October 27, 2025 • 26 mins
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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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:05):
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 alook back at yesterday's sermon
so that we can think througheach other and better work the
applications into our dailylives.
(00:27):
Mark will then look forward intothis week's Bible reading so
that we can know what to expectand watch for.
And he may have some extra bonusthoughts from time to time.
So grab a cup of coffee as westart the week together on
Monday morning coffee with Mark.
SPEAKER_00 (00:58):
I've got my Bible open.
I have notes from yesterday'ssermon.
I've got my Bible readingschedule.
It's all marked up here.
I am ready to go.
We had a great day yesterday atWest Side QA in the 9 a.m.
had some cool questions there.
Started a new series in the1040.
Want to talk more about that injust a moment.
Lots going on.
I always say we're trying tokeep the spiritual momentum of
(01:18):
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 alittle mini-series, The Five
Toughest Questions.
And that began yesterday withthe five toughest questions
(01:38):
about faith.
Next week, next Sunday, thenI'll talk about the five
toughest questions aboutrepentance and then the five
toughest questions aboutbaptism.
And I want to dovetail, I wantto add a little bit to that last
question about doubt and howthat works with faith, because I
mentioned yesterday thatsometimes a verse in the Bible
can give us some trouble.
Maybe it's a translationquestion, or the math and
various kings' reign doesn't addup the chronology, or maybe the
(02:02):
numbers in this passage don'tseem to match the numbers over
in that passage if you have twoparallel accounts.
And sometimes that kind of thingcan really bother people.
Now, what do we do with that?
For example, in 1 Samuel the13th chapter, in 1 Samuel 13 and
verse 1, when it's talking thereabout King Saul, let me see if I
can crank a Bible over here to 1Samuel 13.
(02:23):
In 1 Samuel 13 and verse 1,where it's talking about Saul,
the ESV just says Saul was dotdot dot dot years old when he
began to reign, and he reigneddot dot dot and two years over
Israel.
And the reason the ESV has thosedots there is because the Hebrew
is very, very uncertain.
And that kind of thing justreally wigs some people out.
And I should say there aretextual answers to that kind of
(02:46):
thing.
And scholars work with that andtry to come up with the best
understanding of the Hebrew orthe Greek.
And what the ESV is saying thereis that the Hebrew there is just
not very clear.
And maybe as time goes by andarchaeologists are digging up
more stuff, they're going tofind some more papyri or another
manuscript, and it'll clarifysome of that.
(03:06):
But here's the real answer tothat.
And I should give credit here tomy friend Shane Scott for this
analogy.
What Shane always said whenasked about this kind of thing
is that we don't have Jengafaith.
You know about the game Jingga?
You stack up a bunch of blocksof wood and then bit by bit each
player has to choose a block andcarefully slip it out.
And eventually, of course,somebody pulls out a block and
(03:28):
the whole thing cascades down.
And people act like theChristian faith is like a stack
of jingle blocks.
It's this rickety stack ofwooden blocks, and if they can
show any part of it to betroublesome, maybe, oh, you're
not sure how to translate 1Samuel 13, verse 1, oh, the
whole thing is gonna fall down.
No.
No.
Our faith is not a jingle blockpile.
(03:50):
Our faith, if I could get thisanalogy, is much more like a
pyramid.
The base of our faith iscreation.
God as creator is seeneverywhere.
Creation points us to God.
The next level up, then, wouldbe Jesus.
There is amazing evidence thatJesus came, that he died, and he
arose.
There's eyewitness testimony ofthat.
(04:10):
And then on top of that, nextlevel is the Word of God.
Our faith in the overallreliability and the
understandability of the EnglishBible is very strong.
So, where then would you put aquestion like, how long did King
Saul reign?
That is that's not foundationalto our Christianity, is it?
Now, if you have foundationalquestions about the existence of
(04:32):
God or who Jesus is, or can youtrust the Bible, then you need
to study more.
Grab one of your shepherds, grabme, and we'll talk about those
foundational issues.
But you know what?
Sometimes what we need to do isdoubt our doubts.
Because people start chunkingstuff like, what about 1 Samuel
13, verse 1?
Well, how important is that?
(04:54):
How significant really is this?
And does that mean, becausewe'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 andattacks that have been made
against it through thecenturies, our faith stands.
(05:14):
Because it stands on creation,stands on Jesus, stands on the
word of God.
Those things give us greatfaith.
And now let's consider the wordof God.
Let's do some daily Biblereading.
(05:49):
This is the longest sermon inthe book of Acts, and it's
probably not nearly as famous asit should be.
The sermon in Acts 17 is thesermon everybody thinks about
when we think about Paulpreaching, but this is a
marvelous sermon.
It is super Jewish in itsflavor.
Paul comes to the synagogue andhe is asked to speak, a standard
synagogue service for thisparticular time.
(06:10):
This comes from sources outsideof the Bible.
There'd be the recitation of theShema, the Hero Lord, Lord our
God is one God, from Deuteronomy6.
Then there is a series ofprayers, there is a blessing,
the reading of the law, andsometimes a reading of the
prophets.
Different synagogues were ondifferent reading plans, some on
a three-year reading plan, someon a five-year reading plan.
And then there would be thesermon.
(06:31):
And so Acts chapter 13 tells usthat Paul is asked, verse 15,
would you like to speak?
And of course, the answer tothat when it's Paul is, oh yes.
Let me preach a little bit tothis audience of Jews who are
looking for the Messiah.
And what the sermon does,especially beginning in verse
17, is emphasize what God hasdone.
(06:52):
He chose, he made the peopleprosper, he led them out, he
endured their conduct, heoverthrew their enemies.
It's all about God.
God did everything.
God is the one who is the heroin the story.
And of course, this Jewishaudience would be very on board
with that.
They would be loving that, bevery excited about that.
That's going to get everybodynodding their head.
(07:12):
They asked for a king, verse 21,not great.
God gave them Saul.
He wasn't great.
But then God, verse 22, raisedup David.
David is the ideal king.
And there's a citation herethat's a composite one, and this
is where we get our theme forthe year.
I have found in David the son ofJesse a man after my own heart
(07:33):
who will do all my will.
It comes from Psalm 89, verse 20or 21, right in there.
And then added to that is 1Samuel 13, verse 14, when Samuel
comes and anoints David.
It is everything that David isall about.
This is the man who will do mywill.
And of this man's offspring,verse 23, God is brought to
(07:53):
Israel a Savior.
This was understood, at least bythe Essenes, who wrote the Dead
Sea Scrolls, to be verymessianic.
And the allusion here is toIsaiah chapter 11, and that's
important because we're talkinghere about the stump of Jesse,
the root of Jesse.
And so Paul continues to workthat idea down that Jesus is
this Savior.
(08:14):
He is the promised one.
And he mentions the family ofAbraham, verse 26, and the
utterances of the prophets,verse 27, verse 29, all that was
written of him, all that Godpromised, verse 32, to the
fathers.
This is all about your Bible,Jews.
This is what the Bible saidwould happen.
This has happened.
(08:34):
Get in on this.
It's the work of God.
The awkward part is that Paulcontinues to talk about
Gentiles.
Verse 26, sons of the family ofAbraham and those among you.
Those among you are Gentiles,often referred to as the God
fearers.
(08:54):
Those attend synagogue services.
They've not fully proselyted toJudaism, but they know there is
one true God.
They are trying to follow thatGod as best they can.
Gentiles, you have a place.
And so Paul pushes Gentiles havea place.
And he gets down to the end ofthe sermon.
And once again, we get the holyand sure blessings of David,
(09:16):
verse 34.
We get this quotation now out ofthe Psalms you will not let your
holy one see corruption.
We looked at that last week.
The fulfillment of the promisesthat God made to David are
happening.
God made promises, verse 36.
Can't be David who gets thosepromises.
He is dead.
But he whom, verse 37 God raisedup did not see corruption.
(09:40):
So the forgiveness of sins, Acts13, 38, sounds like Acts 2, 38,
is being proclaimed.
And then there it is, verse 39.
Everyone, everyone who believesis freed, not just Jews.
God's promises are foreverybody.
And then Paul ends with, I'msure he had an invitation psalm
because that's how you'resupposed to end everything, but
(10:01):
he ends with a quotation out ofHabakkuk 1, verse 5, and that's
very significant because that'sa warning.
That's a warning.
Get on board with what God isdoing, or in the context of
Habakkuk, Nebuchadnezzar willshow up and burn your city down.
In the context of Paul here, thejudgment of God will fall upon
those who don't serve theMessiah, who don't put their
(10:24):
faith and trust in the Messiahand obey him.
Our reading for Monday, Actschapter 13, what's the exact
verses here?
I don't want to give that to youwrong.
16 to 41.
Acts 13, 16 to 41 is the readingfor Monday.
It's Tuesday.
It is Tuesday.
And today we will read Romanschapter 4, verses 1 to 12.
(10:45):
Guess what?
David's smack dab in the middleof our reading again today.
We will be reading some ofPaul's teachings about salvation
here.
I've been teaching the book ofRomans on Wednesday night, been
through a lot of this already,and I know a number of you who
are listening to the podcast arein my Romans class.
Don't necessarily want tore-plow all of that ground, but
as Paul talks here about beingsaved by faith, remember being
(11:07):
saved by faith never means beingsaved by faith alone.
I talked about faith on Sunday,just plug that in right here.
And it's very significant andvery important that we never get
to the place where we decideGod's grace nullifies our
obedience.
That's a huge issue for people.
Somehow we've defined getting agift as being no strings
attached, no obligation to doanything.
(11:28):
But that's not what grace meansin the New Testament world.
Grace builds relationship andcomes with expectation, and we
see all of that in chapter four.
Sometimes I've even heardbrethren 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 isthe violation of everything that
(11:51):
the Bible teaches about the needfor us to obey God and even what
faith itself does.
So we're not going there, wecan't do that.
Can't be doing that at all.
What we're going to talk aboutis Abraham and David.
Abraham wasn't justified, verse2, by works.
What does Paul mean by that?
He means he did not earnsalvation.
He did not earn salvation bywhat he has done.
Instead, he trusted in God.
(12:12):
Romans 4, verse 3.
He believed God was counted tohim as righteousness.
This comes out of Genesischapter 15.
You should know that by thistime Abraham has done a lot of
things in obedience to God.
Don't characterize this as somekind 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, butas his due.
(12:32):
We're not trying to earn oursalvation.
Let's get some coffee here.
Well, allergies are a thing.
And so we're not trying to earnour salvation.
We are receiving our salvationas we trust and obey in what the
Lord tells us to do and what theLord has done for us.
And then what Paul says is thatAbraham's case, verse six, is
(12:53):
just like David's case.
And David speaks, verse six, ofthe one to whom God counts
righteousness apart from works.
Or some translations say imputesrighteousness.
And that language sometimescauses people a little bit of
queasiness and they're not sureabout it.
But you can see exactly whatimputed righteous or counted
righteous means, verse 7.
(13:14):
Blessed are those whose lawlessdeeds are forgiven and whose
sins are covered, verse 7.
So imputing or reckoning orcounting righteousness just
means to forgive sins.
This is done apart from worksthat would earn salvation,
because if God looked at ourworks, what he would find is
(13:36):
there's a lot of sin in there,and then he would have to
condemn us.
Instead, he looks at our trustthat 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 ourachievement.
We are justified, we areforgiven, we are counted
righteous by the grace of Godbecause we trust in God to do
(13:59):
that.
Now, our reading continues onthrough verse 12, and there's
some discussion there aboutcircumcision because you can
easily see some JewishChristians saying, Oh, yeah, no,
sure, that's right, Paul.
We're justified by faith, butnot just anybody who has faith.
You gotta be circumcised.
Then your faith will count forsomething.
(14:19):
And Paul just discusses when wasAbraham blessed like this?
And the answer to that is he wasreckoned righteous in Genesis
15, but he wasn't circumciseduntil Genesis 17.
And that's about 13 years.
So circumcision is notessential, what Paul is saying
here, to justification.
What is essential is that wetrust in the Lord, that we trust
(14:42):
in him.
And again, I talked a lot aboutwhat that means on Sunday, and
we get to talk about that moretonight, Westsiders, in the Zoom
call.
I'll see you, Westsiders, inZoom tonight at 7.
If you're not a member of theWestside Church, see you
tomorrow on the podcast as wecontinue to talk about David, a
man after God's own heart.
Our reading for Tuesday, Romans4, 1 to 12.
(15:07):
It's Wednesday.
And today we're reading Romanschapter 11, verses 1 to 12.
As I've taught the Book ofRomans, and as I wrote about the
Book of Romans, I have said overand over again that this really
is about helping a fracturingchurch to stay united.
And chapter 11 closes thesection where Paul is working
with that.
He began that in chapter 9.
And I think we really begin tosee in chapter 11 some hints of
(15:30):
Gentile pride and arrogance.
You get that little business ofthe Gentiles saying, Well, we're
so much better than you Jews,you rejected the Messiah.
And of course, Jewish brethrenwill be saying, Hey, you're
reading our Bible, and it's ourpromises to Abraham that you're
taking advantage of.
And by the way, in case youdidn't know, the Messiah was
Jewish.
So there's some friction goingon here.
(15:51):
And Paul begins to work withthat in Romans 9 and 10, and
he's beginning to finally drawall that together in our reading
today in chapter 11.
And he starts that with the bigquestion Paul can do QA too,
can't he?
Romans chapter 11, verse 1.
I ask, then has God rejected hispeople?
There's the question.
Has God rejected Israel?
And the answer to that is reallyobvious if you've read chapters
(16:13):
9 and 10.
In the first place, God has notrejected them, they rejected
him.
All day long I have held out myhands to invite them to myself,
God says in chapter 10 and verse21.
They did not submit to the Lord.
But of course, what Paul goes onto say here is that God has not
given up on the Jews, and Paulproves that.
(16:34):
If God had given up on the Jews,I wouldn't be here, Paul says.
And in fact, God has alwaysworked with what would be called
a remnant.
Look at verse 4, 7,000 who didnot bow the knee.
God has always had a small groupof people who are faithful to
him, who are true Israelites.
(16:55):
And notice that this is bygrace, verse 5.
The remnant doesn't nullifygrace by their faithfulness, but
by their faithfulness they areworking 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 brotherin the prodigal son parable.
They're seeking to be right ontheir own without God's grace.
(17:18):
And then Paul begins to providesome quotations to prove that.
Quotation, verse 8, out of thebook of Isaiah, and then verse 9
and 10, there's David.
And there's Psalm 69.
Robert Turner says, Paul showsthat those who rejected the
gospel are trapped by their ownstubbornness.
(17:38):
They are hardened.
They are away from the Lord.
And then Paul sums all of thatup by saying in verse 11 and 12
that actually it's incrediblethe Jewish rejection of Jesus
has brought Gentiles in.
Now, how has that happened?
How is that so?
Well, when you read the book ofActs, what happens again and
again?
Paul goes to the synagogue,preaches, like we saw in Acts
(18:00):
chapter 13 on Monday.
The result of that, if you goback and pick up the story in
Acts 13, verse 42, is that Paulsays, hey, the Messiah is here.
You need to get on board of theMessiah.
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 muchthen.
That must not be the Messiah.
(18:21):
And then who does Paul preach towhen the Jews reject the gospel?
Yeah, he starts preaching to theGentiles, and they come to the
gospel in droves.
We might not have ever dreamedof doing things that way.
But as a result, God has broughtGentiles into the kingdom.
And please notice verse 12, whatGod is hoping for is full
(18:42):
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, butthat'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.
(19:03):
Welcome to Thursday.
Today we're in the book ofHebrews.
Hebrews chapter 4, 1 to 13 isthe reading for Thursday.
Hebrews 4, 1 to 13.
So glad to have the podcast andget the opportunity to talk to
you a little bit more about someof the things that are going on
in the text today, because todaythe text is teaching a lot about
rest.
The rest has been ready sincecreation, verse 3.
(19:24):
Some are going to enter into itsince the Israelites didn't
enter into it.
Verse 6, that's still availableto us today.
There's a parallel between oldIsrael's failure and the
potential for failure among theHebrew recipients and, of
course, even us today.
And all of that is made off ofthe word rest.
The play is on the word rest.
Rest is used of the land ofCanaan, verse 3.
(19:48):
It's also used of God's restingafter creation, verse 4.
And then most importantly, it isused of heaven, our promised
land, if you will, heaven, verse10.
And the Hebrew writer weavesthese ideas of rest together
through our reading today.
Some of the Israelites wereunfaithful.
(20:11):
And remember the book of Hebrewsis about don't quit.
Don't quit.
Don't give up on yourChristianity.
Well, some of them quit, and asa result, God said, they'll not,
verse 3, enter into my rest.
They're not going to enter intothe promised land.
But the rest was created.
The rest is there.
You want to get into that rest.
Verse 6, since therefore itremains for some to enter into
(20:31):
it, and those who formallyreceived 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, thatleaves it open for us.
One translation says, it isclear that some were intended to
experience this rest, but theydid not.
(20:52):
So verse 7 brings David to thetable.
And the quotation here is out ofPsalm 95, verse 8, which we will
read tomorrow.
I'll say more about Psalm 95tomorrow.
But the key is the word today.
Don't harden your hearts, hearhis voice.
Serve the Lord now.
And the rest there, verse 8, forif Joshua had given them rest,
(21:12):
that's the land of promise, thenGod would not have spoken of
another day.
So there remains a rest, verse9.
That's not the Sabbath, that'sheaven.
There remains for us thepromised land, and we have the
opportunity to go there if wewill strive to enter, verse 11,
that rest.
Be diligent is the idea behindstriving, or try hard.
(21:35):
Be diligent about getting intoheaven.
And we make every effort.
Why?
Because the word of God judgesus, 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.
(21:56):
The 95th Psalm is what we'rereading.
This is a psalm of thanksgivingand maybe a psalm of wisdom,
some wisdom elements here, butmostly this praises God.
Oh, come, let us sing unto theLord, Psalm 95, verse 1.
Let us make a joyful noise tothe rock of our salvation.
God is often referred to as therock.
Deuteronomy 32, verse 4, forexample.
That suggests constancy.
(22:18):
God is always with us.
He's permanent, unmovable.
And then there's the idea of Hebeing a great God, verse 3.
He is worthy of our worshipbecause he is the great King.
And he is the one who createdeverything, verse 4.
This speaks to God's power andhis unique soul place in the
world.
It's the creator of everything.
(22:40):
So the answer to that, verse 4and 5 talks about creation.
Then verse 6 and 7, the answerto that is we need to get low
before the Lord.
Each of the verbs in verse 6 isabout getting down low,
prostrating ourselves, becausewe want to humble ourselves in
God's presence because he isGod.
(23:02):
That's what this is about, verse6, verse 7.
Unfortunately, God's people havenot always done that.
And this Psalm really is aboutworship and obedience going
together, because verse 7 thenbegins to talk about how God's
people failed to honor andworship God.
They failed to get low, tohumble themselves before God.
(23:23):
Today, if you hear his voice,verse 7 continues: don't harden
your hearts as at Meribah, as onthe day at Masah in the
wilderness.
Maribah, which means contention,and Masah, which means testing,
are two of the many times thatGod's people murmured against
him.
Exodus chapter 17 for Maribah.
And guess what?
Numbers chapter 20, which we'vebeen studying in Sunday morning
(23:44):
Bible class, is where Masah isreferenced.
That's the place where Mosescomes unglued and he ends up
striking the rock when he wassupposed to speak to the rock.
That's an interesting text.
We've talked about that a lot onSunday morning, particularly
coming back to verse 1.
Let us make a joyful noise tothe rock of our salvation.
Maybe that's one of the reasonswhy God did not want him beating
(24:06):
on the rock.
The rock stands for the Lord.
That's at least worth thinkingabout.
And so those people who weremurmuring against God, who
constantly complained, who didnot trust in God to take care of
them.
Oh, there's no water, we're allgoing to die.
Oh, there's no meat.
Moses, you've drug us out herein the wilderness.
You're just trying to kill usall.
That constant groaning andwhining, God says, I loathe
(24:29):
them, verse 10.
And that can actually betranslated disgusted.
I'm just disgusted with them.
These people go astray in theirheart.
They go astray in their heart.
They didn't love God.
They didn't trust God.
And notice the heart then leadsthem.
When the heart is bad, they dohave not known my ways.
(24:50):
Bad hearts lead to bad lives.
So I swore in my wrath.
Verse 11, they'll not enter intomy rest.
They'll not go to the promisedland.
And we saw that from Hebrewschapter 4 yesterday.
How can anybody teach one saved,always saved?
The entire Bible teaches us wehave to walk with the Lord if we
want to go home with the Lord.
And here's yet anotherillustration of that.
(25:12):
The reading for Friday, Psalm95.
Thank you so much for listeningto the podcast.
I hope the podcast is a blessingto you and that you will tell
others about it so it can helpthem take full advantage of the
sermons on Sunday and especiallythe daily Bible.
Phew, that is more coffee isalways the answer.
(25:34):
That will help them takeadvantage of the sermons on
Sunday and the daily Biblereading through the week.
It is my pleasure to open theBible with you each and every
day.
I'm Mark Roberts.
I want to go to heaven and Iwant you to come too.
Can't wait to see you on Mondaywith a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_01 (26:01):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of Christ
podcast, Monday Morning Coffeewith Mark.
