The Distorted Gospel

A Distorted Gospel

Galatians 1:6-10

Wow it is great to be here at ______________

Thank you Pastor for inviting me.

Recently we left our church in South Detroit where I was the pastor and revitalized our church for over 6 years. I also I led the greater Detroit Baptist Association for several years as the moderator and the interim Director of Missions for over 16 months. Our ministry thrived there, but God put on our hearts a new a new road. With the experienced which we have gained and our hearts to help pastors, pastor wives, churches and missions we now travel the United States spreading the Gospel, Maturing Disciples and Cultivating Leaders through our ministry Go To The Truth Ministries.

You can find us and follow us on social media through Facebook and/ or YouTube @ chasing the Joneses or Go to the truth min.

As part of our ministry we connect with local churches, pastors and missions to encourage in these days that we are living in.

Folks I don’t have to tell you that we are living in troubling times, our world in is turmoil and many people today are struggling to find the answer to truth. If you think about it, the world shortly after creation began to fall apart- because of a sin problem and thousands of years later we still have the sin problem.

You know that the Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes 1:9 that there is nothing new under the sun. It might be shocking to you, but the enemy has not changed his tactics nor the attack on our country, our culture, or even our way of life. What was done thousands of years ago is still happening today, just in a different method, my hope today is for each of us to see this.

Let us pray.

The message that God wanted me to bring to you today is the message of The Distorted Gospel, The Distorted Gospel.

If you have your Bibles and I hope that you do, open your Bible with me to the book of Galatians, Galatians chapter 1.

You can find the book of Galatians if you locate the book of Acts, Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians then you will find Galatians, Galatians chapter one is where we will find our scripture this morning.

The theme for book of Galatians is about standing firm on the freedom of the Gospel. Paul says in chapter 5 verse 1 “Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

Now Paul had visited Galatia twice and in both visits we know that Paul spread the Gospel, matured believers as he started churches, and he encouraged the leaders and the churches. And if you know anything about the apostle Paul you know that this has been God’s strategy for him throughout the New Testament.

Galatia is a region of Gentiles and the churches in Galatia were Gentile churches. The region today is Turkey. Now a Gentile is one who was not a Jew and does not follow the Jewish religion, law and traditions.

We are gentiles.

It was sometime after Paul’s second journey that Paul learned of some disturbing news. There were some Judaizers who came to the Galatian churches to purposely cause trouble. In fact, they were distorting the Gospel.

The definition of distortion is the act of twisting or altering something out of its true, natural or original state.

And that is what we will find that has happened in Galatia, but more importantly what is happening in today in America.

If you are there in the Book of Galatians chapter 1, begin reading with me from verse 6. This is the Word of God and it begins like this:

“6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel—

Which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let Him be accursed. As we have said before, so I now say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received let him be accursed.

10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek men? If I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”

This is an incredible passage because we see that there is something troubling the Apostle Paul more the usual, because Paul does not begin this letter like the other letters to churches. Paul jumped right into rebuking the church. If you look at the beginning of his other letters, Paul always gives a thanksgiving prayer- he thanks God for what the church has done or accomplished. But this letter to the Galatian churches is radically different, Paul is not thanking God for them and their accomplishments, but rather Paul is emotional and even angry, and he gets right to the point and tells us the problem that he was faced with. They were turning away from the true Gospel that he taught them.

He tells the churches in verse 6: “I marvel that you turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel”

In ESV or HCSB the word marvel is transcribed as “amazed”. Paul says I can’t believe it! Today we would say that Paul was blown away by their actions and for good reason because Paul was the one who spent the time with them, brought them to the faith, He guided them, loved them, encouraged them, he started those churches. He invested into the people and the work of God. So he uses words like quickly or so soon which literally means in a short period of time. It was wasn’t long after Paul was with them that they turned away. The words “turning away” means to abandon. It is also a military term that means to defect. can you can imagine Paul’s hurt, anguish that propels his urgency?

These words are written from a man who was afraid that these believers who he personally invested in were quickly turning away from Christ Jesus. They were leaving Christ for a distorted Gospel.

Beloved let me share with you what I call the Biblical truth from this passage is: What Paul is saying is this:

A DISTORTED GOSPEL WILL NOT SAVE YOU!

That’s what Paul is telling the church. Verse 7. Look back there with me Paul says; that there was something else, another gospel that was preached to them and he said in verse 7 “Which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ.

The people troubling the Gentile believers were Judaizers. Judaizers were Jewish Christians who were trying to persuade the Gentile Churches and believers to abandon the Good News of the cross and empty tomb. Their message was, to really be saved; you must become like us.

Here is the problem, they took the Good News of the Apostle Paul’s teaching. The saving grace of the Gospel and they distorted it. They took the truth and altered it out of its natural true meaning.

THAT JESUS IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE ONLY WAY FOR SALVATION, SANCTIFICATION AND THE WAY TO HEAVEN.

You know what I have learned over the years? History has a way of repeating itself and the truth is brothers and sisters a distorted gospel’s primary objective is to take our focus off Jesus’ work, the death, burial and resurrection (our way to salvation) and makes it about what we can do rather than what Christ did for us.

That is exactly what Paul was speaking about in our scripture. The Judaizers – the Jewish Christians were changing the meaning of the free grace of the Gospel. And it is happening today, in our families, our communities, our cities, our states, the nation and the world.

Today we are being challenged to find the truth in the midst of all the distorted truth in our country. From the rumors, to the news, to social media, it is hard to find the truth today.

Many are led down the wrong path, as unbelievers are trying to shape our world and now even more. Churches are becoming persecuted because we don’t share their world view. The world is trying to divide born again believers with false narratives of the truth.

Well today God has compelled me to share with you how the Judaizers distorted the Gospel then and the connection of how it is being distorted today.

I want to share with you three ways they distorted the Gospel.

First, they distorted the Gospel by adding the law to it. The Gospel plus the law.

The Jewish Christians did not have a problem with what Paul said about the gospel, their position was that Paul did not give the full truth.

Their purpose was to cause doubt and fear that Paul wasn’t really called by God, and that they because of worshipping YAWEH for centuries under the law, knew better than Paul. While the Gentiles were just coming into their faith it was easy to create fear and doubt within them. So, they went to them and began demanding that in order for Galatian Gentiles to truly be saved by God’s grace the men had to become circumcised as the law of Moses taught plus they had to adhere to the laws of Moses. I am turning to the book of Acts chapter 15 you can turn there with me.

The book of Acts 15:1 Shows us this fact, it says, “And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved!”

They were literally saying that in order for you to be saved you must become like us. That is like saying that in order to be saved you must believe exactly the way I do; you must follow exactly what I believe. Today we call this legalism- in order to be saved you must become like us.

Illustration of walking down the isle.

In our world today there is this narrative that if you don’t believe like I do you, then you are now the enemy and now they want to get rid of anyone who doesn’t fit into their ideal society and their made-up laws.

But folks let me tell you that Jesus broke down those social barriers, that prevent others from being saved. Under the New Covenant of Christ’s blood, it took away the law so that now people who did not fit under the law can now come to Him by faith.

Paul says in chapter 3 verse 28 there is no Jew or Greek, Slave or free we are all equal under the blood of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel is clear, Romans 10:9-13 explains it to us:

“If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. 11 Now the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on Him will not be put to shame, 12 for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on Him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

This is the very Gospel that Paul preached to the Galatians in-fact he states in verse 6 that the Galatians were called by this very grace of Christ Jesus.

But they were being attacked and led astray by a distorted Gospel.

First, they distorted the Gospel by adding the law to it.

SECOND, LISTEN TO THIS - THEY DISTORTED THE GOSPEL BY ADDING WORKS.

The Judaizers also said that if you want to be saved you must obey the law and participate in the Jewish traditions, ceremonies, customs and cultures.

The Apostle Paul refuted this distorted Gospel over and over again, it is actually one of Paul’s major conflicts with the universal Church.

That is like saying today that person isn’t saved because of the clothes they wear, women wearing a skirt, or they don’t do enough work in the church or you have to believe in our traditions and the list can go on and on.

Once a leader said to me that they questioned another person’s salvation because they did not participate in some church events. Like Paul I was shocked…Your salvation is not measured by what you do. It is measured by your relationship with God the Son.

Paul addresses this with Peter in Chapter 2 verses 15-16 where he tells Peter:

“We who are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners” 16 know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.”

Then he tells the Ephesian believers in Eph 2:8-9 “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.”

Romans 3:20 says “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight”

Folks listen to me; we cannot earn our way to heaven. I am not going to heaven because I am a missionary or lead a ministry or a pastor. Gayle is not going to heaven because how good she sings we are going to heaven because of the free gift of grace – We are children of God- saved and sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ.

What I do, I do because I am in obedience to God, it is a result of being born-again. When we do good works, in or out of the church, helping others or do what I’m called to do- this is bi-product being saved- not a condition to receive salvation.

The reason for that is because Jesus took care of the of works of the Law problem when He obeyed the Law to the letter in His ministry and then He did the work cross. And His resurrection from the dead allows us not to work for our salvation. Listen to me folks Jesus completed the law of works on the cross and because of that we don’t have to work our way to heaven.

First, they distorted the Gospel by adding the law, then by adding works.

THEN 3RD THEY DISTORTED THE GOSPEL BY TRYING TO PLEASE OTHERS.

Look back at verse 10 with me:

HCSB “For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.”

Paul points out that in his former life, he was out to please the establishment and others – maybe to get head in his religion, maybe pleasing his supervisors by persecuting the church. He points out that a gospel that seeks to please others is a distortion of the Gospel.

Paul wrote that to the Thessalonian Church in 1st Thess 2:4 “we have been entrusted by God with the Gospel, so we speak not to please men, but rather God who examines our hearts.” To please the Judaizers the Galatian churches were leaving the Gospel of Christ.

People cannot change their beliefs in Christ just to please others. If we try to please those on the left or those on the right or even those in the middle, the Gospel will certainly suffer.

Again, Paul says in Ephesians 6:6 “Do not work while being watched, in order to please men – but as slaves of Christ doing God’s will from our heart”

There are prominent preachers giving a false Gospel a Distorted Gospel by trying to please others to gain members. They water down the Gospel so that it won’t offend others and the truth is folks our faith- the Gospel is supposed to be offensive to others.

A great Biblical illustration is of this is found in the book of John chapter 6. Jesus just feed the 5,000. The people followed Jesus not because of the signs but for the food.

Jesus spoke them and said I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, but then in 53-57 Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Upon hearing these words, many of Jesus’ followers said, “This is a hard teaching” (verse 60), and many of them actually stopped following Him that day (verse 66).

The Gospel is a hard teaching because it brings people to the reality that people are broken and in need of a Savior.

The cross is offensive because criminals against Rome would be crucified on it and the roads were often lined with crucified people. Jesus was crucified as a criminal, His blood, sweat and tears were shed on our behalf.

And when we live our lives according to the Gospel and the Word of God it offends others.

Illustration of work; you put your God and church above your job.

We cannot live out our lives just to please others. it wont end well for them and it wont end well for us.

I want you to know what we are going through today has plagued the world from when sin entered into the world. Just look at Cain and Able the first two sons of the world it wasn’t long before hatred and jealously spread and soon came the first killing.

As the Apostle Paul spoke to the Galatian Church I stand before you speaking to you about the false Gospel that is being spread on our world today.

And just like the days of Jesus and Paul, today our problem is that the devil is trying to separate us as brothers and sisters in Christ.

There are people, who like the Judaizers, are spreading a false narrative to the world, there are people who are creating and separating the people, they are spreading a false Gospel and too many people are falling for it.

Its focus is to pull God’s people apart. It is a distorted Gospel and the message that God has for us today is that a distorted Gospel is anything that adds to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and any other Gospel, cannot save us.

Therefore, when the devil is using the world, doing its best to separate us, we the brothers and sisters in Christ must stand united on the one thing that binds us together and that is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are bound together by something stronger than the color of our skin, than differences of our ethnicities, from where we live, or where we have come from weather in this country or in this world.

What binds us together as born- again believers is very the blood that ran red and stained that cross, the perfect blood of Jesus Christ.

Paul said in told the Ephesian Church in Eph 4:16 that Jesus is the head of the whole church and it is from Him that “the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”

We must as brothers and sisters in Christ stand firm on the true freedom of the Gospel and to stand firm on the truth of the Holy Scriptures because a Gospel plus the law- a gospel plus works and a gospel that is pleasing to the world are not Gospels that saves.

John 14:6 captures the words of Jesus when He said: “I am the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through me”

Folks there is no other way!

I can say with most certainty that each of us have fallen into the trap of some sort of a distorted Gospel in the past or believed the distorted Gospels in our world today.

Maybe it was a prosperity Gospel- you don’t have because you don’t have enough faith- your faith equals your wealth.

The religious Tradition Gospel- Traditions get you to heaven. (walking down the isle to get saved)

The morality Gospel- being a good person gets you to heaven. Or Mormonism- Islam even Buddhism.

It is easy to fall into those traps set by the enemy. It is important today that we become watchful and make a choice to stand firm together in the one and only true of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because He is the way, He is the truth, He is the life that leads us to the Father.

Paul closes this letter with these words in chapter 6 verse 13 He says “For even the circumcised don't keep the law themselves; however, they want you to be circumcised in order to boast about your flesh. V15 Paul goes on to say “For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.”

The one thing that matters is receiving the free grace offered by the one true Gospel of Christ Jesus.

Let us pray.

Invitation