Good morning to everyone. If
you would, open your Bibles with me to the book of Matthew. Matthew
chapter 27. As you're turning, you may have
seen out in the vestibule, we have Brother Henry Mahan's bulletin
articles, volume two, that has been printed. Our cost is $15
or so. So if you would like one, they're
out there. Just put the money in the offering
or something. I'll trust you for it. But, uh,
I think a lot of people might enjoy that. They enjoyed, uh,
volume one. I think we'll enjoy volume two
equally. Okay. Matthew chapter 27. We'll begin
our reading in verse 19. When he was sit down on the judgment
seat, his wife sent unto him saying, have thou nothing to
do with that just man. For I've suffered many things
this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and
elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas
and destroy Jesus. That's man's will, to destroy
Jesus. The governor answered and said
unto them, whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you?
They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, what
shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ? They all say
unto him, let him be crucified. And the governor said, why? What
evil hath he done? But they cried out the more,
saying, let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could
prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water
and washed his hands before the multitude saying, I'm innocent
of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. The end answered
all the people and said, his blood be on us and on our children. The end released, he brought
us under them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered
him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor
took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole
band of soldiers. And they stripped him and put
on him a scarlet robe. And when they had planted a crown
of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right
hand. And they bowed the knee before
him and mocked him saying, hail king of the Jews. And they spit
upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head. And after
that, they had mocked him. They took the robe. off from
him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify
him. And as they came out, they found
a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his
cross. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha,
that is to say a place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink
mingled with gall. And when he had tasted thereof,
he would not drink and they crucified him. and parted his garments,
casting lots that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by
the prophet. They parted my garments among
them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down,
they watched him there. And set over his head his accusation
written, This is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Then were there
two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and another
on the left. And they that passed by reviled
him. wagging their heads, and saying, thou that destroyest
the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If
thou be the son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise,
also the chief priest, mocking him with the scribes and elders,
said he saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the
king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will
believe him. He trusted in God. Let him deliver him now, if he'll
have him, For he said, I am the son of God. The thieves also,
which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Now
from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until
the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus
cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. That is to say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there
when they heard that said, this man called for Elias. And straightway
one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and
put it on a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, let
be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus,
when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the
ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple
was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and the earth did
quake and the rocks rent and the graves were opened and many
bodies of the saints which slept arose. and came out of the graves
after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared
unto many. Now when the centurion and they
that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake and those
things that were done, they feared greatly saying, truly, this was
the son of God. And we'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our father, We've gathered together
this morning in your name, in the name of your dear son. We've gathered together with
a heartfelt desire to worship thee, to worship thee in spirit
and in truth. And Father, I pray you'd send
your spirit upon us and enable us to worship. Enable us to one
more time hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and to
worship in awe and wonder. as such a savior that you've
provided to save your people from your sins. Father, I pray
that this morning the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be magnified
and extolled. Let him be lifted up on high
that your people might see and bow in silent, reverent worship
in awe and wonder. Father, how we thank you for
this blessed opportunity to meet together and to worship to have
your gospel preached to us. Father, we're so thankful. We're
thankful for your blessings over so many, many, many years to
this congregation, and you continue to bless us. And Father, we're
thankful. And we beg of you that you not
allow us to take this blessed privilege for granted, to not
take your mercy and your grace and your provision to your people
for granted, but let us treasure it. Let us protect it. that we
may continue, our children, our grandchildren, the people of
this community might continue to have a place where they can
come and hear the gospel preached and worship God our Savior. Father,
we pray that in this time that you would enable us to see your
glory, reveal to us your glory, we pray. All these things we
ask in that name which is above every name, the name of Christ
our Savior. Right now, if you would turn
in your Bibles with me to Galatians chapter five, Galatians chapter
five. I titled a message this morning,
the offense of the cross. The apostle Paul talks about
the offense of the cross and Galatians chapter five, verse
11. And I brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offense
of the cross ceased. This is what Paul is saying.
