Transcription
I am unashamed. What about you?
Welcome back to Unashamed. We uh we got a little earlier start time today to accommodate Zach's grueling schedule. He's Zach's a man of many meetings, Jason.
Yeah.
Higher up. Uh you know, he he's doing a lot. He's he's been a lot of plates. But I appreciate that, Zach, cuz usually we're the benefit of your
Yeah. We're usually the benefit of your all of your high level things you do.
No, I'm one of I'm one of the plates.
I don't know about that. I would probably I'd probably argue I'd probably argue you've changed the schedule more than I changed the schedule. Jay,
uh, one of your employees, uh, he was spinning that plate to me this morning and I shattered that plate. So you'll I'm sure that meeting will come later on the day.
Oh boy. That plate had even got to you. Zach,
I don't even know about that plate.
Oh, it'll be fun for you later in the day. You're you're going to be Oh, you you probably will never hear about it cuz it was such a shattering. But uh
it wasn't Was it Maddie?
No, it wasn't Maddie. No.
Okay.
No, they're from North Carolina. I'm sure they're in close proximity to you, but
Okay.
Yeah. So, I I took care of that. I think by now, Zach, we've made Jayce a plastic plate because he keeps spinning off and hitting the floor so often.
I love that, Al. I love that.
Now, now I will hear about it cuz I'm going to I'm going to ask the team what what who got crushed today.
We've started the podcast with intrigue and mystery.
That's exactly right. Well, Jay, we you were you were a couple of minutes late to the party. Um, and but you told us why. So, you got to pass cuz
Yeah. Oh, I'll tell you that story. Uh, cuz you think we're in America, we're free. I actually listened to a sermon about freedom last night from uh your friend, Zach, John Tyson, who I've never met, but I wanted to have a
Well, I've only met him once, so I would say we're close friends. We've only met one, maybe twice,
but he's uh he's friends with my brother Willie, and so they've just done events together. But anyway, and so here I am and I had this idea for the podcast today. I was actually I read your notes, Al. And
wow,
for all of you listeners out there, don't think despite the amount of podcasts that we do
that these notes are very long. When I say notes, it's probably a 60sec read, 90 seconds. So we're
Yeah, we're flying. We're flying by the seat of our pants. But uh you had this interesting, you know, thing about the word uh no being used in the text that we're going to read. We're at the end of 1 John 5. But I I uh wanted to have a little game because I had a discovery. I had a light bulb while reading your notes. Light bulb moment. But then the reason I'm late actually it's like once you have an idea or you have a revelation or you you come across some knowledge that that you weren't aware of. It's weird how then you're seeing that all over the place.
And so I'll start this off with a little game before I tell you the story. I have a game for us today.
Okay,
this is we we're going to test your uh cuz now Zach, you're the smartest one of the bunch intellectually. So you should you should be able to participate. Well,
I like how he frames that intellectually. That that that means there may be some other areas where
Well, look, I'm honest about about who I am. Like anytime my family gets together, most of the games we play are like trivial pursuit and they nobody wants to be on my team because I just don't know a lot. I mean, especially when it comes to trivial matters. So there
I'm not the I'm not the best at that either. Al, you're very good.
I'm very good at that.
I thought you good at it. I don't I don't retain knowledge like that, believe it or not.
All right. Well, here's here's the game. Here's the game. So, what is the most common three-word English conversational phrase that there is? All the humans that speak English, what is the most common three-word English? Zach, do not look that up. Keep your fingers. was about to
He was He was He was I saw his fingers twitching.
J here's what I'll say right off the right off the cuff.
I'm going to say I love you.
I love you. Three words. I love you.
All right, Al.
I would say more uh uh trying to figure out how to frame what I'm thinking into three words. Uh
I mean, do you think you know or you just guessing?
No, I'm just guessing. I would say something like, "What in the world?" My mine is more people questioning a something that's happening.
You're disqualified because that's actually four. What in the world?
Yeah. No, that's what I'm saying. I couldn't I couldn't frame it in three words.
Yeah, you are. Yeah.
Well, the three the correct answer
or tell me why maybe is it was what I would guess. The correct answer, which which is what you should have said if you were a person of truth, is I don't know.
No. Yeah, that's pretty good.
I don't know.
Yeah.
But see, if you would have said, "I don't know." That would have been correct in two different ways.
I was I got you.
Well, I just looked
up
I didn't read that in the book. I just
I just looked up I just looked it up. It says here that the the most common three letter three word sequence is is this.
