Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1376 | Jase Investigates the Mysterious Bone Box Linked to Jesus’ Own Family

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

Jase, Al, and Zach confront the political division tearing at America and challenge listeners to examine the way they view people on the other side. Jase takes the Robertson family’s most destructive young wrecking ball under his wing, a pairing that seems destined for chaos. The guys explore why faith leaves no room for treating people as lesser and how the gospel dismantles the labels that keep us divided. Jase also brings up the mysterious James Ossuary, an ancient burial box that sparked years of controversy over its possible connection to Jesus’ brother. In this episode: James 1:26–27; James 2; James 3:14–16; James 4:8; James 5:5, 8; Acts 15:1–19; Galatians 1:18–19; Galatians 2:7–11; Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26; Jeremiah 31:33; 2 Corinthians 3:3; Hebrews 8:10; Hebrews 10:16; Psalm 139; Amos 9; 2 Samuel 7; Matthew 28:18–20 “Unashamed” Episode 1376 is sponsored by: Taking care of your health just got easier – start here with Zocdoc: https://zocdoc.com/UNASHAMED #sponsored https://fastgrowingtrees.com — Get 20% your first purchase when using the code UNASHAMED at checkout. https://vanman.shop/unashamed — Get 15% off your first order with code UNASHAMED http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://open.spotify.com/show/3LY8eJ4ZBZHmsImGoDNK2l Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Chapters 00:00 Bear’s Latest Destructive “Accident” 05:05 Al’s Sermon on Freedom & Faith 09:12 Democracy Depends on Humility 13:30 God Shows Favor Without Showing Favoritism 21:18 The Biblical Meaning of a Circumcised Heart 27:55 Why God’s Law Must Be Written on the Heart 33:06 The Hidden Heart Theme in the Book of James 38:47 The Early Church’s Debate over Salvation 43:28 God Makes No Distinction Between His People 47:14 The Strange Artifact Linked to Jesus’ Brother 52:02 The James Ossuary and the Limits of Biblical Proof — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashame. We, um, trying to get Zach to the airport later. Zach, you're going to D.C. Is that what I understand? Yeah, I find out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Go line that city out.

Go get them. Go get it lined up there. We're going to send in. I want to hear a report because Missy gave me the last report because she was there back when Trump has sent the guard in, and she was telling me how much better things were when she was there. That's been a few months ago. So I want to hear how things are.

I've been noticing they've had the, which this will probably air after the fourth, but they had the big Great American Fair there. I've been seeing stuff about that. It looks like some cool stuff. I wish I would have been able to go, like, see all this, the 250th. I think you guys are going to enjoy it. So I want to get a report, even though. I have made the D.C.

years. It's actually been about three, three or four years since I've been up there. Probably since we found there, huh? I went. And I did go last year. I flew in, flew out the same day. But I, but I didn't get a chance to kind of fiddle around a little bit. But we're going. I got Jill's going. I got little baby Ruth, got Fred going. A bear may come, but bear, you know, he's still tearing stuff up. So I don't know if I want to, he's working at a church camp this summer and he calls me up. And he said, yeah, I broke a, I broke a girl's window.

So he's throwing pebbles. He says he's throwing, but this is the, this is what he tells me. I was just throwing pebbles. And one accidentally went behind me, the opposite direction that I was throwing it. And it hit, it just barely hit her,

her sunroof, and it cracked the whole sunroof. That's how he tells me the story. But he was trying to get a date. And he's tapping on the girl's window with rocks. Yeah, that's what he's doing. And he busted.

Have you ever heard? I said he was an accident. He said it was an accident. But the way he said, he said, I threw the rock, but it went the opposite direction. I'm like, I don't add up. No, that makes no sense to me. Sounds fishy, but I think he needs to get him a job and pay for there. Well, Bear told me, he was talking about working in construction, I said,

Bear, that's not your future. You need to be something in destruction. You need to be doing something where you're, you need to be doing something where you you tear things down and destroy things. Maybe that's why we get along so well. Exactly. That's why you can't. In destroying things.

Blowing a mom. Not a job in construct. You can't construct, but you can destroy. Demolition. Demolition. That's your future. Blowing things up. I mean,

the man is a natural. I remember when he was like a little bitty kids. How was he when he went out and took all the lug nuts off Jill's van off the tires? Oh, he was. I mean, he was like a. toddler. He was like, he figured out

how to go out. He didn't take the lug knots off. What he did was, I looked out the window and in the carport and the van, we had a,

what was that, a Nissan Quest and there was a white Nissan Quest and the, and the hub caps were like bent. They were like,

like, so imagine if you looked out and they were just like at 90 degree angles. They were bent, looked like little wings coming off of the tires. And I went out there

and, And they were bent. He didn't get the lug knots off, but they were just bent down. And so I popped them all back up. And I'm trying to think, what in the world? Like what, like, what would cause something like this? And I mean, I was like perplexed because Jill had left for something she was doing. So I'm watching Bear.

He's the only one there. But he was in his room taking a nap. And I probably shouldn't admit this. But Bear, we had to lock him in his room. So I had, because he was just get out. So I actually turned his, like the door around. I had the doorknobs were reversed. So the lock was on the outside, not the inside.

And it's all of a sudden. I mean, I'd locked him in his room. He's supposed to be taking a nap. And all of a sudden I see this little kid run by with a diaper on and it's bear. And he runs. And I watch him, he goes and he runs out in that car. He put his feet up on the tire, slipped his little fingers in. And he just starts, like, using his body weight.

He's like bouncing, bouncing. and he'd pop one and he'd bend it down and go to the next one. And so then I, of course, he'd get him inside. I'm like, how did you get, go look at his room. He had opened the window. And he's not even two yet. That's Tim was, I'm telling you. We had a Bears, Bears Five, and he's a live birthday party.

That's what, that's what Jill called it. Bears Five, and he's a live birthday party because he was, who. Well, luckily, Jason is taking him under his wing now, so we'll see where that goes. I'll see what happens. doing pretty good. I love Bear. He's one of my favorite. I love Ozzy Skis, but he bears the...

He wants to come on the podcast. He wants to come on the podcast. He's like, I'm telling you, Dad, you put me on there, that thing will go viral. I'm like, it probably would, but we probably would get canceled as well. So I'm kind of nervous, but we'll have him on at some point.

You know, when we can control the environment. I would love to have him on. That would be really good. So the last podcast, we were kind of talking about my sermon, in relationship to James 1 and 2, because that's where I got my text from. Yeah.

Because I was trying to, I was threading the needle between the kind of the 250th anniversary of our country. Faith Family Freedom was the same day. But then we were in this text about freedom. It was one of the best sermons I've ever heard you do. I do want to encourage you to go check. If all the stuff that we talked about in the last podcast,

if you really like that, check the sermon out, WFR Church.org. And also check out. the Hillsdale series that we did about colonial America, Zach, because I thought that was really good, too. And look, and I don't say, I mean, I tell the truth. I got that from Jesus. I tell the truth.

I'm probably the only person in Zach's life who tells him no, and that's not right. He likes to put a lot of it. He's like Willie. He puts a lot of yes man. He's so, he is like Willie. I talked to Willie yesterday. That's why they clash so much.

Willie's always looking at me bewildered because he's like, did he just disagree with me to my face? And I'm like, yeah, you don't have those people around in your life. I said that yesterday, and we just went on. But I thought, yeah, you and Zach Neamy. But I'm being honest, that was fantastic. And we watched it. We weren't there because I didn't want to be a distraction because you were preaching, because we had all these guests, which I was going to see later.

Yeah. But we had some of these, what are they, early 20s. They're on our couch, too. Ow, whatever, we were just like, we had our own little watch party. But what was their reaction to? They loved it. They absolutely loved it. I said, that's called a professional discussion on freedom.

Because you, you, I mean, it's awkward. Yeah. Everybody's talking about freedom. Yeah, and there's, and we're talking about the nation. And that's why we, in the last podcast, brought up the Declaration of Independence. That one phrase gets all the publicity about we are endowed by our creator. But, I mean, the whole thing is chopped full of different aspects of the Lord God Almighty. And so.

Yeah, it's also a monotheistic argument. I wanted to read this quote because I want Zach to hear this. I didn't get to this in the last podcast, so I'll lead with this when we get into the text. And it's from Reagan. I was talking about the brilliance of the founders by tying liberty and freedom to God, which is the same thing James does in his whole book,

but especially in one and two. And listen to this quote from Reagan's act. Politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality's foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related, which is why I think the founders, and Jefferson in particular, said what he said in the Declaration.

Reagan says, we need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church because only those humble enough to admit their sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires

in order to survive. Isn't that a great quote? I mean, the idea that you see the imperfection, and we're willing to admit that in how we fall short of the glory of God, in a democracy, you have to have that humility. Because what happens is without that, you have everybody just want to only assert their rights, whatever that is. And you forget about that we're a united country. That's what we were brought together for a reason. That's why I go back to Iepleuris, you know, which is the point James makes in James, too, when he talks about favoritism, because he's like, look, and he was coming. I think James is coming directly out of the Gentile Jewish, you know,

schism that happened in Acts 15 that we know from his past. But then he's doing it more from inside the Judaism mindset because he keeps going back to money. He keeps using the wealthy and the oppressed as his like illustration. He never mentions Gentiles in the whole book. But it's all the same thing. However you look down on another person and only defend yourself. Yeah, we moved here to North Carolina about eight years ago. When we were in Louisiana, I knew every doctor in town.

