Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
June 30 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
11 Plays21 days ago
If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-in-1-year
Monthly memberships to support this event can be purchased on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/offering_packages
Today's reading will cover Ezekiel Chapters 18 and 24:1-6, 11-14, 2 Kings: 25:1-2, 2 Chronicles Chapter 36:11-13, and Jeremiah Chapter 52:1-5. Today we will read about God's promise to hold each person accountable for their own sins rather than children paying for their parents sins or receiving blessings based on the righteousness of parents. In our discussion for daily application we will look at Matthew Chapter 7:12-27, James Chapter 2:8, 14-26, and 2 Peter Chapter 2:15, 17, and 19-22. In Matthew Chapter 7 we will read about Jesus telling us that He will not recognize us when we come before Him if we have not been following God with our hearts and bearing fruit. Jesus tells us that we will be known by our fruit, and those who do not produce ANY fruit will be like dead branches, thrown into the fire. Salvation without changing our heart will not save us. God tells us today in Ezekiel 18 that those who do not behave righteously will still die for their sins. In 2 Peter 2 we will read that those who return to (or remain!) in sinful ways are like dogs who return to their vomit or a pig returning to the mud after being bathed. In James Chapter 2 we will read that faith without works is dead, like a body without a spirit. We do not earn our salvation but simply SAYING we believe in God and Jesus is insufficient. Even the demons believe in God and Jesus and they are not saved! To put it simply: talk is cheap. We need to behave like believers. God knows our hearts. Salvation is not a free license to continue sinning recklessly, claiming forgiveness once and for all with no need to change our lives. God tells us today in Ezekiel to "Get rid of your sin. Get a new heart. Get a new Spirit. It does not make Him happy to see anyone die. Start doing right and live!"
If you enjoyed today's reading and feel like God has lit YOUR light today, please click the LIGHT button (it looks like a thumbs up or a heart) and consider subscribing to or following my channel, if you have not done so already.
If you know someone who might be interested in reading the Bible with me this year please SHARE today's reading with them! It's never too late to join in! Let's help this event grow and together we can spread the word about reading God's Word!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Bible Reading Event
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome everybody. Today is June 30th and you are here for the daily Bible reading with Robin at In The Family Way Coaching. We are using the day-by Day by Day Kids Bible this year and it's been written by Karen Henley.
00:00:17
Speaker
It is a fantastic <unk> version of this of the Bible that doesn't have every single detail, but what it does do is it gives us a big overview of the whole story from Genesis to Revelation in chronological order.
00:00:33
Speaker
So this is a great version for understanding the whole big picture. where we will know what happened when, which can be really helpful in understanding.
00:00:43
Speaker
I know that I personally have found it very helpful in understanding what's going on on Sunday or well, Saturday mornings for me in church, when we're reading along with something. I now have a concept as to when it was that this was taking place.
00:00:58
Speaker
So rather than just kind of knowing generalities, I now have a more specific understanding And it's just really helped with my comprehension. So I hope that you've been finding that that is the case with you.
00:01:12
Speaker
And if you are new here, then I hope you find that that will be the case for you as well. So thank you for joining me today, whether you are following along on a podcast or whether you're listening or watching on a video somewhere.
Event Details and Resources
00:01:25
Speaker
I'm really glad that God has led you to this event and that you are listening along to hear the big story of the Bible this year. If you are just finding this event, I want you to know that we started it on January 1st.
00:01:38
Speaker
This is a one-year event, and this will cover the whole Bible in one year.
00:01:45
Speaker
Some of you may be keeping track on your commitment calendar. And if you are interested in one of those, I will have the new July calendar up here ah today. So you will be able to print that out for tomorrow.
00:01:57
Speaker
And I have that available on my site at www.inthe.org. the familywaycoaching.com.
00:02:08
Speaker
And if you click on the heading for Read the Bible in One Year, you will see that there is a calendar there for you to download. It's not just going to be for 2025. So whether you are watching this in 2026 or later, i have that calendar there for you so that you can keep track of your commitment.
00:02:25
Speaker
And if you would like to support the event in any way, then i will send you a copy of the calendar along with some of those stickers that you see that I am using on my calendar.
00:02:38
Speaker
I will send you a sheet of stickers for the month so that you can mark off your commitment calendar using the stickers. It's just a little thank you for me, from me to you that I appreciate you contributing to this event.
00:02:53
Speaker
And you can find that opportunity also on my website under the heading of Part of the Family. So I'm glad that you are part of the family with me here online and are following along.
00:03:05
Speaker
And we are going to get back into reading Ezekiel today, as we have been doing. And then we will also see a little bit about what has been going on in Jerusalem, in Judah.
Personal Responsibility for Sins
00:03:20
Speaker
We will also be looking at some corresponding verses in the New Testament that support what God is going to be telling us in Ezekiel chapter 18. Today's chapter is entitled Sour Grapes.
00:03:39
Speaker
God said that there's a saying about Israel. The fathers eat sour grapes and the children taste it. What this is referring to is that the and sins of the fathers would be carried through to the different generations so that the children would suffer the consequences of sins that the parents committed.
00:04:03
Speaker
And if there were righteous people, then those blessings would carry through to the following generations, that they would be receiving the benefit of the righteousness or the faithfulness of the previous generations.
00:04:17
Speaker
But God is telling us that this will no longer be the case.
00:04:23
Speaker
God said, people won't say this anymore. That's because every person who lives belongs to me.
00:04:34
Speaker
Fathers belong to me and children belong to me. Each person will get in trouble for his own sins. Let's say there is a good person.
00:04:47
Speaker
He does what is right and fair. He stays with his own wife. He does not worship idols. He does not give any anyone a hard time.
00:04:58
Speaker
He gives back what he borrows. He does not rob anyone. He gives food to hungry people. He gives clothes to people who need clothes.
00:05:10
Speaker
He keeps himself from doing wrong. He is fair. He obeys my laws. He does what's right. He will live, says God.
00:05:23
Speaker
But let's say his son is mean. He kills or does something else bad, even though his father did not. He worships idols. He leaves his wife for another woman.
00:05:36
Speaker
He robs people. He gives poor people a hard time. He does not give back what he borrowed. He does mean hateful things.
00:05:48
Speaker
Will the son live? No. It's all because he has done these terrible things. He must take the blame for what he has done. But let's say this man has a son too.
00:06:03
Speaker
His son sees what his father did. So he does not do these things. He does not worship idols. He stays with his own wife. He does not give anyone a hard time.
00:06:17
Speaker
He does not rob people. He gives food to hungry people. He gives clothes to people who need clothes. He keeps himself from doing wrong.
00:06:29
Speaker
He obeys my laws and follows me. This man will not have to take the blame for what his father did. He will live. His father will die for his own sin.
00:06:44
Speaker
The person who sins will die. The son will not be blamed for what his father did. Good things will come to the man who did right. The man who did wrong will be blamed.
00:06:58
Speaker
But let's say a sinful man changes. He starts obeying my laws. He starts doing what is right. Then he will live.
00:07:10
Speaker
I won't remember any of the wrong things he has done. He will live because of the good he has done. Am I glad to see sinful people die?
00:07:21
Speaker
No. But I am glad to see them stop doing wrong. I am glad to see them live. Now let's say a good man changes.
00:07:33
Speaker
He turns away from the right things. He starts doing wrong. Then i will not remember the good things he has done. That is because he has not kept obeying me.
00:07:46
Speaker
So he will be blamed for the wrong he has done. He will die for it. You might say that that is not fair. But listen. is what you It is what you do that is not fair.
00:08:01
Speaker
So change. Get rid of your sin. Get a new heart. Get a new spirit. It doesn't make me happy to see anyone die.
00:08:14
Speaker
Start doing right and live.
00:08:19
Speaker
The Cooking Pot
00:08:22
Speaker
In Judah, King Zedekiah had promised to let Babylon rule the land. But then he turned against the king of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar. So King Nebuchadnezzar marched out with his army to fight Jerusalem.
00:08:38
Speaker
They camped around the city. Then they started fighting. Now Ezekiel had been in Babylon for nine years. One day God said, Write down this date.
00:08:51
Speaker
Today Babylon will start fighting Jerusalem. Then tell these people a story. Say that this is what God says. There is bad news for Jerusalem.
00:09:03
Speaker
Put a pot on the coals without anything in it. Let it get hot so the pot glows. Let the dirt melt away. But it won't be clean.
00:09:16
Speaker
I tried to clean you from your sin, but you would not get clean. You will not be clean until I have stopped being angry with you. I am God, and I have said this.
00:09:28
Speaker
You will be judged for what you have done, says God.
00:09:37
Speaker
We have a ah lot to go over today. So we're going to talk about Ezekiel chapter 18 today for our daily application. And what God is talking about is a big change.
Transformation and Accountability
00:09:50
Speaker
and We spoke about, it used to be that the sons would take responsibility ah for, it would be penalized or blessed according to what their fathers and fathers had done.
00:10:02
Speaker
And initially this was how everybody ah was used to having everything done. So now they were sort of relying on the blessings from their fathers from way back in the beginning.
00:10:16
Speaker
That is part of why the people were not changing, is that they were expecting God to bless them, despite the fact that they were behaving poorly now, because they were relying on the fact that God had said that he would bless the generations ahead.
00:10:31
Speaker
So they just thought, oh, we can behave however we want. And they were not taking seriously God's warnings to correct their behavior because they were relying upon their past blessing.
00:10:45
Speaker
So now God is telling them that this is all going to change. So what we see in here is God changing the way things were done even before Jesus was coming.
00:10:57
Speaker
The people would be held accountable for their own sins. So at this time, they still had to do the atonement for sins once a year. And then God would forgive them of their sins once a year.
00:11:11
Speaker
But what we've been learning is that it is not simply the atonement of sins for what God is looking for. God is looking for the people to have a clean heart. He is looking for the people to change their ways.
00:11:25
Speaker
He is calling them to get rid of the sin, to get a new heart. to get a new spirit, because it does not make God happy to see the people doing wrong.
00:11:39
Speaker
Forgiveness of sins was irrelevant at this point because it didn't change anything that was going on. And now we have Jesus, so God has sent us Jesus to atone for our sins.
00:11:52
Speaker
So we no longer have to wait for once a year or to have an atonement done every year or to offer sin offerings for the sins that we commit. So we are forgiven of all of our sins, but does this mean that we can continue to live in the same sinful ways in which we have been living?
00:12:15
Speaker
No, we are not to continue in the sins that we were continued if we were doing prior to receiving our salvation. So God has told us that he will remember our sins no more.
00:12:29
Speaker
What about the sins that we keep doing? We are told that God is faithful to forgive us of our sins. We don't need to have an atonement done for us again.
00:12:42
Speaker
Jesus's blood paid for the cost of our sins, but it does not give us a free license to do whatever we want, however we want, whenever we want, and just live in a state of perpetual grace without having to transform our minds.
00:13:03
Speaker
Paul tells us that we are to have our minds transformed so that our thinking is changed, so that we stop doing the things of the old self.
00:13:14
Speaker
We are to become a new creation in Christ. So what we are seeing here today is that God is telling us is that although he is going to hold everyone accountable and the sins will be forgiven, there is still accountability for changing behaviors so that we do not remain in our sinful
Evidence of Faith through Actions
00:13:38
Speaker
behaviors.
00:13:39
Speaker
We're going to look at a number of passages today. We are going to start with Matthew chapter 7, and this is where Jesus tells us that although many people will come to him, not everybody will be recognized as a follower of Jesus.
00:14:03
Speaker
And that is because they were not transforming. They still were doing the old things. As God said today, they were still ignoring the poor, not feeding, not clothing, treating people badly, giving people a hard time, still conducting themselves in the same sins that they were doing prior to receiving God's salvation.
00:14:30
Speaker
So God's salvation is a free gift, but we don't get to just do whatever we want because doing so, Jesus will not recognize us as being a follower.
00:14:42
Speaker
In order to follow him, we are told that we are to lay down our cross and or lay down who we are and pick up his cross every day so that we can follow his example and live the life that he showed us how to live.
00:15:00
Speaker
In Matthew chapter 7, he is ah talking about, let's see, measuring, ah judging based upon how we how we judge is how we will ah be judged ourselves.
00:15:18
Speaker
And he tells us in chapter seven, verse one, stop judging so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
00:15:33
Speaker
So it talks about hypocrisy of calling everybody else out while not paying attention to what our own sins are happening. What we are doing ourselves.
00:15:44
Speaker
He says in verse 12, in all things, do to others what you would want them to do to you. For this is the Torah and the prophets.
00:15:55
Speaker
So Jesus did not come to get rid of the law. He came to fulfill it. God's ways are still the right ways. And those are the ways that he gave us in the old covenant, not the sacrifices and the atonements and like that, but the ways that we are supposed to behave.
00:16:17
Speaker
God tells us that he desires mercy, not sacrifice. Chapter 7, verse 13. and through the narrow gate but the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and those who enter through it are many how narrow is the gate and difficult to find the way that leads to life and those who find it our few watch out for false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing
00:16:49
Speaker
but inwardly are ravenous wolves You will recognize them by their fruit. When we become believers and in Jesus, those who are true believers will have fruit to show that they are indeed Jesus's believers and followers.
00:17:11
Speaker
you will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, are they? Even so, every good tree produces good fruit, but the rotten tree produces bad fruit.
00:17:27
Speaker
A good tree cannot produce fruit, cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.
00:17:43
Speaker
So then you will recognize them by their fruit. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven
00:17:57
Speaker
Many will say to me, ah he who does the will of my Father in heaven, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, perform many miracles in your name?
00:18:11
Speaker
Then I will declare to them, never knew you. Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness. So we have to obey God's words.
00:18:22
Speaker
Otherwise, it doesn't matter if we proclaim to be followers. If we have no fruit and we are not obeying God's laws, then Jesus is not going to recognize us at the time when we come to him.
00:18:35
Speaker
He says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and yet it did not fall for its foundation had been built on the rock.
00:18:55
Speaker
We love to say that Jesus is the rock of our salvation, but it is not simply a saying. Jesus is saying that we need to do the things that we are supposed to do and not just claim that we are followers of Jesus.
00:19:11
Speaker
Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act like on them will be like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house.
00:19:26
Speaker
And it fell. And great was its fall. It's going to be surprising for the people. when they arrive and they say, but we thought we were following you.
00:19:38
Speaker
And Jesus is going to say, well, what did you do? so Not that we are saved by our works, but that our works are an evidence of our faith. So we are going to look at James chapter two, which which we have actually looked at previously in this year, where ah James is telling us That we can't just accept God's grace and then stay the way that we have been acting in our sin and remain in our sinful ways.
00:20:12
Speaker
Because that is being disrespectful to ah our Lord. And it's not... honoring the grace that he has given us. It's taking advantage of it thinking, oh, I'm saved. I can do whatever I want.
00:20:27
Speaker
And you might think, oh, who does that? But I will tell you, I have a family member who does exactly that. It doesn't matter what I do. God's already forgiven me for my sins.
00:20:39
Speaker
Well, God explains to us today in Ezekiel chapter 18 that for those who were doing good, if they turn away and they stop doing good, they will not be recognized as true believers, that they will end up with the consequence of death for their sins.
00:20:58
Speaker
They were forgiven for their previous sins, but that doesn't give them license to continue and be sinful and to ignore people and to be rotten to people.
00:21:09
Speaker
the rest of their James chapter says, what my brothers and sisters if someone says he has faith but does not have work can such faith save him this is also talking about like what jesus mentioned with the fruit If a brother or a sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, keep warm, be well fed, but you don't give him what the body needs, what good is that?
00:21:46
Speaker
So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. Verse 18 says, but someone will say, oh, you have faith and I have works.
00:21:58
Speaker
Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe and shudder.
00:22:13
Speaker
When Jesus was casting out the demons, they said to him, Have you come to torment us before our appointed time? So even then they recognized God on earth and they believe in him. They know who he is.
00:22:28
Speaker
But knowing who he is and believing in him is not what saves them. being repentant for what we have done and changing our ways. That is what God is looking for. Change of the heart.
00:22:43
Speaker
God says he will put his word on our hearts. So we now have the Holy Spirit but to convict us. If we ignore the teaching of the Holy Spirit, then we are not producing fruit or being faithful to God.
00:22:56
Speaker
We are taking advantage of the grace that he has given us. Verse 20 says, But do you want to know, you empty person, that faith without works is dead?
00:23:08
Speaker
Wasn't Abraham our father proved righteous by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see, faith worked together with his works, and by the works his faith was made complete.
00:23:22
Speaker
The scripture was fulfilled that says, And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. And he was called God's friend.
00:23:33
Speaker
You see that a man is proved righteous by works and not by faith alone. In other words, talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. We can say we believe in God just like a false prophet.
00:23:47
Speaker
We can claim to ah be a witness. But unless our fruit shows that that is true, then we are not living by faith.
00:23:59
Speaker
We are not showing our ah our faith is worked out by our works.
00:24:06
Speaker
He says, you see that a man is proved righteous by works and not by faith alone and likewise wasn't rahab the prostitute also proved righteous by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out another way she didn't just say she believed in their god She showed she believed in their God by showing that she believed that they were there on God's authority.
00:24:30
Speaker
And therefore she helped them by sending the them, ah the guards, the officials in the opposite way so that they, ah when they were still hiding there, hes they she sent them away.
00:24:42
Speaker
so that they would be safe and they could escape safely god used her to protect but it was her choice to to act on her belief instead of just staying silent
00:24:56
Speaker
verse 26 says for just as the body without the spirit is dead so also faith without works is dead That is how we will know whether we are true believers or not.
00:25:11
Speaker
By how we behave. By our fruit. We're going to look at one more. could have two more. Let's go to 2 Peter 2. And we will look at...
00:25:32
Speaker
and we will look at
00:25:41
Speaker
It says ah here, starting in verse 15,
Warnings against False Prophets
00:25:50
Speaker
here he is talking about false teachers being condemned.
00:25:56
Speaker
And he's talking about false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.
