Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): There's no shortage of bad news today and Pastor Jeff says that's all the more reason to focus on the good news found in the scriptures.

Jeff Johnson: With so much bad news going around today, the comfort of the scriptures is so needed today more than anything. So many discouraged, so many despondent, so many depressed. But to be like Him is to have purpose in the midst of depression, depression days so to speak.

Guest (Male): When people look at your life, what do they see? I know that's a pretty challenging question because we all know that we have times when we stumble. By the end of our time together, you'll learn why it's so important that people see Jesus in us. To be like Jesus is a lofty goal to be sure. But what does it look like and how do we get there?

Well, stick around as answers from the book of Romans are headed your way on Sound Doctrine. Pastor Jeff Johnson has framed his talk around the first seven verses of chapter 15. We'll begin at verse four.

Jeff Johnson: 2 Corinthians 4:18. He says, while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen. The things that are seen are temporary. The things that are not seen are eternal. In other words, we're putting on our Holy Spirit glasses and we're beginning to see as Jesus saw. We're beginning to live as Jesus lived. We're beginning to have our hearts where His heart was.

We're beginning to understand what it is to have victory over this world, to be more than a conqueror in this place. Why? Because we're living for eternity. Eternity's on our mind and nothing else. Think about it. To be like Him, to step out, to hang in, that faith pleases God. To have the mind of Christ. To commit ourselves and the situation to God. And it says in the scriptures, He'll bring it to pass.

Did you know that what you're going through, this too will pass? Did you know that? Then be excited in that. Don't let the situation take you down. Look to Him. He said, "This will pass." We are more, more than conquerors through Him. So to His sacrifice, He humbled Himself to go to the cross. What did it become to Jesus? It became His exaltation.

If we follow His example and we deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him, it lifts us up. Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up even into the heavens. The key is a servant. The key is humility. The key is, I want to be like Him, and you'll be taken out of this place. I'm talking in a spiritual way, in your mind. You'll put on the mind of Christ. God highly exalted Jesus as He went to the cross.

Verse four: "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning," talking about the Old Testament, "that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." Now, the Old Testament was written for a number of reasons. Number one, realize this: that the revelation of nature was incomplete. Yes, nature does bring forth the glory of God.

You go out there and see a sunset, go out there on the beach, go in the mountains or whatever, you see the glory of God in nature all around us. But it was incomplete. It doesn't reveal how to know Him, to know His grace, to know how to be redeemed in His redemption, to know hope. And that's why the Old Testament was written.

Number two, the Old Testament was written, His word was given because it gives us a code, a law, a standard to live by. Man needs that desperately, and it can be achieved in Christ and no other way. And number three, the law was a schoolmaster to drive us to Christ. It was a good thing. The law that Moses brought forth convicts men everywhere.

Salvation is in no other name or in no other way but through Jesus. The Bible then is a real revelation of God to man. I like that. His word is what transforms us to be like Him. There is power in the word of God to transform us. Scripture says that, and then it says it's written for our learning. We can grow by getting into the word of God to know God's plan for our lives.

There's something about a Christian: they are always students. They're just always learning. They're always burning. The reason they're burning is because they're learning and they're in the word of God. And that's what gives them everything that they need to be like Him. For without you in the word of God, forget it. It's what we need to build our foundation on.

Written for our learning. Through the Old Testament experiences that you read about, we can learn patience. Do you remember with Abraham and Lot? Abraham was patient at this time and he said, "Lot, pick out which way you want to go." He gave to Lot, and Lot looked at the green pastures of Sodom and Gomorrah and he went that way and he lost everything.

He went by sight. Too bad, Lot. You got excited and said, "Oh yeah, okay, I'll take this." And oh man, he blew it. "I got the good thing." If you only knew. Abraham turned and took the desert or the drier area of Israel. But later on we know that Abraham also got a little impatient and he went to Hagar's tent. We're still paying for that today.

Ishmael was brought forth. You're going to help God out? You can't help God out. What are you doing? I got impatient. I don't think there's any way Sarah's going to have a baby. But God said it. That should settle it, you should believe it. But you didn't, and you got your hand in the cookie jar and you got busted. But it affects us even today, big time.

Now we have bloodshed and hatred that's deep, that will not be removed until the Prince of Peace comes back. It'll stay on. So, the dangers of not being patient, but they're there to teach us patience. Then you look at His word. To learn His word is to understand that unanswered prayers are answers. Unanswered prayer is an answer from God.

He's either saying wait or no. A lot of times we don't like that, but He's a good Father and you learn that in the Old Testament. You've got to understand, this Bible is not like the old eight ball. I used to as a kid, I had the eight ball. The eight ball was a black ball for those of you that don't know what I'm talking about. It was like a little bowling ball but it had number eight on it.

You would turn it over and there's a flat spot and it would always have this thing floating around in it that would give you answers. You'd say, "Should I marry her?" "No." And we would actually go by the eight ball. We would believe that stupid thing. That's not what the Bible is. Bible roulette. "What you do, do quickly," and then you turn the page and "Judas went out and hung himself."

