You will take your Bibles and
turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter
3. Tonight we'll be looking at verses
18 through 23. The title of the message is The
Believer's Guard Against Self Deception. The Believer's Guard Against
Self Deception. In verse 18 it says, Let no man
deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth
to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may
be wise. For the wisdom of this world
is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh
the wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knoweth the
thoughts of the wise that they are empty." Vain. Empty. Therefore, let no man
glory in men. For all things are yours, whether
Paul, or Apollos, or Peter, or the world, or life, or death,
or things present, or things to come, all are yours. And ye are Christ's, and Christ
is God's. Self-deception. The Scripture
here says, Let no man deceive himself. Let no man deceive himself. What is this matter of self-deception? Well, this matter of self-deception
is the worst kind and the most dangerous of all deceptions. This kind of deceit does not
originate with someone else. You know, when I hear someone
say something, usually I'm going to take it halfway. But you know
who I trust the most is me. And so when I think something,
I'm going to go all the way trusting what I thought. You see, it originates from our
own corrupt evil nature. If we are deceived, then we are
believing a lie. We are believing a lie, and that
originates only in the old man, in the old nature. This is the root of all self-deception, is because we know the consequences
of what we're believing, and yet because of our lust, we would
still believe the opposite of the truth. This is the old man. This is the old nature and what
he is accustomed to. And this nature, even though
we are believers in Christ, We still have this old man to contend
with, this old nature, and therefore we can be deceived. We can deceive
ourselves. And so we must guard against
it. Let no man among us deceive himself. All men know there is a God.
The Scripture says that In Romans chapter 2, I thought of the scripture and
then I need to turn over there, make sure I get it right. It says, For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, a just
shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them.
For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen." You cannot look at creation and see the
complex nature of creation and not know that there is a God. And yet man is self-deceived. He is so willing not to believe
in a God. even though everything goes against
that notion. Men are blinded by nature, but
they're also willingly ignorant. These people who are atheists,
you don't see them going after, I was talking to Joe this, you
don't see them going after the tooth fairy or Santa Claus. You
don't see them being angry if someone believes in those two.
But you have someone believe in God and they're instantly
angry. They're upset. Why? They know
there's a God. And they know that He will judge. They know that because the law
of God is written in the heart of man. And yet He is willingly
self-deceived. He's willingly self-deceived. Whilst others are not so deceived
as to think there is no God. They can't get around it. They
can't figure out what to do with it. So, yes, they believe in
a God. But they do not believe in the
God. They have deceived themselves to make their own God. Some men
have deceived themselves to please their carnal lusts, while others
who cannot deny God is, and that must judge the world in righteousness,
these men deceive themselves to think that they can somehow
please God. Thinking that man could somehow
please God is a self-deception. It is a self-deception. The Pharisees,
as well as all People in works religion are self-deceived and
think they're wise. I'll tell you what, you have
never met a wiser person than a self-righteous person. And they'll tell you how wise
and how humble they really are. And they're proud of it. They're
proud of it. Go over to John. Go to John's
Gospel, John chapter 9. See if you can't see this clearly
in this text, John 9 verse 39. And Jesus said, For judgment
I am coming to the world, that they which see not might see. And that they which see might
be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, Are we blind
also? Are you calling me blind? Did
you call me lost? How dare you? I'm a deacon. How dare you? I'm a high member
of the church's government." And Jesus said unto them, if
you were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say, we see,
therefore your sin remaineth. See, a man, in order to be wise,
he must recognize he's a fool. In order to see, in order to
have no sin, we must understand that we are blind and dead. You remember that passage in
Ezekiel 37 where we We preached on it recently about the dry
bones. It wasn't until the dry bones
had life that they said, our bones are dry. They didn't realize
it until they were already resurrected. And friends, a man's not going
to understand that he's dead and blind unless he has life. These Pharisees were self-deceived
and so is everyone that thinks they can please God. They're
blind. They're blind. If you have something, if you
have something, anything to offer God that you have done to save
your soul, you are blind. Because you say you see. Because
you say you have something. What value is that type of wisdom? What value is a wisdom of self-righteousness
and self-deception? What do we gain from thinking
that we're wise, if in truth we're blind, fools? What good is it? What good is
it for a man to say he's wise and he's a fool? And everybody
knows it. He's the only one that doesn't
know it. That's the way men are by nature. The answer to this
is nothing. There is no value in this wisdom. Self-deception and worldly wisdom
is vanity. Empty. It has no meaning. It has no value. It's empty. Why? Because it all ends at the
grave. You may be the wisest man in
the world. You may be the most intelligent
person that ever walked the face of God's earth, but all that
ends at the grave. All that ends. Self-wisdom is worthless because
it does not do anything for the soul. I can't remember who it was.
