Another Gospel A
kind of preaching much in vogue today put to the test of
some plain Bible statements. By C.
F. Sheldon Published
in The King's Business in 1922 IN THE GALATIAN LETTER,
the apostle Paul uses strong language with reference to
those who preach a perverted gospel. Paul's name
for the Gospel committed to him is: "The Gospel of
the grace of God." It is important that we know the
truth, in so far as it is possible, of this great fact:
that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. This
Gospel of grace is our gospel. It is all that we
have to preach; and in such measure as we fail to
understand the grace of God, we shall fail to be
effective preachers. The
great fact of grace—the truth that salvation from
sin, from its guilt and from its dominion, comes out of
the love, the compassion and the grace of God and not as
the result of any human effort whatsoever—this idea
of grace permeates, saturates and dominates the epistles
of Paul, who was the man chosen of God to give to the
church the truth as to her origin and her life and her
destiny. "If ye have heard of the dispensation
of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward; how
that by revelation He made known unto me, the mystery
which in other ages was not made known, as it is now
revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the
Spirit." This
Gospel of the grace of God is not a tradition; It is a
revelation. Paul says that he did not receive It
from man; that God gave It to him that he might preach It
to the Gentiles. And Paul uses strong language when
he speaks of the men who preach any other gospel than
this Gospel of grace: "if any man preach any other
gospel let him be accursed," that is, "let him
be under the anathema of God." The
test of the Gospel is grace. This Gospel is good
tidings concerning, not the law of God, but the grace of
God. Law dominated the former dispensation, but
grace dominates this one. No
man should presume to preach until he has this
distinction clearly in his thought and heart. No
seminary should approve men as preachers until they have
been established in this truth. No church ought to
call a man to its pastorate who does not understand this
great distinction. What Constitutes Another Gospel? I.
If the pulpit message excludes grace as the means whereby
men and women are justified, it is "another gospel."
"For by grace are ye saved." "Therefore
by the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified."
The New Testament Scriptures are full of this truth.
We are both justified and sanctified by grace: the grace
of God fills all the scene in this present dispensation,
as the train of the Lord filled the temple in the vision
of Isaiah. II.
If the pulpit message is an effort to mingle the
principles of Law and of grace, either as the means of
justification or as constructing a rule for the life of
the believer, it is "another gospel." Grave
mistakes are made in this regard. Many preachers
undertake to mingle Law and grace in their gospel because
they fear that they may dishonor God by leaving the Law
out. Because they have been imperfectly instructed
and do not fully understand the doctrine of grace, they
preach justification in part by Law, and in part by grace,
and they seek to put the believer under Law as to his
conduct as a believer and thereby bring him into bondage.
The truth is that we honor God when we give to Law and to
grace their true places in the great salvation. III.
If the pulpit message denies the fact of sin and its
guilt, it is "another gospel." This is the
glaring error of Christian Science so called. It
denies the fact of sin. And if there be no sin,
then there is no occasion for grace to act, for there is
nothing that man needs to be saved from. IV.
If the pulpit message denies the great fundamental
doctrines of the Word of God, it is "another gospel."
There is a kind of preaching much in vogue in these days
that is called "modern." It denies
jauntily every great doctrine of the Bible: Its
inspiration, the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, the
miracles, the resurrection of the body and the personal
return of the Lord. Why Preach Another Gospel? I.
There are some who preach "another gospel"
because they do not know any better. They have
their gospel by tradition, not revelation. They
have not yet learned that no man has a right to preach
save as he gets his message from God. They teach
what they have been taught. It seems like sacrilege
to them to teach anything else. To teach that we
are saved by grace alone, that Law-keeping has no part in
it, that everything has been done by God in grace and
that a man is saved by accepting that which God has given
him in pure grace —this, to such a preacher, is the
acme of presumption. it is an overthrowing of all the
revered traditions of his fathers. "I cannot,"
says the young preacher just out of the seminary, "contradict
that which my professor taught me." Well, it does
take a good measure of courage to receive the truth when
tradition has held the stage so long. It was no
easy task for young Gideon to go out and break down the
altars of his father, but he did it. II.
There is another reason why some men preach "another
gospel." There is in these days a strong desire on
the part of many to be counted among the "intellectuals,"
to be considered "up-to-date" and "abreast
of the times," to be associated in their thinking
with the "best scholarship of the day"; and the
denial of much that has been always believed among us
seems to be a mark of intellectual superiority. And
so these men are denying the Genesis account of creation
and are substituting evolution. They deny the deity
of Jesus Christ. They deny the virgin birth and
thereby cover Mary with a scarlet robe of shame. They
deny all miracles. They deny the resurrection of
the body and the personal return of the Lord and proudly
stand among the intellectuals. III.
There is one other reason why men are preaching "another
gospel." It is the Scriptural reason: "The
"god of this world" possesses a terrible
blinding power, and when he finds a man in the pulpit who
is itching for praise and popularity, the devil makes it
his special business to blind that man to the truth, to
make him believe and preach "another gospel." We
are very plainly told in First Timothy 4 "that in
the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving
heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils,
speaking lies in hypocrisy." In Second Timothy 4:3-4
the same apostle says: "For the time will come when
they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own
lust will they heap to themselves teachers having itching
ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth
and shall be turned unto fables." The Result of Preaching Another GospelThey
are too awful to contemplate, and yet, here is the plain
word of the apostle: "But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which
we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" that
is, "let him be under the anathema of God." Let men beware how they trifle with the Word of God. Let no man dare to stand in the pulpit and preach any other gospel than this glorious Gospel of the grace of God. God saw the
light, that it was good: and God divided the light from
the darkness. NO SOONER IS THERE A GOOD THING
in the world than a division is necessary. Light
and darkness have no communion. God has divided
them; let us not confound them. Sons of light must
not have fellowship with deeds, doctrines, or deceits of
darkness. The children of the day must be sober,
honest and bold in their Lord's work, leaving the works
of darkness to those who shall dwell in it forever. We
should by our distinct separation from the world divide
the light from the darkness. In judgment, in action,
in hearing, in teaching, in association, we must discern
between the precious and the vile and maintain the great
distinction which the Lord made upon the world's first
day.
O Lord Jesus, be Thou our light throughout the whole of this day, for Thy light is the light of men. — C. H. Spurgeon |