Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Galatians, Chapter 5. Galatians, Chapter 5. The name
of the message is the offense of the cross. Now there's an
offense in the preaching of the gospel. And we're gonna see what
some of those things are today. And it just comes naturally.
A gospel preacher, we don't set out to offend anyone at all.
And just as you don't set out to offend anyone if you're witnessing
to them. We don't set out to offend anyone, do we, when we're
talking about Christ to them. But the natural man will be offended
by the things in the gospel. And it'll happen fast, too. You'll
find out real quick. How people do not like to be
told that salvation is in Christ alone by nothing that they do. Oh, I'll tell you, you talk about
getting people's cackles up. It does not take long. It does
not take long. Galatians chapter five, we'll
continue our study in this book penned by Paul, but remember
inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. The true author of this
book is the Holy Spirit of God. Last week we looked at verses
seven to nine where we saw just a pinprick, just a little leaven,
leavened the whole lump. and ruins the whole lump, ruins
the whole lump. And Paul's writing this in light
of the error that has crept in in the Galatian churches, where
these Judaizers have come in and they've discounted what Paul's
done. They said, well, he's not an
apostle. They've said all kinds of things.
They said, well, he had Timothy circumcised, so circumcision
must be of the law. It must be done. But Timothy
was circumcised just to simmer down some Jewish guys that were
getting a little worked up. That's all that was. There was
nothing to do with salvation. Nothing to do with salvation
at all. So Timothy was able to preach to the Jews. Because otherwise
they wouldn't hear nothing he had to say. Nothing he had to
say. And look, today we'll look at
verses 10 to 12, and we'll see that if we do not preach that
salvation is in Christ alone, then the offense of the cross
is ceased. See, these men were saying you
have to be circumcised along with faith in Christ to be saved. That takes the offense of the
cross away. You know why? Because the offense of the cross
is we can't do nothing to save ourselves. That's what offends
me. It offends our pride. You remember
before the Lord saved us, how we felt when we heard that? My, I used to get mad at people. I don't want to hear that. I
don't want you to tell me I'm a sinner. Right? My, we all may have reacted different,
but that's how I reacted. I didn't want to hear nothing.
Man, I was too busy in my own sin not really even realizing
that I was sinning. Sinners were people in jail.
Well, what did I find out? We found out real quick, didn't
we? Sinners is right here. Word! Now we say, I'm the chief
of sinners along with Paul, don't we? What a change, what a radical
change the Holy Spirit of God makes in us. So one again may
ask what is the offense of the gospel? It's the fact that salvation
is of the Lord from beginning to end and everything in between.
It's all him. He's the author and he's the
finisher of our salvation. There's nothing even in between
that we do. We're kept by the power of God, aren't we? Kept
by the power of God. And that offends man. When we
say it's not by our works but completely by the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ that we're saved. That offends man. The
Lord Jesus Christ, His living and His dying is the only hope
for us, isn't it? The fact that He died on Calvary's
cross to save our eternal souls. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. That's our hope. That's our hope,
beloved. And He purchased our eternal
souls with His precious, precious blood on Calvary's cross. So
let's read verses 7 to 15 to see the context of the verses
that we're gonna look at today too. Last week we read verses
seven to nine which says, you did run well. He's using a picture that he
uses in Philippians as well about running a race. About running
a race. That this life for us as believers
is like running a race. Who did hinder you that you should
not obey the truth? Remember, who threw roadblocks
in front of you? My. Now look what he says here. This persuasion cometh not of
him that called you. This isn't of God. That's what
he's very plainly saying. You're being persuaded by these
Judaizers and it's not of God. A little leaven leavens the whole
lump. Just a little drop. Drop of poison. How much does
poison take to kill us? Just a drop, right? Just a drop. I have confidence in you that
through the Lord that ye will be none otherwise minded, but
he that trouble you shall bear his judgment. Whosoever he be. And I, brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense
of the cross ceased. So, if I preach something that
man does in order to be saved, Paul is saying, along with Christ,
then the offense of the gospel is gone, which says you can't
be saved by anything you do. You see? And then he says, why
am I suffering persecution if I'm preaching circumcision? Because
men will go right along with that. You tell men that they
gotta do something to be saved, and I'm telling you what, they're
gonna try it. But you tell them salvation is by grace alone,
they go, I want nothing to do with that. See, that's why, beloved,
that's why we must be turned. That's why we must be made willing
to come to Christ in the day of God's power. Because otherwise,
we're going that way. That's our natural inclination. Look what he says about these
folks. I would that they were even cut
off, which troubles you. That's strong words, isn't it?
