Matthew 24, title of this message, Be Not Deceived. That's what our Lord says to
His disciples, and that's His word to us. Be not deceived. Now, our Lord left the temple,
And when he left it, he left it for good, never to return
to it. He's about to go to the cross and accomplish redemption. And in doing so, he will put
an end to the old covenant, the old priesthood, and the old sacrifices. He'll put an end to them. These
things have served their purpose and are needed no more. the one
they represented has come, and He's fulfilled their purpose,
and they are to be done away with. As Solomon said, there's
a time, a season, and a purpose for everything under heaven.
And that temple, that old priesthood, that old covenant served its
purpose. Our Lord is our temple. He is
our altar. He is our sacrifice. He is our
high priest. He is our mercy seat. He is our
all in all. Jesus Christ is our all in all. We do not need things to worship
Him. We just need a heart to worship
Him. A heart given of God to worship Him. Now let me give
you a little history lesson as I get into this. Our Lord said
the temple would be destroyed He said, not one stone would
be left upon another. And it was destroyed in 70 AD. As he said, it would be destroyed.
Caesar gave command that the city be destroyed. And a general
named Titus came in with his army and destroyed the city.
And it said that he tried to keep the temple because it was
so beautiful. But his army was so angry at
the Jews that they went in and just took everything that was
in the temple. They took everything that was
in it, and then they tore the temple down. Then there was a
man named Ternus Rufus. He's called Ternus Rufus the
Wicked. He came in and he literally plowed the ground where the temple
sat. And to this day, they really
can't determine exactly where that temple sat. But that also
fulfilled the Scriptures. This is how important it is to
know the Scriptures. We have the Word of God. You
know, we have the future right here in our hands. We have it
right here in our hands. Listen to this in Micah 3.12,
Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field. and Jerusalem shall become heaps."
That happened, as the Lord said. The lesson here is everything
our Lord foretold came to pass. So as we read these things in
the Scriptures, they also will come to pass. The ones that have
not come to pass, they will come to pass. They spoke of the end
of the world, when shall it be? The end of the world will come.
No matter how foolish people think we are, I assure you on
God's word, there's an end to this. He says in Hebrews that
he'll fold it up, that it wax old, he'll fold it up like a
vesture and put it away. It's done with, it served its
purpose. Now in verse three, it says, as he sat on the Mount
of Olives, his disciples came to him and asked him when all
this will happen. And then we have the following
answer. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that
no man deceive you. That's the first thing he said
to them. Now beware and take heed that you're not going to
be deceived. This is the watchword for the church throughout all
ages. Wars and rumors of war Pestilence, famine, nation, nation
against nation, all this together. Now listen, all this together
is not as dangerous as being deceived. As someone deceiving
you about the gospel and about your salvation. He said, don't
be deceived. Satan's greatest work of evil
is deception. He started in the garden. His
greatest work is deception, especially when it comes to the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not care. Now listen,
I want you to listen to this carefully. Satan does not care if you believe
the gospel as long as it is not the right one. He does not care if you believe
on Jesus Christ as long as He is not the right one. Now you're
saying, what are you talking about? 2 Corinthians 11, four,
listen to this. Paul says to the Corinthians,
for if he that cometh preaches another Jesus, another Jesus,
one that this Bible knows nothing about. I give you another Jesus,
a Jesus that wants to save you if you'll let him, that's another
Jesus. That's not the sovereign Christ
of heaven and earth, who said in John 17, Father, You have
given me power over all flesh, that I should give eternal life
to as many as Thou hast given me. For if he that cometh preaches
another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another
spirit which you have not received, or another gospel, another gospel
which you have not accepted, you might bear with..." Paul
said, "...you might bear with me." You might want to listen
to me. Listen to Galatians 1, 6 and
7. Paul said, "...I marvel that you are so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel." Another gospel is a gospel of works. If you and I have to
do absolutely anything, it's another gospel. Christ did it
all, all to Him I owe. Faith is a gift of God. Faith
is not something that you and I muster up. The scripture says
that faith, for by grace are you saved through faith, that
faith is not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. God gave you
faith, God worked faith in you. He gave you life. He gave you
life, and in that life, He worked faith in you. Dead men don't
believe. You ever find a dead man that
believed? He don't believe. They don't do anything but stink
up the place. The living believe. The living
believe. God has to give life and repentance.
