Hello, and welcome to the Westside 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 each other 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.

I've got my Bible open. I have notes from yesterday's sermon. I've got my Bible reading schedule. It's all marked up here. I am ready to go. We had a great day yesterday at West Side QA in the 9 a.m. had some cool questions there. Started a new series in the 1040. Want to talk more about that in just a moment. Lots going on. I always say we're trying to keep the spiritual momentum of Sunday rolling into the week. So grab your coffee. I've got a great cup of coffee, and it's even in a Tigger mug. Feeling kind of tiggerish today. Grab your coffee. Let's grow together. Yesterday in the 1040, I began a little mini-series, The Five Toughest Questions. And that began yesterday with the five toughest questions about faith. Next week, next Sunday, then I'll talk about the five toughest questions about repentance and then the five toughest questions about baptism. And I want to dovetail, I want to add a little bit to that last question about doubt and how that works with faith, because I mentioned yesterday that sometimes a verse in the Bible can give us some trouble. Maybe it's a translation question, or the math and various kings' reign doesn't add up the chronology, or maybe the numbers in this passage don't seem to match the numbers over in that passage if you have two parallel accounts. And sometimes that kind of thing can really bother people. Now, what do we do with that? For example, in 1 Samuel the 13th chapter, in 1 Samuel 13 and verse 1, when it's talking there about King Saul, let me see if I can crank a Bible over here to 1 Samuel 13. In 1 Samuel 13 and verse 1, where it's talking about Saul, the ESV just says Saul was dot dot dot dot years old when he began to reign, and he reigned dot dot dot and two years over Israel. And the reason the ESV has those dots there is because the Hebrew is very, very uncertain. And that kind of thing just really wigs some people out. And I should say there are textual answers to that kind of thing. And scholars work with that and try to come up with the best understanding of the Hebrew or the Greek. And what the ESV is saying there is that the Hebrew there is just not very clear. And maybe as time goes by and archaeologists are digging up more stuff, they're going to find some more papyri or another manuscript, and it'll clarify some of that. But here's the real answer to that. And I should give credit here to my friend Shane Scott for this analogy. What Shane always said when asked about this kind of thing is that we don't have Jenga faith. You know about the game Jingga? You stack up a bunch of blocks of wood and then bit by bit each player has to choose a block and carefully slip it out. And eventually, of course, somebody pulls out a block and the whole thing cascades down. And people act like the Christian faith is like a stack of jingle blocks. It's this rickety stack of wooden blocks, and if they can show any part of it to be troublesome, maybe, oh, you're not sure how to translate 1 Samuel 13, verse 1, oh, the whole thing is gonna fall down. No. No. Our faith is not a jingle block pile. Our faith, if I could get this analogy, is much more like a pyramid. The base of our faith is creation. God as creator is seen everywhere. Creation points us to God. The next level up, then, would be Jesus. There is amazing evidence that Jesus came, that he died, and he arose. There's eyewitness testimony of that. And then on top of that, next level is the Word of God. Our faith in the overall reliability and the understandability of the English Bible is very strong. So, where then would you put a question like, how long did King Saul reign? That is that's not foundational to our Christianity, is it? Now, if you have foundational questions about the existence of God or who Jesus is, or can you trust the Bible, then you need to study more. Grab one of your shepherds, grab me, and we'll talk about those foundational issues. But you know what? Sometimes what we need to do is doubt our doubts. Because people start chunking stuff like, what about 1 Samuel 13, verse 1? Well, how important is that? How significant really is this? And does that mean, because we're not entirely sure of the Hebrew and 1 Samuel 13, verse 1, that Christianity should be entirely rejected? That's ridiculous. Christianity stands. Even with all the hostility and attacks that have been made against it through the centuries, our faith stands. Because it stands on creation, stands on Jesus, stands on the word of God. Those things give us great faith. And now let's consider the word of God. Let's do some daily Bible reading. This is the longest sermon in the book of Acts, and it's