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The title of my sermon this morning is The Workers of Iniquity. The Workers of Iniquity. This is a term that's used throughout the Bible where it talks about people working iniquity or being workers of iniquity. And as you'll see this morning as I go through the scriptures and show you this term in the Bible, this is not talking about just run of the mill, every person who sins, people who just sin like everybody sins, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So the workers of iniquity in the Bible is a special class of sin. I mean these are the worst people, really bad people that the Bible tells us about and warns us about. Now it's interesting because Job 31 is the first time in the Bible that the workers of iniquity are ever mentioned. Look down at verse 3 and your Bible is there. It says it's not destruction to the wicked and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity. God says a strange punishment there. He's referring to the fact that there's a special punishment for them. They're going to be punished differently than other people will be punished. It's a punishment that's unique to them because they are so wicked. Go to Job 34. We're going to go through every single time in the Bible that this term worker of iniquity is used. We're going to go through all of them. Look at Job 34. This is where Job's enemies are falsely accusing Job of hanging around with these kind of people. It says in Job 34, 7, what man is like Job who drinketh up scorning like water, which goeth in company with workers of iniquity and walketh with wicked men? Go to verse 22. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. Flip over to Psalm 5. So what we see here so far is that the workers of iniquity will receive a strange punishment from God. And we saw that one of the worst ways that Elihu could falsely accuse Job was to say this guy hangs around with workers of iniquity. And then in verse 22 it said the shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. And what you're going to see a pattern as we go through this is that the workers of iniquity are often hiding, they're deceptive, they're lying in wait to destroy others, subtle and deceptive. Look at Psalm 5 verse 4, for thou art not a God that hath pleasure and wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Watch this. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. I mean these people are so bad the Bible says God hates them. It says God hateth all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing. The Lord will abhor, and abhor is a synonym of hate. The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. Look at Psalm 6 verse 8. Be ready to turn a lot of pages this morning because we're going to look at all the times that workers of iniquity is used. Psalm 6, 8, depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity, for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. Go to Psalm 28. Psalm 28, while you're turning there I'll read for you Psalm 14, 4. Have all the workers of iniquity, no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread and call not upon the Lord. So now we see that the workers of iniquity go so far as to persecute God's people. They eat up God's people like they would eat up bread. Look at verse 3 of chapter 28. Draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, watch their deception, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors. Give them after the work of their hands. Render to them their dessert. Go if you would to chapter 36. So you're seeing the pattern, aren't you, with these workers of iniquity. Deceptive, they say nice things, but in their heart it's all mischief, it's all blood and harm and violence that they want to do. Look at Psalm 36 verse 11, let not the foot of pride come against me and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. There are the workers of iniquity fallen. They're cast down and shall not be able to rise. Go to chapter 37, should just be one page. Chapter 37 verse 1 of Psalms, fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity for they shall soon be cut down like grass and wither as the green herb. Go to Psalm 59. So you can see from looking at these scriptures that the Bible doesn't have anything good to say about the workers of iniquity. It's just all about how bad they are and how God is going to destroy them. They're going to be cut off. They're going to fall. They're not going to be able to rise again. While you're turning to Psalm 59, Psalm 53 4 reiterates what Psalm 14 taught, had the workers of iniquity no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread, they've not called upon God. Look at Psalm 59 2, deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloody men. So again, the workers of iniquity are those who would persecute a man of God like David, persecuting God's people for lo, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty are gathered against me, not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord. They run and prepare themselves without my fault, awake to help me and behold thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel awake to visit all the heathen. Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah go to Psalm 64. So again, these are some of the worst people God's, God's recording here. The prayer of David under the inspiration of the Holy ghost saying, don't be merciful to these people. Don't be merciful to these workers. They're, they're, they're very evil. Look at Psalm 64 verse two, hide me from the secret council of the wicked, from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity. Insurrection means rebellion. The insurrection of the workers of iniquity who wet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows. In bitter words that they may shoot in secret at the perfect. Suddenly do they shoot at him and fear not. They encourage themselves in an evil matter. They commune of length, snares, privily. They say, who shall see them? They search out iniquities. They accomplish a diligent search. Both the inward thought of every one of them and the heart is deep, but God shall shoot at them with an arrow. Suddenly shall they be wounded. Though they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves, all that see them shall flee away. Go to Psalm 92, Psalm 92, again, Psalm 64 is talking about how these workers of iniquity, they're lying in wait to attack good people, to destroy righteous people. And God is going to give them their dessert. He's going to give them what they deserve is what that means. Their dessert. It doesn't mean, you know, ice cream with a cherry on top. He's saying, he's going to give them what they deserve for their wickedness. Look at Psalm 92 verse seven, when the wicked spring is the grass and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed forever, but thou Lord art most high forevermore for lo thine enemies, O Lord, for lo thine enemies shall perish. All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. Go to Psalm 94, starting in verse three, Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? Psalm 94 verse four. How long shall they utter and speak hard things and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves. Remember that for later. The workers of iniquity boast themselves. They break in pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thy heritage. Verse 16, who will rise up for me against the evil doers or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity. Go to Psalm 125. This is not me cherry picking this morning. This is every single time that the term workers of iniquity is used. We're not skipping anything and you can see the Bible is very consistent in its condemnation and description of the workers of iniquity. Psalm 125 verse five. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity, but peace shall be upon Israel. Go to Psalm 141. While you're turning there, I'll read for you from Proverbs chapter 10 verse 28. The hope of the righteous shall be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked shall perish. The way of the Lord is strength to the upright, but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. I mean, every single time God tells us they're going to be destroyed. They're going to be wiped out. They're not going to be able to rise up again. They're doomed. They're damned. It's over for them. The righteous shall never be removed, but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth. Look at Psalm 141 verse four. Incline not mine heart to any evil thing to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity and let me not eat of their dainties. Look at verse nine. Eat me from the snares which they've laid for me and the jinns of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their own nets whilst that I withal escape. He's describing the workers of iniquity as having traps or jinns laid to ensnare God's people, to ensnare good people, to ensnare the righteous. The workers of iniquity are just out for blood. That's what they live for. They're wicked. Look at Isaiah chapter 31, Isaiah chapter 31. As you're turning to Isaiah chapter 31, I'll read for you from Hosea chapter 6 verse 7. But they like men have transgressed the covenant. There have they dealt treacherously against me. Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity and is polluted with blood. And as troops of robbers wait for a man, again, lying in wait over and over again. So the company of priests, so notice these people, they're even hiding behind religion. This company of priests lying in wait like robbers, he said, they murder in the way by consent for they commit lewdness. I mean these people are committing lewdness. These people are pretending to be a priest but they're just lying in wait. They're ready to trap. They're ready to ensnare. They're ready to destroy. They want to harm God's people. But God tells us over and over again, they'll be destroyed. Don't envy these people because they have doom and damnation in their future. Look down if you would at Isaiah 31 verse 2, yet he also is wise and will bring evil and will not call back his words but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the help of them, against the help of them that work iniquity. Look at chapter 32 verse 5. The vile person, what does vile mean? Disgusting, gross. The vile person shall no more be called liberal. And by the way, some of the most vile people today are referred to as liberal today. Now liberal, the literal meaning of the word liberal means that you're generous. That's actually what liberal means. So being liberal is actually a good thing because you're generous. It means that you freely give. But today, those who are liberal, they're generous with other people's money if we're talking politically, okay? And then if we're talking spiritually when we say liberal, yet they're liberal in their interpretation of God's word, meaning that they freely pick and choose what to change and alter and get rid of and add. A lot of vile people today being called liberal. Well, you know, when Christ returns, the vile shall no more be called liberal. He's going to be called vile and disgusting. He's going to be called a worker of iniquity, not a liberal pastor. He said the vile person shall no more be called liberal nor the churral said to be bountiful. For the vile person will speak villainy and his heart will work iniquity. He's a worker of iniquity. To practice hypocrisy. Now doesn't that fit in exactly with everything we've seen where they're deceptive, they're lying in wait, maybe even outwardly, they might even be a priest, but inwardly, oh, it's all mischief. It's all a desire for blood and destruction. They want to trap and ensnare and harm the righteous. It's all over and over again in these scriptures about deception, lying in wait, boasting and being proud outwardly of good things, but inside, it's hypocrisy. It's dead men's bones. It's rottenness to the core. It says that they practice hypocrisy verse six, they're halfway through and utter error against the Lord to make empty the soul of the hungry and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. But you know, but yet he's known as liberal, right? Verse