There's no offense to anyone in preaching the law, preaching. Oh, you have to be circumcised.
Yes, salvation is by grace, but you also have to be circumcised.
Paul said, there's no offense in that. There's no offense to
the flesh in that. And Paul said, if I would preach
that, if I had preached it, salvation is by grace, but you also have
to be circumcised. You also have to obey the law.
He says, I've taken away the offense of the cross and you
cannot preach the gospel without preaching the offense of the
cross. Now we say the offense of the cross. We don't mean,
you know, the symbol of the cross, whatever form that was in a T
or an X. We don't mean that. That's not
offensive to me. And when we say the offense of the cross,
what we mean is the message of the cross. The message of the
cross offends the flesh. The offense of the cross is the
message. of what God accomplished at the
cross. That's the offense to the flesh.
The offense of the cross is the message of what the Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished by his death on the cross. The offense of
the cross is the message of what the cross says about you and
me. You know what the message of the cross says about you and
me? That we are so vile, we are so sinful, that the Son of God
himself, Son of God in the flesh, had to die in order to save us.
Nothing else could pay the price. Nothing else could pay such a
high price. We are so exceedingly sinful. It takes the blood of
God to save us. That's the message of the cross.
And that's offensive to the flesh. The flesh does not like to be
told we're that, you know, we're that awful. There's no offense
in preaching that Jesus died to give everybody a chance to
be saved. The flesh is not offended by that. There's no offense in
a non-sovereign Savior who leaves salvation up to the decision
of man. There's no offense there. There's no offense in hearing
of a Savior who's begging you to let him save you, who's begging
you to accept him. There's no offense there. Matter
of fact, the flesh likes that message, doesn't it? Because
all those things leave some glory for the flesh because that message
gives the flesh something to do. So the flesh loves that message. But the offense of the cross
is the message of what the Bible declares. The Bible declares,
the message of the cross declares exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished by his cursed death upon the tree. The word the apostle
uses here, offense, means a scandal. He's talking about something
that is, this message is scandalous to the flesh. You know, the Bible
says that Christ died for God's elect and only for God's elect. And the flesh says, Oh, that's
scandalous. It's scandalous not to give everybody
a chance. Everybody's got to have a chance to decide for themselves.
The Bible says that Christ was made sin for his people, that
he was made a curse for his people. That's how he took away the curse
of sin for his people. But man says that's scandalous
to say that Christ was made sin. The Bible says that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the only Savior. only way of salvation is through
the obedience and through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the clear declaration of the Bible and the clear declaration
of what happened at the cross. And man says that's scandalous.
It's scandalous to be so narrow-minded. The Bible says that Christ is
all in salvation. And since Christ is all in salvation,
what is man in salvation? Nothing. That's what that means.
That's what the Bible says. The only thing that man can contribute
to salvation is our sin. That's all we can contribute,
our need to be saved. We have no righteousness that
we can contribute. We have nothing good that we
can contribute to this in any way. And man says, that's scandalous. You're saying, I'm not a good
boy. I'm not a good girl. Well, you're saying my mama told
me a lie all those years. It's scandalous. And I say, that's
exactly right. You're not good. Because scripture
says there's none good. No, not one. And that offends
the flesh. See, people, the flesh is offended
by the message of the cross. What the cross says about us. You know, the cross is the clearest
declaration you can find of man's character, of man's sin, of man's
hatred of God. That's why I read that passage
of Matthew to open the scripture or open the service. That is
the clearest declaration there is of man's total depravity and
hatred of God. But the cross. is also the best
place that you can see all of the attributes of God in one
place. See, the message of the cross declares who God is, and
that's offensive to the flesh too. The message of the cross
says God hates sin. He hates it. He'll kill it, kill
it, even if it's found on his son. God hates sin. God is just. He will by no means clear the
guilty, even when it's his son. There must be a sacrifice for
sin, a sacrifice that God accepts. The sacrifice that God commands
has got to be. There must be the death of a
substitute. God requires it. Oh, God's merciful
in me. The cross declares God's merciful,
but only in Christ. The cross declares God's gracious
to sinners. What could be more gracious than
God sacrificing his son to save sinners? God's gracious, but
only in Christ. See, that's the message of the
cross. And the natural man's offended by that. It's an offense
to hear what the cross says about us, and man's offended to hear
what the cross says about God. And I want to give you six ways
this morning that the message of the cross is offensive to
the flesh. But I don't want to stop there.
I don't want to just preach against the flesh. There's six ways that
the message of the cross is offensive to the flesh. I also want to
show you in those six ways how that message of the cross is
a blessing to the spirit, comfort to the spirit. So number one,
the cross offends man's dignity. The cross says that man is guilty,
guilty of sin. And being guilty means more than
you just did something wrong. It means that we're defiled with
sin. It means that we are vile before
God because of our sin. It means that God cannot and
he will not look on us in our sin as we are in the flesh. God
cannot have anything to do with the sinner in his sin because
we're disgusting to the holy God. We're disgusting in God's
sight. The best that we can produce, scripture calls it a filthy rag.
It's not even a garment that can cover us. It's not even just
a dirty rag. It's a rag that's defiled with
sin in God's sight. Even the best things we do, our
best religious activity, God says it's offensive to me. If
it's done in the flesh, that's right. God says it's smoke in
my nose. The scripture says there's none righteous. No, not one. That applies to me and you too.
And the cross proves it. Cross proves it, doesn't it?
There's none righteous. There's none that loves God.
There's none that seeketh after him. You and I must be guilty. We must be vile. We must be defiled. If the only way our sin could
be put away is the father sacrificing his son to do it. Man must be
unable to save himself. Has to be. If salvation were
possible any other way, other than the slaughter of God's son.
Surely the father would have done it that way. I mean, God's
not a monster. If there was another way to put
away sin other than the slaughter of his son, God would have done
it that way. But there isn't another way.
And that shows just how defiled by sin you and I are. And that
offends man's dignity, doesn't it? Here's something else that
the cross says that offends man's dignity. If you would be saved,
You must submit. You've got to submit. Is anything
more offensive to the flesh being told you've got to submit? Tough,
isn't it? All the flesh hates that. But
if we would be saved, we must submit. The Apostle Paul said
that is the very reason his countrymen were not saved. Oh, they're religious. They had the right form of religion
and had the sacrifices and the priesthood. But Paul said, they
don't know God. They're not saved. And here's
why he knew that they will not submit to the righteousness of
God. They'll not give up their works
and submit themselves to the righteousness of God. If you
would be saved, you must submit to this crucified, scandalous
savior. You've got to submit to him.
And that's offensive to the flesh, isn't it? Hearing that man has
no dignity? Hearing that we've got no claim
on God? Hearing that we've got no goodness
that could get God to save us? Oh, that's offensive to man's
dignity. But that's sweet music to the
sinner's ears. That's sweet music to a sinner's
ears. The message of the cross puts me, puts a sinner down in
the dust where I belong. and it glorifies the dignity
of Christ. And that's what draws me to Christ,
to have him lifted up, to have his glory displayed, to have
his dignity displayed. That's what draws a sinner to
Christ. That's what makes us trust Christ. When I see him,
I gladly, I say with David, I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even of thine only. If I could ever, if God will
ever show me the Lord Jesus Christ and his glory, and His dignity,
I'm going to quit talking about my righteousness. I'm going to
start talking about His righteousness. If the Holy Spirit will ever
show me Christ and His dignity and His glory, I'm going to quit
talking about what I've done for God and start talking about
what He's done for me. If I could just see Him lifted
up like that. It's this message of the cross that puts a sinner
in the dust. That's sweet music to a sinner. If the Holy Spirit has given
me a new submissive nature, I will gladly submit to the righteousness
of Christ. It's the best news I ever heard
to hear. I don't have to try to earn my way into God's favor,
but that I can trust Christ who's already done. Oh, what good news
to quit trusting in my works and to trust and rest in Christ. See, what is offensive to the
flesh is a blessing to the spirit in it. The death of Christ made
God's elect to be righteous. I don't have any dignity to brag
about. I don't have anything about me that I can brag about
or boast about. But if I've seen Christ, I tell
you, I do want to do a little bit of bragging. I want to brag
on the Savior. I say with the Apostle Paul,
God forbid that I should glory. God forbid that I should brag.
Save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Save in his dignity
and what he accomplished on the cross. Oh, that's offensive to
the flesh. But that's a salvation of the spirit, isn't it? All
right, number two. The cross offends thoughts of
self. The message of the cross says
that we're nothing. The flesh is nothing. We are
nothing but sin. The message of the cross says
there is nothing valuable to be found in man. There's nothing
in us and nothing that we can produce that would make God happy
with us. Everything we do is sinful, so
it's offensive to God. The Apostle Paul said in Romans
3 verse 12, they are together become unprofitable. Just take
all the profit, all the goodness of all of us here this morning,
add it all up. And then take everybody in Ashland, take everybody
in this tri-state area, take everybody in this country, take
everybody in this world, and add us all up together. Take
the goodness, the benefit, the profit of every one of us together. And the Apostle Paul said, we'll
still be less than nothing. We'll still be unprofitable.
We'll still come up less than zero, adding every son of Adam
together all at one time. We're still come up less than
zero. Now that's offensive to the flesh, isn't it? We're nothing.
Man is nothing. We have nothing. So we don't
even have, not only do we not have the ability by nature, we
don't have the desire to come to Christ. We don't have the
ability or the desire to believe Christ. Our Lord said, no man
can. You don't have the ability to
come unto me except the father which sent me draws you. And
that offends man's self-reliance. We want to be self-reliant, don't
we? I don't want anybody helping
me. I want to be self-reliant. And hearing this message of the
cross, that I cannot come to Christ except the Father draw
me, that offends man's thoughts of self. The message of the cross
says we're nothing and we have nothing. And that's offensive
to the flesh. But I'm telling you that message,
is sweet news to a sinner's ear. God has taught me that I'm nothing. I look at myself, I can't find
anything in myself to trust Him. If you're preaching to me a message
that I've got to do something that will make God happy with
me, I don't see anything in me that I could trust Him. Nothing
that I do is trustworthy. Nothing that I could do is worthy
of Almighty God. Oh, but to hear that Christ is
all. Oh, would you tell me one more
time, Christ is all. Would you tell me one more time,
I don't have to trust in my works, but to trust in Christ. That
He is absolutely everything the Father requires in me. He's everything
that I need. Now that comforts my heart. That
makes me look to Christ and rest in Christ. That lets me see salvation
in Christ that's sure and it's certain. because it's all dependent
upon him, not my works. That's what the apostle Paul
said. This is he said, this is my desire, not having my own
righteousness, which is of the law, not having my own righteousness
that I earned by keeping the law or by my my outward morality,
but having that righteousness, which is through the faith of
Christ, not just faith in Christ. And he says faith of Christ,
the faithfulness of Christ to do everything God requires of
me. Oh, that's the message I want to hear. That message, I grant
you, is offensive to the flesh. But that message, that message
of the cross, that we're nothing and Christ is all, that comforts
the believer's heart. Because hearing that message
over and over and over again, you know what it constantly reminds
me to do? Quit looking at myself and look to Christ. Look. You
know, Scripture says, look to Christ. Look and live. Look to
Him. Well, keep looking. We've got to be reminded to keep
looking. Keep looking to him. That's what this message of the
cross tells us to do. Keep looking to Christ and the
spirit loves that. Saved person loves that. Then
thirdly, the cross offends man's wisdom. Now this is the message
of the cross. Salvation is not by education.
Salvation is by revelation. The Jews prove this. You can
be educated. You can know things that the
scripture says and not know what to mean. And I know what you
mean. Salvation is not by education. It's by revelation. Our Lord
told us that. He said, No man knows the Father
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. You
cannot know God unless God the Holy Spirit reveals Himself to
you. Now that offends the flesh, doesn't it? You mean to tell
me I'm not smart enough to know God? I'm not smart enough to
figure out how God saves sinners? You say this gospel is simple
and you're telling me I'm not smart enough to figure it out?
You're telling me God's everywhere but I'm not smart enough to find
him? That's the message of the cross, isn't it? And it offends
the flesh. The message of the cross is that
salvation is not by man's decision, but that salvation is by the
decision of God. Our Lord said, I lay down my
life for who? The sheep. The sheep that the
Father gave me. I'm not laying down my life for
everybody. I'm laying down my life for the
sheep who are chosen of God. Salvation is by the decision
of God. And it has to be that way. Because if it was left up
to you and me, we'd never choose God. Ever. If God leaves us alone
by the natural will of the flesh, we will never choose to be chosen
or saved by Christ. Never. So salvation has got to
be by God's decision. The message of the cross is that
the only way a sinner can know God is if God the Holy Spirit
is pleased to reveal Christ to us. And that offends man's wisdom. Everybody wants to be so wise.
Everybody wants to be the teacher and nobody wants to be a student.
Nobody wants to learn. We're so proud of our wisdom.
You know what God says about our wisdom? First Corinthians
121, the world by wisdom knew not God. Who cares about our earthly wisdom,
really? I mean, we want to conduct ourselves
wisely. But by our earthly wisdom, nobody
will ever know God. The only way sinners can know
God is through the preaching of the gospel, through what the
world calls the foolishness of preaching. That's the only way
it can happen. You know why? Because it pleased God to make
it that way. Now, that offends the flesh, doesn't it? But it's
so. The best spiritual minds of the
day, when our Lord Jesus walked the earth in His flesh, the best
spiritual minds of that day did not know that Jesus of Nazareth
was the Messiah. He's right there in front of
them. He told them that's who He is. He told them plainly,
and they could not see it. These men, they knew the scriptures
frontwards and backwards. It never one time dawned on them,
wait a minute, This man is fulfilling every scripture that was prophesied
in the Old Testament. The Messiah never dawned on them.
They couldn't see. They never would have crucified
the Lord of Glory if they knew that Jesus was the Christ. That's
what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, 8, which none of the princes
of this world knew, for had they known it, they never would have
crucified the Lord of Glory. They crucified him because they
didn't know who he was. They did not know who he was. And
while he was being crucified, we read about those thieves.
Those thieves were casting the same in his teeth. But before the Lord gave up the
ghost, before he yielded the ghost, one of those thieves knew
who that man in the middle cross was. Pharisees didn't know it. The scribes didn't know it. All
those religious people didn't know it. But that thief did. That thief did. How did he know
that? God the Holy Spirit revealed
it to them. We can only know God by revelation. And that message of the cross
offends man's wisdom, but that's sweet music to the sinner's ear.
I feel like Solomon. I read this conversation between
Solomon and the Lord every so often. Solomon became king of
Israel. And I just bet He was anointed
king and he went home and he thought, what have I done? What has happened? He became
scared. And Lord came to him at night
and said, Solomon, ask anything you want. I'll give it to you.
