I'm sorry, it's Titus chapter
3. Titus chapter 3, and let's just read this one verse in verse
3. Titus chapter 3 and verse 3. For we ourselves also were sometime
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lust and pleasure. living in malice, envy, hateful
and hating one another. Paul never made excuses for himself. He never hid his past life, what
an awful, awful man that he was and his sinful ways. And he wouldn't
have us to hide our lives, what we were before the Lord saved
us. He says here that we were foolish,
we were unwise. That's what that word means,
unwise. Our unbelieving life was filled,
was it not, with unwise thoughts, unwise words, unwise deeds. How that characterizes me and
you when we were lost, unwise, foolish, unwise. And he said
we were also not only unwise, but we were disobedient. The
word means unpersuaded. It means hard. It means unbelieving,
rebellious. Disobedient. Disobedient to our
parents. Remember those days? Don't you
hurt for that now? Disobedient to civil authority. Half of us could have been in
jail. Disobedient to God. Our lives were marked by disobedience. And he says, You're not only
that, but we were deceived. The word means to seduce, to
lead away by subduction, wandering. Peter talked about the wandering
stars. That's what we were, wandering,
wandering in darkness. And he says, You're not only
deceived, but Serving divers lust and pleasures. Serving our lust. Fulfilling
the desires of our flesh, the desires of our mind, the lust
of the eyes, the pride of life. Living in lust and pleasure. Whatever the flesh wanted to
do. That's what we did. The only thing that restrained
us usually was a fear of shame, to be brought upon ourselves
or our family. Fulfilling the desires of the
flesh. Lovers of pleasure more than
lovers of God. And he says that we were living
in malice. The word means all kinds of sins. Just too many to name. This can't
categorize all of us. Malice. Living in all kinds of
sin. Envy. That is jealousy. inordinate affections, cravings,
desiring what wasn't ours, desiring what God forbids, desiring what
belonged to other people, envious jealousy, and hateful. The word carries this meaning
with it that there was in us what caused others and God to
hate us. It's something in our attitude,
hateful. And we wonder today why we don't
have more friends than we do. We've still got some of this
in us, don't we? Hateful. My mother used to say,
we talked about people getting old and getting hateful. She
said they don't get old and hateful. They just don't care now to show
it. We've always been that way. We're that way by nature. We're
repulsive to people. We invite their displeasure.
We invite God's hatred. We're hateful. That's something
that is within us. And here's something that we
have towards others, hating one another. No true affection. No true affection, brothers and
sisters. No lasting affection. Let push come to shove. And our
feet will be swift to shed blood. Destruction and miseries will
be in our way. Paul said that's what we were.
And he doesn't hide this. Here this great apostle is telling
us this. Can you imagine this? He not
only wrote this down, but how often did he rehearse this in
the audience of great congregation. Here's what we were. In another
place, he said, I was a blasphemer. I was injurious. I was a persecutor. And he writes to the Corinthian
church and he says, a lot of you were fornicators. And you
were adulterers and idolaters and you were effeminate, womanish
like, and drunkards and liars. You were that. Why does he do
this? Well, he does this for two reasons.
He does it for one reason, You find there in verses 1 and 2,
he does it for this reason. Look what he says. Put them in
mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates,
to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be
no brawler, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men, for
we ourselves were sometimes foolish. He says, don't be so hard upon
lost people. Don't look down your nose at
them. He's not saying compromise with
their sins. He's not saying don't hold them
accountable. But what He's saying, remember
that you were there. We curse our leaders, do we not,
in our hearts? We talk about what scoundrels
they are. We get so upset with them. And
we forget that they're lost men and politicians to the boot.