You didn't listen to the question. You didn't English conversational threeword. I'll give you the top 10. I have it somewhere on here cuz I knew this was going to go here. That's why I was very specific.
I was in the neighborhood. I didn't put it together. I don't know. But that's it. It it was that was the mindset I was. That's why I was in my neighborhood. I mean like why did this happen? I don't know.
Some of one of these are is funny. Number 10. You know what? You know how we say. You know what?
Yeah. Yeah. That's good.
Top 10 is number 10. Uh the rest of them are like one of the you know you'll start a conversation. One of the
one of the things I like. Yeah.
And I think
one of the best things about
and I think that's number eight. It was a typically used when telling stories. So
yeah,
it was a And there you go. I mean I That's number six. I mean I doing everything. I mean I I can't help it, you know. I mean I do you want is number five. Build a snowman.
Do I don't think is number four. I thought that should have been number one. I don't think
What was that? I don't think
I just meant humans just don't do a lot of good thinking. Guess what?
Uh three a lot of
a lot of you people
I like a lot.
Yeah,
I think that is number two. And number one, I don't know. Isn't that fascinating that our number one English phrase in conversations is I don't know. So, you see why this was so profound to me. And I I ran across this just randomly because I asked AI something because I was doing a rabbit hole about cuz there's two different Greek words for knowing. And it was really hard for me to wrap my head around what those two things translated into English. Even though when you read in your Bible, it just says no, K N O W,
but they they mean two totally different things. So, it was hard for me to wrap my head around. So, while I was doing all the research, AI said the most common phrase in English conversations is I don't know. And I was like, are you making a joke here? Am I having a Did a robot just tell me a joke? And so, that's why I came up with that question. But the reason I was saying that that's that knowledge that we don't know cuz we use that phrase more than any other. I was coming here and uh there's a there was an 18-wheeler that had a load of sod and it was trying to get to someone's yard. But these two guys, this one of the guys gets out. Well, he stops traffic and I thought I just heard this lesson on freedom and I thought, you know, America, we're free. Home of home of the free here and the brave. But he he obviously had never directed traffic and it was a full shutdown for 10 minutes cuz he was trying to go one by one. And I was thinking, no, I I've seen people direct traffic. Let everybody go. Hold that line up. Then let that line go.
But when if you try to do it one at a time,
well, everybody's confused
cuz they start to go and then they stop and then they almost have a wreck and then he's looking and then he's angry cuz you're not listening to him. But you're you're
not he who are you? You have no training. You're putting grass in a yard. So, so there I could tell from all the passengers, everybody was getting frustrated, which I was at first and then I thought three famous words, he just doesn't know.
He He don't know. And so then it became comical.
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Bless his heart if you're from the south. Yeah.
From from the south. That's another used uh phrase. Bless his heart. Cuz that just means Oh, he don't know.
I will say this. That means you're you're he's an idiot. That's like aggressive.
That's a redneck interpretation. Uh,
yeah.
But Zach, I I was fascinated that you said I love you because I had the same thought. I was a little disappointed that I love you didn't make the top 10 cuz what what we're pursuing in this knowing God and him knowing us and being included into this relationship of God which is complex to wrap your head around is about being in this eternal love this selfgiving love
and so it
that's what Bill, Bill, Bill Smith used to say, one of the things he taught me and taught in his material, he said, "The nine hardest words to say are," I love you, I was wrong, and please forgive me,
or I am sorry. He included that in there as well, I guess, if you wanted to do 12. In other words, the idea of expressing love but expressing remorse and the need for forgiveness, whether that's to another person or to God, you know, or to somebody, you know, that was that was what he always taught, which I thought was pretty good. I used that in a lot of my marriage stuff. Well, I will say this. The reason I think I was so shocked I'm fix to get on my soap box is that that was the number one phrase. Cuz I guarantee you that is not the number one phrase from pastors, teachers, and people who study the Bible.
That's why we're so shocked.
Yeah.
Because you uh I tell I was telling Missy this morning, I you know what? Here's what happens. We we it's it's here we are having a conversation about the Bible. We're studying and I I'll give you this uh public service announcement. I am positive from the amount of talking that I do and studying the Bible and pontificating on said subjects. I'm obviously wrong on several points along the way, but I think I'm right or I'm giving my opinion or we're having a conversation. What I don't like and and this is kind of my soap box. What I don't like is like we did a couple of podcasts talking about the current the current events, you know, between Iran and Israel cuz you have a lot of people under the umbrella of following Jesus that have all these takes on these current events. So, we remember when we did a couple of events about that.
Yeah.
Well, we do a podcast about it. We're just having a conversation, but then I leave this room and then my friends or acquaintances listen to the podcast. And so then they send me text saying, "Boy, you're wrong on this, you know, and send me various articles." So what I'm going to say uh about one of the things that there was a preacher who who look I've was aware of and and have used some of his ideas and find him likable and he has a podcast and I think it's probably more popular than ours but he sent me a clip from it. What I didn't like and what I want to kind of go with this I don't know thing is I don't like forms of manipulation because like the heading on the little talk that he gave cuz it was all about Israel and it was his take you know which was a different take than what we discussed.
But what I didn't like was what's happening all in in Israel. How about let's just do what the Bible says. So before I've even clicked on it, he set uh a foundation of which sounds great. Would you agree? Let's just do what the Bible says.
Let's let's go to what the Bible said. That's that was that's what he said.
That's what the caption was before I clicked on the video. The events of Israel. Why don't we just do what the Bible says? Okay. Well, that sounds great. And I've heard many preachers say that. We just Well, how about let's just read the Bible and do what it says. But I'm going to argue that that's a form of manipulation because then when I watch the video, he got into uh what is it? Romans 9 or Romans 11 where it talks about then all Israel will be saved. I think it's Romans 9. I can look it up real quick. So which is a very uh I mean I would just 112 11:26.
Yeah. Romans 11:26. Let me just say this. when you're studying Romans, when I when I get to Romans 9 and Romans 11, I'm like, "Okay, this is a little deep." And the number one reason it is is cuz I'm not Jewish. He's addressing whatever's happening there from a Jewish perspective. I don't want to get into that cuz we've done podcasts about that before. But my whole point was for bringing this up is even though I agreed with mostly what he said cuz his answer was is what's happening to Israel as God's chosen people uh he asked a question is that are they God's chosen people I think was the question is and should that concern us like in this war like modern day. Should we?
Yeah. And to give a little reference to that is you that is part of the argument particularly in Washington. You say, "Well, well, this is just a church argument." Well, not really because you have in you have senators like Ted Cruz. Um you have the ambassador to the UN. Um I'm sorry, not to the UN to uh what is what is uh Huckabe? He's an he's an ambassador to Israel.
Yeah. Yeah. ambassador to Israel. So, so they they hold to this esquetology and this is part of what is guiding foreign policy. So, it is of of I think a important question.
It is and we talked about it and I'm not even dealing with the substance. I'm just dealing with the way this argument was formed. So, is everybody clear on that? My my my whole take on it was why don't we do what the Bible says and then you go to a passage Romans 11 that's kind of hard to wrap your head around in modern day. Would we all agree with that?
Yeah.
Now, now I know what I think about it and I've we've talked about it on on prior podcast. But here's what I want to say. So when he he asked a question, are they God's chosen people and should that affect us? Well, his answer was yes and no. That was the answer. And then he gave gave his explanation. And look, I'm going to be honest. I agreed mostly with what he said. So when he got to the end, he did this. He read the one day Israel will all be saved. And he and the part I agree with, he said, you know, you got to remember in this context based on what Jesus had had done and is doing, we as non-Jewish people who follow Christ have become the new Israel. So, and I like that. It's like the think of the phrase where it says the heavenly Jerusalem. We're the heavenly Jerusalem.
It's like there's no Jew or Greek, which is all over the New Testament. We're all under the umbrella of Christ. So that was his point. And look, I agree. Then he said the the yes part then and then he got into Z what Zach just said, the esquetology. And then he went off into something that I didn't agree with, which is one day we're all going to Israel and gathered up when Jesus comes back. And that that kind of thinking. And so, but here here's my take. He was he was saying, "Let's just do what the Bible says." He read a verse, but then he kind of gave his take on it and he was 100% sure he was right. And on that one aspect, I was 100% sure that he's dead wrong. So, you say, "Well, which is it?" Well, be careful when you when you approach the Bible with those kind of statements. Because during that dissertation, you're now get kind of giving your take on said Bible verse. You don't need the news to tell you that inflation is real. Everything costs more. Food, housing, just everyday living, and the dollar just doesn't stretch like it used to. So, it raises a real question that the money that you worked decades to save, the retirement you built, and even the legacy you want to leave to your family, what's that actually going to buy 20 years from now? It's one of the reasons why a lot of folks, including myself, are looking at ways to diversify their savings with real assets like gold and silver. And that's where Freedom Gold USA comes in. For generations, people have looked at physical gold and silver as a way to help preserve value, especially during times of inflation, currency changes, or economic uncertainty. Freedom Gold USA helps people understand how physical precious metals might fit into a long-term retirement strategy. Their motto is really simple. It's to get more metal for your money. Competitive pricing, no gimmicks, and specialists who actually focus on education, not pressure. The reason why gold and silver act as a hedge against inflation is because with monetary policies where governments are printing money from central banks, that devalues the money that you currently have. So, right now they're offering a free 2026 gold and silver guide and the no obligation consultation. All you got to do is call88411845 or visit unashamedgold.com. That's8411845 or unashamedold.com. Learn how diversification may help protect your retirement savings.
