1 Corinthians 6, verse 9, Know
ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners
shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you,
but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."
I want to talk about one little three-word phrase that occurs
three times in the New Testament, and the first one is here. I
want to read all three of them, and then we're going to talk
about the third one. The one I've just read to us
here relates to salvation, and the phrase is, be not deceived. You see it there in verse 9,
the middle of the verse, be not deceived. We've come to the place in our
society when the accepted thinking is that everybody goes to heaven
when they die. Whether it's a godly mother that's loved the Lord and loved
and cared for children, or whether it's the most filthy, vulgar
tramp in Hollywood, when they die, they all go to heaven. That's just not so. That's just
not so. And the scripture says here,
be not deceived about it. The second scripture is in the
same book of the Bible, 1 Corinthians, and chapter number 15. Chapter 15. And here it has to
do with our associations. The crowd
we run with, the company we keep, the lifestyle we pursue. Association. Chapter 15, verse 33. Be not deceived. There it is. Evil communications corrupt,
good manners. How many times have you heard,
well, he or she is a good person, they just got with the wrong
crowd. Well, everybody in the crowd was a good person until
they got with the crowd. You see? And every time a person goes that
way, and in my years I've seen many, I've seen many. You sense them pulling away from
the Lord. And then you see them pulling away from the church.
And when you speak a word with them, as I have many, many times,
they say, oh, it won't affect me. I'm not going to change. But it does change you. Association,
evil communications, corrupt good manners. Our mother used
to say you can't sleep with the dogs and not get fleas. That's pretty good thinking,
wasn't it? And the third scripture where
we find this little statement in the New Testament is in Galatians
chapter 6. And this is the one I want to
read and stay with a few minutes. Galatians chapter 6. The first one related to salvation. The second one related to association. This one relates to cultivation. You know the Bible is filled
with illustrations about farming, about sowing and reaping, about
planting and harvesting. Very simple. Cultivation. And here in Galatians 6 and verse
7, We read these words, be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. When I was a boy, my mother would
say, son, you can't do wrong and get by. I guess she said
it a thousand times to me. She probably said it several
thousand to the rest of you. But she probably said it a thousand
times to me. You can't do wrong and get by. Well, in all my childhood memory,
my mother did no wrong. I'm telling you. But see, that's
my thinking. Well, how did she know this?
Why would she keep saying this? You can't do wrong, get by. Was it that she simply believed
God's Word? Or did she know it by experience? I promise you it was both. Both. Because she wasn't as perfect
as I thought she was. Experience will teach us that
God's Word is right. Experience will teach us what
fools we are to go against it, because it's always right. So
we consider this verse here in Galatians 6, verse 7, Be not
deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. There's three things in this
verse. A word of warning, God is not mocked. Second, a word about works, whatsoever
a man soweth. And third, a word about wages,
that shall he also reap. First, the word of warning. God
is not mocked. Be not deceived about this. If
it were not possible for you to be deceived, the Bible would
not say be not deceived. If there was not a danger of
you being deceived, the Bible would not say be not deceived. So it's a clear word of warning
to every one of us today. Now, the Greek word for mocked
that's used here means to ridicule, to sneer at, to turn up the nose
at, to treat with contempt. Oftentimes what we would not
say with our lips, we say in our minds. I know the Bible said such and
such, but. I know it would be the right
thing to do, but. Well, goats, but OK. I'll just ignore that. I'll just
disregard that. I don't. Care what God says. I'll live as if he don't exist. And if, as if his word is nothing,
be very careful. The word of warning is God is
not mocked. Now, this does not mean that
people don't mock him. They do. They do. It means they
don't do it and that's the end of it. It means they don't do
it and get by with it. It means God won't tolerate it
from now on. It means exactly what mother
said, son, you can't do wrong and get by. You might get by
me, you might get by your daddy, you might get by your teacher,
you might get by the principal, but you won't get by the Lord. Really, when you think about
it, all these television crime shows are based on this principle. NCIS and all those other things.
Some of y'all like to watch the forensic technology and all that. And even the simple ones I can
understand, like Ben Matlock, even that, see. It always seems
they're dealing with the perfect crime. I mean, there's just no indication at
all of who's the guilty party. And the guilty party does everything
in their power to cover it up and appear innocent. But in the
end, the truth always comes out. And so is life. So is this principle. The truth about you and the truth
about me is this. Hold on now. Hold on. Here's
the truth. There is a God mocker. in your
nature that causes you to turn up your
nose at God and do as you please. But the Bible says when you do
this, when you do your thing, that's not the end of it. God is not mocked. He don't have to get even by
sundown. He don't have to get even this year or next year,
but count on it. God is not mocked. Now there's a positive side to
this and we're not there yet. Just hang on. Not only a word
of warning, but in this verse, there's a word about works. Look
at the next statement. Whatsoever a man soweth. The word whatsoever is very broad. There is nothing in life wherein
this principle does not apply. Whatsoever, whether it's seeds
of kindness or seeds of love, seeds of faith, seeds of corruption,
seeds of deception, whatsoever a man soweth. And then third, there's the word
about wages. shall he also reap. Whatsoever exactly what a man
soweth, that and exactly that shall he also reap. This principle of cultivation
is so elementary. Some of you here today are fantastic
at gardening. I'm not. I don't have a green
thumb. I have a black thumb. But this principle of cultivation,
farming, gardening, it's so elementary a child can understand. You don't
plant one kind of seed and expect something else to come from it. You don't plant corn and expect
beans. It don't work that way. Everything
is true to its seed. And this is not a principle that
man invented. God said this is how it is. The
seed will be true to its nature. What you sow is what you reap. You say, well, this is looking
worse for me all the time. Good. It's supposed to. It's supposed to look real bad. Don't be deceived. You are what
you are. Don't deny it. It does not matter
how religious you've been or how non-religious you've been. There is a God-mocker in your
nature. Don't be deceived about it. Don't
look to your left. Don't look to your right. Look
in the mirror. You'll see a God-mocker. We mock our speed limit laws
when the sign says 65 and everybody's doing 75. We don't think anything about it
being illegal. We just think about, I'm not
going to get caught because everybody else is doing it. See, we mock
that law. We mock criminal law when crooked
lawyers and judges will take your money so you can buy your
way out of almost anything. It's a mockery of the law. But God is not mocked. He don't need the money. Be not deceived. He can't be
bought off. We mock God when we turn up our
nose and say, well, everybody else is doing it. Everybody else
is mocking God. It's in our nature. So what's
our hope in all this? Is there any hope for the likes
of us? Well, after all our years of doing wrong, and for some,
after all our years of hypocritical religion, what hope can we possibly
have? Is it to straighten up and fly
right from here on in and hope our good will outweigh our bad?
In the end, it'll never happen. It'll never happen. You're in
so deep, there's no hope for you in you. What you need is for another
to take your record and give you His record. There is one and only one with
a good record. It's God's Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who came down from heaven, was made flesh So this verse applies to him
as well. Whatsoever a man soweth, he became
man. Whatsoever the man, Christ Jesus,
soweth, that shall he also reap. He's going to get his just dues. But He took my record. He exchanged
places with me. Whatsoever this man, Carol Poole,
has sown, that man Christ Jesus reaped. He went to a cross for me. And on that cross He had not
just the wrath of man poured out upon Him, But he had the
wrath of God against my sins poured out upon him. He suffered
what I deserved to suffer. He took my place. He took my
record and gave me his. Whatsoever a man soweth. What did he sow? He sowed righteousness. He was
the very seed of righteousness. He was sinless, pure, infinitely
holy, perfect with God. That seed of righteousness hung
in shame on a cross and bled and died and was buried He said
himself in John 12, 24, except the seed be planted. He was talking
about himself and his death and resurrection. Except it die,
fall into the ground, be planted, it abides alone. Seeds stored in a jar on a shelf. Never will yield a harvest. It's
going to sit there in that jar on the shelf. They have to be
planted. There's a miracle in a seed.
We all know that. And the miracle of God's grace
is that there was given one seed, a righteous seed that was not
polluted with the sinful blood of Adam. Everybody else you know
is polluted with the sinful blood of Adam, including you and I. But Christ Jesus was born of a virgin. He was
sinless. He had not the sinful blood of
Adam running in his veins. No. He lived and died. But did you ever think of this?
He couldn't die in himself or for himself. Because death is
the wages of sin. He had no sin. He couldn't die. But he did die. only because
He took upon Himself the sin of His people. And in His death,
He paid our sin debt. He bore the consequences of my
record. And all who are in Him are given
His record. And the blessed conclusion is
this, Romans 8.1, there is therefore now, right now, No condemnation. Not one speck of condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. If you're God's child this morning,
everybody in the world may be mad at you, but God's not mad
at you. There's no condemnation. None. Now if you choose to live all
your life, all the way to the end, ignoring God, mocking God,
die in your sins and go to hell. That's exactly what you deserve. And be not deceived. It's exactly
what you get. God is not mocked. It's going to be exactly as he
says. But I want to say to you, for
one, I'm clean to God's way. You say, have you quit sinning?
No, but I'm clinging to God's way. Are you a God-mocker? Yes, but I'm clinging to God's
way. You see, it's not that I've latched
on to Him and won't let go. I've let go lots of times, but
He's latched on to me and won't let go. This is the beautiful
thing about the sovereign grace that we believe and teach It's
not your punified efforts to be something special. You are
nothing special in yourself. We're all worth just a few cents
in fertilizer when it's all rotted down. But oh, the only thing special
is to have had the God of eternity, by His grace, do a work right
in here. Change our hearts. Give us a
love and a longing for Him. If He ever lays hold on your
heart, and I pray He does and will, then you can't let go. You'll never want to let go.
Be not deceived. So there's a warning word. God
is not mocked. Discount on it. There's a works word. Whatsoever
a man soweth, Whatever. And there's a wages word that
shall he also reap, but thank God. There's a wonderful word. And this is what we've been saying.
Second Corinthians 5 21. Here's the wonderful word for
he God, the father. have made Him, Jesus Christ,
to be sin for us, us God-mockers. God gave Him our record, Him
who knew no sin, that we, God-mockers, might be made the righteousness
of God are the very righteousness God requires in Him, in Christ. We're given His record. That's
the gospel. You don't need any of this religious,
this little do-good religious mess. No, no. If you'll just
keep getting better and better, God will just keep liking you
more and more. Uh-uh, uh-uh. It rains on the just and the
unjust. It's going to be hell at your house sometime, just
like it is mine. Don't matter who you are and
how you live. But the blessed thing is to have this hope of
eternity. That we're not saved by our doing,
but we're saved as a gift from God in His blessed Son. The altogether righteous one.
And that's how it is this morning. Let me conclude with this scripture.
Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1, 21 and
22. And you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Does that sound familiar? Oh, yes. Yet now hath he reconciled. See, the Scripture teaches that
the people Christ died for, He reconciled us to God. He didn't
make us reconcilable. Ephesians 1, 6 says that we are
accepted in the Beloved. Not made acceptable, but made
accepted. It's a done deal with His work.
He hath reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Not by you doing better, no. Not by you turning over a new
leaf, no. He's done this. He's reconciled
us to God. I don't care if you're a regular
church goer or if you're not, that's not my business. But I
want to say to you this morning, this principle is for certain. And I'd highly recommend that
you crawl off somewhere in the secrecy of your own soul and
go ahead and tell the Lord about all your excuses all these years
and how they're nothing but garbage. And that's what they are. And
plead with Him. Not to look at your good side.
You don't have a good side. But plead with Him to look at
you in the face of Him who is infinitely holy, Him who is altogether
lovely, Him who is perfect righteousness. Though you're a habitual God-mocker,
plead with God to be found in Him with whom He is well pleased,
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why it's called the Gospel
of Christ. It's not called the gospel of
you making the grade. It's not called the gospel of
you quit this and quit that and quit cussing out loud. No, it's
not that. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He did it. He did it. That's the whole deal. Well, I could go on and on, but
y'all rather I didn't. So let's stand together.