Another place he teaches us to pray for them. Here he says,
brothers and sisters, don't forget what you were. Sometimes we get very impatient
and very critical, do we not, when we see men that are foolish. We see lost making these unwise
decisions, serving their lusts, living in pleasure, hateful and
hating others, and sometimes we get so impatient and critical
of them, and Paul is saying, let me remind you of what you
were. You were just like that. Pray for others. Pray for our
leaders that they may pass just laws and uphold those just laws. I'll tell you one of the best
things you and I can do as Christians, living in this great country
of ours, is to pour our hearts out to God on behalf of our leaders. I encourage everybody to vote.
I do that. But there's something more important
than that. The King's heart is in the hands of the Lord. And
he turns it wheresoever he will. Pray. Pray. And pray, Lord, here's
my lost child. Here's my lost neighbor. And
sometimes they aggravate me when I watch the way they go. But,
Lord, save them if it's your will. That's why Paul does this. And then another reason he does
this tells us of our ungodly life. that we were living, is
to magnify the loving kindness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. The tender mercy of God. Look what he says in verses four. And after, but after, oh this
is what you were, then what made the difference? After that the
kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Not the works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. How did He save us? By the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed
on us abundantly through our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words,
Paul is saying, it's easy sometimes to forget. Easy sometimes to
forget. where the Lord saved you. Where
were you when the Lord saved you? Where He brought you from?
It's easy to forget, is it not? And what happens when we forget?
We cannot glorify His kindness and His mercy and His love in
the Lord Jesus Christ as we should. It's sometimes easy to forget
what a sinful life God saved us from and how He did it. and why He did it. We forget
loving kindness, mercy, tender, sure mercy. We forget what it
cost the Lord Jesus upon Calvary's tree. Do we not forget that?
Oh, we don't forget it in the sense that if I asked you, you
could readily tell me. But it ceases to be this wonderful
reality in our hearts. It's like seeing a beautiful
sunset and you have to think on what it looked like until
you see it again, until you see it again. It's like seeing a
picture of your beautiful wife and then seeing your beautiful
wife, remembering when we remember what we were. Then we'll remember
the price it took to save us. What did it take to wash us?
Opening of a fountain to cleanse us from our sin and our inflictions. What did it take to regenerate
us? Brothers and sisters, it took the power of the Spirit
outside of ourselves to come and give us life. A gracious
spirit to regenerate us, give us the life of God in our hearts. Remember the pit from which you
are dug. That's what we're told to remember.
Now, I want you to look a few minutes at this word with me
this morning, deceived. That's what I want to look at
this morning, deceived. If I had to use one word to describe
a poor lost humanity, This is what I think I would use, this
word, the whole concept of deceived. Deceived. You know, you can't
look at everybody and say, that man is serving his lust. He's just living in pleasure.
You know, that's not evident, and everybody is. You can look
at some people, and they're this naturally friendly, and you love
being around them, And you would say, well, that person's not
hateful. And he don't seem to hate anybody.
But there is one thing that describes every lost man. He's deceived. He is deceived. He lives in this world like there's
no tomorrow. He lives like he's never going
to die, does he not? Job said, man that's born of
woman is a few days and full of trouble. And yet, knowing
that and being told that, he lives as if he's going to never
die. He lives as if there's no heaven
to gain and there's no hell to shun. And for the most part,
he goes out into a lost, long eternity, unawakened. unawakened. Why does he do that? Why would a man live in this
lifetime, knowing his days are few, knowing that he's going
out into a long eternity, and then live relaxed in the light
of all of that? Sleep easy in his bed at night
in the light of facing eternity. What would make an individual
do that? There's only one answer to that question. He is deceived. Do you see anybody flocking this
morning out of concern for eternity? Do you see people here flocking
in this community? I've got to hear something about
my eternity, bound soul. I've got to hear the truth about
God. Is there a way of salvation? Do you see people flocking this
morning? People are more concerned about
their physical health, about what they're going to do tomorrow,
than they are about eternity, a long eternity. And why is that? It has to do with being deceived. He's taught. He's warned. He's encouraged to seek the salvation
of his soul. His conscience sometimes is awakened. It's alarmed. The Spirit of God
even woos him by different means. And yet, what does he do? For
the most part, he lives and he dies, unawakened, unawakened. If I had to list three of man's
chief enemies, they would be these three things that I'm going
to give you this morning. Here's three chief enemies of
mankind, and all of them have to do with this whole concept
of being deceived. I want you to turn with me over
to Jeremiah chapter 17. And look in verse 9. Jeremiah
chapter 17 and verse 9. A very familiar passage to most
of you here this morning. Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse
9. Look here what verse 9 says.
This is amazing. This gets close to home. May
each one of us this morning be made aware of this. The heart, our innermost being,
is deceitful above all things. and desperately wicked, who can
know it? The heart of man, the natural
heart, the unregenerate heart of man, is so deceitful that
nobody can know it. Angels cannot know it. Devils
cannot know it. Man cannot know his own heart
except the Holy Spirit Enlighten us to know it. There's only one
that knows the heart, and that is the Lord God. He says that
in verse 10. I, the Lord, search the heart,
and I try the reins. The heart can deceive other people.
And that's bad enough, is it not? But the most mysterious
thing about the heart is that it deceives itself. The Lord was writing to idolaters
in Isaiah 44, and he says a deceived heart has turned him aside that
he cannot deliver his soul. A man's heart is so deceitful
that he'll deceive itself. I tell you, what kind of a heart
would deceive somebody else? It's a bad heart, isn't it? But
I can understand that. You can understand a depraved
heart deceiving other people. But what kind of a heart would
deceive itself? For my heart to deceive Clarence
is bad enough, but for my heart to deceive me is worse than all. And not deceive me about temporal
things. but about eternal things. Not
about things of clay that's going to perish, but my eternity-bound
soul that will exist somewhere forever and ever. Deception. Deception. And what is it about the heart
that makes it deceive its own self? Desperately wicked. I tell you, there's something
about that word. There's something about the word wicked. You know,
we can say simple. We can say bad. And that's almost
like water on a duck's back. Nobody pays much attention to
that. But when you say wicked, isn't that bad? The heart deceives
itself because it's wicked. But he goes farther than that.
He says, desperately. That means uncherably. It cannot
be healed. When the Lord comes, he does
not remodel this old heart. He does not heal it. It's beyond
healing. It's full of wounds and bruises
and putrefied soul. He said, why should I strike
it anymore? Why should I smite it anymore?
What does the Lord do when He comes to us? He gives us a new
heart. Does He not? He gives us a new spirit. He
takes the old out in the sense that He forbids it to rule anymore. He gives us a new heart and a
new spirit. Oh, this heart. This heart. It's often been compared to the
creation when God first began to work with it. And it was said
that when the Spirit of God first moved, that darkness was upon
the face of the deep. The earth was without form and
void. And darkness was upon the face
of the deep. Isn't that the heart? Isn't that
the heart of a regenerated man? Darkness is upon the face of
the deep. It's darkness itself. There is
no light in the depraved heart. It's all darkness. It's all deception. It's all evil. And that's what
it is until God shines the light. of the glorious gospel of Jesus
Christ. And where does He shine it? Into
our hearts, into the darkness. And the darkness can't resist
it. It cannot resist it. God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And it's
the same way in the new birth, when the Holy Spirit comes through
the gospel. And He comes irresistibly, and
He woos, and He hovers over our sinful, deceived hearts, full
of darkness. And He shines light. It may begin with warnings. It
may begin with making us afraid, conviction of sin. But it ends
with the peace of the gospel, the knowledge of the Son of God
coming to our hearts. And He takes that old stony heart
out and He gives us a new heart. And praise Him for it. We can't
serve Him with the old heart. It's too wicked. We can't know
Him with the old heart. It's too deceitful. So He gives
us a new one. Brother Larry was quoting from
John Gill this morning. Let me quote something from Brother
Gill also. Here's some suggestions he made
about how the heart deceives us. I've added some to them, but
here's some suggestions he made as to how the heart deceives.
