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 - Limited Depravity, Clear Hope
Are we born guilty and still able to believe? How does God treat infants and people who cannot understand the gospel?
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02:The L and Leave stands for limited depravity. And I'll have to define all these things. You may not like the term, but let me define it. That will be at least fair. Second, the E is for election status. What I'm going to argue for is that election is a status. It's not something that God has predecided who will believe and who will not, or who will be saved and who will not, but it's an actual status that all believers hold, like the word saint. Are all believers saints? Yes. Okay. It's a status description, and I'll talk about that. The A stands for available or accessible, whichever word you like, accessible or available atoma. It's there for people to partake of. And veritable grace, which is another way of saying true grace, right? And I'll talk about that. And then eternal security. That's the E and the S and leave. So that's where we're going. Let's start with limited depravity and talk about this. First thing I mean is that all people have sinned in Adam. Romans 5.12. So that all people are legally condemned as sinners. That is a truth. Okay. And this sin is imputed when they are conceived as persons. Psalm 51.5. Remember where David says, in sin my mother conceived me? Okay, that's where I'm coming up with that concept. In sin my mother conceived me. Now you don't exist before your conception. I mean, you do in the mind of God. Everybody knows that, right? But you don't exist as a person before your conception. But at conception, you do exist as a person. When the egg and the sperm unite, there is a person. And this person is conceived in sin and is legally condemned by the imputation of sin at that point in time. Okay, because of our association with Adam, being a member of the human race, we we we all come from Adam. The human race, every one of us can trace ourselves back to Adam, including Eve. She was even made out of Adam. So there is a solitary origin of the human race. It's in Adam. But you don't come into technically into existence until your conception. And it's at that point that the imputation occurs and you're legally condemned. Now this brings us into a whole issue that is related to this, and that's the issue of infant salvation. What about infants? If infants are conceived in the womb with legal sin, and then they're born into this world, obviously sinners, what about their salvation? Yeah, I talk about that in the notes if you want the notes, but the long of the short of it is Romans 4 talks about the idea that is not the judge of the earth, will he not do right? Will God not do right? That's my final answer for what he will do about infant salvation. Now, I would say also that because we have an atonement that is available to all, an available atonement, the A and Leaves, that Christ did pay the sin penalty for every single person, including all infants, right? Or babies in the womb. And that thereby makes it possible that he applies that atonement to them and to those who cannot understand the gospel so as to believe, which would include people that are retarded, mentally retarded, things of that nature. So it's obvious, you know, a three-month-old cannot understand the gospel. So if you cannot understand the gospel, which is what he says you have to believe in order to be saved, and then this this little baby dies, but they were not able to believe the gospel, then what is God going to do about that? See? How does that situation get arrived resolved? I think personally that he applies the atonement to all who cannot meet the condition, which would also include mentally retarded people who cannot meet the condition. But if someone wants to quibble about that, I'm fine, and I will just say, will not the judge of the earth do what is right? In the end, he will always do what is right, and we do not have to worry about this. But my personal position is that he will, in fact, save all who could not meet the condition that he sets forth as a requirement, which is to believe the gospel. Um, but we do have that concept of imputation of sin and we being legally condemned, so that they are affected by sin in their entire being. Now, this condition, however, and this is why I call it limited, this condition does not make a person incapable of believing under the conditions which God determines. In other words, the situation in life, which God determines the situations that we find ourselves in in life. I mean, who decided where you were going to be born and who your parents were? It certainly wasn't your parents. They didn't decide to have you, they decided to have a kid, but it was you, and that's God determined it would be you, your parents decided they would have a baby. Or maybe they didn't, and it just happened. They call that an accident, but we know there are no accidents in that sense, right? So God sets up the conditions in life inside of which a person who is depraved is capable of believing under these types of situations. So let's take a look at Matthew 11, 20 to 24.
SPEAKER_01:Now, everybody has revelation from God in the sense of creation, right?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, everybody has that. The heavens declare the glory of God. So there's a sense in which God has revealed Himself to everyone. Now, that's non-verbal, that's just creation, right? But there are also more intense pockets of revelation. Like you've also got verbal revelation. Who was given in the scriptures in the Old Testament? Who had the scriptures? Who was responsible for taking care of the scriptures? What nation on earth? Israel. So it's it's very obvious that it wasn't the Moabites. Uh, it's very obvious it wasn't whoever lived in the East at that time, or um uh Indians who went out after the flood and ended up in North America, like the Spokane tribe. Um, they would have revelation up through Genesis 9, right? They would have revelation of creation, the fall, and the flood in there, and it might be in their tribal folklore and things like that. And we do find that uh here in North American Indians and tribes and so forth. But they did not have the intensity of revelation that Israel had, which they were receiving the Torah, the first five books, then Joshua, Judges, Ruth, okay, and so forth. They were getting much more revelation, verbal revelation from God. And then, of course, when Christ came, which is what we're looking at here in Matthew 11, we have even more intense revelation in that he is very God of God, right? He is the very light of light, and he's doing miracles that demonstrate the power of God. So, in that context, Matthew 11, verse 20, he began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles were done. Miracles are a very intense form of revelation of God. Because these cities did not repent when they saw the miracles. Okay, so he says, Woe to you, Corsan, woe to you, Bethsida. These are two two cities that had a lot of Christ's miracles done up in the northern portion of the Galilee. He says, For if the miracles had occurred in Tyrant Sidon, now those are two different cities, up in Phoenicia, modern-day Lebanon. Okay, if the miracles had occurred in Tyrant Sidon, which occurred in you, if they'd seen the same miracles, right, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Now, first of all, the Lord Jesus Christ has omniscience, right? He knew that if he'd done those miracles up in these two cities on the Phoenician coastline, the exact same miracles he did in Bethsida and Khoruson, they would have repented. But Bethsida and Khoruson didn't repent. And of course he's denouncing them for not responding positively to this revelation. Now, there but there are a question that kind of arises here is well, why didn't you go up there and do them there then?
SPEAKER_01:If they would have repented, right? If he knew that, and he did, then why didn't he go up there and do that?
SPEAKER_02:Because then those people would have been, we would say, saved. But he didn't go there. He didn't go there. See, God determines the situation in life in which people are found so that they can believe. Now I will tell you somewhat of the rest of this story just out of interest. And that is if you study the book of Acts, you see Paul moves through this area on his way up to Antioch, and there were believers in that area. So somehow this word actually did get there. And people did believe at a later point. So maybe they listened to what he said here. Maybe Peter's there, John's there, Simon's there. They're all there. Maybe after the Act 7 incident was stoning of Stephen and they went out. We know they went out at that point from Jerusalem. Maybe they remember what Christ said here, that these people would have repented and they went there.
SPEAKER_00: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.