In Matthew Chapter 11, my message
is entitled, The Offense of the Cross. The Offense of the Cross. Matthew Chapter 11, and then
turn to Galatians Chapter 5. Matthew Chapter 11, it came to
pass when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples,
he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Now
when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent
two of his disciples and said unto him, Art thou that he should
come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto
him, and I like the way he answered this, what he did, what he said,
bore witness to who he was from the Old Testament Scriptures.
And he said, you go show John again those things which you
do here and see what I'm saying, what I'm doing, what's happening.
And the blind receive their sight. This is what's happening. This
is what you're seeing and hearing. The blind receive their sight,
and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear,
the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached
to them. And then this verse seems so Needless. So out of place. Until you learn the gospel. And
blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. Who would be offended in the
Lord Jesus Christ who had given sight to the blind? causing the
lame to walk, lepers to be cleansed, the deaf to hear, dead to be
raised, and preaching the gospel to the poor. Who will be offended?
Every natural man. Because it's not only the good
works, it's the things he says. Throughout his life, men were
offended. And on one occasion, he said,
they took up stones to stone him. He said, for which of my
good works do you stone me? They said, it's not for what
you do, it's what you say, buddy. You being a man, make yourself
to be God. That's what they accused him
on the day of the crucifixion. Blasphemy. You being a man, make
yourself to be God. Make yourself equal with God. Well, they just had it turned
around backwards. He was the eternal God who made himself
to be a man. That's what he was. And you look
through the Gospels, and when he spoke, they were offended.
The group was divided over and over. And it was not over what
he did, it was what he said most of the time. What he said. The claims that he made. He spake
as one having authority. He never said, look to God for
life. He said, come to me. What kind of man is that? Who
could forgive a man's sins? And his enemy said, only God
can forgive sins. He said, now you know, if I may
paraphrase. He said, I said it like that
so you know that the Son of Man, this man, has power on earth
to forgive sins. Blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me. I remember the first time I preached
this where I am many years ago. There was a lady sitting there. And when I got through reading,
I looked up and tears were streaming down her face. You know why? Because she had a large family,
and most of them were offended at the gospel of Christ. Blessed
are those who are not offended in me. Galatians chapter 5. Stand fast. And we must stand
fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free. Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold,
I, Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to the whole law
of God." You're guilty at one point, you're guilty of it all.
That's what the Bible says. Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. You're
fallen from grace, and that literally means, the best I can understand,
That when you look to the law, you look to works, you have totally
removed yourself from the sphere of God's grace and moved into
the field of works. 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 a whole
lump. Thy confidence in you through
the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded, that ye that
trouble you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is, whosoever he be.
And I brethren, if I preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?
If I preach circumcision, then is the offense of the cross ceased. I would they were even cut off,
which trouble you. For brethren, you've been called
to liberty. Liberty! Only use not your liberty
for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even in this. I shall love thy neighbor as
thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye
be not consumed one of another." What a powerful statement. I
want to talk to you tonight, a few minutes, about the offense
of the cross. And I'll make this statement
boldly, right up front, that most of the people across our
who meet on Sundays or otherwise worship in the name of Jesus,
have never heard the truth about the Jesus of this book. This
gospel they preach is not offensive to anybody anywhere, because
they don't tell the truth. You cannot preach the gospel
unless you tell the truth about God, and they don't. You cannot
preach the gospel unless you tell the truth about man, and
they don't. Man and sin. Sin is not what
we do. Sin is not quit smoking and quit
drinking and all these things. Sin is what we are! And you can't
change it. Any more than a leopard can change
his spots. And you can't preach the gospel
without declaring boldly the great things God has done for
sinners in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. They talk about
God loves sinners. That's true, but that ain't the
gospel. They said Jesus died for sinners. That's true. But
that ain't the gospel. The gospel is how He loved sinners
and died for sinners, lived for sinners and died for sinners,
and resurrected according to the Scripture, according to this
book. We've got to go by this book. Isaiah said if they speak
not according to this book, because they are still in darkness, they
have no light in them. Our church is praying that God
would raise up somebody, somewhere in our generation that had the
ear of the people and tell folks the truth. You know, a sermon
I preached recently, and I'm going to try to hurry, but there
are so many things I'd like to say. A sermon I preached recently,
what must we preach? The gospel. Why do we preach
the gospel? The first point I made is because
that's the only message in the world that's always a sweet savor
to God. And I thought about that. That
means, do we preach to please God or do we preach to please
man? Most preachers today tell men what they want to hear. They
cut down the gospel. They whittle down the Jesus of
Scripture to make it palatable to human nature. And it's another gospel. It's
not the truth. Not the truth. God is called the God of peace. Christ is the Prince of peace. The gospel is called the gospel
of peace. Preachers declare the gospel
of peace, and they're peaceful. They're not looking to cause
offense. They're looking to tell men the best news that this world
ever heard. And men and women as believers
are men and women of peace. Men and women of peace. And all
who know the Lord Jesus Christ, He is a personal embodiment of
the truth. of grace of peace. And all who
know the Lord Jesus Christ, in some degree, reflect what He
is. Reflect what He is as the God
of grace and truth and peace. And yet, nothing has ever caused
more disturbance in this world than the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the gospel of peace. Christ said, I didn't come to
bring peace on earth, but a sword. This message, this gospel, this
person, the Lord Jesus Christ, divides families, husbands, wives,
mothers, fathers, sisters, daughters, mothers, everything. It divides
people. Not because there's anything
wrong with the message, something wrong with the people. They don't receive
it. They don't like it. They hate
it by nature. And yet we have world famous
evangelists that go all over the world and preach to the Muslims,
preach to the Jews, preach to the Communists, and nobody's
upset. Because they forgot to tell folks the truth! And yes,
I'm talking about Billy Graham. It's serious business. You don't
preach to please folks, you preach to please God. And if you want
to please God, tell the truth about His Son. The most important
thing between you and God right now is what He sees in your mind
and your heart concerning His Son. What do you think of His
Son? That's it. That's everything.
Everything. One of Satan's greatest, most
effective efforts in destroying the souls of men and women Has
to have been whittle down God and exalt man. Whittle down Christ
till he's a would-be Savior, not a real Savior. He can't save
anybody unless you let him. You invite him. That's not what
this book says from one end to another. From one end to the
other, this book shows that he's a sovereign Savior. That he walks
by a publican's table and says, follow me, and he followed him. He's the sovereign Savior. They try to make the gospel pleasing
to men, and when you do that, it's not pleasing to God. And
when you do that, plainly and simply, you have removed yourself
totally and entirely from the sphere of God's grace, and got
into the sphere of works and blasphemy and idolatry. Paul said in his letter to the
Galatians, if you add circumcision or any other work to the gospel,
you have fallen from grace. You've left the gospel. To attribute salvation in any
way. I wrote this down. I know what
I'm saying. And I say it standing before God. To attribute salvation
in any way to any human work is to remove the offense of the
cross and make it the gospel into another gospel, which is
not another. It's a lie. It's a lie. Matthew 10. I didn't come to
send peace on earth but a sword. And boy, that sword followed
him all the days of his life until his hour was come and he
let them take him. There was a place the apostle
Paul went, an apostle preaching the gospel of peace. His own
people followed him, stirred up trouble against him, tried
to get him killed. Why? He was stoned and beaten
and abused in every way because he preached the gospel of peace.
If he had preached it like the folks preaching in our day, so
many of them, they wouldn't have been upset. They would have been
glad to see him coming. He could have preached on Mars
Hill and made everybody happy. Preaching their message, the
modern message, the modern gospel. Jesus Christ and his gospel of
peace is offensive to all men by nature. And I say to you here
tonight, how thankful you ought to be, and how blessed you are,
that you're not offended by what you read in here about Christ,
but you love it. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is, not only that there is one God, who he says he is,
that he is as he's depicted in this book, described in this
book. That's the God we believe in, the one in this book. Blessed is that man or that woman
who is not offended at Christ. Those who love Him as He is,
who He is, what He is, and love what He says and does, and His
people do. They that are of God hear God's
Word. My sheep hear my voice. There's no doubt about that.
No question about that. A lot of controversy today about
it, but there's no question about it. It's a settled issue right
here in this book. I want to give you a few reasons,
briefly as I can, why the gospel is offensive to natural man.
And it is offensive, especially to the unregenerate religious
man, like the Jews in the day of Christ, among whom he lived.
I pray that God will so work that none here this evening will be offended, but bow down
to the Lord Jesus. That's what we seek in our preaching,
to exalt him as he is and bring him in to bow down to us. First of all, this gospel of
this book is offensive. Now, you listen to what I'm saying,
you'll find out whether you really believe in grace or not. I mean
free grace, pure grace, all grace. It is offensive because it takes
the axe to the very root of all human wisdom. Do you believe
that? I've talked to people and said,
well, I laid hold of the claim. I laid claim of the promise and
all these things. It always starts with what they
did. This book starts with what he did. Read it. Look at 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 18, for the preaching of
the gospel of the cross, It's to them that are perishing foolishness,
and that's the tense of the verb, that are perishing foolishness.
But unto us which are being saved, it's the power of God. It's the
power of God. For it is written. Listen, let
me ask you this question, right in the beginning. The preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. Now that's
what God said, isn't it? How many of them? All of them. All of them. For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. It's God talking. Bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish all the wisdom of this world?
For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom can
never know God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Now read on, look at
this. Where is the scribe? Where is
the wise man? Where are the disputers and debaters
of this world? Bring them all together, and
all their wisdom combined, they can never know God. The knowledge of God comes by
divine, supernatural, spiritual revelation. Nothing less. Now the Jews, that's the religious
folk, they want to see a sign, the Greeks seek out the wisdom.
But, we just have one message, we preach Christ and Him crucified
under the Jews of Sunday block, under the Greeks foolishness,
but under them which are called. Oh, that's the magic word. Them
that are called. I don't care whether he's a Jew,
or whether he's a Greek, whether he's black, white, yellow, or
green. Unto them that are called. Call of God. Both Jews and Greeks,
Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Call of God. Call of God. Oh, we need to be
called of God. We must be called of God. Look
on down to verse 26. You see, you're calling, brethren. He's writing to you here in Corinth.
You see, you're calling, brethren. Not many wise men after the flesh
have ever been called of God to salvation. Isn't that what
that says? Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble, are called. There's a woman, Queen of England
one time. She said, I thank God for that letter,
M. I said, what do you mean? He
said, God could have said not any, but he said not many. That's what Spurgeon preached.
God give us another Spurgeon. Raise up men in our day. Tell
the truth and give them the attention of the people. I'd like to see
that before I pass off. Spurgeon stood in that great
tabernacle over there in London, England. I've been there. He
stood there one morning, oftentimes I imagine one morning, he said,
well, they had 5,000, 8,000, things jammed full. The members
would give their tickets to people that wanted to come, so they
didn't have room for them to sit. He said, God could stop
here and visit us this morning, I'm paraphrasing, and save everybody
in this place. And He could pass us by and leave
us all in our sins and our guilt, and He would still be holy and
just and good. And that's the truth. Salvation
by grace. Salvation by grace. The gospel is offensive to the
natural man. When it's received, sometimes
it divides the very closest of earthly ties. Jesus Christ and his gospel of
peace is offensive to all men by nature. And blessed is that
man to whom it's not offensive. Blessed is that man or woman
who's not offended at the gospel. who loves him as he is. The psalmist
said it like this, the man whom God chooses, blessed is the man
whom thou choosest, and causes to approach unto thee. That's
the blessed man. Do you know why I chose God? Because he chose me. Now I want to briefly give you
some of these reasons. The first is it destroys human
wisdom. Human wisdom at its greatest
combined efforts can never come to know God. Boy, that hurts
a bit. I can read what you can read.
I can understand what you can understand. No, you can't. I
have a doctorate degree from so-and-so. I don't care what
you've got. Let me show you something in
Matthew 11 again. You turn back there. I remember the first time I heard
this emphasized, and it was emphasized by a man named Dr. N. Burnett
Magruder. And I'm going to leave you to
establish the context. You probably already know this
is a familiar passage. But our Lord Jesus Christ, standing
here in the flesh, said, All things are delivered unto me
of my Father, and no man knoweth his Son. but the Father. Neither doth
any man the Father, except the Son. And he to whomsoever the
Son is pleased to reveal him." Isn't that what that says? He
to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Salvation is not left up
to us, it is left up to him. That is what it sounds like to
me. He is the one who turns on the
light. He's the one who gives a new nature. He's the one who
gives faith. What do we get if we have nothing
but sin? Nothing but sin. The first point is this. Let
me pass off. This gospel is offensive to natural men. It most certainly
is. The reason men are not offended
is because they're not hearing the gospel. What they're hearing
can be preached to anybody, any place, any time. Nobody would
be offended. Like I said, Billy Graham could go to Mars Hill
and make everybody happy, back in that generation. And it's offensive because of
the way it deals with human wisdom. We are shut up to the sovereign
revelation of God the Spirit in the Lord Jesus Christ. God never calls any, chooses
any, because of any wisdom in them. And he never caught very many
who were wise after the flesh. This gospel is offensive to natural
man because of the way in which it deals with human ability.
Now, I'm not going to turn to all these places and read. I'm
going to pass on. We have a baptism coming up. It offends men because
it puts an axe at the very root of all our wisdom. All our combined
wisdom, we can't find out God. Never come to know God. And secondly, this thing of human
ability. You want to read this Romans
chapter 8 and verse 6? The Bible says, when we were
without strength. Oh, Wilbur Johnson was in our
pulpit one time down in Madison Valley. Oh, he made it. He really
worked this up good. Without strength. You know what
that means? If I say I'm without money, you know what that means?
I don't have any. As long as I've got one penny
in my pocket, I'm not without. But if you're without strength,
you don't have anything. Spiritually, we're without strength. Spiritually,
we're dead and trespassers and sinners. We've got to have help
from outside. We can't help ourselves. We owe
a great debt and we have nothing to pay. We're without strength. And the modern religion is, give
me something to do, and I'll do it. Don't tell me I can't
do, I can't save myself or get saved when I get ready. That's
what I'm telling you. You know when Paul got saved?
Same time you did. When it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb, called me by its grace. When it pleased
God. When it pleased God. But that
offends man's pride. And the third reason is, because
of the way it deals with human merit, we just flat don't have
any. We just flat don't have any. You read Romans chapter 3, verses
9 through 12, it's enough to tell you we don't have any merit.
Non-righteous know not one, none that understandeth, none that
seeketh after God." We have no wisdom, we have no strength, and we have
no merit. The Gospel says to the man who
seeks righteousness in religion, not by the works of righteousness
which you have done. The gospel says to the man who
seeks righteousness and morality, the publicans and the harlots enter
the kingdom of God before you. I'm telling you the truth. Christ
stood before the religious leaders in his day, looked them right
square in the face, and made that statement. The publicans
and the harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. I don't mean they felt too good
since they thought they were the most righteous folks in the
world. But he told them the truth. He
told them the truth. The most moral and virtuous in
this world are as far from God and salvation as the vilest man
on the face of this earth. They're no closer to God. That upends man's pride. The next point, and boy, folks
don't like this at all, but this gospel is offensive because it
declares plainly and clearly from one end of this Bible to
the other that God's grace is discriminating grace, that he
saves whom he wills, when he wills, when it pleases him. You mean I can't be saved when
I want to? I don't know whether you'll be saved when you want
to or not, but I know one thing, you'll be saved when He wants
you to. No doubt in my mind about that.
No doubt at all. God declares, I will have mercy
upon whom I will have mercy. God declares, it's not of him
that willeth nor of him that runneth. But on God that hath
mercy, hath mercy. Somebody says, I don't like that.
One day you will. You'll learn to like it. Or you'll
bow to it, I'll put it that way. You won't learn to like it. Men
get angry and they say, that's not right, that's not just. God
wouldn't do that. Christ loves all men alike. Christ
died for all men equally, left up to man's free will. If that's
what you believe, you don't know anything about the gospel. Martin Luther said, man attributes
anything to free will. Anything in salvation, a man's
free will, has not learned the gospel of right. He don't know
it. Spurgeon said the same thing. But this offends man in the deepest
recesses of his natural being. when you tell him he's in the
hands of God and only God can help him. But I'll tell you,
this is proven throughout the Scriptures. The God of glory,
the only God there is. The God of glory appeared unto
our Father Abraham when he was yet in Ur of Chaldea. Who did
he appear to? Not his family. Only Abraham. Did he appear to Abraham because
he was wiser? Nope. Because he had more ability
than they? No, none of them had any ability.
Because he had some merit? No! He did it because he wanted
to. And that suits me fine. That suits me fine. Boy, there's
a bunch of Pharisees in the days of Christ, rulers of the Jews.
And it seems like God chose the meanest of the whole bunch to
save. Corned out the Damascus road with letters of authority
in his pocket to put these people, to apprehend them, put them in
prison, have them beaten, have them killed. I wouldn't have
wanted to meet him that day. And God turned on the light. And the hatred faded from his
face. He fell in the dust before God.
Who is it, Lord? He said, it's Jesus who you persecute.
Why do you kick against the bricks? Well, you have me do Lord. God
told him he did it. What a God, what a Savior. Spurgeon
said, and this is encouraging, Spurgeon said, you may have children
that It gets so far away, you can't find them, the law can't
find them, you just trouble about them every day of your life.
He said, but God knows where they are. He can put his finger
on them anytime he chooses. Pray for them. Pray for them. God is the Savior. One day all will bow to this
truth and confess that it is the truth. But you might say, preacher,
this being true, who then can be saved? That question had been
raised before, and Christ said, nobody. Left up to men, nobody. Nobody! I had a foolish little man come
around my house, a soul winner. He gave me a pamphlet. He said,
Mr. Usain, that's just flippantly
irrespective. They don't know what they're
doing. He's been trained puppets. Hey, Mr. Usain. I said, well,
I hope so. I've been trying to preach the gospel for 40 years.
He said, oh. He turned to walk off. I had
to give him one of those tracks. And on the back of that track,
it had this statement, this statement. Please, exclamation mark, won't
you let God save you this very moment. I haven't found anything
like that in this book. Nothing. In fact, our Lord says,
strive agonized to enter into the kingdom of God. Strive to enter in. Preacher who then can be saved,
well, left up to man, nobody. Salvation is in the hands of
men. Just close your, wreck this church in black and go home and
sit down and wait for hell to come. But thank God it's not left up
to men. Salvation is to any and all who
come to Christ on His terms, those who bow to Him, Those who
really trust Him, and put all our faith in who He is and what
He did, rather than in themselves. It's that simple. But what are those terms? Well,
the Bible says something concerning the Jews, that they would not
accept the counsel of God against themselves. Until you get to
learn the truth about God, you'll never start learning the truth
about yourself, the issue between you and that God. Turn away our thoughts from our
own ability, our own strength, our own merit, and look to Christ
alone with both eyes. Steadfastly look to the Lord
Jesus. Wrapping both arms around him.
Trusting in him and him alone. Being like that old leper. And
I love this story. Back in the Old Testament, lepers
were supposed to stay away from everybody. They were shut out
of the city, lived in colonies outside. They were to stay away
from people, and if anybody came near inadvertently, they were
to put their hand up to their mouth and cry, Unclean! Unclean! But here's a leper in Matthew
chapters 8. Chapter 8. He came running through the crowd.
He didn't stay away. He came running through the crowd. fell down at the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the first thing it says is
that he worshipped. He worshipped. And then I can
see him raising his face up a little to Christ and said, Lord, if
you will, you're the Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. Leaving it all with Him. You
don't owe me anything. You don't even have to answer.
But if you will, you can make me whole. He said, I believe
I will. And all who come to Christ like
that will be made whole. But He's the Lord. He's the Lord
of Glory. He's Lord over all. the Lord
of creation, the Lord of providence, and most certainly the Lord of
salvation. It's in His hands. And if you can come to Him like
the old leper, you'll be like the publican, I mean, you'll
be like the, I can't think of him now, the man who went up
to the temple and wouldn't even lift up his face to the Lord,
slowly address Him. Have mercy. Have mercy. Be propitious to me, a sinner. He delights to save sinners. May God bless His Word to our
hearts, and may God in these last days, and I certainly believe
they are these last days, Raise up some men and women who
tell the truth. Like the faithful pastor here
tells the truth. Told the truth this morning.
I won't be here, but I bet you he'll tell the truth Wednesday
night, Tuesday, or next Sunday. Truth. Some men preach to please
God. Some men preach to please men. I hope God don't give you your
choice.