I am so thankful that His grace
and His love is relentless. It never stops. Would you turn back to Luke chapter
21, verse 6? As for these things you behold,
the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone
upon another that shall not be thrown down. Now, if you were
one of the disciples at that time, you would have asked the
same question. When? When? When is this going to happen? If I hear the Lord say everything
is going to be torn down, my first response is when? And that
was the disciples' first response. And they asked him, saying, Master,
but when shall these things be? And what sign will there be when
these things shall come to pass? And the way he answered this
is not giving them times and dates and signs, but the first
thing he says is, Take heed that you be not deceived. You take heed. that you be not
deceived. For many shall come in my name,
saying, I am Christ. Notice Christ is in italics. The point here is they're going
to come saying, I'm from Christ. Christ sent me. I've got his
message. I'm one of his servants. I'm
telling the truth. I have heard from Him. I'm saying
what He Himself has told me. I am Christ, or I am of Christ. I am in league with Him. And the time draweth near. These
things are going to happen soon. Go ye not therefore after them. Turn with me to Matthew's account
of this in Matthew chapter 24. Verse 5, this is the same time
as given the Sermon on the Mount of Olives.
Verse 5, For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ,
and shall deceive many. Verse 11, And many false prophets
shall rise, and shall deceive many. Verse 21, For then shall
there be great tribulation, such as not was since the beginning
of the world, to this time, no, nor never shall be. And except
those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved,
but for the elect's sake those days should be shortened. Then
if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there,
believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs
and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders,
insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Now the counterfeit that is coming
is a message that will be so close to the truth that if it
were possible, even the very elect of God would be deceived
by this message. Now thank God that's not possible.
But if it were, even the elect would be deceived by this message. Now this is a word to me And
this is a word to you, a warning about being deceived. And if this admonition was not
necessary for you and I, the Lord wouldn't give it to us.
But he's given us in his word this warning about being deceived. Now Satan does not know infallibly
if you're one of the elect. Do you know if he knew whether
or not you were one of the elect? He wouldn't bother with you.
But he does not know infallibly whether you are one of the elect. So he and his emissaries will
do anything and everything they can to deceive you, to make you
believe something that is not true. He is called, in Revelation
12, 9, the deceiver of the whole world. And he's going to be most
at work where the truth is preached. That's where his chief work will
be, where the truth is preached. He doesn't have to worry about
it where the truth is not preached. He knows enough. He knows this
book better than you and I do. And he knows no one is ever saved
from a false gospel. He'll just leave them alone and
let them go. Where he is most concerned is where the truth
is preached. He is going to be most at work
to keep us from hearing and believing the gospel. Turn with me for
a moment to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Paul says in verse 2 to the Corinthians,
for I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I have
espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ, but I fear, and this was a legitimate fear,
but I fear less by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety, through his deceitfulness. So your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that's in Christ. Now I want you to think
just for a moment about how deceitful the devil was with Eve, Satan.
Your adversary Satan is a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom
he may devour. I want you to think of the deceitfulness
of this. He says to Eve, right now there's
no virtue. in your obedience. All you're
doing is obeying your nature. You're like a robot. But if you
eat the fruit, you'll be like God. You'll be able to choose
the good over the evil, and that is what will make you like God. Sounds good. I want to be like
God. I'd rather choose good over evil.
That sounds plausible, doesn't it? But does God choose good
over evil? No. Not at all. Does God have the
ability to make a choice of evil? No. It's against his nature. He's holy. He can't do that. He can't lie. He can't do that
which is contrary to his nature. So we see this little plausible
argument. Eve bit the hook. She bit the
hook. She was deceived. Paul says,
I fear, lest by any means, as Satan beguiled Eve through his
subtle deception, so your mind should be corrupted from the
simplicity that's in Christ. I love that word simplicity.
We were talking in the back, and Paul said, Paul Harry said,
the one thing you can know about error, if it's complicated, it's
not true. It's true. That's true. Something
that's complicated? It's not true. Truth is always
simple. It's profound, it's glorious,
but it's always simple. If you've got to scratch your
head about it, you can write this down. It's not true. It's
not true. The truth recommends itself.
Look in verse 13 of this same chapter. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no
great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers
of righteousness. They don't come with a pitchfork
and a pointed tail and a red mask. They come as ministers
of righteousness. Ministers of righteousness. Standing
for righteousness. whose end shall be according
to their works. Now, Satan has many servants,
false prophets. The Lord warned us of that. Many,
many shall come in my name. And every false prophet is a
servant of the devil. Now, they may be real nice guys.
