Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11, let's read
the first six verses together. And I want to just say that these
are precious verses. As we read these verses, these
are just wonderful, precious verses. Matthew 11, verse 1 says,
And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding
His twelve disciples, He departed thence to teach and to preach
in their cities. Now when John had heard in the
prison The works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and
said unto him, art thou he that should come or do we look for
another? Jesus answered and said unto
them, go and show John again those things which you do hear
and see. The blind received their sight. and the lame walk. The lepers
are cleansed and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up and the
poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he. Blessed is she. Whosoever shall not be offended
in me. Our Lord said, it's a blessed
person who is not offended in me. That is a blessed person. Now I've read this passage many
times. I've read those verses many,
many times, but when I read it this time, immediately this question
popped into my mind. Why would anybody be offended
in the Lord Jesus Christ? Offended in means offended by. Why would anybody be offended
by the Lord Jesus Christ? John the Baptist right here sent
word to him asking, are you the one who should come to save us? Or are we looking for somebody
else? And the Lord said, he sent word
back to John saying, just look at the things that I'm doing,
John. He said, the blind are receiving
their sight and the lame are walking. Those
who can't walk are walking. Lepers are cleansed, leprosy. The deaf hear, the dead are raised
up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. Why would anybody
be offended by that? Honestly. By God's grace, we
are not. And I say, by God's grace, that's
the only way you can say that. By God's grace, we're not. We're not. Does that offend you? When you just look at him, speaking
totally of him, you listen to the things that he said, And
when you see the things that he did in him, in his person,
in his character, in his deeds, what is there to be offended
about? Now, our Lord said in his word
that many will be offended by him and many are offended by
him. Many truly are. And I'll tell
you where the offense is. To say that the blind received
their sight means he's saying by nature, we're all blind. That's what he's saying. He's saying in our natural condition,
we are spiritually blind. But if we are, why would we be
offended by him saying that? If we are. You know, think about this little
illustration here. If a blind man went to see a
doctor and the doctor said, well, this is the treatment we're
going to give to you. And these are the conditions
we're going to provide for you. And the man said, why? And the
doctor said, well, because you're blind. And that's the treatment
we prescribe for the blind. Why would the man get irate and
cry? Oh, I'm offended. He just called me blind. Well, are you or aren't you? A blind man shouldn't be offended
by a great physician recognizing what his condition is. But man naturally does not know
what his condition is. That's the problem. He doesn't
know. So when it is revealed to him in the word, it's a shock
when the word, when he hears in the word and when he sees
in the word, the reality of his condition, it's a shock. And
that's where the offense comes in. Men and women naturally think
that they can come to Christ. They do. But when the word reveals to
them that they are actually spiritually lame and they cannot come to
Christ and they can't even hear the
call to come to Christ because they're spiritually death and they won't come to Christ
because they're spiritually dead. And if God leaves them to themselves,
they're going to enter eternal condemnation because of their,
you know, miserable, rotten, poor condition. When the word
reveals that to men and women, if they have not been caused
to see it by the Holy spirit, if they haven't been caused to
believe it, if they haven't been caused to bow to it, they are
offended. This word says in our flesh,
we're blind. We can't see God. We can't know
God. We can't come to God. We can't
do anything. If a person knows that that is
his or her condition, there's a, there's a point where they
hear that they didn't hear it before. They didn't know it before.
And then all of a sudden it's like, well, that that's what
it says. If a person knows that that is
his or her condition, when the word then reveals Christ to be
the remedy for that condition, men and women are not offended.
If they know that that's their condition and then they see Christ
as the remedy for that condition, they're not offended by that
at all. They're not offended in him. All they do is glory
in Him. All they do is give thanks to
Him. And the man or the woman who
finds that response to the truth of the Word concerning himself
or herself, and concerning what Christ came to do because of
their condition, The man or the woman who finds himself or herself
glorying in that announcement, thanking God for that announcement, crying, even me, even me, let
thy blessing fall on me. The man or woman who finds that
response in him or her That's a blessed person. That's a blessed
person. We are blessed. We are blessed
people. That is a blind man who will
receive his sight. If that is the response that
has been given to us, that is a lame woman who is going to
be made to walk spiritually speaking. That's a leper who is going to
be cleansed. That's a deaf soul who's going
to hear. That's a dead soul who's going
to live. That's a poor soul who's gonna
have the glorious news of Christ preached to him. How blessed
we are to not be offended. That's the title of the message.