And Solomon said, I don't got the wisdom to go in or out. I
don't got the smarts to come in out of the rain. How am I
going to lead this people? God, give me wisdom. Give me
wisdom. Well, that's Christ. You want
to see God's wisdom? Look to the cross. Look to Christ
crucified. That's God's wisdom. And the
message of the cross comforts the believer's heart because
the message of the cross says you don't have to be smart enough
to be saved. You got to look to Christ. The
message of the cross tells us that Christ is the wisdom of
God. He personally is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. And the one and only place that
I can see, how is it possible that God could save a sinner
like me and still be God, still be holy? The only place I can
see that is in the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ crucified. That's
the wisdom of God. The message of the cross, Christ
crucified. That's the only place I see how
God can be both just and justifier. It's the only place. And that
message comforts my heart. I'm glad to know. I don't have
to know everything there is to know about God in order to be
saved. All I've got to know is Christ. I know Him by revelation. That comforts the hearts of God's
people who know I'm not smart enough to come in out of the
rain. How can I ever know God unless He reveals Him? And He
reveals Christ to His people. That comforts the hearts of God's
people. Fourth, the cross offends man's pride. The message of the
cross says this, salvation can only be accomplished by the death
of a substitute, God's appointed substitute. There's nothing we
can do to earn it. You and I got nothing that God
wants. And that offends man's pride.
The message of the cross says that Christ died for God's elect
and only God's elect. And that leaves you and me totally
dependent on God to save us. It leaves us totally dependent.
I don't want to be totally dependent, do you? I'm a do-it-myself kind
of guy. Even on something I've got the
skill to do, I'm a do-it-myself kind of guy. This thing of being
dependent on God, now that offends the flesh. It offends man's pride,
being told we're dependent on somebody else. You mean to tell
me I don't have any control? This is especially tough for
Americans. You mean to tell me I don't have
any rights? I know my rights. Being told I don't have any rights
before God, that I'm dependent on God, that offends man's pride. Here's one thing I know about
pride. God hates pride. Well, then our pride needs to
be offended, doesn't it? The pride of this flesh needs to
be offended. The message of the cross offends
man's pride. Oh, but it's sweet, sweet music
to a sinner's ear. You know, when God saves a person,
God always humbles that person, always. He always makes them
like that Syro-Phoenician woman, just where you got no pride.
So you can't be offended. Call me a dog. True Lord, I'm
a dog. You're absolutely right. It's
not right for you to give the children's bread to dogs. No
argument. You can't offend me. But could
I have some crumbs? I'm just begging you for some
crumbs. That kind of humility doesn't
come naturally, does it? It doesn't come naturally to
this flesh. God saves a person. He humbles that person. And He
makes me to know I've got nothing to be proud of. But I'll tell you how wrapped
up this flesh is in pride. Believers always have to fight
it. Always have to fight it. Just that pride, that self-righteousness
is Always with us, as long as we're carrying this dead flesh
around, it'll always be with us. We're the believer has been
given a new nature, a new man who's alive, spiritually alive,
and he's got to carry a dead carcass with him everywhere he
goes. The stench of that dead carcass is always going to be
with us. Always that pride and self-righteousness. But the Lord
has ways of humbling us. He has ways of constantly reminding
us, oh, I'm dependent on him. I'm dependent on him. And when
God strips us of our pride, then we'll finally be able to see
the glory of Christ. When Nebuchadnezzar was finally
stripped of his pride, then he saw God's glory, didn't he? And
the believer is most blessed when we're humbled I mean, when
we're humbled, we're brought low because then we can sit at
the feet of the Savior and worship Him. Worshiping God, worshiping
Christ is being dependent, being dependent. Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. That's worship, being dependent
upon Him. Here's good news for the sinner. David told us this.
Though the Lord be high. Oh, how high is He? Higher than
we can, Imagine, yet hath he respect unto the lowly. God makes
his people lowly and yet then he has respect for them for having
it. Solomon said this, by humility and fear of the Lord are riches
in honor and life. And the humble hear that and
say, I mean, I'm glad. I'm glad that so. That describes
me. I got nothing. And the Lord has respect unto
the lowly. All right, fifthly, the cross. offends man's sense
of entitlement. A man thinks so highly of himself
that we think God owes salvation to us. We just think God owes
it to us to sacrifice his son to put away our sin. We think
God owes that to us. We think so highly of ourselves,
we think God owes it to us to offer his son to us to see if
we'll decide to accept him or reject him. I mean, we're so
full of ourselves, our flesh really doesn't think that. Man
thinks that God is required to accept the best that I can do.
