Turn back with me now to 1 Corinthians
1. In verse 18, and if I understand the sense
of the passage, he's not talking about something done in an instant
here, but he's talking about something being done. When he
says, to those who perish, the sense of the original is this,
to those who are perishing, they are perishing. And to the other, they're being
saved. Old Brother Barnard used to say,
I'm not plumb saved yet. I'm being saved. I've got a good
hope through grace. But I'm being saved. And to the
perishing, the gospel is a saver of death unto death. But to those who are being saved,
it's a saver of life unto life. And my message to you this morning
is this, one gospel, two hearers. Two hearers. We say everybody
hears the gospel. They hear it with these ears, but they hear it differently
in here. They hear it differently. It's prophesied in the Old Testament
And it's a matter of historic fact in the New Testament. And
it's the experience of every preacher who's ever preached
the gospel to men that his gospel is offensive to the natural man. It's offensive. It's not offensive
to the believer. He loves it. He loves it. He's tasted of it. And Christ
is precious to him, and he hears it, and it suits his needs. It suits his hope. It's exactly
what he hoped for. Exactly what he hoped for. But to the unbeliever, it's just
not right. It's offensive. It just goes
opposite his going. It's offensive to him. It disregards
totally his wisdom. I just read to you there in verse
30 that Christ has made unto us wisdom. But his wisdom totally
disregards yours. And that's offensive to men.
It's offensive to men. It disregards his wisdom. It
disregards his good intentions and his so-called philosophy
of life. And Paul said this, let God be
true and every man a liar. That's offensive, isn't it? And
it's especially offensive to religious men who don't know
God. The world's full of men and women
who have made professions of faith and carry Bibles and attend
church and quote scriptures and give advice and claim to have
a hope of eternal life. The world's full of them. I dare
say I wouldn't have to go more than one house to find somebody
who believes just what I told you, and somebody who suits that.
Israel did. Israel did. They had a religion
passed down by tradition from their fathers. But neither they
nor their fathers knew God. That's what our Lord told them.
That lady said, well, you worship here and we worship here in the
mountains. You worship over in Jerusalem, we worship over here
in the mountains. He said, you worship you know not what. They held Christ and His disciples
in contempt. And you know why? Because they
transgressed the tradition of their fathers. Where do men come from with this
rebellion when they fire up and flame up and their face gets
red? Where does that come from? Does that arise from a knowledge
of the scriptures? Is that where that's coming from?
I don't think so. Well, where does it come from?
It comes from the basis of a passed down religion that has nothing
to do with the God of the Bible. That's where it comes from. It
comes from anti-Christ religion. That's where it comes from. And
that's what causes these men to flare up and to be offended. Here's what our Lord said to
them in answer to their charges. He said, "...in vain do they
worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." It's
men who who commanding men to exercise their free will, God's
not telling you to do. He tells you it's not of Him
that willeth. These preachers are telling you it is of Him
that willeth. And I say let God be true in every man a liar,
whether it defends him or whether it don't. Peter addressing his
own kinsmen said, you're not redeemed with corruptible things.
He said, you've learned better. You've heard our gospel. You
know better than this. And you're not redeemed with
corruptible things like silver and gold, which you receive from
your vain conversations received by tradition from your father.
This world has a traditional knowledge that's been passed
down from generation to generation to generation. And even those
who have no interest in church, even those who have no interest
in things of the Bible, have a sense of what they believe
is right and wrong. And where did they get it? From
that traditional understanding of men who don't know God. So
you can be talking to somebody in a bar, and tell him the gospel,
and he'll stop you in your tracks. Well, he couldn't quote a single
scripture from the Bible. I doubt he ever read it. And
if he did, the only thing he read was John 3, 16. Or something like that. And he'll
stop you in your tracks and correct you, even though you've been
studying the Bible for 30 years. And he'll correct you. He'll
say, that ain't right. That ain't right. Based on what? What do
you mean that's not right? Based on their traditional understanding
passed down from Antichrist religion. All that word Antichrist, we've
got him made out to be the boogeyman, and maybe he is, but I'm telling
you this, Antichrist simply means against Christ, contrary to Christ. And when I'm talking about Antichrist
religion, I'm talking about a religion that's contrary to Christ. And
it's passed down, and men have an understanding, and they prize
that understanding, and they think it's true, and they think
it's something solid that they can trust in, whether they actually
trust in it or not. Satan is the prince of the power
of the air, and according to Ephesians 2, verse 2, men follow
after him as does the whole world, and even now works in the children
of disobedience. How does he work? How does he
do that? You know, Satan, it says in the Scriptures for us
to be careful when we're talking to men and understand that we've
been redeemed by the grace of God. And we're to be careful
when we witness to men and correct men and not do it from a prideful
standpoint, but to be careful. Because Satan, he said, takes
men captive at his will. How does he do that? How does
he do that? He does it through men's ignorance
and darkness and deceit that he's influenced the whole world
with it. The whole world with it. And
he can in a minute take a drunk and make him a preacher. He can take a He can take a man
whose whole life has just been nothing, and in a second he can
have him teaching Sunday school. Go to church one week, next week
he's teaching Sunday school. Two years from now he'll be going
to seminary. And on and on and on. We ought
to be careful. Be careful because God has redeemed
us out of that mess. We didn't climb out on our own.
We didn't sit around and scratch our head and say, well, that
don't seem right. No, that ain't how it happened. God saved you
by His grace, and He gave you a revelation of Christ in your
heart. Satan has not won the majority
of this world with wanton lust and gambling and adulteries and
drugs, but by the subtlety and lying promises of false religion. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 11. Here's what I'm saying. I'm saying,
even this morning as I stand up here and preach to you, there's
two types of hearers in this place this morning. Two types
of hearers. And one of them says, this is
the wisdom of God. That man is preaching the wisdom
of God. And the other one hears the same
exact thing, and he said, this is foolishness. This is foolishness. Satan takes men captive. Now watch this here in 2 Corinthians
11 verse 13. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ, and no marvel. For Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. And that word angel can be translated
minister. Those two words are interchangeable. Into a minister of light. Therefore, it's no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness,
whose ends shall be according to their works. The virus of
antichrist religion has infected nearly every man, woman, and
child in the world. And it instills in their minds
and hearts certain principles and concepts that cause even
those who are not familiar with the Word of God to be instantly
and ardently opposed to and offended by the Gospel of God's sovereign
grace in Christ. Almost everybody knows the Lord's
Prayer, John 3, 16, and can quote the 23rd Psalm. We used to have
to do it in school when I was a kid. But these three scriptures are
not sufficient basis to denounce anything, much less try to throw a roadblock up against
the gospel of God's grace. The Bible's not the reasons they
oppose it, but rather the traditional understanding taught to them
in religion. I say again that the gospel I
preach, the gospel of God's sovereign grace, the gospel of effectual
particular redemption, The gospel of substitution and imputed righteousness
is offensive to unregenerate men and women, especially those
raised in religion. The more influence they have
from religion, the more and the quicker offended they are. That little girl who loved her
mama, loved her daddy, who was taught from infancy from the
time she was just a little girl, that God loves everybody, and
that His presence and blessing can be merited by their will
and works, that heaven is there for all good little girls and
boys, and that if you do the best you can, God will be satisfied
with you. The children are innocent until
the age of accountability, and that from that point, they must
choose the path they take and are responsible from that point
on. They're taught these things,
to exercise their free will and to make a decision to accept
Jesus as their personal Savior. And on and on and on it goes.
Some of them press the young ones. My wife was raised in a
Trinity Lutheran church. And her and Brian, he had a similar
background. And they were talking about that
catechism they had when they were children. And you go through
that little catechism. And from then on, I don't care
if you come to church or you don't come to church. You're
fixed up now. You've been through the catechism. You passed your
test and got your degree. You're fixed up. You're all fixed
up. And you can go on and on. Whatever
church it is has their own little quirk. Infant baptism. Church membership, and on and
on and on it goes. And then a preacher sent from
God comes along. And he declares from the Word
of God that there's none good. None good. A fellow was arguing
with me one day about doctrine. He's a Catholic. The man was
raised a Catholic. He said, there's a good little
Jewish boy and a good little Baptist boy. And he said, are
you telling me that God's going to save the good little Baptist
boy because he's Baptist and going to send the good little
Jewish boy to hell because he's Jewish? And I said, God ain't
going to send anybody good to hell. But I said, here's the
problem with what you're telling me. There's none good. So we can't argue on that anymore.
There's none good, no, not one. That's what the Scripture says.
None good. None righteous. That all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. That sin entered through Adam
and death passed upon all. That men in their best state,
David said, altogether vanity. That their minds are enmity against
God. That there is no fear of God
before their eyes. That salvation with man is impossible. That salvation is not by your
decision, but by God's decision. is not according to your will,
but according to His will. Not of him that willeth or of
him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. That salvation
is all of grace, all of grace, and not of works. And all of
these things are purposed and brought to pass by the omnipotent,
unchanging, sovereign, all-wise God. You are just clay in the potter's
hand. He can make you an honorable
vessel or an ashtray, whatever he chooses to do. You reckon
that little girl is going to get offended? I guarantee it,
she's going to get offended. I guarantee it. You reckon her
face will turn red and her blood pressure will go up about 10
degrees? I guarantee it. To those who are perishing, perishing
under the deceit A false religion with a depraved nature perishing
in their ignorance. This gospel is foolishness. Absolute,
total foolishness. And to the Jew, the religionist,
it's a stumbling block. A rock of offense. So if you
know this gospel is offensive, if you know it's going to cause
offense and separation and division, he said, don't you think I've
come into this earth to make peace? I've come to make a division. Who's he going to divide? Father
against son. Mother against daughter. Mother-in-law
against father-in-law. On and on and on it goes. Division. Close division. So why preach it? Why don't we
just cut the edges off? Why don't we just sympathize
with the sinner and say, well, he don't know no better. Why
don't we do that? Just cut off all the edges. and
just ease them into the church. Have some programs for their
children and win their hearts first and we'll offer some sports
programs and we'll offer some weight room and have some committees
and some different things and clubs and things that you can
join and we'll just get you in here any way we can get you in
here and then we'll just keep putting a little medicine in
the milk. Why preach this offensive gospel? Why preach this thing that we
know is a sword and it's going to cut to the bone? Why do we
do that? Why do we preach this? If you know this message, it's
going to turn most who hear it away. and bring upon your head
as a pastor persecution from the whole community, then why
preach it? Why do you still persist and
insist on preaching this gospel? If I tell you, will you listen? Will you give me an honest hearing?
Will you lay aside all your prejudices and listen to what I have to
say? Now, here's the question. If I know that this gospel I
preach is offensive to natural men, why preach it? Let me give
you five reasons. First of all, because this is
the only gospel sanctioned in the Word of God. Brethren, God didn't say, now
you all just, here's what I want to do. I want to save some people.
Now you go figure out a message to bring and you go figure it
out and every once you come up, be alright with me because after
all, all I want to do is save some folks. You can't find that
kind of stuff in the scriptures. This is what men teach and what
men believe. Well, he gave you one message,
he gave me another. You won't find that in the scripture.
Paul said, he said, I don't care if an angel from heaven comes
down and preaches some other gospel other than the gospel
that I preached to you, you let him be accursed. And then he
repeated himself just in case you didn't hear him the first
time. This is the only gospel sanctioned
in the Word of God. The gospel is not a message left
to the imaginations and interpretations of men. It's clearly defined
and stated in the Word of God. What is the gospel? Well, the
gospel is the declaration of accomplished redemption by the
person and work of God's dear Son. That's what it is. It's
the accomplished redemption. It's not a redemption that's
being accomplished. It's the accomplished redemption.
In Acts 20, verse 24, it's called the gospel of the grace of God. Not the gospel of man's works,
the gospel of the grace of God. Salvation is the gift of God,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness in
the remission of sins to all who believe. And He did it that
God may be just and justifier. You can read about that over
in Romans 3, 24 through 26. He tells us in Ephesians 2, by
grace are you saved through faith. This is the gospel of the grace
of God. How do men get faith? They get
it by the grace of God. Get it by the grace of God. In Romans chapter 1, verse 1,
it's called the gospel of God. It's His gospel. It's His gospel. This ain't something... Somebody
told me one time this was kind of, I guess, what you call an
agnostic. He said, I think this is just
a thing that men have made up over time to try to keep people
from being as bad as they could be. He said, that's what I think
it is. This is God's gospel. It's His gospel. God's the author of the gospel
and not men. It's His to teach and His to
reveal and His to send. How shall they preach except
they be sent? It's God's gospel. And it's His to bless. Paul said,
I know your election of God. When the gospel came to you,
it wasn't foolishness. When the gospel came to you,
it came not in word only. It came in power. You see what
I'm saying? This is His gospel. It's the
gospel of the grace of God. And it's the gospel of God. And
then in Romans 1-9, it's called the gospel of His Son. Christ
Himself is the gospel. He is our atonement. He is our
righteousness. He is our wisdom. He is our resurrection. He is the Good Shepherd. He is
the way, the truth, and the life. He is all in all. And then in
Romans 10, verse 15, it is called the gospel of peace. Therefore,
we are being justified by faith. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said he broke down that
middle wall of petition between Jew and Gentile. fulfilled the
whole ceremonial law, and so made peace. And then, listen
to this, in Romans 15, 19, it is called the Gospel of Christ.
He is the promised seed of woman. He is the promised seed of Abraham,
upon whom all the blessings of God were to come. Now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds
as of many, but as to thy seed, which is Christ. And then in II Corinthians 4.4,
he calls it the glorious gospel. It's not a gospel of compromise,
but one consistent with the glory of God. It's not a gospel of
weakness, but the power of God unto salvation. In Ephesians
1.13, he calls it the gospel of your salvation. God calls
His elect through the preaching of the gospel. Ephesians 6.19,
he calls it the mysterious gospel because it has the wisdom of
God, holds it in a mystery. It tells of the great mysteries
kept secret from the foundation of the world, hidden from the
wise and prudent, but revealed unto babes. And then Revelations
14.16 is called the everlasting gospel. This gospel is as old
as God. It's as old as God. Somebody
told me the other day, said, you preach the gospel like they
preached in the Old Testament. Boy, I hope so. I hope so. I don't think God's changed.
You need to get up to date with your preaching. There's always
just been one gospel. He said, Abraham rejoiced to
see my day, and he saw it and was glad. They called Moses their
father. He said, if Moses was your father,
he said, you'd believe me. Moses wrote of me. And then in 1 Corinthians 15,
verses 1 through 4, Paul defines this gospel as Christ dying for
our sins according to the Scriptures, and being buried and raised the
third day according to the Scriptures. And he said, this is the gospel
The same gospel I received is what I preached to you, and you
received it, and it's the gospel wherein you stand, and it's the
gospel by which you'll be saved if you keep in memory what I
preached unto you. Otherwise, the whole thing is
just vain for you. Just vain. Paul went to Thessalonica
as his manner was and reasoned with them out of the Scriptures,
opening and alleging that Christ's most needs have suffered and
risen again from the dead and that this Jesus that he preached
is the Christ. He is the Christ. The Scriptures
say he died for his elect. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. The Scriptures say his death
was a fiction. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. The Scriptures
say Christ is our righteousness. But now, he said, the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. This is the only gospel sanctioned
in the Word of God. You can't find this free will
gospel in here. It's not in here. You can't find
a gospel that's not offensive in the Word of God. It's offensive
and it's offensive on purpose. On purpose. And I'll tell you
this, our Lord was pure and perfect kindness. The attribute of God's
kindness was in Him. He is kindness. You want to know
what kindness is? You study Christ. He was kind. There wasn't a more kind man
who ever walked this earth than our Lord Jesus Christ. And the
only people you ever find Him being sharp with and abrupt with were these men who preached another
gospel. Everybody else, he was kind to
them. He was kind to that woman at the well when he talked to
her, even though she was religious and had all that what I call
luggage, that religious luggage. But he was kind to her when he
dealt with her. But I tell you, he wasn't kind
to those Pharisees. His disciples come and they said,
you know that the Pharisees was offended with what you said?
He said, leave them alone. They'd be blind leaders of the
blind. And then secondly, I insist on preaching this offensive gospel
because it's the only gospel in harmony with the character
of God. It's in harmony with God's character. It glorifies
God's justice. It glorifies God's sovereignty.
It glorifies God as God. It glorifies His holiness and
His righteousness. And it also glorifies His grace
and His mercy and all of His other attributes. And God's character
is His name. He's known by His attributes.
In Acts chapter 4, verse 11, Peter said to the Jews concerning
Jesus Christ, he said, This is the stone which was set at naught
of your builders, which has become the head of the corner. Neither
is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name.
That's talking about God's character. who he, none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." So I preach
this gospel, even though it's offensive, because it's consistent,
it's in harmony with the character of God. And to know this name
and rejoice in this name, to find hope in this name, is what
it means to believe on Christ. Whosoever Paul said shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, but how shall you call
on Him in whom you have not believed? They're talking about that name.
They don't know that name. I'm telling you, the gospel preached
today is not in harmony with the character of God. You call
on His name, you're not calling on God. How are you going to
call on His name, on the name of Him in whom you have not believed?
and so on. You can't believe in him of whom
you've not heard, you can't hear without a preacher, and he can't
preach except he be sinned. So this gospel offends because
it exposes the inconsistency of world religion to the character
and attributes of God. And then thirdly, I will, by
the grace of God, continue to preach this offensive gospel
because it's the only gospel that offers any hope to dying
sinners. Go out here to the cemetery and
sit there with your Bible and go talking to those out there
in the cemetery. Try to get one of them to come
down the aisle. Try to get one of them to sign a pledge card.
Go out there and sing about 50 verses of Just As I Am. Try to
get them down the aisle talking. Put one foot out, every eye closed,
every head bowed, all that nonsense. Try to get you down to the front
of the church. Go out there and try to catechize them. Go out
there and try to teach them. Get your little list there, your
confession of faith, and go out there and go down through those
things. Now, you all hear me, don't you? There ain't nobody
out there at that cemetery. You know why? They're all dead.
They're all dead. And I'll tell you this. I don't
have any other gospel to preach to dead sinners except what God
said to preach to them. I'd love to bring a message sometime
on Ezekiel. God took him out to that valley
of dead, dry bones. He said, can these bones live? That prophet said, oh Lord God,
thou knowest. I don't know. I don't know. I
don't see no hope in them. They're very many and very dry.
That's all he could see. He said, preach to them. What
am I going to tell them? Tell them to live. Tell them
to live. This is the only gospel that
offers any hope to fallen sinners. What do those bones need? Everything. They didn't need something, they
needed everything. They didn't need to take the
first step, they needed life. They needed everything. Alright, fourthly, I preach this
offensive gospel because I'm strictly forbidden to preach
anything else. Paul said, let him be accursed. Over in 2 John, He tells them,
over there, somebody comes in your midst. This was an elect
lady of God meeting in her home. And John tells her, if any man
comes to you, comes in here to your little group, and he brings
anything other than the doctrines of Christ, he doesn't bring the
doctrines of Christ with him. He comes in here talking about
circumcision and keeping the law and all this stuff. Don't
even bid him Godspeed. Don't let him in your house.
Don't give him the time of day. Don't sit there and let him tell
his part and then you tell your part. You cut him off short.
And when he leaves, don't tell him Godspeed. And then Paul said this, Woe
is unto me. He was an apostle. He said, Woe
is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Any man who insists on shaving off the rough edges of
this and taking away that which offends the flesh is not the
servant of God. Over in Galatians 5.11, And our
brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, that is, works of any kind, law
of any kind, why am I yet persecuted? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. I'm strictly forbidden to preach
anything else. And then fifthly, I refuse to
preach any other gospel other than the one I preach to you
because this is the gospel that God blessed in me. This is the
gospel that God called me out of darkness with. This is the
gospel that He made known to me. I know what this gospel says. And I know where it comes from
because God saved me by it. He made me to understand it.
He called me by it. Isn't that what Paul said? God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the
heathen. And until God reveals His Son in you, you can't preach. You've got nothing to preach.
Everything you know is just something you learned in a book. But I
tell you experientially, when God saves your soul and lets
you taste of His grace, taste of His Son, taste of these great
things of God and see the glory of God in Christ, then you can
preach Him. Then you can preach Him. I preach
this offensive gospel because this is the gospel God used to
save my soul. After God raised Lazarus from
the dead, the Jews sought to kill him because that by reason
of him, many of the Jews believed on Christ. My soul, this dead
man, you reckon they listened to him? He was dead. They was out there mourning his
death. Scared to move the stone even at the commandment of Christ
because by now he's stinking. And this man's up and walking
around. And he's got some good news. And a bunch of them listened
to him. A bunch of them listened to him
and believed on Christ. Only those in whose hearts Christ
has been revealed will preach Him, even if everybody who hears
Him is offended. And I'll tell you this, there's
no amount of argument No amount of fear or anything else sufficient
to cause that man in whom Christ has been revealed, who has heard
this gospel, to change their views. You couldn't change one. I don't care what you tell him.
He ain't going to change. Because he knows it in here.
God gives him a new heart and a new mind. And God dwells in
him. And he ain't going to change
his views on the gospel. You've been at this a long time.
Anybody ever persuaded you to lose your views on Christ? No.
No. A dear friend of mine up in Missouri,
he came out of a Netherlands Reformed church. And his uncle,
somebody in that church, holds a pretty high station in that
church. And we're talking about a generational thing here. There
are generations of them raised in that church. And he began
to hear Don and myself and several other of these men preaching
the gospel, and God saved him and brought him out of that mess.
And his uncle came over as though some cult had got a hold of him
and began to try to convince him to come back. And after he
argued for about six hours, finally Joe told him, he said, I don't
care what you say. He said, I know what I believe
in here. And he said, I know what I'm
hearing is the truth. And I'm not coming back. I'm
not coming back. And the thing for you to do is
to listen to what I heard. Maybe God will show it to you.
Maybe God will show it to you. And he went out as far as I know
he hadn't been back. I don't preach another gospel.
This is the gospel. If His gospel was sufficient
to save me, it's sufficient to save anybody. That's how Paul,
that's what he said. He saved me first that I might
be an example of these things. So here's why I preach this gospel.
Knowing full well its consequences. Knowing that it will bring to
pass offenses and separations and hard feelings and all manner
of persecution. Because it's the only gospel
sanctioned in the Word of God. It's the only gospel consistent
with the character of God. The only gospel that offers any
hope to helpless sinners. And because I'm strictly forbidden
to preach it to anybody else. And because this is the gospel
of my own salvation. Paul said, I preached unto you
that which I also received. And I just prayed this morning.
You know what I'm talking about here this morning. I'm talking
about salvation in Christ by the grace of God. And I'm telling
you there's no other way. Christ said, I'm the way. I'm
the way. There's no other truth. He said,
I am the truth. I am the truth. And if you've
got some truth, but it's in a different Jesus, then it's another gospel. And it's not sufficient to save
your soul.