How blessed we are to not be offended. Can't we all honestly
say, thank God I'm not offended. when so many people are. You
just try to kindly tell them the truth of the Word, the truth
of God, the truth of themselves. Thank God. Thank God we're not
offended. Our Lord said in verse 4, He
said, Go and show John again those things which you do here
and see. And that's what I want to do
this morning. I want to show us again the things that we hear
and see in the Word of God. This Word declares a continual
truth concerning God and man. It consistently, over and over
again, it tells us God's condition, it tells us man's condition.
It tells us man's dealings with God and God's dealings with man
over and over again. Tells us what the result of all
that is in the end. And I want us to see it and hear
it again. And then after seeing it and
hearing it again, I pray we will all not be offended by it. Turn with me if you would to
Genesis chapter one. Genesis 1 verse 26. And God said, let us make man
in our image. Let us make man. God made man. Look at chapter 2 verse 15. And
the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden
to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the
man saying of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. Look with me at chapter three,
verse six. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and
a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took up the fruit
thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her
and he did eat. God gave man a law. He gave him
a commandment and he broke it. Every law. Every commandment
that God has ever given to man, man has broken it. There are
a lot of people who, who are just so happy about the fact
that they in their own eyes and in their own mind, they obey
God and keep his commandments. Here's the truth. Every commandment
and law that God has ever given to man, man has broken it. Turn with me, if you would, over
to Romans chapter 3. This is the honest truth. There
is not one soul in the human race of mankind that has ever
obeyed and truly kept one commandment from God. Romans 3 verse 9 says,
what then? Are we better than they? That's
what religion is built on, false religion. Us being better than
them. The apostle Paul said, are we
better than they? Look at the next word, no. In no wise. For we have before
proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none
righteous. No, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth good. No, not one. Somebody says, you mean to tell
me there's not one soul that's ever lived on this earth that
has obeyed God and kept His commandments? No, not one. Look at verse 23
right here. It says, all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. All right. So God gave a law. He gave a standard of perfection
to man and man broke it. And just a minute ago, we read
in Genesis two that the Lord say, said in the day that you
break my commandment, you're going to spiritually die. And that's what happened. Spiritually
man died. All right. That is now the natural
condition of all men and women. Look at Romans five. Verse 12 says, Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. If you want to know whether or
not a person truly is a sinner, wait to see if he or she dies. Just wait to see if he or she
dies. It is proof he or she was a sinner. The wages of sin is death. Death
passed upon all men because all have sinned. All right. So that is the natural condition
of all of us. And here's the thing about it.
We should not be offended by that. We shouldn't be offended
by that at all. That's how we are all born into
this world, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. And this
word tells us that there's nothing we can do to remedy our situation. We cannot change it. This is
what the scripture says. Can the leopard change his spots? We can't fix it. That which is flesh is flesh.
This word says that we cannot justify ourselves by trying to
obey God's law from this point on. Okay, well the past is done,
but what about if I start obeying God from this point on? Can't
do it, cannot justify ourselves. We cannot do it by trying to
make sacrifices to Him. We cannot do it by making promises.
