Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Military Strategy for Your Life
Fight from the high ground. What is the high ground in this mortal life? Christ and your position in Him. If you haven't believed in Christ then you are working in your own strength to live well and justify yourself; and this is a failed strategy.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament Framework. Today a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2:If you look at the geography of the land of Israel in the book of Joshua, they're starting down at the Jordan River. Remember, god's going to divide the Jordan when the priests step in there with the Ark of the Covenant and everybody's going to pass through right. They're going to cross over and obviously the Jordan is low because water runs through it. Now you've got to go up Jerusalem. Every time you read in the New Testament it says they went up, went up. Where. What do you mean Up? Jerusalem was up high, so was Jericho. It was higher than the Jordan River. And then I, the place they go next, it's high, it's up. I mean, they're working their way up.
Speaker 2:So what is this a picture of? This is a picture of our sanctification, our spiritual growth. I mean, is it easy? Is it easy? No, it's not easy at all. It's a struggle, it's a fight all the way, and the stories in the book of Joshua are teaching us how, during that struggle, to grow and to conquer our enemy. So there's a lot of imagery here about sanctification. In the spiritual life, for example, there's enemies the world flesh, the devil Ephesians 6. What do we have to put on every morning? Get up and we put on the armor of God. Why? Because we're going to battle. See, the spiritual life is a spiritual battle. It's spiritual warfare, and that's what you're seeing in the book of Joshua, right, and the good news about our battle is we're not having to fight up like Joshua. It says that we've taken the high ground in Christ and we're just supposed to defend that ground. So we already have the high ground in Christ. That's the good news. So when we go back and read Joshua, we read man, this was tough, but they're going to have to learn to do three things Listen to the Lord what he said in the Mosaic Covenant, the law that we just discussed. What he said in the Mosaic Covenant, the law that we just discussed. Listen to that so they can learn it. Trust him and his strategies for defeating their enemies, like the inhabitants of Jericho or wherever and obey they.
Speaker 2:Go into the land. Everybody knows this story, right, joshua? And he goes up to Jericho and there's this lady there. Two spies went in. She's a keeper of a whorehouse. Okay, great, that lady's in the line of Christ. By the way, that lady's in the line of Christ, she'd heard about what God did for them at the Red Sea and she said everybody in this land is shaking in their boots because of you guys. So the spies find out hey, this is what's going on. They're already psychologically totally defeated. So they go back, they tell Joshua Joshua, I'm sure, is sitting there making his battle plans here's how we're going to take Jericho.
Speaker 2:And then there's this guy standing there in the midst of the camp and he wasn't an Israeli soldier and he had a sword. And Joshua says to him whose side are you on? And he basically says I'm on my own side. What, what, who are you? This is the pre-incarnate Christ, right, and Joshua recognizes it.
Speaker 2:And Joshua is then given a strategy, a battle plan for taking Jericho. It is the silliest plan in all of military history. I want you to basically all get out there. I want you to walk around this city once a day for six days. On the seventh day. I want you to march around it seven times. And I want you to walk around this city once a day for six days On the seventh day. I want you to march around it seven times and I want you to yell.
Speaker 2:And if the kids were here, we'd say and what happened? And the walls will come tumbling down. Right. Does that sound like a good military strategy to you? So what did you have to do? You had to listen to what the lord said. You had to trust him that his strategy is going to work. And then you had to obey, listen, trust, obey. And they did it.
Speaker 2:Joshua led the people and went back. He gave them this battle plan and he said this is what we're going to do. And the people said we're going to follow you as we follow moses, so we will follow you. They said in joshua one and so all line up. And they do this thing. On the seventh day, after seven times, they all yell the trumpet's blast. And what happened? The walls came tumbling down. They didn't fall in, they fell out. And the people ran straightway. It says up into the city. And they destroyed every man, woman and child and beast in the city of Jericho. God, city of Jericho, god gave him victory. Yeah, that's not very nice. You're in spiritual warfare too. You're going to be nice to Satan. You're supposed to be buddies with Satan. God already said in Genesis that these people he was giving 400 more years.
Speaker 2:He says the iniquity of the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Jebusite. It's not full yet, but a time is when their iniquity will be full and that's when I'm going to judge. See, because God always gives grace before judgment, right, grace before judgment. How many times have we learned that he was giving those people grace before judgment? But it was time to judge. But guess who didn't get judged? Abraham? Why? Because she believed in the God of Israel. See, there's always a way of escaping the judgment. That way is always by grace, through faith, and she found it. And anybody could have been saved in the land. She's a picture of that. It's a marvelous thing. But judgment, it was time for judgment.
Speaker 2:This people group, the Canaanites, jebusites, so forth, canaanites, all these they had filled the cup of iniquity. I mean, we have a pretty bad culture. There's a lot of terrible things out there. I loved at the end of Titus how it described the culture. Is basically like they just. I mean, you can see that, well, these are nice people. I work with some nice people. These are nice people. Everybody are nice people, everybody's nice. They let me out when I need to get out of the parking lot and I'm driving Nice people.
Speaker 2:Titus says it's basically like a thin veil and if you pull it back you'll see extreme nastiness. And that's exactly the way it is. If you live in this world long enough, you find that to be true. Throw one little curveball their way everything changes, just like that. And a little bit scary, okay. But this culture is probably not. We're not probably where Canaanite culture was, yet we have a ways to go. That's a little scary, isn't it? We have ways to go. That's a little scary, isn't it? We have ways to go. So it was time. It was time for them to be judged. So what can we learn here? The doctrine of sanctification.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app, and until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.