Well, Obadiah has a message for
us. I think we could just about call
every single book in the Bible, as we say, turn here, we could
say, turn to the gospel of Obadiah, turn to the gospel of Jeremiah,
the gospel of Isaiah, because it's here. Obadiah is a message
of destruction and judgment on the nation Edom, which represents
all of Esau. As we heard Wednesday night,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. This is the conclusion
of Edom. He says, I'm going to utterly
destroy you. And the Lord does, in the end, we know that. And
the only way that we can be saved is by the Lord's work and Him
doing. He tells us here in the first part of this, the reason
that they are rejected, the reason that they are despised. It's
about pride, all about pride. Every single human has pride. If somebody was to say, I do
not, how dare you? Well, that's pride. That's what
causes that. If someone does something towards you and you
say, how dare you? That's your pride. That's what,
that's what we all have down deep inside of us. It's the pride
of the heart. Everyone thinks too highly of
themselves. We certainly do, don't we? I
think way too highly of myself. Everything, even now, the temperature
of the room, I'm concerned about my temperature, not yours. Isn't
that how we are by nature? I'm worried about, well, I'm
hot flashing. I don't care whether you're hot or cold. That's how
we are by nature. We're so prideful in and of ourself
and what we want, what we want for ourself. We have a favorite
color. We have a favorite flavor of chewing gum. Everything is
about us from the beginning. Even the baby that comes forth
is all about themselves, aren't they? They cry because they want
to be picked up. They cry because they're hungry.
They cry because they're dirty. And that is so us, even as adults,
isn't it? And this is the issue that is
being addressed towards Edom is pride. It's pride. All arguments stem from pride.
Everyone wants to be right, don't they? I know me and my wife will
have conversations about, even recently, we were talking, give
you an example. Even recently, we were talking about the keys.
We have a place that the keys go. They hang on a hook. Keys
weren't there. Couldn't find the keys. They're
not where they're supposed to be. So now I'm in a tizzy. I'm trying
to leave the house. I'm going to be late for something.
Time's always the issue, right? And I'm looking and I'm blaming
my wife. You didn't put the keys back. You didn't put the keys
back. And Bethany spoke up and said, Hey dad, you were the one
that drove the car last. And I thought, Oh, I said, well,
it could have been your fault. It could have been. That's pride,
isn't it? That's what it is. That's what
it seems from our heart. And I, of course, we reconciled
and it wasn't a big deal. It was something simple. I was
able to say, I'm sorry. I left the keys on the wrong place.
It was, it's me. And that's where the Lord brings
us to, isn't it? You are the man. You are the
man. You're the one that's responsible
because of your pride. That's what he says to us individually.
Mr. Hickman, you're the man. It's
not her. That's the problem. You're the problem. That's what
the Lord does for his people. Proverbs tells us that every
way of man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth
the heart. That word pondereth is the same
thing as if you take a scale and you were to weigh something
in the balance. He weighs the heart and he knows
that it's deceitful. He knows that it's wicked. And
we've spoke on the heart even recently. So some of this is
gonna be a mere echo of that, but I pray the Lord would let
us enter into it afresh and we would see it brand new again. Something that we know is true
about pride is no one, we don't pray, Lord, give me the burden
that my brother has. Give me the burden that my sister
has. Let me bear that burden for them. Nobody prays that,
do we? Christ did. Christ did for his people. That's
exactly what he prayed. Let me bear their burden. Give
me their sin that I may put it away. That's what Christ prayed
for. See, we're selfish and prideful
in all things, but Christ was selfless, selfless, the opposite. He went as a lamb done before
his shearers. He laid down his life freely
for you and I. He offered up himself as the
perfect sacrifice unto the father freely, freely for you and I.
It wasn't his, he wasn't, he didn't have pride. It wasn't
an issue with him. He looked to the father. He's
completely devoted for him. Completely devoted to the father
for the love that he has for his father and the love that
he had for his bride. He devoted himself unto his father. How many times a day do we think
of ourselves? Do we think of ourselves? I'm
hungry. I'm tired. I'm this or I'm that. How many times we think of others?
Did you know the Lord always only thought about the work that
his father had given him? He only always thought about
you, His people. That's our hope, isn't it? See,
everything that we are, He is the opposite of. He's other than
we are. Every time He was thinking, He
was thinking about honoring His Father. Oh, I wish we could be
like that. Don't you? I wish I could think
that way. Not think so highly of myself,
but think on things above. Think on what thus saith the
Lord. Be reminded of what thus saith the Lord. I need to be
reminded. Because left to myself, I'm going to be in my pride and
think only of myself. Christ never drew attention to
his flesh. Never. How many times do we draw
attention to ourself? We have social media now that
does a great job of that, doesn't it? Look at me. You have Facebook,
which I like what a preacher said about Facebook. It's fake
book because everybody says, look at this, and it's supposed
to look and be presented a certain way, but it's really not true.
I mean, everybody's life isn't sunshine and rainbows, is it?
That's just not how it is. We all have hardships and things
we endure, but people want to be seen as other than what they
are, seen better than what they are. So you have Facebook as
look at me, and then you have Instagram as look at me now,
and Snapchat as look at me fast. And it's all about look at me,
look at what I've done, look at what I'm doing. and not the
Lord, not the Lord Jesus Christ. He never said, look at me. He
always pointed to his father in everything that he did. He
always devoted himself to his father in word, in thought, in
every way possible, thinking of finishing the work that his
responsibility, the salvation of his people. And that's exactly
what he did. He saved his people. He was obedient
all the way into death. He never said that's not fair.
He never exalted Himself. Now, if you want to look at fairness,
we should have been the ones on the cross. So in that regard,
it wasn't fair, but it was right because the Lord purposed to
do it. It was right because of that. But you and I should be
the one that died, not Him. He was innocent. We were guilty.
So in that regard, it's not fair to us because we didn't deserve
it. No, it's all by grace, isn't
it? It's all according to His will and His purpose. He never, never drew attention
to himself. You remember whenever Pilate
was accusing the Lord? And he said, I have, Pilate said,
I have all power. I have power to crucify you.
I'm God. That's what he said. I can do
whatever I want to with you. I have the power to do that.
The only time that the Lord Jesus Christ opened up his mouth, they
were accusing him. of different things, and he had
already became the sin for his people. So he was guilty at that
time. So he didn't open up his mouth.
He didn't speak. But whenever they accused the father, when
he said, I have the power, he said, you have no power. Christ
opened his mouth. And what was he doing? He was
honoring his father with his words. He was defending the truth
of his father. He was saying, no, you don't
get to say that. My father is the one that has the power. That's
when he opened his mouth. Never justified himself, God
did. God justified Christ and justified
his people on the cross of Calvary, didn't he? We justify ourselves, don't we?
And it's always based upon our intentions, isn't it? It's always
based upon our intentions. I know I was trying to do the
right thing there, so I've done okay. And then we look at others
though, and we see what they do, their actions, and we condemn
them. We condemn them based on their
actions. Brethren, the sad truth of it is, is that we will blame
God if left to ourself because of our circumstances. When something
happens, the first thing we do is say, why is this happening?
We don't flee to Christ. We take our eyes off of him and
begin to sink, don't we? This is the pride issue that
we have, this old man, this Edom that we're gonna read about.
They're prideful in their heart. They're deceived in their heart,
believing that they are good enough for God. And that's what
we will do if left to ourself. This is what our old man does.
I'm thankful that the Lord gave us a new man, aren't you? one
that looks unto him. And he tells us, this is what
he's given us in the new man. He says in Colossians, put on,
therefore, as the elect of God, as holy and beloved. He calls
his people holy and beloved of the Lord, bowels of mercy. Put
on bowels of mercy. Be merciful unto another. Put
on kindness. Be kind unto another. Humbleness
in mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all
these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness."
What's charity? That's love, isn't it? What is
he saying? Love one another. Forgive one another. Put your
pride out of the way. Look to Christ and love one another
because this is pleasing. This is what the Lord is telling
us to do, not asking. But you know, we can't love each
other unless he gives us that love. But what sweet fellowship
there is between brethren that dwell in unity? Why are they
unified? Because of the finished work of Christ. There's a love
there, isn't there? And Colossians clearly tells
us also that our hearts are knit together in love. So we should
prefer one another over ourself. This is what Christ is our example
of. This is what he showed to us
openly. This is what he did. And this
is what we should do. This is our example. May God
give us this love and understanding. Give us patience. May we have
selflessness towards each other, as Christ as our example did. We wake up in the morning. I wake
up in the morning and I know you do too. And the first thing
we think about is what do I need? We don't even think about it
now at this time in life. We just go through the motions.
I got to get my coffee. I got to get this and that. I don't
think about what does my wife need right now? And she goes
through her motions. You understand what I'm saying?
It's all about us, isn't it? Well, may the Lord cause us to
see that life is not about us. May we see that it's about Christ.
It's about Christ and his gospel. It's about his finished work.
If we miss the gospel, if we miss the finished work of Christ,
we've missed everything. We've missed everything because
that's all that's good in this world is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I'm not telling you we should wake up and not think about our
needs. I think you guys understand what
I mean by that. It's but we do. We do think too highly of ourself,
don't we? May the Lord cause us to put one another before
ourself, because how we treat our brethren will be a reflection
of what heart the Lord's given us. The heart of love that he's
given us, it will come out. It will come out. If you love
one another, you're going to show it, aren't you? If you love
your spouse, you show it, whether it's in work that you do or it's
in... How often do we pray for our spouses? We should. We should
pray for them more than we pray for ourselves. We should pray
for our brethren. These are the things that the Lord's given
to us. If you want to talk about what is our responsibility as
believers, this is our responsibility. It's not for salvation. No, that's
the finished work of Christ. It's not in order to do something
that would make God bless us. That's not why we do this. So
why do we do it? Because the Lord said so. The Lord said so. Pray for one another. Pray for
one another. Be longsuffering towards one
another. Love one another. Forgive one another. May God abase us. lest we should
be exalted in the pride of our heart and think too highly of
ourselves. And that's what he's dealing
with here is the pride of the heart. So I guess you can call that
the introduction to this message. Now look with me in Obadiah chapter
one, the vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God concerning
Edom, we have heard a rumor from the Lord and an ambassador is
sent among the heathen arise ye and let us rise up against
her in battle. Behold, I have made thee small
among the heathen. Thou art greatly despised. Now here's the issue in verse
three. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. Thou that
dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high,
that sayeth in his heart, who shall bring me down to the ground?
Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set
thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith
the Lord. Now, this is the judgment of
Edom that is declared throughout this chapter. And I'm thankful
that the Lord shows us towards the very end in verse 17. We're
not going to read it right now. That's next hour. But the Lord
leaves a remnant. The Lord leaves a remnant. The
Lord saves a people out of all of it. Scripture tells us about
pride, and it says, God resisteth the pride, the prideful, but
giveth grace unto the humble. God resisteth the proud, but
giveth grace unto the humble. Now, I don't know if any of you
have seen what I'm about to describe, but I've seen this firsthand.
In religion, men and women will have a false sense of humility. They will go around acting like
they're humble. But the very moment you take
their righteousness away, the very moment you tell them about
the gospel, they're not humble anymore. They get up in arms
towards you. We were talking about that just
before service. They get angry. They become aggressive towards
you, so it's a false humility that they have, and it draws
attention to themselves. This is not the humbleness that the
Lord's speaking of. He's talking about the humbleness
of the heart, the humbleness on the inward parts. If the Lord
has really made you the chief of sinners, how are we gonna
react to other things around us? And we know this new man
is gonna get angry and upset because somebody says something
or does something, and I use driving often as an example.
more crazy driving now than they've ever been. But do you not get
angry? Do I not get angry whenever we
get cut off in traffic or somebody's tailgating us or whatever it
may be? And this is the old man that
just wants to rear up its ugly head. But if I really see myself
as the chief of sinner, my hope is that the Lord would say, yep,
I deserved that. I deserve that. I know I deserve that. But we
don't do that, do we? No, we don't. But you know, the
Lord Jesus Christ didn't deserve that. but he took our sin and
therefore he deserved the wrath of God because of that. The one
that was sinless, the one that was perfect took our sin, took
all the ugly that we are, all of our pride into himself. and he put it away by his own
blood. That's our hope, isn't it? Lord, don't look at my heart,
because if you see my heart, you'll see that it's full of
pride. It's full of self-righteousness.
It's full of selfishness. I'm all about myself all the
time, 24-7. Lord, I need a new heart. I need
a new heart, one that's not prideful, one that looks to you in all
things, one that's pleasing unto you. And if he gives us that
heart, it'll be a humble heart, won't it? Not a heart that exalts
ourself, but one that looks to Christ. And if we have that humble
heart, it will expose itself externally. And if we have a
prideful heart, it'll expose itself externally as well. How
we do and how we treat others, it's just how it is. There's
only two kinds of hearts, the proudful and the humble. The
one that the Lord gives and the one that we're born with. There's
only two kinds of people in the world. One kind have a deceived
heart, as he describes right here. A deceived heart in believing
that they're good enough to please God. Believing that what they're
doing is enough to make God be satisfied with them. And the
other heart is the new heart that the Lord gives. There is
the self-righteous and there are those who have the need of
Christ's righteousness as their only righteousness. There's those
that are trusting in self, and their works and what they do,
what they've done or what they're going to do. They're just deceiving
themselves, aren't they? That's what he's talking about
here. You deceive yourself with the pride of your own heart and
believing that what you do has satisfied God. It's not true,
is it? We can't satisfy God with what
we do. We can't be pleasing unto him,
unto salvation. It's not possible. It's just
not possible. There are those who, by His grace,
shown we can't do anything to please God, but Christ did. Christ
pleased the Father in every way. Men will accuse others to justify
themselves in saying, well, I don't do that, and I don't do that,
and I don't do that. So that means I'm okay. Or they'll
excuse themselves and say, I don't do this. I don't taste, not touch,
not handle. No, that's, that's what it is,
isn't it? They'll excuse themselves and they'll say, well, I'm not
as bad as I used to be. Not as bad as I used to be. You
ever heard that before? I used to be this. I used to, I used
to go here. I don't do that anymore. I'm
better than I used to be. Not the chief of sinners. We
see ourself as getting worse and worse. And this pride in
our heart doesn't get better and better. It gets worse. and
worse, doesn't it? Lord, you're gonna have to give
me a new heart. Lord, you're gonna have to take out this heart
of stone. I'm stubborn. I'm stubborn. You're gonna have
to yoke me up to that yoke of your oxen, Lord, the one that's
easy because the work is finished. Because the work is finished,
the burden is light. You're gonna have to yoke me
up to your work, not mine. Left to myself, I'll put my hands
to it. I'll defile it because of my pride. Men look for signs and wonders,
don't they? Those who look for signs and
wonders are easy to be deceived because men have to fabricate
something in order to wow them. But the gospel is good enough
for the Lord's people. That's all we want. That's all
that the Lord's people desire is just tell me the old, old
story one more time. That's that new heart that he
gives, isn't it? That's, that's why we come as Lord, I have to
hear this story again, this, this account of salvation for
worthless sinners, such as myself. This is where we come with is
the new heart he's given us. Now, last time I spoke on the
heart and I do find a seemed like a pattern throughout these
these profits, it's always a heart issue, isn't it? And I've mentioned
needing a new heart before, and I've mentioned some of the verses
that I'm going to quote to you and, and different things, but
I focused on. In Jeremiah chapter 17, he says
that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
I focused on the desperately wicked portion of that, but today
I want to focus on the deceitful above all things. Deceitful,
that's what we've titled the message, a deceived heart. Deceitful
above all things is what he says. You mean it's more deceitful
than anything? That's what he just said. Deceitful
above all things. Why? Pride. Pride is the reason. I think too highly of myself
and so therefore I'm going to deceive myself. I'm going to
convince myself that I am good enough for God on my own. That's
exactly what will happen if the Lord leaves us to ourself. It's
exactly what will happen. Men with a deceived heart say
things such as do this for salvation or do that. Everyone that came
to Christ inquiring of salvation said, what must I do. I can do it. You name it, I can
do it." The Lord said, nothing. Nothing. There's nothing that
you can do for your salvation. And when he told the rich man
go sell all he had, the reason he said that was because that
was his God. That's what he was looking to as evidence of his
salvation. That was the issue. And that's
what has to happen is the Lord has to tear down the false idols
that's in our heart and get rid of the pride thinking of our
nature. He has to tear that down, doesn't
he? He abases us completely and shuts us up to Christ. They kept
asking me, what must I do? Well, men are doing the same
today by saying, here's the answer to that. Let Jesus in your heart.
That's what they say. We don't let Jesus do anything,
do we? He's God. He's God, and we're
not. Oh, we think so much of ourself
that we will believe that we're God, won't we? We'll go through
life and end up at the end result thinking I've done enough. That's
exactly what we'll do. Men, we don't really think about
death unless you've truly been made a sinner. If you've been
made a sinner, you think about dying, don't you? More than anything
else, you think, oh, if I am left to myself in that moment,
hell will be my eternal home. That's scary, isn't it? That's
scary. But you know, the good news of the gospel is if you
see yourself as a sinner, you will run to Christ to accomplish
salvation, realizing you won't move a muscle in the process.
