Monday Morning Coffee with Mark

Daily Bible Reading, Week 27

July 04, 2022 Mark Roberts Season 2 Episode 27
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark
Daily Bible Reading, Week 27
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Click here for the daily Bible reading schedule

Clicking here will take you to our webpage

Click here to contact us


Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.

Speaker 1:

Hello, and welcome to the west side. Church's special Monday morning coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right with a look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through its other and better work the applications into our daily life. 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.

Speaker 2:

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday morning coffee podcast for a Monday, July the fourth happy 246th birthday America. What a blessing from God that we live in a country like the United States of America. Of course I am not right now. How ironic is this in America? And I'm not able to talk with you about my sermon that I preached yesterday in west at west side, because, because I am still on vacation. This is the second week for me now of a two week cruise in the British aisles and Lord willing. And according to the itinerary today, I should be in far north Scotland Dean and I are at the Orme islands today. Travel of course is kind of iffy. Lots of things can change and lots of things can get canceled and quarantined and so forth. But if everything goes according to plan, I am pre-recording this, of course I am today in the Orkney islands in Kirk wall, Scotland, which should just be amazing and hopefully a whole lot cooler than it is in Texas in July. But I do have my Bible reading schedule. I do have my Bible open to the book of Romans. I'm holding a great cup of coffee. We've got our Bibles open. We're not talking about sermon yesterday. I can't do that, but we are ready to forge ahead and think about daily Bible reading in the book of Romans let's get started. Our Bible reading on this July 4th is Romans one versus 22 through the end of the chapter, verse 32, probably one of the most famous sections of Romans and maybe a section that does not need a lot of clear instruction or discussion. This passage is pretty straightforward. Isn't it? I do think it's important to see and connect out of Friday's reading that Paul is really attacking the idea of replacing God. He's really attacking the idea of idolatry. Once that goes on, then all of these other horrible sins follow that's. The big idea in Romans chapter one, please underline in your Bible. The expression God gave them up, which is used in verse 24, 26 and 28. We always want to watch for repeated expressions like that in our Bible reading, it indicates emphasis. And here, of course, what it says is that God allows people to go their own way, that they might learn the folly and foolishness and futility of sin. There is some material here in verse 26 and 27 about homosexuality in Greek society. Homosexuality was praised and there's plenty of discussion of that in various literature outside of the Bible, Paul says that's not gonna work. That that is absolutely vain. And he does make mention verse 32 of those who give approval to those who practice these things. One writer said gay marches and current moral decline cannot change this clear teaching our fear that it will be harder and harder for us to hold on to the truth about that. We need to set ourselves for that steal ourselves for that and be determined that we will continue to worship God and not worship some self-made God who allows whatever society has decided is cool Vogue or, uh, currently the end thing. I certainly understand and see all that goes on in our society, praising homosexual behavior. We are not part of that. We are part of the kingdom of God. We can never be part of that. That's just not right. And it won't ever be right. Of course, having said that sometimes Romans one becomes N about little more than homosexuality. And there is a lot more than just that homosexuality is by far not a worse sin than other sins. And there's plenty of other sins that Paul then details things that happen to society. And that happen to people when they give up on God. For example, notice verse 30 disobedient to parents, don't see as much emphasis on that. Sometimes on social media, as we do with all the discussion of how terrible it is that this movement has taken over society or this Supreme court decision about marriage. But that's part of the sins in the murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness verse 29. We need to think about all of that. And again, the focus is on. This is what happens to human beings who don't acknowledge God, maybe as we come out of our reading today, question four needs to be, as we think about how this gospel changes our own lives, do I acknowledge God? Do I worship God? Or am I an idolatry who has come up with my own conception of God, be that Woodstone marble or just in my mind's eye? Am I a true worshiper of God? That's a great question to ask coming out of Romans chapter one, I will see you tomorrow as we start Romans two, see you on Tuesday. Welcome to Tuesday today. We're reading Romans chapter two, the first 11 verses. And I need to warn you. This is a very, very tough chapter for people like you, who listen to a podcast about daily Bible reading. I noted this in my book on Romans. I can imagine someone, I wrote sending a letter back to Paul after hearing Romans one read in the assembly. They might say something like dear Paul, I just got done with the first chapter of your recent letter. And it was outstanding. I couldn't agree with you more. It's disgusting when people not only behave badly, but actually approve of sin. And it did me good to read about that. And you'll be glad to know that I, for one do not for a moment approve of those who practice those terrible things. I recognize them for the evils they are. And I know people who do those things are without excuse. I sure am glad that I'm not like that. Isn't that the easy path to take out of Romans chapter one, we think of some specific political movements in our society going on, we look around, we can easily identify these sins in the news and on social media that we see and we draw ourselves up and we say, I'm not like that. I don't approve of that. I'm better than that. But Paul's emphasis in Romans is to emphasize, I guess his emphasis is to emphasize, can you say that to emphasize how we are all the same unity is the theme here. And he brings about that unity in the Roman church, by helping all of those folks see that they're all in the same boat. So now Romans two verse one, you have no excuse. Please notice a connection to Romans one 20. You have no excuse. Oh man, every one of you who judges and there's more of that, he will render verse six to each one. According to his works, there will verse nine, be tribulation and distress for every human being Jew first and also Greek glory and honor verse 10 for everyone who does good Jew first and also for Greek for God shows no partiality this thinking that somehow, oh, maybe I've, I've done some little wrong things, but they're not really big wrong things. And I'm different than those people over there who do the big wrong things is absolutely wrong. It is what you do that matters. Paul says doing is the key. There is no get out of jail free card because you were Jewish or because you were raised in the church or because you do your daily Bible reading and don't get lost and think somehow seven to 10 is discussing some works based salvation. He's just talking in theory about how judgment works judgment works based on what you do. And sometimes people who are trying to do what's right. Decide that it isn't so much what you do. It, it it's that me, I'm a, I'm, I'm a pretty good person. And that isn't correct at all. And in fact, that gets in the way of unity. Doesn't it. And so in Romans two, one to 11, Paul begins to talk seriously about justification, about salvation and about doing what you do, whether you obey the truth verse eight, or whether you're obeying on righteousness. Those are the things that matter, not how we feel about the sins of others. It's a challenge. It is a big challenge. Get ready for that. Let's make application of that. Q4 in our daily Bible reading, we need to be, make sure that this Bible reading is changing us. Make sure it's changing. You I'll see you tomorrow. As we continue in this challenging chapter, see you on Wednesday. It is Wednesday, July the sixth, and we are continuing with our summer series at west side. Who's coming our way tonight. It's Steven Baxley and Steven is here to tell us a little about his sermon for tonight, Steven.

Speaker 3:

Good morning. This is Steven Baxley. And I'll be with you tonight at west side, preaching on unbelief. You know, when we think of unbelief, we usually think of the college professor or teacher who tells us that belief in God is stupid or for the uneducated. Mainly we think of someone we saw on a TV program once who talked about how God doesn't exist. Now, we probably don't think of our neighbors who claim to believe in God and go every once in a while to church. We also probably don't think of people that we actually go to church with tonight. I'm going to spend some time talking about unbelief as Satan's tool, not just the kind of unbelief we usually think about, but also a form of unbelief that we usually don't. I hope you can join us tonight for this study. See you soon.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, Steven. I look forward to listening to that. When I get home from vacation, I know that sermon will be a blessing to everyone. Now, let's think for a moment about our Bible reading in Romans chapter two, we continue in this very challenging chapter, Romans chapter two versus 12 to 21. And I would have you give your attention to verse 13. It is not the heroes of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified, justifies a key word in the book of Romans. And we need to know the vocabulary of Romans. If we are, if we are to be able to read Romans and understand it, I am fond of saying, if you're going to read Paul, you need to be able to speak. Paul and Paul loves this term justified. It is a term that belongs in a court of law. One fellow translated that by saying justified means I'm quoting here declared to be in the right declared to be in the right. Then another scholar talked about in a law court setting justify is what the judge does at the end of the trial. He declares that one party in the lawsuit is in the right. The court, uh, has found in their favor. And he goes on to say, just as at a wedding, the person taking the service says, I pronounce that you are husband and wife. And that declaration actually creates a new status. So when the judge says, I find the defendant innocent, or I find the plaintiff in the right, that declaration creates a state of affairs in which the vindicated person enjoys new standing new status. He or she is in the right. That is justification. A big question in the book of Romans is who does God declare to be right? Who does God justify? And Paul is dealing in our reading today with the idea that just because I have the law, I can be justified. I can be declared, right? Simply because I was born Jewish or maybe I would make contemporary application because I was born to church going parents. No, no, no. Paul says, it's what you do that matters. And in fact, he calls attention here to the fact that even though Gentiles don't know enough to write a Bible, they know enough to keep from doing some of the dumb things that yes Jewish folks did in idolatry. And otherwise Jews were able to do some things, verse 15, that show they understood some things about right and wrong written on their hearts and their conscience would bear them witness or would accuse or excuse them. Now there's some advantages to having the law versus 17, 18, and 19. But no, that's not gonna justify you having the law, put you in the middle of folks who love the Lord and do what's right. And you got taught a lot of stuff. And that's really good. Just like growing up with godly parents. But in the end on judgment day, your family tree and your name on the church role, isn't going to help. If you didn't do what God said and Jews have failed to do that, they have failed verse 21 and verse 22. So you who are boasting in the law verse 23 part of our reading tomorrow, you dishonor God by breaking the law. It's the doing that matters, particularly as Paul will develop, if you're going the law route. We'll talk more about this tomorrow. As we continue in Romans chapter two and finish that chapter out, give good attention to Steven Baxley tonight. And I look forward to talking with you more in finishing Romans chapter two on Thursday, see you, then it is Thursday. And we are reading in Romans chapter two versus 22 to 29. I used some of this yesterday. It's very difficult to pull up and just stop in the middle of the text sometimes. So we're kind of doubling back just a little bit, but I think Paula is working this idea here that these Jews who knew so much and had an opportunity to do so much in the service of God, particularly be a light to the world, introduce the idea of the one God concept, paying attention to scripture, preparing the world for the Messiah. They failed to do that. Everyone knew the standard that they ought to be living up to. Those Jews should be living up to this and they just didn't do that. That's why he says in verse 24, the name of God is blasting among the Gentiles because of you. That's a quote from Isaiah 52 5 1 writer. I thought this was worth repeating said this I'm quoting a professing. Christian who is not genuine is worse than someone who doesn't claim to be a Christian at all. That's the force of the quote from Isaiah 52 5 in context, Isaiah says the rest of the world looks at God's people in exile. They know it is a punishment for sin. They conclude that Israel's God, isn't much of a God and they blast Feam God's name since even his people don't honor his standards. Just so today, pagans look at religious people who live like pagans and conclude that the God they claim to follow isn't much of a God in quote. Isn't that? So what do people say today? I don't want to go to church because there's too many hypocrites down there. Well, who gave tea to that charge? Then of course, Paul says something here that he is very radical and that sets up some ideas that he will need later. Verse 26, if a man who is UN circumcised keeps the precepts of the law will not. His UN circumcision be regarded as circumcision. What, what a Gentile can be a Jew verse 28 for no. One is a Jew who is merely one outwardly nor is circumcision, outward and physical. What a giant idea that is that really moves forward. The discussion as to who it is that God will justify, who is part of the people of God. And we need to think about that and make certain that we are applying that to our own circumstance. How about verse 28 for no one is a Christian who has merely been baptized outwardly nor is baptism just outward and physical. Isn't that what Paul says in Colosians chapter two, 11 and 12. Whoops. Didn't mean to get ahead of myself. We're not reading Colosians yet, but Paul here has the revolutionary idea. Evolutionary idea that your outwards, circumcision, Jewish folks doesn't amount to anything. It's the heart that God is looking for. It's the heart that God looks upon. It's doing God's will that matters. And now he's saying chapter three, everybody has failed to do that. We'll read that on Friday and I'll see you tomorrow. Welcome to Friday. As we turn to Romans chapter three, we read the first eight verses today. And Paul there says Romans three, one, then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Part of Paul's genius is that he knows the questions. His audience is asking. He anticipates those and answers them. So where are Jews in his audience after chapter two? Think about the Roman church. This being unrolled in the assembly, we're reading along. Where would those Jews be in their thinking? They might be looking over at the Gentiles who might be smirking a little bit, and they might be squirming some in their seats. If being a Jew gives me no advantage over those Gentiles over there, then what's the big deal about being a Jew. We just spent in our wheels the last 2000 years, the covenant it's special signed circumcision. God was just playing a joke on us. What's the deal? Why should I even care about being Jewish? Well, Paul says there are some huge advantages to being a Jew. In fact, chapter three, verse two much in every way. Maybe that's a little bit of a surprise. I kind of thought particularly coming out of chapter 2 28, that Paul would say, none, no advantage. Nope, doesn't work. Doesn't help you. But he says, Hey, you got some big pluses, verse two, you knew the word of God. So you know about grace and forgiveness. You know about sin. You know about the coming Messiah. You are entrusted. You were the stewards of God's word. However, verse three, you didn't do anything with those advantages. And so that failure does that failure mean that God's promises have somehow failed? Well, of course not verse four. There is nothing wrong with God. The problem is not with the Lord. The problem is with the Lord's people, God is right in bringing them into judgment. Unfortunately, Paul knows that that may bring up a feeble excuse. Someone just might say, well, if my sin causes God's grace to shine all the brighter, then maybe we just ought of sin more and make God look better. God's forgiving. Oh, isn't God wonderful. The more I sin, the more God forgives and the more wonderful everybody sees God as being Paul will deal further with this in chapter six N verse one, it is a terrible, terrible way of thinking. One scholar said we centers display incredible ingenuity. When we try to justify ourselves, Paul says, this will never work. Verse six, stop kidding yourself. You can't do evil. That good may come. That is self-defeating and self contradictory. So then he begins to push again in our reading on Monday with this idea, look at verse nine, Jews and Greeks are under sand. Look how Paul keeps coming back to the essential idea. You all are the same there in Rome. As a result of that, you all need the same things you've been saved the same way. And you ought to be unified because there are no significant differences between Jew and Gentile believers. That's where we're headed, but that will have to hold us for today's reading. I appreciate so much. You're listening to the Monday morning coffee podcast. If you like it, please follow or subscribe on the app that you are listening to give a review on iTunes or whatever app that you use that helps others find the show. Tell somebody about it. Think about posting it on social. If it's helping you stay with your daily Bible. Reading one brother in Christ told me that he loved the podcast. It's like having a little Bible class every day and I appreciated his encouragement so very much so. I hope you're having a great Friday. Yes. I'm about to get on an airplane and come home. I will be back Sunday morning preaching at the west side church of crashed on Sunday, July the 10th. I can't wait. It's so hard to be away. We've seen and done all kinds of great things, but I need to be home and be where I belong. I'm looking forward to seeing you Sunday morning at west side, hope you'll be there in person or you'll stream it@justchristians.com or on our Facebook page. I'm coming home. Lord willin. Pray for me as Dean and I fly home. Actually I think that flat actually starts Saturday morning and it's like an all day fly in thing we get home for Saturday night. I'll see you Sunday until the, until next time. And I was about to say until then, but I guess for the podcast it's until next time, may your coffee be delightful? May your Friday be wonderful. May the Lord be with you today? All day? I will see you on Sunday and yes on the podcast. I will see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to the west side church of Christ podcast. Monday morning, copy with mark. For more information about side, you can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat.is that's upbeat with two PS. You PPP be U PP, B E a T, where creators can get 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,

Monday Romans 1:22-32
Tuesday Romans 2:1-11
Wed Night Summer Series- Steven Baxley- Unbelief
Wednesday Romans 2:12-21
Thursday Romans 2:22-29
Friday Romans 3:1-8