 I'm asking you is sort of a trick question. Not really, but the thing is the topic the text isn't even the main point I want to start off by asking you guys a question. Now. What you think about this? It's not like I said a really a trick question But it's designed to kind of make you think because there's something that we say often and I don't care really which Denomination persuasion that you are a part of I wouldn't care if you are conservative or you maybe you're more Charismatic doesn't really matter whether you Baptist method is doesn't matter You've heard people in your denomination in your group in your circle say this and even people that you respect You've heard them say something like this that the gospel offense the gospel offensive Question to you is that true? Does the Bible say the gospel offense and then you can start thinking well wait a second I seem to recall I seem to call somewhere in the scriptures about the gospel saying or the Bible saying that the gospel Offends so surely it does offend and I've certainly seen people have some Visceral reaction to the scriptures to the Bible to the gospel and so yeah, I'm gonna go with yes The gospel offense now the reason why I'm bringing this up is because it reminds me of when My former mentor the the late dr. Bolden who was a professor at a seminary who would always ask questions Knowing that you probably have the right answer But wants to know if you can prove your answer because it doesn't do any good to know what the answer is You don't know how you got that answer because if all you're doing is just repeating what someone else say Well, then that's no good because what happens when someone tests you or when you don't know What someone that you trust who may or may not be right? What if not around you don't know what they say you are half You're gonna have to give an account of yourself because remember the Bibles does say that always be ready to give a defense of the hope It's in you. So that's talking about the scriptures understanding what the word says and so it's important to know Not just what you believe but why you believe and so that's questions And he would just even if it's a basic question courted Jesus Christ down the cross Well, sure he did will prove it what scriptures and so you need to be able to go to the scriptures And so this got me to thinking because I've heard really just recently a lot of it coming up And I've heard it obviously in the past and didn't give too much of a thought to it But hearing someone make this statement that if the gospel does not offend you it was not the gospel in Other words There's kind of like this angry form of preaching that some pastor some preachers want a hold to That you need to make a person kind of shake and quake in their boots feel bad about themselves And so the gospel is to be offensive or it is to offend if you're not offended Then it wasn't the true gospel the true gospel will cause someone to be offended the question is as Innocently as it sounds is that the truth and so what I want to do is I go to the passages I just look up offense and offended and let's just see if we can find in the scriptures Where we can come up with that and there's several passages that talk about this work Offense and offended as a matter of fact, let's go. Let's just type in offense And let's put it on the screen. Let's start Matthew. Here's one Matthew 13 57 And that's what it says and they took offense at him But Jesus said to them a prophet is not without honor Except in his own hometown and his own household now. Who's he speaking of? Obviously speaking towards some of these Jews and the word this shoes here comes from the Greek word where we get our English term scandal this word Scandinavia so which is to to offend or I offend what does that mean is kind of a tearing kind of a falling apart What if it stumble we get the word offense, but but the word offense is a little bit too broad And it's almost that we make anything or we can make anything fit in there. Let's look at some more Let's look at let's see. Here's the same worth of shoes I'm sorry. There's different worth of shoes here for offense. So we'll type in the words We don't always see what the word is Here it is 933 we're gonna look at this passage later It says behold I lay a stone in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. There's that same worth of shoes there The same worth of shoes here in 1st Corinthians not 10. Let's see Oh here is nothing 1st Peter 2 8 Same thing a stone a stumbling of stumbling and a rock of offense Same worth of shoes there as well in the Greek and so maybe you might be seeing something. So the question is Does the Bible offend? I mean, I'm sorry does a gospel fan Does the gospel have to offend if you're not offended has the gospel been preached? And so what I want to do is I want to look at some passages. I want to first I want you to first notice What it's referring to who he's referring to about someone being offended the Bible as a matter of fact Let's go to 1st Corinthians Let's see First Corinthians one. Let's start there. Let's go to 1st Corinthians one Let me fix my screen really brief because I haven't done that as of yet for that particular passage And I want you to notice something that's being stated here in by Paul in 1st Corinthians Let's start in verse 21 For since the wisdom of the world through its wisdom did not come to know God God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe For indeed look what it says Jews ask for a sign and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ Crucified notice what he says to Jews this preaching of Christ crucified to the Jews It's a stumbling stone and to Gentiles Foolishness now this word for stumbling stone. It's an infant. It's an offense the same Greek words over here It's the same reward that we've been looking at it's kind of it's kind of like so or in this case Scandal on scandal on which is Scandalized in the English verse and didn't mean the quite the same thing, but it's the same Greek word. And so to the Jews It's an offense. It's a stumbling stone But or and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called both Jew and Greek Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God because the foolishness of God is wiser than the men and the Weakness of God is stronger than so his point is And what what Jesus was saying even what Paul was saying and what Peter says? the point is that The gospel is not meant to offend. That's not the point of it But what it does is it absolutely does offend certain people Namely the Jews to the Gentiles to the Greeks who aren't saved by the way both who are not saved There's a saved group in the Jews and the Gentiles who this doesn't apply to who are not offended or it's not foolishness But to the Gentiles is foolish doesn't make sense to the to the to the Jews to the Jews It's bothersome. It angers them, which is why you see this angry this rule Reaction when the gospel's priests even to date as a matter of fact is what God said would happen He would even cause the Jews to be that way and for some of them They would that would end up leading to them coming to Christ, but for the vast majority of those vast majority of those ethnic Jews it will be an offensive thing Go to Israel go around a bunch of Jews and start preaching that Jesus is the Messiah who was prophesied to come He is Israel's Messiah. He is God. He is the Savior that he died for our sins They will you will then see kind of even more so this point that they are offended typically though when you speak to Gentiles Not always but but Gentiles it's bothersome to them But not in the sense that Jesus was speaking out not in the sense that Paul or Peter was speaking up It's bothersome, but really more confusing because they don't think it makes any sense This doesn't make sense is which is why you get a lot of philosophical arguments from People who will say well Jesus can't be God and so forth a little back-and-forth between Different arguments over the Trinity or that this is a fairy tale One man did all these different things. We don't have proof that he walked on water and this and that They'll give you these sort of philosophical What they think are intelligent or logical arguments. That's really the basis what he's saying to the Jews It's just it's it's a stumbling stone. It's an offensive thing to the Gentiles of the Greeks That make any sense. It's foolishness notice what he says though Let's go to Romans 9 where he says Let's start in verse 23 and we'll work our way to 33 now in all of this, but notice what's happening in in Romans Paul is talking about Jews not placing their faith in Christ The problem is that they started off, but now by and large. This is a Gentile faith With Jews who are who are at the forefront and most of the apostles are Jews But Paul's concerns that Jews aren't coming. That's what he says verse 23 He says he did he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy Which he prepared beforehand for glory even us whom he also called not from Jews only But also from among Gentiles as he says Also in Jose, I will call those who are not my people my people and her Who's not beloved beloved and it shall be that that in the place where it was said to them You are not my people they shall be called my people So he's speaking about how these Gentiles are now going to be brought in and to the Jews It is going to be a problem. So if we drop down if we go to verse Let's start in verse. Let's start in verse 30 He said what they shall we say that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness They obtained they obtained righteousness even the righteousness which is by faith But Israel pursuing the law of righteousness did not arrived at that law Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works They had a obligated they were obligated to this was theirs by right by birth And all they had to do is just work at it do the right things and they'll be okay Well, no, no bueno And so he says look what he says they they who the Jews Israel stumbled over the stumbling stone Just as it is written behold I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. There's that word again And he who believes in him will not be disappointed. So for the Jews, that's the point for the Jews It is a stumbling stone. It is a rock of offense First Peter 2 let's start in verse 6 the same thing behold I lay in Zion a choice stone a precious cornerstone and he who believes in him will not be disappointed So the point is being spread around the same point that Jesus makes it Paul makes also Peter makes this precious value Then is for you who believe But for those who disbelieve the stone which the builders rejected The this became the very cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of events So now even also to he's speaking of Jews But really anyone but his point is still to the Jews. So now let's find another passage the same thing It's little Matthew 24 Let's start in verse 10 at that time. He says many will fall and those who speak now. This is speaking of This is really in time imagery in Matthew 24 is out of a discourse notice. He said at that time Many will fall away will betray one another and hate one another now the fall away part This is what that word is here the same word now the the English rendering is going to be fall away but that's what the that's what the whole point of Of being offended is and this is what the word means in the Greek that you even know it might be true It can make sense But there's something with your heart. It's just an anger. It's a it's a reaction that just bothers you Whereas with the gentiles the Greeks it doesn't make sense. So we have two different reasons for them not accepting Christ One we do know it makes sense. It kind of makes sense. We've got the passages We've got the scriptures Old Testament. We have the prophecies, but we're bothered it angers us But this is also what God caused or said what happened He said he'll cause them to have this partial hardening and a spirit of stupor and that's what this leads to and so Question is when you hear the gospel like Jesus asked will this cause you to stumble? He says therefore many of his disciples when they heard this they said when he said this difficult thing Who can listen to and he's talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood We know what that means now in terms of communion, but so we don't want to walk too far off track Jesus Conscious that his disciples grumbled at this said to them does this cause you to stumble It's gonna cause you to fall away It's gonna bother you that much or is it's gonna now for some it did but for many it did not But his point was what then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before it is a spirit Who gives life the flesh profits nothing the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life But there are some of you who do not and who do not believe for Jesus knew from the beginning What he says who they were who did not believe so he knew from the very beginning Who would not believe and who it would who would be that will betray him? Not just Judas, but the other Jews that will also be involved And so he says and who it was that would betray him and he was saying for this reason I've come I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to the father So whoever it is with this foolishness or where this is thumbing stone or rock of offense You're not coming unless the father grants have to happen But but again keep in mind who he's speaking of and he does not want you to be offended about again The point of the gospel is not to offend And so when someone makes a point or statement that the gospel should offend know it shouldn't that's the goal The whole hope is it wouldn't offend because if you're offended you're not coming if you are offended you are not coming if you're not offended Then yes, what you do you come why Jesus said go and report? I'm sorry. I'm wrong pastors. He says blessed is he who does not take offense at me What does that mean if you are someone who doesn't take offense at what he's saying Then what will you be you will place your faith in Christ? That's the goal not to be offended not to Reject him to move away from not to have a reaction or anything also in John 16 1 He says these things I have spoken to you now This is after he's spoken about his his departure and even Excuse me even the Holy Spirit coming. He said these things I've spoken to you so that you may be kept from Stumbling notice what's right here right before we as he tells us why he's writing these things We have what's called a henna calls henna is the Greek word for in order that so in order that not you will stumble Not that you will be offended. That's the word that's there. So I've given you these things I've spoken to these things to you so that you will not be offended So God does not want you to be offended when the guys was preached The goal is not to offend anyone and so therefore you should not try to offend someone. I know that that's kind of Fashionable nowadays that we need to kind of preach a certain way, you know Preach how the audience probably would receive it best your whole goal is to receive people to Christ Your whole goal is to lead them. It's not to make someone angry I know that there are people that go on these corners and they preach for the sake of saying yes I preached and then a lot of folks were angry as though that was a badge of honor No, the goal is to get them to place their faith in Christ. That's a goal Obviously, that's not your goal or that's not your job. You don't you can't control that. That's not up to you That's up to God, but Just like it's not not your job not up to you for them to place their faith in Christ It's also not up to you to offend them The gospel by nature is going to offend certain people but and so you don't have to go and do that You just preach but you preach out of love in hope In expectation of someone placing their faith just a desire to see someone not go to hell now I said though the text or all of these texts is not the point It's not the point even though we've been told and I again We've been told incorrectly by a lot of preacher listen a lot of well-meaning preachers who'll say that you Need to be offended by the gospel or the gospel needs to offend or the gospel offends of the gospel No, it doesn't always some people who does offend But us who are safe. No, we weren't offended at some point now someone said well, I had a reaction to it Fine. I won't argue with you But there are so many people who place their faith in Christ and they weren't angry at the gospel They want matter of fact many of them just they just knew What they needed why because the Bible tells us teaches us that What is going to cause us to place our faith in him? Well, that our heart must be Regenerated once that happens. Are you going to have an offensive reaction to the gospel? No, are you going to be repentant and bothered by your by your lifestyle? Sure. Now if you want to say the gospel convicts That's quite different than saying the gospel offense and someone's going to say well, Cory Aren't you kind of splitting hairs? We're speaking semantics. No, I'm not and that brings me to my point We speak often about how someone who might be let's say hyper charismatic or even charismatic period Some of these folks will take a passage and kind of change the wording around or the meaning around to make it suit Or fit what they believe and we want to call that out But what about when someone who is not charismatic desert? What if it's someone who is reformed or someone who's this practice or someone who is the method someone such Christ? What if someone who is not like the folks that we think are off but someone that we We generate genuinely like we genuinely like these people we love their teachings and they misuse a word well What do you think is at the root of every hair of heresy? What is at the root of every false teaching? What does every how does all of these things start? Well, it starts with taking a word maybe just one word and misusing it applying it incorrectly And that's the danger. That's the whole point Not so much of whether you what do you think about the word offense or being offended? That is really not the point guys, and this is why I brought this up I want to go through that so that you can see that the word doesn't mean what it means Then to think about how many other times do we take a word that doesn't quite mean what it what it really means? Because words have meaning and then we take it to a different meaning we take it to a different context And so now we've got again. We've got preachers who think that you must offend someone who preach that way and Wait a second. They might be doing more harm. The goal is not to offend someone to make some one's feelings hurt That's not the goal the goal is to give what the word says you don't have to add to it You have to make anything it you have to make it say what I didn't say just because you really really really wanted your point across No, same thing with anything else when we talk about certain spiritual gifts when we talk about Living our lives with our with our spouses with our families. We talk about money any aspect that's covered in the Bible If we're talking about prosperity, should we be prosperous? Sure. How so? That's a question and is it required what if you're not prosperous financially But your process in other ways is that is that a bad thing? But someone can take a word Just like the enemy has done you can take a word and you can do so unbeknownst yourself You can do so not really intentionally but unintentionally kind of you know Just just an honest mistake and an honest mistake built off of another honest Mistake built on top of another honest mistake built on top of another honest mistake What we have will have a full blown heresy That's why people that's why people who follow certain people who we know to be preaching heresy That's why they do so because they can see I can see what he's saying I understand it that makes sense to me and oh by the way They've said other things that make sense or were true Because a wolf a heretic the devil will say some things that are true But I promise you how he got to where he got to or nowadays how she got to where she got to is because That lie was built off of a misunderstanding and then built off of something else and off something else It was a nibble here a nibble there a nibble there a nibble here nibble here And so those who who became involved with some sort of heresy Unintentionally how did they get there they looked up one day and after all all this nibbly here a little nibble here a little nibble there Nibble nibble nibble nibble they look up and they have lost their way. They are so far away from the faith That's why Paul says at his deathbed. I have kept the Faith not kept I have kept my faith or kept having faith No, I have kept the faith Paul in 2nd Timothy 4 is talking about having sound doctrine and sound teaching And what happens is the way that you keep sound teaching is you make sure that you stand by every Jot until every word Make sure that all the words that mean something we know it that we say what it says We don't say what it doesn't say we don't add to it intentionally now Can we give some sort of understanding or clarification to some of the things that are said and use our own words sure But make sure you don't depart from the wording and make it say something that it doesn't even something so innocent Something seemingly not innocuous as Saying that the gospel offends or must offend because it went from saying that the gospel is Offensive or can be offensive to then it must offend if it doesn't offend And now we've got preachers who are looked at if they don't speak a certain way. They're too nice Well, they they they preach a sugar-coated gospel and that's not right for us to do so now They might do so but it might not be because they're not trying to offend someone They might preach a sugar-coated gospel because they're just more prosperity Sort of preachers. They are they are gospel light Such as, you know, someone down here in Texas down in Houston area So we can see that happening But let's be careful that we don't do what others do how do these heretics get to where they got to? Because they took words and they changed the meaning whether intentionally or unintentionally I've spoken before There are a lot of people that I know who Their understanding their teaching of the scriptures is wrong But they don't mean that they didn't intend for to be there But they just heard something and ran with it what they heard was a misunderstanding So let's always go back to the text. I don't care what your denominational belief is What your doctrinal bent is what your theological persuasion is If you're gonna and this is something just basic This really isn't a big thing But you can see how it can become a big thing And so we want to make sure let me give you examples a matter of fact because I think that's probably helpful Now we've got people who believe That Women can be pastors. Well, the scriptures are clear But for some people no not quite and so they'll take a portion or they'll take something and make it say or become more than what it is Many people who believe that it's okay for women to be in leadership or to be pastors They don't believe that because they're just intentionally against the scriptures. No Because they see an example now. It might have been some intentional wolf behind us I don't know but they see it an example of a woman who was maybe a prophetess in the Bible or a Deborah who was a judge and a prophetess in the Bible and they see that well if it could happen Then if God will use them then and I the Lord do not change. Well, then why would he stop doing so now? And so it becomes easier for you to okay I can see that now because for person Imagine the person hearing that who doesn't know the Bible and someone is telling them that they might be young in the scripture They might be older in the faith or older as a Christian, but just a lazy Christian and have not read I'm not going to even answer or dress with that person a lazy Christian is a Christian But the fact that there are Christians who just don't read the Bible like they should and so what happens they are open to these sort of shenanigans that might be Voiced upon them intentionally or to their own coming to just not reading the scriptures And so we want to be if we're going to be smart Christians if we're going to be diligent if we're going to be If we're gonna hold have a fidelity to the text, let's have a fidelity to the text Let's be married to the text like we should and if we find out that oh, you know what? I've been saying something incorrectly all this time. Well, I'll stop that rather than Being offended by finding out that the word offense doesn't mean what you think it means rather than being offended because you found out that The gospel is not supposed to offend the gospel does not offend believers. It offends the Jews Is foolishness to the Greeks and then now if you want to say well, this is what it really means That's fine. But let's just use the words properly so that we don't also Improperly use other words or passages that other people that we impugn for doing the same thing Who are wolves and heretics that way we won't be here. We won't be hypocrites ourselves. Amen