Well, everybody does that when they get into a a discussion or an argument on their particular position. And throughout history, these arguments have kind of been between like big anchor topics for one one right now is obviously esquetology. Everybody's talking about that because of what's happening in Iran and with Israel. But in the past, it's been things like um Armenianism versus Calvinism or it's been um you know uh the Baptist versus what Baptist theology versus whatever. I mean like there there's like all these different arguments you old earth versus young earth you know like global flood versus regional flood six literal days of creation or seven literal days of creation or are these errors and spans of time. There's all these different arguments. Historical Adam versus, you know, more of a a story and you argue these things and everybody everybody thinks that their position is I'm just I'm just reading the Bible for what it says. Go like for example, Romans 9 is a prime example. If I you talk to a hardcore Calvinist, they're going to say
just read Romans 9 for what it says. And then you talk to someone who's an Armenian, they're going to say just read Romans 9 for what it says. So I think there is a humility that we have to come into the discussion to be like we are interpreting the Bible in a certain way and um I think that so that's why the the term hermeneutic is so important like just admit what is your hermeneutic what is the method through which you are interpreting the scripture and then go into it with a little bit more of a I think this is true like Phil used to say in this he had a book what was the book called he wrote
I could be wrong
you could be wrong but I doubt it
but I doubt You still say you doubt it
because you're confident. Yeah. You want to be confident and you're on this journey of I mean the Bible's a big book but ultimately it is about a person that we are invited to be a part of that's eternal. And so I I I tend to think of it as a as a focus. all this other stuff that comes up under the umbrella of you know what we call Christianity with all the different doctrines cuz people they feel strongly about that and if you disagree they're like well I'm I'm doing what the Bible says and I'm like well me too so we can agree on that. So when that answer to that is nope nope well that's where all the problems come. I I think I've shared this before though. Another form of manipulation, and I've heard this several times. If a preacher ever gets up and says, "Your heart is not ready for what I'm fixing to say." It's a it's a form of manipulation. Because if you don't agree with whatever he said, you don't even know what he said yet.
Yeah.
Then he's like, "Well, your heart's not right." But when I I had that experience, when I had that experience, I thought,
how does he know my heart? Cuz I I get up and speak and I thought, why would you start a sermon off? I wasn't sure the first time I had this experience. Well, then I heard the sermon and guess what? I didn't agree with with what was being said, but I thought, but if I say something, he's going to say, well, that's cuz your heart is not right. You see what I mean? Well, yeah. I I think too the even the there's a book an old book called um it's by the guy named Neil Postman and it's called Amusing Ourselves to death. It was written I think back in the Reagan era, but it's it's essentially critiquing um the way that we get information and he has a saying I think it's something like the medium is the message in the end. So like it we think that oh where we're going to come out and I and by the way I'll just say this full disclosure this is something that I struggle with as someone who runs a media company I think about this a lot that is the method through which we're getting the content out there does that actually become the actual message and his point is you got to be careful with it because you like what we're doing is we're amusing ourselves to death. This was before the 24-hour news cycle. this was he wrote all this before Tik Tok culture before all this before just the content you know before AI and um I I think that a lot of times even like with the way we're doing content now is that everybody wants and this is the audience this is I I I actually caution the audience on this everybody wants the cliffnote version that that's what we want I don't want to have to go through and do the hard yard of actually sitting in the entire text of the Bible into what I would call and many others have called biblical theology. Like that's a lot more work on my part cuz now I got to sit in these stories. I got to understand more context. I'd rather go to a pastor and say, "Give me a literally like a 30 second maybe I I could probably handle 90 seconds. Give me the clip in 90 seconds that answers the question, is Israel God's chosen people? Just give me that in 90 seconds. Well, I mean, some of these things can't be answered with cliffnotes and some of these things can't be answered in sound bites and some of these things can't be answered in this way. I think a lot of the problem Jayce is that um on one end you the algorithms are built to reward very uh snippet type of of content and then and then um our our brains are actually wired for the