probably not nearly as famous as it should be. The sermon in Acts 17 is the sermon everybody thinks about when we think about Paul preaching, but this is a marvelous sermon. It is super Jewish in its flavor. Paul comes to the synagogue and he is asked to speak, a standard synagogue service for this particular time. This comes from sources outside of the Bible. There'd be the recitation of the Shema, the Hero Lord, Lord our God is one God, from Deuteronomy 6. Then there is a series of prayers, there is a blessing, the reading of the law, and sometimes a reading of the prophets. Different synagogues were on different reading plans, some on a three-year reading plan, some on a five-year reading plan. And then there would be the sermon. And so Acts chapter 13 tells us that Paul is asked, verse 15, would you like to speak? And of course, the answer to that when it's Paul is, oh yes. Let me preach a little bit to this audience of Jews who are looking for the Messiah. And what the sermon does, especially beginning in verse 17, is emphasize what God has done. He chose, he made the people prosper, he led them out, he endured their conduct, he overthrew their enemies. It's all about God. God did everything. God is the one who is the hero in the story. And of course, this Jewish audience would be very on board with that. They would be loving that, be very excited about that. That's going to get everybody nodding their head. They asked for a king, verse 21, not great. God gave them Saul. He wasn't great. But then God, verse 22, raised up David. David is the ideal king. And there's a citation here that's a composite one, and this is where we get our theme for the year. I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my own heart who will do all my will. It comes from Psalm 89, verse 20 or 21, right in there. And then added to that is 1 Samuel 13, verse 14, when Samuel comes and anoints David. It is everything that David is all about. This is the man who will do my will. And of this man's offspring, verse 23, God is brought to Israel a Savior. This was understood, at least by the Essenes, who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, to be very messianic. And the allusion here is to Isaiah chapter 11, and that's important because we're talking here about the stump of Jesse, the root of Jesse. And so Paul continues to work that idea down that Jesus is this Savior. He is the promised one. And he mentions the family of Abraham, verse 26, and the utterances of the prophets, verse 27, verse 29, all that was written of him, all that God promised, verse 32, to the fathers. This is all about your Bible, Jews. This is what the Bible said would happen. This has happened. Get in on this. It's the work of God. The awkward part is that Paul continues to talk about Gentiles. Verse 26, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you. Those among you are Gentiles, often referred to as the God fearers. Those attend synagogue services. They've not fully proselyted to Judaism, but they know there is one true God. They are trying to follow that God as best they can. Gentiles, you have a place. And so Paul pushes Gentiles have a place. And he gets down to the end of the sermon. And once again, we get the holy and sure blessings of David, verse 34. We get this quotation now out of the Psalms you will not let your holy one see corruption. We looked at that last week. The fulfillment of the promises that God made to David are happening. God made promises, verse 36. Can't be David who gets those promises. He is dead. But he whom, verse 37 God raised up did not see corruption. So the forgiveness of sins, Acts 13, 38, sounds like Acts 2, 38, is being proclaimed. And then there it is, verse 39. Everyone, everyone who believes is freed, not just Jews. God's promises are for everybody. And then Paul ends with, I'm sure he had an invitation psalm because that's how you're supposed to end everything, but he ends with a quotation out of Habakkuk 1, verse 5, and that's very significant because that's a warning. That's a warning. Get on board with what God is doing, or in the context of Habakkuk, Nebuchadnezzar will show up and burn your city down. In the context of Paul here, the judgment of God will fall upon those who don't serve the Messiah, who don't put their faith and trust in the Messiah and obey him. Our reading for Monday, Acts chapter 13, what's the exact verses here? I don't want to give that to you wrong. 16 to 41. Acts 13, 16 to 41 is the reading for Monday. It's Tuesday. It is Tuesday. And today we will read Romans chapter 4, verses 1 to 12. Guess what? David's smack dab in the middle of our reading again today. We will be reading some of Paul's teachings about salvation here. I've been teaching the book of Romans on Wednesday night, been through a lot of this already, and I know a number of you who are listening to the podcast are in my Romans class. Don't necessarily want to re-plow all of that ground, but as Paul talks here about being saved by faith, remember being saved by faith never means being saved by faith alone. I talked about faith on Sunday, just plug that in right here. And it's very significant and very important that we never get to the place where we decide God's grace nullifies our obedience. That's a huge issue for people. Somehow we've defined getting a gift as being no strings attached, no obligation to do anything. But that's not what grace means in the New Testament world. Grace builds relationship and comes with expectation, and we see all of that in chapter four. Sometimes I've even heard brethren say that faith is a non-doing trust. That is absolutely false. And if you take that position, you're going to end up with faith-only salvation, which is the violation of everything that the Bible teaches about the need for us to obey God and even what faith itself does. So we're not going there, we can't do that. Can't be doing that at all. What we're going to talk about is Abraham and David. Abraham wasn't justified, verse 2, by works. What does Paul mean by that? He means he did not earn salvation. He did not earn salvation by what he has done. Instead, he trusted in God. Romans 4, verse 3. He believed God was counted to him as righteousness. This comes out of Genesis chapter 15. You should know that by this time Abraham has done a lot of things in obedience to God. Don't characterize this as some kind of non-doing trust. That'll never work. But verse 4, speaking of works, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. We're not trying to earn our salvation. Let's get some coffee here. Well, allergies are a thing. And so we're not trying to earn our salvation. We are receiving our salvation as we trust and obey in what the Lord tells us to do and what the Lord has done for us. And then what Paul says is that Abraham's case, verse six, is just like David's case. And David speaks, verse six, of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Or some translations say imputes righteousness. And that language sometimes causes people a little bit of queasiness and they're not sure about it. But you can see exactly what imputed righteous or counted righteous means, verse 7. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered, verse 7. So imputing or reckoning or counting righteousness just means to forgive sins. This is done apart from works that would earn salvation, because if God looked at our works, what he would find is there's a lot of sin in there, and then he would have to condemn us. Instead, he looks at our trust that we believe and obey him, and then he forgives our sins. So the righteousness by faith, apart from works, we can't be saved on our record, on our achievement. We are justified, we are forgiven, we are counted righteous by the grace of God because we trust in God to do that. Now, our reading continues on through verse 12, and there's some discussion there about circumcision because you can easily see some Jewish Christians saying, Oh, yeah, no, sure, that's right, Paul. We're justified by faith, but not just anybody who has faith. You gotta be circumcised. Then your faith will count for something. And Paul just discusses when was Abraham blessed like this? And the answer to that is he was reckoned righteous in Genesis 15, but he wasn't circumcised until Genesis 17. And that's about 13 years. So circumcision is not essential, what Paul is saying here, to justification. What is essential is that we trust in the Lord, that we trust in him. And again, I talked a lot about what that means on Sunday, and we get to talk about that more tonight, Westsiders, in the Zoom call. I'll see you, Westsiders, in Zoom tonight at 7. If you're not a member of the Westside Church, see you tomorrow on the podcast as we continue to talk about David, a man after God's own heart. Our reading for Tuesday, Romans 4, 1 to 12. It's Wednesday. And today we're reading Romans chapter 11, verses 1 to 12. As I've taught the Book of Romans, and as I wrote about the Book of Romans, I have said over and over again that this really is about helping a fracturing church to stay united. And chapter 11 closes the section where Paul is working with that. He began that in chapter 9. And I think we really begin to see in chapter 11 some hints of Gentile pride and arrogance. You get that little business of the Gentiles saying, Well, we're so much better than you Jews, you rejected the Messiah. And of course, Jewish brethren will be saying, Hey, you're reading our Bible, and it's our promises to Abraham that you're taking advantage of. And by the way, in case you didn't know, the Messiah was Jewish. So there's some friction going on here. And Paul begins to work with that in Romans 9 and 10, and he's beginning to finally draw all that together in our reading today in chapter 11. And he starts that with the big question Paul can do QA too, can't he? Romans chapter 11, verse 1. I ask, then has God rejected his people? There's the question. Has God rejected Israel? And the answer to that is really obvious if you've read chapters 9 and 10. In the first place, God has not rejected them, they rejected him. All day long I have held out my hands to invite them to myself, God says in chapter 10 and verse 21. They did not submit to the Lord. But of course, what Paul goes on to say here is that God has not given up on the Jews, and Paul proves that. If God had given up on the Jews, I wouldn't be here, Paul says. And in fact, God has always worked with what would be called a remnant. Look at verse 4, 7,000 who did not bow the knee. God has always had a small group of people who are faithful to him, who are true Israelites. And notice that this is by grace, verse 5. The remnant doesn't nullify grace by their faithfulness, but by their faithfulness they are working in the grace of God and accepting the grace of God. And so Israel failed, verse 7, to obtain what it was seeking. They missed it. They missed it. They are like the older brother in the prodigal son parable. They're seeking to be right on their own without God's grace. And then Paul begins to provide some quotations to prove that. Quotation, verse 8, out of the book of Isaiah, and then verse 9 and 10, there's David. And there's Psalm 69. Robert Turner says, Paul shows that those who rejected the gospel are trapped by their own stubbornness. They are hardened. They are away from the Lord. And then Paul sums all of that up by saying in verse 11 and 12 that actually it's incredible the Jewish rejection of Jesus has brought Gentiles in. Now, how has that happened? How is that so? Well, when you read the book of Acts, what happens again and again? Paul goes to the synagogue, preaches, like we saw in Acts chapter 13 on Monday. The result of that, if you go back and pick up the story in Acts 13, verse 42, is that Paul says, hey, the Messiah is here. You need to get on board of the Messiah. And the Jews say, Ray, hey, that'll be great. We want to do that. And then Paul says, you know, Gentiles get to be in too. And the Jews say, not so much then. That must not be the Messiah. And then who does Paul preach to when the Jews reject the gospel? Yeah, he starts preaching to the Gentiles, and they come to the gospel in droves. We might not have ever dreamed of doing things that way. But as a result, God has brought Gentiles into the kingdom. And please notice verse 12, what God is hoping for is full inclusion, fullness. God wants everybody to be saved. That's what God really wants, and that's what the gospel is designed to do. Some people reject it, but that's not God's will. God wants all to be saved. Our reading for Wednesday, Romans chapter 11, verses 1 to 12. Welcome to Thursday. Welcome to Thursday. Today we're in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 4, 1 to 13 is the reading for Thursday. Hebrews 4, 1 to 13. So glad to have the podcast and get the opportunity to talk to you a little bit more about some of the things that are going on in the text today, because today the text is teaching a lot about rest. The rest has been ready since creation, verse 3. Some are going to enter into it since the Israelites didn't enter into it. Verse 6, that's still available to us today. There's a parallel between old Israel's failure and the potential for failure among the Hebrew recipients and, of course, even us today. And all of that is made off of the word rest. The play is on the word rest. Rest is used of the land of Canaan, verse 3. It's also used of God's resting after creation, verse 4. And then most importantly, it is used of heaven, our promised land, if you will, heaven, verse 10. And the Hebrew writer weaves these ideas of rest together through our reading today. Some of the Israelites were unfaithful. And remember the book of Hebrews is about don't quit. Don't quit. Don't give up on your Christianity. Well, some of them quit, and as a result, God said, they'll not, verse 3, enter into my rest. They're not going to enter into the promised land. But the rest was created. The rest is there. You want to get into that rest. Verse 6, since therefore it remains for some to enter into it, and those who formally received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, then he appoints a certain day. So the rest is still out there. Since some didn't enter in, that leaves it open for us. One translation says, it is clear that some were intended to experience this rest, but they did not. So verse 7 brings David to the table. And the quotation here is out of Psalm 95, verse 8, which we will read tomorrow. I'll say more about Psalm 95 tomorrow. But the key is the word today. Don't harden your hearts, hear his voice. Serve the Lord now. And the rest there, verse 8, for if Joshua had given them rest, that's the land of promise, then God would not have spoken of another day. So there remains a rest, verse 9. That's not the Sabbath, that's heaven. There remains for us the promised land, and we have the opportunity to go there if we will strive to enter, verse 11, that rest. Be diligent is the idea behind striving, or try hard. Be diligent about getting into heaven. And we make every effort. Why? Because the word of God judges us, verse 12, and nothing is hidden from the Lord, verse 13. Our reading for Thursday, Hebrews 4, 1 to 13. Welcome to Friday. Welcome to Friday. We're reading Psalm 95 today. The 95th Psalm is what we're reading. This is a psalm of thanksgiving and maybe a psalm of wisdom, some wisdom elements here, but mostly this praises God. Oh, come, let us sing unto the Lord, Psalm 95, verse 1. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. God is often referred to as the rock. Deuteronomy 32, verse 4, for example. That suggests constancy. God is always with us. He's permanent, unmovable. And then there's the idea of He being a great God, verse 3. He is worthy of our worship because he is the great King. And he is the one who created everything, verse 4. This speaks to God's power and his unique soul place in the world. It's the creator of everything. So the answer to that, verse 4 and 5 talks about creation. Then verse 6 and 7, the answer to that is we need to get low before the Lord. Each of the verbs in verse 6 is about getting down low, prostrating ourselves, because we want to humble ourselves in God's presence because he is God. That's what this is about, verse 6, verse 7. Unfortunately, God's people have not always done that. And this Psalm really is about worship and obedience going together, because verse 7 then begins to talk about how God's people failed to honor and worship God. They failed to get low, to humble themselves before God. Today, if you hear his voice, verse 7 continues: don't harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day at Masah in the wilderness. Maribah, which means contention, and Masah, which means testing, are two of the many times that God's people murmured against him. Exodus chapter 17 for Maribah. And guess what? Numbers chapter 20, which we've been studying in Sunday morning Bible class, is where Masah is referenced. That's the place where Moses comes unglued and he ends up striking the rock when he was supposed to speak to the rock. That's an interesting text. We've talked about that a lot on Sunday morning, particularly coming back to verse 1. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Maybe that's one of the reasons why God did not want him beating on the rock. The rock stands for the Lord. That's at least worth thinking about. And so those people who were murmuring against God, who constantly complained, who did not trust in God to take care of them. Oh, there's no water, we're all going to die. Oh, there's no meat. Moses, you've drug us out here in the wilderness. You're just trying to kill us all. That constant groaning and whining, God says, I loathe them, verse 10. And that can actually be translated disgusted. I'm just disgusted with them. These people go astray in their heart. They go astray in their heart. They didn't love God. They didn't trust God. And notice the heart then leads them. When the heart is bad, they do have not known my ways. Bad hearts lead to bad lives. So I swore in my wrath. Verse 11, they'll not enter into my rest. They'll not go to the promised land. And we saw that from Hebrews chapter 4 yesterday. How can anybody teach one saved, always saved? The entire Bible teaches us we have to walk with the Lord if we want to go home with the Lord. And here's yet another illustration of that. The reading for Friday, Psalm 95. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. I hope the podcast is a blessing to you and that you will tell others about it so it can help them take full advantage of the sermons on Sunday and especially the daily Bible. Phew, that is more coffee is always the answer. That will help them take advantage of the sermons on Sunday and the daily Bible reading through the week. It is my pleasure to open the Bible with you each and every day. I'm Mark Roberts. I want to go to heaven and I want you to come too. Can't wait to see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

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