seven, the instruments also of the churral are evil. He devises wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right. Go to Micah chapter two, Micah chapter two, this is the last old Testament reference to the workers of iniquity. You know, it just blew my mind when I looked up these scriptures. This is a study I've been wanting to do for a long time because as I was reading my Bible, I noticed that every time the Bible brought up the workers of iniquity over and over again, it just seemed like they were so bad. I just thought to myself, this can't just be synonymous with just being a sinner. You know, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. As it is written, there's no right to not want. And I kept reading these descriptions of workers of iniquity and it just kept jumping out at me. So I wanted to do this study for a long time where I look up every single mention and I was blown away when I looked up every mention, how consistent it is. I mean, we just looked at a lot of scripture, right? We turned to a lot of scripture. Was any of it inconsistent? I mean, it was just all saying the same thing. These people are the worst. These people are deceptive. They're pretending to be something that they're not. They want to destroy and harm and hurt and blood and kill. I mean, it's just a very bad description. Look at Micah chapter 2 verse 1. And this is another word that comes up a lot, devise or device, where they come up with a plan of how they're going to work iniquity, woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds. When the morning is light, they practice it because it is in the power of their hand and they covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away. So they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. Let's go to the new Testament. I mean, that's a pretty powerful description in all those old Testament scriptures of the workers of iniquity, how bad they are. This is not a group that you want to have anything to do. I mean, the Bible says over and over again, don't even hang around with these people. I don't want to be anywhere near these people. And the worst thing I could wish upon my enemy is that they would be with those people, the workers of iniquity. And when somebody is accusing Job, they say he hangs out with workers of iniquity, false accusation, of course, Oh, God's got a strange punishment for the workers of iniquity. God hateth all workers of iniquity. The Bible says very, very serious. This subject of the workers of iniquity. Well, it's interesting because this is brought up twice in the new Testament and it's actually the same story, but it's just recorded in, in Matthew and Luke a little bit differently, but it's the, it's the same basic sermon. Jesus preached some of the same sermons multiple times while he was on this earth because he's preaching to different crowds. So he would preach some of the same truths over and over again. So that's why sometimes you'll get something a little different in Luke as in Matthew, because he's preaching it to different crowds, different times, different occasions where, where Jesus repeats his sermons. Look at Luke chapter 13 verse 23, then said one unto him, Lord Luke 13, 23. Then one said unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, strive to enter in at the straight gate. Straight means narrow. And that's the answer to, are there few that be saved? The answer is basically yes, because if it were not few that were saved, he wouldn't say, well, you better go in the narrow way. Why? Because broad is the way that leads to destruction. Many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads us on the light and few there be that find it. He said, strive to enter in at the straight gate for many I stand to you will seek to enter in and shall not be able. Now, why would someone seek to enter in and not be able? Here's why, because it's too late because it says in verse 25, when once the master of the house is risen up and it's shut to the door, this is talking about after the return of Christ. It's too late at that point, they're doomed at that point. He said, strive dinner at the straight gate for many I say to you will seek to enter in and shall not be able when once the master of the house has risen up and it's shut to the door and you begin to stand without and a knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord open unto us. And he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence you are. Then shall you begin to say, we've eaten and drunk and in thy presence and that was taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence you are, depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out and they shall come from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of God and behold there are last which shall be first and there are first which shall be last. You see, even amongst the Jews, there were many workers of iniquity in the time of Christ. That's why Jesus is saying to them, you are going to be thrust out of the kingdom of God. He's saying you'll be cast out into outer darkness where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth in a parallel passage in Matthew. You'll be thrust out. Other people will be coming from other countries, north, south, east, west. They'll sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom, the physical kingdom of Israel is saying, the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Obviously, many of the Jews did believe on Christ, they did receive him, but amongst the Jews, there were many that were workers of iniquity. Many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees fit the description of what the Bible describes as a worker of iniquity. Where outwardly they appear righteous unto men, but inwardly they're full of hypocrisy and dead men's bones. Where they would devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayer. They receive the greater damnation, the Bible says, a strange punishment, a greater damnation. They eat up my people as they eat bread. And then Jesus said, they devour. What's devour mean? To eat up. They devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayer, meaning that they outwardly want to boast and make themselves seem righteous and godly on the outside as they devise wickedness, as they devise mischief, as they seek to destroy privily and shoot their arrows at the upright in heart as we saw all the descriptions of the workers of iniquity. That's why when John the Baptist saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? You generation of vipers, bring forth therefore fruits, meet for repentance and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axes laid under the root of the tree and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Go if you would to Matthew chapter 7, two mentions in the New Testament of the workers of iniquity. We just saw one of them, Luke 13, where he said, I don't know you, depart from me all you workers of iniquity. Oh, but we, you know, we ate and drank with you as a hypocrite, as a fraud, as a deceiver. You went out from us, but you were not of us. For if you had been of us, you would no doubt have continued with us, but you went out that it may be manifest that you were not all of us. Depart from me. You workers of iniquity, Psalm said, or I'm sorry, Matthew 7, Matthew 7 verse 21 says, not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that do with the will of my father, which is in heaven. Stop right there. Let's get a definition. You don't have to turn there, but to get a definition of the will of the father. Jesus said in the book of John repeatedly that it was the will of the father that everyone who believed on him would have eternal life. That was God's will. That was the will of the father, that everyone who sees the son and believes on him, that he would have eternal life and be raised up at the last day. That's God's will. When it comes to salvation, the will of God is that you would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. He will have, his will is to have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth, but that is through believing on Christ. The Bible said, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Look what the Bible says here in verse 22, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and thy name done many wonderful works. He said, a lot of people are going to say that to him and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Now why would Jesus call these people workers of iniquity or why would he tell these people you work iniquity? I'll tell you why. Because a person who does not believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, a person who is not saved, but then they go out preaching in the name of Jesus, knowing that they don't believe in Jesus in their heart, is a worker of iniquity. What kind of scum, what kind of a low life, what kind of a wicked degenerate person would get up week after week preaching about Jesus, preaching in his name when in their heart they've never even known him. He's never known them. They don't believe on Christ. They don't have their faith in Christ for salvation. You can see the pride and the arrogance in this group that Jesus is rebuking because notice what they think their ticket into heaven is. We've prophesied in thy name, that's works. And in thy name we've cast out devils, that's their works. And in thy name done many wonderful works. Whoa, what do you mean we're not going to heaven? Look at all the wonderful works that we did. But see Christ can see through all the outward wonderful works and he knew that in their heart they were rotten people who did not even believe on Jesus Christ because if they believed they'd be saved. Why? The Bible says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. The Bible says that everyone, that everyone who believeth in him will be saved. The Bible says that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Look he's the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Everybody who believes is saved. These are unbelievers who are going around, I mean look I don't know about you but I don't want unbelievers going around prophesying in the name of Christ. I'm offended by that. Unsaved people going around preaching in the name of Christ, casting out devils, doing all these quote unquote wonderful works in the name of Christ. God looks at those works and says you're a worker of iniquity is what you are. You're a rotten person. You're an evil person. If I'm offended by an unsaved unbelieving person getting up and preaching the word of God or preaching about Jesus, how much more is God himself offended by it when God is much holier than any of us. And this is what I want to get across to you this morning also is that God is more holy than we are. If sin offends us, it offends God more. Why? Because he's more holy than we are. If false doctrine offends us, it offends God even more. But people think when you preach hard against sin and when you preach hard against false doctrine that you're overreacting or that you're making too big. But hold on a second. God feels even more strongly about it than we do. I guarantee you he's the one being misquoted. He's the one being lied about. The Bible says beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. That's a worker of iniquity. When there's a preacher who comes in sheep's clothing and inside he's a ravening wolf, that is the exact description of a worker of iniquity. When you have false prophets, privily or secretly, as 2 Peter 2 describes, coming in with damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, making merchandise of you, teaching lies and heresy and false doctrine, that is a worker of iniquity. I submit to you that the worst scum, the worst people living in this world, some of the most wicked degenerate people in this world are preachers who preach lies. Unsafe false prophets. Now occasionally, rarely, you'll have preachers who preach lies just because they're ignorant. Sort of like the Apostle Paul where he ignorantly, and the Bible's real clear, it says that he did it ignorantly in unbelief. He said, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. The Apostle Paul was not a worker of iniquity. The