Daily Bible Reading, Week 26

Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches special Monday Morning Coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right. With look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives. Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And, he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday morning coffee podcast for Monday, June the 27th. I'm mark. I'm holding a great cup of coffee, and I have a bunch of Bible reading notes in front of me, as I think about the end of the book of Galatians and the beginning of the book of Romans. What I don't have in front of me is my sermon notes from yesterday because, because I did not preach yesterday, Dean and I are on vacation gonna be out of town here for just a little bit. So I can't say much about the sermon yesterday. Go back and listen to that again, or watch that via the Facebook feed or just christians.com. Pray about that. Sermon. Think about that sermon. We have great guys that fill in when I'm away, but right now we're just going straight to the notes for daily Bible reading. Let's get started Today in daily Bible reading, we're reading one of the most famous sections of the entire new Testament, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit, but it is so important for us to be connected up in context. Let's try to make sure that we know where we are. Chapter five in the book of Galatians represents a shift. Paul has moved away from talking about these false teachers who are adding to the gospel, this gospel plus business. And now he's talking about walking in the spirit. I think the connection here is some people saying if we don't make these Gentile believers conform to the law of Moses and have some kinda law and regulation, they're just gonna go crazy with wickedness. I mean, they're pagans don't, you know, Paul, we've got to reign that in. And Paul says that the way the Christian walks is not by law, that's not it. We walk by the spirit. That's from Friday's reading in Galatians five 16. If you walk by the spirit, you'll not gratify the desires of the flesh, the desires of the flesh verse 17 are against the spirit. The desires of the spirit are against the flesh. Now verse 18, if you're led by the spirit, you're not under the law, we don't need the law. What we need is the holy spirit. And now Paul, then contrast the ways of the flesh with the way of the spirit. That's our reading today, the works of the flesh versus the fruit of the spirit. And give you a couple of notes here about the works of the flesh verse 20 mentioned sorcery. And that is not as it is commonly thought of kind of magic sorts of things. Certainly not magic tricks, pulling a bunny rabbit out of a top hat. And it's not even Harry Potter magic or Bewitched. I'm kind of giving away how old I am. If you, uh, know who Bewitched is and Elizabeth Montgomery, you know what I'm talking about, it's not that kind of magic that we could talk about all of that for a really long time, but that's not. What's in view here in Galatians five 20, the work of the flesh here, the sorcery that's being mentioned here is the attempt to manipulate the dark powers of the supernatural world to do your bidding. It's the a cult. That's what this is about. And I would urge you to give plenty of attention to how much emphasis there is on discord. There's lots of discussion here about the things that tear churches apart. We need to think about that a whole lot more particularly in an age with all the troubles that the pandemic has recently brought upon us. Churches showed an ability to be involved in this work of the flesh. God forbid that that should happen. I give you a, uh, one more quick note here. One writer, William Barkley said without exception, every one of these works of the flesh is a perversion of something which is in of itself in itself. Good. That is worth thinking about the devil really can't make anything. All the devil can do is warp what is already good. And that takes us then to the fruit of the spirit, please notice that it is singular. And some of these, again, seem to be of particular importance to a church or churches, the churches OFIA that were struggling with dissension, with false teaching, with fighting. And there's lots here that would pertain to that. I would say this about joy. Joy here is not really happiness. That is a circumstance kind of thing. It's dependent upon what is happening, but even more. I think what I would say here is that this relates to the Jewish concept of Shalom Shalom, which we will often would translate peace. And there is a section here, love joy peace, but the idea of Jewish Shalom piece is not just the absence of something. Particularly the absence of conflict fighting Shalom to the Hebrew mind was a positive thing. It meant having what is necessary for life to be good. And we need to think more in those kinds of terms. That is what brings true joy, inner contentment. When life is rich and full and purposeful and meaningful, that comes only from the spirit. And then I would add to that. What's said there about gentleness and verse 23, sometimes gentleness is viewed as weakness and is most certainly not. It is the ability to control yourself and to respond, to respond in a kind and careful way when you need to watch then how at the end of our reading, Paul gets very, very practical. If we live by the spirit verse 25, let us keep in step with the spirit. That's a marvelous translation by the ESV there. And then he just says, if you're thinking maybe that is some sort of private mystical experience, no, this plays itself out in a very practical kind of way in our relationships with other people. He says, verse 26, don't be conceded don't provoke one another. Don't envy one another. Again, we're coming back to the idea of these Galatian brethren needing to reject error. Paul spent four chapters talking about that and to accept one another and care for one another in love and in unity. And that will be furthered in our reading tomorrow, as we read in chapter six, that's Monday's reading though, Galatians five, 19 to 26, see you tomorrow. It is Tuesday. And today we're reading Galatians six one to 10. Paul has announced that there are two different ways to live the way of the flesh, which gives rise to the works of the flesh. And then there's walking by the spirit verse 16. There is keeping in step with the spirit verse 25, which gives rise to the fruit of the spirit in our character and in our lives. However, he now in chapter six verses one to 10, makes that very down to earth and very, very practical. The first five verses talk about our personal relationships in the church. Then there's some discussion of the use of money. And then he'll close the letter with some personal remarks versus 11 to 18. We are reading this practical section today on Tuesday. Notice here that brethren are care for one another spiritually. And this does not mean all this discussion about how we are not under the law of Moses. That does not mean that we are not under any law bear one another's burdens chapter six and verse two. And so fulfill the law of Christ. We are under Christ's law. We don't wanna turn that into the law of Moses and that's a wrongheaded attempt and an idea that's just badly out of place. When we try to make the new Testament into the old Testament, why would we do that? Don't go backwards. And I think Paul already covered that for us in the book of Galatians. However, we are constrained by Christ's desires and will for us. And we need to be thinking about that. Particularly verse one, if somebody is out of step with the spirit, if somebody is not doing what they ought to be doing, and one writer said, I like this out about, out of verses one and two, sometimes life hands, the weary traveler, such a heavy burden that he staggers beneath the load fellow Christians are not to stand around and rebuke his weakness, but to pitch in and help. That's important. We need to give good consideration to that. And the other side of it, of course, is sometimes we're just too proud to let others pitch in and help us carry our load. We want to give Breth in a chance to fulfill the law of Christ and bear our burdens. Chapter six, Indian verse two, notice in verse five. However, there is a sense in which everyone in the church is responsible for helping each other, but there is also a sense in which we all assume our own responsibilities. Then, as I said, in verse six to 10, Paul transitions to talk about the use of funds, I think this is very straightforward kinds of stuff. I love that he gives spiritual law here. I love verse seven. God is not mocked for whatever one, sows that will. He also reap. There's lots of implications of the law of sewing and reaping. Many times we wanna sew one thing and reap something else, but you can't plant watermelons and reap corn. It doesn't work that way. And you can't sew to the flesh. Verse eight, Paul says and expect to reap spiritual things. If we want spiritual things, we want the fruit of the spirit we have to. So to the spirit, we have to sow spiritual things, concern for God, concern for God's way, wanting a relationship with God, trying to do what God tells us to do in our thoughts and in our deeds, in our hearts. That's what it is to sow to the spirit. We need to keep doing that. Not get tired of doing that verse nine, because we trust. We trust that that is the way to live life and that we will reap what we sow. I think that section is well worth, praying over and evaluating. If you have kiddos, that's an important spiritual. All we want to teach our children. You will reap what you sow. You cannot do. Otherwise. It's a spiritual law. That's our reading today. Galatians six, one to 10. Wow. Galatians has gotten good. I know you're enjoying this. I most certainly am. Will continue to read along Galatians, get ready. We're about to make a big shift on Thursday, but tomorrow it's Galatians chapter six versus 11 to 18, and we are resuming our summer series. Lots to do on Wednesday. See you tomorrow. It is Wednesday. Ricky Jenkins from the Campbell road. Congregation is coming to speak with us tonight about the devil's game plan. Ricky just has a soft spot in the heart of this congregation because of his connection with his father, Jess, who is also coming to speak for us, I should say. And Ricky grew up at west side. So he's always going to be very special to us. And I've asked Ricky to tell us a little bit about what he'll be speaking on tonight in our summer series. As we think about the deadly dozen, the tools that Satan uses to undermine our faith. Ricky, what will you be talking about this evening?

Hi, I'm Ricky Jenkins and I will be with you tonight. Preaching on understanding Satan's game plan. Have you ever noticed in Genesis one and two, everything is good. God walks with Matt in the cool of the day. Matt is sinless. He's innocent. Everything is promising, but the story turns in Genesis three. Now the adversary Satan makes his appearance. The battle for the supremacy of man's heart begins. It's a battle that has raised ever since. It's a battle that continues today. We are involved in a spiritual battle. It's a battle for our thoughts, our intentions, and our hearts. We can't win a spiritual battle with men main strategies. We win with a greater source of power, truth, and strength. Come study with me about understanding SATs game plan. I look forward to seeing you.

Thank you, Ricky. I know you're looking forward to hearing that sermon this evening at west side, let's conclude the book of Galatians today, reading Galatians six versus 11 to 18. This is the close to the book. And maybe appropriately, since this book began in a different sort of way than most of Paul's epistles, it ends in a different sort of way as well. At the beginning of Paul's epistles, as we talked about in chapter one, usually there's a big section of howdy and how are you? And I'm so thankful for you and I'm praying for you. And of course there's none of that here in Galatians at all, because Paul is so exercised about the false teaching going on this gospel plus movement that's happening and that they are accepting. And so he just dies right in and starts shouting right away about how they've fallen away to a false gospel. Well, at the end of Paul's epistles, usually there's a lot of how to, to various individuals say hello to Soandso and I'm glad to see. So, and so has come to visit me from you and back and forth some of that kind of thing. And there's not any of that here. Instead, there is a final warning. And once again, Paul's tone turns quite stern. If you're gonna answer that question one a how does Paul feel? I think maybe some of this has been kind of warm as we were working along in Galatians, chapter six, maybe a fatherly note about restoring those that FA that lose their way and bearing one another's burdens. God will bless those who so to the spirit you reap what you sow, that kind of thing. I think here starting verse 11 in our reading today, that tone gets very sharp yet again, see with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand, Paul says in verse 11, apparently Paul has taken the pen in hand. Paul usually dictates, and someone is scribing for him. Maybe that is not the case this time because Paul wants to authenticate the letter by jotting. These last several lines himself. We know from second Thesalonians chapter three, that false letters did circulate. It might just be that his writing here is for emphasis, maybe like printing in bold. He is saying here with what large letters I'm writing you, maybe he has written this entire ESTLE like that. Some of course have said that big letters say that Paul needed reading glasses. Maybe that's the case as somebody who has arrived at that stage in life, where I need reading glasses, I can appreciate the need for big type people then have extrapolated from big letters and bad eyesight and reading glasses, which of course did not exist in Paul's time to maybe that's his thorn in the flesh. Wow. We went a long ways with that. Yes. Paul did say some things to the Galatians about they would be willing to pluck out his eyes, their eyes for him, and that they cared deeply for him. And so he is a little flumoxed that they have lost their way and that they are rejecting him. But I'm not sure I can make this into the thorn and the flesh that Paul is referencing in second Corinthians, ah, maybe too much is being made of one little verse. He goes on from there to again, talk about these gospel plus teachers. And he suggests now in verse 12 that they have false motivations. That's important. Sometimes people are very quick to bandy about the term false teacher and apply that to anybody and everybody who reaches a different conclusion about a matter than what I have reached. We need to be careful about that false teachers in the new Testament. If we're gonna call Bible things by Bible names are those who are liars and deceivers. They know better and teach error. Anyway, that's verse 12. They do this because they don't want to be persecuted. Judaism was a legal religion recognized by Rome. They had a license to practice if you will. That means that if you are a Christian, you are an outlaw. You are a Renegade you're outside. The umbrella of legal protection provided by a license from the Caesar. So some Jewish Christians would be very anxious to keep Christianity Jewish, to make it into Phariseeism or like the EENs or the sades were just another sect of Judaism, because that means their legal. They can't be prosecuted by the law. And Paul is getting at exactly that in verse 12, when he says they only want you to be circumcised, they're doing that. So they won't be persecuted. That is an important note. You may wanna make a note of that in your Bible to be reminded of that. Paul, on the other hand is not controlled by worldly desires by making sure he measures up to everybody in the eyes of the world. In verse 14, he says it's about the cross for me. One writer said to be crucified to the world is to be dead to worldly concerns, isolated from worldly pursuits, indifferent to worldly temptations for Paul, just as for every Christian who follows Jesus. The cross becomes the pivotal point of crisis where the believer and the world part company, the world seeking life goes on its course toward final death. The Christian accepting da Springs upward to eternal life. That is exactly right. And Paul builds on that in verse 15, when he talks about new creation, one of his favorite metaphors, and then he speaks of the peace of God in verse 16, that is only going to come to those who adhere to the gospel. Finally, he makes mention verse 17 of the marks of the gospel, the marks of Jesus. And of course, since he has been stoned and beaten and whipped and everything else that you can possibly think of Paul must have been pretty beat up pretty battered. And you could look at his body and see the marks of Jesus upon him, not the scar of circumcision. No, the marks of following Jesus, the Christ. So we close Galatians six, the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ be with you, be with your spirit brothers, amen. Galatians six verse 18. And we close the book of Galatians. Maybe you are wondering what happened next. What happened next? Did these churches in Galatia accept this? What happens after this? A epi? Well there's of course not anything in the new Testament that gives us the epilogue to what Paul wrote. There's no second Galatians where Paul follows up on this and tells us more about what's going on. But we do know, for example, the fine scholar FF, Bruce suggests that by two decades, after Galatians is written, circumcision is a dead issue among Christians. And that comes because of the conference in Jerusalem, in acts chapter 15, which broadcast the decision of the apostles about this matter, the will of God, about this matter far and wide makes it known. And it is that that letter is addressed to the church in Antioch and Syria Andia. But I think that decision was so important that everybody would have been talking about that and hearing about that. It's not just something for those congregations, all who would be troubled by that matter would want to reference what has been decided about that matter by God, through the apostles in X chapter 15. And so I think that has a huge part of dealing with this issue fully. And finally, FF Bruce goes on to note that this letter and the letter to the Colosians would help that. And then of course, the destruction of the temple in a D 70, that would have marked a full end to anybody saying, Hey, let's all be Jewish. Jews are viewed as revolutionaries as rebels. And not only was there a monster war in 80, 67, all the way through 80, 70 resulting in the burning of Jerusalem, the burning of the temple and just thousands and thousands of Jews being killed and enslaved a bunch of them drug off to Rome, uh, that also resulted in Jewish persecution throughout the Roman empire and there's records outside the Bible through other historians of Jews and synagogues being persecuted and being attacked everywhere. They really lose their standing. They lose their license. If you will, as a legitimate religion, nobody would have wanted to be a Jew after the ad 70 disaster. However, and I'm quoting from FF Bruce here, even after the battle against circumcision has been won the war against legalism, still rages repeatedly in the history of the church. Men have turned away from grace to bow at the altar of law, desperate to claim at least part of the credit for their own salvation. They have chosen to believe they are save by keeping enough rules, enduring enough pain or siding with the Orthodox on enough of the issues that is well said. That is well said. We wanna make certain that we don't. Number one, decide the book of Galatians is about gospel plus and gospel plus means just those who are adding the law of Moses. So it has no impact on our lives today. And then secondly, we wanna make absolutely certain that we are not becoming involved in gospel. Plus thinking today, John RW start another fine scholar, summarizes the message of Galatians in three questions. And we'll end with that. The question of authority. Do we listen to the apostles or someone else? The question of salvation, can we save ourselves or do we need Christ Jesus and his grace? And then finally, the question of holiness is holiness found in more rules and regulations, or is it found by walking in the spirit? Thanks for reading Galatians. I think that has been wonderful for us tomorrow. Tomorrow we start the great book of Romans, see you on Thursday, it's Thursday, and we're starting the book of Romans Paul, a servant of Christ. Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God. I am very pleased that we have arrived at the book of Romans because Romans is so powerful and so meaningful, but it's also so scary. People think of Romans Hebrews and the book of revelation as three books of the new Testament that maybe we just ought leave that for the experts, the regular person can't get anything out of that. Not gonna understand that it's too complicated, too convoluted, not, not gonna understand all of that. And that's why I am so pleased that we are at Romans because Romans is not nearly as difficult as people make it out to be. And you and I are going to get a ton of great stuff out of the book of Romans because it's amazing. It's a wonderful, wonderful book of the Bible. And I talked about it last Sunday, before I went out of town on June the 19th, you may wanna refresh your memory and look back at your notes or listen to that sermon again, going to use the idea of unity as the driving theme in the book of Romans, that really changes how you read Romans. If you'll get out your unity lens and start, you know, maybe your unity glasses and put those on. When you read the book of Romans, look at this letter as a letter to a congregation, or maybe even churches, there may be more than one church in, in the city of Rome. If you will look at this letter and think of Jews and Gentiles, feuding and fussing because Claudias evicted all of the Jews we read about that in acts chapter 18. I talked about that in the sermon, not gonna Relow all of that ground, but those Jews after several years, four or five years have come back to Rome. The edict has lax has, uh, has lapsed. Nero is now the Caesar Jews are back in town and those Jewish Christians they're gonna wanna be back in the forefront of the church. They're gonna wanna be influential. They're gonna want things to go Jewish ways and Gentile believers, who very much have maybe given way to Jewish brethren, the Jews knew the Bible. They were expecting the Messiah. You, you could see how the church would have a very Jewish tone to it when things first began well, well, this church now has been a Gentile church for 4, 5, 6 years. And we don't do things that way anymore. We don't have to do things that way. And so you can see a clash between some folks coming back in and saying, Hey, we'll, we'll take the chief seats now. Thank you very much. We're we're oh, and that, uh, Gentile way of doing that, uh, we, we, we're not gonna be doing that anymore. Uh, that's not how we act. And you can see some Gentil brethren drawing themselves up and saying, uh, you know, we, we, we did fine while you guys were gone and, uh, no, we're not going back to this being kind of a Jewish church. We're we are free of the law. We, we, we, what we want around here, we're gonna do what we want to do around here in Jesus Christ. We don't have to be constrained by your Jewish scruples. And you can see the sparks fly in between these two groups. You read the book of Romans watching for Paul's emphasis on unity, watching for all and every one, and how Paul lumps, everybody into the same basket. And very quickly, Romans will start to mean an awful lot to you and to me, and it will help us value unity the way that we should. So here we're opening today with Romans chapter one, and we're reading Romans one, one to 10. This is the longest introduction to any Paul Pele at 17 verses. And I wonder if some of what Paul is doing here is not only setting forth his apostolic credentials, but he's also putting together maybe somewhat of an explanation about why the apostle to the Gentiles has never visited the capital of the Gentil world. Maybe some folks were saying, how come Paul never comes and sees us. And he wants to say some things about that, that he would really like to come see them and that he had planned to come and see them, but he has not been able to do that yet, but he will do that when he can. More of that in tomorrow's reading underlying in your Bible, maybe in different colors. I use red in my Bible for recurring themes in the book of a BI, uh, book of, of the Bible. And so in my book of Romans, my Bible, where I have Romans open to here, all of the stuff that lumps, everybody together that is inclusive is underlined in red, like verse six, including you, or how about verse five among all, all the nations, verse seven, to all those who are in Rome, verse eight. I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you watch for that emphasis watch for how this pertains to unity. As we read the book of Romans starting today, tomorrow it's Friday, we'll go a little bit further in Romans chapter one, including one of the greatest verses ever written. See you tomorrow. Welcome to Friday. It is Friday, July the first can you believe it is July. And we are headed into a 4th of July weekend, happy birthday America, and what a blessing it is to be in the United States of America, where we have so many freedoms and so many good, good things. Romans the first chapter is where we're reading today. And we are reading one of the most famous passages in all of scripture. We're reading Romans one 11 to 21. So we'll be journeying through Romans one 16. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek, that is pretty famous stuff. But sometimes we don't understand the context of famous verses because we've focused so tightly on the verse itself and not anything. And there's not been any focus on the context around that verse. Let's see if we can work without reading today. Like I said, Romans one 11 to 21 is where we are. Paul talks a little bit here about wanting to come see them. He wants to come and help them. He's hoping to be helped by them as well, particularly as he moves further west in his preaching efforts. And then he talks about the gospel. The gospel here is not just a bunch of words on a printed piece of paper. The gospel for Paul is the power of God. It causes things to happen and he is not ashamed of that gospel. He preaches that gospel everywhere to everyone. See how everybody is included here, Jews and Greeks, verse 16. And then what about verse 17? Verse 17 is just as important as verse 16 in the gospel. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. What does that mean? Well, righteousness of God, that's a huge idea for Paul in the book of Romans, the righteousness of God. And it can mean that an attribute of God, God is holy God is perfect. God is right, but righteousness can also be a gift from God. He gives righteousness to us, particularly for Paul. What that means is that we are forgiven of our sins and Paul will show that we can't ever be right on our own because we are sinners, but we can be made right by the gospel by the power of God. And that power that righteousness of God is revealed. We we'd never figure this out on our own. It's revealed in Jesus Christ. The Messiah from faith, that's its source to faith to produce faith. When we see that this is the way that we can obtain righteousness, that produces faith in us. That's how Paul works that in Romans one N verse 17, notice as it is written, this is not an innovation. Paul, didn't just think of this yesterday. It comes from the prophets itself. Then Romans one 18 kind of, kind of takes a sharp turn. This is a surprising, surprising note for us, for the wrath of God. Wait, wait, wait. I thought we were gonna hear more about the gospel. And in fact from Romans one 17, you can just jump. You can just jump right to 3 21. Now the righteousness of God has been manifested. So, so what's all this stuff from Romans one 18 through chapter three in verse 20, what what's, what's all that doing in here? Well, Paul tells us that God has revealed his righteousness and how to be right, because man needs it. People fail to be right based on their own conduct and the rest of chapter one. And the rest of chapter two will talk about how wrong we are that we don't get, right? We don't act right. We don't live right. We are not right by our sales. Paul wants to show how both Jews and Gentiles do not live right? And they need the grace and mercy of God as found in Jesus Christ. They need the way of salvation that is found in the way of faith. So here's the breakdown beginning in Romans one verse 18, God has manifested himself. He showed himself through all of creation versus 18, 19 and 20. But that knowledge of God, that there is a creator has been rejected versus 21, 22 and 23. And that results in terrible punishment versus 24 down through verse 32, which will be reading even into that even goes into Monday's reading. Of course, as we continue in Romans chapter one, please remember that while Romans one 18 to 32 is often labeled Gentiles under the wrath of God, the word Gentile is not used here. And much of what happens in chapter one can well be found in the history of Israel as they rejected. God, I am not so certain that we ought to just shove this over on the Gentil side of the ledger. This is just Paul saying, man, doesn't get right, man. Doesn't live right on his own man on his own rejects God and just spirals into degradation in sin of every kind. That's our reading today, Romans one 11 to 21. Hope you're having a great Friday. Hope you have a wonderful, wonderful weekend. And I will see you on Monday as we continue in the, this wonderful book, the book of Romans. So thanks for listening to the Monday morning coffee podcast. Remember please subscribe, follow rate, and review those ratings and reviews, help the podcast rise. When people Google it or look on iTunes for a podcast, it will rise up if it is being rated. Well, the best thing that you can do of course, is to tell somebody else about the podcast, particularly sharing it on social media. That's a huge help to us. So until next time, may your coffee be delightful? I'm down to the end of this cup of Papa. New Guinea, may your coffee be delightful? I hope your Friday is wonderful and I hope the Lord will be with you today. All day. I will see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

Thanks for listening to the Westside church of Christ podcast. Monday morning coffee with Mark for our more information about Westside, you can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat dot that's upbeat with two P's UPP BEAT, where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with others. And we look forward to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday,