The True Gospel

[Speaker 2] (Intro music playing: Choir singing) [Speaker 1] (Intro voiceover) Church fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God will desire a godly home for you. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministries. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] The true gospel is the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. And if there is anything like we said two weeks ago, it is that the Lord must help us. The Lord must help us. The Lord must help us to discern the true gospel. The Lord must help us to discern the true gospel. (Sound of shuffling papers) So many things, but they are not really correct. I was coming down from Ibadan in the vehicle and somehow my—I was just looking at something and suddenly the spirit of the Lord took me to Jude, Jude 1. I want to begin there, from there we enter into Isaiah where we left the matter last week. Just look at Jude 1. Jude is only one chapter. Jude. Are you there please? The book of Jude, just before Revelation, after Third John. Jude. Can I read? Look at how the word of God put it. I am just talking about trying to buttress the fact that God must help us to know to discern the true gospel. To discern the true gospel. Jude says from verse 1, "Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called." Please look at the qualifications here. "To those who are called." What's the next thing? What's the next thing? Sanctified. Mine says sanctified. Your Bible says that? Mine says called, sanctified. Is it the same with your Bible? How does your put it? [Speaker 3] "Who are loved." [Speaker 2] "Who are loved." Mine says, "To those who are called, sanctified by God and preserved in Jesus Christ." How does yours put it? [Speaker 4] "To all who have been called by God the Father, who loves you and keeps you safe in the care of Jesus Christ." [Speaker 2] Any other translation? [Speaker 5] "Who are called, holy and beloved of God the Father and the care of Jesus Christ." [Speaker 2] "Who are called, holy and beloved of God the Father and the care of Jesus Christ." Any other one again? Is there another one different from what we have read? They are all around that. Okay. Now, what is the next thing that follows? It says, "Mercy and peace, mercy and peace be multiplied to you." Please, who is the letter addressed to by inference I want us to bring out? Who is it addressed to? This Jude. [Group] Believers. [Speaker 2] Believers. This letter is not to unbelievers, it is about believers. It is addressing believers. It says mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. "Beloved, while I was diligent to write you concerning our common salvation." What does he call salvation? What does that mean? It is one. There is no two salvation. There is the—salvation is a common thing. The type of salvation that Peter had, that Paul had, is the type that we also have. There is no peculiar salvation. There is no diffusive salvation. It is a common salvation. Now look at verse 3 where we have really been plusing my mind to about this matter of the true gospel. Now there is a common salvation, there is no special salvation. "I found it necessary to write to you and exhort you," to do what? Mine says, "to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." Mine said "contend for the faith." Any other one that says different thing? [Speaker 3] "To defend the faith." [Speaker 2] "To defend the faith." Any other one? Any other thing different from contend, defend the faith? Maybe defend love, defend something else that is not faith. Is there any translation that says that? [Speaker 4] "The truth of the good news." [Speaker 2] "The truth of the good news." Okay. Now, if you look at what is the faith? What is the faith? When we say contend for the faith, what is the faith? What is the faith? That is what those other translations, one says "good news." The faith is the good news of Jesus Christ. That is the faith, the definite article "the faith." The good news. Now, do you notice that the Bible says defend the good news? Contend for the good news. Why? Why? Do you notice that the Bible did not tell us to modify the good news? To adjust the good news? To change the good news? One thing we should do? Contend, defend the good news. So what does that mean? It means there is a news that cannot be changed. Just be defending it. There is a news, there is a faith. Just be—and do you know why I was talking about common salvation that was mentioned in verse 3? This gospel you are believing. Look at the point that became a matter while I was traveling down. For certain men have crept in. How? Mine says unnoticed. What does your translation say? Mine says "certain men crept in unnoticed." What does yours say? [Speaker 5] "Certain people have managed to worm their way in." [Speaker 2] They have done what? That's a deep one. They "wormed their way in." They wormed it. Oh, they wormed, wormed. They wormed. (Claps) Some men, they wormed their way in. I like that translation. It said "into your churches." They are not in the street. They are our pastors. They are our disciplers. They are—nothing guarantees that I may not be those men except I also check your Bible. Are you understanding me? I don't say since I am talking about it, I can't be those men. That will be foolishness. Check your Bible when I am talking. Do you get the point I am making? The Bible is warning that some men, they wormed their way in. The reason why we must defend the gospel is that the gospel must remain the gospel. If it is not the gospel, because some men have wormed their way in. Certain things have crept in. I like that one. It says, "into our churches." They are our disciplers. They are our counselors. They are our pastors, our prophets, our apostles. They are among us. Our superintends, oversees, whichever one they use in your own local different background here. But it says they are placed into our churches. Who did what? Who turned the grace of God into—mine says lewdness and deny the only Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. Now the point I am just trying to bring to your notice is that once something tampers with the gospel, Jesus has been denied. Because if you look at what we have been saying, the gospel is the gospel of Jesus. What is the gospel? What Jesus did, what Jesus said and did. Is there anything again apart from that? So once we twist the gospel, what have we twisted? What Jesus said and what Jesus did. It says so men, they have crept in and you know they have turned this thing. And that is why it says they deny the Lord. Anything that affects the gospel is actually a denial. It is either you deny what Jesus has said or you deny what Jesus has done. And that is the purpose we should defend so that we can maintain everything that Jesus has said and that Jesus has done. You can go ahead and read and read through, but that's not—so many things, but the bit that just came to mind is that place. For these people, it was more of leading people into sin, immorality, so many things, so many things that they lead people into. And when I say immorality I am not just talking about sexual immorality. Lying is immoral, I hope you know. Things that is contrary to moral. Not submitting to parents is immoral and some church will tell you that even if your father and mother don't bless you, once the church blesses you, the marriage is sanctified. These are immoral teaching. It is not morally correct. Just like you are telling a wife that it doesn't matter whether your husband agree or not, as far as I sanctified it, it has been taken by God. That's not correct. There are so many immoral things going on. But the point I am here emphasizing for us that we are looking at is our privileges we have in Christ. Now it is the same way as it is going to immoral, the same way that the privileges we have in Christ have been tampered with today. The things that Christ did for us by some kind of teaching. You know I have never believed in life, not once I began to understand the gospel, that I can be sanctified spirit, soul, and body. What I was brought up with, it early on—so that what I was brought up to believe that you will always keep repenting from sin till Jesus Christ will come. Every time you come you must be repenting. But when I believe a new gospel, I see that it was possible to walk with God for months without coming back to want to pray and say, "Father, whatever sin will hinder." And I tell people that when I want to think back I can't remember when last I wanted to pray that the first thing was trying to recollect the sin that will hinder my entrance into God's presence. I can't remember. Just because of what I have believed here. And every time I want to—there is always being conscious of sin you remain in sin. You know but those who are looking up they are going up. We just find out that we were overcoming sin. And sin is not because we were struggling to conquer it, but there was a working that is working in us. There is the law of the spirit of life in Christ that set us free from the law of sin and death. So there is even a law, we discover there is a law. It is not as if we are—and that is why I said that I keep saying that if you truly understand the gospel, I don't see how pride comes in. I am telling you because you know it is not you. It will be clear to you that what is happening in your life is not you. It is not something you say, "Today I will not sin." And then by that determination you did not sin. It is not so. But it was as you were communing with the Lord, temptation loses their power because he is near. That is just what you find. And some people ask you, "How did you do it?" You just say, "Jesus." Because you know it is actually Jesus. And not because you are trying to just say it to be humble. No, you know the reality that it was if not for Jesus we would have compromised in this situation. So it is clear to you. And there is no boast that comes out of the thing. But that is—so you see the point I am making about Jude that I am feeling so much worry, so much burden about the fact that you see, certain men crept in. And sincerely when I look at what I am realizing, they did not just creep in, they crept in several years ago such that the things that they have brought in, that somebody said as we were starting, they have become what is the truth. That that is the only thing you hear as truth. It has become the norm, it has become the normal teaching. Such that even when you now see truth, truth will look like error. You will be looking like, "No, that's not the truth." It is these things they are there. Just like Jesus came and said, "You have heard that it has been said, 'Thou shalt do this.'" But so many things that have been said, "Thou shalt, thou shalt," and those things looked like it was God that said it.