Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. And happy Sunday. Happy Sunday. Yep. And if you are on your way to church and haven't gotten there yet, we're gonna ask you to do something that we asked you to do, I think last week too. Yeah. Read your Bible. Yes, do that. Pray one Peter one, 14 through 16. Specifically drive to church. Drive to church. Bring your family. Don't leave them home. Your family. Don't forget the family. Yeah. Don't do that though bad. Are we a dog friendly church? Could we bring their dog? Nope. Nope. Do we do animal blessings? I've had lots of people ask the question. No, you haven't. People wanna know there's a goldfish that's not doing so well. No, we don't do animal blessings. Okay. Are you going drag that conversation into this right now? No, I'm not. No. All right, great. We'll leave it alone. People wanna know. People wanna know. Yeah. No, but we are gonna ask if you are one of our ours and we trust that you are, if you're listening to this podcast, that you would do us a favor of sitting a little bit closer than you normally do. In fact. A lot closer than you normally do. Find the closest that you can get aside from sitting on stage. If you can't see Pastor PJ's, wrinkles, you're not close enough. Yikes. You don't need to get that close, but move on up and move in because that does us a huge favor. God is growing our church, which we love, and we are doing the best that we can do in the facility that we've got right now. And we've got some room to grow still in that facility, which is great. We can stay where we're at. We can continue to grow. We don't need to, make a dramatic shift on anything. But we are filling up that room and we're gonna be adding more chairs in the coming weeks too, to accommodate that. What we pray will be continued growth. And so what you can do for us is move forward and move in and you might think, does that really matter? And the answer is it really does. And it. While the number of empty chairs may not change in the room, the perception of the visitor walking into the room does change in the sense that if you walk into a room and we've all been there before and you look around at the only seats that are open are all the way down front, you're gonna feel like, Hey man, there's not really any room for me in this place. There's seats there. Sure. But I don't wanna walk down there. I don't know if those are reserved. I don't know if, if somebody on the worship team's gonna come down and sit in those seats. I don't really wanna walk in front of all these people, I don't know, and go down there and sit there. Or maybe they're looking in the back of the auditorium and there's two or three seats, but in, they're in the middle of the row and they're gonna have to walk in front of seven people that they don't know they've never met before to sit in those three seats. So if you can move in and move up, that will really help. Make our place a, a warm and inviting place. People tell us all the time how warm and friendly y'all are, and we love that. This is another extension of that to just change the location that you're sitting. Move up, move in. That'd be a huge help. Interesting that in the church setting, the best seat in the house are the back seats. Back row Baptist at your home, you'd be like, sit in the seat of honor in front of everybody, or you could see everybody just fine. But in the church it's the opposite, which is fascinating to me. But yes, I agree. That's the way that most people see it. It's helpful to have those seats in the back for people that are coming later, and that's usually newer people. People don't like to show up on time if it's a church that they're not familiar with, because honestly, they're not necessarily trying to make connections with people. They're still feeling it out and relationships just make things messier. Yeah. If I like you and I don't like your church, do I come to your church? 'cause I like you? I don't know. It's those kinds of things. So help us be helpful to them. Be gracious. Hosts and sit a little closer to Pastor pj. I even think I might start sitting on the stage. Okay. Behind you. Okay. And saying We don't receive that church. I could add colorful commentary. I could see that being very helpful for people to pay attention more. I the Google Leaf during the sermon might, I would ask questions. Clarifying. What did you just say? Did you mean to say it this way? Sound effects some people. Yeah. Sound effects could work. I have an air horn just waiting to be used. Would that be on a good point or a bad point? Would that be like a goal? It's ambidextrous. Okay. It could be either one. Alright. No, that'd be huge help for us, but yeah. Good. I'm glad to bring it then. No, not that. You guys moving up and in not the air horn. Leave the air horn at home. Don't bring the air horn to church on Sunday. Yeah. Hey, let's jump into our DVR. We are in Ezekiel 34, 35, and 36 today. Chapter 34 is similar to what we talked about maybe yesterday. I can't remember the day before on. Israel's or Ezekiel rather, in his role as the watchman of Israel, because in chapter 34, what God is gonna do is he's gonna indict the shepherds of Israel for basically not doing their job in caring for the people of Israel, spiritually speaking. And the shepherd's job was to protect the sheep and to lead the sheep and to feed the sheep. And what these shepherds were doing was, rather than protecting them, they were exposing them. And they were using them for their own gain. They were getting fat themselves off of the sheep. Instead of caring for these sheep. And so you think about the juxtaposition of Christ who says in John 10 that he's the good shepherd and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. These are not good shepherds that we find in Ezekiel chapter 34. The priest, the leaders, the spiritual leaders of Israel, were not doing the job that God had called them to do that they should have been doing. And God was indicting them on that in chapter 34. And so they're gonna be called for account. And again, the reason being is not because the people were sinning, because they were bad shepherds, but rather because they were not good shepherds. The people that were sinning, that they were gonna be judged, were gonna be held accountable, and these shepherds were gonna be held accountable for them as well. Just like we talked about with Ezekiel as the watchman. By contrast, God would eventually, in the millennial kingdom, provide the good shepherd, and that's gonna be Jesus. I think this is the background of John Chapter 10. And a, a forward-looking prophecy as well, not just a John Chapter 10 in the first advent, but more specifically to the second coming of Christ when he will be their shepherd and reign and rule over them as both their priest and their king in that fulfillment in the millennial kingdom. So when he says shepherds of Israel, then do you think he's talking to a certain class of leader, leaders in general, kings, prophets, priests, I guess Ezekiel's the prophet, and maybe Jeremiah's in view here. Probably not though. Who is he talking to? I've always taken it as the spiritual leaders, just because I think in the New Testament it's a term that conveys spiritual oversight more than it does the. More political oversight. I think it, it could play both of those roles, but I think it, it, I've always looked at it as from a spiritual perspective, the priests more than I have the kings and governors and rulers, but it could apply to both. Yeah, I think I'd be inclined to agree with you there. And I suppose that the pertinent point for us, for those of us who are shepherds, not everybody who's listening is going to be one of those, but I feel this, I read Ezekiel 34 and I even referenced. Jeremiah 23 where he's has a little bit of something like this in his first four verses in that chapter. This is such a heavy burden and God cares deeply about his people to the point where if a shepherd isn't doing his job, he's derelict in his duty. The true shepherd, the shepherd himself, the great shepherd will do justice for his people and that will mean cutting down the shepherds that are just fleecing the flock. Look out for them. Sadly, there are many, even within the church, there are people that call themselves shepherds, but really they're wolves in sheep's clothing. You would do well to know how to find them and part of it is knowing your Bible well enough to look for the marks of faithful leadership versus the unfaithful one. And ultimately what we're pointing to here, as you said, is John chapter 10, every Good shepherd is just a reflection and a shadow of the true shepherd. And that's the kind of person that you should follow. Yeah. Yeah. There was the. X account, Portia, they're always highlighting, we would say bad shepherds. And they had one just the other day. I think it was Saturday morning on this. Pastor, quote unquote, I use scare courts around that, who had basically told his church, Hey we're gonna welcome those in the L-G-B-T-Q community because even though the Bible says and speaks out against these things I care less about what the Bible says than I do about loving. The people that are creating the image of God. What? Yeah. No lie. And they unbelievable. They have this, back and forth that they do between the pastor and the congregation before every service. And the end of it is we will always love the person in front of us more than the war in our laps or something like that. It's a false dichotomy. Yeah, totally. It. B, but it's one that sound that, that preaches to a liberal world. A liberal audience. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. We should love people more than we should. Love the, bibliography. It's that accusation of against us as in our camp. And that's, you're right, it's a false dichotomy because the way that we shepherd and love people the best is by pointing them to the word of God and calling them into into obedience to the word of God. In fact, we're gonna talk about that. Today. And the reason for that is because that's what God desires and he desires that not because of some, he's waiting for us to prove ourselves, but because he wants a relationship with us and holiness is key to that relationship. And so yeah, that's been taken care of for us at the cross, but it's also a. It's a dynamic relationship here on Earth before we get to eternity where the more holy we are, the closer we're gonna feel to the Lord. And as your shepherds, we want you to feel that closeness to the Lord and the best thing that we can do for you, and that is to say, this is what God's word says. Come and follow it. Come and do it. And we wanna walk with you in that process and help you along in that. Amen to that. And one, one other final thought here true shepherd does. Tell without apology what his flock is supposed to do here. Here's what you should do according to what God's word says, it doesn't mean they wield that with a heavy hand. We're gonna find out in one Peter chapter five that the way a shepherd leads is critical, not just what he says, but how he does it. And those two pieces together. Having a thick skin and tender heart is what allows a pastor a shepherd to really do his job with excellence and with Christ-likeness. Yeah. Yeah. Chapter 35 then is about the Edomites once more. And so we see the Edomites again here. Mount Sr was related to Edem and the Edomites and the descendants of Esau. And so this is the judgment. We see that in chapter 35. That's the main gist of this here, that MTEs are gonna be punished for gloating over Israel's downfall and assuming that they would be able to take over their land, even though it still belonged to Yahweh and even though Israel was in exile. This is a reminder for us in this chapter that even today, even as chaotic as things are right now, the back and forth between Israel and Palestine and everything else, that land ultimately is God's land. And he has a future for it. And nobody is going to lay claim to that land that he's not gonna allow to do that. And ultimately he's gonna rid everybody and set up the kingdom there. So the Edomites presume upon their place. And God is saying, Nope, this isn't your place. And so judgment is gonna come against Edem here in Chapter 35. I think Edem continues to play this role of being an anti type or really a scarecrow of sorts. They represent. Israel's enemies and they just happen to be the ones that actually are fulfilling this role. So I suppose one thing I would caution you against is being overly literal in the way that you read Chapter 35 and just saying, oh, it's only edem. They're the real big issue here. They're not sure they are an issue, but they are one issue among many others. It's really the nations that set themselves against Israel. Simply the punching bag here that God utilizes to say it's like this. You guys are acting in ways and you're the stereotype that fits the general statement. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's a good point. A chapter 36 is one of the more well-known chapters in Ezekiel because we deal with new covenant language here. And so the beginning part of the chapter, God is saying that he's gonna avenge the land, but really the people of Israel, for those that are gloating, those that are celebrating their downfall, he's gonna restore Israel out of concern for his name, verses 20 through 21. He's saying, this is not gonna be for you, but this is for my name, for my glory. And then he gets into the new covenant language here in the the verses. 24 through 28 specifically. But his future restoration of the people is gonna involve this new covenant language. And this is going to be the language of the new heart and the new spirit, and the sprinkling with water for the cleansing of sin, removing the heart of stone, giving the heart of flesh, putting the spirit within him, all these things, walking in obedience, dwelling in the land that I gave to the fathers. And you shall be my people, and I will be your God. So remember, Jeremiah 31 is the chapter Jeremiah 31 31. Begins it is the original introduction in the new covenant language. This picks up on a lot of those same themes and develops it a little bit more for us. And this is the background of so much of what Jesus picks up on in the New Testament when he talks about being the living water in other things like this and about sprinkling with water for cleansing of sins. There's a lot here behind the scenes in from Ezekiel 36 and the new covenant that Jesus is building upon as well. And even though we see this as common, we've read this before. We exist under the new covenant. This is. This is huge. I can't overstate how massive this prediction, this prophecy is because it points to something greater than the current covenant giving you a new heart, new spirit within you. Jeremiah and Ezekiel are both exilic, post exilic prophets. Jeremiah lives through that, and so this is God saying this. Covenant appears to have failed. People went to the land, they took over the land under Joshua, they lived under the judges, and now everything really has not gone well. The kings failed, the people failed. They've been exiled, and yet God is saying, I'm not done yet. You think this is the end. It's not the end. I'm going to restore you and I'm gonna do something better than anything. The first covenant, the old covenant, as we now know it could ever do. So this is huge. I hope you feel the weight of it and also the joy of it because you're on the other side of this. Yeah. Yeah. And by when you say the covenant that failed, there we're, let's be clear, we're talking Mosaic, covenant, mosaic, right? Under the old covenant. Yes. Yeah, that's what I meant. Yeah. Because the Abrahamic covenant is still in operation. Yes. Davidic Covenant still in operation. New Covenant really is there to, to supplant the Mosaic Covenant predominantly. Would you say it's a helpful way to think about the old Covenant? 