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That's Z-C-D-O-C.com slash Unashamed. Interesting you brought that up. It's so weird how I come up with a rabbit hole in my own world. late at night. And then you came up with the same concept, but he does bring up this. Which is why you thought I was reading your notes when I did my sarah? That was weird. I know we're brothers.

He has visited his album, down here, like snooping around in my pile of handwritten notes. And Faith, Family Freedom, I was going to give a speech. And I outlined it in my mind. I had no notes. Yeah. and you gave the speech, I thought. And so, I said, I'll just gave my speech of the segue between the freedom, what it means to be free in America and what it means to be free in Christ.

And she said, but they're not all going to be there. And I was like, it doesn't matter. He's already done it and he stole my thunder. So which led me to, since we did, we lost electricity. Well, I just did the gospel speech. But then when it came time for my speech, I told Missy, I said, you do it. I could just see it in her eyes. She wanted to preach.

Yeah. And she did fantastic. But I want to say this. In your notes, which I read, Al, for the podcast that have been in the notes since we started the book of James. I actually went and read the references where James is mentioned mainly in Acts 15. So we've already said that we think that this James is the Lord's brother. And I guess I had forgotten that was in Galatians 1 and 2. He literally says, so if you read Acts 15,

I feel like I want to read this because you said it didn't mention Gentiles specifically. Let's do that first. And then I have a weird thing I want to bring up and get y'all's take. This is going to be weird. This could go viral, Maddie. We're getting weird, Zach. Remind me if I get lost in this. But I want to give you a little history.

And here's why I want to give this history, because you say, oh, here's where Jace goes on a history lesson. Look, we're fixed to read James, too. And he's talking about helping poor people and not showing favoritism. And I realize you brought this up two or three times about favoritism, but there's a big debate about because it says God doesn't show favoritism. Well, but then people say, well, what about Abraham? Showed favoritism to him. He just randomly picked him.

I didn't, Zach's probably way more familiar with this debate. And so after I read that whole debate, I realized that God shows favor to people. He does, he chose people to do things, but he doesn't show favoritism. This is for everybody. That's a key distinction. distinction. But what James dissertation about, I mean, he's using such a simple thing. You have a

party or you have a gathering and you're showing favoritism because somebody has nice clothes on. And they're like, ooh, they got some money. And boy, he just, he goes off on that. You shouldn't do that. Well, you realize these things got him killed. Yeah. So when, and I looked up in the history books is where we get that he was martyred in 62, which I think after reading all that, which is one of the things that led to that destruction of the temple, you don't go messing with God's people, especially Jesus's stepbrother or half-brother. How do you want to put that? Because those religious leaders, the Sadducees is what they think. Now, the Pharisees, they weren't happy with him either, but Sadducees, who didn't believe in a resurrection, they

didn't like this taking on the rich because they were rich yeah they they they they he was taking on their power so exactly however they had interpreted the law because member i made that point last podcast that was kind of your credentials how you view the law it had led to them all packing their wallets with money and showing favoritism people because they have money so here comes james saying no it shouldn't be this way what let him to getting killed by religious leaders. I want to get your take on this. So in Acts 15,

you may have to help me with this because I only read it once and it had been a while. So they have a council because you've got to remember from their perspective, the spirit is poured out, made available to all,

and Galatians 1 and 2 mirrors what happens here. There was an argument here. We had a problem with who we're going to talk to and how our ministry is going to go. Well, what most people don't realize is there's probably been a decade, up to a decade that's gone by from Acts 2 in Pentecost and the first preaching of the gospel until Peter gets this call in Acts 10 to go to Cornelius, this Gentile,

and then he sees the Holy Spirit being poured out on Cornelius and his family, just like it happened in Acts 2. But this has been a long time. Think about it a decade. So the early Jewish mindset is, a Jewish Christian mindset is it's just for them. And now all of a sudden, it's like, no, wait a minute, it's for everybody. And then this whole calling of Saul to Paul is happening at the same time. But then he's kind of whisked away for a few years.

So this is all coming to a head when we get to Acts 15. Well, it's true. And before I read the Acts 15, we should have talked about this a little more when we were talking about why we think this is James, the Lord's brother. Because in Galatians 118, it says, after three years, Paul, he's kind of given a little history lesson here. He says, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him 15 days.

I saw none of the other apostles, only James the Lord's brother. Because James, the apostle, was killed in Acts 12. He was the first one. The first martyr, yeah. But the fact that he singles him out and says, the Lord's brother, this is going to be real important when I tell you the weird thing that I stumbled upon.

And then he talks about this argument that they had, and he kind of sums it up in Galatians 2 when he says in verse 11, when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was clearly in the wrong, which, by the way, shows you that even in the church and you're trying to do good things, disagreements do arise and how you should go about ministry. And that's okay.

Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. And that's why it triggered me when you said he doesn't mention Gentiles specifically, but he is with all this history of it that I'm sure these people were familiar with. They realize this idea of. about the widows and orphans and helping the poor. And the sermon on the mouth, when Jesus says, Blessed are the poor and spirit. And we said, okay, that's a spiritual thing.

But most of these people were poor that were gathering up to Jesus because he didn't have the credentials. He just, and the forerunner was a guy who ate bugs and honey and wore skins. I mean, what kind of people does that attract? Right. People like my childhood. You know, we'd have probably been going around. with the fit, we'd have been supplying the fish.

And I would say the tenor of the three years, when you read the four gospels, the tenor of the people that Jesus was impacting were the more desperate in Israel. I mean, that's a fair thing to say. Exactly. But there was one passage in Galatians I want to read where he said, Peter mainly dealt with the Jews, and then Paul said, I mainly dealt with the Gentiles. Yeah, and in fact, remember when he was called, Jesus said specifically, I will make him suffer for my name on behalf of the Gentile.

So that became Paul's ministry. Yeah, I'm looking for that exact verse. It's in there somewhere. It's in chapter one or chapter two. We'll find. It's in verse 8. Oh, chapter 2. Yeah.

Yeah, let's read that. For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter? Seven, actually, is where to start. All right. So 2-7 of Galatians. On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with a task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. And if you're new to the faith, if you're from Israel, you were classified as Jews.

If you were from anywhere else. So if you put modern day, we're from anywhere else. But this is good news. And this promise goes back to Abraham when he said, all nations will be blessed. And this even ties in with circumcision because Abraham couldn't have kids. He was too old. But he did. And so then as a sign of the covenant of the promise, God brought in this circumcision.

Because through that fruit of a guy who couldn't have kids, how are all nations going to be blessed? So that ties in with circumcision? I mean, I guess we're all familiar with human anatomy and really. realize you need that thing functioning to have fruits. You laugh. Got a big deal. Yeah. The most ambitious landscape project guys I've ever done was this year.

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Let's grow together. Use Unashamed to save the day. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms of conditions may apply. You say, well, where am I going with this? You'll see. And then at Acts 15, we had a problem. Because you have all these religious leaders.

And up until, what, chapter 10, maybe the Ethiopian unit. Yeah, there were people that went out, but they were all Jewish. They were all Jewish by nature. They were there for Pentecost. So you've got to imagine this is a decade, you know, that goes by without change. And so, you know how people are. You get sat in your ways. Me and Jays are sat in our ways.

So they're thinking at this point it was just for us. And then all of a sudden, it's not just for us. It's for everybody. So it's a bit of a shock to the system. And especially the church in Jerusalem, because they're kind of like the mothership of what everybody else is going to go from. So that's kind of the backdrop. So in Acts 15, it says,

some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers. Now, that's why I brought up circumcision. Unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, all Jews, this is a sign for Jews, that they're involved in this province. And by the way, that's what was happening to the Galatian situation as well. This is the Galatian. Now, here's three, four key words. Unless you're circumcised to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved. So if you don't figure out what the problem is with that statement,

here comes Jesus bringing all people together. Remember his last words in the Gospels. All authority in heaven and earth being given to me, therefore go make disciples of all nations. So, and Jesus has embodied the law. He is the fulfillment of the law. That's why we went through the sermon on the Mount and all these things, which is going to get to a heart issue,

because really at the heart of the sermon on the Mount is the heart. And their Jewish interpretation of the word for heart, I wrote this down, because they didn't have a word for brain. Because we think, well, what is the heart? It's not the thing pumping in your body. And I wrote this definition for the Hebrew word for heart, which is mainly your will used to think your will. It's like your desire.

shown in how you think, how you decide, and how you feel. I mean, it embodies what God gave you, I believe, in his image. And it's not just intellect, it's emotion, it's all of it tied together. All of it tied together. And when you look at the heart references in the sermon on the mouth, you can look these up. Now, some of these don't say the word heart, but they imply when they like the one about the tree and it's fruit. the fruit's coming from the tree what's in your heart God circumcises your heart or that's one reference

and all this has Jewish history and that's in Deuteronomy 30 you remember where he says your your heart needs to be circumcised you need to read the Deuteronomy 30 because it's really hard as mentioned I circled it in Deuteronomy 30 and it's it has to be a dozen times

if not more. But he talks about, and you think, what does that mean? Your heart needs to be circumcated. There's something in your heart. Because Deuteronomy 30 was an accusation that you're not acting in line with God's laws. There's something wrong with your heart. And it needs to be, there's something about your heart

that needs to be cut away. So he's using a metaphor of a metaphor to represent God's people and the promise. And the one interesting thing, Joe, before you continue, is the idea of circumcision itself. It would have to come from something outside of ourselves because no human man would ever come up with that on his own.

Exactly. You know what I'm saying? It'd be like, you know, here's a cool idea, Zay? No, we're not coming out of that. You know, I'm going to circumcise myself. It would have to be something introduced into humanity. Just the nature of it. And now it's a modern day practice for just cleanliness or whatever.

But there's a reason they do it when you're a couple days old or seven days old. Because you can't remember it. Right. Because I would never sign up for that. Well, I mean, this is interesting, this whole passage. It's pretty, there's a lot of meat in here, particularly about the kingdom. Read that reference from Amos. Well, now hang on.

Don't get the cart before the horse. I want to give this heart metaphor. because this is not going to make sense when it gets James 2, I believe, unless you get this in your head. So it wasn't just that your heart needed to be circumcised. And look, because I spent hours looking this up last night, so I'm giving you the thumbnail. But he also, there's an implication on another metaphor that you just need a new heart. You need a heart transplant. And that's Ezekiel 1119 and Ezekiel 3626, where he said you need a new heart.

And now here's another metaphor about the heart. And this is in Jeremiah 31, 33, that there would come a day when God would write his laws on the heart. Now, he doesn't mean, that's why I called it a metaphor. Because all these references that I just gave, now you think modern day, now this starts making sense. I need some things in my heart to be gone. I need a new heart which Jesus

offers and I need a way to understand the law without having to go read some books every time and have arguments about like what the Jewish leadership was doing

about what exactly does this mean so not written on actual tablets or stones because you know where I'm headed with that because in the new Testament, he's like, when you have the spirit of God, that is the law written on your heart. You have the discerning spirit. It's not written on tablets of stone, but on the human heart.

2nd Corinthians 3-3 talks about that. So does Hebrews 8, 10, Hebrews 10, 16. But anyway, so, well, then, the whole reason I'm bringing this up is I did not realize that a theme in the book of James is the heart. we haven't talked about this. And that's why this is what led me to go back and look at Acts 15 and look at the arguments and why is he saying this and why is all this happening.

And I want to give you these verses before we read Acts 15. And the reason I didn't realize it was a theme is this trusted NIV has one of the references hidden because it didn't translate it hard. So you'll find this fascinating. James 126 we just read it It says if anyone considers himself religious

And yet does not keep a tight rain on his tongue He deceives You see that word himself? What does yours say, Zach? In James? James 126 We're studying the book of James, Zach I'm still on Acts.

I know, I'm going to get to Acts 15 But this is better. James 126? Yep. Does yours say himself? He deceased himself and his religion is worthless. Let's see, 120. If anyone thinks he is religious and is not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart.

Look at there. What version is that? ESV. You need a switch. What version is that? ESV. Well, I need to go to the ESV because they got it right. How would I get heart out of himself?

I don't know. I missed it. So don't you find that fascinating? So that's the first reference in James, which makes way more sense, about what he's fiction to say, because he says religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless,

well, thank pure in heart, which goes back to the Sermon on the Mount. I told you it was the theme of the Sermon on the Mount, which is looking after widows and orphans, and then when he gets into James II, he starts talking about not showing favoritism. You need this in your heart. heart. So you're deceiving your heart when you don't keep a tight rain on your tongue or you're

looking at other people not made in the image of God. This is a key thing. The other heart verses are 314. I didn't read all these, but I will. Oh, this is a bombshell, because I would say it's one of the verses that sticks out in the book of James. Listen to this. But if you harbor bitter envy. Well, that's towards other people. And selfish ambition, that definitely affects your relationship with other people because you don't care about them because your ambition is for yourself. In your hearts, that's the same heart that needs to be circumcised, it needs to be transplanted, and it needs God to write through the Holy Spirit. He needs to move into your heart. it says do not boast about it or deny the truth such wisdom does not come down from heaven

but is earthly unspiritual of the devil for where you have envy and selfish ambition there you find disorder in every evil practice you don't think this sums up the whole book of james that's so true all right so then uh four eight watch four eight come near to god he will come near to you, wash your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts. There it is again. Next one, 5-5, says,

you have lived on earth in luxury. Back to the rich analogy, and self-indulgence. You have fatten yourselves in the day of slaughter. Somewhere in there is the heart. It's not the N.V., but I looked it up. It's in there somewhere.

Maybe we'll get Zach to look up Glacians 5-5. It's in there somewhere. They just omitted it. Probably, I don't know. Yeah, I couldn't see it. But it's in the Greek lexicon, so it's in there. 5-8. You two be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near.

Somewhere in there is the heart. Isn't that crazy? Have you ever looked at the ingredient label on something that you use, every day and you're like, you know what? I don't know anything that's in here. That never happened to you guys? Well, yeah, they use words usually that you've never heard of. That's why it doesn't have a larger impact on us, Zax, it does you, because you know a lot of

big word. Well, I don't know a lot of the big words. Like, for example, I'm starting to look into a different alternative for toothpaste and came across this Van Man's Miracle tooth powder. It's actually pretty good. I use it every day. And I like it because, you know, my family, they like squeeze from the middle of the tube. And this doesn't come in a tube, which is great.

And I have it hidden in my cabinet, by the way. It's a tooth powder that's made from natural ingredients that match the structure of your own teeth, supporting them in a more, whole, less processed way. It's made with naturally sourced minerals, including ones derived from grass-fed cattle. Bamans has no fluoride, no foaming agents, and none of the chemicals as well. Your teeth feel cleaner. There's a lot less build-up, and you don't get that heavy film filling on your teeth. For me, it just makes my mouth feel a lot cleaner.

It's very fresh. Oh, and they also have other products, too, like lip balm and chewing gum. Well, I'll tell you this, I love this lip balm they got. Oh, the dogdom's a game changer. Make the switch today to real oral care. Go to van man. Dot shop slash unashamed and use the code unashamed for 15% off your first order. That's van man.

Dot shop slash unashamed. Use the code unashamed for 15% off your first order. Van Man, real ingredients, no exceptions. So what does your 5-5 and 5-8 say? What chapter? James. James 5. James 5-8.

5-5-5 and 5-8. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fatten your hearts. Look at yourselves. Why did they leave this out? Oh, it's just troubling. What, 5-8? Well, I've been telling you to get off the NIV for years.

Establish your hearts. I think that's the thing about that acts that's interesting to you. You go back and read that. Oh, well, let's read the act 15. I had to get that in there, Al. But don't you find that fascinating? No wonder I didn't know that was the thing. That's why using that Greek lexicon is invaluable.

So let's read the Acts 15, because I know you want to go off on this, Zach. So it says, some men came down, he said, unless you're circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be safe. This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with him, rightfully so. So this is the same argument he's referring to in Galatians. Exactly. Exactly. This is the problem. It's going to help you, the reason we're doing it, it's going to help you understand the book of James because it helped me understand that

we're back to the theme on the sermon on the Mount, and we're back to the history of needing a new heart based on all those references, those metaphors in the Old Testament. So then it says this brought, they have an argument along with some other believers to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent them on their way as they traveled through Phoenician and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad. When they came to Jerusalem,

they were welcome to the church and the apostles who reported everything God had done through them. Then some of the believers, I mean Acts 155, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, the Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses. Look, we still have this going on.

I am in frequent debates with people who have stood up at my house in a Bible talk and said, we must be circumcised and required by the law of Moses. It's kind of fascinating. The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them. Brothers, you know that some time ago

God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe, I love this verse. I absolutely love verse 8. If we don't get anything else at it today, verse 8, watch what he says. God who knows the heart. What a statement. That goes back to Psalm 139. God knows what's going on in your thoughts, your will, your desire,

desires, everything. Yeah. And think about how many times, that phrase, Jesus knowing his heart, and then he would address the situation. Same thing. Well, it just makes it more sense.

You can't show favoritism and everybody has a heart that's only truly known by God. But it also just shows how much bigger this is. They have this argument about Jews and Gentiles. We have the same. everybody in our world we've been talking about our country

want to divide everybody into groups color of the skin or we tried it with a gender thing you know it's like we we don't want to do that or we do want to do it it's like we become tribal in every thing that's different

it's why eschatology matters too because when you read the very next line he he says that when like a lot some eschatology's whole a clear distinction between Jew and Gentile. That's why I just outright reject that because the scripture is pretty clear over and over again. But listen to what he says here about there is no distinction.

Keep reading it. He says, there is no distinction between us and them. And he said, why not? What's the basis for no distinction? And this is why it matters. If you say there's a distinction between Jew and Gentile, then this next line is not true. And it is the line of the day. Read it.

It is the line of the day. He says there is no distinction between us and them having cleansed their hearts by faith. There's that heart again. That's why I went down this rabbit hole. I went all the way back to Moses in Deuteronomy 30, and I looked in James, and I was like, well, I'll be. This is all over the place. This is what this is about. He made no distinction, which is the favoritism word, by the way, same word.

We just have distinction. say this too. I mean, you go down to 16 when he quotes Amos. I mean, he's clearly establishing Jesus as the fulfillment of the Davidic kingdom, right? I mean, this is what this means in that passage down here. Well, read, look, read 13 first because when they finished, the whole assembly becomes silent. This is after he says, we believe in verse 11, the grace of our Lord Jesus that we're saved, just as they are. That's a key verse. Had to read that. So when he gets to 13, he brings up James. He said, when they finish, James spoke up. Well, this is, now you're thinking where we're getting this that this is the Lord's brother, because in chapter 12, the apostle was killed.

Now they sing on him out as the Lord's brother. And then also 1st Corinthians 15, don't forget that, when Paul said that Jesus made all of his appearances, he brings up James. There's so much strong evidence. That's who this is. So then he says, Simon has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles of people for himself. So that's why when you said he didn't bring up Gentiles, but he did hear. He gets the point that they all became united on eventually. The words of the prophets are in agreement with this as it is written.

So he brings up Amos. After this, I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. Now, this is in the last chapter of Amos, and I looked up Amos. You know what the whole thing's about, the book of Amos? You probably don't. It's been a minute since I said. Doing something about the poor, not forgetting the poor. The king then was Jerobah and the second, and they were selling poor people for money.

That's what this whole thing, and Amos is saying, oh, God's going to make this right. You have no idea of the justice that's coming your way, because you're taking people made. in the image of God and selling them. Oh, it's ridiculous. It infuriated me. But he gets to the end, and he says of this in Amos 9, it's ruins, I will rebuild and I will restore it. Because this is after eight chapters of,

he's fixed to destroy this whole place. But he's like, but there will come a day, that the remnant of men may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things. things that have been known for the ages. So it's a prophecy that Jesus will be fulfilled, goes back to the promise that all nations will be blessed. And was fulfilled. This isn't a future prophecy. This is a prophecy that has been fulfilled in the coming of Christ, in his death, in his

burial, in his resurrection, and in the coming of the Holy Spirit, which had already occurred in Acts 2. So the point he's making is that the Davidic kingdom has been restored in Christ, and that's why we can draw near through confidence to the throne. And the same language is echoed all throughout the book of Hebrews. There's a whole lot in Hebrews about having our hearts cleansed from like guilty conscience, you know, like we can approach now God with confidence. We can draw near to God now. The reason why the Davidic kingdom, the tent of David has been rebuilt,

is because Christ has been resurrected and he ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father. he sent the Holy Spirit. The kingdom has been inaugurated. That is the point that he's making here, and that's the reason why there's no distinction anymore. And, Zach, that's another temple reference, too, that idea of the fallen tent. Because remember, David wanted to build the temple,

but he wouldn't allow it, and Solomon did. But that's the reference is what he's talking about. Well, what are you saying? Good point. Second Samuel 7. He says, David, say, I want to build a temple for you, God. I don't want to build this temple.

And God's like, no, I'm going to build a house for you, David. And so God builds the house. He builds David's tent. And Christ is now the king. Great news. The federal EV rebate is back. Eligible customers get up to $5,000 with the federal EVAP rebate on select 2027 volt and 2026 Equinox EV models.

Visit your local Chevrolet dealer today for more details. So here's the point I want to make. Now, in Acts 15, it goes on, they get into some confusing things because these Gentiles, well, you can imagine, they're bringing some baggage what they're doing culturally, that the Jewish law is like, what are you doing? Because they were eating food, sacrifice to idols, and doing different things to animals that the law specifically said don't do when it comes to blood and strangled animals. And we went through that in the book of Acts.

Well, you can see it as a mirror if you held a mirror up because the Jews were wanting to go back to their customs and things. Well, the Gentiles were the same way. They had been polytheistic. They had all these other gods. They wanted to make sure everybody was happy. They were trying to drag that into their Christian. But it's not so unlike, even modern day. When somebody comes to Christ, I mean, I think about the Celebrate Recovery Group.

If you want to be uncomfortable in your religiosity, go to us. celebrate recovery grape. You know, these people, they're not singing three songs in a prayer and doing everything, like decently in order. I'm using that as a, just a metaphor in that, you know.

Because they just came out of the world. People don't know. They're hooping and hollering. For many of them, for the first time and some of them for years or decades, are sober. Like, they're experiencing life as it was meant to be experienced for the first time.

Well, it's like I'm sure we got a brother that's famous now, Al, just because we live streamed and he's become famous because he came out of the world. And when he gets excited, he hollers. And he doesn't know that, oh, we don't do that here. We don't holler out at the top of our lungs when no one else is speaking. Yeah. You know, Jesus and all this. But so we had an interesting conversation. He's like, can I do that here?

I said, you can do that here. That's what I told him. And we've affirmed that even us from, I did it Sunday. He was the first one that sung out. And I was like, thank you, Karen. Thank you for me, let me know who this is about. So I wanted to go back to the Galatians, too, because after all of that in verse 9, to pick that up,

James, Peter and John, those reputed to the pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. Because that's where the joke came up, because they were having a disagreement. But they worked it out. and they agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews. So they worked it out.

But what I wanted to point out is in verse 10 where it says all they asked was that we should continue that here was the compromise to remember the poor the very thing I was eager to do. You know, Paul said that. Well, I know where that came from. Because James, that's why he brought up Amos,

which is all about that, which leads us into James too, because that's why he gets in this whole thing about the poor and the rich. And I think the backdrop of that was the religious leaders, they want that money. And that's what led to his death.

So I wanted to bring up the weird thing before we're out of time because I know there's a lot more to talk about that, but this was weird. Somehow in all that study, I ran across a guy who had, well, this was a court case, because some guy in the mid-1900s, he found one of these bone boxes that had, over in Israel, that had, or from Israel, it had, it had James or James or Jacob, we went through that.

Yeah. That name is interchangeable. son of Joseph, brother of Jesus. So some guy finds that in 1900s. And the reason I'm going to tell this story is, well, all of a sudden, if this is, do you actually have the bones of James, the brother of Jesus, which is kind of what he was claimed?

It's like, that was a common name, but let's get this right. His father was Joseph and his brother was Jesus. I mean, it sounds right. And so it led into 2002 because this thing got to be worth a lot of money because if that's legit, and this is a artifact that's given proof to the Bible itself in this capacity. Are you all familiar with this? I'm not. Yeah.

So look, this turned into an eight-year trial that started in 2002, whether this thing is legit. And this guy is charged with fraud by the... Jewish group. Yeah. Because in their mind, they're like, well, Jesus is not the son of God. This guy's got some proof,

but turned into an eight-year trial. And eventually, I'll give you the thumbnail of it. He was acquitted. But with a notation, this does not prove the authenticity of said bone box.

And the whole really trial, I mean, I went through it, was basically about the patina, because I'm a treasure hunter, so I was familiar with that. The patina all seem legit, except on the part where it said, brother of Jesus. They're like, we think you added that. But it's hard to prove because when you have something that's found,

just by cleaning it and washing it, that's ultimately why he was acquitted. They just really couldn't prove that it wasn't all there. But they really couldn't prove it was either, is the point. Exactly. But it had a lot of patina on it. which you can't fake patina is what I'm saying. And any treasure hunter knows that. I mean, they were timing this thing back.

It had a lot of the right qualities. And I really feel like in my heart that we serve God in faith. If you're trying to look to prove those to God, I just don't think that's the way God designed it. I think that's the wrong search. So like everything else, it's a pretty strong evidence. of it. And I just think, well, wouldn't shock me if he had it.

Right. I mean, but ironically, the whole reason I brought it up, it became more about the money. They didn't like the fact that this could be worth, well, what would it be worth? We're talking about hundreds

of millions of dollars if it actually is the bone. And that's why I said, even in that you see James' point over a dispute about whether his bones are in this. It was way more about the money, the whole thing, than the legitimacy of it. No, I agree. And that is a big theme of his. And I thought about it. If you think back, remember in Acts 2 and Acts 4, there was a spirit among the early church,

which James would have been right there in the middle of it. Remember said they would sell property and give to each other in need? And the whole Christian ideal in the beginning, was that we're in this together. And that's why when you see that the story in Acts 5 with Anonis and Sapphire, remember, they were lying about money and God struck them dead. And remember it said a great fear seized the church because it was like, whoa, you need to be careful on how you go about this. And so it was a big theme all throughout Acts, you know, leading up to 15.

All right, I'll look this up. If you want to look that up, what I was talking about is called the James. I'm going to have pronunciation problems here. O-S-S-U-A-R-Y. What is that? Ossuary. Oscewery. James Oshwary.

A first-century limestone burial container. It made international headlines due to an Aramaic inscription on it side that reads James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus. I'd never heard that so. Yeah. And, well, and what's interesting is one of the arguments in the trial was that very rarely would it have a brother, although not that it never happened. But that's why I want to read that Galatians too,

because it did, they called him the brother of the Lord. So I thought, what I would. It wouldn't, wouldn't shock me that it said, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus. So it was very interesting. Yeah. But anyway, I just thought the bigger point is what we're going to get into in James, but that's the background of it.

And I found that very fascinating and eliminating really for the reason that if you don't think this Bible melds together through all that, you know, you read some verses and it just somehow gets lost. And I love the way you tied it in at the beginning with the heart about that is the heart of the matter and how he's talking. talking about this because that's very important as to what we, I mean, Jesus said that over and over and over again. It's not just, it's not just the outside that you're looking at. It's the inside that I look at. Which is a good lesson for our listeners on how you study the Bible, because I got

that from Acts 15 when I read it. I thought, why is he bringing up the heart? And, you know, James is brought up in the heart. So I just looked up, show me the Greek words for heart in the book of James. Well, it was way more than my translation had. And then I realized, oh, Then the sermon on the Mount, then I go back to the Old Testament. So that's a good way to study. All right, we're out of time. We'll pick it up next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast.

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