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The Perversion of the Gospel
In 2 Corinthians 11 Paul talks about “another gospel”, “another Jesus”, and “another spirit”,. Again in Galatians chapter 1 verse 6, he speaks about “another gospel.” There is another gospel today. When many hear this they immediately think about certain Christian sects like the Russelites (Watchtower) or others. What few realize today is that both these Churches to whom Paul wrote these warnings were already being infiltrated and being subdued by this other “gospel” and “spirit”. He is speaking to Christians, believers in Christ in both cases. We need today to discern this “other gospel” to distinguish if we 1) Be not partakers in it and 2) Are not living in some fashion in it. If we do not heed this discernment, we may become accursed or have things that spread a deadly effect on us and through us on others. “If any man preaches another gospel” Paul says “let him be accursed.” And “Woe unto me if I preach not the gospel!”
Both these churches to which Paul wrote this warning, their conduct and life were in one way or the other in error. We can assume that when one’s life and conduct etc, are in one way or another in error or is continually fleshly that that person (in one way or the other) is in error with the gospel and a being influenced by “another gospel.”
When I refer to this, I do by no means imply that all who do not agree with us in every doctrine are preaching another gospel. There are some things that men emphasize more, but they may still preach Christ. Paul rejoiced when Christ was preached even in envy and contention and even with competition. What do you think then, what is the characteristics and identification marks of another gospel? What would you say is being preached and taught today? Paul says some will taught another gospel, another Jesus and another Spirit. What then are the characteristics of another gospel? (we will not look at the marks of another Jesus, another Spirit, etc, but only this reference)
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.” (Gal 1:6-7)
Let me mention at least one major character of this other gospel which Paul actually saying is not another. It is in fact a perversion of the gospel of Christ. We need to understand this clearly. It is not in essence another gospel, but a perversion of the true gospel. What does it mean? They don’t come preaching totally strange doctrine. It have just enough truth in it so that it will pass the unobserved eye, so that it pervert the gospel of Christ, and so render it ineffective and become in men a perversion which rob it of its power and effectiveness. It has just enough truth in it that it does not replace the gospel but pervert it. They talk about the blood and the cross, about Jesus and His birth and death and resurrection. They talk about heaven and hell. They talk about these very things because its not so much another different gospel, but a perversion of the true gospel.
What does this “perverted gospel” do? If you can find the answer to this question you will be able to understand its distinctiveness. Listen to what Paul says to the church in Galatia: “I marvel…” It lets you marvel at its seduction and effectiveness. It led Paul to marvel. It doesn’t marvel someone who doesn’t know the power of the un perverted gospel. But here Paul marvels at this power that this perversion have on those to whom he presented Christ. This is most remarkable. Some would think that another gospel would not in any way have the ability to seduce those that posses the true gospel. At what did Paul marvel? Well listen to this: “that you are so soon removed…” This we must take to heart. You see a perversion of the gospel may effect one’s steadfastness and stability - even more – it will affect true growth and maturity. It will REMOVE one from Christ, but especially from the Holy Spirit: “you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ…” The word use here for “remove” means to “to fall away or desert from one person or thing to another” so that one become more attached to something else that the One you have been remove from. And this is exactly what the perverted gospel is effecting, making men more busy with other truths and subtly REMOVING them from THE TRUTH which is in Christ alone. One of the marks by which you can easily discern this is how men have a zeal and passion for many Biblical truths, but are being separated and removed from THE TRUTH. You find them speaking more about the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, more about revival, law, holiness, unity, signs and wonders, miracles, healing, social upliftment, etc, than they speak about Christ! All these have their place in the Christian walk, but they become the whole focus and so become loosened from the commitment their should be to Christ.
“For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” (2 Corinthians 11:2-4)
This is exactly what the other gospel is characterized with; it removes men from the single-hearted devotion to Christ so to influence the mind to seek after other experiences and after other matters also of importance but which are obtained only by abiding in Christ. They become objects in themselves to obtain more fruitfulness, more holiness, etc. Men become more zealous for church life, Holy Spirit endowments, holiness, and as in the Church in Galatia, for the law, circumcision, the keeping of the Sabbath, of feasts and ceremonies, etc, so that the mind, the heart, the whole man is taken in by these things, thus removing them from that singleness and simplicity which their should be to Christ alone.
Look at its effect: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ…” Look at this: “removed from Him that called you INTO THE GRACE of Christ…” This is what is behind this perverted gospel. It lure men OUT OF that vital atmosphere in which they must grow and be established and in which they must come to maturity. Can you see this? Men are being removed by a perverted message to dwell more on things they must keep than that which Christ is and have become for them. O the grace of God in Christ!
See its effect in the Galatians:
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” (Galatians 5:2-9)
Look at this: “Christ have become of no effect to you!” and “you have fallen from grace!” Can you see this: The work and Person of Christ have become futile in the believers life that have been “corrupted” by a perverted gospel! How? By leaving or becoming removed by other acts of obedience, by ceremonies and observances, etc from the grace of Christ! Other things become more important than the undeserved grace we have received in Christ!
This brings us (cannot continue on this aspect although there is still much to say about this) to one basic characteristic of the perverted gospel. Please remember it is not at all a different gospel, Paul refers to this in Galatians 1:6 as not a “different” gospel, but more to a “perversion” of the gospel. (It is so perverted that Paul calls it “another gospel” to distinguish it as another, although he says is not another, but a perverted gospel.) This means that it has just enough truth in it so that it is a perversion of the gospel of Christ. They talk about the blood and the cross, about Jesus, His virgin birth, His death and resurrection. They talk about heaven and hell. They acknowledge all these things because it is not a different gospel. They talk about the second coming, about judgment, etc. Don’t get it wrong now! Don’t get deceived by this very fact that those that preach another gospel teach strange things and use different concepts, no, it’s the same gospel, same terminology, different application, different emphasis.
I need to bring at least two characteristic to your attention, one which I believe if not acknowledged and deeply understood will lead one away easy into perversion and seduction.
THE PERVERTED GOSPEL DENIES ORIGINAL SIN
It has to do with sin and the sin question. We need to understand this one, if not all other things will be in error as well. The perverse gospel have a different analysis and view of sin than what the unadulterated gospel has. The other gospel, the other Jesus and the other spirit deny original sin. If any man is going to be right on his doctrine or right on his gospel or on his knowledge of God and himself, he has got to be right on the sin question. If he is wrong here he’s wrong all the way. What is “original sin?” It’s called original sin because it was the first sin. It’s called original sin because it was the sin that started all other sin. It is called original sin because it was the beginning of sin and because ALL sin is the fruit of this sin and the offspring of this sin.
“Everybody will admit he has sinned!” That’s a fact; most will admit they have sinned. BUT how many will admit that they are sin? You see, a man will admit he has sin, but he will not admit that he IS sin. Romans 3:23 says: “All have sinned and fall short from the glory of God.” Everybody today knows and acknowledge that. 1 John 1:10 says: “If we say that we have not sinned, we are a liar, and the truth is not in us.” All know that too. It’s not difficult to get people to admit that they have sinned at one time or other to some degree, all agree. Here is what the other gospel fails to preach. It is difficult to get men to admit the reason why they sin. Now, you have broken God’s law. Why did you break God’s law? You sinned against God. Why did you sin? You stole a watermelon and it is wrong to steal the watermelon. But WHY did you steal the watermelon? If you can figure out WHY you did it you will know why you are under condemnation. The argument between you and God is not the fact that you took the watermelon. IT IS WHY YOU TOOK THE WATERMELON. That’s the problem. That’s original sin.
Please listen to this: A thief is not a sinner because he steals. That is not WHY he is a sinner. HE STEALS BECAUSE HE IS A SINNER. That’s it. He was a sinner BEFORE he ever stole. If he hadn’t been a sinner before he stole he wouldn’t have stole it in the first place. That’s original sin. The preacher’s today preach “If you do this you sin.” You do that because you are a sinner. That’s WHY you do it. That’s what motivated you to do it. That’s the whole problem.
The Pharisees in Jesus day didn’t understand this fact back then neither. That’s the reason why they went around teaching that you ought not steal and you ought not kill and you ought not commit adultery and you ought not take God’s name in vain. They taught all these things. Listen it’s the same today, you must keep the Sabbath, live soberly, don’t dress like that don’t go to that, etc, clean out your house from all kinds of satanic things and occult things and see you will be ok and well again if you do! And if you don’t do these things you are not a sinner. So you wash your hands before you eat so you don’t become defiled and all these things.
Look at Matthew 15:17-20 quickly:
“Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.”
The adulterer is not a sinner because he commits adultery. Did you see that? That’s not when he becomes a sinner. No sir. Christ said: “You have heard it said by them of old times, Thou shalt not commit adultery. BUT I say unto you the law saith to look and lust is to be guilty already.”
The man commits adultery because he is a sinner. The liar doesn’t become a sinner when he lies. HE IS ALREADY a sinner. THAT’S WHY HE LIES. Those who know anything about the Bible and anything about God and anything about sin not only repent for what they have done. They repent for what they are.
Scripture doesn’t teach that you are at enmity against God. Well, you say, “Yes, it does.” Turn to Romans 8. The Bible doesn’t say you are at enmity with God. It doesn’t say that at all though it’s true. It’s not what it says. In Romans 8, look at it, verse 7 and 8: “the carnal mind…” What does it say? “Is enmity against God.” It’s not AT enmity. It IS enmity.
There is a nature, a seed. There is a mind IN us that hates everything that is holy and everything that is good and everything that is righteous and that flesh lusteth against the Spirit and is not, read on… “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not SUBJECT to the law of God; neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh CANNOT please God.”
When Adam fell in the garden of Eden original sin, the first sin, the beginning of all sin, the source of all sin, when Adam fell, Scripture testifies in Romans 5:12 “By one man SIN entered INTO the world, and death by sin; and so death, spiritual death, spiritual darkness, passed upon all men,” and become the very nature of all men so that all men were by nature sinners and therefore by nature children of wrath!
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” (Ephesians 2:1-3)
Romans 5:18 says: “By the offence of one man judgment came upon all men … by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners…”
Now we are born enemies of holiness. That’s what David is talking about in Psalm 51. This is the thing that this “other gospel” denies. It denies the seed of sin, the nature of sin, the IMPUTATION and impartation of sin to us. In Psalm 51 David says verse 5: “I was shapen in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive me.”
Now, listen carefully. The average church preacher holds that a baby is not a sinner that it keeps on developing until it comes to a crossroads in life. Some say 6, others 12 years old. Then when it first offends IT BECOMES a sinner. It’s not in Holy Scripture. It was based on some false doctrine.
Now, when do we become sinners? Turn to Psalm 58, verse 3: “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.” Not 12 years or 6 years, as soon as they are born!
Many deny this. The “other gospel” denies original sin. It denies what we are by birth and by nature. We are supposed to pursue holiness and to abstain from evil and to walk in paths of righteousness. The bent of our will is to be righteousness and holiness unto the Lord. But that is just what man is, he is natural, he is carnal, sold under sin. His whole mind and soul and being and heart. Our trouble is not just what we have done. It’s what we are. Our problem before God is not just what we perform in action. It is attitude, it is nature. And so when one deny original sin, he denies the need of the new birth and of a new life and of a new heart and that whatever comes from man how good and worthy it may be, is all sin and not pleasing to God in any way. When you still held that there is something in man, a potential, a self image, a something, then you deny this truth of original sin and then chance is great that you have and believe in a perverted gospel!
Jesus said: “that which is born of the flesh IS flesh…. You MUST BE born again. In the flesh no man can please God, in the flesh DWELLETH NO GOOD THING (Romans 7). In the flesh man is enmity. Only that which is born of the Spirit IS spirit.” You MUST BE BORN AGAIN. This other gospel deny this. Oh, it speaks about regeneration, but not to receive a new nature but to enhance the already good one men already posses within!
I need to stop right here but it will fall short if I do. The second thing that the other gospel denies – this will really get to you – if the first one didn’t this one will. The other gospel denies that sinners DESERVE to be damned!
