Coffee House Chapel #3

[blackbird]

January 23, 2004

FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT---JOY
Galatians 5:22

One of my favorite berry is the Blackberry! Its a fruit--though sometimes not thought of as one! Its small in size--about the size of your thumb nail! Its got a "Sweet/Tart" taste! Something I like about this little fruit is---once you start eatin' 'um---you can't stop!!! Before its all over, your mouth and teeth are stained purplish red!!!

Ever go "Blackberry Pickin'?" You know somebody who knows where some are, don't you?? Think for a minute of the Blackberry and WHERE they're found--the bush, that is!! They're usually found along fence rows and power poles and they're usually in the middle of a BRIAR thicket!!

Sometimes the berries are hard to get to---surrounded by briars("sticker" bushes). In fact, the Blackberry bush itself IS a wild Briar!!! Sometimes, to get to the fruit---you have to EASE and WEAVE your hands through the berry vine's own stickers just to grab a few! Usually the briars are so thick around the berry that you can only pick one berry at a time--for fear of being "grabbed" by a briar!! Ouch!!! The Blackberry vine/bush is a wild briar that produces a fruit!!! Getting "stuck" by a briar while gathering the fruit is a "Bi-Product" of enjoying the fruit---best if cooked in a cobbler!!!!

But I want us to think about that Blackberry---in the middle of the briar patch!! Think about that berry surrounded by "sticker" bushes!! THEN--I want us to think about God's JOY here in this passage!!! Like that Blackberry---God's JOY is found in the middle of a Briar thicket!!

GOD'S JOY IS FOUND IN THE MIDDLE OF SUFFERING AND SORROW

2Corinthians 6:10

The context of Chapter 6 is in certain situations the ministers(you and I) of God find themselves in! Verse 10 says that: in sorrowful circumstances--the minister finds joy!!! People get mad when we tell them that joy is found in the middle of sorrow!! But its true!!

Jesus experienced JOY in the middle of sorrow! Did you know that??

Isaiah 53:3 says that Jesus was a man of "sorrows and acquainted with grief."

Then Hebrews 12:2 says that we are to look unto Jesus "the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross."

OOOOOOHH, but Jesus came to a "Briar thicket" called Earth to give us JOY!!!

And OOOOOOOOHH, we can come to Him--in the middle of Earth's "Briars" and get His joy!!!

JOY CAN BE FOUND IN THE MIDDLE OF PERSECUTIONS

Persecution is "evil returned fo the good deed done!"

The Apostle Paul found himself in the Philippi "Slammer!" And what did he do to get there?? What was he doing wrong?? NOTHING! What was he doing right?? EVERYTHING!!! Yet when he got there---there were Blackberries in that jail!!! I'm tellin' ya!!! There's joy in jail(persecutions) when you're doing everything right and nothing wrong!!!

The point I'm trying to make is this! This Earth(not the revolving ball of dirt---but the revolving ball of sin's systems) is gonna give you a grievious time!!! This Earth will dish you out some unpleasant moments!! But if our lives are focused on Jesus---that focus will bring us joy beyond measure!!!

Now, you may say, "Wait a minute, Brother David! This world ain't such a bad place! This world is basically happy!!"

But I can say, "The HAPPIEST dish the world can spoon out is SORROW---compared to the joy waiting in Heaven! The most glorious time the world can give is a Briar patch compared to the Joy that Jesus can give!!

The world is gonna give you a "Briar patch" today!! Its gonna give you an unpleasant moment! A lost job! A "tongue lashin" from the boss! Uncooperation from the employee! But whatever "Briar Patch" you encounter---reach in there and gather you up some Blackberries of JOY!!! Trust Jesus today---let Jesus be your Joy today!! With Jesus as your Savior and Lord---when the World dishes you up some sorrow or unpleasant moment---you can smile and let the world see your mouth and teeth--stained purplish red!!!

Brother David

 

[Dan Todd]

The HAPPIEST dish the world can spoon out is SORROW---compared to the joy waiting in Heaven!

Would that we all know this important truth!

Thank you Blackbird!

Dan

 

[Dr. Bob]

Thans, BB, as I spent the night tossing and turning in the briar and saw only the pain.

 

[Dan Todd]

January 24

Romans 10:18-20, “But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.”

The first line of a clever Southern Gospel song keeps running through my mind, “Excuses, excuses, you hear them every day!” In our text Paul is dealing with “excuses” for Jewish unbelief. The first excuse is “They Didn’t Hear!” Paul’s answer is quite simple, “They have heard it.” As is Paul’s custom, he backs up his statement by quoting Scripture, in this case it is part of Psalm 19:4, “Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”

While Paul’s answer is quite simple and straight forward, as we look deeper into his use of Psalm 19:4 we find two problems with his proof. Had Paul simply said, “The Jews have heard the gospel, because I have preached it to them, and so have the other apostles,” there would be no problem, because it would have been his testimony. But instead of appealing to what he and the other apostles had done, he quotes from Psalm 19. Psalm 19:1-6 deals with what theologians call “general revelation,” and it concerns the revelation of God in nature. I encourage you to read Psalm 19. Many of us quote verse one (“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”) to prove the God has made Himself known to the entire world. But the Psalm has two parts, and the second part (verses 7-14) is about God’s written Word, and it tells us that the law of God is perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure, etc.

You will notice, that Paul’s quote comes from the natural revelation portion of the Psalm. The section that tells us that the existence of God is declared by what He has made. This is a point that Paul developed in Romans 1. “The natural revelation is of such quality and extent that all are guilty for their failure to acknowledge God, seek Him out, and worship Him.” (Boice)

“The problem is that this general revelation is not the gospel, and it is the gospel that Paul is talking about in Romans 10.” (Boice) Boice gives three possible explanations from various expositors for this problem, arguing against the first two and agreeing with the third.

1. Paul was talking about general revelation. This was John Calvin’s view, who held in addition that Paul was writing of the proclamation of the gospel to the Gentiles: “The argument is this – from the very beginning of the world God has displayed His divinity to the Gentiles by the testimony of His creation, if not by the preaching of men.” (Calvin, The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Romans and to the Thessalonians) “Most interpreters reject this view [because] the passage as a whole is about Jews, rather than Gentiles, and about the Christian gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, rather than about the general revelation.” (Boice)

2. Paul merely borrows the words of Psalm 19 to make his point, without intending to say that this is what the psalm teaches. Charles Hodge took this view: “he simply uses scriptural language to express his own ideas, as is done involuntarily almost by every preacher in every sermon.” (Hodge, A Commentary on Romans) “This is a possibility , since Paul does not introduce the quotation by words like ‘Moses says,’ ‘God says,’ or ‘the Scripture says.’ On the other hand, as Leon Morris notes, he does quote the verse exactly, word for word, which suggests that he really is appealing to the specific Old testament passage for support.” (Boice)

3. The approach that is taken by most expositors is that Paul sees a connection between the first and second parts of Psalm 19, between the general revelation and the specific revelation. Paul “understood that the two forms of revelation are complementary and that what can be said of one can be said of the other.” (Boice) So when the first part of Psalm 19 insists that the revelation of God in nature is continuous (“day after day” and “night after night”), abundant (“they pour forth speech”), and universal (“there is no speech or language where their voice is not heard”), this should be understood of the specific revelation also. “The revelation provided in the Bible is also continuous, abundant, and universal, and what is said of the Bible should be said of the preaching of the Bible’s message by the Christian preachers.” (Boice)

John Murray in his “The Epistle to the Romans” wrote, “Since the gospel proclamation is now to all without distinction, it is proper to see the parallel between the universality of general revelation and the universalism of the gospel. The former is the pattern now followed in the sounding forth of the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Next time we’ll look at the second problem with Paul’s quote of Psalm 19:4.

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

[Dr. Bob]

And without special revelation we would all be lost, condemned. Thank God for His Word and the Gospel message that gives up, not condemnation!

Appreciation the good words.

 

[blackbird]

Sunday, January 25, 2004

"The Spirit's Fruit---Joy"(Part 2)

Did you know that Jesus' life was surrounded by this fruit of the Spirit?? His birth! His life! His death! His resurrection! And that the joy He has--He leaves with us!! Jesus said in John 15:11, "These things I have spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full."

Jesus' joy! Can be our joy!

In Matthew 2:10--the Wise Men expressed joy at Jesus' birth

In Luke 2:10--the Shepherds experienced the joy of Jesus

In Luke 13:17--Jesus brings joy to the people who believed in Him

In Hebrews 12:2--in Jesus' death, Jesus experienced joy---knowing full well the meaning of that death---that WE might be brought to God!!

When Jesus was raised from the dead--there was joy!(Matthew 28:8)

At Jesus' ascension--there was joy!(Luke 24:52)

The joy I receive from Jesus will be carried on into eternity!!! While the ages roll on in everlasting presence of Jesus---there will be as Peter expressed in 1Peter 1:8, "joy unspeakable and full of glory!)

Whereever Jesus is---look around!!! There'll be His joy!!! One of my favorite verses of scripture is Psalm 16:11 and it says, "Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore."

How do you experience it and give it?? By giving yourself to the word of God!! 1John 1:4 says, "And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full."

 

[I Am Blessed 24]

How often we confuse the HAPPINESS of the world with the JOY of Jesus. One is fleeting, one will last forever and is ever present if we will but grab ahold of it!

Thanks Bro. David!

 

[Dr. Bob]

Joy is finding a hot loaf of bread melting the snow on the back porch when I returned from preaching - a member of my former church left it as a surprise.

That joy comes from the Spirit of God in the heart of a believer touching the heart of another believer.

True joy while serving Jesus

 

[Dan Todd]

I've got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart!

 

[Dan Todd]

January 26

Romans 10:18-20, “But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.”

In our text, Paul is addressing the excuse that the Jews hadn’t heard the gospel. Paul quoted from Psalm 19:4 to say that they had heard the gospel. Last time we looked at the problem that the general revelation mentioned in Psalm 19:4 was not the gospel by saying that Paul saw a connection with the general revelation and the specific revelation that are both found in that Psalm.

Today we want to look at the “second problem with this quotation [that] follows from what has been said. If Paul means ... that the gospel has been proclaimed to everyone, just as the general revelation is made known to all persons everywhere, how can we believe him? Had all people everywhere really heard the gospel? In Paul’s day? In ours? Had even every Jew? The obvious answer to this puzzle is that Paul is speaking representatively, as he does in other places, for example, in Colossians 1:23, “...[This is] the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.’ Paul does not mean that every creature on earth at that time had literally heard the gospel, but that the gospel had been so widely proclaimed that all types of people – Gentiles as well as Jews, slaves as well as free men – heard it.” (Boice)

Accepting what Paul said about the gospel in his day, when the gospel was just beginning to be proclaimed, how much truer must it be today, when we have had nearly 2,000 years to be preaching and spreading the gospel. Earlier we mentioned the 1.5 billion souls who have never heard of Christ, and we are right to be concerned about them. (I appreciate mission organizations like New Tribes Missions and Wycliff Translators that specialize in taking God’s Word and the Gospel to such peoples.) But think of the 3.5 billion souls that have heard the good news, and realize that that gospel has been widely proclaimed, to the glory of Almighty God.

As you travel the face of the earth, you will find Christians nearly everywhere, and there are Christian churches in nearly every country. There are exceptions of course, but nearly everywhere you go there is a Christian witness, so that we can say as Paul does, “Their voice [that is, the voice of the messengers] has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” Today, we have the added privilege to live in a day when not only do messengers go forth and preach the gospel, but radio, television, and the printed page supplement the personal verbal message of preachers. In some countries, like the United States, the gospel is proclaimed literally around the clock by radio.

“So we cannot object, as this imaginary listener to Paul’s teaching might be supposed to object: ‘But isn’t it the case that they have simple not heard?’ That is not a way of getting off the hook for most people. The message has been made known, and they have heart it – so they are without excuse. You are without excuse, too, if you have refused to come to Jesus Christ as your rightful Lord and Savior.” (Boice)

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

[Dr. Bob]

Thanks, Dan.

 

[Watchman]

There is the voice of many messengers out there indeed. Regretably, there is also the likes of Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, etel; not to mention J.W.'s and others at their door. I feel sorry for those who are not rooted and grounded in the truth of God's Word, The Bible. They are so subject to being devoured by the wolves!
Thank You, Dan

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

Thanks Dan, that was a personal encouragement to me.

Roger

 

[I Am Blessed 24]

Amen Dan! And thank you!

 

[blackbird]

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

PEACE---The Fruit of God
Galatians 5:22

We've been going through this passage "Fruit by fruit!" And really, these different fruits belong to God---they are produced on the inside of the believer and are manifested through our obedience to the word!!

We look at the fruit--Peace--today!

I remember some time ago my wife and I took my mom up to Eureka Springs, Arkansas to see the Passion Play. On our way though northwest Arkansas we stopped off at a farmhouse selling Apples from the farm's Apple orchid. We eased on out of the farm's drive back onto the highway and started eatin' those Apples!! And we discovered somethin'!!!!! We simply COULD NOT get enough of those Apples! We'd each finish off an apple and reach into the sack for another one!!! Somehow or other--our physical bodies just "flung a cravin'" on us and we could not leave those Apples alone!!!

Did you know that God designed our spirits, souls, and bodies in order to "crave" HIS PEACE????

Way over in Genesis 14, Abraham has a confrontation with two different kings! The king of Sodom--that city of wickedness!!! And the King of Salem--the city of peace!!! And the more that Abraham had "to do" with SALEM---the less he had "to do" with SODOM!!!

The spiritual meaning of the word PEACE--carries the idea of God's control over a seemingly uncontrolable situation! Remember when Jesus was asleep in the bottom of that boat with those disciples??? The boat was being tossed about like a leaf in a tornado!! Consequently, the disciples were being tossed, too!!! They woke Jesus up and can you imagine???? Maybe Jesus wipes the "sleep" out of His eyes, yaaaaaaaawns real big, stretches His arms to loosen his muscles---and then he looks into the face of that storm!!!!And what did He say???? What word did He command???

"PEACE!!!!" He was telling that storm in a sense, "Come under God's control!!!"

Micah 5:5 says, "And this man shall be the peace." OOOOOOHHHH, I can't help but picture ole Micah looking forward---by faith---to the moment when Jesus would walk this unstable, stormy planet and would bring the peace of Heaven into it!!!

I heard someone say that "Peace is not the absence of war/conflict---but rather---peace is the presence of Jesus!!!"

You and I will be bombarded with some sort of conflict---some sort of turmoil and tribulation--maybe today or tomorrow or the next day---but some day it will come! And when it does come---lets become obedient to the word that Jesus spoke from the "Bow" of that tiny ship----"PEACE!!!"

You see, because, too, a inward look at those disciples will show---there was a storm howlin' in their souls as big and as rough as what was howlin' on the outside!!! And when Jesus speaks peace to calm our seasick souls---we can say as those disciples, "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and seas obey????"

Before you leave to go somewhere---let this be your prayer "LORD, speak YOUR peace to me!!! Calm the angry seas of my soul!!! In Jesus' name, Amen!!!

 

[Dr. Bob]

"Flung a craving"?? English, BlackBird, English!

Seriously, thanks for the good word pictures

 

[I Am Blessed 24]

I heard someone say that "Peace is not the absence of war/conflict---but rather---peace is the presence of Jesus!!!"

So true. Jesus didn't come to get rid of our circumstances, but to be in the midst of them with us.

Thanks Bro. David!

 

[blackbird]

Somethin' ain't never, ever just overwelmed you and simply "flung a cravin'"(like gravy on a bisquit or gravy on cornbread??) on you that you just couldn' resist????

Your buddy,
Blackbird

 

[I Am Blessed 24]

All the time Blackbird. That's why I'm on a diet!

 

[Dan Todd]

Thank you Blackbird!