Sovereign Grace Chapel, located at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. Welcome to today's broadcast. I have one verse I want to read as my text for today's broadcast. It's found in Galatians chapter five and verse 11. Galatians 5 and 11, where the apostle Paul wrote to the churches in the region of Galatia, and he wrote these words. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?

Here's my actual text. Then is the offense of the cross ceased. That's what I want to try to talk about today. The offense of the cross. That's what Paul said. Then is the offense of the cross preached. If I preach circumcision, then this wouldn't be so offensive to people, but he preached Christ and his cross. Now, the preaching of the cross of Christ is not preaching about the piece of timber. used by Rome to execute criminals. And there's all kinds of various ways in which, I should say, Rome did this, various shapes of crosses, those timbers, the T-shape like that, like our capital T, or the small T, shaped like that, or it may have just been like a pole, straight up and down, it was called a cross, or sometimes it was a X, like that. Now that's not the point, that's not what Paul's talking about.

The preaching of the cross is the preaching of Christ's sufferings on the tree. His sufferings on that piece of timber. Not the timber itself, but his sufferings, and it's about Christ. And his sufferings on that tree to redeem all that he suffered for.

This is exactly, in one place, Paul says in this very letter, in chapter three, he put it this way in verse 13 and 14, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse that all hath. Not made it possible, not made it available. It's not out there. If you could take it or leave it, no. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. Whoever he did that for, he redeemed them when he died on that cross. You see it? Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Paul also wrote this to the church at Corinth, and he wrote in First Corinthians chapter one, we will see this. Paul uses that same similar language, 1 Corinthians 1, that is the cross of Christ.

1 Corinthians 1, 17, he says, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ, you see it? The cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

And if you go on down to verse 23, you'll see he defines it even further. Verse 23, but we preach Christ crucified. That's the preaching of the cross. We preach Christ crucified. We don't preach the timber. We preach the Christ who is suffering on that tree. He says, but we preach Christ crucified under the Jews, a stumbling block, and under the Greeks, foolishness, but under them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. So again, it's not about that timber. The preacher of the cross is not about that stick of wood on which the Son of God suffered. It's talking about the Son of God himself who suffered there.

The offense of the cross in Galatians 5.1 is not about someone being offended by a necklace with a cross on it, or maybe by a ring with a cross, or some kind of picture of the cross, or even what we might call a Roman crucifix, a necklace, or a ring, or a picture, or maybe a t-shirt of a man hanging on a cross. That's not what it's about.

The preaching of the cross is this, it's Christ dying for the powerless. Christ dying for the ungodly, Christ dying for sinful enemies of God, that is what Paul's talking about, being an offense. You see, the question is this, in what way is it an offense, okay? In what way is it an offense? Now I'll try to give you six names, and this is just one amongst several, but I'll try to give you six ways in which the preaching of the cross of Christ is an offense. Number one, It's an offense because Christ did not die to save good people, but he died to save his enemies.

And Paul made that clear when he wrote to the believers at Rome, and he wrote these words, Romans chapter five, verse six, for when we were yet without strength, In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. That's who Christ died for, ungodly people. Look. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Do you see it? There is what? Without strength and sinners. Go on. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Then he explains, for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.

Do you see that language? Do you see the actual words of holy scripture? It says, for if when we were enemies, now it's not believers, Paul was writing to believers, but the believers now, they weren't when Christ died. Some of us weren't even born when Christ died, but look at what it says he did when he died.

Much more than be now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. So whoever Christ died for, he reconciled, and when he died for him, he reconciled him when he died for him. That's what it says. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, and some say that could be put having been, and that's certainly fine in the Greek, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life, you see it?

And not only that, not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom, not by us, not by our will, but by whom we have now received the atonement, or the word is better, reconciliation. So I'm saying it's an offense, because Jesus Christ did not die to save some good people. Jesus Christ died to save his enemies.

And here's another reason why the cross, the preaching of the cross of Christ is an offense, is because you and I, we cannot save ourselves. You hear what I'm saying? We cannot save ourselves. And I'll go so far as to say this, we cannot help God save us. God didn't purpose it that he did what he could do, and then now it's up to us. No, Jesus Christ made all things ready.

Listen to how the apostle Paul put it in Acts chapter 13, just a couple verses. Verse 38 of Acts 13, be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you forgiveness of sins. Notice it's preached, it's proclaimed. It's not offered, it's not made available, it's not there for you to pick and choose which way you want to go on it. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe.

You see, he's the cause of the believing. According to Paul in Ephesians 1, it's the very power of God that it took to raise up Christ from the dead is the very power it takes for men and women to believe. Resurrection power, and that power comes from God, not us. Look, and by him, all that believe are justified from all things by which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

So we see that the preaching of the cross is a defense because Christ did not die to save good people. He died to save enemies. It's an offense because the cross, the preaching of the cross is saying we can't save ourselves. We can't do it, we can't help God out. Isaiah says that even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God's sight. But here's a third reason why the preaching of the cross is an offense. You cannot help God, and I've said it, but I'll show you the passage. You cannot help God save you.

Listen to what Hebrews says. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way, Hebrews chapter one. Listen to what the writer says. Being moved by God himself to write the word, the exact words that God ordained, that is truth, the truth of the gospel. Listen, God, who at sundry times, or that is different times, and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers, by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he also made all things. Jesus Christ is God the creator. Did you know that? Does your preacher preach that? Does your so-called church teach that? He is creator God. He is God manifest in the flesh. Look, here it is.

I told you that the preaching of the cross is an offense because Christ Jesus didn't die to save good people. He died to save enemies. We cannot save ourselves from our sins. It took the Lord Jesus Christ to do that. And we cannot help Christ save us. Look at it. Who, verse three, who being the brightness of his glory, that's God the Father's glory, and the express image of his person, that is he is God Almighty in fact, and upholding all things by the word of his power, look, when he had by himself Do you see that? When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. We cannot help God save us. God never purposed it to be that way. Jesus Christ purged sins. and those sins that he died for when he died, they were purged then, and he sat down in glory after that. This is the testimony of the preaching of the cross of Christ.

This is why it's so offensive to you and I by nature. This is why as we were born in Adam, our daddy Adam, our father Adam, when he sinned in the garden, it says, so by the offense of one, many were made sinners. It's not just what we do, it's what we are, it's our inside, it's our heart and our mind and our will and our affections and our emotions.

It's all corrupt because of our fallen Adam. Christ didn't come to save good people, he came to save enemies. You cannot save yourself from your sins, I can't do it either. You cannot help Christ save yourself. That's why it's so offensive to men. This is not a synergistic thing where me and God's working together, you and God's working together.

God's done all the work. God's done all the work in his son. But number four, here's what the cross says. According to, well, here's what the cross says. Here's number one. It's got three things here. Remember, the cross says this. Your pride and my pride in your doing and my doing And our doing good, even in our doing good, our best deeds, our righteousnesses, according to my brother Isaiah the prophet, our best deeds are menses kloss in God's sight.

Isaiah 64 verse six. Have you ever heard that? Has that ever dawned on you, if you have heard that? Does the truth of what Isaiah said there, do you see it? Let me actually read it. Think of what he, think of what Isaiah is saying. Isaiah chapter 64, it's just one verse, but it's so pertinent, so true. This is what it says, Isaiah chapter 64 and verse six.

But we all are as an unclean thing. and all our righteousnesses are as filthy, that is, mensis, rags, that's what the meaning is in the Hebrew, are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as the leaf, and our iniquities, our best deeds are iniquities in God's sight because they come from us, enemies, rebels. spiritually powerless sinners, you see it? And it says, we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. That's why it's offensive. It's offensive because it took God doing this to his son on that tree to save someone like me. and to save someone like you. That's why it's offensive.

I'm nothing. I'm not only nothing, I'm on the negative side of the scale. You get what I'm saying? You catch my drift? I'm not just neutral in the middle. I'm on the red side of the scale. My best deeds are filthy rags in God's sight. Here's a second thing the cross says. The cross says that your law keeping, my law keeping, is to be counted as dung. You're not dumb, you know what that is. My law keeping, your law keeping is to be counted of dumb. And that's exactly what Paul the Apostle testified to in Philippians chapter three. And this is, I know this is astounding to some people.

They've never heard the gospel. Oh, they may have heard preachers preaching from the Bible and preaching against sin and preaching about Jesus who came to try to make salvation possible, but that's not who we're talking about. We're talking about the preaching of the cross and what Jesus Christ accomplished when he died on that tree. That's the preaching of the cross, and it's an offense to men.

Here's why, look. according to what Paul said. In Philippians chapter three, he made it quite clear, he puts it this way. Yea, doubtless, verse eight. And I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung, dung, that I might win Christ and be found in him. Look at it, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, that's filthy rags.

It's Memphis clause, but, but he goes on, but that which is through the faith of Christ, his obedience in his life, and specifically in his death on that tree. He was obeying God. He was believing God. That's one of the things they mocked him for when he was hanging on that tree. Some of those scoffers said, well, he trusted in the Lord. Why won't the Lord save him? Well, it's his faith, you see it?

But that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. That's why the preaching of the cross is an offense. It's because Christ didn't die to save good people, but enemies. It's because you and I, we cannot save ourselves from our own sins. Because you and I, we can't even help Christ save us. He had to do it all. He had to do it all. It says that my pride, my righteousness is nothing but my pride before God. And our law keeping is as done. But here's a third reason, a third thing the law says.

It is an offense. Here's why the preaching of the cross is an offense. Here's why it's an offense. Let me turn to the passage and then I'll make the statement. Then I'll read the passage that shows you and I clearly this truth. The preaching of the cross says this. It is an offense to unbelievers because God, listen to me, it is an offense, the preaching of the cross of Christ is an offense to unbelievers because God determined who he would save by Christ's cross work.

That's exactly what Paul told Timothy. 2 Timothy 1, verses eight and nine, or eight, nine, and 10, actually, let me read them. Be thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us, listen to the language, who has saved us and called us with an holy calling, notice which even came first, Paul here expresses the word salvation even preceding our calling to it.

Why? Because it's an accomplished work. Because the God that purposed it in Christ before the world began calls Christ as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Look, who has saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, look, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

That's why the cross of Christ is an offense. But there's a fifth reason. There's a fifth thing in which the preaching of the cross of Christ is an offense to the natural man. I'm gonna turn to the passage and then I'll read it as well. And it's actually found in the gospel according to Matthew in Matthew chapter 10. Now listen to me. The cross of Jesus Christ is an offense because of this, because God demands, do you hear my language?

I'm saying God demands no competition with Jesus Christ the Lord, no competition. God will not accept anything or anyone that has anything else in competition with the honor and the glory of his son, Jesus Christ, who died on that tree to save sinners. Listen to what our Lord Jesus Christ himself said about it in Matthew chapter 10 in just a few verses. Verse 32, whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, Him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. Now it doesn't mean you just say it's not a lucky rabbit's foot you rub. Uh-uh. It's not some little Roman cross that you get and you rub and you hold it up close and you pray over it. No, this talk about Jesus Christ himself.

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. And you confess him as he is. confessing for what he's actually done. You believe the record God gave his son, and we've looked at some of that record. Look. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come, now he's explaining it to us. For I am come to set a man at variance. That means to divide him asunder.

To set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's foes shall be they of his own household. And this is not just some New Testament doctrine. Jesus Christ was quoting from, and Matthew was recording him quoting from the Old Testament. It's the same even then. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

Why? Because this gospel is offensive to those who are lost, to those who are not saved, to those who are not regenerated by the Spirit of God and called by the gospel of God's grace. Look, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Jesus Christ competes with nothing and no one. Look, and he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me.

Look, he that findeth his life shall lose it. That's when you turn to yourself. That's when you're looking at yourself in any way, shape, or form. He that findeth his life shall what? He'll lose it. Ah, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

That's why the preaching of the cross of Christ is so offensive to men. Because it shows us that our looking to our own righteousness is nothing more than pride. And our law keeping is nothing more than dung. And then here we are trying to present dung before God.

Christ has already presented himself before God as the sinner's substitute, as the sinner's advocate, as the sinner's righteousness, as the sinner's peace, as the sinner's righteousness, as the sinner's justification, as the sinner's sanctification, as the sinner's glorification, and on and on and on.

It's all about Christ. That's why the gospel's so offensive, because God demands no competition with his blessed son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's the sixth thing, the last one. The preaching of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, it shows man's wisdom, now listen to me, this is why it's offensive, it shows man's wisdom to be nothing.

Now, it is amazing the wisdom God has given men, especially in our day and age, you know this. Look at the progression that man has made by the gift of God. Throughout just our lifetime, the things that man can do, do for one another, to help one another, and medical advances, and electronic advances, all of these things, but you know what?

In all of that, we don't give glory to God, do we? We don't thank God above for all of this, but here's what God says about us and our wisdom. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 17, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be of none effect.

God intends for this to sting. God intends for this to hurt because God's revealing to us in the person of his son hanging on that tree, he's intended to reveal to us how bad we really are. What it takes for a thrice holy God to save an ungodly sinner like me. Look. That's the, with the preaching of word, that's the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is then the parish foolishness. But unto us which are saved is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer or the arguer of this world?

Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom, that is their wisdom, knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. Preaching what? The cross of Jesus Christ. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

That's why it's so offensive to us by nature. So there you have it. The cross of Christ is offensive because Jesus Christ did not die to save good people but enemies. The cross of Christ clearly says you and I cannot save ourselves from our sins. The cross of Jesus Christ clearly declares that you and I cannot help God save us, not even one-tenth of one percent. The cross of Christ said my pride is nothing more than menses cloths in God's sight. That's pride in my best deeds, not my worst ones.

And it says my law keeping is to be counted as dumb. It's offense to unbelievers because it says God Almighty does this work and it's all salvation, it's all an act of God. And it shows man's wisdom means nothing before God. The cross of Christ is not this preaching of these lying preachers. And I have to say that. It don't make me happy to say that. Thank God by his grace, I used to be one of them. The cross of Christ is not this preaching of these lying preachers who preach of Jesus, who cannot save without your will and your permission. That's not so. That's not the truth. Paul is speaking here of that Christ who saves even when a person demands, even when they're under demonic influence, that they do not want Christ.

And you go back sometime. I challenge you to go back to Mark chapter one, verses 21 through 28. There was a man in the synagogue that had a demon in him. A demon in him. And how long had he been in that synagogue worshiping with everybody else? Jesus Christ came along. And that demon and that man spoke out. That demon in him said, we know who you are. You get away from us. You leave us. Christ didn't. This man wanted him to go away.

Jesus Christ saved him anyway. Go back and look at it, Mark 1, 21 through 28. Paul is clear in Romans 10. Listen to what God says about himself. Romans 10. Listen to Romans 10 verse 20. But Esaias, or that is Isaiah, is very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. Why?

Well, this is the work of God through Jesus Christ on that cross that offends men. Does these things offend you? Isn't that what it boils down to? I could preach about this all day long. People could listen to me all day long and say, well, I appreciate that message and just write according to the word and then just go on our merry little way. The question is, does this offend me? Does this offend you? If it does, if it offends me, if it offends you, then we're lost. We're lost.

I thank God by the grace of God. It don't offend me anymore. It did it one time, but it does not now. The cross of Christ, listen to me, the cross of Jesus Christ, remember that's his sufferings, not that piece of timber on which he hung, remember? Huh? It's not that. The cross of Jesus Christ offends all except for those whom God calls out by his gospel. Those He's given ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart to perceive. They hear it and they say, that's it! And I'm nothing. Amen.