Ep 905 | Jase Sees a Bad Omen When He Misses Church & Taking a Leashed Pig for a Walk?
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I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. On the last podcast, I presented Dad the fishing jigs out of the duck feathers. Which I wanted out. Which I guess was good because that's fishers of men. That led to their whole discussion there. But you put me into temptation. Because the first thing I wanted to do is rip that box open and take those jigs and go trom.

I need to tell Grant to make you some just for fishing. That's what I'm saying. I mean, are we giving Phil a gift or are we giving him some weird form of torture? Here are the digs, but you don't want to use them. They're just for looking at. It reminds me of a... It's the hard rock candy. I was literally going to say that. Outlaw Josie Wells, if none of you have seen that...

Why are you here? Because a lot of our illustrations revolve around that movie. But there was a hard rock piece of candy that, what was the chief's name? Lone Waddy. Lone Waddy. That's the only thing they left him with. But it wasn't for eating. It was just for looking. It was just for looking through. He just made the look through the red. So there was another man yesterday, um,

that was there at our church. He had his kids with him, dad. And he gave me this giant coffee mug, actually his kids did, and it was for you, but they missed you in the interim after your class. And so he's got the gospel symbols at the top, but he's written down, I guess you'd say written, he's printed onto this coffee mug

A ton of your sayings. And it was funny when I was reading it, I was thinking, man, I've heard dad say all these before. You're counting time by Jesus. It's not rocket science.

Love God, love people, and try to do good. I mean, these are the things you've said through the years. This guy, I mean, he remembered a lot. He's the coolest dude I know talking about Jesus and on and on and on. So that is your gift as another president. That's good. I did an illustration at two or three speaking events ago. And just for fun, I had the top 10 quotes.

from my dad, Phil Robertson, that I just thought of and wrote down. It was the hardest people have ever laughed. And of course, half of them were not designed to be funny. Right. But they laughed. So Phil, you've had a lot of good quotes. Oh yeah. And this guy just had written them all down. First verse, get you here. The second one, get you out of here. Yeah.

That's a great line. That's exactly right. So, Jace, yesterday I'm tired. You know, Sunday afternoons after I preach, you know, I'm spent. So I'm watching the Memorial Golf Tournament, and Scotty Scheffler wins again. So I was watching it, and Anna comes in. And I guess because I was watching golf, she said, oh, Jace won –

The first flight. Oh, I knew I was going to be called out on this. And I was like, really? Of course, me being a golfer and playing in this tournament that you played in, which is a really big local tournament, I was like, really? And of course, immediately I thought, Jay's cleaned up. I mean, first flight's a really big honor. Here's the problem. I have to confess my sins. You're congratulating me, but I'm fixed a confession. Well-

Here's what happened. You know, I told everyone I didn't play golf for almost three years because we were doing our TV show, which, by the way, Duck Family Treasure, season three will be out July 26th on Fox Nation if you want to enjoy. And so I've been back for about, you know, six weeks. And so, you know, when I came back, I was absolutely deplorable. Not that I was very good anyway. No.

And so it became a thing. I started practicing. There's a young golf guy who goes to Louisiana Tech. He's from England. And I saw him at the driving range one day. And he actually plays as an amateur on one of the semi-pro tours or whatever.

And had no idea who I was. He was from England. But he tried to help me, which he really did, with my chipping and pitching. Because that I had just developed a mental thing. So anyway, I kind of engrossed myself in that. And so my buddy, who I used to play with for years in these tournaments, asked me,

Number one, if I would play Friday in his, he's got two kids that go to one of the local high schools here. And he's like, it's a fundraiser for a lot of their activities and sports and mean a lot. If you, you know, support the community and my kids, I was like, yeah, let's do it. And he's like, and look, we'll, we'll reunite there playing this scramble. It's for a good cause. And then how about we play in the senior league?

pine cone out at the course that we're all members of yep and i was like i don't know if i'm ready for that you know but he said well look i mean let's let's just do it for old time's sake so we decided to have low expectations so i agree well then he sends me a text and says now look if we're in the if we're winning this thing or in the top groups we would have an early tea time on sunday and i was like

Because he's like, I know you're at church every Sunday. I was like, I don't think we have to worry about that. I mean, my expectations were so low. And well, wouldn't you know it? We go out there first round.

The first round is a scramble, and we shot 61, which for you who are not golfers, is 11 under par. And at our course, that's a really good score. Our course is not easy. Oh, that's a good score. Anyway, I'm just saying people say, oh, that was a scramble, but that's a really good score. So we were tied for the lead. Now, you've got to remember, it's in our flight. We weren't in what they call the championship flight. They have the top six or seven groups that –

are untouchable. They're all scratch and mess. And so, guys, now you got to remember my role in this golf tournament is the horse, the race horse, is my partner. Yeah, he's sorry. I'm like the jockey.

Saying, come on, buddy. You can do it. And so anywhere I contribute is just, that's how come we're in the first flight. Because my game is not where these guys are. Your game is not first flight worthy. Having said that, as bad as I played in the little school thing-

I played terrible. And on that day when we shot the 11-under, I played great. And so that's why we shot 11-under because he's going to play good. But the second day, which is on Sunday, which now I'm missing church because we're tied for the lead. And so and it was just a weird day and I was nervous about it because there's nowhere to hide because now we're playing real golf.

It's called four ball, which means you play your own ball. Yeah. And they announced, look, this course we're playing is not up to PGA Tour standards golf course, and we're playing the ball down by the rules of golf. And you said, what does that mean? That means if you hit a shot out of bounds, you got to hit another one. I mean, there could possibly be somebody there a day later still on the tee box.

The score you can shoot is infinity. Yeah, exactly. At some point, you just wave the white flag and say, good luck, partner. And so I was a little nervous about it. And it was really a grind. I mean, it was tough because it's harder for everybody. Right.

And so we started off pretty good. My partner birdied the first hole on his ball, and I had a birdie putt. We both parred the second hole. And then from number three to number 11, we both struggled. And it was just hang on. We made an ogie on one hole. I made a couple good pars. He made several good pars, but...

But we were losing because we were playing the people who we were tied with. So we were like two down going into like number 12. And then all of a sudden I got on 13 and I thought I had been struggling. What have I got to lose? Yeah, I thought of all of those little little silly things that pros say, you know, give yourself a chance to win. Take one shot at a time, you know, and I have to admit.

I wound up birdieing 13, 16, and 17, and he birdied 18. Wow. And so we just went in a fury. We caught fire, and we ended up winning by two. And I'm going to tell you, it was a lot like life. There were so many distractions. We got bad breaks. You're playing the ball down. It was 95 degrees. It's hot. It was the third day we were playing this. I mean, I was literally...

Looking down deep into my soul. Just like, I mean, I don't know. The people that do this all the time, I have. You have an appreciation, huh? I just didn't realize. Week in and week out. Whatever. I mean, I just came home and collapsed and thought, wow, why would any human want to do that to themselves? And can you imagine losing, doing that and then losing? Yeah. We won. Oh, my goodness.

So I'm rethinking my golf. I think I'm just going to stick to playing once a month. Well, you're right, because it brings a lot of internal pressure on you because you're trying to win. Exactly. Your competitive juices get to flowing in the moment. And you don't realize a lot of you who don't play competitive sports, you know,

I mean, I hit one ball out of bounds, you know, and I mean, it's on the tee shot. I mean, I looked at my partner. Well, I've created a lot of pressure for him because whatever he's fixed this score, that's what we're going to have, you know? And you're just like, sorry, buddy. Good luck. I'm behind you 100% while I'm on my way to making double bogey, you know?

But you were by holes though, right? It wasn't by like total score. Yeah, it's just you take the best score between you. Like if he makes a par and I make a triple, we take the par. Right, right. And so really playing the ball down by the rules of golf, we only had one bogey.

And we had six birdies. That's impressive. Yeah, we shot 67 the second day. I hadn't been out there in a while, but that course is not easy. And you're right. Everything's not perfect there, so you get a lot of bad lines. Yeah, so it was fun. I mean, look, like I said, I don't want you to think I'm a great golfer. I was a good jockey. And part of my biggest contribution was keeping him –

you know his attitude's right i was like look this is just tougher because he's always been a great golfer but sometimes struggle with the you know he'll he'll get mad at himself and well he mainly got mad at the right things which was you know he hit the ball twice in the middle of the fairway and he was in a divot that someone didn't put sand in yeah well just think about it not only do you have to hit the golf ball and your partner me was out of the hole he's got to hit it

While submerged two inches below the ground. Yeah.

