Summary: There needs to be clear and stark differences between how the world lives and how Christians live. This sermon deals with the differences between the Christians' message and the message that world teaches.

Things That Make Christians Different From The World: Our Message

When it comes to the many things that make Christians different from the world, there are few that are more important or life changing than our message. What is our message? The message that we have to tell is nothing less than the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News of the Bible.

We have the Gospel message to proclaim to the world so what message does the world have to tell that could possibly equal the Good News of the Bible?

Let’s look at both messages separately today starting with the message that the world has for the people who are willing to not only hear it but believe it.

There are several parts to the message the world has to tell.

Like in last week’s message about hope, a big part of the world’s message is about hope but in the message of the world the hope that they talk about is a false hope, a false or different gospel. It’s a gospel that leads people into a false sense of security as far as it relates to where people will spend eternity.

This preaching, if you will, of false hope and of a false doctrine is what leads so many people to believe or hope that they are going to go to heaven when they die. And I know that we have talked about this part extensively, but it needs to reiterated time and time again because this lie that the world calls hope is a matter of spiritual life and death for so many people. So, today we are going to compare Gospels, the Gospel of the Bible versus the gospel of the world.

The world wants to preach to everyone including Christians, a false gospel, a perverted gospel. The Apostle Paul warned the Galatians, and us today as well, about the dangers of listening to and possibly accepting and believing in a false and perverted gospel in Galatians chapter 1 verses 6-9 we read this:

6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

Paul was very clear here, that the world would try to do its very best to come up with a message, a gospel of its own, that would be presented to a world that is looking for real hope but would only find false hope in a false gospel. There is only ONE true Gospel and that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The world can try to re-make the Gospel, add to it or take away from it but the truth remains that there is only one Gospel.

Not only is the message of the world’s gospel false but the so called preachers of this gospel are false too. Paul is again very clear here when he states to us that if not only men but angels, and this is a critical point, Paul is saying that even if an angel came directly from heaven and preached to us a gospel other than Christ crucified, then even that angel is to be cursed. That is very serious and we need to take what Paul is saying very seriously!

In many of our colleges and universities there are classes being taught that deal with a subject called “The Science of Comparative religions”. The world wants us as Christians to not only believe but accept that all religions are basically the same and are all basically equal, therefore they are saying that the Gospel of the Bible and the gospel of the world are pretty much the same.

The world also wants us to accept that we can no longer go out into the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and proclaim it as empirical truth because the other religions that we will encounter are just as valid and just as true. I would love to turn the Apostle Paul loose on these college professors wouldn’t you? I would pay good money to see those debates and if I were a gambling man I would bet the farm on Paul!

But the thing about the other world religions is that at the end of the day, they all teach that men must work to gain God’s approval and they must work to gain entry into whatever they call heaven and nothing could be farther from the truth. This not the Gospel that Paul preached nor is it what is contained in the four Gospels of the New Testament.

And while Paul and all of the other great men and women in Scripture who believed in, preached, and taught the true Gospel, knew as well as we do today that God is the author of the Gospel through the work of the Holy Spirit and it was brought to earth through the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is satan who is the author of the gospel of the world. For every good thing that the Lord has for us, satan has a cheap imitation or knock off that looks and sounds similar but his gospel is without power and without hope.

But now I want to focus on our Gospel, the real Christians’ Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ! There can be only one true and real; life changing Gospel and that Gospel is found in the Bible. I want to make sure that we all understand something about the Gospel and that is that the Gospel is found in the Bible but the entire Bible is not the Gospel.

There is a reason that the first four books of the New Testament are called the Gospels. The four men, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John who were blessed enough to be chosen by God to be the ones who would write down what the Holy Spirit laid on their hearts to write, recorded the Gospel or the Good News of Jesus Christ from four different and unique viewpoints. But make no mistake here, while there are four books that make up “Gospels” in the New Testament there is only ONE TRUE GOSPEL of JESUS CHRIST!

And when this Gospel is compared to false gospel that satan and the world promote and teach it is very clear why our message, the Gospel, is far superior to the world’s false and perverted message.

How is it superior? Well for one thing it’s true. It was true back when Jesus was proclaiming it, it was true when Paul was preaching it and praise God, it’s very true today!

The Gospel of Christ teaches us that we can’t work our way to heaven and that we don’t have to try to work to gain God’s approval. In fact it teaches us just the opposite, that it is a gift, a gift that we could not hope to be able to afford to buy and that all we have to do is accept this gift freely and with faith and we will be saved and we will ensure that we will spend eternity in heaven. Now, compared to the world’s gospel, isn’t this truly the best news you could hope to receive?!

In Romans chapter 1 verses 16-17 we read this:

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."

The gospel of the world as I said a bit ago has no power and not only does it have no power but the only ability that it does have is the ability to deceive. But the Gospel of Christ has the power of God in it and behind it. And because of the power that the real Gospel has it brings about salvation in the lives of those who are willing to hear it, believe it, and live it.

The Gospel is full of grace, the gift from God that we don’t deserve but He offers it to us anyway. The world’s gospel has no grace in it at all but what it does have is legalism and ritualism.

I love grace for one reason and that is that it comes directly from the hand and the heart of God! I love grace because grace has changed my life in more ways than I have time testify to here.

The Gospel of Christ is all about forgiveness, love, salvation, repentance, accountability, and changing my filthy rags that was my own “righteousness” for the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. Because I chose to believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God no longer sees me but now He sees the blood of His Son Jesus and if that isn’t good news for all believers here today then I don’t know what would be! Amen!?

The Gospel of Christ is to be spread around the world without apology and without fear. Because another great thing about the Gospel of Christ is that once a person believes in and accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, as it says in Romans chapter 10 verses 8-10:

8 But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Accepting the Good News of Jesus Christ is as easy as believing and saying. And once this act of salvation has occurred then something extraordinarily exciting and wonderful occurs. At this point because of the Gospel and the acceptance there of, we are now children of God!

In the Gospel of John, chapter 1 verses 12-13 we read this:

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

When you compare this great news, that when we are saved that we are now called sons and daughters of God, to the gospel of the world where if you believe that false gospel, you remain children of satan then there is really no comparison is there?

Jesus said this in the Gospel of John chapter 8 verses 44-45:

44 "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 "But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.

So for me the differences are stark and clear between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the gospel of the world. The two messages are light years apart on substance, on validity, on truth, on power, on results, on spiritual security, and simply right and wrong. There are only two authors of these two messages, God is the author of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and satan is the author of the gospel of the world.

There is a question that must be asked here and that question is this, whose Gospel do you believe in? If you believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and you have been changed inside and out by it then will you be willing to take this life changing and eternally critical message to a world that is suffering from the delusions and lies of satan?

The world is literally dying to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed to them with faith and power behind it by godly men and women who will fearlessly go into the world as sheep to the slaughter and proclaim the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

With all the bad news that we see and hear in our world today isn’t it about time that there is some Good News spread around our community?

Pray and ask the Lord to give you opportunities to share the Gospel with someone everyday! Amen?