Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): Making a covenant with God. That's next on Sound Doctrine.

Jeff Johnson: We must rededicate our lives. We must make a covenant with God because there is a way out. You don't have to continue to receive wrath because there's that part of him that loves us so much that if we repent, he forgives us. Do you get it? It's so important. So, let us make a covenant with the Lord, God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us. Guys, let's get back to God.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today for Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson. Let's consider a fundamental question today. If we're saved by the grace of God, then why does God's word go into such detail about the law of God? We're going to explore that question today, and we'll discover that there's a purpose behind the law of God. Today, we continue our survey of Galatians. Many in the Galatian churches had a misunderstanding concerning the role of God's law. Pastor Jeff joins us now with a study based on the last seven verses of chapter three.

Jeff Johnson: Over in Second Chronicles 15 verse two, he says at the end of that verse Well, I'll read the whole verse. He says, the Lord is with you while you are with him. And if you seek him, he will be found of you. But if you forsake him, if you turn your back on him, he will forsake you. And rightly so. I mean, you don't want to be his friend? You don't want to walk with God? He goes, okay. Then walk with the other guy. See how it works out. And now, let me ask you right now, how is it working out?

Are you experiencing the peace of God that passes understanding, the joy of the Lord, unspeakable and full of glory? No. You turn your back, then he says, I'll forsake you. Notice verse seven. Also, they have shut up the doors of the porch. So, everything was shut up and put out the lamps that had not burned incense, nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel. This is all about their worship. This is all about how they would come in and and and do the sacrifices, do the burning of incense, the prayers of God's people.

And everything is pointing towards New Testament reality. Everything in the temple. Over in First Peter First Peter in chapter two verse five, he says, you also as living stones are built up as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. He's saying we, once we come to know the Lord, we're walking as priests. Being able to intercede for our family, for our kids, for those that we love, for those that hate us, we can love our enemies. I mean, that's powerful. And pray for them. He goes on to say in verse nine, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.

That 's for sure, right? Bunch of weirdos to the world's eyes, peculiar. That you should show forth the praises of him that called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. He took you out of that pit that you were in. And if you'll go back, some of you have been around a while, if you'll go way back and ask him to show you flashes of that pit, you'll just be so thankful. You'll be so thankful. Sometimes we get going and we forget where we were called from, where how gutter we were the we were just messed up.

We hit the bottom. We hit the wall the last time. We cried out, and he picked us up and he delivered us from that pit and set us on the solid rock of Christ. Then verse eight, he says, wherefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he had delivered them to trouble. That's an interesting verse. He delivered them to trouble. His wrath came down on He He got so angry at the way they were going and living their lives that he allowed all this stuff to take place because he loved them.

He cared about them. So, he delivered them to trouble. Over in Hebrews, way back in Hebrews chapter 12, it says in verse five, Hebrews 12 five, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of him. Don't freak out when he's spanking you. Let him spank you. That's a healthy thing. As parents should always discipline their children. And you discipline in love, but you discipline. And when you discipline, it hurts. And you go, I don't want to do that again.

That was unpleasant. I don't want to have to go through that again. Well, maybe you do though because you haven't woke up. You haven't continued. You're still, you know, doing what you've been doing. So, notice he says and then in Hebrews 12 six, for whom the Lord loves, he chastens. He scourges every son whom he receives. And he'll go after us. And that's healthy. Then you know you're loved. Right? I had a adopted son I was taking in our family. His name was Jared, and we only had him two weeks. But he was so wild because of foster care and all that.

I think he was around five, maybe six. And man, I I suited him up big time. I got him all the cool shirts and everything. I have a son. You know, I was you know, cuz I have Everything's girls in in my house. So, I have a son. I have a son. This guy was so unruly though. We'd ask him to take a bath. He said, no way, you know. And he And he just would He was just belligerent. And he would grab his throat and he try to choke himself. You know, like threatening me that he he I'll kill myself if you make me do anything.

I mean, he turned red. I mean, it's just a weird deal. So, I would take him and I would spank him. And he looked at me really strange. And then it happened again and again and again. And I kept on just laying it down at at it. And not in not in anger, but you're going to You're going to obey me. You're going to obey me. Wake up, man. Wake up. Wake up. Finally, he was taken by his grandmother and and so taken out of our home, and that was a crushing blow. But he just said say something very special when they were making the exchange.

He said, you know, those those people, they loved me. He said. And And then he said, because they spanked me. Who thought? The Bible is right. Parents, don't go away from here and say Jeff told me to beat my kid. No no no no no. And I don't want any letters. The Bible says we're to chasten our children, scourge them because you love them and because you want them to do right. And some of you were abused, and that was wrong. And you need to forgive. But don't you do it and turn and do it cuz that happens a lot, doesn't it?

But you know, God has got that sense and and that way about him where he knows just enough and just what to do for all of us. And then there's one more verse there in verse 11. It says, now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous. Yeah. But grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. God just wants fruit from our lives, and he doesn't want us to, you know, just burn out. He doesn't want us to waste time. He wants us to just get it on with him and and be fruitful in our lives.

And so he chastens us. And thank God he does. Are Are we We wouldn't be here right now. We would have backslid and and just ran away or whatever. But no, because he chastens us in a in a in a way that brings us back to our first love. So, God's He noticed he delivered them to trouble, verse eight. To astonishment, to hissing. I mean, people hated the Jews as he as you see with your eyes. For lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.

And that happened in in Second Chronicles 26. I mean, it was unbelievable. What a contrast in Uzziah's reign. He had militarily and economically he was doing well. He was you know in an economic prosperity. But it went to his head. And he backslid. I mean, a haughty spirit before a fall. Pride goes before destruction. That's Uzziah. That's what happened to the guy, man. So, he says now, verse 10, it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord. In other words, we blew it so bad, guys. We must rededicate our lives. We must make a covenant with God because there is a way out.

You don't have to continue to receive wrath because there's that part of him that loves us so much that if we repent, he forgives us. Do you get it? It's so important. So, let us make a covenant with the Lord, God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us. Guys, let's get back to God. Let's worship him. Do you remember how sweet it was when we were at church twice, three times a week? We're just at prayer meeting. We watched God use us. We got into ministry. We started going back to the Sunday school and be used of the Lord.

Do you remember those days? Over in First Thessalonians chapter five in verse 10 Excuse me, verse nine. Listen, First Thessalonians five nine, for God has not appointed us to what? To wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. You don't have to go through it. You can repent and get it right and move on with your life. Don't keep holding on to sin. It's the thing that blocks God from answering your prayers and from reaching down and saving you. Repent. Know what Jesus said. Or else, you're going to be hurting. My sons, verse 11, be not now negligent.

Come on, guys, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, that you should minister unto him. Notice that. He ministers to us, but tonight we're ministering to him as we worship him, as we receive communion, as we sit at his feet and we have ears to hear what the spirit is saying and we're hiding it in our hearts. And burn incense again, the prayers. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Get on with the restoration of the Lord. The second greatest work that God does. The first is salvation. The second is restoration when we get away.

How he brings us back and guess who gets the glory when that happens? Not Satan. The Lord. See, so many times we stay in that state of being wiped out and and and rebellious. And guess who gets all the glory for that? Satan. He keeps us down. He He He says, yeah, just stay there. You might as well just eat worms and kick cans and just give it up, man. You're no good. You keep blowing it. And man, he gets you really down, doesn't he? And we got to wake up to that. It's lies. And we got to turn towards him and seek that restoration.

Notice verse 12, then the Levites arose. The Levites. In other words, pastors have a big responsibility today to give their people the word of God, to let them hear God's word. Why? So then you are you're doing a good job of feeding the flock, of teaching the people of what God requires, what God desires, his will for our lives. So, the Levites, the priests responsible. Over in First Timothy 3:15 I love going you're going from the old to the new it cuz there's this it just fulfills it. This is First Timothy 3:15. But if I tarry long, Paul said to Timothy, that thou mayest know how thou oughtst to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth.

And so he says, I'm doing my part and so you can understand who you are, Timothy, so you can do what God's called you to do. And that's to sit at his feet and take it in. And then we see that the Kohathites in verse 12, Merari and Merari and the Gershonites, the three tribes there, and the sons of Elsa Elizaphan, uh the sons of Asaph in verse 13, the sons of Heman, these are the Levitical musicians that were responsible to get their act together in the temple to get things going as far as praise to the Lord.

And the sons of Juthum, and that is the spiritual leadership that is to gather the people. And so verse 15, they gathered the brethren, they sanctified themselves first. They gave their hearts to the Lord and said, Lord, this is your vessel. You used me as a vessel of honor. You used me to to lead the people in the worship, to teach the people the word of God. So, they sanctified themselves. They set themselves aside. They took time to do what they needed to do so God could work through them to those that they're ministering to.

Do you see that? And And as you set this time, you came here on a Wednesday night. What are you weird or what? You worked a whole long hard day, and now you come to sit here and listen to the word of God verse by verse, chapter by chapter. Uh there's something wrong with that. No no. You have sanctified yourselves for this night. Set yourselves aside for God to speak to. You don't think that's with great dividends and great blessing? Because what you receive, the Holy Spirit will bring it to your remembrance and then use it in your life this week even.

So, they sanctified themselves. They came according to the commandment of the king. And you know what our king says? Get to church, man. I am the head. You are the body. You need this time. Don't forsake yourselves gathering together. Man, go more by the words of the Lord. Notice he was obeying God's word to cleanse the house of the Lord. And that was the most important thing, to see that thing cleaned out. So, Lord, clean these temples. Clean us, Lord. Clean us from all the filth that we pick up in this world. Cleanse us by your blood tonight.

