Revelation 2:5 ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place– unless you repent.
Across the land (and apparently, the world) the Gospel has been obscured if not removed. This is a severe judgment from the Lord. This has happened in different ways and for different reasons, humanly speaking, but it is a severe judgment of the Lord to remove the Gospel from people regardless of how He does it. For example, in the Old Testament God would send severe famines upon the land to judge people. But the prophet Amos also spoke of a famine of hearing the words of the Lord (8:11). Spiritual judgments are harder to see and can happen to a people who are in great financial prosperity. However, spiritual judgments have eternal ramifications and in a very real sense are far greater than temporal judgments.
We see in the book of Galatians how God views a man that preaches a gospel that is different than the biblical one. Twice, in just a few verses, Paul says that man is to be anathema, which is to be eternally damned (Gal 1:8-9). Paul says that the people were being disturbed by some and it was by those who wanted to “distort the gospel of Christ.” This is to say that they were not trying to replace everything, but they were either trying to add or subtract. But in doing so they were distorting. Paul was amazed that the people were “so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel” (Gal 1:6). But again, this different Gospel is one that has been distorted. This is one way of how God withdraws the Gospel from a people and that is by allowing it to be distorted or by hardening hearts and blinding people so that they do distort it. This is a great judgment.
The Gospel is distorted by either adding or subtracting from the Gospel. We should note that in Galatians 1:6 (quoted in the previous paragraph) that people are said to desert Him. A different Gospel is not just a minor issue though the issues involved may seem minor to a vast majority of people today, but it is to desert Christ. These people are said to have been called by the grace of Christ. As we go on in the book of Galatians it can be seen what was happening. People wanted to say Christ plus circumcision or Christ plus one little thing. Paul would have nothing of that. It was Christ alone and grace alone. Whenever anyone adds or subtracts from the Gospel of grace alone, it is no longer all of Christ and all of grace and so it is distorted and vastly different.
While it is fairly clear that many are adding to the Gospel today by requiring things of men to do and making those things conditions for God showing grace to people, it is also true that people are subtracting from the Gospel as well. God changes hearts by grace alone and delivers people from the power and grip of pride, self, and sin before He gives them grace, but again He does that by grace. Sure enough people must repent and believe, but those are things that they must be given by grace alone rather than those things that they can do in their own power. Sure enough people must be convicted of sin or they will not see their need of a Savior, but this conviction is not something they can work up in their own power and work. True conviction of sin comes by the work of the Holy Spirit. The heart must be broken from pride, but that cannot be done by the power of self either. All of those things must be done by the work of grace rather than the work of self. When men are working these things as if they can do them, they are given over to the work of self and pride and that is a different gospel.
One of the most obvious ways that we see the hand of judgment on us in our day is when “ministers” tell people that they must believe and don’t tell them what that means or what is involved in that. This is nothing but the pride of “ministers” giving false instructions to people who want to hear that. The heart of true faith in Christ cannot come from a proud heart, but instead this can only come from a humble heart. Sinful and proud hearts cannot break self from pride as that is the work of God Himself. It is not just a matter of believing some information, but a heart of true faith is a heart that has been broken from unity with self and pride and has been united to Christ. True faith comes from a soul that is united to Christ by grace alone and so receives all by grace alone. The heart that has not been broken from pride and self will continue on in its pride and self even if it is theologically orthodox. The Gospel of grace alone can only be received by a humbled heart and that can only happen by grace doing the work. A proud heart is a blind heart and that is a judgment from God. So God blinds men to His work of grace in the soul and as such the Gospel of grace alone is taken from men as judgment. As long as men think that their wills are free while they are in their pride and that they can “accept” Christ in that way, they are blind to the Gospel.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment