Galatians chapter 5. I've entitled this message, Our Race and the Offense of the Cross. Our Race and the Offense of the
Cross. Begin our reading in verse 7.
Paul says to these Galatians, believers, he said, you did run
well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of
him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump. I have confidence in you through
the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded. But he that
troubleth you shall bear his judgment whosoever he be. And I, brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then, if I preach
circumcision, Paul says, then is the offense of the cross ceased. Now, in these verses here before
us, the apostle is in exercise of love toward these saints,
manifesting his love to those who had been bewitched, those
who had been seduced by legalists to believe law had any part in
their salvation. And he does this by likening
the believer's journey here to a race. He said, you did run
well. You were as a runner. And you
began this race well. Now this analogy of a race, a
believer's life being a race, is common in the writings of
the Apostle Paul. Very common. Look over in Philippians
chapter 3. We'll just take one of these. There's many. We'll look at a
couple. Philippians chapter 3. Remember, this is the text where
Paul expounded all of his religion. And he says this in verse 8. He said, I count, verse 7, but
what things were gained to me I counted as loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless I count all things
lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things and do count
them but done. Listen, that I may win Christ. He's beginning here to use, to
liken this to a race of winning something. Friends, the prize
of the believer is Christ. The goal of our race is Christ. And so Paul said, to win Christ,
he expounds on it, verse 9. It is to be found in him, not
having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. The righteousness which
is of God by faith. This righteousness that was merited
by the faith of Christ, this righteousness which was purposed
by God for every one of His elect, that's the righteousness I want.
That's the prize that I'm seeking, that every runner of this race
is seeking. The prize of righteousness obtained
and merited by Jesus Christ, our substitute. And then by grace,
We are heard of Christ, and we begin to run this race by faith. That's when this race starts,
isn't it? When we believe. The moment we believe in Christ,
the moment we abandon the law, abandon our works, abandon our
goodness, it is then we flee to Christ. We run to Him by faith. That's amazing. This race, you
could be paralyzed and run this race. It's not in the flesh.
It's not in the flesh. It's a spiritual race. It's one
begun by faith and it receives what Christ has already done. And so Paul says in verse 12,
he recognizes this. He said, look, not as though
I already attained, either were already perfect, but I pursue
after, I follow. That word follow means to pursue. Pursue after, if that I might
apprehend that which I was also apprehended of Jesus Christ.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but one
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching
forth unto those things before. Listen, I press toward the mark. As a runner, I press. Have you ever seen a runner in
these professional races? They are very serious about this
competition. It's serious. And they put everything
they have, they leave everything they have on that track. They
press with all that is in them. They press toward the mark of
the high calling of God. They press toward the prize of
righteousness and peace, sanctification and redemption that are all found
in Christ. And so then this is an encouragement
here. We should press. We should press toward the mark
of the high calling of God. And all believers should be thus
minded. This is how we should be minded. We're pressing toward something
that's not in this world. We look for a city whose builder
and maker is God. Now you suppose a runner in a
race has any attention he's paying to those around him? If he's
serious about the race, he's concentrating on only one thing,
the race. Running well. Giving it all that
he has. And so let us believers therefore
be thus minded, therefore run our race, listen, with patience. That's how we're to run this
race, with patience. Let us not be slack in our pursuit
of Christ in running our race. Now, so how does a believer press? This is important in this race.
How do we press? We know we must press. We do
press toward the mark. But how? How do we press toward
the mark of righteousness and peace with God and glory? Now,
the legalists They view this in a very carnal way, pressing
with all their physical abilities. The legalists would teach us
to begin by faith, but you must continue this race by the law. They say, well, you know, you've
got to believe in Christ, and you must believe in Christ. But
in order to finish this race, you've got to be really good.
You've got to obey the law. You've got to, you know, join
the church. You've got to do this. You've
got to stop doing this and start doing this. They start putting
out rules and regulations. That's how the legalists view
pressing toward the mark. They believe that you progressively
get better by good deeds. They teach progressive holiness. Now, listen, they call it progressive
sanctification. But what they mean is progressive
holiness, that you, by a continual pressing and obedience to the
law, become better, more acceptable with God. This is where they
get those foolish ideas of earning rewards for heaven and getting
crowns and other people. You're going to have more crowns
than somebody else. I know you laugh at that, that's
silly, and you and I both know it is, but that's exactly what
they believe. They're pressing that way. Such
religion does appeal to the flesh. Now, to deny that it appeals
to the flesh is to lie to ourselves. It does appeal to our nature.
Works religion does. It appeals to the carnal mind
and the ruined nature of Adam's race, the idea of self-improvement. This is appealing to all of us.
It is. Who does not want to be better
at everything they do? It appeals to us. And in every
natural, carnal thing, if you want to improve your academic
mind, what do you do? You go to school, and you work
hard, and you improve, and you get higher education. You ladies, that people buy all
this makeup, what are they trying to do? Trying to improve their
looks, their ability, you know, to be beautiful. They try to
suppress age. Always trying for self-improvement.
This is evident in everything we do. But why do we do this? Because
it is naturally known that God is, and He will judge you. Everybody knows this. The atheist
can spit and kick all he wants to. I don't care. He's an idiot
and he knows there's a God. Otherwise, why would he be so
angry? He's angry because he knows there's a God. I don't get mad when people believe
in fairies. Do you? Why? That's stupid. Why would
I get mad at them? I wouldn't pay any attention
to them. And yet they get mad at us. They believe God to be
nothing more than a fairy. Then why are they so angry? They're
angry because they know there's a God. He will judge them. They
know that they must improve because the law of God is written on
their hearts. Therefore, they seek to improve
themselves. They desire to make the flesh
better. They seek to cover their spots
both inward and outward. It's like our Father did when
He grabbed those fig leaves and began to cover His nakedness.
That's what we all do by nature is try to cover our sins and
make ourselves appear better than we actually are. Isn't that
what Facebook's all about? Isn't it? You bet it is to make
everyone appear better than they actually are. It's our nature. It is. And such it is, especially with
religion. Such religion to cover the stain
of sin, to improve the flesh by the law, is totally opposed
to the Word of God. It is totally foreign to the
covenant of grace and the salvation of Jesus Christ. Listen, the
flesh is corrupt, it's ruined, and it will not get better. Now
listen, you may suppress it, you may cut it off, as you should.
It is evil in every part. It should be put down. But it never gets better. That which is born of flesh,
our Lord said, is what? Flesh. It's just flesh. It's
never going to be anything else but flesh. And that which is
born of spirit is spirit. Therefore the old man is beyond
repair. That's what religion doesn't
see. That the old man is beyond repair. And so we who believe will not
and must not ever look to the flesh to continue our race. We must never depend upon our
ability, our strength, our mind, our affections in order to finish
this race. I'm not going to finish this
race in my strength. I am not going to do it. I am
not running today in my strength. I don't have the strength to
keep the faith. I don't have the strength to
love God. Except it come from God. And so I'm running this race
in one way, by one thing, faith. I am trusting in Jesus Christ
alone to be everything that I cannot be, that I will never be. He is all my righteousness, wisdom,
sanctification, redemption. He's everything to me. Go to
Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. So then seeing
that we have a race, that it's not run in the flesh, that it
is a spiritual race and it must be run by faith, the apostle
says again in this analogy of a race, he said, seeing we are
compassed about, chapter 12 verse 1 in Hebrews, we are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight. How do runners run? They run
without weights. They don't take on weight. As
they go, they throw it off. So He says, throw off every weight. And the sin that does so easily
beset us, and that is unbelief. The sin of unbelief is the besetting
sin of every believer. And let us run with patience
the race set before us. How? Looking unto Jesus Christ,
the author and the finisher of our faith. Believer, now look
at this church. Now I want you to see, we're
to look at this church where this church, Paul said, look,
they did run well. I know we're looking at them
at a time when they were hindered. Paul said that something happened,
they were hindered. But I'm telling you what, this
church ran well first. It ran well before it was hindered. He said, You did run well. These people are just like us,
and I want you to see that this is very relevant to us, because
we're no different than these people in Galatia. We are no
different. We are just as susceptible to temptation and sin as they
are. We are just as susceptible to
be hindered in our race as they were in theirs. Do you expect
that they thought they would be hindered? Do you suspect that
they ever thought this would come on them? No. Neither do we. Well, that happened
to them. That won't happen to us. Why
do you think this is written? This is written for our learning.
