Let's turn to Isaiah 57. I don't
think I could have chosen a better passage. If I would have been
asking somebody to read, I probably would have asked them to read
Isaiah 1. We preach the gospel in a positive
way. I try to declare to you the gracious,
successful works of our God in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ. But occasionally we come to a passage in the scripture
where God's dealing with will works religion, with false religion,
the religion of free will and the works of men. And we come
to a passage dealing with false religion. God has nothing good
to say about it, nothing positive to say. But as we look at the
text tonight, we see this horribly negative word that God says against
false religion. Keep in mind, this is God's Word. This is God's description of
Will Works Religion. Now, in our text, he's speaking
directly to Israel. That's who he's speaking to.
You saw there in the passage that Brother Robert read. He's
speaking to the children of Israel. God gave Israel his law. That is his word. He gave them
his prophets. He gave them his priests. He
gave them his temple. They had every advantage, but
they followed the word of false prophets, and they followed them
into gross idolatry and into gross iniquity. And yet, the
whole time they did it, they claimed they were the children
of Jehovah, worshiping God, looking forward to for Christ to come. That's just the same as false
religion in our day. Do the same exact thing. In fact,
look at Isaiah 58 verse 2. He said, They seek me daily,
and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness,
and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of me
the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching
to God. That was their form. That's what you would have seen
if you looked at them outwardly. But here's what God says about
them. Isaiah 57 verses 3 through 5. But draw near hither, ye sons
of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.
Against whom do you 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 clefts
of the rocks? Now, in these three verses, God
declares that those in false religion are exactly what they
preach against. They are exactly what they condemn
and what they preach against. First of all, God says will workers
are children of the sorceress. Children of the sorceress. He
says there in verse 3, draw near hither ye sons of the sorceress. It means they're sons of of disobedient
teachers. They're the sons converted by
disobedient teachers, teachers that are disobedient to God and
that they're disobedient. They're disobedient themselves.
Sorcery is witchcraft. It's black magic. It's devil
worship. That's what sorcery is. And that's
what God is saying false religion is. It's to be a son of witchcraft. It's to be a son of magic. Of devil worship. Turn over to
1 Samuel chapter 15. You're very familiar with this. 1 Samuel chapter 15. You remember whenever God sent
King Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites, along with all
their sheep and their oxen and everything, He said, just wipe
it off the face of the earth. But King Saul, being the fine
religious man he was, he came back with the king of Amalek
as a prisoner. And he came back with the fattest
sheep and the fattest oxen and all the chief things of the Amalekites. And he was going to offer those
things to God. Like probably thinking about
the first fruits, thinking these are the first fruits of the spoil. I'm going to offer this to God.
Now listen to what Samuel says to him in 1 Samuel 15 and verse
22. 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 is better than the fat of rams.
Why? Because rebellion is as the sin
of witchcraft. That's sorcery. That's what he
says. You're the sons of rebellion.
You're the sons of witchcraft. Look, and stubbornness is as
iniquity and idolatry. To disobey God is sin. It's iniquity. To disobey God
is idolatry. To not worship God the way God
says He is to be worshipped is idolatry. It is idolatry. God's pleased with one offering.
He's pleased with one sacrifice. That's His Son. He provided the
offering He's satisfied with. He provided the sacrifice that
pleases Him. It's His Son. And all through
the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms and all through the
New Testament, This whole book is declaring that one offering
and that one sacrifice that God's pleased with His Son. And He's
calling on His preachers to preach His Son, and He's calling on
those that hear to believe on His Son. And He says, now, stop
making sacrifices and stop making offerings and obey God. Obey
God. God's prophets of old, those
prophets that were sent to declare the Word of God and God's preachers
today in this gospel age, both were sent by God to use one means,
prophesy and preaching. That was what they were sent
to do. Not to use any other means, just prophesy in the Old Testament
and preach in the New. This is what they were sent to
do. And they were sent to prophesy and to preach about one, the
Lord Jesus Christ. The message was Christ and Him
crucified. It was the message in the Old
Testament. Look over with me at Luke, I mean at John 5 and
verse 39. Speaking of the Old Testament
prophets and the Old Testament scriptures which were delivered
by the prophets, Christ said this. John 5 verse 39. He says, the
Scriptures, he's talking about the Old Testament Scriptures,
and look at the bottom. He says, they are they which
testify of me. That meant whenever the prophets
were sent, God said, you use this one means and you preach
this one person. You go and you prophesy of this
one person, Christ the Lord. You write down my words, that's
what God told them to do. Now, if they're not going to
be sons of the sorceress, and they're not going to be the sorceress
themselves, then what do they need to do? They need to go and
use that one means and preach that one message. Look back at
Luke 24 and verse 27. This is on the road to Emmaus,
and Christ declared here what Moses and all true prophets did
as they obeyed God. They didn't disobey God. They
didn't rebel against God. They didn't use sorcery and witchcraft. They weren't rebellious. They
obeyed God. And by obeying God, here's what they were sent to
do. Verse 27, Luke 24, 27. Christ says, Let me find it. Verse 24. It
says here, Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
That means true prophets obeyed God. They wrote the Old Testament
scriptures about Christ. That one message. Look at Romans
1. Romans 1. I'm trying to show you that the
true obedience to God for His preacher, for His prophet of
old and His preacher today, is to use the one method and declare
the one message. Romans 1, 2. in the first verse
spoke of being a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
separated unto the gospel of God. And then he says in verse
2, which He, which Christ our God, had promised afore by His
prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, made of the seed of David according to the flesh.
That's what the prophets They were sent to declare Christ the
Lord. Look at 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. And look at chapter 1 and verse 10.
Peter says all true prophets obeyed God. They used one method,
prophesying, and they prophesied one message, and that was Christ
to come. Look at 1 Peter 1.10. of which salvation the prophets
have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that
should come unto you." That was their message. That was their
message, a true prophet who obeyed God. They searched what or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. That was their message that they
were sent with. Unto whom it was revealed. God
revealed to the prophets that not unto themselves, but unto
us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you
by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy
Ghost sent down from heaven. In other words, He told the prophets
this wasn't going to come to pass in their time, but it was
going to come to pass in our time that Christ would come.
But you see, the message they were sent to preach is the same
message that preachers in this age preach. Look back at 1 Corinthians
1 now. In this gospel age, if we're
going to obey God and not be a sorcerer, a sorceress, a child
of rebellion, disobeying God, then his true preacher is going
to preach Christ. And he's just going to use this
one method, preaching. Look at 1 Corinthians 1.17. Christ sent me not to baptize,
Paul said. In other words, my focus is not
to try to make converts. It's not to try to build a church,
plant a church, and all these things that men talk about. That's
not the purpose that Christ sent his preacher for. But to preach
the gospel. That's it. That's it. To preach
the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved is the power of God." Look at verse
21. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. When he says
they were sons of the sorceress, the sorceress he's talking about
were the false prophets. They didn't do, they didn't use
this one method and they didn't preach, they didn't prophesy
of this one to come of Christ. They were rebellious sons like
King Saul was. They talked about sacrifices
and offerings and other things. They didn't talk about the message.
They didn't prophesy of the message. And then furthermore, now let's
go to the believer side of it. What is it that God tells those
who hear this gospel to do? What are we to do? Are we to
sacrifice and make offerings and all that? What are we to
do? What is it to obey and be a son of God rather than a son
of the sorceress? John 6, 29, Jesus answered and
said, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom
he has sinned. And John said again over in 1
John 3.23, this is His commandment that we should believe on the
name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave
us His commandment. So, in the Old Covenant, under
the Old Covenant, when that prophet came forth, if he's going to
be obedient, if he's a true prophet of God, he's going to use one
method, he's going to prophesy. And he's going to have one message,
he's going to prophesy of Christ. And those who hear, if they're
sons of God, they're going to believe on Christ. And they're
going to continue with their brethren, hearing the prophecies
of Christ to come, trusting Christ to come, and resting in Christ
alone. That's what obedient sons of
God do. Were the Old Testament saints
saved the same way as we're saved? Absolutely. Look at Hebrews.
Hebrews chapter 11. Absolutely. Hebrews 11. He goes all the way back, all
the way back to Abel. Look at verse 4. By faith, Abel. By faith, Abel. offered unto
God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Well, I thought we
weren't supposed to offer sacrifices. This is a coming to God by faith
in the blood of Christ. That's what Abel did. You've
got to remember now, he's under the old covenant still. So he's
coming to God in the blood of a lamb. That's a picture of New
Testament coming to God in the blood of Christ. That's how he
came. And look what it says here at the end there. It says, And
he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of
his gifts. Abel was made the righteousness
of God generations and generations before the law was ever given
at Mount Sinai. How? Through faith in Christ,
the righteousness of God. Look down at verse 7. By faith, Noah. What did he do? He obeyed God. He built the ark,
just like God told him to, and look what it says became of Noah. It says, he became heir of the
righteousness, which is by faith. The righteousness which is by
faith is that righteousness of Christ our Lord that Christ gives
to us through faith. Look down at verse 8. By faith
Abraham, when he was called out, he obeyed. He obeyed God. And this is what the Lord said
about Abraham. He said, Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day. He rejoiced to see my day. And
he saw it and he was glad. And 430 years before the law
was ever given at Mount Sinai, Abraham was made righteous. Listen
to this, and I want you to look at this later, but in Romans
3.31, Paul said, Do we then make void the law through faith? No, we establish the law. And men will say, what he's saying
there is that we don't throw the law out. Now we establish,
after we believe, then we go back to the law and we establish
the law. That's not what he's saying at all. I know what he's
saying at all. Because if you read on, and don't
even pretend there's a chapter division there, he says, no,
we establish the law through faith. And he says, for what
shall we say then that Abraham found? For if Abraham were justified
by works, he has whereof the glory. but he can't glory before
God because God won't have it. He said, what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. He was made righteousness through
faith in Christ long before the law ever came along. All right,
look here at Moses in Hebrews 11 verse 24. All right, here's
a man who had the law. Was he made righteous by the
law? Hebrews 11, 24 says, By faith Moses, when he was come
to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
By faith Moses. Now look down at verse 26. He
esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures
in Egypt. He was made righteous through
faith in Christ. Every sinner saved under the
Old Testament was saved by the everlasting covenant of grace,
which requires no works on the sinner's part. It brings the
sinner to cast all his care into the hands of Christ and believe
on Christ. That's how they all were made
the righteousness of God and how they all were saved. Look
back up at Hebrews 11, verse 13. These all died in faith. not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and
embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth." What does it mean that they saw the
promises and embraced the promises? Paul said, all the promises of
God are in Christ, yes, and in Christ, amen, to the glory of
God by us. We praise and glory God that
all the promises that He made to us are fulfilled in Christ
the Lord. That's what these all saw. By
faith, when it says by faith, they all looked to Christ and
saw all God's promises to them would be fulfilled in Christ.
And it says they looked for a city whose builder and maker is God.
Remember Paul said, our conversation, our citizenship is in heaven. from which we look for the Lord
our Savior, Jesus Christ. That's the city they look for.
That's why they confess they were pilgrims on this earth.
They were looking for a heavenly city, a city that God had made.
And they did so through the everlasting covenant of grace. Even Moses,
when he was under that old covenant, he still was saved by the covenant
of grace. And just like David, who said,
God made with me an everlasting covenant. Ordered in all things
and sure. Now why did the Hebrew writers
show us this list of believers under the Old Testament? to teach
you and I that to be obedient to God, you run this race believing
on Christ. Look at Hebrews 12, 1. Wherefore,
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God." So the point
I'm making to you is, when God sends His preacher, He sends
him with one means. Preaching. Preaching. That's
the means we're to use. Preaching. And the message we're
to use is Christ and Him crucified. That was the means and method
of the Old Testament prophets and that's the means and message
of the New Testament preachers as well. And those who would
believe and obey or would obey God, who hear the message, obey
by believing on Christ, turning from our works and resting in
Christ. That's to be a child of God. But God says in our text that
the false prophets, like false preachers today, they were the
sorceress, because they rebelled against God, they disobeyed God,
they used other means, and they brought a message other than
Christ and Him crucified. That's what it means. All you
have to do is look at those scribes and Pharisees in the Lord's day
when he walked this earth. It's the same people he's talking
about here. All you have to do is look around in our day and
see what are men preaching? What methods are they using?
