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. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday, October the 14th. I'm Mark and I am working on some wonderful Papua New Guinea coffee. It is just, oh , just delightful. Love coming back to p and g. I try a lot of different coffees and seems like I'm always coming back to Papua New Guinea because it just brew up great, no matter, no matter how you brew it just wonderful. And I thought we had a wonderful day yesterday at West Side . Just some really good stuff. And you may have thought that was just about young people and there was a young people emphasis. But let me say some things about that sermon maybe to help, to help parents think a little more about what we did yesterday. And then let's forge ahead in first . John, grab that coffee, get ready, get set. Let's go. Yesterday in the 10 40, I preached a lesson entitled Passion versus Preset What Guides Our Worship. And this sermon really is designed to strike at the thinking that more animated, more passionate, more emotion, more experience driven worship is really what we ought to be all about. And of course that is very, very attractive to younger people. And so there's, yeah, there's a slant to the sermon going in that particular direction, but I hope parents will be thinking about that as they help their children grow and learn biblically what the precepts are about worship. And so let me just add two pieces to the sermon yesterday. First and foremost, all of us young and old, all of us need to kill worship envy. Sometimes we see what's going on at these big community churches. Sometimes we're flipping channels and we roll past the telecast on the satellite network, all the, all the Pentecostal charismatic stuff going on and we see 10,000 people and they're waving their hands and went , oh wow, that's what it ought to look like. Nope, that is not what it ought to look like and we need to make sure that we understand very clearly. If God wanted it to look like that, it would look like that At West Side , that's not according to the New Testament pattern. We don't want to envy what is wrong, don't envy what isn't right. And then secondly, we just need to make certain that we understand worship responsibility belongs to me sometimes. What's so attractive about this passionate over the top get carried away worship is that people, people do get carried away. They lose themselves in everything that's going on, which is why a lot of unbiblical things happen there. But you, you are swept up in that worship whether you feel like worshiping or not, it just pulls you in. And that denies a fundamental principle of worship, which is I'm responsible for my worship. I need to be focused, I need to be concentrating. I need to think about the Lord. Worship comes down to me and I can be worshiping even if everybody else around me is called in dad . That's why a preacher who posed this particular kind of horns of a dilemma sort of thing, when he asked his audience, would you rather worship with a dead church that has acapella singing or would you rather be worshiping with an exciting live church that's using instrumental music? See how he's pushing people to war ? Instrumental music? The answer to that is I choose neither. I choose to worship with a live church that is engaged in serving God according to the New Testament pattern of Ephesians five 19. That's my choice. However, even if everybody around me is not doing what's right, I can do what's right as long as there's not a praise band that disrupts everyone's worship with unscriptural additions. So my choice is always to worship according to the pattern of the New Testament and to be the worshiper God calls me to be. Now, if everybody else is being a good worshiper, that's marvelous way to go, everybody else, but I still have the responsibility to be a worshiper focused on the Lord and substituting in unscriptural forms and methods because they sweep me up and passion and experience and thinking, oh, now I'm this great worshiper. Ah , that is incorrect. Thank you for playing. That doesn't work biblically, which means it must not work for disciples today. There you go. You can tell I feel pretty strongly about that. I think that is an important issue for all of us to consider. That's said, it's time then to think about what John says in one John, grab your Bible. Let's read one , John. It is Monday and today our reading is in first John the fourth chapter verses one to 12. Let's connect again to what's going on in John's epistles. What's happening here? What's he working with? First and foremost, this is about controversy. This is about a battle over Jesus and who he is. His identity is he God in the flesh. Some are exalting Jesus' deity at the expense of his humanity. And that of course is leading to fighting and to difficulty. And so John writes a lot about loving the brothers and his other emphasis is keeping the commands of God. You cannot be a faithful disciple when you're not doing what God has told you to do as well. We're trying to watch for some cycles here. John can seem repetitive, but that is intentional. He wants his audience to hear and to hear again these key themes and we are looking for things that are concrete. John's gospel is very black and white and very action oriented. You need to do this. So with those ideas, the main themes, watching for cycles, concrete ideas before us, let's read one John four, one to 12. You'll notice right away that there is an emphasis on the battle. So there needs to be a test . Verse one, test the spirits. The spirits is the person who is claiming a revelation from God. In verse two says, you just need to ask, do you believe Jesus has come in the flesh? Now, that's not the only task , but it is an excellent starting point and I do love how positive. Look at verses four, five and six. John is very comforting, he's very reassuring, and he is very concrete. Verse six, whoever knows God listens to us. This isn't vague. It isn't hard to figure out. These are the standards. This is where people need to be during this battle, during this controversy, during these difficult times, and the theology of knowing God and knowing that God came in the flesh, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, that translates then into practice beginning verse seven. We need to love one another. And that love of course is based in God and particularly based in God's initiative. Verse 10, God took the initiative. True love doesn't wait for the other person, for the one that we love to do something to say something. No, true love says I'll start. And that's what God of course has done for us. And I particularly want you to highlight in verse 12, the spiritual benefits that follow when we love others. If we love one another, God abides in us, his love is perfected in us. Again, we wanna make this concrete. How are we going to love the brothers? Even today? What are you doing on Monday to show your brothers and sisters in Christ you love them? See you tomorrow as we journey further in one John four. It is Tuesday. It is Tuesday and all kinds of great things happen on Tuesdays. There's playoff baseball tonight, but even more importantly, we have zoom tonight and that zoom call will be involved in prayer. Love that part of it. In Bible reading as we work with our Bible. Reading for Tuesday, one John four, 13 to 21 is our Bible reading for Tuesday. This is a short reading, but it is full of powerful meaning verse 13, we know we abide in him and he and us because he has given us of his spirit, the indwelling of the spirit. That relationship that we have with God is so important. That's not something spooky and is not something better felt than told, but it is very real and John makes appeal to that here. And then he pushes verse 14, that the father has sent his son and whoever verse 15, confesses Jesus is the son of God. That's where the battle is, is Jesus God in the flesh. That's what's working here. And notice verse 16, we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. That's a great place to just see that what many people today mistake for faith is not faith. Many people think that faith is some sort of mental assent, but that would be covered in the word know , to know mental assent, the truths about Jesus. Faith is much more than that to know and to believe. Faith is based on what we know. It is based on the facts, but believe is loyalty, allegiance, trust, committing our lives to and obedience in the New Testament, faith means loyalty, faith means obeying. And you can see that in verse 16, particularly as John moves forward with the idea of loving the brothers and having confidence in the day of judgment. As love grows, fear goes away verses 17, 18, and 19, and those of us who are married, we have understanding about that. Maybe the first time that you ask your spouse out, your spouse to be out, there's all that nervousness. Is she going to say yes or is she gonna say, I wouldn't go out with you if you were the last man on earth, that would be awkward and unpleasant. You work up your courage and you say, Hey, wanna go to the basketball game with me? And she says Yes. And then that goes well and you ask again and again. And the more she says yes, the more confident . Yeah . See, we know how that works. And so God is love and the person who lives in love remains in God. And there's that mutual indwelling love that just drives out fear. And I think the fear here probably is the fear of final punishment. And I love here in verse 21 that things just get very specific. I love how John says we're gonna do something tangible with this. We're gonna love our brothers. Tomorrow we begin. First John chapter five. Don't forget Westsiders, I'll see you on the zoom call tonight. Welcome to Wednesday. We're reading first John chapter five. Lemme grab some coffee here, work in First John chapter five verses one to 12 today. Watch carefully here how John links together the idea of love both for God and the brethren with obedience. Remember, keeping the commands of God is a major theme in John's writing. And you see that in verse two and in verse three, the reality of love is to be demonstrated by keeping God's orders. And how do we know that we love the brethren by our feelings? No, by whether or not we are keeping the commandments and they are not burdensome. Verse three, that doesn't mean they're not exacting or demanding, it just means they don't crush love. John goes on to explain why they're not oppressive because we have new life and we have a new will. Verse four, verse five, and again, John is so positive and upbeat. I love that about John's epistles. Lots of terrible things are happening. There's been a division, there's false teaching. John's not panicking. John believes in his brethren and they're going to get through this. Then there's a couple of verses here that have become rather famous for the controversial issues surrounding their translation. Verse six, this is he who came by water in the blood. What does he mean by that? Water in the blood? Some have tried to relate that to the cross where Jesus side is pierced and of course water flows from Jesus' side, but that's awkward and there's some things about that that don't seem to be really, really where John is gonna go with that. I think a better answer to that is the beginning and end of Jesus's ministry, his baptism and his crucifixion. You remember when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, that the Holy Spirit descends and God the Father speaks. That's the beginning of his mission. And then he completes his mission on the cross. So this would be an attack on those who said that Christ came upon the man. Jesus had baptism but left before he was crucified, which was an error that circulated in New Testament times. And by the way, that similar error is taught by Muslims today and we don't want any part of that. We want to know that Jesus is God in the flesh and that he came and fulfilled his mission all the way by water and blood. And then John goes on to say that there are other witnesses besides just the spirit's testimony, particularly I think about the spirit at the baptism of Jesus testifying to Jesus. And that leads to this famous verse, verse seven, which the King James and New King James have an additional line to in heaven. The Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit in these three are one that line references these who are testifying. Well, why isn't that line in the ESV ? Why isn't that line in the New American standard? And lemme give you a couple of notes about that. First and foremost, sometimes people will run that out and say, look at this. The Bible is missing something and the King James version has it. And those, all those bad editors of the New American standard or the ESV , they're editing the Bible. They've cut part of the Bible out. Of course that's completely false. It's completely fallacious. What's happened is something's in the King James that isn't textually accurate, that the best manuscripts don't support. Remember just as much as it is wrong to take something out of the Bible, it is equally wrong to add something to the Bible. There's a long story behind that phrase why that is in the King James and the new King James. But let me just say here it is utterly unsubstantiated. In the earliest Greek manuscripts, the best manuscripts that have it are dated to the 12th century and those are dependent upon Latin manuscripts. There's nothing about this phrase in heaven, the father of the word, the Holy Spirit testified these three or one. There's nothing about that that seems to be original to what John wrote. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't believe in the trinity or that the Trinity isn't clearly taught elsewhere in scripture. It just means it's not taught here. So the point of all that is to say the King James is not our standard. We don't compare the ESV to the King James and when there's a difference, oh my, the ESV , those terrible people have done something wrong to the text of scripture. No, what we ask is what's behind the ESV ? What's behind the Newberg standard? What's behind the Christian standard Bible? What's behind the King James Bible? Who's got the best text? What's the best translation of those texts ? That's why verse seven is different in various translations. It goes on from there then to speak of these witnesses. And I think in verse eight, once again, we're talking about the spirit descending at Jesus' baptism. And of course the spirit was given to the apostles after the cross. So I think that's where these references are, the testimony of the water and the blood and they agree and we have to receive that testimony. Verse nine, the testimony of God is greater for this is the testimony of God that he's born concerning his son. So the ultimate source of the story of Jesus is that it came from God. The testimony of God has to be superior to these false teachers who are denying the deity of Jesus. Verse 10, then here's a discussion of the results of this testimony. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. That's a reference to internalizing the word of God in bringing it into your life. And I think verse 12 then connects to verse five and completes the thought. Verse 12, whoever has the son has life, whoever does not have the son of God, does not have life will get an echo of that in second . John, who is it that overcomes the world? Verse five, the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God. Again, the main themes are really amped up here and there's a cycle. We we're not hearing this for the first time, are we? But that emphasizes its importance. Tomorrow we complete first John. It is Thursday and today we finish First John. Our reading is First John five, 13 to 21 . And I think this material really brings all of the things that John's talking about into a tight package and helps us very much to see these major themes. Again, the name of the son of God, for example, in verse 13, we know Jesus Christ is the true God. Verse 20, the idea of keeping God's commandments. Verse 18 does not keep on sinning so much about, we know there's that false teaching going on where people are claiming some false knowledge. So much in here as we know. Verse 13, we know verse 15. There's just a tremendous amount of that final word with these main ideas. One more time in First John. Let's get to the text. A couple of things here. First John five verse 14. This is the confidence that we have toward him that we ask anything according to his will. He hears us. What a great passage on prayer that passage helps us understand. We don't just have carte blanche to ask for anything. Hey, could it rain? Oh, I don't know. Could it rain puppy dogs? I think that'd really be fun. God, how about I just pray for puppy dogs to fall outta the sky? Stop. That's not what prayer is about. And there are passages in Matthew's gospel in John's gospel where Jesus says some very big things about prayer. We don't want to get lost and decide that that means God has become our personal genie and has to deliver anything that we would bend the knee and ask for. No, we need to ask according to His will and we know that he hears us verse 15 and whatever we ask. So our will needs to correspond with God's will. And what we ought to be doing is praying in the will of God. Sometimes we pray and we say, if it be thy will, what's with the if ? What's with the if ? Let's find out what God's will is and let's pray for that. Obviously, obviously sometimes we don't know the will of God, so it's appropriate then to say if it is your will. But if we're praying that way all the time, maybe what we need to do is back up a little bit and figure out what the will of God is because we want to ask according to his will. Then John moves forward to say some things about asking about sin. Verse 16, there's brothers committing a sin not leading to death, and there are brothers who are committing sins that do lead unto death. What is that all about? I think there are a couple of options here. This sin unto death, literally it's sinning a sin, sinning a sin here that's gonna cause death. What are we looking at John? Well, he may be speaking of just outrageous moral rebellion and that would, that would certainly fit with the false teachers who aren't teaching the truth, who are treating the brethren badly, who divided the church. These false teachers will never repent. They are so far from God, they're never turning back. So they're going to, they're gonna die in their sins and that probably is really where that's going. Any sin that's unconfessed unrepented of, is that possible? Unrepented of, is that even a word? Any sin that we don't turn away from is a sin that could ultimately separate us eternally from God. So sins that lead unto death are the sins that we don't turn from. And I think these false teachers here are involved in that kind of sinning. I should add that the distinction between mortal and venial sins that some would make, that's absolutely not taught anywhere else in scripture. And we wanna be very, very careful that we don't derive a doctrine out of one passage that just contradicts so much else of what the Bible says. Oh, we're gonna stand on this one verse , make something fly. No, you're not. That's not going to work. Finally, verse 18, we know that everyone who's born of God does not keep on sinning. You wanna make sure that you have the right idea. There does not continue in sin or keep on sinning . That is in concert with much of what John has said already in this epistle. And then he completes this in verse 20. We know the son of God has come. What does he mean by that? Come in the flesh . He's given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. Remember how the book began, how the epistle began walking in the light. We know him who is true. We've come full circle. We're back in fellowship with God tomorrow we read John's short epistle known as Second John, I'll see you on Friday. Welcome to Friday. We made it. We made it. It's Friday. And today we read Second John 13 verses we'll read all of second John not very long is it's one of the shortest books in the New Testament. There's a couple of differences that I might call your attention to between second John and third John. Second John is much closer in its pattern to other New Testament letters than third John. Second John has that familiar Christian greeting. And then verse four, something to be thankful for. It sounds an awful lot like standard New Testament letter writing. And second John is addressed to a community. We'll say more about that in just a minute. While third John is clearly addressed to an individual. Second John is about doctrine and practice where third John is nearly all practical. One person has said, the second John says don't. Third John says do. And of course the question that dominates us is just jumps out right at the beginning. And that is who's the elder and who's the elect lady and the elder here, obviously this is John that is writing. There's a long tradition that establishes that he does not identify himself by name, but probably the fact that he does not use his name would say how well known he is. There's no need for him to identify himself or decide his apostolic credentials. Maybe John is an elder in the local church. Maybe that's helping him here. Maybe he's just saying that he is an old man and that he has seen a lot and he wants these brethren that he cares for to understand some key truths. And that brings us to the elect lady . Some have tried to make that into a proper name like elect , but that seems very, very doubtful. It could be a certain woman that John knew. Yet the letter does not sound like it is to an individual. It certainly does sound like it is addressed to a community of believers to a church. And the elect, of course is a common description of Christians. Now , some have obje objected that the elect lady cannot be the church 'cause the church is the lady and not the children. And I think that is just making a whole lot more of the figure figure than John intends . I think John is talking to the family of God here, let me grab some coffee and I'll just try to be brief in this podcast episode today because this is a brief letter. I would challenge you to read through it and just pick out those main themes. Jesus has God in the flesh keep the commands of God, love the brothers. I will say this, verse nine, whoever goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. This passage is used to say that we have to abide in the teachings of Christ, all that Jesus instructs us and all that. The New Testament instructs us because that's the teaching of his ambassadors. All that the New Testament instructs us or or we could in fact forfeit our relationship with God. Some have tried to blunt that by saying, no, no, no, no, no. The teaching of Christ is the teaching that Jesus is deity. That's all that means. And that as long as we accept the doctrine about Jesus, all that other stuff doesn't really matter. Sometimes you'll hear the gospel doctrine distinction. All we have to do is agree on the gospel, who Jesus is, all that other stuff, all that doctrinal stuff doesn't really matter and and so it's okay for there to be dozens of different churches with all kinds of different worship styles and all kinds of different church governance and all kinds of different work for the church to do all , all that's just that doctrinal stuff. We don't care about that. We just need to agree on Jesus. So then when we say you have to abide in the teaching of Christ that is met with, well as long again as we agree that Jesus's deity, that's the teaching of Christ, but it's not the teaching about Christ, it's the teaching of Christ. It's the doctrine of Jesus, not the doctrine about Jesus. And Jesus does teach doctrine. Matthew 7 28, mark four, two, John chapter seven verses 16 and 17, and there's many places where a parallel expression is used. For example, in Revelation two 14 and 15, the doctrine of Balam we're about to go read the book of Revelation. Is that the teaching as the ESV has the teaching of Balam , is that just the teaching of Blum's identity or is that the things that Blum taught in Revelation two 14 and 15 ? It is clearly the things that Baam taught in two John nine. We're talking about what Jesus teaches the teaching of Jesus and what his ambassadors teach because if we do not receive those whom he sent, we are not receiving Jesus. So that doctrine businesses use many, many times the doctrine of God. One Timothy six verse one, the doctrine of Devils one , Timothy four verse one, the doctrine of the Pharisees, Matthew 16 and 12. This is not the doctrine of their identity, who they are, it's what they teach. And so we must adhere to the New Testament, to the doctrine of Christ, the teachings of Jesus. If we are going to be in fellowship with God, I think you'll be able to work through the rest of Second John easily and without complication. And again, I would urge you just to highlight or underline those main ideas that we've seen so much of in first John and now we see them again in Second John. On Monday we'll finish with John's epistles and get ready to embark. That's right. We're headed to the Book of Revelation. Thank you so much for listening. If the podcast is a help to you, then please tell somebody about it and of course, leave us a rating or review so that more people will find the podcast until Monday. Then when we will open our Bibles together. I'm Mark Roberts and I want to go to heaven and I want you to come too . I'll 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 more information about Westside , 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 P'S UPP , B E A T , where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with others. And we look forward to seeing you again with a company coffee, of course, on next Monday.