00:26:04
Speaker
And what he's taught he says here in verse 15, they have abandoned the straight way. They have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Baor, who loved the images of wickedness.
00:26:20
Speaker
Balaam, rather. Remember, he was the one with the talking donkey when he ah was practicing witchcraft. he says these people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved for them they promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption for a person is a slave to whatever has overcome him So we're referring to returning back into former ways ah of sin, returning to the former ways that we used to do things instead of putting on the new self and being transformed by a renewing of our mind.
00:27:00
Speaker
For those who choose to not be transformed by a renewing of their mind, they are returning to their former ways and they are promising freedom.
00:27:12
Speaker
by saying that we don't need to worry about any future sins. We've already been forgiven once and we don't need to worry about anything else. We can do whatever we want because we are free.
00:27:25
Speaker
He says they themselves are slaves of corruption for a person is a slave to whatever has overcome him. For after escaping the world's pollutions through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah, they again become entangled in these things and are overcome.
00:27:44
Speaker
The end of them has become worse than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after learning about it to turn back from the holy commandment passed on to them.
00:27:58
Speaker
And what has happened to them confirms the truth of the proverb. A dog returns to his vomit and a scrubbed pig heads right back into the mud. So these are confirmations of what God is telling us in Ezekiel 18, where we read today that if a person who does good does not keep doing good and returns and starts doing wrong, God says, I will not remember the right things he has done because he has not kept obeying
True Followers Bear Good Fruit
00:28:30
Speaker
me.
00:28:31
Speaker
So he will be blamed for the wrong he has done. Now, God's not talking about just nobody, the fact that nobody is perfect and that we are all trying our best and that we are expected to then be perfect.
00:28:42
Speaker
That is not what God is talking about. Neither is he talking about needing to be in perpetual um confession ah if As long as you confess that what you have done, then you're a-okay.
00:28:55
Speaker
Confessing your sins alone is not sufficient. Just saying, i have committed wrongs, forgive me. That doesn't do anything. It's our heart that God is continually, continually talking about. It is what Jesus is talking about.
00:29:12
Speaker
It is what the disciples are talking about. We are supposed to have our minds renewed. and to be transformed into the new self, to not continue on in the old self so that we will not be overcome by who we used to be and bear no fruit so that God will not recognize us at the time that we come to stand before him face to face, claiming Lord,
00:29:42
Speaker
we We thought we knew you. And he says, when did he said when you you you did not feed me when I was hungry, you did not give me water when I was thirsty, you did not clothe me when I was naked.
00:29:54
Speaker
And they said, Lord, when did we see you hungry and not feed you? Lord, when did we see you thirsty and not give you anything to drink? Lord, when did we see you naked and not give you anything to wear?
00:30:05
Speaker
And Jesus said, i tell you the truth, whatever you did or did not do, my fellow brothers or sisters, you did or did not do for me. And he says that he will cast them out.
00:30:19
Speaker
God is looking for true followers who follow with their heart, not by the mouth alone. So it that's a tough one today, but I hope that you are encouraged to allow God to grow you so that you may bear fruit because the one that God loves is the one whom he disciplines.
00:30:40
Speaker
And what we are seeing in through Ezekiel and Jeremiah and through the other prophets is that God is disciplining his people because they are not following with their heart.
00:30:52
Speaker
We want to make sure that we are not just following God with our mouth, but that we are following God with our hearts. When we do so, we will bear fruit. We won't be able to help it.
00:31:05
Speaker
And so that's our application for today. So I hope that you've enjoyed today's readings and I hope that you are encouraged to ask God to grow you, to point you to point out to you where he needs to transform you.
Encouragement for Transformation
00:31:19
Speaker
And remember, everything starts in the mind because that's where sin starts. That's where good fruit starts to grow. We have to make sure that our mind is being transformed so that our hearts will follow.
00:31:33
Speaker
And we have to protect our mind so that we are not polluting it, so that our hearts have the ability to change and help us to do the right things. And if we are weak, we talked about yesterday to pray to Jesus, because in him, we are made strong.
00:31:50
Speaker
He was a man. hes He went through every form of temptation. So he can help you in your temptations. He can help you be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
00:32:02
Speaker
So I hope that you are encouraged with everything we've talked about today and that you will be encouraged to share this event with somebody, either just on your social network feed or to click that light button so others see it, to forward it along, to click the follow or subscribe button so that people will see that that there are followers for the event, so that they will be encouraged to hear and read God's word because we are working toward the goal of spreading the word about reading God's word.
00:32:32
Speaker
So thank you for joining me here today, and I will be here for everyone again tomorrow.