is my commandment, that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. That's what he brings his child to do. That's the obedience God's interested in. You looking to the obedience of his son, the author and finisher of our faith.

Now, back in our text, secondly, God says will workers are illegitimate children. He says there in verse three, the seed, the children of the adulterer and the whore. That's what we all are by first birth. And in folks in religion, there's another Jesus that's not the true Jesus. and a false church that's called in scripture the harlot, and the children produced are the seed of the adulterer and the whore. Christ is the faithful husband. He's the husband. His church that he assembles is the bride, the faithful mother, and it's through the preaching of the gospel that we're born of the incorruptible seed. Peter said, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And he said, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. We're married to Christ, and he's made us holy in the new man, and he's robed us in his righteousness through faith, and he calls us chaste virgins. Paul said, I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

But the so-called church, this so-called church that preaches man, that says that new birth is of man's will, and says righteousness is of man's works, and holiness is of man's works, This is the harlot. God calls children produced by that message the seed of the adulterer and the whore. That means they're not holy children. They're illegitimate children.

Go with me to Revelation 17. Revelation 17, one. There came one of the seven angels which had the seven vows and talked with me saying unto me, come hither. I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls. See, she's attractive. False religion is attractive to carnal man. It's very attractive to carnal man, like a harlot. That's how she does her business. And the woman had a cup, she had a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration, John even, had admiration toward her, that's how attractive she was.

And the angel said unto me, why did you marvel? I'll tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her. He says, look at Revelation 17, 15. He said to me, the waters which thou sawest, where the horse sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes and nations and tongue, people out of every tribe and kindred.

And he said, look at Revelation 18, three, for all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her and the merchants of the earth are wax rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

And he said, And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, that you receive not of her plagues. That's what Christ spoke into your heart when he quickened you and gave you faith to trust him alone. He called you out of your own idolatry and your own vain imagination and out from the great harlot of this world.

For her sins have reached to heaven. Verse five, God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you. Double unto her, double according to her works. In the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double how much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously. So much torment and sorrow give her, for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

Our faithful husband spoke effectually through this gospel and said, come out from false religion, come out from among her, He made you to see you couldn't be saved by your obedience. You couldn't be saved by your works. No amount of tears could make you accepted with God. You could be sorry over your sin. You could do anything and everything that religion told you to do, and it would not atone for your sin. The Lord Jesus made us see He alone put away our sin, and He alone made us righteous. And he alone speaks that word affectionately and gave you faith to look to him and repentance from yourself and all the vain works and all your former confidence to come out from that and look to him only. He did that.

Now, go back to our text. The Lord declares here that the false religionists but make their boast and they mock Christ and his people. He said, verse four, against whom do you sport yourselves? Against whom make ye a wide mouth and draw out the tongue? It's always the children of the flesh that persecute the Lord's people.

I've seen this lately and it just is so obvious to me. Like I have people that will send me sermons email sermons to me to correct me because of what I'm preaching. I never think of doing that to people. I'll send a message to brethren that ask for it or something like that, but I'm saying go on websites and write up slanderous things. Take your message and just tear it apart and say every kind of slanderous thing against you.

The Lord's people aren't doing that. Sheep aren't doing that. Wolves do that. Sheep don't attack, wolves attack. Listen to the scripture, Galatians 4, 28. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now. But you know what the Lord said? Remember what he told Samuel, he said, they've not rejected you, Samuel, they rejected me.

Here's my message. All flesh is grass. Our greatest glory, our best works is like the flower of the field. It just withers away because the Lord blows upon it. And it's just grass, not fit for any use whatsoever. That's our flesh. That's all our works.

Here's my message, Christ is salvation, Christ is righteousness, Christ is holiness, Christ is redemption, Christ is wisdom, Christ is our captain, he's our refuge, he's everything.

And the way God saved us, the whole purpose of the cross was to manifest God's righteousness. That was the purpose. God said, he said, if you condemn an innocent man and you clear a guilty man, he said, both are an abomination to the Lord. Our Lord will never, he will never condemn an innocent man and he will never clear a guilty man. His law must be honored because he's righteous, he's just, he always does right.

And he hath made him sin for us who knew no sin that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. and he really made him sin. You know how I know? Because Romans 8 said, he spared not his own son. Why would we be told that if he didn't really lay on him the iniquity of all his people? And when he made him sin for us, God numbered, he reckoned, he imputed him right along with the transgressors. He knew no sin. He did no sin. He was not a sinner.