I mean, they may be super guys. You just think, man, these guys
are great. They may seem real nice, real kind, real sweet.
but they're false prophets if they preach any other gospel
than the gospel. Many will come in my name and
deceive many. Turn with me to 2 John chapter
7. 2 John chapter 7. Verse 7, for many deceivers are
entered into the world. Not just a few, but many. Many
deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an Antichrist. Now when you think of the Antichrist,
we think of some kind of being with horns and some kind of big... All anti means is in the stead
of. It's not against, it's in the
stead of. And this man comes claiming to
be from Christ. He's an antichrist if he doesn't
make this confession. And I love the simplicity of
this. For many deceivers are entered
into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh. Now that simple confession gives everything we believe.
I love the simplicity of this. In making that confession, and
it's got to be a confession. It's something you confess publicly.
It's not something you believe privately but don't confess publicly.
If you want to know what a man believes, what does he preach
publicly? Not what he says when you're talking to him on the
phone saying, if you believe this, is what does he preach publicly?
If any man confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
Now the big error at that time is what is called Gnosticism.
And the Gnostics believed that all matter, if you could touch
it, it was evil. The only thing that was good
and holy was that which is spiritual. And anything that you could touch
or feel any kind of matter was evil. And therefore they said
Jesus Christ could not have come in the flesh because if he would
have come in the flesh that would have made him evil. And God forbid
that we would do anything to say that Jesus Christ is evil.
Therefore we know he just came spiritually. He was a spirit.
He was an appearing. And that's what John is combating
at this time. Whoever doesn't confess that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. He's not of God. He's
an Antichrist. Now, when we make that simple
confession, we confess, first of all, He was before He came. He's the eternal Son of God. The uncreated God the Son. He was before He came. And He came in the flesh. He had a real body, a material
body. He has a material body right
now. You know, I was thinking about
this argument that if you could touch it, it'd be evil. Therefore, Christ couldn't have
become a, he never was flesh because that would have made
him evil. And I was thinking about after his resurrection,
He ate fish and honeycomb. That's material, isn't it? Was
that sinful? Did that make Him sin? Did that
contact? Of course not. And so this is
just a completely wrong thing, this view. But He was before
He came. He came in the flesh. He was
made flesh. God was manifested in the flesh.
And here's what I love thinking about. Whatever it was He came
to do, He did. That's the gospel. He was before He came. He came
in the flesh, and whatever it was that He came to do, He did. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. And when He
said, It is finished, His people, every single one of them without
exception, saved from their sins. Beloved, I've been saved from
my sins. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that of all which He has given me, I should lose nothing,
but raise it up again at the last day. I love to think of
the success of the Lord's atonement. I love to think of the success
of the sacrifice, what He actually accomplished. Now that's the
gospel. And somebody that doesn't come with that message, they're
anti-Christ. They're false prophets. They
may be real nice guys, but they don't know God. And they're servants
of the devil. Every true preacher comes with
this message, the person and work of Christ. He was before
he came. He came in the flesh, and he
did what he came to do. Mission accomplished. Somebody that doesn't confess
this publicly, he's a deceiver. he's an Antichrist. First John chapter 2 verse 26
we read of those who want to seduce us. You can look these
up if you want. I'm going to quote them to you.
Ephesians 4 14. These men are deceived and lie
in wait to deceive. These false prophets. Turn with
me to this one. Romans chapter 16. Verse 17, Now I beseech you,
brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary
to the doctrine which you've learned, and avoid them. Don't have anything to do with
them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ,
but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches they
deceive. The hearts of the simple. They
use good words. Words like faith, and grace, and blood, and sanctification,
and redemption. They use good words. And they
use fair speeches. Seemingly plausible arguments
that seem to make sense. Remember, they come close to
being able to deceive the elect with these messages. Let me give
you a couple of examples of what I'm talking about. You want to be holier, don't
you? Don't you want to be holier?
Well, here's what you need to do. You have no right to believe
you're saved if you committed that sin. If you continue in
that sin, you don't have any right to believe that God has
done anything for you if you do that. Now, take it further. If I didn't
do that, that means I'm saved. The person with assurance of
salvation is only the person with the fruit in his life that
proves he really is what he says he is. He doesn't have any reason
for assurance if he doesn't have the fruit in his life that proves
he is what he says he is. Now, those things sound good. Yeah, although you can't be holier. You're either holier or not holier.
That's really denial of what holiness is in the first place.
The only time the word holier is used in the scriptures in
Isaiah, when God says, these that say, stand back from me,
I'm holier than thou, these are a smoke in my nostrils, God says. Offensive to him. There's no
such thing as being holier. You're either holy or you're
not holy. So this little insinuation of
if there's something I can do to become more holy. And you
ask the average person, you want to be more holy, don't you? Sure
I do. Well, here's what you need to do to do it. Death in the pot. And do you see how subtle those
things are? Yet it's death in the pot. You
have no right to believe you're saved if you committed that sin.
