Good morning. If you will open
your Bibles to Matthew chapter 11. Let's restart and just read
verse six. This is our text. And blessed
is he Whomsoever shall not be offended in me." Now, the title
of my message this morning is, Are You Offended of Jesus Christ? Now, this question bears some
investigation because we think, why would someone be offended
of Jesus Christ? Could it be the Jesus that is
preached today in most churches is not the Jesus of the scriptures? And that's what I want us to
look at here this morning. There are two lies going around
churches today. First is that God loves everybody. And the second is that Christ
died for everybody and it's up to you to do something to make
what he did work for you. And neither one of these things
are true. No one is offended by that Jesus who wants to save. He's just waiting outside the
door for you to let him in. Nobody's offended by him. This
Jesus has no power to save or else he would do it. This Jesus
is subject to your will. You've heard people say, won't
you let Jesus have his way for your life? What an offense. This Jesus died in vain. He saved no one. In fact, man
is the savior because if you don't do something to make it
work, you're not saved. So it doesn't matter what he
did because if you don't do your part, it doesn't work. Man is
the savior. And this Jesus is a failure.
He is weak and no one in their right mind would worship him.
The one waiting outside the door. This is what we call another
Jesus. John told us about this one.
It was another Jesus. He goes by the same name. He
sounds kind of like the Jesus of the scriptures. But when we
see who he is, we have to say these are not the same Jesus.
This is not God's son. Now this book declares that Jesus
is Lord. That means He's sovereign, and
that means He does what He wants, when He wants, and there's no
one that has to do anything to make His will to come to pass.
This book declares that Jesus is God's Christ. That means He
is His anointed one, the high one, the holy one of God. That means he's not like you
and I. And this book declares that he
is king. You bow to a king. He's not the
king waiting outside the door for you to let him in or to let
the king have his way with your life. That's not a king. If you
will, turn with me over to Daniel chapter 4. And verse 34, and at the end
of days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes unto heaven, and my
understanding returned unto me. And I blessed the Most High,
and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion. And his kingdom is from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and there is none that can stay his hand or say unto
him, what doest thou? This is not the Jesus waiting
outside the door for you to let him in. He is a ruling, a reigning
king, and it says the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
and there's none that can stay his hand, hold him back from
what his purpose is. If his intent is to save you,
you will be saved. If his intent is to pass you
by, you'll be passed by. But whatever his will is, it
will be done. His power knows no limit. There's
no one who can be too sinful that he can't reach down and
pull you out. His wisdom is beyond understanding. You can know everything there
is about this book. There's so many people who can
memorize it and know the theologies and doctrines, but don't know
a thing about Christ. You can know the facts and myths
that His wisdom is beyond our understanding. And it is He whom,
in Psalm 114, it says, the earth trembles at His presence. The
earth knows her maker. This Jesus is the one whom men
are offended by when he's preached. The food that you ate this morning
for energy to come here to hear this message preached, it might
be that you're hearing it and rejoicing, and it might be that
you're hearing it and are offended, but the food he gave you, he
gave it to you. The car that you'll drive away
in here after you've heard the message, either rejoicing what
you heard or disparaging the one bringing the message and
the one to whom the message is about, He gave you that too.
All you have and all you do, they're by His will and by His
decree. The things that you think, the
places that you're drawn to, who you are, where you've been,
all these things are decreed by His will. This Jesus is the
God of the Bible. That's who He is, and that's
whom I want to see, and I want you to see who He is this morning.
The Scriptures say that we read here back in Matthew 11, men
are offended in Him. Now, let's look at Matthew chapter
15 over a couple pages. We'll start reading here in verse 12. Then came His disciples
and said unto Him, said unto the Lord, knowest thou that the
Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? What
were they offended by? Let's look up in verse 7. You
hypocrites, this is the Lord speaking to them. Well did Isaiah
prophesy of you saying, this people draw near unto me with
their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart
is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching
for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the multitude
and said unto them, hear and understand, not that which goeth
into the mouth defiles the man, but that which cometh out of
the mouth, this defiles the man. What was it that they were offended
of? They were offended because the Christ of the Bible has a
rejection of man's works. Salvation, and what do I mean
by that? Salvation, whether it be salvation or acceptance before
God, something that He looks upon you favorably for doing
it, you cannot come to God this way. This is the oldest story
we learned, probably one of the first ones we learned in Sunday
school. Cain and Abel. You can point back to it in many
different ways. At the end of the day, Abel brought
the blood. Abel brought the sacrifice. Something
that he had nothing to do with in the creation and had nothing
to do with the appeasement of God. God was looking for the
blood. And that's the only reason and means by which God will be
appeased or accept me or you. Cain brought what he did. I want you to be pleased with
me because of what I did. Look what I brought. He was rejected
and he was sent away. So the Christ of the Bible rejects
men's works. Men's works are this do and live. If by you doing it for God's
favor to be upon you or to be saved, this is works, even your
best intentions. Somebody says, well, I didn't
feel like that. I was doing that. I had a good
intention to do this. What does that have to do with
it? The scriptures don't have anything to do with what our
intentions are. Thus it's written, and that's
all we can go by. So even our best intentions are
sin because we did it. When Adam fell in the garden,
Adam and all of his descendants became sinners, impure, estranged
from a holy God, so that anything you do, your best intentions
are not acceptable before God. This is why our works are rejected. God is not pleased with the sacrifices
that you or I have made for Him. He is not pleased with that.
He is not pleased with the money that we give. He is not pleased
with the faith that we claim and that we hold on to. We gotta
hold on to that. He is not pleased with your walk in this life,
what you do or what you don't do. God cannot be pleased with
anything you do because you and I are sinners. What is God pleased with then?
