Alan Lewis
Elon, North Carolina
September 2024
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (I Corinthians 15:1-8 ESV)
There are times when we come to church that we need to learn some news things. That is important, because many in the church do not know the Word.
There are other times we do not need to learn anything new. We just need to be reminded about things that we already know. A doctor often tells us things we already know, like the importance of eating well and exercising.
Paul begins this chapter saying, “Now I would REMIND you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you.” He is not giving them any new information here. He is giving them old information. He is telling them something that they already knew.
Last week, we looked at what Paul said about the gospel. I Corinthians is the only place in the NT that actually tells us what the gospel is. We saw that the gospel is an important message. It is the most important message on the planet.
It is a divine message. No human came up with it. It is a message about salvation, not just salvation in the past but in the present. The verb saved in I Corinthians 15:2 is in the present tense. This message saved us in the past and continues to save us.
It is a message about Jesus, His death, burial and resurrection. It is a powerful message. It is “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16 NIV). Jesus has the power to save anyone from their sins.
We said that there are many false gospels being preached. They were preached in Paul’s day and they are preached today. Paul said in his day that some preached another Jesus (II Corinthians 11:3)
Last week, we looked at three false gospels. We looked at the FULL GOSPEL. That is a gospel about healing. This gospel teaches that God wants to heal everyone.
It teaches that healing is in the atonement. It is never God’s will for any Christian to ever be sick. The Bible does teach that God still heals today, and some have the gift to heal but it is not God’s will to heal everyone on demand.
We looked at the PROSPERITY GOSPEL which says the gospel is all about prosperity. This gospel teaches that it is God’s will for every Christian to be rich. Whatever you want, you can achieve, if you work hard enough. This is the self-help gospel. It is the gospel of the American Dream.
We looked at the POLITICAL GOSPEL. This gospel says that man’s greatest need is political, not spiritual. It is economic and social. This gospel teaches that human government is the answer. Today, we are going to look at four more false gospels.
Four False Gospels
1) The Merit Gospel
This is a gospel about WORKS. It is the performance-based gospel or the morality gospel. Pastor Brian used to call this “a gospel of behavior modification through self-effort.”
This was the gospel of the Pharisees. It was the gospel of the Judaizers who said that you didn’t just have to believe in Jesus; you had to keep the law to be saved. The very first church council was about this in Acts 15.
This is gospel of all of the world religions. It is the gospel of everyone except Christianity. They all teach salvation by works. On Judgment Day, God will weight you good deeds and your bad deeds. If you have enough good works, you get in.
It is the gospel of Buddha. It is the gospel of Islam. It is the gospel of Mormonism. It is the gospel of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is the gospel of the Roman Catholic Church.
Catholics believe in justification by faith plus works. They teach that salvation is by faith plus works. They get that from the book of James. Paul says in passage after passage that salvation is not by works.
If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness (Romans 4:3-5 ESV)
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:3-5 ESV)
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV)
Good works are not wrong. We need good works. People should not live immoral lives, but good morals do not save people. The Ten Commandments does not save people. The Golden Rule does not save people. We are saved by grace.
2) The Free Grace Gospel
It is a gospel common in the American church. It is the gospel without repentance. It is hyper-grace gospel of easy-believism.
We are saved by faith but just giving an intellectual or mental agreement to a set of facts is not necessarily saving faith. Satan has that kind of faith.
James says that the demons believe. They believe that Jesus is the son of God, but they are not saved. How do you know if you have fallen into the trap of easy-believism?
You have fallen into this trap if you make a profession of faith but continue to live in open sin (openly gay couples, heterosexuals living together) and make absolutely no change to your sinful lifestyle and may even try to justify it.
Larry Flynt is an example of this error. He was the publisher of Hustler magazine. Jimmy Carter’s sister witnessed to him and he claimed to be a Christian. He said he was born again in 1977. Was he saved? No.
He continued to publish his pornography and said he was going to hustle for God. He was shot a year later by a crazed white supremacist and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He was not saved, although he had a daughter who is a Christian.
Paul’s gospel involved repentance. He preached a message of repentance. It was a message the other apostles preached as well.
Peter replied, “REPENT and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38 NIV)
REPENT, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord (Acts 3:19 NIV)
When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted REPENTANCE that leads to life.” (Acts 11:19 NIV)
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to REPENT. (Acts 17:30 NIV)
I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in REPENTANCE and have faith in our Lord Jesus. (Acts 20:21 NIV)
Paul told Christians not to be deceived. He said that the unrighteous will NOT inherit the kingdom of God (I Corinthians 6:9). He taught that people who live this kind of lifestyle have NO INHERITANCE in the kingdom of Christ and of God (Ephesians 5:5).
He said that “because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6) and then exhorts Christians not to be partakers with the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 5:7). Jesus talked about these kinds of people in the Sermon on the Mount.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23 NIV)
That is interesting. Here is a group of professing Christians. They believe Jesus is Lord. They call Him Lord. They have faith but they are not saved. Not all faith saves. Not all faith is genuine.
3) The Woke Gospel
The woke gospel is the non-offensive gospel. That is the politically correct gospel, especially regarding sexuality and gender. It is inclusive gospel. It is all about using the correct pronouns and not using words because they offend people.
This gospel uses words which do not offend the trans or LGBTQ community. Some gender activists are offended by the words “woman,” and “mother.”
You are not a mother, just a birthing person. They don’t even like gendered language. They prefer gender neutral bibles and hymn books.
If you believe what the Bible says about certain topics (homosexuality, gay marriage, transgenderism), you are not woke.
We are told by society that we need to fall in line or be cancelled. You see the same type of authoritarianism and intolerance in religion. There are religious trappings to this message.
We do not want to offending people unnecessarily. That would be a poor testimony for a Christian.
On the other hand, we do not want to compromise Scripture to fit in with what society says. We should be more concerned about being biblically correct than politically correct.
4) The New Age Gospel
This is the occultic gospel. Statistically, six-in-ten American adults accept some New Age beliefs (e.g., pluralism, universalism, oneness, reincarnation, meditation). Many will say that they are not religious but spiritual.
This is the gospel of Oprah Winfrey. What are some of the beliefs of the New Age Gospel? What is the New Age gospel? The New Age teaches that you can become God.
Shirley MacLaine said, “I am god.” Media personality Charlamagne calls himself God. He is not Charlamagne the God. He is Charlemagne the human. He is a mortal man.
This idea that we are divine goes back to the Garden of Eden. It was the first lie ever told by Satan. Satan told Adam and Eve that they could become gods. They could be divine.
New age teaching is all about self-help and empowerment. You don’t need God. You are God. You just need to look inside to the spiritual energy inside you.
This gospel teaches the Law of Attraction. It teaches manifesting what you want. Manifesting is that positive thoughts can bring about desired outcomes.
According to this view, you can manifest your own reality, anything you want (money, possessions, car, spouse). Your thoughts and desires can shape your reality.
Your thoughts and words have power. You can manifest your own reality. That is taught in some churches. It is a new age practice.[1] It is demonic.
Unfortunately, the church has embraced some new age practices today. I have heard some of these things taught in church. Your words have power. Watch what you say because it will come to pass.
Don’t say that you are worried about your kids. You are worried they will end up on drugs. They will just because you said that. That is a new age doctrine.
My words do not have that kind of power or I could say there will be a million dollars in my wallet and I would become an instant millionaire.
Let’s do a little review. Paul defines the gospel in I Corinthians 15. We looked at the CONTENT of the gospel. We looked at some false gospels today. Next, we want to look at the RESPONSE of the gospel.
The gospel is what God has done for us, but the gospel has to be received. We have to receive it for it to take effect. Salvation is a gift, but we have to accept the gift.
Holding Fast the Gospel
Paul says he preached the gospel to the Corinthians. They received the message. They are saved but then he says something that you will never hear preached in church.
Almost everyone skips over these first two verses of the chapter, and they have to do with salvation. They are pretty important.
Salvation is conditional. We all knew that. You have to accept it. You have to believe it. You have to receive it but Paul says something else. He says you are saved IF you not only receive the gospel and believe the gospel but hold firmly to it.
What if you don’t hold firmly to it. That raises this question. What if you receive the gospel, join a church, get baptized and later become an atheist?
What if you receive the gospel, claim to be a Christian but years later think Christianity is a hoax and the Bible is full of myths? What is you say that Jesus never rose from the dead? Will you still be saved?
It happens all of the time. Sometimes it happens to church leaders. It happened in Paul’s day. People shipwrecked the faith (I Timothy 1:19) and some do it today.
One pastor, who wrote the book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, later rejected the truth and kissed Christianity goodbye and became an apostate.
Some say that these people will be saved. All you have to do is to believe once, but Paul does not say that. The NT does not say that.
Paul says you are saved “IF you HOLD FAST to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” (I Corinthians 15:2 ESV)
Paul did not say that just making a profession is enough. He said that you have to hold firmly to the gospel to the end. In fact, he says it in other places.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. (Colossians 1:21-23 NIV)
So He said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples. (John 8:31 BSB)
This group of people did not continue in His Word. At the end of this chapter, these same Jews called Jesus “demon-possessed” and tried to kill Him.
What happens if you do not hold fast to the Word? Paul says that you believe in vain. What does that mean?
Is faith in vain? It depends what you have faith in? If you have faith in a false religion that will send you to hell, your faith is vain.
Paul also says that a faith in Jesus that doesn’t last and doesn’t continue is in vain. It accomplishes absolutely nothing. It does you absolutely no good. It will not help you at all. It will not save you.
Now many have misunderstood what Paul is saying here. Paul is not talking about people who don’t understand the gospel or did not believe in the first place. He is not talking about people whose faith was a delusion.
He is talking about people who believed and received the gospel but did not continue in it.
Not everyone who believes continues to believe. The only faith that is of value, the only faith that saves is a faith that continues. It is a faith that perseveres.
Applications for Today
What are the applications for us today? There are four.
1) Have you heard the gospel? It is the message of salvation. Have your heard this message? Do you understand it?
2) Have you accepted it? Some hear the message and accept it. Others hear it and reject it.
3) Are you holding fast in that message? Do you still believe it or have you discarded and shipwrecked your faith?
4) Have you believed in vain?
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCDbO8Lc5NU
