Don't fall for new and improved gospel (copy) (copy)
How many times have you picked up an item in the store and read “New & Improved”, only to find out they meant “Reduced Quality and Smaller In Size”?
New can be a good thing if it really does do the job better than before but so often that is not the case. More often than not, the product is weaker, smaller, and more difficult to use. Not even to mention a higher price.
The other day, my wife and I went out to a local fast-food place and got breakfast. Our bill was almost $25. The biscuits were about one-third less in size and were not of the quality this store usually offers. A few days later I stopped at another fast-food place and ordered a fish sandwich. The bun had shrunk until it was no bigger than a biscuit and, even then, the fish was completely hidden from view. The fish patty looked like it met its demise by being starved to death. It was about the thickness of four playing cards. It resembled finger food rather than a sandwich.
Before you go there, I already have made up my mind that going there is not worth what I receive in return. That is what I am basing this message on. When you go to Church are you getting shortchanged with “The New and Improved Gospel of 2026?”
The trend is to take away from the truth and power of the Word of God and then call it New and Improved because it is not the full Gospel and easier to swallow.
Ask yourself if the Gospel that you have been listening to leaves a good feeling behind or a sour stomach? (Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!)
Sin is evidenced by the conviction power of the Holy Spirit. We have tried for many years to dictate how people should act, dress, talk, and what they should do. That sounds to me like we were trying to present to them the “Law” of the Gospels.
Today, we have gone just the opposite. Now there is no expected behavior. Everything goes as long as you feel good doing it. Being right with God is not based on feeling it is evident through the change in you. When you feel conviction over sin but ignore it and continue living without making the change that Christ offers, then there is a truth you need to know. (Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. 2 Corinthians 13:1 This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
We are commissioned to preach the Word and share our testimony. Through which the Holy Spirit will bring conviction by the anointing (presence of God which bears witness to and is the power behind the Word.) That is what brings conviction and change to people’s lives. Change is an intrical for salvation as is taking a person out of a body of water to save them from drowning.
God understands that laws have never kept the peace or made people do what is right. We are talking about a spiritual condition that takes the mind and the heart, working together, to overcome.
A law library consists of hundreds of volumes that contain all the man-made laws that people continually ignore. Even being imprisoned does not break their desire to do wrong.
If a person is going to live right, it won’t be because of laws or rituals. It has to come from a knowledge of sin and the means to forgiveness. It is the will of man that needs redirected and only God can do that.
Dennis Banks is a retired Smyth County and Southwest Virginia pastor. He welcomes comments and questions and may be reached at dennis.banks47@gmail.com.