Oh, that sin was a horrible thing. But does that mean if you didn't
commit it you'd think you are saved? That's contrary to faith
in Christ. Now do you see how subtle these
things are? They all sound plausible. They're
good words and fair speeches that deceive the hearts of the
simple. Now another great danger we face,
and this is the one that, this just blows me away, is the danger
of deceiving ourselves. The danger of deceiving ourselves. Not just being deceived by the
devil or false prophets, that's a great enough danger, but the
danger of deceiving ourselves. Where we can tell ourselves a
lie and get ourselves to believe it. Deceiving yourself. I'm going to give you some scriptures.
1 Corinthians 3, 18. Let no man deceive himself. If
any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him
become a fool that he may be wise. Don't deceive yourself.
You're to become a fool and have no trust of yourself or anything
about yourself if you're ever going to have any true wisdom.
Galatians chapter 6 verse 3, if a man think himself to be
something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. Boy, it's
a comforting thing to be a nothing, isn't it? I love it when I can
say in my heart, I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus
Christ is my all in all. What a blessed place to be. But
if a man thinks himself to be something when he's nothing,
he deceiveth himself. James 1.26, if any man among
you seems to be religious, he seems to be religious. He has
the outward form of godliness. but he bridles not his tongue,
and boasts of his own works, and all of the things that he's
done, you're going to find out all about it. That man's religion
is vain. It's empty. He deceived himself. He deceived himself. That's the
way it reads. If any man among you seem to be religious, and
bridles not his tongue, and deceiveth his own heart, that man's religion
is vain. It's not saving. James 1.22 says,
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your
own selves. We're going to be getting to
that real soon in James on Wednesday night. 1 John 1.8, if we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. We've
lost all credibility. A man who claims to be without
sin is the greatest liar of all. You know, the only time you're
going to find honesty is when you read Romans chapter 7, when
Paul deals about what he's really dealing with. Now there's the
honest man, the man who makes these claims, no truth to it. Paul said in Titus 3, 3, for
we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived. serving diverse lusts and pleasure,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. He said
in 2 Timothy 3, 13, that evil men and seducers shall wax worse
and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Ephesians 5, 6, let
no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things
the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience.
Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 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 rioters, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God. Not going to happen. Be not deceived. While you're in 1 Corinthians,
look in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Verse 33, be not deceived. Don't be deceived about this.
Evil communications, and that's talking about companionships.
That's talking about relations of friendship with an unbeliever.
Evil communications corrupt good manners. Don't be deceived about
this. If you make an unbeliever your
friend, you will start thinking like them. They'll never start
thinking like you. That's the way it always is.
Evil communications corrupt good manners. Galatians 6, verse 7,
Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what a man soweth, that shall
he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh shall
of the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Don't be deceived. You will reap what you sow. That is promised to us. Second
Thessalonians 2. Turn with me there. I want to
read several verses. Beginning in verse 1, Now do
we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that you be
not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit,
nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as the day of Christ
is at hand. And evidently, there were all
kinds of letters being pirated, saying, Lord's going to come
back at this date, and at this time. And they had Paul's signature
on it. False. Paul said, don't pay any
attention to that. Verse 3, let no man deceive you
by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a
falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son
of perdition. Now, here's the point. People get so overcome
with trying to figure out when, and they lose who. Who's coming? You know, I don't care when he's
coming, I care who's coming. And I don't feel any need to
try to figure it out. I know he's coming. And that's
what I'm looking forward to is seeing Him, seeing His face being
made like Him. When He comes, I'm going to be
made just like Him. Now, when that is, I don't even
care. I mean, if it's today, fine. If it's a hundred years
from now and I'm already dead, fine. Whatever the Lord does,
that's fine with me. But the fact that He's coming
is what excites us. So don't be deceived by that.
Now, let me give you two areas where men are most likely to
go astray. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
22. If you and I go astray, here's
where we'll go astray at. Verse 29. Jesus answered and said unto
them, you do err, and that is the word that quite often is
translated, gone astray. You've gone astray, not knowing
the scriptures, nor the power of God. Now here's where a man
or a woman's going to go bad. Not knowing This book is written
by God. It's without error. And we go
to this book to find out what to believe. We don't use it to
prove what we believe. I'm going to go to the Bible
and prove what I believe. No. We go to this book to find out
what to believe. And we bow before it. What you
think of God is seen in what you think of this book. And it
won't do you any good to say, I believe in the inspiration
of the scriptures, not paying attention to what they say. A
lot of people will make that, I believe the Bible is the word
of God. Well, do you read it? Do you hear the word preached?
Do you believe what it says? Not knowing the scriptures and
not knowing the power of God. Now, when somebody goes bad,
they always have a weak God, a pygmy God, a God that's not
the God of the Bible, the God who is holy, the God who is absolutely
sovereign, who's all-powerful, who has the power to do whatever
he's pleased to do. the absolute sovereignty of God. Now he said you do err and here's
where your problem is. You don't know the scriptures
and you don't know the power of God. Now turn with me to James
1. We looked at this Wednesday night
but I guess we need to look at it again. James 1. Verse 16 Do not err, my beloved
brethren. Don't be led astray. And this
has the two places men will go wrong. Verse 13, let no man say
when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God. God's tempting me with
this. He's causing this. He's put me
in this position. If he wanted to, he could keep
me from this sin and he didn't. What this is, is a denial of
human responsibility. Don't say when you're tempted,
I'm tempted of God. If you're tempted, it's because
of your own wicked heart. That's why you're tempted. Don't
blame God's sovereignty on this. Don't say, he could have kept
this from happening and he didn't. That's the same thing Adam said
in the garden. The woman that you gave me, she
gave me of the fruit and I did eat. So don't say I'm tempted
of God. You're tempted to sin? Everybody
in here knows what that is. This thing of being tempted to
sin. You know what it means. Don't say, God's tempting me.
No, the reason you're tempted to sin is because of your wicked,
evil nature. Look what he says. But every man, preacher included,
is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed Then
when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin,
when it's finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved
brethren." Men, you are completely responsible
for our sin. Don't blame it on God. And somebody
who really believes this, you know what? They need grace. It's
only the person who takes complete responsibility for their sin
that cries for mercy. Now they need mercy and they
need grace. And look what he goes on to say
in verse 17. gift and every perfect gift is
from above. Now I love this word gift. Not
wages, but gift. Every good gift and every perfect
gift, it's from above. It's from the Lord. It's not
grown from the corrupt human nature. It didn't come from you.
It's good because it comes from God. Perfect, that means complete. It's not some kind of open-ended
gift that you need to do something in order to make it all work.
No, it's complete. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights
with whom is no variableness. He never changes. He's utterly
immutable, neither shadow of turning of His own will. prompted by nothing in me or
you, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that
we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." Oh, the sovereign
grace of God. Now that, if I'm going to go
wrong, I'm going to go wrong on responsibility, or I'm going
to go wrong on God's sovereignty. Now in conclusion, these warnings
are so needful because you and I can so easily be led astray. Don't you know that's true? Don't
you know that if God doesn't keep you, you will go away? No question about it. These warnings are so needful
because we can all be so easily led astray. We can all so easily
deceive ourselves. We can all so easily be seduced
by flattering words. We can all so easily be, as Paul
says in Galatians 1, overtaken in a fault. Overtaken. Turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 4. Verse 14, seeing that we have a great high
priest that's passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God,
let us hold fast our profession, our confession of him. For we
have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. Now, I used
to look at that verse of scripture and I'd think, well, if he never
sinned, how can he be touched by the feeling of my impermanence? Because he was made sin. And any experience you've had
in being overcome with temptation and the wickedness of it, He
felt that too when he was made sin. Now do I understand that?
No, I don't understand it. I don't claim to. But Jesus Christ
was made sin and he experienced everything about sin but the
commission of it. He never committed sin but he
experienced everything about it. Don't you feel moved with
compassion with any brother or sister struggling under any sin? Of course you do because you
know what you are. but the Lord. We have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are. Yet without sin, let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. For every
high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things
pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices
for sins." And listen to this, who can have compassion on the
ignorant and on them that are out of the way. And that's literally
them that have gone astray, them that have erred from the truth.
He can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are
out of the way for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
And by reason thereof, he ought us for the people, so also for
himself to offer for sins. I think that's so glorious, the
way the priest, before he could offer sacrifice in the Old Testament,
before he could offer sacrifice for somebody else, he first had
to offer sacrifice for himself, because he was a sinner. And
he had to be clean in order to offer up that sacrifice for somebody
else. And our Lord Jesus Christ didn't
have to do that, because he's the one who had no sin in and
of himself. Aren't you thankful we have a
high priest like this? Jude 24. Jude 24. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling. and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only
wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power
both now and forever. Amen. Now here we read of a glorious
keeping and a glorious presentation. He's able to keep you from falling. and to present you, listen to
this word, faultless, faultless before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy. Now being aware of my own propensity
to so easily go astray, how I love the last verse of Psalm 119,
the longest chapter in the Bible. What did David say? I've gone
astray like a lost sheep. Seek thy servant, seek thy servant,
for I do not forget thy word. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that we would be
preserved from being deceived. We ask that you would deliver
us from deceiving ourselves. Lord, we ask that when we go
astray, that you'd seek us and bring us back. Lord, we ask that
you would keep us from falling. and that you present us faultless
before the presence of your glory. Lord, deliver us from not heeding. this warning that you've given
us in your word about being deceived. Deliver us from that. Lord, keep
us looking to Christ only so we won't be deceived. Now, bless
this message for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen.