Let me add my welcome to Winston. It's good to see you here. I
don't know about you, but I'm thankful to be among this number.
I'm thankful to be here where the gospel is preached. As you
can see on the screen, the title of this message is going to be
The Greatest Deception. And let me just talk a bit about
deception. I mean, we know about deception.
But can you imagine for a moment The company you work for promised
you a good retirement and then you get up to retirement age
and you find out that there's nothing there. Kind of like the
Enron Corporation from a few years back. Y'all remember that?
How that corporation just went bankrupt at the last minute.
Many of those people were at retirement age, been promised
all their lives. They were under a great deception,
weren't they? We know about deception. Deception is pretty much a way
of life for us. We deceive and we are deceived
by one another, by people around us. It's just who we are. I think most everybody was in
the back. Bill was talking about a great
deception, Absalom. That's what he was doing all
that whole time, deceiving people into thinking he was somebody
he wasn't. So we know something about deception, and I'm going
to talk about the greatest deception today. There's one that's greater
than all, and it's greater than all for three reasons. First,
it takes us all in. We're all a part of this deception.
We're born into this world in this deception. Nobody's excluded. Second, it takes us all in completely. We buy this deception hook, line,
and sinker. And third, It requires a miracle
from God to be delivered from this deception. That's why it's
great. Now I'm going to talk about it under these three points
you see on your screen here. First of all, the greatest lie
that leads to this great deception. Then, the greatest deception
which puts sinners in need of the greatest truth to expose
that deception, that lie, and overcome the deception. So, let's
look at these three points here. First of all, the greatest lie. In the scriptures, we find the
lie I'm talking about distinguished as the lie. It's a specific lie. It's not just lying in general.
I believe this lie is the source of every religious lie. And I
think we'll see that as we look at the scriptures. Every religious
falsehood can be traced back to this lie. The lie. Look with me at some scriptures
that identify the lie in the scriptures. First, let's look
at Romans 1 and verse 25. He's talking about men here who
didn't like to retain God in their knowledge. And so he said,
they changed the truth of God into a lie. That should be the
lie right there because that's what he's talking about. And
they worshiped and served the creature more than the creator
who is blessed forever. Now this verse takes us all the
way back to the beginning after the fall of man. Man in his fallen
state didn't like what they learned, what they saw, what they knew
about God. So what did he do? He changed
the truth into the lie. And what did that lie cause him
to do? It caused him not to worship the creator who should be worshipped,
but to worship the creature who should never be worshipped. Look
on with me at 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 9-12. It says, even him who's coming
is after the working of Satan. He's talking about that spirit
of deception here. Even him who's working is after
the power of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and
all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they
receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And
for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they
should believe a lie. Again, that's the lie. That they
all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure
in unrighteousness. Now, we don't generally think
of unrighteousness as deceptive, but there is an unrighteousness
that is deceptive. It's deceived all men and women
born into this world. It deceived you and me at one
time, this unrighteousness. And in these verses, you see
it says God will send some a strong delusion that they should believe
the lie. He didn't start out sending them strong delusion.
The gospels preached out in the world and those who reject the
gospel, those who will not have any part in this gospel and in
the Christ, it says for God sends him strong delusion. They should
believe the lie. and that they all might be damned
who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
In other words, they chose this unrighteousness over the truth.
They heard both. They chose the unrighteousness
to the truth. Look on with me to John 8 and
verse 44. Christ is talking to some disciples
here, and he's told them, if you'll continue in my word, you'll
be my disciples indeed. You'll know the truth, and the
truth will make you free. And here's part of that discourse. They rejected what he said. They
said, we've never been in bondage to any man. But he said, you're
of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father you
will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in
the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, that's the lie. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he's a liar and he's the father of that lie.
That's why I think every religious lie comes from this one lie that
we're gonna be looking at right here, the greatest lie. And Christ
went on to say, and because I tell you the truth, you believe me
not. You'd rather believe the lie than to believe the truth. Now, where did this lie? distinguished
as the lie. Where did this lie begin? Well,
it began in the garden. Look at Genesis 3 and verse 1.
This is where the greatest lie began right here. Now, the serpent
was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God
had made. And he said unto the woman, yea,
hath God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the
trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in
the midst of the garden, God has said you shall not eat of
it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. You see in verse
one there, it said the serpent, who is Satan, is subtle. That
means he's shrewd, he's sly, he's crafty, he's deceptive. Look at Genesis 3, 4, and 5.