dopamine hit. And so you got two things going on here. We want the dopamine hit. I want the the 60-second 30 second clip because I'm not I don't want to sit down and read a book. I mean that's just way too long. That's way too much information. I don't want to I don't want to read through Leviticus, you know, when it's when they're talking about the Levitical priesthood in the book of Hebrews. Man, I don't want to go back and research what what is the what is the Levitical priesthood? What does that even mean? Like that that's just a lot more work. Just give me the cliff notes. So, I think that that it's it's hard in a lot of these questions to even answer them because there's so much at least the position that we hold. Um, and I we don't agree on everything with esquetology, but but I will say that like the position that we hold it, you're not going to get the answer from one just one text in the Bible. It's it's it's the looking at it as a broad hole. And I don't fully even know where I stand on like like you start looking into esquetology and you you'll hear terms like premillennialism, postm millennialism, a millennialism, dispensationalism, predism, full predtoism, partial predtoism. I mean, you start going down the list and you're like, uh, the tribulation, the millennial, right? And and you're like, wait, what? What are you? And I'm like, I don't fully know if you can I can put it in like a category because I don't even fully understand all the categories. You know what I mean? But Zach, you described a a broad cultural move to to the snippet and I think you're spot on and and the cable news and everything that goes with that. And I would I would say part of the response to that because these things happen in culture and they rise up because the Holy Spirit's at work and in the believers. I think that's why this long format that we're doing, the podcast is a perfect example of slowing it back down to a discussion to a Bible study. When someone is going for four years to a early morning Bible study, they're committing Yeah.
to that long form you're talking about. So, I do think there's push back even in culture and you'll see the rise in popularity of things and say, "Well, wait a minute. We can't get everything in 90 seconds." I mean, that doesn't make sense. And to be fair, that clip, um, I saw the same clip and I believe that was part of a broader podcast than
Oh, I'm sure it was. And that that's why I wasn't throwing the guy under the bus. I was just making the analogy. And I think you you really uh did a good job of explaining how all these social media algorithms work. And it's like, but you know, here's me. Yeah, I'm thinking, you know, the most common phrase is I don't know. I think I know, you know, which was one of the other top 10s. I think I got this right. But it's it's more difficult because I see how it works. You're like, well, we're the heavenly Jerusalem. Well, there's a narrative out there that the only time heaven is experienced is when Jesus comes back. That's what a lot of people believe. That's what I believe for the first 25 years of my life. I will never know anything about heaven until Jesus comes back. Then I started reading the Bible. I'm I'm doing that to as a call back on what we say, you know, and I'm like, well, it seems like heaven came down here a lot in the Bible, the heavenly, you know, Jesus himself said, I came from heaven like a dozen times just in one chapter in John. That's in six. I'm coming from heaven. The Holy Spirit, where did it come from? Heaven. It was remember it was I poured out the Holy Spirit on you. And so even God in the in the garden at the beginning it heaven and earth seems to be trying to unite. And we've talked about that many times. But if my only narrative was about heaven was that that's a place I go later. Then I I see why when you say we're the the heavenly Jerusalem, people are like, "Well, we haven't experienced that." So evidently at some point we're going to have to go over to Jerusalem so then we can then go to heaven. So it's really difficult to know who to trust when it comes to your health cuz every day you get on social media, even get on podcasts like this, you hear somebody pushing a miracle supplement. We just go to people we know. Uh we trust Dr. Dennis Black. He's a friend of ours. He invented something called Texas Superfood. He invented it 25 years ago to help people get the nutritional value that they needed. It's got 55 vine ripened fruits, vegetables, and probiotics and enzymes. And customers feel the difference in just 7 days. It's more energy all day long. Mental clarity instead of brain fog, better sleep, just feeling better about their health. I've been taking this for several months now. Texas superfood, it's super easy to incorporate into your morning routine. That's what I do. You can take it in a pill form, which is what Jill likes, or you can turn it into a smoothie. This is the real deal, the original superfood. They have over 1 million bottles sold, not because of some fancy marketing, but because real results create loyal customers. Go to texasupfood.com. Use the discount code unashamed to get 35% off your first order. Plus, there's a 100% satisfaction guaranteed. That's Texasupfood.com discount code unashamed.
I read Romans 11:26 and I think I'm reading it for what it says. And you if you read it, it says, "In this way, in this way, I'm reading from the ESV version. In this way, all Israel will be saved." Well, the first question I'm going to ask is, well, what way are you talking about? What way? Like, in this way, all Israel will be saved. Anyone that would say that just because I mean, think about this. That's so antithetical. Is there a famous person the most famous human ever that said he was the way?
Oh yeah, that's good. Yeah. And I think that's the and you know what to your point cuz I would think I mean typically if someone if you're in this argument about Israel being God's chosen people then the question is well who is Israel? I mean that's kind of the question Tucker Carlson's been asking and which has kind of created a lot of the firestorm around this recently and the fact that what we're we're in a war right now. Um so you got to verse like this. In this way, all Israel will be saved. What way is that? You mentioned the way, which would be Jesus. I am the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the father except through me. That seems to be in line with Galatians chapter 3, which says that in Christ there's neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female. You are all one in Christ Jesus. So to me it in this way, we're all one in Christ Jesus. I actually think the argument of Romans uh 9 through11 is more of God's covenant that he's bringing the Gentiles into the covenant. And so he's making two people one people. I mean Paul says this explicitly in Ephesians he's taken he's taken the wall of hostility and what's he done? He's he's ripped it away. There is no wall of hostility anymore between Jew and Gentile. We're all one in Christ.
Is that now or later?
Well, it's now. That's the whole point. I mean,
well, it's now and later is my point. You see
it is. Yeah. Yeah. But the oneness is now. Um, and I mean, we're going to be one later, too. But the but this was accomplished in Christ. I mean, this is the whole point of the book of Hebrews. If this is where I would always go, I actually wouldn't even go to a lot of these passages that people go to in this debate. Where I go to is the book of Hebrews because Hebrews is very clear. And the way that the whole Hebrew writer is structuring his argument is it's almost as if he's trying to bring Judaism into a crisis of faith. Like do you realize like that your priesthood there's there's this argument that he gives. He says he says if perfection could have come through the through the Levitical priesthood and what the Levitical priesthood is, it's the priest who would have to come from the tribe of Levi. If you're in if you're Jewish, your priest cannot come from any other tribe than the tribe of Levi. And we know this because if you go back and read Ezra chapter 2 and Nehemiah chapter 7, you there's this story after the after the uh first temple was destroyed. And then you you remember Cyrus, the king of Persia, was like, "Okay, we're going to build a new temple for you guys." So, they're in this construction of the new temple. and they're they're they're bringing back in the priesthood. And they to order to establish this Levitical priesthood again, they had to trace their genealogy and prove that they were from the tribe of Levi. They had to and not just Levi, Aaron. They had to be from they had to be descendants of Aaron or you cannot be a a priest. And so in Ezra chapter 2 and the same story I think is repeated in Nehemiah 7, you have um an instance where a particular group of people could not they couldn't prove their genealogy. They they couldn't it wasn't in the records. They couldn't they they couldn't produce the papers. They couldn't produce the record of their lineage. And you know what the Bible says? They didn't say, "Oh, just come on in. We know who you are." Sorry. It says that they were actually excluded from the priesthood and they were counted as unclean because that's the law. So, so the the the just think about that and then you think about well where where is the Levitical priesthood? Where's the record of that now? When was the last time we had any record of that? Well, that would be in AD70. When the temple burned, guess what burned with the temple? All of the records were destroyed. And so when you get to like a passage like Hebrews, which was written before this even happened, he's showing that the Levitical priesthood was never the end of all this. In fact, he says if if perfection could have come through the Levitical priesthood, then why in the world did the psalmist write in Psalm 110 that God is going to establish a new priesthood in a different order that doesn't come from the tribe of Aaron? He says it's going to come from a different person. Well, who? Some guy named Melzdc. What does that mean? There's going to be a new priestly order. Christ will be a priest established in the order of MCZDC. Christ came from the tribe of Judah. And so, and then it goes on to make the argument, well, if the priesthood is insufficient, you got to ask the question, what about the law? Right. If the priest Yep. And and and the Hebrew writer makes the same point. Yeah. The law wasn't going to do it either. What about the temple? Yep. the temple not enough. What about the sacrifice? Yeah. And the sacrifice wasn't enough. So you start to see this whole thing center in in in Christ. And so when we when we try to create these other views, to me it is a big issue when you go into scripture and you're trying to figure out, okay, you got this whole Christ is the answer thing right here. Christ is the center of everything. He's a fulfillment of all of it. Not not a replacement, a fulfillment of all of it. But then there's also this other little thing over here that he's doing. I'm like, "No, it's all under Christ. All of it. There's not a separate salvation plan. There's not a separate people. There's not a separate anything. It's just Christ and Christ alone." And I I mean, to me, that to me, that's what the scripture says. But you can see even in my position on that, I I mean, I pulled from a lot of different places. I didn't get that from like one little snippet. But but your passage your your take on Hebrews which I thought was excellent. You know when he gets to the end in chapter 12 and says let us fix our eyes on Jesus 12:2 which is a very profound statement cuz earlier in chapter three when he said let's fix our thoughts on Jesus you know in chapter one he's like in the past I spoke God spoke in various ways and but now he has spoken to us through his son. So it's like God is speaking to us through his son. We should fix our thoughts on his son. We should fix our eyes on his son. And then he gets to the end of chapter 12 and he says to his audience in verse because I want to read this. I think it goes along with what we're saying. But you have come to Mount Zion. Well, if you just stop right there.
Has any of y'all been on Mount Zion? I haven't.
Well, you better get there. So, that's what people are thinking. See, you you
Yeah.
All of a sudden, we're we're we read that and people like, are we going to listen to the Bible or at some point I we we're going to Mount Zion? But he said, but you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem. What's he talking about? You see?
Yeah. So, so people people read that and they're like, "Well, that's that's over in Israel, the city of the living God." But if you just keep reading, you have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly to the church of the first born. Well, who's the first who's the firstborn?
That be Jesus.
Well, is it in Mount Zion or is it in heaven? Is it a you see that's so I think it's a fulfillment. It's a story. Yes, Israel was God's chosen nation. You have numerous books but it it's not a detachment from that bringing Jesus which is God in human form to establish this kingdom which is that's where he goes on to talk about the kingdom and this church in joyful assembly and to names written in heaven. You've come to God the judge of all men. I mean, this this thing goes it it goes into who you're with now. To Jesus, the mediator of a new co covenant and to the sprinkle blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Cuz remember Abel, his life was taken. His blood was crying out from the ground. Same blood that we were talking about in first John, which is a symbol of life. But Jesus's blood speaks a better better word because Abel was killed by by Cain. But Jesus gave up his his life so that people would not be condemned cuz you know remember what happened to Cain. So then he goes into verse 28. Since we are receiving a kingdom that we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. What kingdom is he talking about?
His kingdom
is is this all a future occurrence or you know to me cuz people will say even in that clip that we're discussing. It's like one day we'll be we'll be kings and priests you know and we'll reign with God. Well, if you have the Holy Spirit would wouldn't you be a part of that now?
I mean that's what Peter says, right? that we are we are a holy priesthood, a chosen race. Well, I mean, think about that. Even think about Peter's argument as I've mentioned that in first Peter 2, we are a chosen race. Well, what race are we?
I mean, think about think about what he's saying and who's he talking to? He's talking about the Christian body is a chosen race.
So, what is the chosen race?
We're the Jesus race.
It's the Jesus race. And and and it's the it's the priesthood of believers. This is interesting because when you get to uh first Peter 2, what is what is he referencing there? Why and not just also in Revelation 1 and in Revelation chapter 5, he says this, he he mentions uh gives a nod back to Exodus 19 which um and I'm trying to think of this that God says, "I'm going to I'm going to build you speaking to Israel. This is ethnic Israel. I'm going to build you into a nation of priests. A kingdom of priests. That's what he calls it, a kingdom of priests. He says he's going to do that. Then when you go and you you get to to the New Testament and you go to somewhere like what Peter said in 1 Peter chapter 2, you are a kingdom of priest. You are a nation. You are a chosen race. You are a royal priesthood. And then in Revelation 1, I don't know the exact verse, and in Revelation 5, he calls the church the kingdom of priests. And so to to try to separate out this whole thing, I I think it's to misinterpret the whole esquetology of what Paul was certainly doing in Romans. You got to keep in mind in the book of Romans, Paul begins the book and ends the book with the same exact phrase that my purpose is to bring the Gentiles to the obedience of faith.
