What Are False Gospels? | Theocast

The Seriousness of a False Gospel

How do you know if you are believing in a false gospel? It's an important question, and you would definitely want to know because it's not like you got the recipe wrong for cookies, or you read the manual wrong to put in a spark plug.

Those damages can be repaired, but you cannot repair the damages done by a false gospel. This is why Paul says if I or anyone else comes and preached to you a different or a new gospel than the one that you've already received, which is the true gospel, you should curse them, damn them, reject that, because it's that serious.

You're talking about the relationship that you have between a holy God, the creator of the universe, and yourself, the sinner. You better get it right, because if you don't get it right, again, you are going to be condemned for your sins.

The Good News of the Gospel: Christ's Finished Work and Gifted Righteousness

This is why it's called good news. By the way, just to clarify the word gospel, sometimes we misunderstand the nature of it. See, news is something that's already happened. When we turn on the television, we watch the news.

The news is telling us what has happened. When we think about what's the future to come, we can prophesy, or we can potentially guess what may happen, but that's not news. News, what's so great about it, is it can't be changed.

It's already in the past. Therefore, it's finished. It's sealed. So when we put the words good news together, that's wonderful for a sinner. So what is the good news for a sinner in relationship to God?

Well, we have to get the gospel right if we're going to compare it to false gospels, and the good news of the gospel is this to sinners, that you were required to obey God perfectly, and not only in action, but in your thoughts and in your words.

100 perfect all of the time. I mean, let's just take the most simple command. Love God with all of your heart and your mind and your strength. We don't even need to think about the rest of them because we've all failed in those areas.

Our Creator calls us to worship Him with our affections and our love, and we cannot do it. Not even for a second are we able to do that perfectly. Then we add on that our lack of obedience and our actions that violate God, and it's obvious that it's not our actions that have condemned us.

It is our nature. By nature, we do these actions. This is why it says we were born into sin, into the sin of Adam. It's been handed down to us. So we being by nature, the children of wrath, Ephesians 2, we're doomed and there's nothing we can do.

Paul describes it this way in Ephesians 2, that we were dead. It wasn't that we just needed to try harder, bring ourselves to life so that we could do more, obey, have faith. None of that is capable. We're not capable of that because of the nature of who we are.

We're spiritually not able to transform ourselves. Here's the good news, and this is why it's good. In the midst of our death, in our lack of capacity, one came named Christ, the Messiah, Jesus, who came on our behalf and paid for the penalty of all of which we have violated against God.

All of the times we've not loved him and all the times we have violated his holiness. All of that payment, anger and wrath, was put upon Jesus on the cross. Now, we're not just required just to be sinless in order to be in a relationship with God.

This promise where we can leave this wretched place and go live with him in the new heavens, to live there requires righteousness. That's the entry fee. So we have a double problem. First of all, we have a debt.

And then we owe. So it's double the issues. And so what we are given is two great promises in the gospel, the forgiveness of our sins and all the required righteousness. And here's why it's good news, is that there is nothing required for the sinner to be the child of God.

We are given this as a gift. This is what's so great, Ephesians 2, 8, 9, so that we don't boast. We'll never stand before the Father and say, see how well we did. We will stand before the Father and we will shout with unified voices, glory to God, for he saved us.

We are going to be trophies of his grace forever and ever and ever. And how do we know that we've received such a wonderful gift, this good news? How do we know that we've received it? We have told over and over again, those who have faith in this gift of Christ have eternal life.

They have been forgiven of their sins and they have all of the righteousness of Jesus given to them already. They don't need to earn it. That's the good news. Verses like, he who began a good work in you will complete it.

There's nothing to do for your salvation. There's nothing to do to maintain it, and there's nothing to get into the entrance into heaven. It's been all gifted to you. And if you believe that to be true, you know you've received the gift.

So not our salvation, not our sanctification, and definitely not our glorification is up to us. It's all 100 a loving, gracious gift. Grace means to receive what you don't deserve, and mercy is to not receive what you deserve.

