That "Other" Gospel

Introduction

What’s wrong with telling a little white lie? What is wrong with teaching folks on a subject you’ve yet to master? Fake it till you make it! That’s what you do, right? Well, a little white lie, or faking it till you make it, might actually work at your job. And what is the worst case scenario, there? You get fired for not knowing what you’re doing? Maybe, or maybe your lack of knowledge and puffed up ego might get someone seriously injured or killed. Which leads me to my next point.

How many people come to church every Sunday to hear the preacher tell you what “he thinks he hears from God?” What happens if a preacher gets caught faking it till he makes it? There will be an angry and hurt church who would righteously feel betrayed by the one man they are supposed to trust. This is the least of dangers that exist with false doctrine or false teachers. Your afterlife depends on what you hear and take in in comparison with what the truth is so would you knowingly be led off a cliff by a false shepherd?

That’s what happens when someone compromises the gospel. Think on this for a minute. The gospel is that Jesus came and gave his life as an atonement, being judged perfect and righteous by the law and anyone who has faith in him will recieve imputed righteousness from God because he bore the sin we committed on the cross and we wear a crown of righteousness because of our faith in His gospel. Is this not the gospel in a nutshell? Those of you who truly know the gospel, knows that I lie not and am telling the truth. Those of you who don’t know are hoping that I am telling the truth and not leading you blindly off a shear faced cliff.

Knowing the gospel is just that important! Now, preachers who claim they know the truth and that they are preaching the truth are a dime a dozen. Around every pulpit, upon every platform lies a man who claims he is telling the truth. But different church denominations and different church organizations have different doctrines and since there can only be one actual, factual truth, someone is preaching a false doctrine.

Before we get on with the rest of this message, lets turn in our bibles to the book of Galatians. We are going to be reading Chapter One verses six through ten.

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel---not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Gal. 1:6-10, ESV)

Big Truth To Remember

The truth I want you to walk out of this service and remember ten years down the road is that though they may be many teachers and preachers and many different doctrines, there is only one gospel by which you can be saved. That is the doctrine of grace.

Main Points That Support The Truth

What is the doctrine of grace? Well, in a nutshell, is that we are saved through our faith in Jesus Christ by the grace of God without any righteous works of the law, without any sacrifices, any ceremonies, any observing of days, any pilgramages, without any bowing to the worshipping of apostle’s bones, skulls, or the like. By grace only. This means that your salvation does not depend on you at all, except for exercising faith in Jesus Christ. Other than the exercising of faith, God is solely responsible for your salvation. We who believe as the Bible tells us depend on Christ’s perfection for our righteousness, for God said he will impute that perfection upon us while Christ was crucified for us, rather, in our place, with our sin.

The scripture passage today begs us to answer the question, “Which gospel did we receieve?” If we received the right gospel, then we have salvation before God. If we received the wrong gospel, well, God only knows what will happen to you eternally. So, I didn’t come here today to preach to you the gospel. That’s truth! I came today to use the scriptures to show you what is not the gospel. Don’t worry if you have believed wrong, just get onboard going the right direction. God knows your heart.

In our passage of scripture, Paul gives us three red flags we should look for if we have received the wrong gospel. They are:

The Desertion of Grace

The Troubling of Your Spirit

The Want To Please Man Over God

If any of these exist in your faith and conduct, then it may be that you have received the wrong gospel. My friends, those who preach the wrong gospel are accursed. Paul tells us this twice. But what about the one who believes the wrong gospel. What happens to him? The answer cannot be good.

So, without further delay, let us look at the 1st red flag and compare it to the Scriptures---The Desertion of Grace.

1: The Desertion of Grace

A tree is known by its fruit. While God did not make us fruit inspectors, He does allow us to observe what kind of fruit is in a church. My friends, the apple does not fall far from the tree! In other words, what is preached in the pulpit is believed on in the congregation. How the church members portray the knowledge they learn from their preacher is what type of fruit that church has been eating on.

So let us think a moment. If a member of a church tells you that you can lose your salvation, then chances are they have deserted the grace of Christ. You may ask, “Why is that, preacher?” There are a number of reasons why this doctrine is not the gospel.

Firstly, if salvation is promised by God, then taking salvation away would be a promise broken by God. On a more literal note, that is like saying God is a liar. Listen to this promise made by Jesus concerning God’s promise, “My sheep here my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:27-29, ESV). If you belong to Christ, then you belong to the Father. Jesus promises that once you are his, then no one can snatch you away. No one! That’s a promise.

If salvation can be lost because you do not attend church, or cuss, or have lied, or have coveted another man’s things, then salvation is only attained by NOT doing these things. Think about it! Is this not abiding by the law for salvation? And according to Galatians 3:11, the Bible says in regards to the law, “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.” (ESV)

Thirdly, why did Jesus die on the cross? Was it not so you can be justified through faith before God the Father? If our salvation is lost because we sin, then why did Christ die to begin with? If the law is to be followed no differently now in the New Testament than in the Old Testament, then what was the purpose of the Messiah altogether? Paul spoke on behalf of this very concept to the Galatians in Gal. 3:11, saying, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (ESV). How many of us dare look at our Savior in the after-life and say, “You died for no reason! I have made my own self righteous!” Nobody dare say it, so why do we think it or act as if he did die for nothing?

So then, just by these three reasons, we can see that any teaching that says you can lose your salvation by sin is not the doctrine of grace, but similarly, the teaching of the law, in disguise, of course. The only true way that a man or woman can lose thier salvation is to lose their faith. If you once had faith, but through the years you have cussed, not attended church, lied, or have coveted another man’s things, then you may lose your faith in Jesus Christ as the righteous Son of God, the Messiah, the great Blood Atonement, and our Savior!

We are not those who put confidence in ourselves, that we can avoid sin. That puts confidence in the flesh to be deemed righteous by God. No, we are those who put our confidence, yea even more, our faith, in Jesus Christ the righteous so God may deem us righteous by faith in Him. If this be the case, children, we cannot lose our salvation by sin, only by losing our faith.

Now that we know that leaving the doctrine of grace and believing in works is the wrong gospel, let us move onto the second red flag.

2: The Troubling of the Spirit

Paul, in our passage of Scripture today, says, “…but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ...” Did anyone know that this too was a sign of one who has recieved the wrong gospel? Yes, because the true gospel is evenly distributed and it all makes sense. When you recieve the wrong gospel, things become confusing and you become disoriented in your faith. This is a tale tail sign of being taught the wrong gospel. Let’s take a further look into our example, the other gospel that your salvation can be lost.

So, without a doubt, we know that other gospel’s float around and do not bare witness to truth. We know this because there isn’t just one denomination or organization of churches. Each denomination and organization gives you their take on what they believe the gospel says. Now, you won’t see as much trouble if you faithfully attend that denomination’s church services. You will go along, mostly without question, and I do say mostly, because you will still encounter a troubling of the spirit. But if you decide to change denominations, and you once hear the gospel preached true, that old other gospel you heard will come forward in your mind and you will have two conflicting beliefs, that in essence, totally disagree with each other. Yet each gospel will be preached as if they were absolutely the truth.

I encountered this very “troubling of the spirit”. I had always believed, from the time I was a little kid, that one could lose his/her salvation if they committed sin. I believed that even if you still had the same faith in Christ, you would still have to go back and start all over. After a DUI in South Carolina on April 23, 2005 woke me up on how I was living my life and where I was destined to go in the after-life, I started to change my ways and started attending church. Because my girlfriend was Pentecostal, I just fell in with the Pentecostal folk, who mostly believe your salvation could be lost due to excessive sin. This seemed to fit me because I had believed that “other gospel” since I was a kid.

One day, I couldn’t get to church. I do not remember if it was the lack of gas money or something else, I just remember I couldn’t get to that church, which was some 20 miles from my home. I decided instead to visit a Baptist church just down the road. Once there, I felt like I was in a very strange twilight zone type place, because of the difference in the worship styles between Pentecostals and Baptists. But that was nothing compared to how I felt when I heard someone preach the true gospel to me. It made me gasp. This man was telling me that Jesus died for every sin I ever committed and ever will commit and that His blood was an exact payment for all my sins. He said that salvation wasn’t ever lost, and that God loved His children so much that He sent Jesus, His Only Son, for our lives. The man preached that God is love!

