Following Jesus Son of God …

Hello Everyone,

At first glance this week’s text seems to be our familiar missionary call to spread the good news of God. And it is that, but as I studied (funny how these things happen) I realized that the main point is more the emphasis that for people to believe, we must make sure we begin with the good news of God. When it comes to the point of sharing, then it must still be God’s gospel, God’s message.

I have some excellent Romans commentaries. “Listen” to this from Leon Morris, one of the best.

◉ Leon Morris …
– Paul is saying that the preaching of the Christian message is impossible without the divine commission. A herald can have nothing to say unless it be given him. The gospel is derivative. It does not originate with preachers, and the other side of that coin is that nobody can operate as a preacher in the sense in which Paul is using the term here unless God has sent him.

Our gospel is derivative. No revisions necessary or accepted. Christ finished his “Calvary work” with perfection and power and the Father’s approval.

The gospel we ask people to believe must be the same “good news of God” that was offered in the first century by the Apostle Paul.

◉ Leon Morris …
– Whichever way we may prefer to translate, Paul is speaking of the derivative nature of the Christian gospel. It is not something that wise men have made up; it comes from hearing the message given by those sent from God.

If you are an artist, maybe someone suggesting that your work is derivative is a bad thing, as in unoriginal, unimaginative, imitative, uninventive. But as heralds of the gospel, it is essential that we remain true to the original.

Gospel Version 1.0
(Updates and revisions unnecessary and unacceptable.)

Message Title: Have They Not Heard?

Message Text: Romans 10:14-21

• PDF LESSON 27 Have They Not Heard? : Romans 10:14-21 : FFC : dave scott : 031515 : STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF LESSON 27 Have They Not Heard? : Romans 10:14-21 : FFC : dave scott : 031515 : STUDY SHEET TWO

Hello All,

Well, if anyone believes that they can work to gain God’s approval after this study in Romans, then it will not be the fault of the Apostle Paul. He is at it again as he emphasizes we received God’s righteousness and acceptance only by faith.

No need to take a space flight to heaven. No need to journey to the center of the earth. The saving word of faith is near, in your mouth and in your heart.

We would say, “On the tip of my tongue.”

We believe. God saves.

Everyone who believes.

• For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

And everyone means everyone. Struggling to understand how God has mercy on some and not others? Can’t get your mind around predestination?

Then get your mind around this. Believe. Call on the name of the Lord, and you will be saved.

Message Title: The Saving Word Is in Your Mouth

Message Text: Romans 10:5-13

• PDF LESSON 26 The Saving Word is in Your Mouth : Romans 10:5-13 : FFC : dave scott : 030815 : STUDY SHEET ONE
  
• PDF LESSON 26 The Saving Word is in Your Mouth : Romans 10:5-13 : FFC : dave scott : 030815 : STUDY SHEET TWO

Hello to All,

It is still winter in case you haven’t noticed. Sunday is March so … Maybe Spring … ???

The Jews that Paul writes about in Romans …

These Jews share many similarities with the professing Church in today’s society.

The biggest similarity? They preferred the moral code of the Bible over the righteousness of God. After all, homemade is always better, right?

They were all about the Bible and biblical morals. Leading voices in religious affairs. Angry and upset about government involvement and regulations. They vigorously pursued righteousness through the law of Moses. Zealots that they were, they chased after the God of the Bible like nobody’s business.

But when their Bibles brought them before their long-awaited Messiah, they stumbled and fell.

Even as Christ stood before them in the flesh, and they were clueless.

• (John 5:39–40 AMP) ³⁹ You search and investigate and pore over the Scriptures diligently, because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life through them. And these [very Scriptures] testify about Me! ⁴⁰ And still you are not willing [but refuse] to come to Me, so that you might have life.

How could this happen?

Instead of receiving the righteousness of God, they sought to establish their own righteousness. They preferred their moral code over the righteousness of God and would not submit.

What made it so difficult for the Jews then and many who profess Christ in our country today is that they were so Bible-based.

The sadness and tragedy? They were building their lives on the Bible but not letting the Bible build their lives.

Message Title: Submitting to the Righteousness of God

Message Text: Romans 9:30-10:4

PDF LESSON 25 Submitting to the Righteousness of God : Romans 9:30-10-4 : FFC : dave scott : 030115 STUDY SHEET ONE

PDF LESSON 25 Submitting to the Righteousness of God : Romans 9:30-10-4 : FFC : dave  scott : 030115 STUDY SHEET TWO

The Fool Has Said in His Heart!

INTRODUCTION: Nabal … the epitome of a fool …

• He thought he was a king but was merely a dead fool. Terrified by reality. Literally and actually scared to death.
• The fool’s life unravels the moment he or she sees God.

(1) The fool decides in his heart that there is no God and reaps what he sows, 14:1.

• Fools counsel themselves in their hearts.
• Fools live by a “no god” creed.
• Fools spoil (corrupt) their lives which results in terrible deeds and an absence of goodness.
• The word fool is Nabal, cf. 1 Samuel 25.
• Nabal’s life reflected this fool’s decision: “harsh” and “badly behaved” (1 Samuel 25:3), arrogant (1 Samuel 25:9–10), worthless, foolish (1 Samuel 25:25), evil (1 Samuel 25:39).
• Maybe worst of all his distorted perception of a “no God” life:
  – He thought he was a king but was merely a dead fool (1 Samuel 25:36–37).

(2) The fool may not know who he is but God certainly does, 14:2-5, cf. Matthew 6:19-24.

• The LORD looks down from heaven and gives a very grave evaluation of humanity, 14:2-5.
• His judgment is that everyone has turned aside 14:2-3.
• His judgment is that fools pool their foolishness and multiply corruption (rotten to the core), 14:3.
• The psalmist is incredulous at the lifestyle of the fool, 14:4.
• The tragic irony of the fool: Reality means great terror because he has left God out of his life, 14:5, cf. 1 Samuel 25:36-37.

(3) The fool disdains the poor but the LORD does not, 14:6-7.

CONCLUSION: Flip that house. Our creed in our hearts? God!

• Be encouraged with the renovation that God is working in your life.
• We are not fools. We may still act foolishly but we are not fools.

MP3: Psalm 14 : The Fool Has Said in His Heart : ffc : dave scott : 022215 PM

INTRODUCTION: Our metaphors in today’s text say it all.

God is the Potter. And we are  the clay.

OUR QUESTION: Should the lump of clay tell the potter what to do?

▶︎ Object Lesson: Red terra cotta clay from Hobby Lobby.

▶︎ Who has the most experience and the best resources to construct our decisions?

• God (the Potter) has a catalog of human experience since time began. Every person, every experience, our birth, our death, jobs, personal relationships, religions … everything.

• God (the Potter) is experienced with humanity and the affairs of this Earth on every imaginable level. God has life and work experience on Earth and in Heaven. And God is the only Person we know who is eternal. He knows all about this life and the next.

• So how about the lump of clay? What is on our resume? Maybe not so impressive. Finite beings whose time on this earth is compared to a vapor or a mist. But not only limited by our finiteness, but our perspective is obscured by the darkness of sin. We have the experience of one person living on the planet for a very brief time.

So let’s come back to our question: Should the lump of clay tell the potter what to do?

(1) The Potter has the right to do whatever he wants with the clay, 9:19-21.

▶︎ Do we trust the Potter? Who do we believe the Potter to be?

(2) The Potter reveals the riches of his glory to the mercy vessels, 9:22-24.

▶︎ GET THIS: The Potter patiently tolerates the vessels of wrath because of his desire to show the vessels of mercy the riches of his glory. He endures the rebellion of the “wrath vessels” with much patience in order that we (“the mercy vessels”) may better understand the riches of his glory.

(3) The Potter is the one who makes people “his people,” 9:25-29.

• MP3: 24 The Rights of the Potter : Romans 9:19-29 : ffc : dave scott : 022215

Hello to You,

News flash! What God tells us is sometimes shocking. Things that are just not found in the categories that we humans usually run to that help us sort out life.

And we have to trust God. Without even understanding what he is doing. Maybe note just a little sarcasm here.

God tells us things about vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy that are very hard to accept. Notice I didn’t say hard to understand. Most of these things are pretty clear but they seem so arbitrary on God’s part.

And we at times struggle with God’s sovereign will because … Well … We forget who God is.

God is God. Sovereign LORD of all.

So as we will see in this week’s text, the lump of clay has no business telling the Potter what he should or shouldn’t do. Even (especially) when it comes to our lives.

The fact is that for those who trust in Christ, everything goes to them. All of the riches and blessings of God are inherited through Jesus Christ. If you have trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and have received his gift of eternal life.

You, as a vessel of mercy, GET IT ALL.

“And the hell of it.” You’ve heard that expression? The HELL of it is that the vessels of wrath get nothing, absolutely nothing but the wrath and judgment of God.

Jacob I loved, and Esau I hated.

Sounds kind of mean, doesn’t it?

But I know that my God, the Sovereign LORD before whom I bow, that God …

Let’s hear it from the psalmist …

• (Psalm 33:1–5 NLT)
  ¹ Let the godly sing for joy to the Lord; it is fitting for the pure to praise him. ² Praise the Lord with melodies on the lyre; make music for him on the ten-stringed harp. ³ Sing a new song of praise to him; play skillfully on the harp, and sing with joy. ⁴ For the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything he does. ⁵ He loves whatever is just and good; the unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth. 

Message Title: The Rights of the Potter

Message Text: Romans 9:19-29

• PDF LESSON 24 The Rights of the Potter : Romans 9-19-29 : ffc : dave scott : 022215 STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF LESSON 24 The Rights of the Potter : Romans 9-19-29 : ffc : dave scott : 022215 STUDY SHEET TWO

Good Morning,

Yay! It’s Monday, right? But we are another week closer to Spring!

They couldn’t see God’s glory in Christ because they were blinded by the pursuit of their own glory. God offered salvation, but they just couldn’t get their mind around the amazing gift that comes by grace through faith.

They had it all and lost it all. Depending on their spiritual heritage instead of God, they found themselves in a spiritual wasteland.

Sometimes I hear on the radio: “Don’t be that guy!” Can’t remember who says it, probably more than one person.

My point here is: “Don’t be that guy. Don’t be that gal.”

Don’t be the one who thinks she has it all but actually has nothing because she pursued her idea of salvation rather than God’s.

Message Title: The Children of the Promise

Message Text: Romans 9:1-18

MP3: 23 The Children of the Promise : Romans 9:1-18 : FFC : Dave Scott 021515

Hello Everyone,

Still winter. Still cold. But Spring’s a coming! 🙂

• The Jews had forgotten that the gospel of God is the Gospel of GOD!

They had it all but squandered the opportunity. God’s chosen people, richly blessed, but now as a whole spiritually bankrupt.

They were like lottery winners who four years later are broke and in debt. Or the former professional football player who made millions and rose to the top of his sport but now has to sell his Super Bowl ring so he can eat.

So how did they “lose it”? How could something like this happen?

They could not accept a salvation that came by grace through faith. Salvation apart from the works of the law was inconceivable to them.

Do you know what mercy and grace tell us? Mercy and grace tell us that we can’t do it. In fact, we can’t even think it. Mercy and grace mean that only God, and God alone, could come up with such an idea for our salvation and carry it out.

• Mercy and grace should not be inconceivable in our minds.

Thinking that we could work for the spiritual riches of God in Christ Jesus. That is what is ludicrous. Believing that God would offer a salvation so low, so pitiful, that we, mere sinful humans could somehow do good enough, be good enough, run fast enough to earn his salvation.

That is what should be inconceivable to us. The Jews in Paul’s day did not realize this, and sometimes we don’t either.

Message Title: The Children of Promise!

Message Text: Romans 9:1-18

• PDF 23 The Children of the Promise II : Romans 9-1-18 : ffc : dave scott : 021515 STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF 23 The Children of the Promise II : Romans 9-1-18 : ffc : dave scott : 021515 : STUDY SHEET TWO

Hello All,

I don’t record all of the Psalms studies but did yesterday. So here it is.

dave

Probable (possible) historical setting: TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. David on the run; seeking refuge from Saul who is maddened by his jealousy and the prophesied demise of his kingdom.

INTRODUCTION: Why have such a downer of a psalm?

• How long will you forget me, O LORD? How long will you hide your face from me? Blah, blah, blah … I see no good reason to share this despair, this desolation of the heart …
• Unless … It is true to life. True to the walk of the pilgrim of God. 
• What does it feel like when God himself teaches us to walk in the joy of our salvation, the path of pure joy? And what do we do as we are on this path, when we encounter deep darkness and taunting enemies which we cannot overcome?

1) On the path of pure joy we must sometimes walk through desolate territory, 13:1-2.

▶︎ How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever [completely]?

• Sometimes on the path of pure joy it seems that God has stepped completely out of the picture. David’s question is—Had God forgotten him forever? Not, had God forgotten him, but is this it?

▶︎ How long will you hide your face from me?

• Sometimes on the path of pure joy God does not rush to our side. God was not giving David an audience. It was bad enough the turmoil in his life, and that God seemed so distant, but God would not even give David an audience.

▶︎ How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

• Often on the path of pure joy we must learn that we are neither big enough or smart enough for the battle. What runs through our minds at times like this? We try to find solutions. We try to work our way through the mess and fix the problem.

▶︎ How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

• Often on the path of pure joy our dark enemy will taunt us. Insult to injury. During this time of distress the enemy torments us. “I told you so.” “I won. You lost.” “This is what you get for trusting in God.”

*See Matthew 27:41-46.

2) On the path of pure joy we must pray to the only One who can give light, 13:3-4.

• David’s petition: He asks for light, cf. Ephesians 1:18.

3) On the path of pure joy trust in God’s steadfast love bring us to the joy of our salvation, 13:3-4.

• On the path of pure joy trusting in God’s steadfast love brings home the joy or our salvation to our hearts.
• On the path of pure joy trusting in God’s steadfast love brings praise and more praise.

CONCLUSION: No matter anything else we come back to the steadfast love of God!

MESSAGE MP3: Psalm 13 : How Long O LORD : FFC : dave scott : 020815 PM

Hello All,

*EDITOR’S NOTE: We had extra things going this past Sunday, so this message became the introduction to Romans 9-11.

The gospel of God …

The gospel of God begins all the way back in Genesis, when after the sin of Adam and Eve, God speaks to the serpent of the coming war between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the Son of God.

In this gospel story throughout the history of this world, the nation of Israel was given a very special place. God’s chosen people. Unique among the nations and tremendously blessed.

But somewhere along the way, they lost the truth of God’s message. The truth of God had escaped them. But how? Why? They quit listening to God.

They would vehemently protest, but this is exactly what they did. They listened to themselves so much that they thought it was God talking.

Paul states in Romans 9:1: “Truth I am speaking in Christ.”

How did he do that? How do we?

MP3: Truth I Speak in Christ : Romans 9:1 : FFC : dave scott 020815

BONUS STUDY SHEET (Gospel of God HISTORICAL OVERVIEW): PDF OVERVIEW gospel seed promise Israel 020815