Mercy and grace are a gift to us. That's the good news of the gospel. If we change anything of that at all, if we add anything in the beginning or the end, it becomes a false gospel. Now, we would all agree to that.

Yes, sola fide, faith alone. That's what we believe, that we are saved by faith alone. But it's really easy. The human heart so wants to find assurance based upon our capacity, because if we can control it, we feel good about it.

We don't like things that are outside of our control. The one great hope about our salvation being outside of us is that it's not in the hands of anyone else but God. So we can rest assured that he is faithful.

He gives us so many stories of the Old Testament and the New Testament. He gives us so many promises in the New that there's nothing that will separate me from my love. If I've set my love on you, there's nothing that will separate you from that.

Nothing.

Not even demons can do that. So when we become a child of God, adopted, and we have the spirit living within us, the greatest hope of the gospel is you didn't earn it and you can't mess it up. So in that freedom, we go and we love.

We love because he first loved us. Now, this is not good news. If at all someone says to you or if you get the impression or the gospel that you've heard, first of all, is the good news is that if you follow and you love God and you believe in him and you put your faith in him, then God will protect you and he will bless you and you will be safe here on this earth.

And all of the blessings of God are waiting for you if you simply obey him and you believe in him and you put your faith in him. That's not good news. That is, first of all, we aren't promised to live this life without pain and suffering.

The exact opposite is warned to us. James 1 says that we're actually counting a joy when we get into trials because those trials show us this world is not our home. They remind us how broken we are and this world is riddled with sin.

And in the midst of our suffering, God will not allow our faith to be abandoned. He will preserve us. That's why we can count it a joy that no matter what we face, God will be faithful. God will carry us through.

That's why Paul says in the midst of his suffering, when God is not relieving him of the pain that he has, he says, I am reminded that in my weakness, I am therefore strong because it is God's grace that is sufficient to get me through.

So if you it's called the prosperity gospel, it is definitely a false gospel. The good news is not do your part and God will do his. That God came and died on a cross so that you could live a happy and successful life here.

That is not true. That is completely false. The good news of the gospel is that no matter what happens to us here, we are safe and secure in the arms of God and he will wipe away every tear and he will restore our bodies riddled with sin and our body that's going to die.

100 out of 100 people die. That's because the promise is not this life. The promise is the life to come. That's the first false gospel that is out there that actually diminishes the work of Christ. It diminishes our hope.

It distracts us. So if you're sitting here and you're wondering why God hasn't blessed you and why you have all these trials and problems in your job and your marriage and your health and all of this.

Someone along the way told you the good news of the gospel is God will heal you and give you your best life now. And that's just not true. God, what God has in store for us is far greater than what this world has to offer.

This world is but a glimpse, a picture, an advertisement of what is waiting for us. Because this world is riddled with sin, it too needs to be redeemed. So our bodies, our souls, and this world will all be redeemed.

This is not our home. This is why we're called the aliens. We are but pilgrims journeying. The second false gospel that's out there sounds really close. We are saved by grace alone. That it's by God's power he brings us from death to life.

And that we believe in soul and faith. But the second part of that gospel is this. Now that he has rescued you and washed you clean of your sins, it is up to you to now transform and be holy and make sure that you are growing in holiness so that at the end of your life, God will stop and he will look at your good works and confirm your confession.

It sounds close. There's a lot of verses that come across as if that could be true. But it seems to go against everything that we've heard in the gospel. He who began a good faith in you will complete it.

Looking unto Jesus, Hebrews 12, looking unto Jesus, the founder, the author, and protector of our faith. Meaning that he's the one who gives it to us and he's the one that protects us. We can hear things like James chapter 2 come out in this as proof text.

And I would encourage you to go listen to the link down below. We have a couple of podcasts that deal with James chapter 2 and a sermon that I've preached. But James is not dealing with prove your faith salvation.

He was dealing with people who were claiming to have faith but were unwilling to love their brother. They were trying to live like the world while claiming to hold on to this faith. And we can't do that.

So James is not using a prove it mentality. He is not saying we're going to be examined. Even when Paul says examine yourself to see if you're of the faith. There's a link down below about a verse about that as well.

That's a false gospel. Why would we put all of our hope in the gift of salvation and then have to examine ourselves as if we're the ones producing the fruit? It's as if somehow we reverse things where we look at the fruit of the tree and say, yes, the fruit of the tree is giving the tree life.

That's not what's going on. If the tree has life, it's going to produce fruit. The problem when Paul says examine yourself to see if you're of the faith, it's they were questioning Paul's apostleship.

And Paul is saying, I am the one that presented the gospel to you. And so if you're questioning my apostleship, you should question the gospel. You should liturgically even question your own faith. You should examine yourself to see if you're of the faith.

We have to look at things in context. This is why he gets so angry at the Galatians in Galatians 3, 1 and following, because he says, you begun by the spirit. You begun by faith. The spirit brought you to life.

Are you now going to perfect yourself by the flesh? He calls them foolish. And he says, someone's bewitched you. This is witchcraft. We have to be very careful when we think that somehow we preserve or maintain our salvation.

Because if that's the case, it's no longer good news. It's really bad news. If you have the capacity to lose your salvation, you will do it. If it is in your hands and if it's on you, you will 100 of the time lose it.

Even if the equation is you are saved by grace through faith alone in the power of God, 99 .99 of the rest, that 0 .01 is you. That 0 .10 will damn you for eternity. You cannot look to your good works as the confirmation of your salvation at the end of your life.

Because I have to ask you this one question. How much good works must you show God? You see, he says that we have two commands now that we're believers, right? Love God, love your neighbor. Let's just start with the first one.

Love of God. How much do you must love God in order for God to confirm your salvation? Is it 1 Is it 99 Where in scripture are you going to go that God's going to look down at your life of 70 years and say, yes, for 90 of it, you loved me.

Therefore, that's a confirmation of your salvation. God does not look to your faithfulness to confirm your salvation. That is not good news. God looks to his promises to confirm his promises on you. And he says, if I have promised to save you, I will not break my promise.

I pulled out your heart of stone. It's Ezekiel 36. I put in a heart of flesh and I will cause you to walk in it. And at the end of it, when the ages are all done, you will glorify me. Not look to your works as confirmation.

Now, are works necessary?

Sure.

Good fruit, good trees produce good fruit. It's what we do. But you cannot, the good news is not look at your good works because they're saving you. You are saved by Christ alone and therefore now go love others.

It's the difference between alive people breathe and going into a cemetery and say, you must breathe in order to be alive. Something has to bring them to life. And the good news is that's the power of the gospel.

Why False Gospels Distract Us from Christ Alone

Now that's the second false gospel. And there's a lot of things that can be in between all of that. But if anything attacks us and causes our faith to look to here and now as blessings, or that we look to our own good works, those are false gospels.

They are pulling our hearts away to trust in something other than Jesus Christ. We must keep the power of the gospel resting in an object outside of ourselves. You cannot convince God to save you. You cannot convince God to keep you saved.

Your sin is far more offensive than you could ever imagine. The good news of the gospel is God forgives you and grants you righteousness. He forgives you of your sins and gives you all of the required obedience.

You never look to your obedience to gain blessings here on this earth. Well, why has God not given me this? And why has God allowed this to happen? It must be because of my obedience. No, those trials are a part of our life.

It's part of living in a broken world. We're going to experience those and it has nothing to do necessarily with whether we are not a Christian or not. Secondly, you cannot look to your good works as a confirmation that, yes, I'm doing enough that God will accept me in the end.

God will accept you for one reason, because he accepts Jesus. And if he accepts Jesus, he's going to accept you because when you stand before him and he asks you the question, son, daughter, why should I let you be transformed into my image?

And why should I let you into my home? And you're going to present Christ because Jesus paid for all of my sins and because Jesus earned all of the good works I needed to do on my behalf. And you're going to lay those crowns at the feet of God and you will worship him forever in his presence.

We need to stay focused on the true gospel and not allow any of these other gospels to distract us. I hope you're encouraged by this and leave me a comment down below. If you have any other false gospels that you've come across, we'll see you next time.