Now this was entirely different to what I was used to hearing. I was used to being preached into hellfire and asked relentlessly to repent and change my ways or hell was my destination. This gospel said that anyone who believed on Jesus Christ was saved, and saved eternally. These two contradicted and left a big hole in my chest, which filled quick with horrid confusion.

I got away from all church services for 2 years afterward. I wanted to know for myself what that Bible said so I studied it on my own, free from all distraction. I knew that both gospels could not be true! In fact, it is impossible that both are true. On August 9, 2009, the Lord Christ showed up. In the early morning, I was reading the Word at 10 chapters a day as I was accustomed, and God showed me that He would never leave me or forget me. That His Son payed my debt eternally! I was saved forever in spite of sin.

All I could do was stand in awe. After 2 long years reading and studying the Bible, the true gospel became quite clear. During that time, however, I stayed confused, bewildered, and disoriented on the true gospel. That was because my spirit was troubled. Check your spirit. Are you troubled over your faith or are you as a “tree planted by the water and unable to be moved”? If you are confused, as a comedian once said, there’s your sign.

So, we have covered two red flags that are definite evidences of recieving the wrong gospel. Firstly, we saw that any leaving of the doctrine of grace was a red flag, and secondly, we seen that when our spirit is troubled it very well may be a sign of believing the wrong gospel. Finally, the third red flag is the want to please man over God.

3: The Want To Please Man Over God

Paul asks a rhetorical question, here, to the Galatian churches. In verse 10, he asks them, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man?” Just as soon as he finishes his question, Paul provides us with an answer and our final red flag. He says, “If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” If you or your church has a inward “need” to please a man over God just so they won’t be the subject of the next sermon, you might have recieved that “other gospel”.

Most of us say things like “Men-pleasers! Nobody likes them. Hypocrites they are”. But deep down in every human being lies the want to be liked by our contemporaries. There are many people who base their personal success on their popularity with people. Although, most will not straight-forward admit it, they will tend to lean toward pleasing a man who is in the position to place judgment on them rather than please God. This is extremely carnal and fleshly, earthly!

Not only is it sin to want to do please man over God, it is also a sign and effect of the “other gospel”. The “other” gospel will tell you that pleasing men over God is sin, just as in the real gospel, but the evidence of a man-pleasing preacher or teacher will soon be evident in the pulpit.

Let me tell you of a folly of mine when I first began preaching. Now, I started preaching in the Pentecostal church and I started preaching that “other” gospel we are currently having talking about. Most anyone who has ever visited a Pentecostal church knows that the worship style and the preaching is set out and designed to be super-dynamic; almost like a show. Well, in the church where I served, it truly was a show. They would conclude that if you prayed for someone and they did not pass out or faint while being prayed for, you had no “power”. So, preachers would stand and yell prayers out loud until the one being prayed for passed out “in the spirit”. It made for quite a spectacle. If you had been there when revival time came about, it turned into a literal preach-off contest between performers.

But, being a part of the “assembly”, I would take a mental note of whose preaching style I really liked. There is a certain “traditional” preaching style within the Pentecostal church called “the woodchop”. Let me do a demonstration of “the woodchop” preaching style:

“And God said “uh”, Let there be light “uh” and “uh” there was light “uh”.

I really digged that type of preaching. So, before long, here comes ole Reverend Marv with a fresh new “woodchop” preaching style. That’s right. I am ashamed to admit it, but I copied what I thought the audience would want to hear. The method, the style, the hair, the suit, the music, and that “other” gospel were my trademarks and claim to Pentecostal fame. I knew, but refused to admit it, that I was in the business of pleasing men rather than God.

The gospel of works will lead you into looking good in front of man but looking like a smoldering pile of garbage to God. Jesus once told the Pharisees in Matthew 23:25-26,

“Woe, to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.”

What did this mean to me then? Well, lets go through a quick run-down of what I looked like and what I appeared to be doing.

First, I was preaching in a style of preaching not because God’s Spirit was upon me to do so, but because I liked it and thought it personally to be powerful.

Secondly, my hair, my shoes, my suit and even matching hat declared me to be a knock off of someone I saw and respected.

Third, I attended church, so the preacher and his cohorts would not talk about me or trash me because I wasn’t there. Although, I did go to worship Christ as well, I did put pleasing my preacher first. That is a no-no.

With me doing at least these three things, this verse convicted me that my heart was not right before God. My heart wasn’t right because I had believed the wrong gospel. Although I may have appeared to be an ideal Christian, my insides were full of self-indulging man pleasing over pleasing God. My plate and cup were mightily clean on the outside, but my insides were like dead man’s bones. I wasn’t alive, but dead. I wasn’t saved, but lost. I wasn’t spiritual, I was carnal. I woke up and became alive when I believed the true gospel.

We have learned today what signs accompany someone who has believed upon the wrong gospel. First, they, by their own admission, have abandoned the doctrine of grace and went about to achieve their own righteousness. Second, they’re usually troubled in spirit because the doctrine they believe does not fit the Word and keeps them confused and troubled in spirit. Finally, we learned that many of them have an inward “need to please man” outwardly and abandon God both inwardly and outwardly. My friends, these are signs of what the wrong gospel can do to someone and I have given myself as the supreme example. So we are going to conclude with what the true gospel really is.

Conclusion

The gospel is better known in this age as “the good news”. Jesus Christ was born of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, the future wife of Joseph. These were His earthly parents. When Christ was around 30 years old, he began to preach the good news that He was the Messiah and that the kingdom of heaven had drawn near. He taught the people that He was the Son of God who is God in the flesh and that He came to save all of those who would come to believe He was the Son of God. He told them the prophecies concerning Him, both ones that were old and some new ones. He was straight to the point saying that He would be lifted up off the ground and crucified and that His life would be given in exchange for believers. That His perfect blood would then be placed as the atonement for sin, replacing cattle, sheep, and goats that was written formerly in the Law. He told us that anyone who believed on His name would be saved.

Paul, writing through the Holy Spirit, told us that Christ’s perfection and sinlessness would be placed on those who had faith in Him, not because they were sinless, but because He was. He told us that our sins were placed on Christ and that He was punished to the death, even the death of the cross, in our place and that by faith, God imputed Christ’s righteousness on the believer, which allowed them to become the children of God and remain at peace with God while we were once His perfect enemy. Paul told us that the covenant of the law had passed away with Christ’s death and that now, as it had always been, faith was the only way to become righteous. Faith in Christ, that is!

Yet, there are some who preach that “other gospel”. The gospel where you can lose that which God promised the believer through excessive sin. This gospel depends more on following the Law than depending on Christ’s perfection and God’s imputed righteousness on the believer. This “other gospel”, which Paul says is no gospel at all, teaches us that because we are believers, we are to be nearly perfect, at least in the sight of man. This “other gospel” which is modernely translated, “the other good news” is in fact, “no good news at all”.

Today we studied the symptoms of some who believe in that gospel. We talked about how they do not depend on God’s grace. We talked about how that other good news caused a troubling of the spirit. And we talked about how it would make us hypocrites before God as we acted our goodness out before men rather than God. This “other gospel” should not be preached in the world, yet for everything God has done perfectly and righteously, Satan has developed a nearly identical belief, meant to take you and I and put us back under the captivity of sin, when God clearly said we were free from judgment of sin that resulted in hell and eternal death.

God does not take that which He promises. If you have faith in Christ as the perfect and sinless Son of God and that He gave His life a substitution for the sins of the world, and that by faith, God has given you eternal life, then my friends, you are saved. This should make you feel thanksgiving to God on a new level, make you feel a sense of purpose in worship, and should steer you away from committing sin because of the “grace” and “mercy” he has showed upon those of us who name ourselves “the children of God”. This is the “good news” and “the one true gospel” and will forever be and my friends, this is good news. Thanks to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in this kind and selfless act of love He has shown us, for,

“…God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16, 17, ESV).