I wish they were gone, taken away from this earth. Holy Spirit is the true author
of these words, isn't he? Oh my. For brethren, you have
been called unto liberty, freedom. Use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love, serve one another. There's that love
again that we looked at a few verses further up, right? That
we're motivated by love now, aren't we? To serve God. We're
not motivated by rewards or by things we have to do. We're motivated
by love now. Here's that same love. For all
the laws fulfilled in one word, even this, thou shall love thy
neighbor as thyself. Now, look at this, but if you
bite and devour one another, take heed that ye are not consumed
one of another. Remember, he's talking to the
church. Vicki and I were, I was talking to Vicki this morning,
we listened to the Galatians this morning before we came, and we
listened to it in light of, okay, he's writing to the church, and
then when he gets to the fruit of the spirit and all that, he's
actually writing believers saying, here's the flesh, anger, wrath,
sedition, and then here's the fruit of the spirit, love, joy.
So if they're having conflict, like he's saying, you invite
and devour one another, that's not of the Lord. That's of the
flesh. See, the peace that we have now
in this group, it's amazing what we have. The peace we have, that
comes from the Lord. Love, joy, peace, it's all from
Him. It's the fruit of the spirit. The love that we have for one
another is absolutely amazing. It's incredible. Glory be to
God for what He's done. Glory be to God for what He's
done. So let's look at verse 10. Look
at this. It says this, I have confidence in you through the
Lord that ye will be none otherwise minded. But he that troubles
you, he shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. Now we as God's people are to
be single-minded. Notice he says that to be none
like otherwise minded. So we're to be single-minded.
We're here for the furtherance of the gospel. That's why we're
here. We're here for the furtherance of God. We get the blessing of
coming together and being with each other, hearing the gospel
and preached and proclaimed and the love that we have for one
another just knits our hearts together in love. God knits our
hearts together in love. That's all just icing on the
cake, beloved. But we're here like-minded in
the fact that salvation is in and through Christ alone and
by him alone, right? We're like-minded on the truth
of the gospel, aren't we? That's what he's bringing forth
here. He says, I don't want you to
be, see the Judaizers are over here saying, well, you gotta
be saved this way. And then the true gospel believers are saying,
no, it's by Christ alone. It's nothing. They're like-minded. These folks over here now, they
broke off from them, right? Now they're devouring one another
within the churches. Saying, oh, Paul's not preaching
the gospel. What happened? Yeah, remember
what he said? What's changed? Paul hadn't changed. His message
hadn't changed. What's changed? They changed.
They believe in the false gospel. Those who are following the Judaizers. See that word trouble in our
text there? It means to agitate, to stir up. I remember when I
was a kid, my mom would do it in the laundry house. She'd run
over there and watch. She'd throw them in the washer there, that
agitator. And I'd always be fascinated at how it pulled the dry clothes
down into the water just by that slow agitation.
stir up. In the Greek it means to agitate,
to stir up. So they're agitating the folks
there, they're stirring them up. Right? Secretly asking them,
what do you think of Paul? What do you think of this? They
didn't have phones then, did they? So they just talked to
each other. Hey, I'll meet you at the coffee
shop. Well, whatever it was back then, not the coffee shop. I'll
meet you at the market. I want to talk to you about something. My, oh my. See that agitation,
that stirring up trouble. My, oh my. And we can see that when a washer
doors open and you watch that agitation go. You can see it,
that agitation. Those clothes aren't just sitting
there, they're being moved around, stirred up, aren't they? So it's
a good picture for us. This is what's going on in the
hearts and the minds of the Galatian believers. You know, you got
a group saying salvation's by Christ alone and nothing else,
and they're concerned for their supposed brethren over here,
aren't they? They're concerned for them. Oh my. And think of this, there's no
rest, there's no peace in that situation, is there? Paul tells the saints in Galatians,
With regard to all who truly trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
look at this, he says, I have confidence in you through the
Lord that ye be none otherwise minded. So those who are trusting
Christ, he's saying, you stay the same way. Don't be otherwise minded. Don't follow those folks over
there. You stick with the gospel. You stay with the gospel. And he's spoken to them sharply.
We've seen him speaking sharply to them through this epistle,
haven't we? But remember, it's always in love. It's always in
love. But he was confident that once they saw how utterly inconsistent
legalism is with the grace of God, that they'd abandon it.
That they'd say, no. No, that's wrong. Salvation's
in Christ alone, not by anything I do. I can't be saved by nothing
I do. You see, that's what the grace
of God shows us and teaches us, isn't it? Some of these folks,
there may have been believers over there too, they've been
persuaded, and Paul's praying, hoping that some of them come
back. Right? You know what? God will not allow
his elect to perish in the error of the wicked. He won't. He won't. He may let them sit there for
a while, but he won't let them stay there. Oh my. Praise God, here not allowed
the believer to abandon Christ. Because he keeps us by his almighty
power. Keeps us in truth, doesn't he? Keeps us in truth. Keeps showing
us the truth. Holy Spirit reveals it to us.
And note, look in verse 10, the latter part there. He brings
forth the sure judgment of the Judaizers. I mean, it's sure.
If they don't repent of their sins, if the Lord doesn't regenerate
them, He brings forth the sure judgment of these people. Look
what it says here. See, this is why vengeance is
mine, saith the Lord, I will pay. This is why we don't seek
vengeance on people. We just, we stand back and let
the Lord do whatever He wills, right? Whatever He wills. He will. And it's sure. Every
one of us has got a date with death, right? Every one of us. Look at this. Look what he says
here. I have confidence in you through the Lord that you will
be none otherwise minded. And then he says, but he that
troubles you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. I don't care
who he thinks he is. That's what he's basically saying.
I don't care who he thinks he is. He may think he's something
special, but if he's in error, and he's deceiving the church
of God and leading them astray, judgment is sure. Unless the
Lord saves him. Judgment is sure. Oh my. So just as certain as
Paul was in the preservation of the saints, right? He's certain
in the damnation and the judgment of the wicked. especially he's talking about
these Judaizers here. And remember who the true author
of this is. This is God the Holy Spirit who knows the end from
the beginning, right? Oh my. He was sure in declaring that
those who preached another gospel, preached a perversion of the
gospel, that they must bear the wrath and judgment of God. That's
what he's bringing forth here. My oh my. Turn if you would to 1 Corinthians
chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Those who corrupt the churches
of Christ, they're going to bear judgment. They're going to bear
judgment. They may get away with things
for a while here on this earth. But they start stirring up trouble
in the Lord's churches. Especially teaching a false gospel. Promoting a false gospel. That's
the key in our text here. Saying you have to be saved this
way. They are in a world of trouble. Look at this. 1 Corinthians chapter
3. verses 16 and 17. Know ye not
that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you? If any man defile the temple
of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple is holy, which
temple ye are. Well, who's the temple of God? The church, the people, the ecclesia. God dwells in us and with us. If any man, by the wisdom of
the world, through philosophy or vain deceit or traditions
or just their own warped ideas in their head, false doctrines
and heresies, corrupt the church's minds from the simplicity of
Christ and make divisions among them, him shall God destroy,
both body and soul, in hell. I'll tell you what, this preaching
of false gospel is awful, beloved. And there's an awful cost to
it, too. God's church is holy, sacred
to Him. He purchased us with His precious,
precious blood. And people are saying that's
not good enough. God sent His Son His only son
into this world to redeem us. And these folks saying, that's
not good enough. There's something you got to
do as well. Lord, keep us from that. Praise
God. He's revealed to us the truth
that salvation's all of Christ. Nothing we do. It's wonderful. But God will not hold them guiltless,
those who try to do that. No, they'll be judged. Listen
to what Henry Mahan says about these words, the offense of the
cross. He says, if what we preach is not offensive to the religionists
and to the worldling, then it's not the gospel of Christ. There's
a whole bunch of people out here in different churches out there
I don't even have to name them, we know where they are. And they're
preaching stuff like, well, you got to do this, and you got to
do that, and be a good moral person, which, yeah, we should
be, right? But in no way does that gain
us favor with God. And they're preaching that you
ought to do something to gain merit and favor of God, or they're
just preaching little things every Sunday to tickle the ears
of their hearers. No offense in it. No salvations
by grace alone. Well, they can't preach it because
they don't know it. Number one, you can't tell someone about
something you don't know. I can tell you about where I
grew up in Canada, but you guys couldn't tell me about it, right?
Because you weren't there. But you could tell me all about
Almont, growing up in Almont. You could tell me all about growing
up in Cape Hack, right? Wherever you're from, you could
tell me all about it. But I can't tell you about it.