Will workers disobey by preaching another gospel which is not another? You know, the word gospel means
good news. And if you know you're a sinner
and you cannot do anything, you cannot save yourself, you cannot
do anything, the only thing that's going to be good news to you
is to know that God has provided everything you need in a federal
head who is your substitute and your savior in whom you're completely
righteous and accepted of God. That's good news. But you imagine
if, you know, if you're at your house and you can't pay your
mortgage and you're you know, over your head in debt and there's
nothing you can do, you're totally bankrupt, there's nothing you
can do. Would it be good news if I came to you and I said,
you know, all you've got to do is just make that first payment
and I'll make the rest? I can't make it. I don't have
anything to make the first payment with. I'm broke. That wouldn't be good news, would
it? But the one that came and said I paid it all for you, it's
done. That's good news, isn't it? That's
the difference between the true gospel and a gospel that is not
a gospel at all. They declare man's not spiritually
dead. In some form or another, that's
their message. They declare man's not spiritually
dead in trespasses and in sin. That is not helpless. They say
we're saved in part by our works, by our obedience to the law in
some regard. God says natural man is dead
in sins, dead in trespass and sin. He can't do a thing. It's
just impossible to preach Christ, to preach the cross of Christ
while declaring that sinners have a little bit of life and
a little bit of goodness in them. You can't preach Christ and preach
that. It's impossible. It's impossible to preach Christ
while preaching that sinners can obey the law of God. You
can't preach Christ and preach that. You can't preach Christ
and preach that sinners can bring themselves to Christ whenever
they will. You can't preach Christ and preach that. Those two messages
won't go together. They just won't. It's impossible
to preach Christ as the successful Redeemer while preaching that
Christ died for everybody and wants to save everybody. You
can't preach Him as a successful Redeemer by saying He died for
everybody. Because that means somebody He
died for is in hell and He didn't succeed. You just can't do it.
The very reason God sent His Son is that He sent Him to do
for His people what we absolutely cannot do for ourselves. He sent
Him to establish the law, to magnify the law, to declare that
God is just and that He's the justifier. That God is the Savior. Salvation is of the Lord. That's
the whole message that He sent. For that to be the case, you
and I have got to be dead in sins, unable to do a thing to
save us. A to Z. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. Will workers do something else too? They disobey
God by using other means. He says to his preacher, you
just preach. That's all. But they use other means. They
use other means. They want to make converts. Paul
said, he didn't send me to baptize. They want to baptize. They want
to make converts. They want to make the membership
role pregnant. They want to do that. So what
do they do? They use entertainment. They
have to appeal to your flesh. They use music that appeals to
the flesh. They use programs that appeal
to the flesh. Men like to see a church. If you're just somebody
that's just okay today, you're feeling under conviction, you
need to find a church. Well, you're going to start looking
for a church. Men that do that, they like to find a church that's
doing a lot out in the community. I want to see a church that's
doing stuff for poor folks and helping out poor folks. So you
know what churches advertise? They're almsgiving. That's exactly
what Christ said don't do. Because you will attract men
when you do that. They'll follow you when you do
that. Christ said don't do it. Don't do it. They advertise their
missions and how many churches they've planted and all that.
You know what Christ said about that? He said, they receive the
glory of men. Not just men praising them right
there, although they do, but men joining with them. Men wanting
to be with them. Men wanting to... I want to be
in that church. And look what the Lord said.
The Lord said they have their reward. That's their inheritance.
They got it. That's it. And look what verse
6 of our text says. Isaiah 57 and verse 6. Among the smooth stones of the
stream is thy portion. They are thy lot, that's your
inheritance. Natural stones, in the natural
water, in the natural stream, This natural religion that you're
worshiping and you're praising and you're glorying in, that's
your inheritance. That's your reward. And that's
sort of like what Christ said when he said you try to use your
almsgiving and your praying and all these things to attract men.
You have your reward. That's your inheritance. And
so God says then of those that hear these preachers and obey
what they say and start making offerings and sacrifices, Rather
than bow into Christ and rest in Christ, he says, they are
sons of the sorceress. The false preacher is the sorceress
and those that they convert are sons of the sorceress. That's
what he calls it. Hear the word of God. Hear the
word of God. He sent faithful Samuel, faithful
by his grace. Samuel went to King Saul and
he said this, it's better to obey than it is to sacrifice. It's better to obey God and bow
to His Son and rest in His Son, turn from our work, trust His
Son, than to try to make great sacrifices to get God to accept
us. It's much better. I tell you,
when Christ was in His Sermon on the Mount, And Christ said,
if you know your brother has ought against you, leave your
gift at the altar and turn and go to your brother and be reconciled
to your brother. He was speaking of himself. He's
the brother that's got ought against the man who's trying
to make sacrifices to work his way to heaven. And the best thing
you can do is what Samuel told Saul. Drop your sacrifices and
obey God. and go to Christ, the elder brother,
and be reconciled to him. Be reconciled to God. That's
the best thing. That's obedience to God. All
right, here's the second thing. God says will workers are not
sons of God. He says they're illegitimate
sons, illegitimate children. Isaiah 57, 3. He says they're
the seed, the children of the adulterer and the whore. And
for those that are truly saved by grace, believers, are Christ's
children. He's our everlasting father,
our faithful father. Our head for everlasting is Christ. And we're born of the church,
the faithful mother, his chaste bride, Christ's bride. And he's our faithful husband.
As the church of God, he's our faithful husband. Paul said,
I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy. Why? Because I've espoused you to
one husband, to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ, as his bride, his chaste bride. That's the
true church and our true husband. But spiritual adulterers are
those who reject our husband. They betray the marriage union
to Christ our husband. That's what an adulterer does.
He betrays the spouse. And a whore prostitutes herself
to others. And that's what all free will
works religion is. It's the religion of the great
whore. That's what it is. We're going
to look at that more next time. But let's turn to Revelation
17 and just read what God says about it. Revelation 17 verse
1. Now this is the false religion.
Jerusalem, which was the seed of God's true religion, by this
time in Isaiah's day, it was Babylon, is what it was. It was
Babylon. It was a heathen harlot. This is what Robert read. How
did the faithful city become a harlot? It once was filled
with judgment. Righteousness filled it because
God established it. But he left them to themselves.
and their natural heart came out. It was just a harlot. Wheel
works religion. Now, this is what God says about
it. There came one of the seven angels which had the seven vows
and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither. I'll show unto
thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many
waters, with whom the kings of the earth, that's literal kings,
and that's men and women who think they're all powerful and
can do what they will, wheel workers. The kings of the earth
have committed fornication with her. And the inhabitants of the
earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Look at verse 4. And the woman was arrayed in
purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious
stones and pearls. See, she's not an ugly woman.
False religion don't look bad to the natural eye. It's enticing
to the natural eye. Now look at this. And she had
a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness
of her fornication. That's what she's making them
drunk with. And upon her forehead was a name written. Mystery. A man that's in false religion
don't know he's in false religion. It's a mystery to him. 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,
slaying the children of God." Why? Because they didn't follow
her. Because they didn't join her. That's why. Look now at
Revelation 17, 15. And he said unto me, The waters
which you saw... Remember, she's sitting on many
waters. The waters which you saw, where
the horse sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations,
and tongues, all over the world. This false church. Revelation
18, 3. 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 waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. They've been
made prosperous on the earth, and it looks prosperous. It looks
like a form of godliness. Verse 4, I heard another voice
from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people. Leave her
alone. Come out of her, my people, that
you be not partakers of her sins, that you receive not of her plagues,
for her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered
her iniquities. He don't remember his people's
iniquities, he don't remember the iniquities of his church,
but he remembers hers. Look at this. Reward her even
as she rewarded you, and 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. That's the mark of the false
church, right there. That's the mark of will workers.
They glorify themselves. How much has she glorified herself
and lived deliciously. So, much torment and sorrow give
her. For she saith in her heart, I
sit a queen, and I'm no widow, and I'll see no sorrow." You
remember what the false watchman and their convert said at the
end of Isaiah 56? Remember what we saw? They said,
come, I will, and we will, we'll drink our fill, and tomorrow
will be just like today. We're going to live forever,
they said. That's what she said. Verse 8, 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 judged her. Sinner, hear what God says. He
says come out of false religion. If you don't believe Christ and
you're not united with Christ by His grace in His church, by
His planting, you're in one union with this harlot we just read
about. This harlot is politics, this harlot is the world's way,
the world's order, the upside down order of this world. Everything
that's disobedient to God and contrary to Christ is this harlot
and especially false religion, especially false religion. Now
God said that's what these people have become. Now go back to our
text and we have one more description, He said. Isaiah 57. He tells us here that false religion
makes their boast. And they boast against those
that they condemn. And yet God says they are exactly
the same as those that they condemn. Look here now at verse 4. Willworks'
religion boasts a glory. And in doing so, they're mocking
God. He says, verse 4, Against whom do you sport yourselves?
walking around with the chest poked out and are acting humble
and just so proud of their self-abasement and all of that, sporting themselves.
And he says, against whom make ye a wide mouth and draw out
the tongue. When we go on further in this,
as we go in Isaiah, we're going to see that they speak evil of
those that they condemn, those that they don't think measure
up to them, that are not as holy as them. Now listen to what God
says. God's saying here, you're condemning
disobedience. You open your mouth wide and
dry out your tongue and you condemn disobedience. And you think you're
righteous by your obedience to the law. But look at what he
says in verse 4. Are you not children of transgression? Didn't you refuse to obey me?
Your preachers have refused to preach my message using my means. And you've refused to obey and
believe on my son. Look, then he says, you preach
against adultery, you preach against whoredom, you preach
against idolatry. Verse 4, are you not a seed of
falsehood, inflaming yourselves with idols under every green
tree? He said, when that passage Robert
read, he said, you love the oaks and the groves, the gardens you've
chosen. That was places out in the desert
where there was trees, where they could get together in the
shade and have their worship service. and the green trees. And it's a representation of
every church everywhere that's a false church. And he says to
them here, are you not the children of the adulterer and the whore?
You preach against adultery, you preach against whoredom.
And he says, and you're so passionate and zealous over your own works,
inflamed by your own works, just like a literal adulterer and
a literal whore are filled with passion. That's what he says. And then he says this, will workers
preach against murder? And while they're doing it, they
boast about the children that they've converted and that they've
made to be born. In verse 5, he says, are you
not slaying the children in the valleys under the cliffs of the
rocks? You think about that horrible
that horrible service that heathen religion used to do where they
would literally sacrifice their infants, their little children,
they would sacrifice them in a fire to appease their God. Those pyramids we saw down in
Mexico, I guarantee you those pyramids have had folks' heads
chopped off at the top of those pyramids and watch them roll
down those pyramids to offer to their God. But you know what? Every time that the scribes and
the Pharisees would compass land and sea, go all over the place
to convert one sinner to their religion, Christ said, when you
convert him, you make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves. In Jude, they're called twice
dead, plucked up by the roots. Everybody in false religion,
every mother and father in false religion, who talks their child
into a profession of faith, and talks their child into joining
a church, and talks their child into accepting Jesus, or takes
them when they're an infant, and sprinkles water on them,
or baptizes them to give them some false hope. You got a spiritually
dead child who now, on top of that, has a false hope that they're
somehow right with God. And I guarantee you, in the day
of judgment, the parents will stand there and say, Look at
this work we did. Look at this child. We helped
to get this child converted. And God says, you're slaying
the children. You're slaying the children.
Now that's God's Word. That's what God is saying right
here in the text. It's just like what Paul said
over in Romans 2. Look over there with me. He gave that long list
of immoral sins in Romans 1. And that's what they preached
against. That's what will workers preach
against. And they're wrong. All of those things are wrong.
But then Paul comes to Romans 2, 1. And he said this, You are
inexcusable, O man, whoever you are that judges. For wherein
you condemn another, you condemn yourself. For thou that judges do the same
things. You do the same things. Just
like in our text, they condemned stealing. They condemned stealing. But by thinking they were righteous
because they didn't literally, physically, outwardly steal,
thinking they were righteous by that, by not stealing, they're
stealing the glory that belongs to Christ who makes His people
righteous. He's the only one who does it.
That's stealing His glory. And that's what Paul, in Romans
2.21, he says, Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest
thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should
not steal. Do you steal? Do you steal? If you preach a man should not
steal and make that sinner think that that's somehow that he could
be made righteous because he don't physically steal, Paul
says you need to teach yourself because you're teaching men to
steal the glory that belongs to Christ alone. Look down at
Romans 2.22. You say a man should not commit
adultery. Do you commit adultery? I do if I think that I'm made
righteous because I don't commit physical adultery. If I think
that's righteousness with God or holiness with God, that I
don't commit physical adultery, then I'm committing spiritual
adultery against God. God said, are you not the seed
of the adulterer and the whore? That's what He told the false
wheel worker. Then Paul says in Romans 2.22, Thou that abhors
idols, do you not commit sacrilege? It wouldn't have a physical idol
nowhere in sight and condemn everybody that's got one. And by thinking that I'm righteous
because I don't have an idol and I condemn others that have
them, you think that makes me righteous? You know who I'm worshiping? You know who my idol is? me. And that's sacrilege. That's
what he's saying. Everything forbidden in the Ten
Commandments is wrong. Everything forbidden in the Ten
Commandments is wrong. But brethren, if we do what the
Ten Commandments teach us to do, outwardly, in the letter,
and we think we can come to God by that? We think that God will
receive us and we're righteous by that? We've broken every commandment. Every commandment. It is idolatry. Every time you preach, touch
not, taste not, and handle not, and you make man worship in glory
in the works of his own hands rather than in Christ our righteousness,
that's teaching idolatry. That's what idolatry is. It's
the worship of self. It's the worship of an idol.
