00:00 Listener's Question: King Josiah and Nahum

02:42 Starting a New Book: 1 Peter

04:12 Daily Bible Reading: Jeremiah 4-6

14:03 Theological Discussion: Human Choice and Divine Sovereignty

18:28 Closing Prayer and Farewell

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

It's Friday, August 8th.

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I'm Bernard, and this is the Daily Bible

Podcast: A daily analysis of Scripture and

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application, from a Christian worldview.

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And now, your hosts,

Pastor PJ and Pastor Rod...

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PJ: Yep, that's right.

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You've got us, you've got

Pastor Rod and Pastor Pja here.

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Thanks Bernard for that awesome intro.

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We are thankful to have another

voice on the podcast and he

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doesn't cause us a thing.

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He doesn't cost us anything.

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Can you imagine?

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He works day and night anytime

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Rod: we want, and he says whatever we want

him to say, whatever we want him to say.

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PJ: He, I like him.

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He agrees with everything

that you have to say.

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He and you agree with

everything he has to say.

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Apparently.

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I I heard that.

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I heard that was the case.

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Yeah, no.

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Welcome back.

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We're glad that you

guys are with us again.

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Yes, we are.

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We we had a question written

in from one of our listeners.

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Pr do you wanna take

the point on that one?

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I don't have it in front of me.

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Okay.

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Let me go ahead.

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I've got it.

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Okay.

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You have it.

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I'll read it and then you answer

it or I'll let you read it and

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then I'll let you answer it.

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Okay.

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Because he didn't wanna hear from me.

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Wants to hear from you.

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That's not true.

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Is said in the DVR today.

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This was a couple days ago now.

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I was surprised to see a good king for

a change with yesterday's reading being.

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Nahum could there be any correlation

between King Josiah actually having

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his stuff together with the book

of Nahum being a subtle reminder

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or encouragement of God's presence?

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Go for it.

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Yeah that's great insight.

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I hadn't thought about that,

but I think that that, that

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is definitely a possibility.

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When I preached through Nahum with our.

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Our church here, when we did

the minor prophet series I took

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that approach that this is an

encouragement, this is a reminder

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of God's faithfulness to his people.

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And that judgment was gonna come against

the invading army of the Assyrians.

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And so that could definitely be maybe

some positive motivation for Josiah to

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say, this is good, this is what's right.

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And God is faithful, and so

I'm gonna live faithful to him.

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It.

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That's, I think, certainly

a feasible option.

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But I, I think the main motivation for

Josiah's reforms and for his response

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and the reason why he was a good king,

is because Josiah read the law, read

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the word of God, and responded to the

word of God the way that he should.

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And God was faithful in response to

to him because Josiah took the word of

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God seriously and lived in light of it.

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So I think there, there could

be both and at work there.

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Rod: Yeah, that was a good insight.

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I think that's a really

good connection and.

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One of the things that's challenging

my full throated endorsement of that

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is that as we read through Jeremiah

and as we'll read through some of

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these other smaller books here, we're

gonna find out that not all is pretty.

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Not all things are

firing in all cylinders.

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In fact, this is one of the problems

that despite there being a good king

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with good edicts who has a good direction

for the nation, there's a lot of people

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that are just going through the motions.

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They'll swear by the Lord, and

yet inside they're still doing

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things that are displeasing to him.

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So we, it's a qualified Yes, I agree with

you, and I think that's a good insight.

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On the other hand, I would say, but maybe

there's more than what meets the eye.

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That usually is the case.

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PJ: Yep.

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Rod: Typically find

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PJ: that

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Rod: to

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PJ: be true.

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Yeah.

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It's it's Friday.

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We are heading into a brand new weekend.

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We've got a new book that we're

starting on Sunday, starting

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the book of first Peter.

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That's gonna be fun.

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So how long?

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Three years?

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Yeah,

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Rod: three, six years.

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Three years for chapter one, three years.

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Chapter one.

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So we're doing it verse by

verse and letter by letter

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as I understand it exactly.

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They're not even doing a whole

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PJ: word exe.

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Each Greek letter as we go through.

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Bible code.

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We're gonna bring some of that in, man.

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No, this is gonna, don't miss it.

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We're gonna have some breaks for different

series Christmas, things like that.

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But this, I anticipate us taking

it all the way up through next,

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the beginning of next summer.

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We'll launch it in August and

probably wrap it up in May.

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Wow.

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But yeah I'm looking forward to it.

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I think it's gonna be a rich book,

a helpful book for us as a church

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and not just sitting at the dart

board going, what do I wanna preach?

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Let's go first, Peter.

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But there's some good trees in there.