That's what Naaman thought. Naaman thought, oh, I'm somebody. God's going to treat me a little
different here, you know. He came to Elisha to be healed of
his leprosy. Elisha wouldn't even go out and
speak to him, would he? Elisha just sent his servant
out there and said, just go down here and dip in the River Jordan
seven times and you'll be clean. Oh, that offended Naaman's sense
of entitlement. He thought he was entitled. All
the riches he had, all the position that he had, he thought he was
entitled. He said, oh, I thought the prophet would come out here
and perform some great, impressive religious ceremony over me and
heal me, because I'm entitled to that. But he told me to go
down here and dip in this muddy river? I'm not going to do that. There are rivers back home that
are better than this river. He just went off in a huff, didn't
he? Just mad, off in a huff. And one of his servants said,
now, If the prophet told you to do some great thing, would
you have done it? Yeah, I would have done it. Why won't you do this simple
thing? Because it offends my sense of entitlement. Dipping
in that muddy river, that offended Naaman's pride. It offended his
sense of entitlement that he was entitled to the prophet to
come do some great thing for him, but he couldn't have been
healed any other way. Dipping in that river. Couldn't
have done it. God did not owe it to Naaman to heal him. And
Naaman had to learn that for the Lord to heal him. You and
I do too. And just to show you how dead
in sin we really are, to show you how spiritually dead our
natural minds are, you consider this. Man wants everything for
free. We want everything for free.
We just want the government just to give us everything for free,
don't we? Accept salvation. And you know why we don't we
don't want God to give us salvation for nothing? Because we think
we've already earned it. We think we already deserve it. A sense of entitlement. To think
I'm so worthy. Well, the message of the cross
offends man's sense of entitlement. God don't owe it to you, Savior.
God don't owe it to you to be merciful to you. Oh, God's gracious. Oh, he's so gracious. But you
don't have to be. You don't have to be. That offends
man's sense of entitlement. But that's sweet music to a sinner's
ear. There's nothing I love to hear more than salvation by God's
grace. Salvation by God's grace. Now
that glorifies our God. To know that God is king. I just cannot describe how high
God is. and I'm nothing. I can't even
describe how low I am. Heard my dad say one time to
describe men as maggots, to describe, you know, he said, that's an
offense to maggots everywhere. How we just can't even describe
how low we are. The Holy God doesn't owe me anything
but wrath because of my sin. God didn't have to save me, but
he did. God didn't have to have mercy
on me, but he did. God didn't have to have grace
on me, but he did. Christ didn't have to die for
me, but he did. And he did it willingly. He did
it on purpose. God didn't have to give me the gift of faith
in Christ, but he did. He did. And that makes my heart
rejoice in awe and wonder and worship of our God. And then
six, last. The cross offends man's desire
for praise. We all want to be recognized
and praised. And the message of the cross
says that the only thing a man, the only thing you and me can
earn is shame and damnation. That's all we can earn. You want
to see what all sin really deserves? Look to Christ crucified. Look
to the cross. That's what sin really deserves. All we can earn
by what we do is shame and damnation. So all the praise for salvation
goes to Christ because he accomplished all of the salvation of his people
and he personally is all the salvation of his people. So all
the praise, all the glory goes to him and we get none. And that
offends man's pride. The flesh says, I want some credit
in this thing of salvation. You know, I want some credit
for my decision. I want some credit for my faithfulness. I want some credit for my service.
