God’s Artistry by Pastor Melissa Scott
Now the process, the process, this is what, this is like I said my favorite part. Some, some of us don’t really believe that this is a life application. How are you or I going to become more Christ-like if I keep staying in my little box? God calls us chooses us out from among others He didn’t choose and God’s artistry. You take a look take a look at the people; I started to say, that He picks. Take a look at David. David’s a child, a young man tending sheep. And I love this about David because David embodies everything you need to know about the life of a believer emphasized ten times, twenty times, a hundred times over. Not perfect: adulterer, murderer, king, victorious, running for cover to the cave Adullam.
Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that now everybody wants to be king without having the cave Adullam experiences, because that’s part of your wheel. All those cave Adullam experiences with all those crazy things, that was part of his becoming the man he was. Yes he was a man after God’s own heart. And I love this. When David says, “Who am I? Who am I what you would bring me here? That you would visit me? Who am I and what is my house?” Likewise, the same concept; God didn’t bring David to a potter’s house but the application’s still beautiful. And David transformed from tentative, “I might make it, kind of” to, “I’m there. I will trust in the Lord.”
The Book of Ephesians by Pastor Melissa Scott
Now open your Bibles to the Book of Galatians and then when you get there go to the next book. Most of you know what the book is. For all the people that don’t have a Bible I guess you don’t have to worry, right. The Book of Ephesians.
Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that those of you that watch, that are watching on the Internet, that watch at home. We use the King James Bible. We make corrections, but it is still the best that we have. Many people call and say, “What book is that?” Well it’s the Bible. That’s the first starting point. But the second thing is we’re using the King James. Now we have been kind of charging through the book. And I don’t know, maybe five years from now we’ll come back and I’ll say let’s do it all over again, we’ll go through the book all over again as we grow together and we cull or dig new areas of the Bible together that we have not; you may have traveled there before; but we have not together. Now I’m not going to stay here long. I’m going to focus on three verses only. Narrow it down to one. We’ll look at something quickly and go somewhere else. Like the beach or something, okay? All right. So verse 8 – I’m just trying to wake a few of you up. You might have already left me.
“For,” verse 8; chapter 2, verse 8, “For by grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Picture of Jeremiah by Pastor Melissa Scott
He outlives five dynasties of kings and rulers. And this poor man gets – I think he got a bad rap. In my opinion he got a bad deal. He gets labeled “the weeping prophet” because he writes a book called Lamentations. But he was tough. He was tough. Nothing could break his spirit. They put him in a pit, he’s sinking; what does he do? He says, “I’m going to send money to buy back a field, my inheritance” a field in Anathoth. That picture to say there’ll be hope; although everything looks terrible right now, there’ll be hope: we’ll return to that land again prosperous. What happens when you read in the latter part of Jeremiah when they’re burning the scroll? That insidious picture. Jeremiah just goes and writes another one. He just – he has a scribe and they go write another one.
That’s okay. They burnt that one. Let’s go make another one. He had a never say die, I will not quit, I will not give up. The people come to him and say, “Speak Jeremiah, give us a word.” And he speaks a word and they go do the opposite. And he has to go with them and watch them do the opposite. This picture of Jeremiah that God takes to the potter’s house is one – and I’m only going to give you – actually there are more references in the Bible than just Jeremiah.
Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that we have the reference of Isaiah who makes mention of the potter’s house. And Isaiah who has a huge prophetic voice that announces the coming the child, Immanuel, announces the prophesy of Isaiah 53 the suffering servant messiah to come. He speaks of the potter’s house. And of course Paul, quoting right out of Isaiah in the 9th chapter. Paul – all of these men, tough, rough characters of God.
God As The Archer by Pastor Melissa Scott
We have to learn about this. This hamartia was not what Adam did, what they call his transgression, but by his act, he introduced this, which was never in the world before: hamartia. Missing the mark was never there before because God, picture God as the archer. Pshew. He hits the mark all the time. It wasn’t there before so as a byproduct of Adam’s transgression, this enters in. And I know some of you are saying, “Well, tell me more.” You’re going to have to hang around for me to tell you more. I just want to kind of touch on this and make a couple of points and then we’ll move on.
According to Pastor Melissa Scott thatPaul is brilliant because he knows that when we’re in a state, a darkened mind state, the light could shine on you, which many times it did. It shone on me many times, but it wasn’t the time, as I used the analogy of Moses. It wasn’t yet the time and the scripture says, “I due time” many times. “In due time” God illuminates that which was darkened. Here he’s saying, “This is the condition we were all in.” “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.” Let me read through this first, “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all” – not you guys over there in the corner – “we all had our” – the King James reads, “conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
The Prosperity Of Egypt by Pastor Melissa Scott
Now I’m going to fail miserably if I don’t paint this picture right. I’m not interested in coming and regurgitating what I’ve put into my brain for the week. This is something that’s heavy on my heart. If people can really recognize when we read this passage, “Thou shall remember thou wast a slave in the land of Egypt” and Egypt representing the world. We always have Egypt as a type of sin, representing the world. Its whole focus, it was like a vortex, if you were in Egypt, you served that black hole that sucked the people in. And it was for the furtherment, the betterment, the prosperity of Egypt. Not for the people. They’d be the greatest army; they’d be the greatest civilization. You look at their culture and their culture revolves around, they build these great structures, for the most part, burial structures. Their claim to fame outside of those structures, The Book of the Dead.
Pastor Melissa Scott it is, if you understand where I’m going, it is a strange world that catered to itself so lavishly and didn’t care about the atrocities of the people along the way. When we talk about those people, of whom we are; we’re born in Adam, we make the jump to see that we’re no different than these people who were born in Egypt in bondage. If you and I look at Moses, Moses was born in that element of bondage. When we talk about calling and election, and I’m going to use the predestinated word when we talk about those things as doctrines. We tend to forget Moses was, he was chosen; he was called out from among others that weren’t to do a specific job. Spared the baby in that basket. Spared, raised up in the palace. And at the right time, God quickened Moses’ Spirit. He was chosen, he was called but the switch that illuminated the spirit-man had not yet been pulled. God did not yet illuminate. So when he looked down at his then knowing brethren being slayed or the whip raised to be slain, he looked upon that and it was at that moment that he couldn’t bare to see that happen. There was something that was opened in him, the spirit-person.
Christian Theological by Pastor Melissa Scott
It’s a hard – this is such an easy concept, but it’s so hard to explain because we have complicated our understanding of calling and election and predestination. Now watch what happens. There was no doctrine of predestination until Augustine. You read the textbooks. I don’t care where you are or who you are. Go and find a book of Christian thought, Christian theological – what has been laid out by the fathers and you will not find that topic until Augustine. Somewhere around 397 and it’s not because he did not have an inspiration. Oh yes, he had an inspiration, but the mistake we make – and I’m guilty of it. You say, “Where’s Mrs. Scott going? You have to follow me to find out. The mistake that’s made if we are simplistic enough to do this, Strong’s Concordance, if we think that “predestination” and “predestinated” occurred just by the usage of the words, we’re terribly mistaken. Those words only occur twice in Romans and twice in Ephesians. Other times, may be “foreordained,” “foreknowledge,” “calling,” “election;” that becomes something else. But they’re not used. It became a doctrine, implemented by Augustine. And that’s not to say that I don’t believe that there’s something behind the something. If we understand, some doctrines creep into the church because it is man trying to comprehend. We reach up to grab God and bring Him down to where we are because our mind can’t comprehend beyond. We end up reducing God to our littleness or our insignificance if you will.
Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that Augustine was the one that really put it out there in response to Palagious. And you know because I’ve talked about this, Dr. Scott talked about this. Palagious and Augustine really went at it. In fact, and I applaud Augustine because I don’t agree with everything Augustine said, but some of the things that Palagious said and he followers said were insane. Listen to this. I’m going to read something to you. I want to make sure that I get this across because the subject of predestination, which I said I would discuss before we went into the second chapter, must have an appendage attached to it. If you remember Dr. Scott quoting Paul Tillich – now I have quote two people now. He used to say, “It’s as blasphemous to define God as it is to deny Him” or vice versa. So we come to a place where there’s the right desire to comprehend what saith the scripture. But this is how clever Satan is. Satan comes as an angel of light to make you focus in on an attribute of God, which is not wrong. That’s beautiful. But instead of focusing on the attribute, he makes you take your eyes off of the attribute and focus on a function. This is the function. Suddenly that becomes the reason for being not what brought you there in the first place. And all of these people, all of these church fathers had something to say on the subject.
The Father Of Glory by Pastor Melissa Scott
Paul’s prayer begins in verse 15: “Paul, to the saints that are at Ephesus….” I want to emphasize that he is talking to believers, just as I am talking to believers today. If you have any interest in hearing, even if you think that your interest is merely out of curiosity, then the Spirit of God is drawing you to listen. Hear these words, please. “Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you,” and He does, “may give unto you the spirit of wisdom, revelation in the fuller knowledge of him.
Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that the eyes of your heart,” literally, “of your understanding,” “be enlightened,” or “be illuminated,” “that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of his glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe,” literally faithe, “who faithe according to the working of his mighty power.” He goes on to say, “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, set him at his own right hand in the heavenlies. Far above principality, power, might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but the one which is to come. He put all things under his feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.”
That’s his first prayer in this letter, and it’s very subtle. We need to read this with the background knowledge that Paul is talking to converts at Ephesus. We could fall into the trap to say that he is speaking to those that don’t believe, that don’t have faith. No, he is speaking to those people who are already in the faith. And the last line of that prayer is pretty remarkable because he says, “the fullness of him that filleth all in all.”
Christ died on Calvary by Pastor Melissa Scott
Before I did the translation I was living with the spectacles of the King James Version. I had not looked it up. I do not spend all of my days looking up every single verse in the Bible all the time. So with this occasion, something stood out remarkably. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, upon thy holy city.” Now we’ve said “thy people” are Daniel’s people, the Jewish people, but we’re going to look to one place, Judah, as the source. Harness that thought in your mind. “Thy people and thy holy city,” Jerusalem, “to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins.” Now how many have in your Bibles the word sins as plural? “And to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision in prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.”
Looking briefly at the grammar, we have the preposition “to,” “to finish”; the definite article “the” in “the transgression”; that is okay. “And to put an end,” uses the vav conjunction; “and to” again uses the preposition “to.” But the next part of the translation presents an anomaly when compared to the Hebrew. Literally, it should say, “and to put an end to the sin.” Notice the definite article before the word “sin.” It’s very subtle, but there is a world of difference between sins in the sense of “the sins of the world,” and the expression “putting an end to sin.”
Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that we are, like the song says, sinners being saved by grace. So what Christ did on Calvary was a once and for all act. I am still in Adam, even though I’m a new creature in Christ. So to put an end definitively to “the sin” means everything that is wrong, including everything that is “missing the mark.” That is the meaning of the Greek word hamartia translated “sin” in the New Testament. It encompasses everything. So we have here “seventy weeks of sevens are decreed upon the people of you, the holy city of you to finish the transgression and to put an end to the sin.”
About God’s Book by Pastor Melissa Scott
Pastor Melissa Scott tells us that this is like a spiritual blast, every once in a while we need to come back to the basics. Go back to God’s promises, they’re yours, they’re mine. I had a good laugh when I was thinking about these children on the playground. I thought of one of the promises, “Shoes of iron and brass.” I got to thinking about it, you know God’s a funny fashion designer. Shoes of iron and brass wouldn’t cut it in this day and age. But there’s something about what He says, we know ‘tough shoes for a tough trip,’ but if you think about it, to give us shoes like that it’s going to be tough. Not only do you have to make the trip but you’ve got to drag these things around.
What I like about God’s Book is that the Bible confirms itself. That’s why we read in Ephesians 6 ‘Your feet shod with the gospel of peace,’ same equipping if you will, same mindset, same everything—we’re on a journey. Now I take that, “Shoes of iron and brass,” and go back to the playground and imagine now you’re a kid swinging across those monkey bars. What a terrible analogy for some of us grown-ups wearing their shoes of iron and brass going across those monkey bars. Guaranteed you’re going to fall, there’s just a guarantee, the weight alone is going to probably kill you when you fall. But when you fall, and I’m trying to be funny and satirical, but the fact of the matter is when you fall, and we all do, Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
The Price by Pastor Melissa Scott
I tried to find the best sources; I looked through every single source to find a picture analogy, and the best one that I can come up with is this: if you remember before automobiles, none of us remember that, but before automobiles – horse and buggy, and they’d go through roads that were muddy and mucky and the wheels would get stuck in the groove of the mud and they’d spin. They wouldn’t be able to get out if it was deep enough. This is the picture meaning for this, how we go in our life, those paths of mud that we fall into. We are not even realizing they’re there as we go.
It is part of our journey. But it sits under that canopy of hamartia. And please don’t let anybody start to define what sins are. I can tell you I’m the most sinful person in the whole universe. Please don’t try to define what it is. You’ll have to put a picture of me beside the word.
By the way, the Syriac does the same thing. Let’s go through it. I have time to do it. This word we have here, the same behe da, so da, this “d” representing “into” or “what for,” “in whom,” “in him.” This here, ait and lan, if you follow the languages, they’re all pretty much interconnected here. We have “to us” and this word here, you’ll recognize that word I just said when I said qana, which is “the price,” what is paid to get something when you go to redeem it.