So it may not happen to us. So we may be warned. We may learn. And listen, they believed on
Christ so much. They loved Paul. And so what
happened? Paul said they were hindered.
So what happened? He said, who hath hindered you? You seem to
start well, but now you're hindered. We who run the race of faith,
let us therefore be watchful. Let us be mindful of the snares
of Satan and of our own proneness to unbelief. Now listen, the
moment we fail to recognize our own weakness and the strength
of our enemies, that's when we'll fall. The moment we think we
are above temptation, what does it say? thinketh he
stand, take heed lest he fall." Doesn't it, pride cometh before
a fall? You bet it is. And believers, false religion
will use every means to move you from Christ. I want you to
understand that. They are actively, continually engaged in moving
you from Christ. They will use every means available
to the carnal man to get you from Christ. Entertainment. Now,
who doesn't like to be entertained? The flesh loves it. They will use entertainment.
Music. Music is beautiful and has a
wonderful place, even in the worship of God, doesn't it? What
good is music that has no message? Has no gospel? Yet that's all
the music of false religion. It sounds good. It don't have
any message. Sports? I remember as a kid,
boy, that was a temptation there. Oh, basketball. Boy, they'd love to get us to
play some basketball. Come over to our church and play
some basketball with us and eat some pizza with us. Oh, we'll
have a good time. Have a good time. And all the
while, they'll sneak in that lie, the false gospel. They'll
just try to sneak it in. That's what they do. They allure
you. They allure you by human wisdom. They say, surely millions and
millions of people can't be wrong. Isn't that right? They say, well,
look at your little group there. Nobody wants to hear that, so
obviously something's wrong with you. Look at our church. We got 45
satellite churches throughout this greater community here.
Obviously, we're doing it right and you're not doing it right.
Isn't that worldly wisdom? Tell that to Noah. There were only eight right,
and the world died. Tell that in Elijah's day when
there were only 7,000 who didn't bow the knee to Baal, and over
2 million died in their sins. Don't tell me about earthly wisdom,
I don't care to hear it. But they'll try to use it. They'll
use your emotions. Emotions. You'll be talking to
a friend who's in false religion that you love, a family member
who's in false religion that you love, and they'll say things
like, well, you don't think I'm going to hell, do you? And with all your soul, you don't
want to say the truth. You don't want to hurt them.
You don't want to cause them to fear. And the enemy understands
that. The world and Satan will surely
appeal to our emotions and our relationships to try to get us
to deny the gospel. But if you submit to these lies,
if you submit to them, to their snares, listen, you are hindered. You're hindered. Even because the law does not
free us to run, but rather lays burdens on us too heavy to bear. Therefore lay aside every weight. Everything that opposes the gospel
must be set aside. So how then are we, knowing these
hindrances, how are we to avoid them? Listen to what he said. He said,
"...you did run well. Who hath hindered you that you
should not obey the truth?" So what is the opposite of hindrance?
The hindrance is they didn't obey the truth. So what's to
do off with this hindrance? Obey the truth. Obey the truth. That's how you remove the hindrances.
Believe on Jesus Christ. and have no confidence, no weight
whatsoever on the flesh, or our obedience to the law in any measure,
nor are we to give credit to any false religion."
Now listen, that's what's been going on in this church, and
Paul is trying to deal with this, with this very Scripture. He's
saying, look, they're hindering you. They're hindering you. Now some of those believers in
there, they didn't necessarily fall for it, but their friends
did. And Paul said, you can't even
let that stand. I didn't let it stand when Peter
did it. You can't let it stand when your
brothers do it. Why? Next verse. Because it's
not of God. This persuasion cometh not of
him that calleth you. That's why you can't let it stand,
because it's not of God. Anyone mixing grace and works
is not of God. And listen, a little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. If you allow it, if you continue
to pacify those people around you, eventually it will creep
into your own doctrine. It will creep into your mind. It will saturate your mind. And eventually the cross of Christ
will be set aside and human improvement is all you'll desire to hear. But Paul had something that we
should have, too. Confidence. We who are running
this race, if we are trusting in Christ alone, we should have
confidence. Now our confidence should never
be in ourselves. Again, that's hindrance. You
put any trust in yourself to finish this race, you won't finish.
But here it is, to finish is to put your confidence in Christ.
And I have confidence even in those who may have been ensnared
by this. I have confidence, like Paul,
that they will not be lost. They will not be lost. In fact,
they will, when they hear it, repent. That's what he says,
look at that verse 10. I have confidence in you through
the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded. He knew that once true believers
heard the gospel, once they heard of their sin, they would soon
by the power and grace of God repent. You know, that's my hope
and prayer for many in our generation of our brethren. Now, friends,
our brethren, there are many brethren caught up in this lie.
There are many brethren caught up in this deception that the
law is a rule of life. But I'm confident of this through
the Lord, through the power of Christ, that once they hear this,
they will repent. They will turn. They will come
again to the truth. They won't be otherwise minded. How do I know this? Because everyone
that Christ died for will be saved. I'm confident of that,
are you? I'm sure of that, without a doubt. Jesus said this, My sheep hear
My voice, and I know them, and I give to them... What kind of
life? Eternal life. And they shall
never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. So believer, listen, are you
weary in the race? Because I tell you, we can become
weary. Do you feel no movement or growth? I tell you, that is a horrible
place for the believer when it's stagnant. When everything feels
stagnant in our soul. Do you feel your knees to be
feeble and your hands to hang down? Then be encouraged. Your race
is not a sprint. It's a marathon. It's an endurance
race. There's a lot of people begin
this race running a lot faster than we do. Pretty soon, they
just, all their strength is gone and they just fall away. Look,
I'm still here. Why am I still running? I'm not
strong. I have no strength. I'm still running because my
strength doesn't come from me. And listen, you'll continue to
run. I'm confident in this concerning
you who believe. I am confident you'll finish
this race. Now my confidence is not in you. It's in the Lord. That through the Lord you will
not be otherwise minded. Go to Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah
chapter 40. Look at verse 27. The Lord's asking a question
here. He says, Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel?
My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgments are passed over
from my God. Does that not sound familiar?
Oh, woe is me. The Lord's forgotten me. Obviously,
He doesn't understand where I'm at. He don't understand my situation.
He don't know. My way is hid from Him. God said,
Why are you saying that? Verse 28, thou hast thou not
known? Have you not heard that the everlasting
God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth
not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his
understanding. Don't you know that he is omnipotent
in strength, omnipotent in power and wisdom? Don't you know that? Haven't you heard that? He giveth power to the faint,
and to them that have no might he increases strength." Now,
is that you? Anybody here without power, without might, without
strength? The Lord says, I give strength
to those people. You see, my hope is in God's
power, not my own. Even the youth shall faint and
be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. Who are these?
The legalists. Those who are strong in themselves. Those who are sure in their own
strength. What does God say? They'll fall.
They'll faint. They won't last. But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles, they shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. So we who run this race, our
eyes then must be fixed where? So as not to be hindered, where
should your eyes be fixed? On Christ. Where should your strength to
fix your eyes on Christ come from? The Lord giveth strength
and might to those who are faint. And listen to His promise. We
shall not be weary. We shall run and not be weary.
We shall walk and not faint. Isn't that progressing? He said,
look, you'll always be progressing. But not by your strength, by
mine, by my strength. Now look at this, the offense
of the cross. He says this in verse 11. He says, And I, brethren,
if I yet preach circumcision, why do I suffer persecution?
Then is the offense of the cross ceased. Now having established
that salvation is by the grace of God through the work of Christ
and by faith alone in Christ, having established that the law
has no part in it, and that we must forsake all false teachers
and hold that salvation is not a mixture of works and grace,
what will be the result? When you preach the truth, when
you obey the truth, what will be the result? Persecution. This word persecution
means scandal. It doesn't necessarily mean...
Paul was beaten. He really was physically persecuted. But this word means to scandalize. That's what it means. A public
scandal. That's what you'll become. You'll
become the bane of everyone around you. When you preach, salvation
is by the work of Christ alone. So Paul's asking this rhetorical
question. He said, if I were to allow circumcision, If I were
to consent that salvation is by Christ plus works, then there
would be no persecution at all. the offense of the cross ceased. But when I preach in plain terms
and give no place to their doctrine, when I insist that salvation,
justification, redemption, sanctification, righteousness, and wisdom were
all accomplished by Jesus Christ alone, when I am insistent on
that, that all my salvation was accomplished on that cross by
that man 2,000 years ago, it's then They will not stand for it. The cross of Jesus Christ is
an offense, an offense to the natural man. We will be called divisive. Well, you're just being
divisive. You're just splitting theological
hairs. You're just trying to cause disruption.
You know one thing that the false church loves is peace. They just
want to get along with everybody. Isn't that so? They just accept
everybody without exception because they love peace. Isn't that what
the scripture says about Satan? He keepeth his kingdom in perfect
what? Peace. You know how you do that? You
just accept everything but the truth. The false church would rather
hear from Muslims than you. Baptists would rather hear from
the Pope than you. Why? They're all in agreement. But when we preach the truth,
it is an offense to them. It's an offense. They'll label
you, as they did Paul. They tried to take everything
Paul did out of context. When he circumcised Timothy,
it's then they're saying, ah, see? You're duplicitous. You're duplicity in your doctrine.
You say it's of grace, and yet you circumcised him. So obviously,
you preach circumcision. And that gave them credence in
this church. They said, look, Paul circumcised
Timothy, so I guess he preaches circumcision. So I guess, well,
you know, when I say, whosoever will, obviously men think I'm
talking about free will. No. They'll take your words and they'll
seek to twist them to give credit to their false gospel. Yet, we
can respond the same way Paul did. Well, if I'm preaching what
you're preaching, then why are you arguing with me? Obviously, I'm not preaching
what you're preaching, or otherwise you wouldn't be arguing with
me. There wouldn't be any persecution. I wouldn't be called a scandaler
if I was preaching what you're preaching. But I don't, and I
won't. These refuse to preach the cross,
and I'm telling you, this is happening in our day. This is
exactly what's happening. Even those who profess to preach
salvation by grace, You would have to search through a pile
of dung in order to find one nugget of truth. Why? Because they just want peace.
They just want everybody... This radio station in Houston,
they said, church without walls. In other words, do you know what
that means? We just believe everything. Except what you're preaching.
We believe everything except election. We believe everything
except complete redemption. We believe everything except
the ruined nature of man. We believe everything except
the irresistible power of the Holy Spirit and the perseverance
and preservation. We believe everything but that.
In other words, you believe everything but the cross. Because that's
everything is encapsulated in the cross. The cross is an offense. to man's
self-righteous dignity, to suppose he needs the Son of
God to die for his sins. That's what they find offensive. Now, they don't mind the cross
so long as they can include something they're doing. They don't mind
it. They love it. They say the cross is good and
necessary in its place, but I also must contribute. No, then is
the cross of no effect when you put your hand to it. I mean, ask everybody if they
love the cross. They've got it all over their
rooms. They've got statues of crosses. They've got gold necklaces
of crosses. They've got wooden crosses. They've
got all kinds of crosses. It's not what it's talking about.
The cross of Jesus Christ is His substitutionary work of redemption. Listen, I believe in a successful
Savior. I believe in a victorious Savior.
Matter of fact, my whole aim and goal is to be found in that
victorious Savior. How am I going to do this? By
running this race of faith. Trusting in Him alone. Not being
hindered by law or religion or what men think. I must have Christ. I must have Him. I press toward the mark of the
high calling of God. No matter what men call me, Let us be by the grace of God. Let us have strength to not be
hindered. To set that cross always before
our eyes as all my hope of standing before God. I'm confident in this. We will
finish this race. You will finish. If you are God's,
you'll finish. Because salvation is of the Lord.
Pray God will bless this tree.