It says in the book of Acts that God granted to the Gentiles,
God granted. faith and repentance. He gave
it to them. I marvel that you are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
to another gospel, which is not another. There is no other gospel. There is no other way to be saved. Christ said, I'm the way. I'm
the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. But there'll be some that trouble you and would pervert. Here's what Satan does. He's
a master of deception. He takes it and he puts a twist
on it. He doesn't just completely remove
it. He just takes it and puts a little twist on it. It's like
rat poison. They say rat poison. I don't
know. I've never looked at rat poison, but they say it's 99%
good food. 1% poison. It's that poison that
kills you. It's that poison. Satan uses men to deceive other
men, putting a twist on the gospel. And he says here in verse 5,
"...for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall
deceive many." He said many. Many. And they'll deceive many. You know, it's in history. History
proves out that many came after the Lord ascended back to glory.
They came claiming to be the Messiah. I was reading, I didn't
write down several, but several men came at that time after the
Lord ascended back and claiming to be the Messiah. And they got
a great following at that time. They'd have a big following.
All of them were destroyed, but they all got a following. And
those who followed them perished with them. Our Lord said in John
5, 43, I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not.
If another shall come in his own name, him you'll receive.
People want a Savior, but not God's Savior. That's what they
want. They want a Savior of their own
making, a Savior of their own imagination, a Savior they can
conjure up and be just like them. As God said, you thought I was
altogether like yourselves. But if not, he said, I'll reprove
you over in the Psalms. There were many in the days prior
to the destruction of Jerusalem who arose and claiming to be
the Lord's anointed. Multitudes followed them. You
say, are people that gullible? I don't know, ask Jim Jones.
Ask David Koresh. And if it wasn't for the grace
of God, you and I'd be that gullible. Let me tell you something, following
another gospel is just as gullible as following somebody like Jim
Jones. It's just as gullible and just as bad. But let me give
you the greater danger. The greater danger are the ones
who stand in the pulpit claiming to preach Christ of whom the
Bible knows nothing about. Make sure, and this is important,
make sure that Jesus Christ you and I believe on is the one in
the Word of God. How do I do that? How do I do
that? Well, first of all, it starts
with this. Is He the Son of God? Is He the Son of God? This man
named Jesus Christ, is he really truly God manifested in the flesh? Is he? Is he the surety of the
everlasting covenant of grace? Is he that surety? Is he the
one who came to save his people from their sins? Now, did he
come to save his people from their sins? A multitude of sinners
no man could number, or did he just come to make salvation a
possibility? Did he actually accomplish salvation?
Did Jesus Christ really, truly accomplish redemption? Yes. That's the Jesus Christ of this
Bible. The sovereign Christ of God Almighty. In whose hands we are. He's not
in my hands. Jesus Christ is not in my hands.
I'm in His. And I can think of no better
hands to be in than His. The Christ of God is the substitute
and Redeemer of the church. Does the one we believe fit the
Scriptures? Does He fit the Old Testament
Scriptures? Does He fit the Old Testament Scriptures? Our Lord said, you study the
Scriptures, they are they which testify of Me. And He's speaking
of the Old Testament Scriptures, the Psalms and the Prophets.
They spoke of Me, He said. Does He fit that Old Testament
types? The Passover lamb, the high priest,
the priesthood, the altar, all of that. Does He fit that? Yes. The ones preached here does.
I promise you that. Now in verses 6-12, these verses
teach us one thing. All this that our Lord said is
gonna happen. Nation will rise against nation.
There's gonna be wars, rumors of wars and troubles and all
of these things. These verses teach us one thing,
that we live in a sinful world and there will never be peace
on this earth. Not this earth. There cannot
be peace where sin abounds. Can't be. There will always be
wars and rumors of wars. There will always be unrest in
this world, this sinful world, always. What are we to do? How are we to handle that? He
says to His disciples, and to His disciples here, see that
you be not troubled. Don't turn the television on
and fall apart. Don't turn on the news and fall
apart. see that you be not troubled." Things are not out of control.
Oh, this world's out of control. No, it's not. It's under His
control. It's under the control of the
Lord Jesus Christ. These things are serving God's
purpose. These things are serving... All
these things that's going on, they are serving you. We need to realize that these
things are serving our good. Our good. You say, how in the
world is that? Well, first of all, it teaches
us our dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ. In times of trouble,
we don't need to wring our hands and wonder what is going to happen.
I know it's fine. As some of you say, it's all
good. It's all good. It teaches us, it also does this,
it weans us from this world. Well, this world has a hold of
us, doesn't it? Henry said one time, he said, the hardest part
about dying is this, our relationships. It's all the things we have here,
all the things we've done, all the things we've accomplished
and the relationships we have. It weans us from this world.
It makes us ready to go home. It makes us take our minds and
our hearts off the things here and set them on things above.
