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 - God's Own Heart
Perfection, sinless living, is not the goal of this life; loyalty and obedience are what it's about. And even then, it's not perfect obedience. In other words, it's not about what you did, it's about what you do with what you did.
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:The means, the means of sanctification. Well, there's two means Law For Israel. That was what God revealed that he wanted them to do in the Law of Moses. Right, here's these laws. People say 613 laws. I'll go on a tangent here for a moment. There's not 613 laws. Um, you can count them yourself or research it yourself, you'll find out. There's not 613 laws, there's only about 270.
Speaker 2:Interestingly, um, the 613 was a, uh, a, a tool used in a sermon in the fourth century after Christ by Rabbi Simla. And Simla said as a Jew. He said you're supposed to keep the law 365 days a year. He said with every bone in your body. And he said there was 248 bones in the human body, which there's not. But anyway, it was just a tool. But if you add 248 and 365, guess what? You get 613. It really just had to do with the number of days in a year and the number of bones in the human body added together. And then later some Jews came along and said well, we can figure out how we can make a match 613. But there's not really 613. There's only about 270.
Speaker 2:By the way, you can only keep today between 50 and 90 of them somewhere in there Can actually be kept. And the reason they can't be kept is because there's no temple over there which is required to keep so many of the laws. But here's the deal. Just as an aside out of that, doesn't that mean that the Messiah has already come? If you can't even keep the Mosaic Law Code? Yes, it does, because he kept it. He kept it and it's been done away as a system and the temple's destroyed. There's no way. So you know, all Jews in the world should believe that Jesus is the Messiah. On that simple fact alone, that you cannot keep the 270 or so laws of Moses, they should recognize, first of all, that's not a means of salvation. Never was they need to turn to the righteousness that was already established by Christ. Okay, so we have the law. That's for Israel, temporary, until Christ came For us. It's God's revealed will for the church in the law of Christ.
Speaker 2:So you can go through the New Testament and you can count out commands, but their imperatives are all over. You know Pray without ceasing. You know stuff like that Humble yourselves, casting your cares on him, for he cares for you. You know like that cast. You know humble yourselves, casting your cares on him, for he cares for you. You know, um. So there's lots of commands to follow, and that's what god wants us to do.
Speaker 2:So there's law, and by means of keeping the law of christ we are sanctified. But here's the thing you have to have the second means in order to keep it, and that is grace, because you're not going to keep it in your own strength, you're not going to do it. And that is grace, because you're not going to keep it in your own strength, you're not going to do it yourself. Grace is God's enablement to keep the law. For Israel, god's enablement was through Moses and the priests who interceded for the nation. Without that system, they could not be keep the law. That's why I said today they can't keep it. Do they have priests over there in the land of Israel? Oh, they want to build the temple, they want to have all the priests and do that all again, right, but they can't do it now. So there's no way for the nation Israel to be sanctified today. There's just no way. It's impossible. Well, for us, it's God's enablement through Christ, who is our high priest.
Speaker 2:The book of Hebrews. He is our faithful intercessor. We go to him. He's our advocate. 1 John, 2, 1 and 2. He is our attorney. He takes everything before the Father and says I paid for that, I dealt with, that, it's over, it's finished. And so he is instrumental to our sanctification, our spiritual life, our ability to keep the law. Without God's grace, you can't keep it. Jesus said himself apart from me, you can do absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing. You cannot. That's why it's called walking by the Spirit in Galatians 5. You walk by the Spirit, spirit meaning that he is the one who is tracing the steps for you and living through you, producing Christ's life, actually through you. Galatians also talks about Christ being formed in us, and that happens by the Spirit as we walk. You know, in the sense of go along with Him.
Speaker 2:The Spirit produces love, which is the chief fruit of the Spirit. And why it's called fruit singular is because love is the focus and all the others are expressions of love. Love is the fruit of the Spirit. All the others are expressions of love. Think about it Joy, isn't that an expression of love? Or coming out of love? Patience Doesn't that come expression of love? Or coming out of love? Patience, doesn't that come out of love? I mean, if you're impatient, you're not loving. Okay, peace, isn't that a fruit of love. Doesn't it come out of love? Kindness, doesn't that come out of love? Goodness, doesn't that come out of love? Faithfulness or integrity Doesn't that come out of love? See, they all come out of love. That's why it calls fruit of the Spirit singular love.
Speaker 2:Very first, one listed and then it gives expressions of love to clarify further what it looks like to walk by the Spirit. But we have to have his grace, see. Then to have obedience to the law. Israel needed that too. And then the enemies. You know it's not like well. And then the enemies you know it's not like well.
Speaker 2:This isn't going to be hard, no, it's going to be very hard, right? So you've got the world, that's the cosmic system around us that's opposed to god. Ever since the fall, there's been the quote world system, and it is a system of evil that is oppose, opposing god. And then you've got the flesh. This is what's within us, the sin, nature or flesh that we all possess as humans. Right? This isn't good news. This is, you know, the monk or the nun who says I'm going to take myself out of the world. I want to get away from the cosmic system that's opposed to God, so I can live a holier life.
Speaker 2:The problem is then they got inside and they still had their flesh. They still had their flesh and we've seen enough of it in the news to see that if you go and become a monk or something like that, it's not going to keep you from sinning. Then they exploit all sorts of avenues because the flesh is very creative. It's going to find a way to express itself. So that's an enemy. Our enemy it's within us and then the devil, the spirit being, who's the arch enemy of God and present ruler of the world system Ephesians 2, 1, and 2, and 3. He is over the world system and all those who are part of the world system, and he is opposed to God. So he's our enemy right. He doesn't want us to be sanctified.
Speaker 1:He doesn't want us to be set apart. Unto God, he wants to destroy our spiritual life. 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.