Because some fool didn't put some sand. One, he hit it in the water and we made bogey. The other one, he hit it on the green, which was one of the most incredible shots I've ever seen in my life. I was like, I mean, he's playing a skill set that I'm not familiar with. And he is, we call him Mickey FedEx, which is another great, all-time great nickname because he works for FedEx. So he became known as Mickey. Well, when we were at Duck Commander down at Phil's, he used to deliver packages. That's how we got to know him.

Great guy. So it was a great venture. But I will say this. Even though you missed my sermon days, I still congratulate you on the win because I know how hard that is to do. Well, thank you. It was fun. But I will say this. You know how you have that moment when you're like, I mean, here I am. The Lord's people are meeting together. And I'm going crazy.

and hitting a white round ball off the ground in a competition. And so I said, you know what I'm going to do? I put worship music on on the way to the course. But I saw something strange that made me think, is this a sign that I'm messing up? I'm driving down Arkansas Road because I'm going out of town. And so I'm going away from all church buildings. Right.

And I look on the side of the road and there's a guy, what I thought, well, he was walking his dog. And I thought, well, this is what people do during church. And I looked real close and I thought, that's a strange looking dog. So I started slowing down. He was walking a pig with a leash on it down the road. And I thought in that moment, should I just turn around and go meet with the brothers right now? I don't know what this means.

But I've never seen a man walking a pig down the road. And by the way, just let me put a bow on this for you back there, study. For you legalists out there, I know what you're going to say. Oh, that's the worst thing ever. You know, he didn't go to church. He went and played golf. You know, think about it. I mentioned Scotty Scheffler. Anybody that's a believer that plays professional golf, they play every Sunday.

But they're still giving God glory. And these are the guys that when they win, just like Scottie did after the Masters, they give glory to God for what he's doing in their lives. So let's don't get to be legalist about this thing either. So just a little. I know some of you are going to send us some notes. I'm just going to go ahead. Well, Jace is not a professional golfer, though. He is not.

That is for sure. You should have been at church, Jack. I'm casting the verdict on that. Well, I listened to worship music. I've exonerated you, Jack. Al says it doesn't matter. I think you should have been there, and I think the pig was a sign. I think God was trying to tell you something. Well, the thing I confessed was that I thought in no way we would be winning, and I thought that wouldn't be a problem. And when it became one, I honored my commitment to the tournament, but I would like to say...

that I showed the character of Christ in really a lot of moments where I could have lost my cool or just got worldly. But it made me realize, too, that I'm not chasing things that this world has to offer. That's right. Zach, all of us kind of find our different ways, I think, to be involved in the pro-life movement. Lisa and I are kind of on the...

um, abortion side of it because Lisa had an abortion as a teenager. And so because of that experience, we talk about it. You guys, uh, have adopted a beautiful little girl. Jace and Missy have done fostering, uh,

there's different ways to engage in life, right? And I think it's important to hit all spectrums because we're not just for children being born. We're for like children being taken care of and being nourished throughout their lives. Absolutely. Looking after widows and orphans is pure religion. That's it. And so our good friends at Preborn are involved in this fight as well.

Unfortunately, because of the abortion pill now, which accounts, by the way, for 64% of all abortions, which, you know, the evil one just keeps coming up with ways to destroy people's lives and people from having a chance. So pre-born, what they do is that they're a ministry of compassion. They shower women and babies with God's love, which is the most important thing that we can do, is put love into the pro-life movement.

They provide free ultrasounds to mothers with unplanned pregnancies. And so they're trying to introduce them to this life that's growing inside them. Because no matter what the conditions were to get this person inside this mother's womb, that's a person. And they deserve to be born and have every opportunity in life. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, she's twice as likely to choose life.

So that's why we support these guys. $28 sponsors one ultrasound. $140 helps to rescue five babies. All these donations are tax deductible, and they help women choose life. And these guys stick with them for up to two years. So it's not just to get a baby here. It's also to help them through the process. So we want to join together, help mothers choose life.

To donate, dial pound 250, say the keyword baby. That's pound 250, keyword baby. Or you can go to preborn.com slash unashamed. That's preborn.com slash unashamed. So I wanted to mention this last time because we're into this. We're in Ephesians 1, and we read 3 through 14, I think about four podcasts ago. But we've been setting the groundwork for the importance of

of this letter, but also just because it's such a big picture letter. And it reminded me that I wanted to remind us everything that Zach and Jace mostly said in the last podcast about this idea of the Old Testament and bringing forward this idea from Jew to Gentile and that being his main point. Remember what got us here. We were in Acts 19 and 20.

And you remember when Paul first goes into Ephesus, the first thing he does is he runs up on these guys who had been baptized under John's baptism, but had not been baptized in Jesus and didn't know anything about the Holy Spirit. Remember, that's how it started. So that first group is about a dozen disciples.

They only knew the Jewish content. They were believers in Jesus, but they only knew the Jewish backdrop for it. They didn't understand now this idea. So the whole church begins in Ephesus, which now he's writing a book to the Ephesians, with this idea of transitioning from the Jewish mindset and the kingdom of Israel as it was set up for earth to something greater and something bigger.

And so that's how this whole thing started. And that original dozen, I'm assuming, became the foundation of this church. But remember, we didn't get a chapter into it. Then all of a sudden, these people who had this Artemis gods, you know, they started getting jealous because the revival breaks out in the city of Ephesus with this new idea of Jesus Christ. People are burning their scrolls.

People are turning away from all this, you know, stuff they've been doing, turning away from the evil one. And this people said, wait a minute, we can't embrace this Jesus because we've all made our living here on Artemis. You know, the idea of this false God. So then this riot breaks out, sends Paul out of Ephesus. But as he's coming back by, you remember he met with the Ephesian elders and he said, now, look, I love you. I've spent my, you know, the last year and a half, you know, planning this church here.

But let me warn you, they're going to be people that come in with all these false ideas and they're going to try to subvert everything we talked about. And some will even raise up from your own number and do this. So all that against the backdrop, you see why it's so important that he wrote this letter.

Back to the church establishing exactly what Jesus did and exactly how it all came down. So the, the backdrop of even the historical context is very important to understand this, which is what got us here to begin with. Yeah. I mean, I've, I've read a lot of different commentaries on this. Um, and there's kind of like three primary positions and, um,

I hold the position that when you read through the first portion of Ephesians 1, 3 through, say, verse 12, that if you notice the pronouns, it's the pronoun throughout is...

Us, us, we, us, us, we, us, us, we, we. Those are the pronouns. I think he's talking about Israel as,

And I'll tell you why right here. If I could, y'all care if I just read through it real quick and then we need to read it again. Anyways, I know where you're going with this and I'm glad you're making this point because chapter two at the end of it validates what you're fixed to say tied in with Ephesians 1, 13 and 14.

Yeah, great point, which is why last podcast we mentioned that last part of Ephesians 2, because I think it makes the point. But listen to the language here, and then I'll tell you why I think it means this. So, blessed be the God of our Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ.

with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoptions to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved,

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He has lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and on earth, in Him alone.

We have obtained an inheritance. We, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we, this is the line, who are the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. Now, I think Paul's pretty consistent here throughout this section. He's always using first person plural here. He's describing himself as,

in my opinion, and other commentators that I've researched agree with this, and his people, which is the nation of Israel, the Jews. So the phrase, we who are the first to hope in Christ, that's the same language that I think confirms what Paul said in Romans 1, verse 16, when he says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. But then he gives the distinction. To the Jew first...

And also the Greek or also the Gentile. So the language here seems to be almost a mirror language of how he starts the book of Romans, that it's first for the Jew and then for the Gentile grafted in. Going back to what we already mentioned in the Old Testament, like it was God's chosen people, Israel first and then Israel.

The promise was later to come, I'm going to bring in all the nations. I'm going to bring in the Gentiles as well. So what Paul's saying here is that all of these riches, all these blessings, they're first for Israel. God shows the people from the Old Testament and forever. Even the structure of verse three tells us this, that it was because it's a common formulation of the greeting. But then notice that switch that takes place in verse 13. In him, you...