And he said this, the heart deceives a man in respect to sin. It presents to him sin under
the notion of pleasure. It comes to us and says, there
is pleasure in this sin. Give yourself to it. There is
pleasure in it. But Mr. Gill said what the heart
does not tell him is there is only pleasure in sin for a season. And then he says, at best, only
a season, and then it is not real pleasure. But it's only
a dream and mere delusion. You see, the heart promises pleasure,
but it cannot give the pleasure. How many people do you and I
see that have given themselves over? They've turned loose the
reins of their lust, and they want to live in the pleasure
of sin. And it shows on them almost immediately. Haven't you seen them? Haven't
we seen them? Young people, young people whose
countenance are fallen, who have holes in their arm and their
teeths gone, and their countenance is so grayish and fallen, their
body is weak and frail, and they're so hard and bitter even in their
young lives. And what had happened, their
heart promised them pleasure. But look at the bitterness that
it's brought. I had an opportunity to stop
and see a woman about my age the other day. And I knocked
on her door and she'd come to the door. And I didn't recognize
the lady. I never recognized the lady.
And she's got a reputation of living in sin, enjoying the pleasures
of sin. But look at her now. But that's what the heart does.
It presents sin to us under the notion that you can have pleasure. And number two, Brother Gill
said this, the heart presents sin to him under the notion of
worldly profit. Worldly profit. Promising riches. Suggesting ways to obtain those
riches. and ways to secure those riches. But when he has gotten those
riches, Brother Gill said he is a loser by them because riches
themselves are deceitful. Sometimes even when we obtain
them in the midst of enjoying them, they make themselves wings
and they fly away. Or, they choke the Word And the
word becomes unprofitable in our hearts. Or they cause a man
to err from the faith and it pierces himself through with
many sorrows and endangers the loss of his very soul. And how many men, brothers and
sisters, have you and I seen that obtained some wealth and
they got high-minded? and left their profession of
the Lord Jesus Christ. George Spurgeon said, I've never
seen a man leave Christ because of poverty. But he said, I've
seen multitudes leave Christ because of riches. Leave their
profession of Christ. Demas has forsaken me. Why? Have in love this present
evil world. Mr. Gill said this, the heart
promises a man honor and preferment in this world, but only promotes
him to shame. Promotes him to shame. How many
of you and I seen that were great singers, famous singers, or great
actors or actresses? Their lives are in a shambles.
And finally, they die in shame, die in despair. And then we hear
that they often, as teenagers, sung the great hymns of the faith
in the church choir. How many, how many have had their
hearts promote them to some office or to some position in life,
only to have that promotion promote their eternal damnation. Oh, it happens, doesn't it? But
that's what the heart promises. The heart deceives a man by convincing
him that he has many days left in this world. Oh, you have a
long life. Take your ease. eat, drink, and
be merry, for you've got a long life ahead of you, even though
in that very night his soul was required of him." How many have
left this world while sitting at their desk and planning for
a long life? But that's what the heart does.
It says to young people, a young person, live it up. Rejoice in all of these things,
so your wallows. You've got a long life ahead
of you, not knowing that the very next
hour may be God's appointment for the end. Fifthly, it deceives a man by
convincing him that someday he will seek the Lord. But that
day never comes. This is one of the things that
took the edge off of my fear of being damned. I lived through
my teenage years of fear that God was going to damn my soul.
But one of the things that helped me take this edge off, my heart
kept telling me, someday, you'll see, Kim, just not now. There's going to be a more convenient
season. Just wait. There's time. Put
it off. Put it off. Put it off. Oh, if
God in mercy had not intervened and overwhelmed me and overcome
me and broke me and brought me at the feet of Christ, I'd have
still been living my life thinking, someday, someday I'll seek you
until you're gone, until you're gone. That's what the heart tells
young people. Don't seek the Lord now. And
then it comes to middle age. Don't seek the Lord now. And
it comes to old age. I was talking with an old, wretched,
ungodly sinner in his upper eighties. In his upper eighties. Trying
to talk to him about the Lord and his need of salvation. And
you know what he told me? I'm not ready to settle down
yet. Isn't that amazing? Died a few
days later playing in his waist. Who told him he had plenty of
time? Who told him, just wait until
a more convenient season? His own heart! Why would a man's
heart deceive him about such things? It's desperately wicked. Mr. Gill said it deceives him
at the point of knowledge. It persuades him that he's a
very annoying person. He knows so much, even while
he's blind and ignorant. and knows nothing as he ought
to know because he's ignorant of a crucified Christ. He doesn't
know the redeeming God whom to know is life eternal. The heart,
Mr. Gill said, convinces other people
that they're holy enough and that they're on their way to
heaven when, alas, they're on their way to hell. Seventhly,
he said, the heart convinces a man of the purity of human
nature and the power of His free will to repent at His pleasure
and at His own time." Oh, we see that, don't we? We see that. I can repent any time. I can
believe any time. I can come any time when I'm
good and ready. What tells a man that in the
light of Scriptures that tells him otherwise? His deceitful
heart. God's hands are tied, only I
can untie them. Who tells a man such a lie? His
heart. Why would his heart do that?
It's desperately wicked. Who can tell a man he can work
his way into God's presence? Who can tell a man he can justify
himself before God by the things he thinks and says and does?
A deceitful heart, brothers and sisters. The deceitful heart has turned
him aside. We were deceived, Paul said,
and that's what he was talking about. He's talking about his
deceitful heart. Secondly, here's something else
that's deceitful. Look over in Hebrews chapter
3. Here's the second great enemy that's so deceitful, and it's
sin. Look in Hebrews chapter 3. And
look in verse 12. The deceitfulness of sin. We were deceived. He says here
in verse 12, Hebrews chapter 3, Take heed, brethren, lest
there be in any of you that evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God. But exhort one another daily,
while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is deceitful. Have you ever
did something, and you never thought a thing in the world
about it, until quite some time later, then suddenly you come
to realize that what you did was sin against God? And you were alarmed? Ain't it amazing that David committed
adultery with Bathsheba, and had her husband killed, and lied
about it, and took her to wife, and he didn't even realize what
he'd done. He sinned that deceitful until the prophet came and confronted
him with it and said, David, you're the man. And suddenly
he realized, I've sinned against God. How could that be? I would think that was impossible
if I hadn't done it myself. If sin happened to deceive me.
You ever do something and your conscience kept telling you,
don't you do that? And you knew it was wrong when you were doing
it, you knew it was wrong. But you did it anyway. And boy,
your conscience smote you. You were heavy in your soul.
And then you did it again. And then you did it again. But
the second time and the third time, it wasn't as difficult. And after a while, you can do
it and never feel any remorse. What is that? It's this hardening
of sin. It's so deceitful that it can
harden a person's heart. There are people, I've said this
different times, there are people who do things now. and believe
things now that fifteen years ago they would have been horrified
to do or to think. We're getting all this stuff
slipped off on our generation. Do you ever notice that? Do you
ever notice how homosexuality, do you ever notice how that's
slipping in? It's even in the churches now. I read about the
Episcopal churches ordaining their pastors. Homosexuals. Ain't it something that's slipping
in? And now it's almost taken for granted. It's okay. We shouldn't say anything about
it. What happens? The deceitfulness of sin. If it had plunged our society
twenty-five or thirty years ago where we are today, we'd be shocked
and awakened. But we ease into these things,
you see. The deceitfulness. of sin. Take heed, brethren. Take heed. Things about sin that's deceitful.
Let me give you four or five things right quickly. Deceitfulness
of sin. It's deceitful as to its origin. Where does sin come from? Well,
it's something I did in my hand. I shouldn't have did that. I
just would have cut my hand off. Somebody did with my eyes. It's
some place I went with my feet. I should never let my feet carry
me to a place like that. Probably not, but that's not
where sin originates. You know where sin originates?
In the heart, doesn't it? Out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, adulteries, fornication, drunkenness, lying, murder. All this comes from within the
heart. and deceived the person. See
how Paul said it here in chapter 3 and verse 12? Take heed, brethren,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. Evil heart of unbelief. Where does sin come from? The
heart. It comes from the heart. You
remember when David committed that awful sin? And he began
to repent of her in Psalms chapter 51. Remember that. You know,
he don't blame anybody. He didn't say, boy, she should
have had some clothes on. She should have had some curtains
up around where she was laid. The devil made me do it. He was
confessing his sins. My blood guiltiness, Lord, deliver
me from my blood guiltiness. And then he got right to the
heart of the matter. He went right to where his sin
came from. It originated. And you remember
what he said about it? I was shapen in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me. He said this wicked deed
that I've done came from within me. That's bad, ain't it? Why? That person, he's done some bad
things, but basically he's a good person. And we hear that all
the time. Oh, I did this awful thing, but I'm a good person
at heart. No, the heart's the problem.
That's the problem. That's where sin originated from. Why don't people know that? Because
sin's deceitful. Sin's deceitful. Man can't know sin except the
Holy Spirit convicted him of it. When He is come, He will
convince, He'll convict the world of sin. And one of the things
He teaches you and me as children of God is where this sin comes
from. Why was that publican smiling
on his heart? That's where his problem was.
Sin. The second thing about sin that's
so deceitful is this. Every sin that any man commits,
a small sin or a great sin, is against God. It's against God. David killed Uriah, committed
adultery with Bathsheba, and yet when he come to own his sin,
he said, Against thee and thee only have I sinned. That's why
sin is exceedingly sinful. That's why it's called infinite
by the old Puritans. Infinite sin. My sin, my infinite
sin, is because it's against an infinite God. A foolish thought
is against God. A hateful word is against God. An ungodly deed is against God. Every sin that we commit is against
God. But what does sin tell us? Oh,
sin won't let us know that, will it? Little white lies. I'll tell
you why little white lies aren't little white lies. It's because
they're against God. Thirdly, sin is deceitful in
regard to the wages which it deserves. The wages to which it deserves.
The wages of sin is what? Can somebody finish that? Death. Death. That's payment. That's what God owes us. Death. Right out of check. I owe you
this. I'm going to pay you. Death. The soul that sinneth,
it shall die. What kind of a death? Physical
death? Spiritual death? The second death? Eternal death? Whosoever was
not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake
of fire. This is the second death, and
this is what sin deserves. Find somebody that agrees with
that and owns that and says, I deserve to be in hell right
now. Oh, I've done some bad things.
I've done some bad things, but I don't deserve that. And fourthly, and listen to this,
I want you to turn your Bible over to your right just a little
bit to 1 John. 1 John chapter 1. Sin is deceitful in this sense. It appears to us, the children
of God, the believer, as damnable and unforgiving. It appears to
the believer, the dear child of God, the saved person, it
appears to him as something damnable. And even though he has confessed
it and it has been washed still, sin appears to him sometimes
as being unforgiven. Look here how John says it in
1 John chapter 1 and look at verse 7. If we walk in the light as He
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If
we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. Every child of God is a sinner.
Ain't that the truth? If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves. God makes us to know our sins. He makes us to confess it. He
brings us to believe in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. and were
saved from sin. Now, talk about sins. If a child of God sins, the Father
in heaven deals with it. Does he not? He chastens him. He corrects him. But you know
something? He will never deal with his child
as a judge to condemn him for his sins. He won't. He's still a sinner. We're still
sinners. But the Scripture says, Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. If we are sinners,
then how can we stand before God and be justified and have
fellowship with Him and call Him our Father? And Him call
us His sons and daughters. How can that be? He doesn't impute
that sin to us for Christ's sake. If He did, we'd be in trouble,
wouldn't we not? Because aren't we sinners? Aren't
we sinners? But the sin has been punished.
God has dealt with our sins through the person of His Son. Therefore,
though we're sinners, He does not impute that sin to us. And
our sins confessed are washed away. If we confess our sins,
He's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us. Now, every
bit of that is true. That's all true. But I tell you
what happens sometimes under long trials or dark times Long
valleys in your life. I'll tell you what happens. What
you are, this sin, this remnant of sin that's in you will so
appear to you, so wretched and so vile and sinful, it will convince
you you're not even saved. You can't be saved and think
what you think. You can't be saved and act like
you act. You ever had sin to tell you
that? Have you ever seen your sin so awful and so great that
you think, I can't be saved? There's no way that I can even
be saved and think like this and be like this. Lord, if I'm
this way, if I am one of yours, how can I possibly be so sinful
and vile? And then the thought rises, you're
not even saved. You wouldn't be a sinner like
this if you were saved. That's the deceitfulness of sin.
It appears to a sinner. It appears to a lost man and
says, I'm not too bad. I'm not too bad. But it appears
to the dear saint and tries to send him into despair and doubt
and fear. When all along, old Brother Scott
used to say, convince me. Convince me what a sinner I am. And you'll just convince me my
need of the Savior. All sin that is forsaken and
confessed is forgiven. But how often does it come up?
How often does it come back to your memory to plague you? The prophets used to complain
about the sin of their youth. Prophets? Prophets complaining
about the sin of their youth? What did they have to complain
about? They remembered what they did in their youth. The vanity,
the foolishness. The lusts, the pleasures. And
they said, Oh Lord, don't remember against me the sin of my youth.
And how many times do we confess it? And it comes back up and
we confess it. Why do we keep doing that? Because
sin is so distinctful. It says, I'm not forgiven. And
this one will pop its ugly head up and say, I'm not forgiven.
But you know something, brothers and sisters? We've got some infallible
proofs here that they are forgiven. And if you're going to live off
your feelings, then sin's going to deceive you. The only way
we can know that God does not impute the remnant of this sin
to us is because the Bible says He doesn't. The only way we can
know infallibly that that sin that I've confessed is gone is
because the Bible says it's forgiven. This is our sure foundation for
sure. Thirdly is this, turn your scriptures
over right quickly unto John or to Revelation chapter 12,
the last thing. Revelation chapter 12. Here is
the last deceitful enemy. Revelation chapter 12. Look in verse 7. Revelation chapter 7. Revelation chapter 12 and verse
7. There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon. What is a dragon? Well, it's
a cruel, cruel animal. Cruel. It's a dragon. The dragon
fought with his angels and prevailed not, and neither was there a
place anymore in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent called the devil. Who is the devil? Well, he's
the accuser of the ruth. Satan, who is that? That's the
enemy of God, the enemy of Christ, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth,
and the angels cast out with him. He's that old serpent. He's
the deceiver. He's the deceiver. Satan is a
deceiver, a very experienced deceiver. What does he deceive
men about? Well, listen to 2 Corinthians
4. If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them who are lost, in
whom the God of this world hath blinded their minds, lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the image
of God, should shine through unto them." What does he deceive them concerning
the gospel? The gospel. How does he do it?
How does he do it? He spends his time and labor
and thoughts primarily in keeping the light of the gospel from
shining through into their hearts. How does he do it? He does it
this way, by keeping the gospel away from them. Away from them. Paul told Bethesda Latin Church,
he said, I would have come to you once and again to preach
the gospel to you, but listen to this, and I can't understand
all this. But Satan hindered us. I don't know all the ways
that God permits the devil to hinder the gospel, but he permits
him to do it. And when he permits him to do
it, he stops the preachers. He hinders the preachers. If
the devil had his way, he'd relegate the gospel into some little corner
of the earth if God let him. Thank God that God is sovereign. He keeps the gospel from them,
or he diverts them from coming and hearing the gospel. It's an amazing thing, and I've
experienced this in my own life, and you've experienced it in
your life. You're planning to go hear the gospel, even getting
ready to go hear the gospel, and suddenly something happens,
and you're diverted, and you have to go in a completely different
direction. How many people did you see on Saturday and they
said, we'll see you tomorrow, but they never showed up? And
sometimes they had a reason for not showing up. They could not
make it. Some of them just lie, we know
that. They hadn't even planned on being there. But some of them,
I'm going. What happened? Satan can hinder
people if God lets him and get in here to hear the gospel. All this entertainment on the
Lord's Day. All this entertainment, brothers
and sisters, on the Lord's Day. I can't believe that's of God.
Can you? We come by just north of 3 up
here, sometimes on Sunday mornings, and on Sunday evenings especially,
and that park is full of kids on both sides of the road playing
soccer. The whole two big fields, I don't
know how many acres there are, and it's full of kids. I can't believe anything but
Satan has something to do with that. You know, when I was growing
up, and some of you can relate to this, on Sunday, everything
was shut down. They talked, well, that's the
only reason a lot of them went to church. Well, maybe so. But
that gave them the opportunity to go on Wednesday evening. If you went to town on Wednesday
evening, you couldn't even buy a hamburger. You couldn't even
find a filling station that was open because they were going
for prayer meeting, good or bad. That's where they were going.
They shut down for that. Boy, now we've got this newfound liberty,
have we not? Man, we can do anything now.
It don't matter if church is going on or not. It don't matter
if it's Sunday or Wednesday, whatever's happening. We found
this new liberty. How's that working out for us?
Huh? The devil is behind it, brothers
and sisters. He's behind it. And his motive
and aim is this, to keep anybody he can from coming and hearing
the gospel. And if he can do that, if he
can keep them from under the sound of the gospel, they're
lost. Because a man can't be saved
apart from the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when they're
under the gospel, Satan increases, listen to this, he increases
and stirs up the enmity and prejudice of their natural minds against
the gospel lest they should believe it and be saved. Boy, we've seen
it here, haven't we? I've seen people, you don't see
it because I'm up here looking, but I've seen people sitting
there so mad they're getting their teeth and they cannot wait
until those doors are open. I said to you one time, it wasn't
too awful long ago, and I finished the message, and I looked at
these two people, and the thought come to my heart, that's the
last time you'll see them. And you know something? It was.
It was. You can see things up here. You
can see people getting irritated. That's the devil. He comes to
slip the Word away out of the heart. He comes to stir up the
enmity of the mind. I don't like that. I don't like
him. I don't like what he's saying. I hate that. He increases the natural darkness
in respect to the gospel. Man's bad anyway, isn't he? He's
got a bad heart anyway. But boy, when the devil comes
and gets in there, he gets in there. No wonder the Bible says
a man cannot be saved unless the Lord Jesus Christ comes to
his heart. and drags this enemy off of this
throne and casts him out and sets upon that throne himself.
Man isn't saved by decisions. Man isn't saved by his acceptance. A man is saved when Christ comes
in and takes this one who is stronger than he and binds him
and drags him from the soul. That's when he's saved. That's
what He said. Aren't you thankful, brothers
and sisters, for the kindness and love and mercy of God your
Savior? Because that's where we were.
We were deceived by our hearts. We were deceived by sin. We were
deceived by Satan. And here we're set today and
we're saved. And the only thing we contribute
that to and the only one who gets the glory for that is our
Lord Jesus Christ. Lord bless you.