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Romans chapter 1. The name of this podcast is Unashamed. We just, so if you don't know, we actually stole that from the scripture, right? From Romans chapter 1 when he says, "Borrowed."
"Borrowed" is a better word. We borrowed it from the scripture. I like that better. That, that we didn't come up with is my point that I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Why? Because it is the power of, of God. It's the power of salvation for everyone who believes. First for who? The Jew. Ethnic Jew, then for the Gentiles.
So if you look at the way eschatology unfolds, if you look at the way God's plan unfolds, yeah, God did, he did bring salvation first to the Jews. Uh, Israel was initially in, in Genesis 12, after the Tower of Babel, God pulls the nation of Israel out for his portion. That is his people. But go back and read all of the prophecies, all of the instruction. What was the purpose? The purpose of Israel was to draw the nations in to worship the one true God. That's Isaiah chapter 2. That's, that's the picture of Isaiah chapter 2.
"And their eventual purpose was to bring Jesus through that nation, which was, is the ultimate human. That was the purpose."
"Well, then what is the purpose for God coming to earth?"
"What is his purpose?" "So that all may be saved." "No matter where you're from." I mean, it's a real clever plan, but if you start detaching it from the entire plan, this is, I think, where we get into all these things that we don't know that we claim to know.
Well, I, uh, I didn't have the intent to go down that, I didn't want to address the actual issue, but we did. But my whole point was in 1 John 5:13, this, this whole section, it starts off saying, "I write these things." So, so we've been studying this for months. And then he just comes out and says, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, which is Jesus, so that you may know you have eternal life." I mean, that's quite a statement. Cuz here you are thinking, "Do you know that you have eternal life?" Like, "Well, I, well, I hope I do." But he, he used this word "know." And when you kind of go down the, the Greek rabbit hole on what that meant, it, it uses a phrase in the definition that really stopped me in my tracks, which was "absolute certainty."
"Absolute." "I know." "Certainty." And you're like, "Well, man, I can know this." And so, you had a little part in your notes, which I was trying to get to 40 minutes ago, which is in verse 20, which I'm saying, cuz we're going to discuss this in the next podcast, I guess, because we're almost out of time. But it says, "We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding that we may know him who is true." And so you got a little statement in there. It's who you know.
"Yeah. And I do think that the, the answer for my little riddle, the game we played on the most common phrase, 'I don't know,' says a lot about humans. Even though we may come across like we know, there's a lot of things we just don't know. There's a lot of things we think we know. And on the next podcast, uh, there was a famous speech given about knowing by the, I think the secretary, they called it Defense back then, Secretary of War, Donald Rumsfeld, which I want to read. But the answer I think to the equation for the day, it is ultimately about who you know, which produces the knowledge that you have eternal life. But it's not just a, it's an absolute certainty, which I found, I find fascinating. It's like, once you hear the story of Jesus and you realize, oh, this is not just a story, this is an actual being that is alive presently. He's the creator of the universe and he came, came to earth. And basically John's take is, we, we saw, we saw this person. That's why it's all a courtroom setting. We, we know that God came in a human body, which is his whole reason for writing this sermon. We s, we saw him. This is an absolute certainty and you can be a part of this. I just, I just find it fascinating that it's, it's a story based on eyewitnesses that they're saying, once you, once you participate in this, even without you being where we were, you will know that you have eternal life, absolute certainty."
"Which really becomes the biggest point, I think, of this whole letter, this whole sermon that John has done. And it's a, it's an odd way from our perspective sometimes because of how we study scripture, that how he got to this point because it was so circular. But he just keeps coming back to that, Jace. I mean, it just keeps coming back to certain."
"And I'm going to be honest, I don't know everything I need to know about the definition of this word, which, because I have all this listed, I want to go where he used it in John the first time he used that word. Because it, it's heavy to wrap your head around because even Jesus himself used the two different words for 'know' in one sentence. And I want to read that because it, I mean, you're like, 'I'm not smart enough to understand what he, how he's using this.' I mean, and it's so, uh, it's so thought-provoking. I think it's worth a journey there. But I think this was good just to introduce this idea of, of how heavy this is. And the ultimate goal is so joyous and exciting that you can take letters from a page from a book that we have and have full assurance that you're going to live forever. Are you kidding me? That's what that's what you're proposing here?"
"Yes."
"All right. So, we'll pick up what we know and what we don't know on the next Unashamed podcast. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube. And be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode."