Date: Sunday Evening – August 30, 1992

The title of my message tonight is "A Deceived Heart". No man is so deceived as that man whose heart has deceived him. Give me your ear. May God the Holy Spirit now give me the grace and power that only he can give, to speak directly to your heart. I want us to read together an astonishing and fearful word from God concerning people whose hearts have deceived them with false religion – Isaiah 44:20.

There is but one true religion. It is the religion of grace, the free grace of God in Jesus Christ, the sinners’ Substitute. There is only one way to obtain and receive true religion, one way of salvation. That one-way is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are many false religions and many false ways of adhering to true religion. Only one path leads to heaven; but there are a thousand roads to hell. In the brood road that leads to destruction there is plenty of room for numerous, winding, dark alleys. In the strait and narrow way that leads to heaven there is no room for any divergence. We all hope for eternal life. We hope to spend eternity with God in heavenly bliss. That is our hope. But unless we all have the same religion and have it in the same way. We shall never arrive at that hoped for end.

Tonight, I want to probe our hearts with the Word of God. I want to probe our hearts at their most tender, sensitive points. I want us to examine our religion.

Proposition: False religion is the greatest, most powerful deception of the human heart.

1. Many People are Completely Deceived in Their Religion.
2. If Your Religion is False, It Will Be Unsatisfactory.
3. Only a Deceived Heart will Allow You To Be Content With Unsatisfactory Religion.
4. Is My Religion True or False?

2. Many People Are Completely Deceived in Their Religion.

I have read that Karl Marx described religion as "The opiate of the people." Mr. Marx was right. Religion is a stupefying drug by which men and women deaden their consciences and seek to quieten their fears.

1. The Idolater
2. The Papist
3. The Scoffer
4. The Freewiller
5. The Legalist

All of these we know to be deceived in their religion. None of you question that. But let me come closer home. The false professor of true religion is as much deceived in his religion as the base idolater or slave of papacy. Much as I hate to say it, I know that I am talking to some here tonight. I have no idea who you are. You may be totally ignorant of your condition. Only God knows who you are. I pray that he will tonight strip away your mask of hypocrisy and bathe your soul in the blood of Christ. You will never find a church on this earth where there is not a Judas, a Demas, a Diotriphes, or a Simon Magus.

• You are orthodox, but dead.
• You have been baptized in water, but not in the Holy Spirit.
• You eat the bread and wine of the Lord’s Table, but you do not feed upon Christ.
• Your religion is true in the letter, but false in spirit. Your religion is true, but you are false. Yet, you are deceived- (Matt. 7:23). Satan does not care how religious you are. He only wants to keep you from Christ.

II. If Your Religion is False It Will Be Unsatisfactory.

I do not say that it will not deceive you. But I do say that it will prove unsatisfactory to your soul. He whose religion is false is described in these words- "He feedeth on ashes."

1. The Idolater has no Peace. – What Can this god do?
2. The Papist has no Peace. – What Can this god do?
3. The Scoffer has no Peace.

Illus.: Volney the Atheist.

4. The Freewiller has no Peace. – I have made my peace with God, but I have no peace.
5. The Legalist has no Peace.- My works do not quieten my conscience.
6. The Religious Hypocrite has no Peace. – I am not what I profess.

I know whereof I speak. Nothing can quieten the guilty conscience or give the soul solid peace except the gospel of Christ and real faith in him. If there were any other cure for man’s plague except the blood of Christ applied to the heart, surely Christ need not have died. Many of us tried to find peace elsewhere, but none could be found!

• Licentiousness!
• Legal Works!
• Religious Profession!

We were like the dove Noah sent out of the ark. We found no place of rest for the soul of our foot until we came to Christ. "Rest is the Test!" (Jer. 6:17). Does your religion give you rest, or is your religion like feeding your soul on ashes?

• Freewillism is ashes – Free grace is rest!
• Legalism is ashes – Imputed Righteousness is rest!
• Ritualism is ashes – Redemption is rest!
• Hypocrisy is ashes – Faith is rest! (Matt. 11:29-30)

2. Only a Deceived Heart Will Allow You to be Content With an Unsatisfactory Religion, which Gives You No Real Peace.

"A deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, men say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?"

If ever once you honestly questioned your religion, if it is false, the question would be fatal. But you will not question it. You dare not question it. That will never happen unless God himself causes you to question it.

Let’s question our religion tonight. Come on. Don’t be afraid. If there is a lie in my right hand, I want to know it!

• What does my conscience require? Righteousness and Satisfaction!
• What does God’s law require? Righteousness and Satisfaction!
• What does a Holy God require? Righteousness and Satisfaction!
• What do you have to offer? – Papist? Scoffer? Freewiller? Legalist? – This is what I have to offer God by faith in Christ- Righteousness and Satisfaction (II Cor. 5:21).

2. Still, I want to know the answer to this question. I have raised it. I cannot rest until it is answered- Is My Religion True or False?

I know that my religion is true doctrinally. I have no question at all about that. – Either God is Sovereign or there is no God!

• Either man is totally depraved, or there is nothing wrong with him.
• Either God chose a people whom he will save, or he did not.
• Either Christ redeemed his people, or he did not.
• Either God’s saints will all persevere, or none of them will.
• Either salvation is of the Lord, or it is the work of man.

Doctrinally, my religion is true. But is my profession of faith in Christ true or false? Am I, or am I not a child of God? There is a true faith and a false faith (John 2: 23-24; James 2: 19). Which do I have?

1. I trust Christ alone as my only, all-sufficient Savior (I Cor. 1:30).
2. I am a man with a broken, contrite heart before God (Ps. 51:17). I acknowledge my sin (I John 1:9).
3. I am a man at war with himself (Rom. 7:14-23).
4. I am a man of prayer – "Behold, he prayeth."
5. I am a man who bows to the rule and dominion of Christ (Lk. 14).
6. I am a man who loves Christ and his people (I Cor. 13:1-3).
7. I am a man who forgives wrongs done to me (Matt. 6:14-15).

‘Tis a point I long to know, Oft it causes anxious thought,

Do I love the Lord, or no; Am I His, or am I not?

If I love, why am I this; Why this dull, this lifeless frame?

Hardly, sure, can they be worse, Who have never heard His name.

Could my heart so hard remain, Prayer a task and burden prove;

Every trifle give me pain, If I knew a Savior’s love?

When I turn my eyes within, All is dark and vain, and wild;

Filled with unbelief and sin, Can I deem myself a child?

If I pray, or hear, or read, Sin is mixed with all I do;

You that love the Lord indeed, Tell me, is it thus with you?

Yet, I mourn my stubborn will, Find my sin a grief and thrall!

Should I grieve for what I feel, If I did not love at all?

Could I joy His saints to meet, Choose the ways I once abhor’d,

Find at times the promise sweet, If I did not love the Lord?

Lord, decide the doubtful case, Thou who art Thy people’s Sun,

Shine upon Thy work of grace, If it be indeed begun.

Let me love Thee more and more, If I love at all I pray;

If I have not loved before, Help me to begin today.

This much I know and can say with certainty…

1. I have no hope of acceptance with God but Christ – I trust him alone.
2. The faith and hope I have in Christ compel me to pursue these three great goals – I know I shall never attain them in this life; but pursue them I must – I cannot be content until I have attained these three things.

• Total Commitment to Christ!
• Total Communion with Christ!
• Total Conformity to Christ!