'cause we talked about the old Covenant as one singular thing, and I guess it is. If you think of. The Abrahamic as being the bull that carries the smaller bulls, like Russian nesting dolls. Would that be a good way to think of it? Or is it better to think of them as several covenants under the old covenant? I guess I've always thought of them as multiple covenants under the old Covenant. You've got your major ones. The no AIC Covenant is in there too. That one's usually not as massive, although it's significant. Hey, God's not gonna flood the world again. And here's the rainbow, and he's gonna put that in the cloud as the sign of that. But mosaic's big because that's, Hey, this is how we're gonna relate to one another and here's the sacrificial system in, in the law and everything else. In fact, we're talking about that today in church. Is the significance of what that was foreshadowing and looking forward to? So I guess I've always just thought about the big three covenants in the Old Testament, and that is the mosaic. The Abrahamic and the Davidic and the Abrahamic and the Davidic continue today. The mosaic has been. Fulfilled in Christ and supplanted by the new covenant. How would you say that the Mosaic covenant and the Abrahamic covenant fit together? Because it seems like they contradict at least superficially. Sure. The Abrahamic covenant is God saying, I'm gonna do this to you regardless of what you do. Abraham was asleep when the covenant was enacted and solidified. He does nothing. And yet God says, I'm gonna bless you and yet down the line you have the mosaic covenant where Moses says, if you do this, if you obey, then you'll have the land. See the blessing that was promised under Abraham, you'll get to enjoy all the covenant blessings, but if you don't obey. I'm gonna exile you and you're gonna eat your kids and all the other things that he talks about there. And that comes to the fore. It does. So how do the mosaic and the Abrahamic covenant fit? Yeah. How are we best to understand those? I, my mind goes to what Paul says when he says, not all Israel is true Israel. And then in Galatians he says is those who are of faith, that are sons of Abraham. And so I, I think the mosaic covenant was their. And given nationally to the people of Israel. But it wasn't necessarily the abiding covenant for the way that relationship was gonna work out. I see what you mean by, is it the bull or the nesting doll, because the primary relationship was always gonna be through faith, even with the mosaic covenant there. They're gonna be justified by faith, and that's why Paul could say in Galatians three that God preached the gospel beforehand him to, to Abraham. So the mosaic covenant was never about are you gonna spend eternity with God or not? That was always gonna come down to faith. The Mosaic Covenant was, this is what relationship with God looks like in this dispensation, and if you don't maintain it, you may reveal that you don't have that relationship founded on faith. But that wasn't everybody. There were some people for whom the Mosaic Covenant was. Was sufficient for them. They were following him. They were doing the things that they had called them to do that, that faithful remnant in others. I think were effective in that, but that wasn't changing the fact that they're standing with God. It was ultimately faith, which goes back to the Abraham and Covenant. So when we say the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, is it a misnomer then to say singular old covenant, old Testament? Would you say is a better way to talk about it? Because we're saying here, and I think I understand your point, Abrahamic Davidic, those are carrying forward into the New Testament, right? And we expect those to be fully fulfilled right at the millennial reign of Christ. What are we saying then, right when we say Under the old covenant? Sometimes we'll use it as a shorthand, right? What are we saying? I think we're talking Mosaic Covenant. Anytime we say old covenant singular. Yeah. We're saying primarily old covenant mosaic covenants, right? That we have in mind. Okay. But the old covenant contains many covenants or God. Obligate himself to his people. Among them are the Mosaic, the Abrahamic, the Davidic, those are the big three. You have the Adamic or the Covenant of Works, sometimes it's called. The Icic. You mentioned there's Levitical, the Levitical law. Is that a covenant, isn't that part of the mosaic? Would you say the Levitical is connected to that? Yeah I guess I'm thinking when he says of the, of Levi, I won't make a covenant with you. Okay. In your descendants. That's a good one. Yeah. It seems like this gets really confusing. It does. It does. Real fast. How does it people, how do we keep that straight? I think, again, remembering the big three are the ones that are gonna have the most bearing on us as Christians in knowing the mosaic covenant fulfilled in Christ no longer under the Mosaic covenant. The Abrahamic Covenant operative, this is the gospel from the very beginning. This is the overarching picture, the viic covenant points to the future reign of Christ here on Earth. That's important for us as dispensationalist to say, Hey, that's not been. Satisfied yet. And the Davidic covenant's significant because the descendant of Christ, descendant of David is gonna be Jesus. That he is of the line of David. So those three, I think are really big for us to keep in mind when the storm clouds come like they did Friday night you can remember the no NOIC covenant with comfort there and say, okay, the fountains aren't gonna break loose and flood the earth. But I think those three are really important for us to remember. As it pertains to us as believers, I think for Israel, man, the Abrahamic Covenant, I think was their bread and butter. The no Mosaic covenant was significant because it was a dual covenant. They entered into it as well. But the Abrahamic covenant, that's the lande and blessing. That's everything for them. It's all about the land. And it still is all about the land today, which is why there's still the combat the fighting that happens between Israel and Palestine. If there wasn't the Abraham a Covenant, then Israel would've moved on and gone somewhere else perhaps, and it wouldn't have been that big of a deal. But because God promised lands, seed and blessing there in that land, I think that's still one that they're looking at going, this is the biggest deal right now. And that one is covenant by grace. That's the one that God promised to them that was unilateral. That's the technical word that you could use. Yes. Unilateral. The mosaic covenant is bilateral. Yes. That goes both ways. And that's the one that was broken. That's what caused their exile. The Davidic Covenant is also unilateral as I understand it, because God promises to David two Samuel seven, I'm gonna make you a sure house. I'm gonna, I'm going to establish your kingdom and rulership, not only here and now, but really forever. So the only, no that's not true. The primary bilateral covenant under the Old Covenant, the Old Testament is the mosaic one, and that's the one that's. That's being broken here, and that's the one that's causing all these reverberating effects, right? To the people of Israel. And so Ezekiel speaks to them and says, it's not over. The mosaic Covenant looks like it's crumbling, but God's relationship with you is not finalized. He's going to promise you a new heart, which will allow you to obey. That's been the whole problem here, is that you couldn't obey the mosaic covenant. Yeah. And that really is the point. The law was a Tudor Paul will say later on in Galatians. Three. Yeah. And this is part of the problem is that we can never obey no matter how hard we try. Yep. Yep. Okay. That's as clear as mud. Everyone's totally got it. Totally clear. They nailed it. No other questions. Are to be asked or nor will there ever be asks ever we've ever definitively answered every potentiality. And now everybody's dispensationalist too. That's right. Even if they don't listen to this podcast, they woke up today, they're like, oh man. Something changed. I believe that's your, nevermind. Alright. Alright, let's pray and we'll be done with this episode. God we freely admit that the Bible is complex in some of these things. It's simple in the things that we need to know and learn and understand when it comes to our standing with you and who you are and who Jesus is, and we praise you for that. But there's other complexities here that we do our best to try to understand, and some of these things are the secret things that belong to you and you alone. But help us to. Able to discern that and not be lazy. Not to just say we'll never understand it. So let's throw our hands up and not even try, but to be good students and try to understand as much as we can and by your spirit, Lord, teach us, instruct us, lead us so that we can gain more understanding of these things and appreciate more of who you are and how you operate today, and how you will continue to operate. Into the future. So we wanna be faithful Lord, to what you've laid out for us in scripture. Help us do that well, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Keep reading your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Bye folks. Bye.

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Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said