Alright brethren, let's go to
Galatians chapter 5. Galatians 5. I just want to look
at this one verse. I've looked at it several times. Galatians 5 verse 11. Paul said,
And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer
persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. Now to preach circumcision is
to preach that there's something that's up to the sinner to do
in order to be saved or be accepted by the Lord. The apostle didn't
preach that there's any work for the sinner to do. And it
was evident that he didn't because he said If I did, I wouldn't
be persecuted. And He was, He was persecuted.
If He just put one work in the sinner's hand, He wouldn't receive
any offense from anybody, any contrary word from anybody. The
offense of the cross is quite simply this, Christ is all our
salvation. He's all our salvation. What
He's done for His people and what He does in His people. what
he's done for his church and what he works in the midst of
his church. He's all our salvation. Paul is saying, there's no offense
if you preach works. But he's saying, I don't preach
works. Now, the natural man's not offended with religion. Men
are religious everywhere. As long as the man can form his
own God and worship according to the works of his hands and
the God that he imagines depends upon him. Folks aren't offended
by good works. There's many people who are very,
very moral in religion. Now, they are offended sometimes
by the ways that legalists go about to enforce good works,
but they're not offended by good works. That doesn't offend people
and there's a lot of people who are very moral. The Pharisees
were more moral than outwardly than some of those that the Lord
saved. But it's the cross of Christ that is offensive. It's
the gospel being, not only the cross of Christ, not only the
gospel of Christ we've preached, but that it's the only means
God uses. In the pulpit and out of the
pulpit. If he's going to bless the Word,
it's going to be the Word that glorifies Christ. It's not going
to be arguing doctrine and points of doctrine. It's going to be
declaring Christ. Paul said, the preaching of the
cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which
are saved is the power of God. It's the gospel of free and sovereign
grace given to whomsoever God pleases. That's what offends.
It's the grace that can't be earned. Not only do we not earn
it, we demerit it. That's what offends proud, unregenerate
men. The gospel of substitution. That's
offensive. Mercy to those who do not deserve
it. That's what mercy is. It's not
deserved. And that offends men when they
think they deserve something. So, I want to look here now at
the preaching of Christ in Christ alone. He's all salvation and
He's given simply through God-given faith. His righteousness through
faith. That's the offense. Natural man doesn't object to
Christ being part of salvation. He can be a part of salvation,
but He can't be all salvation. That's offensive. That's offensive. But to preach salvation is of
the Lord. and to use the gospel as the
only weapon of our warfare. That's offensive. First of all,
the preaching of salvation by Christ alone offends because
it declares that all the glory goes to Christ only, that God
alone gets the glory. Now, most everybody in religion
will say they want God to have the glory. That's a good place
to start when we talk to people. Do you want God to have the glory?
Most everybody say they want God to have the glory. But no
unregenerate sinner wants God to have all the glory. He doesn't
want God to have all the glory. But God says no flesh shall glory
in his presence. He says he that glories shall
glory only in the Lord. There'll be nobody in God's presence,
in glory, in the final day, that'll be boasting of anything we did.
A to Z, beginning to end, it'll all be Christ and Christ alone. Grace, grace, grace. Natural
man wants something to glory in. His righteousness, his works. But the scripture says, there's
none righteous, no not one. The unregenerate man wants to
glory in his wisdom, his understanding, his searching. Scripture says,
as it's written, there's none that understandeth. There's none
that seeks after God. They're all together gone out
of the way. They're all together become unprofitable. He wants
to boast in his will. Christ said, you will search
the Scriptures. He said, you will look into the
Scriptures and try to find a way you can justify yourself Try
to find a way we can obtain life in the scriptures. But he said,
but you will not come to me. These are the scriptures that
declare me, Christ said, and you will not come to me that
you might have life. Well, man wants to glory in his
ability to constrain others. This is what really the whole
issue of Galatia was. He wanted to glory in being able
to constrain others to a outward form of obedience. But you look
to the cross, and when we look to the cross, we preach Christ
crucified, and we look to the cross and we see what is in every
sin nature that's born of Adam. Here's God in human flesh, the
prince of life come down, and we melt into a tree. That's what's
in every single sinner born of Adam. Me and you. That's in all
of us. And we have to be saved from
ourselves. We have to be saved from us. We have to be saved. And so that
glory is going to go to God. He said, I'm the Lord. That's
my name. My glory will I not give to another. All the glory in this thing of
salvation goes to God only. So that's the first thing, it's
offensive because God gets all the glory and all the praise,
all the honor. Salvation is of the Lord. Now
secondly, it's offensive, the gospel is offensive, the preaching
of Christ because it declares no sinner can believe on Christ
until God makes Christ's wisdom unto us. And you know this, brethren,
as believers, this is so all our days. You know, it takes
the Lord to renew the scriptures to us and make them new to us
and that's what he does. The other day I was looking in
the scriptures and I saw something that came like a sunbeam to me
and I thought, I've never seen that before. And so I began to
look at some scriptures and as I came across this scripture
that was, you know, right in line with it, saying the same
thing, I preached from this scripture. So I went looking through my
notes to see What did I preach on that? I don't think I've ever
seen it. And I found some notes from 2002
where I had preached on the thing that I just thought I had just
seen for the first time. But it was so new to me and we're
so much in the flesh that we forget things that the Lord's
taught us and He has to keep making Himself wisdom to us and
shedding light on His Word so we behold His Word. And that's
so from the first hour. The scripture says it's of God
that we're in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom. Christ
is made to us wisdom. We can't understand spiritual
things unless God gives us light. And Christ is that light. He
has to give it to us. The gospel offends because it
says that all sinners are the same. From the man who has the
doctorate degree to the uneducated sinner who who knows nothing. All are alike ignorant in spiritual
things and can't know spiritual things. The natural man receives
not the things of God, neither can he know them, they're spiritually
discerned. God has to give us light on the
scripture. No man can come to me except
my Father which is in heaven draw him. That offends man's
will, that offends man's ability, that offends what's in us and
it's so, brethren, of us continually. We have to be drawn to Christ.
We have to continually be drawn to Christ. And he's the one that
gets the glory. And then the gospel is offensive
because, and here's the main thing right here, it declares
Christ alone is the righteousness of everybody he saved. He's the
righteousness. This word offense in our text
here, It means trap, it means snare, it means stumbling block. Paul is saying if I didn't preach
Christ and give Him all the glory and declare salvation is entirely
Him, I'd be taking the snare out, I'd be taking the trap out
and the stumbling block out of the gospel. Go over to Isaiah
8. The Lord declared this long before
Christ ever came. And he purposed it to be this
way. Look here in Isaiah 8. He's not
going to let anybody get glory in their works. He said in Isaiah 8.14, he should
be for a sanctuary, that is to those he gives faith to rest
in him. He'll be a holy place, he'll be a refuge and safety. But watch this, but for a stone
of stumbling and for a rock of a fence to both the houses of
Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be
snared and be taken. Go over to 1 Corinthians 1 and Peter said to which men are
appointed to be snared and stumble over Christ. Look here in 1 Corinthians
1 and look at verse 23, Paul said, we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness.
Now that's to any natural man. Christ is a stumbling block and
he's foolishness to all natural men, whether he's a Jew or a
Greek. Why? Look back at verse 22. The
Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. The natural
unregenerate sinner requires a sign. We by nature look on
the outward and a natural man wants to see outward works of
the law to convince him he's righteous. That's where he puts
his confidence, and in the works he's done, that makes him think,
I'm righteous, look what I've done. That's the sign he's looking
for. And a man who is unregenerate,
he wants something to constantly challenge his intellect. Our
gospel's not something to challenge the intellectual. It's simple. It's in one-syllable, two-syllable
words, most of it. It's Christ. And to a natural
man, he gets tired of hearing the same scriptures. He gets
tired of hearing the same gospel. Because this is not life to him.
It's life to you who know him. And you have to hear him. And
you see him in these scriptures. The natural man doesn't... It's
not intellectual to him. He can challenge me with some...
Spit out some Greek to me or some... Sinner just tell me about
Christ. Tell me about Him. But Christ
is the righteousness of God. He gave His body to be broken. Go over to John 6. He gave His
body to be broken and He shed His blood to make us righteous,
to make His people righteous. And so He tells us to eat His
flesh and drink His blood. That is, believe on Him. And
it's through God-given faith that He gives us His righteousness.
He imputes righteousness to us. Now watch what He says here in
verse 28. Then said they unto Him, What
shall we do that we might work the works of God? That's what
man wants to hear. What shall we do? That's why
it's offensive. What shall we do that we might
work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom
He has sent. Now He's going to talk about
faith. They said therefore unto him, What sign showest thou then,
that we may see and believe thee? That's not faith, is it? They wanted him to do some outward
work that they could see and then we'll believe on you. He
did many wonderful works and they didn't believe on him. They
couldn't see righteousness. He's righteousness without him
doing anything. He's righteousness. And he couldn't
see him. But look what he says here. They said, our fathers ate manna
in the desert. He gave them bread from heaven
to eat. Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you
not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true
bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life, freely giveth life unto
the world to his elect Jew and Gentile. Verse 53, then said
Jesus said to them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no
life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He's saying, he that believes
on me. Because he's saying, I'm righteousness
indeed. I'm life indeed. Because I'm
the righteousness God sent down. I'm the life God sent down to
save my people from their sin. He that believes on me has life. And he tells how we believe on
him. He says, verse 56, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. That's how we believe on
him. That's how we continue believing
in him. As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the
Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. Look
at verse 60. I watched many, therefore, of
his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying,
who can hear it? And when Jesus knew in himself
that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Does this
offend you? Paul said, This gospel is offensive. To say that Christ is the only
righteousness, no work you do counts for anything? Nothing. Not a thing. Faith in Christ
is believing Him and not doing anything to be accepted, to be
saved. Him alone. If you knew you were
going to die at the end of this hour, is there anything you've
ever done that you'd want to put any confidence in? Anything? God's child's got one hope to
be found in Him, to be robed in His righteousness. That's
all my hope, to be found in Him. Nothing else. Nothing else. But that offends those who are
trusting in something they've done or not done. It offends
them. They stumble, they're offended,
they're trapped because the preaching of the cross says righteousness
is by Christ alone. Men get tired of that. Don't
just preach that to me. Preach something. Preach something
strong to me. That's strong, brethren. Christ
alone. We're going to be all our life
getting that. Look here at this fourth thing.
He's offensive because Christ alone is the sanctifier and the
sanctification of his people. Now this was really the point
at Galatia. Because, you know, they claim
to believe on Christ. They claim to be saved by grace.
They claim to believe Christ was their righteousness. But
they saw these Gentile sinners who had never been under the
law. And what they were saying was, but now you've got to add
your works to it or you can't be perfect. That's what they were saying.
Sanctification is in the heart. And it's Christ gets the glory
for being our sanctifier and our sanctification. Both he that
sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one for
which cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren. The reason
the Judaizers insisted that the law must be added is because
they didn't have sanctification. They didn't have Christ in their
heart. They didn't have a holy heart. And they didn't understand
this. They wanted the glory for making those Gentiles do what
they thought they ought to do. That glory is going to go to
Christ. It's not going to go to me, it's not going to go to
any man, it's going to go to Christ. Holiness is Christ formed
in the center, in spirit, given a new heart, given a new nature.