See, a person can't tell what they don't know. God saved my soul. I'm going
to tell you about that. And it was all Christ and him
alone. Amen. It was all him. I'm going to
tell you, you can't keep me shut up. You can't keep a believer's
mouth shut, can you? We can't, can we? We love to
get together and just brag on our king, don't we? Oh, look
what he's done. After we hear a message, praise
God, look what he's done. Oh my, our hearts are so stirred
up. So Paul called his message the
offense of the gospel, Galatians 5.11. And he said, the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, 1 Corinthians
1.18. Then he said, the natural man
receive it, not the things of the spirit of God, for they are
foolishness unto him, 1 Corinthians 2.14. And then the apostle John
wrote, marvel not my brethren if the world hates you, in 1
John 3.13. If the message we preach isn't offensive, to this
religious world and to natural man, it's not the gospel of Christ. Now there was a time when it
was offensive to us. Now it's the most wonderful news
in the world, isn't it? Good news. Good news. And it
wouldn't be good news if there was anything we had to do, would
it, Brother Dave? No. It's good news because Christ
did it all. He did it all. It's finished. My. And the Lord instructs and prepares
his disciples to suffer persecution for the sake of the gospel. My. And this is an important message
for God's people because the Lord told us these things that we should not
be offended. Look at verse 11 of Galatians
chapter 5. And I, brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, why do I yet serve for persecution? Then is the
offense of the cross ceased. Now Paul had Timothy circumcised,
as I said earlier, but it was not for salvation. It was to
enable Timothy to preach to the Jews, weak Jews, who were struggling
with the difference between law and grace. It had nothing to do with the
salvation. So they're looking, these guys are probably pointing
and saying, well look, he had Timothy circumcised. But it had nothing
to do with the salvation. And Paul's bringing that forth
right here. He's saying, if I preach circumcision, why do I suffer
persecution if I teach something man can do? Man won't persecute
you. If you teach something that they
have to do to be saved, but man will persecute you if you say
you can't save yourself. There's no way you could save
yourself. Salvation's by Christ alone. As Brother Tom said one
time, he said to me, he said, what you preach, you preach that
you bring nothing to the table except our sin. There's nothing
for us to do, is there, to be saved? It's all in Christ and
Him alone. All in Him. My oh my. And because Paul gave
his approval to Timothy to be circumcised, these Judaizers
who had crept into the churches in Galatia, now they contended
that Paul taught that circumcision was necessary for salvation.
You see how subtle these fellows are? They get a hold of any little
thing and they just run with it. And we see clearly that Paul
sets the record straight. He says, if I preach circumcision,
why am I suffering? Why am I being persecuted? Paul
was not an advocate of circumcision or any of the law of Moses for
acceptance with God. Paul preached that the only acceptance
that we have with God is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ
and by his shed precious blood to redeem our eternal souls. Look at over in chapter 2. Turn
if you would to chapter 2 of Galatians. Look at this. Look
what he says here. We're going to look at one verse
here in chapter 2 and one verse in chapter 3. Look at this. He says in verse 21, look what
he says here. See, he's already bought this up to them, but he's
re-emphasizing again. Look at this. If righteousness
come by the law, that's circumcision or any doing of the law, right?
Then Christ is dead in vain. His death means nothing, then,
if we can be justified by something we do. And then turn to Galatians
3, Galatians 3, and look at verse 11. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God. It is evident, for the just shall
live by what? Faith, God-given faith. So let's
tie that in with what we're seeing now here, then. And I, brethren,
verse 11, chapter 5, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I
yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. It's gone. See, Paul preached the perfect,
complete, redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only
means of us being accepted by God. The only way we can be saved
from our sins is by the perfect, complete, redeeming work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He laid down his life for us.
He laid down his life. He shed his blood for us, for
his people. And while he was suffering on
the cross again, you know, remember, he purged our sins. They're gone.
God don't even remember them. They're so gone, God doesn't
even say, I don't remember your sins. Then God says, I don't remember
any of your sins. None of them. They've been washed
in the blood of Christ. Isn't that wonderful? My, you
said it. Hallelujah. What a message. What a Savior is Jesus Christ,
my Lord. He's wonderful. We preach absolutely
nothing, including man's free will can be added to the finished
work of Christ for the salvation of his people. Now we're made
willing in the day of God's power. Absolutely we are. Man's free will can't cure a
toothache, can it? Right? Someone tells you you
can be saved by their will. Ask them, you ever with your
free will cured a toothache? That's pretty funny, isn't it?
No, it doesn't happen. They got to go to the dentist,
don't they? They got to go to the doctor. We got to go to the
physician of our souls, beloved. The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
only one who can heal a sinner, who can cleanse a sinner, who
purged our sins. My. So if we preach salvation
by any other way, then, other than Christ, then the offense
of the cross is gone. It's gone. And if one preaches
any other gospel, they're just as guilty as these Judaizers. Just as guilty. They perverted
the gospel that Paul preached. It's still going on today. Nothing
new under the sun, is there? Nothing new under the sun. Look
at verse 12. Oh my, look at verse 12. I would
they were even cut off, which trouble you. These are solemn
words, beloved. These are solemn words with respect
to the false teachers. Paul has been taught that the
judgment of God will fall. It will fall. It will fall upon
these false teachers. And he desires that they might
be cut off of the land of the living. You know why? By the
immediate hand of God. You know why? So they don't do
any more mischief to the church. That's why. And let us remember, this is
not said out of hatred to their persons, but from a concern for
the glory of God. A concern for the glory of God. My oh my. And let us remember,
Paul wrote these words. He was moved by the Holy Ghost
to write these words, the Holy Spirit. And this is what God
says about false teachers. I would that they were even cut
off, which trouble you. And you know what? Stand in awe. Those teachers were cut off. If they continued and they didn't
repent of their sin and God didn't show them mercy and they died
in their sins, They're in hell right now. And they died at God's appointed
time, didn't they? They died at God's appointed
time. And this holds true for all false preachers of every
generation. Remember, Paul's teaching about
talking about false preachers here. Got to keep our minds on
that. And let us remember that Paul
called the message that he preached the offense of the gospel. He
said, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.
He said, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. My, oh my, brethren,
if the world hates you. My, oh my. Here are quickly,
I got five minutes, here are quickly some things that make
the gospel of God's grace offensive. Number one, God's absolute sovereignty. Absolute sovereignty. My... The preaching of the gospel of God's
absolute sovereignty offends man's claim to free will. It
just... I got a friend of mine, he gets
so mad. Now he said, yes, or two days ago I was talking, he
says, well, yeah, God's sovereign in that part. And I said, God's
sovereign in the whole scriptures. God's sovereign in everything.
Not just one little thing. He's sovereign in everything.
My, and if God is sovereign and he is, then his will is supreme,
isn't it? It's supreme. And there's nothing, nothing
that a worm, which is what we are, Nothing that a worm can
do to save themselves. Beloved, are we not totally dependent
upon God for everything? Not just our salvation, but for
everything? All of it, eh? We're totally
dependent upon Him. Well, that's offensive to natural
man. So when men hear that God is absolutely sovereign in salvation,
it offends their pride because the natural man is most opposed
to this. He's offended by his complete
hopelessness and inability to save themselves. That offends
man. That offends man. And number
two, man is offended by the Bible teaching of total depravity.
I saw this in the last couple of weeks. Man is totally, it
just infuriates them when you tell them that they're dead in
trespasses and sins, and even their will is dead. Because their
will is governed by their nature. The preaching of man's total
depravity and inability offends man's sense of dignity. It destroys
his personal claim to righteousness. It says there's none righteous,
no, not one. My! It says there's no difference
between any of us. We're all guilty before God in
our natural state. It lumps all of humanity, rich,
poor, whatever standing they're in all together And man hates
that. Man hates that, my love. God's
Word puts all men under the wrath of God by nature. It says this,
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight. For by the laws and the laws
of sin, Romans 3, 19 and 20. And another teaching that offends
natural man, I got a few minutes to, is salvation is by revelation. It can't come by us learning.
See man, we like to learn, right? And we do, we all like to learn,
every one of us. And then sometimes you notice
people get more learned, more educated, and they come a little
bit looking down at those folks that don't know as much as them.
I told my son, never forget the rock you were hewn from. Don't
ever forget where you came from. And he appears to not vault himself
over. He's a smart young man. But I
told him, don't ever forget where you came from. Don't ever forget. You're the son of a sinner. Right? Always remember that. My, oh my. And this declaration
of salvation by divine revelation, by the grace and mercy of God,
offends man's natural wisdom because we think, well, I can
learn that. I know all this stuff. Man, I was a Calvinist and did
not know Christ. What do you think about that?
I knew all this doctrine, knew all this stuff. No grace. The
biggest Pharisee in the world. Until God saved my soul. Praise
God he did. I found out I didn't know nothing.
I'm just learning still, along with you. Isn't that wonderful?
It's wonderful, isn't it? Oh my. So it puts us all on the
same level. Rich, poor, again, doesn't matter. Educated, uneducated. The Lord
said you must be born again. You must, except the man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except the man be born
of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Beloved, except by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, we will
never know the gospel unless he reveals it to us. And praise
God he did. Rejoice if you know him. And
how this offends the wise and prudent man. Oh, the self-made
man, how this offends him. Oh, it offends him. They trust
in their own ability, right? We were. They trust in their
acquired knowledge through learning. And I would never hinder anyone
from learning. Just don't trust in it. Don't
trust in it. It's Christ and Christ alone
who reveals the Father to us. It's Him and Him alone. My, oh
my. Well, I got a little bit more
to say, but I'm out of time. Brother Charlie, could you close
us in prayer, brother?