Our time on this earth is very short. 70 years, what is that? I'm 64 and I realize, what is
that? That's what it is. Job said it's
a vapor. Your life is a vapor. It just goes by so fast. It winges
from this world, but listen here. All these things conform us to
the image of Christ. Whatever God sends our way, whatever
we experience, whatever's going on, it's conforming us to the
image of Christ. Do I want to be conformed to
the image of Christ? Then stop complaining when trouble
comes. Because our Lord suffered. Someone
said that God had one Son without sin. He had no sons without suffering. No sons without suffering. And let me point out something
else here. Our Lord tells us, He tells us what is going to
happen. Boy, this jumped out at me when
I was reading this. This just jumped out at me. You
and I can be surprised by things, but our Lord cannot be surprised. He cannot be surprised. All that
shall be has been ordained of God. Everything from time, from
beginning to end, is ordained of God. Nothing is just willy-nilly
going along. And not one person, not one angel
is out from under His control. Not one atom, not even the fall
of a leaf is out of His control. All things have been foreordained
of God. Therefore He says, Be not troubled when these things
happen, for all these things must come to pass. whatever's happening out there
today. And it is such a mystery that
you and I are not gonna know all that. We're not gonna know
what, you know, why is this going, why is that going? Somebody,
I heard something, a preacher say one time, when I get to heaven,
I got some questions I wanna ask God. My first thought was, I seriously
doubt you're gonna get there. If that's your attitude, if that's
your attitude, I seriously doubt you're going to get there. You're
going to question God? You're going to put God on stand and
you're going to bring him into judgment? I don't think so. I
tell you, there's only one question. There's only one question. Why
me? Why'd you love me? Why would you save me? That, and you know the scripture
says, even so Lord, it seemed good in thy sight. That's the
answer. He sovereignly loved me. He loved
me because, you know what? God loved me because he loved
me. Don't try to go into explaining the mysteries of God. These peanut
minds can't handle it. We can't handle it. He said, my ways are higher in
your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. And we ought to say, you're right.
You're right. Don't look at these events and
think and say, it's the end. When all these things start to
happen, it's the end. Don't let some joker come along
and say, the end is here. I thought of this last night.
Mount St. Helens is blown up. There's a sign. There's a big
earthquake over in China. There's another sign. The mother
of all wars is about to happen. There's a sign. No, no, just
go home and rest. The end is not yet. These are
just things that are going to happen in this life. It's a sinful
world. And this creation, listen, creation,
it says in Corinthians, groans. groans under the burden of sin.
Creation groans. So when you hear an earthquake
or you hear of a volcano erupting, you know what you're hearing?
The earth groaning under the weight of sin. Because the earth was made subject
to it because of us. It's where it happened. He said, Nation shall rise against
nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and
pestilence and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are
the beginning of sorrows, not the end of sorrows. That will
not be until we stand in His presence. Sorrow is just part of this life,
isn't it? Our Lord prepares His people
for what will happen to them. He tells them about these other
things. Now He's going to deal with them directly, His disciples
who became His apostles. He's going to tell what will
happen to them for preaching the gospel of His grace. You know, when you first heard
the gospel, when you really heard it now, you heard it, you believed
it. You thought everybody must hear this. You thought everybody
liked to hear this. Only the people whom God saves like to
hear it. Nobody likes to hear the gospel
of the grace of God because the scripture says the gospel is
offensive. It's offensive to human nature.
It's offensive to self-righteousness. It offends our thoughts of ourselves.
It offends our thoughts of God. It offends our pride. It offends
everything about us. There's none good, no, not one.
Does that make you mad? It does if you're self-righteous.
He said, you can't be talking about me. What that Pharisee
said, Lord, I thank you I'm not like other men. I do this, I
do that. And that sinner down there said, Lord, be merciful
to me, the sinner. The gospel is offensive. That's
why Paul says, Paul warns in one place that you don't take
away the offense of the gospel. It's been watered down so much
to try to get people to accept it where people can just stay
as they are, be who they are, and have that too. I've learned that present day
preaching is all about going to heaven and missing hell. That's
basically what it's about. The gospel is about a union,
a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's a relationship with God
Almighty and Jesus Christ. That's what it's about. How God
can be a just God and have anything to do with a wretch like me.
That's the gospel. Our Lord said to that woman,
he said to that woman, remember that Syrophoenician woman? She
said, Lord, the crumbs, the puppies get to eat the crumbs that fall
from the master's table. And he said that, he said, it's
not right to give the children's bread to the dogs. She said,
you know what she said? She said, You shouldn't have
said that. You shouldn't have called me a dog. No, she didn't
say that. She said, You're right, Lord.
