Stumbling Blocks Removed

Q: What does the Bible say about the way of salvation?

The Bible clearly states that salvation is found exclusively in Jesus Christ alone. The way of salvation is set forth in the Scriptures with remarkable clarity, so much so that it states, 'the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein.' Christ himself declared, 'I am the way,' underscoring that there is no other means of salvation. When we trust in Christ alone, without adding our works, rituals, or experiences, we find ourselves on the true path to eternal life. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is the straightforward and essential means by which we are saved according to the Scriptures.

Q: How do we know that salvation by grace alone is true?

Salvation by grace alone is affirmed in Scripture as the only means by which we are saved. The doctrine of salvation by grace alone is foundational to the Christian faith and is extensively supported by Scripture. The preaching of the gospel emphasizes that it is not by our works, but solely through grace that we are redeemed. Ephesians 2:8-9 emphasizes that we are saved by grace through faith, and not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. This truth affirms that our salvation rests entirely on God's sovereign will and mercy, rejecting any notion of human effort contributing to our acceptance before Him. When we trust Christ’s finished work alone, we embrace the deep truth of grace that is clearly articulated throughout the New Testament.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to trust Christ alone for salvation?

Trusting Christ alone is crucial because anything else is a stumbling block to genuine faith. For Christians, trusting Christ alone is vital as it upholds the purity of the gospel. When we add our efforts, such as works, rituals, or experiences to our faith in Christ, we create stumbling blocks that obscure the true path to salvation. The message of the gospel is clear: it is by faith in Christ alone that we are saved. Adding anything to this undermines the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice and leads to spiritual confusion and damnation. As preachers and believers, we are called to remove these stumbling blocks from the path that leads to Christ, thereby making the gospel's invitation clear and accessible. This simplicity in trusting Jesus ensures we maintain integrity in our witness and glory in God's grace.

Q: What are common stumbling blocks to faith in Christ?

Stumbling blocks to faith include legalism, idolatry, and false teachings. Throughout Scripture, various stumbling blocks prevent people from coming to faith in Christ. Legalism, or the belief that one must earn God's favor through works, distorts the truth of the gospel and leads to spiritual death. Idolatry, whether in the form of physical idols or false representations of God, creates barriers that keep individuals from the true God. Additionally, false teachings and philosophies that emphasize human effort or require additional steps for salvation serve as dangerous stumbling blocks. It is essential for believers to recognize these obstacles and to proclaim the simplicity of the gospel — salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone — to guide others to eternal life.

The way of salvation is set forth in the scriptures with such clarity that the scripture says, the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein. So that there is nothing more simple, nothing more clearly revealed, nothing more direct than the revelation of the gospel concerning the salvation of our souls.

The Lord Jesus said, I am the way. There is no other way. I am the way alone. I am the way by myself. I am the way without any additions or subtractions. I am the way. Now, if you and I are in Christ, we're in the way. If we're anywhere else, we've missed the way.

If we look to Christ alone, if we trust Christ alone, we're in the way. If we trust Christ plus something else, If we trust Christ, plus our works, we trust Christ, plus our obedience to God, trust Christ, plus our experiences, trust Christ, plus baptism, church membership, just add on to whatever you want to. Christ plus anything is not salvation, but damnation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the book says, and thou shalt be saved. It's just that simple. Marvelously, wondrously simple. If you would enter into heaven, if you would be accepted of God, if you would be received, embraced, and accepted by the holy Lord God Almighty, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it.

In order to save us, the Son of God became one of us. He assumed our nature. He lived in righteousness as our representative to establish and bring in everlasting righteousness by his obedience to the law. Then he suffered and died under the just penalty of God's holy law to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Having put away our sins, having satisfied divine justice, he ascended up into heaven. And there he makes intercession for the saints of God, for our salvation, for the salvation of God's elect, for our everlasting salvation, to bring us at last into glory. And the basis of his intercession is his finished work of obedience as our substitute.

He pleads his sacrifice, and he says, Father, don't let him perish. He pleads his atonement, his righteousness. He says, Father, I did it for those whom you gave me before the world was. I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. And the Father hears his prayer.

Now our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, because he has ascended up into heaven to bring us back to glory, is now able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him. If you come to God, you must come by Jesus Christ. And if you come to God by Jesus Christ, God Almighty saves you to the uttermost.

You understand that? I want you to hear me. I want you to understand that. I don't want you just to hear me and understand it. I want you to come to God by him. I want, when I preach the gospel to you, to take you by the hand and lead you to him who is the way, that you may walk in the way of life everlasting.

I suppose it is common for fathers at my age to reminisce, to reminisce about those days gone by when you used to take your children by the hand and you'd walk with them and they just thought you were the grandest thing ever was and you could just do anything, you know.

I used to take faithful walks in the woods. We'd walk around and Sometimes she'd have things she couldn't get over, just in the path. There'd be a tree or just a stump, just whatever there. Something in her way, and I'd take her by the hand, either pick her up and lift her over it, or move that out of the way so she wouldn't scratch herself, or I would just help her over the difficulties.

That's what I want to do in preaching. I want to clear out the path and make it plain and clear. so that anybody who's interested in walking this way to everlasting glory by faith in Christ will have nothing to stumble over, nothing to hinder you, whatever.

Now, with that in mind, let's look at Isaiah 57 and verse 14. Isaiah 57 and verse 14. God gives this commandment. and say, you shall say, cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people. Now, I want to show you four things from this text of scripture. I won't keep you very long, but I want you to see these four things. I want you to see what the scripture says in this passage and in what is taught in the scriptures concerning stumbling blocks. The title of my message, if you're taking notes, is Stumbling Blocks Removed.

And this is the first point of the message. It is the business and the responsibility of every gospel preacher to remove those stumbling blocks over which sinners stumble and fall into hell. That's our business. The preacher's business is to lead blind sinners in the way, and to remove the stumbling blocks before them, and help them overcome whatever discouragements that they meet with in the way. Now, having said that, I want you to turn back to Leviticus chapter 19. Leviticus chapter 19, and look at a text of scripture with me. Leviticus 19, Verse 14.

Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind. Don't ever do that. Now that's true with regard to natural things, but it is infinitely, infinitely, infinitely more so with regard to spiritual things. And I lay this charge at the feet of every preacher of Arminian free will works religion. He puts a stumbling block before the blind. Every false prophet, every false teacher, every deceiver of men's souls, puts stumbling blocks in the way of blind men put stumbling blocks in the way, something between the sinner and Christ, over which men stumble and fall, and those stumbling blocks keep sinners from Christ. The false prophet, the false teacher, every preacher of Arminian freewill works religion.

What do you mean, Pastor? I mean every preacher who gives you something to do. Every preacher who stands up and talks about salvation by Christ and salvation by grace, but you got to do your part. Every preacher who gives you something to do is putting a stumbling block between you and the Savior and you dare not hear him for your soul is at stake.

They put, some put one thing, some put another. Some put works and they will tell you that you do the best you can and everything will be all right. You believe on Jesus and do what you know to be right. Your good works outweigh your bad works in the end, and God will look at you and smile with approval and forget about your bad works.

Other preachers say, no, no, we wouldn't dare preach works, but they try and preach works of another kind. for they issue their altar calls, and they call for sinners to come down to the front, to the mourner's bench, to the altar, or whatever it is they're calling it these days, and they say, now here is where you find salvation, and you pray this prayer with me, and you repeat this after me, and this'll be the time when God has saved your soul, and you can look back at this day from now on and say, there it was, God saved me, don't let anybody ever question that.

Oh, that's a stumbling block. I'm going to tell you something. It may shock and offend, but I'm going to tell you anyway because it's the truth. Larry Chris has never been anybody saved at a morning's bench or walking down an aisle to an altar. No, sir. You don't get to God with your feet. You get to God with your heart.

You understand what I'm saying? Well, don't you think men can be saved there? Why, no, I don't. No more than I think men can be saved by going to a confessional booth. I don't have the slightest notion that men and women are saved to go to a confessional booth and confess their sins into the ears of a satanic priest, and that priest says, now I absolve you of your sins, and you're forgiven of your sins.

Well, that's foolishness. And no man is saved by getting up from the back of an auditorium and walking to the front of an auditorium and saying, I believe in Jesus. You're saved by going to Christ right where you sit with your heart. Not by doing something. Somebody else says you've got to be baptized. Let me tell you something. God's people, all of them, confess Christ in baptism. There are no exceptions. I don't have any problem stating that at all. Believers are obedient to Christ. But no believer, no believer is baptized in order to be saved. No, sir.

If you get baptized in order to get God's favor, you miss God's favor. Others say, well, we will catechize our children as soon as we can, and when they get old enough, after they have learned the catechism, then we'll ask them, do you want to be confirmed in the church? And the child looks at mom and daddy when 12, 13, 14 years old and says, well, yeah, I'll do that. Well, you're saved and you're brought into the family. That's nonsense. That's nonsense.

Salvation doesn't come by learning to recite the right doctrine and saying, I agree with that doctrine. Salvation does not come by you turning from your sin and beginning to cease to do evil and begin to do good. Salvation does not come by you experiencing certain things.

I fear that many, many people in an attempt to declare truth, make the mistake of saying to Sinodat, now in order for you to come to Christ, you must first prepare yourself. You must first experience this. You must first go through this or go through that. Oh no, no, no, no. You experience grace and grace causes repentance and grace causes you to mourn over your sins.

But I'm telling you, if you would be saved, you'd go directly to Christ. Believe on him. Believe on Jesus Christ the Lord and you have life everlasting. And I'll tell you more than that. If you believe on him, you've already got the life. If you believe on him, you have everlasting life. If you believe on him, it's because God has already invaded your heart and given you life. And your faith in Christ is the result of that invasion of grace.

And I'm saying this. Those men who put stumbling blocks of works between sinners and the Savior are not God's servants, but rather they are the messengers of Satan. But Don, who are you to say such a thing? Don't you realize that they're more powerful, more in number, more influential than you are? I know that, and I know they always have been. I'm fully aware of that. God's servants as God's people have always been in the minority in this world and it will not change today.

But I'm telling you what God says. Turn over to Ezekiel chapter 3. Ezekiel chapter 3. These blind leaders of blind men are lost guides to lost souls and those who follow them will follow them to hell. Now, I don't know any way to put it any plainer than that, but this is what God says. Ezekiel chapter three and verse 20.

Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness. If you read in the context, God's talking about a man who imagines himself to be righteous. A man who kind of struts his stuff and thinks I'm somebody and I do good and I'm not like you. When the righteous man falls from his righteousness, that is, when he commits one iniquity, and I, do you see that?

I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. He shall die because thou hast not given him warning. He shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Now, Lindsey Campbell, that means only one, it means exactly what it looks like it means.

That fellow who did the preaching was a false prophet. And that man who dares to stand before eternally bound immortal souls, To speak in the name of God, who doesn't tell sinners the truth of the gospel, is himself a lost man, and those who follow him, follow him to perdition.

God's servants, however, speaking the truth in love, faithfully remove the stumbling blocks and direct sinners to Christ alone as their savior. We labor to keep men from having their minds corrupted and turned aside from what Paul calls the simplicity that is in Christ.

Isn't that a marvelous statement? The simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. The singleness that's in Christ. That's a better translation. But the simplicity that's in Christ implies also the singleness that's in him. So that we preach to men Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and that's it.

You hear me, preacher? It's as simple as A, B, C. It's as simple as A, B, C. The A, B, C, and Z is Jesus Christ the Lord. He's everything. It's as simple as this. Salvation is God's work. It is received by faith, and that faith's object is Jesus Christ the Lord. beneath it and live forever.

I hear preachers preach and I think sometimes, and I'm afraid I have been guilty, we muddy the water with our attempts at clearing the water. We just keep stirring and stirring and stirring and it'd be better sometimes just to quit trying to explain everything and just declare it, just declare it.

I recall when Shelby and I were on our honeymoon, we went down to Biltmore Gardens in Asheville, North Carolina, and it's a beautiful place to see. You and I have been there, haven't you? Beautiful place to see. Got beautiful, beautiful, beautiful flower gardens.

Well, we were there in the summer, and I don't know whether it was a student, a graduate student or what, but we had tour guides. And I don't like tour guides much. They get in my way. I like to kind of see things as I want to see them. But every now and then we'll run across one.

We'll be standing in front of a flower garden, and here's this botanist, I suppose, standing there, and they're telling you all about the flowers. And they can tell you, they can take those roses you grow, Benji, and they can tell you where the rose grows best, what kind of soil it grows in best, where it originated, what its scientific name is, they can tell you exactly how many thorns and how many petals and how many leaves each properly formed stem is supposed to have on it. They can tell you why the roses have different colors and different fragrances. And this fellow standing there talking about flowers, and while my eyes glazed over, I thought to myself, I wish you'd shut up and get out of my way.

Because I'd like to see the flowers. And I don't believe I can smell them. I just, I do not smell them. And I've heard some preachers preach. And while my eyes glazed over, I thought to myself, I wish you'd shut up and get out of the way. I'd like to see the Savior. And I'd like to smell the sweet fragrance of the rose of Sharon.

You see, preaching, ought never to be an encumbrance to men seeing Christ. Preaching ought to be a magnifying glass through which men see Him clearly. Nothing more than that. So that we don't parade our learning but His loveliness. We don't stand before men to impress them with what we know about Him, but we want to see men look to Him and be impressed with Him, and only with Him.

I sometimes hear preachers say, I had difficulty getting down on that level. Well, I'm the case of, if a preacher can't get down on the level of just ordinary folks, he ought not be preaching. He ought not be preaching. I don't mind preaching to 10, 12-year-old kids. I just preach to them as preach to 60, 70-year-old kids. It doesn't matter.

We just preach the gospel to sinners and preach the gospel to sinners with absolute simplicity. That's what preachers are to do, to take away the stumbling blocks. But there are specific stumbling blocks mentioned in the scriptures over which sinners stumble and talk about things of God. We'd be astonished at their ignorance.

C.H. Spurgeon wrote this about himself. Now let me tell you who Spurgeon was. Not only was he a man who was a tremendously gifted and used preacher in the 1800s in London, England, This was a man whose grandfather raised him, who was a excellent, thoroughgoing, solid gospel preacher. When Spurgeon was six years old, not when he was 16, when he was six years old, he had read all six volumes of Matthew Henry's commentary from cover to cover.

That's pretty good training. That's pretty good training. I don't know many 60 year olds who have. But he was a man who was well taught, well instructed in gospel truth. And this is what he said about himself. I was brought up to attend the house of God regularly. I do not suppose that except through illness, I was ever absent. Yet when I began to seek the Lord, I did not know the way of salvation. I knew the letter of it, but not the real meaning of it. And if you read his autobiography or read any of his various references to his conversion, Spurgeon began to try to do better. He began to try to reform his life, to try to overcome his besetting sins.

And one day, one day in the middle of January, a cold winter day, he was walking to church. He couldn't get where he normally would go, and he went into a primitive Methodist chapel, and he sat down back in the back And the preacher couldn't get there. There's just a half a dozen people there. And a deacon got up to preach.

And it turned to Isaiah 45, verse 22. And preached on that text. Look unto me, be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and beside me there is none else. And spiritually said he looked right at me. And he said, young man, you look like you need to look. Why don't you look to the Savior?

And he said, I did. I did. And I've been looking to him ever since. That's it. It is just that simple. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Look to him and live forever. But what are these stumbling blocks? Let's look first at Ezekiel chapter 7. Ezekiel 7 and verse 19. Here's a tremendous stumbling block. Lamb mentioned it in his prayer. It's called covetousness.

They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed. Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels, for it is the stumbling block of their iniquity. The wise man said in Ecclesiastes 5, He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver.

Oh, what a stumbling block covetousness is. You can be covetous and not have two nickels drubbed together, and you can be covetous and have all the money that a man can imagine getting, but covetousness will carry your soul to hell. I promise you. Take heed and beware of covetousness Our Savior said, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Another stumbling block is found over in chapter 14 of Ezekiel. It's called idolatry. Ezekiel 14 and verse 3.

Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart. and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face, should I be inquired of at all by them? Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, every man of the house of Israel, that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet. I, the Lord, will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols, Verse 7. Every one of the house of Israel, or the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separated himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet to inquire of him concerning me, I the Lord will answer him myself. I'll set my face against that man. Look at verse 9. And if the prophet be deceived, When he hath spoken, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet." What a word from God.

Idolatry is the worship of images. That's generally what we think about when we think about idolatry. We think about a savage kneeling down at a totem pole and worshiping that, or we think about a papist kneeling down to a statue of Mary and worshiping that. But idolatry is more than just the worship of images. Idolatry is the worship of any imaginary god. Idolatry is the pretended worship of Jehovah, while worshiping a false god, even when it is called the worship of the Lord God.

Let me show you a text. I tried to find this the other night, hurriedly, but it's in Exodus chapter 32. Exodus chapter 32. You remember Aaron had made the golden calves for Israel. And in chapter 32, verse four, And he received them, that is their gold earrings and bracelets and all that. He received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf. And they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before the golden calf. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah. Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.

You can't imagine it. You just can't imagine it. Here is Aaron, Moses' brother. And he's built a golden calf and an altar in front of that golden calf. And he says that we're gonna worship the Lord God. It's nothing but idolatry. Nothing but idolatry. And we have much of it in our day. I have no hesitancy in declaring that Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and even Judaism is idolatry. It is all false religion. I have no hesitancy in declaring that Catholicism, Campbellism, and Russellism is all idolatry. I have no hesitancy in saying that liberalism, Pentecostalism, and free willism is all idolatry. It is all the worship of a false imaginary deity carved out of the dark forest of man's depraved mind in the pretense of worshiping the Lord God. Now I'm telling you, idolatry is a stumbling block over which souls stumble into hell.

But there is another. It is described as a form of godliness. Look in Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11 in verse 9. A form of godliness is also a stumbling block to the souls of men. Multitudes like the Jews of Paul's day build for themselves a refuge of lies in religious devotion and ceremony. in a religious name and profession, in their just religious affiliation, and their refuge of lies, their form of godliness, carries them to hell. And this is in answer to what David said. Romans chapter 11 and verse 9.

David saith, let their table, their religious table, be made a snare and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them, and let their eyes be darkened. Multitudes take a form of godliness, a religious ceremony, a religious profession. I've got my church, I've got my religion, don't bother me. And they are content and satisfied and become very angry if there's any indication given that their religion somehow is lacking anything, because they know it's lacking something. But they hold to their religion and perish under the wrath of God. Even God's holy law becomes a stumbling block to the legalist who make their obedience to the law the basis of their acceptance with God.

Look in chapter 9 of Romans, verse 31. Romans 9 31. Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, they kept the sabbath days, they kept the holy days, they kept the feast days, they kept the ceremonies, they kept the sacrifices. Israel, which followed after the law, they pursued righteousness according to the letter of the law, hath not attained to the righteousness of the law.

They haven't attained it. Why? Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at the stumbling stone. They've got the Ten Commandments, they've got Moses, they follow it, and they follow it right to hell. stumbling over the stumbling stone.

Now God's people are neither legalists nor antinomians. Believers are not in bondage to the law and yet they love the law for they have found him who fulfills the law and through faith in Christ we have obtained the righteousness of the law. The Jews have not obtained the righteousness of the law. And Paul is suggesting that the Gentiles who did not follow the righteousness of the law in verse 30 have obtained the righteousness which is of faith.

How can you obtain the righteousness which is of the law? By faith in Christ. I trust the Son of God and trusting him I have all that the law of God demands. Satisfaction and righteousness. Atonement and righteousness, and that's what God demands. And now, trusting Christ, all we believe have obtained the very righteousness of God's holy law.

But even more astonishing than all of these put together is the fact that to the unbeliever, the Lord Jesus Christ himself is a stumbling stone. The message of salvation and grace through Jesus Christ alone is to the unbeliever a stumbling stone. Look at the very next verse, verse 33. As it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Look over in 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21.

For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified under the Jews a stumbling block under the Greeks' foolishness.

I stand here to tell you that salvation is in Christ alone. And the religious crowd said, now wait a minute, you know, you know, there's more to it than that. You know, we understand. We understand now that Jesus had to die. We understand we can't be saved without him. But you know there's more to this business of salvation and grace than simply believing on Christ.

There's something you've got to do. You've got to do your part. You know you do. And the irreligious crowd, they look at you and say, well, that's nonsense. That's a bunch of mumbo jumbo. That's religious superstition. But to the believer, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. I preach to you, and I know that as I preach, some will believe. If God speaks to you and causes you to see the glory of the gospel in Christ, you'll leave here astonished.

How is it that I've been so long and haven't been able to see this? How is it that I've been all my life going to churches and I haven't been able to see this? Mark Henson was telling us back in the office, talking about the statement I made this morning, I've quoted in Matthew, he saved others himself he cannot save. He said, what you talked about, I never knew in all my previous religious experience.

And you leave here and you say, Have a listen, have a listen. But for others who will not believe, you walk out the doors and one of these days you'll walk to hell and you'll never see it because you'll stumble over the stumbling block. Never see the wonder and mystery of it.

We preach salvation by grace without works. by blood atonement, not blood lineage, by the merit of a substitute, not by ceremonies, by imputed righteousness, not by developed righteousness, by the prerogative of God's sovereign will, not by the prerogative of man's free will. And multitudes say, I'll go to hell before I submit to such a savior, to such a God, and to such salvation. And they will.

Look at one more text in this regard. Look over in 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. Until I started looking these various passages up, I'd never realized just how many things and in how many ways the scripture describes these stumbling blocks. In 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 6, Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture. You can read it back in Isaiah 8, 14.

Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. He that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe, he's precious. But unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed."

Men and women pretending to worship God, being convinced that they worship God, holding to a refuge of lies, every now and then, Reading the word, they come across it and they stumble over it. Stumble at the word. Just stumble at the word. Mark was mentioning back in the office again, you read the word and you come to these things and you start to have questions, but somehow you just, oh, that must not be important. Nobody ever mentioned that. We just trip over that and fall right into hell. Let's just stumble at the word. because they believe not the gospel. Now one other aspect of these stumbling blocks is this.

There are some stumbling blocks of divine judgment which cannot be removed, by which reprobate sinners shall be damned. Contrary to popular opinion, The door of mercy is not always open. Grace is not always available. There does come a time when men and women who will not trust Christ cannot trust him.

God puts the stumbling block of judgment in front of them to trip them up. And this is the recompense of man's unbelief. To those who will not receive the love of the truth, God sends a strong delusion, and they're damned by believing a lie. To those who will not take refuge in Christ, God builds a refuge of lies.

Did you remember that passage in Ezekiel? He said, if the prophet be deceived, I deceive that prophet. so that those who would not trust Christ and be saved by him find a confident assurance of salvation while they walk in the road to damnation, and they're absolutely certain everything's all right. Absolutely certain everything's all right. Somebody said, you believe a man can be lost and have assurance? I know a man can be lost and have assurance. Isaiah 28 talks about a refuge, a refuge of lies that men build for themselves, in which they made a covenant with death, and they say, it's not gonna come near us.

But you listen here to the stumbling block that God described in Jeremiah chapter six. Just listen, verse 21. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people. And the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them, and the neighbor and his friends shall perish. Because God says, I'll lay the stumbling block in front of them. And if God lays the stumbling block before you, you'll fall for it. You'll fall for it. Now let me show you one more text. Romans chapter 14. I'll say this and we'll quit. Romans 14. Far too often, believers are stumbling blocks to one another. Romans 14 verse 13.

Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians in very similar language. He said in chapter eight of first Corinthians, verse nine, take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak. Now, what does that mean? That means children of God don't ever, don't ever, don't ever behave in such a way as to put a stumbling block before your brother. Behave in such a way as to hinder any of God's saints and God's children in the path of obedience to the Savior.

How can I do that? Well, in particular, the apostle was talking about abusing our liberty in matters of indifference. Don't do that. Don't do that. We are free from the law, we're free from the bondage of God's holy law, and we're free from the strict use of man's invented religious laws for sure. But don't use your liberty with such indifference to men that you lead men by your freedom to violate their consciences. Don't do it. In matters of indifference, exercise restraint and exercise wisdom. Let me try to give you an example.

When you're raising your children, as adults, mom and dad may say or do things in private that they would never say or do before their children because the children are too young to understand. They're just too young to understand. And if you don't have enough sense to realize that, you don't need to have any children. There's some things you get children by degrees as they grow, and they're able to understand them.

Because if you behaved before those children, always exactly as you do in private, just you and your wife, He put a stumbling block before them. Do you understand that? In the same way, we as believers have great liberties. We're free to use this world without abusing it. But don't behave before children in the kingdom in such a way that they can't understand what's going on. Don't do that. We must not hinder the walk of believers in obedience to Christ by neglecting the things of God, and neglecting worship, and pushing that aside. I read a statement the other day.

I forgot who the man was who made the statement, but he was saying in a sermon, you, that lady sitting right there, you're the best Christian somebody knows. The best one somebody knows. Oh, if you're a believer, you're the best when somebody knows. The best when somebody knows. Assume then the responsibility of always directing them in the faith of Christ, in the worship of Christ, in obedience to Christ. And don't put a stumbling block before your neighbor by behavior that's inconsistent with what we profess.

I went to school with a fellow whose dad, as a preacher, experienced painful difficulties in churches. And his boy grew up despising religion and the church, all things connected with the gospel, and he just saw it all as one big mess because he saw such horrible mean-spiritedness in religious people. He saw and heard the gossip, the yack-yack-yack. He saw the acts of vengeance, malice. He saw, among folks who professed faith in Christ, everything totally inconsistent. with brotherly love and kindness and mercy.

Whether he today has experienced anything of God's grace or not, I don't know. And his unbelief is without excuse, no question about that. But he stumbled and may stumble into hell because of the horrible example other folks set before him. God keep us from causing a brother or even an unbeliever to stumble.

Salvation is no more and no less than looking to Christ. Look to him. It begins looking to him. Look unto thee and thee is saved. And it continues looking to him. not to the right hand nor to the left, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Run with patience the race that's set before us. And when you finish the race, it'll wind up looking to him. And when we see him, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is. Amen.

Stumbling Blocks Removed

What does the Bible say about the way of salvation?

How do we know that salvation by grace alone is true?

Why is it important for Christians to trust Christ alone for salvation?

What are common stumbling blocks to faith in Christ?

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Stumbling Blocks Removed

What does the Bible say about the way of salvation?

How do we know that salvation by grace alone is true?

Why is it important for Christians to trust Christ alone for salvation?

What are common stumbling blocks to faith in Christ?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

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