If you'll notice that verse two
is in parentheses, and a very powerful verse, very
instructive and comforting verse. But for the sake of context here,
you see that verses one and three go together. He's speaking of workers together
in the ministry, workers with the Savior, workers with one
another and Then in verse 3 he begins to describe what it is
to be a worker in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ by these
exhortations And the first one is giving no
offense giving no offense and I Plan to go through verse 10
But I want to talk to not really just about that, giving no offense
when it comes to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
not likely, it doesn't mean what you might think it does. It's
not what it sounds like because you see there's an evil effort
on the part of man-made religion to not offend anybody by what
they preach or what they do. They'll compromise and they'll
assuage people's feelings and cater to people's
feelings and preferences. And what they mean by offend
or what they intend to avoid is an offense that our text has
nothing to do with. It's different. They don't want
to offend anybody in the sense of hurting their feelings or
contradicting their religious beliefs or their fleshly desires. This word offense in our text
is to put a stumbling block in someone's way. And I think that's
worth talking about for a good while tonight. To put a stumbling
block in someone's way. Don't do that. It means to lead someone into
error or sin. And let's remember that because
really when our Lord offended the Pharisees in the sense of shocking them and turning their religious preconceived
ideas of God and themselves on their head, When he offended
them, he was doing what our text says. He
was not putting a stumbling block. To tell somebody what they want
to hear is to put a stumbling block in their way. When he offended the Pharisees,
he was doing just the opposite of that. When we preach the offense
of the cross, we're doing the opposite of placing a stumbling
block. And let's talk about that. Turn with me to Matthew 15, please,
in verse seven. To obey our text tonight, to
get this, let this settle into our minds a little bit more,
let me say it this way. To obey our text tonight, It
is necessary to offend people. And I don't mean to be offensive
to people, but if you're gonna take stumbling blocks out of
people's way and not put one in their way when it comes to
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, then you're gonna have to offend
them in this other sense. You're gonna have to tell them
the truth. And that's not gonna sit well with the flesh. It didn't
with mine, and I just suspect it's gonna be that way with everybody.
Matthew 15 7 the scriptures tell us that we don't have to wonder
about that they're going it's It's the it's the reason it's
called the offense of the cross the gospel is the offense Of
the cross so how do we preach the offense of the cross and
yet not give any offense? That's what we're talking about
Matthew 15 7 The Lord speaking, of course,
to the religious Jews, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you
saying, this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and
honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the multitude
and said unto them, hear and understand. Not that which goeth
into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of
the mouth, this defileth a man. Religion focuses on the outward, what you say, how you act and
all that. But the Lord directs sinner's
attention to what's on the inside. It's not what you eat on any
given day or anything like that. It's what comes out of the mouth
that defiles and here's the He said then verse 12 then came
his disciples and said unto him knowest thou That the Pharisees
were offended after they heard this saying because they're teaching
everybody what to eat on what day and not to eat this or that
Don't eat anything and clean all the old covenant Dietary
laws And they said the Pharisees were
offended by that But he answered and said, every plant which my
heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up, let them
alone. They be blind leaders of the
blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
the ditch. Now there's some way of distinction here by the
very definitions of the words. In our text, it means, as I said,
to put a stumbling block or to cause someone to err or sin.
This word offended, when they said the Pharisees were offended,
it's scandalizo, which is the word we get the word scandal
from. Its meaning here is to be made
indignant or to displease someone. The disciples were simply saying
they didn't like that. It was scandalous to them. The
truth is scandalous to a sinner that doesn't know the Savior.
And that's why this offense is necessary. It's called the offense
of the cross because the cross of Christ takes away all of man's
hope in himself. It takes away all of your good
works that you love so much by nature. It takes away all of
your, self-righteousness that we're so prone to, your pride.
You've got to come to the foot of the cross and prostrate yourself
to be saved. Bow, submit. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Cast off your filthy rags of
good works and religion. So it was scandalous to them.
