Turn with me back to Galatians
5. Galatians 5, Paul started this
chapter by saying in verse 1, stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free. And don't go back to the
bondage of the works of the law. That's what we, we looked at
last week. Don't go back to the bondage
of the works of the law and don't turn over there. But he said
back in chapter one, he said, I'm shocked by the fact. I'm
shocked by the fact that you started in the grace of Christ. And you think about that, a person
starting in the grace of Christ, they come to see the truth, that
light bulb comes on, the Lord shines the light and they see
the error of works and the free gift of the blood of Christ.
You started out in grace and now you're getting away from
that and you're wanting to go back to the bondage of the law. And he said, I marvel. I just,
I'm shocked by that. And that's what it means when,
when he said in verse seven, this is where our text picks
up tonight. He said, you did run well. I hope that is never
said about me. You remember Gabe Steineker,
do you remember him? He did run well. There are men that that
is said about. Oh, may God have mercy on me.
May he have mercy on all of us. Paul said, you did run well. And the only way that we run
is looking unto the Lord Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. looking to Him to run for us. You did run well, but
He said, who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth?
What happened? That's what He's saying, what
happened? The truth says Christ is all. That's what the truth
says, Christ is all. The truth says all of our good
deeds are filthy rats, all of them. The truth says that our
only hope is to run to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul said that's
what you did. You ran to Christ. You ran to
Christ. You were a sinner in need, just
like Pilgrim. You had a burden on your back.
You had a scroll in your hand. You were crying because you finally
realized, I live in the city of destruction. And you started
running to the cross because you were told by evangelists
at the foot of the cross, as soon as you look up to the cross,
the burden will fall. And he said, you did run well,
who told you to stop? Who told you to stop? Verse seven,
you did run well. Who did hinder you that you should
not obey the truth? Who turned you back to the law? hindering your faith. Who moved
the object of your faith? Verse eight says, this persuasion
cometh not of him that calleth you. We were called by God. God called us. And he's saying,
God didn't do this. This wasn't the message of God.
Christ himself didn't do this. God's spirit didn't do this.
And the truth is, is God's messenger did not do this if God has his
hand on him and if God is sending the message. If God is in control
of the man and in control of the message, it has to be the
work of someone else. It's always the work of someone
else. Turn back just a few pages with me to 2 Corinthians 11.
2 Corinthians 11 verse 1 says,
Would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly, and
indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with
godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. committed to one, totally given
to one. Verse three, but I fear, lest
by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth
another Jesus, whom we have not preached, Or if you receive another
spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you
have not accepted, you might well bear with him. You just
might wear. If you listen to another gospel,
which he said, there's not another, but he said, if you listen to
another message, you might bear with it. Something in that might,
as the adversary subtly subtly tricked Eve, just so subtle.
Verse 14, he said, and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers
also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall
be according to their works. Now, sadly, that describes most
ministers in religion. That describes most ministers
of righteousness, they call themselves. They're going to stand up and
speak on behalf of Christ, the righteousness of God. And when
a man tries to move the object of our faith off of Jesus Christ
to anything else, he's a minister of Satan. And what that means
is if a man tries to tell us that salvation is found anywhere
other than the blood of Christ, he's a minister of Satan. That's
what it means. Anything added to, anything taken
from, that message is not of God. It's just not of God. The truth cries, what can wash
away my sins? Nothing but the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And a man will say, when he does
say, oh yes, now it is the blood of Christ. I remember for so
long being confused. You could hear a man say something
and he'd talk about the blood of Christ and the death of Christ
on the cross and oh yes, absolutely, I wouldn't deny that. But along
with that, you have to And that's where the problem comes. That's
where the problem comes in. If a man says anything needs
to be added to the blood of Jesus Christ, he's a minister of Satan. So back over in our text, Galatians 5 verse 9 says, a little
leaven leaveneth the whole lump. That's an important verse of
scripture. That's an important verse. Leaven is an ingredient
that goes into bread to make it rise. A little bit of leaven
goes into bread to make it rise. And if a little bit is worked
into a ball of dough, that leaven will work its way into the whole
loaf. One little spot, you put in just
a little bit of leaven, it won't just puff up, puff up one little
spot. Well, there's a problem right
there. That came in and that's obvious.
That's the problem. We're going to cut that out.
What it does is it infiltrates the whole loaf. Isn't that right? It works its way through the
entire loaf. A little error mixed in with
the gospel of the blood of Christ alone, I mean alone, alone for
salvation, a little error will work its way through the entire
message. This is why we have a zero tolerance
policy. Zero tolerance. You're going
to see men on TV and there are some true men on TV. Thank God. Preaching the truth on TV. But
you're going to find some men on TV who sound so close. Oh
man, it's just so close. But we have a zero tolerance
policy. A little error mixed in will
work its way through the whole message and it will error the
whole thing. It'll error the whole thing.
When you hear a message that is not in total agreement with
God's Word, any man who preaches God's Word, I am for that man. If he'll preach God's Word, I
am for that man. But any message that's not in
total agreement with God's Word, stay away from it. Don't entertain
it. Don't entertain it. Parts of
it might sound good, but if you hear, yeah, that's not quite
right, just stay away from it. Our Lord was the one who told
us that. Look with me over at Matthew 16. Matthew 16 verse six says. Then Jesus said unto them, Take
heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves,
saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus
perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason
ye among yourselves, because you have brought no bread? Do
you not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the
5,000 and how many baskets you took up? They said, you know,
he told them, beware the 11 of the Pharisees. And they said,
we forgot to bring bread. He said, I just fed 5,000 people
with five loaves of bread. And do you not remember that
you had 12 baskets left over? Verse 10, neither the seven loaves
of the 4,000 and how many baskets you took up? How is it that you
do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread,
that you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of
the Sadducees? Then understood they how that
he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Stealing just a little bit of
God's glory, stealing just a little bit of the glory from Christ
in the work of salvation will cause us to steal all the glory
from Christ in the work of salvation. It will infiltrate every ounce
of the glory. If we steal a little bit We sinners
will steal it all. If we take an inch, we'll take
a mile. If we give just a little bit of honor to man, then we'll
end up giving all the honor to man. That's what we'll do. Look
with me at 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 6 says, your
glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven
that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. For even
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. That right there is how
you purge out Old Leaven. You want to know how to purge
out Old Leaven? He said purge out Old Leaven because Jesus
Christ died on the cross for us. That's how you do it. Verse
8, therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither
with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth. What he's saying is, scriptures
alone, grace alone, Christ alone. Stay right there. Now back in
our text in Galatians 5, verse 10 says, 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." In
this entire letter, Paul has been very frank with the Galatians. He's been very honest, pretty
straightforward with them. But he said, I believe you're
believers. That's what he said in his letter. I believe you're
believers. I believe that the Lord will bring you back to his
truth. That's why I'm writing this letter.
I believe that he'll convince your heart again. This is the
truth. This is the truth. I believe
he'll show you the object of your faith again. I believe he'll
show you Christ alone again. But he said in verse 10, the
one that's troubling you, the one that is lying to you, God
is going to deal with him. And he will, he will. Now in verse 11, he said, and
I brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. Paul had Timothy circumcised.
Alright, he had Timothy circumcised, not so Timothy could be saved.
Paul never had anybody circumcised so they could be saved. It was
so a hindrance could be removed in preaching the gospel. The
New Testament was not written. And Paul knew the Jews would
not hear him. They were still following these
old ordinances and he had Timothy circumcised so he could freely
preach the gospel to the Jews. And these false preachers though,
they came in and they were telling the Galatians, Paul is preaching
circumcision too, just like we are. That's the whole issue here
is they were telling them you have to be circumcised to be
saved. And they said, Paul is saying
the exact same thing. And can't people who don't understand
say the same thing about us? What do you mean baptism's not
salvation? You tell people to be baptized. You're saying the
exact same thing. Isn't that right? And that's
what they were telling them. Paul is saying the same thing
we're saying. And what Paul's response is,
if I was preaching circumcision for salvation, why am I being
persecuted? You're persecuted for the truth.
You're persecuted for preaching a message that has nothing to
do with man's works. And he said, if I was preaching
works, then the offense of the cross would cease. People would
be happy with my message. They would welcome me. Our congregation
size would tenfold. We couldn't build buildings fast
enough. We'd tear down our old ones and build bigger ones. If
I could just compromise a message, the offense would cease. It'd
be over. But he's telling them, he's writing
to them from prison, he's saying, here I sit in prison for this. Persecuted for the truth's sake.
The offense of the cross is still in the message. It's still there. I'm not preaching works. Now,
when a man is preaching the truth, he is preaching the cross of
Christ. If he's preaching the truth,
that's what he's preaching. And when the cross of Christ
is clearly preached, when it's very clearly preach the what
of it, the why of it, it's offensive to this flesh. Now, where is
the offense of the cross? It's offensive to this flesh.
Why are men so offended by the message of the cross? Why are
they so, so offended by the message of the cross? I was listening
to a message by Brother Henry not too long ago. I think it
was from 1985. And in that message, he said
that people magazine had just released an article in their
magazine on the subject of sin. They had an article on sin inside
people magazine and they polled people. They took a big survey.
And then they averaged that all together and they found out that
as of 1985, the average person sinned about four times per month. Four times per month. That's
how much the average, some more, some less. They asked people,
how often do you sin? That was their answer. It averaged
four times per month. I'm going to tell you this, that's
a lie. Even they know better than that.
Lying is a sin. We might as well make it five.
Okay? I am quite positive they were
proud of their answer. They were proud of themselves
for saying we've only sinned four times a month. That's a
sin. Pride is a sin. We might as well
make it six. Their absolute ignorance of God's
word is a downright crime. It's an absolute sin. We need
to make it seven. The fact that they don't know
God, if they knew God, they would have never said that. The fact
that they don't know God is a sin. They have no excuse. We need to make it eight. The
fact that they were all, we were all conceived in sin. It is our makeup. It's what we
were made out of. It runs through every molecule
of our being. That ought to tell them, that
ought to tell us, that ought to tell everybody that you don't
count sin. It's what we are. You don't count
it. It's what we are. And here is
where the offense of the cross comes in. When you tell a man
that he cannot contribute one thing to his own salvation because
he is an absolute sinner, I mean complete and total, not four
times a month. Every hour, every second of every
day, sinner. Not only are all of his efforts
wasted, they flat ruin everything. If you touch it, you'll ruin
it. You'll completely ruin it. Because
of his sin, he ruins everything. All you do is ruin everything. Therefore, Christ had to come
and he had to finish the work on that cross alone. It's the only way it could actually
be done. He had to do it alone, without
your ruining touch, without you getting involved one bit. There's
nothing we can do. There is nothing we can do. Well,
why do we preach the message then if there's nothing we can
do? Why do we preach this message?
The reason is because this message, this amazing message of the offense
of the cross. The offense of the cross. That's
what God uses to open blind eyes. That's what God uses to put life
in the heart. The heart goes from dead to alive
through hearing the offense of the cross. This is how we can know if our
eyes have been opened, if life has entered our heart. This is
how we can know. To me, this is the best part
of the message. how we can know this is how we
can know if God has put life in us if he's done something
for us the exact same message the exact same message that is
a saver of death unto death is a saver of life unto life. The word for word, same service,
exact same message. What does that mean? It means
the same message that is an offense to the unbeliever. The literal
same message is the exact opposite to a believer. The exact opposite. In a dictionary, I looked up
the opposite. It's called an antonym. You got
synonyms and antonyms. I looked up the opposite of the
word offensive. OK. These are the words I got. Appealing. Delightful. Desirable. Enjoyable. Lovable. pleasant, sweet, and wonderful. Now does that describe the gospel
of Jesus Christ crucified for you? After the truth is preached,
he paid it all. He righted all of my wrong. He fixed me. He perfectly redeemed
everything I ruined, everything I touched and ruined. And all
I have to do, all that I can do now is rest. Don't do anything. Don't work
anything. Without Him, I'm nothing. With
Him, I'm everything. Outside of His blood, I will
die in my sin. covered in His blood, I inherit
eternal life. The whole thing hinges on Him
and what He accomplished on that cross. After we hear the truth
of the cross of Christ, is that offensive to us? Or is that the
most appealing, delightful, desirable, enjoyable, lovable, pleasant,
sweet, wonderful thing we've ever heard in our life? If it is, God has freed us from
the bondage of sin. If it is, if when we hear that,
our hearts say, Amen. Thank God. So be it. I love it. Tell it again. That's my hope. That's my life. If that's the
case, God has freed us from the bondage of sin. Let's stand fast
right there. Just stand right there and enjoy
the message. You just stand there and enjoy
the message. As we preach this message, may
we never remove the offense. As we preach this message, may
we never, never, never remove the offense. And as we hear this
message, may the offense never be offensive to us. May we never
remove the offense. And our prayer is that the offense
might never be offensive to us. All right, let's all stand together.