Somebody had told me that they're able at work to give self-evaluations. I can't remember who that was.
Self-evaluations. They were able to do that and
then pass it on to their boss. But that's what men try to always
do. They give themselves evaluations as to how wise they are or how
religious they are. Friends, the standard is not
what we think. is what God says. This is the
standard. Holiness, righteousness is the
standard of God. God says, Be ye holy, for I am
holy. Well, I'm almost there. You're
lost. With God, almost just ain't enough. You gotta be perfect. So what value is it if we say
we're perfect and we're not? That's just self-deception. No
value. What must we do then to be wise? Go back to your text and look
and see what the guard is from self-deception. Let no man deceive
himself. If any man among you seemeth
to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may
be wise." How can we be wise? Become a fool. Well, that just rubs against
every fiber of our natural thought process, doesn't it? That just goes against the grain.
When I read it, I had the same look you did. How can we prevent about being
self-deceived and foolish? Become a fool that we may be
wise. Now, to be wise is the opposite
of being deceived or foolish. It is to see clearly the truth
and not only see it, but do it. You know, I know a lot of men
that know the Scripture better than I do. academically. But it's altogether different
than know them and do them. Jesus said, they that hear my
words and do them. That's real wisdom. That's real
wisdom. Gathering a bunch of knowledge
together, not using it, that's not wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge
and action together. Wisdom is not relative because
it must be grounded in truth. If it's wise, it's true. If it's
foolish, it's a lie. There's no middle ground here. The first principle of wisdom,
Paul says, is to become a fool. What does that mean, to become
a fool? Well, Solomon said, the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. You see, for man to escape self-deception,
To escape foolish deception of our own sinful nature, we must
see the truth. We are a fool. God must expose our sin. If you're not a sinner, why in
the world do you need a Savior? I'm a sinner. I'm a fool. We must recognize the truth that
all our worldly thoughts and carnal religion are foolish. Sinners, if I'm talking to sinners,
Lost and unbelieving sinners, if you were to be truly wise, you must recognize you're a fool. You must forsake your thoughts
and your ways. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 55
and see this. Isaiah chapter 55. Verse 6, "...Seek ye the Lord while he
may be found. Call upon him while he is near."
Is that not wise? Is that not wisdom to seek the
Lord now? Is it not wise to seek the Lord
at this moment? Is it not wise to do so? It is
wise because you are not promised Another minute. You've only got
now. Seek the Lord now! Because when
the door is closed, there is no hope. While there's life,
there's hope. If a man's breathing, there's
hope! Seek the Lord now! Now! Don't wait. Well, how do
we seek the Lord? Well, let the wicked forsake
his way. and the unrighteous man his faults. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his faults. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man." When you speak to people who
are not believers, is that not what you get? That's what I get. They're dead set that they're
right. They're dead set against it. But in order for a man to be
accepted with God, he must understand that he's got to forsake everything
he thought was right if it's against God's Word. Naaman, the leper. Naaman heard that there was a
prophet in Israel that could heal his leprosy. And what did
he do? He started thinking. That's a
first problem. You start thinking, you've already
made the mistake. He went to the king. He said,
ah, that prophet must be in the palace. Surely, he must be there. Wrong. The king got so upset,
he said, what am I? Am I God that I can heal your
leprosy? No! He said, you've got to go
to the man of God. And he went to that little old
house, that little old shack, probably out in the woods, cave
or wherever. The prophet was the man of God. And he thought that the man of
God would come out to him. I thought surely that man would
come and see my glory, my honor. The prophet didn't even get out
the door. He sent his slave to go tell
him what to do. That offended him. When man hears
the gospel and he begins to reason in his own mind, he gets mad
and he turns away. Naaman said, that He would come
out and put His hand on my leprosy and heal me. That's how I thought
it'd be. That's not how it was. It wasn't until Naaman obeyed
that he really understood. It's not what he thought. You
see, to be healed, he had to forsake his ways and his thoughts.
