Sound Doctrine

Jeff Johnson: Do you fear God? It's not a negative thing at all. Here's Pastor Jeff. Paul's divine source of the Gospel, it's not about pleasing man. The fear of man, according to Proverbs 29:25, is a snare. That's an interesting scripture. But whosoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe or saved. The fear of man, you don't want to go there. Or getting God to see my point of view. It's all about obeying God. It's all about God says I'm lost, God says I'm a sinner, I need salvation.

Jeff Johnson (Singing): Your spirit leads me on, and I'm running after you. I'll leave behind the worthless life and I'm trading them for priceless truth.

Guest (Male): Welcome to today's edition of Sound Doctrine. If you're a parent, I'm sure you know the ups and downs of raising kids. When they do something bad, it's pretty disappointing, isn't it? Well, consider the Apostle Paul and the people of Galatia. The Galatians were Paul's spiritual children and they had strayed from the Gospel message Paul had taught them, salvation through faith in Christ alone. You can imagine that he was not happy. So he wrote them a letter. Pastor Jeff Johnson takes us now to Galatians chapter one, and we'll examine more of Paul's words to the churches in Galatia.

Jeff Johnson (Singing): Father won't you speak to me, oh Lord you know I'm listening. You know exactly what I need. So Father won't you speak to me.

Jeff Johnson: Over 500 saw him resurrected. Is that enough witnesses for you? Do you need in court to have one or two would be cool, right? I got them. Man, I got two witnesses. But what about 500? That's a lot. That guy's had it. He's not going to make it.

Interesting, the fact of the Gospel. If anyone brings a false interpretation of the fact, I mean adds something or changes it or whatever. These guys were so sly in what they did, and they're sly today. They're good at what they do. So deceptive, so subtle, just like Paul said. They know they're not going to argue about the fact. And they can't argue about the fact. The fact is that Jesus came. The fact is he died on a cross. Fact is he was buried and he rose again. So they don't want to talk about that.

If anyone brings a false interpretation, too many witnesses. They can't say anything about that. But you also need to keep, and they add, the Mosaic law. Again, circumcision and what that brings with it. You have to obey all the law if you're going to be truly saved. You know how many Messianic Jews have got ripped off from going from Jesus my savior to all kinds of stuff in the Old Testament, and they're under the law again? Oh, they have Jesus, but they're under the law. They're not experiencing the joy of the liberty of the blessings.

Now, do we believe in the Old Testament? Yes. Do we practice it? Yeah, at my house we do all kinds of different things with Hanukkah. I mean, we do all the Jewish holidays. Why? Because it's part of our roots. It's where we came from. They're cool. They're neat. They teach you all kinds of things. We don't depend upon it. We don't get saved by it, but we sure enjoy it. Passover, wow, that's awesome. In fact, we even have our own Passover, but it's been changed to communion.

If you don't do this what we're saying to you, you're not going to be saved. Listen, we're going to start and we're going to move in the spirit. We're going to start and then when the Lord comes upon you, you just start to bark like a dog. This is proof that the spirit of God is coming upon you. You just start barking. This is the fullness of the spirit.

There was actually churches talking about barking. The churches would all come together and bark. They would have them roar like lions. They would have them laugh hysterically for hours. It's the spirit is upon you. He's come to just pour out this joy of the Lord, the laughter, and everybody in the church would be laughing for hours. What would happen if you brought your parents into that church and said, "This is my church. I'm going to welcome you to all the family of God." Everybody's going off barking, roaring, and laughing. "Okay, I'm out of here."

What has happened that a church would get into these things? Listen, what are we to do for practice in the church today and tradition? How are we to know what we're to be doing? It's very simple. Did Jesus do it? Was it done in the book of Acts? And did Paul teach about it? That's what we should be doing today in the church and nothing else. We've got it set up here in the scriptures.

This heresy, to this heresy, to this individual, a special curse from God, Paul says, on you. That's how serious he was about this thing. You Angel Moroni, full of baloney, ripping people off with your Joseph Smith story, the special glasses, and how he got this revelation just happened in the late 1800s. And then Charles Taze Russell comes on the scene, Jehovah's Witness, oh, the late 1800s. What happened right at the end of the 1800s? The Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church. Of course the enemy would come in like a flood and bring these weird other gospels to bring confusion.

A curse upon these cults who proclaim Jesus plus whatever gives you salvation. A curse upon them. That's pretty heavy. What does that mean? Well, they are to be anathema. What is anathema? It's a Greek word for damned. How serious is it? Let them be damned. And that's what Paul says. What's interesting, in case they missed verse eight, he says, "Check it out, I'm going to tell you again." Repetition's always the best teacher. If you don't get it the first time, maybe you'll get it the second time. Are you getting it? Extra emphasis.

Hey bro, listen, where's the love in your heart, man? Where's the tolerance? Listen, love is what we need today. Love is what it's all about. Love is what matters, not belief. The truth is, listen to this, his love saves if we believe. His love saves and we receive his love. Yes, we have love, and we have tolerance and patience by the Holy Spirit. But we believe. Those who believe will not perish but have what? Everlasting life.

This Christ plus this or that or whatever they're preaching that saves is evil. I can't say it any clearer than that. It's just evil. It's dark. And we are to hate false teachers and other gospels. That's what we read in Psalm 97 this morning. There in Psalm 97 verse 10, "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil." He preserves the souls of his saints, he delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. We're to hate evil.

Now, what's interesting is Romans chapter 12 says the same thing, and Paul is writing this to those in Rome which they needed to hear. This is Romans 12:9. He says, "Let love be without dissemination." I mean, let love flow. Abhor that which is evil, hate evil, cleave to that which is good. God is good. Cleave. God's word is good. Jesus said, "It's better for you to have a millstone around your neck and be thrown into the Sea of Galilee than to deceive one of these little ones." Oh, to be a professor in college trying to deceive those young Christians that go into that world religions class and really getting down on them and really, "I want another one." Oh, you didn't win, buddy. You're going to get yours big time. God keeps good books about everything.

That's why that whole thing about "God is Dead," oh, if you haven't seen it, you got to go see it or buy it, but see it. It's so true. This Gospel shuts out all works. Romans, write it down, Romans 4:5. "But to him that worketh not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." It's not about becoming good enough to be saved. Jeff, I'm really trying to be a Christian and I'm going to continue to try. And when I get there, I'll let you know. But I'm really trying, I'm trying to clean up my act. Isn't that what everybody's wanting to happen? Well, I'm going to try. Okay, you try. You'll never become a Christian. Why? Because God's saving the ungodly. Don't you get it? We are ungodly. He's calling sinners, sin-sick sinners. There's none righteous, no not one.

And the law condemns us and it says in the scriptures it must make us speechless before grace can save us. Jot down Romans 3:19. Listen, "Now we know that what things soever the law said, it said to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God." Oh, thank God for the law, Paul said. Without the law I would have never known that I'm a sinner and that I've blown it in my life. It just chops away at everything that I try to be. I can't be anything but lowlife. That's all I am, because the law just cuts me right down. Thank God for the law, the commandments of God. We've blown it. If you blown it in one, you blown it in them all. You're lost, man. That's what God's looking for, for someone to say, "I am lost."

He goes after the lost sheep. He hears the "baa, baa," and he leaves the hundred and he goes after the lost sheep. Why? Because he's crying out, he's lost. It's a horrible screeching noise. He's afraid, there's predators, there's everything around him. He just needs salvation, he needs his shepherd. Humanity refuses this condition of lostness. What really blows my mind is you go in the surf shops and they got all kinds of clothes on "Lost," and you can even get a hat that says "Lost." I went up to one of those guys. I said, "You're lost?" "What?" I said, "You lost?" "What do you mean?" "Well, if you're lost then you're a candidate for salvation. Are you a candidate for salvation? Are you lost?" "I don't know what you're talking about," and he just walked away. But he wore it. He didn't get it, because if he got it, he would have got saved.

But humanity refuses this condition. If anyone tries to mingle law and grace, this individual's to be damned. These are misrepresenting the fact, they're perverting the truth that only Jesus saves. That's it. Paul is really saying this, it's like a rescue ship about to sink. Can't save a soul. And so we've got to go forth and warn as many as we can to stay away from a wrong-way sinking rescue ship. What are you getting aboard on? It's going down. "Well, I just thought it was pretty cool what they do." Okay, but is it biblical? No, but it was pretty cool. Okay, you need to be warned. You're pushing the envelope. You don't want to go there.

We need to be careful. So quickly this can be, you're off. You've been ripped off, perverted Gospel. And the joy of your salvation is not there when this takes place. You're missing what Jesus saved us from and what he continues to save us from. And without him we are nothing. We owe everything to him. He did it all. We are to continue to say, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the power of God to save." He saved me. He can save you.

And finally verse 10 as Paul finishes out here, he says, for Galatians 1:10, "For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." Paul's divine source of the Gospel, it's not about pleasing man. The fear of man, according to Proverbs 29:25, is a snare. That's an interesting scripture. But whosoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe or saved. The fear of man, you don't want to go there. Or getting God to see my point of view. It's all about obeying God. It's all about God says I'm lost, God says I'm a sinner, I need salvation.

Mark these two scriptures down. This is in Thessalonians chapter two in verse four. 1 Thessalonians 2:4, "But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men but God, which trieth our hearts." And then he says in 1 Thessalonians 4:1, "Furthermore or finally brethren, then we beseech you, we beg you guys, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more."

See, that's the direction we're to be obeying God, pleasing God, bringing pleasure to him. Over in Revelation 4:11, "Thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." Guess what guys? We are created for whom? For him, for his pleasure. He gets blessed out of watching us obey and just doing what we're supposed to be doing. We bring him pleasure.

This Gospel the sinner hates. This message of grace irritates people. It irritates them. They get shook up. Why? Because this Gospel puts us in the dust and makes us beggars before God. This Gospel of good news chops us, brings us low, brings us to the point where we can cry out and be saved. It's a powerful Gospel. It's not what man wants. Men want, "Appease my flesh. Give me something to do. Don't just say I gotta believe." Can't handle it, can't handle the truth. That's where you're at. The truth is he came to save.

"Oh, I just need a helper. I don't need a savior." Okay. "I just need someone to help me to do what I need to do to go to heaven." The truth is all who are without Christ are all going down for the third time. And there's a rescue attempt taking place in those churches that are preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. It's a continued rescue. But how many times can you go down? How many times do you need to hear before you believe? Everyone needs salvation. This is not a popular message, guys. The false Gospel seeks to please men and you can turn on the TV and see a lot of it right there. It's a very man-pleasing thing. The pastor becomes a politician to be loved by everyone and applauded by all. This pastor is not a faithful shepherd. So many in churches today are not saved.

May God help this pastor continue to be faithful to his word and bring us into that place of being dealt with by the hand of God. Because when we don't sense and have that reverence of God, we're losing it. We need to walk humbly before our God and he will lift us up. We need to be careful not to be men pleasers. "Oh, and he speaks so eloquent about Christ's birth and he tells stories about the death and the resurrection. I love my pastor." But nothing about we're all sinners needing a savior. Nothing about the Gospel message and touching that which Jesus came to die for, and that's sinners saved by grace. He died for us that we would trust him to be saved, forever saved. Thou shalt not perish but have everlasting life.

This is the truth of Galatians 2:20. You can turn there. Galatians 2:20 says, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the faith that I now receive is by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave his life for me." Bottom line, crucified with Christ. Leveled. We can't live this Christian life, but we can and we will if we do it through him. There's the key. It's through Christ I can do all things. It's eyes on him. Listen, we have nothing to give him.