INTRO.- Who said "Variety is the spice of life"? William Cowper, who was an English poet. Since variety is the spice of life, something different is good, CORRECT? Not necessarily. It depends on what you’re talking about.
ILL.- Something different was not necessarily a thing that my daddy approved of. How’s that? My first car was a 1954 Chevrolet with a six cylinder engine and I was always fooling around with it, trying to make it run faster, which was next to impossible. And my daddy would say, "If it’s running all right, leave it alone!"
In other words, "You don’t need to change a thing."
Likewise, I’ve seen churches change some things and sometimes it was a good change and sometimes, it wasn’t.
What’s that saying? "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it." If it is broke then let’s do something about it. Let’s fix it.
ILL.- I tried something different back around 1972-73. What’s that? I went from a full-sized car to a small car, thinking about getting better gas mileage. I bought a 1973 Chevrolet Vega, 4 cylinder (no power whatsoever), 4 speed on the floor, two-door (no room), no AC, and lemon yellow color. BAD MOVE. It was a very poor car, with little power and the mileage wasn’t that great!
Different doesn’t always mean better! And different doesn’t always mean correct!
ILL.- For example, many people would like to change marriage from Adam and Eve to Adam and Steve. And I’m not in favor of this! IT’S NOT BIBLICAL! It’s against God’s Word, plain and simple.
If gay people want to live together, then they will do it no matter what most people think, but from the Biblical perspective it is not and never should be considered marriage! Not all changes are good changes!
In our text, Paul was saying that some people wanted to change something about the church and it was not for the better! In fact, it could possibly destroy the church. Some people wanted to change the gospel message! Actually, some people were advocating a different gospel...something different from what Paul was preaching.
PROP.- Paul tells what problems could happen; what will happen if people turn to a different gospel.
1- A different gospel is no gospel at all
2- A different gospel is a perversion of the true gospel
3- A different gospel will bring on condemnation
I. A DIFFERENT GOSPEL IS NO GOSPEL AT ALL
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all.
ILL.- "You call that a knife?" Jul 25, 2006 LONDON - With Australian outback hero Crocodile Dundee as her inspiration, an 80-year-old British pensioner foiled (baffled) a knife-wielding burglar with an even bigger blade of her own.
When woke by a masked man holding a knife, Winifred Whelan screamed and ran downstairs to the kitchen.
Grabbing a giant carving knife, she told the startled intruder "You call that a knife? This is a knife" in an echo of the famous scene in the Crocodile Dundee film when actor Paul Hogan confronted a New York mugger.
As she took on the intruder, her husband grappled with his accomplice. Recalling the incident on the day the burglars were jailed for the break-in, Whelan told The Liverpool Echo: "I said to the robber ’You call that a knife?’ His was around 10 inches long and I had a carving knife measuring around 14 inches. I pointed it at his belly and added ’This is a knife!’"
The moral of the story is don’t mess with 80 year old women with 14 inch knives!
There are many things being preached today in the name of religion that are not true at all. THEY ARE NOT THE GOSPEL AT ALL! We could easily say, "You call that Christian? That’s not the Christian gospel at all!"
That’s exactly how I feel about the Church of Scientology. It’s no gospel at all. It contains no gospel of Christ. After all, the word "gospel" means good news and in the context of the Bible, it’s the good news about Christ. Christ died for our sins. Christ was raised from the dead after the third day. THAT’S THE TRUE GOSPEL! That’s the real thing!
ILL.- Here is what the church of Scientology states: Scientology is the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others and all of life. The Scientology says: Man is an immortal, spiritual being. His experience extends well beyond a single lifetime. His capabilities are unlimited, even if not presently realized — and those capabilities can be realized. He is able to not only solve his own problems, accomplish his goals and gain lasting happiness, but also achieve new, higher states of awareness and ability.
Do you see any gospel in that at all? NO, IT IS NOT THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL! Likewise, there are many other beliefs or religions that may have some great ideas or some commendable ideas to them, BUT THEY WON’T SAVE ANYBODY FROM HELL!
John 14:6 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Acts 4:12 "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
The is only one gospel that can save people from hell!
II. A DIFFERENT GOSPEL IS A PERVERSION OF THE TRUE GOSPEL
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
ILL.- Ellen Degeneres. Rosie O’Donnell. Elton John. What do these three people have in common? They have chosen the gay lifestyle.
Romans 1:26-27 "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion."
There are moral perversions and there are religious perversions as well. And they are not good!
ILL.- MIAMI, Florida -- The minister has the number 666 tattooed on his arm. But Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is not your typical minister. De Jesus, or "Daddy" as his thousands of followers call him, does not merely pray to God: He says he is God. "The spirit that is in me is the same spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth," de Jesus says.
