Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. Satan has assembled a great host
in the earth, whose primary purpose is to deceive others even while
they themselves are deceived, as Paul wrote to Timothy in the
text we begin with. Even him whose coming is after
the working of Satan, with all power in signs and lying wonders,
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish. There are multitudes of religious men who fall into
this category, having a form of godliness but denying the
power thereof. From such turn away, for of this
sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly
women laden with sins, led away with divers' lusts, ever learning
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. However,
the greatest deceiver and enemy to truth that we will ever face
is our own wicked flesh. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? When all others
are telling us the truth, our own sinful flesh will whisper
words of deception and outright lies in our ears. Our own flesh
will deceive us, degrade us, and if it were possible, destroy
us. Is it not this sinful flesh that would make excuses for our
sin and have us to think lightly of it? Then it will turn right
around and condemn and berate us for that which it encouraged
us to allow. Is it any wonder that Paul cried
out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? We are convinced that Paul was
absolutely right when he said, For I know that in me, that is,
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. So how can a man know
whether or not he is deceived in those things which he would
lay claim to believing? The simple answer is he can't.
Men are so prone to error and so likely to be deceived that
there is only one sure guard against deceit. That is quite
simply the grace of God, which will preserve his own until the
day when he is pleased to come and gather them to himself from
the four corners of the earth. He has clearly said, wherefore
it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. In quoting this same passage
in the book of Romans, Paul uses the word ashamed instead of confounded. We can conclude that the man
who has no confidence in his flesh or anything other than
the righteousness of Jesus Christ cannot be deceived in either
his confidence or his doctrine. The deceptions that arise are
always those which either minimize what Christ has done or those
which would add things to it that men can perform. The gospel
is Christ. It is not Christ plus something.
It is not something less than Christ. More than Christ is too
much, and less than Christ is not enough. It is no wonder that
Paul said, But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto
me, and I unto the world. The man who honestly believes
that cannot be deceived. He wrote this because the Judaizers
were trying to tell the Galatian believers that they needed to
add some activity of their own to that which Christ had done
in order to be found pleasing in the eyes of God. In their
case, it was the circumcision of the flesh and a general requirement
to keep the Law of Moses. The descendants of these same
Judaizers are still with us today and tell us we must add all sorts
of things, whether it be tithing, Sabbath-keeping, dress codes,
holy living, water baptism, good deeds, soul winning, avoiding
tobacco and alcohol, etc. These conditionalists assure
men that they can enjoy the blessings of God if they are obedient. They make the blessings of God
to be earned rather than the product of His grace. These are
all deceptions from which a man cannot escape except the Lord
deliver him. These Judaizing deceivers are
somewhat more subtle than those who would say that Christ did
not really need to die for sinners. They are much more dangerous
because of that subtlety. Those who know themselves to
be sinners know that they need someone to bear the load of their
guilt. It is the deceivableness of unrighteousness that would
convince the unsuspecting that it is possible that they can
in some measure add something to that which Christ is already
absolutely finished and fulfilled. The man who has no other hope
nor form of righteousness than Jesus Christ the righteous cannot
be deceived. Mercy speaks by Jesus' blood.
Hear and sing, ye sons of God. Justice satisfied indeed, Christ
has full atonement made. Jesus' blood speaks loud and
sweet, here all deity can meet, and without a jarring voice welcomes
Zion to rejoice. Should the law against her roar,
Jesus' blood still speaks with power. All her debts were cast
on me, and she must and shall go free. If you would like a
free transcript of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.