Make us new creations. If we had a leak, plug it up and fill us full of your spirit. And the priests went, verse 16, into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it. They They're digging deep and brought out all the uncleanness, all the idols, all the the funk and the mire of all those years of of of darkness that they found in the temple of the Lord unto the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it to carry it out abroad into the Brook Kidron. That's where they burned that stuff up and destroyed it.

So, they carried it all out, got rid of it. Verse 17, now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify. There it is again, to set aside. And on the eighth day of the month, they came to the porch of the Lord so that they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days. I mean, didn't take long. It took some perseverance. It took some hard sacrifice. Won't take long. I mean, hey, you've been in that state. And sometimes I talk to a couple that they they're just going through it through it through it.

And they were there so long, I just tell them, you know, it's going to take a little while to get out of what you've built up here. This This thing is pretty messed up, but it's going to take a while. But God does quick works. He moves along. He knows the time is of essence. He knows we're in the end times, the last days. And so he wants to do a quick work in us. That's pretty awesome, isn't it? Lord, cleanse us, sanctify us. Let us see the the the importance of dedicating ourselves to you on a daily basis so the world doesn't capture us.

And it took the 16th day of the first month, they made it to an end. So, the total thing was cleaned out, cobwebs, everything done, clean as a whistle. It only took a matter of days. And that's all it takes to turn this around if we'll just simply say, Lord, here I am. Messed up. Here I am talking divorce with my wife. Here I am. You know, going through another relationship and it's And it's not godly. We're messing around. We're sleeping together. Here I am again with my sin in my heart, and I'm not doing nothing with it.

I continue to go to church because I know it's good, but I don't deal with it. So, I leave and I'm in the same spot again. Where's the change? It happens here tonight. And we leave here new creatures, new creations. We take a serious look at what God has given in his son and the blood that he shed, and we receive the healing that we need so desperately, the cleansing. Verse 18, then they went in to Hezekiah the king. And they said, we have cleansed all the house of the Lord. And the altar, the burnt offering, and all the vessels thereof, and the showbread table with all the vessels thereof.

You know, that bread that speaks of communion. You know, that whole thing of the the sacrifices, speaks of the blood that is shed by our Lord. And they got everything done, ready to go. The altar of burnt offering. Everything was cleansed. The vessels were brand new. Let's Let's do a new Tear down the walls. Let's build a new house. That's exactly what they did. So, God can do that in us. Tear down those walls of rebellion, those rebellious nature that that seems to come up and and block our relationship with you. Come in and cleanse us with your blood of any kind of anger or hatred.

He can do incredible things. Moreover, all the vessels which King Ahaz in his reign did cast away. Remember? We talked about it in in Second Chronicles 28:24 that he broke up all the vessels. A lot of the vessels he just chopped it up and gave it away and sold it. So, what did they do? Because of his transgression, his sin, and what he did with some of the implements and some of the things that they needed to sacrifice, we prepared and sanctified and and made new. And behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.

Lord, help us to just put ourselves on that altar and say, Lord, here I am. Take me. Took 16 days, man, to get back to worship, to get the cleansing, the sanctification, to get back to prayer, to get back to the offering, offering ourselves as what? Living sacrifices. To be used of the Lord. And eventually, if you cheat a little bit and go to Second Chronicles 30 in verse 26 Second Chronicles 30:26, so there was great joy in Jerusalem. I can see it all now. There's great joy in Downey. For since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, there was not the like in Jerusalem.

What are they talking about? They're talking about the Passover. There was never one like this since Solomon. The Passover was so awesome.

Guest (Male): This is Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson. Today, we brought you a message from Jeff's series and Paul's letter to the Galatian churches. Pastor Jeff will be back in a few moments to wrap things up. If you enjoyed today's message from Pastor Jeff Johnson from the book of Galatians, I'd like to remind you that you can hear it again on several different venues. First, you can go online to sounddoctrineradio.org where you can hear today's study and more, as well as make a donation to this radio outreach. That's sounddoctrineradio.org. You can also listen to us at oneplace.com and through the Sound Doctrine radio podcast app.

And of course, speaking of podcast, Sound Doctrine can be heard wherever you enjoy podcasts, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Now, here's Pastor Jeff with a few thoughts on something this world is in desperate need of, revival.

Jeff Johnson: What is revival? It's a lot of things, isn't it? But I think mostly it's Acts 2:42 in our own hearts. And that is that the apostles daily they consistently steadfastly were in the word of God. They were in prayer. They were in fellowship with other Christians. If you get It's like a barbecue. You know, you take one of those briquettes that are burning and they're going to really do a number on your steak, and they're going to get it sizzling, and they're going to cook it well. But you take one of those apart and put it by itself, it instantly goes out.

It's good for nothing. Do not forsake yourselves gathering together. Fellowship is so important.

Guest (Male): We'll come back to Galatians next time on Sound Doctrine. Read ahead and plan to join us. This program is listener supported and brought to you by Calvary Chapel Downey.