I want some credit for my morality. You know, there's people out
there that don't act as good as me. I want more credit than
them. Yeah, they could be saved by grace too, but I want more
credit than them. Oh, and the message of the cross
is you don't get any. You don't get any credit for
that. And that offends man's pride. And we say, but wait a
minute, Little League taught me everybody gets trophy. And
I want a trophy from God too. And that's what man's religion,
all man's religion is doing is trying to get trophies, getting
praise from God and getting praise from man. So other people say,
what a good Christian I am. And God says, I'll never accept
it. I'll never accept it. The best you do, the best religious
service you do, is offensive to me. God says there's smoke
in my nose. Salvation doesn't require what you can do. Salvation
requires the death of Christ, dying for your sin as your substitute. And that offends man's pride.
I can't contribute anything to it. That message of the cross
offends man's desire for praise. But all that sweet music to the
ears of a sinner. The message of the cross says
Christ is He must have the preeminence. And that message comforts the
believer's heart. If Christ gets all the praise
in salvation, that means that salvation is all up to Him. It
all depends upon Him, right? If the Lord Jesus Christ loses
even one that the Father gave Him to save, if He loses even
one, then He's going to lose all of His glory. He's going
to lose all of His praise, and God's not about to let that happen.
So if all the praise and all the glory belongs to Christ,
that means he has to do all the work. That makes my salvation
sure, because he did it all and I didn't have to contribute anything
to it. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. The proud
won't, but the humble will. And if I can earn any glory,
then that has to mean some part of salvation is up to me. And
if any part of salvation is up to me, I know this, I know this. If any part of salvation is up
to me, I'll be damned. Because I can't do anything good.
But if salvation is all up to Christ, if all the responsibility
is His, then I can never lose my salvation. And I'm mighty
glad to give Him all the praise for it, aren't you? Mighty glad.
See, that's sweet news to the sinner's ears. In closing, look
with me at the book of Revelation, chapter 5. See, this is what
we're gonna spend eternity doing, is giving all the praise and
all the glory, all the honor to our Savior. Revelation chapter
five, verse 11. And I beheld and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne and the beast and
the elders and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000
and thousands of thousands. This is a number that no man
can number and this is what they're saying. They're saying it with
a loud voice. They're saying at the top of
their lungs, worthy is the lamb that was slain. He's worthy to
receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing and every creature which is in heaven and
on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and
all therein. This is why I heard them saying
blessing and honor and glory and power. All the praise it
all be unto him. who sitteth upon the throne and
under the Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and 20 elders fell
down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. All the praise
belongs to our Savior. And believers love to say so.
We love to say so. We're not going to have to wait
till that day to start saying so. We get to say so right now. All
the praise is His. See, the message of the cross
offends the flesh, doesn't it? But if I came and preached to
you this morning, any other message other than the message of the
cross, if I preach some other message, you'd be offended, wouldn't
you? Wouldn't you? Any other message other than
the message of the cross offends the believer because it takes
away our hope and our confidence of salvation in Christ. But the
message of the cross, all that lets us rest, trust in Christ. I hope that would be a blessing
to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, Lord, how we beg
of thee that you take your word as it's been preached this morning and that you cause it to bring
glory to Christ our Savior. Father, I pray that you take
your word and you'd apply it to each heart here this morning
and cause us to look to and to rest in and to trust in Christ
and Christ alone. Let him be our all and in all. How we thank you for this, the
message of the cross that shows us how you can be just in punishing
the sin of your people and justify the sinner. Show mercy to sinners
freely in your mercy and grace because of in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, how we thank you. Cause
us to be a thankful, a thankful and a humble people. Father,
if it could be thy will that you'd return us again on Wednesday
to one more time, if you'd give us one more opportunity, let
us hear the gospel preached one more time. Bless us now, Father,
as we go back to our homes. Bless your people and be with
us throughout this week, we pray. We don't begin to take any of
your mercy and your grace and your direction and protection
for granted, but Father, be with your people. Watch over us and
be with us. For it's in Christ's precious
name, His high and holy name, we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.