No, I don't want to play Bible roulette. That's stupid. We don't go there. It's not that we have little lucky charms we go by. No. The Bible is a mirror, James says. We see our sin as we get into the word of God. We see our shortcomings. We see where we have mud on our faces. It's a two-edged sword. The Bible is cutting constantly as it even cuts this morning of our hearts.

It heals too. It brings forth healing. We learn that His ways are not our ways. We look at the Old Testament with David and Goliath and we go, "Yeah, David! He's a bad little dude. Took that guy out. That's almost impossible." Then he went over there with that giant sword and cut off his head. Yeah, David, our hero.

We learn about how the little guy gets the big guy because the little guy says, "Lord, get him." And that's those that are winners. They depend upon the Lord to do their fighting. Then you go on in the Old Testament, you look at Joshua crossing the Jordan, it's awesome. Then he comes up against Jericho and what a story as they put the ark...

God says, "Here's how you're going to take this fortified city with huge walls. You're going to take my ark, you're going to have the people go behind the ark, and you're going to have the people go around it seven times and don't say a word. Those seven times, everybody's going to throw down trash on you, they're going to throw down worse than trash on you. You just keep walking around for seven times for seven days."

They're pretty funky by now, right? The people have really been dumped on, so to speak. And they were obedient to do it seven times, seven days. And then God says, "And the last day I want you to shout." And these guys are actually going, "Yes, sir. This is how you take a city? Okay." And they shouted. And guess what? The walls fell outward. God took the city of Jericho.

It's not the people, God took it. Now they were obedient, but it was a lesson for them, it was a lesson for us. Do you believe God's word? Do you believe what He says? Then do it and great things are going to happen. Your enemy's going down and that's a fact. So we learn patience, we learn comfort of the scriptures. We learn how God provides for us.

We learn about Elijah was fed by a raven. God used a raven to bring food to Elijah when he was starving. We learn about the loaves and the fishes. So when we have potlucks and somebody brings a bucket of chicken and puts it down and there's no other food, we pray over that bucket of chicken. "God, supernaturally, feed everybody."

How many times have you guys done that and God did it? Look at the hands, guys. We believe the word. I'm sorry. I've done it many times. God is faithful. "Oh come on, Jeff, give me a break." No, I'm serious. And then when I need to pay my taxes, the Lord just tells me to go catch a fish. No, that's what He said in the scriptures.

I paid my taxes, but that's how one way He provided. Go fishing. "God, you sure?" Yeah. And he went fishing and there's enough money to pay for the taxes. Do you believe? And that's the Old Testament then going on into the New Testament teaches us not only we need to believe, we need to look at His provision how He takes care of us.

He gives us an eternal perspective that His delays are not His denials. And sometimes God puts us in a holding pattern. We don't like that, but that's necessary. It causes our faith to grow, it causes us to mature more. And then we find out that it wasn't His denial, it was in His time He makes all things beautiful. He's a good God.

And so we know the comfort of the scriptures as we look at Psalm 1, "Blessed is that man that doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly, that meditates in the word of the Lord day and night. So he shall be like that tree planted by the river of waters and in his season always have fruit." The comfort of the scriptures is awesome.

So hope to cope, man. We need that today more than ever. A joy unspeakable. Now, another characteristic of those who are like Him is that they know He heals. They know He restores. They know He gives hope. And with so much bad news going around today, boy, the comfort of the scriptures is so needed today more than anything.

So many discouraged, so many despondent, so many depressed. But to be like Him is to have purpose in the midst of depression, depression days so to speak. Days like the days that my parents went through, the Great Depression. I think we're in the Great Depression again. Now you say, "Come on, they're not selling apples on the streets."

Well, they're selling other stuff on the streets, but it's not apples. There's a lot of hurting people and it's not going to get any better. The outlook is not a good outlook. But those who are like Him have hope. They have what is called in the Bible the blessed hope. Do you know what that means? They're looking for their Savior to come at any moment.

What a hope we have looking up. It's encouraging to know this: that in the New Testament, you check this out, that every one of the Old Testament people who are mentioned in the New Testament, none of their sins are brought up. Not one of them. The New Testament is promise. It's hope. It's forgiveness, it's salvation.

Every single one of them, not one of their sins are brought up. They're just blessed. So Christianity when you look at it, it's a living force, it's a way of life. Paul now turns from the word and he goes to the one who gave it. Look at verse five: "Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus."

To be like Him. See, God loves unity in doctrine. He loves it when the church cares about the word of God and they contend for the faith. They stand and they fight for doctrine. That's the most important thing is what we've been given, the word of God. He loves it when we're in unity of doctrine.

He hates division in the body over non-essentials, though. We've been talking about that. He hates when we get picky, the weak against the strong, and just the hassles within the body of Christ that the world is looking at. The world looks at the church. How does the world perceive us? It perceives us through the media, through all the junk that they bring up.

So the world looks out there and they get a perverted, twisted view of the believer. It's a bunch of baloney, and yet that's what they believe. Now we are here today to make a stand and say no more. As far as me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. We're going to be a witness. We're going to give them something to chew on.

We're going to give them something to contemplate, to look at, hopefully to bring conviction because this person loves Jesus. This person, as they stood there and looked at Peter and John, it blew their minds especially when they heard what was coming out of their mouths and how they loved Jesus, how they wanted to serve the Lord. They said, "Man, you guys been hanging around Jesus, haven't you?" And they were convicted.

He wants us to be like Him. David came into the house of the Lord. Listen, if you weren't here this morning, I would pray for you. There's something about being in the house of the Lord. In Psalm 73, write it down, read it later on. When he went into the sanctuary of the Lord, he was convicted. He first was blown away.

He wanted to just leave the faith, he wanted to throw the towel in, he wanted to give it up because he envied the rich, he envied those that are always happy and they have money and I don't have money, da-da-da-da-da. Then all of a sudden he was sitting there in the sanctuary, the Spirit of the Lord came down upon him, he woke up.

He saw, his eyes were opened in the sanctuary. This is where we wake up! This is where we hear! This is where we have ears to hear. This is the place we feed. But a lot of people don't get it and they're missing it this morning. They think, "Ah, I don't need it. I can get it at home. I'll just turn on the computer." It's crazy. We just try to get away.

In the sanctuary, this is where we receive. This is where David received and his eyes were opened that they were in slippery places and in a moment could be taken out into a Christless eternity. And he stopped envying and he started to rejoice in what he had in the Lord. And this is what helps us as we come together.

So what would Jesus do? That's the question. Verse six: "That you may be with one mind, one mouth, glorifying God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." So further evidence that we are more like Him is that we have this one mind, this one mouth. Oh God, let it be. What is this one mouth and one mind?

Well, Ephesians in chapter four and verse three, it says "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." We're wrestling to keep the unity in the body of Christ. One mind, one mouth. That's so important that we speak the same thing. When we have our board meetings here, we get together once a month and we pray.

We pray that the Lord will chair our board meeting, that He will take our hearts and our minds and we wrestle to keep the unity. You ask the board members, they're going to say none of them are yes men. I want you to know that. They're not. They'll speak up, but we're all in unity because we know what glorifies God.

We never have any heated meetings. If there's any kind of question about anything, we back off and we pray. We leave it go. But it's important we have that unity. Church history is totally embarrassing. It was chaos, it was slaughter, there was bloodshed in the name of Jesus. We're going to do this crusade and you will believe, and they ran them through with swords.

It was ridiculous. Even Luther had some anti-Semitism in his life which many believe it led into Hitler's Holocaust. That's a pretty heavy statement, but that's what some say. We are His hope today. Right here in this sanctuary, that the world would see unity in diversity in our lives. We're so diverse here, but we can be so unified in Him.

Do you see that? I want to be like Him. And look at verse 13. Let's cheat a little bit. Romans 15:13. Now, here's Paul's prayer: "Now the God of hope will fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope." How? I want to know how. "Through the power of the Holy Ghost."

Paul's prayer is through the Holy Spirit that we'll be filled with joy. What a prayer. Joy in an unjoyful world. Christians are going to be joyful in an unjoyful world. They're going to have peace, not the peace that the world talks about, the peace that He gives that passes human understanding.

They're going to have hope. Hope for what? Tomorrow. The sun'll come up tomorrow and Jesus could come. Hope for tomorrow. It's not bleak, our hope is in Him. Not in the finances, not in what's coming as far as this world is concerned. To be one song, one praise, to be like Him.

Our worship, our witness. Again, here it is. Our worship is living for Him, to be like Him. That's worship. It's not so much singing the songs. Singing the songs is good and we need to do that, it prepares our hearts for His word to come. And it's very therapeutic as we worship Him in spirit and in truth.

As we worship from scripture, it's awesome. But our worship, our living witness... Do you remember Paul's shipwreck? Paul, if you follow his life, is incredible. He was beaten, he was stoned, he was bitten by a snake, he was robbed on an island, just left there. There was much affliction in this man's life.

And yet his attitude and desire was to glorify God. He always abounded in hope. Why? Because he was like Jesus. He trusted Him. It's great to read about Paul. I understand why God used Paul to write so much of the New Testament. He got it! And as he was writing it down, it's so we could get it and begin to become more like Him.

Guest (Male): This is Sound Doctrine and we've been in Romans chapter 15, encouraged to be like Jesus. We pray you've been blessed by what you heard today. Romans is one of the greatest books in the Bible. If you'd like to hear this study again, go to sounddoctrineradio.org or listen through the Sound Doctrine podcast app.

You can also hear Sound Doctrine on oneplace.com or wherever you enjoy your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. By the way, you can donate to this radio outreach right there at sounddoctrineradio.org. Thank you in advance for whatever God leads you to do. Hope, joy, and peace. How does that sound? It can be yours and we'll tell you how on the next Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff. A daily presentation of Calvary Chapel Downey.