I don't know about you, but I'm
sure glad to be here. How about turning in your Bible
to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 1st Corinthians chapter 1. I beg your pardon, it's chapter
2. I'm looking right at where I'm supposed to begin reading
and it's in the wrong chapter. So it is chapter 2. 1st Corinthians
2, we begin at verse 9. Now before we start, let's Ask
the Lord to bless these words to us and give us a spiritual
understanding of them so that we might indeed, for as long
as we live in this world, be able to praise and bless and
worship the Holy Three in One, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Lord, as we come to the preaching and reading
of your word, we are entirely and altogether dependent upon you and the precious Holy
Spirit of God to teach us these things about which we're about
to read and hear. and that we might consider them in the quietness of a secluded place to be able
to meditate on what we hear preached and read. We thank you for your
mercy. You have been We cannot even measure your goodness
to us. It is beyond measure. Thank you
for your mercy, for your grace, for your people. We beg for your
presence this day for Christ's sake. Amen. All right. First Corinthians chapter two,
beginning at verse nine, but as it is written, eye has
not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart
of man the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed them unto
us by His Spirit." Paul talking about himself and the Corinthians.
For the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things
of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so
the things of God knows no man but the spirit of God. Now we
have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which
is of God that we might know the things that are freely given
to us of God. Verse 13. What things also we
speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which
the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man, man by nature,
man without grace, man without conversion, the natural man receives
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned or understood." It is a matter of being spiritual
and not carnal that this says that the natural man does not
receive the things of the Spirit of God. But he that is spiritual judges
all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. Let us be careful
when we tell ourselves that we have a spiritual understanding
of the reading of God's Word. There are a lot of things that
accompany that to testify to it, but a lot of people Not only
in this day, but in every day that has ever been upon this
earth have claimed to know a lot more than they knew. Claimed
to know the God of the Bible and found out they hated him
and could not on any occasion be said to love him. All right,
verse 16. For who has known the mind of
the Lord that he may instruct him Yet, but we have the mind
of Christ. Let me read you those two verses
again. But he that is spiritual judges
all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who has
known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ. Paul again speaking of himself
and the believers in the city of car we have the mind of christ i don't have to go back many
hours on the clock to tell myself that that can't
be me I come to you with a subject
this morning. What this book says about us, about the worship of God, about
the Son of God, and about the Spirit of God, these things naturally,
because of our natural human nature, apart from regeneration,
these things appear to the man without grace as being absolutely
unacceptable and he cannot believe that they're true. I want to
tell you about seven things that this is true of. I've called
this seven gospel offenses. And I have brought some printed
scriptures with me so that I can Not take all day to cover these
things. Might work better if I turn it
right side up. There we go. Here's the first thing. All of
this having to do with the gospel of Christ, no matter where it's
preached, when it's preached, who preaches it. It addresses
all men, all people, men, women, boys, and girls as sinners. And if my name is not sinner,
I do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. If I deny my sinnerhood,
you deny your salvation. The cross is the great leveler
of men. It evens everybody on the same
footing. All of us are lost. All of us
need to be saved. God will save those whom He pleases
and the rest He passes by. And if you can't read that in
your Bible, you ain't reading your Bible right. There is such
a thing as Total depravity and original sin. Why is it called
original sin? Because Adam was the first sinner
in the Garden of Eden. And when he sinned, every human
being descended of him from that time to the end of time is indeed
tainted with original sin. Total depravity means that we're
We're depraved in all parts of our being. Our mind, our eyes,
our ears, our tongues, our feet, our hands, whatever you want
to call it. It is total, absolute depravity. And this offends man's thoughts
about himself when he thinks he's dignified and he's above
other people and he doesn't do what other people do that he
thinks is bad and what he does is good. So we give ourselves
check marks all the time that we don't have one inkling why
we put it there because we can't prove it. There is, according
to our Bibles, no difference, no difference at all, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Let me read you a couple of verses
now. I want to remind you of that 14th
verse that we just completed reading about. Let me bring that
to your mind. But the natural man, man as he
is born by nature and not born again by God, the natural man
receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, because they are spiritually discerned or understood. It takes spiritual understanding
to understand the gospel of Christ. And it is because we are born
in religion, most of us begin our lives in such a state as
that. A former generation in our day would have paid pretty
close attention to attending church and hearing preaching
and having revivals and all that kind of stuff. And we're steeped
in religion before we ever get out of grammar school. And this
is absolutely detrimental to our understanding of divine things. Now if you'll turn, I want you
to read with me in Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Now here are some of those hard
to believe subjects. I urge you and I urge myself to carefully examine what these
things say and what my thinking is and if they can be said to
be even close to one and the same. We're going to start at
verse 19 and read through verse 23. Now we know that what thing
soever the law says, it says to them who are under the law.
