Ken Boa Reflections Ministries

Dr. Ken Boa: I really do hope that you are praying for and using this material. I think we did send it out to you, didn't we? We all got, you all got it, didn't you? Yes, so the key, the breakthrough for me and this is so critical, is the central theme so that you are dealing with three trilogies, vertical and horizontal, in a way, and they all work.

But the thing about this is putting this Trinity in the center that made all the difference. So now the way I go, I always go, trust the Father, abide the Son, walk by the Spirit. And when I go, trust the Father, I think, my mind turns to the left, what do you seek? And then to the right, may I know you more clearly. You see, and that I meditate on that. What does it mean to trust the Father? What does it mean to abide in the Son? Who do you say I am? May I love you more dearly. You see, and it becomes a meditation.

Then when I go down to the Holy Spirit, may I follow you more nearly, rather, rather, walk by the Spirit. Then what, do you let me in one of these, follow you more nearly. So it's this kind of rhythm between the three persons of the divine Trinity that gives me a perspective in how each of them, in this trinitarian union and diversity, it gives us grace. You see, so that's trusting the Father, abiding in the Son, walking by the Spirit. I carry that with me throughout the day and I'm eager, I'm eager for you to do the same. It's that simple.

And then, as you know, at night I do it in the past tense. The past tense is a reflective modality. So it says, how did I do today? Did I trust the Father? Did I abide in the Son? Did I walk by the Spirit? Not only for a review of today, but a review for that in preparation for that day when you will be giving, given an account of these questions of this very nature.

So, wouldn't it be wise to live with that in mind and reflect, but this is what I carry with me throughout the, throughout the entire day. So please prayerfully consider how you might craft or creatively make that an ideal for you to practice his presence and be aware of that throughout the course of your, of your day. So that's very critical. So we're going to be going now from, from that into.

Now we are up to, oh, I should go to Jeremiah. I should go to the handbook to to find it here, Handbook to Scripture. And this is where we have been. So just to give you a perspective, those of you who have been with us, we've been going through, we went through Proverbs and so forth and back and forth and Isaiah. And now we, we finished Isaiah 61 two weeks ago and we're going to have three sessions on Jeremiah because this is the key chapters of the Bible and only about a third of them are selected for the 365.

But the, we, Jeremiah 18, 19, and 31. So just to give you a little bit of a hint of where we're going to be going on that. So we can just get a, get a kind of a preview. And. So take a look with me then. Jeremiah was called to be to the unenviable prophetic ministry of urging a rebellious people to repentance for nearly five decades without any significant or positive response. That's a hard, hard call.

More than most of the prophets experience public humiliation, put in the stocks, forced to flee for his life, thrown into a cistern, misunderstood by virtually all who encountered him. And in spite of his frequent discouragement and pain, he remained faithful to his calling and endured to the end. And this, this whole thing, how did he do that? What was it made him possible to do that? What are the qualities that make a person finish well is always something I'm always chewing on and describing.

And a striking model of faithfulness, steadfastness, steadfast endurance in the face of opposition. And the sign of the Potter in Jeremiah 18 is what we're going to be focusing on that. And I still remember when I was writing my first book, God Understood, and writing the chapter on divine sovereignty and human responsibility that this was the perfect chapter to illustrate the, the, the combination of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. An object lesson.

And we'll be talking about that. Repent before your judge. But the fact is he already said, even though it's a bonafide offer of, of deliverance, nevertheless, he'll say, nah, I'm not going to do it. So he's giving them a bonafide offer but he's also predicting that they will reject that offer. So it relates to some complex matters, so we'll talk more about that.

The, it's a rich and profound passage that we want to chew on. But before we go to that, I want to go to, I'll give you a bit as I typically do, anytime I do a book of the Bible, I use my talk through the Bible material. And I think this is, this is available on the website, but it will become I think more increasingly so, won't it, the reflections you and all that? We'll talk about that.

So, let's just say a word about the introduction title of Jeremiah. So the key in any book of the Bible and the whole point of this, by the way, is for you to take and you go into, I can't resist it, I want to show you something here. Just a minute. So if I go to Talk Through the Bible. So here would be Talk Through the Bible. And this would be Isaiah. And we have the overview, so we go to Jeremiah and it's going to, I always have a chart, always have an overview and always have introduction and title, author, date and setting.

Theme and purpose, keys to the book and then Christ and Jeremiah, which is important. Every book has a something aspect about it. The contribution to the Bible. And we see as well, this little chart here that is helpful that at the beginning of the book, we're dealing with the changes that took place, reformation to regression. Assyria was in power at the beginning, Babylonia, Babylonia later. The Jews are no longer in the land, but they're deported to Babylon. So you can see this, this diminishment from Jerusalem to Egypt, addressing the masses to addressing just a remnant.

The Davidic throne was occupied at the beginning, but it's now empty. So it's, it's, it's almost striking to see this. And then we have a survey of the book as we do for every book of the Bible and then an outline. And by the way, this is my recommendation before you read any book of the Bible. Get the overview of it and you'll have a greater familiarity with how to use it. That's why it's a tool for your use in that way.

So going back to that, that's what this keynote is about. So it's just a visual realization of that content I just showed you. Does it make sense? So, but giving you the overview is very helpful for you to contextualize. Because we're dealing with something that's unlike other so-called revelations. They're not even any holy books. This is not long ago and far away. You know, you can't really measure it and so forth, but we know precisely when these things took place and where the specificity. It's historically embedded. It's locked into space-time history.

And it's part of a narrative in history that is both linear and cyclical. It's, it's, it's linear in one sense because it's, there's history is moving in a direction, but there are certain cycles that go around and around, and to go around that way and move in this direction. So the divine perspective on moving through history is extraordinary if you begin to put this text together and realize there's a bigger plan.

And you and I are privileged to see things that these people who were hearing this message had no clue to, or even could imagine. They had no idea about the Messiah as, as, as he would come and come in our as a suffering servant and then later on as a reigning King, as Isaiah said, he would do in Isaiah 53. No idea. You and I are privileged to see this. But let's talk about this.

It's a prophecy of a man then divinely called in his youth from the priestly city of Anathoth. And he was a heartbroken prophet because a heartbreaking message really. He was laboring for more than 40 years proclaiming a message of doom to a stiff-necked people of Judah and is despised and you see is persecuted by his countrymen. He bathes in his harsh prophecies in tears of compassion.

So you see this back and forth, the love of God and the compassion of God on the one hand. He's appealing, oh, if you'd only return, it would be well with you. And yet the hardness of the message because of their rebellion against him. His broken heart causes him to write a broken book. And this broken book is difficult to arrange both chronologically and typically. It's almost reflecting the chaos of its time in the Hebrew.

But although he, his sermons, through his signs and sermons, he faithfully declares that surrender to God's will is the only way to escape calamity, if you'd only listen. And so the title of this means Yahweh throws and it may be the sense of laying a foundation, but it effectively means that he establishes, he appoints, he sends. This name that here Jeremiah in the Latin Jeremiah.

And so when we look at this, this man, the author of Jeremiah, he's the son of Hilkiah the priest. And he lived just over two miles north of Jerusalem in Anathoth, so just above Jerusalem. And as an object to to Jerusalem to Judah, he was not allowed to be married. Because of his radical message of God's judgment through the coming Babylonian invasion, he really did live a life of conflict because his life illustrates the very message he's conveying.

Both the tears of Jeremiah and the exhortations and the warnings as well. And what book would follow, by the way? Lamentations of Jeremiah. You see, so it's, you know it's going to happen. But there's still the 11th hour appeal says a bonafide offer. Just as Jesus said, if you'd only would listen to me when I came, it was a bonafide offer, but you will not.

So the scripture is talking. How does this work? We'll talk about that a little bit about the combination of this great mystery of the fact that God is both sovereign over the nations and over history. He rules. There's no surprises to him. He raises up kings, names them in advance, my servant Cyrus, hundreds of years before he's even born. He raises up kings and he deposes them.

He establishes the times and the seasons. Nothing's a surprise to him. And yet we are also agents whose choices do matter. We're not fatalistic robots. We're not, this is not kismet or determinism or fatalism, but rather you're an agent whose choices will have an eternal consequence in this period of time. How is, how do you put those together? And we'll talk about that in a little bit.

So when we, when we consider Jeremiah that he clearly states that it's he's, he's the author. And he dictated all his prophecies to his secretary Baruch from the beginning of his ministry until the fourth year of Jehoiakim. And indeed he dictated a more complete edition to Baruch and it's mentioned in chapters 36 to 48. But later additions were composed. Only chapter 2 may have been written by Baruch.

The supplement is almost identical to the Second Kings, and so it may have been written by him. But Jeremiah alludes to Daniel's prophecy of the 70 years captivity. Remember what, why was it 70 years? Do you remember the reason for that? Why were they in the land for 70 years? Remember the reason?

Guest (Male): Yeah. They didn't honor the Sabbath years.

Dr. Ken Boa: They didn't honor the sabbatical years. Do you remember how this worked? Every seventh year they were going to take the risk of trusting God to provide for them. And that next, that year they were going to do two things. They were going to enjoy God and each other. It was going to be Sabbath, which would bring restoration not only to their lives, but also a land allow the land to go fallow and let the land enjoy its Sabbath.

But because they chose to believe that we can't trust God in this, they never did it. Not once did they ever take that gift that God gave them. And so they just continue to labor without rest, you see. And it would have been better if they'd listened to God, oh but we we got to make money, we got to survive, is always the mindset. And then we realize the awful principle, you can pay me now, you can pay me later.

If you don't honor God when he, and when he wanted to honor you, when you, he wanted to give you that grace of Sabbath every seven years, what it would have done, what a difference it would have made. Instead they chose not to trust him. But for every year the land did not have its Sabbath, it would enjoy its Sabbath later on. Pay me now, pay me later. Therefore they were out of the land for 70 years because they were in the land for 490.

So it's a tragic thing to see. But there's a principle to be applied as well, because we suppose when we disobey God that we know better than him what our best interests look like, which is always a lie. How are you going to outdo omniscience and omnipotence? You know, it just doesn't work. So to to to defy the commandments, the mandates of God's word both as revealed and then also even when the Spirit of God prompts you, it's a message.

So we do well to listen and apply and and that's really the most important thing about us is our responsibility. Put the words together but hyphenated. Responsibility, you're capable of responding one way or another and you train your responses by habituated practice because your your life is a tapestry that's woven out of the fine threads of day-by-day decisions.

And you've heard that truth, sow a thought, reap an action, sow an action, reap a habit, sow a habit, reap a character, sow a character, reap a destiny. So the small things do matter. So to understand that then is to realize that these are things that we are do well to listen to because your words of wisdom for us to apply in our time. Now the authorship was confirmed by others as well. Josephus, Ecclesiasticus and the Talmud.

And so New Testament references are abundant to Jeremiah. And so from Matthew and Mark and Luke and Romans referring into Hebrews, this important book because it's so central and critical. And so to go to the date and setting of this, this is an image from Donatello. But the New Testament, when we look at the, the date, Jeremiah was a contemporary of Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Daniel and Ezekiel. It's easy to have a chart and you can see where all the charts, the pre the basically the pre-exilic prophets, which were the bulk of them.

Then there were a few exilic and then a few post-exilic. But most of them were prophesying before the exile, giving them warning. Some during and some after. And so he was a contemporary of these, and his ministry we know was from 627 to about 580 BC. And so Josiah was Judah's last good king. And he reigned from 640 to 609 BC.

And I don't use BCE. Because it means the common era is still based upon the life of Christ. Where do you think the common era came from? It's just a way of cheating. So I, I say AD because Anno Domini in the common era, but this is a, that's another story. I'll skip that. I have many pet peeves, you see. I don't play that game. But Josiah instituted wonderful reforms when the Book of the Law was discovered.

Consider their neglect. They forgot that there was a Book of the Law. They lost the Bible. They lost the Torah. And then it was discovered when they were repairing the temple. And when this happened, he was a remarkable person who was in good terms and what he did with with Josiah and Jeremiah was with him. But when he was killed by Pharaoh Neco of Egypt, that was the end of that revival.

And after after the death of Josiah, not one good king reigned in Judah until it led to its dissolution. And then Jehoahaz replaced Josiah as king of Judah, but he reigned only three months before he was deposed and taken to Egypt by Neco. And so and then you have these these Assyrian conquests and so forth. So here's Jehoahaz, just a short reign. three months before he's deposed and taken again by our pal Neco.

And then we have Jehoiakim follows him. And he was Judah's next king, but he reigned as an Egyptian vassal until 605 BC when Egypt was then defeated by Babylon by Carchemish by this time Nebuchadnezzar. So Egypt had become a secondary power. Jehoiakim then took was taken by he took Judah. He deported key people and like Daniel to Babylon.

And Judah's King Jehoiakim was now a Babylonian vassal, but he rejected Jeremiah's warnings in 605 and he rebelled against Babylon. And Jehoiakim became his next king. And he was replaced by Zedekiah three months later when he captured Jerusalem and deported him to Babylon. So it's a messy time. Then he, then you have Zedekiah was the last king of Judah. His attempted alliance with Egypt led to Nebuchadnezzar's destruction, occupation and the overthrow of Jerusalem in 586 BC.

All this is history, it's tragic, but we can see exactly what happened. So there were three stages in the prophet Jeremiah's ministry. First of all, from 627 to 605 BC, Judah was being threatened by the Assyrians and by Egypt. And then from 605 to 586 BC, he proclaimed God's judgment while Judah was being threatened and besieged by Babylon because the Babylonians had in the meanwhile defeated the Assyrians.

It was no longer the Assyrians, but it was now the Babylonians who were in power. And so from 586 to about 580 BC, he ministered in Jerusalem and Egypt after Judah's downfall. So we, and I'm going to take you in this talk through, but that would be, that would take too long. But just here, theme and purpose. I'm going to do it. But I just want to talk about just a little bit more about the theme and the purpose of this book.

And in, the theme of this book is he's delayed judgment and he's and he's seen as patient and and holy. He's appealed to his people to repent before it's too late and as the object lesson at the potter's house we're going to see in our chapter demonstrates, a ruined vessel could be repaired while still wet. But once you lose that moment, once dried, a marred vessel was fit only for the garbage heap.

And that's the message for this message for the people. Judah's time for repentance was about to pass. And because they defied God's words and refused to repent, the Babylonian captivity was therefore inevitable. And he listed the moral and spiritual causes for the coming catastrophe, but he also proclaimed God's gracious promise of hope and of restoration. So you have this whole promise of the new covenant that's going to take place in Jeremiah 31.

So we'll talk about that a little bit more about that a little bit later on, but I just wanted to get you through an overview of a partial overview of this book because it's important for us to see that. But let's continue on here, getting off of this, and get to our actually, our actual book. I have a certain way of doing this. I, I find this very useful for me to use this an outline that I pick up from the Bible.org.

And this is on Jeremiah 18. And it's these, the commentators that they use really provide a great deal of help, in giving us background and materials as well. So I've, I've done my own, but it's very helpful to get this good summary. And so we start with the text, the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will announce my words to you.

Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter, so he remade it into another vessel as it pleased the potter to make. And so there's going to be an object lesson. He goes, why did he bring them there? It's a parable, a message for you to convey to these other people. So it's a very important message he gives to them.

And Yahweh's covenant people were part of a larger purpose. When we think about the purposes of God in Ezekiel 36:22-28. Oh, I can't help this. Because there's just something here. You hear me, Michael? You talk about, we have ten plans now, I think. I think it's ten, actually, it may be twelve plans on the Bible plans. This is the the YouVersion. We now have ten, I think twelve plans. Incredible.

And so we keep on adding, so we just added one, for example, with Jesus in his own words. But it'll go off to that. Bible reading. Let's go to Ezekiel 36. Because it's about this very concept. Keep on missing it. Ezekiel 36, you have this, making sure I get the right text here. For Ezekiel 36:22-38. Therefore, say to the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God. It's not for your sake, oh house of Israel, that I'm about to act, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among my nations where you went.

I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned. And you have profaned it in your midst. And the nations will know that I'm the Lord. When I prove myself holy among you. I will take you from among the nations. I'll gather you from all the lands. So he's saying, I'm going to bring you back to your own land. I'm going to sprinkle clean water on you. You're going to be clean. I'm going to cleanse you from your filthiness and from all your idols. I'm going to give you a new heart.

A very radical concept. A new heart. And that new heart relates to the new covenant as well. I'm put a new Spirit within you. I'm going to remove the heart of stone from your flesh and and give your a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances. That's the new covenant. You see that's being made.

And so this is a picture of promise that you've got. This is quite remarkable. And we go to Jeremiah's our own book, we're going to chapter 31. And we and we see this promise of this new covenant that's being given to them. And so he says, I will redeem them and I've called you later on in this chapter, the new covenant. The days are coming when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of men and with the seed of beast.

As I've watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy and to bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord. There's another act coming. It is me, we're not in a tragedy. It would appear so. In spite of your own folly and rebellion, I'm going to be bigger than that. I'm going to keep covenant with you. This is the point. In those days, they will not say again, our fathers have eaten sour grapes, the children's teeth were set on edge. Everyone will die for his own iniquity.

Each man but he's going to be making this new covenant. Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will, just, just like Ezekiel 36, I will put my law within them and on their heart will I write it.

I will be their God and they will be my people. And so they're going to know the Lord. That's, and so when Jesus speaks about this is my blood of the new covenant, he's referring to that covenant, which is a part of the promises that God had made because if you look at the covenants and just for a moment. It's a very important thing for us to understand. When we look at these covenants, remember that the Abrahamic covenant was an unconditional covenant made in such a way that it had three components though.

That it'll be the blessing, you'd be in the land, the blessing of your Davidic of your kingdom and the blessing and it will be, through you all the nations of the world will be blessed. So these other covenants as well, about the land, seed and blessing. Well, that's the new covenant that we are enjoying now. And it's going to carry us into into the kingdom. There was the Mosaic Law on the other hand, was in fact not an uncon, it was not actually an unconditional covenant.

It was conditional. So it was temporary. We're no longer in the Law of Moses. We are enjoying the blessings of the new covenant that was predicted in those two passages. So it's their covenant disobedience that caused them to have this pain. And so we have this, this text of in our in Jeremiah. Let me see if we've got it here. So we have 8:1-4 and then 8:5-12.

Then the Lord's word of the Lord came to me, saying, Can I not, oh house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does, declares the Lord? Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, oh house of Israel. At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it. If that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.

Or another moment, I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it. If it does evil by my sight, and not by observing my obeying my voice, then I will think better of the good which I'd promised to bless it. So now, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, thus says the Lord, behold, I'm fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh, turn back each of you from his evil way and reform your ways and your deeds.

That's the plea of a spurned lover. But he knows they will not. For they will say, it's hopeless. We're going to follow our own plans and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart. So he already told them what they're going to be doing. This reminded me of a passage from my book. The book is and this is page 68, so just give you you're here. This book is the the 50th anniversary edition of my first book and it dealt with some of these mysteries in scripture.

And one of those mysteries is divine sovereignty and human responsibility. And we said that the only solution to the mystery if it affirms both is not to solve the mystery. It transcends the ceiling of your comprehension. It's a higher logic, it's a higher reasoning. And it's if the Bible is really what it claims to be, a word from God, it would contain things that no one else ever could have or or ever did make up. It's unique in all the world.

And so some of those mysteries then, the only way to solve the mystery is to embrace the tensions in display because you'll never understand the ways of God in that way. But going further on, I'm going to the divine sovereignty and human responsibility mystery. So I, I remember writing this and and still remembering this this this chapter in 1974. And I I did a spelled out the case.

Even though God is sovereign, man still has real responsibility and freedom in the choices he makes. And then I build a case for the sovereignty of God. So I'm trying to say, it's not that he's not sovereign. Predestination is a reality. And whether you like it or not, but how do we deal with it? And then we go to one extreme, we go to the opposite extreme. It amazes me. And then I I build a case for human responsibility while one is true, the other is equally true.

And I say, that's when I, no, just read Jeremiah 18:1-12 to and see how the prophet subtly intertwines both of these concepts. Because we then build up on onto this and build a case for that and then illustrate what that looks like. And then Arminianism and Calvinism, and looking at the two approaches that are taken because sometimes what'll happen is that to solve the problem, some people will out Arminius Arminius.

And some people will out Calvin Calvin. But they, they lose the balance of the master. And then they go off in, in, in, in deep ends, wrong ends. But if you look at the two, here's how I put it together. From man's viewpoint, whoever will may come. You from the the door point, the the post before you get into heaven, whoever will may come. But then when you get through the door, from heaven's viewpoint, chosen from before the foundation of the world. And both are true.

Because God's transcends boundaries of space and time. He sees all things in the present glance. It's not like it was back then figuring out what's going to happen in the future. He was in your future looking back in your past. There never was another plan because he's the one who transcends matter, energy, space and time. You and I can't get outside of time, so we limit God. But we know that our prayer as well as God's redemption is retroactive. The blood of Christ reaches back to Adam.

How did that happen? So the prayer and prayer is retroactive. Why? Pray for someone's salvation. What are you asking God to do? To do something to have chosen them before the foundation of the world. Your prayers are somehow involved in the timeless plan of God. And it's a deep and profound mystery. And you have to hold the truths in tension. It's not illogical, it's a higher reasoning. And so this is a principle that I used to illustrate that.

No questions in that? because it's a really huge issue, but you and the the interesting tension it interplays, it comes from that. But I want to continue in our text. So the actions are are are those of a sovereign God. And we see that as we've talked about the providential work of God. The text continues, therefore says the Lord, ask now among the nations, who ever heard of like of this?

The virgin of Israel has done a most appalling thing. Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country? Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever snatched away? My people have forgotten me. They burn incense to worthless gods, and they've stumbled from their ways, from the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, not on a highway. To make their land a desolation, an object of perpetual hissing. So he speaks about this horrible situation.

And the question is, how has this happened? Why did they burn incense to worthless gods and stumble away from God's ancient paths and walk in bypaths where we're not in Yahweh's paths? So we see all these themes that that go on. The land of promise will be a desolation. It will be a sign and a shame and a scorn and they'll be scattered. But the Lord will show them his back and not his face.

So an appalling thing as we can see. And yet we go further into the text and we see then they said, Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the law is not going to be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the sage, nor the divine word to the prophet. Come, let us strike at him with our tongue. Let us give no heed to any of his words. They hated the message because it convicted them. And because of that, they wanted to hurt the prophet. And so God continually has to console his prophet.

And Jeremiah's word in the end, do heed, give heed to me, oh Lord. Listen to my, my opponents are saying, should good be repaid with evil? They've dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before you to speak good in their behalf so as to turn away your wrath from them. Therefore, give their their give their children over to famine, their their children to the power of. It's pretty imprecatory. The young men struck down by the sword of the battle.

So you see all their deadly designs against me. So he he has a he he is enraged by this and he's asked, why is this all happening? So we look at this situation and we see the plans and the purposes of a God. And it doesn't seem to make much sense to us. So we have to entrust ourselves into the hands of one who knows our best interests and wants to give us his grace.

And we're going to be seeing more of that as we look at the Old Testament and compare it with the New. Because you and I are able and capable of of seeing what they could not see. We're privileged to see what these people were not able to see. And so we are seeing the history of God's purposes. And we know that there really is another act to come. As many times as I've shown this to you, it's important for us to realize we are right on the edge right here.

And we are about to see the next act begin, but it'll gets worse before it gets better. I'm a pessimistic optimist. It's going to get a good deal worse. And you're beginning to see in our times, we are living in the time, I believe we're living in the the times of the signs. But for various reasons though, I'm also looking forward more and more to the new creation. We are in the edge. And the whole creation yearns and waits for its its redemption from this from its slavery to corruption.

And you and I are in this tragedy, which is going to become a divine comedy because a new act is coming. So with that perspective, you and I are able to see from one to the other, and we can see the whole. From Genesis to Revelation, and in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth in Revelation 21. Remember this? And so we get to see the beginning.

But the first three chapters and the last three chapters, we can see what happened and how there's going to be no night. The city will have no need of the sun or the moon. As it was in Genesis though, the curse will be removed. There'll be no more death and sorrow. Satan who appears as a deceiver of mankind will disappear forever. This defilement is going to be removed and they're going to be shown a city into which defilement will never enter.

The walk of God with man was interrupted in Genesis, but it's going to be resumed in the age to come. Yes, the servant had an initial triumph, but there'll be the ultimate triumph of the Lamb in Revelation 20 and 21 and 22. I will greatly multiply your sorrow. There'll be no more sorrow, no crying, there'll be no more pain. Cursed is the ground for your sake. There will be no curse. Man's dominion was broken in the fall of the new man Adam.

But it's going to be restored in the rule of the new man Christ. The first paradise was closed. The new paradise will be opened. Access to the tree of life, which was disinherited, will be opened again. And it'll be even better than it was before. And they were driven from God's presence, but they will see his face. So you have an extraordinary picture in the of the age to come that God's preparing for us. And as I consider what that's going to look like, when I when I consider the glory of God.

And we get to look ahead and we get to see how it ends. And it's going to be the river from the water of life, clear as crystal. I want you to begin to read these chapters, especially Revelation 21 and 22. It's going to be your home. I want you to meditate upon it. I want you to chew upon it. I want you to long for it more because most people are clinging to this world. This passing world.

And so consider, you have this water of life, this river coming from the throne of God and out of the Lamb. In the middle of its street. On either side, the tree of life now is there on both sides of the river. And it's yielding its fruit every month. So there's a seasonality. There's a variety, there's a movement, but there's no death. How is he doing this? So, for example, I don't want daffodils to be up all year. I enjoy them, but part of it's because they're ephemeral. God wired that in. And it'll be seasonalities, but without the curse.

And so when there's a a a change of one thing, it'll be transmuted into another without death. There will be no curse. And God's going to be, there'll be no no first law of thermo either because he's going to provide the right energy. There'll be no need for the sun or for the moon. The Lord, your God, will be the light. And so all of these things, no longer any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it. His bond servants will serve him. And notice this, they will see his face.

You can't look at his face and live. But in the resurrected life, you will be a resurrected body and you will no longer be a caterpillar, but you will be a a a a butterfly. In a caterpillar universe, no, in a butterfly universe. Time and space will be your servants. They will be purring at your feet. And you will be able to create and anything you want will be what he would want because you've gone to the judgment seat of Christ.

And you'll be able to work with one another and creation will be your agency and your capacity will be boundless. So it's a wonderful thought of what's going to take place. And so he's going to make all these things new. So with that in mind, I want us to renew our minds. So I'm going to do a little bit of a shift here. And and switch into our little book. Say? I have enough time to do a Q&A if you want, maybe one minute, two minutes. Before I do this little exercise with the book.

Guest (Male): No questions? Actually.

Dr. Ken Boa: What do you look like? I'm looking at a landscape. Still life painting. You you do know that I can see you as well as you can see me? You do know that.

Guest (Male): One of the problems I have with this is Jeremiah is treating all the people is unequivocal, that is, are there not some people who agreed with him? And are they not treated unfairly if he groups, if God groups everybody in one big group?

Dr. Ken Boa: That's a good question.

Guest (Male): That's option uh question number one. Number two is up there on your board when I saw, I read that God changes his mind. Yeah.

Dr. Ken Boa: Ah, yes. I discuss all that. You see, this is my invitation for you. Here's the way I do this. I write books for a reason. Somebody asked me, how is it possible for God to be good and yet for this world, why does he allow evil? Good, they're very questions you're raising. And so I say, I wrote a book. I'm, God Understood Boa. I, and I wrote this book with this in mind. I have a chapter in that. Read the chapter and then to see what questions you'll have. And I rarely have people ask me questions after because that does, that deal with the very question. These are not new ideas. These are good questions and they deserve good answers. And then I have 30 years or 50 years later, every day we make real choices and so I just add some new dimensions that have been taken place. But here's what I my exercise. I would love to answer this sometime. We could even do this. But I would want you to read this simple chapter that builds the case and then answer explains why it could be that both could be that we're both humanly responsible and yet at the same time that that God is sovereign. And so we unpack what that looks like. And and what does it mean to for evangelism? Why bother evangelism if they're all going to be elect, you see? Or what about prayer? It's already, how does that work? Or what about the will of God? How do you know the will of God that couldn't be? The various be other ones here. Or the Christian life. How do you live it? Is it a divine human process? So security and comfort and so forth. So practical matters are seen fair and luck and avoiding responsibility and so forth. So I do address those questions. So my my answer to to that would be to read the chapter. Then we'll chat about it. That's my invitation for all of us. How about that? I rebutted you that way. No, it's actually good. These are great questions. And so I also discuss this in the problem of evil in God. And I'm glad you asked. We have a chapter on the problem of evil there too. So, um, why does God allow the innocent to suffer? And we've done some stuff on this work. And if you go to the uh, the chat bot ask ask Ken on the website, you'll find an answer to that as well. So pretty. These are the things we've seen and we process before and before. I've given you a copy of Jesus in his own words. Do you have a copy? I've also given you a copy of handbook to prayer. This is the third month. So I want you to now take that copy of handbook to prayer. And I want you to go to month three, second month, the second month, the third month, and go to month three, third uh day 11, which should be page what is that? Um. 336. Okay, so we're all on the same page. This is what I ask you to do. take take this little book. And it give it seven minutes a day. You can do it in seven minutes. Um, if you want more, fine, but make it a seven-minute commitment to show up before God with an open Bible and an open heart. Well, this is the Bible being prayed back to God. And this Bible, you'll notice it starts, notice praise, adoration. Didn't start with gimme, gimme, gimme. You see, it starts with an honor to start. Starting with who God is, bigger God, big God, small, and then we look at more your your your vision of God is, the more sinfulness of sin becomes evident. And so that's why we go to confession. And then a prayer of renewal. And then a seven-day cycle for your petitions, and this this day it's going to be spiritual insight. A seven-day cycle, next page, intercession. If you turn the page here, and you can see in this case it's for believers. And and then always a prayer of affirmation and it's a and then it's Thanksgiving and a closing prayer. There you go. And you can go through this. And the way to do this is this way. You read the the the the passages slowly twice. Slowly read the two passages, then you stop and then you add your own thoughts. You see with me? And then you read this two times slowly, and then your prayer back and forth, praying scripture back to God. Form and freedom, balanced diet. And give it seven minutes. And I believe that can be transformative. Now it takes a month to for for it to habit, doesn't it? Three months though, to really seal it. Guess what? There are three months here. Guess my long-term plan. So my desire is for you to to to to mark this place. And if you miss a few days, no problem. So you didn't do it until, okay, now it's the 26th. Okay. Don't beat yourself up. Go back to the text and start where you were. That way you'll always be praying the same text that we are praying. All of us are together in this. I think there's a power in doing that. That's the first thing. The second thing is for you to take this little this little um, Jesus in his own words. And just go through this very slowly and read especially the red letters of Jesus. And it'll it'll be a summary. You just just try going through it just reading the red letters. You get a straight up listening to the words of Jesus because most people, I fear, the average person, their knowledge of Jesus is mediated, at least and buffered by at least two two degrees. They haven't read it directly. They hear about it. But I want you to meet him. And so the way to meet him is to just read these his words in the red letters are sufficient. If you want more, the black gives you some clarification and contextualization. That's all it does. Does it make sense to you? So read the through this, stick your time. And read just the um, the red letters. Now, I know we're running over, but I I would like you to I would like you to put these in your hand. Okay, you with me? Put them in your hand. And I'd like you to um, consider prayerfully before God, whether you would be willing to to invest and commit to seven minutes a day for the next three months. Of doing this. I'm serious about this because this would be a corporate rule. But I don't want to make you do it. So I'm going to have a just a few seconds here, which I want us to prayerfully reflect. And my desire would be, of course, that you choose to do that. Let's pray. Lord, give us the grace of holy desire to be pleasing to you. To trust the Father, to abide in the Son, to walk by the Spirit. And to I I want to commit myself to using these two tools for the next 30 days. For five 30 days and then another 30 and another. Three months for seven minutes a day. I pray that we this um would not only honor you but encourage others. That we would become more conformed into the image of your Son. And thus we commit ourselves in your name. Amen. Thank you.