Children Of Christ Jesus 17 minutes ago. Are you teaching a perverted gospel? Perverted Defined: Turned from right to wrong; distorted; corrupted; misinterpreted; misemployed. What does it mean to “pervert the gospel of Christ”? The Greek word for the verb “pervert” can be translated “turn around.” A perverted gospel is a turned-around gospel. It is a gospel which turns the focus away from Jesus onto something else. If the gospel of grace reveals Christ alone, then a perverted gospel is Christ plus something. It’s the some things that’ll sink you. Some examples of how grace is set aside The Bible lists many things that can distract you from sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Here are some of them: 1. Human effort (Gal 3:3): think performance-oriented Christianity. “Got to get busy for Jesus. Got to work for my salvation. Got to start producing fruit or he’s going to lop me.” Except that you don’t and he won’t. Gal 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? 2. Traditions (Col 2:8). “That’s just the way we do things around here; if you’re going to be a part of us, you’d better get used to it.” So you’re saying Jesus is the gate into the kingdom, but right behind him is this other gate that you have added. Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 3. Hollow and deceptive philosophy (Col 2:8), like karma: you do good, you get good. “God won’t judge me, I basically a good person. At least I’m better than that guy.” Indeed, there are good sinners and bad sinners, but they are sinners alike. Your goodness still falls catastrophically short of God’s goodness. What matters is whose righteousness you’re wearing – yours or his? 4. Angel worship (Col 2:18). God told you the name of the angel watching over this church? Cool! Now let’s get back to Jesus. Col 2:18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind 5. Rules and regulations (Col 2:21-23). Smoking will kill you, but it won’t send you to hell like unbelief does. Working on the Sabbath may wear you out, but Jesus still loves you. (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a shewn of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. (Col 2:21-23) 6. Self-denial, abstinence (Col 2:23). God gave us taste buds and appetites to enjoy life! Keep your monkish asceticism away from my chocolate stash! Col 2:23 Which things have indeed a shewn of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. 7. Endless genealogies (1 Ti 1:4). So you think you broke your leg because your grandfather was a mason? But weren’t you adopted into a new family when you believed? Didn’t Christ redeem us from the curse so that we might inherit the blessings of Father Abraham? 1Ti 1:4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. 8. Myths (1 Ti 1:4). Did Adam have a second wife? Were the Nephilim really angel-spawn? Is this stuff going to be on the test? I think not. 9. Sin consciousness (Heb 10:2,22). God’s grace is greater than your sin. If you are more conscious of your sin than you are of his righteousness, it’s like saying that the payment of Jesus Christ was insufficient. His worth is greater than your unworthiness! Heb 10:2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 10. The 10 Commandments, a.k.a. the ministry that brought death (2 Cor 3:7). God hid these inside the ark under the blood-stained mercy seat and now you want to hang them on the wall? In the Sunday School?! 2Co 3:7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: What’s wrong with all these things? Very simply, they diminish your faith in Christ. The more you trust in your own works, for example, the less trust you’ll place in His finished work. Trusting in your works is like filling your life preserver with cast iron. I call these things anchors because they have no life in them. They can’t save you because they are based on “worldly principles rather than Christ” (Col 2:8). We have died to such things (Col 2:20). They have no value for us. “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Gal 5:6). Gal 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5, 1 Corinthians 15:11-22
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 14:05:03 +0000
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