De Jesus and his believers say their church -- "Growing in grace" -- is misunderstood. Followers of the movement say they have proof that their minister is divine and that their church will one day soon be a major faith in the world.
But even de Jesus concedes that he is an unlikely leader of a church that claims thousands of members in more than 30 countries.
De Jesus, 61, grew up poor in Puerto Rico. He says he served stints in prison there for petty theft and says he was a heroin addict. De Jesus says he learned he was Jesus reincarnate when he was visited in a dream by angels.
"The prophets, they spoke about me. It took me time to learn that, but I am what they were expecting, what they have been expecting for 2,000 years," de Jesus says.
The church that he began building 20 years ago in Miami resembles no other:
- De Jesus preaches there is no devil and no sin. His followers, he says, literally can do no wrong in God’s eyes.
- The church calls itself the "Government of God on Earth" and uses a seal similar to the United States.
De Jesus also does not fit the mold of the average church leader. He says he has a church-paid salary of $136,000 but lives more lavishly than that. During an interview, he showed off a diamond-encrusted Rolex to a CNN crew and said he has three just like them. He travels in armored Lexuses and BMWs, he says, for his safety. All are gifts from his devoted followers. And what about the tattoo of 666 on his arm? Although it’s a number usually associated with Satan, not the son of God, de Jesus says that 666 and the Antichrist are, like him misunderstood. The Antichrist is not the devil, de Jesus tells his congregation; he’s the being who replaces Jesus on Earth.
"Antichrist is the best person in the world," he says. "Antichrist means don’t put your eyes on Jesus because Jesus of Nazareth wasn’t a Christian. Antichrist means do not put your eyes on Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Put it on Jesus after the cross." And de Jesus says that means him.
Matthew 24:4-5 "Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ’I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many."
I think this De Jesus guy is a false Christ and is preaching a perversion of the true gospel. And there are plenty of others.
III. A DIFFERENT GOSPEL WILL BRING ON CONDEMNATION
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
ILL.- One lady wrote: "My boyfriend is a constant joker. He never stops. Imagine Jim Carrey and Robin Williams nonstop. That is my boyfriend. I like him but I want him to be serious sometimes. What can I do to make him stop joking once in a while?" Probably nothing!
Some people think of life as one big joke. And yet I believe in laughter and humor.
Proverbs 17:22 "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."
I prefer to have a cheerful heart and be a cheerful heart to others! I would much rather spread cheerful or good news than bad news. The other side of the coin is this.
ILL.- Hank Aaron (Formerly baseball’s all-time home-run king) said: "I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That’s when you’ve got to be serious. When I get out on the field, nothing’s a joke to me. I don’t feel like I should walk around with a smile on my face."
There is definitely a time to be serious. Life is serious. God’s Word, however, is serious and especially, when it comes to the matter of eternity! Some people may think of heaven and hell as a joke, but we know better. We know the Word of God. There is a heaven to be gained and a hell to be avoided.
ILL.- On an American troopship, the soldiers crowded around their chaplain asking, “Do you believe in hell?” “I do not.” “Well, then, will you please resign, for if there is no hell, we do not need you, and if there is a hell, we don’t wish to be led astray.”
I think many people have been led astray when it comes to subject and the reality of hell. Hell is not here on earth. War is not hell. It’s hellish, but it’s not hell. I don’t think anything on earth can compare to hell but there is much hellishness.
ILL.- R. A. Torrey wrote: "If you in any way abate (diminish) the doctrine of hell, it will abate your zeal." What did Torrey mean? If we do away with the doctrine of hell then we do away with our zeal for preaching the gospel that saves from hell! And we may have done this very thing.
Paul said: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
There are many things that will send a person to hell and one of them is preaching a false or a perverted gospel! We dare not be found guilty, though some are.
II Peter 2:1 "But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves." And/or sending them to hell!
CONCLUSION------------
10 Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
ILL.- Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has been accused of lying about what the CIA did or did not say to her (and Congress) about the use of interrogation tactics on certain terrorist suspects. Man many not know but God knows.
One thing is sure: you could not accuse the apostle Paul of lying to people. He told them the truth of God as it was revealed to him. And he didn’t soften the message to please men. He was a servant of Christ. He wanted to please Christ. Consequently, he told the truth about the gospel and those who would preach a different gospel.
In our witnessing, we, too, must serve Christ and speak the truth but speak it in love.
God help us to please Christ, to serve Him and speak the truth of His gospel to all people.
Steve Shepherd, Jonesboro Christian Church, AR
jonesborochristianchurch@suddenlink.net