For more information aboutWestside, you can connect with
us through our website, justChristians.com, and our Facebook
page.
Our music is from Upbeat.io.
That's Upbeat with two P's,U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creators
(26:26):
can get free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we'll look forward
to seeing you again with a cupof coffee, of course, on next
Monday.
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 alook back at yesterday's sermon
so that we can think througheach other and better work the
applications into our dailylives.
(00:27):
Mark will then look forward intothis week's Bible reading so
that we can know what to expectand watch for.
And he may have some extra bonusthoughts from time to time.
So grab a cup of coffee as westart the week together on
Monday morning coffee with Mark.
SPEAKER_00 (00:58):
I've got my Bible open.
I have notes from yesterday'ssermon.
I've got my Bible readingschedule.
It's all marked up here.
I am ready to go.
We had a great day yesterday atWest Side QA in the 9 a.m.
had some cool questions there.
Started a new series in the1040.
Want to talk more about that injust a moment.
Lots going on.
I always say we're trying tokeep the spiritual momentum of
(01:18):
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 alittle mini-series, The Five
Toughest Questions.
And that began yesterday withthe five toughest questions
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about faith.
Next week, next Sunday, thenI'll talk about the five
toughest questions aboutrepentance and then the five
toughest questions aboutbaptism.
And I want to dovetail, I wantto add a little bit to that last
question about doubt and howthat works with faith, because I
mentioned yesterday thatsometimes a verse in the Bible
can give us some trouble.
Maybe it's a translationquestion, or the math and
various kings' reign doesn't addup the chronology, or maybe the
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numbers in this passage don'tseem to match the numbers over
in that passage if you have twoparallel accounts.
And sometimes that kind of thingcan really bother people.
Now, what do we do with that?
For example, in 1 Samuel the13th chapter, in 1 Samuel 13 and
verse 1, when it's talking thereabout King Saul, let me see if I
can crank a Bible over here to 1Samuel 13.
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In 1 Samuel 13 and verse 1,where it's talking about Saul,
the ESV just says Saul was dotdot dot dot years old when he
began to reign, and he reigneddot dot dot and two years over
Israel.
And the reason the ESV has thosedots there is because the Hebrew
is very, very uncertain.
And that kind of thing justreally wigs some people out.
And I should say there aretextual answers to that kind of
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thing.
And scholars work with that andtry to come up with the best
understanding of the Hebrew orthe Greek.
And what the ESV is saying thereis that the Hebrew there is just
not very clear.
And maybe as time goes by andarchaeologists are digging up
more stuff, they're going tofind some more papyri or another
manuscript, and it'll clarifysome of that.
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But here's the real answer tothat.
And I should give credit here tomy friend Shane Scott for this
analogy.
What Shane always said whenasked about this kind of thing
is that we don't have Jengafaith.
You know about the game Jingga?
You stack up a bunch of blocksof wood and then bit by bit each
player has to choose a block andcarefully slip it out.
And eventually, of course,somebody pulls out a block and
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the whole thing cascades down.
And people act like theChristian faith is like a stack
of jingle blocks.
It's this rickety stack ofwooden blocks, and if they can
show any part of it to betroublesome, maybe, oh, you're
not sure how to translate 1Samuel 13, verse 1, oh, the
whole thing is gonna fall down.
No.
No.
Our faith is not a jingle blockpile.
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Our faith, if I could get thisanalogy, is much more like a
pyramid.
The base of our faith iscreation.
God as creator is seeneverywhere.
Creation points us to God.
The next level up, then, wouldbe Jesus.
There is amazing evidence thatJesus came, that he died, and he
arose.
There's eyewitness testimony ofthat.
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And then on top of that, nextlevel is the Word of God.
Our faith in the overallreliability and the
understandability of the EnglishBible is very strong.
So, where then would you put aquestion like, how long did King
Saul reign?
That is that's not foundationalto our Christianity, is it?
Now, if you have foundationalquestions about the existence of
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God or who Jesus is, or can youtrust the Bible, then you need
to study more.
Grab one of your shepherds, grabme, and we'll talk about those
foundational issues.
But you know what?
Sometimes what we need to do isdoubt our doubts.
Because people start chunkingstuff like, what about 1 Samuel
13, verse 1?
Well, how important is that?
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How significant really is this?
And does that mean, becausewe'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 andattacks that have been made
against it through thecenturies, our faith stands.
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Because it stands on creation,stands on Jesus, stands on the
word of God.
Those things give us greatfaith.
And now let's consider the wordof God.
Let's do some daily Biblereading.
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This is the longest sermon inthe book of Acts, and it's
probably not nearly as famous asit should be.
The sermon in Acts 17 is thesermon everybody thinks about
when we think about Paulpreaching, but this is a
marvelous sermon.
It is super Jewish in itsflavor.
Paul comes to the synagogue andhe is asked to speak, a standard
synagogue service for thisparticular time.
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This comes from sources outsideof the Bible.
There'd be the recitation of theShema, the Hero Lord, Lord our
God is one God, from Deuteronomy6.
Then there is a series ofprayers, there is a blessing,
the reading of the law, andsometimes a reading of the
prophets.
Different synagogues were ondifferent reading plans, some on
a three-year reading plan, someon a five-year reading plan.
And then there would be thesermon.
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And so Acts chapter 13 tells usthat Paul is asked, verse 15,
would you like to speak?
And of course, the answer tothat when it's Paul is, oh yes.
