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 - Cross, Justice, Victory
What if justice is not about balancing scales but restoring what was lost? We dive into the New Testament framework that reframes justice as restitution and places the cross at the center of everything—your salvation, the defeat of spiritual powers, and the future of creation. Jeremy Thomas unpacks why Jesus’s death was utterly unique: a voluntary sacrifice by the only sinless person.
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. Here's a hint of what's to come.
SPEAKER_02:In the West, you know, we're so atheistic and materialistic, and everything is physical and material and working science and all of this that we do not have a well-developed sense of the spiritual realm. Much less so than other cultures in times and places who do believe in a spiritual realm. So we may not really appreciate this aspect of Christ's work on the cross, of defeating uh Satan.
SPEAKER_00:It starts with a response. Do we recognize the truth for what it is or do we try and deny it and work around it, ignore it, and move on? And I'm not necessarily talking about salvation of the cross. Do we believe Christ for who he is? Do we accept that message of salvation? For many, it begins far, far beyond that. How do they handle creation? Do they even recognize that there is a God, a creator? And if so, who do they attribute to? Our responses to truth are telling and so critically important. First, for salvation. Do we accept that there is a creator God and that he has revealed himself in the Bible? And then, once we are believers, do we accept the work that he is doing in our life? Do we accept the situation, the facts, and turn to him for the solution? The solution is never about us. The solution is always about him.
SPEAKER_02:We've been talking, we spent some time just on the nature of justice because there's so many different views of justice in our own society. Distributive justice, which is expressed through various means of progressive taxation in order to redistribute wealth. That's one form of justice. We have uh rehabilitory justice, which is the concept of we put people in prison and that's going to make them better. But really behind that is the idea that people who are in prison who've committed crimes are victims. Uh we as a job uh as a society did not do our job to teach these people properly, and so we really uh as taxpayers have to pay to support um their imprisonment and all that is entail in that. So that's a victim system of justice, uh just redistribution of wealth. That's a concept of justice that doesn't rest on merit. It's it's it's void of merit. In other words, you know, it doesn't matter what you do, everybody should just be equal. So if I don't want to work and you do want to work, well, that's your choice, and this is my choice. We should all have the same exact amount of wealth. So there's a lot of different views of justice, and the one that we are developing as we've looked at the Bible, the Bible has two forms of justice, retributive and also restorative, or what we call restitution. And that's the main one we've been looking at, this restitutionary nature of justice, which the Bible presents. Um this all relates to the nature of God and what he says justice is, right? In his idea, restitution is necessary. In other words, if something's stolen, the person who stole it has to restore that thing that's been stolen. What I'll show you by the end of the lesson if we get there today is that all men actually have this concept of restitution in their mind, but they don't like it. And the fundamental reason people don't like it is because they commit crimes and they don't want to have to restore what it is that they have done. They don't want to make restitution themselves. So it is embedded in the human race, and people tend to think that, well, if someone murders someone, they should be, for example, capitally executed. Um, but they don't really want to press that full nature of justice because they themselves have committed crimes, and um, well, they wouldn't want to have to pay back either. So you get a lot of distorted views of justice that have come out in society. So we've been dealing with this, and and and God's nature uh is of justice is actually pushing for the restoration of things. And so I want to finish talking about that. Um we dealt last week with some of the Messiah's uniquenesses in his death, and I took you through a lot of passages just to describe his death because what's happening on the cross is the primary picture of justice in the world. And yet, of course, most people don't would never think of that as being the best example of justice in the world. Um, they might think of some case, you know, in a court or something like that. But actually, this was a case that was being resolved in the high court of heaven by Christ's work on earth. And what was happening was he was repaying or paying the debt that we owe. We have a song that we sing, right? He paid the debt I could not pay. Um, he paid the debt that I owe. So we all owed him a particular life debt, but we are dead in our transgressions and sins. We have no life, so we couldn't give him a payment, we couldn't make the payment with our own lives. And so someone came in our place as a substitute and he made the payment for us on the cross, and this satisfies God's justice and enables, let's just say, the floodgates of salvation to open so that any who believe in him are made right with God. So this is restitutionary justice. And we looked at several um uniquenesses of what's happening on the cross. I talked about, you know, um, it's a misallocation of God's decree of capital punishment under divine institution number four. Divine institution number four is human government. God gave human government in Genesis chapter 9, but the cornerstone of it was capital punishment. And yet his own son dies under charges of capital crime, but of course he was innocent, right? So it was a misallocation of justice. We also said that there it's a unique death in that Jesus did not die for his own sins, did he? He had no sin to die for. He's tempted in all things as we, yet without sin. Romans 8:3 says he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, but he wasn't sinful flesh, just in the likeness. He just looked like one of you or me, right? But he didn't die for his own sins. So his death is entirely unique because he didn't need to die. Sin is the cause for physical death, and he didn't need to die. And that's why he says things like, No one can take my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. Or you see the betrayal in the garden led by Judas, and Jesus goes, actually goes out to meet them at the hour of his betrayal. And when they ask, you know, who they are, who are you seeking, Jesus of Nazareth? And he says, I am he. And do you remember that there was a group of soldiers, Roman soldiers, six, it's called a cohort. You know, we say, Well, I don't know what that is. Maybe I know what a battalion is or a platoon, but I don't know what a cohort is. And a Roman cohort was 600 soldiers.
SPEAKER_01:And it says they all fell back.
SPEAKER_02:They all fell on the ground. You can imagine 600 Roman soldiers with all their armor, their spears, their shields, and all this. Now there's all this mess they've got to pick up and get all their stuff back together. Just because he said, I am he. In other words, he was permitting him, he he showed them, first of all, hey, look, if you're going to arrest me, the only way you're gonna be able to arrest me is if I permit you, because it's obvious you guys can't stand up to me. I'm the Lord of the universe. And so, again, he's not dying for his own sins, he's saying, I'm volitionally doing it. He says in John 10, no one takes my life from me, right? But I lay it down. He was giving his life for us. He didn't have any sin to die for. So it was a totally unique death. We also said Jesus is the only person ever in the history of the world to decide the exact moment of their death. We talked about suicides and botch suicides because just because people say, well, you know, you could exactly determine the point of your death if you if you shot yourself in the head. Well, guess what? A lot of people shot themselves in the head and lived. So, no, it's not totally up to you. But Jesus Christ did, it said, He breathed his last. He said, It is finished, and he breathed his last, and it says he gave up his spirit. You and I don't give up our spirit. He did. He did. He gave up his spirit. They were telling him on the cross, if you are who you say you are, take yourself off. If you can save others, save yourself. If he had saved himself, he wouldn't have saved anybody else. Right? And so he kept himself on the cross to pay the sin penalty of the world so that you and I could be saved. Lord, they didn't understand, did they? Even he said that. Lord forgive them. They know not what they do. They don't, they don't, they didn't fully understand what they were doing. We got through all those points. Um, we wanted to start and pick up with new information with this point that Jesus' work on the cross has cosmic effects. So the first effect, in the one we typically think about, is well, he paid for our sins. He paid our sin penalty. That's true. Um he did pay our sin penalty in full. We call this the provision for sin, in that he has made a payment that is equal to or greater than the sin debt that has been owed for all the people of the world. Well, we'll talk more about that when we get to the extent of his atonement, how many people's sins he paid for, and so forth. But for the moment, let's just say it's a provision for all the sins of the world. Okay? Now, the application of that provision to an individual occurs only when that person believes. So I make a distinction between the provision that he made on the cross and the application of that provision to an individual. Why? Well, because the Bible seems to speak this way. So let's look at some of these verses.
SPEAKER_01:Um John 3.36.
SPEAKER_02:Remember, John, of the four Gospels, John is the more the what we call theological because it's it's giving the meaning or significance of the events that happened in the other three Gospels, which are known as the synoptics. Okay, the synoptics. But John is more theological and it just tells us, it gives us the intent or meaning.
SPEAKER_01:So John 3.36. He who believes in the Son has eternal life.
SPEAKER_02:So, I mean, just because he died for your sins doesn't mean you're going to have eternal life. You know, he did die for everyone's sins, but that doesn't mean everyone has eternal life. It's only those who believe, right? He who believes in the Son has eternal life. But he who does not obey, this is a Greek word, apatho, apatho, the son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. So if a person doesn't, well, in this case it says obey, but obey what? Obey the command to believe. Obey the command to believe. This is used this way commonly as an expression, not that a person has to obey, like do good works to get eternal life. Obviously, one just has to believe according to the previous verse. But apatho is being used as a synonym for not believe or to not obey the gospel, that which is to believe. What did Paul say to the Philippian jailer when he asked, what must I do to be saved? Paul and Silas said, You must believe. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved. That was a command, believe. And so if they believe it, then they're saved. They have eternal life. But if you don't believe, then the wrath of God abides on that individual. So while the provision is there, the application of it is not, because they have not believed. Back up to chapter 3, verse 18, where we see the same type of idea. John 3, 18. He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already. Why? Because he's not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. So the provision can be there for everyone, but the difference will be those who believe and those who do not believe. And those who do not believe, turn over to John 8.21. John 8.21. These individuals will die in their sins. So the payment's been made for their sins, but they never accepted the payment, and so they die in their sins. John 8 21.
SPEAKER_01:I may have the wrong verse here. Let's look at verse 24.
SPEAKER_02:John 8 24. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He, you will what? Die in your sins.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Verse 30, same thing. As he spoke these things, interestingly, guess what happened? Many came to believe in him. So when they believed, okay, of course, the application of his provision was made to them, and they were not dying their sins. So if you're a believer, you're not going to die in your sins. Okay, but if you're an unbeliever, of course, you will die in your sins, even though Christ paid for them. He paid, he made provision for them. So that's the first aspect of the crosswork of Christ. It extends to us as individuals. But it does extend further than that. It extends to an application to fallen angels. So it extends to that invisible realm. Let's turn over to Colossians chapter 2, verse 15.
SPEAKER_01:Colossians chapter 2, verse 15, one of Paul's prison epistles, first prison, imprisonment.
SPEAKER_02:And if you if you have trouble finding these, uh I always put you know Colatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians together. And if you can't remember that, you just say, Well, God eats popcorn. And then you know it's the order. Okay. And all God's people said, Amen. I'm glad God eats popcorn. And um the whole world is a stage and theater and he's watching us. Colossians 2, 15. When he had, he's talking about the cross, right? And that's the subject. When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him, that is, through Christ. So through the crosswork of Christ, the Father disarmed the rulers and the authorities. Who are the rulers and the authorities? These are words that are used for the angelic realm, in particular the fallen angelic realm. And so at the cross, there's an application you can see to the angelic realm in that there was ultimately a defeat. Christ triumphed over them through the Father. Or the Father triumphed over them through the Son on that occasion. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14, which is one of my favorites. We won't look at all these, but we'll look at a few of these.
SPEAKER_01:Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14.
SPEAKER_02:If you want to be biblical, Hebrews. That's what this book is about.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, Hebrews 2, 14.
SPEAKER_02:Notice the application of the cross to the devil. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same. Speaking of the Messiah, God, the second person of the Trinity, taking to himself human flesh, right? Becoming true humanity, that through death, because only humanity can die, God can't die, but true humanity can die, he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. And he might free those who, through fear of death, were subject to slavery all their lives, that's slavery to Satan. So he secured the defeat of Satan on the cross. And though, you know, we say, well, but Peter says he still roams around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, yeah, we still have spiritual warfare that we must engage in. We put on the armor of God daily, Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 18. Uh so while his defeat is complete at the cross, the actual putting away of Satan finally has not transpired. When Christ comes back, he will lock him away for a thousand years, and then after that, he will be released for a short time, right? And then he will finally be defeated and cast in the lake of fire. Uh but his ultimate demise is certain because of what? Well, because of the finished work of Christ. It extends to the defeat of the fallen angels and secures our victory. And I want to make a point uh a quote here from the early um earliest was about the earliest Christians. Um you might remember, you know, if you read like 1 Corinthians 1, it will say, Not many of you were rich, you know, not many of you were powerful whom he called. But most of us who he says who were called were the poor and you know, just the average people in the Roman Empire, and the same thing continues today. Um But these people who first believed, they they really appreciated this dimension of the crosswork of Christ, the dimension that he defeated the dark powers, the forces of darkness on the cross, because they were not, you know, Western Americans. Um they would be more like people in in tribal Africa. In tribal Africa, you know, you have many gods and goddesses and you know, occultism and you know, worship of what they would consider spiritual beings. In the West, you know, we're so atheistic and materialistic, and everything is physical and material and science and all of this that we do not have a well-developed sense of the spiritual realm. Much less so than other cultures in times and places who do believe in a spiritual realm. So we may not really appreciate this aspect of Christ's work on the cross of defeating uh Satan and his uh his uh fellow minions, right? Uh because we just think in terms of everything has material causation. That's because we've been built and trained by this culture to think certain patterns. And so we tend not to think as much about the spiritual realm and those this type of onslaught that daily is against us, okay? So I want to read this quote about how the early Christians felt when they realized the impact of the cross of Christ on demonic forces. This triumph over evil powers was prized in the early church, as we see from the exuberance with which it was used and the picturesque, even grotesque imagery that was employed to express it. Thus, Satan was pictured as caught in a fish hook and as snared in a mouse trap. For the first Christians, the victory that Christ had won for them mattered intensely. They were mostly from the depressed classes with little to hope for in this world. And they pictured a host of demons as dominating life anyway. That's how they viewed their life before they became believers. So they were already thinking of themselves as being depressed because of demonic forces. He says it came as a welcome relief to have assurance that the last word was not with their oppressors, not with the demons, right? Whether they're human or supernatural. So the note of victory was sounded with joyous confidence, and we in our day need it no less than they. Umtice where they say, you know, they're oppressors from their point of view, both human and supernatural. You know, we have the same thing today, technically. Who are human professors uh human uh oppressors? Well, they're the politicians of this world. This is not a secret. They're not there to, you know, they used to be called minister of whatever, or servant of. They're not there to minister to you or serve you, they're there for themselves to oppress you. And this is a very unfortunate thing, but Daniel 2, 7, 10, these passages all teach that during the times of the Gentiles, which is the times that we live when Gentiles rule the world and Israel's not ruling the world, that the rulers of these worlds will oppress their subjects. And and and that is unfortunately what we see. I mean, America has enjoyed um a very unique period of history as far as prosperity and freedoms. Um that, of course, the that curtain is closing over our history. Um but you know, most people, uh most countries in the world have never experienced the types of freedoms that we have. And um yet, of course, this curtain again is closing. And most people have been quite obviously oppressed by their rulers, whether dictatorial, oligarchical, however it was run. And of course, we're tending toward a one-world government now and an oligarchy that will rule that and so forth. So we're moving toward these things as we speak. But from our point of view, you know, we also have supernatural oppressors, you know, demonic forces that are at war with us, which is why the New Testament repeatedly, not just in Ephesians 6, talks about the importance of arming up every day because we're going into spiritual battle. And um, we need to really take that seriously. Um, everything is not just physical causation. There are supernatural powers that be, and they are opposed to believers. They want to make you impotent in the Christian life, they want to destroy the witness of the gospel, they want to destroy your spiritual growth. But the early so the early Christians saw Christ's death on the cross in terms of uh demons and so forth and were exuberant about it. The last aspect of Jesus' work on the cross is that it is the basis for the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. Now, most Christians know, you know, Revelation 21 and 22, there's going to be a new heaven and new earth. Um, but on what basis? See, on what basis is there going to be? Is God just going to do it? I mean, God's all powerful. He can just do it, right? But no, it doesn't work that way. In a way, he redeemed all of creation in the sense that he is going to restore it, because justice biblically is restitutionary. There must be a restoration of the thing that has been lost. And when God first created everything, everything was very good, and then you have a fall. And so the aim of history is not just to save individuals and defeat demonic forces, but also to restore the created order. And the basis of all these things is the death of Christ. So let's look at, well, are we in Colossians? No, we were in Colossians. We moved on, but let's go back to Colossians. Remember that God eats popcorn, so you can find it again. There's other little acronyms you can use to learn this. The order of the books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01:But Colossians 1, verse 18 goes beyond the angelic realm.
SPEAKER_02:And he says, He is also head of the body, Christ, which is the church, and he is the beginning of the firstborn from the dead. He's the first person resurrected, right? So that he himself will come to have first place in everything. So that's a future tense. In a future situation, right? He will have first place, first rank. Verse 19, 4, explanation. It was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him, all the fullness of deity, and through him to reconcile all things to himself. All things, not just humans, all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Through him I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. That's the whole universe, right? There are cosmic implications to the work of Christ. Romans 8, 17 through 25, turn to the left.
SPEAKER_01:Romans 8, 17 through 25. Romans 8, we'll start in verse 17.
SPEAKER_02:We've got the Spirit testifying with our Spirit that we are children of God. Verse 17, if children were heirs also, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ of the world to come, if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him. Now we're all going to be glorified with him, which is to receive a resurrection body. So we're all we all suffer to some extent. Verse 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time.
SPEAKER_01:Do you suffer?
SPEAKER_02:Physical, mentally, emotionally. You suffer in all sorts of areas if you're a human being on earth. As believers, of course. But he says, I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. So everything that you're experiencing as suffering does not compare at all to the glory to come. This is a great promise. It's something to go to when you're suffering, when you're struggling, because you're going to remember that in the future we have something that's going to overshadow all these sufferings, right? Verse 19, for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. So we've got things outside of ourselves here, eagerly awaiting, longing for the revealing of the sons of God. Why, verse 20, for the creation was subjected to futility. Remember Genesis 3? God subjected nature to futility, to the fall, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope, verse 21, that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption, into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. See, all creation is under slavery and is under the dominion of sin because God cursed it when man sinned, right? That in itself is a restitutionary picture because when man sinned against God, God said, Oh, you'd like to rebel against me? Here, let me show you what that's like. And he made nature rebel against us. See, God built the lesson plans into nature. How hard is it, guys, to go out there and make a living? Anybody ever have any struggles? Anyone in your workplace ever, you know, do some stupid stuff and totally mess up production and efficiency? Ladies, how difficult is it to raise a home? Raise your children? Is that easy? Is it just like, oh, this is the greatest stuff? I love this, man. I mean, everything just works. These kids always obey. Their clean rooms are perfectly clean. The house is just big and span. No. It's a pain. Why is it a pain? Because God cursed these spheres of our life to teach us what it's like for us to rebel against Him. It's like all these things rebel against us, and we're like, quit it, quit it, quit it. We fight that. And He's like, well, yeah, that's you. That's you with respect to me. See, it's a lesson plan. But see, God has creation then under the sufferings of sin, but He's saying here, He's gonna set it all free from that. Sometimes I look at our little puppy, our little Dexter. I did I did this last week. He just sits there and they look at you, you know, and you start talking to him, and what do they do? They cock their little head over, you know, like they're like they trying to understand. And I I don't know how many times I've done this with animals, but I say, Yeah, I know, I know, it it's hard. You're you're suffering. You're under the curse of sin and you're you're in this condition and you really can't do anything about it, but one day one day all animal creation is going to be set free from the slavery which they are enslaved to and set free from the corruption that that they're under because of God's curse on nature. And and that's why you see in the Messianic kingdom you see the lamb laying with the lion, you know, and the child playing by the den of the viper, and there's no problem. You know, this is great. You don't do that today, but please don't do that. Um but but there is a time coming when nature will be restored. And this is all the basis that are based in the finished work of Christ. So we have a lot to to look forward to. And um Okay, let's press on past some of the these are some of the uniquenesses of what Christ's death Means for the world. I want to look, uh, make a quote. All this points to a substitutionary blood atonement on the cross that provided restitution by satisfying the perfect justice of God, which makes it the preeminent picture of justice and the most profound event in the history of the world. This is what paves the way for salvation being freely given through faith, as well as the restoration of the entire created order. So obviously, the effects of his death are very far reaching. And there's more, we would just say there's more to come. There's so much more to come. We have our individual salvation, and ultimately we're seated in the heavenly places above all the satanic forces that want to, you know, fight us daily and destroy our spiritual lives. Um, but one day they're all going to be put away, right? And then finally he's going to create all things new. And all God's people said, Amen. This is a great plan of salvation. It's so much, so much larger than we usually think. All that goes back to the cross. Lastly, just mentioned this. I forgot this point. Jesus' death fulfills Passover. Um we've mentioned the Passover, Exodus 12. We went back and discussed it as a picture of substitutionary blood atonement. You've got the lamb, one-year-old, male, unblemished, right? They would take the lamb, they would slaughter it and follow certain practices. All this was laid down in the Passover, which looked forward to the Messiah as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. So he fulfilled Passover, 1 Corinthians 5, 7. And so his death also accomplished that. Now, let's look at some of the responses to Jesus in the cross. We'll see how far we can get. First, let's start with a principle. This is the principle that the word of God does not return void. Now, I used to tell people this all the time, you know, as I taught in my previous pastor, I'd say I would get very uh frustrated because people I'd be teaching, and people say, Well, I mean, you know, that's great as a pastor, they have all these frustrations, but you can be sure of one thing, as long as you're teaching the word, it won't return void. And I was like, um, do you realize what these verses about the word not returning void are really about? They're not about how positive the response is gonna be, because it's a double-edged sword, right? Yeah, some will respond positively, but most are gonna do what? Respond negatively. See, it's a two-edged sword. The word will not return void doesn't mean people are gonna respond positively, it means some were positive, some negative. Let's look at Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6, 9 through 10.
SPEAKER_01:Isaiah was a prophet 700 over 700 years before Christ. And he prophesies of the virgin birth and things like this. Prophesies of a lot of things. Isaiah 6 is where this principle comes from that the word of God does not return void. 6-9. This is uh a word to Isaiah.
SPEAKER_02:The Lord said to him, Go and tell this people, Israel, uh, keep on listening to the word, right? But do not perceive it. Not to listen to it, but don't understand it, see. Keep on looking, but don't understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, render their ears dull, render their eyes dim. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, they might hear with their ears, they might understand with their hearts and return and be healed. So he's to preach the word, but the effect is that they will not understand.
SPEAKER_01:It's that they will be set for judgment. That's the purpose.
SPEAKER_02:Whenever God's people, in the Old Testament Israel, now the church, whenever God's people are unresponsive to the word of God, God tells those who minister the word, keep on preaching, keep on telling, keep on showing them. Why? They're gonna keep on going negative. Why would I want to do that, Lord? Because it sets them for judgment. God says, okay, fine, I've given you all this grace, I've given you all these great Bible teachers, and America's had. We've had tremendous Bible teaching, like no other country on earth since the time of Christ. We've got more resources biblically than you can ever imagine. We have lexicons, we have Bible geography, archaeology, we have so many resources. I don't have enough time to read all of it. Right? It's in English. Wow. You know, one of my books is going to be translated into Portuguese, right? For the Brazilians. And I'm thinking, there could be a lot better books translated, but maybe that's maybe it's a good book for them.
SPEAKER_01:But most countries in the world, they do not have all this that we have. How many Bible translations do we have in English?
SPEAKER_02:How many do you think they have in Brazilian Portuguese? Not nothing compared to us. I mean, they're happy to have one translation in a foreign language. We have hundreds. I probably have myself over 90 translations in English. I mean, how much exposure do we need in America to the Word of God?
SPEAKER_01:And what does America said? We don't care. We don't care about the Word of God. So what what does our future hold for us? Judgment. That's not a mystery.
SPEAKER_02:See, the Word of God does not return void. And if people get the word, like Israel did or like we have here in America, a special dispensation for us, and they say, no, no, no, no, no, we don't like that, then well, those who are faithful will keep on preaching it, and people will keep not responding to it, and that will just build up God's justice where he will finally at some point judge. In that sense, it's hardening, right? Now, well, this is also in the New Testament. Look at Matthew 16, this principle.
SPEAKER_01:16, 13 through 17.
SPEAKER_02:One of the things that often gets overlooked here is where they were when Jesus gave this particular teaching. They were in a place called Caesarea Philippi. This is a very pagan place, by the way. There's a temple to the god Pan there. This is the most pagan place Jesus ever went. Herod Agrippa ruled here later. Very, very pagan place. It says, when they came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples, uh, who do people say that the Son of Man is? In other words, what's the opinion out there on who I am? Well, he said, some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, but still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Now, is that the right answer, first of all? Is that who he was claiming to be? Is that what his words and works demonstrated, that he was a prophet? Or was it he more than a prophet? Did his words and works demonstrate he was far more than a prophet? To the point that some of the people said, Is this not the son of David? In other words, is this not the Messiah? I mean, it's got to be him, right? I mean, look at what he's look at his teaching.
SPEAKER_01:He doesn't teach like the rabbis. He teaches his one heaven authority. He look at what he's doing.
SPEAKER_02:He's healing mute, blind, demon-possessed people. Who can do that? It's only Messiah can do that. The people are like, isn't this the son of David? Isn't this the Messiah?
SPEAKER_01:No, said the Pharisees. No, no. This is Bezebul, Lord of the Democrats, doing this through him.
SPEAKER_02:He's indwelt by Satan himself. They turned the people away, right? But people aren't interpreting him correctly, right? But there's a response here. It's just a negative response. He says in verse 15, okay, but who do you say that I am? And that's what I say to every individual here. I don't care who you are. I don't care if you're the president of the United States. I don't care if you're a dictator in the Middle East, some tyrant, terrorist. I don't care who you are. Who do you say that Jesus Christ is? This is a question that you have to answer. I can answer it for you. You have to answer this question.
SPEAKER_01:Who do you say that Jesus Christ is?
SPEAKER_02:And how you answer that question is actually the difference between spending eternity with him and spending eternity separate from God. They answered, or Simon answered, You are the Christ, the Messiah, you're the Son of the living God. Jesus said, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. See, the word of God does not return void. There's two sides of the coin: there's unbelief, oh, he's a prophet, he's John or Elijah or Jeremiah or something like that. And then there's others that no, you are the Christ, you're the Messiah. I mean, you're the one. You're the one who came to save the world. So the word, that's the principle. Now, we want to look at how or why people rejected Jesus and the cross. Um, because this is the unbelief side of it, right? Why do people reject?
SPEAKER_01:Then we'll look at the two responses. First of all, turn to John 3, 19. One one scholar was asked, what's the fundamental teaching of the Bible? And he answered, that man is not good. Man is not good. Um the Bible's not optimistic about man. And it it's it's a book that you know that wouldn't be written by exc exclusively written by men. Men like heroes, they like to make men into heroes. But the Bible doesn't paint man as a hero. It paints God as the hero of history, that he's done something for man who's basically a mess.
SPEAKER_02:John 3 19 says this is the judgment. The the light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.
SPEAKER_01:For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. Why don't people believe in Christ? Well, according to these verses, is because they're hiding from God.
SPEAKER_02:They don't they're evil. They do evil, they want to hide their evil. This is a this is nothing new than Genesis 3, right? Everybody in their mind has a picture of Adam and Eve eating the fruit and putting the fig leaves on, and then they hear this the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, right? And what are they doing?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they're hiding. Why? Because their deeds were evil and they were hiding in darkness because they didn't want to be exposed that is a profound picture that is ubiquitous in the world ever since that time.
SPEAKER_02:People are doing what? They're hiding. Why are they hiding? Because their deeds are evil, they don't want them to be exposed. I've used the analogy before of the IRS, you know. One agency in the government were all like, I hope they don't show up at my doorstep.
SPEAKER_01:Um who wants an audit, you know? You i if you are short in your taxes, you've been fiddling around for years.
SPEAKER_02:This actually happened in my family to a member one time.
SPEAKER_01:Um you don't pay your taxes for 20 years, um what's your greatest fear? That the IRS will show up one day. Right? Why?
SPEAKER_02:Because you have short accounts and you don't want that to be exposed. And just transfer that idea over to sin. See, everybody is in the world is out there hiding from God because their deeds are evil and they don't want them to be exposed. The irony of the situation is that can you can you hide from God?
SPEAKER_01:Well, he's omnipresent, right?
SPEAKER_02:He doesn't go places, he's in all places. Does he see all things? David says, if I go to the depths of Sheol, thou art there. You know, you can't you can't get away from God. Uh were Adam and Eve really hidden from God? Well, no, no. Here's what happens. When we sin, we become blind to spiritual realities. Okay, when we sin, as it goes for believers too, okay, and unbelievers, of course. The more we sin, the more blind we become to spiritual reality. So that we even convince ourselves that we can hide from God. When you sin, do you do it openly in front of everybody else, typically? Or is your method to do it in a hidden place? But you're you're you're you're acting like God doesn't see you in a way, aren't you? Now, have you really, if I say, now, are you really hidden from God, you'll say, well, no. But when you're when you're sinning or planning to sin, whatever it is, you tend to hide away because you feel like you're hidden.
SPEAKER_01:But you're actually in plain sight. Right? You're you're in plain sight. I mean, maybe other people can't see you, but God sees you.
SPEAKER_02:So this is the first reason that people rejected Christ, because they didn't want their sinful deeds exposed. Uh secondly, the reason is over in 1 Corinthians, so let's turn there.
SPEAKER_01:1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_02:This will help you as a Christian to understand why, you know, fellow unbelievers that you know in your life why they're not believing. Okay. You have to. The Bible tells us about unbelievers, and that's to help us be able to engage them. We know things about them that they may or may not know about themselves, not because we're so wise, but because God told us these things. Uh 1.18. The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. Again, two sides, right? Different responses to the word of the cross. One foolishness, one power of God.
SPEAKER_01:Why is it foolishness to those who are perishing?
SPEAKER_02:By the way, same word used in John 3.16. For God so love the world that whosoever believes in him shall not perish. That word. Here it is again. But the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Why is it foolish? Okay, forget what you think you know about the cross in the 21st century, you know, as it's like a piece of jewelry or something.
SPEAKER_01:The cross was a horror.
SPEAKER_02:It was so such a horror that you did not speak of the cross, you did not mention the crux, that word crux, you did not mention it in polite Roman society. They would just simply use a phrase, hang him on the unlucky tree.
SPEAKER_01:But they would not say the cross. So it was first of all, it was a horrible thing. We cannot imagine how horrible it was.
SPEAKER_02:The second thing is, you're actually in the first century, let's say you believed, okay, people would say to you, why would you believe that a guy who died on the unlucky tree could save you?
SPEAKER_01:He died. You're believing in someone who died. Well, we'd say, well, no, he rose again.
SPEAKER_02:But their point is that he died as a criminal in the Roman Empire in the worst horrible possible way. How could that be the way of salvation for the entire human race? That seems foolish to us. But some people realize what truly transpired on the cross, and to them, it's the power of God, right?
SPEAKER_01:Same thing happened for you. Most of the world thinks it's a silly thing, though. What? How could him dying for you save you? That doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_02:Um they don't they don't get it. But that's one of the reasons people did not believe. They just thought it's a foolish thing. Um, third thing, go over to chapter, Romans chapter 1, back to Romans 1. Romans 1 through 3 is all basically about the whole world being condemned. I break it into three groups. I say uh pagan Gentiles, cultured Gentiles, and Jews. And each uh each part of these chapters goes through these three different groups. Um cultured Gentiles be, you know, Gentiles that live a basically moral life or apparent moral life. Pagan Gentiles mean, you know, the rough crowd, you know, just rebellious. And then Jews, we know who they are, right? They were given the law. So in Romans chapter 1, verse 18, notice the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who what the truth?
SPEAKER_01:Suppress. Kateko means to hold down. In other words, do they know the truth? Yes.
SPEAKER_02:You have to know the truth before you can suppress the truth. So they know the truth, but they suppress it in unrighteousness. Why? Because that which is known about God is evident within them, because God made it evident to them. In other words, God made himself evident to everybody. Everybody knows. Everybody. Everybody knows God, the one true God.
SPEAKER_01:Well, they keep telling me they're not convinced of God's existence. Who is their father? He's the one who's been a liar from the beginning, right? What do you think his children are going to do?
SPEAKER_02:Lie. Keep you busy chasing your tail, trying to prove God's existence when they know it. They already know it. They're suppressing it. That's what it says. Verse 20, for since the creation of the world, can you go any before that? No, not in history. You go back to the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, and his divine nature have been how seen? How have they been seen? Clearly. Now, I'm not seeing so clearly these days when I get up close to stuff, so I gotta put these on, but I see clearly now.
SPEAKER_01:Um they clearly see God. Clearly. 20-20 vision.
SPEAKER_02:I was looking the other day, we went to look at the eagles and over in uh Kurt Alane, trying to find some eagles, you know. Um 25 vision. In some birds of prey, 22.5. Um, that basically means something like, and I'm not an optician or something, but some so somebody here could correct me. But like they can, like an eagle could see something, something like four or eight times farther away than you, they could see it as clearly as you. That's why they can see literally a little over uh a third of a mile to a half of a mile, that distance, they could see their prey and from that distance and go get it. Like, what? I can barely see the back of the room anymore. You know, these people clearly see God, we'd say with 20-20 vision, right? But what do they do with that? Verse 21, even though they knew God, there it is, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. They exchanged, here it is, they made an exchange. They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. That is, they took the glory that belongs only to God and they moved it over onto something on creation. So we have the creator, right? That is the one to whom all glory is given. What unbelievers do is they take the glory that belongs to God and they transfer it over to creation. This is what we call an idol, right? You take something that belongs to God and only to God, and you give it to something that's created. You take it away from the creator, put it on the creation. Now, all created things are limited, they're finite.
SPEAKER_01:But not God. He's the creator. Now they've got to worship. Everybody worships, okay?
SPEAKER_02:Nobody's religiously neutral. That's that's a myth. Okay. Everybody worships. It's just a question of what you worship. Do you worship the creator or do you worship the creation? This text is saying they make an exchange. They exchange worship of the creator for worship of the creation, four-footed things, beasts, and so forth. Okay. Um, every time, you know, I was I biology background, right? Did biology degree, all that worked in plant physiology for five years. I mean, what were they telling me? Well, they were telling me that nature is all powerful and has produced all these features in our world. All these design creatures, this all came from nature. Nature's so powerful. Um, is that not just taking an attribute of God, God's omnipotence, and moving it on to creation? Well, of course it is. Um, they'd say, well, I'm not religious. Yeah, you are. You worship and serve the creation, nature. I mean, she they call her sometimes Mother Nature. You know, I mean, as if you could not be any more obvious that you worship nature. Um, nobody's religiously neutral, okay? Everybody worships, it's just a question of creator or creature. So they're doing this, okay? They're reinterpreting the data, right, in a way that excludes God, and they create idols that they think are sufficient explanations for reality. It's God says it's foolish. They profess to be wise, become fools. God says this is foolish.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, it's it's very obvious.
SPEAKER_02:You look out at creation, God says it's clearly seen that I did this. And people still reinterpret the data to try to explain it some other way. God says that that's foolish. And and all God's people said what? Amen. I mean, you know, that it really is obvious. The greatest human creation, the greatest thing we've ever made, is nothing compared to an acorn. Where God embedded instructions in the DNA profile of an acorn to build a specific type of tree. That is that we can we can't do that.
SPEAKER_01:If we start with nothing, we'll never get that. Will we? But God started with nothing and he just created it with his own voice.
SPEAKER_02:And it is obvious. You just look at the thing and you think, are you serious? This little acorn could build one of those. It had his instructions for how to do that built inside of it.
SPEAKER_01:Who put in instructions come from where? Minds. Minds give instructions. They don't just happen. You can have all the letters of the alphabet, but they will never form a book. Will they?
SPEAKER_02:There has to be a mind that arranges the letters into words that have meanings that are shared across cultures. And then are organized in the proper fashion of subject, verb, predicate, with specific syntax and grammar, and prepositional phrases and conjunctions to show relationships between everything.
SPEAKER_01:And these all have to be shared in cultures. They share the language. This doesn't just happen. And that type of thing is in seeds.
SPEAKER_02:That type of thing is in the gonads of various creatures around the world that undergo either asexual or sexual reproduction. How can this be? Well, it's not just there. But the world see they have to explain it all away because of point number one.
SPEAKER_01:See, they don't want to come to the light. They don't want to come to the light.
SPEAKER_02:Now, um, those are the basic principles. First of all, word of God doesn't return void, right? Unbelief or belief. Two sides to this coin. Most usually do not believe. Why? Because of these three things. These are the main reasons. Okay. They're sinful. They don't want them to come to the light, lest their deeds be exposed. The message itself is considered just foolish by many people. And then they're out or their way of justifying their unbelief is to reinterpret data to fit a world that doesn't include God. Right? Isn't this exactly what's going on every single day in every unbeliever's life?
SPEAKER_01:Here's the thing, because we're going to stop here because it's time, but here's the thing. The cross of Christ is also attractive if it's understood.
SPEAKER_02:Jesus said to his disciples, I will make you fishers of men. Now, what were these guys by profession? They were fishermen. On the Lake of Galilee. Do you think they knew the lake? I mean, have any of you ever been on a professional fishing tour? I've been on. You'll get a guide, and they'll take you right to the fish, and you're you're catching fish, usually you're catching fish. It's very interesting. It's kind of, I mean, it's super fun, right? Because if I go out there on a little boat or something, a little dinghy, then I'm not going to catch any fish, more than likely. But they actually track the patterns of the fish each day of the week. They know where they're moving, they know their feeding grounds, they know their cycles. They know all this stuff. They know what they like to eat, they know what type of lures or bait to use, they know what type of rods to use, what type of weight of line. They know all the the guide knows all these things that you don't have to figure out. Now, when Jesus said, I'm going to make you fishers of men, do you think they understood a little bit more than the average person? Sure.
SPEAKER_01:They understood that, oh, what he's saying is he is going to teach us how people operate and think so that we can catch them.
SPEAKER_02:Not a trick, we're not trying to trick them, but appeal to them, just like you would appeal to fish. I mean, you I hope you put some good bait on there that actually attracts the type of fish you want to catch, right? Because otherwise you're not going to catch that fish. But if you know what attracts the fish, you know where the fish are, and you know all these other things, then you can become a really good fisherman. You can be very successful.
SPEAKER_01:That's what he was saying he would do. Now I think that the gospel is fundamentally attractive. Because well, I mean how many of us don't admit readily that we do have a sin problem? How many of us don't have sinful thoughts? Yeah, ever had any one of the one of those? Um did you ever do anything sinful? Did you ever lie? Did you ever cheat?
SPEAKER_02:Did you ever, you know, fornicate? Did you do any of these things? I mean the the list goes on for hours and hours. Now all these things are sin. Why? Well, because God is holy. That's why. He's the standard for what is right and what is wrong. So if we've done anything that's out of harmony with who he is, well, we're in trouble. And you say, well, God will just, he'll just I yeah, I've done those things, but I've done good things too.
SPEAKER_01:This is the first response most people think. You know why that's a problem? Because of everything we've said about justice. That it's restitutionary in nature. Now, when you sin, you stole life from God that He gave you. Now, you don't have any life to give. So, how many good works do you need to do to make yourself alive again? You're a dead person before him. In his eyes, you're just a corpse. So the corpse is going to do good works and God's going to be pleased with that?
SPEAKER_02:Now you're saying, well, no, that's stupid. Yeah, of course it's stupid. You can't. There's nothing you can do. That's why somebody had to come from outside of us who didn't know any sin at all.
SPEAKER_01:He has life. And that's Jesus Christ, right?
SPEAKER_02:And he gave his life for us. So when he gives his life for us, he didn't have to die, right? He didn't have any sin, he didn't have to die. But he's giving his life for us.
SPEAKER_01:Why? So that he can give us his life in exchange if we believe in him.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, really, this is a um attractive message because it shows us, first of all, God loves us enough to send someone to do this for us. How much does God love you?
SPEAKER_01:Enough to send his own son, the second member of the Trinity. Philippians 2, to humble himself. Come down here and be a man. Right? And live in the filth. Right? But not pick up any of the filth. Never sin himself, right? And then give himself for us. Pay our penalty in full. So this is a this is attractive, right? I mean, he loves us that much.
SPEAKER_02:More than that, he says, now I'm gonna give you my life if you just believe in me.
SPEAKER_01:And it's a free gift. It's a free gift. I'm not asking for anything from you. God's not asking for anything from you. Nothing.
SPEAKER_02:He's saying, I'm giving you something. Will you receive it? At Christmas time, somebody brings you a gift, right? They hand you a gift. They say, Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Do you have to do anything for that gift?
SPEAKER_01:Just have to accept it. But it's yours. It's free. You don't have to give anything back. You don't have to promise anything. Right? It's just a free gift. Now why are people so opposed to this? See? It really is an attractive message. If people just get to understand, see, God loves you so much and He's done everything for you, if you'll just receive it. But I think what goes on is that people's people want merit. People want to contribute. They want to say, you can't tell me that everything I've done is is not enough. And um God says, Well, but I sent someone who did everything that is enough. And um, if you'll just receive him, you have the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name.
SPEAKER_02:So salvation is just a free gift. And does it take you to humble yourself? Yeah, I mean, in a sense, yeah, you you you gotta come empty-handed and say, All right, I believe in Christ, that I trust that he paid my penalty in full. When you do, at that moment, at that instant moment, you are legally saved, you are justified, you are right with God, and nothing can ever change that. That's why it's called good news, right? It's good news, the Euvangelion, the good news. We have enough bad news in this world, don't we? This is good news, and I hope you're attracted to it if you're not a believer in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: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, Underspook and 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.