There surely has to be something. It's not something, it's someone. He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased. Now you hear him. And what did
he say? What is it that Christ said to
men while he was here? Repent. except you likewise repent,
you're going to be lost. What is it to repent? Well, first
thing men do is they twist that word repent and they add repent
of your sins. That's not even found in the
scriptures. That's men trying to say, if you don't do this,
then you're doing what God is going to be pleased with. That's
salvation by works. Repentance is a change of mind. Repentance just means I thought
one thing, And now I don't think that anymore. And repentance
in the scriptures has to do with how does God save a sinner? You
change your mind how God can look upon you favorably and save
you from your sins. It's no longer by what you did
or what you didn't do, it's by whom you've believed. He said, I'm pleased with my
son. So they heard to repent. So who was it? So we saw here,
you know, in our text in a couple places, and there's many places
that speak to this that look at that men were offended with
Christ. So who was it that was most offended
with Christ? Because if you ask most preachers
today, they're going to have a list of people who are enemies
of the gospel. They're going to say the people
that are most offended are going to be homosexuals. They're going
to say the drunks or abortion. They find something to get on
that they don't do to look down on somebody else. Whether it
be wrong or not, they find something else to point to. Those weren't
the people who were offended with Jesus Christ. It was religious
people. Religious people were the ones
who hated him. They were the ones who wanted
to kill him and did try to on many attempts. So religious people
were the ones who hated him. Why? For the same reason the
Pharisees did, because he told them, you can't be saved by what
you do or what you don't do. This is their hope. This was
their pride. This is what separated them from
other men. This is what they trusted in.
And he took it all away. And he said, you're not gonna
stand before me. Your works are meaningless here. And why were
their works meaningless? He said, it's because of what's
in your heart. It's not that which goeth into
a man that defiles him, it's that which comes out. If it came
out of you, it's defiled because it came out of your heart. Turn
with me, if you would, over a few pages to Matthew 23. And this is the Lord speaking
here, and so you look at the particular language he uses.
We'll start in verse 25. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you make clean the outside
of the cup, what you see from the outside, and the platter.
But within you're full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee,
cleanse first that which was within the cup and platter, and
the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchres,
graves, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full
of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, outwardly appear righteous
unto men. People look at you and say, look
what I'm doing. They're doing the right thing.
That's what they want you to see. But within, you're full of hypocrisy
and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and
garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, and say, if we had
been in the days of our fathers, we had not have been partakers
with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore, you be witnesses
unto yourselves that you are the children of them which killed
the prophets. Fill ye up the measure of your fathers, you
serpents, you generation of vipers. How can you escape the damnation
of hell? These are the Lord's words to
religious people. Those who thought within themselves
they had something that they could bring before God, this is the Jesus that men are
offended of. Second point, there's a rejection
of man's personal righteousness. The scriptures say if righteousness
comes by the law, by what you do or what you don't do, then
Christ is dead in vain. That means he died for nothing.
He didn't save anybody because it's still up to you to do something
or to not do something for Christ to find you acceptable. The law
was not given to save men. The law was not given as a guide
on how to live. How many people use the Ten Commandments
as a guide on how to live? It was given as a death sentence
to man. It was to show men, you haven't
kept one commandment one time. If you will look over at Romans
chapter 3 really quick and look at a couple of verses there that
speak to this. And in verse 19 of Romans 3 it
says, Now we know what thingsoever the law saith, it saith to them
that are under the law, those who are forced to do or not do
what the law says, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, as a conclusion
of everything I just said, by the deeds of the law, what you
do or what you don't do, there shall no flesh be justified in
His sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. And it says no flesh shall be
justified in His sight. It doesn't matter what you or
I think about what our deeds are good or not. We are judged
by what is in His sight. not our own, because if it's
up to us, we'll always wind out on top. We can justify anything
we do. You see the Ten Commandments
hanging on the wall somewhere, and you know how people fight
for that to want to get it put up in places? It testifies against
you. You have no idea what that means.
This condemns you in putting this up. This is your condemnation
before God, the Ten Commandments. Look at Galatians chapter 3,
if you would. In verse 10, for as many as are
of the works of the law who think that they're going
to live because what they do or what they don't do, you are
under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. So if you leave one thing out, you're under the curse,
if you're trying to live or in any way find acceptance before
God by what you do or what you don't do, this is saying you're
under the curse. And in verse 11, but that no
man is justified by the law in the sight of God, for it is evident,
for the just shall live by faith. You know, the only reason people
want to hang the Ten Commandments up in some place for people to
see it is because they think they keep that law more than
somebody else. That's the only reason. Pure
self-righteousness. You can say anything you want,
but that's the reason why. Because otherwise, if you knew
what it meant, it condemns you. You don't want that up. I don't
want to be held by the law. Christ kept the law for me. I
don't want to have to keep it because I can't keep it in a
way where God can be satisfied with me and say, what you did
was okay there. No, it's all not okay. If you
will turn over to Luke chapter 18. It doesn't matter what I say
or what I think. That's why we turn to the Scriptures
here, to show you this is what God's Word says. It doesn't matter
what I think. I want to show you this from
God's Word so that you can see this is not just the person standing
here telling you this. Luke 18, verse 11, the Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not
as other men are. I live by the law. There's things
that I do that other people don't do. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer,
or even is this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing far
off, would not even so much as lift his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. The Lord says, I tell you, this
man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself
shall be exalted." And so what we see here is that your works
condemn you before God. Because if you're bringing your
works before God, you're standing underneath the law and saying,
I am being held to everything that is in the law for you to
be satisfied with me. And if we are honest with ourselves,
and whether we are honest or not, this is true, we haven't
kept one commandment one time. You may have not murdered someone,
but have you ever been angry with somebody? You violated that
commandment in your heart a thousand times a day probably. God looks
upon the heart. It's not that which is on the
outside. He said it's that which comes
out of the heart. That's what God looks on. And before somebody
thinks, Well what about what James says? James talks about
his works. Now I've got a scripture to go
against what you're saying up there. Show me thy faith without
thy works and I'll show you my faith by my works. Just shows
we have a complete misunderstanding of scripture. James here is speaking
of his works as evidence of salvation because God did something for
him. not evidence for salvation. There's a big difference, a world
of difference. One is saying, it's a work of
grace done in you. The other is saying, if I do
this, you'll save me. Because I did this, therefore
you'll do for me. Seems reminiscent of the first
story we talked about earlier, Cain. If you'll do this for me,
look what I brought to you, won't you be pleased with me? It all
points back to the original sin, to Cain and to works. And I can
assure you this, if you find yourself patting yourself on
the back for your works, for your labors, and being pleased
by something that you did, it is not evidence of your salvation. if you are looking at it upon
that way. It's actually evidence of your self-righteousness. That's
what it's evidence of. So if we're looking at what we
did and saying, man, I did good there, gotta be pleased with
that, all that is is self-righteousness. It's no different than the Pharisee
in the temple saying, I don't do these things and somebody
else did. So for salvation, our works have to do with what He's
already done for us. So if you look here at the Scripture
that supports that, look at Ephesians chapter 2. In verse 8 it says, you are saved through faith."
And that actually reads, for by grace you are having been
saved, because the words don't translate the same, but you are
having been saved, something that's already been done through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's nothing you did, it's the
gift of God. not of works, lest any man should boast." And here's
what I want you to zero in on, for we are His workmanship. That means He made us. We were
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. That means He created
you in Christ Jesus unto good works. So if you do good works,
it's because you're in Christ Jesus. Keep on reading. which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them." What's that mean? What's it say? Which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. That means that God foresaw and
commanded what I would do before time began. So can I then look
and say, look at the good work that I did? I'm stealing his
glory. This is what he has foreordained
and commanded that we should walk in these ways. If He planned
it and ordained it, I can't steal His glory. This is the Jesus
that men are offended of. Point number three is a rejection
of man's person. The Lord is called a rock of
offense and a stone of stumbling. A rock does not move. A rock
does not change. A rock stands firm. What was
the one thing every time, remember when the Lord went in the wilderness
with Satan, what was the thing that he responded to him every
time? It is written. It doesn't change. He points
back to his word over and over and over. We change, we change
every motive. I was thinking this morning,
You think about what was different 50 years ago, those of you that
are over 50 and grew up in that age, how much things are different
then. Go back 100 years. Women couldn't vote 100 years
ago, and we think today, like, what do you mean somebody couldn't
vote? You think of, like, telling our children this, they would
be surprised. 100 years ago, you think how
much just has changed in 100 years. So, but he says, I change
not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. The Lord does not change and
this is an offense to men because we want to change him. We want
to manipulate him and make him the way we want him to act. And
so we want to receive preferential treatment over somebody else.
I want you to look more favorably on me and make different rules
for me than you do over here. So we try to change God. And
man says, we will not have this man to reign over us. This was
the response of men when the Lord was in this world. We're
not going to have this man to reign over us. And they don't.
So they just invented another Jesus, the one that is preached
in most churches today. But if you look to the scriptures,
there's no evidence for any of it. When all is stripped away, we
will be revealed for what we are. You know, we all look nice
today. It's Easter Sunday. Everybody
puts on their nice clothes. But when it's all stripped away,
we're just sinners. We're guilty before God. We can't
even come into His presence. We have to have somebody to go
between us just to even have Him to hear our prayers. When
all stripped away, we find that we're just sinners, and we're
like Naaman. Do you remember Naaman? He was
the Syrian army general. He had leprosy. And he was sent
down into Israel because he heard that there was a man that could
heal him from his leprosy. And so he went down, and you
can imagine what he looked like. I'm sure gold-plated armor and
had, you know, a big sword and, you know, just the nicest armor
you could imagine. He was probably something to
behold. He came down with chariots and with horses and people and
gold and gifts. All these things came before
the door of the man who had the ability to heal him. And he knocked
on the door. Naaman's at the door. And so who did he send out? A
servant. Nobody. And the servant said,
you got to take all that armor off and you go down the filthy
Jordan River. You dip down in it seven times
and you'll be clean. Door's shut. And he's standing
there saying, don't you know who I am? I came down here. I need you to deal with me. And
his servant said. If you thought that going down
to the river would make you clean, wouldn't you do it? He's like,
but I thought I thought. It doesn't matter what you and
I think, does it? He went down to the river and
he was made clean. But what we think when we come before God
is that He should be pleased with what we do or what we don't
do. He should change because society changes. We're different
today. That was, I guess, the point I was making by saying
how different things are. Shouldn't God change too? This
seems harsh. This seems cold. God seems too
big and too angry. He said, I change not. And so,
is it right for me to change Him, to turn Him against what
He says He is in His Word because I don't like it? We will all
come to Christ as beggars or we won't come at all. This is
the Jesus that men are offended of. The fourth point, there's
a rejection of man's will. When Christ died, he died for
his people, not for all of mankind. We preach a successful Savior,
one who did what he said he was here to do. The first mentionings
of his name are, for they shall call his name Jesus, and he shall
save his people. He shall save his people from
their sins. Not make it possible if you'll
do something. He shall save His people from
their sins, and that's what we preach, because that's what the
Scriptures say of Him, who are His people. If you're still in
Ephesians there, look over in chapter 1, in verse 4, it says,
according as He, God, has chosen us, that's His people, in Him,
in Christ. When did He do it? Did He look
down here to see who was the ones doing the good things and
who was doing the bad things? No. It says, before the foundation
of the world. So that means it's before you
ever did anything good or did anything evil. That He chose
us before the foundation of the world that we should be holy
and without blame before Him in love, having predestinating
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself.
And why did He do all of these things? Why did He choose a people
in Christ? Why did He choose some? Well,
keep reading. According to the good pleasure
of His will. We're not given an answer, nor
are we owed one. God said He did it according
to the good pleasure of His will. It's not, how could He choose
some and pass by others? It's how, how could He choose
anybody at all? If you don't see that you're
a sinner, you can't look at it that way. You're saying it's
not fair. It's not fair God passed by some.
You don't see yourself as a sinner, if that's what you think. If
you see yourself as a sinner, you'll say, how did he even choose
me? Lord, choose me. If nobody else
has chosen, just choose me, please. Choose me. I don't deserve it.
I have nothing to come before you. I'm guilty, but choose me.
That's going to be the response from one of the Lord's people.
And all the Father gave Him in eternal election, those are the
ones who are His people. Now, keep this in mind, people
are very polarized by the word election because they don't understand
it, and it's because they don't see that they're sinners. Election
does not prevent anyone from calling upon the name of the
Lord. He tells us, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord, they're going to be saved. Now, what election does is evidence
who will call. You see, if you're offended by
that, you won't call on him because you're one of the ones who are
offended by this Jesus. You won't call on him, but election
just evidences those who do call. So there's no evidence whatsoever
in Scripture of anyone coming to the Lord and saying, Lord,
save me. Lord, I'm unclean. Good morning. If you will open your Bibles
to Matthew chapter 11. Let's restart and just read verse
6. This is our text. And blessed
is he Whomsoever shall not be offended in me." Now, the title
of my message this morning is, Are You Offended of Jesus Christ? Now, this question bears some
investigation because we think, why would someone be offended
of Jesus Christ? Could it be the Jesus that is
preached today in most churches is not the Jesus of the scriptures? And that's what I want us to
look at here this morning. There are two lies going around
churches today. First is that God loves everybody. And the second is that Christ
died for everybody and it's up to you to do something to make
what he did work for you. And neither one of these things
are true. No one is offended by that Jesus who wants to save. He's just waiting outside the
door for you to let him in. Nobody's offended by him. This
Jesus has no power to save or else he would do it. This Jesus
is subject to your will. You've heard people say, won't
you let Jesus have his way for your life? What an offense. This Jesus died in vain. He saved no one. In fact, man
is the savior because if you don't do something to make it
work, you're not saved. So it doesn't matter what he
did because if you don't do your part, it doesn't work. Man is
the savior. And this Jesus is a failure.
He is weak and no one in their right mind would worship him.
The one waiting outside the door. This is what we call another
Jesus. John told us about this one.
It was another Jesus. He goes by the same name. He
sounds kind of like the Jesus of the scriptures. But when we
see who he is, we have to say these are not the same Jesus.
This is not God's son. Now this book declares that Jesus
is Lord. That means He's sovereign, and
that means He does what He wants, when He wants, and there's no
one that has to do anything to make His will to come to pass.
This book declares that Jesus is God's Christ. That means He
is His anointed one, the High One. The Holy One of God, that
means He's not like you and I. And this book declares that He
is king. You bow to a king. He's not the
king waiting outside the door for you to let him in or to let
the king have his way with your life. That's not a king. If you
will, turn with me over to Daniel chapter 4. And verse 34, and at the end
of days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes unto heaven, and my
understanding returned unto me. And I blessed the Most High,
and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion. And his kingdom is from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and there is none that can stay his hand or say unto
him, What doest thou? This is not the Jesus waiting
outside the door for you to let him in. He is a ruling, a reigning
king, and it says the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
and there's none that can stay his hand, hold him back from
what his purpose is. If his intent is to save you,
you will be saved. If his intent is to pass you
by, you'll be passed by. But whatever his will is, it
will be done. His power knows no limit. There's
no one who can be too sinful that he can't reach down and
pull you out. His wisdom is beyond understanding. You can know everything there
is about this book. There's so many people who can
memorize it and know the theologies and doctrines, but don't know
a thing about Christ. You can know the facts and myths
that His wisdom is beyond our understanding. And it is He whom,
in Psalm 114, it says, the earth trembles at His presence. The
earth knows her maker. This Jesus is the one whom men
are offended by when he's preached. The food that you ate this morning
for energy to come here to hear this message preached, it might
be that you're hearing it and rejoicing, and it might be that
you're hearing it and are offended. But the food he gave you, he
gave it to you. The car that you'll drive away
in here after you've heard the message, either rejoicing what
you heard or disparaging the one bringing the message and
the one to whom the message is about, He gave you that too.
All you have and all you do, they're by His will and by His
decree. The things that you think, the
places that you're drawn to, who you are, where you've been,
all these things are decreed by His will. This Jesus is the
God of the Bible. That's who He is, and that's
whom I want to see, and I want you to see who He is this morning.
The Scriptures say that we read here back in Matthew 11, men
are offended in Him. Now, let's look at Matthew chapter
15 over a couple pages. We'll start reading here in verse 12. "'Then came his disciples
and said unto him, said unto the Lord, knowest thou that the
Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying?' What
were they offended by? Let's look up in verse 7. "'You
hypocrites,' this is the Lord speaking to them. Well did Isaiah
prophesy of you saying, this people draw near unto me with
their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart
is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching
for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the multitude
and said unto them, hear and understand, not that which goeth
into the mouth defiles the man, but that which cometh out of
the mouth, this defiles the man. What was it that they were offended
of? They were offended because the Christ of the Bible has a
rejection of man's works. Salvation, and what do I mean
by that? Salvation, whether it be salvation or acceptance before
God, something that He looks upon you favorably for doing
it, you cannot come to God this way. This is the oldest story
we learned, probably one of the first ones we learned in Sunday
school. Cain and Abel. You can point back to it in many
different ways. At the end of the day, Abel brought
the blood. Abel brought the sacrifice, something
that he had nothing to do with in the creation and had nothing
to do with the appeasement of God. God was looking for the
blood. And that's the only reason and means by which God will be
appeased or accept me or you. Cain brought what he did. I want you to be pleased with
me because of what I did. Look what I brought. He was rejected
and he was sent away. So the Christ of the Bible rejects
men's works. Men's works are this do and live. If by you doing it for God's
favor to be upon you or to be saved, this is works, even your
best intentions. Somebody says, well, I didn't
feel like that. I was doing that and I had a
good intention to do this. What does that have to do with
it? The scriptures don't have anything to do with what our
intentions are. Thus it's written, and that's
all we can go by. So even our best intentions are
sin because we did it. When Adam fell in the garden,
Adam and all of his descendants became sinners, impure, estranged
from a holy God, so that anything you do, your best intentions
are not acceptable before God. This is why our works are rejected. God is not pleased with the sacrifices
that you or I have made for Him. He is not pleased with that.
He is not pleased with the money that we give. He is not pleased
with the faith that we claim and that we hold on to. We gotta
hold on to that. He is not pleased with your walk in this life,
what you do or what you don't do. God cannot be pleased with
anything you do because you and I are sinners. What is God pleased with then?
There surely has to be something. It's not something, it's someone. He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased. Now you hear him. And what did
he say? What is it that Christ said to
men while he was here? Repent. except you likewise repent,
you're going to be lost. What is it to repent? Well, first
thing men do is they twist that word repent and they add repent
of your sins. That's not even found in the
scriptures. That's men trying to say, if you don't do this,
then you're doing what God is going to be pleased with. That's
salvation by works. Repentance is a change of mind. Repentance just means I thought
one thing, And now I don't think that anymore. And repentance
in the scriptures has to do with how does God save a sinner? You
change your mind how God can look upon you favorably and save
you from your sins. It's no longer by what you did
or what you didn't do, it's by whom you've believed. He said, I'm pleased with my
son. So they heard to repent. So who was it? So we saw here,
you know, in our text in a couple places, and there's many places
that speak to this that look at that men were offended with
Christ. So who was it that was most offended
with Christ? Because if you ask most preachers
today, they're going to have a list of people who are enemies
of the gospel. They're going to say the people
that are most offended are going to be homosexuals. They're going
to say the drunks or abortion. They find something to get on
that they don't do to look down on somebody else. Whether it
be wrong or not, they find something else to point to. Those weren't
the people who were offended with Jesus Christ. It was religious
people. Religious people were the ones
who hated him. They were the ones who wanted
to kill him and did try to on many attempts. So religious people
were the ones who hated him. Why? For the same reason the
Pharisees did, because he told them, you can't be saved by what
you do or what you don't do. This is their hope. This was
their pride. This is what separated them from
other men. This is what they trusted in.
And he took it all away. And he said, you're not going
to stand before me. Your works are meaningless here." And why
were their works meaningless? He said, it's because of what's
in your heart. It's not that which goeth into
a man that defiles him, it's that which comes out. If it came
out of you, it's defiled because it came out of your heart. Turn
with me, if you would, over a few pages to Matthew 23. And this is the Lord speaking
here, and so you look at the particular language he uses.
We'll start in verse 25. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you make clean the outside of the cup what you
see from the outside in the platter, but within you're full of extortion
and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse
first that which was within the cup and platter, and the outside
of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchres, graves,
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full
of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, outwardly appear righteous
unto men. People look at you and say, look
what I'm doing. They're doing the right thing.
That's what they want you to see. But within, you're full of hypocrisy
and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and
garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, and say, if we had
been in the days of our fathers, we had not have been partakers
with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore, you be witnesses
unto yourselves that you are the children of them which killed
the prophets. Fill ye up the measure of your fathers, you
serpents, you generation of vipers. How can you escape the damnation
of hell? These are the Lord's words to
religious people. Those who thought within themselves
they had something that they could bring before God, this is the Jesus that men are
offended of. Second point, there's a rejection
of man's personal righteousness. The scriptures say if righteousness
comes by the law, by what you do or what you don't do, then
Christ is dead in vain. That means he died for nothing. He didn't save anybody because
it's still up to you to do something or to not do something for Christ
to find you acceptable. The law was not given to save
men. The law was not given as a guide
on how to live. How many people use the Ten Commandments
as a guide on how to live? It was given as a death sentence
to man. It was to show men, you haven't
kept one commandment one time. If you will look over Romans
chapter 3 really quick, we'll look at a couple verses there
that speak to this. And in verse 19 of Romans 3 it
says, Now we know what thingsoever the law saith, it saith to them
that are under the law, those who are forced to do or not do
what the law says, that every mouth may be stopped. and all
the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, as a conclusion
of everything I just said, by the deeds of the law, what you
do or what you don't do, there shall no flesh be justified in
His sight. for by the law is the knowledge
of sin." And it says, no flesh shall be justified in his sight.
It doesn't matter what you or I think about what our deeds
are good or not. We are judged by what is in his
sight, not our own. Because if it's up to us, we'll
always wind out on top. We can justify anything we do.
Do you see the Ten Commandments hanging on the wall somewhere?
You know how people fight for that, to want to get it put up
in places? It testifies against you. You have no idea what that
means. This condemns you in putting this up. This is your condemnation
before God, the Ten Commandments. Look at Galatians chapter 3,
if you would. In verse 10, for as many as are
of the works of the law who think that they're going
to live because what they do or what they don't do, you are
under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. So if you leave one thing out, you're under the curse,
if you're trying to live or in any way find acceptance before
God by what you do or what you don't do, this is saying you're
under the curse. And in verse 11, but that no
man is justified by the law in the sight of God, for it is evident,
for the just shall live by faith. You know, the only reason people
want to hang the Ten Commandments up in some place for people to
see it is because they think they keep that law more than
somebody else. That's the only reason. Pure
self-righteousness. You can say anything you want,
but that's the reason why. Because otherwise, if you knew
what it meant, it condemns you. You don't want that up. I don't
want to be held by the law. Christ kept the law for me. I
don't want to have to keep it because I can't keep it in a
way where God can be satisfied with me and say, what you did
was okay there. No, it's all not okay. If you
will turn over to Luke chapter 18. It doesn't matter what I say
or what I think. That's why we turn to the scriptures
here, to show you this is what God's Word says. It doesn't matter
what I think. I want to show you this from
God's Word so that you can see this is not just the person standing
here telling you this. Luke 18, verse 11, the Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not
as other men are. I live by the law. There's things
that I do that other people don't do. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm not an adulterer,
or even is this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing far
off, would not even so much as lift his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. The Lord says, I tell you, this
man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself
shall be exalted. And so what we see here is that
your works condemn you before God. Because if you're bringing
your works before God, you're standing underneath the law and
saying, I am being held to everything that is in the law for you to
be satisfied with me. And if we are honest with ourselves,
and whether we are honest or not, this is true, we haven't
kept one commandment one time. You may have not murdered someone,
but have you ever been angry with somebody? You violated that
commandment in your heart a thousand times a day probably. God looks
upon the heart. It's not that which is on the
outside. He said it's that which comes
out of the heart. That's what God looks on. And before somebody
thinks, Well what about what James says? James talks about
his works. Now I've got a scripture to go
against what you're saying up there. Show me thy faith without
thy works and I'll show you my faith by my works. Just shows
we have a complete misunderstanding of scripture. James here is speaking
of his works as evidence of salvation because God did something for
him. Not evidence for salvation. There's a big difference, a world
of difference. One is saying, it's a work of
grace done in you. The other is saying, if I do
this, you'll save me. Because I did this, therefore
you'll do for me. Seems reminiscent of the first
story we talked about earlier, Cain. If you'll do this for me,
look what I brought to you, won't you be pleased with me? It all
points back to the original sin, to Cain and to works. And I can
assure you this, if you find yourself patting yourself on
the back for your works, for your labors, and being pleased
by something that you did, it is not evidence of your salvation. if you are looking at it upon
that way. It's actually evidence of your self-righteousness. That's
what it's evidence of. So if we're looking at what we
did and saying, man, I did good there, God will be pleased with
that. All that is is self-righteousness. It's no different than the Pharisee
in the temple saying, I don't do these things and somebody
else did. So for salvation, our works have to do with what He's
already done for us. So if you look here at the Scripture
that supports that, look at Ephesians chapter 2. In verse 8 it says, You are saved through faith.
And that actually reads, for by grace you are having been
saved, because the words don't translate the same, but you are
having been saved, something that's already been done through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's nothing you did, it's the
gift of God. not of works, lest any man should
boast." And here's what I want you to zero in on, for we are
His workmanship. That means He made us. We were
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. That means He created
you in Christ Jesus unto good works. So if you do good works,
it's because you're in Christ Jesus. Keep on reading. which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them." What's that mean? What's it say? Which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. That means that God foresaw and
commanded what I would do before time began. So can I then look
and say, look at the good work that I did? I'm stealing his
glory. This is what he has foreordained
and commanded that we should walk in these ways. If He planned
it and ordained it, I can't steal His glory. This is the Jesus
that men are offended of. Point number three is a rejection
of man's person. The Lord is called a rock of
offense and a stone of stumbling. A rock does not move. A rock
does not change. A rock stands firm. What was
the one thing every time, remember when the Lord went in the wilderness
with Satan, what was the thing that he responded to him every
time? It is written. It doesn't change. He points
back to his word over and over and over. We change, we change
every motive. I was thinking this morning,
You think about what was different 50 years ago, those of you that
are over 50 and grew up in that age, how much things are different
then. Go back 100 years. Women couldn't vote 100 years
ago. And we think today, what do you mean somebody couldn't
vote? You think of telling our children this, they would be
surprised. 100 years ago, you think how
much just has changed in 100 years. But he says, I change
not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. The Lord does not change and
this is an offense to men because we want to change him. We want
to manipulate him and make him the way we want him to act. And
so we want to receive preferential treatment over somebody else.
I want you to look more favorably on me and make different rules
for me than you do over here. So we try to change God. And
man says, we will not have this man to reign over us. This was
the response of men when the Lord was in this world. We're
not going to have this man to reign over us. And they don't.
So they just invented another Jesus, the one that is preached
in most churches today. But if you look to the scriptures,
there's no evidence for any of it. When all is stripped away, we
will be revealed for what we are. You know, we all look nice
today. It's Easter Sunday. Everybody
puts on their nice clothes. But when it's all stripped away,
we're just sinners. We're guilty before God. We can't
even come into His presence. We have to have somebody to go
between us just to even have Him to hear our prayers. When
all is stripped away, we find that we're just sinners and we're
like Naaman. Do you remember Naaman? He was
the Syrian army general. He had leprosy. And he was sent
down into Israel because he heard that there was a man that could
heal him from his leprosy. And so he went down, and you
can imagine what he looked like. I'm sure gold-plated armor and
had, you know, a big sword and, you know, just the nicest armor
you could imagine. He was probably something to
behold. He came down with chariots and with horses and people and
gold and gifts. All these things came before
the door of the man who had the ability to heal him. And he knocked
on the door. Naaman's at the door. And so who did he send out? A
servant. Nobody. And the servant said,
you got to take all that armor off and you go down the filthy
Jordan River. You dip down in it seven times
and you'll be clean. Door's shut. And he's standing
there saying, don't you know who I am? I came down here, I
need you to deal with me. And his servant said, if you
thought that going down to the river would make you clean, wouldn't
you do it? He's like, but I thought, I thought. It doesn't matter
what you and I think, does it? He went down to the river and
he was made clean. But what we think when we come before God
is that He should be pleased with what we do or what we don't
do. He should change because society changes. We're different
today. That was, I guess, the point I was making by saying
how different things are. Shouldn't God change too? This
seems harsh. This seems cold. God seems too
big and too angry. He said, I change not. And so
is it right for me to change Him? to turn Him against what
He says He is in His Word because I don't like it? We will all
come to Christ as beggars or we won't come at all. This is
the Jesus that men are offended of. The fourth point, there's
a rejection of man's will. When Christ died, He died for
His people, not for all of mankind. We preach a successful Savior,
one who did what He said He was here to do. The first mentionings
of His name are, for they shall call His name Jesus, and He shall
save His people. He shall save His people from
their sins. Not make it possible if you'll
do something. He shall save His people from
their sins. And that's what we preach, because that's what the
Scriptures say of Him, who are His people. If you're still in
Ephesians there, look over in chapter 1, in verse 4, He says,
according as He, God, has chosen us, that's His people, in Him,
in Christ. When did He do it? Did He look
down here to see who was the ones doing the good things and
who was doing the bad things? No. It says, before the foundation
of the world. So that means it's before you
ever did anything good or did anything evil. That He chose
us before the foundation of the world that we should be holy
and without blame before Him in love, having predestinating
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself.
And why did He do all of these things? Why did He choose a people
in Christ? Why did He choose some? Well,
keep reading. According to the good pleasure
of His will. We're not given an answer, nor
are we owed one. God said He did it according
to the good pleasure of His will. It's not, how could He choose
some and pass by others? It's how, how could He choose
anybody at all? If you don't see that you're
a sinner, you can't look at it that way. You're saying it's
not fair, it's not fair God pass by some. You don't see yourself
as a sinner, if that's what you think. If you see yourself as
a sinner, you'll say, how did he even choose me? Lord, choose
me. If nobody else has chosen, just
choose me, please, choose me. I don't deserve it, I have nothing
to come before you, I'm guilty, but choose me. That's going to
be the response from one of the Lord's people. And all the Father
gave Him in eternal election, those are the ones who are His
people. Now, and keep this in mind, people are very polarized
by the word election because they don't understand it, and
it's because they don't see that they're sinners. Election does
not prevent anyone from calling upon the name of the Lord. He
tells us whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, they're
going to be saved. Now, what election does is evidence
who will call. You see, if you're offended by
that, you won't call on Him because you're one of the ones who are
offended by this Jesus. You won't call on Him. But election
just evidences those who do call. So there's no evidence whatsoever
in Scripture of anyone coming to the Lord and saying, Lord,
save me. Lord, I'm unclean. Help me. And Him saying, well, let me
check here. Sorry, you're not elect. No. The elect will come. Election just evidences... Election
is the only way that you can be saved, and I think we have
to see that. If He had to look in time for
what you've done, let's say just today, for a reason to save you,
could He find a reason? Could He find Himself looking
at His holy law and say, wow, this one's good compared to that
one over there? No. It said we're all guilty. That's
what it said in Romans. So no one would be saved if he
had to look at what you and I did every day. So election is the
only way we can be saved, and that's good news. This is the
Jesus that men are offended of. The sovereign Lord that does
as he pleases, the ruling king who elected a people unto salvation.
This is the work that he gave his son to do. He said, and not
one of them is going to be lost. This is the work that he was
given to do. The one who says, by the law, no one can be saved
and our works are meaningless. and the one who died and saved
his people effectually and eternally. So if he died for you, you must
be saved. And everything in time is ordered
around bringing you to a saving knowledge of the truth. That's
the confidence we have. So what hope is there for me?
You tell me that I'm a sinner. Turn back to our text. What hope
do I have? I've got no works that you can
accept. You don't accept my person. I have no righteousness before
you. What hope do I have?" Well, he gives it thus here in the
text we have. I'm unclean. I'm rejection. I've
been rejected. You see, before you can be found,
you must first be lost. Everybody wants to be found.
Everybody wants to talk about how they've been saved. But they
forget and have never experienced, in most cases, you had to be
lost before he could find you. And in you being lost, you have
to see that you are estranged. You are unclean. You are a sinner
in the hands of a holy God. So if you will, look here in
verse 2 of chapter 11. When John heard in the prison
the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and they
said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for
another? Are you just another Jesus, or are you the one who's
been sent? Are you the Messiah? And Jesus
answered and said unto them, You go and show John again those
things which you do here and see. And here's the first one.
He said the blind received their sight. My question to you is,
are you blind? Are you shut up to revelation? to the point where you can't
see God in the Word. You can't see Christ in the message. They're just words. Are you shut
up to Revelation? There's no more, I think this
is what it should say. I think this is what I want it
to believe. You use one scripture to justify
against everything the rest of scripture teaches. There's no
more I think. I'm shut up to Revelation saying,
Lord, show me who you are. I thought I knew, but I don't.
Show me who you are in truth from your word. Well, if you're
blind, it says you shall receive sight. But if you're not blind,
you won't receive the sight. Next, he says the lame walk. Are you lame? Do you have an
inability to walk in a way that is pleasing before God? There's
nothing that you can do before Him that He can be pleased with.
I can't walk before Him. Are you lame? Your works mean
nothing. Paul said, the will is present
in me. I want to do those things, and
we're not saying don't do those things, because Paul's saying,
I want to do those things. The will's present, but how to
perform it? He said, I find not. There's
no way that I have any ability to perform it. And I'd go ahead
and wager that Paul the Apostle has probably a notch or two higher
than any of us in terms of righteousness in this world in the kingdom
of heaven. So the will's present, but the ability to perform it,
he said, I find not. But the Lord says, if you're
lame, you shall walk. The Lord will give you strength.
to not glory in your works anymore." See, you'll be able to look to
the one who already did the walk. We can look to Christ, who's
already done it for us, so that we're not seeing ourselves in
our works. We're saying, His works are my
works. When He lived, I lived. That's
what we confess in baptism. We say, when He was here, that's
what I did. I'm laying claim to that. I was
in Christ. He said, We'll walk, all right? The next one, he said, the lepers
are cleansed. Are you a leper? Are you diseased,
filthy, unclean, no good in you? Then Christ's blood will make
you clean. Christ's blood will cleanse you from all your sin
and he'll give you a new spirit. He'll give you a new heart. not
washing the old, unclean one, the one that all the evil things
came out of, that the Pharisees were offended of. He said, I'll
give you a new heart, and that'll cause me to be able to be clean
before God. It'll give me a nature that loves
God and takes sides with God against myself in saying, I'm
guilty. I deserve punishment. I don't
want it. I don't want punishment, but
I deserve it as far as what I stand before God. Next, it says the
deaf hear. You can't hear his voice. You ever sit through hearing
the word read, hearing the word preached? Words just don't touch
you. It's just words. You find yourself
staring at the wall, thinking about what you're going to have
for lunch that day. God's word is being preached. You've got
no spirit in you. You've got no ear to hear it.
He has to give you the spirit and open your ears so that you
can hear the word. And when you do, you hear the
word. You rejoice in what's being said. You can say, I've heard, but
now I hear. Now I hear. You know the difference.
God has to give you an ear to hear. It said the deaf, they're
going to hear. And next he says, the dead are
raised up. Are you dead? Do you have no
spiritual life? That's what we lost when our
father Adam fell. Can you answer God when he speaks?
No. Can you choose God? No, you're
dead. Remember the valley of dry bones
in Ezekiel? Remember what he said to him?
He said, son of man, look upon this valley of dry bones. Can
these bones live? He said, oh Lord. Thou knowest. What would you have me do? Prophesy. Preach to the bones. The preaching
of the gospel is the means by which the Spirit of God came
and give life to the bones. And so there was a rattling and
a shaking and they came together. That's the work of the Spirit
of God. So through the preaching of the gospel is how the dead
are raised up. And then lastly, and the poor
have the gospel preached to them. Poor in purse maybe, but poor
in righteousness is what he's speaking of. Anything we've done
good to right before God, no. If you're poor, you're going
to be given the good news of the gospel. You're going to be
given a righteousness that's perfect, that Christ wrought
for you, not one that you brought. I have nothing. Your bucket's
empty. You're coming saying, Lord, please, you'll be met with
what you bring. If you've got a bucket half full,
you'll get half. That's not gonna be enough. I
need him to give it all to me. So remember what the Lord said
to the lame man. Do you remember how they uncovered
the roof and they lowered him down? What was the first thing
they said to him? If you'll do this, no, he said,
be of good cheer. Thy sins have been forgiven to
thee. Did he do anything? Did he express
faith? Did he do anything before that?
No. The Lord said, your sins are forgiven because he had faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Before he could do anything,
the sins were forgiven. There was nothing to earn. He
didn't have to do anything. This is the Jesus that men are
offended of because he takes away all the stuff we think we
have to do or not do in order to gain his favor. He said, blessed
is he, in verse six, whomsoever shall not be offended in me.
Now, if you find yourself still offended in the one for whom
I've told you of this morning, you're offended in the Christ
of the Bible, and woe unto you for that. You throw yourself
at His feet and ask for Him to reveal Himself to you, and ask
for Him to change your heart, ask for Him to give you a new
heart to see Him with eyes that can see, ears that can hear,
a heart that can feel. Now I'm going to give you an
illustration to close this. When I was 20 years old I worked
for my father down in Georgia and he ran a paver plant for
brick pavers you put in a driveway or a sidewalk. And the owner
of the company came to us and said, I want to put out all the
different things that we make into a parking lot. So when people
come here, they can see the different colors, styles, shapes. So we
worked for weeks doing this, chiseling these pavers to put
them in and built this beautiful parking lot. Now, there was a
watershed beside it. And we also had to build a retaining
wall. And that was going to be the final thing we did before
we opened it up. And I just remember feeling like we were working
on the pyramids out there, because it was hot, and chiseling stone,
and just the amount of work we put into it just seemed awful.
And we came on Monday morning, because we had finished the lot,
and we were going to do the wall. And when we came in, the first
two rows of the wall had been laid. And we were all kind of
scratching our heads, saying, you know, what happened here?
Who laid this wall? The owner of the company came
down. He was the son of the man who started the business. So
let's say he spent his whole life in this business. He knew
all about it. He laid those first two layers
for us. And we were kind of more looking at him, because usually
he was in a white shirt and slacks, and we're out there, you know,
like, you got out here and did this, really? And so he's like, yeah, I did.
So I'm like, OK. So we started to build the wall,
and we built it up. And I was excited to see, whenever
the water, the rains came, because it was so dry, it wouldn't sink
into the ground. It'd rush across the ground. And I wanted to see
our wall hold back the water. And I knew we were having rain
one night, so the next morning when we all showed up to work
at six, everything was ruined. The whole
lot was covered in mud and water. It had washed away a lot of the
pavers. The wall had fallen down. And we were all kind of looking
at each other thinking, you know, what happened? And as we were examining
the ruin, you know what we found? You see, he laid the first two
layers. We couldn't see the bottom layer. He had laid that first
layer upside down. And on that bottom layer, there's
a lip on each layer of those stones that interlock to hold
the layer above it in place. That wall was built on a bad
foundation. It had nothing to hold on to when the rains came.
And it just toppled over. They pushed it right off the
foundation. Now, it might be, and we trusted him, we trusted
him, he knew, he meant to do good by what he did in building
that for us, but he was wrong. It might be that Jesus that you've
heard of and someone has preached to you all your life is built
on a bad foundation. And it might be that the person
who's been giving you that information was genuine, and they meant to
do something for you good, but they were wrong. This cost me
my summer labor. Don't let this cost you your
soul, because this is the Jesus in whom men are offended of.
Make sure that we're built on the good foundation. The foundation
of the Scriptures is all we have. The Lord said, blessed is he
whomsoever shall not be offended in me.