We just flee to Christ over and over, don't we? Lord, I have
pride. I need I need this pride to be gone. Give me the new heart
that that would look unto you. Don't let me deceive myself like
these others that we're describing. Here's what he tells us. Here's
good news. A new heart. will I give you? He's gonna give you a new heart
if you're his. And a new spirit will I put within you, and I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will
give you a heart of flesh. There's a lot of I wills in that,
aren't there? There is not dependent upon you and I in any way. Do you rejoice in that? Boy,
I do. I rejoice in knowing that I can't
mess it up. I say that, I think, probably
every time I stand up here, but it's such good news to hear. My pride can't break the covenant
that God made with his son. It's not involved at all. I can't
mess it up. The Lord Jesus Christ successfully
redeemed his people. Salvation is an act of God. It's
not an act of man. God must do all the work, and
he tells us why. He says, so then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. No matter what we do, we cannot
take out this heart. We can't be humble enough in
his eyes to satisfy him. Christ did. Christ was humble
enough to please his father. He was perfectly humble before
his father, and the father was pleased with his darling son. Everything that we do, everything
that we do in order to try to attain, achieve salvation, to
merit salvation, to get salvation, everything that we would do,
the Lord calls iniquity. And in Psalm chapter five, verse
five, he says, I hate all workers of iniquity. Now, when we're
dealing with the sovereign God of this universe that I'm describing
to you, we're dealing with the one that's immutable. He can't
change. Those that he hates, he's always hated. and thanks
be to God, those that he loves, he has always, always loved in
Christ. Those who have this deceived
heart are never given faith to look to Christ, but those who
are given this heart of flesh, Look to Christ. You know that
this is true. If the Lord has made you a sinner
and he shuts you up to Christ, you know that this is true. You
believe that Jesus Christ successfully redeemed his people and there's
nothing that you can do and there's nothing that I can do to achieve
salvation. Christ accomplished it. You believe
that, don't you? That's your only hope, isn't
it? That's the only hope that we have. Lord, the work that
you did, the heart that you have, and I must have it or I am going
to die. in my sin. I can't offer my blood. I can't offer my works. I can't
offer my good thoughts. I don't have any good thoughts
in your eyes. Christ did. I must have him as my substitute. I must have him as my portion.
I must have his heart because mine is full of pride. Mine is
the most deceitful thing on the face of this earth. If the Lord
shows you that, he shuts you up to Christ. He gives you that
heart of flesh that cries, Abba, Father. That word Abba Father
is the term used as a term of endearment, a term of love that
a child would say into their parent. My children call me Daddy.
That's my name. That's the name that my children
call me. No one else has that privilege. Well, Abba Father
is the privilege of God's chosen people to call Him. No one else
gets to call Him that. Even if they do, He won't hear
them. We call on Him, don't we? With this new heart, calling
out Abba Father, we're calling for Him, Lord, Have mercy on
me, the sinner. And do you know the glorious
reply because of the gospel? He doesn't see us as sinners.
He doesn't see the sin that we are. He doesn't see the pride
that we have. He sees the new heart, the heart of Christ that
looks unto him perfectly in all things. That's our hope. Now we see here what men do by
nature to try to get to God, and it's found in verse three,
he says, the prod of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that
dwellest in the cleft of the rock. Men have made man-made
clefts in a man-made rock, and they call it Jesus Christ, and
it's not true. If there's one thing, one thing
that you and I have to do order to be saved. One thing that we
produce, one thing that we must do, it is a man-made rock and
we're in a man-made cleft of that rock. Now the Lord Jesus
Christ is the cleft of the rock, isn't he? He's the one, he's
the one that is nigh unto his father. You remember whenever
Moses asked the Lord, he said, show me your glory. I've told
this account many times, but as a reminder, Moses said, I
wanna see your glory, Lord. I wanna see you. And that's our
desire, isn't it? To see him. Lord, I want to see
you, but no man, he told Moses, no man can look upon me. No man
can see my face and live. No man. He said, but there is
a place nigh unto me at my right hand. That's how close it is.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? He said, I'm going to put
you in the cleft of the rock. And I'm going to cause my glory
to pass by you. And when I do, you're going to
see my hundred parts. I'm going to let you see my finished
work, what I've done for the salvation of my people. That's
my glory, Moses. It's all about me. It's all about
what I've done. And you're going to be in the
hiding place of that rock. It's not manmade. No, I made
it. I made it. And I'm going to put
you in it. You don't get to put yourself
in it. I'm going to put you in that cleft of the rock so you
can't get out of it and you can't get in it. That's the glorious
news of the gospel, isn't it? And now we see the goodness and
mercy of the Lord on our life. We see his finished work as our
hope, our only hope in salvation, what Christ has done, this precious
cleft, so that we don't make a covenant with death. It was
the covenant Christ made with his father. Turn with me to Isaiah
chapter 28. Isaiah chapter 28. We don't flee to a man-made cliff.
We don't... That's what this covenant is
all about that we're about to read about. It's what they've
done. Isaiah 28, verse 14 says, Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem,
because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and
with hell we are at agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come to us, For we have made
lies our refuge. That is that man-made cleft,
isn't it? And under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Therefore,
thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.
He that believeth shall not make haste. Now what he means by not
make haste is these men before are going to and fro trying to
establish a righteousness before God. They're hasting to try to
please God. We don't haste to please God
anymore. We are seated. We're resting in Christ is what
he's saying. You're not going to be working anymore. You're
going to be resting. That's what he means by shall
not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the
line and the righteous to the plummet. And the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow the
hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled,
shall be made void. And your agreement with hell
shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through. Then
ye shall be trodden down by it." Men say, we've made a covenant.
We made a covenant with death, and with hell we're in agreement.
We understand what was necessary in order for us to do something
to make God happy. We let Jesus in our heart. We did this. We
got saved. Things like that. This is that cleft that I'm speaking
of that's a false sense of hope, a false sense of security. This
is men looking to themselves, not looking into the true cleft
of the rock. We can't get in it or out of that. So men try
to do something in order to please God, making a covenant with death,
making an agreement with hell. If we believe that we can either
hinder God or help God, we have a deceived heart. If we believe
that we can hinder God or help God, men are speaking on that
subject right now. You need to help God. You need
to do your part. Now, if we believe that we can
hinder God or help God, we have a deceived heart. We've made
lies our refuge. made lies our refuge. We've hewed
out a cleft by man and we've hid ourself in it. And he says,
no, I'm going to disannul your covenant. Your heart is deceived. I was thinking as I was studying
this about how close you can be to the truth, how close you
can be to the gospel. Now think about this. I can speak
truth to you. but that doesn't mean I'm declaring
the gospel to you. Think about that. Men can preach
truth and it'll make you feel good. It'll make you feel enlightened. It'll make you feel hopeful,
but that doesn't mean that he's preached the gospel. See, the
gospel is the only thing that'll save a man's soul. The gospel
is the only thing that calls men to repentance. It's the only
thing that completely abases pride and gives a new heart.
It's the only thing that causes men and women to be born again.
The gospel must be preached, and the offense of the gospel
is very simple. Jesus Christ doesn't love everybody. He doesn't. He didn't die for
everybody. He died for his people and successfully redeemed them.
That's the offense of the gospel. So to think there's one thing
that I can do means his death was not sufficient in putting
away my sin. I have to do something. This
is the pride of men's heart that every religionist has that separates
them from the Lord. This is where men run to, this
false sense of hope. That's why Paul said, woe, woe
unto me if I preach not the gospel of Jesus Christ as all for the
salvation of his people. This is what we must preach.
This cleft that makes you feel good is not the cleft, not the
cleft of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever we enter into that cleft,
we're made the chief of sinners. It does not feel good to see
our sin. It does not feel good to loathe
ourself, does it? But as soon as we see ourself
as the sinner, he shows us the Savior. He shows us that it's
his finished work. It's not what we did at all.
It's what he's done. We no longer look to ourself
and love ourself. No, those letters are changed
around and it's a whole new word. It's called loathe, isn't it?
We loathe ourself. We loathe ourself. We've been made to realize our
cleft will not hide us on the day of judgment. Think of this
thought, brethren. The same judgment wherewith God
the Father judged his darling son is the exact same judgment
he's going to judge you with and me with. Our only hope is
that we were in Christ when Christ was judged. God's not a respecter
of person, the scripture tells us. If God spared not his own
son, is he going to spare you and I? If we have one sin upon
us, is he going to spare us? Certainly not. Our sin must be
put away, and it's not by works of righteousness, which we do.
It's according to his mercy. He put the sin of his people
away by his own life, death, burial, resurrection, by his
own blood. He bought his people. If we believe
that we believe that God's a respecter
of persons, we have a deceived heart. He's not a respecter of
persons. The Lord laid upon him the iniquity
of us all. The Lord led him as the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world and poured out his
wrath upon his darling son. There is no hope that we have
outside of being in Christ when Christ was judged. God demands
100% perfection. And Christ Jesus is the one that's
100% perfect. Now, Jeremiah 49, we're not gonna turn there. Jeremiah 49 echoes this exact
portion, and it's not quite verbatim, but it's very close. I wanna
read you the one verse. It says, thy terribleness hath
deceived thee in the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest
in the clefts of the rock, and holdest the height of the hill.
Though thou shouldest make thine nest as high as the eagle, I
will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord. It's almost the
same thing as what's found in our text, isn't it? It's the
exact same thing when he says, even though you dwell among the
stars, I'm gonna bring you down. Even though your cleft is high
in your mountain. See, men exalt themselves, don't
they? We exalt ourself. If left to ourself, we'll be
exactly like Nebuchadnezzar. We'll make a 60-foot statue of
ourself in our heart, won't we? And think that the Lord will
be pleased with it. No, perish the thought. The Lord's not pleased
with me and you. We're not good enough for God.
Not enough ourself, but in Christ Jesus, God is satisfied with
his sacrifice. And we have been made the righteousness
of God in him. And the glorious news is that
he truly loves his people. He truly loves us. He loves us
so much that he gave his only begotten son to redeem us back
to him. This is the love he has for us.
But men exalt themselves. Men will exalt themselves high,
not realizing that they're trying to dethrone God. You remember
Satan from the very beginning, the very first sin that's recorded
is whenever Satan said, I will ascend above the heavens. I will
be like the most high. I'm going to dethrone God. I'm
going to get the glory for myself. This is the lie from the very
beginning, isn't it? The lie from the very beginning. This
is where it all started is in the heart of Satan. What happened
to him? The Lord cast him out, didn't
he? And one of these days, he's going to throw him in the lake
of fire for eternity, for eternity. It all started in the heart. Boy, our heart's deceitful, isn't
it? Deceitful above all things, he says. Our heart is Our heart
can't please God, but we'll deceive ourself in believing that it
can. It can't. It can't. My responsibility this morning
is to tell us that we're not worthy, and yet Christ has made
us worthy. My responsibility is to tell
us our heart's not good enough, but he gives his people a new
heart. My responsibility is to tell us we're false and full
of sin, but he is full of truth and full of grace. Flee to Christ.
Don't look to yourself and the deceit in your heart. Look to
him. Look to him and live. Everything else is going to end
in damnation. Everything else is going to be eternal hell for
the soul of men. If the Lord allows us to deceive
ourselves, we'll deceive ourselves with the lies of Edom all the
way to the pit of hell. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. And you know the good news of
the gospel? He delights in showing mercy to his people. He loves
to show mercy to his chosen, to his children. It is sad to think that on judgment
day, men will stand before God and they'll say these words.
The Lord said, Lord, I've cast out demons in your name. I've
done many wonderful works in your name. I have done this.
I have done that. Do you know what they're saying?
They're saying, God, you owe me. God, you owe me. I've done such a good job. You
owe me salvation for what I've done. What does the Lord say?
Depart from me. I never knew you. I haven't seen
one good thing in you. Depart from me. It is our sin. It is our pride that sends us
to hell. The Lord doesn't have to send
anyone to hell. We'll send ourself there, but we'll believe we're
good enough all the way to the gate. And yet we'll be turned
away because we're not fleeing to Christ, the cleft of the rock. We will believe that we have
something to present to him and say, you owe me, I've done good
for you. That's the deceit of the heart,
isn't it? That's the pride that all men have by nature. We're
not good enough. We are not good enough, but in
Christ Jesus, he's made us good enough. He's made us accepted
in the beloved. Now in closing, I have a question
for us. Examine yourself. Examine yourself. Is my heart deceitful? Is my heart deceitful? Yes. Yes, my heart's deceitful. Well,
are you looking to yourself for your righteousness before God?
No, certainly not. Then the Lord's given you a new
heart. He's left the old one there because he didn't come
to save the old one, but he's given you a new one that cries
out to him. He's given you a new heart that says, Lord, I have
to have your righteousness. I don't have any righteousness.
My righteousness is filthy rags. I need to be robed in your righteousness,
white as snow. I wrote an article in your bulletin
about unbuttoning your shirt. Some of you might've already
read it. Whenever you, I did a good job, I thought, I thought,
and that's the problem, isn't it? That's our pride. It starts
with that, I thought. We always think the wrong thing,
because we're thinking of ourself, don't we? I thought in religion,
I did a really good job of buttoning up the self-righteous shirt of
my salvation. When the gospel came, I realized
I had reached the top and I had missed the first button at the
very bottom. Now there's only one thing to do, one thing to
be done, whenever you reach the top and you miss the bottom button.
Unbutton the entire shirt. The gospel goes forth and declares
you have to unbutton your shirt. And yet it's also at the same
time says you can't, I have to do it for you. You don't have
any arms. You're not alive, you're dead
and trespasses and in sin. And so what does the Lord do?
Well, in his sovereign grace and by his mercy, he unbuttons
our shirt and strips us of it completely. and he robes us in
his righteousness. Now we're seen as perfectly righteous
in his eyes. That's what the gospel does.
That's our hope with the new heart that he's given us. He
does it all at the same time by his gospel. Now, either we are looking to ourself
or we're looking to Christ. Either we're looking to what
we've buttoned or we realize he's going to have to robe us.
Either we are of the devil Him being our father or of the Lord,
Him being our father. I want to show you that in closing
in John chapter eight. Turn with me there. I love the Lord's authority whenever
he was speaking to those who were not his. I love the thought
is when they come to take him, he they said, he said to him,
who are you looking for? And he said, Jesus of Nazareth.
They said, Jesus of Nazareth, he said, I am, and they fell
backwards. And then they got up and still tried to take him.
Isn't that miraculous? That's pride, isn't it? That's
exactly what that is, is pride. But I love his authority, the
way he handles the situation with these unbelieving Pharisees. Look with me in verse 42 of John
chapter eight. Jesus said to them, the Pharisees,
if God were your father, you would love me for I proceeded
forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but
he sent me Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot
hear my word. You are of your father, the devil. Ye are of your father, the devil,
and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from
the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no
truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because
I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of you convinceth
me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do
you not believe me? He that is of God, heareth God's
words. Ye therefore hear them not, because
ye are not of God. Because you are not of God. The
Lord asks three questions here. First one he asks is, why do
you not understand? The second one he asks is, which of you
convinceth me? And that word convinceth is convict.
It's the same word as convict. Which one of you convict me of
sin? The third question he asks is, why do you not believe? And
he gives three crystal clear answers as to why. Number one, why do you not understand?
Because you cannot hear. I have not given you ears to
hear." That's what he tells them. God must give us faith to believe,
to understand, to hear. See, we're dead. Not dead as
in we have a heartbeat, but we don't have any brainwaves. No,
we don't have a heartbeat. We don't have a pulse. We're
dead. Dead in trespasses and in sin. He must say, live. He
must say, open your eyes. He must say, hear my word. This
is what he does for his people. He enables us to do that. He
says, you can't hear because you're of the devil. You're of
your father, the devil. You're of your father, the devil.
That's what he told him. See, the deceived heart hates
God's truth. He says, you're of your father,
the devil, and you follow after his lies, because that's what's
in your heart to do. He's a liar from the beginning. He's the
father of it. That's what you're going to do. You're going to
deceive yourself because I've left you to yourself. It's his
authority. It's his sovereign right to do
so, isn't it? Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God, he didn't leave
everyone in that state. He tells us at the very end of
that, he that is of God, heareth God's words. Isn't that good
news? Lord, make me of you. Give me
a new heart to hear you. Don't leave me like these Pharisees.
Now, the second thing he says is, which of you convinces me
or convicts me of sin? Men make God out to be unjust. They make him They make him out
to be unfair. They say, well, that's they hear
the gospel. That's not fair. That's that's wrong. That's falsely
accusing God. If God's wrong, that's sin, isn't
it? That's what they're saying here. You can't convict God of
sin. He has none. Now, he took our
sin unto himself and owned it as his own. But God and of himself
doesn't have any sin. So we can't convict him of sin. This is a deceived heart that's
speaking about these men. That's what they have. It's not
what we We did, we do, or we're doing, it's what he done. It's
what he did for his people. He's not wrong, I'm wrong. He's
not false, I'm false. He has no sin, I'm the sinner.
Our hope is that we're the sinner that he came to save, isn't it? So the third question he asked
is, why do you not believe? And he answers them in verse
47 again. He that is of God, heareth God's words. Ye therefore
hear them not. Hear them not because you're
not of God, only those who Christ has died for, only those who
he shed his precious blood for and bought. He bought them. We're
going to hear about that next hour. Christ bought us with a
price. The price was his own blood.
It was a purchase. It was a transaction. It wasn't
just a transaction, but it was definitely a transaction. His
precious blood bought his people and those who he has bought will
hear. My sheep hear my voice. John chapter 10 tells us that
clearly. Gives us eyes to see, ears to hear. He told this to
the Pharisees one time. They said to him, are you saying
that we're blind? Are you saying that we don't see? Is that what
you're saying to me? That's the pride, isn't it? If
the Lord tells you that you don't see, what would be your response?
Truth, Lord. But I would love to see your
face. Calls me to see you. Is that the cry you would have?
Or would it be, are you telling me I'm a sinner? You're telling
me I'm wrong. You're telling me I'm false.
Nothing in me is good. Is that what you're saying? What'd
the Lord respond to these Pharisees? He said, because you say you
can see. Because you have a deceived heart
is what he's telling them. Because you say you can see,
therefore your sin remaineth. That's what he told them. We cry, Lord, show us the truth.
Am I deceived? Have I deceived myself? Do I
have a deceived heart? Lord, I know I will if you let
me. You're going to have to take out this heart of stone. You
have to abase my pride and shut me up to Christ. Creating me
a clean heart is what David said. Creating me a clean heart, oh
God. Renewing me a right spirit. Everything about me is wrong.
All the way down to my spirit. Lord, you're going to have to
clean me by washing me in your blood. Robing me in your righteousness.
Stripping me naked. This shirt was really pretty
at first, but now that I see, it's just filthy rags compared
to you. I need your righteousness to be put upon me. This is our
cry, isn't it? This is the cry of the believer.
Don't let us be deceived. Don't leave me to myself. Lord,
give me Christ. Amen.