Our Lord, in a sense, and the word scandalizo also has the
connotation of a stumbling block, but in a different way. Our Lord
was placing a stumbling block in their way, but it was their
way. He was saying, what you believe, what you preach, what
you teach, what you trust, what you delight in, stop right there. He was putting the stumbling
block in their way, but it was their way that needed to be abandoned,
that needed to be impeded. Our Lord, in impeding their progress
down the road they were on, He was taking away impediments that
kept them from Him. And so it's important to understand
that because you read our text and you say, well, give no offense
to anyone. That means, well, don't hurt
anybody's feelings. No, it doesn't mean that. It does not mean that.
It means tell the truth. It means tell the truth as it
is in Christ Jesus. Don't put a stumbling block in
somebody's way. And that's by the gospel, not
only preaching, telling, witnessing of Christ, but doing that not
only with your mouth, but with your actions. Because I guarantee
you, people are going to believe your actions a lot more than
they do what you say, and rightly so. So that's the teaching of
our text. Don't think for a second that
it doesn't mean, well, we don't ever want to offend anybody.
I don't want to offend anybody myself. Make sure if somebody's
offended by what you say, that it was God who offended them
and not you. Be careful about that. We don't want to be offensive. We're not arguing. We're not
proving people wrong. That's not it. We're telling
people the truth. I'm not gonna, argue with somebody
from a standpoint of how wrong they are, I just want to tell
them what's right. I want to tell them about the
one that they need to trust, that they must look to in order
to be saved. Don't put a stumbling block in
anybody's way between them and the Son of God. And there's a
lot of ways that you can do that. You can make somebody stumble. Their trust in their own works
their ignorance regarding sin and the source of sin that our
Lord was teaching there in that passage in Matthew 15 That needed
they needed to be taken out of that way out of that belief They
needed to be impeding impeded in their trust of their own works
and in their ignorance regarding sin and where it comes from and
And we may displease and make indignant the flesh of a sinner,
the attitude of the flesh, the false religion of the flesh when
we preach the truth. But to offend them in that way
is to actually remove stumbling blocks that keep them from Christ.
So it's important to see the two different. That's the spirit
of our text when it says, give no offense, give no offense.
You remember the cities of refuge in the Old Testament. The establishment
of these cities of refuge is detailed in Numbers 35, and if
you want to read that sometime, I highly recommend it, and maybe
thinking about this message later, but I'd like to read you an article
that Don Fortner wrote about the cities of refuge and just
kind of summarize very, very concisely what the teaching was. regarding these cities of refuge
in Numbers 35. He says, when the children of
Israel were settled in the land of Canaan, God ordained that
six cities of refuge be set aside, to which a man might flee for
security if he had unintentionally killed another man. Now, these
cities of refuge were located strategically throughout the
land so that any one of them could be easily reached within
a day's journey from any place in the land of Canaan. If the
guilty man could get into the gates of the city before the
avenger of blood caught him, he would be secure. He'd be safe
there. He had to stay there until the
high priest died. If he left that city of refuge
and the avenger of blood knew about it and killed him, the
avenger of blood is free from guilt. So he's got to stay in
that city of refuge. And the Lord's teaching in this
is pretty clear. These cities typically represent
him to whom we have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us, Hebrews 6, 18. We're informed by the ancient
Jewish rabbis that at least once every year, now this is historical
information, which we have no reason not to believe, but whether
it's accurate or not accurate, it pictures, say this was just
an allegory that I made up, it would still be a good illustration
of what we're talking about. So this is not scripture, but
this is what the ancient rabbis wrote, that at least once every
year, the magistrates of each city were responsible to survey
the road to their city, to that particular city of refuge, and
make certain that the road was clear of all debris and easily
passable. There must be no obstacles in
the way that would hinder any who might flee to the city of
refuge. The magistrates sent out work
crews to remove all large rocks and fallen trees from the road,
taking the greatest possible care to remove every stumbling
block. Christ is the city of refuge.
There's just one. And these various ones, they
had to be more than one because somebody on the other side of
the country would take too long for them to get there. But there's
just one refuge from the wrath of God. The avenger of blood
is God's law. God's justice. They would fill
up any potholes in the road, any low places, and any high
places would be leveled off. And all along the road, it's
said, it's taught in old historical literature that they would place
markers with the word refuge written in bold letters And when
the fugitive, because if there was a fork in the road or a crossroads,
he didn't have to sit there and think, now what was the way?
It's pointed out clearly. This is the way to the refuge.
And so he would run that direction. And once he entered the gates
of the city, he was safe. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
refuge for sinners. All who come to him are saved
from the wrath of God. And the way to Christ is plainly
revealed. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. Look and live. It doesn't get
any simpler than that. Look to the Savior and live.
He who hath a son hath life, and he who hath not the Son of
God hath not life. It doesn't get any plainer. Don't
be removed from the simplicity that's in Christ. And the rest
of the article, it says, in Christ, by his righteousness and his
precious blood has removed every obstacle that might keep sinners
who seek him for finding him. And he sends his Holy Spirit
to reveal the way, and I'll add this to it, by the preaching
of the gospel. He's not gonna wake you up in the middle of
the night and talk to you about his son. The Holy Spirit reveals
the way by the preaching of the gospel. And he brings his people
safely. to the refuge. That's how we
are to give no offense. And in giving no offense in this
sense, in taking away all of the impediments that keep sinners
from Christ, we may well offend them in the other sense. And
that's okay. Not that I would offend them,
but it's the offense of the cross, not the offense of the preacher.
That's detailed in scripture and talked about in the word
of God. If we consider those fallen trees
or stones that you know, Somebody probably just as a joke would
put, you know, not a very funny joke, but you know how people
are. They put things up and then just natural, the weather would
do things. But if you consider anything
in the path to the city of refuge and relate that to the false
doctrine that causes sinners to stumble in our day, then one
of those rocks, I guarantee you, one of those rocks says on it,
smile, God loves you. That'll keep you from Christ.
Something that simple and that terrible, because that tells
you that God's love is cheap, that God's love is universal,
that you don't have to, if God loves you, well, I can turn around
and go back. I don't need the city of refuge to give a sinner
false hope in the love of God apart from Christ. Remember the
end of Romans eight, the love of God, nothing can separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Don't look for it anywhere else. Look to Christ. And to give a sinner false hope
apart from Christ is a great stumbling block. There's a fallen
tree on that road to refuge that says on it, I guarantee you,
Jesus died for everybody. That's one of the biggest obstacles
in the way to the Lord Jesus, to preach a false Christ that
any child can automatically just deduce from that that he failed.
If he died for everybody, then what? Then what does his death
have to do with people being saved? Clearly not everybody's
saved if you read the scripture. And so he's a failure. That's
a stumbling block. That's a massive stumbling block.
To preach a false Christ that failed to redeem every sinner
for whom he died is to obscure the truth of the almighty, successful
champion of sinners, the redeemer of sinners. There's a pothole
in that road that says at the bottom of it, let go and let
God. All the stumbling blocks. I mean, the first things you'll
hear, the first thing they'll do if you go into a place of
man-centered, free will, anti-Christ religion, is you're gonna find
stumbling blocks. How is anybody ever gonna know
the Christ of this book? the sovereign God of this book
and their problem before God, their sinnerhood before God,
with all these stumbling blocks in the way. You don't let God
do anything. We're talking about the God that
lets you, if he will, if he wants to. He might let you come to
him. He might do that. He says, come to me and I won't
cast you out. But I wouldn't presume on it.
I'd take him up on it. But I sure wouldn't presume on
it. I wouldn't just say, well, I'm gonna pop down the aisle
and God will accept me, no. No, you're gonna have to come
to Him in Christ, putting all your trust in the Son of God
and abandoning, you gotta throw off your filthy rags to come before Him, to confuse
the issue of who's God and who's not. is to contribute to the
damnation of the souls of men. Listen to what the master said
to the Pharisees who preached freewill works-based religion. In Luke 11, 52. Woe unto you,
lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You entered
not in yourselves, and them that were entering in, you hindered.
put a stumbling block in the way of those that would enter
in because of your own pride and self-righteousness. You want
to know what the key of knowledge is? You want to see the key of
knowledge? Turn with me to Acts chapter eight. We'll be brief
tonight, but Acts chapter eight, verse 26. He said to those lawyers,
religious Jews, taking away the key of knowledge.
And in doing that, not only will you not enter the kingdom of
heaven, but you impede those who would. Acts 8, 26, and the
angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go
toward the south, and to the way that goeth down from Jerusalem
unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose in the wind, and
behold, a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority under
Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. who had the charge of all her
treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning
and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. Then the
spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot.
And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet
Isaiah and said, understandest thou what thou readest? And he
said, how can I except some man should guide me? And he desired
Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of
the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to
the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearer, so opened
he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away. And who shall declare his generation?
For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered
Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet
this, of himself or of some other man? He was confused. And you
know what Philip did? He took the key of knowledge
and opened up the scriptures to this man that he might see,
that he might understand. Do you understand what you're
reading? No. How can I? What's this saying? What's this about? Here's how
you're gonna understand. Here's the key of understanding
and knowledge. Philip opened his mouth and began
at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. That's all he did. He just showed
in that passage from Isaiah 53 and preached the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ to that man and how that he died and why
he died and what he accomplished when he died And as they went
on their way, they're talking, I guess, about
other things, maybe. They came into a certain water
and the eunuch said, see, there is water. What does hinder me
to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, this
is a man that didn't have any idea what he was reading. And
somebody gave him the key of knowledge. preached unto him
Jesus, and he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son
of God. Don't take that key away. Don't
give any offense to anybody. Don't say anything that would,
and this is, the Lord has to, you know, everything that the
scriptures exhorts us to do, what's our response to it? Lord,
help me, help me. Turn me and I'll be turned. Teach
me and I'll know. Open my mouth and I'll speak.
Give me something to say. In order to not offend, to not
place stumbling blocks in the way to Christ, we must tell the
truth as it is in Christ Jesus. We put up signs along the way.
As we preach and witness of him saying that Christ is sovereign,
Christ is all, Christ is salvation himself. Salvation is a person.
We preach unto sinners, Jesus, the Lord Jesus. He's the successful redeemer
of sinners. He never tried to do anything.
He made the universe without your help. and he'll save you if it pleases
him to do so. Come unto Christ and be saved,
all the ends of the earth, for he is God. You see that? Why would I come to him? Because
he's God. Because he's God. And beside
him, there's none else. To whom shall we go? He has the
words of eternal life. He is himself the key. of knowledge,
a sinner fleeing to the place of safety might think that that
rock, you know, that says make a decision for Jesus, there's
something in the path that says you need to make a decision for
you. Well, that rock looks like a good place maybe to sit down
and rest, but there's no rest there. And there can be no rest in fleeing
to the Lord Jesus Christ anyway. He is the rest. And there's no
rest on the way. And there's no rest anywhere
else but in him. Now, Paul said in the verse previous,
is the day of salvation. Give no offense. And just to define the last part
of the verse, it says that there'll be no, what's the wording? Giving no offense in anything
that the ministry be not blamed. And that word blame means to
put a blemish on. There can be no blemish put on
the ministry. Certainly we might do that. We
might put a blemish on the ministry or cause some to despise the
ministry by us not walking worthy of the calling wherewith we're
called. We're witnesses in word, but also as examples as our Lord
was. And that can look like a lot
of different things, can't it? We show people, we show our children,
we show others who God is to us by our actions and how much we trust Christ.
If we do trust him at all or we fall apart when things fall
apart. But mostly and foremost, to put
a blemish on the ministry is to to walk and to speak in such
a way that sinners are impeded from knowing, from understanding
that Ethiopian unit. I don't know what I'm reading.
What's the key? Christ. Christ. May God give us grace to walk
in such a way that people know that our God is on the throne.
May he give us grace to walk in such a way that it, Displays
the fact that our Savior doesn't fail that he's worthy of all
of our All of our everything That shows that our Savior cannot
fail nor be thwarted the city of refuge is safe There is a rock of refuge, but he's also called
a rock of offense. The stumbling stone, the rock
of offense, in the sense of being distasteful and hateful to the
flesh. But he is the one rock of refuge
in a weary land. And may we point sinners that
way, like John. Behold the son of God that takes
away sin. He is the one shelter In the
time of storm, the spirit and the bride say
what? Come to Christ. Come to Christ. And let him that heareth say
come to Christ. And let him that's thirsty come
to Christ. Let's pray.