I want to mainly look over in
Chapter 5, but I think that it would be
paramount for us to go back in Chapter 4 to see what the Apostle
Paul was dealing with. This book was written, I don't
remember the date, But Paul the apostle had come, God had sent
him to this place called Galatia and preached the gospel and had
established this church. These people by birth were Gentiles. They were not Jews, they were
Gentiles, despised Gentiles. And God gave them faith to believe
and trust the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope. Well, then
comes these people called Judaizers, these Jews, who come to these
Gentiles and they said, yes, you believe in Jesus Christ.
but you're not a Jew by birth, so you must be circumcised."
Trying to add something to Christ. Trying to mix something with
grace. And when you try to mix something
with grace, you make it disgrace. And that's what the Apostle Paul
was dealing with here in these verses. In verse 21 of chapter
4, he said, Ye that desire to be under the
law." They desired to be under the law. Do ye not hear the law? Do you not hear what the law
says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons. The man Abraham, when he was
70 years old, God brought him out of the Ur of the Chaldees.
And God blessed him greatly. Greatly. But he had two sons. God promised to give him a son. And God waited. And God waited. And as God waited, the older
he got. And the older his wife got. And
they say, is God not going to keep his promise? So Abraham
and Sarah come up with the idea, and she said, well, I'm past
the age of having children. Here, you take my handmaid. She
conceived, and here come Ishmael. And don't you know that they
thought, this is the one God wants us to have. That was the
first son. He had two sons, the one by a
bondmaid, by Hagar, the other by a free woman. God, after a
while, waited to the point where they could not, of their own,
produce a child. And then God gave them one of
grace. It was a miracle. When Ishmael
was born, all they could say is, look what God did. And that's
the miracle of the new birth. So Abraham had two sons. He had
Ishmael, which was a product of what Abraham did. He had Isaac,
which was a product of God's amazing grace. Verse 23, But
he who was of the bondwoman, Ishmael, was born after the flesh,
but he of the free woman, Isaac, was by promise. Which things
are an allegory, for these are the two covenants, the one for
Mount Sinai, which is gendered, now watch this, to bondage, which
is Agar. And this Agar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem, which now is in bondage with
her children. Notice that word bondage, just
keeps talking about bondage. She was the bondwoman. She produces
children that are still in bondage. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written,
verse 27, Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not. Break forth
and cry, thou that travelest not. For the desolate hath many
more children than she which hath a husband. Now we, brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Remember who he's
talking to. This is not applying to everybody,
but this is applied to believers. We are the children of promise.
Verse 29. But as then he that was born
after the flesh, what did he do? He persecuted him that was
born after the spirit, even so it is now. And even so is it now. It's not
changed. They that are born of the flesh,
those that are products of the flesh, persecute them that are
born of the Spirit. It says, if you go back and read,
I believe it's in the book of Genesis, it says that Ishmael
mocked him. Mocked Isaac. Mocked him. Hated him. You know why he hated
him? Because Isaac had the birthright. It was his. And Ishmael wanted
it and he couldn't have it. because he was a product of a
bondwoman. Verse 30, Nevertheless, what saith the Scriptures? Cast
out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman
shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren,
we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. The law keeps
people in bondage. It's like a man in shackles.
He's been convicted by the law as a criminal. They chain his
hands, they chain his feet, they chain his neck, and they lock
him up. He's in bondage. And the law keeps him in bondage. And that's all the law does is
bring bondage to people. But you know what the gospel
does? It sets people free. Sets them free. Delivers us. Why? The law's been satisfied. I think about this, a man sitting
on death row. He's sitting there in chains.
He knows that he deserves to be there. And somebody pays his
debt, they walk in and they say, turn that man loose, he's going
free. How can that man be free? Somebody
paid his debt. Somebody satisfied the law in
his stead, so he's free. Free. Verse 1 of chapter 5. I'll try if I can to read the
next 12 verses and then I'll come back and make comments on
each verse. So now you know what he's talking
about. He's talking about being free. These Judaizers had to
come to this church and tried to bring this church back into
bondage. Tried to put them in bondage
under the law. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For
I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he
is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. You're
fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love. You did run well. Who did hinder
you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh
not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump. I have confidence in you through
the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded. But he that
troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And
I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, Why do I yet suffer
persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased? Would they were even cut off,
which troubled you?" This offense of the cross, that's where it's
at. This began many years ago, even
in the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve fell, they
had two sons, Cain, who was the firstborn, and Abel. There came
a day when them boys would offer sacrifices to God. God rejected
Cain's offering and accepted Abel's, accepted his offering. And it made Cain, the elder brother,
so mad he killed his own brother. It offended him. It offended
him so and he was so angry he couldn't stand it. Why? He said,
why did God receive Abel's sacrifice and not mine. It's the best I
can offer. Is that not good enough? No,
it's not. No, it's not. And that's where
the offense of the cross is at. Verse 1 of chapter 5, it says,
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free. And be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage. We are to stand fast, defend,
and hold to and maintain the liberty that God has given us
in Christ. Religion, as I've already said,
wants to put man in bondage. Why don't you do this and then
God will bless you? Why don't you do this and get
rewarded for it? And what people think, they live
their whole life in bondage. Here's how they think. I know
exactly how they think because I've been there. I've been right
there. When something bad happens, the
first thing they think, well, boy, I must have really done
something wrong. And when things go well, they
say, well, I really must be doing something good. What happens
when a flood comes to a place like Piedmont? All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. Bondage. Living bondage in constant
fear. Fear. We don't serve God from
a slavish fear. We serve Him out of love and
respect. Some things that God in Christ
has freed us from, He's freed us from sin. Sin. Someone said, and I believe they
were right, there are two sovereigns in this world, God and sin. You cannot resist it. You cannot. It's a master. Slaves to sin. But He's freed
us from it. He's not freed us from the being
of it. He's not freed us from the indwelling of it. We know
that. We are not freed from the temptation of sin, but we are
freed from the damning power of sin. If a man, woman, boy
or girl leaves this world as an unbeliever, and they leave
this world because they leave as a depraved sinner, God's wrath
falls upon that person and damns them forever. He's freed us from sin. Freed
us. Freed us. Set us free. Remember the story
of the Gadarene man? I think in Mark chapter 9. This
man, he lived among the tombs. They tried to bind him with ropes
and chains. You know what he did? He'd break
them loose. And that's just like you're trying to bind somebody
in religion. Let's get him a profession. Let's
get him baptized. Let's do all these things. That's
just trying to bind him. And he'd break them loose. No
man could tame that man. Lived among the tombs. Cut his
flesh. And Christ come to that man one
day and set him free. And you read that The next time
you read, it says he's sitting at Jesus' feet clothed and in
his right mind. What happened? Jesus done for
him what religion couldn't do. He set him free. Delivered him. Then he also set us free from
the ceremonial law. Part of the ceremonial law was
circumcision. Sabbath days, you had to keep
certain days. Remember when Jesus Christ come
and one day he was walking through a field on the Sabbath day. And
the Sabbath day is Saturday, not Sunday. Members say, well,
you need to keep the Sabbath day. Remember the Sabbath day
and to keep it holy. Christ did keep the Sabbath day. But they
were walking through a field and they reached over and they
just pulled off an ear of corn and started eating it. And the
religious people started finding fault with it. Finding fault. And they said, look what they're
doing. And our Lord says, if the If
your ox or your lamb falls in the creek on the Sabbath day,
you're just going to leave it laying there till Sunday and
go get it out?" He said, no. It don't even make common sense.
But what I'm saying is that's where those people were bound
by days and regulations and circumcision. They were going through the motions.
They wouldn't even walk but so far on the Sabbath day. I remember
when I was a boy, people wouldn't even cook on Sunday. You remember
when they had blue walls? How many remember those? Hadn't
thought about them in years, had we? Oh, nothing in town would
open up. Well, Wal-Mart would go out of
business now, wouldn't it? But people had this mentality, mentality,
keeping certain days and sacrifices and all these things of the law. In verse 21 of chapter 4, do
you not hear what the law says? You can't pick and choose. You
can't pick and choose. freed us from sin, the ceremonial
law, and the moral law. We are freed from the bondage,
curse, and rule of the law. We're not under the law. We're
under grace. But religion and the world, we're
trying to put these people what? Under the law. They need some
rules. They need some regulations. You
know, that's what the world criticizes people who preach the gospel.