It's a we he switches in him. You when you heard the word of truth of the gospel and believe to him, we're still with the promise of the Holy Spirit. So it's all this we language, these for the first to believe. And then he switches and says you. So I think the you there is the inclusion of he's writing to Gentiles now. I don't know. No, no doubt about it. I mean, the NIV actually makes your point.

Better, because it says verse 13, and you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth. So if you go back and read it. Which pointedly shows you, he's talking about now a different group. We who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory, and you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth. Which actually, when you go to Ephesians 2.11, it says, therefore remember that formerly you, who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcision,

by those who call themselves the circumcision, which there we get back to the Jews. Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. So it's not like you just came up with some idea. Yeah.

That is the theme of what he's saying big picture wise. And that takes you back to Acts 2, 39. You remember when he was speaking to Jews at the old temple and declares Jesus Lord and goes on to say, verse 30 of Acts 2, he was a prophet.

and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants, he was speaking of David, one of his descendants on the throne. Well, there's, that's Jesus. Daniel 7, other verses. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave. God has raised this Jesus to life. We're all witnesses, exalted to the right hand of God, which there's a lot of that language in Ephesians 1.

He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. So then verse 36, let all Israel be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom you've crucified, both Lord and Christ. So you're saying, where are you going with this, Jase? Because they said, what do we do? And Peter replied, repent and be baptized every morning in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then you have verse 39.

This promise is for you and your children. And then look at this next phrase. And for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call. Yeah. So you have. And he had already done an Old Testament reference from Joel that included Gentiles even before that.

So we have not compared notes, and I did not have that in my notes. But let me just read to you. Well, I didn't either. But I didn't either. I just responded to you and thought this may be a good point here. Jace, can you do me one favor? Just read that last part one more time about the promise. This is in Acts 2. Acts 2. Just the last line. Oh, no. 39. He's got to turn back. Because after you read that, I'm going to read –

I want to read you something that just fits completely into what you're saying. But then notice 39, the promise is for you and your children, speaking of Israel, but then this phrase, and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call. So obviously the Gentiles. Yeah, so when we were going through this study at our church, we

The way we summed up Ephesians 1 was this. For the first time, I didn't write this. One of our other pastors wrote this. For the first time, Paul, what he's saying here is that all of this, all of these blessings that were true of Israel,

are now also freely yours in Christ. Gentiles, he says, welcome to the party. Welcome to the riches. We now read Israel's promises and privileges forward into the lives, into our lives through the person of Jesus. I mean, that's incredible. That's exactly what you just read in Acts chapter two. But what this is, it's a fulfillment of

of Psalms 72, 17 that says, May his name endure forever. His fame continue as long as the sun. May people be blessed in him. All nations call him blessed.

That's it. What was Israel's is now ours in Christ. And I did not even think about that on the day of Pentecost. As you read that, which we mentioned this before in the podcast, the day of Pentecost was a redemptive day of what happened at the Tower of Babel. So it was the dividing of nations.

Now the coming back of two of nations under the banner of Christ. And I think that's what Paul's certainly getting at here with this us, us, we, we, we, us language and then flipping it to you to the to include the Gentiles, which would be us. And so you said, well, why does it matter? Why does it matter? It matters because what the point for us is, is that we all the promises to Israel are

We are now including into that. Me here in North Carolina, you guys in West Monroe, Louisiana, we have been welcomed into the party. That's good news. Well, and to make the historical point again that I made at the beginning of the podcast, we said this before. The reason why this is so important from Paul's perspective is he's going out from Jerusalem.

to Corinth, to Rome, to Ephesus, who's the major seed in Asia Minor. And look, the gospel has continued to go out as the planet has grown to cover now the whole globe. And so as you see the importance of going out from where this all started right there in Jerusalem, you see the importance of why it was framed the way it was in all of these letters in the first century. Well, that's our point. I think we have a responsibility to try to

and articulate what he was talking about. And so what happens is when Zach referenced all those different commentaries, people take Ephesians 1 and bring out all sorts of things. But we're trying to say this is what he had in mind. And that's why the Acts 2 popped into my head. But I wanted to share something else. This is not something unfamiliar. Jesus actually predicted exactly what

We're saying I didn't read this out of the out of a commentary. I just it popped into my head. And so I can get your take on it. But you remember in Matthew 22, when when Zach said, welcome to the party, I thought about this and I was reading it while Zach was talking. So I wasn't paying full attention. But I think this is this needs to be said.

