Offensive, but Not Offended

I told you some time ago, it's always wise to find out
who's speaking when we're reading the Bible,
then to find out to whom he's speaking, and then to inquire
as best you can into the subject with which he's dealing. And
verse 6 is my text. I want you to look at it, just
verse 6 for a moment. The one speaking here is the
Master, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace, the wonderful Counselor. And He said, blessed, blessed
is He. Oh, blessed is He. Whosoever shall not be offended,
offended. who shall not stumble, who shall
not faint, who shall not quit because of me." Because of me. Now, allow me to read that text
in the amplified translation. You just listen. And I think
it's good in our study that we have an amplified or one of the
better translations to help us. The King James Version is delightful
and blessed of God, and I prefer it, but listen to this text in
the Amplified. And the Lord said, Blessed, happy,
most fortunate, and to be ended, is he who takes no offense in
me, in my gospel. in my gospel, in me, for he is
his gospel, his doctrine, who finds no cause for stumbling
in me, through me, who is not hindered from seeing and believing
the truth. Now, John the Baptist had been
sent of God, no question about that. He had been sent of God
to declare the coming of Christ Jesus. As it is written in the
prophets, God said, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
before the face of Christ, which shall prepare thy way before
thee, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye
the way of the Lord. make his path straight." No question
about that, is there? God sent John. There was a man
sent from God whose name was John. Is that correct? Secondly,
John, all the prophets prophesied up to John. They prophesied of
Christ. They pictured Christ. John identified
him. John said, there he is. John
did. God chose John to do that. He
said, behold, the Lamb of God. Thirdly, John was baptized with
the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. That's what Scripture said.
John saw the dove. God told him, upon whom you see
the Spirit of God descend, he's the Lamb of God. And John saw
that. He bore record. He said, I bear record that I
saw the Spirit of God descend from heaven in the form of a
dove. and remain on him. And John did
indeed baptize Christ to fulfill all righteousness. And John urged
his disciples to follow Christ. This is a faithful man. Our Lord
said, of all the men born of women, none greater than this
man. Two of his disciples were standing
with him one day, and Christ came by. He said, there is the
Lamb of God. And they left John. As all right,
he walked off alone. But he came to point to Christ. And finally the man gave his
life for the gospel that he was beheaded. Well, what we're reading
here, I read to you a moment ago, John was now in prison,
shut up in prison. And he sent two of his disciples
to Christ. It says in verse 2, Matthew 11,
when John heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent
two of his disciples. He sent them. And he said unto
Christ through his disciples, Are thou he that should come? Are you the Christ? Or do we
look for another? What are you going to do with
that preacher? There's been a lot of speculation about why John
asked this question, why he sent these disciples to Christ and
why he asked this question. A lot of speculation. And actually,
no one really knows, the Lord didn't say why he sent these
men. There's no way you can answer this definitely from the Word
of God. I say perhaps, perhaps. John, after living in the open
air, John was a free spirit. He was a prophet. He was a man
of God. He knew it. God had sent him. He preached
out there in the open air. He preached to some crowds. He
preached to some crowds. Even the king came after here,
John. The Pharisees, the soldiers,
the Roman soldiers. He was a powerful man. And he had a powerful message.
And even the king admired him. He said, Herod liked John. In
fact, he did many things as a result of John's ministry. He feared
John. He feared John, Scripture says.
And he preached to thousands. He declared with a gladness,
prepare you the way of the Lord. The Messiah is coming. The Messiah
is coming. Oh, Moses talked about that prophet
and David about the king. The prophet's about the Messiah
at last, our emancipator, our Messiah, our Redeemer is coming,
and there he is. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold
the Lamb of God. And now he's sitting off over
here in a jail. He's not out in the open air.
He's not eating his wild honey and fruit from the locust tree.
He's not a free spirit. He's in chains. He's not attended
by a multitude. He has no pulpit. He has no audience. He's sitting down here in jail.
And he's hearing different reports about Christ. He's hearing how
the world is not taken to Him. They're not taken to Him, Bob. He's hearing how that he came
unto his own, and his own received him not. He's not welcomed in
the synagogue. And they ran him out of the temple.
And the Pharisees have all turned thumbs down on him. And John's
sitting here in jail. I'm going to enter into this. I'm a preacher. I've got a message. The King, the Kingdom, the glory
of God. Good news. And he's sitting down here in
jail and he's thinking, where's the kingdom? Yeah, where's the
kingdom I've been talking about? Where's the victory? Where's
the mighty conqueror? Where's the Messiah? Where's
the restoration of the glory of Israel? Where's the power
and the glory? I'm in jail and everybody's turned
thumbs down on my Lord. Reckon he's the Messiah? Could
I be wrong? Oh, no. No? I'll tell you Elijah. Elijah on Mount Carmel and Elijah
over on the juniper trees, two different fellows. Elijah on
Mount Carmel is challenging 400 prophets of Baal to a nose-to-nose
duel over who God is. In fact, there were 800 of them
in all with the powers that be behind them, and he whipped them
every once. And he got one fired-up woman on his trail called Jezebel,
and he asked God to kill him. He said, I'm the only one left.
There ain't nobody but me and this woman. And God said, Elijah,
Now, I've reserved to me 7,000 men that haven't bowed to Anita
Bale yet. My program and my purpose is
not known to you. You let me run this thing. You
take care of your business. I've read, Brother Flamming, you're
a student of Luther, but I've read that his despair sometimes
equaled his confidence. They talk about Luther's confidence
and all. I've read where he could get
awful low. an awful lot. And here John the
Baptist, they fixed to cut his head off. And the reports aren't too good.
The reports aren't too good. And he sends two men to Christ. I read one fellow said, well,
perhaps it wasn't for his sake at all, but for the sake of the
disciples whom he sent. I don't know whether I buy that.
I don't know about that. I think it's just what it says.
John sent unto Christ, and he said, Art thou he that should
come, or do we look for another? Alright, what did our Lord answer?
Now this is it. Look, verse 4, And Jesus answered
and said to them, You go and show John again. Gary, that indicates
John was the one he was talking to. You go show John again. One more time. He's seen it once. John knows this. John knows this. Let's go show him again. One
more time. Those things that you hear and
see, now watch it. One, the blind receive their
sight, and the lame walk, and the lepers are cleansed, and
the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have
the gospel of them, and blessed is he all fortunate, happy, to
be envied. It's that man that can go on
believing in spite of the dark clouds, in spite of the prison
cells, in spite of what he doesn't understand, in spite of the fact that the
kingdom looks like it's a long way off. In spite of the fact
that I'm despised and rejected of men and hated, a man of sorrow
is acquainted with grief and a crucified lamb instead of what
you're looking for, a reigning lion. And happy, blessed fortune
is that man that can stay with God's truth regarding Christ
and not be offended and not quit. Now you tell John that. And you
tell John That no one but Christ, no one but the Messiah can make
the blind to see. No one but the Messiah can make
the lame to walk. Isn't that right? Can anybody
else cleanse lepers but the Messiah? Can anybody else raise the dead? Can anybody else make the deaf
hear? God who made the ear can make it hear. John, who but Christ
can do these things? And if religion rejects you,
John, and casts you out, and despises your name, and the world
does not understand you and follows you no more, and if your friends
and relatives think you're insane, if you stand alone, if you suffer
alone, if you're cast into prison, and if you lose your life, blessed,
blessed, blessed, happy, so fortunate to be envied is that man who
will not be offended. who will not lay down the banner,
who will not deny the truth, who will not weaken, who will
not stumble. John, I'm the way. There is no
other way. John, I'm the truth, and everything
else is a lie. And John, I'm the life. What did Peter say? When the
Lord asked him if he'd go away, he said to whom? Thou hast the
words of life. There's no place to go. Don't
be offended. Don't be troubled. Let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe in
me. Don't be offended. Don't quit. Blessed, happy is
he whosoever shall not be offended in me. Now, my friends, it's no different
today. Our God is the same, sin is the
same, people are the same, religion is the same. Is it not? It's
no different. And the offense is still there.
The message of the gospel is no less offensive today than
it was then. The person and work of Christ
is no less offensive. Three times in the Bible, our
Lord is called a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense. Three times. You can look it up later. It's
in Isaiah 8.14, Romans 9.33, and 1 Peter 2.8. He's called
a rock of offense, a stone of stumbling. Offensive, offensive,
offensive and foolishness to the natural man, and a stumbling
block to the religious. Paul talked about the offense
of the cross. He said, my message is offensive.
The cross is offensive. And the preaching there, all
this foolishness. From Matthew 11, just look across
the page in your Bible there to verse 34, Matthew 10. We're looking at chapter 11.
Look back at Matthew 10, verse 34. Our Lord is speaking. Now
this is the Master. He said, don't think. Think not
that I have come to send peace on this earth. He came not to send peace, but
a sword. You say, look at this Christmas season. People are
rallying around the virgin and around the babe in peace. It's
a false peace. Peace is not in the virgin. Peace
is not in the babe. He made peace by the blood of
His cross. That's where peace is. And the
world will rally around a virgin or around an infant, a helpless
infant with which they can do what they please. But they will
not rally around a hated, despised substitute who is bearing their
guilt and shame and sin in his body, and God's holy justice
and law demanded that he die in your place instead. There
is the peace in a crucified Lord. They want nothing to do with
that. He said, don't think that I have
come to send peace, but a sword, verse 35, I have come to set
a man at variance against his father. What are they disagreeing
over? Disagreeing over Him, who He
is, what He did, why He did it, where He is. That's what they're
disagreeing over. They're not disagreeing over
the price of bananas. They're not disagreeing over
whether baptism by immersion or sprinkling. They're not disagreeing
over some pathetical theme. They're not disagreeing over
whether he was virgin born or not. They're not disagreeing
over abortion. They're disagreeing over him.
There was a division because of him. His sovereign mercy,
his sovereign grace, his effectual sacrifice, his effectual atonement. That's what they're disagreeing
over. That's what our Lord divides. There was a division because
of Him. There was a division because of these sayings, the
doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of substitution, the doctrine
of effectual atonement, the doctrine of election, the doctrine of
irresistible grace. Those are the things men split
over. A daughter against her mother.
What's a daughter and a mother having conflict over? Over Him. Grace and works. They won't mix. Two different gods. The God of
grace is not the God of works. The God of his doing and dying
is not the God of your doing and example and giving. It's
Christ and Christ alone. That's what they're disagreeing
over. And a daughter-in-law gets her mother-in-law. And a man's
enemies will be they of his own household. Anybody here know
anything about that? They don't mind you having religion. You can be a Catholic or a Protestant
or a Jew. You can be a Baptist or a Church
of Christ or a Nazarene or what, just be what you want to be,
just be what we are. Just agree that salvation is
by chance. Just agree that God gives every
man a chance. Just agree that God's done his
part, now you've got to do your part. Just agree that you take
the first step and God meets you. Just agree that salvation
is in a decision, in a profession, in doing the best you can. That
nobody's going to perish who does the best he can. Just agree
on that and we'll get along. We're not having trouble. Everybody's
going to the same place. We're just traveling different
roads. Just agree on that. Huh? It doesn't matter what a
man believes, just so he's sincere. Live and let live. Don't rock
the boat. Don't muddy the water. Don't
stir up things. Don't stand for your sovereign
God and your electing Christ and your effectual atonement
and your irresistible grace. Just melt in with the rest of
the gang and get along. I can't do that. Then we'll have
trouble. Because your God and my God are
not the same God. And there's where the trouble
comes. And that makes a man's own household his enemies. But I tell you this, he said
in verse 37, if you love your mother and father more than me
and my gospel, you see, and my truth, my character, my name, if you love them more than me,
you're not worthy of me. He that loves his son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me. If you can't take up your
cross, that's the symbol of death, and follow me, then you're not
worthy of me. And you find your life, well,
I'm just not going to suffer these things. I'm just not going
to bear this reproach. I'm not going to bear this offense.
I'm going to get along. The man doesn't have to listen
to that to be saved. He can be saved by believing
whatever he wants to. And I'll save my life. I'm not
going to sacrifice my life. I'm not going to be one of those
despised grace people. Well, you'll lose it. And he
that loseth his life for my sake, not sake of a denomination, that's
not my issue. You can take the name Baptist
and burn it out there. I don't care. It doesn't make
any difference. They're all gone astray. Burn
his belly if you want to. My heart's not here. I believe Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the Redeemer. He is the
King. He is the surety. He is the surety
of that covenant. He has a people. Other sheep
I have, he said. My sheep here, my boys, all that
my Father giveth me will come to me. I believe that. He died on the cross for his
people. I will not bend. I will not bow. I will not compromise. He died for a people. He's a
victorious king, right? And I'm not going to save my
life and lose my soul. I'm not going to save the status
quo and lose my soul. I'm not going to do it for mama's
sake or daddy's or brother's or sister's or children. Not
going to do it. Can't do it. Can't deny him who
is my life. But you lose your life, for my
sake you'll find it. Well, let me tell you, have you
ever gone through what John went through here? I have. What I preach is despised. People
make fun of it. People don't believe what I preach.
And what you preach, what you preach, they don't believe it.
The doctrine of sin is offensive to their dignity. They don't
like to be called sinners, totally depraved, dead. We're not dead.
We be not born of fornication. Abraham's our father. Election,
it's offensive. It's offensive to human rights.
This particular redemption is offensive to man's pride, is
it not? Talk to them about it sometime. What? I remember Brother
Barnard came to Pollard Baptist Church in April the 17th, 1950
and got up in the pulpit and he said, there are two big lies
making the rounds. One, God loves everybody, and
two, Jesus died in February and it ain't neither one of them.
So, go out and work tomorrow and say that. You have to prop
up. You better be Samson so you can
prop up the building. God loves men in Christ. God
loves the Holy Love. Now I'm telling you. And Christ
died for believers. And God calls His own. And Christ... Let me tell you something. A
man doesn't have Christ as his Savior unless Christ is his Lord.
Now you can write that down. I know modern religion said,
well, you just accept Jesus as your personal Savior and go on
serving self and the world and all these other things and you
don't have to be faithful to Christ. You can be totally indifferent,
you know, and you still wind up in heaven after all everybody
does. That's not so. Christ is Lord of all whom he
saved. Indisputable, unquestionable,
unchangeable Lord. I'll tell you something else
that's despised. They say, where's your great buildings? Look at
our buildings. Where's your great organizations? Who of the important
people of the world believe what you believe? Got any noble, any
wise, any mighty, any strong down there? Where are the leaders? Where are the intelligent? Where
are the huge choirs? What impact have you made? The
lowly appearance of all these little grace churches all over
the country, that's offensive. It's offensive. Brother Roth
and I went to Louisville one time, going to have a meeting
of God's people in Louisville. And we were staying at a hotel
down there and we got in the car and we drove in town, we
passed all the big churches and cathedrals. We went out in the
suburbs and we passed all the new ones that were moving out,
you know, and building multi-million dollar buildings. We went on
deeper and deeper out into the darker places of Louisville and
we came upon a little white building with that old asbestos siding,
you know. And the steps were kind of rickety
and we got out of the car and Ralph stood back and looked and
said, is this where the people of God in Louisville meet? Yeah,
I said, this is where it is. This is it. What you see is what
you get. How about that? Ah, you're not going to that
place. That's offensive. Where's your big buildings? But
you know something? In my Lord's grandest hour, when
He rode into Jerusalem, before He went to the cross, He rode
on a donkey. None of us would have done that,
Ronnie. You talk about the white horses and the six. Behold, your Savior comes riding
on a donkey. I don't believe that. That's
offensive. How many people believe what you believe? You don't have
very many in your services, do you? Other churches are crowded
out. I go to these little churches and preach to 25, 30 people. That's offensive. If you're a
child of God and you have the true gospel, why do you have
so many troubles? John's sitting down there in
prison. The Sanhedrin weren't in prison. The other religious
fellows weren't in prison. Looked like John, it looked like
he had all the troubles. It looked like he had all of
them. And why doesn't God prosper you? Why are you lonely? Why are you in jail? Why are
you despised? Why do you suffer? Why do you
get sick? Why do you have trials? Have you ever thought about it? Some of your friends have quit.
Some of your preacher brethren have quit, too. They've compromised.
They've taken the easy road. They say, I'm not going to buck,
I'm not going to swim against the tide. Nobody believes what
we believe. I'm just not going to buck it anymore. I think I
can, I can get in the mainstream and I can witness here and witness
there wherever, you know, God will enable me to drop a word
here, drop a word there. Besides, you're too narrow. Narrow
is the way. Straight is the gate. In fact,
that way is so narrow that you can't even wear a robe through
there. You've got to come naked. You
can't have anything in your hands. It'll brush against the sides.
It's that narrow. You're too demanding. You're
too plain. You lost support. You lost friends. What about your kinfolk? Now,
what are you going to do about that? Surely you're not going
to hold to what you believe. That pure grace, when your kin,
folks, reject it, surely you're not going to. Huh? You're going
to stay with it? Lord, tell me once again, are
you the Messiah? Is this the Gospel? Or do we
look for another? Isn't that what John said? Alright, I'll say to you what
he said to John. You go tell John once again,
once again, that the blind receive their sight. And I'm telling
you this, there's only one who can make the blind to see. And
I'm not talking about physically blind, I'm talking about spiritually
blind. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness that shined in our hearts, to give us the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.
I see how God can be just and justified. I see how that I can
be righteous before God and the law can be satisfied. I see that.
Where do I see that? In Christ, in the despised, rejected,
hated substitute. That's where I see it, and that's
the only place. You don't see it in the cathedrals, you don't
see it in the catechisms, you don't see it in the intellectual
books, you don't see it in all the religious paraphernalia and
visual aids. You don't see! You don't see
God, His glory, how mercy and truth can meet together and righteousness
and peace can kiss each other. You don't see that anywhere but
in Christ and His glorious gospel of substitution. You go tell
John, I give sight to the blind. That's how the blind see, in
me and nowhere else. And you go tell John that the
lame walk. Those who have fallen in Adam,
they walk in Christ. They walk clothed in His righteousness. They walk with God like Enoch. You're not going to walk with
God in your religion because God's not in it. In fact, He
came in the temple and drove them out. You know how we are going to
walk with God? We are going to walk with God
in Christ. That is the only way that a lame is going to walk.
They are going to walk in Christ. They are going to walk clothed
in His righteousness with the strength of His life in their
bones. I am them and thou in me. Religion can't make the lame
to walk with God. They can make them walk together,
you know, in their whoop-de-doo. and in their doctrine, and in
their religion, and the whole town get together for sunrise
services, and Thanksgiving services, and all play the game. But to
walk with God takes a miracle of grace. It takes the life-giving,
regenerating power of Christ. Only in Christ can the lame walk. That's right, and he said the
lepers are cleansed. I tell you, leprosy is sin. in this Bible, and the only one
who can take off the scales and the corruption and all that terrible
rotting flesh is my Lord. Wash you in His blood. Huh? Pure and clean. How can sin be
put away? Only in the blood of the Lamb.
The lepers are cleansed. Tell him again. He knows this.
Tell him again. Tell him again. That men don't get religion,
they get life because the dead are raised. I raised the dead,
John. You who were dead, hath he quickened
and made alive. And the deaf hear. They hear
God speak through His Word. I hear God speak. I can take
this book here and read and God speaks to me. I'm not reading
it to mark a paper at church to say I read the Bible this
week. I'm reading it to find Christ and He speaks to me. This
Word lives. The old death man hears. And
the dead live. And us poor folks, poor spiritually,
Have nothing, are nothing, know nothing, not going anywhere.
We have the gospel preached to us, the good news of riches in
Christ. And only Christ can do it. Come
on now. I had religion back yonder, and
some of you had it. You had religion. But the blind
didn't see, and the lame didn't walk. You had religion. You were
covered with religion. I mean a religion that was handed
down, traditionalized and all, but the dead didn't hear. Huh? And the dead were not raised.
And really, the poor didn't have much hope, did they? Not much
hope. Oh, tell old John that. Lift
his spirits. He's not coming out of that prison.
He's going to die right there. He's going to die right there.
They're going to cut his head off and make fun. They're going
to bring his head down into the king's palace on a charger with
his mouth open and his eyes, and they're all going to roar
and laugh. But blessed is he. that will not be offended and
will not quit. He's happy. He's to be ended. He doesn't find offense in me. And that's the offense. That's
where it is. It's in Christ. We're not preaching our sovereignty.
We're preaching His. That's right. That's where the
offense is.

Offensive, but Not Offended

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Offensive, but Not Offended

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