Jesus Christ - Cornerstone or Stumbling Stone?

The primary reason for this preaching of the gospel, have you thought much about that?
Preaching the gospel, we have a lot of it, I do a lot of it. What's it all about? What's the
purpose behind it, preaching the gospel? Well, I believe the
primary reason for preaching the gospel to you this morning
is that you might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, John
wrote that in John 20, verse 31. Listen to John. He says,
These things are written that you might believe on the name
of the Son of God. That's why this is written, why
he wrote the book of John, that you might believe. on the name
of the Son of God and the believing you might have life in his name. And the results of our preaching
has to do with men believing or not believing. Christ, when
he sent his disciples out to preach, he said, you go and preach
the gospel to every creature, Jew and Gentile, old and young,
rich or poor, black or white. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. And he that believeth not shall
be damned. That's the result of preaching, is how men receive
it and what they do about it. And the result of preaching has
to do with believing on Christ or not believing on Christ. And
then your future happiness or misery depends upon your believing
or not believing on the name of the Son of God. Our Lord said
in John 3.36, he that believeth on the Son hath life. And he
that believeth not the Son shall not see light, but the wrath
of God abideth on him." So what's preaching all about? Well, the
primary purpose of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ is
that you might believe on him, not that you might be persuaded
to follow me, or that you might be persuaded to be a certain
kind of Baptist or other denomination, or that you might be persuaded
to think as I think about things, but that you might believe on
Christ. It has to do with Christ. These things are written that
you might believe on the name of the Son of God. And the result
of our preaching has to do with your believing or not believing.
And your believing or not believing determines your future happiness
or future misery. He that believeth hath life.
Now, the preacher should constantly be concerned about four things,
or concerned with four things about believing. Believing has
to do with Christ, and these four things have to do with believing.
The preacher ought to constantly tell people what to believe. Now, listen carefully to this
statement. It's not faith that saves. It's not faith that saves,
but it's faith in Christ that saves. Now, that's important. I hear people say, well, keep
the faith. Well, a lot has to do with the
object of faith. It's not he that believeth hath
life, it's he that believeth on the Son hath life. It is not faith that saves, it's
faith in Christ that saves, just believing. never saved anyone,
never brought anyone into a saving relationship with God, just believing. But it's believing on Christ.
Listen to these scriptures. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Listen to this scripture. Other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid. That foundation is Christ. Paul
said, I know whom I have believed. It's not I know what I believe
or know why I believe. He says, I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that he's
able to keep that which I've committed to him. So the preacher
must tell people what to believe. It's to believe Christ. Who Christ
is? He's the Son of God. What Christ
did, he suffered in our stead. Why Christ did it? That God might
be just and justify us, that God might deal with us in mercy. and grace, because Christ died
for us, and where Christ is now, at the right hand of God, as
the only mediator between God and me. And it's what you believe
is important. We don't just get folks to commit
themselves to faith, but we get folks to commit themselves to
Christ. So the preacher must be concerned, first of all, with
preaching what amends to belief. Now, secondly, this is important.
Preaching has to do with believing. And one of the important aspects
of believing is not only what you believe, but how you believe. Turn to Romans 10. I want you
to look at this verse of scripture a moment. Romans 10. Faith that
saves is not a historical faith. There are not many people who
do not believe. that Jesus Christ came into the
world. Most people believe that such a person did live. We have
historical accounts of his coming into the world. The calendar
itself, we number our calendar in the year of our Lord, 1978.
B.C., before Christ, any one of you reading a history book
will read about Hannibal or some of these fellows that lived. Before Christ, you'll say they
lived in 150 B.C. Well, you know what B.C. means.
It means before Christ. And you read something happened
in 1246 A.D. A.D. is Anno Domini, in the year
of our Lord. So 1978 years ago, Jesus Christ
came into this world. And everybody practically knows
that. I said in this little paper,
I don't mind the Christmas season. I resent the commercialization
of it and all these other things. But at least once a year, people
are made aware of the fact that a person called Jesus Christ
came into this world. And he's not just a historical
character, and faith in him is not just believing that like
George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, Jesus Christ lived on
the earth. historical faith, or head faith,
or traditional faith, or ceremonial faith, what is it then? This
faith in Christ that saves. Look at Romans 10, verse 9, that
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. That's where this This saving
work takes place. That's where this convicting
work and converting work takes place, in the heart, with the
heart man believeth. You know, when Philip was talking
to the Ethiopian eunuch, and the Ethiopian eunuch said, See,
here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said, and what did he say? He said, If you believe
with all your heart, you may. if you believe in Christ with
your heart. That's where it takes place. If Christ has your heart,
he has all things. So this thing of saving faith,
the preacher must be concerned with this thing of believing.
But believing has to do with four things. What a man believes. What a man believes. And how
he believes. He believes in his heart. He
receives Christ in his heart. It's a heart work. These people
at Pentecost were pricked in their hearts. That's where the
work takes place. Keep thy heart out of the issues
of life. That's where it takes place.
The third thing now that we must deal with is not only what a
man believes and how he believes, but why. You have every right
to ask this. Preacher, you say that I should
believe on Christ. Tell me why. Why should I believe
that Jesus Christ is the only way to God? Why should I believe
that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of sinners? Why should
I believe the gospel that you preach? Tell me why. Well, I'll
give you about six reasons why. First of all, you should believe
the gospel of Jesus Christ because God Almighty, the Heavenly Father
Himself, has commanded you to believe on Christ. He said, This
is my Son, hear ye Him. That's what the Father said.
This is my Son, hear ye Him. That's the word from God. Faith
is not just a request or an invitation, Cecil. Faith's a command. God
commanded all men everywhere to repent and to believe on Christ.
That's a command. So we come preaching the gospel
with authority. It does matter whether you believe
God. It does matter. God has commanded you to believe.
This is the record. God has given us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son, and you are commanded to believe
what God says about salvation. And he says Christ is the Savior.
But the second reason why you should believe, and that should
be sufficient, but that is not sufficient for an actual man,
just to come out and say, You should do this because God says
you should do it. Well, that is sufficient command,
and we should be able to stop right there. But natural man
wants other reasons, so I'll give him some more. Secondly,
you should believe the gospel of Christ, not only because God
commanded it, but secondly, because Jesus Christ fulfills every promise
and prophecy of the Old Testament. Now, you can start at Genesis
3.15. And Jesus Christ fulfills every promise, every prophecy
regarding the Messiah. The seed of woman, he was virgin
born, the seed of woman. And then the stem of Jesse, you
remember? Do you know enough about the
Word of God to know that the Messiah is supposed to be of
the tribe of Judah? The scepter shall not depart
from Judah till Shallo comes. He's supposed to be of the tribe
of Judah, and Christ was. He's supposed to be of the stem
of Jesse. That's David's father, Jesse.
He's supposed to be of the seed of David, and Mary and Joseph
both were of the seed of David, but Mary in particular. He was
the child of Bethlehem, and thou, Bethlehem, though thou art small
among the nations, out of thee shall he come, king of Judah. Lamb of Isaiah, every promise
of the Old Testament, even talking about the plucking of his beard,
the dividing of his garments and casting lots, they pierced
my hands and my feet. You can go through the whole
Old Testament. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
You see, the New Testament was written after Christ came. The
Old Testament was written before Christ came. And the Messiah
who came must fulfill the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament.
He must die for our sins according to the Scriptures. And that's
the reason I say you should believe this gospel of Jesus Christ,
because he fulfills the Scriptures. He fulfills every promise, every
prophecy. You can take even from the rebuilding
of the walls to Christ's coming is exactly the time that was
prophesied for the coming of the Messiah. And when Herod wanted
to know where he was to be born, he said to these wise men, they
said, he's to be born in Bethlehem. All right, the third reason why
you should believe the gospel is that God not only commands
it and Jesus Christ fulfills every promise, every prophecy
regarding the Messiah, but thirdly, he fulfills every type in the
Old Testament. Every type that postulates the
Messiah. For example, he's the Passover
lamb. That Passover lamb was to be slain. The first one was
slain in Egypt when God says, I'll pass through at midnight
and slay the firstborn, and you kill a lamb and put its blood
on the lentil and the doorpost, the side post. And you keep this
feast every year. You kill a lamb and eat it and
shed its blood until Christ comes, until the Messiah comes. And
Christ is that Passover lamb. When he sat around the table
with his disciples observing the last Passover, then he instituted
the Lord's table. He is the lamb slain. And God
said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And the blood
of that animal? Well, an animal's blood cannot
hold back the wrath of God. An animal's blood cannot atone
for the sin of a man. It takes a man's blood. And Christ is that man. But that
Passover lamb pointed to Christ. And then the rock in the wilderness
that followed them from which they drank? The Scripture says
that rock was Christ. And the priest? and the atonement,
and the sacrifice, and the altar, and the tabernacle, and the scapegoat,
Christ fulfills all of these, and the brazen serpent lifted
up, and the kinsman-redeemer, bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh, and the cities of refuge. You should believe the gospel
of Christ because every one of these pictures over here are
fulfilled by Christ perfectly. Every one of these types. That's
the reason when Christ died, that veil in the temple that
separated the presence of God and the Holy of Holies from the
holy place, that's the reason God ripped it in two from top
to bottom, is because his Lamb, his sacrifice, his sin offering,
his atonement had been made. And it canceled out all future
atonements and all future sacrifices and the slaying of lambs. There
was no need for a high priest to go there into the holy place
made with hands anymore, or put blood on the mercy seat in the
broken law anymore, because Christ's effectual, sufficient blood had
been put on the mercy seat of glory. And all the types were
done away with. God ripped them apart. And there's
no need for them anymore. He fulfilled it. That's the reason
you ought to believe. And then the fourth reason. The fourth
reason why you should believe this gospel is Christ fulfills
every need of the sinner. Every need you have, Christ meets.
You need a perfect righteousness before God's law. We don't have
it. We've thought things since we
came in this building this morning that are sufficient to damn us.
We've shown an attitude since we came into the worship and
presence of the Lord that's sufficient to damn us. There's been enough
flesh in our so-called praying and worshiping and giving that's
sufficient to damn us. We don't have a perfect righteousness.
We don't love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength,
nowhere near it. I wish we did. I wish we were
capable of it. We don't love our neighbors ourselves. We're still more concerned about
ourselves than we are others. We need a righteousness. We desperately
need one because God demands it. God Almighty demands it. He demands a perfect righteousness.
He demands a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of
the scribes and Pharisees. He demands a righteousness, a
holiness that exceeds the best holiness man ever produced on
this earth. You find the best man or woman
who ever walked on this earth other than Christ the Lord, and
you've got to have a righteousness beyond theirs, infinitely beyond
theirs. Now Christ meets that need. He
supplies that righteousness because he in the flesh did obey God's
law. He does love God with all his
heart. He does love his neighbor more than himself because he
laid down his life for his friend. So he gives us a righteousness
that God demands and that we need. And then we need an atonement. Desperately need an atonement.
We need an act of justice to redeem us. God's holy justice
has got to be satisfied. I need that. I've got to have
it. Where do I get it? Do I come down here to the front
and get an act of justice that will satisfy the righteousness
and holiness of God's God's commandments and laws and God's eternal throne
of justice that demands the sinner die? Where do I get it? Do I go in this pool and get
an act of justice? Will that put away my sin? Will
thousands of rivers of oil, will thousands of rivers of blood
put away my sin, the transgression of my soul? Where do I get an
act of justice to make me innocent and holy before a holy God? I
don't know unless Christ provides it. I don't know where it's found. I don't have it in myself, and
I can't look for it in another. There's no man found worthy.
Turn to Revelation. Let's look at this a moment in
Revelation 5. Let me show you something here in Revelation
5. This is a plight that we face. This is a dilemma that we face.
This is a problem that is laid in our laps. In Revelation 5,
verse 3, look at it. And no man in heaven, nor in
earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book, not Moses,
Abraham, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto
me, Weep not, Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah," remember
what I talked about a while ago, the Root of David, "...he hath
prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the
four beasts, in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb, God's
Lamb. Behold, the Lamb of God, as it
had been slain." having seven horns and seven eyes, which are
the seven spirits of God, sent forth unto all the earth. And
he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that
sat on the throne. And when he had taken the book,
the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before
the Lamb, having every one of them hearts and golden vows full
of odors, or incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And
they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book,
and to open the seals thereof. Why? Because thou wast slain,
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us unto thy God
kings and priests, and we shall reign on earth. That's why you
ought to believe, because you're not worthy, and he is. Because
he provides a righteousness for you, an atonement, and he provides
an act of justice before a holy God that enables God to make
you a king. And he's the only one that can.
You won't find it anywhere else. And in the fifth place, why should
you believe the gospel? God commands it. Christ fulfilled
every promise in prophecy. He fulfilled every type. And
he meets and fulfills every need of the sinner before the Father. and every need the sinner has
within himself, he is our comfort, he is our peace. Christ is our
peace. He'll meet, in the fifth place,
he'll meet every need you have. He gives you peace before God,
he gives you peace of conscience, he gives you rest of soul, he's
able to keep you from falling. He's able to subdue all things
to Himself. He's able to raise your vile
body and make it lock into His glorious body. He's the only
one who can do these things for me. I can't find any reason for
assurance in myself, my feelings, my experiences, my works. I can't
find any reason for assurance in anything I've done. But I
can find reason for comfort and hope and assurance in Christ,
because he cannot fail. Then I'll tell you the sixth
reason why you ought to believe, and I want you to turn to Acts
17. I want you to read this with
me. Acts 17, verses 30 and 31. Paul has been talking about folks
playing religion and playing church. and playing with idols
and false gods. And he talked about it being
a time of ignorance, Acts 17, verse 30. In the time of this
ignorance, God passed by. God allowed it to happen. God
left them alone. But now, God commandeth all men
everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the
which he is going to judge this world. in righteousness and holiness
by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men, in that he raised him from the dead. God Almighty
sent his Son, he died on the cross and he was buried, and
God said to this whole world, when he raised Christ from the
dead, He said to this whole world when he brought him forth from
the tomb, I'm going to judge this world by this man Christ
Jesus. And the proof of it is this,
I raised him from the dead. That's the proof of it. And that's
why you ought to believe. Then in the fourth place, when
should men believe? I believe the preacher ought
to deal with these four things. This is the end of all preaching.
This is the goal of all preaching. This is the primary purpose of
all preaching, that men might believe on Christ, that the redeemed
might believe on Christ, that the unbelievers might believe
on Christ, that the religious might believe on Christ. Yes,
we preach for the glory of God, it's true. But they asked our
Lord one day, what shall we do that we might work the works
of God? He said, these are the works of God that you believe
on him whom God has sent. That's how we work the works
of God, by believing. Faith honors God. It glorifies
God. It praises God. We offer the
sacrifices of faith. But when should a man believe?
Well, let me give you Scripture. Now. Now. Now is the accepted
time. That's what Scripture says. Today. Today is the day of salvation.
first, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And all these things should be added to you. Turn to Ecclesiastes
12. When should a man believe? In
Ecclesiastes chapter 12, I want you to read a verse of scripture
here. A wise man wrote, Ecclesiastes 12.1, Remember now thy Creator
in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the
years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." You folks here this morning who
are up in years who love Christ, who are so devoted to Christ,
and I consider myself one of those. I'm up in years, and many
of you are. I'm so glad that God dealt with
me before these days came around, aren't you? Because I see so
few. Now, listen to me. I'm not saying,
God, that any man is easier to save as a youth or older, but
here's what he's saying here in Ecclesiastes. Remember now
in the days of thy youth, thy Creator, before these days come
around when the grasshoppers are burdened, And the almond
tree flourishes, and the strong men bow themselves, and the keepers
of the house tremble, and the faculties are not sharp as they
used to be. They're not keen as they used
to be, and they're not interested in spiritual things. They're
just not. And I'll tell you this, there's
so few people who reach these latter days who have any interest
in spiritual things. Oh, they have interest in heaven.
Everybody talks about heaven, you know. Everybody talks about
religion. But I'm talking about interest in the gospel, substitution,
redemption, this thing of a saving relationship with the Lord God.
Men get in patterns of iniquity and ruts of sin, and they get
in a direction of rebellion. They walk in darkness. Oh, they
have their times of like Christmas and Easter. And they have their
times of weakness and their times of what they call spirituality
and their times when they offer God a little favor, you know,
and give God a tip. But their general trend of thinking
is molded. And it's molded by habit. And
it's molded in the concrete of of a general direction of evil. And it's impossible. They continue in this way. He
that being often reproved, and hardeneth his heart, shall certainly
be destroyed, and that without remedy. And now, this is the
reason I say, when should a man believe on Christ with urgency?
Paul said, I persuade men. Now is the accepted time. Boast
not thyself of tomorrow. Oh, you may be here tomorrow.
You may be here tomorrow. But you may be in judicial blindness
tomorrow. Israel was. Israel was. There's a day of
grace. People used to talk about sending
away the day of grace. There's not a whole lot of error
in that. There's a whole lot of truth in that. A day of grace. That's the reason our Lord said
to Capernaum, the cities, Bethsaida, Capernaum, these cities in which
Chorazin, these cities in which his mighty works were done. Well,
he said it will be easier for Solomon and Gomorrah in the day
of judgment than for you. Well, if they'd have seen the
things you've seen and heard the things you've heard, they
would have repeated long ago in sackcloth and ashes, and their
judgment would be far less severe than yours. These people became
gospel-hardened, judicially blinded. God wrote them off, cut them
off. And that's possible, that's very
possible. Not only possible, but they're
probable in this day of much preaching, which people have
brought to a confrontation with the living God, and do not submit. I say the most dangerous thing
in the world is to continually hear the gospel, even with these
natural ears, and not manifest any interest in it. And not manifest any interest
in it, how dangerous it is. God sent Moses to Pharaoh. There were ten plagues, you remember?
And with each plague, Pharaoh made some kind of overture, but
generally he just got harder and harder and harder. And finally,
even the death of his firstborn, oh, it moved him for a while,
but it wasn't long until he was right after Moses and those people.
Blind! There's no blindness, there's
no darkness like the one who won't see. who won't see. If that darkness which is in
you, if all the light you've got is darkness, how great is
that darkness? It's a double darkness. Well,
look back at our text in 1 Peter 1. So the Lord says in 1 Peter 2, I lay in Zion,
I lay in Zion. And this is a reference to Isaiah
28, 16, in which God says, I lay in Zion a stone. It's an eternal
stone. Christ was foreordained before
the foundation of the world but manifest in these last times.
The rock of ages. It's a living stone. He has life
in himself and he gives life to others. It's a stone. Permanent stone. God said, I
lay a stone. And then he called it a tried
stone. Tried by men and found without fault. Tried by the law
and found perfect. Tried by justice and found sufficient. Tried by Satan and found immovable. Tried by Old Testament saints
and found satisfying. A tried stone. And God says not
only a tried stone, but a precious cornerstone. Precious to the
Father. This is my Son in whom I'm well
pleased. Precious to the angels. Precious
to the believer. To you that believe, he's precious.
And God said, he's a sure foundation. A sure foundation for the Church.
He said, the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. A sure foundation
for your faith, for he cannot fail. A sure foundation for hope,
he says, I'll come again. A sure foundation for eternity,
because he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And he that
believeth, shall not make haste. He won't have to run around hunting
a refuge, he's got one. He'll not be ashamed, he'll not
be put to shame, he'll not be confounded. And God said, I lay
in Zion that stone, and to you that believe, verse 7, and to
you that believe, he's precious. I say to those who've seen their
sins and their need of a Redeemer, Christ is precious. To those
who have seen God's holiness and their need of a mediator,
To them Christ is precious. To those who have seen the law
and their need of a righteousness, to them Christ is precious. To
those who have seen the judgment of God and their need of a justifier,
to them Christ is precious. To those who have seen Satan's
power and their need of a deliverer, to them Christ is precious. To
those who have seen their weakness and their need of a keeper, To
them Christ is precious. To those who have seen death
sting and their need of a life-giver, Christ is precious. And to those
who have seen sin's disease and their need of a physician, Christ
is precious. I don't need to tell you how
precious he is, but he's the lily of the valley. He's the
rose of Sharon. He's the bright and morning star.
He's the fairest of ten thousand. He's precious in his person.
precious in his offices and precious in his word. But in closing,
he says, But unto them that be disobedient, the stone which
the builders disallowed, rejected, the same as the head of the corner,
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. To you that believe
he is precious, but to them three things are said of them, I'll
give you this quickly. First of all, it says they rejected
him, they disallowed him. This stone, this foundation,
that God said, I lay, I lay this stone, this tribestone, this
sure foundation, this precious cornerstone, God said, I lay
it. But they rejected it. They're like the builders. You
remember everybody, this is talking mainly about the Jewish leaders.
the rulers of religion, they disallowed that stone. But it's
talking of all men, for all men are building some sort of house
for eternity. And instead of building on the
rock, Christ Jesus, they build on the sand. They reject God's
righteousness for one of their own, going about to establish
their own righteousness. They like Cain, they've gone
the way of Cain, they've rejected God's Lamb and brought the fruits
of their own hands. God said, I lay in Zion a stone,
and other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid by
God. But natural man takes a look at that Christ, and he turns
and walks off. And like Cain, he brings his
fruits and he says, Lord, I've done this in your name, I've
done that, I've done the other, this ought to be sufficient.
But God says, I've laid a stone. a place for you to build. But,
Lord, I'm building over here. I like this better. Here's my
righteousness. It's not perfect, Lord, but it's
pretty good. It's better than Charlie's. It's
better than Bill's. Better than Cecil's. Yeah, but
it's not better than Christ, and that's not good enough. That's
not good enough. They've rejected. They've disallowed
the stone that God laid to turn their back on him. What else
did it say? It says he's a stumbling stone. They stumble. Stumble at his
birth. Listen to them. Can any good
thing come out of Nazareth? They said this man's the Messiah.
Where was he born? Bethlehem. Where'd he grow up?
Galilee. Where's his family? Nazareth.
Now, nothing good can come out of that place. They stumble at
his family. They say, well, we know his mother and father. We
know his brothers and sisters. Who is he? They stumble at his
occupation. Is not this the carpenter? They
stumble at his education. How does this man know letters,
having never learned? They stumble at his lifestyle.
He's a winebibber. He's a gluttonous man. He doesn't
fast like the Pharisees do. They stumble at his friends.
He's the friend of publicans and sinners. They stumble at
his age. Why, they said, you're not fifty years old. You don't
know anything. They stumble at his doctrine.
This is a hard saying. Who can hear it? They stumble
at his claims. They said, why, you're just a
man. You make yourself God. They stumble at his death. If
you're the Son of God, come down from the cross and we'll believe
you. Everything about him. They stumbled
at it. And then it says they were offended.
They were offended. They rejected the stone, they
stumbled over the stone, couldn't understand it, and then he was
offensive. A rock of offense. Paul called
the preaching of the gospel offensive. He said, if I preach circumcision,
then the offense of the cross is perished, it's ceased. Wherein
is the offense of the cross? Why is the gospel of substitution
offensive to folks like yourself and folks you work with and your
mother and daddy, brothers and sisters? That crowd you're going
to have Sunday dinner with next Sunday, the gospel is offensive
to them. Why? Have you ever thought about
that? Religion is not offensive now.
Going to church is not offensive. They ought to go, but they don't.
Nothing wrong with you going, you know, but they get real religious
around this time of year. Boy, religion's knee-deep after
this time of year. You just run smack into it everywhere
you go. Silent night. Just, oh, come all ye faithful. Hey, just get past another drink. Let's sing another Christmas
carol. Yeah, boy. They're so religious. But that
outfit hates substitution. You know why? I'll tell you why
it's offensive. I'll give you just about four
or five reasons, quickly. First of all, the gospel of substitution
calls every man a sinner. A sinner by nature, by birth,
by choice, by practice. And that offends man's dignity.
He doesn't like to be called a sinner. I mean an unadorned,
unadulterated, rotten, hell-deserving, ill-deserving, sinner. And that's
what the gospel calls you and me. Wicked. Wicked. Secondly, I'll tell you why he
hates it. He hates it because your gospel calls him a rotten
sinner. Secondly, the gospel of substitution
comes as a revelation, as a revelation, and that offends man's intellect,
lofty thoughts. You mean to tell me I can't read
the Bible and understand it? Are you telling me that I can't
look right here and see these words? And you talk about the
gospel being a mystery that must be revealed by the Holy Ghost
and revealed to the heart by the Spirit of God, and except
a man be born again, he can't understand these things. Are
you telling me that you're smarter than I am? No, I'm not telling
you that. I'm just telling you only God can reveal the gospel,
the Holy Spirit. You're a blind man until God
opens your eyes. You're a dead man till God gives
you life. You're a deaf man till God gives you hearing. And you're
a spiritual ignoramus till God Almighty gives you understanding.
And this thing of the gospel comes by revelation, and the
natural man does not understand it. He's blind. They hate that. That's offensive. And now there's
something else. This thing of salvation by faith,
by simple faith, apart from works, offends man's Offends man's wisdom. He wants to do something for
God. I'll tell you this. You can't get that fella that
owns that big grocery store to believe on Christ, but you can
get him to give a hundred dollar check to the Ramey home. You
can get him to give. If you build a church, he'll
contribute to your church building. He may never come in it, but
he'll give to build it. He'll do things religious. If
you sponsor a trip to the Holy Land to visit the scenes where
Christ was crucified and buried and so forth, he'll go there
and visit that. But he's not going to bow to the gospel. He's
not going to believe the gospel. He'll do anything but believe.
He will not believe. And then fourthly, it's atonement
offends man's pride. When you say it's the blood of
Christ that cleanseth men from sin, it's the blood of Christ
that makes us whole, it's the blood of Christ that puts away
God's wrath, it's the blood of Christ that opens for us the
way into the Holy of Holies, it's the blood of Christ that
upends his pride. When you say Christ's blood is
sufficient and effectual to the putting away of the sins of all
who believe, no, he says the blood of Christ was shed for
every human being and salvation, it depends on what I do with
the blood of Christ. That's what he'll say. And then
this thing of self-crucifixion offends man's love of self. Self-crucifixion. I've got to die. My pride has
got to be broken. My haughty spirit has got to
be crushed. My proud spirit has got to become
contrite. I've got to become a beggar.
Paul said, less than the least of all the saints, on common
ground with the brethren. The religious man is a proud
man. He's a proud man. If he worships,
he's going to select people who are on his social level with
whom to worship. If he serves God, he's going
to serve God among people on his business level or his financial
level or his social level or his intellectual level, people
who can challenge him with their thoughts. He's not going to hunt
up a simple, humble, wretched sinner saved by grace. Now, you
know what I'm talking about. He's never been broken. God. And this self-crucifixion, this
humility, this I am nothing, is something that he can't enter
into. He can't enter into that. He can't enter into this I have
nothing, I am nothing, I know nothing. Blessed are the poor,
for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted." He doesn't know anything about
that. He's going to heaven the same road everybody else is,
the road of good works. And then the total glory to God,
total glory to God, offends man's desire for praise. You want to
know why preachers, when they take up special offerings and
So forth put names in bulletins, how much people gain. They like
to see it there. If you want to get the job done,
give a man the credit for it. He'll do it, but just give him
the credit. But when you give God all the glory, all the praise,
he doesn't want that. He's just not going to have any
part in that. It's offensive. It offends his
desire for praise. Charles Wesley wrote that great
hymn, Can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's
blood? Died he for me who caused his
pain, for me who him to death pursued amazing love? How can
it be that thou, my God, should die for me?

Jesus Christ - Cornerstone or Stumbling Stone?

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Jesus Christ - Cornerstone or Stumbling Stone?

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