1 Chronicles 22:1-23:32, Romans 3:9-31 , Psalms 12:1-8, Proverbs 19:13-14
Today is the 16th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. And I know I say that most every day, but we all need somebody who thinks it’s great to see us, right? And it’s great to see you. It’s good to be together around the global campfire as we take the next step forward, which will take us back into the book of 1 Chronicles and back into the life of King David. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. 1 Chronicles 22 and 23.
Commentary:
Okay. So now that we are in Paul’s letters, and as I’ve said, we’ll kind of be camping out in Paul’s letters for a little while. And in spending time in those letters, we’ll understand exactly what it was that Paul was teaching. And what we’ll find is that it is the core of the Christian faith. So for example, in our reading from today, Paul took us right to the bedrock of the faith that in the essence of it all. And that was simply this - no one is perfect. And we all know that. But then the problem comes in that we are trying to be in a relationship with a perfect, righteous, holy God. So how do we get beyond our inability to become perfect as we pursue this relationship with perfection? So as we’ve been working our way through the Old Testament, we see that the law of Moses was given and the Hebrew people believed that if they could obey the law fully, that if they could do it with all of their heart, wholly and unimpeded, then they could become righteous before God. The problem was that no one could do it. So Paul’s point that he was making was that the law was to reveal sin and to reveal that no one could become perfect and righteous on their own. So in Paul’s own words from our reading today, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are subject to the law so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgement. For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.” So for Paul as a religious Jew who was a Pharisee, devoutly trying to obey to the letter of the law everything in the law as best as he could, he realized even when you apply yourself completely, you’re still gonna fail. So on the one hand, that’s kind of a hopeless situation. Everything you are trying to apply yourself to do to become righteous before God is, in the end, not going to succeed. So what can a person do? How is the unachievable achieved? As Paul began to look at Jesus, he began to see how this could work. And I’m quoting him from our reading. “But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the law and the prophets. The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” That is an essential bedrock core truth of the Christian faith. And thank goodness. Because we’re not in a hopeless situation. We can never make ourselves righteous before God. It was a hopeless situation. We would never be able to get there, would never be able to come into God’s presence and say, I deserve to be in your presence because I have made myself righteous like you are, right? That’s not going to happen. So hopeless situation. But as we look at what Paul is saying hope comes springing forth. Yes, all have sinned. All have fallen short of the glory of God. But God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight and he did this through Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins. Which means that we are made righteous, that we are perfected before God because of his grace. So we can’t go into God’s presence and say, I deserve to be here because I am righteous and I have made myself righteous, but we can go into God’s presence boldly as our Father and say, I deserve to be here because you’ve accepted me through Jesus. I haven’t earned this. I in myself don’t deserve this. But you came for me. This is the good news of the gospel. And may we rejoice in it today.
Prayer:
Father, we do. We certainly do today and every day. Because there will never be a day that we have achieved righteousness on our own and deserve to be in Your presence. And yet You welcome us into Your presence every day because of Jesus. And so we’re thankful. Jesus, we thank You. We were hopelessly lost and You rescued us and we didn’t deserve it. And we still fall short and You still are merciful. So we are grateful today. We invite Your Holy Spirit to lead us to be grateful and to concentrate and contemplate and meditate upon the grand good news that You have offered to the world. We ask, Father, that You would help us share the good news. All are welcome. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus name. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here.
So, be sure to check it out.
Check out the prayer wall. Check out the resources that are available in the Daily Audio Bible shop.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It lives on the homepage. Thank you profoundly for those of you who have clicked that link over the years. Thank you for your partnership as we move through the summertime. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hll, Tennessee, 37174.
And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.
And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hello my beautiful DAB family. This is Tulu calling from Canada. I haven’t called since 2014. So, this is a big step for me. I’ve been a listener since 2007. Just want to thank you all. I love you guys so much. I listen to your calls and all your prayers, prayer requests, praise re-ports, and advice - really bless me. I just had to call today when I heard Jeff from Syracuse call. I’m so sorry about your loss Jeff. This is why we are here and I just pray that the Lord will hold you that this time and comfort you. And for everyone else who’s mourning a loss at this time, I pray the same prayer for you, that that hole, that void that has been left by your loved one, the Lord is the only one who can fill it and I pray that you just feel His comfort and His love and feel His warm embrace and hear him speak His words of comfort, His words that are the word for this season of your life. And I pray that you would just know His comfort and blessing. Family, I know that these are perilous times and this DAB community isn’t a coincidence and it’s not a mistake. And God has brought us all together for such a time as this we are so much is happening in the world and sometimes it’s like some things are being called home. And those of us who are here have a mission to carry the name of Jesus and to be His hands and feet and spread His love. And I pray that the Lord will just give us the grace and the courage and the strength to do that. I love you guys. I will call another day. I hope, soon. Giving you big hugs and kisses. Love to everyone. Thanks Brian, Jill, thanks Sarah Jane. Thanks all the team. Love you all. God bless
Hi family this is Kim from Eastern Kentucky and it’s Thursday, July 12th and I was just calling in because Standing Firm had called in and saying he hadn’t been standing firm. And a Scripture came to me when you started talking, and it’s Proverbs 24:16, for a righteous man falls seven times and rises again. And, the only way we stand firm is in the strength of our Savior. And James tells us that when we confess our sins, our faults, where we missed the mark, we confess them one to another and then the Lord hears our prayers and we get healed. And, so, Standing Firm, I appreciate you calling in and I know you’re still a righteous man and you are going to rise again, that’s what you’ve done. And you ask about people with depression and loneliness, praying for them. And my son is 20 years old and he struggles with that and his name is Josiah and I ask that you would remember him. And Jeff called in saying he had lost his wife, 55 years old. I’m 56, Jeff. I lost my husband 20 years ago to a brain tumor and it was rough in the beginning, very rough. But God is faithful and I know He will be faithful to you as well. So, prayers for everyone, I love you all, I love the podcast Brian and Jill. God bless you. Listening always. Bye.
Hi this is Victoria Soldier calling to pray for Stanley. He’s the young man from Greenville South Carolina. He was suffering depression and loneliness and I really want to pray for you because God loves you and He __. He doesn’t want you to be alone. And I just want to pray for you that whatever the challenges that God will provide. God is able to do exceedingly my brother. You continue to be strong in Him and let Him give you the joy of your heart in the name of Jesus. I want to also pray for the brother, he says that his brother’s wife is having some mental problems so they need to get the daughters. I want to pray for them. And I also want to pray for the baby who has water on the head. And I want to pray for him to live and not die. And I also want to pray for Jeff and that he said his wife died at 55. That’s a horrible thing and that you wanted to be with your wife. And God has an answer for you. We don’t know what it is. But we know that it’s always good. Lord, in the name of Jesus, You touch these people Lord. You know everything about them. You know the hairs on the head. Oh Lord You are a God that can do anything but fail. Lord You help them to understand. You bless them, fill eel that spot in their heart, in their mind, in their lives. You heal that body Lord. You heal that baby Lord. You direct Lord. You keep them Lord and You work there miracles Father in the name of Jesus. You Have Your Way, Lord. You are a present help in the time of trouble. You never leave them nor forsake them. Lord continue to bless, continue to bless Your people. They’re going through loneliness, their going through depression. Lord, bless them to find each other __that would love them, that they would love, that they can __…
Hi DAB family. This is nobody gets left behind in Colorado. I don’t call…I probably have only called maybe four times in the eight years that I’ve listened but I did want to make that a goal, something I start doing more and I just felt God pressing on my heart today to call in and just tell you all about a little story about something that happened yesterday. So, I have a brother Jeremy and he’s been in prison for 16 years. And he’s gotten more like a father to me and a brother and a best friend. And he’s just, these last, probably three years, he’s been getting stronger in his faith. And I love to just bounce Bible scriptures and we could talk for hours about the DAB and what we’re listening to and what God is doing in our lives and stuff like that. Anyway, I hadn’t heard from him in a couple weeks and I was really worried about him. The systems are down for the messaging in the prison that he is at and everything. So, I was really just praying every single day. I got a call from him yesterday. My brother had a breakthrough. My sister who has dropped contact with him for a long time, she sent him a quick little note and said I love you brother. And my brother, it just did something amazing to him. And he asked me to find this song and it’s called “your love defends me” __ . And, so, I played it on my husband’s phone so he could hear it on my phone and he let the song play through it I just had, I was just envisioning him on the other end crying and just worshiping God and if you knew my brother you would understand how powerful this is. He’s a shot caller, he’s a gangster like…