If he can, Satan will deceive us. If he can keep us from Christ,
he will convince us with great confidence of our acceptance
of God. If he can keep us from building
our houses upon the rock, Christ Jesus, he'll give us plenty of
sand. If he can keep us from him who is the only refuge for
our souls, he doesn't care what refuge we have. The greatest
dangers we have in this world are the dangers given and promoted
by religion without the knowledge of God. Let it sink in. Don't ever be so foolish and
such an enemy to the souls of men, your husband or wife, your
sons or daughters, mother or father, as to dare try to convince
them that they know God when they don't. Don't ever do it. Don't ever do it. Only God the
Holy Spirit can make a man know God and make him know he knows
God. That's his work. But rather,
let us hear the warnings of Scripture. Our Lord Jesus Christ, while
he walked on this earth, constantly warned us of three great dangers. Three great snares by which Satan
destroys the souls of men. The first is false religion and
false prophets. The second is self-righteousness
and hypocrisy. And the third is a deceived heart. Now here in Luke chapter 6, verses
39 through 45, our Lord gives us a parable in which he warns
us of these three great dangers. By these great snares, Satan
has carried many to hell. Let us not be numbered among
them. First look at verses 39 and 40. He spoke a parable unto them. Can the blind lead the blind? They do it all the time. Blind men take other blind men
by the hand and say, come on, follow me, I know the way. Now
I don't blame a man for being blind, but I blame him for pretending
to see. I don't blame a man for being blind, but I blame him
for claiming that he knows the way and attempting to lead me
in it. Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall
into the ditch? The disciple, the student, is
not above his master, his teacher, his guide. But everyone that
is perfect shall be his master. Now here the Son of God warns
us of the great grave danger of following false prophets.
These two verses must be understood together. They cannot be separated. Our Lord is telling us plainly
that those who follow false prophets shall perish with them in hell. If you follow a blind man, you
can't be walking in the light, and both of you will fall into
hell together. If you follow Christ, if he who
is perfect is your master, you shall at last be made perfect
with him. John Gill was exactly right in
commenting on this. He said, Christ in this last
calls seems to design his own disciples who, when perfect in
knowledge, will be like himself. If he is our master who is perfect,
then in the end we shall stand before him perfect, otherwise
we'll perish. While he walked on this earth,
our Lord warned us over and over and over again of the danger
of following blind leaders, the danger of following and hearing
false prophets and false teachers. He warned us more frequently
of false religion and false prophets than he did of any other single
thing. I don't know how to say this
in such a way as to make you hear what I'm saying. I know
it's shocking in our generation. But our greatest dangers in this
world are not pimps and pushers and pornography, horrible as
those things are. Our greatest dangers in this
world are churches and preachers and religion. The greatest curse
of our society is the religion of this day. If vices of the
world have slain their thousands, the pretended virtues of false
religion have slain their 10,000. This is what our Lord teaches
us in these verses. Listen carefully. If we hear
and follow false prophets, we'll go to hell with them. There are no exceptions. There
are just no exceptions, Rob. That's what it says right here.
If your teacher is in error, you're in error. If the man who
leads you is blind, you're blind. If you follow your blind guide,
when he falls, you'll fall. When he perishes, you'll perish.
Now we constantly endeavor to avoid obvious facts, especially
when it comes to spiritual things. Pretending, as we like to do,
that we are more kind, loving, and gracious than God himself,
we try to convince ourselves that men and women may worship
at the altar of free will and still believe free grace. We
try to convince ourselves that they may follow blind guides
and yet they themselves see. We try to suggest that they may
be involved in the practice of idolatrous false religion and
yet know the true and living God. But that just isn't so.
That just isn't so. It doesn't matter who they are,
it just is not so. Children of light walk in the
light. Children of darkness walk in
darkness. Folks who can see don't follow blind men. What could
be plainer than that? That's not confusing, that's
not splitting hairs, that's just fact. Folks who walk in darkness
are blind. Folks who follow blind men are
blind. Folks who follow men who are
going to hell are following them to hell. Christ's sheep. are not like that. What does
he say? My sheep hear not the voice of strangers. A stranger
will they not follow? They will not. Now that doesn't
mean that believers, that God's elect, that those who know God
are academics, that they're theologians, that they're well-versed and
well-established so they can sit down and argue fine points
of theology. They don't even care about that.
But they know the difference between free will and free grace.
They know the difference between trusting Christ and trusting
themselves. And they will not follow a blind man. They will
not follow a stranger. They follow the shepherd. They
have sheep's ears trained for the shepherd's voice. Listen
to what our Lord said. I read this to the men back in
the office a moment ago. Turn to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew
7. Now we are admonished over and
over again to be aware of these things. Verse 13. The Lord says, Enter in at the
straight gate. Straight. That doesn't mean straight
like a gun barrel, though that's included. It means straight as
constricted, tight. Tight. The straight gate. For
wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. The whole religious world says
this is the way. Come on, you can get on. It doesn't
matter what you bring. You can get on. It doesn't matter what
you believe. You can get in this way. You can walk with us. It's
all right. It's all right. It's broad. It's
a wide way. God's love. God's love. Love, love, love. God is love. It'll be all right.
God says, enter the straight gate. The straight gate. That wide way leads to destruction. Most folks walk in it. Most folks
do. Most folks do. Because straight
is the gate to narrow the way which leads to life, and few
there be that find it. Therefore, our Lord gives this
warning, beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing.
They smile like possums eating bars. They look so nice. They're so sweet. They're so
kind. Everybody likes them. They're
just good old boys. They're fine gentlemen. They
wouldn't offend anybody. They wouldn't tell you the truth
for anything. They're nice, nice. Beware. They look like sheep. Act like
sheep. But inwardly, they're set by
Satan to devour your souls. They're ravening wolves. Turn
to 2 Corinthians 11. The Apostle Paul writes to these
believers at Corinth and says in verse 2, I'm jealous over
you. I'm jealous over you with a godly
jealousy, not a fleshly envy. I'm not after what you can give
me. I'm not using you. I'm concerned
for you. For I have espoused you to one
husband. That I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. But I'm afraid. I'm afraid. I fear. Lest by any means, as
the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. The simplicity. The singleness. The oneness that's
in Christ. Last week, one day, I was walking
along with Shelby. She was looking at these shops
like ladies would want to do, and I saw one of those religious
bookstores. I wouldn't call it a Christian
bookstore. I wouldn't really call it a bookstore. It was just
an idol shop. I thought I'd go in and see what was in it. I
always get a little upset, but it provides good preaching material.
I looked around. I looked around. I looked on
every shelf in the store. Every shelf in the store. There wasn't
one book or pamphlet or even a plaque that said anything worth
having. Not one. Not one. Everything,
talking about this issue and that issue, novels and things
exciting for folks to read, imaginations about Satan and the second coming
and when the rapture comes, whatever that thing's supposed to be,
and all the silly stuff men invent. All the silly stuff men invent
to turn you away from Christ. Keep you involved in religion.
Keep you involved in religious superstition. Keep you involved
in religious morality, keep you involved in religious excitement,
but turn you away from Christ. Beware. Turn to 1 Thessalonians
5. But Pastor, what are we to do?
What are we to do? 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 21. prove all things. How? With this book. Merle Hart, you
listen to this man preach, I speak to you in God's name, you better
be sure what I'm saying to you is God's word. So I just follow the preacher.
If you follow a blind man, that's your fault. You've got the book
right in front of you. Prove all things. Hold fast to
that which is good. A man stands up and preaches
free grace, hang on to it. A man points you to Christ, hang
on to it. A man writes something or declares
something to you that shows the glory of God and your desperate
need of God's grace in Christ, hang on to it. Abstain from anything
that even smells like free will. This has abstained from all appearance
of evil. That's not talking about how you walk in this world. You
can't do that. You can't do that. Some folks,
look, a fellow wears a red shirt, so that's evil. Nobody do that. Go down the road
17 miles and see. Well, I don't want to give any
men the appearance of evil. One may have too low. That's
not going to do it. I want to be sure that I always
say the right thing and look right and act right so folk can
see Jesus in me. If they didn't see him in him,
they ain't gonna see him in you. That's not what it's talking
about. That's nothing but self-righteous works religion. It's nothing
but will worship. It's nothing but a show in the
flesh. And he says abstain from all appearance of evil. He's
saying anything that appears to be contrary to the simplicity
that's in Christ. You stay away from it. Stay away
from it. All right, now look in 1 John
chapter 4. Beloved, believe not every spirit. Now Lindsay's talking about preachers,
he's not talking about something you can't see. Read the context, you'll see.
He's not talking about imaginations. He's not talking about ghosts.
He's talking about preachers. Don't you believe them all? I
don't care if they've got a Bible in their hand. I don't care if
they've got degrees, as long as you are. Don't believe them. But try them. Try the spirits. Test them. Prove all things,
whether they are of God. How come? Because many false
prophets have gone out into the world. Well, preacher, how do
we know the difference? Hereby you know the Spirit of
God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in
the fleshes of God. Well, that means everybody who
claims to be Christians of God. No, no. Understand the context.
The Apostle Paul, writing by inspiration in Romans chapter
9, says the whole religious world says there's something for you
to do. Who's going to ascend up into heaven? Who's going to
find merit with God? Who's going to find acceptance
with God? How can we get God to look favorably on us? That's
what the whole world's trying to get you to do. That's what
the whole religious world says. Those who know Christ say, it's
done. You don't do anything. Christ came in the flesh. The
Son of God promised back in the Garden, the Son of God, who agreed
to it before the world was, has come! And he's brought in everlasting
righteousness, he's made an end of sin, he's satisfied the justice
of God, he's obtained by the sacrifice of himself eternal
redemption for us. Now anybody who says he hadn't,
that's Antichrist. That's what it says here. Every
spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh, Every spirit that does not plainly declare the accomplished
work of Jesus Christ, the finished work of the Son of God, that's
the spirit of Antichrist. Antichrist. Antichrist. That's not some green-eyed monster
with a pitchfork and a long tail. Antichrist is not some political
leader that you're going to find out in the world. Antichrist
is the spirit of the religion of this age declaring to you
that Jesus Christ needs your help, declaring to you that God
needs something from you, declaring to you that somehow there's somewhere
for man to fit in this thing called salvation. The Lord Jesus said, I'm the
door. James put it so well, folks who
ask confusion, nothing confuses about one thing. One thing doesn't
confuse anybody. I'm the door. It is. It is. Oh, here's a door. That's
the door. Every other door will bring you
to destruction. I'm the way. I'm the way. There's no other
way. I am the truth. There is no truth apart from
me. I am the life. Everything else is dead. Christ
is the altar. You worship at any other altar,
you don't worship God. Christ is the atonement. There
is no other way by which God can be pacified and satisfied
with regard to our sins. The Lord Jesus Christ is salvation. Simeon gives us a great example. Here's what faith does. It takes
up the incarnate God in the arms of faith and lifts her eyes to
heaven and says, I have seen your salvation. Here he is. Here
he is. He is wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Beware of false prophets who
would take you away from the simplicity that's in Christ. If you care for your soul, if
you care for the souls of your sons and daughters, beware of
following false prophets. If you do, you'll follow them
to hell. How much plainer can things be?
Our Lord says, come out of her, my people, come out of Babylon,
that you be not partakers of her sins, that you receive not
of her plagues. All right, look at verses 41
and 42. Why beholdest thou the moat that's
in your brother's eye, but perceive not the beam that's in your own
eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Brother, let me help
you. Now I don't want to be critical.
I don't want to put my nose where it doesn't belong, but you need
my help. Let me tell you what you ought to be doing. Let me
tell you how you ought to do this. Let me tell you how you
ought to spend your time. Brother, let me pull the moat,
pull out the moat that's in your eye, when you yourself behold
not the beam that's in your own eye, you hypocrite. Cast out
first the beam out of your own eye, and then you'll see clearly
to pull out the moat that's in your brother's eye. Self-righteousness
is the subject here. Our Lord warns us of the great
danger of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. The two things
always go together. Nothing is more natural to man
than self-righteousness and hypocrisy. Nothing. We're good at it. We
start it from our youth. And we continue it with diligent
practice all the days of our lives. By nature, every son of
Adam wears his fig leaves proudly. And he's a hypocrite. He's a
hypocrite. And yet nothing is more obnoxious
to God Almighty than self-righteousness and hypocrisy. Listen to what
he says. These are a people that provoke
me to anger continually. And they do it to my face, in
my house, calling on my name, with my book in front of them.
They sacrifice in gardens and burn incense upon altars of bricks,
things they've made their own works, which remain among the
graves and lodge in the mountains. They eat swine's flesh and the
broth of abominable things in their vessels. That's how God
describes their religion, which say, stand by yourself. Don't come too close to me. I'm
holier than you. I'm holier than you. Isn't it
amazing the only time, the only time in the whole Bible where
the word holy is used in a relative comparative sense is right here.
The only time in the whole Bible men talk about being holy and
more holy and holier. Only these men Stand by yourself. I'm holier than you. And God
says, these folks are a smoke in my nose. A smoke in my nose,
nothing more irritating. Get me away from it. Get me out
of this place! They're a smoke in my nose. Oh,
I would rather stand before God Almighty in the day of judgment,
guilty of any crime. And I mean any, rather than stand
before God guilty of self-righteousness. It's the most obnoxious thing
in the world to him. You see, self-righteous people
are these kind of folks. Every man who justifies himself
and condemns his neighbor is self-righteous. Every one. Those who are made righteous
in Christ condemn themselves and justify their neighbor. That's
the difference. Nothing profound about that,
is it? Self-righteous folks find splinters, specks, in the eyes
of others, and ignore the telephone poles in their own eyes. Those
who acknowledge and confess their sins before God constantly struggle
with the telephone poles in their own eyes. They struggle with it so difficult,
so painfully, so constantly. The telephone poles of my iniquity
in my eyes just don't leave much room for me to inspect your specs. Is that right? That's exactly
what our Lord says. Self-righteous hypocrites boast
of their attainments. I have. I did. I got. Believing sinners grieve over
their failures. And it'll be that way, David,
to the day of judgment. In the day of judgment, our Lord
will say to those on his left hand, depart from me, you cursed.
I was hungry, you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, you gave
me nothing to drink. I was sick, you didn't visit me. I was in
prison, you didn't come to me. Why, we did that. Lord, we've
cast out devils in your name. We've done many wonderful works
in your name. Go your way to everlasting destruction. And
he says to those on his right hand, come ye blessed in my Father.
I was hungry, you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me something
to drink. I was sick and imprisoned and
you visited me. I was needy and you comforted
me. I don't ever remember doing that. When did I do that? You see,
the self-righteous always look at themselves. They may pretend
to speak with humility, but they always look at themselves as
having done and attained that which is good. The believer constantly
recognizes he's done nothing. And if he had done all things
perfectly, he's only done what he ought to have done. Self-righteous
hypocrites think themselves strong and superior to others. They
don't mind telling you in a heartbeat, boy, I've attained. I know I'm not what I ought to
be, and I know that I've got a long ways to go, but boy, you
wouldn't believe how strong I am. I know I haven't learned things
I ought to, but you wouldn't believe how much I know. I've
had folks tell me that. I come back out their teeth.
You wouldn't believe how much I know." I said, you're probably
right, I wouldn't. The believer, God's saint, knows
himself weak. Oh God, don't leave me to myself
for a hair's breadth of a second. and they know something of their
inmost corruption of heart, and therefore they acknowledge gladly
that they esteem their brethren better than themselves. Self-righteous
people, hypocrites, their problem is they're constantly going about
to establish their own righteousness, and they just will not submit
to the righteousness of Christ. says Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness, and I find all my righteousness in him.
All right, look at verses 43, 44, and 45. Here our Lord warns
us of the great danger of a deceived heart. A good tree brings not
forth corrupt fruit, neither does a corrupt tree bring forth
good fruit. Every tree is known by his fruit. For our thorns men do not gather
figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of
the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good.
An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that
which is evil. For out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaks." Now, let me tell you what our Lord
is not saying. He is not saying what almost every commentary
I read says he said. He's not saying, now if you look
at where a man lives, you can tell what he's like. That's not
what he's saying. That's not what he's saying.
You go find some nun in a convent and tell me somebody who lives
better. That's not what he's saying. You go over to some of
these foreign countries and find somebody who's given themselves
in great sacrifice to serve the needs of other people, living
in austere poverty, in austere severity upon themselves to do
good works for other people. Find me somebody who lives better.
Oh, no. No? You see, the unbeliever, the
reprobate, the man who doesn't know God can live just as good
as you. That's not what he's saying. Religion deals with outward
things. The grace of God deals with the
heart. He's not telling us that those who do bad things are bad
people and those who do good things are good people. That's
not what he's saying. Religion deals with actions. God deals
with attitudes. Religion deals with conduct.
God deals with character. Religion deals with habits. God
deals with the heart. He says, my son, give me your
heart. A preacher, what on earth is he telling us? This is exactly
what he's saying. It doesn't matter how good your
religion looks on the outside. Clean up the cup and the saucers.
That's what preachers spend their time doing most of the time.
Scrubbing plates. Just scrubbing plates. Clean
up the outside. Whitewashing sepulchers. That's
all. The Lord looks on the heart. He sees past the shine on the
outside. I'm shining these shoes tonight,
and they look pretty good, but all you see is the outside. I've
been wearing them a long time. They look bad on the inside.
Look bad. Wouldn't want you to see them. And bad as I look on the outside?
You can't imagine how much better it is than what I see on the
inside. It doesn't matter how good your religion looks on the
outside to you or anybody else. God looks on the heart. It doesn't matter how sound your
doctrine is. God looks on the heart. It doesn't
matter how much you impress men or impress yourself. God looks
on the heart. It doesn't matter how precisely
you keep the ordinances. The Lord looks on the heart.
It doesn't matter how much money you give, how many chapters you
read a day, how much scripture you memorize, how much you pray,
or how often you attend church, the Lord looks on the heart. The root of the matter is the
heart. If the heart is right, the fruit
is good, no matter how it looks to men. And sometimes it looks awful
bad. If the heart is evil, the fruit
is evil, no matter how good it looks to man. You see, our Lord teaches exactly
the opposite of religion, always, always. Perhaps the best way
for us to understand the meaning of our Lord's words is to read
another parable, a few pages over in Luke 18. Verse 9. He spoke this parable unto certain
which trusted in themselves. Bob, that's the problem with
the whole religious world. They trust in themselves that
they are righteous. because of something they said,
something they did, a decision they made, something they're
doing. They trust in themselves that they're righteous and despise
folks they look at and say, you're not so good as me. Despise others. All right, here's the parable.
Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee. Pharisee. Now we use that word Pharisee
today and we use it in a, always in a negative sense, always.
Larry, when this was written, when our Lord spoke this, somebody
said Pharisee, that's like saying Billy Graham. They said Pharisee,
that's like saying John Paul. Somebody said Pharisee, that's
like saying man. as a fellow who knows God. If
anybody knows God, he does. I've seen him. I remember what
he used to be. I know where he went to school.
I've heard him preach and teach. I've watched his life. I know
how he talks in private. I know how he talks in public.
I've watched him. I just know as a man who knows
God and the public as the other fellow. That was like saying,
here's president of the finest religious convention and church
order in the world, and over here is a pimp and a pusher. Same thing, tax collector. Not
just a tax collector, not an IRS tax collector. No, no, no,
no. These fellows were Jews who sold
their souls to the Roman government and made themselves rich by treading
on the necks of their own people. Publicans. Publicans. Ah, but
the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. If you want
to, you can put you a good translation of that. In the margin, he played
thus with himself. That's all. He just played a
game with God. That's all. He said, God, I thank
you. Isn't that nice? I thank you
that I'm not as other men. Now, I recognize that you had
something to do with it. I thank you I'm not like other
folks. extortioners, unjust, adulterers, especially this scoundrel,
even this publican. I fast twice every week. I give
tithes of everything I possess. I don't just tithe on what I
bring home. I tithe on the whole thing and
tithe on my garden too. I give tithes of everything I
possess. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as
his eyes toward heaven. But he beat on his heart, as if to say, this is my problem. And he said, God, be merciful. And his heart was fixed on the
mercy seat in the Holy of Holies. How do you know that? Because
that's what that word means. God, be propitious. God, look
on the sacrifice and pardon my sin. God, look on your son and pardon my
sin. God be merciful to me, the sinner. The sinner. Our translation reads,
a sinner. It's not accurate. Not accurate. You see, when a man or woman
is made to stand before the Holy Lord God and see his sin, he's
not even concerned about anybody else's sin. He doesn't compare
himself with other folks. No, no, no, no. He's standing
before God. Oh, God, be merciful to me, the
sinner. All right, let's see what the
Master says. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified,
rather than the other, because here's the universal law. of
God's kingdom. Everyone that exalts himself
shall be amazed. Everyone that humbles himself
shall at last be exalted. Amen.