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 - Living an Impeccable Life
You might not and I might not, but one person did. One perfect person, living by faith in the Father, lived a perfect life and thus demonstrated how we can too.
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, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas.
Speaker 2:Here's a hint of what's to come. He got hungry After 40 days. He got hungry In his divine nature. No Deity doesn't eat.
Speaker 1:Our world is not as it should be, not the way that God intended it to be at creation, should be not the way that God intended it to be at creation. It doesn't have to be this way, and Jesus has shown us the possibility. He lived the perfect life, not in the strength of his deity, not using his power as God, but instead relying upon his Father in faith. He showed us what is required and how to live this life, and in doing so, he has also revealed a glimpse into what heaven is going to be like for us, what it will be like to live in the Millennial Kingdom. Think on these things as we listen today and apply impeccability.
Speaker 2:So we're going to look at the doctrine of impeccability again, but to do so we'll try to apply it today and see how it has application, because all these doctrines may seem somewhat abstract initially, like what is all this complicated stuff? And yet it's not. It is complicated but it has very practical ramifications. I think I mentioned last week that it's so interesting when you read the Apostle Paul in the New Testament, his 13 letters, that he will be talking about something very, very complicated, doctrine-wise, and then suddenly he'll just make application out of that to something very practical in everyday life. It's like if you were talking to this guy and let's say he was walking around here in Spokane in the 21st century and we were talking to him about toilet paper shortages or something like that, something ridiculous Before you know it he would have somehow turned the whole discussion into a discussion of salvation and the gospel and Christ and these things. You think how could you ever get there? But that's how his letters read and it shows us that it's not enough to go to a church and have the pastor stand up there and say now you need to do this and you need to do that and you need to do this, you need to do that. There's no motivation that lasts in that type of exhortation to people.
Speaker 2:Most of us already sense that, yeah, we're not doing everything we should be doing or something like that. We kind of already sense that perhaps. So we need something deeper that gives us energy to live the Christian life. We need something deeper that gives us energy to live the Christian life and that something is thinking through Bible doctrine. In other words, what is truth and how do we know what's true and understanding these truths? And that's why we've been spending time on some of the deeper doctrines that relate to the person of Christ, because when you say something like the hypostatic union, you just say those words. People, even Christians, have no idea what you're talking about. Or words like the kenosis, the doctrine of kenosis or, today, impeccability they're not taught anymore.
Speaker 2:Because the church in the 20th century said well, we need to become more relevant. And by trying to become more relevant and preach more motivational speeches and things like that, or market their church or try to raise money and things like this, or put on shows on stage with rock bands or whatever they do all these things to become more relevant, they totally became irrelevant in things like this or put on shows on stage with rock bands or whatever they do all these things to become more relevant. They totally became irrelevant. And so what I'm saying is that we have to get back to what really is relevant. And what really is relevant is the deep doctrines of Scripture, because you can never have that energy to go out Monday through Friday this next week to live the Christian life in your context, your job, your family and so forth, if you don't have something deep to think about that motivates you and really energizes you and stays with you.
Speaker 2:And so that's why I'm making appeal to this generation, which is an image-based society, where all you do is just look at your phone or your computer and images flash in front of you and that's what you're looking at all the time, or YouTube videos or whatever. And I'm saying, no, we have to put a lot of that aside and we have to focus. We have to learn to think again, because images are easy, thinking and words are more complicated. But that's what we need, because we're made in God's image to think his thoughts after him Doesn't Romans 12 say, be transformed by the renewing of your mind? See, there's a way of thinking and we have to become more and more like Christ, and that's how we do it. Even Philippians 2.5, right. Have this mindset in you, which was in Christ Jesus right, and the word for mindset there means to develop this through careful thought about what Christ Jesus did.
Speaker 2:And what Christ Jesus did right is he humbled himself by taking to himself a true humanity. We're talking about the God of the universe, I mean the God who doesn't need you, doesn't need me, doesn't need to eat, doesn't need to drink, is always brimful of energy, knows all things, never learned anything. Okay, we're talking about the infinite, personal God, and this God took to himself a true humanity like you and I. He came down here and he lived in the filth of this world. He walked in this world among people who were full of sin and expressing sin, and in a world that is run by the God of this world, who's Satan. And yet he was tempted in all things and he didn't sin, and we'll talk a little bit more about that now as we get into this person. But think about what he did, think about the condescension, how he came down to us and went through what we go through Now. Allah didn't do that. Allah is this imaginative God that how many ever Arabs believe in, he never came down here and walked among us. He doesn't know what it's like, you know, to go through what we go through, but the one true God, the second person of the Trinity, he came down here and he lived in the same world that we lived in. He went through all the slop that we have to go through, and yet he didn't sin. And so I'm going to talk about that, because that's a tremendous position for him to be in.
Speaker 2:Now, to get started, just review Doctrine of Hypostatic Union. We developed this over I don't know, 15 weeks. But Jesus Christ, this is just a statement of the doctrine. Jesus Christ is undiminished deity, united with true humanity in one person, without mixture or separation, forever. So what does all this mean? Well, first of all, an undiminished deity means he's fully God, right Now. That means he has all the attributes of God. He's sovereign, he's righteous, he's just, he's loving, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, immutable, eternal, ver forth. Okay, all the attributes of god, um, so we say another way of saying that is he has a divine nature, a nature, divine nature.
Speaker 2:Now, that's important because, when you look at the next phrase, he's united with true humanity. True humanity means he's fully man, okay, but he also has a, a human nature. So he has two natures. That's the point I'm trying to make here One divine, one human. So as a human, he has all the characteristics of a human meaning, he has a true human body or he has a true human spirit and he's a true human soul. And these two came together in one person. So by doing that, of course, taking on a true humanity, he's taking on the limitations of humanity in that nature, but he's only one person. That's the thing. Two natures, but only one person. He's not two people, he's not a split personality, he's only one person with two natures in that person. Obviously that's unique, right, I mean, nobody else has anything exactly like that. So he is a unique person Without mixture. So these two natures are not mixed together, like the divine nature with his divine attributes does not somehow coalesce with or intermingle with his human nature.
Speaker 2:Now, some denominations have mixed, for example in Lutheranism and I'm not trying to be critical, but in Lutheranism and really Martin Luther is the one who started this in the communion, when they take the bread, they talk about the bread in terms of the real presence of Christ in the element. So when you take the element, the bread, in a Lutheran church, they are thinking, not that the bread itself changes substance or anything like that, but that there's a real presence of Christ in connection with the element itself. What did they mean? Well, they meant that the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's omnipresent, right, he's everywhere, okay, as God, right, he doesn't go places. We used to say with the kids.
Speaker 2:We used to say God doesn't go places, he's already in all places, right, and he's not parted out throughout the universe, he's completely present at every point in space. I mean, if you go to, I don't know, pluto, which they now debate as a planet or not, anyway, if you go to Pluto these days, is God with you there as much as he is here on planet Earth? Yes, okay, he's not parted out throughout the universe, he's completely present at every point in space. He's also completely present outside of space and time. So there's that concept. But, um, so the lutherans would say that because of that, he's his.
Speaker 2:There's a real presence of Christ in connection with the bread that we take. But here this is a problem, because the bread represents his true humanity, not his deity. It represents his true humanity, his flesh, which was offered for us on the cross right. Well, what they're doing is they're bringing the omnipresence of God into the humanity, they're mixing them. That's why, in their communion, they hold to what they call consubstantiation, this idea of the real presence of Christ in the element, because they have mixed divinity with humanity rather than keeping them separate as the hypostatic union doctrine teaches. So I'm just saying these things have practical ramifications.
Speaker 2:When you go into other local churches, you don't know what the Lutherans think or what they believe, or why they're doing what they do. All these things are tied to doctrines and things that have been taught. So understand that he's not in the elements do. All these things are tied to doctrines and things that have been taught. Okay, so and understand that he's not in the elements. You know, the roman catholics went even further. They do this too. They actually say that the elements become the body and blood of christ, and for most of the roman catholic church history, the blood was reserved for the priests only and the people could only take the bread. There was like a wall or a barrier back at the time of the Reformation between the people and the priests, because the priests are on like a higher status or something like that. We're all believer priests. The Bible says we're all believer priests in 1 Peter, 2, and other places, revelation 1.5, and other places. So, anyway, all that is just a confusion.
Speaker 2:On the hypostatic union, though, now, while they're not mixed, they're also not separated. If you separate the two natures too far, like Nestorius did in church history, you end up with two separate people, or Jesus Christ is a split personality. That's not the case either. So the way I view it is just like they're not mixed, right, and they're not separated, but they're like this together, like there's an interface between the divine nature and the human nature, and this condition is now forever. In other words, nature, okay, and this condition is now forever, in other words, since the incarnation, when god, the son, took to himself a true humanity, which is what we celebrate this month in the birth of the of the king. Since that point in time, this hypostatic union continues eternally.
Speaker 2:In other words, if we were to, let's say, go to the third heaven right now and look at the throne of God, the Father, what would we see? Well, we have a good idea of what we'd see in Revelation, chapter 4. It's a whole scene of what that room looks like. But we also would see part of that scene is that the resurrected Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. I mean in his true resurrection humanity, that's what we would see, right. I mean such to the extent like after the resurrection, you see in Acts, chapter 7, stephen is being martyred. Right, they're stoning him, the Sanhedrin are stoning him, and he sees into heaven and he sees the Son stand up right to welcome him into his presence and and that's that was real, okay, he really did stand up off the father's throne to welcome Stephen. So the, the hypostatic union, is now in a condition where it is forever in this condition. That's the doctrine of hypostatic union Two natures but only one person.
Speaker 2:Now the doctrine of kenosis says what Again just stated here, jesus Christ gave up or emptied himself of the independent use of his divine attributes. Kenosis comes from that word, empty, in Philippians 2. So what does this mean? He gave up the independent use of his divine attributes. It means that in the incarnation it doesn't mean that, let's say he does not mean that he gave up his divine attributes, like somehow he laid aside his deity. No, he had a divine nature and he had all the attributes of God in that nature. But what he did do is he gave up the independent use of those divine attributes. Independent use meaning he did not use them without, let's say, permission from the Father, because he says I'll always do exactly what the Father wants me to do. He even says, not my will, but thy will be done. So this is a deprecation or giving up of his independent use of the divine attributes.
Speaker 2:There are occasions, of course, where the father obviously did give him permission to use the divine attributes and he uses them. He's like he'll say you know, I saw you under the fig tree, or I know what type of person you are. And these people are like how did you know? The Samaritan woman says I met a man. He told me everything I ever did. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. She's standing there talking to him and he says yeah, well, you know the guy you're living with now. You're not married to him. Before this, you had seven husbands and da-da-da-da-da. And he starts telling her whole life to her and she goes to town and she says I met someone who told me my entire life. Could this be the Messiah?
Speaker 2:So there are times when he utilizes his divine attributes, but those would only happen when the Father gave him permission to do so. Now, importantly, he chose not to use them when he was tempted. And so let's turn to Luke, chapter 4. Luke, chapter 4. And make a couple points, points five and six here, he chose not to use the divine attributes when he was tempted. In fact, what he was being tempted to do, the three temptations that came after the 40 days when he became hungry, the temptations were all essentially to use his divine attributes without the permission of the Father, in other words, to use them independently, because in that case he wouldn't be doing the will of the father, and then he would. The whole thing would have gone south, because it would be quote-unquote sin for him to do that.
Speaker 2:So notice verse 1 jesus, full of the holy spirit, returned from the jordan and was being led around by the spirit in the wilderness. Remember I mentioned this last week that this is so interesting that it was the Spirit who took him into this situation. He led the way, because this relates to the impeccability, how he as a person was not able to sin, and so it's like the Spirit is taking Jesus to the fight. I think I mentioned, did I mention that when Jesus and the disciples were in the Garden of Gethsemane and you know they couldn't even pray with him for an hour, I'm like, yeah, that would be me. It's embarrassing, right it is, but try praying for an hour, good luck. It takes spiritual discipline to do that without zonking out or getting distracted and thinking about other things. But in that scene in Garden of Gethsemane, he tells his disciples get up, it's time, the deceiver or the betrayer is at hand. And Jesus walks toward where the deceiver and the high priest and the Roman soldiers were coming. In other words, he went to the fight. It wasn't like, oh, they're coming to get me, no, he went to them, he went straight at it. And that's the same thing here with the temptations.
Speaker 2:The Spirit was leading Jesus into the situation to be tempted. To be tempted. So let's look at it For 40 days notice verse 2, he was being tempted by the devil and he ate nothing during those days. So the longest fast in Judaism is a 40-day fast. It's a food fast, it's not a liquid fast. So water would be accessible down in this area of the Jordan River, but so there would be water but no food. Okay, and when they had ended, he became hungry. Duh. You know, I mean, if it was me I'd be going crazy. Some people have done this. But you know, obviously.
Speaker 2:And the devil said to him if you are the son of God, tell this stone to become bread. Now, could he do that? Yeah, he had all the divine attributes, but he could only use those divine attributes if the father permitted him to turn a stone into bread. Right? And Jesus answered and said to him man shall not live on bread alone. So he quotes scripture. Right, because evidently the father didn't want him to use his divine attributes to deal with the temptation. Because if he was dealing with, he was using his divine attributes to handle the temptations. Would he know what it's like for you, who don't have divine attributes, to be tempted? No, he would have been able to defeat him with his divine nature, where he says no, I am going to be tempted in all things, as other people are, and deal with it the way you would have to deal with it to show us that living the Christian life actually works. And so if he didn't use his divine attributes to meet this temptation, what did he use? He used the word of God. Right, and of course he is.
Speaker 2:Notice verse one Jesus, what Full of the Spirit. So he's walking by the Spirit, he's living by the Spirit. So how are we going to be successful in the temptation? These two things, word of God, I mean, did he have it right on his tongue? Yeah, he did. What does the Psalm 119 say? It says hide your word in my heart that I may not sin against you. Isn't that what Jesus did? And, of course, by citing the word, he's also manifesting that he's depending upon the Spirit. So the word and the Spirit, these work together.
Speaker 2:So that's the first temptation and he overcame it Verse 5, and he led him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Now I always wonder how did Satan, how did he do that? Right? But obviously, you know, with Pharaoh's sorcerers and others like this in the bible, there's jewish exorcists in the gospel period, people, there are individuals who tap into supernatural powers and things like that. I don't deny those things happen, I just deny that they're always sourced in the one true god.
Speaker 2:And so satan was permitted or enabled to do this show him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him I will give you all this domain, all these kingdoms and all the glory that comes with these kingdoms, because it's been handed over to me and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you worship me, it shall all be yours. Now, who handed it? He says all these kingdoms of the world have been handed over to me. Who handed over the kingdoms of the world over to Satan? Adam, adam and Eve, when he fell. He fell from what? From his position of ruling, which God gave him in Genesis 1.26. He says and you shall rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, da-da-da-da-da, and so forth. And when he fell, he turned over this domain to the one who tempted him. And now Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He's the god of this age, he's the ruler of this world. Those are all phrases that come directly out of the epistles that describe his relationship to kingdoms of the world. They belong to him because Satan was handed them there in verse 7. He says and I give it to whomever I wish. I can give the kingdoms of the world to whoever I want. So if you will worship before me, I'll give it all to you, it'll all be yours. So this was a way of acquiring the reins over this earth.
Speaker 2:Right verse seven or verse eight. Jesus answered him and what did he go to? Straight away, scripture. I mean, have you hidden his word in your heart that you may not sin against him? If you haven't hidden his word in your heart, you've hidden secular culture's word in your heart, because we're always listening to something we're going to take in the thoughts of the world. Because the thoughts of the world are ubiquitous, they're everywhere. You can't escape them. You turn on the radio, you turn on the tv, you walk outside, you go shopping, it's, it's, it's all the culture, it's all the world, it's all the world's way of thinking. And whether you attempt to take it in, you know, deliberately or deliberately or not, it's there. And so you have to be purposeful about learning the word of God, hiding it in your heart. And so he uses the word again. He says it is written you shall worship the Lord, your God, and serve him only. So again you use the word, he used the word and he's, of course, depending on the spirit. So we go to the third temptation, verse 9. And he led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him okay, look, if you're the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it's written.
Speaker 2:Now who's using Scripture? Isn't that very interesting? I mean, does Satan know the Bible? Sure, he knows the Bible. He knows it probably better than you do. He knows it probably better than I do. He's been around for thousands of years. I mean, he's had plenty of time to get exposed to it. So now he's going to use the word against the one who was the word in the flesh. He says and he quotes he will command his angels, concerning you, to guard you. And another passage, so not just one, he quotes two passages. On their hands, they will bear you up so that you will not strike your feet against a stone. So now you can see that Satan's like okay, if the name of the game is the Bible, I'll use the Bible to fight you with.
Speaker 2:It's been said that the Bible is the most abused book in the world. It's also been said that the Bible can be interpreted to mean whatever you want. Yeah, it can, outside of context. So can the Constitution, so can the newspaper. Anything can be taken out of context and misinterpreted. Do you like it when people misinterpret you? You write a letter, you write an email and they turn it around and use it in a way you didn't intend. I really don't like that. It's really annoying. Do you think God likes it when people misinterpret his word and use it wrongly? Don't think so. Isn't that what Satan does?
Speaker 2:Genesis, chapter 3,. He comes to the woman and he says has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden or touch it, lest you shall die? He did add a little bit there, didn't he? And touch it? God didn't say that he likes to use the word or distort the word to try to get an effect, but he takes it out of context and that's what he did here. And Jesus answered and said to him by quoting and using Scripture. Rightly, he says what he did here. And jesus answered and said to him by quoting and using scripture. Rightly, he says it is said you shall not put the lord, your god, to the test. In other words, the passage that you're using to try to get me to do something that is taken out of context and is not supposed to be applied the way you are using it. You're misusing scripture. So I'm going to use scripture properly and say you should not put the lord, your god, to the test. So again, he used the word see.
Speaker 2:So when the devil had finished every temptation, he left him until an opportune time. So he withstood it, even after 40 days becoming hungry. Most of these temptations require would require something to use his deity at least two out of the three do for sure. But he never went for that and he trusted the Lord. He lived by faith, right, trusting the Spirit of God, using the Word of God, and he was victorious. But he did this on a purpose right. He did it to give us a model for how to live the Christian life.
Speaker 2:Now the doctrine of impeccability, then, is asking the question about the temptability aspect. I mean, does he really know, does he really know what I'm going through? Does he really understand the frustrations of the temptation or temptations that I face? I mean, hebrews 4 says it, hebrews 2 says it. He says it was tempted in all things as we, yet without sin. So the doctrine of impeccability is wrestling with the two natures of Christ, his divine nature and his human nature, and then saying no, wait. At the same time, he's not two people, he's one person. It's wrestling with this question how he could really be tempted if he's God. So the statement is Jesus Christ was not able to sin right in his divine nature.
Speaker 2:Notice the emphasis on not inability. Able not to sin in his human nature. Able not to sin emphasizes possibility. But it's like adam. When adam was created god made him very good, but it was possible that he resists the temptation right when his wife who was with him ate and he gave. She gave some to him and he says he ate also. But that was possible, that he not eat. But as a person, see, he's not able to sin. As a person he's not able to sin. So I mean we know god can't sin, he can't be tempted to sin.
Speaker 2:James 1, 13, it's not, it's not possible. I mean god doesn't get tempted. You know, sometimes you wonder like you're looking at all this evil. You see everything that goes on in the world all the time. You know everything that's going on but you're not tempted to partake of any of it. As the creator of the universe, it's not a temptation for him. He can't be tempted to sin. He's not going to sin and that's how Christ was in his divine nature.
Speaker 2:But as far as his human nature, able, not, which opens the possibility. I think that's what has to be there for him to genuinely be temptable, right, that the possibility opens the door for him to be, you know, temptable. But jesus is only one person and so, while we may view aspects of his functioning in the gospels, either by his deity or his humanity, you know, like when he gets hungry we just saw that he got hungry after 40 days he gets hungry. We just saw that he got hungry After 40 days. He got hungry In his divine nature no, deity doesn't eat, you know but in his humanity, yes. So as one person, he is not able to sin.
Speaker 2:And I liken this to like a battleship that maybe you or just, let's say, a destroyer my dad was on a destroyer in Vietnam in the early 70s and they would patrol the DMZ but let's just say that you have a destroyer that is impenetrable by any human projectile that has ever been created. Now, you can take it out and you can shoot as many projectiles at this destroyer as you want to, right, but since it's impenetrable, you could genuinely test it, right, but there's no way you're going to penetrate it. And that's who and how the lord jesus was. He could be tested and he was. We just read luke 4. By the greatest temptations I mean think of the temptation that you can have all the kingdoms of the world. You can be the ultimate power. I know a lot of people that would jump at that opportunity. I know millions of people that would jump at that opportunity. Some of them are over in the Middle East and Gaza right now. You know they.
Speaker 2:Basically Islam wants to take over the world. It's a political, religious ideology that is out to take over the entire world. When will the world figure this out? Did you read the story? See, I'll get on this. Did you read the story about the, the Muslim in Germany who attacked a husband and wife and went and stabbed the man and killed him in the streets, like three or four days ago? Why did he do that? When they started investigating, he said they're killing so many Muslims over there in Gaza and I'm like so that justifies killing a passerby in Germany, just a random citizen. That's the insanity. That's insanity. Now, look, the world should know. If the world doesn't know what Islam's purpose and goals are for the world by now, they're never going to figure it out Because they keep telling us over and over and, over and over and over. You can read it any day of the year, in any, all over the place. This is what they want. You know.
Speaker 2:The question is like right now in Israel is are we going to have another? This is Antony Blinken. You know our Secretary of State. He's saying well, we're going to get another. You know, install the Palestinian Authority run by Mahmoud Abbas over who's over in the West Bank and have them be the next government in Gaza. Well, first of all, mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority finance terrorism, educate their children in terrorism. They train people to be terrorists.
Speaker 2:I looked at the statistics. There was a poll done both in West Bank and in Gaza, of Palestinians right Of how many of them agreed with what Hamas did on October 7th, and there were about 600 people polled, about 390 from the West Bank and the rest from over in Gaza, and 75.7% agreed with what they had done and 13% just weren't sure and only like 12 or 13% disagreed with it. And Israel's supposed to wage war over there, right To root out Hamas, and while they're doing that, they're supposed to make safe zones for the civilians, 75.7% of which agree with what Hamas did and what will happen? Let's just say, if Israel does eliminate all 29,000 Hamas operatives, will not 29,000 rise up in their places? Like this is insanity. The US is saying you have to create these safe zones. You have to make sure you warn the civilians to move out of areas before you go into those areas.
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's drop flyers all over this place. Hey Hamas, this is where we're going to bomb. Next, what do you think they're going to do? They're going to leave. And then they also say this don't mess up any of the infrastructure, like the sewage plants, the water facilities and all that kind of stuff. Where do you think Hamas is going to go In America if we have a gun-free zone? Where do you think criminals are going to go? See the insanity and the stupidity of the world. Okay, sorry, I told you I'll get off on this thing because I'm not excited about the way the US is handling this. They're putting pressure on them like a big brother over a little brother and pushing them around and telling them how they ought to do things.
Speaker 2:And I appreciate at least. I don't like everything Netanyahu does, but at least when Antony Blinken said, I think you should put the Palestinian Authority over Gaza and let them rule it. Then Netanyahu said, no, there is no way we are going to do that. Those people finance terror, train terror in their children. So you have to have some other solution. But that's not it, and a two-state solution is not it. That's not what they want anyway.
Speaker 2:Someone said, well, what they're going to do because Gaza City is destroyed. I mean I've looked at it. I mean every building is pretty much flattened, every house is pretty much flattened. Why do they have to do that? Because there's tunnels and terraces under every mountain and every building and house in Gaza City. That's why I mean, wake up folks. But here's the thing they're going to want Israel to rebuild all that, get everybody a nice condo and a swimming pool and buy them a car. Here's the thing they don't want, that they want Israel exterminated. That is what they want. It's in their charters, you can read it we want a state of Palestine where Israel no longer exists. So until that is the proposition, we're going to have this situation.
Speaker 2:All right, how did I get off that from the impeccability of Christ? Okay, so, but as a person not able to sin, right, Because he's impenetrable. I love what BF Westcott said on this. If you think through this statement, I mean, does Jesus really know what we're going through? He says sympathy with the sinner in his trial does not depend on the experience of sin, but on the experience of the strength of the temptation to sin, which only the sinless can know in its full intensity. In other words, I mean, I know you've been tempted and you've tried to resist, and then at some point what happens? You gave up and you just sinned. Right, it's like a balloon. You're blowing the balloon up and this is the amount of temptation. And at some point the walls of the balloon are too thin and the whole thing just pops right. And at that point, okay, you know you sinned and now all the pressure is gone. Just think if the pressure never was gone and you were just constantly under that pressure. You know, it says in the book of Hebrews you have not resisted yet to the shedding of blood. Remember that.
Speaker 2:But see, the Lord Jesus Christ did so. Does he know what it's like? He knows better than any other. He faced more stress under temptation than any human ever in the history of the world. Remember it talks about that. He was sweating blood. Why do you think that's pressure. It's pressure that you and I've never faced, that he was sweating blood. Why do you think that's pressure? It's pressure that you and I have never faced. He faced it for us, he faced it for us and he didn't give in. That's the remarkable thing about his temptation. Not only does he know what it's like, he knows better than any of us. So can he be sympathetic with you when you cry out to him in need? Yeah, because he knows what you've gone through, he knows what you're going through. He knows it better than you. He's been there.
Speaker 2:Now let's transition a little bit to some application. Look at the cross from two points of view. We can look at the cross from two points of view. We can look from the unbeliever Out in the world. We can look from a believer's side. What do they see when they look at it? From an unbeliever's point of view, he looks at the cross and Jesus is being confronted with it, like going to the cross. Does he want to go to the cross?
Speaker 2:And the question is, as you read the Gospels, if you're looking at it from their point of view, what choice is Jesus going to make relative to the cross? Well, from an unbelieving standpoint. You just don't know, because you can't know what people are going to do, right In their mindset about the plan, or history, in the unbelieving mindset of history. See, the basic idea of history for an unbeliever is that anything can happen. The future is open, okay, and we are writing the future. This is their way of thinking. No destinies are set, there's no plan. It's just anything can happen, okay. So, from their point of view, I don't know what Jesus is going to do. Okay, the future is open to human choices and anything can happen. Okay. So, from their point of view, I don't know what Jesus is going to do. Okay, the future is open to human choices and anything can happen. Okay, history is just a roll of the dice. Okay, everything's chance. There's no certainty.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's one way of looking at the situation in the Gospels. It's the way of looking at it from an unbeliever's point of view. But what if we look at it from the believer's point of view? From our point of view, what's going to happen? I mean, what choice is Jesus going to make? Well, we know what choice he's going to make, don't we? Is that because we're so brilliant? No, it's because God has a plan and he's revealed the plan to us in the Bible. So, okay, good. So the future is planned by God, in our point of, in our thinking. And the cross, of course, is part of the plan, right, it's always been a part of the plan. The book of Revelation says he was slain before the foundation of the world. Meaning what? Meaning? It's part of the plan, right? So history is what History is not open, it's not roll the dice, not, anything can happen. History is the unfolding of the plan of God. So we'd say, well, from our point of view, it's certain, there's certainty of the future and certainty, of course, of the cross. Christ would always do what the Father wanted him to do. So that's very interesting that now we're going to move into talking about this a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Um, let's apply a few, make a few points of application. Okay, how? How does this impeccability, this idea that christ in his divine nature was not able to sin and his human nature is able not to sin? So this possibility introduced there and being tempted there, but as a person he not able to sin, how does what's a possibility introduced there and being tempted there, but as a person he's not able to sin? What applications does this have to our thinking and living?
Speaker 2:First of all, thinking it helps resolve the problem of evil, or part of the problem of evil. It doesn't solve it, I just say it helps resolve it. What's the problem of evil? Well, part of the problem of evil is this If God knew that man would sin, why didn't he stop it? We've all probably wondered that. Why is the book of Genesis laid out the way it is? He creates these two people in his image and then he puts this trilogy of knowledge of good and evil in there. It's kind of like why did you put that there? And so we might wrestle with that about why God did it that way, who we were going to eat, why did he put it there, so forth. So part of the problem is well, how is God good if he's doing that? And now that evil exists, how is he all-powerful? I mean, if he's all-powerful, why doesn't he remove evil? Why doesn't he get rid of it?
Speaker 2:Now, some people think that the answer to this question that's what the A stands for answer is this that God had to permit evil in order to preserve genuine human choice. If he hadn't permitted evil, there couldn't be real human choice. In other words, he permitted evil so there could be genuine humanity. That's one of the answers. I'm not saying I agree with that answer by any means. In fact, I disagree with it because I think Jesus Christ is the rebuttal to that. That's what the R stands for.
Speaker 2:Rebuttal Jesus was a genuine human right, he had genuine human choice. And guess what? He didn't do? Evil. So then it's not necessary to have evil in the world in order to preserve genuine human choice, because Jesus Christ is the rebuttal of that argument. Did Jesus need to sin? Rebuttal of that argument. Did Jesus need to sin in order to prove that he's not a robot? In other words, Another way of thinking about it. Some people think well, I mean, god could have created us like robots and that would have kept evil from coming in the world. But was Jesus Christ a robot? No, he had choice. He had choice and he's genuine humanity, so there can be human choice without evil.
Speaker 2:By the way, every one of us is going to get a resurrection body. Right, you're going to get a resurrection body. You're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. One day you're going to get a resurrection body. Will you have genuine free choice or human choice in the resurrection. I know it's scary, isn't it? It's an interesting question to think through. Well, yeah, because it's a part of genuine humanity that we have choices, but there won't be any possibility of evil in that world, will there? So again, this is another refutation of the idea that you have to have evil in order to have genuine human choice. That's simply not the case. Based on the hypostatic union of Christ, based on the projection of us in our resurrection bodies, we'll have real human choice in the new heavens and new earth and the resurrection, and yet you'll never choose to sin. That is implying something about his impeccability and how it ties into us, which is very interesting. This is tied up with the same point about the problem of evil.
Speaker 2:You'll often hear this To err is human. They usually say it with some kind of panache. To err is if they're so brilliant or something. Honestly, it's just a cliche. I'm not a cliche person. Whenever I say a cliche, I say I just said a cliche. I'm kind of embarrassed about that, because a billion people have said that you know who cares. Okay, to err is human.
Speaker 2:The next time someone states that, you might say, hey, guess what? I know that's not true. There's one exception, they'll probably look at you like what, yeah, but what does that imply? If there's one exception, doesn't it imply there's some good news? Because if there's an exception to that problem to err is human that means there is a human that has not erred. And if there is a human who has not erred, then doesn't that mean hope, hope for a solution to our dilemma. So you might go this is a good conversation starter.
Speaker 2:To err is human. Oh, really, I know, and accept. Oh, yeah, who's that? Jesus Christ. He never sinned. In fact, he challenged people. He says show me my sin, didn't he? And nobody stood up and said a word, and these were his enemies. These were his enemies. I guarantee. If your enemies stand up and you say, show me some sin, oh, they're going to find some real quick, but nobody could accuse him of sin. So it's not true that to err is human. It's not true. In other words, it's not an absolute, because Jesus Christ was a human and he didn't err. So maybe there is something to this Jesus guy, right, maybe? So maybe there is something to this Jesus guy, right, maybe? Okay, we're going to run out of time.
Speaker 2:This next point is too difficult and we have to spend more time on it, but I'm just going to state this point because this is super interesting. His impeccability is expressed through us when we abide in him or when we walk by the Spirit, so that we have a sinless experience. Not all the time, I don't mean that, but what I'm going to show you is that the impeccability of christ is actually manifested through you as you walk by the spirit or you know, abide, like John 15, I am the vine, you are the branches, my Father is the vine dresser. If it were not so, I would have told you and so forth. And he goes in and he says abide in me and I in you, because apart from me you can do nothing. That is nothing good. But like what? If the life of the vine, who is the Messiah, is flowing through the branches? What comes out on the end of the branches? Fruit, and whose fruit is it? It's the vine, his fruit through us. Is it not a manifestation of his own impeccable nature coming through us? That means that the world can see Christ in you, and it's the impeccable Christ. That's what they are seeing.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to discuss three very difficult passages next week to show this. I'll start with the easy ones Galatians 2,. Then we're going to go to the harder ones. But this is why it is so real the impeccability of Christ, because now we're going to show how his life comes through us and we live what I call the exchanged life, his life instead of yours.
Speaker 2:Paul will say things like I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, the life I live in the flesh.
Speaker 2:I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. So we're supposed to live by faith and when we do what happens, it's no longer I who am the one living, but it's Christ living in me. It's like divine through the branch. Okay, and this is what. This is all we're trying to learn how to do in the world. This is it. I mean, there's really nothing else. Okay, this is all we're trying to learn how to do. But the neat thing about it is that it ties into the impeccability of Christ. John is going to make some statements in 1 John where it says like the born of God person does not sin in your life. But in chapter 1 it says he who says he is without sin is a liar and the truth is not in him, so we have to deal with these types of passages. This is very complicated, but I've already given you a sneak peek into how it gets resolved.
Speaker 1:So we'll do that next week. 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.