Are you under the law? Do you keep the law? Am I under
the law? If I am, I can't keep it. This
book tells us that in no uncertain terms. It says to them who are
under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
become guilty before God. And yet people all the time putting
posters in their yards with the Ten Commandments on it, and they're
not going to put it out there unless they think they're keeping
those Ten Commandments, and they're not keeping them. The only person
wearing human flesh who ever kept that law is none other than
the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. And if He's not my substitute
and my Savior, then I am still under that law, and I can't lift
a finger to keep it. none whatsoever. Verse 20, here's the conclusion
to what we've just read in verse 19. Therefore, that's what that's
for in the previous verse, by the deeds of the law shall no
flesh be justified in God's sight. Now, if that ain't a blanket
statement, I don't know what is. It's talking about every
son and daughter of Adam. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. People keep it and give themselves
a check mark and say, I've kept it. That ain't what this says. It is absolutely contrary to
what I've just read you straight out of our Bible. I know I played
the same dad gum game that you have played and may still be
playing. We think we're good and the Bible
says we're bad. We think we love God and the
Bible says we hate him. We love Christ and yet we crucified
him. Those things don't add up. A couple more verses and I'll
move on to something else. I've got to get down to verse
23. Verse 21, But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, now watch this thing, which is by faith, not your faith
now, the faith of Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe. And there ain't a hill of beans
of difference between area one of them. We're all in the same
boat and all believers are in the
same boat and that boat is Christ. Add that to your list, Bill. For all have sinned, verse 23,
and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, this gospel,
in addressing all people as sinners, is offensive in many different
ways. Second thing has to do with the
gospel. It is a gospel of mystery that
requires revelation. You can't understand the gospel
of Christ without divine revelation. And you can't buy this revelation.
You can't earn it. God alone, through the power
of His Holy Spirit, can bless it to us. And that statement,
the gospel of mystery that requires revelation, offends man's wisdom. He thinks he's smarter than this.
But here are some of the doctrines that are associated with this
required revelation. This is what we must acquire
through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. How does Christ
on a cross make a sinner holy? How can he do that? Yet he must do it or there won't
be any holy people. How does Christ dying on a cross make a sinner
holy? Here are four things. I'll be
brief. I may not be brief later, but
I will on this one because you've heard it many times. The first
thing is federal headship. Now you know what it is to have
federal officials in Washington throwing away your money, don't
you? You know all about that. Well, that's the same aspect
of truth, and yet it's far different from what we're speaking about
here. There it just has to do with outward things, but here
it's talking about the soul. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our
federal head, just as Adam is the federal head of all the human
race. And in this headship of our Lord
Jesus Christ, he stands in the sinner's room, place, and stead
and makes him a child of God. The second thing has to do with
this word imputation. Now the reason that when Adam
sinned, everybody sinned in him is because they were imputed
with Adam's condemnation, with his sin. And it is a legitimate
charge that God lays upon everybody that's born in the human race.
And we have no idea how long it'll be here. It might be here,
it might leave, it might come to an end today or it might be
here a thousand years from now. Nobody knows that either. And
people who tell you they do are lying. So imputation then simply
means that God is declaring people guilty by this method called
imputation. Adam's sin imputed to me. But
God cannot take a different route and a different way and justify
us in order to save us unless he comes by way of imputation. So this imputation is that what
Christ did in living 33 years in this world and traveling all
over Palestine and encountering every possible matter that you
could imagine, all of it for one reason, in order to impute
to his children, his people, his church, his bride, impute
to them the righteousness that he himself earned. And if he
didn't earn it, we ain't never gonna have it. And if he earned
it, and I don't come to him for it, I still won't ever have it. The same is true of you. There's
also another word, and that's the word substitution. If we're
sinners, God demands for us to die. Christ died in our room
place instead. Our sins were put on Him and
He atoned them all. God's children, I mean His true
children. I hope I'm one of them. I don't
say it with all boldness, but I hope I am. I may not be, but
I sure hope so. granting to me the precious,
precious work of satisfying God's justice. Oh my goodness, what
a substitute that is, the Lord Jesus. Fourth word has to do
with virtually the same subject, it's satisfaction. People who
are in this particular set up of things that I've just gone
over in federal headship, imputation, substitution, and satisfaction.
