Over Promise, Under Deliver | Last Words of a Dying Man Series

We're gonna jump into second Peter chapter two, continuing our journey through chapter two. We're gonna finish up chapter two this morning. And last week, if you weren't here, Peter warned us, he gave us an urgent warning against false teachers that there are those who would lead us astray. And so last week, we looked at the nature of false teachers. And this week, we're gonna build on that. And we're gonna talk about the false teaching of false teachers. We're gonna see there's false gospels that are being preached. And here's what they do. False gospels, false teaching always over promises and under delivers. They always over promise and under deliver. So we're gonna jump into verse 17 of second Peter chapter two, chapter two. If you're there, say the Bible is true. These are waterless springs and mist driven by a storm. For them, the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved for speaking loud bows to folly. They entice by sensual passions of the flesh. Those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved. For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

they are again entangled in them and overcome. The last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteous than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandments delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returns to its vomit and the sow after washing herself returns to wallow in the mire. Now, how many of you have ever wanted to lose weight, get in shape or be more physically fit and you saw an infomercial or maybe an advertisement of a quick and easy way of doing this? Like you can lose weight without dieting. You can get in shape without exercising. And man, these four simple steps, if you'll pay this money, it'll be the easiest thing. Has anybody ever done that? Raise your hand if that's you. And in bits, it's appointed at the end. Some of you will not be honest in church and that's disappointing. I just want you to know. But here's what you find out. Those quick, easy programs that sell you on their ability to do something with little effort or work, they over-promise and they what? They under-deliver. Like they don't make good on what they promise. And so here's the thing, in everyday life

when you experience something like that, which all of us have to a degree in some way or another, experiencing an over-promise under-delivery moment, in everyday life, it can be real disappointing and discouraging, can it not? Like it just gets discouraging and disappointed. But when the same thing happens to you spiritually, it's more than just disappointing. It can actually be destructive. Whenever there are false teaching or false gospels or false teachers that we embrace and they begin to tell us maybe the way in the path of spirituality and we buy into it and we find out that they over-promise under-delivered. And it's not true. What can happen is destruction in the heart of the individual. And it can be disruptive to our entire life and spiritual journey. And so therefore, we've got to be guarded against this type of deception. We must guard our heart against false teachers and more importantly against the false teaching of false teachers. You know what I mean? What is false teaching then? What is a false gospel? Let me just give you an answer to that. What is a false gospel? A false gospel is any offer of life or a relationship

with God that does not center on the death and resurrection of Jesus. Or it is something that alters or contradicts what has clearly been revealed in God's Word. Those are false gospels and that's false teaching. It can be religious false gospels and false teaching. It can be worldly false gospels or secular false gospels or false teaching. But we've got to guard ourselves from it regardless. So the question is how do we do that? So here's what we're going to do this morning. I'm going to give you four indicators or four fruits of false gospels. Four ways that you can spot false gospels. What is it that they do? And how can I spot it when I see it? I'm going to give you four things to write down and then at the very end, I'm going to take these four indicators or four fruits of false gospels and then I'm going to contrast that with the true gospel. And so if you're taking notes, this will be a fun day for you. If you're not taking notes, we're going to pray that your heart gets right with Jesus. All right. All right, here's number one. What are the first indicator of a false gospel? False gospels offer life but are void of true substance. False gospels offer life but are void of true substance. Look what he says in verse 17.

He says these are water. For them, the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. And he's talking about the false teaching of the false teachers. And he calls it. He says, listen, they're waterless streams or they're mist driven by the wind. Listen to the metaphors here. When he says waterless stream, what he's saying is, it's like a dried up creek. It looks from the distance like it's going to have water that can give life and you get up there and find out that there's no water to be found or like a well that's gone dry. Like you're thirsty and so you go to draw the water and what you bring up is sand. He's saying this is what false gospels are like. And then he uses another metaphor in the Middle East. This would happen. He says they're mist driven by storms. In other words, in the horizon, there's clouds building that look like there's going to be a downpour of much needed rain only for those storm clouds to blow in. And all they provide is just a light mist, unable to really water the crops or water the ground like it's needed. He says this is what false gospels do. They appear to have substance. They appear to be true. They appear to be right. They appear to. Like this is what I'm looking for. This is what'll satisfy my soul only to take from it and realize that it's waterless springs and it's only a mist driven by the storms. And here's the thing. When he's using these metaphors, I think it's important we understand, in the Middle East, water is the most precious commodity. It's important everywhere.

But if you're living in a desert region, you depend upon the rain seasons for survival year round, right? So if the creek is run dry, if the well is dry, or if the rain clouds only bring a mist and they don't bring a storm of torrential downpour, it's not just a matter of, hey, this is concerning. No, no, no. This is life or death. And what he's saying is that false gospels, listen to this, will offer life, but what you actually receive is death. It doesn't make good on its promise. What he's saying here is that false teachers preach a gospel that looks good and it looks like it'll provide what satisfies the soul, but at the end, in the end, it has no substances unable to sustain life. See, false gospels can come in various forms. It can come in the form of religious false gospels. What are religious false gospels? It's false gospels that put the weight of responsibility on you. In other words, if you do this, if you follow this system, if you will follow these rules, if you will obey really hard, if you will work really hard religiously, then what you're looking for in that emptiness, may you'll be able to bridge the gap between you and God. So it teaches a man-centered system where you have to do and you have to perform. And so there are people. I mean, they go to church and they read their Bible or they follow their religion or whatever faith system and they want to be diligent and faithful and pursue it and they try as hard as they can only to find themselves failing time after time after time and they're not satisfying at the end, it just makes them tired. Like spiritually speaking, it's like being on a treadmill, like you're running hard but you're not getting anywhere or this can be secular false gospels that say if you will just to find life on your own terms and live your way and you just be the best version of you and may you'll find happiness if you'll find your true self and at the end what you

find is emptiness and dryness and it doesn't satisfy the soul. Here's why, false gospels, false gospels offer life but there is no real substance. So here's the warning for us today, listen to this, any offer of life or satisfaction that does not center on the person of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone, it is a false gospel, it is an empty well and it is rainless clouds blowing into your life that will not make good what it promises but here's the thing, Jesus can, amen? Listen to what Jesus says, John chapter 4 verse 13 to the woman at the well, woman who is looking for satisfaction in the things of this world and in relationships, this is what Jesus says to her, he said this, everyone who drinks up this water, what water, any water the world has to offer, he says they will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again, the water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. He's saying listen, Jesus is the only one that can satisfy, do you believe that church? That's indicator number 1 of false gospels, here's number 2, false gospels deceive, praying on the broken week invulnerable, false gospels deceive and they pray on the week and the broken and the vulnerable, look at what he says here in verse 18, he says, for speaking loud boast of falling. those listen to the statement, who are barely escaping from those who live in error. And here's what the false gospels of the world teach. You say, they teach proudly and loudly and boldly and arrogantly. And they preach a gospel that appeals to the appetite of the flesh. In other words, false gospels watch this, will often minimize holiness. And make room for disobedience to Jesus. They want to make room for you to indulge in the sinful passions of the flesh. And they do this two ways.

The first way they do this is they misrepresent grace. So what false gospels do, they misrepresent grace. Hey, here's what they'll say. Well, aren't you forgiven anyway? But you can do this. I mean, if Jesus died on the cross of your sins and you've been forgiven and the Bible says that if you were saved, you're saved forever. So just enjoy life. Like you can sin a little bit or the enemy or the false gospels, false teachings may say to you, hey, you can just do that one time. It's not a big deal. You can always go and ask for forgiveness. God is gracious, right? Doesn't that sound great? Hey, God loves everyone. You can live the way you want to live. He's gracious, efficient for you. Now, is it true that he's gracious, efficient? Does that give us license to sin? No. The false gospels will misrepresent God's grace. The other thing it does, it misrepresents freedom. It'll say, and we'll talk about this more as we go through the sermon, but it misrepresents freedom. It basically says things like this. Well, listen, aren't you free in Christ? Like to just be you and to enjoy.

Doesn't God want you to experience freedom and in life of enjoyment? Well, if that makes you happy, aren't you free? Doesn't God want you to be happy? And so what it does is it takes someone who's weak and vulnerable and maybe doesn't understand and it prays on him. Let me show you what I mean by that. Look what he says again in verse 18. He says they entice my sensual passage or they appeal to the flesh, those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. Here's who I believe he's talking about. The target audience most often for false gospels are newly or nearly Christians. Newly are nearly Christians. So they find someone in this context, they've been rescued out of paganism. They've been rescued out of pursuing the gods of this world and living maybe a life of immorality. And then they're trying to break free from the old lifestyle. And man, that appetite is still there, but they're new Christians and they want to live differently when they're battling this. These false gospels and false teachers will come along and say, oh, you can still do that. Like you're trying too hard. Like don't take all this stuff so seriously. Look, look, everybody does these things. And what they do is they take someone

who's a new Christian who's struggling still with sin and wanting to walk in holiness and because they've been undecipaled or maybe under-discipaled, they get confused about God's expectations and these false gospels come in, false teachers come in and they lower the standard and they invite them back into the very sin that Jesus died to rescue them from. Or it's nearly Christians. It's those who are at the end of what the world has to offer and they're broken and they're weak and they're just looking for something in their life that of meaning and all of a sudden this false gospel is in front of them. And in this moment of brokenness and weakness, it prays upon that you want a spiritual experience. We can give you a spiritual experience. You can find meaning and purpose in life and you don't have to change anything. You can continue to live the life that you live in and you can still experience a relationship with God. I mean, God just wants you to be happy and all of a sudden they go, this is what I've been looking for and they're being deceived and they're being prayed upon the false gospels, the false teachers. This is an experience that I had. I'll never forget in college, I was saved at 16 but I wasn't discipled and so I kind of went back

into a life of sin and it wasn't the same life as before but it was one where I just couldn't break free from some of the old habits. I just drifted from the Lord and was just living kind of my own life and still the conviction of the Holy Spirit was there. But it just wasn't discipled and the Lord just did something in my life, puts right people in my life and I repented and turned back to the Lord and God called me to ministry and I'll never forget when I'm coming out of that and living the way I was living there was this new fire in my heart. So I wanted to be around as many preachers and pastors as I possibly could. So I got into a mentor program. I never forget the first trip with the mentor that I had received. We were going to, he was a well-known communicator and we were going to a speaking event and I was like, oh my gosh, I get to go with this guy and he was going with a friend. And I don't forget, we're driving to this speaking event where he was going to speak to hundreds of teenagers and I was this young, up-and-coming guy. I wanted to preach more and I'm sitting in the truck And it was F-bomb after F-bomb after F-bomb. And they were talking vulgar about girls at the school and women that they knew and all of these things. And then they were justified by going, "Hey, this is just guy time.

We can kind of let our hair down when it's just us." And I remember thinking to myself, "Is this what it is?" Like I thought I left all this stuff. And that was damaging to me and my spiritual development. I'm thankful that the Lord was able to not let me be deceived by that kind of lifestyle, but false teachers and false gospels, this is what they do. They loosen the standard, they lower the standard. And they do so by praying upon the weak and the broken and the vulnerable. Now here's the thing. What we need to see is this and this is what we find often. They want to minimize sin and Paul dealt with this. Like Paul understood this that some of the confusion of the early church in the New Testament was that there would be those who would invite sin into the church and then justify their sin under the banner of grace and mercy and just giving liberty and license where the scripture doesn't give that. In fact, in Romans, Paul addresses this. There were some who were basically celebrating their life of sin and celebrating their disobedience by going, "Look at how gracious God is. He even forgives this and we can live like this and he'll still forgive us." And we have all of this grace. This is how Paul addresses that. Listen to what he says in Romans chapter six verse one.

He says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound and then one of the strongest phrases that Paul could use?" He says this, "By no means. How can you who have been dead to sin still live in it?" You know what Paul is saying here? Listen, Jesus didn't give, didn't die to give you the right to sin. He died to give you the power, not to sin. That's the true gospel, not the false gospel that prays on the broken, weak and vulnerable. Here's number three. The next indicator is false gospels promise of freedom that ultimately lead to slavery. False gospels promise a freedom that ultimately leads to slavery. Look what he says in verse 19. This is important. He says they promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved. And here's what he says. False gospels say this. You don't have to be bound to the law. You're not expected to follow the rules. You don't need to live up to the standard. Live life your way with no risk of God's judgment. This is what false gospels say. And the point Peter is making here is that when you begin to,

when you begin to pursue the freedom to sin, you're actually driven into deeper slavery to sin. So if you look it for freedom, and he's like, I wanna live the way I wanna live, I wanna do what is morally good. Think about this, think of this sounds familiar. This is false gospels in right in front of us. You be you, you heard that before? You be the best version of you. Be your authentic self. That is where you'll find true satisfaction and true happiness. Does it sound like our culture today? And it sounds good. And it sounds liberating. Like this is what modern culture says. Look, you need to break free. Listen, the church's problem is that the Bible is antiquated and it's outdated and you need to catch up with the times. And I know the Bible says that, but listen, times are different today. And Christianity needs to catch up with modern culture and we need to break free from traditional Christianity that holds values and morals and ethics. Listen, this is liberalism. Secular liberalism is the loosening of God's standard in order to make God's word more acceptable to culture. And this must be rejected. Why?

Because whenever we began to walk in this type of freedom, this type of freedom is not freedom, it leads us into deeper slavery. And he's saying to the false teachers, you're preaching them a gospel of freedom that leads to slavery and your life verifies that because you're indulged in slavery. He says, whatever controls your appetites, that is what you are enslaved to. Have you noticed this? That the voices of culture that seems to be preaching the loudest are those that have, if you look at their life, it is one major truth. Like do I really want marriage advice from J.Lo? I mean like she's literally one ring away from Michael Jordan. That's what we've gotten to? You see what happens is this, the voice of the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the disclaimers of the false gospels, if you just look at their life, what you discover is, is that they're enslaved to sin, but they're inviting you into this so-called freedom so that you can be enslaved with them in their sin. This is the great deception of the enemy. Catch this. The enemy, his greatest deception with sin is that if you will just follow the appetites of your flesh, you'll actually be free because you won't be bound to rules and law. But here is the, what's, what's so damning about sin is that sin moves one direction. And he says last week that sin is insatiable. What it means is sin moves one direction and it'll never be satisfied. It'll always be something more, something deeper, something darker, something worse. And so your freedom so-called by worldly standard and philosophy actually becomes that which enslaves you and ultimately destroys you.

The world says freedom is found in doing what you want. Is that lie sound familiar? The Garden of Eden? Well, again, we talked about this last week. What was the appeal to the enemy? The appeal of the enemy was God created all of this garden, but he withheld from you the one thing that will actually make you happy and satisfy you. If you'll just break free from the law, if you'll just break free from the rules, if you'll just go and indulge in that thing that you desire, doesn't it look good? Don't you think that'll be make you happy? Look, that's where true freedom is found and what does Eve do? She takes and eats, gives it to her husband. He takes and eats. And now ever since this so-called freedom was introduced, humanity has been a slave to the enemy. His tactics, listen, his tactics haven't changed. He's really good at manipulation and false gospels are just an extension of this which leads me to number four, the fourth indicator is this, false gospels bring momentary change but are powerless to transform. They bring momentary change but are powerless to transform. Look what he says in verse number 20. I want you to lean into this because this will take a little unpacking. He says, "For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome. The last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandments delivered to them." Now, here's what I believe is happening here. I want to put on teacher mode for a moment. Here's what I believe is happening.

I think he explicitly is talking about the false teachers of the day, the false teachers who are teaching a false gospel. Here's what he's saying, "Somewhere along the way these false teachers were exposed to the gospel. They heard the true gospel. They heard the truth of Scripture. And it appeared for a moment that they actually embraced it. Their life changed a little bit. And they looked like they were one of us. They looked like they were a believer. But the truth is they never fully submitted to the gospel and then over time what has taken place is that they've actually rejected it and have returned to their old way of living. But in doing so now they've massaged and have changed and they've altered the gospel in order for it to accommodate who they truly are which is unredeemed. And here's what he says about those people. He says it would have been better for them to have no exposure to the gospel at all than to be exposed to the truth of God's Word to in a short time kind of appear to embrace it and then reject it and turn back to their old life. Why is that? Why would it be better for them not to? And I think there's two answers for that. Number one, when you were exposed to the gospel and rejected you were without excuse before the Lord. When you've heard the way of salvation and you stiff-arm God and you reject the only thing that can rescue you, listen, you are now fully accountable and aware of what you rejected. So listen, this happens a lot on Sunday mornings. There are men and women that come in here, you don't know Christ, you hear the gospel clearly.

And I just want to say this, if you attend New Beginnings Baptist Church more than one Sunday, you are without excuse before the Lord on the day of judgment. Here's the second, I think, reason they're worse off is because there's a hardening of hearts that happens. We become jaded to the gospel. We hear it and this is what happens. You hear the gospel. or whatever it is, you push it away and then you hear it again and you push it away. It gets easier and easier to push it away. Why? Because there's a callous thing that happens on your heart to the point of which you no longer are moved by the only thing that can rescue you. And here's the thing. The reality is that false gospels, listen to this, rather than inviting us to embrace the true gospel, false gospels have rejected the true gospel and have invented their own gospel and the problem with that is their own gospel has no power to transform them fundamentally. And here's, let me show you what I mean by that. Look what he says in verse 19 again. I'm sorry, verse 22. Look what he says here. He says what the proverb says has happened to them. Listen to this, the dog returns to its vomit and the sow after washing herself returns to the wallow in the mire. He's using some metaphors here

and they're kind of gross and the first one is at least. And here's what he says, the false teachers and this false gospel, listen, they've rejected the true gospel, they've now distorted it and have made this other gospel, this false gospel that cannot fundamentally transform their nature and their nature reveals it. Let me show you how. He says the proverb in their life is true. He says the dog returns to its vomit. In other words, these false teachers, they heard the gospel, they looked like they embraced the gospel by turning from their old lifestyle, but the evidence is they went back to their old lifestyle. In other words, the dog has purged that which it did not belong in its body and rather than rejecting it and walk away, what does the dog do? He goes back and eats and takes in what he once rejected. Does that make sense? The nature, they go back to the old lifestyle. And he says, the pig, he says, you can take the pig and you can wash the pig and you can clean the pig and you can make the lipstick on the pig, right? Put a bow in the hair. You can even call it your house pet and dog. You let that pig outside after a rain, it's going straight back to the mud. Why? Because you can wash the pig on the outside, but that washing on the outside does not change the nature of the pig.

False gospels can modify temporarily the behavior of the person. It can give a moment to... Okay, yeah, they're different and everything is external. But here's the reality. False gospels cannot give you a new heart. They cannot transform a person on the inside. And the biggest problem of humanity is not what we do externally. It's who we are internally. And until the true gospel transform us from the inside, we will never have long-lasting transformation on the outside. You see, religion tries to work outside in. False gospels outside in, but it can never do it. The true gospel works inside out. Because it's the power of God into salvation for those who believe. Amen? Aren't you thankful for the true gospel? Like, this is a gift from God. You see, this is where true freedom ultimately is found, by the way. What do you mean? True freedom is found. Listen, freedom is not being whatever you want to be. Freedom is in Christ being recreated to become who you were created to be. That's where true freedom is. And false gospels have no power to offer that. So what is then the true gospel? I want to walk you through this. Let's contrast the false gospels from the true gospel. And I'm thankful for this because here's the reality. I want you to be familiar with the gospel. Like, I don't want you to be familiar with the false gospels.

I want you to be familiar with the true gospel. People ask me all the time, "Do you have a book on world religions?" I'm like, "Yeah, I got lots of books on world religions." But listen, you don't need to read books on world religions to know what you believe. Like, I want to know what Islam believes. I want to know, do you even know what you believe? Let's start there. Amen? And I'm convinced that if we can become familiar with the true gospel, we will be able to spot false gospels. So let's just contrast between the two. Let's go back to the first one. False gospels. Listen what they do. They offer life that are void of true substance. They offer life but are void of true substance. But what is the true gospel? The true gospel offers life that can truly satisfy the soul. This is what Jesus came to bring us. Listen to what he says in John chapter 4 verse 13. And Jesus said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water, the world's water, the false gospel's water, the things that you put your trust in, hoping to find satisfaction, he says you will be thirsty again." Again, the water that I will give him will become in him. Listen to this, a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Jesus says, listen, I'm not a waterless spring. In fact, I am the spring that flows for eternity. Come drink of me and you'll never be the same again. And this is why John chapter 10, verse 10. Jesus says, I have come that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly. Jesus says, I've got what you're looking for. You don't need the philosophies of the world that make a promise they can't deliver.

I'm what you're looking for. Here's the next one. False Gospels deceive, praying on the broken, weak and vulnerable. They just want to mislead and pray on those who are looking for something real. But listen, Jesus doesn't do this, watch this. The true gospel, listen to this, delivers, restoring the broken and weak and vulnerable. You see what you see with Jesus? I love this. When Jesus saw the crowd that were helpless, that were broken, that were looking for some sort of satisfaction, here is what he says in Matthew chapter 11. He says to them, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laid. In other words, those who are weak, broken and vulnerable. And this is what he offers. And I will give you rest for your soul. I'll give you rest, true and lasting. I love the contrast here. Listen to this, false Gospels pray, P-R-E-Y on the weak, vulnerable and broken. When Jesus looked at the crowds, he says this, he had compassion for them and he prayed for them. You see, false Gospels pray on the true gospel, Jesus prays for. And he welcomes into his life, listen to what Paul says about this true gospel. Romans chapter 5 verse 6 says this, "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would even dare to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." When we were weak, when we were broken, we were vulnerable. Jesus doesn't come in and say, how can I manipulate? How can I deceive? How can I lead astray? No, Jesus says, how can I give my life for them?

I want them to know me and I'll do whatever it takes one. Because the true gospel, listen, it's not about who we are, it's about who he is and what he wants to bring into our life. Here's the next, false Gospels promise of freedom that ultimately lead to slavery. Listen to this, the true gospel provides a slavery that leads to ultimate freedom. And this is the difference. You see, the world will tell you, listen, the path to freedom is in doing what you want. The path in freedom is the following our philosophy. The path to freedom is just to be, let us, you be the center of your world and it only leads to greater darkness, greater dissatisfaction and greater slavery. And Jesus says this, no, no, no, the true gospel provides a slavery that leads to ultimate freedom. You see, here's what the Bible says. The Bible says, every single person will have one master, but no one has two masters. Every one gets one master, no one gets two. And here's what the Bible says. You are either a slave to sin, you're a slave to self or you are a slave of righteousness, a slave of Jesus Christ. But everyone is a slave to something or someone, but no one gets two masters. And here's what Jesus is offering, you can choose the slavery of this world that leads to death or you can become a slave of mine. You can let me be your Lord and in that you'll actually find ultimate freedom, why? Because whom the sun sets free is free, is free indeed. This is what the gospel offers. Listen to what Jesus says in Romans chapter 6 verse 22, he says, but now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end eternal life. He says listen, true freedom is not found in doing what you want, it's actually found in becoming a slave of God, therefore your life gets transformed by him and you receive eternal life.

And listen, I know this doesn't make sense from a worldly standpoint, but watch this, think about this from a musical. Our band played a few moments ago and they sound beautiful. their own way. I want to play what I want to play, I want to sing what I want to sing, and I don't care what anybody else wants to do. I just want to do. Listen, that wouldn't lead to freedom in their musical ability. It would lead to an awful experience for everyone, including them. But when they submit to a conductor, and they stay in rhythm with the selected music all of a sudden now, they get the freedom to express and show the gifting that they have an athlete. If you get football players on a football field, and everybody wants to run a different play, and they don't want to follow the direction of the head coach, what happens, mass chaos and people end up getting hurt. But when everybody does their job under the leadership of the head coach, and all of the sudden, all of that athleticism gets utilized and it's beautiful to watch. The same is true. When we want to live on our own terms, it leads to chaos, when we submit to the great conductor and the great coach of Jesus Christ, guess what? Life is beautiful. Here's the last one, listen to this, false gospels bring momentary change, but it's powerless to transform, but the true gospel brings resurrection power that transforms our very nature. Isn't that great? Listen to what Paul says, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the oldest passed away, and behold, the new has come. You see, here's what the gospel offers, the true gospel. The true gospel offers a new heart, a new life. Jesus says, unless you're born again, you won't see the kingdom of God. That is something that false gospels can't offer. Only thing false gospels can offer is clean yourself up, make yourself better, work harder,

do more, try this, try that, and in the end, it leads us to the very same place, more broken, more tired, more exhausted, less satisfied, but listen, the gospel is not you do. The gospel is summarized in this, it is done, and Christ is the one who finished it so that now, when we put our faith and trust in His death, burial and resurrection, here's what happens, we are given a new heart, the gift of the Holy Spirit, our nature is changed, He lives inside of us, and now that resurrection power changes us so that we can look like Christ over time, becoming more like Him, and by the way, the more you become like Christ, the more free you truly are. I don't know about you, I'm choosing the true gospel, amen? Is anybody thankful for what we've been given in Christ today? I mean, this is what changes the world. So here's the response today. I'm going to ask two questions. The first is to those who are wrestling with their faith if you're truly a believer, the other is for believers. The first question is this, have you truly embraced the true gospel? Have you truly embraced the true gospel? Or are you holding on to some religious practice where you're working hard and you're trying hard and you're just going to try to do better and be more and go to church and read your answer and do all of this hoping that somehow you can have a relationship with God? Are you trusting maybe your parents' faith? Are your grandparents' faith or your good nature? Are you believing a false gospel? Have you truly experienced the true gospel? Have you been transformed the inside of it? If not, here's the response. Here's the response. If you know, I don't know that I've ever done that, in a moment, we're going to have decision-encouragers in place, people are going to be standing to pray for you. I want to encourage you to leave your seat.

All you have to do is go tell them, "I need to trade the false gospel for the true gospel." That's all you've got to say, and they're going to help you do that on the spot. The second question is for those who know your believers in the room. Are you in your life as a believer embracing in subtle areas of your life false gospels? Are you reverting back to the fleshly desires and justifying it? Are you believing the lie of the enemy that you've got to work harder to be loved more by God? Are you listening to false gospels that say you can loosen culture, is putting pressure on you, and you're just loosening the truth of God's word in order to be more accommodating to culture? Have you been deceived even as a Christian of embracing some elements of false gospels in your life? Take a repent, repent, turn from that today. Those are the two questions I want us to wrestle with and then I want to come to this last thing. How many of you listen hearing about the true gospel, it just makes you want to worship Jesus more? Raise your hand if that's you. Listen, we're going to take a few moments. [MUSIC PLAYING] believe that the gospel is true, amen? Father, I love you, and I'm asking you'll take this time. Use it. Lord, build your kingdom, your church with it. We trust you now, Lord. Save those who need to be saved. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.