John chapter 16, read the first
seven verses with me. Our Lord is speaking to His disciples,
and He says, These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should
not be offended. They shall put you out of the
synagogues, yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will
think that he doeth God's service. And these things will they do
unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But
these things have I told you, that when the time shall come
you may remember that I told you of them. And these things
I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you, but now
I go my way to him that sent me. None of you asketh me whither
goest thou, Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow
hath filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth. It is expedient for you that
I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you." These things, he said in verse 1, have I spoken
unto you, the disciples, the true disciples, His chosen disciples,
that ye should not be offended. I keep saying this, His chosen
disciples, His elect, because that's what they were. That's
who they were. This was the language that our
Lord used, His elect. Look at verse, chapter 15, verse
16. Verses 15 and 16 of chapter 15. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called
you friend." We saw, didn't we, that our Lord chose His friends. He chose them. And I've called
you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have
made known unto you. You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you and ordained you. Did that offend them? Oh, no. They gloried in that. They knew
it. They marveled in it. His sovereign electing love,
mercy, and grace in choosing them. People, they marvel, they wonder,
they may. Simon Peter never got over the
marvel and the glory that the Lord Jesus Christ came by his
boat one day. He wasn't looking for crying.
He wasn't calling on the Lord. He wasn't seeking the Lord, was
he? Huh? Ask him. It's not a doctrine. Barnard used to say, selection
is not a doctrine, it's a person choosing persons. The glorious,
high, and holy, sovereign God whom we have offended. The whole
next story of Philemon and Onesimus is the story of God's sovereign,
electing, mercy, and grace to unworthy sinners. And all of
these disciples knew if Jesus Christ had not come to them,
and chose them, and revealed himself to them, they'd be lost. They'd all ended up in hell.
They all knew that. And he says, these things have
I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended. The world is
offended. Religionists are offended. The
self-righteous are offended. Everybody's offended. But not
God's chosen people. This is how you know He chose
them. They're not offended. The glory and the truth. Paul
said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. There was a time when
he hated it. He went around persecuting people
for believing it. But God... I may say that 15
times today. These are things offensive to
everyone else, but this is spoken to disciples for their comfort,
for their peace, for their joy. Do you hear the irony in this,
the paradox in that? These things that offend others,
that are offensive to everyone. Our Lord said, I've spoken these
things to you that you might not be offended. What offends
them, is not offensive to you, you glory in it. Are you with me? I've made known
these things to you, I've revealed these things to you or else they'd
be offensive. That you might not be offended
when everything I told you, He says, look at verses 2 through
4, they're going to put you out of the synagogue. The time comes
that whosoever killeth you, they're going to do it in God's name.
They're going to do it in the name of religion. They're Bible
readers, they're church goers, they're God believers, they believe
in Jesus. But they said, they're going
to kill you. Why? Verse 3, our Lord plainly
said it. They're going to do it unto you
because they don't know God and they don't know Me. It's still true, isn't it? And
this is, He said, for you that believe, that are not offended.
It's for your comfort, for your joy. Now, we're talking about
the offense of the gospel. My pastor preached a message
years ago, years ago, 35, 40 or more years ago. I have to
really stop and think of time because I've been preaching 30
some years, so it must have been 50 years ago. The title of it was, Why Men
Hate Free Grace. Why Men Hate Free Grace, the
most listened to message of all of them. Thousands of people
have listened to it. I've listened to it several times.
Well, you're going to hear it right now, okay? The offense
of the gospel. It's amazing that the gospel
is called an offense. This is what Paul said it was.
He says it's the offense of the cross. Gospel, listen to the
irony of this. Gospel means good news, but it's
offensive to everyone but sinners. See, it's good news to the helpless,
the hopeless, those that don't have a righteousness, to the
unwise, to the sinner. to the Republicans, to the harlots,
to the nobodies and the nothings. See, the offense of the cross
is this. It offends man's dignity, it offends man's worth. Man thinks
he's something when he's nothing, the scripture says. It offends
man's worth. God's worth, and I'm just quoting
to you, if you know the Bible, you'll know what I'm saying is
from God's worth. God's Word says it's none good.
No. No. Not one. Does it? It says there's none
righteous. No. Yeah, but no. Not one. There's none that seeketh
after God. But no, God says. God's true. Every man's a liar,
Scripture says. Not one. God looked down from
heaven, Psalm 14, to see if there were any that did understand.
If there were any that did seek after God. He said, there's none. Not one. This offends man's worth. Man
thinks he's something when he's nothing. Man thinks it's good
when God says he's altogether unprofitable. That's what Scripture
says then. The word is stinking. Does that
offend you? If you know anything of the plague
of your own heart, and God makes all his people to know what they
are, if you know anything about the sinfulness, the exceeding
sinfulness and deceit of your own natural heart. You know it
so, don't you? You know what you're capable
of. You know what you've done. You know what you thought. You
know what you could have done had God not prevented you. You
know what you're still capable of, don't you? Do you? Well,
I want to see some recognition here. This is to God's people
now. These things have I spoken that
you should not be offended. If this does not offend you,
bless God, you must be one of His chosen. Because this offends
a natural man. It's truth. Why would the truth
offend man? Because man doesn't like truth. This offends man's worth. You know, you're only made good
if God makes you good. You're only made righteous by
another. You have to be made righteous. You have to be given
a righteousness. It has to be imputed to you, imparted to you. You can't make yourself righteous.
You're only worthy because of someone else, what they've done
for you. Some of you are smiling. Bless God. The natural, the gospel,
the offense of the gospel, it offends man's wisdom. It offends
man's wisdom. Scripture says this, professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools. The fool has said no God. Where are the doctors, the lawyers,
the scientists, the wise, the mighty, and the noble of this
world who believe God? Who believe the truth of this
old fashion, archaic, backward Bible. Who believes that there's
a God that made everything by the works of His hand, His own
hand, fashioned it with His fingers out of nothing? Who believes
that? Why, the educated don't. The high and the mighty and the
wise, they don't believe that. Well, only a fool believes that,
they say. Surely you've got to know, here's
wisdom they say, that all of this grand and glorious and complex
and amazing thing called the world and the stars and the planet
and the sun, everything is exact order and it must be exactly
like it is or it'll all fall apart, everything held together. Surely you know that it all came
out of soup. Surely you've got to know that
mankind, this glorious creature with his mind and ability and
all of this, came from a worm? No, oh vain, wise man, thou art
the fool. How could you believe that all
of this grand and glorious and amazing creation could have just
come into existence without an all-wise, amazing creator? No man didn't come from a worm,
but he became one. I believe in a reverse evolution.
I believe man started out upright and he's now on all fours
like a monkey. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools. The foolish said, no God. This
offends man's wisdom. He cannot, the natural man receiveth
not the things of God. Foolishness to it. Neither can
he know them. Neither can he know them. Can thou by searching find out
God? Scripture says no, you can't. The wisest man, the most educated
man on earth, no matter who it is, Einstein, whoever it may
be, cannot know God. cannot figure out God, cannot
understand the God of the Bible unless He reveals Himself to
them. And Jesus Christ said this, Jesus Christ said this, I thank
Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid
these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them
unto babes. Even so, Father, it seemed good
in Thy sight. Why? that no flesh should glory
in His presence. That if you know God, He chose
you. He revealed Himself to you. You
had nothing to do with it. Not by wisdom, not by might,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. The wisdom of this world, in
fact, our Lord says, hath not God made foolish the wisdom of
this world? Educate, here's the amazing thing,
and this is the way that God works. The educated are ignorant
in His sight, while the ignorant become educated. He teaches them. They'll all be taught of God. And it must be so that no flesh
should glory in His presence. This gospel, the truth, offends
man's worth, it offends man's wisdom, it offends man's will. Go with me to John chapter 5.
John chapter 5. And if you don't have a Bible,
if you... I'm reading from God's Word.
I'm not making any of this up. This is not my opinion. These
are not my thoughts. This is God's Word. Now our Lord
said, these things have I spoken that his elect might not be offended.
And I ask you, is any of this offensive to you? Are you offended if I only told
you the truth of what God's Word said? But if not, rejoice. John 1, go to John 1. This offends
man's worth, it offends man's wisdom, and it offends man's
will. If there's anything man holds to more strongly, than
his own self-worth, or their goodness, or their wisdom. It's his will. His so-called
free will. All right, look at John 1. Verse
11, "...he came unto his own, his own received him not." What's
that? That's the Creator coming to his creatures. Surely his
creatures are noble. Surely they're noble and worthy,
and they will receive Him, and, oh, wonderful, our Creator is
here, we'll give Him homage, we'll pay Him His due, we'll
worship Him." No, they didn't receive Him. Why? Because of
what we've been saying. Man's a rebel, he's a sinner. Our Lord said, I came because
they uncovered their sin and they don't like it. Verse 12,
"...but as many as received Him, To them gave He power, the right,
the privilege to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on His name." Well, you see there, preacher? You've got to receive
Him. As preachers, all, nearly all
preachers, so-called, say today, you've got to accept Jesus as
your personal Savior. You've got to let go and let
God. You've got to let God into your life. You've got to make
Him Lord of your life. You've got to receive Him, you
see, and you've got to believe. Well, is there a period at the
end of that sentence? Is there a period at the end
of that sentence? It's a colon. That means what's about to be
said explains what is said before. Anybody know English grammar? It was my best subject in school.
A colon means what's about to follow is going to explain what
it just said. Look at it. As many as received Him, verse
12, to them gave He power, the right, the privilege, it's a
high honor and a privilege, to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name, which were born. Now, did you have anything to
do with your birth? Did you? It'd be an offense to
your parents, wouldn't it, if you said, yeah, I was there,
and I let my mother have me, My mother asked me, son, I just
want to give birth to you, if you just let me, I can't do it
if you don't cooperate. That's foolish, isn't it? Well,
isn't this so-called salvation today foolishness? It says, read
on, verse 12, verse 13, which were born not of blood, not because
you're Jew, not because you're Baptist, not of the will of the
flesh, Not anybody, nobody willed you
into this, nobody convinced you, nobody, not of the will of man. How plain can that be, Teresa?
How plain can God's Word be? Born of God. Our Lord said to
that Nicodemus, that master in Israel, are you a master in Israel
and you don't understand these things? You're teaching people
and you don't understand? He said, I say unto you, old
Pharisee, old teacher of men, old religious man, you must be
born again. You're not born again, or you'd
know these things. You must be born, not get born,
be born. Somebody must give birth to you. It must be from above. It must
be of God. If God doesn't do something for
you, you won't be saved. You won't have life. If God doesn't give you faith,
you won't believe. If God doesn't draw you, you
won't come. If God doesn't teach you, you
won't know. If Christ doesn't make you righteous,
you'll remain unrighteous. They were not born of blood,
of the will of the flesh, or the will of man, but of God. Of God. John 5, go over there
with me. These things have I spoken unto
you that you should not be offended." John 5. This offends man's will,
his so-called free will. Look at John 5.21. Our Lord Jesus
Christ lays free will in the dust where it belongs. John 5.21. He said, you have it? John 5.21,
"...as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them." Even so, the Son quickeneth whom
He will." Is that what it says? Whom He will. Ask Lazarus, Lazarus, did you
raise yourself? Lazarus, did you call on the
Lord? Did He call you? Lazarus, did
you decide to come forth? Or did He decide it before you
came forth? And you, Hath he quicken who
were dead? That's the favorite verse, favorite
verses of all his disciples. Ephesians 2, they know it by
heart, they can quote it. All of God's people can quote
it by heart. For by grace you say, through
faith, and that's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. It's not
of works, you see. Lest any man should boast, not
of will, you see, but of his own will, begat he us with the
word of truth." Does that offend you? That's amazing grace. Some in
here are smiling. I've preached to people that
you can see the veins start popping out on the neck. You see their
teeth start gritting, their fists start clenching. and can't wait
to get out fast enough. While some, His true disciples,
His chosen ones, they don't want to leave. And they want to hear
it again next Sunday. Our Lord said, Do you see what he's saying?
These things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended.
He said it way earlier. He said, blessed is he that is
not offended in me, my sovereignty, my sovereign will. Look at verse 39, John 5. Search the Scripture.
Now he's talking to some Pharisees who studied and read and could
quote the Bible. He said, search the Scripture.
You do search the Scripture. And in them you think you have
eternal life. That they are they which testify
of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. Is that what he said? You will
not. Look at John 6. John chapter
6. Look at it. John chapter 6. And I don't want to preach this
in a way... I'm sorry, forgive me if I appear... I don't want to appear... God's people don't glory in their
own wisdom or what they know, How can I say this? I preach it boldly and emphatically
because it's the truth. And this is how I heard it. See,
a proud man, his pride's got to be broken. His will has to
be offended. This is the first thing God does
when He begins to save a religious person, is He offends their will. He offends their wisdom. He offends
their He offends them, their works. It needs to be offended,
because it's an offense to God. See, man's an offense to God.
Man's the one that's an offense, and he's got to know that, so
that he'll come down off of his high horse, where he belongs,
at the feet of a sovereign Lord, asking for mercy at the hands
of God, asking God not to give him what he deserved, but rather
asking Him to give him what he does not deserve. See, salvation is not for the
worthy, it's for the unworthy. It's not for the righteous, it's
for the unrighteous. Look at John 6 verse 37, "...all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me." He said over in
John 10 that the Father gave them me before the world began,
chose them, put their names in the Lamb's book of life. Does
that offend you? Well, it's the truth. Does that offend you? That ought to make you smile.
Have you come to Christ? Have you come to Christ? seeking
mercy, and seeking grace, and seeking salvation, and asking
for pardon, asking for forgiveness, asking for righteousness. Have
you come to cry? Do you come and you need to hear
Christ? Christ, Christ, Christ. The man sitting back there told
me one Sunday, he said, keep preaching, cry. Why? Because
sinners, he's their only hope. Sinners know that if Christ doesn't
save us, we won't be saved. If Christ didn't choose me, I
wouldn't have chose him. If Christ doesn't keep me, I
won't be kept. If the Spirit of God doesn't
keep me from leaving, I'm a goner. Keep telling me about the One,
my Savior. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out." Not for any reason. Boy, if you know the plague of
your heart, if you know what you thought this morning that
God ought to send you to hell for, you know that your salvation
depends upon that promise of the Lord Jesus Christ, that I
will in no wise cast them out. It's shatting ground, people.
For sinners it is. Verse 38, For I came from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all
which he hath given me. That's election. That's a covenant
of grace that happened before the world began, given to Christ
in His covenant of grace. The great high priest, names
given to him, that he'd come and save the particular people
by his sovereign grace and mercy and bloodshed, his righteousness
imputed, this is the Father's will, this is God's will, that
all he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day." And that's exactly what he came
to do. Look at verse 44. He said, no
man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw
him. Does that offend you? And I will raise him up at the
last day. I will. Look at verse 60. Verse 60. Many of his disciples,
or they seem to be, when they heard this said, this is hard.
Who could hear it? They murmured. Verse 61, Christ,
when Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples murmured at, not
James, not John, not Peter, not Andrew, but those who, they seemed
like they were disciples. He said, does this offend you?
Look down at verse 64. He said, there are some of you
that believe not. Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not, who should betray Him. How did
He know that? Because the foundation of God
stands. Sure, the Lord knoweth them that
are His. How does He know those that are
His? He foreknew them. Does this offend you? Romans
8, 28. Doesn't offend most everybody.
For we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God. That's generally where they stop.
Everybody loves that. Everybody believes that. But
no, no, go on now. It doesn't stop there. There's
not a period. For we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, who are thee called according to
his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, that
is, love before the world began, choose. He did predestinate. He did predestinate, predetermined
to be His children, choose, elect to be His children, be conformed
to the image of Christ. And for whom He did predestinate,
He called by the gospel. They've got to hear the gospel.
They will. They will. It's the power of God unto salvation.
And whom He called, He justified. He gave them this faith to believe
on Him. Not in themselves, not in their
works, not in their faith, but in their Savior, in their Lord,
the Lord their righteousness. And they are justified by faith
without works. And whom He justified, He glorified. They see His glory, they glory
in the gospel, and they'll be with Him in glory someday. Does this offend you? I'm smiling,
I'm laughing. No, I didn't have anything to
do with it. You're looking at the prodigal son. You're looking
at a gutter dweller. You're looking at an object of
God's sovereign, electing, saving grace. You're looking at a person
you wouldn't have had anything to do with but God. in sovereign mercy chose me to
reveal His Son and His truth to me. I'll never get over it. And I've
got one message. Listen to Romans 8 and Romans
9. Does this offend you? The children
Romans 9-11, the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to
election, might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. You see, it is not of him that
willeth, or of him that runneth, but it is of God that showeth
mercy. And whom he willeth, he hardeneth. What shall we say
to these things? Does that offend you? Bonnie, you must be chosen. She's
back there smiling. No, it doesn't offend me. Do
you like this? Yes, I like this. Want to hear it again Wednesday?
Yeah, I love it. Bonnie, you're chosen. You're a friend of God.
Chosen, loved, redeemed, kept. You've beheld His glory. He's
glorified you and letting you know His glory. You're a beloved
daughter of Abraham, and you and Hooker are going to be standing
right there at His feet sometime, real soon. It's not free will, people, it's
God's sovereign will. It's not man's choice. It's God's
choice. It's not man's works. It's God's work. It's Christ's
work. It's the Spirit's work. It's
not our faith even. This faith is given. We're kept
by the power of God. Salvation is by grace, not of
works lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship. Titus
3 and I'll close. Titus chapter 3. Titus 3. This sums it up right here. lest
anyone should say that we preach and teach that, you know, works
are not necessary. They're not. They are necessary.
They're proof. They're proof that God has done
a saving work. But works don't save us. Works
don't save us and they don't keep us safe. In Titus chapter 3, look at this. It says in verse 3, now we ourselves,
now Paul, who's writing this? Paul the Apostle. Not a finer
man was than Paul the Apostle. He said, we. Oh, it's a faithful
saying, worthy of all acceptation. Christ came to save sinners.
And Paul said, I'm the chief. Not I was, but I am. He says,
we ourselves also were sometimes foolish and disobedient, deceived,
serving divers lust and pleasure, living in malice, envy, hateful,
hating one another. But, Titus 3, 4, but, after that
the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us by the washing of our generation. Who
washed who? He did it, by the renewing of
the Holy Ghost. which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Go on. That being justified by
His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. Now this is a faithful sinner.
And these things, he said, I would, that you should keep telling
me. Our Lord said, these things Have
I spoken unto you that you should not be offended? You're going
to be offended. Now, they were sorrowful. Let me touch on this
a minute. They were sorrowful. Look at it. Look at John 16 back
there again. Look at it. Verses 5. He said,
I go my way, John 16, 5. I go my way to him that sent
me. Now remember before he said,
if you'd been listening, you'd rejoice because I said I'm going
to the pot, I'm going away, but you're not listening." He said, you don't ask me, none
of you asking me, that means they're too afraid to ask. They
don't want this to happen. This is, to them, the worst thing
that could happen, but it's the best thing that could
happen. It's the best thing. Nothing good is going to come
unless this worst thing happens. But because I said this, verse
6, I've said these things unto you. Sorrow hath filled your
heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. I'm telling you the
truth. It's necessary. It's expedient that I go away.
I'm going to send the Comforter. If I don't go away, He won't
come to you. What's the Comforter going to do? In the next chapter,
He's going to tell us what the Comforter does, what the Holy
Spirit does. It's all the gospel then. He just reminds them and
just repeats. All He does is repeat. what Christ
had already said that they didn't hear it. He said, now sorrow is filling
your heart. I'm going away. And we have legitimate, we have
real sorrows, real troubles, real trials, real affliction. They didn't want to go through
that. They didn't want to be hated. They didn't want to be
persecuted. They didn't want to be killed. I didn't want all these things
to happen that the Lord said, but He said it's going to happen.
But rejoice. In another place He said, My
joy I give unto you. My peace I leave with you. My
peace I give unto you. And I say these things, you're
going to be sorrowful, but that your joy might be full. Do you
understand? These things are going to happen
because this is a sinful, evil world. It's not a good place.
It's not going to get better. It's getting worse. And it's only going to get worse
until God says, that's it. It's over. I'm through with this
place. And we have legitimate sorrows.
We weep over ourselves. We weep over our children. We
have trials and afflictions and trouble because we live in this
place. But our Lord said, rejoice. Why? Your names are written in
heaven. Here's the illustration. Later, the disciples are going
to rejoice, though they're all going to be killed. They're beaten. They're maligned. They're hated.
All manner of things said against them falsely. They're hated. One time, Peter and James and
John were beaten within an inch of their life, and it says they
went home rejoicing. Can you understand that? Can
you explain that? You know why? Because if it wasn't for the
grace of God, they'd have been the ones doing the beating instead
of getting the beating. They'd have been the ones hating
the truth and hating the men that were telling it instead
of the ones that were getting the beating. Was that joyful, getting beaten?
No, but it's proof to them. Christ said this would happen.
All we did was tell the truth. We must be chosen. We must be
loved. We must be His own. Horatio Spafford,
this is the illustration. Horatio Spafford, who wrote the
song, It Is Well With My Soul, lost all of his daughters in
a shipwreck. Lost them all. Do you know the
inexpressible sorrow that that man had? But the thing that gave him great
joy His joy was full, with tears running down his face, and sorrow
over his lost children. Yet a smile on his face, he wrote
these words, My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought, My
sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I
bear them no more. Praise the Lord, it is well with
my soul. Do you know what he's talking
about? These things have I spoken unto you. They're going to kill
you if they can. But I've chosen you. Okay.