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And in fact, if you show up on Sunday.

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You'll hear some of the

reason and rationale why we're

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studying First Peter together.

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You have a dart board with

books of the Bible on it?

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I do.

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I throw darts at the Bible all the time.

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I always

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Rod: imagine pastors

using a spinning wheel.

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Okay.

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There's a wheel at 66,

violent, tick tick, tick.

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Great.

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Like Wheel of Fortune or Price is right

where they do the Showcase Showdown.

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Those are the good shows, man.

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Or do perfect wheel.

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Unfortunate.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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No, yeah, it feels a bit

derivative of the old school.

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Yeah.

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That's fair.

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So I like the old school better.

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New school guys are cool.

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I like them.

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If they came to our church, I wouldn't

be mad or anything, but I'm just

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saying I like the Wheel of Fortune.

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I like the Showcase Showdown.

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Give me my, gimme my game shows.

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If they're out there listening, we'll

take you guys over at our church.

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I would be willing

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PJ: to let you come to our church.

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Yeah.

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Anyways, let's jump into our

daily Bible reading for today.

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We're in Jeremiah four through six, I

believe that's right, if I'm not mistaken.

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Yeah.

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Four through six.

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Chapter four is.

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Part of the negativity that

you were talking about there.

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That's coming because this is all

about the judgment that God is gonna

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send via Babylon disaster from the

North as it's put in verse six.

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That's the direction that the

Babylonians were gonna come and the

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Babylonians were going to attack from.

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And so God is really done

with the stubbornness.

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In fact, we've talked about this

word before, but we find it again.

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Back in verse three, break up your

fallow ground and sew not among thorns.

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You've talked about the word fallow

before, meaning that hard compacted soil.

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It's not good, it's not rich for planting.

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This should remind us, I think of

Matthew 13 and when Jesus is talking

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about the parable of the sower and the

different soils that represent the heart.

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And how the heart is gonna receive

the word of the Lord, which is

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the gospel according to Jesus.

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In Matthew 13, all the way back here

in the Old Testament, this was the

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word that was coming from the prophets,

the word that was coming from Yahweh

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as delivered through the prophets.

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And the Israelites were not receiving it.

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They were having the

stubbornness of their hearts and.

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He then uses the analogy of circumcision.

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On top of that, he says,

circumcised yourselves to the Lord.

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Which if they were good Jews at

this point in time, those that were

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listening to Jeremiah that were

older than eight days old, they

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would've already been circumcised.

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So this must mean something else,

and certainly it does, because

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in the next verse it says, remove

the foreskin of your hearts.

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And so this is that internal softening

of the hearts towards the Lord.

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And that's what Jeremiah the

prophet is calling for here.

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And God is indicting them on

their hardheartedness and their

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stubbornness and saying, because of

that, I'm going to bring Babylon,

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I'm gonna bring judgment against you.

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And that results in the prophet

calling for repentance again.

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And then really, I think it's

Jeremiah there anguishing.

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Over the fate of the people and being

in grief and being in mourning over

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the fact that judgment is coming

and the Israelites continue to

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be so stubborn and so hardhearted

against against God and his commands.

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Rod: Yeah.

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And that's what makes Jeremiah

such a special prophet.

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Not that any of the other guys were cold

hearted and distant, but he felt for

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the people that he was preaching to.

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And this is a right posture, even as

we talk to our neighbors and we talk to

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our kids or anyone else for that matter,

about God's judgment and about God's.

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Concern about human sin, it

should not be done with an

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arrogant, better thanou attitude.

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And I think a lot of people throughout

the course of our church's history,

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at least for as long as I've been

alive, have often charged church

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people with being boastful, arrogant.

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You've heard the terminology holier

than thou, and I, maybe that's true.

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I don't really know many Christians

like that myself personally, but

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it's always worth us being aware.

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That people are constantly evaluating,

not just what we say, but how we say it.

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And Jeremiah teaches us that there's

a way to deliver bad news in a way

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that says, man, but I feel my anguish.

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My anguish, I writhe in pain.

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Oh, the walls of my heart.

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My heart is beating wildly.

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I can't keep silence.

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And Jeremiah is not a

dispassionate evangelist.

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He's someone who is obeying

God, but he's doing so with

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the full heart for his people.

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And may that be the case for us.

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Pray for the people that you

are called to love and serve.

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Pray for the people that you're called to

share Christ with because it should be.

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And I'm gonna say something that

maybe you'll disagree with Pastor PG.

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It should be though that the people that

you are called to share the gospel with

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you should be able to shed tears over.

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I think that's appropriate.

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I think that's right.

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I think that's good.

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It should at least move you.

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Maybe you're not, doing what he's doing

here and you've got tears streaming down

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your face, but you do feel deeply for

the people that you're called to love.

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This is just like Christ

in Matthew chapter nine.

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He had bowels of compassion,

he had splank on his belly felt

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for these people that were lost.

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And so it should be for us

for those of us who are called

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to evangelize the lost here.

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PJ: Yeah.

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Which is indicative of a person that

truly understands what's at stake.

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We're gonna actually talk about

that a little bit with one Peter.

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It's one of the reasons why we're going

through the book of one Peter one.

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Peter says that at one point that we

are called to be those that proclaim

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the excellencies of him who called us

out of darkness and into delight that

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we are his kingdom ambassadors for that.

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And that it should be something, not

that we look at as a, as an obligation

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or a burden, but something that we

rejoice in being able to do because

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we know what's at stake and that is if

they're not brought outta the kingdom

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of darkness and brought into the

kingdom of lights, what they're gonna

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face should cause all of us to mourn.

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Now, some of you are like I haven't

cried since I was three years

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old and I stubbed my toe and so

I'm just not somebody who cries.

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You can still feel the

internal DExT motion.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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Deep emotion.

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The word over the fate

of the lost around you.

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How about verse 22?

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Do you think the speaker changes

here back to Yahweh, or do you

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think it's still Isaiah in verse 22?

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Every,

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Rod: everyone that I'm reading here

is referring to this as Jeremiah,

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so I think that's, I think it's

Jeremiah, I'm I could even see Jeremiah

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saying the things that he's saying.

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He's not like he's.

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Oblivious.

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Yeah.

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To the reality of who they are, which is

what makes it even more powerful, the kind

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of anguish that his soul goes through.

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Yeah.

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'cause it's not oh, I have

this rosy colored picture

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of who they, the people are.

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PJ: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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The destruction as it's described

here is it's essentially uncreation.

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You look at verse 23, I looked on the

earth, behold it was without form in void.

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That should.

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Take you back to Genesis.

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That's what the earth was like before

God began to create so so horrible.

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Is this judgment that God is

bringing against Jerusalem gonna

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be, that it's gonna leave it as

though it was still in its uncreated

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form, in its uncreated state.

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Not literally, but in, in essence there.

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And yet in verse 27, he

says, I will not make a full.

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And the silver lining is brief here

because as we get into chapter five.

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He returns back to the stubbornness of

Jerusalem and we hear more language that's

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gonna harken us back to another part of

the Old Testament here when Jeremiah's

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told, run to and further of the streets

through the streets, or Jeremiah is

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saying this and look and take notes.

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Search her squares to see if you can

find a man, one who does justice and

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seeks truth that I may pardon her.

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This is God speaking here.

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So that should take us back to

Sodom and Gomorrah back when God was

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promising judgment there and Abraham

was saying can I find a righteous.

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Person.

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What if there's 10?

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What if there's five?

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What if there's only one?

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And and God says, I will spare

for all the way down to one.

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And so here we find a similar situation.

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God is now saying, and this would've

struck home for the people with ears

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to hear that Jerusalem had become

just as evil, just as wicked as

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the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

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And we remember what happened to them.

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Implication being that's gonna

happen to Jerusalem as well.

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Verse seven.

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He says the rhetorical question

here, how can I pardon you?

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Your children have forsaken me and

have sworn by those that are no gods.

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When I fed them to the full,

they committed adultery.

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So God is saying, even

if I wanted to, how?

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How could I pardon you?

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Justice has to be done.

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I won't make a full end verse 10.

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Mercy is gonna be there, but

still justice has to be done.

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And starting in verse 14, he

returns to the idea of Babylon.

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Verse 15, I'm bringing against

you a nation from afar.

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Oh, house of Israel.

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And their description is much

like we find even in the book of

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Habakkuk, as the prophet describes

via God the the type of nation that.

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That Babylon was the merciless

nation that they were.

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And again, the underlying problem,

verse 22, is he says, do you

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not fear me, declares the Lord?

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Jump down for the answer in verse 24.

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They do not say in their hearts,

let us fear the Lord our God.

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So no, they don't fear God and

because they don't fear God, God

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was going to bring justice against

them, against all of their injustice,

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which we see a lot of that described

for us in the rest of chapter five.

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So chapter five is the judgment's

coming and he's gonna bring

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Babylon and God is going to use

them in judgment of his people.

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Rod: I think just a reminder here,

'cause we keep on going through

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things like this and it's important

for us to see this is the God that

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we serve, the same God that is love.

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He identifies himself as

love in the New Testament.

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In fact, he defines love itself.

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He's the very def definition of it.

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Love necessitates hatred

though, and that love for his

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righteousness, love for his people.

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Love for the good demands that

he hate what is evil, and that he

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have strong feelings of indignation

against all that threatens the

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good of the people that he loves.

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And so what in the Old Testament.

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In particular chapter five of Jeremiah is

that God is vehemently opposed to evil.

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He's opposed to his people doing evil.

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It's like oil and water.

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They don't mix.

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And God knows what's good for them.

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And what's good is that they do

righteousness that they love him and that

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they love their neighbor as themselves.

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So all of this that we're reading, as

harsh as it sounds and as difficult

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as it might be for you to read,

especially if you're primarily,

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fed on a New Testament only diet.

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These passages are so important and

constructive for your faith because

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they fill out the picture for you.

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God's love only makes sense against

the backdrop of God's judgment,

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so let that be an encouragement

to you as you keep on reading.

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PJ: Yeah.

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In chapter six, I'd like to say is.

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A good news chapter, but it's not.

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It's more in the, it really indicts the

depth and the depravity of the people.

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Verse seven, as a well,

keeps its water fresh.

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So she, Israel, that is

Judah, keeps fresh her evil.

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Verse 10.

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Behold, the word of the Lord is

to them, an object of scorn and

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they take no pleasure in it.

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Verse 14, they've healed the

wound of my people lightly.

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The false prophet and priest

that is saying, peace.

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Peace when there is no peace.

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He then goes on to say he, he

rejects their burnt offerings

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because they've rejected his law.

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Verse 19, in verse 20, it got me

thinking, is this call from Jeremiah

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we're talking about on Sunday the

concept of God's elect, right?

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And.

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Part of that comes with, the reason

election is necessary, we believe

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is for another part of the doctrines

of grace, which is total depravity

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that left to themselves, man in their

fallen state, can't freely choose God.

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And so there's an, there's a sense here

that Jeremiah's calls for repentance,

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we're going to naturally fall on deaf ears

unless God gave the people ears to hear.

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And so there's a passive judgment.

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Even in their continued rejection of

Jeremiah's pleas for repentance, that God

367

is still not allowing them to listen and

to repent because I believe in the Old

368

Testament, it was just as much an act of

God to cause people to be faithful to him.

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We talked about Josiah

at the beginning of this.

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That's because God had put it.

371

Upon his heart and given him the ability

to read the word of God, to feel the

372

conviction and respond in faithfulness,

that was not because Josiah was

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inherently a better or more righteous

individual than another person was.

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So all of this judgment language, and yet

at the same time, this is calling on dead

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bodies to, to come out of the graves.

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They're not able to do this

because they're fallen.

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I

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Rod: think that's why so many people.

379

Don't agree with us theologically, because

if you read this on the face of it, it

380

sure sounds like they have a choice.

381

It really does appear like there's some

level of agency that God is appealing

382

to, and I would have to agree with that

because if we're reading this, we're

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gonna say, look, God is appealing to them.

384

He's using Jeremiah's tears to call

them back to say, please do something.

385

In fact, chapter six verse one, flee

for Safety Owe People of Benjamin Run.

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Judgment is coming.

387

He's appealing to some human

sense of choice, and so I

388

would have to agree with that.

389

There is human choice here.

390

Now, it's not libertarian choice

in the way that a lot of people

391

understand as a, that is to say

choice, that is independent of God.

392

I could choose to do otherwise in what

God is for ordained and I don't believe

393

that, but I do believe choice is real.

394

Human agency is genuine.

395

Now, how that cooperates

with God's decrees and his

396

ultimate plans, I don't know.

397

I would just emphasize

what scripture emphasizes.

398

You have a choice and you are responsible.

399

And I would also say at the same

time, God has already chosen

400

how do you square a round peg?

401

I don't know.

402

I don't know.

403

And these are the theological quandaries

that we find ourselves in where we have to

404

fullthroated, envo fullthroated endorse.

405

Thank you.

406

Endorse both as true statements.

407

And then I'm gonna do what

scripture says, and I'm going to.

408

Emphasize each in their respective

categories here in chapter six,

409

I'm gonna say you have a choice

and you should act rightly.

410

On the other hand, I'm gonna

say scripture also says that

411

ultimately God has to do the work.

412

So I can keep that in the back of

my head as I, in the forefront of

413

my mind, am thinking about this and

saying God calls us to make a choice

414

and we should make that choice.

415

And if we can't, we need to

lament that and ask him for help.

416

PJ: Yeah, and it's, it,

yeah, it's so difficult.

417

We're gonna dive more into this on

Sunday morning, but it, we can't.

418

We're not robots.

419

We can't wake up in the morning and take

the let go and let God tact of things.

420

And when you have a choice facing

you as to whether or not you're gonna

421

obey God in this matter, or disobey

God in this matter, it's not like you

422

can just sit back and say, okay, God.

423

I'm inclined to disobey you in

my flesh, so I'm just gonna wait

424

for you to do something that's

gonna make me want to obey you.

425

It is a real choice that's taking place

within us and yet our understanding.

426

Philippians two 12 two 12 and 13.

427

11 and 12.

428

12 and 13.

429

We're working out our salvation, knowing

that it's God who's at work in us, both

430

willing to work for his good pleasure.

431

And so we don't boast in that when

we make the obedient decision, we

432

recognize, man, that's God at work in us.

433

But yeah this one's hard.

434

We do have freedom in our fallen states,

but as some have said, only the freedom to

435

choose that which is in opposition to God

we don't have the freedom to choose that

436

which pleases God until God acts upon us.

437

To give us now as believers the

opportunity daily to choose to obey him

438

or to choose to satisfy ourselves instead

439

Rod: then you must believe that

unbelievers can't do anything good at all.

440

What about philanthropists?

441

What about the Boy Scouts?

442

They rock old ladies across the street.

443

What about fill in the blank?

444

And

445

PJ: I think objectively from a

human pers perspective, yeah,

446

you can look at unbelievers and

say they're doing good things.

447

But from God's perspective, and this goes

back to what we read in Isaiah, those

448

good deeds are filthy rags because if

they are what they're going to hold up to

449

God to say, am I acceptable to you now?

450

Because look at all the good I did.

451

That should outweigh the bad I did.

452

God's gonna look at that and say

that's detestable to me because you

453

think that your good deeds can measure

up to my standard of righteousness.

454

Amen to that.

455

Yeah.

456

Rod: The late Dr.

457

MacArthur said, even the good that

heathens do is bad good because they

458

don't do it for the glory of God.

459

And this really goes back

to what we were just saying.

460

God defines love.

461

He also defines good.

462

And so for us to say, God, I'm doing good.

463

Is to replace his definition with our

own, because by necessity we would have

464

to change it in order to make it fit.

465

'cause none of us is good.

466

No, not one.

467

Yeah.

468

That's why we always go to scripture.

469

This is our authority.

470

We can't do what maybe a popular

mega pastor might say, mega church

471

pastor would say, where you take

Jesus as our authority, not the Bible.

472

That's a false dichotomy.

473

You have to take Jesus

authority by the Bible.

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Yeah.

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Sir.

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Anyway, my point is yes.

477

These are ti difficult to put together.

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But we do what scripture does

and we say what scripture says

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and we say both of those things.

480

It might appear superficially to

be a contradiction, but it is not.

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Just because we can't figure

out how God does it, doesn't

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mean it's a contradiction.

483

PJ: Let's pray and then we will

be done with another episode

484

of the Daily Bible Podcast.

485

God, we are just in awe of the fact that

you have given any of us the ability to

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understand the gospel and to repent from

our sins and to put our trust in Christ

487

that you've given us the Holy Spirit

to dwell within us, to cause us to, to

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desire, to walk in your ways, to cause

us to feel the conviction that we should

489

walk in your ways, to even empower us to

be able to do that in the first place.

490

It is a measure of your

grace and your mercy upon us.

491

That is our reality as followers of

Christ, and we're so thankful for that,

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that you haven't just left us to try

to be good enough or to try to live a

493

life to say I hope my good deeds out

de outweigh my bad deeds at the end.

494

Because what a miserable and in trying

and painful existence that would be.

495

And yet we know instead our

righteousness is Christ's.

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And we are so thankful for that.

497

And so we are grateful for this time

in your word, pray that we would live

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faithful to you the rest of the day.

499

As we anticipate all the good

that you will do in and through

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us, we pray in Jesus name, amen.

501

Amen.

502

Keep it in your bibles.

503

Tune in again tomorrow for another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

504

Bye folks.

505

Bye.

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Bernard: Well, thank you for listening

to another rip-roarin' episode of

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the Daily Bible Podcast, folks!

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We're honored to have you join us.

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This is a ministry of Compass

Bible Church in north Texas.

510

You can find out more information

about our Church at compassntx.org

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or, learn more about Pastor PJ

by going to BestPastorEver.com.

512

We would love for you to leave a

review, to rate, or to share this

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podcast on whatever platform you're

listening on, and we hope to see

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you again tomorrow for another

episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

516

PJ: Yeah.

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I would agree with

everything that you said