I want to bring a message today,
and you find the subject in verse 11. Remember my subject in verse
11. He said, And I, brethren, if
I yet preach circumcision, if I preach the If I preach keeping
ceremonies and rituals to be accepted of God, that anything
that you do can make you clean before God, make you acceptable
before God, why do I yet suffer persecution? Why are people still
despised and hate the gospel that I preach? Why was I put
in prison? Why was I persecuted? Why was
I beaten? Beaten three times with rods. Why was that? Why was I put in
stocks? That's what he's saying. Why did I yet suffer persecution?
Well, if I was not suffering persecution and I was preaching
circumcision, then the offense of the cross is ceased. That's
why. He said, if I quit suffering
persecution, then I took the offense out of the cross. If
I don't upset people, I took the offense out of the cross.
get folks to understand what the gospel is, then I took the
offense out of the cross. Now, we've heard a lot about
Muslims and Islam and how moderate they are and all this kind of
stuff, but I'll tell you something. The gospel, the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ is the
most peaceful, the most gentle, the most mild, the most benevolent
religion which has ever been preached on the face of this
earth. It has. Our Lord Jesus Himself says,
you know, if a man smites you on the right cheek, give him
your left. If he asks you to coat, give him your cloak also. If he offends you, forgive him. How many times? Seventy times
seven. He said, pray for them which
despisefully use you. Bless them that curse you. These
are the things that we do. But the other side, they get to go to heaven when
they hurt you and kill you. We offend our master and dishonor
our religion when we even think wrong of somebody. And we feel
condemned for it. That's the difference in the
gospel. and what God does in his people's
heart. And that's why I say you compare it with any other religion.
You compare it with Islam or Mohammedanism. You compare it
with the Jews' religion. Even the Jews. Look what they've
done to our Lord Jesus Christ. Look what they've done to his
disciples and his apostles. And our Lord says, which of the
prophets have you not stoned? Which of the prophets have you
not killed? You know, they pick up stones to stone Moses one
day. Murmuring against him. And yet,
as gentle as the gospel is, and as gentle and as peaceable as
the believers of it is, the gospel itself is offensive. It's offensive. It offends men. The Christian
religion, the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ, has caused
more disturbance in this world than anything else. You look
in the early church. You look in the early church.
They would not let it have any peace. And how many persecutions
have happened down through the centuries. There was a persecution
in the third century where they tried to wipe out Christianity
off the face of the earth. And the first murder that happened
was over religion. Look with me over in 1 John 3,
verse 12, and I'll show you. You know, and you look at, and then Mary, Queen
of Scots, my soul, how many people did she kill and persecute? Called her Bloody Mary. Nero,
he and the Romans would use Christians as as torches to light the streets
at night, set them on fire. They would take them out and
feed them to lions. They would hang them in a big
old gut-like of a thing, and then they'd let the lions jump
up and get them and bite them and scratch them and eat them.
And folks would scream and holler and rejoice in that as those
things went on. And when they'd burn them at
the stake, where's your God at now? Where's your God at now? And they would go to that gladly.
They never fought back, never resisted. Of course they were
scared. Of course they suffered. Of course
they prayed. Of course they didn't want to
go through those things. Nobody rejoices in suffering. That all my Christianity The
Bible religion, the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ has
always been despised. Look here in verse 12 of 1 John
chapter 3. Look in verse 11 first. For this
is the message that you heard from the beginning. Who told
it? Christ did. That we should love
one another. Not like Cain, who was of that
wicked one, and slew his brother. Why did he slay his brother?
Why did he kill him? Because his own works were evil,
and his brothers were righteous. He says, your very righteousness
condemns me. Your very righteousness, and
not letting me have my righteousness of my own making. And of that,
did God accept you, and not me? And I'm the best fellow there
ever was. I've done the best work that you ever could do.
I've got the best fruit of the ground. And God won't accept
me except you. I can't stand that." And he killed
his own brother. And all beloved, the gospel is
not a sword, and yet it's brought war into the world. It's the
gospel of peace, but yet it's separated veterans. And the cross of Christ has always
been an offense. It has provoked fierce battles
and strife between men as long as there has been men on earth.
It started out of the garden. But look what it says here. What
makes the cross an offense? What makes it? What makes the
cross an offense? What does it? What does it? Paul here is talking about Christ
becoming of no effect to you there in verse 4. If you're justified
by the law, you've fallen from grace. And you cannot get a legalist
to believe that, no matter what you tell him. You tell him over
and over and over again, if you seek to be justified by anything
you do, any work you do, that you've fallen from grace, and
if you've fallen from grace, that means you don't believe
in grace, and you'll perish. And they come down there and
they say, wait a minute. Wait a minute. That's offensive
to me. But what makes the cross offensive? Because, first of all, the way
it deals with all human wisdom, the way it deals with all human
wisdom, when you face the cross and you face the gospel, you
know what the gospel says? The gospel says your opinion,
your philosophy, your ideas, Your beliefs are absolutely nothing,
not a zero, apart from the cross and the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Huh? The philosopher, he says, it's
just too simple. I need to know the origin of
the universe. I need to know where the human
race is. I need to figure out why man's the way he is. I need
to figure out how I got to be here and what my purpose is.
And he goes into all these Ideas and all this human wisdom and
beloved and the philosopher says that's just too simple it cannot
be that play that one man to bear the sins of so many and
make him acceptable to God By all my wisdom and all my learning
and all my education and my PhDs and my DDDs and LDDs don't amount
to nothing. That's what God said Paul said, I was a Pharisee.
A Pharisee is a Hebrew of Hebrews. Touching the law, I was a Pharisee
and I had to rise as the law. And people looked at me and said,
that fellow's going to heaven if anybody's going. And he says,
you know what? It's all done. And the Jew, The Jew, there's
not enough ceremony for him, not enough cleanliness for him,
not enough ritual for him, not enough washings, not enough candle
burnings, not enough mysticism about him. And that's why, beloved,
we preach Christ crucified under the Jews as he stumbles over
it. Over the philosopher, the Greek, he says, that's just foolishness. But, boy, to those who are called,
it's the very power and wisdom of God. And oh, what about the
controversialists? There's the people who like to
argue. There are people that like to argue. There's people
that want a controversy all the time. And whenever you tell them
the gospel and preach the gospel to them, the gospel is dogmatic. And it is dogmatic. There's no
ifs, ands, or buts about it. Just, you know, people don't
like people that's dogmatic, that's absolutely sure what they
believe. And the gospel is dogmatic, and things must be believed or
men will perish. There ain't but one gospel. And
that's why Paul's saying, I hope this felon that's come in there
and brought you this law and brought you this ceremony and
brought you this rizal and made you turn from Christ, I hope
that God, I hope he bears his judgment and leaves you folks
alone. But he wants to argue with you.
Look back over here in Galatians 1. He wants to argue with you.
He said, I want my beliefs. Well, that's just the way you
see things. No, no, that's the way God sees things. Huh? He wants to argue. He wants to have his beliefs.
He doesn't believe in depravity. Every man's completely depraved,
but he's real. He doesn't believe in election.
That makes God unfair. And he says that we don't give
no leeway. We will not budge to the left
or to the right. We lay line upon line, precept
upon precept, and if it's not according to the law and the
testimony, it's because there's no light in them, and we preach
that and believe that, and Paul did, and they said, wait a minute! You mean to tell me after all
my life and all my work and all my religion and all my praying
and all my Bible reading and all my living good, it don't
amount to nothing? That's what the gospel says.
Look here in Galatians 1.6. Oh my, I marvel, I marvel that you
are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace
of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, or cannot
be but one, but thus be some that trouble you, and listen
to it, would pervert the gospel of Christ. What does it take
to pervert the gospel of Christ? Add anything, anything, anything,
or take anything away from the person of Christ, and you've
perverted the whole thing. A little leaven leavens the whole
bunch. And look what he says. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you that we have preached
unto you, let him be accursed. What is the gospel he preaches?
Let it be known unto you, men and brethren, that through this
man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him
you can be justified from all things which you could not be
by the law of Moses." Huh? And oh, listen. And, oh, let
him be accursed. As I said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you. If he
brings you any law, if he brings you any merit, if he brings you
any work to do, if he brings you tithe paid, if he brings
you sincerity, if he brings you resolve, if he brings you get
your home in order, whatever he brings you, he says, let him
be accursed. For do I now persuade men or
God? God doesn't need to be persuaded
to change. Huh? And if I seek to please man,
then I'm not pleasing God. That's what he says here. And
oh, beloved, and let me tell you something. Oh, he wants to
argue about it. Well, let him argue. The fellow
don't want to believe the gospel, that's his problem, it ain't
mine. I'm going to tell, we got to tell it. And the liberal-minded
man, that fellow, you know, that's just, he's got, he's so broad-minded.
Ecumenical. Broad-minded. He's so broad-minded
that everybody's right. There ain't nobody wrong. Everything's
relative now. You know it's relative to this,
and it's relative to that. And you know, and there's existentialism. You can have this, you can have
that other thing. But he can't stand. This broad-minded person,
where everybody's right, we're all going to end up in the same
place. He cannot stand authority. Oh no, he can't stand it. Whenever
you stand up and say, no, that's not right. God says, God, like
Phaedra, who is the Lord that I should obey Him? But God says,
And all He can stand is someone knowing and being as sure and
as positive about something as He is. And when you stand true
to the gospel of the free grace of God in Christ, stand true
to man's utter and hopelessness before God, that Jesus Christ
in His blood and righteousness is the only hope for any sinner. And that's not Catholicism, or
Muslim, or anything else. There's only one salvation, one
gospel, and that's Jesus Christ, and who He is, and what He done.
And, oh, beloved, and didn't you tell these fellas that the
gospel, the cross, is a revelation? You can't educate your way into
it. You can't educate your children. You can't be baptized into it.
You can't open your ears and pour it in. That's the gospel.
is a revelation. The cross is a revelation. If
you ever see it, understand it, or know it, God's got to give
you eyes to see, an understanding to believe. He enlightens you. God can understand it. That's
why He says, you know this, He says, it's never entered into
the heart of man what God hath prepared for them that love Him.
But the next verse says, but God hath revealed Him unto us. Oh my! And I'll tell you something
else, the cross is offensive not only because of the way it
deals with human wisdom and everybody's arguments and all that. It's
against all the notions and beliefs of human ability that people
have. Now let me tell you something. I'll tell you what's not offensive.
You tell a man that the power to save themselves is within
themselves. You tell a man and tell a congregation
that Christ died to make them savable. That He just opened
a door if you have sense enough to go through. If you tell them
that they've got a free will and that when God enables them
and gives them the opportunity and gives them a chance to be
saved, that they'll take the opportunity to be saved when
He gives them the chance. And that if grace comes, that
they'll cooperate with that grace. That don't offend anybody. That
don't make anybody mad. Huh? No one will get offended
about that. You know why? All you'll do is
feed his pride. Make him set back. Ah, boy. Boy, I must be something. God loves me. Jesus died for
me. I tell you what, one of these
days, there ain't no way in the world I can go to hell with a
bargain like that. And right before I get ready
to leave this world, I say, Oh, Jesus saved me! And you know
what? He'll do it! Because that's what
He come to do, to save people like me, when I get ready. And
oh, what an honor, feed His pride, boost His ego. Oh my, God's going
to shut a man's mouth, and He's going to put him in the dust
if He's ever going to save him. God said over in Isaiah, he come
to stain the pride of men. Job said he had taken the crown
off my head. He took it off my head. And Isaiah,
he come to stain the pride of men. Pride, oh beloved. In order to tell a man that faith
is something he possesses, and he just needs to exercise it. That's not offensive. I've got
something, you know, and one of these days I'm going to exercise.
In fact, he exercises every time he gets in trouble. I said, oh,
he'll call on his God and he'll do like all those fellas did,
you know, when Jonah was in the well, in the boat. Oh, Lord save
us, save us. But the only way they could be
saved was for Jonah to go to hell for them. Jonah to go in
the belly of hell. Jonah to go in that well. Jonah
to go down in there. They called on their gods, they
threw things off the ship. I mean, they had faith. And there's
exorcising the hound out of it. Oh, but listen, to tell him the
truth. Bring him down in the dust. Tell
him that no man, no man, no man, no doctor, no lawyer, no peasant,
no president, no nobody, No man can come unto me except the Father
which hath sent me. Draw him. And as it is written
in the prophets, they shall all be taught of God. And everyone
that hath heard, and learned of the Father, he got one place
left to go, and that's the only place he will go, and that's
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell him that he's dead in trespasses
and sins, and a dead man can't believe, a dead man can't see,
a dead man can't hear, a dead man's got a stony heart. I'll
weep over my own children. I'll say, oh God, their hearts
are so hard. Their hearts are so cruel. Their
hearts are so wicked. And oh God, only you can take
that heart out and take it out and put it in a woman. Only he
can do it. Tell him he's dead. He can't
speak. And that God has to give him life. That he must be born
again. And that's something only God
does. Tell him that he's alive. That's
what God said he was. Telling he's just a piece of
clay on the potter's wheel. God can make him a vessel of
honor or make him a vessel of dishonor. And oh, he'll get up
and say, ah, preacher, I just don't like bleeping. He said,
cry! What shall I cry? All flesh is
grass. Grass. That's all it is. And oh, beloved, and I tell you,
that's why the cross is offensive. A man can talk about his ability
all he wants. He can talk about his power,
he can talk about his rights, he can talk about his choices.
He can talk about his power, he can talk about his wisdom,
he can talk about human rights, women rights, civil rights, every
right you talk about. But for God, he ain't got no
ability whatsoever. You may have ability to do a
lot of things in this world. You may have the ability to go
into these theorems and take you ten years to write out one
mathematical equation. You may have the wisdom and the
power to train people to do great, glorious things. But when it
comes into the presence of God, you've got no ability whatsoever.
And if God don't give it to you, you'll go to hell just as sure
as a mark goes to its gourd. Now that's offensive to people. That's offensive. You might be
the best surgeon and saved a thousand lives in your time. But before God, put your knife
away. Get in the dust. Ain't that right? And I'll tell you what else is
what makes it offensive. What men think about human merit.
Man thinks he's worth something. Thinks he's really worth something.
And how many people say, I'm as good as anybody else? That ain't saying absolutely
nothing. That's absolutely saying nothing. I remember one time
I was going out to the graveyard to
help dig a grave. And I got there late because I thought it was
a different time. And when I got there, one fellow
said, I was just telling these fellows how sorry you was, and
said, wondering if you was even going to show up. It started
going on and on about me, and I said, well... And there's a
whole bunch of men standing around, and I said, you know what? I
said, boy, you ain't told a half of it. You ain't told a half
of it. Everything you said is true and
more. Shut up just like that. Shut up just like that. Thought
I went in there and started trying to defend myself. Well, listen,
you know, start trying to justify myself
for being late, he would have just really jumped on me. But
I just said, Ben, you ain't told. Listen, you ain't told a half
of these fellas don't know anything about me, Wayne. If you knew
me like you would, if you felt so, I'm telling you the truth.
If you all knew me like I know me, and if God knows me, you
would never have me in your home sit at your table. That's how
sorry he would have been. I ain't got no marriage. What
merit do I have? What worth do I have before God? Now, our children have some merit
to us, some worth to us. You have some worth to me. But
when it comes to God, we have no worth whatsoever. We can't
bring anything. We can't bring any merit. We
can't bring anything we've done. We can't bring, we can't be like
the Boy Scouts and bring all of our badges, merit badges with
us. We can't do like Granny, you
know, that hasn't missed a Sunday school and she's got all of her
Sunday school badges. God don't care about your Sunday
school badges when you go to Him. And you might put fish symbols
on your car and put crosses on your lapel and all these things,
but those things don't merit anything before God. No. And I'll tell you what, beloved,
a man hates to part with his righteousness. He don't care,
you know, talking about his sins, because he ain't perfect, but
you know, when you start talking about his righteousness, he don't
want to part with his righteousness. He don't want to part with his
goodness. He don't want to part with what he's done, what he
perceives to be right. And I've never met anybody yet,
I don't care if they was a drunk and begging for a quarter, I've
never met anybody anywhere that did not have a righteousness
of their own. They're not as bad as the other
person. There's always somebody worse than them. And oh, beloved,
a man has to part. Let me tell you something. George
Whitefield said this, a man will have to part with his sin, his
sins, and the hardest thing he'll part
with is his righteousness. But that's what he'll have to
do. And that's hard to do. I remember when I first heard
the gospel, when somebody first confronted me with the gospel
and election and human inability and powerlessness, I'd read Arthur
W. Pink and I'd just put to death
and I'd say, man, there ain't no hope for me. I just, you know,
he just talked about how helpless and how unable we are to do anything.
There's nothing we can bring. And oh, the preaching of salvation
by grace. That's what he said here, you
know. Christ has become effect unto you, whosoever you are justified
by the law. Oh my, anything that you want
to be justified by. And I'm telling you, if you even
want to be justified, and I don't know how to say this, if you
don't want to be justified by your faith, it's not our faith
that saves us, it's Christ that saves us. It's the object of
our faith. Our faith has no merit in it. Christ has got all the merit.
Christ did all the work. Oh, and destroys all merit. Sinners
have to think they have. Look with me over here in Matthew
19. Just a moment. Keep Galatians
there. Look over here in Matthew 19
with me. Let me show you something here. Oh, my. Just like old poor Elber Blalock. I never will forget it. One time,
you know, he called me over to his house, and I'd been preaching
a while, and he'd had a profession, and most of it got converted,
and he had a big old hog house and had that thing full of hogs,
and he called me over to his house one day. He said, Brother
Donnie, we'll talk to you. We sat down at his hog house.
We sat in these old white five-gallon buckets set up on their ends.
He said, Brother Donnie, he said, how in the world could I be saved?
He says, you know, he said, I am worse than these hogs. I'm just,
I'm trash, I'm garbage, I'm filthy, I'm wretched, I'm this, I ain't
nothing to me. He started telling me how awful
he was, how sorry he was. He's talking a language that
only God's people talk. That's what we're talking about.
That's what the gospel does. It confirms this idea of merit. Oh, that's what he said. And
oh, bless God. He's in the presence of the Lord
now rejoicing. That's a man that couldn't read. But he knew Christ. Oh, what
a blessing. Look here in Matthew 19 and verse
16 with me. And behold, one came and said
unto him, Good master, listen to it, what good thing, what
good thing, what merit can I bring that I shall do that I may have
eternal life? He said unto me, Why do you call
me good? There's none good, but one, that's God, and it's the
goodness of God that leads you to repentance. But if you will
enter into life, keep the commandments. Just keep them. And he said unto
him, Which? Which ones? Well, don't do murder, don't
commit adultery, don't steal, don't bear fault witness, honor
your father, your mother, and you love your neighbors yourself.
Now watch this, the young man said unto him, All these things
have I kept from my youth, I've done so. I've got some merit
here. I've accomplished some things in my life. And look what
he asked here. What could I possibly lack yet?
What could I possibly lack? What's missing? If that's all
it takes, what's missing? What's missing? And that's what
a lot of folks think. You know, I've got it all. There
can't be nothing missing. Can't be nothing missing. What
could I possibly lack? And all they despise to say,
I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. Jesus Christ is my all
in all. Oh, but listen, didn't you cry
a lot when you got to? No, I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all. Jesus Christ is my all in all.
Ain't you done some kind of a work since the Lord saved you to prove
you saved? I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. Jesus Christ
is my all in all. Ain't you went and done something
good for your neighbor that make God to look at you just a little
bit? I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. Jesus Christ and all
that. He just keeps saying, I ain't
done nothing. Oh, beloved. Let me tell you, let me hurry
on. I've got to hurry. I'll tell you another reason
why the cross is offensive and the gospel is offensive. It makes
no distinction in man. Makes no distinction in man at
all. The preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the cross, is
not a respect of persons. And what I mean by that is that
God looks at every man exactly the same. Now, we don't do that. We have respect of persons. We
do. We have respect of persons, and
we ought to respect people's offices, honor them who are worthy
of honor, glory to the glory, who glory do, dues to whom dues
do, you know. And listen, these are the things
we do. We respect men's offices, we respect their persons, we
respect a lot of things about a lot of people. But when it
comes to the cross, when it comes before God, no matter who you
are, What position you hold, how much power you've got, what
accomplish—God looks at you like He looks at anybody else. The cross makes the moral and
the immoral, the cross makes the mutter and the harlot come
the same way. The cross makes the drunk And
the fellow who never took a dram in his life comes the same way.
The gospel makes the preacher who finds out he's lost and makes
that philosopher come to the same place. The gospel takes that fellow
who Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, the two richest men in the world,
the gospel makes them just like you and me, who ain't got hardly
two pennies to rub together. They're going to have to come
jacked the same way. I love that. That's one thing.
Oh, that's one of the most glorious things about the gospel. Yeah. That's why, you know, you don't
get impressed with people by what they do and all that. Oh, it takes that fellow whether
he's got one talent or ten talents They've got to come the same
way. That fellow that starts out early in the morning, works
all day, gets in line first, he says, here, you've got a penny.
Here comes that fellow that works just one hour, he comes in last
to give him a penny. Oh, that ain't fair, that ain't
fair. The Gospel says everybody gets the same. I'm not going to get a reward
in heaven that you're going to get. Christ is our reward. To have life is our reward. To
have His righteousness. To have His marriage. To have
His obedience. What more could a person possibly
want than that? Build my cabin next door to Jesus. The Pharisees, do you know what
they said about Him? He eats Republicans and Harlots. Whoa, what an horrible man. How
come you're nice to these Republicans and harlots? Oh, and he says,
look here, he said, he's a friend of sinners. He's a friend of sinners. He's
sitting over there eating with a bunch of sinners. If this man
knew what man or woman she was, she wouldn't even let him touch him. I said, publican. I hope
I didn't say republican. I hope I didn't say it. I'll
have to listen back and make sure. I'll be like old Papaw
Bridges. Them Republicans and sinners
scratching the board. If you gather it all with you,
them Republicans and sinners will be scratching the board.
That's what he used to say. And he had a wife, too, that
told him, said, Papaw, don't say that. I've got a wife. Married a wife. If I say Republican,
she's going to know about it. But he's Republican. Oh, that's why he says, you know,
that our Lord says the Publicans and the Harlots, he told the
Pharisees, will go into the kingdom of God before you. He said, you
know, John came preaching, telling about me, and you didn't believe
him. And you didn't receive Him. And
all these publicans in Harlem, these miserable, wretched sinners
that you find not fit to sit down and eat a meal with, he
says, you know what? They believe John, and they're
going to glory. Now, let me hurry up and tell
you this. How do the world of people show
their offense against the cross of our Lord Jesus? How do they
show it? How do they manifest their offense against the cross?
Well, they used to slaughter Christians, now there's a more
subtle method. And I'll tell you something, if people had
their way, they'd still do it. If people could have their way,
they'd still do it. And I'll tell you how they do it, a more
subtle method now, by private persecutions. Privately persecuting
the husbands against their wives. Oh, I just can't believe you're
going to leave me here again, go up there and worship with
them people. Parents against children. Children
against parents. People you work with, they make
these snide remarks. That's why them old people believe
in predestination there. They believe that ain't nobody
going to be saved but them. They go to church all the time.
They won't even take a day off. And then there's rumors and lies
they tell on the preacher. But I tell you the favorite way,
And the best plan Satan's come up with is to not openly oppose
the cross, not openly oppose it, but to alter it, alter its
message, change its message, take the offense out of it, wring
off the edges of it, tone it down, alter its shape just a
little. You know, you've got to appeal
to the masses. And they'll tell you, you know,
they'll say, we preach the gospel too, we just say it different
than you do. We just say it different than you do. Oh my. How can they say it different,
you know? All the preachers that I know of have come in here,
we all say the same thing, don't we? Not in one note. Huh? Truth is truth, and I'll tell
you something. And listen to me, I mean this with all my heart,
and I know it so, and I don't mean to be offensive. I don't
want to be offensive. Truth is truth, and whatever
the opposite of truth is, is a lie. If Christ says, I'm the only
way, and somebody says it's Christ plus some other way, then that
has to be a lie. If God says He rules in armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and no man stays
there to say that God cannot save you unless you let Him,
both those two things can't be true. No man can come unto Me and you
can come to Him anytime you want to if you just make the right
choice and make the right decision. Both those things can't be true. They can't be true. And I'll
tell you something, if the Catholics and the free-wheelers and the
Armenians and the fundamentalists who are preaching everything
but Christ and the grace of God, if they're right and if they're
true, then I'm going to go to hell. Or else they're going to go to
hell and I'm going to go to glory. There is no if, ands, or buts
about it. There can't be two sets of truth in this world.
There has to be one. And that has to be absolute truth. And
either there's Bible, and what God said is absolute truth, or
there ain't no truth on this earth, and let's all eat, drink,
and be merry, because we're all going to hell anyway. And there's no reason for us
to pretend that it's any other way. I heard a preacher preaching
this week, and he was preaching from Exodus 33, about Moses praying
for the glory of God, being put in the rock, And he says, show
me your glory. And you know what? He went over
everything in that, except one thing. I will have mercy on whom
I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. Brought a great message, except
he didn't tell the whole truth. That's why he says, show me your
glory. You want to see my glory? I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So if that's true, and they're telling everybody
that Jesus died for them, and God's going to save them if He'll
let them, those two are diametrically opposed to one another. They
can't be the same, can they? They say they believe in election.
But don't preach it to the average person. Don't preach it to their
churches because they don't want to confuse them. They're born
confused. As old Scott says, you know why
you're confused? I've heard him say this. Because
your mama's confused. And your daddy's confused. And
your granny was confused. You've been confused all your
life and you'll die confused. Elections don't confuse anybody.
What's confusing about elections? Nothing confusing about it. According
as he hath chosen us in him, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God. Brethren, we are bound to thank
God for you, because God has from the beginning chosen you
unto salvation. I love it! Oh, tell me more about
it. Oh, I tell you, what they believe
is they are not smart enough, or as good as they are, and this
is a secret we need to keep it to ourselves. I'll tell you what,
the greatest thing worth telling is worth telling to everybody.
That's what our Lord says, get on the housetops and tell him. Don't stay in the darkness, get
out in the light. The man who says he knows, and
listen to me, beloved, the man who says he knows and believes
the truth and yet doesn't preach it, don't trust him as far as
you can spin. To veil the truth, to cover up
the truth, is to be offended at the cross. And that's what
these fellows was, here in Galatians. That's why they come up and they
says, you know, tell these people they can't be saved except they're
circumcised according to the law of Moses. Paul said, we're
not having no part of that. No. Stand fast! Stand fast in
that liberty wherewith Christ has made you fit. And let me
tell you this. Hurry, let me hurry. I'm sorry
it's taking so long. But there's something. Let me
tell you something about those who are offended at the cross.
Let me tell you something. If you're offended at the cross
and you ain't bowed at the cross, you ain't believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you haven't come and said,
Oh God, let me at a throne of mercy, let me at their hearts
be relieved. I'm dealing in deep contrition. Please help my unbelief. I'll
tell you something, it's so foolish. Foolish for a man who does not
believe the gospel to oppose those who do. If a man doesn't
believe the gospel, why oppose those who do? Why does it offend
you? Why does it hurt you for a person
to preach the gospel, to believe on the cross, and to believe
on Christ? What is offensive about me believing that? Why
would you oppose me for it? If you don't want to believe
it, I'm not mad at you. A dog, and you know, you see
this, dogs and cows and horses and everybody, you know, you
put out food for them. And they won't sit down and eat
it themselves, but another comes around and says, he'll just eat
it alive. That's the way people are about the gospel. They don't
want to eat it themselves, don't want to have nothing to do with
it, but they want to eat everybody alive that does. And I'll tell
you why they do that. It's like Noah, he said his faith,
his Arab righteousness condemned the world in which he lived.
And the fact that we say there ain't but one righteousness and
we trust in one righteousness, that offends people who has religion. That offends people when you
tell them that. Oh my, how foolish it is to be
offended at the cross when you can't even stop it. You can't
stop its power. You can't stop it being preached.
How many times did they beat the apostles and say, don't you
go out there again, don't you go out and preach this name of
Jesus? We're going to obey God or we're
going to obey you. The way they went. And I tell you, the more
the enemies of the gospel, the more the gospel will spread.
And beloved, I tell you something, let people fight us as hard as
they want. God's truth is going to conquer because I tell you,
it's a predestinated message for predestinated people. And
those predestinated people are going to hear it, they're going
to believe it. And I know that, and I believe that. As many as
are ordained unto eternal life, they're going to believe it.
And I'm going to keep preaching it, and they're going to believe it. Anybody that don't believe
it gives proof that they're just one of God's irreprobables, one
of those that God does not mean to do anything for. You know
what our Lord said? Whosoever shall fall upon this
stone will be broken to pieces, and whosoever shall fall on it
will be ground into powder. And let me quickly say this,
a man is doubly, doubly foolish to be offended with the Lord
Jesus Christ because he's the only one who can save him. Why
be offended with Christ and his message? He's the only one who
can save him. Who else can save him? Why be
offended with him? Our Lord Jesus Christ says, no
man can come unto the Father but by me. Except you believe I'm he, come
unto me. If any man's thirsty, let him
come unto me. Oh, why? Men are offended at the
gospel because it doesn't ask anything of you in order to be
saved. The gospel does not require anything of you. You can be saved
sitting right where you are without moving a muscle. We're not asking you to come
to the front. We're not asking you to raise your hands. We're
not asking you to pray through. We're not asking you to cry. We're
not asking you to have this great experience. All we're telling
you is that Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, is the only Savior
of sinners, and God sent Him to save His people from their
sin. And there's no way God will accept
you except through Him. He said, Our Lord says, You can't
come to Me, My Father stepped through me." Why would you be
offended at that? If it did demand anything of
you, you would be lost. You couldn't perform it. You
couldn't cry enough. You couldn't pray enough. You couldn't be
sincere enough. So if it did demand anything
of you, you couldn't do it. And to be offended with the only
hope you have? How foolish can a person be? If the cross of our Lord Jesus
is an offense, and always was one, why do we sometimes have
it so easy and never have any trouble about it? They said,
Oh, Lord, they are offended at you. He said, Let them alone.
Ever plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall
be rooted up. I was told a preacher one time, he was told he pleased
all of his hearers, and he said, You know what? Another sermon
lost. But pleased everybody, another
sermon lost. And it was a sad, sad day when
the sons of God married the daughters of men. When the world and the church
got together. And they says, boy, we are really
doing good things for God now. When you can't tell the world
and the church apart. and their beliefs and their gospel
and their love for materialism and their love for the things
of this world when you can't tell them apart. When the preacher
gets up and preaches in his golf shirt because he wants to be
contemporary. We're in sad shape. And oh, let
me close with this. How much, oh, how we ought to
bless God. if the cross and if the gospel
is not an offense to us. Bless God that it does not offend
us. Bless His holy name that we embrace
it, we love it, we need it. You know, our Lord told that
woman that came with her daughter, said, it's not fit to give the
children's bread unto dogs. That didn't offend her one little
bit. She just kept it coming. I'll
be your dog if that's what it takes. I'll be your dog. Oh,
there's so much of it we don't understand, but I do know this,
we don't hate any of it, and we don't reject it when we hear
it, do we? And we're not ashamed, by God's blessed grace, we're
not ashamed to bow to the Scriptures, just as they are, to believe
it and receive it. Whatever they say about us, we
say, Amen. Whatever they say about Christ,
we say, Amen. Whatever it says about how God
saves sinners, we say, Amen. Whatever it says about God, you
say, Amen. Not one part in this Bible. My
mother-in-law used to say this all the time. She said, I don't
know but very, very little of it, but there's not no part of
it I don't believe. And only a saved man can do that. Can say Amen to whatever the
Scripture says. Only a person who has the love
of the Gospel. That's the only thing. Amen. Thank God that it's
not offensive to you if it ain't. Blessing for it. Blessing for
it.