Apostle Paul was a man who was confused, he was mixed up, he was wrong on doctrine, and once he heard the truth, he ended up receiving it and serving God with his life. He made it clear in multiple epistles, I did it ignorantly. There are other people in our modern day that we could point to who started out preaching in a false religion, but it's just because they didn't know any better. They were sincere, but they were sincerely wrong, and they ended up getting saved once they heard a clear presentation of the gospel, and they ended up going on to do great works for God. That's not a worker of iniquity. So I'm not saying that everybody who preaches false doctrine is a worker of iniquity, but what I'm saying is that when a person knowingly, knowingly preaches lies for money, for filthy lucre's sake, or just to be evil, just to destroy, just to creep in privily with damnable heresies, just to infiltrate, just to be a Judas Iscariot, you know the Bible describes these as the worst type of people. And we didn't look at one verse this morning, we didn't look at 10 verses, we didn't look at 20 verses, we looked at scores of verses, even just in the short 30 minutes that I had to preach the sermon this morning because of the testimony we heard earlier. We looked at scores of scriptures, and it was just so consistent, and then when the New Testament wants to give its take on the workers of iniquity, it's consistent. People who are pretending to be the servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, pretending to be godly, pretending to be priests, pretending to be righteous, and yet the Bible tells us that they are evil, bloodthirsty workers of iniquity. So what's the moral of the sermon? What do we take home from this? Well first of all, number one, we need to not be naive about the world that we live in. Some people, they don't even think that the workers of iniquity even exist. They think, well, there's good in everybody. Some people are basically good. Some people are just a little mixed up. No, no, no. The workers of iniquity. Prove that's not true. Okay, number one, so don't be naive is number one what we learned from this. Okay, number two, the Bible said over and over again, avoid the workers of iniquity. Avoid them. Stay away from them. Don't go in the way with them. Don't go in company with them. Don't fellowship with them. Stay away from the workers of iniquity. Unless somebody's been identified as a worker of iniquity, stay away from that person. Okay, and number three thing that I want you to take away from the sermon is that if you're not truly saved, and what I mean by truly saved is that all of your faith is in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Unless your faith is 100% in the finished work of Christ, meaning you're trusting his death, burial, and resurrection to get you to heaven. You're trusting his blood to get you to heaven. You're not in your own deeds and your own works, your own preaching and exploits. If your faith is not 100% in Jesus for salvation, if you're not saved, if you don't have all of your trust in the finished work of Christ on Calvary, but yet you're coming to church, you're going through the motions, you're getting more of a, you know, you run the risk of becoming a worker of iniquity. Think about that. I mean, you're on the road. If you're going to go through the motions, if you're going to be a hypocrite, maybe you're a young person here today, maybe a child or a teenager who is just coming to church with your parents or with your uncle or your aunt or you're just visiting and you're just kind of going along and pretending to go along. Look, you better get saved today. You better decide to put all of your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're here today and you actually think that your works have something to do with getting you to heaven, your deeds, your wonderful works, which God calls as a filthy rag, if you think that's what's getting you to heaven, let me tell you something, you're not saved. You got to put all your faith and trust in what Jesus already finished. Or you run the risk of becoming a worker of iniquity. They didn't start out being that way, folks. Do you think workers of iniquity are just born a bad seed? No. They go down a path, they go down a dark road that takes them to the destination of becoming a worker of iniquity. Boy, that's scary to become a person like this where God would hate you and destroy you and have a strange punishment reserved for you. That's a scary thought, isn't it? You better get saved before it's eternally too late. Don't be a hypocrite. It doesn't matter what you outwardly look like. You know in your heart whether you've called upon the name of the Lord. The Bible said that the workers of iniquity in Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, it says they've not called upon the Lord. They've not called upon God. Call upon the Lord today, if that's you, before it's eternally too late, if you're trusting works or if you're just pretending to be in church today for the right reason but you're just here to please someone else. You better get your own heart right where you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior today. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this biblical teaching that would warn us about the workers of iniquity, Lord. Some of these workers of iniquity will twist scripture so much they'll turn to the verse that's about them where you said, depart from me, I never knew you, and try to teach that a person can lose their salvation, which is the dumbest thing in the world since it says I never knew you. Lord, thank you that once you know us, you know us forever. Thank you for the free gift of eternal life, Lord, and I pray that if there's anyone here today that has not received that free gift that they would accept it today before it's eternally too late, that they would put their faith and trust in you, Lord. God forbid that anyone who's under the sound of this preaching would actually down the road become a hypocritical worker of iniquity. And in Jesus' name we pray these things, amen.