But our Lord was made the very thing that created our death. Just like that serpent was biting them in the wilderness and the Lord commanded him, you make a serpent and lift it up on a pole. The very thing that was killing the people lifted up there on that pole. and they look to that serpent and they'll be saved. Christ was made the sin that caused our death. And then, in justice, God poured out justice on him. He made him a curse for us because it was the just thing to do. God will never pour out justice on an innocent man and he'll never clear a guilty man. He's just.

If we were in a court of law and your son was being charged with murder, And you came before an earthly judge, and that earthly judge, you know your son's innocent. You got all the proof in the world that he's innocent. And that judge says, I'm charging you with murder. I'm imputing murder to you. Would you call him just? No. Our God is a just God and a Savior. He saved us in a way that is absolutely, totally just.

And so now, brethren, when He calls you to Himself, and He gives you life, and He gives you faith, and He calls you to believe on Christ, and He makes you to know in the court of your conscience, He purges your conscience from the dead works of trying to come to God by anything you do. He purges your conscience, he makes you believe on Christ, and he makes you to know, I've imputed to you righteousness. And I'm not playing as if you're righteous, I'm imputing it to you because my son made you righteous by his obedience. By his obedience to the death of the cross.

It's not an as if gospel we believe. He said, you reckon, you impute ye yourselves also to be dead indeed unto sin. How'd that happen? I am crucified with Christ. It's not as if I was. I was in his loins, just like Levi was in the loins of Abraham. And when he died under the justice of God, I died under the justice of God. And so did all God's elect. And impute yourselves also to be alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. How's that? When he came out of that grave, we came out of that grave with him. And when he sat down at God's right hand, we sat down at God's right hand.

And here's what he says to us, Colossians 3. If you're risen with Christ, set your affection on things above, not on this earth. You know what he was speaking about when he said, don't set your affection on things on this earth? Right before that in Colossians 2, he said, these men are coming with these vain commandments of touch not, taste not, handle not. Don't act as though your life's in this world and depends upon you touching and not touching and doing and not doing. He said, if you're risen with Christ, you set your affection, singular affection, your singular affection on the one single object of faith, that's Christ the Lord.

Why? Because you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Brethren, there is no sense ever in this scripture that God speaks of salvation, of righteousness, of holiness as being seated there. He never speaks of it as if. In other words, imputation is not God treating you like you're righteous. It's not God treating you as if he imputes to you what Christ has made you to be. Isn't that good news? That's good news.

I'm not trying to obey the law. I'm not trying to keep the law. I'm not trying to break it. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not trying to break the law. But I'm not minding the commandments of the law and trying to keep the law. The faith that God has given me looks to Christ, and the faith he's given me knows this. I have obeyed the law as God reckons it to be obeyed, in perfect righteousness, with a perfectly holy heart. Clay, you can't say you did that. No, I didn't. I didn't, but I did. In Christ, I did. I've kept it perfectly with a perfectly holy heart. In Christ, he did it. And what he did, God says, I did, and that's so of all his elect.

So men that are inflamed with their idols and evergreen tree and they're sticking out their tongue and they're making light of this gospel and all the things that they do, brethren, they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting the Lord. They're rejecting God. They didn't see goodness in Christ. They didn't see Him being holy and righteous. They're not going to see it in you.

And when you tell sinners, the one thing a sinner can't do, he'll do anything you give him to do. He'll do any work you tell him to do if he can have a part in trying to make himself right. The one thing a sinner can't do is nothing. Nothing. Stop working and trust Christ alone. You can sell salvation any day of the week. Men will buy it. They'll pay whatever price you name. But you can't give it away. You can't make a sinner take it for free. God has to do that. God has to make you know you can't work for it. It's free. Justified freely by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Free.

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God, not sons of the sorcerer, not sons of witchcraft, the sons of God, all by his free grace. Therefore, the world knows us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

When you have that hope, he said, man, it has his hope, purifies himself. What's that mean? That means when you hear the Lord say, come out from that harlot, come out from those sorcerers, come out from all that works religion and trust me to save you, that's what you're going to do. You're going to come out and look to him only and say, he's all my salvation. Isn't that so?

To God be the glory, brethren. Let's pray and then Brother Adam will lead us in a closing hymn.

Father, thank you for this word. Lord, pray you bless it and make your people to hear it. Make it a blessing by your word, Lord, in the heart, by your spirit in the heart. Lord, make us see Christ is all. And if we have him, we have all. Lord, don't let us ever look to anything in our hand. Don't let us look to our will or anything in this world. Keep our affection set solely on Christ only.

We thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for free salvation that cost our Savior dearly. Thank you, Lord, that you've robed us in his righteousness, that we're seated there at your right hand. Keep us, Lord, for His sake. In His name we pray, amen.