And so must every one of us. Every one of us. must forsake
what we think about God and believe what God says about us. What does God say about us? God
says that we are unrighteous. God says that we are sinners. God says we are foolish. God says that. God says that
you can do nothing righteous. Do you believe that? I do. I know that. I don't just believe. I know
it! I know that in me dwelleth no good thing. I'm as a fool. Sinners, forsake your foolish
thoughts of self-righteousness. Forsake your wicked ways. of thinking you can please God
and bow down to Jesus Christ as all your hope. It is only in Christ we can have
hope. I've read an article today that
I thought was really good. I didn't put it in my notes,
but I want to tell you about it. It's really good. There is a beast today that has
risen out of the sea. His seven heads extend throughout
the world. His power is great, having set
ten crowns His name is blasphemy. And friends, it is free will
works religion. That is the beast of our day. It is blasphemy to believe that
somehow by your decision or will That you can affect your eternal
destiny. That you can make God do anything
because you decided. That's foolishness, friends. Forsake that. Cast it off. It's foolishness. That false
religion has damned its millions. And is still doing so today. The wisdom of this world is foolishness
to God. And He will ensnare the foolish
in their own craftiness. You remember, when judgment shall
come, everyone will be divided. You and I. We will either be
on the right hand of Christ or we will not be. We'll be on His
left hand. We will either be with the wheat
or the chaff. We will either be the sheep or
the goats. There is no other kind. And if
you remember those on His left hand, when He said, Depart from
Me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. They said, Lord, when
did we not do these things? You see, these were religious
people. They just said, Lord, Lord. They called Jesus Lord. Well, when have we not done these
things? In other words, they did a lot of things. But what
did Christ call those things? You that work iniquity. You see, our best stuff is iniquity
and sin. Is there anyone here that desires
to be wise in the things of God? Friends, abase yourself to realize
And we're fools. And the only wisdom is Christ. He is the wisdom of God. How can God justify you and me
and still remain just? You know, that question cannot
be answered by any false religion. Any worse religion can't answer
that. How can God be just, holy, and justify the ungodly? Well, the only answer is Christ. I know that. Why? Because I'm
educated? No! He revealed it to me. He showed me. I heard it for
years and never understood. I believed in Jesus for I don't
know how many years. until Jesus revealed Himself
to me, and then I realized my faith was empty. I was having
faith in my faith, and that really just didn't work out. I was a fool. Believers in Christ,
we recognize this, that we are sinners, and yet we still Even though
we've recognized how foolish we are, have we plumbed the depths
of our depravity? Has God really revealed every
evil device of our heart to us? No. If He did, it'd kill us. It'd kill us. And praise God,
He's not going to give us more of that than we can handle. I'm
so thankful for that. And so if we're to guard against
self-deception, we must be aware of it. We must be aware that
we as believers are able to deceive ourselves. We who believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and are saved by the grace of God, we
must not deceive ourselves with pride. Is that not the greatest
deception of the believer? You bet it is. Why? Because we
have pride of grace. Can there be such a thing? Is
that possible to understand grace and be proud? They don't mix. God saved me not because of anything
in me. I did not deserve it. He saved me because He would. He saved me because He wanted
to, not because I wanted Him to. Pride of grace is the worst pride
of all. This is a great allure to our
flesh to think that somehow we were somewhat wiser than someone
else. If any man thinketh he knoweth
anything, he knoweth nothing as he ought
to know. What do you know? Nothing. It's not what I know, it's whom
I know. I know Christ. I know Christ. Believer to be wise, we must
not give any glory to ourselves. Believer in Christ, what What
a contrast that should be to give man any glory whatsoever. That's what these people in Corinth
were doing. Go back to your text. You notice
he says, whether Paul or Apollos, that's what these people were
doing. They were saying, I'm a Paul. I'm a Paulite. I'm an Apollostarian. You see,
that's where denominations begin right here. In Corinth, they
begin spreading denominationalism there. I'm of the church of Peter. This is worldly wisdom. This
is not the wisdom of God to promote ourselves or other men. Friends, I am not your Savior. I am a sinner saved by grace
just like you. I need mercy just as much as
you do. I need grace just as much as you do. And I'll tell you, if you're
following me because you love me, you're in trouble. You're
in trouble. That won't last long. Follow
Christ. Follow Christ. The church of
this age may put on a good show. In worldly wisdom, it promotes
itself. Entertainment. They promote themselves. They get out the big signs. And
they put up the lights. And it looks like a movie theater
rather than a church. Why? They're trying to allure
people. I'm not trying to allure anyone. I'm not trying to trap you. I remember one fellow I invited
to come and he heard the message and he next thing right after
the message he told me he said you need to you know you get
some kind of program. No we're not going to get any
kind of program. The only program we got is the
gospel. That's it. What you heard is what we've
got. That's all we're going to have. That's it. I'm not here
to trap you with worldly wisdom or with smooth words. I'm here to do one thing for
you, and that is preach the gospel of God's grace to you. Slip over one page. 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. Paul says, he says in verse 1,
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not in excellency
of speech or of wisdom, Declaring unto you the testimony of God,
for I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified." I didn't come to tickle your ears, to
make you think I'm a great speaker. I came determining to tell you
and point you to Christ. You want wisdom? Go to Christ.
You want wisdom? See that Christ is all God's
wisdom. And you're a fool. Then you'll
be wise. Then you'll be wise. Wise unto
the salvation of your immortal soul. Wonderful, wonderful tidings
of great joy. Wonderful tidings of joy. Behold that Christ is the way
look just above that in Verse 29 of chapter 1 he says that
no flesh should go in his presence But of him are you in Christ
Jesus who of God is made unto us? Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and redemption Which of those did we make ourselves?
When did we make Christ our wisdom? When did we make Christ our redemption,
our righteousness, our sanctification? Never. God did. God made Christ all to me. You who believe God made Christ
all that to you. What do you have to do? Nothing. Zero. He did it all. And if we're to be wise and guard
against self-deception, we must also realize this. that the only means by which
God saves sinners is the preaching of the gospel. Worldly wisdom says that's too
narrow. Worldly wisdom says, surely we
have a better way than a man standing and preaching this same
message from every chapter in the Bible. Surely there's something
better to keep them entertained. Surely, we can keep them by attractions
or plays or something. The reason you don't have people
is because you preach all the time. You preach too long. Oh
man, if it's more than 20 minutes, people, they just want to head
out the door. Why? They don't have any interest
in these things. God's people do. Why? Because the preaching of the
Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It doesn't entertain
the flesh. I can watch probably three movies,
four movies in a row. I mean, I could sit there, plug
my head into the television. Next thing you know, it's nighttime,
and a day's a wasted. I sit in my office for ten minutes,
and my body is exhausted. The flesh is like a dead corpse. hanging around my neck, dragging
me to the floor. It's alright. That's alright. Because that doesn't matter. The flesh doesn't matter. The flesh profits nothing. But the inner man is renewed. By this. This is precious to me. This gospel is precious to me. And if God says that this is
the only means by which sinners are saved, what in the world
can I do but become a fool? What can I do with my wisdom
but throw it in the trash? It's worthless. God says this
is the only way. Well, where does it say that?
Look at chapter 1. Verse 18, For the preaching of
the cross is to them that perish foolish. If you have anybody that says
something against the preaching of the gospel, you know right
away they're perishing. Why? God says it. I didn't say
it. God said it. It's right there. To you, the
preaching of the cross is foolishness. You're perishing. You're perishing. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of the
world? Have God not made foolish the wisdom of this world? You
bet He has. Those people look like a bunch
of dancing monkeys running around. Oh, what is that? Chicken Little. The sky is falling. The sky is
falling. They are running around. They
just look crazy. God's people not to follow after them. Leave
them alone. Let them go. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, The world by wisdom knew not God. Why is it that men by
wisdom do not know God? Because it was God's wisdom to
make them that way? It was God's wisdom to hide His
blessings from their sights. See, everything's not for you.
It's for God's glory. God's glory. It pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Do
you need anything else besides it pleased God? I don't. And whatever I think about it,
I'm a fool. If I think anything against that,
I'm a fool. So what do I count my worldly
wisdom? Foolishness. If my flesh rise up against it,
I cast it at foolishness. Foolishness. Luther said, I can't
stop the birds from flocking, but I can stop them from nesting.
You can't stop these thoughts from coming into your head, but
you can stop them from staying there. Cast them out. Leave them
alone. Get rid of them. Foolishness.
God said it. There it is. And praise God, it's this way.
Because God will not share his glory with another. God won't
share His glory. Have you been made wise? You
are if you're a fool. If you recognize that Christ
is all the wisdom of God and salvation of God, you're wise. Not in your own eyes, but you're
wise with the wisdom of God. And you know what God says about
you? All things are yours. All things. By God's grace, you take that
as far as you can. All things are yours. You know what, if my son picks
up something of mine, I'm not really worried about it. It's
mine. It's mine. I know that. So I'm not really worried if
people take things in this world that are mine. Because it's mine. What is everything? I'm here for you. I'm yours. I'm your servant for Christ's
sake. Christ is yours. And you're Christ's. And Christ is God's. I'm in His hand. He's in God's hand. What in the
world could take us out? Nothing. I didn't put myself
in. I ain't gonna take myself out.
He put me in. He'll keep me in. I pray that
God would be gracious to bless us, to your hearts, by His Spirit,
because there's no other way. There's no other way. Take comfort. Courage. And God bless you. Stan will
be dismissed in prayer.