I tell you, if you truly know what I tried to say, and I may
not have said it plainly enough, clearly enough, but if you've
entered into this, oh my soul, your heart ought to be shouting
for joy and so should mine. Now we come in the third place.
By the way, that particular mystery that requires revelation offends
man's wisdom. This one offends the what-must-I-do
syndrome. There are actually some people
in the New Testament who use these words. What must I do to
be saved, for example. And we want to look at that as
carefully as we can. I'll just remind you of this
and we'll not turn. I suppose the most glaring example
in all the Bible, including the Old Testament, is the rich young
ruler. Matthew puts him in his gospel,
Mark puts him in his, but Luke gives a fuller account of this
man. Matthew and Mark tell us that
he came running to where the Lord Jesus was and fell on his
knees. And he said, good master, what
must I do to be saved? And the word master was never
an adjective for God. It was a word that applied to
men. So the point being this, he did
not acknowledge who the Lord Jesus is. He's the only God we'll
ever see, that's who he is. But this guy didn't know that.
But he thought he knew it, like he thought some other things.
So our Lord spends time showing him why that's not appropriate
to call him good master. It's either, if you're going to use the adjective,
I lost my train of thought. Good, it has to be God. Good does not apply to men like
ourselves. I know we use it and probably
prostitute it every day, but it is a mistake, at least in
biblical things. I'm here to try to get us to
understand what is in our Bibles. All right. The gospel declares
a full atonement for sin, and a perfect righteousness. And this rich young ruler, whose
question makes it specifically what this is about, what must
I do to be saved? And our Lord said, what about
the commandments? Oh, he said, I've kept all of
them since I was just a tyke. Really? He's missed something somewhere. Another example of this is the
Philippian jailer. But let's just finish up with
the rich young ruler. Our Lord, after he said he had
kept all the commandments and all this, that, and the other,
Our Lord perceived that the man was quite wealthy. He said, go
sell everything you have and come and follow me and you'll
be my disciple. He went away very sorrowful.
He wishes now he'd have never gone. Let me read you a statement out
of John chapter 6. Then said they unto him, What
shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered
and said unto them, this is the one and only work of God that
you believe on him whom God has sent. That we believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ whom God sent to be the savior of sinners in
this world. Wow. Number four. There's only a hundred of these
now, you needn't worry. Number four, the absolute sovereignty
of God in salvation. God saves whom He pleases, when
He pleases, how He pleases, and whatever other pleases there
are attached to that. So this wonderful, Sovereignty of God in salvation
offends the popular notion of free will. Well, if you ain't
figured out by now that your will ain't free, you missed something
somewhere and you can't have Christ and believe that you have
a free will. That's like spitting in his face
and then asking him for mercy. That's kind of stupid, don't
you think? Now, let me read you another
scripture. Our friend Nebuchadnezzar, you
remember him? The prophet Daniel covers him
beautifully. He said when he came to his senses
after the Lord had put him out to pasture until his fingernails
were the size of birds' claws and all just, you know, just
a person that you would never want to lay eyes on. And here's
what he said. and all the inhabitants of the
earth, including Nebuchadnezzar, are reputed as nothing. And he,
God, does according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or
say unto him, What are you doing? Then we come in the New Testament
again in regard to this matter. Nebuchadnezzar understood a lot
of things. The Bible never tells us whether
he's converted or not. Some of us think he wasn't and
some of us think he was, but what we think ain't got nothing
to do with it. So we just leave her right where
she is. It's every bit true. Bless his
name. We come next to a subject that
offends the popular notion of free will. Men are known to have
said, God cannot violate my free will. Well, you need not worry
about that because you ain't got a free will. In 1 Corinthians 4, 7, who makes
you to differ from another? If you love Christ and worship
Him Who made you to differ from another? And what do you have
that you did not receive? Now, if you received it, why
do you glory or boast as if you had not received it? We're so stingy. We don't wish
to acknowledge what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for our
poor souls. And we try to squeeze in our
own selves for some of the compliments and, oh, you're such a wonderful
person. No wonder God saved you. Baloney. Baloney. That ain't it. If God does not violate my free
will, I'll never know him. Did you hear me? Number five, the gospel declares
God's wrath against sin and offends man's God who is all love. Now I hope, gosh I hope there
ain't nobody here that can possibly believe that God is not just,
He's not righteous, He's not holy. My soul, the Bible is so
full of examples and statements that use those words that I cannot
imagine anyone claiming otherwise. Let me read you another verse
from 2 Corinthians this time. Casting down imaginations and
every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge
of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ." Wow, what a statement indeed. The gospel declares God's wrath
against sin. Number six, this gospel that we find everywhere
in our Bibles, declares God's determination to provide a perfect
righteousness for sinners. If I have any righteousness,
if you have any righteousness, it better be God's gift in Christ. Because if we think we have come
up with it by our own efforts, we have missed everything that
this Bible talks about. Let me read you a statement out
of Romans 10. This determination on God's part
to provide a perfect righteousness not for good people. I forgot to Sunday that I preached
on a statement in Romans 5. Let's see. Oh my soul. Well, I'm only two
pages away. I'll just see if I can find it. Romans 5 verse 6 I've told you this many times
there's a fellow sitting right about where Thomas Parker is
sitting right now and every Sunday morning before
I could get started preaching he's already asleep so I deliberately chose this
text and I was determined before he got into his sleep that I
was going to say it with enough strength and repetition that
it might just wake him up. And I'm telling you, when he
left that morning, he was mad as a wet setting hen. And here
it is in verse 6, just as plain as day in our Bibles. If people
don't believe something, they don't care how many times it's
in this book. They just read over it. We did the same thing. For when we were yet or still
without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. My, my, what a statement indeed. Number six, did I get to that
one yet? I don't think I did. Yes or no? Oh, I've already covered
it. Wow. Well, I was supposed to
read you Romans 10, 3 and 4, for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Now that's a lot of righteousness in one sentence. Look it over. Make sure you understand what
it's actually saying and not what our human nature wants it
to say. Number seven. This is the last
one. Shucks, I got plenty of time.
That Christ and Him crucified is the only way of salvation. You cannot have God's favor except
in and by and through His Son. He said in John 6, 44, no man
comes to the Father but by me. And again in John, no man can
come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him And
I'll raise him up at the last day. And in 1 Corinthians once
more, there is no other foundation than Jesus Christ. Let me read
it to you. It'll make more sense. Other
foundation can no man lay than that that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. Can't have two foundations, just
one. It is Christ and Him crucified.
Then we read in Acts chapter 4, a very similar statement,
that Christ and Him crucified is the only way of salvation. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved. Now, in the time that
remains, let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Well, I've got to find mine now.
Oh, there it is. 1 Corinthians 2, beginning at verse
9. Now let's see if we can read
this any better or understand it any more clearly than we did
to start with. 1 Corinthians 2.9. As it is written, eye has not
seen, nor ear heard, neither... I changed some of the verbs because
it just sounds better. Neither has it entered into the
heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that
love Him. But God has revealed them unto
us. Now you've got to find out if
you're one of these us. Everybody can't be us. I told
you about that little store at a place called Car Station in
Lower Sampson County, and somebody opened a store right there at
the railroad tracks, and it said, Us's Store. But I promise you
that Us's is not an unlimited thing. It's either two or three
people or a few more, I don't know how many, that it belongs
to. So it doesn't belong to other
people who might want to call themselves into that us. God has revealed them unto us
by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the
deep things of God. For what man knows the things
of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so,
the things of God knows no man but the Spirit of God. It looks to me like we can't
know anything unless it is divinely revealed. I believe that's how
it is. Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things which are freely given to us of God,
which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom
teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual
things with spiritual, but the natural man, man by nature, man
apart from grace, the natural man receives not the things of
the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually understood." Well, that's it, ladies and gentlemen. Where's my wife? I didn't even
get out of breath. What are you talking about? Lord.