======================================================================== SOCIAL JUSTICE AND THE GOSPEL by Keith Malcomson ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon delves into the historical roots of the social gospel movement, tracing it back to figures like John D. Rockefeller and Samuel Zane Batten who sought to blend socialism with Christianity. It highlights the dangers of compromising the true gospel for social justice agendas, emphasizing the need to focus on individual salvation and the power of the ancient gospel message. The sermon exposes the deceptive nature of false gospels that prioritize societal change over personal redemption, urging listeners to stay true to the foundational teachings of Christ. Topics: "Social Gospel vs. True Gospel", "Individual Salvation" Scripture References: John 12:7, Proverbs 10:7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon delves into the historical roots of the social gospel movement, tracing it back to figures like John D. Rockefeller and Samuel Zane Batten who sought to blend socialism with Christianity. It highlights the dangers of compromising the true gospel for social justice agendas, emphasizing the need to focus on individual salvation and the power of the ancient gospel message. The sermon exposes the deceptive nature of false gospels that prioritize societal change over personal redemption, urging listeners to stay true to the foundational teachings of Christ. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I want to just do something different, change the direction. I'm probably going to preach on this for a couple of Wednesday nights. I believe there's a need for it, an urgency. There's lots of things I don't want to preach, I don't like to preach, yet are vital to the health of an individual Christian. It's not enough just to preach about Christ, you've got to preach against Antichrist. It's not enough to preach the true gospel, you've got to actually challenge, expose and reject the false gospel. This is what you've got to do with the Word of God. It's not enough to paint a picture of what a true Christian looks like, we've actually got to paint a picture of what a false Christian looks like, or what Jesus called a tear, or a goat. We've got to do both, and you find throughout the Bible, we're not only presented with the real, we're presented with the false. If you ever meet a preacher who says, I don't preach the negative, I don't preach against things, I'm a positive preacher who only preaches what is real, and only preach Jesus. I want to tell you, that is not biblical. As a biblical preacher, I only want to preach on the blood, on the cross, on the real person of Christ. But because I love the church, and I love God and his Word, and I know the Word of God, I am compelled to expose what is false. Now you really wonder where I'm going here tonight. My message tonight, the social, sorry let me say it again, social justice and the gospel. If you don't understand what that means, don't worry about it. I'm going to be very clear, if I can by God's grace, to explain what I mean. And I want you to turn here tonight to John chapter 12, verse 1 to verse 12. And I'm going to also read from Galatians chapter 1. You don't need to turn there, but it's important we just read it. I want to read John chapter 12, verse 1 to verse 12. John chapter 12, verse 1. Then Jesus, in fact let me just read from chapter 11 and verse 1. Now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. Then we go through a whole chapter of 57 verses that deal with Mary, Martha, Lazarus and Jesus. Then we come to chapter 12, verse 1. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There he made him a supper and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him, typical man. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spick and nerd, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? Then he said, that is Jesus, sorry let me say it again, verse 6. This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, let her alone, against the day of my burying has she kept this, for the poor always she have with you, but me ye have not always. Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also whom he had raised from the dead. Will you pray with me here. Father we pray right now, Lord God plead in the blood of Jesus Christ over us. Lord God we want delivered from every false gospel, every deception, all hypocrisy. We want the real life-changing gospel. We want the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We want the unchanging biblical gospel. We're not conforming to our generation. We're not conforming to the winds that blow through this hour in this generation. Lord God we believe the ancient gospel of salvation, of blood redemption. That my God give us grace tonight to reject every foreign gospel, ideology, thinking, movement, influence. Lord God we pray that you'd bring us to the scripture and make us to stand strong on the written Word of God in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Just reading as well from Galatians chapter 1 and it says in verse 6, listen this carefully. This is Paul writing to the churches of Galatia, the churches across an entire region, province, nation. He preached the gospel to them. He worked miracles among them. He raised up churches in their towns and cities and yet he has to write a very few years later, less than one decade, writing to them, warning them that they're getting carried off with a false gospel. It says there in Galatians 1 and 6, I marvel, I am shocked, I am stunned that you are so soon removed from him that called you. In other words, you've changed sides. You've turned everything right around. You've been called away from him that called you into the grace of Christ onto another gospel, which is not another. But there be some that would trouble you and would pervert the gospel, turn it inside out, back to front, subvert it, change it, destroy it. And they call it the gospel and they say but nothing has changed. But though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you. Let him be accursed. The word accursed used there means damned to hell forevermore. Anyone who changes the gospel, departs from the truth, moves away from what is stated in scripture, gets carried along with a new form of Christianity, contemporary, the latest cutting edge, popular, preached in all the great pulpits. If you get carried away with that, if you begin to preach a different message, Paul says even if it's an angel that's come from heaven, even if it's a preacher who once preached the truth, let him be accursed, damned to hell forever. Do you realize those that try to change the gospel, there is no hope. You are in serious trouble if you add to it, take away from it, obscure it, hinder it, are nullified by your traditions. What a dangerous thing to play with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and yet we live in such an hour and generation. My message here, and I'm going to preach from John chapter 12, my message is social justice and the gospel. Or I could say the false gospel of social justice and compared to the real gospel of Jesus Christ. And we find it here in John chapter 12 stated very clearly. There is a new movement sweep in our world. It swept