Revival and Legalism

Hi, welcome to the Bennett Broadcast. This is Matt Bennett. Thank you so much for joining. This podcast is all about learning what it means to have revival and to seek the Lord for revival and to trust Him for a great awakening in the United States, which we desperately need. And most people really recognize that Christians do and even non-Christian seem to recognize that. And the focus today is on the subject of legalism and where that intersects with that subject. And some have said that legalism perhaps is the most misunderstood doctrine in the Western Church today, which is quite something to say. And I think they may be on to something, which is why we're looking at it today. Because we don't understand this doctrine correctly. It can lead us to be slack in seeking the Lord. And revival comes when large number of Christians radically seek the Lord. It's not as if the Lord pours out His Spirit against our will and they don't want Him. He pours out His Spirit and brings revival. When we eagerly seek Him, we seek Him and we find Him. When we seek Him with our whole hearts and He's the one who defines what our whole hearts is. And so if we have some misunderstandings of the Scriptures, legalism and in the Bible in some ways that prevent us or limit us and radically seeking God, then you can see what a disaster that would be. And indeed we have that in a lot of places in the Western Church, a lot of misunderstandings, which limit a lot of people. I remember some years ago, this was a bunch of years ago, but I was at a conference and it was a well-respected ministry, which I appreciate a lot. And a speaker's up there up front. And he says, okay, he's talking to the audience. He says, okay, how many of you want to tell me what it takes to grow spiritually? And so people would throw out different subjects. They would throw out and say, oh, you need to read the Bible or you need to pray or you need to do these things or maybe fast. And he would write them down up front for everybody. And then after a lot of subjects were put up or suggested, he takes a big X, crosses out over the whole thing and says, this is wrong, everybody. This is all legalism. What we got to understand is that you grow only by faith and then it goes on from there. And I remember that and I was younger in my faith and I didn't know what quite to make of that. It didn't seem to make sense to me. But I didn't quite have the vocabulary from the scriptures and look at enough to know what was going on. And it makes me think of something else that I saw years ago. Now this was a book written by Bill Bright. And Bill Bright was the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ of Peru. And he, I remember reading one of his books long time ago. It was on the Holy Spirit. And he said this in the book. He said, when I was a young Christian, I thought I needed to beg God through long prayers and fasting. But then I realized that I didn't need to do that. That was all just by faith. And again, I remember reading that and thinking, I don't know if this is quite right, but I don't know if I know the scriptures well enough to look at it point by point. Now, thankfully, he changed his view on that years later in the early 90s. He realized the continued downward trend of the United States virtually. And he fast did a 40 day fast call many other people to do it. I did and have done 40 day fast since then and many others across the body of Christ really, really powerful and wonderful. And I got to talk to him personally about this and what really motivated him for that is that recently. And a politician had been elected who favored abortion. And he just saw that as another bad thing for the country and another thing dishonoring the Lord, which I agree with him on. And so he started doing 40 day fast and he did one every year until he died 10 years later. And he saw it. So I never talked to him and reconcile what he wrote in the book with what he was doing. But it was obvious by his actions that he changed his view that it's not begging God so much. But it's seeking God and pleasing God and drawing close to him that is needed if we want to see revival happen in our country. I was very blessed by doing my first 40 day fast. And that's another story, which I'll tell another time. But he changed his view because he knew he got in line with what's the historic church and what the scriptures teach on the subject. A revival entails this energetic seeking after God prayer fasting obedience repentance taking in the scriptures large amount. So if we have that activity to scourge through a misunderstanding of legalism, is it if it's sort of suppressed or if it's sort of looked at as maybe this isn't so good or you're treading on bin ice here. And that prevents us going hard after the Lord, then we won't see the Lord respond the way we want to see him respond. And that's what we got to deal with the earth that done happen. I think I've even another a denomination and I found a denomination. This was in the 70s or 80s. And they saw a lot happen for God, but unfortunately they also that he would that leader sort of discourage in some ways too much prayer. I've seen this in even books on revival if you can imagine it where a lot is said about the importance of revival and the need to pray. Then at the same time this sort of suppression of energetic prayer seeking after the Lord and this is what we're dealing with in the west today and we got to get back to our roots America is possibly the best revival history in the world. So if we understand this and we get back to the scriptures first of all and then the history of the church, then we can see that what we got to be doing is understanding what revival or rather what legalism is and what it is it and then seek the Lord with great energy. So we don't want to be tempted and outwitted by the devil. We don't want others to be outwitted by the devil on this and we want to put our effort into seeking the Lord with great energy because there's been in the west there's been Christianity for a long time. It can be easier to be outwitted because we have familiar with a lot of terms and the definitions get changed. It's not