And the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die. God
said, you would surely die. The serpent said, you shall not
surely die. For God doth know that in the
day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open and you shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil. Now in verse 4, we see
what the scriptures identify and distinguish as the lie I'm
talking about here, the greatest lie. You shall not surely die. The lie. Satan began in the garden. In other words, he's saying you
don't have to do what God said. He's telling Eve here. You can
disobey God's clear command. You can do what God has clearly
and obviously told you not to do and yet not suffer the consequences
of it. You shall not surely die. And
not only will you not die, you'll be better off than you are now.
You'll be as gods knowing good and evil. In other words, you
can determine what's right and wrong. You can set your own standard
here. You can determine who's saved
and who is lost, what's good and what's evil. Adam and Eve
believed this lie. Adam rebelled against God's clear
testimony and his belief that he could set his own standard
of good and evil, his own standard of saved and lost. His belief
of this lie plunged the whole human race into sin and the deservedness
of God's eternal wrath. This specific lie, promoted by
the world's religion in every generation, It's this lie that
brings sinners into and holds them in the greatest deception
known to man. Sinners remain under this deception
until God, by His grace, delivers us. You and I started out under
this deception. You may still be under this deception.
I don't know. But I know there's only one thing
that will deliver you, that's the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in Christ. So that's the greatest lie. Let's
look at the second point of the message, the greatest deception.
Look at Matthew 16 verses 24 and 25. This is what I'm calling
my text for today. Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me for whosoever will save his life
shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall
find it. Now, let me give you the context
of this statement. Christ has told his disciples
that he's got to go to the cross. And Peter adamantly told Christ,
far be it from you, Lord. It's not going to be. It's not
going to be so. You don't have to go to that cross. And Christ
has told Peter that his words are satanic. Get behind me, Satan,
or you saviors, not the things of God, but the things that be
of man. If any man will come after me, it says, he must deny
himself. He must lose his life for my
sake. In other words, he must stop,
be delivered from seeking to save his life. That's what a
man does who denies himself. Seeking to save his life is the
opposite of denying self. But here's the problem. The problem
with any sinner denying self is that none of us by nature
think we're promoting ourselves. We don't think that by nature.
None of us think we're seeking to save our lives. We're looking
to Christ. We're looking to his blood. That's
what I've always thought ever since I was just a child. And
although none of us think we're seeking to save our lives, that's
exactly what all of us are doing by nature. We're doing what we
would adamantly deny. This is the great deception.
We think we know God. But by nature, none of us do.
We think we know Christ, but by nature, none of us know the
Christ of the scriptures. We think we know the truth, but
by nature, none of us do. You remember there's a statement
that Bill used to make. He said, every one of us thinks
we're saved before we're saved, until we're saved. That's true.
That's this great deception I'm talking about. In my former religion,
before God delivered me to the gospel. I was convinced. I mean, I would have argued with
you vehemently that I was looking to the blood of Christ. I was
trusting Christ alone. I wasn't looking to anything
in me. But what I discovered under the gospel is that I was
really looking to my faith in Christ's blood, my faith in that
cross. My believing is what made the
difference between heaven and hell. I thought Christ died for
all without exception. but I also thought that multitudes
would perish for whom Christ died. So something in me had
to be making the difference. At that time, in my mind, Christ's
blood was ineffectual unless and until I believed that Christ
died for me. You see how faith there is what's
making the difference, not the blood of Christ? I was under
the greatest deception. My claim was that Christ's blood
was a sinner's only hope of salvation, but my theology, My doctrine
was promoting my faith as that which was making the real difference
between saved and lost. When Adam sewed his fig leaves
together, he was seeking to save his life. That's when he thought his fig
leaves would shield him from the wrath of God. When Cain brought
the best of his hands, he was seeking to save his life. by
the offering of His choosing, not the one God commanded Him
to bring, but the one He chose. When Peter said, Be it far from
thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee, he was seeking to
save his life, denying the necessity of Christ's death and resurrection. When Saul of Tarsus set out to
wipe the name of Christ off the face of the earth by destroying
the church, and that's what Saul was intending to do if God hadn't
stopped him. And when he was doing that, he
was seeking to save his life, rejecting the Christ of the gospel
that he was hearing. When any sinner attempts to worship
God, apart from the righteousness that Christ worked out in his
obedience and death alone, what they're doing is seeking to save
their own lives. They're promoting self and therefore
not denying self as Christ commanded those who would come after him.
By nature, we all believe that our thoughts about God and his
way of salvation are honoring to him when in fact, our thoughts
are totally dishonoring. Sinners are convinced that they're
looking to Christ alone, looking at His death, His blood, His
cross for all their acceptance with God. but they're really
looking to Christ plus something, something their religion tells
them they must do. Believe, walk an aisle, reform
your life, be obedient, whatever it is. If there's something that
the sinner must do before he can find acceptance with God,
if his acceptance is not in the blood and imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, he's thinking he's doing something
to save his own life. No sinner ignorant of the truth
of the true Christ, who he is and what he accomplished by his
death for every sinner he died for. No sinner ignorant of Christ
is looking to Christ alone for all of salvation. All of us by
nature are like Adam and Eve after the fall. We know to some
extent that we're exposed to the wrath of God. What we don't
know is how to be free from that wrath. What we don't know is
how to end that fear of punishment that's in our hearts. Adam made
himself a fig leaf apron to hide his nakedness and he hid himself
among the trees of the garden. What he was doing was demonstrating
what natural fallen humanity, who hasn't been taught by God,
still does. That's what we all did before
we were taught of God. We come with our solution to
the problem because we're ignorant of God's solution to our problem.
Man's solution is a savior. a Christ, but it's one whose
death alone saved no one. A sinner has to appropriate or
make that death effectual by something found in them. The
claim of Christendom, your neighbors, your friends, your family, and
mine, the claim of Christendom is that their hope is in Christ's
blood. But their theology, their doctrine
says that it's faith in Christ's blood that really makes the difference. Or something else, depending
on what version of religion you're listening to. The great deception
in the minds of natural man is this. We really believe. We really do believe this. When
I was in my former religion, I really believed I was looking
to the cross of Christ. We really do believe that we're
trusting Christ's blood alone, but at the same time, we're believing
that his blood is ineffectual to millions who fail to believe. If any sinner ends up in hell
for whom Christ died, then it's not Christ's death alone. It's
not his blood alone that saves them. And we know, according
to the scriptures, it is the blood of Christ that saves sinners.
Under such theology, we think we know God. but the God we know
is an idol of our imagination. We think we know Christ, but
to Christ we know is a counterfeit. We think we know the truth, but
the truth we know is darkness. It's the greatest deception.
Look at Proverbs 14 and verse 12. There is a way which seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. This way that seems right is
the greatest deception. It seems right. It seems like
we're on the right path. It seems like we're doing what
we need to do. But that way ends in death. If a sinner remains
on this way, he's deceived and headed for eternal misery. The
problem with fallen sinners is that none of us by nature ever
see ourselves on the way that ends in death. We don't see that.
We don't know that we're on that way. That's the great deception. We imagine that we're okay. We imagine that our way is the
right way. It's not a way ending in death.
Our pastor, our families, our friends tell us we're okay. And
we go on in this deception until God stops us with the gospel.
And we have a good illustration of this deception in the gospel
of Luke. Look at Luke chapter 18, verses nine and 10. It says,
and Christ spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in
themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men
went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other
a publican. It says Christ spoke this parable
to those who trusted in themselves. That could read who trusted that
they were righteous in themselves. They trusted they had a righteousness.
This Pharisee trusted he had a righteousness. He trusted he
was accepted by God. That's what he was counting on.
But that righteousness, that self-righteousness in him, what
did it cause him to do? See back in verse 9, it caused
him to despise others, to look down his self-righteous nose
at others. Any religion that causes men,
men like you and me, men and women like you and me, sinners
in need of the mercy and grace of God, any religion that causes
us to look down our noses at anybody as far as salvation goes,
as far as our acceptance with God goes, is a man-made religion. It's a religion of works and
legalism. But this Pharisee went up to pray. The Pharisee in this parable
is a picture of a sinner under the great deception I'm telling
you about. He's thanking God. I thank God. I'm not like other
men. He thinks he's honoring God,
but in reality he's looking within. He's looking at what God has
enabled him to do for his confidence. Look at verse 11 now of that
same parable. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men
are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast
twice in a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.
You see what he's doing? He gave God the credit. but his
confidence is in what God has enabled him to do. His giving,
his tithing, his religious zeal, his fasting, and not like this
publican who in his eyes could deserve no blessing from God.
The scriptures describe a sinner under the greatest deception.
It's all about the perception of Christ or the lack of it.
Look at Matthew chapter six and verse 22 with me now. It says the light of the body
is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be
evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore
the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. The light here is what Any sinner,
every sinner is convinced is making the difference between
heaven and hell, saved and lost. It says, if thine eye be single,
that is, if thine eye be fixed on Christ and Christ alone, on
his imputed righteousness alone for all of salvation, then the
gospel wherein that righteousness is revealed, the gospel of that
sinner whose eye is single sits under, it gives us more and more
confidence in Christ. But if our eye be evil, that
is, if our eye is looking at something in us rather than Christ's
finished work alone, then our worship will be nothing but a
promotion of darkness and deception. If therefore, final verse there,
If, final phrase, if therefore the light that's in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness. It's impossible to be delivered
from this deception under a message of darkness and deception. It's
impossible to be delivered under the message of a universal atonement,
a message where Christ died for all, but really whose death saved
no one, unless they meet that condition of faith or repentance
or whatever. The nature of deception, is that
no one caught up in the deception knows they're caught up in it.
No one being deceived knows they're being deceived. The only way
for anyone being deceived to know they're being deceived is
to be deliberate. See, as long as I was thinking,
as long as I was in my former religion and thinking I was looking
to Christ alone, I didn't know that it was my faith making the
difference. Nobody ever stopped me in my tracks and said, wait
a minute now, You said Christ died for all, but yet some will
end up in hell. How can you be claiming the death
of Christ? There must be more to it than that. And there was.
There was my faith. But God's solution to the greatest
deception is he sends those whom he has delivered by the gospel.
He sends us to tell those still being deceived about that one
who delivered us. Therefore, we come to the final
point of the message. The truth that exposes the lie
and overcomes the deception. The greatest truth. The word
of God to Adam before the fall is the truth that exposes the
greatest lie. The greatest lie remembers thou
shalt not surely die. You can be as God. You can set
your own standard of good and evil. You can determine who's
saved and who's lost. That's the greatest lie. And
the truth, look in Genesis 2 verse 16 and we'll see it. And the
Lord God commanded the man, that's Adam, he was alone at that time.
He said, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou
shalt surely die. Look at Ezekiel 18 in verse 4. Behold, all souls are mine. As the soul of the father, so
also the soul of the son. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The word from the beginning.
Even before the fall, sin demands death, Adam. If you eat, if you
do what I've told you not to do, death is going to be the
result. The wages of sin is death. A
just God must punish all sin. He can't overlook it. He can't
set it aside. He must punish it. And he must
punish all sin with eternal death. And all must suffer that death.
either in Christ at the cross or in our own persons through
all eternity. Immediately after the fall, God
showed Adam and Eve the stark reality of this statement, thou
shalt surely die. He declared to them the gospel
in picture and type. He slew an innocent animal and
he made them coats of skins to cover their nakedness. He took
away their fig leaf aprons. First of all, he killed the innocent.
That's the type and picture of Christ, the lamb without spot
and without blemish. He was showing them that without
shedding of blood is no remission, no forgiveness of sin. And in
that innocent animal, he was typifying that the shedding of
the blood of the woman's seed, the shedding of Christ's blood
alone would bring forgiveness to every sinner he died for.
The coats of skins he put on Adam and Eve represented the
righteous robe Christ worked out by his obedience unto death. We're considering here the truth
that exposes a lie and overcomes this great deception. Here it
is. Every sinner in Christ has been
delivered from the wrath of God which they deserve. They've been
given an unchangeable standing of righteousness before God.
Not because they did something, but because Christ did everything,
everything needful for them to stand and for God to declare
them righteous. Christ fulfilled the law we broke
and he satisfied the justice we thwarted. If Christ died for
your sins, you're forgiven. You stand not charged today,
not even chargeable. His blood is cleansing you from
all sin. You stand unchangeably righteous
in God's sight by the imputed righteousness of Christ alone.
Look at Romans 4 and verse 25. Christ who was delivered for
or because of our offenses and was raised again because of our
justification. If Christ was delivered unto
death because of your offenses, He was raised again because of
your justification. He was raised again because God
declares you righteous based on His imputed righteousness
alone. Look at Romans 8 verses 31 and 32. What I'm showing you
right here is the connection between those for whom Christ
was delivered and the certain result of His death for them. Romans 8.31, What shall we then
say to these things if God be for us? Who can be against us?
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? If God spared not his son for
you, but delivered him up for you, he must and shall give you
all the benefits of that one whom he declares just in his
sight. Look at Isaiah 53 verses 4 through
6 here. Surely Christ hath borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. What I want you to understand
from these verses is there is no disparity between those whose
iniquities were laid on Christ and those who were healed by
his stripes. Every sinner Christ represented,
those whose iniquities were laid on him, Every sinner whom Christ
represented has been washed clean of his and her sins. They have
been healed by the stripes of Christ. Every sinner he represented
is unchangeably righteous in God's sight based on his imputed
righteousness alone. No sinner can perish, die eternally
for whom Christ died. Now, justice certainly is there's
no disparity between those whose iniquities were laid on Christ
and those who were healed by his stripes. There's also no
disparity between those resting all their salvation in Christ
alone and those who've been delivered from the lie and the great deception
that that lie has brought us all into. That's what Christ
is referring to in the second part of verse 25 of our text. Look back at Matthew 16 and verse
25. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it. Whoever will deny himself, whoever
will lose his life for my sake will find it. He'll find life. He'll find that he's been given
eternal life in Christ and Christ alone. What does it mean for
a sinner to deny himself, to lose his life for Christ's sake? It means be delivered from thinking
that anything in you has anything to do with your acceptance with
God. Be delivered from such thinking.
It means admit that when you were separated from the gospel,
and ignorant of the righteousness Christ established, that righteousness
by which God justifies every sinner in Christ. Admit that
at that time you were going about to establish a righteousness
of your own under a counterfeit gospel, a counterfeit Christ,
and an idol of your imagination. It means repent of such thinking. It means see all your acceptance
before God in the finished work, the imputed righteousness of
Christ alone. As I've stated throughout this
message, the greatest deception takes us all in by nature, and
it takes us all in completely. It takes us all in so completely
that we have no means in ourselves to be delivered from it. This
deception is overpowering. We can't deliver ourselves out
of it. Deliverance requires an intervention.
It requires a miracle from God. That's why when any sinner sees
this deception and is delivered from it, it's nothing short of
the miracle of God's mercy and grace toward that sinner. The
truth that exposes the greatest lie and overcomes the greatest
deception. The truth is about Christ and
what he's done to save his people from their sins. But it's also
about the deliverance this revelation brings to those given life by
the Spirit. Those born of God have been delivered
from this great deception by the truth of Christ and the salvation
that's in Him. This deliverance I'm talking
about is evidence, it's proof that the gospel has not come
to us in word only, but in power. bringing us much assurance in
Christ and Him alone. This deliverance is one of the
greatest evidences that a sinner is truly saved and no longer
under the greatest deception. That's what Paul wrote to the
believers at Thessalonica. Look at 1 Thessalonians 1 verses
4 and 5. Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God, Paul writes to these at Thessalonica, for
our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power
and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance, as you know what
manner of men we were among you for Christ's sake. These sinners
didn't just hear the gospel. They did hear the gospel, but
they didn't just hear it and go on indifferent about the message. They were affected by it. Their
thinking was changed by it. Their thinking was changed about
God and His way of salvation. It didn't come to them in word
only, but the power of the Holy Spirit was present. He made a
difference. Now look at verse 9. For they
themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you,
and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and
true God. They admitted they were idolaters
before God brought them to the gospel and showed them Christ
and himself through Christ. They admitted their works were
wicked and evil before they knew Christ, before they knew God. Dead works in the scriptures
would be equivalent to a sinner's efforts to save his own life.
Idolatry can be defined as the worship of the God who receives
a sinner based on those efforts that he's making to save his
own life. So repentance from dead works and former idolatry
is one of the greatest evidences that a sinner is saved and delivered
from this greatest deception. Here's the testimony of every
sinner who's born of God. It may not go exactly like this,
but here's what we understand, what we all understand and know. We now know that when we were
separated from the gospel, we were ignorant of Christ, the
true Christ of the scriptures. We know that at that time, we
were going about to establish a righteousness of our own by
our obedience. We were trying to save ourselves.
We know that at that time, we did not think We never even considered
that we were looking at our own efforts. We know also at that
time that we were deceived. We were under the greatest deception.
We know we needed a miracle from God to save us from ourselves,
our own self-righteous religion. We now thank God for declaring
to us the God-man whose obedience unto death delivered every sinner
he died for from the punishment they deserved and established
that one righteousness by which God declares his people righteous
in Christ. Now I have to ask everyone listening,
has the declaration of Christ exposed the greatest lie in you? and overcome the greatest deception? Have you been delivered from
seeking to save your life and found eternal life in Christ
and in him alone? For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake,
Christ said, shall find it. May God enable his people to
bow to the testimony we've heard.