Christ abiding in you, so that you abide in Christ, so that
you're made perfect in one, in Christ. John 17, when he was
praying to the Father, he said in verse 23, I in them, and thou
in me. God the Father's in Christ. And
he said, and I'm in them. I'm in my people. That they may
be made perfect in one. Made perfect in one. And that
those in whom I dwell, wherever they are in the world, that they
may know, and this is how you know. that thou has sent me and
has loved them as thou has loved me. Believer, if you believe Christ is your
only righteousness, if you believe he's your only righteousness,
the reason you believe that is because Christ has entered you
in spirit and given you a new heart to rest in him. And he
abides in you and you abide in him and he's your holiness. And
He says, Abide in Me, for without Me ye can do nothing. We can't even abide in Him without
Him keeping us abiding in Him. We can't do anything without
Him. But He's going to keep His child
abiding in Him. Go to Matthew 15. Now the Pharisees,
and this is what they were doing at Galatia, they were judging
those who were unholy who Christ had made holy in heart. But they
were judging this because, and in this case in Matthew 15 they
were making this judgment because they had committed what the Pharisees
considered a grievous sin. They didn't wash their hands
before they ate. Now you and I hear that and think well that's
kind of absurd. The Lord's teaching us a very
important truth here. Very important truth. They thought
a sinner is holy or unholy by touch not, taste not, and handle
not. By what he does outwardly. That's
not holiness. Holiness is in the heart. Listen
to what Christ said to the Pharisees, Matthew 15, 7. He said, you hypocrites,
well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, this people draws nigh
unto me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but
their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the multitude
and he said unto them, hear and understand, not that which goes
into the mouth defileth a man, but that which comes out of the
mouth, this defileth a man. Remember he said in another place,
it's the heart. It's the heart. That's where
adultery and murder and envy and strife and division and every
every wickedness comes from, the sin nature. He gives a new
heart. And listen, then came his disciples
said unto him, verse 12, knowest thou that the Pharisees were
offended? They were offended that you said
this. Why were they offended? Because Christ is declaring to
them, he's the sanctifier and he's the sanctification. It's
what he said to Peter that time when he said, don't call that
which I've sanctified common. We don't know the heart. We don't
see the heart. We don't know what God's doing
in the heart, brethren. And you know, the scripture tells
us to examine ourselves. And we're such poor fruit inspectors
that most of the time we're even examining the wrong tree by examining
others. But look at Luke 11, verse 41. He said it again, this is the
same dealings here. This is what he told them. He
said, rather give alms of such things as you have and behold
all things are clean unto you. You know what he's telling them?
He's telling them what he told the rich young ruler. Sell everything
you have, give alms of everything you have. What's that going to
reveal to a man? I've got no room to boast. It's
going to reveal covetousness to a man. That's what He was
doing to them. But look here, verse 42, But
woe to you Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and all manner
of herbs, and you pass over judgment and the love of God. They miss
Christ. They miss the fact that Christ
has satisfied judgment for His people. May justice and mercy
meet in harmony so that now he can shower his people with mercy. His stumbling, falling, fumbling,
foolish children that are just like children, baby children. Though we be men strong in the
faith, we're still just children before him, dust. And he loves
his people. They didn't have the love of
God in their heart that makes His people want to love others
with the love where we want our brethren to love us. They didn't
have that. But look at this. Down at verse
45. Then answered one of the lawyers
that heard this. He said to him, Master, thus
saying, thou reproachest us also. He was offended, wasn't he? He
was offended. And he said, Woe to you also,
you lawyers, for you laden men with burdens, grievous to be
born, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your
fingers. That's very much akin to what Paul said about the Judaizers
at Galatia. He said, Those that are laying
these burdens on you, And trying to say, this is how you're going
to be made holy and made perfect by something you do in your flesh.
He said, they don't keep the law either. They're laying these
burdens on you, but they don't keep the law. That doesn't mean
that we can't keep it. He's saying, with the same judgment
we judge, we're condemning ourselves. Because we don't keep it either.
There's only one way to keep His law, that's through faith.
And there's only one way a man will keep that in his heart and
know that in his heart so that he doesn't lay burdens and he
doesn't try to glory in what he constrained others to do,
but rather give glory to Christ as the sanctifier, as the one
who works this. And the only way a man will do
that is if Christ is in his heart sanctifying him. making him holy,
teaching him in his heart, and keeping him humble at Christ's
feet. That's the only way. Now brethren,
when Christ abides in us, when He comes and works His work in
us, this is how we're made to see He's our redemption. He's our redemption. delivers
you into that grace wherein you now stand, and he makes you stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. He's
going to keep his brethren standing in this liberty. He is. He shall not fail, not in his
work for us and not in his work in us. Everything that was happening
at Galatia, Christ was working it, every bit of it. The devil
Paul knew that. He knew the devil was who we
wrestled against. Anytime there's men bringing
in false doctrine and trying to divide, the devil's doing
that. But Christ is ruling the devil.
And there wasn't anything taking place that wasn't of him. Why? Why is he doing this? To
teach all these things to his people. When do you learn not
to touch a hot stove? When you've touched a hot stove.
And it's a lesson we get. And so he's going to work things
that we think the world's coming to an end. It's not. Just please
hear me. It's not. Christ is in full control
of every hair on your head. And he's got it. And he's going
to get the lesson to his people. He always does. He always does. We will become entangled in the
Okaban. That's just going to happen.
We're going to sin. We're going to become entangled in sin. We're
going to consider what we have as liberty and we're going to
abuse it at times. And we're going to offend our
brethren at times. And we're going to become puffed
up at one another. All these things are going to
happen. Does it ever happen in your family? We're a family. It's going to happen. It's going
to happen. But Christ is ruling it. But
Christ is our sanctifier. And he will teach and correct
his child in the heart when what we touch or handle becomes dishonoring
to him. He'll make that known. He'll
make it known. He'll use brethren who are spiritual,
who he's worked in at the time mightily. who he's made to consider
themselves that they're nothing, that they're the least of all
the saints, chief of sinners. And he'll work meekness and lowliness
and he'll use them and they'll come and they'll speak of Christ
and what he's done. That's just how we speak in the
pulpit, isn't it? That's how we speak to one another. And remind each other what Christ
has done. What he's done. And it's not
how we speak. It's not the vessel. And it's
not how the vessel speaks. That's not what makes the rebuke
sharp. It's the word of Christ, our
sanctifier. that's sharper than any two-edged
sword. The Pharisees wanted to take
the chief seat and they wanted to come and they wanted to condemn and judge and speak harshly
and make folks do what they want them to do. That glory belongs
to Christ. You and I do that and we mess
up and I'll tell you what the Lord will do. And it's a blessing,
it's a mercy to us. If we've used judgment, the Lord
said, with what judgments you judge, you should be judged.
That's in this life for a believer. Because what the Lord will do
is if, and I've spoken self-righteously and been harsh and judgmental,
and the Lord will let somebody do that to you. To make you see
how valuable mercy is. He'll make you love mercy. He'll
make you love mercy. And you don't ever answer judgment
with judgment because for a believer who may do that, and we're all
gonna do that at times, but for the believer that does that,
the Lord will work it to where they'll receive judgment somewhere
down the line. And it'll teach us to love mercy. The Lord's working that, brethren.
Don't ever think anything that you come in contact with in your
daily life, or with brethren, or anything that is by accident.
If something offends you, take some time after you've settled
down, take some time and think about it, and try to hear the
Lord speaking in it. Because if it's for our good,
if it's something we need to hear, He gonna make us know it's
Him speaking to us. And He'll sanctify that to our
heart. And He'll get the glory of being
the sanctifier. And He alone can break our heart. He alone can humble our heart
and break our heart. And His chastening hand knows
just how to do it. And it's sufficient. It's sufficient. He only had to look at Peter.
He didn't even have to say anything. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. And he's our only high priest
and he's our only advocate with the Father. He's going to draw us to him
and make us to confess our sins to him. And he said, and he that
comes to me, I will in no wise cast him out. What does he do? He's faithful
and he's jealous to forgive us our sin. When you come to him
and confess your sin, and I don't mean just confess sins and you
know, I mean when he really speaks into
your heart and he really breaks the heart and brings you down
in contrition, And you pour out your heart to Him. He's faithful
to forgive. He promises to forgive His people. And He's just to do it because
Christ has satisfied justice for us. And to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. When He's really worked it, He
will make you see. It's so radically changed in
your mind. That's what repentance is. that
you say, I'm done with it. Whatever it is, I'm done. But
he's going to work that and make you love by that, make us love
mercy. Is this so? You experienced this? Well, that offended the Galatians,
the Pharisees among them. Why? They wanted that glory. They wanted that glory. They
wanted to make a fair show in the flesh. They wanted that glory. There's not anybody here that
would have been here from the beginning. You wouldn't be here
from the beginning if I stood up here and whipped you with
the law. and whipped you with the law
and try to force you into some sort of outward compliance, would
you? But you come to your brother
and you say, now I know, you know, we're not made righteous. We're not going to be made holy
and accepted by these things we do or don't do. But look at Christ. Look how
he bore this. This very sin, he bore this and
put it away. Doesn't that constrain you? Doesn't
that make you hate it? And then what do you do? Wait
on him to bless it. You preach the word and you go
in your closet and you pray, Lord, please bless the word.
If you don't bless it, it won't do any good. That's what you
do individually. And wait on him to bless. And
when he's blessed it, and the sinner is brokenhearted
and contrite, that's the goal. That's the goal. And he gets the glory. That's
why the gospel, that's the gospel we preach, isn't it? To him be
the glory. Let's pray together. Lord, we
pray that you would bless this word, that you would come now and be our sanctifier. Make the word life in our hearts
and make us look up to you. Make us cling
to you. Make us repent. hate what we are, what we've
done, what we thought, what we said, everything about us. Lord, make us thankful, praising
your holy name, that you're our wisdom, our righteousness, our
sanctification, our liberty. Lord, hold your people. keep
your people. And Lord we pray you would use
us to be a light of how you work unity and
that you would bless it to anybody that is struggling and Teach your people, Lord, that
we're not judges. We want to receive one another. We want to help one another. Lord, bless it in these walls
to your people and bless it to those that might be hearing this. You're the only hope we have
for keep us lowly and trusting you
only and believing you only. Only you can save us from our
sins. Lord, only you can save us from
our self-righteousness. Only you can save us from every
false way. Lord, we plead with you, we ask
you, we beg mercy. Bless it to our hearts. Bless it to the hearts of your
people everywhere. Lord, without you we can't do
anything. Help us, Lord. We want to honor
you. We want to glorify you. We don't
have any hope but you. And we ask you, Lord, to keep
us. You've been so richly gracious
to us, and you've blessed us in this place. You've called out your people,
you've blessed your people, you've edified your people. Lord, we
pray you do that for us now. We're thankful, Lord, for your
forgiveness. Remember us, Lord, for Christ's
sake. We don't bring anything in our
hands. We don't have anything to bring. We need you to strengthen us.
We need you to make us walk, make us patient, make us bear
whatever you've put in the race, keep us considering Christ and all that He endured for the sake
of saving our wretched souls. Lord, we pray for our children,
pray for our loved ones, our friends, our neighbors, our rulers. Lord, help us to live in that
constant awareness that we're dying. We're going to stand before
you real soon. Make us love like that. Make us love like we would if
this was our last day. Forgive us, Lord, where we haven't.
Forgive us where we've been everything we shouldn't. Be with your pastors everywhere.
Help them to speak the truth. Be with their wives. Help them
to bear up. Comfort them and protect them
and hedge them about. Make them love those you've given
a minister to. Make them sacrifice for them.
Lord, thank you. Thank you for the privilege to
be able to meet together and worship you. Oh, we have so much to be thankful
for. There's so much more to be thankful for than there is
to be sad about. Lord, men, men was broken. We ask you to make straight what's
crooked. Lift up those cast down, bring
down those lifted up. You're able. Lord, we trust you, we thank
you, we praise you, we give you the glory. In Christ's name,
amen.