Because Jesus, you know, in his part of his ministry, it was all, you know, revealing the character of God. He was fulfilling everything that was written. And he was just demonstrating self-giving love by being God in human form for us. But he was also describing this process that we're discussing. And this is a classic example of this in Matthew 22, verse

Listen to this. I want to read this parable. Jesus spoke to them again in parables saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. And this is really going to make more sense when we get to Ephesians 5 talking about

what spirit-filled people's lives look like in their home. And he talks about husbands and wives, but he gets down to the end of Ephesians 5, and he says, this is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about you and Christ, being the bride of Christ. But he says in verse 3 of Matthew 22, he sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Well, who do you think he's talking about?

Israel. Yeah, the Jewish nation. Then he sent some more servants and said, tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened calf have been butchered and everything is ready. Come to the party. Come to the wedding banquet is what it says.

But they paid no attention and went off, one to his field, another to his business, which gets into this idea of us loving the physical world that we're in instead of looking at the creator of the world. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. Well, what happened to the Old Testament prophets and all? That's what happened. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those

and burn their city. And you see a lot of judgment that happened in the Old Testament when people turned their back on God. But watch what he says next. Then he said to his servants, the wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners, invite to the banquet anyone you find. So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad.

And the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. So now we got, you know, false teacher, hypocrite, whatever you want to. Same warning to the. But from anybody, you know, it's like it came to the Jews. Now you say anybody, but even those who come, you got a guy who's not wearing wedding clothes.

Friend, he asked, how did you get in here without wedding clothes? The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, tie him hand and foot and throw him outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. But what's this last line? For many are invited, but few are chosen.

And so I think you see the same pattern here that he was predicting. This is what the kingdom of heaven is going to look like. And once he was exalted and the Holy Spirit was poured out, Acts 2 is what we just read,

That is exactly what the kingdom looked like. The first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, and then all these warnings in the New Testament letters to the churches about people coming in who were trying to come in without being clothed in Jesus. Just think of all the verses that says, you know, I thought about the Galatians 3. It says, for all of you who are baptized, have clothed yourself with Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek, male or female. ♪

No, I love that. That's exactly what he's talking about. That's the idea. That's what the wedding clothes are, is the idea of being clothed in Christ. And this idea, Jay, since you went there, because there's three or four really big themes that are in this first context. And one of them we hadn't touched on yet specifically that I think you got us there is this idea of chosen or predestined, which we see the word predestined used twice here and then chosen is used twice as well.

And so I want to talk about that because obviously that is a little bit controversial because people have different view of what that means. The Greek word here for predestined is prurizo, which means to set a boundary or horizon, to mark a course.

That's what predestined means in the Greek in this context. So you think about that. If you set a boundary or horizon or mark a course, that's a dependent notion. In other words, if I'm going to have a race and I say, okay, the race is going to be a 3K and we're going to start at the Washtenaw River right here, you know, at the Louisville Bridge and here's the course, right?

and I lay it out for you that I've set the boundary, but now it's dependent on you, whether you want to enter the race, whether you want to run the race, whether you want to finish the race, how fast you want to be inside the race. So you see the idea here is we see the word. I'm just giving you the background of the word before we get into what we think he means in here in Ephesians is that it is a setting, a marking of a course.

Which I think is, yeah, it's like a, it's a destination that you're going to. Yeah. And that's predetermined. So like, here's the destination. Here's where we're headed. Hey guys, wheels up at, you know, 10, 10 AM and we're going to land in Nashville. Make sure you're at the airport. Make sure you're on the plane. Cause we're heading out. And then whoever's on the plane is going to show up and be there at whatever the time that was preordained or preplanned.

Yeah. One commentator said it like this, I thought was really good. Because, I mean, this is like verse four says, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless. I think it's this is where our backstory comes into play. Why so important?

Because the point is, is that God's plan all along, his destination all along was this. We've already set this foundation over the last three or four episodes, that the choosing of the one, ultimately Christ, as Jason mentioned many times in this podcast and the previous ones, that the many would be blessed. So through the one, the many would be blessed. Christ's blessing becomes our blessing forever.

So this is how one of the commentators put it that I liked. It said, the key to understanding what Paul means by the word election is the phrase in Christ. You got to get the part in Christ if you're going to understand the word election. So when Paul says believers were chosen before the foundation of the world in him, what he means is he means that Christ was

preexisted before the creation of the universe, and that by God's choosing of him who is the elect one, those who would come to be in him by faith find themselves among the elect and the person of their Redeemer. So I think this is important. I don't think Paul is really interested in our endless debates on this topic, and

And there's a lot of them. I mean, you can go down a rabbit hole. Just go Google the term election or predestination. And on both sides, man, you can go down a rabbit hole. And you and I did for many, many, many years. And I'll tell you where I kind of ended up at. I ended up on this topic with something that A.W. Tozer wrote that I read this because I love A.W. Tozer. He's respected by kind of all the sides of this theological debate. This is what Tozer said. And I love this.

God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, O Lord, thou knowest. Those things belong to the deep and mysterious, profound of God's omniscience. Prying into them may make great theologians

but it will never make saints. And I lean into that because you can get into the debate on this, and I've seen this happen to people, and they're completely robbed of what Christ is offering us here, what Paul is offering us here. What Paul is saying ultimately here is that

you guys, you Gentiles can now participate in the promise that was given to Israel. That's the big picture. That's the beauty of the whole thing. And I think we get hung up on this word predestination and election because of that. That's why I think the point is about the church, because when you're chosen to do something, I mean, just think of a military setting or whatever. I mean, this may be a bad illustration, but they choose 12 men and let's go

to whatever country and get these people out. You're chosen for a task. And so you notice what it says, he chose us in him for the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. We'll just put that together with verse 22, and God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head of

over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. So when you think, what are we chosen to do, to be? He reiterates that in 2.10. We're God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for

For us to do, the prepared in advance for us to do is where I'm going with this. He chose us to be the presence of God on earth because of our stature in Jesus. Ephesians 5 says the same thing. This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about you and Christ. I think when you look at it like that, it keeps you...

from the temptation of just thinking, oh, this is just all about me not facing judgment. I mean, there was a plan for the whole world to be invited, just like what I read in Matthew 22. And I mean, he said in that verse three, he sent his service to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come.

But they refused to come. But they were called. My translation says called. And that's the same. I think it's the same Greek word that's in Romans 8. You tie that in with the verses that says, you know, God's patient with everyone, not wanting anyone to perish. You know, when you read things like that, you say, well, wait a minute. What else can he do besides predetermine? You know, God was gracious before.

Before he sent Jesus, that's why he sent Jesus. Correct. And so, you know, that was the plan all along and it's available to every single person. I mean, there's numerous verses about God saying he doesn't show favoritism and

God is love. I mean, he did this. And if people want to refuse, okay, what happens? They suffer the penalty of that refusal. I think there's a—you mentioned something earlier I wanted to clarify, too. I think we've mentioned it several times on the podcast. And I don't remember the term that you used exactly, but you were talking about if you interpret this solely as an individual thing that Paul's making argument about individual things.

or atonement or however you want to say it, that you're missing the collective part of it. And we would argue that we actually think the context here, as we've said, is much more about something that's collective in that the Gentiles are being included in. I would argue the same for Romans, Romans 9 particularly. I mean, when you get to Romans 9, I mean, it seems to be clear that he's talking about Israel being

and the Gentiles primarily. And, and, but, but I think one of the dangers in that position, if you're not careful is you can't minimize and not that you were, but I just want to say this because I can see someone coming against this and saying, well, you're minimizing individual atonement. Well, no, no, no, it's, it's collective atonement, but it happens to individual people coming to the, coming to Christ and faith. So it's both. And, and I think what happens in this discussion is,

is either we tend to go on the side of it's all about the individual atonement, that individually my sins are paid for. Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior. Or then you go on the other side of it and you're all about some kind of collective atonement and you diminish that.

The atonement of Christ. And I've seen that. I think that both of these are true. We hold them both in high regard. We hold them both in tandem. But it is clear from the first part of Ephesians, it is clear that Paul's goal here. Let me pull it up real quick.

Well, I was just saying that was the point of his letter to the Ephesians is the he was looking at more of the whole and in Romans than the individual basis. That doesn't mean, yeah, of course, we're.

personally say but we have individual thoughts choices and action but it's kind of like first corinthians 15 where he said now as an atom all die but in christ all will be made alive well there's one guy that didn't die enoch

In Hebrews 11. He walked with God and was taken up. Well, so I'm saying, was Paul wrong? No, he's never wrong. He was right in this by the Holy Spirit. He was just, as a whole, he was saying, you who live on the earth, guess what? You're going to die. Yeah.

And then it makes a point about, you know, because of sin. But it is collective. I mean, there is a collective nature to this because even this first part of Ephesians from 3 to 6 is one run-on sentence, and then he picks it up with another run-on sentence in verse 7 through 10 here. So that, I mean, that's what's happening here. At the end of that, though, is this. It's this, it's this, um,

Verse 9. But how does it end? The sentence ends with this collective language. He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he set forth in him.

regarding his plan of the fullness of time, and here it is, to bring all things together in Christ, things in heaven and things on the earth. So that includes the individual atonement of people, me, you, anybody listening to this podcast that's came to Christ in faith, but it also includes the

The verse that was in Romans, was it Romans 8, that the creation itself groans with eager expectation, waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. I mean, so even the creation itself, it's all things. So Christ, his ultimate goal here, and he will accomplish it, by the way, in his sovereign will, in his sovereign will, he will bring all things together, things in heaven and things on the earth. So it's not that we're, we are not diminishing individual atonement or salvation.

But I do think that Paul has something bigger in mind than just that, that together, this is kind of Hebrews 11 language, the promise is going to be fulfilled. We're going to receive the promise together in the fullness of time.

And remember that the phrase in him, in Christ, through Christ, is so prevalent in our text. And if you think about it, it's prevalent in the entire Bible. You know, much is made of Pharaoh and Moses when you get into this idea about

is someone elected to do something that they have no, then no choice over. Same thing has been said because of Acts 4, 28, this word is present talking about Herod and Pilate who interacted with Jesus. They did what your power and will decided beforehand should happen. So I've heard these verses used to see. So Herod, Pilate,

Judas is another one. Pharaoh. You hear all these mentions. These people were elected to do something they had no choice or control over. But think about it. You're looking at it from the wrong perspective. In the case of Moses, as well as when Jesus was here on the earth, who made the choice to be here and change the world and set us free? Jesus made that choice.

The choice of everybody around him reacted to his choice in him. So you look at Herod and Pilate, they were simply reacting. They had a choice. Pilate didn't want to kill Jesus at all. He kept trying to talk Jesus into backing down so he wouldn't have to kill him. Well, guess what?

Jesus had chosen to be here to die for us before the creation of the world. You think he was going to change his plan? No. So again, the predestined journey was in Jesus. We all have a choice in how we're going to deal with Jesus. To me, that's the perspective we have to look at. Yeah, but that's why I'm just saying you can't minimize the importance of this being a collective for one real reason. When you look at all the illustrations,

God used through his scriptures to try to equate who we are in Christ. I mean, he says into 221, we're the whole building joined together and we rise to become a holy temple. We are the church in Ephesians 1, 22 and 23, which is his body. Ephesians 5, we're the bride of Christ. Well, think about marriage. You're only married once, right?

To a certain individual. And I get it. Some people die. Some people get divorced. But you're never going to be married to that person but once. And here we are, the bride of Christ. Why would he make that illustration? Yeah. We're all...

The bride of Christ. Why is he stressing that? Right. Because I believe he chose the church before the beginning of time in Jesus to be his body on earth as he's exalted at the right hand of God, which, by the way, brings all thing into fulfillment, Ephesians 1.10, in heaven and on earth under one head, Christ. Right.

The only time that verb under one head is used, it's used twice in the whole New Testament. I looked it up. The other one is Romans 13, 8, where it says all the law and the prophets are summed up. It's the same verb that's used under one head. In what?

Loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself, which then becomes the fulfillment of why Jesus said the whole law summed up with that. That's what God provided through the cross, through the resurrection, through him being exalted, that you now have a way to love God, be reunited, and you now have a way to look at all people in love. Which becomes the purpose of the church. All right, we're out of time. Man.

This study is amazing, and we have many more themes to hit, so we'll pick it up next time on the Unashamed Podcast. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed Podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube, and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV at blazetv.com slash unashamed.