The True Gospel

Apostasy

Paul was amazed at the Galatians quick desertion of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Judaizers had crept into the churches at Galatia and began teaching another gospel other than the one that Paul had taught. One might say how could this happen and why would the churches allow it. The Judaizers did not deny the gospel of Paul, they added to it. The fundamental aspects of the gospel are held true by most all gospel believing churches. They are Jesus is the Son of God, He lived a perfect life, He died on a cross for our sins, He was buried in a sinners tomb, He was resurrected, and He is going to return to establish His kingdom. The Judaizers believed these fundamental aspects of the gospel themselves; However they were adding to the gospel that you had to be circumcised and observe the Jewish law in order to be a Christian. They had removed grace as the foundation of salvation and replaced it with works. The moment you add works to salvation you take away God’s grace for salvation.

Grace is the foundation of salvation. Salvation begins with God and ends with God. For example, A person only becomes aware of God, when God calls Him.

44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.

You cannot see sin as sin until the Holy reveals it to you.

8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;

The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus as the Savior

13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.

By God’s grace He initiates salvation and perfects it.

13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

The Galatians had allowed the Judaizers to deceive them and believe a false gospel. They were trading a gospel based on God’s grace for one that they could earn on their own.

Apostasy Today

Jesus addressed apostasy in

3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.7 Others fell [b]among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8 And others fell on the good soil and *yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 He who has ears, [c]let him hear.”

There will be some that will hear the gospel and not understand it. These are the people that do not receive the gospel. They don’t want Jesus.

There will be who understand the gospel and have great joy about the gospel. However when things get tough in their life they reject the gospel. They have a head knowledge of the gospel but not a heart knowledge of Jesus. These people want a conditional salvation. Make my life easy and I will be faithful to the gospel.

There will be people who know and understand the gospel, but prioritize things of the world over their relationship with Jesus. These people want a convenient relationship with Jesus. I will call on you when I need you

There will be people who understand the gospel and receive the gospel who go forth and produce fruit with the gospel.

If my math is right then only 25% of people will not apostatize the gospel.

False Gospels

The Judaizers were teaching a false gospel of works for salvation. This is why we must be careful about other religions. All other religions are a religion of scales. Meaning that your eternal destiny is based on what you do and not on grace. Muslim, Jehovah Witness, and Mormon all have a merit based salvation. What is dangerous is that Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons claim to be Christians. They neglect the grace of God through the sufficiency Christ sacrifice for sins.

5 False Gospels preached today

Bill hull is an author and expert that I have come to know and appreciate. He list 5 false gospels that are predominate in the American Church.

Forgiveness only Gospel. This gospel says that God wants to and will forgive everyone. It is your insurance policy salvation. All you have to do is understand the 4 fundamental aspects of the gospel and you are saved. Jesus is the son of God, He died on a cross for you sins, He was resurrected from the dead, and He is returning again. If you believe this then you are saved. It is a cheap gospel! it is also unbiblical.

14 Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Repent and Believe.

Repent - Metanoia- Inward change

Believe - pistis - outward change

2. Liberal Gospel - This gospel opens the door for licentiousness. This gospel says that because you are no longer under the law, that you can do whatever you want because you are forgiven. After all, hell is a figurative place not a real place. You will not be held accountable for this life. The only sin is the sin of intolerance.

3. Prosperity gospel - If you follow Jesus you will have health wealth, and power. All you have to have is enough faith and claim anything you want and Jesus will give it to you.

4. Consumeristic Gospel - The gospel is all about you. Jesus is in heaven wanting to make sure everything is good in your life. This breeds church hopping. If you don’t like the music then go to another church. If the church doesn’t have enough programs to keep my child entertained I will find one that does. I don’t feel like I am being fed by the pastor, so I need to find another church. It is all about you.

5. Gospel of the right - This is the doctrinal gospel. This is one that says my doctrine is right and everyone else’s is wrong. This is the baptist that looks down on every other denomination. I can assure you that no denomination has it 100% right!

Legalism is the false gospel that is equivalent to the Judaizer gospel

A church that presents a gospel that says you have to have faith in Jesus Christ and obey all of His commandments in order to be saved is a false gospel. They claim this is true by Jesus statement in “ 5 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” They twist this scripture to fit their doctrine. What Jesus is saying is that you obey me out of your love for me. He is not saying the only way you will love me is to obey me. Love does not come out of obedience, obedience comes out of love. For example, you will not tell your child that you will love me when you clean your room. Your child will clean their room because they love you and want to please you.

Legalism breeds self-righteousness. People that hold people to a certain standard for salvation purposes are self -righteous. This is not to say that we do not lovingly encourage and train others to biblical standards. We do not use these standards as a means to judge one’s salvation. For example, we would be wrong to tell someone, “You will go to hell if you don’t stop drinking.” This is terribly wrong doctrine. Any standard that we set as a qualification for salvation is wrong. Salvation is rooted in grace!

False Teachers Are to Be Accursed

Paul makes a strong statement that false teachers are to be damned to hell. This is a very strong proclamation. We must ask ourselves why such a strong statement. There are two reasons Paul points out. It disturbs the saints and distorts the gospel of Christ

Disturbs the saints

Any gospel that is false will bring about false disciples.

Forgiveness only gospel will not bring about any sanctification in a disciples life

Liberal Gospel will minimize the concern of sin in a disciples life.

Prosperity gospel will leave a person frustrated and doubt God when the claims are not fulfilled

Consumer Gospel will minimize Christ and elevate themselves.

Doctrinal Gospel will prevent a disciple from seeing truth because of doctrinal dogma.

Distorts the Gospel of Jesus Christ

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is rooted in the grace of God. God saw fit to take away the punishment we deserve and give us eternal life. The Gospel of Jesus Christ exalts Him as the Son of God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ Makes Disciples

29 The next day he *saw Jesus coming to him and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

12 And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 [e]Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you [f]always, even to the end of the age.”