We cannot do anything of our own doing to satisfy God for
this great sin against him. Can't be done. All right, now
look with me at Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians two says verse nine
Ephesians two verse nine says salvation. This is speaking of
salvation. It's talking about being saved
here. Salvation is not of works. Lest any man should boast. Salvation is not of works. Lest any man should boast. Just listen to these Titus three
verse five says, not by works of righteousness, which we have
done. Galatians two 16 says, knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, a man cannot be justified by obeying
the Bible. Man will not be justified by. obeying the Bible because he's
dead. He cannot be because he's dead. He will not be because
he's dead. He's dead to everything that is good and perfect and
right about God. And he cannot redeem himself
back to God. Cannot. Okay. But God. Oh, I hope this doesn't offend
us. I pray for our sake. This doesn't offend us. Man is
dead, ruined, rotten, worthless, nothing, outcast. The dust of
the scales is being kind. And man can't do anything about
it. You cannot fix your condition. But God. Man couldn't do it for
himself, so God did it for him. God did for His particular people
what they could not do for themselves. God did it for them. Look right
here at Ephesians 2 verse 8, it says, for by grace are you
saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the
gift of God. Look at verse three, it says,
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in
the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others, but God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love
were with thee, loved us. Even when we were dead in sins,
he quickened us together with Christ. By grace, you are saved. So here's where we are. This
is what the scripture says time and time again, over and over
again, God gave man a law and man broke it. Every law he
ever gave him, man broke it and man died and man could not redeem
himself back to God. So God did it for sinful man. And this is how he did it. If
you look across the page, it's across my page, Ephesians 1 verse
3 says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world. God, the father chose a particular
people to save. Let me ask you a question. Does
that offend you? God chose a people to save. God chose particular, not everybody, but He chose who He wanted to
save, God the Father. And it's His will, and it's His
business, and it's His say only, and it's not our will, and it's
not our business, and it's not our say, it's only His. Does
that offend you? You know, that offends a lot
of people. All right. God, the father chose
a particular people to say. First Peter one calls them the
elect according to the foreknowledge of God. John 15 verse 16. He said, you've
not chosen me. I chose you. So God, the father did all the
choosing. Every person that's going to be in heaven, God the
Father chose who it would be. Every soul that God the Father
chose to save, He gave those souls into the hand of His Son
to purchase, to buy back, because all of them sold themselves into
sin and ruin. So all of them were given into
the hands of Jesus Christ, God the Son, to redeem And the price
of the payment was his own precious blood. Look at Ephesians one
verse five. It says having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will. To the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, verse
7 says, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace. In whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of His grace. We have not redeemed ourselves.
People say, well, I'm gonna have to redeem myself. We have not
redeemed ourselves. Christ had to come and do that
for us. In John 18, he said, for this cause came I into the
world. In John 10, he said, I am come
that they might have life. In John 17, he said, Father,
I finished that work for them. They have it. Now, with the Father's
choosing, the redeeming purchase of the Son, all of those souls
have been placed in the responsibility of God's Holy Spirit to call
them back to spiritual life again, to reveal the knowledge of their
salvation to them, to give them faith to believe it, faith to
believe on Christ, faith to look to Him and rejoice in Him. Look
at verse 13 right here in Ephesians one in whom you also trusted
after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation in whom also after that you believed you were sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchase possession unto the praise of
his glory. Acts 2.39, I love this verse,
it says, the promise is to you and to your children and to all
that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
So with that being the declaration of God's word, that's the declaration
of what God did for his people in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. With that being said, why would
anybody be offended by that? We did all the sinning. He did
all the saving. How could our response be anything
other than thank God? Amen. How could it be anything
but that? We could not help him save us. We would not help him save us. But in spite of us, He freely
by Himself saved us anyway. How could our response to that
be anything but thank God? Amen. If God the Father has chosen
us, and I'm closing with this, I'm done, okay? Do I belong to Him? Do you belong
to Him? Does this apply to us? Here's how you can know, honestly,
based on the Word of God, here's how you can know. If God the
Father has chosen us, and if God the Son has made the payment
price for us, redeemed us, and if God the Spirit has called
us to Christ, called us to faith, called us to believe these things,
called us to believe the record of these things, the record of
Christ. If he has done that for us, we
won't be offended by it. So you can know. We will not
be offended by it. All that we will do is cry. He
gets all the glory. This is all we'll do. We will
cry. He gets all the glory for fixing
everything I ruined. Thank God. Amen. Thank God. Amen. May that honestly
be the response of every soul here. I pray it is. I pray it
is. If that is our response, we're
a blessed people. We're a blessed people. All right,
Brother Eddie, you come.