politics and economy and secular society and academics and education. It has got into the schools. It has swept widely. And that would be one thing if I could stop there. But what is shocking is it's got inside the church. It is promoted as the social justice gospel. That is what they call it. They call it the real gospel, the full gospel, Christ gospel, the biblical gospel. That's what they actually call it. And they say if all you do is preach salvation from your personal sin by a personal savior and a personal experience of salvation, they say you only have half the gospel or part of the gospel. You need to add social justice. If you from your pulpit do not preach social justice as they explain it, they say your gospel is no gospel. They do not consider it the gospel. Those who are promoting this, they demand equal or equality for everyone. They believe that all of us should have the same privileges, all the same financial resources, all the same education. All of us should have the same access to the same food, the same housing, the same benefits of life. All of them. This is what we should have. And that we should have a socially just world and that the church should be preaching this clearly. They demand human rights for every area of life. And they talk about financial redistribution. That's what they say. It would be fair if we take all the wealth, all the finance and redistribute it so the poor are on the same level as the very rich. They talk about property redistribution, but don't really define it. And do you know what is the driving force behind this? It is socialism and communism. It isn't Christ. It's not the gospel. It's not the Bible. It is popular preachers and movements. Do you know in this movement, they also bring in a victim mentality. Everyone is a victim. I'm a woman and I'm being prejudiced against. And that's why you're not giving me the job. I'm a different color or language or ethnos. And that's why you're not giving me the best job. I ought to have that job. And so they bring in the whole region or area of women, the rich and the poor, of ethnic groups, and even sexual preference. So you shouldn't exclude me because I've got different inclinations from you. This is the mess of the different gospels that are penetrating the church in the 21st century. If it was only the dead churches or the Catholic church or the liberal church that was being affected, I wouldn't worry about it. But you know what is sad is that those leaders who claim to be Bible-believing, born- again, Christ-centered Christians, I mean, leaders with significant power in the English-speaking world, are beginning to be affected by this in a very real way. They say it's not sufficient that the gospel is confined to personal salvation. They talk about society and culture and national and politics and economics. They talk about the critical race theory, gender ideology, the social gospel or radical environmentalism and even casual socialism that is good for all. Are you not shocked that in America since the year 2008, socialism, old-fashioned communism, has risen with such power? I never thought I'd see the day. You see, when I was growing up, socialism and communism were anathema. And yet suddenly since 2008, amidst a financial crisis, socialism has come in with a great power and it's even affecting the church. Do you know what a lot of these, and I'm talking now about preachers, men who claim to be born-again in the English-speaking world, do you know what they're teaching at the minute in Bible seminaries, Bible schools, popular pulpits, conventions of many churches? You know what they're saying? You're racist if you're white. Because you're white, you are a racist. If you're another color, you wouldn't be. It's not to do with your words, your actions, your attitude, your sentiments, your opinions. If you're the wrong color, you are a racist. You're an aptly racist. You're responsible for all of the sins of your parents. And also they say if you're white, you have nothing to contribute or to speak into this actual issue. You need to sit quietly, give authority to other colors and creeds, and you need to listen to them. You don't understand them. You can't counsel them. You can't preach to them. You need to learn from them and say amen when they proclaim their new social gospel. Now I'm going to preach John chapter 12. We read when we go to John chapter 12 about Jesus arriving newly in a small village called Bethany. We've just read in chapter 11, John chapter 11, is an entire chapter about Jesus at Bethany. But you see in chapter 12 verse 1, he is returning, coming back again to Bethany. In fact, when I begin to share this, you're going to see that Bethany was one of his favorite places on the entire earth. Bethany was a small village just two miles from the city of Jerusalem. If you imagine the city of Jerusalem and as you look out, you see the Mount of Olives where Christ preached about Bible prophecy. Christ would go up there and look down on Jerusalem. If you looked over the other side of the Mount of Olives, you would look down into the valley to where Bethany was. So it was only a two mile journey, but the Mount of Olives was between Jerusalem and Bethany. But this was a place that Jesus loved to go. It was placed in a ravine and it's still there today. In John chapter 11 and verse 18, it says that Bethany was about 15 furlongs from Jerusalem. That's about two miles. In John chapter 16 and verse 1, it says Bethany, and there's the Holy Spirit giving us this, Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. Do you know that Jesus, when he thought about Bethany, thought of one house, thought of one family, and thought about three people? That town Bethany, when you think about it biblically, you don't think of the political leader or the richest man or the most famous sports personality. When Jesus deals with Bethany, he thinks about one particular home and family. I actually believe it was a humble cottage surrounded by fig trees. Maybe it had an almond tree out the back or some pomegranates just down the road from it. That's what you have as their home. In Luke chapter 10 and 38, we read that it was Martha's house. She owned it or had the legal rights to that house. It was her house and we're told that she received Jesus into it when they first met him. Jesus knew them and met them for at least a period of a year and a half, maybe two years, but no more than that, and it become a very special place to him. In John chapter 11 verse 5, it says, now Jesus loved. Remember what we dealt with last week? None of them are preachers. They're not leaders. They're not apostles. They're not miracle workers. They're not social campaigners. We don't read anything of that about them and yet Jesus chose this family specifically to be his friends. If you're going to find him anywhere, you'll find him here. If you find him sleeping over in anyone's home, you'll find him here. If you see him sitting at a table eating, it's going to be here unless it's a sinner. But amongst believers, you don't see him sitting at the table of other Christians casually speaking, but you do in their home. Do you see what a beautiful picture the New Testament presents concerning the friends of Jesus? In John chapter 11, a bit later in verse 35, it says that Jesus wept. Why did he weep? If you're Joyce Meyer, you say, Jesus wept because he was angry that they wouldn't believe him. That's rubbish. Listen to what it says. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, behold how he loved him, Lazarus. He filialed him. Here was a man. He is God manifest in the flesh. He knows all things. He has all power. He can raise a man from the dead. He knows he's about to do it, but he's a friend who has emotion and his heart is broken. He weeps over his friend who has actually died. Even though he is God, yet he has natural human friendship, feelings and emotions. That's what makes this so real. He's the same today. He has not changed at all. But what about Bethany? You know, when you come down to the last seven days of Jesus' life, we read at the beginning of John 12 that it was six days before Passover. Do you know what happens at Passover? Christ gets crucified. He'll die on a cross as the Passover lamb. This is the very last week of Jesus' life. Do you know some of the things that happened? He stayed at Bethany with his friends in this home at their table. This is where he ate and slept and had fellowship. It was actually from Bethany that he went over the hill, the Mount of Olives, went into the temple and he turned over tables, got angry, cast out the dove sellers. Very symbolic, isn't it? Selling doves, the Holy Ghost in God's house. And he chased them out. And do you know what he said at that time? It is written, my house should be called the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. In Matthew 21 verse 17, it says, and he left them and went out of the city into Bethany and he lodged there. In Mark chapter 11 verse 11, it says, now the even tide was come and he went out of Bethany with the 12. And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry. And that's when he saw the fig tree without fruit and he cursed it and it died. Do you see how he's passing back and forth to Jerusalem, back to Bethany, to Jerusalem, back to Bethany at the beginning of this last week of his life, before his crucifixion, he is staying with this family. Now when we come, and I don't want to confuse you here, when we come to the woman with the alabaster box, we have four different stories in our New Testament. We have it recorded in Luke chapter 7, Matthew chapter 26, Mark 14, and here in John chapter 12, all stories about a woman who takes an alabaster box of oil or a container with oil and breaks it to give it to Christ. Do you know all four cases of this are not the same? Not speaking about the same person or the same occasion. For example, Luke chapter 7 is at the beginning of Christ's ministries, maybe three years before this. Whereas when we come to John chapter 12, it is at the end of Christ's ministry. So it cannot be the same. Remember in Luke chapter 7, the woman there, she was in the house of Simon the Pharisee. She comes in, she's a sinner, she is immoral, and she begins to wash Christ's feet. Do you remember that? And in the mind of Simon the Pharisee, a religious man, a radical Bible believer, and he begins to think and says, huh, if this man was a prophet, why doesn't he know who this is washing his feet? And Jesus spoke straight to him, didn't he? In a very real way. You know, that occasion, it was a sinner. It was repentance. She was broken and Christ forgave her. He said, I forgive you your sins. Do you know what I believe? I believe John is a second incident separate from the other two cases. John chapter 12, and we're going to deal with it here right now, is different than Matthew 26 and Mark 14. I believe Matthew 26 and Mark 14 are the same incident. And you know what it says about that? It happens four days later, two days before Passover. So we have three records, two different incidents in the last week of Jesus' life of Mary actually anointing the feet of Jesus. And then an incident four days later of an unnamed woman in a different house, but in Bethany still, doing the same, but she anoints his head. You can go and study it. I'm not going to say any more on that. I don't want to distract you. I've got three points here I want to preach. I'm preaching on social justice and the gospel. Point number one, the ancient power of the true gospel. Follow with me here. It says in verse one, then Jesus, six days before the pastor came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. I want you to see this when Christ comes this time to Bethany, to this home, to this family and sits at their table. As he looks around that table, there are miracles of the gospel in that home and family. This is his friends. These are the ones he's chosen to commune with, to live with, to dwell with. Oh, that we were the friends of Christ, that we enjoyed friendship with Christ. Here you have sitting at the table is a man called Lazarus, who several weeks ago was raised from the dead. It's about several weeks and everyone is talking about it. Lazarus was dead four days and yet Christ raised him from the dead. There is a miracle power with the real gospel. You see, we're not trying to reform people. We're not telling the homosexual, well, you're born like this, you live like this, you'll die like this. We're not telling a black man, you've got every right to be bitter, unforgiving, angry, because somebody made your great-grandfather a slave and you've got every right to demand justice. We don't do that. You know what we preach them on? You've got no right to be angry. If you don't forgive from your heart, oh yes, people may have abused you, but if you don't forgive your enemies, you'll never get in the kingdom of God. Do you see how the social gospel of justice in our hour, that demands justice, you really want justice, you'll go to hell. You really want justice? You know what justice usually means? I want revenge. That's not the gospel. That is the human gospel of this world. We're angry, we're bitter. Well, you took the land of our ancient Indian tribes in America and you British came here and abused us Irish and you Australians took it from the Aborigines. How far do you want to go back? Do you know the Gaels in Ireland only arrived about 500 AD? You know how here in Ireland we go, we're the Gaels, we're the ancient Irish. Do you know the Gaels were late comers? Who did they push out? I could tell you, but I won't go there, I'll get in trouble. And so when Jesus comes to Bethany, to this home, he's with his family. Each one of them's a miracle. Martha's a miracle, Mary's a miracle, and Lazarus is a miracle. You see, that's where I want to believe. I believe God saves men who are bitter, jealous, and angry. You may have been abused as a child. I want to tell you, you need to forgive and you can have your heart set free. You see, social justice will say, you've got a right to be angry and bitter and jealous and blame God and say, why did you allow this to happen to me? Scar for scar, don't we all have stories? Don't we all have a past? Aren't there secrets in all of our families we don't want the world to know about? We've got to be sure that we know the power of the real ancient gospel. You see, it's here in the Bible as plain as day. There is power within the gospel to make a dead man alive sitting at the table. Notice he's a living miracle and he's sitting there at the table and he's eaten. You'd think if you've experienced a miracle, why aren't you running up and down the high street? Here he is sitting for an evening meal. In fact, they prepared a meal for Jesus to come and sit and talk about the things of God. In verse 2 it says, there they made him a supper and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. I told you, a typical man. This man, but be assured he could have been the chef like a Rory. It says they all made him the supper, but you've got Martha serving. Remember that used to be a part of Martha's problem that she couldn't come and sit. But you have Lazarus here just sitting, enjoying fellowship with Christ at the table. A meal has been prepared. Hey, why are you even sitting preparing a meal for Jesus? Don't you think we should give it away and go on a mission on the high street to the poor? Isn't this a waste this entire night, our gathering? Why have meetings? It says in verse 3, then took Mary a pound of ointment. I want you to see this very careful, the power of the ancient gospel. Does it look, and this is the home, these are the lives where you're seeing the power of the gospel of a changed life. What does it look like? Is it filled with activity merely for this world and social justice? Or is it more than that? Then took Mary a pound of ointment. Oh, Spicknard, very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. What a dynamic, powerful thing where you see the gospel at work. It changes hearts and it changes lives. You're looking at a miracle here in Mary's life. This is a miracle. This is the grace of God. This is the gospel at work. And you know what? Each one of you that get impacted by the gospel, it'll produce the very same thing. I believe actually it'll make you into a Mary, a Martha, and a Lazarus all at the same time. I believe that these three represent what a real local church should look like. You see with Martha, you get service or work. With Mary, what do you get? You get real worship unto the Lord. And with Lazarus, you get witness. So look at this. Martha is working. Remember in chapter 11, she got rebuked. Remember for all of her running about and not coming and sitting at the feet of Jesus. She was cumbered. She was annoyed with her sister. Say, Mary, why are you sitting listening to Jesus instead of coming helping me? You remember that? How come he doesn't rebuke her here? She is serving Jesus at the mealtime. No rebuke. Do you know what? There was nothing wrong with her work. It was being cumbered with those things. You see to serve God, you ought to serve God. You ought to be active. You can't just lay back and say, well, you know, I'm a Lazarus. I just sit here and get fed at the table. I'm enjoying Jesus. Neither can you say you're just a Mary who sits at the feet of Jesus. Oh, you might be a Martha, but I'm not. Do you know Martha got rebuked for being encumbered with it, hindered from Christ. Work is not wrong. Work is sinful when it hinders you from Christ. But if you stop working and say, I'm just going to sit here, that is also sinful. There's an absolute balance in all of this. You see, we're talking about the power of the gospel in the home. All three of these siblings are different and yet Christ loves them all. Mary's very different than Martha, but don't think he loved Mary. Look at her. She breaks the soil. She actually sits at his feet. Do you think that he loved her more than Martha who was active and servant? Absolutely not. All of them are involved in this meal to prepare it for Jesus. But look at Mary, what she does, she brings a pound of ointment. You don't need that amount of oil to anoint Jesus' feet. You really don't. That is far, far too much. And yet she is here and she is pouring out as a public act of love. See, she loves Jesus Christ. This is the gospel in her heart. It is spontaneous. No one asked for it. She didn't preempt it. But you know what? This oil is one of the most precious things that she has in the house. It says here that it was very costly. Judas later says, actually it was, you could sell it for 300 denarii. One denarii is a hard working man's wage for one day. It was 300, so that's like 300 normal, good, hard working days in a year. In other words, a year's pay. This ointment represents an entire year's pay, working every working day. And you take that and you pour it out in a few seconds in one spontaneous act of love upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And she took this pound of ointment, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus Christ. It was natural for her to do. It was a sacrifice. You know what? When you look into this, some say that this oil was probably kept for her wedding day. This is all she's got. She's in a small village, in a small home, and the houses are older sisters, and she's got a brother. This is all she has. She's probably worked very hard. It's all she has. It's for her future. It's probably for another person. And yet here she is in one sacrificial act publicly. She's not embarrassed. It's a very personal thing, and she pours it out upon the feet of Jesus. She anoints his feet. Somehow she knows he's heading for death, and she does that. Jesus calls it a good work. A good work. I mean, this is the gospel at work. Do you know the gospel makes you radical? It makes you passionate. It makes you to be moved where you pay costly dear things, and you go, it doesn't mean anything. Jesus means everything. Jesus dominates my life. And here it is in my home, in my own living room, at my own dinner table. The gospel has the power to impact you and to change you. What a humble position to go down on her knees. You know, in those days when someone come into your house, the servant that you paid would wash the feet of your guest with water. It was the act of a slave or a servant. It was a very humble, lowly job. And yet what does she do? She washes his feet, but she does it with the most precious thing. You see, I can tell you what you think of Christ because of what you give to him concerning your time. Where does your time go? Where do your thoughts go? Where does your money go? Where does your strength go? Where do your abilities go? Where do your plans go? See, all of hers was in the person of Christ. Anyone could have said you're a fool. I know you think that, but I didn't waste anything. I love the man of Calvary. If you knew what he'd done and changed in my life, my entire life is radically changed. What if a man was to gain the entire world and lose his soul? What does it mean? What does it mean? Absolutely nothing. There's nothing in this world that you could actually buy me with. You know, in Luke chapter 10, we read about Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus. In John chapter 11, the previous chapter, we read that Mary fell at the feet of Jesus. Here in John 12, we read about Mary anointing the feet of Jesus. She had three experiences at the feet of Jesus. The first one, she sat and she learned at the feet of Jesus. The second time, she surrendered and submitted herself at the feet of Jesus in a crisis. Number three here, we actually see her anointing the feet and honoring, worshiping, and magnifying the Lord Jesus Christ. This was an abundant act, a costly act, but what a contrast to somebody else sitting there. Oh, I forgot to tell you, there's others there as well at this meal. The 12 disciples are there. They're all there. There's maybe other people there, and they're involved in this gathering at this particular time. Number two, and that's the first thing I've given you, the ancient power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What a power it has, but what does it look like? Since you need to learn, what does the gospel really look like? What is the true gospel? What is the false gospel? Number two, the ancient deception of the social gospel or the social justice gospel. It's here in this text. Look with me at verse four. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him. This situation, what would you say at this time? What would you be thinking at this time? Would you recognize the gospel, or would you say, what a waste? Well, look at Judas. Judas is there. Do you know this is the first time Judas ever speaks in the Bible? Two to three years, we haven't heard him once speak. This is the very first time. Do you know this is the first time he opens up and reveals his motive, his agenda in words. This is the first time. He's always been so controlled, hidden, traveling, ministering, living with Christ, talking with Christ, preaching for Christ, but we have no word recorded ever. So these are the first recorded words. So the first time he gets rebuked by Jesus Christ, first time. And so we see here that he's going to speak in the midst of this. He's going to reveal his heart. This radical dedication to Christ, this real love towards Christ is so dynamic, so powerful, he can't recognize it as the gospel. He actually believes he knows the gospel. He believes he knows what it looks like, what it should entail. What does he say here? Verse five, why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence or denarii and given to the poor? When he looked at this lavish act of love by Mary to Christ, he couldn't identify it. He's going, this isn't the gospel you preached. This isn't the gospel we're following. I'm not in this for that sort of gospel. He actually believed what he'd just seen was wasteful. He believed it was distasteful. He believed it was too much. He believed that there is another gospel, a better gospel, and that he knew that gospel. You see, Judas had an idea of the gospel, but as you should know, it was a false gospel. It was a false agenda. Here's someone who the situation demands that he speaks out, so he's very sure of where he's at. He is proclaiming his gospel. You know why? He's in it for the money. He thinks the gospel is about money. He thinks the gospel is about your economic condition. He thinks that this is the thing that actually marks you. Couldn't we have sold this? Doesn't that make sense? Wouldn't you have said amen at the time? Some of you may say tonight, oh no, I wouldn't have sided with Judas. You're going to see that the other disciples in the room that night were affected by this. All of them, I believe. You've got Judas presenting another gospel. Isn't it logical? Isn't this a waste? Here tonight, don't you think that was a waste? Unless you understand the gospel and the person of Christ. If all you do is look from your perspective, humanity, this world, religion, then it's a waste. What about the poor? What about those that can't feed themselves or clothe themselves? What about those who don't have a house to sleep in the night? What would you be like in a meeting where an apostle stands up and begins to point out that Christ has made a mistake? In the normal working of Christ, we're devoted to him. We're communing with him. We're sitting with him. But here's an apostle chosen by Christ, anointed of the Holy Spirit, commissioned to cast out demons. He's gone preaching in your village. Judas done that, you know. Didn't he commission all 12? Go preach. Go cast out demons. Go heal. Do you think Judas healed someone? I believe so. And here you have the appearance of waste. What a neglectful thing to do. What a wrong thing to do. What a wrong focus. We should, if we really know Christ, we should be consumed by giving this entirely to the poor. Look what his view of the kingdom was. You see, I believe this had been a growing thing. Like all the disciples, he thought Jesus had come to make himself king, to reign. That's what he thought. His ideology was the Messiah is going to be king. The Messiah is going to bring in the kingdom. The Messiah is going to turn over the Roman empire. The Messiah is going to bring justice to our courts and our society and to our streets. Do you ever notice Jesus never talks about slavery? Not once. You ever notice that? See all the social justice lot today, they'll say there's something wrong there. Or they'll say surely not. Jesus never once mentioned slavery. Am I against slavery? 100%. Am I against abuse? 100%. Am I against poverty? 100%. But you need to be careful what you read into the gospel, into the text, and into the person of Christ. You can change him into something that the Bible does not say. Look at Judas's view of the kingdom. It was national, military, political. Do you know the longer this went on, it started with crowds of 10,000, 20,000, 30,000. It started with all the villages and towns going out to see Jesus. It began in mass campaigns that was rocking society. But the more he preached, the more he dealt with hearts, the crowds begin to diminish. And when he gets down to the last week of his ministry and he's getting near the cross, and he's going to his death, and he begins to talk to him, I'm going to die and suffer. I'm going to die. And they all said, no master, don't say that. And he told them, he actually warned them, I am going to be crucified. You know, he had to set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem because he's going to die there. Remember Thomas, negative Thomas. Remember when Jesus said, I'm going to Jerusalem. Do you know what Thomas said? He said, well, come on guys, let's go with them. We'll die with them. What a pessimist Thomas was. Okay, let's go to Jerusalem. We're all going to die. Let's have a last campaign. You get all the characters here in the Bible in a very, very real way. You say, I believe Judas believed kingdom now. The kingdom of God is power, dynamic, turning over the structure of everything and end to poverty and end to all manners of abuse. Let's change the court system and so much more. Do you know what they didn't realize and didn't see clearly? Remember when John the Baptist seen Jesus beginning to minister and he heard about it and he was in prison about to die and the devil was coming in against John the Baptist. Remember he sent two of his disciples to Jesus and said, ask him, is he really the Messiah? Sure you proclaimed him the Messiah. You said, behold the Lamb of God. You told John and his brother James to follow Jesus. You actually preach Christ. John, what are you doing in prison saying, is he really the Messiah? Do you know in prison cell Jesus sent John's disciples back and he said, tell John, the poor have the gospel preached to them. That's the gospel. Listen, listen very carefully. The social gospel says you can see the gospel when the poor have money and are fed and clothed and housed. That's the gospel. That's the real gospel. Jesus never said that. Jesus says you can identify the real gospel, the real kingdom when you see the gospel getting preached to a poor man. In other words, the messenger knows there's something worse than poverty. There's something worse than a hungry stomach. There's something worse than a cold body. There's something worse than not having a bed to sleep in at night. And the gospel is the answer. You know I care about the poor. You know that all through the years. I care about that. Jesus cared about it. But you know what he said, this is the kingdom when sinners have the gospel of redemption preached to them. Remember what Jesus said, this day is this scripture fulfilled. What was it? I've been anointed to preach the gospel to who? The poor. Christ didn't step out in the mission of feeding all the hungry in Judea or Galilee or Jerusalem. He didn't do it. This is him for three years as a preacher. He didn't, actually the bible says he didn't even have a bed to lie on. He didn't have a home to sleep in. He didn't have a personal address. Do you know what, for three years he preached and he didn't start a campaign. Let's ban slavery in the empire. Let's stop abusive marriages. Let's march on the courts. I'm not against someone doing any of those. But you better get the priority right here. Do you know what we see an example of here in this home, Judas speaks up and says, what about the poor? You could have sold this. And this he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and bear what was put therein. Listen to me very carefully. When you see a preacher or a leader in the church that changes the gospel and says, it's all about the poor and it's not about Mary anointing the feet of Jesus. Do you realize there's something wrong with that man? Any man that diminishes the preaching of the gospel to all men as the cure to all of their ailments, get a man saved. I assure you he'll arise out of poverty. Get a man really born again and I assure you he's not going to be stealing. Get the lady that's walking these streets selling her body, get her born again. She won't do that again. You say, oh, she's got to do it. She needs money. Oh no. You need to know the power of this dynamic gospel. It is absolutely dynamic, absolutely dynamic. Do you realize at this moment in America, there are many Judases. They have positions, they have ministries. They are feeling like this is the hour to speak out. They're very vocal on the internet, in churches, at conventions and they're speaking very loudly and they're beginning to shake many leaders who never tolerated this gospel of justice and listening to all these heresies and errors. At the minute there's a man called Al Mohler or Albert Mohler. He's been one of the great Baptist theologians of America for many years now and he's also the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in America. He is the main guy in it. Do you know in the past three years he's been changing. He didn't believe this in 1995. He preached you must be born again. It's the blood, it's the cross, it's dedication, it's a transformed life. Now he's beginning to change. I've listened to a documentary about what's happened with this Bible school and at the beginning of COVID they began to fire and remove teachers and professors who were against social justice, this false gospel. They fired them and moved them out and then began to bring other men in who are going to teach race and color and ethnos to the students. We've got a real problem going on here. This man used to be known as a fundamentalist evangelical Bible believing Christian and now he's beginning to turn at the height of his position in power. He arose in the real gospel. Now he's revealing himself and there's a whole new agenda coming in on the Baptist movement and churches. There's another young preacher that's been well known and famous. I've never been in this camp called David Platt. He also has began to change in this environment. He's one of the world's best-selling evangelical authors in America. He was the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention International Missions Board. All the missionaries going out, he was responsible, he was passionate, he was biblical, he preached Christ. But something's changing. Now he is the pastor of McLean Bible Church in Washington. They have to meet in four different areas. A membership of over 10,000 people and this young man 40 odd years old, if he was 50 I'd say he was a young man as well, has begun coming under the influence of the social justice gospel and he's affected many. His church is in turmoil over the past two years. Last year they took him to court. His own people saying that what they're doing with the elders, they're changing the gospel and the pulpit. He's starting to say things that he should be apologetic for his color being a white man. Since I hate racism, at all my birthdays up until five years old, believe me there was only one white girl at it. The rest were either black or whatever. I grew up with Jamaicans. I can understand any Jamaican when you won't be able to tell what they're saying. All of this is going on at the minute. You'll say these are Baptist, yes but they're Bible believing churches that are being transformed. The Shepherds Conference that MacArthur led in America just two years ago, you've got a split leadership of speakers. Half of them are going the social gospel way and the other half are foundational, fundamental. This is widespread and you know what? It's going through all of the churches. You see I believe there's the ancient doctrine of social justice that doesn't only go right back to Judas. In Bethany, in this home saying what about the poor? Don't you know he's a thief? He's a traitor. He is a liar. He is about to sell Christ. Do you know again when this other anointing of Christ happens four days later? Remember when that happens? And this other lady, he must have went, my head's going to explode here. This is spreading. There's another lady in Bethany doing this. He said if we don't stop this, this is going to spread all across the church. This is the beginning of the church and what's going to happen? This will start spreading across the world. He'll probably even reach Ireland where you'll get girls like Mary and this other unnamed lady beginning to anoint his feet and anoint his head and to waste their riches. He had a hidden agenda. You know when a man preaches a false gospel, there's something wrong. I've watched this all through the years. I have watched it time after time after time. I've watched from a 15 year old kid, the guest speaker at a main convention and all the pastors are following it and I'm going I don't like that man. Do you know why? His humour, his attitude, his unbiblical statements. I'm going all the pastors, thousands sitting listening and that same pastor two years ago or five years ago comes out promoting homosexuality and saying it's okay and I go man it took 30, 40 years but you come out and showed your colours. Do you realise that this present social justice gospel goes back to the social gospel that was created some 120 years ago? Let me just give you this as we close. I want you to see this. You need to know what is behind ecumenism, joining with Catholics, the ecumenical movement. We're all the church. The movements of going back to the church fathers and let's study the early church for 300 years and we'll go back to how they done church. You'll make a big mistake. Or what about all the cultural issues and the social gospel? You're going to get yourself in real trouble. Let me take you back in modern history not to Judas at Bethany but to Rockefeller in America. Who do you think financed the modern social gospel? John D Rockefeller was a Baptist in America. You want to know why all these Baptist churches are having much money poured in to change their Bible schools, their churches and to move them? Do you want to know why it goes all the way back to Rockefeller? During the 1870s and 1880s John Rockefeller concentrated pouring all his wealth to finance pastors, theological colleges and foreign missions in the American Baptist denominations that he belonged to. He began to finance them to go to Germany to sit under the higher criticism Darwinianism had got inside German Christianity and they were teaching that all this was compatible with the Bible. Well this is where Rockefeller began to pour all his money. You know what he's a rich man with an agenda and according that old- fashioned gospel of blood redemption repentance he'd be on his way to hell. If I was him, a liar, a traitor, a deceiver, I would want to change the gospel in my churches as well. So he started to finance us to change the seminars that were produced in the pastors. He made sure liberalism came in and modernism came in and Darwinianism come in and it destroyed the young students. It undermined their confidence in the simple gospel. One notable, only one of the students that come out of one seminary that he financed was a German-born young man called Walter Rosenbusch. I believe his name's pronounced. German but grown up in America. He passed through a conversion experience at the age of 17. His father was a radical, born-again, real Christian. I mean a real Christian. His entire home was saturated with the gospel. At 17 years old he got born again, had a conversion experience in a Baptist church and then come under the influence of D.L. Moody. The evangelism, the singing of Sankey, revivalism. He loved it. He's seen the power of many lives getting changed. But he went to a liberal seminar where Rockefeller was financing and as he sat there his confidence in the bible and the gospel was destroyed. He loved Moody and Hudson Taylor and William Booth but this German liberal ideologies destroyed his confidence in the bible. Be very careful saints of God. The devil will destroy your confidence in the cross, the blood, in a real supernatural God that raises the dead from the grave. He'll make you to doubt the written word of God. The devil is very real. Just look where a Rockefeller puts his money and you've got an idea of how the devil is actually working. Do you know this young German student, Fulter, he then travelled to Germany and got all this higher teaching. He travelled to England and sat at the feet of Sidney and Beatrice Webb who had started the Fabian Socialist Party. Don't worry if you don't understand some of this terminology, I'm going somewhere. Some of you understand these terms. The Fabians were socialists who wanted a one world government in England and so he forged a new theology by joining English Fabian Socialism with German higher criticism to create the new American social gospel that was going to change his entire generation. He created a brand new gospel, the social gospel. On the front of it, what was their agenda? To reach the poor, make life better, solve economic problems, reach the prostitutes on the streets and improve their life. But he lost confidence in the gospel. He actually believed God's kingdom is here to change social society. He lost his grip of the ancient gospel. Listen to what he said, if ever socialism is to succeed, it cannot succeed in an irreligious country, it must start in the churches. Socialism taking over America, he thought had to start in the churches if it was going to affect secular society. Go for the churches and you'll get the nation. That's why socialism is destroying America under Biden in two years. I warned you, didn't I? I told you if Biden gets in, all these things will happen. He's destroying the nation and our nations are the very same, the exact same thing happening. In New York, after this, having created his own new social gospel, he went to New York and he formed a group called the Brotherhood of the Kingdom that was based on the Jesuit order. And it existed from 1893 through until 1915. Listen to who they were. At their first meeting, they pledged themselves to the public propagation and spread of the social gospel at every opportunity. These men were liberal Protestants from different denominations. They were real academic thinkers and writers and the first promoters of the social gospel within the real churches of Jesus Christ. They denied the full inspiration of the scriptures. They denied redemption by the blood. They denied regeneration by the spirit. They denied personal face-to-face encounters with Christ that changes your life. They denied an eternal hell and they denied a host of other basic teachings. He also denied the teaching of a literal return of Jesus Christ physically, literally to the earth again. They replaced the return of Christ with this new kingdom theology, which said that we the church are to bring in the kingdom to society. We need to change the society. And when we change society, that means God's kingdom has come. It was called kingdom theology. They changed Christ into a cultural Christ, a Marxist Christ, a socialist Christ. They changed Christ into a non-biblical one. And it was in reality, Fabian socialism disguised as Christianity. This young German preacher denied that Christ's focus was personal salvation, individual salvation, and he said it was society. When society's changed and becomes rich, prosperous, not needing any of the basics of life, they've been redeemed. They have been saved. So if you have a house, food in your belly, money in your pocket, you've been saved. That's what he changed it into. This brotherhood, give me two minutes and I'm going to finish this. There was another man out of the five that initiated the brotherhood that spread the social gospel across the world. One of the men was called Samuel Zane Batten. Listen about him and what he wrote. He was one of the five founding members of the brotherhood. His first book in 1898 was called The New Citizenship. In this book, he promoted the new Christian idea of looking beyond the individual for salvation to the redeeming of the entire human race by restructuring society through social political action. He published several books during the following two decades along similar lines, but this is the book I want to mention. In 1919, the year the First World War ended, he published his most revealing book through the American Baptist Publication Society, and this was its title, The New World Order, which defined the task of the church in reconstructing a new world order in the earth by social and political action when the church joins together with politics. Do you know at the end of the Second World War, Mr. Rockefeller, he financed two things. He financed the creation of the world, of the United Nations, and he gave them the land for their building that they use to this day. Do you know he gave all the money and the land for another project called the World Council of Churches. The same man financing these two projects. Between the First World War and the Second World War, politicians all over Britain, all over America, the top politicians involved in a new world order, in creating a world government do you know what they targeted? The church in Britain and America, and they began pouring a fortune of money into creating an ecumenical movement. Most people don't know this, and I'm going to say more in the weeks to come on this, and I tell you this needs dealt with. Most people do not know who created the ecumenical movement of the 20th century. I know. I know who financed it. I know who thought it up. I know who created it, and I know the names who were there, and it was to bring in the evangelical church, to compromise them, join all the churches together. Rockefeller Jr., what was his idea? To create mega churches all over America, to destroy the small local churches, the Bethany churches in every community, and he said this idea, only have one or two big mega churches, give them all the funds, raise up the preacher, train those pastors, but here's what I want to finish. I could say an awful lot. Let me give you a quote from the new world order that this Baptist pastor produced, that was essential to the social gospel, which within Candace's lifetime spread through all the churches in South Africa, the evangelical churches, and they moved from preaching the gospel to social action. It destroyed the churches. It always destroys. It's Bethany replayed, where you've got a Mary dedicated to Christ. She's changed, but a Judas apostle comes in and says, what about the poor? He's a liar. He's a deceiver. He's a betrayer. This book, the new world order defined what was to happen. Quote, listen carefully. The old order passes from view. The new world rises upon our vision. The world can never again be as it has been. The world war represents the close of an age and the opening of a new epic. It began as a world war. It is developed into a world revolution. If there is to be a new world, it must come first through the new spirit in the nations. There must be created an international mind and conscience. Men must learn to think of humanity as one family and to have a world patriotism. World patriotism must be a new faith of chivalry because it can be an organization, sorry, before it can be an organization. International peace must become an aspiration, a religion before it becomes a reality. There must be some international organization. I wonder what that will be. Remember the book's called the new world order. There must be a new international organization which shall make the new ideas effective and secure world justice. It is necessary therefore for the nations that believe in world humanity to form an international organization. There is no more justice for the claim of absolute sovereignty on the part of a nation. Is the Baptist pastor speaking over a hundred years ago? No more need for nationality or national sovereignty than on the part of the individual. The only alternative is world federation, a world parliament, an international court. There must also be an international police force, a large and strong enough to enforce international law against any offending member. This international police force should possess an army, a navy stronger than any other member. In fact it should be the only army and navy in existence in the world. A new nation must be permitted to gather deadly weapons. There must be a league of the nations with advantages so manifestly real that all will want to enter it. The earth for the people. The nations must take the next step and control the resources of the earth in the interest of all peoples. By federated action they must take control of the earth's resources and make these resources available for all mankind. I'm telling you about a religious social gospel that denied the power, the ancient power of the gospel and created a new social gospel saying we care about the poor, we care about the deprived, we care about inequality and we're going to be the answer to it. My third and final point, Christ's ancient exposure of social justice. It says in John 12, 7 and then Jesus said let her alone. He's exposing the false gospel. What about the poor? Leave her alone. Look at the leave her alone. Take your hand off her. Stop speaking against her. Stop ridiculing her. And he said against the day of my burial has she kept this. I'm going to the cross. It brings you back to the cross. They're trying to recreate the world. Christ has said I'm going to the cross to die. You're trying to provide for the poor. I'm trying to provide salvation for their eternal soul. For the poor always ye have with you but me ye have not always with you. It says in Proverbs 10, 7 the memory of the just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot. Saints of God I'm going to come back and preach again next Wednesday night on this. Social justice and the gospel. Anton I see the social justice in John chapter 12 and all of this ecumenism, social gospel, feminism, all of these sexual rights that are destroying the education system. It was spawned as a part of the new world order and we need to identify it as the new world order and know who financed it and poured the wealth in and what's behind it. It's a one world government that antichrist is going to take over. I'm telling you the only answer for this generation is the gospel. We need to preach Christ. We will deal with every issue in this city. We have the power to make a difference to every problem whether prostitution or poverty but I tell you it's in a man and a woman getting born again by the grace and the power of God. Please stand with me let's pray here. Father we thank you for the power of this gospel. It's an ancient gospel. Lord God we don't want to tolerate any change. We want to be like Christ saying leave her alone. Leave the gospel alone. Leave dedication and devotion and love to Christ alone. My God you put us here not to restructure society. Not to march on the streets but to go preach to sinners. You must be born again. Let the power of the gospel come upon us. This is still a radical message that turns the world upside down and father I pray set us on fire. Lord God fill us with your Holy Spirit. Give us clear preaching of the gospel that all men are depraved. All are sinners and that the answer is the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for Calvary. Thank you for the blood of the lamb and we pray for the power of the gospel. A dynamic movement that came out of Bethany and spread across the world. Let it begin again O God with simple devotion. Supernatural power of the risen Christ in Jesus name. Amen. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/L6_MwvAAEn0.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/keith-malcomson/social-justice-and-the-gospel/ ========================================================================