Category: False Gospel

Don’t Believe a Half-Gospel

2/28/2017

Tonight I preached on 1 John 4:17–18:

By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment.…There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

These are words of promise given to the children of God, those who have been born again by the Holy Spirit. This is the promise: if you believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you need no longer fear God's judgment.

John is not saying that no one should fear God's judgment. In fact, if you do not believe in Jesus Christ, fearing God's judgment is exactly what you should be doing. Jesus said,

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36)

The Apostle Paul repeated Jesus' message:

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (Romans 5:9)

Notice that salvation from the wrath of God is a promise given to those who have been justified by His blood. Apart from His blood, there is no escape from God's wrath.

This is the true Gospel. It says, "The wrath of God abides on you. You stand condemned before God. Believe in Jesus Christ and be saved." In other words, the true Gospel sees fear of God's judgment as a necessary precursor which compels us to receive God's grace.

But there's a half-gospel that is taking over.

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Jeremiah Burroughs vs. Self-Esteem

10/19/2015

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Last week I received an email request to help promote an event on campus which was described as "basically a guy who does spoken word to the glory of God."

I was intrigued, though wary. The email had a link to some videos, so I headed on over to YouTube, and this is what I saw:

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“Starved for the Glory of God”

8/12/2015

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We are all starved for the glory of God, not self. No one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase self-esteem. Why do we go? Because there is greater healing for the soul in beholding splendor than there is in beholding self. Indeed, what could be more ludicrous in a vast and glorious universe like this than a human being, on the speck called earth, standing in front of a mirror trying to find significance in his own self-image? It is a great sadness that this is the gospel of the modern world.

But it is not the Christian Gospel…

—John Piper, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ

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Relax and Rejoice?

5/29/2015

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In a blog post entitled "Reminders Are More Effective Than Rebukes" (compare w/ 2 Tim. 4:2), Presbyterian pastor Tullian Tchividjian tells Christians,

Because of Christ's work on your behalf, God does not dwell on your sin the way you do. So, relax and rejoice…and you'll actually start to get better. The irony, of course, is that it's only when we stop obsessing over our own need to be holy and focus instead on the beauty of Christ's holiness, that we actually become more holy!

The irony, of course, is that the Bible never…

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Tolerating Islam

3/18/2015

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The University community unceasingly promotes plurality, diversity, and tolerance.

Central to the Christian faith is proclaiming that "all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens" (Psalm 96:5).

One such idol of the peoples is the god of Islam. And yet, in response to the Islamic State's recent reign of terror, we find Muslims, Atheists, and even Christians falling all over themselves to defend Islam from denigration, proclaiming that the Islamic State is not really Islam…

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Should you Follow Your Heart?

3/10/2015

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This blog post over on Desiring God does a good job diagnosing and rebuking the worship of the idol of our own hearts.

If you're between the ages of 4 and 28, you probably grew up with a healthy dose of Disney propaganda. Our beloved princes and princesses, brave heroes and cuddly animal friends, steadfastly preach one of our dearest false gospels: "Follow your heart; believe in yourself."

Even my high school guidance counselor, when I was trying to figure out where to go to college and what to do with my life, told me in all sincerity, "Just follow your heart." She had faith that if I had faith in me that all my hopes and dreams would come true. And who knows, maybe they would have. But "what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36)

Serve the LORD your God and seek the help of the Holy Spirit in aligning your heart's desires with His perfect will. And yes, that means your desires will have to change. But God can change them. Isn't that wonderful?

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Simple vs. Simplistic

3/6/2015

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There's a difference between being simple and being simplistic. The Gospel is simple, but we must be careful not to make it simplistic. Here's A. W. Tozer:

The average Christian is like a kitten that has found a ball of yarn and has played with the yarn and romped until it is wrapped in a cocoon. The kitten cannot get itself out. It just lies there and whimpers. Somebody has to come unwind it. We have tried to be simple, but instead of being simple we have simplified—we have not become simple. We are sophisticated and overly complex.

We have simplified until Christianity amounts to this: God is love; Jesus died for you; believe, accept, be jolly, have fun and tell others. And away we go—that is the Christianity of our day. I would not give a plug nickel for the whole business of it. Once in a while God has a poor bleeding sheep that manages to live on that kind of thing and we wonder how." (Rut, Rot or Revival, p. 173)

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Blog

Don’t Believe a Half-Gospel

Jeremiah Burroughs vs. Self-Esteem

“Starved for the Glory of God”

Relax and Rejoice?

Tolerating Islam

Should you Follow Your Heart?

Simple vs. Simplistic

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