It's Friday, August 8th. I'm Bernard, and this is the Daily Bible Podcast: A daily analysis of Scripture and application, from a Christian worldview. And now, your hosts, Pastor PJ and Pastor Rod...

Yep, that's right. You've got us, you've got Pastor Rod and Pastor Pja here. Thanks Bernard for that awesome intro. We are thankful to have another voice on the podcast and he doesn't cause us a thing. He doesn't cost us anything. Can you imagine? He works day and night anytime

we want, and he says whatever we want him to say, whatever we want him to say.

He, I like him. He agrees with everything that you have to say. He and you agree with everything he has to say. Apparently. I I heard that. I heard that was the case. Yeah, no. Welcome back. We're glad that you guys are with us again. Yes, we are. We we had a question written in from one of our listeners. Pr do you wanna take the point on that one? I don't have it in front of me. Okay. Let me go ahead. I've got it. Okay. You have it. I'll read it and then you answer it or I'll let you read it and then I'll let you answer it. Okay. Because he didn't wanna hear from me. Wants to hear from you. That's not true. Is said in the DVR today. This was a couple days ago now. I was surprised to see a good king for a change with yesterday's reading being. Nahum could there be any correlation between King Josiah actually having his stuff together with the book of Nahum being a subtle reminder or encouragement of God's presence? Go for it. Yeah that's great insight. I hadn't thought about that, but I think that that, that is definitely a possibility. When I preached through Nahum with our. Our church here, when we did the minor prophet series I took that approach that this is an encouragement, this is a reminder of God's faithfulness to his people. And that judgment was gonna come against the invading army of the Assyrians. And so that could definitely be maybe some positive motivation for Josiah to say, this is good, this is what's right. And God is faithful, and so I'm gonna live faithful to him. It. That's, I think, certainly a feasible option. But I, I think the main motivation for Josiah's reforms and for his response and the reason why he was a good king, is because Josiah read the law, read the word of God, and responded to the word of God the way that he should. And God was faithful in response to to him because Josiah took the word of God seriously and lived in light of it. So I think there, there could be both and at work there.

Yeah, that was a good insight. I think that's a really good connection and. One of the things that's challenging my full throated endorsement of that is that as we read through Jeremiah and as we'll read through some of these other smaller books here, we're gonna find out that not all is pretty. Not all things are firing in all cylinders. In fact, this is one of the problems that despite there being a good king with good edicts who has a good direction for the nation, there's a lot of people that are just going through the motions. They'll swear by the Lord, and yet inside they're still doing things that are displeasing to him. So we, it's a qualified Yes, I agree with you, and I think that's a good insight. On the other hand, I would say, but maybe there's more than what meets the eye. That usually is the case.

Yep.

Typically find

that

to

be true. Yeah. It's it's Friday. We are heading into a brand new weekend. We've got a new book that we're starting on Sunday, starting the book of first Peter. That's gonna be fun. So how long? Three years? Yeah,

three, six years. Three years for chapter one, three years. Chapter one. So we're doing it verse by verse and letter by letter as I understand it exactly. They're not even doing a whole

word exe. Each Greek letter as we go through. Bible code. We're gonna bring some of that in, man. No, this is gonna, don't miss it. We're gonna have some breaks for different series Christmas, things like that. But this, I anticipate us taking it all the way up through next, the beginning of next summer. We'll launch it in August and probably wrap it up in May. Wow. But yeah I'm looking forward to it. I think it's gonna be a rich book, a helpful book for us as a church and not just sitting at the dart board going, what do I wanna preach? Let's go first, Peter. But there's some good trees in there. And in fact, if you show up on Sunday. You'll hear some of the reason and rationale why we're studying First Peter together. You have a dart board with books of the Bible on it? I do. I throw darts at the Bible all the time. I always

imagine pastors using a spinning wheel. Okay. There's a wheel at 66, violent, tick tick, tick. Great. Like Wheel of Fortune or Price is right where they do the Showcase Showdown. Those are the good shows, man. Or do perfect wheel. Unfortunate. Yeah. Okay. No, yeah, it feels a bit derivative of the old school. Yeah. That's fair. So I like the old school better. New school guys are cool. I like them. If they came to our church, I wouldn't be mad or anything, but I'm just saying I like the Wheel of Fortune. I like the Showcase Showdown. Give me my, gimme my game shows. If they're out there listening, we'll take you guys over at our church. I would be willing

to let you come to our church. Yeah. Anyways, let's jump into our daily Bible reading for today. We're in Jeremiah four through six, I believe that's right, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. Four through six. Chapter four is. Part of the negativity that you were talking about there. That's coming because this is all about the judgment that God is gonna send via Babylon disaster from the North as it's put in verse six. That's the direction that the Babylonians were gonna come and the Babylonians were going to attack from. And so God is really done with the stubbornness. In fact, we've talked about this word before, but we find it again. Back in verse three, break up your fallow ground and sew not among thorns. You've talked about the word fallow before, meaning that hard compacted soil. It's not good, it's not rich for planting. This should remind us, I think of Matthew 13 and when Jesus is talking about the parable of the sower and the different soils that represent the heart. And how the heart is gonna receive the word of the Lord, which is the gospel according to Jesus. In Matthew 13, all the way back here in the Old Testament, this was the word that was coming from the prophets, the word that was coming from Yahweh as delivered through the prophets. And the Israelites were not receiving it. They were having the stubbornness of their hearts and. He then uses the analogy of circumcision. On top of that, he says, circumcised yourselves to the Lord. Which if they were good Jews at this point in time, those that were listening to Jeremiah that were older than eight days old, they would've already been circumcised. So this must mean something else, and certainly it does, because in the next verse it says, remove the foreskin of your hearts. And so this is that internal softening of the hearts towards the Lord. And that's what Jeremiah the prophet is calling for here. And God is indicting them on their hardheartedness and their stubbornness and saying, because of that, I'm going to bring Babylon, I'm gonna bring judgment against you. And that results in the prophet calling for repentance again. And then really, I think it's Jeremiah there anguishing. Over the fate of the people and being in grief and being in mourning over the fact that judgment is coming and the Israelites continue to be so stubborn and so hardhearted against against God and his commands.

Yeah. And that's what makes Jeremiah such a special prophet. Not that any of the other guys were cold hearted and distant, but he felt for the people that he was preaching to. And this is a right posture, even as we talk to our neighbors and we talk to our kids or anyone else for that matter, about God's judgment and about God's. Concern about human sin, it should not be done with an arrogant, better thanou attitude. And I think a lot of people throughout the course of our church's history, at least for as long as I've been alive, have often charged church people with being boastful, arrogant. You've heard the terminology holier than thou, and I, maybe that's true. I don't really know many Christians like that myself personally, but it's always worth us being aware. That people are constantly evaluating, not just what we say, but how we say it. And Jeremiah teaches us that there's a way to deliver bad news in a way that says, man, but I feel my anguish. My anguish, I writhe in pain. Oh, the walls of my heart. My heart is beating wildly. I can't keep silence. And Jeremiah is not a dispassionate evangelist. He's someone who is obeying God, but he's doing so with the full heart for his people. And may that be the case for us. Pray for the people that you are called to love and serve. Pray for the people that you're called to share Christ with because it should be. And I'm gonna say something that maybe you'll disagree with Pastor PG. It should be though that the people that you are called to share the gospel with you should be able to shed tears over. I think that's appropriate. I think that's right. I think that's good. It should at least move you. Maybe you're not, doing what he's doing here and you've got tears streaming down your face, but you do feel deeply for the people that you're called to love. This is just like Christ in Matthew chapter nine. He had bowels of compassion, he had splank on his belly felt for these people that were lost. And so it should be for us for those of us who are called to evangelize the lost here.

Yeah. Which is indicative of a person that truly understands what's at stake. We're gonna actually talk about that a little bit with one Peter. It's one of the reasons why we're going through the book of one Peter one. Peter says that at one point that we are called to be those that proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into delight that we are his kingdom ambassadors for that. And that it should be something, not that we look at as a, as an obligation or a burden, but something that we rejoice in being able to do because we know what's at stake and that is if they're not brought outta the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of lights, what they're gonna face should cause all of us to mourn. Now, some of you are like I haven't cried since I was three years old and I stubbed my toe and so I'm just not somebody who cries. You can still feel the internal DExT motion. Yes. Yeah. Deep emotion. The word over the fate of the lost around you. How about verse 22? Do you think the speaker changes here back to Yahweh, or do you think it's still Isaiah in verse 22? Every,

everyone that I'm reading here is referring to this as Jeremiah, so I think that's, I think it's Jeremiah, I'm I could even see Jeremiah saying the things that he's saying. He's not like he's. Oblivious. Yeah. To the reality of who they are, which is what makes it even more powerful, the kind of anguish that his soul goes through. Yeah. 'cause it's not oh, I have this rosy colored picture of who they, the people are.

Yeah. Yeah. The destruction as it's described here is it's essentially uncreation. You look at verse 23, I looked on the earth, behold it was without form in void. That should. Take you back to Genesis. That's what the earth was like before God began to create so so horrible. Is this judgment that God is bringing against Jerusalem gonna be, that it's gonna leave it as though it was still in its uncreated form, in its uncreated state. Not literally, but in, in essence there. And yet in verse 27, he says, I will not make a full. And the silver lining is brief here because as we get into chapter five. He returns back to the stubbornness of Jerusalem and we hear more language that's gonna harken us back to another part of the Old Testament here when Jeremiah's told, run to and further of the streets through the streets, or Jeremiah is saying this and look and take notes. Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth that I may pardon her. This is God speaking here. So that should take us back to Sodom and Gomorrah back when God was promising judgment there and Abraham was saying can I find a righteous. Person. What if there's 10? What if there's five? What if there's only one? And and God says, I will spare for all the way down to one. And so here we find a similar situation. God is now saying, and this would've struck home for the people with ears to hear that Jerusalem had become just as evil, just as wicked as the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And we remember what happened to them. Implication being that's gonna happen to Jerusalem as well. Verse seven. He says the rhetorical question here, how can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me and have sworn by those that are no gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery. So God is saying, even if I wanted to, how? How could I pardon you? Justice has to be done. I won't make a full end verse 10. Mercy is gonna be there, but still justice has to be done. And starting in verse 14, he returns to the idea of Babylon. Verse 15, I'm bringing against you a nation from afar. Oh, house of Israel. And their description is much like we find even in the book of Habakkuk, as the prophet describes via God the the type of nation that. That Babylon was the merciless nation that they were. And again, the underlying problem, verse 22, is he says, do you not fear me, declares the Lord? Jump down for the answer in verse 24. They do not say in their hearts, let us fear the Lord our God. So no, they don't fear God and because they don't fear God, God was going to bring justice against them, against all of their injustice, which we see a lot of that described for us in the rest of chapter five. So chapter five is the judgment's coming and he's gonna bring Babylon and God is going to use them in judgment of his people.

I think just a reminder here, 'cause we keep on going through things like this and it's important for us to see this is the God that we serve, the same God that is love. He identifies himself as love in the New Testament. In fact, he defines love itself. He's the very def definition of it. Love necessitates hatred though, and that love for his righteousness, love for his people. Love for the good demands that he hate what is evil, and that he have strong feelings of indignation against all that threatens the good of the people that he loves. And so what in the Old Testament. In particular chapter five of Jeremiah is that God is vehemently opposed to evil. He's opposed to his people doing evil. It's like oil and water. They don't mix. And God knows what's good for them. And what's good is that they do righteousness that they love him and that they love their neighbor as themselves. So all of this that we're reading, as harsh as it sounds and as difficult as it might be for you to read, especially if you're primarily, fed on a New Testament only diet. These passages are so important and constructive for your faith because they fill out the picture for you. God's love only makes sense against the backdrop of God's judgment, so let that be an encouragement to you as you keep on reading.

Yeah. In chapter six, I'd like to say is. A good news chapter, but it's not. It's more in the, it really indicts the depth and the depravity of the people. Verse seven, as a well, keeps its water fresh. So she, Israel, that is Judah, keeps fresh her evil. Verse 10. Behold, the word of the Lord is to them, an object of scorn and they take no pleasure in it. Verse 14, they've healed the wound of my people lightly. The false prophet and priest that is saying, peace. Peace when there is no peace. He then goes on to say he, he rejects their burnt offerings because they've rejected his law. Verse 19, in verse 20, it got me thinking, is this call from Jeremiah we're talking about on Sunday the concept of God's elect, right? And. Part of that comes with, the reason election is necessary, we believe is for another part of the doctrines of grace, which is total depravity that left to themselves, man in their fallen state, can't freely choose God. And so there's an, there's a sense here that Jeremiah's calls for repentance, we're going to naturally fall on deaf ears unless God gave the people ears to hear. And so there's a passive judgment. Even in their continued rejection of Jeremiah's pleas for repentance, that God is still not allowing them to listen and to repent because I believe in the Old Testament, it was just as much an act of God to cause people to be faithful to him. We talked about Josiah at the beginning of this. That's because God had put it. Upon his heart and given him the ability to read the word of God, to feel the conviction and respond in faithfulness, that was not because Josiah was inherently a better or more righteous individual than another person was. So all of this judgment language, and yet at the same time, this is calling on dead bodies to, to come out of the graves. They're not able to do this because they're fallen. I

think that's why so many people. Don't agree with us theologically, because if you read this on the face of it, it sure sounds like they have a choice. It really does appear like there's some level of agency that God is appealing to, and I would have to agree with that because if we're reading this, we're gonna say, look, God is appealing to them. He's using Jeremiah's tears to call them back to say, please do something. In fact, chapter six verse one, flee for Safety Owe People of Benjamin Run. Judgment is coming. He's appealing to some human sense of choice, and so I would have to agree with that. There is human choice here. Now, it's not libertarian choice in the way that a lot of people understand as a, that is to say choice, that is independent of God. I could choose to do otherwise in what God is for ordained and I don't believe that, but I do believe choice is real. Human agency is genuine. Now, how that cooperates with God's decrees and his ultimate plans, I don't know. I would just emphasize what scripture emphasizes. You have a choice and you are responsible. And I would also say at the same time, God has already chosen how do you square a round peg? I don't know. I don't know. And these are the theological quandaries that we find ourselves in where we have to fullthroated, envo fullthroated endorse. Thank you. Endorse both as true statements. And then I'm gonna do what scripture says, and I'm going to. Emphasize each in their respective categories here in chapter six, I'm gonna say you have a choice and you should act rightly. On the other hand, I'm gonna say scripture also says that ultimately God has to do the work. So I can keep that in the back of my head as I, in the forefront of my mind, am thinking about this and saying God calls us to make a choice and we should make that choice. And if we can't, we need to lament that and ask him for help.

Yeah, and it's, it, yeah, it's so difficult. We're gonna dive more into this on Sunday morning, but it, we can't. We're not robots. We can't wake up in the morning and take the let go and let God tact of things. And when you have a choice facing you as to whether or not you're gonna obey God in this matter, or disobey God in this matter, it's not like you can just sit back and say, okay, God. I'm inclined to disobey you in my flesh, so I'm just gonna wait for you to do something that's gonna make me want to obey you. It is a real choice that's taking place within us and yet our understanding. Philippians two 12 two 12 and 13. 11 and 12. 12 and 13. We're working out our salvation, knowing that it's God who's at work in us, both willing to work for his good pleasure. And so we don't boast in that when we make the obedient decision, we recognize, man, that's God at work in us. But yeah this one's hard. We do have freedom in our fallen states, but as some have said, only the freedom to choose that which is in opposition to God we don't have the freedom to choose that which pleases God until God acts upon us. To give us now as believers the opportunity daily to choose to obey him or to choose to satisfy ourselves instead

then you must believe that unbelievers can't do anything good at all. What about philanthropists? What about the Boy Scouts? They rock old ladies across the street. What about fill in the blank? And

I think objectively from a human pers perspective, yeah, you can look at unbelievers and say they're doing good things. But from God's perspective, and this goes back to what we read in Isaiah, those good deeds are filthy rags because if they are what they're going to hold up to God to say, am I acceptable to you now? Because look at all the good I did. That should outweigh the bad I did. God's gonna look at that and say that's detestable to me because you think that your good deeds can measure up to my standard of righteousness. Amen to that. Yeah.

The late Dr. MacArthur said, even the good that heathens do is bad good because they don't do it for the glory of God. And this really goes back to what we were just saying. God defines love. He also defines good. And so for us to say, God, I'm doing good. Is to replace his definition with our own, because by necessity we would have to change it in order to make it fit. 'cause none of us is good. No, not one. Yeah. That's why we always go to scripture. This is our authority. We can't do what maybe a popular mega pastor might say, mega church pastor would say, where you take Jesus as our authority, not the Bible. That's a false dichotomy. You have to take Jesus authority by the Bible. Yeah. Sir. Anyway, my point is yes. These are ti difficult to put together. But we do what scripture does and we say what scripture says and we say both of those things. It might appear superficially to be a contradiction, but it is not. Just because we can't figure out how God does it, doesn't mean it's a contradiction.

Let's pray and then we will be done with another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. God, we are just in awe of the fact that you have given any of us the ability to understand the gospel and to repent from our sins and to put our trust in Christ that you've given us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to cause us to, to desire, to walk in your ways, to cause us to feel the conviction that we should walk in your ways, to even empower us to be able to do that in the first place. It is a measure of your grace and your mercy upon us. That is our reality as followers of Christ, and we're so thankful for that, that you haven't just left us to try to be good enough or to try to live a life to say I hope my good deeds out de outweigh my bad deeds at the end. Because what a miserable and in trying and painful existence that would be. And yet we know instead our righteousness is Christ's. And we are so thankful for that. And so we are grateful for this time in your word, pray that we would live faithful to you the rest of the day. As we anticipate all the good that you will do in and through us, we pray in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Keep it in your bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Bye folks. Bye.

Well, thank you for listening to another rip-roarin' episode of the Daily Bible Podcast, folks! We're honored to have you join us. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about our Church at compassntx.org or, learn more about Pastor PJ by going to BestPastorEver.com. We would love for you to leave a review, to rate, or to share this podcast on whatever platform you're listening on, and we hope to see you again tomorrow for another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said