You know what they say? If I preached at it, give people
a license to sin because they feel like they have to control
them or they won't be controlled. Listen, God Almighty lives and
dwells in a believer. He says, I'll write my law on
your heart, on your heart, on your heart. Let me say this,
in the Old Testament when God gave the law, God gave it to
Moses. He come down off the mountain,
and then people were worshiping a golden calf. And Moses took
those tablets and throwed them down and broke them. He went
back on the mountain. God gave him that same law again.
And you know what he did with those tablets? You know what
he did with them? He made an ark, he made a box,
covered it with gold, overlaid with pure gold, and put those
tablets in that ark for safekeeping. That ark represents the Lord
Jesus Christ who keeps the law perfectly. He's on what it can. If you offend in one point, you
break the whole law. But the Jews and those people,
they say, well, I've never committed murder. Jesus said, if you have
anger with your brother, you're a murderer. Say, well, I've never
committed adultery. He said, if you look on someone
else with lust in your heart, you've committed the act of adultery. It's committed in here. set us
free. Verse 2, Paul says, Behold, I,
Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing. Christ must be trusted as our
only sufficient Savior. True faith looks to Christ alone
and nowhere else, nowhere else. If we look anywhere else, anywhere
else, we're not looking to Him. Some people look to say, well,
I've read my Bible two or three times already this year. I say
my prayers every day, every night. You know what they're doing?
They're looking to something they do. I know this boy, I've
known him for several years, worked with him and he called
me a while back and he said, the Lord's called me to the ministry.
And he come by to see me one day and just so happened I had
one of Brother Fortner's books just on Galatians. And I just
gave it to him and I said, you know, just take this and read
it. Well, I called him the other day, or he called me, and I just
asked him how he was doing. I was going to ask him if he'd
read that book. He said, no, I've been so busy. He said, I'm
taking these online courses, and I've read through the Old
Testament twice in a month. And I'm going, you know where
he's at? He's in bondage. Bondage. If you read this book, why do
you read this book? Are you just reading to ease
your conscience? Do you come to the house of God
just Is your conscience or do you come looking for Christ,
looking for Him? We need to quit saying prayers. We say too many. You know what I mean by just
saying prayers? Why don't somebody just say the blessing, say prayers,
and that's all they are, just saying things. We pray from our
heart. I'll tell you a good illustration.
Peter one day was out on a boat, and Christ comes walking on the
water, and Peter says, Lord, in fact, you bid me to come to
you on the water. He said, come. Peter gets out
of that boat and starts walking on the water. And he starts looking
at the wind and everything, and he begins to sink into the sea. And you know what he does? He
said, Lord, save me. That's praying. That's praying. Elijah. I like Elijah. He was there on
Mount Carmel and those false prophets, oh, they were cutting
their flesh, making a big noise all day long. And he says just
a few words. It was just a few words. I think
it was even less than 20 words. And God rained fire down from
heaven, praying, looking to Christ. Not looking to what we do, but
we looked at what Christ did. Daniel, in the book of Daniel,
they said, We're going to throw you in the dental lines." And
you know what he did? He went into his room and he prayed toward
Jerusalem. He wasn't just praying with his
face looking toward back in some earthly place. He was looking
toward Christ and Him crucified. And people today are looking
everywhere but to Christ. And if you're looking anywhere,
he says here, Christ shall profit you nothing. Nothing. Verse 3, verse 3, for I testify
again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the
whole law. Like I've already said, you can't
pick and choose. The law demands perfect, complete
obedience. Now, there's some young people
here and if you can go to school and you take a test and you say,
well, I made 99, boy, I did real good. In God's eyes, that's a failure.
It's not perfect. It must be perfect to be accepted. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Galatians 3.10, For
as many as are of the works of the law were under the curse
of it, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continue with
naught in all things which are written in the law to do them. Then verse 4, Christ has become
of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law,
you are fallen from grace. Always keep things in context.
People will take the latter part of that verse and they'll say,
right there it is, a man can lose his salvation. He's fallen
from grace. What this is talking about is
people who just merely professed to believe in Jesus. They embraced
the gospel for a little while and they turned back. He said,
if you have embraced Christ and turned back, you have fallen
from grace. You never knew grace. You never
had faith. He said, you went out from us
because you were not of us. If they'd been of us, they would
no doubt have continued with us. He's not suggesting that
people were saved and then they're lost again. That cannot be. Christ
said, My sheep shall never perish. Never perish. Never perish. These people merely professed
to walk in grace. Merely professed. Verse 5, For
we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by
faith. True believers, we are taught
of God the Holy Spirit to wait for the fulfillment of the blessings
of this hope which has been promising to us. We are made worthy by
Christ's sacrifice. And our hope before God, we have
a hope. It's a blessed hope. You imagine
living without any hope. Without any hope. That's a sad state, without hope. But we have hope. What is our
hope? Our hope before God is His grace. not our graces. Like you said, I don't know why
God's so good to me. Why is God so good to us? I tell
you why, it's grace. Why are we even here today and
not in hell somewhere? Grace. Our hope is God's grace,
not our graces. Our hope is Christ's obedience,
not our obedience. Our hope is Christ's blood, not
our benevolence, not our good feelings. Our hope is God's righteousness,
not our righteousness, which is filthy rags. But His is a
perfect, spotless righteousness. Verse 6, for in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love. What's he saying here? He said,
I don't care if you've been, if you're circumcised or never
been circumcised, it doesn't matter. It doesn't avail anything,
anything. The Jews thought, they thought
because they were a Jew, that meant something. You go back
and read Philippians three. Paul said, I was a Hebrew of
the Hebrews. He says, my mother was a Hebrew. My father was a
Hebrew, and I'm even of the tribe of Dan. I can tell you what tribe
I came from. And at one time, that meant something
to him. That meant something. But it
didn't mean anything to God. And he said, he come to the place
and he said, now I count it all as dung. Dung. It doesn't avail anything. The
only thing that matters, the only thing that matters is, am
I in Christ? Paul said, I want to be found
in Him. And that's the only thing that matters. Am I in Him? And am I a new creature made
new by God's grace? And am I and do I and do you
have faith in Christ? True faith. given by God's grace
to trust His Son. Verse 7, you did run well. These Galatians had started out
well. Who did hinder you that you should
not obey the truth? These Judaizers had come in and
deliberately, deliberately tried to hinder these people and turn
them away from Christ. Paul was fearful of these men
and women. They'd begun well. They had professed
faith in Christ, and now they're turning back to the law. Isn't
it? I'm pretty sure it is in the
first part of Galatians. where he said, verse 6, verse
of chapter 1, I marvel that you are so, so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ and to another
gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we are
an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you unto
that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Preaching another gospel. Something
happened. Somebody, something hindered
their faith. Someone turned them from the
gospel of God's grace to look to their self and not look to
Christ. Paul says, who did hinder you?
Who turned you back to the law? Who turned you from looking to
Christ to looking to yourself? And he answers the question in
verse 8. This persuasion cometh not of
him that calleth you. He said, this didn't come from
God the Father, it didn't come from God the Son, and it didn't
come from God the Spirit. And he said, it didn't come from
me who preached the gospel to you. He knew who it came from. It was the Spirit of Antichrist. That's what it is. A system of
works. And see, you notice how subtle
it is. They didn't come in and say,
now don't believe and trust in Christ. They say, yes, that's
okay, but just do something. Just do something. And they were hindering them.
2 Corinthians 11, verse 2 says,
now listen. He says, I'm jealous over you
with godly jealousy. for I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ." Satan came in the form of a serpent and
deceived Eve. How did he deceive her? He got
her to question God's Did God really say that? Did He really
say that? Did He really mean that? Is that
what He meant? And He deceived her. His craftiness. The Bible tells us in Ephesians,
for us, believers, to walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise men,
redeeming the time because the days are evil. We live in a world
when people on every corner are deceived. How are they deceived? Satan comes to them and says,
did God really say that? Is that what he really said?
And he deceives them. Deceives them. The same chapter,
2 Corinthians 11, verse 11. Wherefore, because I love you
not, God knoweth, but what I do, that I will do, that I may cut
off occasion for them which desire occasion, that wherein they glory,
they may be found even as we. 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." You see all these
evangelists and people on TV and they claim to be doing all
these things. You say, well, look at what they're
doing. Our Lord says they'll work miracles and wonders that
if it were possible, if it were possible, they would deceive
the very elect of God. That's what I'm talking about. And this, therefore, it is no
great thing if his ministers also are transformed into the
ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their
works. Some people may think, well, it's not that big a deal,
is it? They talk of Christ, they talk
of God's love, they talk of salvation, they carry a Bible, they read
from the very same Bible we read from. Surely, is it that important? Yes, it is. Another gospel which
is really, there's not another, there's only one. There's only
one gospel. It's poison. Because look in
verse 9, he says, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. It's like rat poison. It's 99%
good food or a rat wouldn't eat it. But it's 1% poison. It's 1% a little leaven leavens
the whole lump. I seen him get that cup of water.
I take it for granted that that's good. But you put one drop of
poison in it, would anybody here drink it? It corrupts the whole
thing. What's he saying? If you try
to mix anything with Christ, it's poison. It's damnable. Paul said it this way, it's damnable
heresy. That's everywhere he went, he
dealt with this very same issue. They opposed him everywhere he
went. Everywhere he went. Everywhere. Why? Because they
could not stand it. Now if you mix, you can mix a
little works with it and everybody accepts it. Everything's fine.
Give a man a little bit of the credit, everything's fine. No
opposition. Paul spoke roughly. He spoke
plainly. And we speak plainly. We talk
of a God that elected a people before the world began. And the
world not only hates election, it hates the God who did the
electing. And they know exactly what that means. Exactly. The Lord Jesus Christ had been
out in Capernaum doing works and then He comes back to Nazareth
where He was raised. The custom was, when He come
back, they'd ask Him to stand up and read the Scriptures. He
stood up and read and sat down. They all looked at him and marveled.
And he said there was many widows in the days of Elijah. Elijah
was a great prophet of God. And there was a lot of widows
in Israel. But he said God never sent Elijah to any of those widows.
Widows, dependent on everybody else. And God sent Elijah to
one Gentile widow. And they said, well, why didn't
he send him to them Jewish widows? The next prophet that came after
Elijah was Elisha, and he says, there was many lepers in Israel
in the days of Elisha the prophet, but God only healed Naaman the
Syrian. And you know, they knew exactly
what he was saying. They were saying that God is
a God that elects a people to salvation, and it made them so
mad. They went and grabbed him, took
him to the brow of the hill and was going to throw him off head
first. Why? The offense of the cross. What he said offended
them, made them angry, angry. They could not stomach it. Paul
said in Titus chapter 3 verse 10 and 11, a man that is an heretic,
after the first and second admonition to reject. And what is an heretic? A heretic is a person who prefers
his own opinion to the clear revelation of Scripture. You
admonish him, It's just like that boy I was telling you about.
Maybe God opened his eyes. You talk to them and they just
deliberately close their eyes to the truth. That's dangerous.
Dangerous. Dangerous. And Paul knew that
this doctrine was dangerous. And in verse 11, he said, If
I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased?" You know what these Judaizers were saying, these
people who came to this church? They were saying, we preach the
same thing Paul does. We're preaching the same message. We're preaching
the same Jesus. Exactly the same. Paul said,
if that's the case, why am I suffering persecution? Someone paraphrased
this verse this way. He said, if it is right to preach
circumcision, I would certainly do so. If it's right, that's
what I would do. And therefore, escape all this
opposition that I'm getting. Why do you imagine that I continue
to suffer their persecution when I could avoid it by simply proclaiming
Moses? He said, all I'd have to do is
change my message and everything would be fine. That's all I'd
have to do. Just knock off the rough edges.
What offends them is my insistence that salvation stems from the
cross, that is, the atoning work of Christ, rather than from obedience
to the law. If I were to preach the law instead
of Christ, then the cause of offense would have been removed."
But he said, I must preach Christ and Him crucified. The offense. the offense. The gospel of God's
grace runs in direct opposition to the religion of this world.
In direct opposition. Men try to make it appealing
where men will accept it. I know there's where we work
at right beside of us there's a group that meets They probably
have a hundred every morning, but, and they also have a couple
of drums and guitars and a few other things that appeal to the
flesh. And that's all you need. And you can get a crown. What
we have is the gospel of God's grace. And if you ever see him,
you don't need all that other stuff. Most people would not
dare come in this building. they'd be too ashamed. But God's
people are not ashamed, and they're not offended by that gospel.
They love to hear that gospel. You know what's good news to
a sinner? And when I began the message, I said, what about a
man sitting in shackles and chains? And there's 10 or 12 men sitting
in that prison cell. And the man walks in to one of
those men, one of them, and said, somebody paid your debt. You
can go free. He said, don't I have to do anything? No, it's all done. It's all paid
and set you free. The world said he should have
set them all free. If he'd wanted to set them all free, he would
have. Every one of them. But where the offense is, he
shows mercy on whom he will show mercy. He'll show compassion
on whom he will show compassion. And whom he will, he'll harden
them. You might have heard me use this illustration. I said,
one time this man was talking to another man about Christ and
trying to show him from the scriptures that God was sovereign. And he
said, could I just read one chapter from this book to you, one chapter?
He said, yes. So he read Romans chapter 9,
read each verse, never made a single comment. And when he got done
reading the chapter, he looked at the other man and he said,
do you believe that? He said, not the way you read it. and how people are. They're opposed. I tell you, when I was in religion,
I didn't know anything about God being sovereign. I said statements
like that God looked down through the aeons of time, and He's seen
you choose Him, and that's why God chose you. God chose you
because He would choose you in Christ before the world began,
apart from everything that you would do, in spite of everything
that you would do. That's what grace is. grace,
amazing grace, amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me. And let me tell you, He saves
us every day. It's not just something that
was fixed up before eternity. I need to be saved for myself
today. I need to look to Christ today. I must rest in Him today
and every day. When men try to make the gospel
appealing by taking off the rough edges, they must compromise the
message. Compromise. And when Paul talked
about the cross, he wasn't talking about just two pieces of wood.
Boy, around Easter, over where I live, everybody, every church
gets them, too, and they got to be real rugged, and they'll
stand it up in the front yard, or put it out in the cemetery,
and they'll hang a piece of cloth over it. Oh, that don't offend
anybody. Don't offend anybody. It's not talking about the historical
aspect of the cross. Everybody, most everybody knows
that Jesus Christ come, lived and died. But he's talking about
the doctrine of the cross. Why he died, whom he died for. That's what's offensive. That
Jesus Christ died as a substitute in the place of someone and everybody
for whom he died will go free. Isn't that the message of the
cross? And that's what's offensive. Just don't say those things.
Just don't make it that plain. Listen, we need to make it as
plain and as clear as we can. People want to make it cloudy.
I've heard of people saying, well, that man believes the gospel,
but he don't preach the gospel. If he believes the gospel, he'll
preach the gospel. I believe and therefore I speak.
Someone says, it's like grandma's wedding dress. We'll keep it
hid back in the closet. If you want to see it, we'll
take it back there and show it to you, but we dare not bring
it out in public. He's talking about the necessity
of the cross. It's necessary. Jesus, God the
Father, before the world began, chose a people. But the Son must
die for them. must die for them. The preaching
of the cross is offensive, was offensive to those religious
Jews and those proud Greeks. The cross puts all men on the
same level. All men are sinners. You see
people, they sit and watch TV and they see horrible things
and they'd say, oh I would never do those things. You ever heard
people say those things? And the man sitting, born in
the best hospitals by the best doctors, and the man born in
the lowest of the low, both have to be saved the same way. The
same way. Remember that one illustration
I used about Naaman the Syrian? Go back and read that story again.
That man was a general in an army. And you know what Elisha
told him to do? He said, go wash in that old
muddy river Jordan. He said, surely if he told me to do something
else, something else, I'd go do it. Wouldn't some other river
do? He said, no, you've got to go
wash in that river. And when he walks up to that river with
all of his coat and everything on which hid his leprosy, when
he started peeling that stuff off, that was humbling. And God
saves everybody. the same way. There's only one
gospel, there's only one message, and that offends men's pride. Tell me something to do, and
I would do it. The message is, it's all done.
If anybody's, anybody is ever converted, they must look to
Jesus Christ and Him alone, or you'll never be saved. It offends
men's dignity. It reminds man that He's a God-hater. It reminds him that he's a sinner
by nature, by practice, and by birth. It offends the wisdom
of men. But like I said, there's some
it doesn't offend. God's people love to hear that
gospel. Here I want to give you eight
statements that lost men do find offensive. Number one, either
the Bible is the inspired, infallible word of God, or it's not, and
deceives the souls of men. There's only one rule of life,
and this is here. I mean, you look at this wall. We say, oh, it's plumb. That
means it's perfectly level, up and down. If I could walk out
in somebody's pickup and get a four or six foot level and
put on that wall, it would tell us all the truth. Isn't that
right? We judge by what we can see. That level is like God's
Word. It tells you exactly as it is. This is God's Word. This ain't man's opinions. If
it had been up to man, this book would have been gone a long time
ago. That's exactly right. You imagine people today who
would love and give anything to have a Bible in their language. Wouldn't that be amazing? They'd
give you anything, and we take it for granted. It's God's Word. When we stand
and read Scripture, it's God's Word. These are not man's words. These words that, you know, and
we're all guilty of this. We say, well, Paul said this,
Peter said this. No, God said this. This is what
God said to this church. Second thing, Either God Almighty
is sovereign and in total control of all things at all times, or
there's no God at all. As I talked to Brother Tom this
morning, talking about everything that happened in Pikeville, he
said, you know, it was a blessing. You say, how could a man make
that statement? He knew by experience, not just
the doctrine, that God's sovereign. in all things." The heart of the king is in the
hands of the Lord. He turns it whichever way he
wants it to go. The wind blows where it will.
The rain goes wherever he sends it. He's sovereign, or he's no
God at all. Thirdly, either man is totally depraved,
utterly dead in trespasses and sins, or there's nothing wrong
with him, and he needs no Savior. One of the two. There's no middle
ground. They say, well, every man's got
a little bit of good. All you've got to do is find it. And we're
guilty of saying this. They say, well, he's a good-hearted
man. He's a good person. If he's a good person, he can
save himself. He don't need to be saved. And that's what offends men.
Fourthly, either God chose to save some of Adam's fallen race,
before the world began or no salvation is possible to any
man. And he did before the world was
made. Number five, either the Lord
Jesus Christ is altogether the perfect savior of his people
or he's a fraud and he's a failure. If he died for one person and
that person winds up in hell, he's a fraud and he's a failure. If he lost one, right here's
one that he'd lose. Sixthly, either we are regenerated
and called to life and faith in Christ by the irresistible
power of Almighty God, or there's no such thing as salvation. I
love that word, irresistible. You were not willing, you were
not willing, and He made you willing, and when you saw Him
It was totally irresistible. You couldn't resist. You couldn't
resist. You couldn't say no. Isn't that
how it is? You couldn't say no. You ran
to Him. You still do. It's irresistible. Irresistible. They say, oh, man
resists. I know he does by nature. But
God does something. God does something. And something
happens. And he would become so, so precious,
so precious. Seventh thing, either every saved
sinner still perseveres to the end, being persevered or preserved
and kept by God's grace, or none shall be preserved. My wife and her mother, I used
to love to go over at my mother-in-law's in the summer when they had canned
beans. canned tomatoes. They'd put them in the cooker,
cook them for a while, and they'd get them out. We'd be sitting
in the living room right on the front porch, cooling a little
bit, and hear something pop. Hear another one pop. You know
what was happening? They was sealed. Them tomatoes or beans
or what it was, was preserved. They were kept. You could take
the rings off, put them up on the shelf, and go two or three
years later. take that lid off and they're
still as fresh as they were the day you put them in. Why? They
were kept. Were kept by God. Preserved. You say, don't we have to keep
ourself? Try it. Try it. Try it. By the time you
think you've got something under control, something hits you blindsided. Isn't that how it is? And you'll
find out right quick. You don't keep yourself. He'll
teach you that. He teaches you that over and
over and over again. And eighth thing, either God's
people are entirely free from the law or we are under the bondage
of the law and are entirely obligated to keep it perfectly. Either
I'm not under it or I am under it and I've got to keep it perfectly
And it keeps me in bondage, constant fear. But I tell you, if I'm
not under it, I'm set free. And there's peace and rest. If any man sin, does that fit
anybody here? If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the
propitiation for our sin. And we rest in you and we rest
in you. Let us pray. Our father, we thank you this
evening for your grace and your mercy and your kindness that
you've showed us in your dear son. And Lord, we're thankful
that you have provided this place in this town where your gospel
can be proclaimed. where sinners can be set free
and can still be reminded of what Jesus Christ done in behalf
of his people. Lord, deliver us from ourself.
Deliver us, God, from looking anywhere but unto you. Give us, increase our faith to
trust you more each day. For in Christ's name we pray,
amen.