like going to a new place where they've never heard the gospel before and you can start from scratch and teach right from scratch. It's much there. But so in that sense we have a little bit of a disadvantage. We have to be extra extra vigilant and when we study the scripture is to compare what we read in the scriptures versus what we hear popularly said and make sure they're fully recognized. So when it comes to the definition of legalism I'm going to give the definition of it and then a number of secondary definitions because there are a lot of legitimate definitions of legalism. First of all I want to say that in most translations of the Bible the word doesn't even exist not even once. Now in a few translations it does exist and exists one time and exists in the book of Philippians. It doesn't mean the concept isn't there but it is and it's important to know what it is. But Philippians 3, 4 to 6 is where word exists. It says this. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh I have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin. Heed Hebrew of Hebrews as the law a Pharisee as to zeal a persecute of the church. Now here it comes right here. Most translations say as to righteousness under the law blameless but some translations will say as to legalistic righteousness blameless. And that's what we got a center on here is the definition of this work. This is what's key. This is what we have to center in on and understand because the center of the most important definition of legalism is works righteousness. It is that you think you can merit your way to God. You can earn your way to God. If you do these activities, these ethical activities maybe the certain amount of prayers are fasting. That now you have merited your way to God and he owes you salvation. That's what legalism is. That's wrong. That's bad. That's what the Pharisees thought they could do. Other people today think that that can happen. They could be good enough for God. Can't happen. No way shape or form. So it's critical. We understand that and avoid that at all costs. It is a danger. And that being said, let's look at another passage or two in the New Testament that underscore this. This all comes from and the importance of sinning in on this from Deuteronomy 2726 where it says curse would be anyone who does not confirm to the words of the law by doing them and the people shall say amen. Now that was listed in Deuteronomy with some other curses and that's some of them basically saying, hey, you got to do everything. And in Jesus' time, a heresy that was believed by some other religious leaders there was that, hey, we can do that. This is possible. We don't have to worry about having any curses because we'll do and keep all the law. So the curse of the law is not saying that the law is bad. The curse of the law is that you're cursed if you don't keep all of the law. And so people would say, well, we're going to keep all of the law. So then we're not cursed, but that can't be done. So it says here in Galatians 3, the Apostle Paul 10 through 11, it says, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse for it is written. So you see the Apostle Paul is bringing forward to the way some people are thinking today they're misunderstanding this passage and they're relying on the works of the law for their salvation. But as in verse 11, now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, the righteous shall live by faith, but the law is not a fate rather the one who does them shall live by them. It says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. So here you have this phrase again, the curse of the law. He didn't redeem us from needing to keep God's commandments, his rules and his precepts. That's evident all throughout the New Testament. Many, many commands to righteous behavior in the New Testament, but the curse, the law is referenced here, meaning the curse that comes from the fact that you're not keeping all of the law, which of course nobody can do. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith. So this is our Galatians 3, 10 to 11. You see this exemplified in this wonderful story that Jesus gives about the Pharisee and the tax collector. He's really wanting people to know that day, to do it, it had been taught that somehow you can keep everything you want to tell you you can't. Because what happens is that that leads to self-righteousness because of course it's self-righteousness because you have everything just perfect and just right. So you can be self-righteous and the problems there and the pride that come to all of that. And so he gives the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18. And so you remember the story, he says, he also told the parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Now it goes together. When you think that you're righteous, you keep all aspects of God's commandments, then the tendency is to keep to treat other people with contempt who you can visibly see perhaps aren't keeping all the commandments of God. So he says, two men went up to the temple to pray, went up Pharisee, went up tax collector, the Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you. And I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even like this tax collector. Imagine praying such a thing. He says, I fast twice a week, I give ties to all that I get. But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God is merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house, justified rather than the other. For everyone who exhausts himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. So a beautiful, wonderful story parable from Jesus explaining this to us, less we ever be tempted at somehow we don't need the mercy of God, so we don't need to repent of our sins and receive forgiveness and how grateful we can be towards him. Though the Christian's response today to this story is a wrong one in many ways. A lot of times we think it's self-righteous to give 10% of your money away into fast twice a week. That's legalistic. That's not what Jesus was saying. It gives those examples, because those are examples of righteous about behavior. As it says in Matthew chapter 6, it goes into all your acts of righteousness, which is fasting and prayer and giving and lots of other things that we do. So these are righteous and devout activities. It's just that they won't merit your way to God. If you're putting it, if you're relying on them, then you don't have salvation. So what we want to do is to be faithful in keeping those commandments, but never rely and think that our salvation comes because of that. It comes only through the Lord Jesus Christ, because we know that the early church very much encouraged generous giving and also they fasted two days a week as well. The Pharisees fasted Mondays and Thursdays, what Jesus is referring to in the story. But the Christians, they fasted when they's in Fridays. We know that from a document called the Dedicate. And it was a universal practice of Christians for hundreds of years. I think I'll up at least to the 700s. So in no way shape or form, did they see that as something bad or something that would lend towards legalism? They wanted righteous behavior, but not the proud heart that thanks, I don't need to repent. I don't need forgiveness of God. I've armed it on my own. So maybe we remember that and take that deep in. There's a lot to understand with this definition. So that's the first definition. That's the prime and it's the most important definition. And the word is used once in the Bible in that way. What we want to take from that is legalism is posed to earning not opposed to effort. It's nothing wrong with putting effort and drawing close to the Lord and walking in righteousness. Actually, it's commanded, but to think that you've married it or earned it, that's where the problem comes in. Now, there are secondary definitions of the word and the word legalism is to use a lot. The word is never attached to these concepts in the Bible and used in the Bible with the word legalism shows it, but there are some concepts in the Bible that people will call legalism today. And secondarily, I think they can be called it. So we do want to avoid these activities or understandings. So here, one of the activities we can do today, which people call legalism, and this is to be avoided. And that is in Deuteronomy 1232, it says, everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it. So the understanding today, rightly, is that we can't add things to the Bible. We can't say where you can't do this and not you have to do this, if the Lord doesn't teach it and if he doesn't require it. Of course, sometimes the question is, what is the Bible really teaching on the subject and that's a matter of debate? But we got to start with that and say, if the Lord doesn't teach it, if it doesn't require it, we can't say that people have to do it. And that can be called rightly legalism. And Jesus explained this in his own day, if you remember the story of so much of him doing healing and people said, at that day, we can't heal on the Sabbath. Well, it doesn't say in the Old Testament, anywhere that you can't heal on the Sabbath. And so Jesus would do it anywhere. Mark 3, 1 to 6 says, again, he entered the synagogue and a man was there with a withered hand and they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal them on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. And so he said to the man with the withered hand, come here. And he said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, the safe life or to kill? So you see here, he's teaching them their understanding application. This was clearly wrong. Because they were silent and they looked around them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart. And he said to the man, stretch out your hand, he stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him about how to destroy him. All right, there's another secondary definition of legalism that needs to be avoided. And that is neglect of the weightier matters of the temptation can be today as well as Jesus' time to not have to take something that's not that big an infraction and make it like it's a huge infraction against the Lord. Now all of God's commandments need to be kept. They're all important. However, not all of them are as important as others, which we've got to remember and act and live in light of that. So you remember in Matthew 23, 23 says, what do you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you? And so these tiny little plants and they would tie the meaning they would take 10% of their increase from it and give it away. But he says, and so these are tiny plants. So it's not that big a deal that they don't hide from them. The commandments on tithing and the Old Testament focuses on orchards and of course livestock and it's nothing wrong that they did this. It's actually even commended that they're faithful to God this way, but the problem is that then they neglected weightier matters. It says, you have neglected weightier matters of law, justice, mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others, you blind guides, straining out in that and swallowing the camel. So it's Jesus in not saying what they did was bad in terms of tithing even on these small things, but he is saying that you got to get the main things right first and foremost and here at justice and mercy and faithfulness. I want to give a third secondary definition of legalism. And this is what we can call today an externalized religion. Then, rightly today, people can call it legalistic. If one only does things for a show or does it so that people can see you, but it's not really what your heart motivation is behind what your actions are. It says this in Matthew 2325. It says, woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites. If you clean the outside of the cup and the plate that inside their full of greed and self indulgence, you blind Pharisee first clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside also may be clean. woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites where you are like white wash tombs and outwardly appear beautiful, but within our full of dead people's bones and all uncleaness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within your full of hypocrisy and waltzness. So Jesus is underscoring how important it is that we be true blue from the heart and that we repent from the heart and we do outward good actions. We also have good inward actions. The solution, of course, if we're not doing good outward actions isn't to stop doing the good outward actions is to repent of not having the right heart and not having the right motivation. And so when that's out of sorts, we got to repent and that's legitimate definition of legalism. So just by review and we're on the same page here together, the primary definition of legalism is works righteousness, thinking you can merit or earn your place before God. Secondary definitions are we look at a few of them so far. One, out seeking that you have to obey commandments that aren't really listed in the Bible. Secondly, we neglect weightier matters. We make a mountain out of mojo. Some they might be wrong at these activities, but we got to focus first and foremost on the big things to make sure they're right and then we can deal those other matters. Third, we looked at this definition of an externalized religion. We do the outward things where our heart is full of wickedness and evil and that can't be the case. We've got to be devoted from the heart and repentant inside. So there are two more secondary definitions of revival, a worst looking at together. And so this is the fourth secondary definition and you can call this one judgmentalism and hypocrisy per se. This is a good example of this is from Matthew 7, a 1-up 5 and these these different different definitions of legalism can have a bit of an overlap. But if you remember this, Jesus says, do not judge if you're not doing something righteous yourself in some matter. He says in verse 5, you hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly take the spec out of your brother's eye. If you're doing some activity and you want to go correct somebody else, make sure that you're doing that activity correctly before that only makes sense. And so that's hypocrisy or even can be your judging others when you should be judging yourself first. In order to do what's pleasing and right before God. And then the fifth secondary definition that we're looking at in this podcast is John 5, 39 to 40. It's preaching the Bible but denying it. And Jesus says here says you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they that witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. And the religious leaders in Jesus' day were guilty of that. They knew the Bible, which is a wonderful great thing to have. We need to know the scriptures inside and out, but portions of it, which they didn't want to believe they would just pass over. And we want to make sure we do that today as we believe and say we believe in the inerrancy of scripture scriptures are true and right. We've got to apply and look at all the parts of scripture and say I need to understand and apply this unit of its new or people in my particular stream or tradition. Don't look at this as much or talk about it. I need to be righteous. So to emphasize the most center definition of legalism that we need to make sure we don't do is one of works righteous is that we can merit our way to heaven. Can't be done. Can't be done. So with that now that we understand legalism, well, how is it wrongly used today? Well, a lot of times when a person is eager to do something good or righteous or pray or fast, some who misunderstand will say, well, that's legalism. And it's not legalism. The Lord has commanded us to fast. He's commanded us to pray a day and night. He's commanded us to live righteously, to repent of our sins, to obey him moment by moment. So it's not legalism at all, of course. It is drawing close to him. It is pleasing him. It's what the Lord has saved us for that we might live righteous, devout and faithful lives. Everywhere in the Bible, effort is commanded and commended in the scriptures. So this is why we say that legalism is against earning. It's not against effort. And a lot of us don't have the power of God that we want to have in our lives because we're not putting forth the effort. Not in a sense that it merits at us, but merits, but that it pleases God. And then therefore he responds to us. And this is everywhere all over in the Bible Old Testament, New Testament, Lord will say, do this and I'll do that. I draw close to me and I'll draw close to you. It says in James, it says this everywhere. But we get confused on the legalism and then we don't put the energy and effort to seek God and that we don't have the power and the dynamism in order to be used of him. And we don't have much spiritual power. We don't have filling of the spirit. And so in the West and in the US, we continue to see we're overwhelmed with all sorts of wickedness in our society, all sorts of problems and trouble. A lot of times we turn to politics as the primary solution. And of course we need to be engaged in politics or turn to other matters. We only did this. But what matters is that we seek the Lord first and foremost, draw close to him. And then where he releases his supernatural power in us to change society, change ourselves, change our families, change our communities. I want to give a couple of examples of working quote unquote in the New Testament. There's so many, you could sit here, I could give hundreds, but it says here in Colossians 4, 12 to 13, a paphress who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you always struggling on your behalf and his prayers. Notice that the paphress is struggling on their behalf on the Christians in Colossian. He says that you may stand mature fully assured in all the will of God. So he knows that if they're going to stand mature in all the will of God, then he has to struggle for them in prayer that otherwise they would not be standing mature in the will of God if a paphress is not struggling in prayer on their behalf. Now that is awesome to consider, isn't it? What is not happening in our own families communities because we are not struggling in prayer and it goes on in verse 13. So here he uses the word working, his struggling in prayer is working and a paphress is held up, he is commended as a model and to be appreciated and thanked because of the work he's doing in prayer. Because otherwise the folks there, the Christians, would not be as mature as strong as otherwise they would be. And this is what we need and today and the West, we need strong and vibrant and devout prayer meetings, a seek in the Lord so that Christians stand strong and we have power as we take the gospel to surrounding society. Here's another verse two verses worth looking at, Titus 211 and 12 says for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions into live self-controlled up right and godly lives in the present age. So here the purpose of God's grace isn't that we would then sit back and say, well, we don't do anything now that's legalism because our legalism, but the grace of God appeared it says bringing salvation, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passion to live self-control up right, godly lives. So it is not legalistic to live a devout and faithful in righteous life too. See some TV shows and say, I should not be watching this, this defiles me, that's not legalistic, that's godly, it's why the grace of God has come to us and why we have to tap into that. And so you can see how awfully it can be that of a person, the Christians trying to separate themselves from ungodly activity and live self-controlled righteous life. Yet another Christian is saying to them, that's legalism to do that. All of a saying, you're a better person if you defile yourself in these ways, it's astonishing, but it's what happens periodically, I've seen it happen a lot. Now, so other matters are what's not legalism, and there's not the time to go into these indefs today, but sometime in the future, there's a concept of conditional grace that's not legalism. Obidious to God's commandments is not legalism. Responsiveness to church authorities, not legalism, denying yourself and taking up your cross, of course, that's not legalism. Fasting, of course, is not legalism, it's doing what the Lord told us to do to take up a cross to deny ourselves, to pray, fasting is self-humbling, it helps us to draw close to the Lord and draws his presence. Of course, having strong spiritual disciplines and seeking God wholeheartedly, that's not legalism, that's what the Lord commands us to do. Or sometimes if there's some rigid rule that a church or a ministry puts in place, they're not saying you have to be Christian to do it, but it doesn't mean that it's legalism, if there's a lack of flexibility or something. And of course, effort, toll, and self-discipline are not legalistic. Boy, we've got a long way to go in the U.S. and taking these scriptures in, it's so incredibly important. If we want to see revival, we want to see the Lord pour out his spirit, we want to see society change, we want to see a lot of the wickedness in our society, we pull back, then we need long times of prayer, diligent prayer, energetic prayer, morning and night, all night prayer. We need fasting and repentance and obedience and persevering over time. A large number of Christians in the U.S. must adopt this mindset in order to see what we all want to see happen, a radically changed community of communities and the nation. The devil has outwitted us in this broad confusion and saying this is legalism, et cetera, when it's not Christ saved us for obedience. And grace is there to help us to obey. So we must change our thinking on this, we must tell our fellow Congress or our pastor wants to explain this to our people or our friends and everybody else or tell our pastor, whoever else it is, of what legalism is and what it isn't. So that we can be diligent and stay full and drawing close to the Lord. I think of something that's always been moving to me is what happened some decades ago and Uganda and they were facing something extraordinary, practically the death of the nation. They had 33% of them were affected with HIV and in those days there wasn't a treatment much less a cure for HIV. But the Lord told them says, seat me with your whole heart, keep your eyes on me and I will make Uganda a testimony to the nations and they did seek the Lord with great and you great prayer and repentance. And of course, over time, they would implement different measures, training and teaching on sexuality. That would limit the spread of the disease. But over 10, 15 years or so, they saw radical decline. You can look it up on NPR around 2004 or six or so. But they did a special report on it and HIV rate had declined to 6%. I got to go over there and I got to meet those people who, a lot of them who have been healed of HIV and miraculously survived the thousands. Not everybody was of course, but many, many thousands were because they put their heart on the Lord and the hours released by God to do radical things. And in talking to them, it's funny because they'll say that international agencies will come and say, how did this happen? What do you know about this? How could this possibly happen? They say, we just smile and say, we just prayed and did what God told us to do. And boy, did they pray. So I made this better and deeper understanding of legalism. Go throughout the body of Christ that we know and it's not legalism to seek the Lord but great to pray, diligently, to be regular and to be strict in your prayers, to be pray for long periods of time and to fast. This is what's needed and drawn close to the Lord. We are never going to merit our way to God, the righteous behavior, but we have to do these things. He thinks he's commanded us to gain his increased pleasure and his favor on our lives so that he comes and does wonderful things in our lives, brings feelings of a spirit and radically change. So I'm going to say it prayer as we wrap up this episode of the bitter broadcast of the Lord. Thank you. Thank you for your grace, Lord. Thank you for the scriptures that explain to us what it means to walk with you. Lord, we want to know you as you are and Lord ignite in this country all across this country. A deal for you and eagerness to pray fast to repent. A proper understanding of these biblical terms so that we're not thrown off in different ways. Lord, help us Lord. Help us to be strong. We need you Lord in Jesus name and man. Thanks so much for listening. The Lord bless you. Take care.