I have no right. This dog has no right to your
crumbs of mercy. But I know you delight to show
mercy, and I sure need some mercy. He says in verse 9, Then shall
they deliver you up to be afflicted, They shall kill you, and you
shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." Various
will be the trials of God's people. You will not be popular if you
preach the gospel of the grace of God. You won't be popular. He says here, Christ says you'll
be hated. He said, if they hated me, they'll what? They'll hate
you too. And some of you will be killed.
He says, some of you, he's looking at his disciples, some of you
are going to be put to death. All of them was, but John wasn't.
John put on the idol of Pathomus, and there's others beheaded and
crucified, and Paul was put in an arena with wild animals. I mean, that's not popular. That's not
the way you treat popular. He said, you know, you're going
to have trouble. It's not going to just be trouble
out here. You're going to have trouble in the house. And then many shall be offended
and shall betray one another, shall hate one another. The gospel, as I said, is offensive. It's offensive to the natural
man. It's offensive to the self-righteous man. In Matthew 15, 12, the disciples
came to our Lord, and they said to him, Knowest thou that the
Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? Don't
you know you offended them? They were born offended. They're
going to live offended, and they're going to die offended, unless
God saves them. A gospel that does not offend
is not of God. There will be many who have made
a profession. When they shall be persecuted for their profession,
he said, they're going to be offended and they're going to
recant. They're going to recant. Their attitude is like, I didn't
sign up for this. You know, I signed up for going
to heaven, but I didn't sign up for this. Listen to Matthew
13, 20 and 21, speaking of the parable of the sower. It's like,
why is God letting this happen to me? Why am I going through
this? You know, Job did not say, when
he lost his 10 children, when God took them, he didn't say,
why'd you do this, God? Why'd you do this? Why'd you
take my sons and daughters? He said, the Lord giveth and
the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
That's what he said. Many false prophets shall rise
and shall deceive many. Because many shall be offended,
it'll make it easy for false prophets to come in and get a
following. Many false prophets will come in, they'll take the
gospel and they'll put a twist on it. They'll just put a twist
on it. It's what our Lord is telling us, they'll put a twist
on it. And they will deceive many. They'll deceive many. and they'll get a following.
They will arise from the church. There will always be wolves among
the sheep. That's why John said, Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits, whether they be of God, where they are
of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Don't eat everything you're served
up. Take it to the Word of God. Take everything to the Word of
God. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many, he
says, shall wax cold. Love will be tested. Love will
be tested. And where it's real, it will
endure. Love fails not. Love never fails. That's what
Scripture says. Love never fails. But where it's
false, it fails. Because whatever it is that a
person loves, that's what they will end up going to. They will
gravitate to it. They will. But he that shall endure to the
end, the same shall be saved. And I want you to pay attention
here. The Gospel holds no hope for quitters. Listen to Colossians
1.23. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel which you have heard and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made
a minister." He says, don't be moved away from the hope of the
gospel. There's an old saying, quitters never win and winners
never quit. But I'm going to add this to
it. as it applies to faith. False faith never finishes, and
true faith never, never quits. Where God has begun a work, He
finishes that work. But there are many false professions,
and in a while, they'll quit. Be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel. It's evident that if a person
leaves the gospel, if they leave it for another gospel, they never
had it. They never had it. My sheep hear
my voice, and another they will not follow. They will not follow. Last of all, The gospel shall
prevail, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in
all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the
end come." The gospel, he says, is going to go through all the
world, all nations, all languages are going to hear the gospel.
Henry said one time, this has not been too long ago, he said,
I used to wonder how, how is that going to happen? It's before
the internet. He said, I used to wonder how, how is that going
to happen? That the gospel goes through
all the world, through all nations, through all communities. He said,
now I realized that through the internet, you know, we got a
sermon audio, we preach in China and Africa. And I mean, we preach
in a lot of places just from his pulpit. You know, I know that man takes
things like the internet and they use it for very corrupt
things. But God has brought these things about that the gospel
may be preached. The gospel may be preached. I heard the gospel from my pastor
on television. I was watching him on television
and heard the gospel. That's how God sent it to me. And what our Lord is saying here
also is none of the above is going to keep out the gospel.
The wars, the rumors of war, all these events, all these calamities,
pestilence and what we call calamities, they're not going to stop the
gospel. He said the gates of hell shall not prevail against
you. It's not going to keep out the
gospel. It's not going to keep out God's servant. The end will
come, listen here, and I quit. The end will come when the last
sheep of Christ hears the gospel and believes. Then cometh the
end. And who knows, that last sheep
might be here in Spring Lake. It might be.