Let me preach a little bit tothis audience of Jews who are
looking for the Messiah.
And what the sermon does,especially beginning in verse
17, is emphasize what God hasdone.
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He chose, he made the peopleprosper, he led them out, he
endured their conduct, heoverthrew their enemies.
It's all about God.
God did everything.
God is the one who is the heroin the story.
And of course, this Jewishaudience would be very on board
with that.
They would be loving that, bevery excited about that.
That's going to get everybodynodding their head.
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They asked for a king, verse 21,not great.
God gave them Saul.
He wasn't great.
But then God, verse 22, raisedup David.
David is the ideal king.
And there's a citation herethat's a composite one, and this
is where we get our theme forthe year.
I have found in David the son ofJesse a man after my own heart
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who will do all my will.
It comes from Psalm 89, verse 20or 21, right in there.
And then added to that is 1Samuel 13, verse 14, when Samuel
comes and anoints David.
It is everything that David isall about.
This is the man who will do mywill.
And of this man's offspring,verse 23, God is brought to
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Israel a Savior.
This was understood, at least bythe Essenes, who wrote the Dead
Sea Scrolls, to be verymessianic.
And the allusion here is toIsaiah chapter 11, and that's
important because we're talkinghere about the stump of Jesse,
the root of Jesse.
And so Paul continues to workthat idea down that Jesus is
this Savior.
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He is the promised one.
And he mentions the family ofAbraham, verse 26, and the
utterances of the prophets,verse 27, verse 29, all that was
written of him, all that Godpromised, verse 32, to the
fathers.
This is all about your Bible,Jews.
This is what the Bible saidwould happen.
This has happened.
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Get in on this.
It's the work of God.
The awkward part is that Paulcontinues to talk about
Gentiles.
Verse 26, sons of the family ofAbraham and those among you.
Those among you are Gentiles,often referred to as the God
fearers.
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Those attend synagogue services.
They've not fully proselyted toJudaism, but they know there is
one true God.
They are trying to follow thatGod as best they can.
Gentiles, you have a place.
And so Paul pushes Gentiles havea place.
And he gets down to the end ofthe sermon.
And once again, we get the holyand sure blessings of David,
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verse 34.
We get this quotation now out ofthe Psalms you will not let your
holy one see corruption.
We looked at that last week.
The fulfillment of the promisesthat God made to David are
happening.
God made promises, verse 36.
Can't be David who gets thosepromises.
He is dead.
But he whom, verse 37 God raisedup did not see corruption.
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So the forgiveness of sins, Acts13, 38, sounds like Acts 2, 38,
is being proclaimed.
And then there it is, verse 39.
Everyone, everyone who believesis freed, not just Jews.
God's promises are foreverybody.
And then Paul ends with, I'msure he had an invitation psalm
because that's how you'resupposed to end everything, but
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he ends with a quotation out ofHabakkuk 1, verse 5, and that's
very significant because that'sa warning.
That's a warning.
Get on board with what God isdoing, or in the context of
Habakkuk, Nebuchadnezzar willshow up and burn your city down.
In the context of Paul here, thejudgment of God will fall upon
those who don't serve theMessiah, who don't put their
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faith and trust in the Messiahand obey him.
Our reading for Monday, Actschapter 13, what's the exact
verses here?
I don't want to give that to youwrong.
16 to 41.
Acts 13, 16 to 41 is the readingfor Monday.
It's Tuesday.
It is Tuesday.
And today we will read Romanschapter 4, verses 1 to 12.
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Guess what?
David's smack dab in the middleof our reading again today.
We will be reading some ofPaul's teachings about salvation
here.
I've been teaching the book ofRomans on Wednesday night, been
through a lot of this already,and I know a number of you who
are listening to the podcast arein my Romans class.
Don't necessarily want tore-plow all of that ground, but
as Paul talks here about beingsaved by faith, remember being
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saved by faith never means beingsaved by faith alone.
I talked about faith on Sunday,just plug that in right here.
And it's very significant andvery important that we never get
to the place where we decideGod's grace nullifies our
obedience.
That's a huge issue for people.
Somehow we've defined getting agift as being no strings
attached, no obligation to doanything.
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But that's not what grace meansin the New Testament world.
Grace builds relationship andcomes with expectation, and we
see all of that in chapter four.
Sometimes I've even heardbrethren 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 isthe violation of everything that
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the Bible teaches about the needfor us to obey God and even what
faith itself does.
So we're not going there, wecan't do that.
Can't be doing that at all.
What we're going to talk aboutis Abraham and David.
Abraham wasn't justified, verse2, by works.
What does Paul mean by that?
He means he did not earnsalvation.
He did not earn salvation bywhat he has done.
Instead, he trusted in God.
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Romans 4, verse 3.
He believed God was counted tohim as righteousness.
This comes out of Genesischapter 15.
You should know that by thistime Abraham has done a lot of
things in obedience to God.
Don't characterize this as somekind 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, butas his due.
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We're not trying to earn oursalvation.
Let's get some coffee here.
Well, allergies are a thing.
And so we're not trying to earnour salvation.
We are receiving our salvationas we trust and obey in what the
Lord tells us to do and what theLord has done for us.
And then what Paul says is thatAbraham's case, verse six, is
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just like David's case.
And David speaks, verse six, ofthe one to whom God counts
righteousness apart from works.
Or some translations say imputesrighteousness.
And that language sometimescauses people a little bit of
queasiness and they're not sureabout it.
But you can see exactly whatimputed righteous or counted
righteous means, verse 7.
(13:14):
Blessed are those whose lawlessdeeds are forgiven and whose
sins are covered, verse 7.
So imputing or reckoning orcounting righteousness just
means to forgive sins.
This is done apart from worksthat would earn salvation,
because if God looked at ourworks, what he would find is
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there's a lot of sin in there,and then he would have to
condemn us.
Instead, he looks at our trustthat 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 ourachievement.
We are justified, we areforgiven, we are counted
righteous by the grace of Godbecause we trust in God to do
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that.
Now, our reading continues onthrough verse 12, and there's
some discussion there aboutcircumcision because you can
easily see some JewishChristians saying, Oh, yeah, no,
sure, that's right, Paul.
We're justified by faith, butnot just anybody who has faith.
You gotta be circumcised.
Then your faith will count forsomething.
(14:19):
And Paul just discusses when wasAbraham blessed like this?
And the answer to that is he wasreckoned righteous in Genesis
15, but he wasn't circumciseduntil Genesis 17.
And that's about 13 years.
So circumcision is notessential, what Paul is saying
here, to justification.
What is essential is that wetrust in the Lord, that we trust
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in him.
And again, I talked a lot aboutwhat that means on Sunday, and
we get to talk about that moretonight, Westsiders, in the Zoom
call.
I'll see you, Westsiders, inZoom tonight at 7.
If you're not a member of theWestside Church, see you
tomorrow on the podcast as wecontinue to talk about David, a
man after God's own heart.
Our reading for Tuesday, Romans4, 1 to 12.
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It's Wednesday.
And today we're reading Romanschapter 11, verses 1 to 12.
As I've taught the Book ofRomans, and as I wrote about the
Book of Romans, I have said overand over again that this really
is about helping a fracturingchurch to stay united.
And chapter 11 closes thesection where Paul is working
with that.
He began that in chapter 9.
And I think we really begin tosee in chapter 11 some hints of
(15:30):
Gentile pride and arrogance.
You get that little business ofthe Gentiles saying, Well, we're
so much better than you Jews,you rejected the Messiah.
And of course, Jewish brethrenwill be saying, Hey, you're
reading our Bible, and it's ourpromises to Abraham that you're
taking advantage of.
And by the way, in case youdidn't know, the Messiah was
Jewish.
So there's some friction goingon here.
(15:51):
And Paul begins to work withthat in Romans 9 and 10, and
he's beginning to finally drawall that together in our reading
today in chapter 11.
And he starts that with the bigquestion Paul can do QA too,
can't he?
Romans chapter 11, verse 1.
I ask, then has God rejected hispeople?
There's the question.
Has God rejected Israel?
And the answer to that is reallyobvious if you've read chapters
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9 and 10.
In the first place, God has notrejected them, they rejected
him.
All day long I have held out myhands to invite them to myself,
God says in chapter 10 and verse21.
They did not submit to the Lord.
But of course, what Paul goes onto say here is that God has not
given up on the Jews, and Paulproves that.
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If God had given up on the Jews,I wouldn't be here, Paul says.
And in fact, God has alwaysworked with what would be called
a remnant.
Look at verse 4, 7,000 who didnot bow the knee.
God has always had a small groupof people who are faithful to
him, who are true Israelites.
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And notice that this is bygrace, verse 5.
The remnant doesn't nullifygrace by their faithfulness, but
by their faithfulness they areworking 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 brotherin the prodigal son parable.
They're seeking to be right ontheir own without God's grace.
(17:18):
And then Paul begins to providesome quotations to prove that.
Quotation, verse 8, out of thebook of Isaiah, and then verse 9
and 10, there's David.
And there's Psalm 69.
Robert Turner says, Paul showsthat those who rejected the
gospel are trapped by their ownstubbornness.
(17:38):
They are hardened.
They are away from the Lord.
And then Paul sums all of thatup by saying in verse 11 and 12
that actually it's incrediblethe Jewish rejection of Jesus
has brought Gentiles in.
Now, how has that happened?
How is that so?
Well, when you read the book ofActs, what happens again and
again?
Paul goes to the synagogue,preaches, like we saw in Acts
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chapter 13 on Monday.
The result of that, if you goback and pick up the story in
Acts 13, verse 42, is that Paulsays, hey, the Messiah is here.
You need to get on board of theMessiah.
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 muchthen.
That must not be the Messiah.
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And then who does Paul preach towhen the Jews reject the gospel?
Yeah, he starts preaching to theGentiles, and they come to the
gospel in droves.
We might not have ever dreamedof doing things that way.
But as a result, God has broughtGentiles into the kingdom.
And please notice verse 12, whatGod is hoping for is full
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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, butthat'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.
(19:03):
Welcome to Thursday.
Today we're in the book ofHebrews.
Hebrews chapter 4, 1 to 13 isthe reading for Thursday.
Hebrews 4, 1 to 13.
So glad to have the podcast andget the opportunity to talk to
you a little bit more about someof the things that are going on
in the text today, because todaythe text is teaching a lot about
rest.
The rest has been ready sincecreation, verse 3.
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Some are going to enter into itsince the Israelites didn't
enter into it.
Verse 6, that's still availableto us today.
There's a parallel between oldIsrael's failure and the
potential for failure among theHebrew recipients and, of
course, even us today.
And all of that is made off ofthe word rest.
The play is on the word rest.
Rest is used of the land ofCanaan, verse 3.
(19:48):
It's also used of God's restingafter creation, verse 4.
And then most importantly, it isused of heaven, our promised
land, if you will, heaven, verse10.
And the Hebrew writer weavesthese ideas of rest together
through our reading today.
Some of the Israelites wereunfaithful.
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And remember the book of Hebrewsis about don't quit.
Don't quit.
Don't give up on yourChristianity.
Well, some of them quit, and asa result, God said, they'll not,
verse 3, enter into my rest.
They're not going to enter intothe promised land.
But the rest was created.
The rest is there.
You want to get into that rest.
Verse 6, since therefore itremains for some to enter into
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it, and those who formallyreceived 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, thatleaves it open for us.
One translation says, it isclear that some were intended to
experience this rest, but theydid not.
(20:52):
So verse 7 brings David to thetable.
And the quotation here is out ofPsalm 95, verse 8, which we will
read tomorrow.
I'll say more about Psalm 95tomorrow.
But the key is the word today.
Don't harden your hearts, hearhis voice.
Serve the Lord now.
And the rest there, verse 8, forif Joshua had given them rest,
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that's the land of promise, thenGod would not have spoken of
another day.
So there remains a rest, verse9.
That's not the Sabbath, that'sheaven.
There remains for us thepromised land, and we have the
opportunity to go there if wewill strive to enter, verse 11,
that rest.
Be diligent is the idea behindstriving, or try hard.
(21:35):
Be diligent about getting intoheaven.
And we make every effort.
Why?
Because the word of God judgesus, 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.
(21:56):
The 95th Psalm is what we'rereading.
This is a psalm of thanksgivingand maybe a psalm of wisdom,
some wisdom elements here, butmostly this praises God.
Oh, come, let us sing unto theLord, Psalm 95, verse 1.
Let us make a joyful noise tothe rock of our salvation.
God is often referred to as therock.
Deuteronomy 32, verse 4, forexample.
That suggests constancy.
(22:18):
God is always with us.
He's permanent, unmovable.
And then there's the idea of Hebeing a great God, verse 3.
He is worthy of our worshipbecause he is the great King.
And he is the one who createdeverything, verse 4.
This speaks to God's power andhis unique soul place in the
world.
It's the creator of everything.
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So the answer to that, verse 4and 5 talks about creation.
Then verse 6 and 7, the answerto that is we need to get low
before the Lord.
Each of the verbs in verse 6 isabout getting down low,
prostrating ourselves, becausewe want to humble ourselves in
God's presence because he isGod.
(23:02):
That's what this is about, verse6, verse 7.
Unfortunately, God's people havenot always done that.
And this Psalm really is aboutworship and obedience going
together, because verse 7 thenbegins to talk about how God's
people failed to honor andworship God.
They failed to get low, tohumble themselves before God.
(23:23):
Today, if you hear his voice,verse 7 continues: don't harden
your hearts as at Meribah, as onthe day at Masah in the
wilderness.
Maribah, which means contention,and Masah, which means testing,
are two of the many times thatGod's people murmured against
him.
Exodus chapter 17 for Maribah.
And guess what?
Numbers chapter 20, which we'vebeen studying in Sunday morning
(23:44):
Bible class, is where Masah isreferenced.
That's the place where Mosescomes unglued and he ends up
striking the rock when he wassupposed to speak to the rock.
That's an interesting text.
We've talked about that a lot onSunday morning, particularly
coming back to verse 1.
Let us make a joyful noise tothe rock of our salvation.
Maybe that's one of the reasonswhy God did not want him beating
(24:06):
on the rock.
The rock stands for the Lord.
That's at least worth thinkingabout.
And so those people who weremurmuring against God, who
constantly complained, who didnot trust in God to take care of
them.
Oh, there's no water, we're allgoing to die.
Oh, there's no meat.
Moses, you've drug us out herein the wilderness.
You're just trying to kill usall.
That constant groaning andwhining, God says, I loathe
(24:29):
them, verse 10.
And that can actually betranslated disgusted.
I'm just disgusted with them.
These people go astray in theirheart.
They go astray in their heart.
They didn't love God.
They didn't trust God.
And notice the heart then leadsthem.
When the heart is bad, they dohave not known my ways.
(24:50):
Bad hearts lead to bad lives.
So I swore in my wrath.
Verse 11, they'll not enter intomy rest.
They'll not go to the promisedland.
And we saw that from Hebrewschapter 4 yesterday.
How can anybody teach one saved,always saved?
The entire Bible teaches us wehave to walk with the Lord if we
want to go home with the Lord.
And here's yet anotherillustration of that.
(25:12):
The reading for Friday, Psalm95.
Thank you so much for listeningto the podcast.
I hope the podcast is a blessingto you and that you will tell
others about it so it can helpthem take full advantage of the
sermons on Sunday and especiallythe daily Bible.
Phew, that is more coffee isalways the answer.
(25:34):
That will help them takeadvantage of the sermons on
Sunday and the daily Biblereading through the week.
It is my pleasure to open theBible with you each and every
day.
I'm Mark Roberts.
I want to go to heaven and Iwant you to come too.
Can't wait to see you on Mondaywith a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_01 (26:01):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of Christ
podcast, Monday Morning Coffeewith Mark.
For more information aboutWestside, you can connect with
us through our website, justChristians.com, and our Facebook
page.
Our music is from Upbeat.io.
That's Upbeat with two P's,U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creators
(26:26):
can get free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we'll look forward
to seeing you again with a cupof coffee, of course, on next
Monday.
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