THE PERVERTED GOSPEL DENIES THE DAMNATION OF SINNERS
Do you believe that your mother and father deserve to go to hell? Do you believe your children deserve to go to hell? Look at their faces, do you really believe that they DESERVE hell? Do you think God OUGHT TO send those boys to hell, that gracious little girl? Let us come closer to home. Do you believe God ought to send you to hell? This is one of the most difficult areas of the human mind to agree with God. This is one of the most difficult areas to JUSTIFY God.
We can rejoice in God’s Love, can’t we? “For God so loved…” Everybody loves that kind of preaching. “When we all get to heaven…”
We are not all going to heaven.
“Won’t it be wonderful there when we all get there?”
We ain’t all going there. The Bible testifies to that. We rejoice in God’s Love and mercy and God’s grace. How many of us can rejoice in God’s justice and God’s holiness and God’s righteousness? How many can say “halleluiah” when God sends a man to hell? Can you?
We don’t see sin as God sees sin. We cannot in the flesh, agree that God ought to send a man to hell. Can we? We just can’t believe it. We just can’t agree with it. We just cannot bring ourselves to agree with the justice of God.
Is the sinner to be pitied or to be blamed? He is to be blamed.
Is God obligated, to take you to heaven? You have broken the law of God. Is He obligated to take those little criminals that play outside to heaven? Let’s be honest. They have broken God’s law. Is He unjust if He punishes their sin? No, they get what they deserve. Now, here is what it comes down to. You don’t really believe they are criminals, do you? You don’t believe your boy is altogether sin, do you?
A woman once said: “Pray for my son, he is a good boy, but he’s not saved.” Well, if he is good he doesn’t need to be saved! There is no reason to save a good boy. What does a good boy needs salvation for?
“Pray for my husband. He is a good man, but he is just not saved.” He doesn’t need to be saved. Only sinners need to be saved. People who are lost and going to hell, people who deserve hell, that’s the people for whom Christ died. He said “I came to seek the lost, I didn’t come to call the righteous to repentance. They have no need of repentance.
So God is not obligated to save you. God is not unjust if He doesn’t save you. You have broken His law. “All have sinned and fall short from the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. The soul that sinneth it shall die.” That’s what God said. “I will in no wise clear the guilty.”
This other gospel is being preached today. It denies the nature of sin. It denies the source of sin. It denies the seed of sin. It denies what a man is by birth. They say men must quit bad habits, “if you don’t quit drinking and smoking you are going to hell and if you don’t quit gambling you are going to hell and if you don’t stop lying you are going to hell!” You can quit every one of these things and still go to hell. You can be the most respectable, most moral, most religious person in this country and still go to hell because salvation is not just turning from idols it is turning from who you are by birth, by nature, TO the Living God. Salvation is not merely quiting something it is joining someone, being vitally engrafted with that Person in a living union. This other gospel that is being preached today also says: “pity the sinner, do not blame the sinner.” It says: “I don’t believe a good God will send a man to hell.” If God spared not His own Son, He is not going to spare the rebels of this world.
Turn to Revelation 19:1-3 for a moment:
“And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.”
That’s the great religious organization. “Which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.”
And the saved shouted “Halleluiah,” while God sent the religious organization to hell. That’s what it says.
Now to summarize: This other gospel, they use all the same terminology, they use blood, they use cross, they use Jesus, it’s another Jesus. They use the Holy Spirit, it’s another spirit. They use heaven, they use hell. It’s another gospel because they deny the condition of man by birth, by practice, by choice and by the fall. They present some goodness still in man, something in man capable of pleasing God, something in man like one prominent leader of this other gospel says: “Discover your full potential,” or:
“At Lakewood Church, we believe in new beginnings. Lakewood is a place of unlimited possibilities where your need is our greatest concern. Your life is full of potential. And this moment can determine your destiny. Join us this Sunday. At Lakewood Church, we're here for you! We believe in new beginnings! We believe in you!” (Olsteen)
This is but a very short glimpse into the perverted gospel, one you must seriously look at, examine and test, even in your own life. The very things you do, to without doubt know the difference and to see its influence so that with open eyes you may be able (or at least begin to) to distinguish the true from the perversion. Remember the perverted gospel removes one; it leads one away from Christ and from a life of true godliness and fruitfulness.
God bless and may the Word of His grace establish you in Christ and in His Word, to all well pleasing in His sight, to Him be all the glory, Amen.