Gospel Message of Jesus is Offensive
We’ll praise Jesus today everyone. I had
this dream right before I woke up in the morning. And in my dream, I was
sending out shirts like how I have been, Jesus’ message shirts with the gospel
message on it of repentance. And in this dream, there was a young guy, probably
17, 18 years old that received one of my t-shirts. And when he opened up the
package his dad saw the t-shirt. And his dad read the message on the shirt and
was extremely offended and upset that his son would have ordered the shirt from
me. And the son asked him why he was offended because it was the gospel
message. I had put the verse from the Bible below the quote on the shirt and it
was a message that Jesus had said. And the dad realized that he wasn't offended
at the shirt or at his son for ordering it, but he was actually offended at God
for the words of Jesus Christ. He was offended at the Son of God. The gospel to
sinners is very offensive. The gospel is offensive because it calls us to
action. The gospel calls us sinners. The gospel calls us not good people. The
gospel says we are going to hell if we don't change. And the world hates this
message because they love sin, they love to stay in the darkness, and they have
bought into the lies of Satan. It is like confronting your son or your daughter
when they have done something sinful. Whenever you confront someone, no one
likes to be confronted, no one likes to be told they're wrong or that they're
doing something that's inappropriate. No one likes that kind of confrontation.
And the gospel is very confrontational. Jesus speaks His truth into our hearts.
And if we're not ready for that, if we're not ready to change and to repent,
then we will try to put up every wall to block that. And Satan is very good to
try to appease people, to make them think that they are right, that they
shouldn't receive the gospel. Satan has basically a counterargument for every
single word that is in the gospel to try to defend yourself from the truth. So
no wonder people are offended at the gospel, they try to throw out the gospel,
they try to believe the false gospel of the church, easy grace.
We know that the gospel is divisive. The
words of Jesus will cause divisions among mothers and fathers, sons and
daughters. And if you do put your faith truly in Jesus, expect that your family
members and your friends will despise you, they will leave you, they will not
accept you as their own, because most people have bought into the false gospel
that the church preaches and that the world preaches, this easy grace, that you
don't have to repent, that you don't have to stop sinning, that God will accept
you as you are. That's why the churches are always saying, “Come as you are,
brother. We're all sinners. Church is a hospital for the sick. Don't worry
about repentance. Just believe that you're saved. We're not saved by works at
the end of the day. We're saved by grace, so don't worry that you're a sinner”.
And Satan has used this false gospel, this watered down gospel, to deceive the
nations. It's a witchcraft. And many people are on their way to hell because
they're offended at the truth and they have believed the lie.
I want to read to you what Jesus said in
regard to sin. Our sin problem and what will happen if we don't repent. And
these are Jesus' words. This is the essence of the gospel. It is not man's
words. It's not my words or someone else's interpretation. This is what Jesus
said in John chapter 8. Then Jesus said to them again, “I am going away, and
you will seek me, and you will die”. Or he said, “I am going away, you will
seek me, and will die in your sins. Where I go, you cannot come”. So the Jew
said, “Will he kill himself because he says where I go you cannot come?” And he
said to them, “You are from beneath, I am from above”. That itself right there
would be very offensive to a Jew. He's saying they're from beneath, they're
going to hell, you're from above. “You are of this world, I am not of this
world, therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins. For if you do
not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins”. Again, another offensive
word Jesus is saying. You have to believe in Jesus to be saved, not Allah, not
some other god. You can't just believe in any deity. You have to believe
specifically in Jesus Christ, and you need to believe that He is the Son of
God, the Savior of the world, and if you don't believe in Him and eat His flesh
and drink His blood, you will have no life and you will absolutely die in your
sins.
Then they said to Him, “Who are you?” And
Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. I
have many things to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true, and I
speak to the world those things which I hear from Him.” They did not understand
that He spoke to them of the Father. Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up
the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of
Myself, but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is
with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do things that please
Him.” As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. Then Jesus said to those
Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”
Here is another offensive word that Jesus spoke, because a lot of people don't
think that they have to have actions and deeds, they think they just have to
have belief. They think that if they just believe in the gospel, that is good
enough.
But what did Jesus say about that? He
talked about the wise man and the foolish man. And He said, if you put His
words into practice, you are like the wise man. If you practice His words,
practicing His words is the work. But if you just believe in His words without
work, then you are like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand.
Another word that He said that is offensive. So He says, “If you abide in My
word, you are My disciples indeed”. That means if you obey. “And you shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free”. They answered Him, “We are
Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you
say you will be made free?” Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you,
whoever commits sin is a slave of sin”. Again, this is an offense, because
Christians in particular want to believe that they are saved by grace, that
it's okay if they sin, because they are Christian sinners, and Jesus has saved
them, He has done it all on the cross. And now all they have to do is look at
pornography, and live life in the lusts of their flesh. They don't have to
repent of anything, because Jesus has tacked it all on the cross. But that is
not what Jesus says here. He says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever
commits sin is a slave of sin”. You are a slave of sin, even if you are named a
Christian, if you are still sinning. And Jesus says, “And a slave does not
abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever”. In other words, if you
go on sinning, eventually you are going to be kicked out of the kingdom of God,
you are going to be kicked out of God's house. You are not going to be allowed
into His eternal kingdom. People that are sinful, sinful Christians, can be
allowed in church for their whole life, and accepted in church with homosexual
lifestyles, with thinking they are women when they are men. But you will never
be accepted as a child of God, into the kingdom of God, living a sinful life,
living in rebellion to God. You will be rejected.
And this is the gospel. If you put your
faith in Jesus Christ and repent, you will be saved. But if you reject Him, you
will die in your sins. “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does
not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son (meaning
the Son of God,) makes you free, you shall be free indeed”. This word is also a
hard saying, because Christians do not want to believe that Jesus will set them
free, and that they will be free indeed from sin. They will say, “No, brother,
Jesus can't set me free, I am always going to sin as long as I am in this
flesh. As long as I am on this earth, I will always be a sinner”. And they do
not believe the gospel. They don't believe that Jesus sets free sinners, and
they will be free indeed. Do we believe the gospel? Do we believe what Jesus
said? That we will be set free from sin? That we actually have to repent and
stop sinning? Or have we believed the easy grace gospel lie? That we don't have
to work for Jesus? That we don't have to repent? That we don't have to stop on
our sin?
Then Jesus goes on to say, “I know that you
are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill me, because my word has no
place in you”. Just as Jesus' word has no place in many Christians, they reject
Him, even though they say they are the sons and daughters of the kingdom. “I
speak what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have seen with your
Father”, obviously the devil. They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our
father”. Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham's children, you would do the
works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the
truth, which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of
your father”. They said to Him, “We are not born of fornication, we have one
Father, God”. Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me,
for I proceeded forth and came from God, nor have I come of myself, but He sent
me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are not listening to my
word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want
to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth,
because there is no truth in Him. When He speaks a lie, He speaks from His own
resource, for He is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth,
you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? And I tell you the
truth, why you do not believe me? He who is of God hears God's words.
Therefore, you do not hear, because you are not of God”.
Most of Christians are not of God. They
have believed in their Father the devil. They reject the words of Jesus. They
love to think that they are saved by the blood, saved by the cross, saved by
their church, saved by all those things. But at the end of the day, they reject
Jesus' words, they despise Him, they spit on what He did on the cross, they
despise the prophets, and they rip the pages out of the Bible that they do not
like and that they do not approve. They only read the verses of the apostle
Paul and the verses they like that try to secure their doctrines of once saved,
always saved. And they love anyone who stumbles in their faith and falls and
messes up, because that secures their false doctrines that it's okay to go on
sinning. Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that
You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Christians will say this to you as well
if you say that you have repented. They will say, “You have a demon. No one can
stop sinning. No one can repent. You are out of your mind. You are one of those
crazy Christians that thinks you are high and mighty and better than everyone
else. You think that you can't associate with us because we are sinners and you
are so much better”. They will get belligerent. They will get mad at you
because they hate Jesus Christ. They hate His words. They call Jesus demon
possessed.
Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but
I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. And I do not seek My own glory. There
is one who seeks and judges. Most assuredly I say to you, If anyone keeps My
word, he shall never see death”. Then the Jews said to Him, “Now we know that
you have a demon. Abraham is dead, and the prophets. And you say, If anyone
keeps My words, he shall never taste death. Are you greater than our father
Abraham who is dead? And the prophets are dead? Who do you make yourself out to
be?” Jesus answered, ‘If I honor Myself, my honor is nothing. It is My Father
who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God, yet you have not known Him,
but I know Him. And if I say, I do not know Him, I shall be a liar like you,
but I do know Him, and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My
day, and he saw it and was glad”. Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet
fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Most
assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am”. Then they took up stones to
throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself, went out of the temple, going through the
midst of them, and so passed by.
This right here is the gospel guys. Jesus
calls sinners to repent. He calls us sinners if we are sinning. And many
Christians are still in sin, they are on their way to hell, they have rejected
the truth of the gospel, they will reject you, thinking that you have a demon
if you preach righteousness, but really, they hate Jesus, they despise His
words, they reject the true gospel. They do not want to be confronted by it.
But if we really have ears to hear, ears to hear the truth, we will receive
what Jesus said, we will repent of our sins, we will stop sinning, and we will
say to the Lord, “Please purge me, purify me from unrighteousness, give me a
new heart. Open my eyes so that I can see and let me be a vessel of honor and
glory used for You”. We will stop worrying what our dad thinks, what our mom
thinks, what our grandma thinks, what our grandpa thinks, what our friends
think, and we will start concerning ourselves with what Jesus thinks of us and
living bold, living for Him with all of our heart.
Are you compromising today with sin and
sinners? Are you compromising? Or are you truly living a godly life to please
Jesus? Are you living above reproach? Are you preaching the gospel? Are you
living holy and righteous that you can be used by God? Pray for those of you
that want to overcome in Jesus’ name.
So “Lord Jesus, I pray for my fellow
brothers and sisters in the Lord that want to accept Your gospel, that want to
accept You into their life. I pray that their hearts will be changed and
renewed, that You will fill them with the power of the Holy Spirit, fill their
hearts with Your truth, and change their heart from a heart of bondage and sin
and blackness to a heart that beats, that is filled with Your Spirit and Your
truth. I pray that You indwell Your children and that You clean them from all
unrighteousness, that they would be white and clean and purified from
everything that is worldly and ungodly. I pray that You break the chains of the
sinners and set them free in Your name, that they can be free indeed and walk
in the newness of life and preach holiness and the true gospel that You have
put before us. We know that we walk on the straight and narrow path, and we don’t
want to turn to the left or the right or listen to people who are deceptive
snakes. We want to listen to You Lord and we want You to be our one and only
Teacher, Lord and Master. So I pray that those who are listening today can
truly repent, come out of darkness, that they would come into the light and be
saved by Your gospel. In Your name I pray, Lord Jesus. Amen.”
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