An idol. It don't have to be carved out.
What is a carved out idol? It's the work of a man's hands.
That's what idolatry is. It's the work of a man's hands.
How does God save His people from this? Well, this is what
we are by nature. That's what Paul is saying. We
can't exalt ourselves. We can't condemn others because
even the false wheel worker because that's what we are by nature.
Our mother was a harlot and our father was an adulterer, apostatized
from God. fallen from God. And we came
forth sinners because we were conceived in sin. And we came
forth self-righteous by that. Everybody in the world thinks
that they can be saved by their works. That's just our natural
way. That's why when you preach the gospel, folks, they say,
you really believe everybody's that bad? You really believe
everybody's that bad? You really believe I'm that bad?
That's what we are by nature. But Christ sends His faithful
preacher who obeys Him by His grace and preaches the gospel
of Christ. He preaches that Christ is God's Son. He's God's choice. He's God's delight. He's that
one who's sinless, harmless, holy, undefiled, separate from
sinners. He's that one whom God said is
my express image. He's the one that God said, that
he's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He's the one God said,
I won't share my glory with another. That's who he is. He came forth
to declare God's glory and God's righteousness. And he came forth,
God sent him forth to establish the law and make it honorable
for the people that God chose and gave to his son. This is
the gospel he sends his faithful obedient servants to preach.
And we preach it. We declare that Christ came forth,
made of a woman, made under the law, and that He redeemed all
of His people from the curse of the law of being made a curse
for us. He fulfilled the law in every
jot and tittle. He justified His people freely
from all our sins. And now His people are His purchased
possession by the price of His precious blood. He owns everyone
of us. And when that message is being preached, when that
message is being preached, we're not sons of the sorceress. We're
not sons of the seed of the adulterer and the whore, because when that
message is being preached, our faithful husband, our faithful
father comes forth through his bride, his church, through the
incorruptible seed, His gospel, which is priest, and through
His Spirit, He births us. He births us. That's the picture
in the husband and the church, is a bride and a husband, and
she's going to bring forth children unto Him. through this one means
of preaching His name. And He circumcises us in the
heart, and when He does, He makes us hear the law, and it declares
us guilty. He makes us see we're nothing.
And He makes us hear that Christ fulfilled all righteousness,
and He's the righteousness of God. And He makes us see that
He's God. He makes us see He's everything
to us. And when He does that, brethren,
Christ makes us to know that He's made us the righteousness
of God. He makes us believe on Him. He makes us trust Him. And
now, God says this. He said there, draw hither, you
sons of the sorceress, you seed of the adulterers and the whore.
But when He's done this, He says, now you draw near to Me, you
sons of Mine. You come to Me. And instead of
saying, Are not you the seed of the adultery and the whore?
He says, Are not you the seed of my son? Are not you my children? And instead of saying, Are not
you the seed of transgressions? Are not you of the transgression
and disobedience? He says, Are not you the seed
of the truth? Children born of the truth. He says, are not you
my true worshippers? The planting of the Lord. You
know how He can tell His people, or His people? Because they're
saying, praise to God, glory to God. They're giving Him all
the glory. And they're not speaking that
out of one side of their mouth and then out of the other side
bragging about what they've done. They're giving Him all the glory
and saying, I am as nothing as it can get. That's what I am.
As much as He is everything to that other degree, I'm that much
nothing to the opposite degree. He's everything. He's everything. Do you know that? He said there
in Romans 2.28, For he's not a Jew, which is one outwardly.
He's not a child of God. He's not a child of Abraham.
He's not the true Israel of God, which is just one outwardly in
the letter. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh. That's what brought him into
covenant and brought him into the relationship with God and
brought him into being children and being sons was that outward
circumcision. But he says that was just a picture.
That's not what true circumcision is. He's a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men, but of God. That's a true child of God. That's
a true child of God. I hope you've seen. We've looked
at the sons of the sorceress, and we've looked at the sons
of God. I hope God makes us sons of God, don't you? I want to
be a son of God. I don't want to be a son of that
sorceress. No, sir. All right, Brother Eric.