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 - HIstory's Master Theme
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The Bible is complex and can be difficult to understand, so it's no wonder that people throughout the ages have sought to find a grand unifying theme to help them understand it. But what is the theme, which of the many great themes is supported by all the others?
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_01:All for from him, through him, and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. And what he's just got done in Romans 9, 10, 11 discussing is guess what? Certain major themes in the Bible, none of which are the ultimate, but all of which coalesce to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00:History is a story of a grand theme interrupted. God created man, created him in a perfect place, in a perfect way, gave him a perfect job to do. And that was interrupted by man's rebellion. And God's grand theme was interrupted. He was seeking glory. He wanted to be in relationship with more creatures to receive glory from them and to give grace and love to them as well. This grand theme, though, of God being glorified forever in a perfect environment He had created was interrupted. And time and time again throughout history, it has been shifted and shoved and pushed as our adversary has tried to disrupt God's plan. And yet that plan will be fulfilled. And there will be a time that in a future perfect creation we all worship him in truth, in sincerity, in perfection, as we strive to learn all about him. And as we do so, we glorify him. That's the aim of history. That's the theme of the Bible. And all the other aspects of what we learn about build into that one theme. The glory of his love for us, the glory of his promises, the glory of salvation. So let's dive in now with Jeremy to understand the overarching theme of the Bible and of history.
SPEAKER_01:This morning, as I mentioned, we're going to look at the doctrinal ramifications of the resurrection of the king. At each event that we are studying in the framework, we always, after looking at the event, look at the doctrinal repercussions or effects. Because every event in history is teaching us some doctrines. And with the resurrection of the king, the doctrine that is taught is the doctrine of glorification. And it's actually got three parts, so we'll be here for at least three Sundays on the doctrinal ramifications. This week we'll talk about the doctrine of the glorification of God. Next week, the doctrine of the glorification of man. And the last week, the doctrine of the glorification of nature, what God has in store, his plans for nature. So this is actually a very interesting and exciting lesson, as hopefully they all are. But this one has a special importance in my mind, in my way of thinking about God's plan and his scriptures. So the question of the issue of the resurrection, when Christ, and of course, he's the first resurrected from the dead, the resurrection confronts man basically with the issue of the ultimate goal of all things. In other words, where is history going? Now that we have a piece of the future new heavens and new earth that has actually walked in our present heavens and earth in the Lord Jesus Christ, what does this mean about the goal of history? What does this mean about the final end of all things? Where are things going? There must be what I call a grand consummation. There must be an end to this present order and the establishment of a new order. Because a member of the new order has already walked inside this present order. And so that shows us that there is some progress that is to be made in human history and that there's a definite endpoint to which history is headed. Now, some background for this, as far as the ultimate goal of history, one of the, and what Dr. Stanley Tussain of Dallas Theological Seminary said for decades as he was a professor there, was that one of the major themes of the Bible is God's desire to dwell with man. And how we see this repeatedly through the scriptures. Even from the early story of Genesis, when God created man in his own image, it indicates that God would come into that garden to fellowship or dwell with man. Passages like Genesis 3:8 have this implication, where God came in the cool of the evening to walk and fellowship with Adam and Eve. And of course, that fellowship was disrupted by the fall, right? So they are now kicked outside of the garden and the garden dwelling place of God, which some consider to be a garden temple. Some view it because there's an entrance to the east, and that's where the cherry beam are placed after the fall, right? So there's one way in, there's one way out, just like the tabernacle, just like the temple. It was always on the east for the tabernacle and temple later, right? And so some view this as a garden temple, but inside this space that was apparently enclosed, because there's a way in, there's a way out, this is where God fellowshipped with man. This is where he dwelt with man. And it's God's desire to create us in his image to dwell with us. Even though in the fallen world, when they were kicked out of the garden, God desired to dwell with them. And so he set up later as they wandered through the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt, the pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night. This was God's presence among them, right? A visible manifestation of God's presence. And then this presence came to rest in the tabernacle, right? And then later the temple that Solomon had constructed. And of course, in these last days, Hebrews 1 says, God Himself, in his highest form, the Lord Jesus Christ, dwelt among us. And now there's no physical temple, a structure built somewhere on earth, but we are the temple of God. And he indwells us. And one day, of course, in the Messianic kingdom, he will dwell among us and rule and reign, and then forevermore in the new heavens and new earth. So the whole background of where history is going is related to this desire for God to dwell with us. And of course, we're in the process now as believers of being transformed to his image and likeness so that we can be dwelling in his presence on a permanent basis, right? So we can see some direction in the way that history is going. And it's the appearances of the resurrected Christ in this current order, the present order we live in, that points to a certain conclusion for the next order. So when we talk about the resurrection, we sometimes talk about it in terms of our hope, the Christian hope. We look forward to what? We look forward to the resurrection. And we kind of say, this is our hope. But we want to make sure we understand the term hope, which is the Greek word elpis. This is a term not like the English language where we might say, Well, I hope so. I really hope my team wins today, or something like that, which is a it's a vagueness, there's some doubt that's involved. But the Greek word in the context of the resurrection refers to a certainty. It's not something that we just kind of hope will happen. It's something that's guaranteed to happen. So it carries that strength of security in the future that we hold to. So when I say the hope of the resurrection, I mean the certainty of the resurrection. So that's the context for the future resurrection and the change in the world. So, second point, the resurrection then is the assurance of a future judgment that will divide this current order from the future order. I want to take you to a couple passages, John 5, first of all, and then Acts 17. Because as I've mentioned before, the resurrection is not really a comforting doctrine. Well, at least not for everyone. It may be comforting for us, but we have to remember there's two sides to the human race. If you're on one side, that's great if you're a believer. If you're on the other side, that's not, it's not so great. Because the resurrection is consistently taught in Scripture in a context of judgment, as the end of this current order and the bringing in of a new order. So let's walk through one of these contexts, John 5, 18 to 20, just to show the close connection between the resurrection and future judgment. Starting in verse 18. For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, kill Jesus, right? Because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. Isn't it interesting, just as an aside, that you know, you have Mormons, you have Jehovah's Witnesses and groups that deny that Jesus was God, right? Yet here we have a verse where the Jews clearly understood that Jesus was making himself out to be God. Uh so it's definitely something he claimed. So if he's not really God, then I guess he's just a liar, right? But, you know, obviously not. He was making this claim, and it was not just a false claim, it was a true claim. They understood what he was claiming. And so in response to that, Jesus answered and was saying to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself is doing, and the Father will show him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he wishes. Now he's talking there about spiritual life. The moment you believe, he's talking about that type of life at this moment. Um the moment you believe in Christ, you have a new life. You're regenerated, right? Born again. And that's the type of life he was referring to there in verse 21. Verse 22, for not even the Father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son. So no one will ever be judged or stand under the judgment of God the Father. He judges absolutely no one. Why is this significant? Why has all judgment been given to the Son? Well, because the Son is the member of the Trinity who took to himself true humanity. He's the one who came down here, born of a woman, right, and walked in this world, sinless, of course, and was tempted in all things as we, and yet without sin. And so judgeship has been given to him because he's a peer. He is a peer. He is your peer. He knows what you went through in ways that experientially that the Father doesn't know. I mean, we say God knows all things, right? Omniscience, right? But you have to carefully qualify these things in some respects, because as I mentioned before, um, you know, you can present certain, I guess, uh difficulties with the concept that God knows all things. Uh something like, for example, does God know what it's like to kick a football through the upright? Um now he he knows theoretically, but he doesn't know experientially. In other words, there's different ways of knowing things. I may know that driving over fifty-five miles an hour is against the law, but I may not know what it's like if I've never gone over fifty-five miles per hour. So there are different ways of knowing things. Um we can know things theoretically and then have never experienced them, but then we can also experience them later, and now we have a different way of knowing them. And so um the son is the one who knows exactly what it's like to go through the types of things that we as humans go through. And as we've mentioned before, that he went through the temptations, and we talked about some of the problem or difficulties there with this idea, but it's definitely he definitely was tempted in all things as we, yet not uh without sin, or yet without sin. So um he is the one who is given all judgment, okay, a peer, a member of the human race, so that, verse 23, all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. And truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death and into life. So, how does one pass out of death and into life? What does one have to do? Believe. That's all that you one has to do. You don't have to get water baptized, you don't have to walk an aisle, you don't have to confess your sins, you know, to a priest or something like that. Um, all these other ideas, baptism, you know, walking an aisle, they have other meanings or ideas within the Christian life. But to become a Christian and enter the Christian life, all one has to do is believe. At the moment you believe, you you receive what? Eternal life. Now, um, is eternal life something you can lose? Well, if it was something you could lose, then it was never eternal to begin with, was it? It was only temporal life. So, but Jesus doesn't give temporal life to us. He gives eternal life to us the moment we believe. And at that point it's said that we do not come into judgment, so he will not stand in judgment to ultimately condemn us, right? Because we passed out of death and now we're into life. We have spiritual life. So this is all still talking about spiritual life, not resurrection life yet. But verse 25, truly, truly I say to you, an hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. Again, spiritual life. For just as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself, and he gave him the authority to execute judgment. Why? Because he is the Son of Man. He's the Son related to mankind, whereas the Father is not, neither is the Spirit. So all judgment has been given to the Son. And he says, verse 28, do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs, so now we're talking about a different type of life, right? He's been talking about the reception of spiritual life, which it happens the moment you believe. But he says there's an hour coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and they will come forth, those who did the good to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil to a resurrection of judgment. Okay, then. Do you see that there's a relationship between resurrection and judgment? That these two are tied together. This is not a comforting thought or shouldn't be comforting to an unbeliever because they haven't believed, so they don't have spiritual life. So when they come forth from the tomb, they're not going to be raised to resurrection life. They're going to be raised to a condemned life, a resurrection of judgment. So we have this diagram that I've used before showing the creator creation distinction. On the top line, of course, the creator, who's infinite, that's the infinity symbol there. Infinitely good, right? There's no evil in God. It's impossible for God to do evil, right? But then within the creation, if you note the creation area, first of all, God created everything very good. There was no problem, there was no sin, there was no suffering, there was no pain, there were no tears. Everything was perfectly good for some period of time, which time we don't know. I don't think very long. But nevertheless, this is what we call the normal state of the world. Everything was normal when God first made it. That's how things are supposed to be. When sin was introduced at the fall, now we live in an abnormal period of history when you have a mixture, an admixture of good and evil. Right? And this is what people are frustrated with that we live in a type of world where there's a mixture. And we want, of course, everything to be good, everything to be perfect. But the only way to get there, you see, is through what? The judgment. So the fall, when that happened, and one author, Charles Ryrie, called this the worst day in human history. The day that man ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and acquired a sinful disposition toward God. That is the worst, it's the most costly day in history. It's the reason for all the inefficiencies in the world, it's the reason you have rebellious children, it's the reason for all your problems, it's the reason you're rebellious. It's it's it's the cause of every single problem that exists in the universe. So, yes, the definitely the worst day. It's a catastrophic day universally. Now, the only thing that's going to correct that is another catastrophic day, and it's God's intervention through the Son to bring judgment, to judge the living and the dead, right? For those who did the good, he says, verse 29, to resurrection of those who committed evil, to the resurrection of judgment. And it's that point that you have a separation, and this is not a you know, unzipping a zipper type separation. This is a tearing apart and ripping apart of our current world where those who are believers will be taken to, let's just say, the good, let's say heaven, right, and the evil, uh, those who are unbelievers, to judgment, eternal condemnation. So that's what John 5 is depicting, that the day of resurrection is a day of judgment to separate good and evil. Uh let's look at another passage that shows this connection. Acts chapter 17, when Paul was at Athens. If you want a picture of how how Paul preached to Gentile audiences, you know, Acts 17 is a good place to do that. This passage basically, again, it it melds together resurrection with judgment. So after he's given his speech before the Areopagus at Mars Hill, he comes into verse 30 with his conclusion. See, therefore, a logical conclusion. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, now what are we what were the times of ignorance? This is a time as if we went into the context, we'd see from the days of Noah, when God set apart Israel, and then all the nations were allowed to go their own way, and God specifically worked with Israel as a conduit to the nations. So there was a time of ignorance that he says. It didn't mean they didn't know God, by the way. We know they knew God. I mean, everybody has you know stories of Genesis 1 through. Eight in their folklore, their mythology, their stories, their songs, their cultural stories. These were there long before missionaries ever got there. It's missionaries that went into these cultures and said, wait a minute, no missionaries have been there. How do you know some of these truths? And so they were discovering that these cultures had kept portions of Genesis 1 through 8 in their in their folklore and myth and so forth. They just distorted a lot of it. But that those are considered the times of ignorance. Verse 30. God is now, okay, so now relative to Christ's work, his coming and work on the cross, he's declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent. They need to have a change of mind, which is coincident with believing. I mean, how can you believe in someone if you don't have a change of mind about them, right? I mean, there's a moment when you don't believe Christ paid the penalty penalty penalty for your sin and rose again, and then there's a moment when you changed your mind and you believe that he has. And so believing and repentance go together. You'll even notice a few verses later in verse 34. Um says, But some men join in him and what? Believe. This happens over and over in Acts, by the way. It'll say you repent, and then three or four verses later it said they believed, showing that these are these are the two things that go together. They're understood as practically synonymous. So God is now, since Christ is risen, right, declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent. Why? Because he has fixed a day in which he will judge. Okay, back to this diagram. See, this is the scary diagram for an unbeliever, because the question is: have you believed? Have you had a change of mind about Christ? Because if you haven't, you're going to be resurrected to the bad, to the evil, right? To eternal health. And so it's very Paul is pressing the point, right? That you really need to get right with God. Because he's fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by what? Raising him from the dead. So the resurrection, Christ's resurrection, is the indication that we now have a future judge who is him, and there's a day that is fixed on which he will judge. And therefore, what do men need to do now? Right now, not tomorrow, not next week, not next year. Now they need to get right with God. Because if they don't, next year may not come. Next week may not come. Tomorrow may not come. So it's important to get right with God now. So, and some did on this occasion, but not many. Oh, so that's the background for understanding this doctrine of glorification and where the history of the world is going. It's going to a judgment in which good and evil will be finally separated. Let's go into the doctrine of the glorification of God and talk about four or five major points. Now, the first major point is that the glorification of God is the ultimate purpose of history. Every Sunday we begin our service typically by singing the doxology. The doxology is from the Greek word doxa, from which we get glory. What are we doing during the doxology? We are giving glory to God, right? Father, Son, and Spirit. They're all mentioned. Now, this is what dispensationalists, and I'm gonna use a big word there, but dispensationalists claim is the ultimate goal of history. Sometimes they state it as it's the underlying goal of history, meaning it's what is always going on through all the events of history. They're all ultimately there for the glorification of God. But we have to talk about what this means. Not all theologies agree with this. So covenant theology is usually the competitor of dispensational theology, and they well, we'll talk a little bit about the differences here in a second. But basically, they make salvation the center rather than glorification. They make salvation the center point of history, they make it the ultimate purpose of history rather than the glorification of God. So let's go to Romans 11, just to show that everything, all things, are ultimately for the glory of God. Paul has just finished Romans 9, 10, 11, his covenant with Israel, and how this covenant was designed to bless the whole world, uh, both Jews and Gentiles. And he comes to the end of this great historical plan of God, and he says in verse 33, Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, unfathomable his ways. In other words, you can't entirely search it out. You can't entirely understand his ways. Verse 34, for who has known the mind of the Lord, who became his counselor, or who has first given to him that it might be bade back to him again? And of course the answer is no one, right? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him might be the glory that forever. Amen. And at the benediction, typically I'll read some doxology from one of Paul's epistles. To remind us of this great purpose of God. The underlying purpose of all of history is in fact the glory of God. It's not the salvation of men. That's not his ultimate purpose. Now, this is the difference between, well, I'll just quote the Westminster shorter catechism. So the Westminster Shorter Catechism, that's a document that is developed from the Westminster longer catechism, just a regular catechism. But they get this right, and this would be basically a Presbyterian document. Presbyterians aren't typically dispensational, but this is right, and I put this up here because, in some sense, everybody sees this. They say that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Indeed, fact, in fact, the chief end of all things, not just man, but also angels, nature, everything is to glorify God, and of course, man to enjoy him forever, which is interesting. But um, God is to be enjoyed. So this is basically a very good statement put out by you know the Presbyterians many, many, many centuries ago. But in practice, those who hold this theology are typically covenant theology. Covenant theology is going to be like your Reformed churches, Presbyterian churches, Anglican, Episcopal, uh, some Baptists, like Southern Baptists a lot, are uh covenant in their theology. This does not work out in practice in their theology. Uh so let me say a few things by way of difference, just so you know. Covenant theology basically states that salvation is the ultimate purpose of God. And this is built out of their concept of Genesis. God made a covenant, they say, with Adam, and all of Adam's elect offspring. So this is where the concept of election actually comes from. It's not really coming from other verses, it's actually coming from their belief that God made a covenant with Adam. Does anybody know about that? Where that could you show me where that covenant is? No, of course you can't, because it's not there. Um and I'm not misrepresenting it. Even Louis Burkhoff, who was a covenant theologian, said it's implied. It's not there, but it's implied. It's not explicit, right? Which you would mean you could read it. Okay, but it's implicit, he says. It's implied, which means it's not really there, but you're supposed to realize that it is there. And sometimes implications are true, but sometimes they're not, right? So they believe that God made a covenant with Adam and all of Adam's elect offspring. In their way of thinking, then, this means that there's one people of God, that is the elect. Okay? This is their way of thinking. Now, once you have stated that, let me ask you a question. Can you have Israel and the church being distinct peoples of God? I'll just wait and let you think about this one. Because you really need to think about this one. If there's only one people of God, the elect, can you have a distinction between Israel and the church? Yes or no? It's not a maybe. It's okay. You can answer out loud. No, it's absolutely impossible. This is the source of replacement theology. Okay? People who believe that the church has replaced Israel or the church is Israel, uh, that when we read Israel in the Old Testament, that's just the church. When we read church in the New Testament, that's just Israel. Okay, this is where it all comes from. Okay? Now, they because of their idea of the one people of God, they view everything in terms of salvation. Okay? And that's why in many churches, this is the ones I mentioned, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Anglican, not all, but a lot of these, um, when you go, every passage that's taught in the Bible will be taught in terms of salvation. Because they are viewing things salvifically through a lens. They're viewing things through a salvific lens, how God gets his elect. Okay? Now, um I'm I'm not covenant theology, I'm dispensational theology. And what we emphasize is that the ultimate purpose of God is not the salvation of men, but the glorification of God. See, if you're saying that the ultimate purpose of God is salvation, then that's very anthropocentric, isn't it? It's very man-centered. But if you say the ultimate purpose of God is the glorification of God, that's very, very theocentric. It's God-centered. Now we know the ultimate purpose of God is not about salvation, because if it was, why are less than 2% of the population saved? Why are angels, fallen angels, not given an opportunity for salvation? They don't even have a plan of salvation, do they? So it's very clear that the ultimate purpose of God is not salvation, but something else. Now, salvation is a prominent theme in the Bible. We we know that, right? There are other prominent themes in the Bible. Kingdom, the concept of the kingdom. Uh, the the concept of the seed or the messiah is a huge theme in the Bible, right? The covenants, what we call the biblical covenants, I'm not talking about the covenants covenant theology talks about. Those are theological covenants, what I consider basically made up. Uh, but the unconditional covenants that God made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, right? Of the land, seed, and the blessing, these are, this is a prominent theme in the Bible. But a theme that is broader than all these and bigger than all of these is the idea of the glorification of God. We just read it in Romans 11, 36. All for from him, through him, and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. And what he's just got done in Romans 9, 10, 11 discussing is guess what? Certain major themes in the Bible, none of which are the ultimate, but all of which coalesce to the glory of God. Those themes are in these chapters Israel's covenants, salvation, and the Messiah. And those are big themes in the Bible, but guess which one is bigger than all of them? And they all coalesce the two, and that is the glorification of God. So let's turn to Revelation chapter 4, verse 11, to see that ultimately God is to be glorified for simply the fact of his creation. Now, this is what we call the, I call the song of creation. There's another song, a song of redemption, here in a few chapters. Next chapter. We'll look at both of these. This is the throne room of God, the scene in heaven before the great events occur that lead us to the second coming of Christ. In verse 11, worthy are you. Here's the song that's being sung by the 24 elders. Worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power. There's glory. Why? Why? Because you created all things. And he doesn't just say it one time. Because of your will, they exist and were created. Three different ways, right? John says, Worthy are you to receive glory and honor and power because you created everything. Just the fact of the creation, which is singled out as the greatest work of God ever, the creation of the universe by the word of his power, the second member of the Trinity, God is to be glorified forever and ever. It will never, ever, ever be forgotten. He will always be remembered. For his creation work. In fact, he's going to create again, isn't he? He says at the end of this book, I create all things new. Is another creation that we'll sing his glory. The one that is to come. So this is the glory of God being put on display. Now turn to chapter 5, verses 9 and 10. This is probably you've got the 24 elders and you've got the four living creatures who are angels, probably singing this antiphonally, you know, like the 24 singing, and then, you know, the four sing back. Kind of like men, men sing this verse, women sing this verse, men. You know, you're back and forth. It's kind of neat, right? That's called antiphonal. This is probably an antiphonal song of redemption, as we read in verse 9. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the book. This is the scroll, right? The seven-sealed scroll, and to break its seals, for you were slain. The son was slain, right? And you purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You know, there will be people represented in heaven from every language group, every tribe of people, every nation of people. Verse 10, and you have made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. If you're saved, you will reign upon the earth in the Messianic kingdom with the Lord Jesus Christ. So the song of redemption. But the redemption still is a smaller purpose than the ultimate purpose of history, which is the glorification of God. So salvation is important, right? But it's a sub-theme in the Bible that contributes to the glorification of God, which is the ultimate purpose of history, God's own glory. Charles Rivery said, the underlying purpose of God in the world is, quote, the glory of God. John Walbert said, all the events of the created world, so starting with creation, moving all the way, creation, fall, the flood, right? The Tower of Babel, division of languages, call of Abraham, the Exodus, the Mount Sinai event where he gave the law, the conquest and settlement under Joshua and later judges, right? The rise and reign of King David and the monarchy, the golden era of Solomon, all these events. All of them, all the events of the created world are designed to do what? Manifest the glory of God. So if we have a scheme of history, and history's been rewritten by the seculars, right? What are they teaching us in our public school system? How did the world begin? The Big Bang. You know, we go to physics, we study cosmology, and there's this infinitely small, infinitely dense matter that is expanded into the present system that we now see. And this is to retell the story. Then we have the chemical origin of life in the seas, we have the biological origin of life on land, and this is how all things came to be. And let me ask you a question. Why is this story written? Why? Fundamentally, in the deep seat or heart of man, man knows that all the events of true history reveal the glory of God. And so what is he doing? Rewriting history so he doesn't have to confront God. He's writing a new story that doesn't have God in the picture. This is the heart of man, right? Romans 1 tells us all about it. Professing to be wise, they became fools, right? And they did not give honor to God, but they, and they did not worship him, but they began to worship four-footed creatures and animals and birds and fish and so forth and so on. I mean, Paul lays it all out there in Romans chapter 1. They're writing a new story because the real story is a constant manifestation of the glory of God, and people don't like to face that because they have short accounts. They are of, you know, all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, so they're in trouble. They don't want to look at Him. Um, that's something I just put together. Glory is a word that comes from the root weight. Okay, it's the word kabbod in Hebrew, which means weight or heaviness. That's what the word glory actually means. It doesn't mean light, it means weight, it means heaviness. It refers to one's essence or attributes. God is the greatest essence, and revealing his essence is the chief purpose of history. As history progresses, God reveals his essence through the events of history. It is not just cliche to say history is his story. It really is. In the history of creation, this is just an example. Let's think about the creation event, his attributes of power. I mean, do you see that in the creation event in Genesis 1? It doesn't say in Genesis 1. God is powerful. It shows it, right? Because all he has to do is speak and something appears. He says, let there be, and it was so. So that demonstrates his power. It also demonstrates his intellect, does it not? His omniscience, his understanding? I mean, because if you create any of the things that he created in this world in creation week, think of the complexity of those things. And he has all those things harnessed under his intellect, right? It's not a problem for him. So it shows his intellect. It also shows his goodness. I mean, when God created everything, was there any problem, any sin, any deformities in any of the creatures that he made? Any inefficiencies in the creature that he made? No. Everything was very good. This shows his goodness, right? And other attributes. But the whole point is not just to see the creation event, but to see the God of creation when we look through the eyes of that event. And in that way, it's revealing his glory, his majesty. His wonder, his awe. Then we have the history of the fall. Let's talk about that one for a minute. What do we see through the fall? Well we see is the attribute of righteousness and justice. I mean, how could you see that if there's not a fall? If there's no sin, then how can you see that God is righteous and judges sin? See? But that's exactly what we do see through the fall. Then in fact, God is righteous. So it's not just a story about Adam and Eve and how they ate the forbidden fruit and things like that and fell into sin. It's also a picture that God is just. God is righteous. That he doesn't play favorites. You know, he didn't say, well, I mean, I know you guys kind of messed up there. Let's just kind of overlook it. I mean, that wouldn't be righteous. That wouldn't be just. That would tell us something else about God. It would give us a different picture of who God is if he played favorites like that. But God's not like that. He's perfectly righteous, he's perfectly just. And of course, the whole thing sets us up for the cross. I mean, what's going on at the cross? Here's another event. We look through the eyes of the event and we learn something about God. He's revealing himself to us through the event, right? He's revealing to us again that he's just, that he's actually laying our penalty on one who's paying it in full. And so his righteousness standard is met. And now he's freed to justify anyone who believes. So you can go through any event and all the events of history, and if we see them aright, we'll see that God is revealing himself through them. So the doctrine, the glorification of God is the ultimate purpose of history, and now we want to move to point B. The glorification of God is the underlying goal of history. As we I've kind of mentioned this, but I'm going through it again. So you have other major themes in the Bible, and I think this is what a lot of theologians, well, I know it is. It's what a lot of theologians down through church history have been trying to figure out. Usually, the way that the Bible is approached by people who really want to understand the whole thing has been to ask themselves, what is the one unifying factor of the whole Bible or unifying theme of the whole Bible? Um, covenant theology came up with the idea of covenants. Okay, that's that's what they did. Okay. And they use that as a rubric for interpreting the text. Because this is a is this a big book? Well, I mean, yeah. Is it hard to understand? Well, I mean, yeah. I mean, if you became a believer and you started reading in Genesis and you read through Revelation, I mean, I don't know what you'd think. Um, I mean, a lot of stuff. I mean, you'd be making some progress, but still, you know, you probably have a whole lot of questions. Um, so people have tried to simplify it to understand it, like back away from it and say, now, wait a minute, how do we understand it? So they come up usually with a unifying theme or goal of the whole thing. And again, as I've mentioned, I think the unifying theme of the whole thing is the glory of God. But through it, if you read the story, you're gonna see some major themes, right? You're gonna see the seed that God promised the woman in Genesis 3.15, right? This seed would defeat the serpent's seed. Okay, so this is a major theme that is threaded through the Bible and leads from then creation, let's just say the fall to the cross, right? That's a big one. That's huge. Uh, W.A. Criswell, the old Baptist preacher, used to call it the scarlet thread of redemption. It's tracing the seed and sacrifices that led to his sacrifice for us. So that's a major theme. Uh another one is the unconditional cov, or I'm sorry, the kingdom. I missed that one. Why did God create man in Genesis 1.26? What did he say? All right, let's let us create man and our image to rule over the fish and the birds and the sea and sky and all these things, right? To rule, rule. So this concept of that God created man to be a king. The dwelling concept comes later in the concept in the Psalm 90s, where you've got God is gonna rule as king and man's gonna rule as king. You say, how can God and man rule as king?
unknown:The God man.
SPEAKER_01:That would be like right on target. That would be like just nailing it, right? So God is gonna dwell with man and rule as a king, and guess what? We'll be kings with him. We just read it in the Psalm of Redemption, Song of Redemption here in Revelation 5, 9 and 10. Uh they will reign upon the earth. That's us. We will reign. So there's this whole concept of kingdom that God set up in the garden, what some consider to be like a, again, like a temple or tabernacle, a garden temple. And then this kingdom was to build and grow out from that as Adam and Eve subdued the earth and so forth. But of course they failed. But God still has this purpose in mind, and in the kingdom, the messianic kingdom, it will come to fruition. He will rule from sea to sea. He won't rule from one side of the garden to the other. In fact, Ezekiel says the whole earth will be like the Garden of Eden, Ezekiel 37. So you can only imagine where things are going. See, history is going somewhere great. God has a great purpose, and he's the center point of it all. So the seed concept, that theme, the kingdom theme, the unconditional covenants. I mean, this is what did God covenant when he says, I will give you a land? Well, a land is the boundaries of a kingdom, right? I mean, a nation, like a place to rule, a sphere of rule. Um, I will give you a seed. Well, the seed turns out to be the king, the god man, right? And the blessing. That's the blessing that will go out from the God man who rules this future kingdom, right? So the covenant, the unconditional covenants of Israel really are talking about how God is going to bring about the kingdom. Dispensations, these are stewardships, these are this is a major theme of the Bible. Um, if I say, what is the purpose of the church? What is the church supposed to do in history? What does God want the church to do? Most of you probably say, Well, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them all that I commanded you, and lo, I'm with you to the end of the age. And I'd say, Amen. Those are our marching orders. Dispensations are about the marching orders that God gives certain people during certain periods of history. Did he give that to Israel? Did he say, I want you to go to all nations and make disciples? No. He said, I want you to stay in the land and I want you to obey the uh Mosaic law, and through that you will become a light to all nations. They were like a light post set in the middle of the nations. The church is not a light post. The church is a bunch of people who are tiny light posts who run around the world and go out to the rest of the world and all nations. But Israel is just one lamppost, see? And so it's a different mission or stewardship that's given to church and Israel. Okay. But so that's a major theme, but it's the it all the major theme. The major thing is the glory of God through all of this. Of course, salvation, the plan of salvation. There's only one plan of salvation. You can only be saved in Christ. There's only one way, right? By grace through faith in Christ, okay. So, but not everybody's saved. So, but that's a major theme, okay, and all these again coalesce to the glory of God. Now, this is why history is important. I mean, I'm sure you've heard of missions organizations, you know, that for decades and decades would go out, and the first thing they translate when they went into a culture was the gospel of Mark. Okay, this was very common for decades and decades. Why Mark? Well, it's the shortest gospel. Um, it talks about Jesus and the cross.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And for the most part, they were highly unsuccessful at convincing people. So then you have other groups like New Tribes Mission, which is now Ethnos 360. You have Good Seat up in Canada with John Cross. And these guys said, wait a minute, this isn't working. We just go in there and we start telling about Jesus and the cross. Why aren't people getting saved? Why are they believing in Jesus, but they're just putting Jesus alongside all their other gods? Why are they syncretizing Jesus? This was the problem they they kept running into. People might believe in Jesus, but they're like, oh, he's a magic, he's an amulet, he's like a magic charm, you know, and we just use him that way, and they just syncretized Jesus into their pagan cultures, and you know what nothing ever happened, no change of life, because they didn't understand who Jesus was or what he had ever done. He was just another amulet or magic charm, right? So new tribes and other groups like Goodseeds said, wait a minute, we're missing something here. Oh, wait a minute, maybe we should go back and tell them who God is. So they went back to creation. They said, Oh, the God who made everything. Now, is the tribe going to understand that? Well, that this changes everything. Because now you're talking about this God who created the whole world around us, the world that we live in, he created us in his own image. We fell, we're in rebellion against him, we've created false religion. And this was able to ultimately through their sequence of events leading up to the cross, when people, when they when they would see Christ and what he did on the cross, it all it all clicked. They understood. And then they rejected all their paganism, all their pagan gods, and they just believed in Jesus Christ, see, and he's the one true God, and let's worship him. And so this is why history is so critical to understanding truth. Okay. Um, is the Bible concerned about history? Well, hey, look, if if history is not what this book says it is, we all need to go do something else. Because this isn't a religion that's just based on ideas that some philosopher came up with. Okay. The ideas that we believe are rooted and grounded in real history, real historic events. Paul gets so gutsy as to say in 1 Corinthians 15, hey, I mean, if Christ isn't risen from the dead, this whole thing is a sham. You know, like why? Why are we doing this? He says, we are of all men most to be pitied. I mean, of all the people groups on earth, everyone, the Buddhists, the monks, the ascetics, the atheists, he says, of all of them, everyone, the Mormon, Job, anyone, he says, we're the most to be pitied. Why? Because we're believing a lie. If Christ isn't risen, we're still in our sins, our faith is purposeless. There's no purpose. What's the point? So Paul was very eager to make sure we as Christians understood that history is absolutely vital to the truth. And its importance is highlighted by repeated admonitions to remember. To remember. What are we supposed to remember? What has happened, right? Remember what God has done. Um, several passages that I've got highlighted here. Let's just highlight a few by thinking. Exodus 12, 14. They were to keep the Passover, right? Generation after generation. Why? As a memorial to remember. So they wouldn't forget. What do we tend to do? We tend to forget. We tend to forget history. We tend to forget what's happened. If we forget what happens, guess what? The next generation won't remember, and they'll go their own way and do their own thing. You know, we could say the same thing for our country. We could say, does anybody remember what the Constitution actually means? Does anybody remember what the what our founders meant by those words in the document? The longer we don't teach it in the public school system, the more the kids will simply forget it. Because why? Because they never knew it to begin with. And they have no idea what America is or what it's about, what it's supposed to be, and who they are, and why they live in this country. They don't know. No idea, no clue. If you go to law school, how many semesters do you have to take on constitutional law? I think one class during one semester, if they still do that. These are the lawyers. I mean, my goodness, these people, the whole thing ought to be about the Constitution. And then one course on something else. That's the way it ought to be. This country would be totally different if it was that way. Totally different. But here we are. So the importance to remember, what are we doing in communion, which grew out of Passover? What does it say in 1 Corinthians 11, 24 and 25? Do this in what? Remembrance of me. Why are we doing that? Why do we have to once a month? You could do it once a week, you could do it once a month, whatever, but you have to do it on a regular schedule, right? Why do we have to keep going back to remember? Because if we don't, we'll forget who died for us and who gave us our life. And when we forget that, do you think that our lives honor God? No. They don't. Do you think that it makes him mad? Yes, it does. Just read 1 Corinthians 11. Many of them were sick, some asleep, you know, the premature physical death because they weren't remembering him, they were just going and having a big feast. Some were even drunk at the thing. My goodness. So we are repeatedly told to remember, remember, remember. Now, if you don't know this book, how can you remember it?
SPEAKER_02:How can you remember what you don't know?
SPEAKER_01:By definition, you can't. That's why Paul set out to teach the whole council of God. That's A to Z, right? Genesis to Revelation. Alpha to Omega, beginning to end, right? Why? Because that's where we learn history. History is the ground of truth, and all this truth tells us who God is, because God is the one who is revealing himself through the events of history. I gave you the example of creation, right? I gave you the example of the fall. I gave you the example of the cross. You can think about each of these events, and as you think about them, you are thinking about who God is and what he's revealing about himself through it. So that all of history is a manifestation of the glory of God. David talks about this. He says, if I go to the depths of Sheol, thou art there. You're with me. Okay. That's the concept of God's glory is is inescapable. You can't go anywhere where God is. Can you take a, let's say you could take a spaceship and go to Mars. I don't know why you'd want to. It's just completely not going to be fun there. It'll take you a long time to get there. You know, you're probably not going to make it back. You know, all there's no like great oxygen. You can't go look at the rivers, streams, trees, northern lights. Can't do any of that. It's just going to be you and this red dirt. But I mean, if people want to go there, whatever. But if you go there, will God be there? As much there as he is with you here. Yeah, absolutely. God's glory is extensive through space. It's also progressively revealed through time, and that's what we want to get into next week. Really focus a lot on. I'll take you through a lot of these passages because worship is worship is 100% connected to this. People say, well, worship is when you sit down, you sing these songs, you know, hymns or praise. That's fine, but that's that's such a tiny picture. You can't worship God, you can't, I can't, none of us can until we appreciate him. It's impossible. If you don't appreciate God, how can you worship him? You have to have something to appreciate in God. That's why, guess what? In the Bible, the story of worship does not begin until Genesis 4. Nobody worshiped God before Genesis 4. Not Adam, not Eve, not Abel, none of them. You say, how do you know that? Because it says it. It says at this time men began to call on the Lord, which is a concept of Hebrew worship, right? In the Hebrew of worship. Why did it take time for people to start worshiping God in history? Because they had to think about God, look at what he was doing, and begin to appreciate him. Then they could worship. People worship Michael Jordan. Do you think they worshiped him the first day he stepped foot on a basketball court? Or did he have to show himself off to become the greatest basketball player, the most elite guy that was coming along when he stepped out of North Carolina and hit the court? Then people were like, this is it. Why? Because they'd already built an appreciation for his abilities and talents. That's why they started to worship him. Not at the first. Same thing with God. Nobody's worshiping God at first. We haven't seen what he can do yet, really. Once they began to see this and reflect on it, that's when men began to call on God. And so we want to trace this idea to develop a really full, rich concept of worship, not one where, well, some people want to do traditional hymns and other people want to do contemporary Christian music. And I'm like, y'all need to just get over all this. Okay? This is so shallow. This is this is this is one of the silliest things in the whole church that is dividing the church. Are you serious? We're going to split over contemporary versus traditional worship. Whatever happened to the appreciation for who the God of the universe is? I don't care what the little Diddy is. Do you actually care about him? Do you know him? Do you know what he's done for you? Do you know what he's done in the cosmos? Do you know what his plan is for history? If you don't know, guess what? If you don't know his plan for history, you don't have a good understanding of the whole thing from beginning to end, guess what? You don't have an understanding that he has a plan for your life. Because there is no such thing as plans for our life that God may have if we do not fit within a greater plan. It's the idea of the greater plan that gives us a sense of perspective on our plan for our lives within the big picture. Everyone who's an actor on a stage has to know their role, right? In a movie, in a theatrical production. If they don't have a perspective for what the whole play or movie is about, how are they ever going to fit into their role? Same thing is true for you. You live in a grand plan or purpose, a movie, so to speak, that God is putting on display. You have to know that grand purpose if you're to know your role within it. And that's the only thing that gives significance to life. This is the only thing that gives significance. Without that greater picture, we don't know what we're doing. We are completely lost. We're asking the director, hey, where am I supposed to stand? What are my lines? What am I supposed to wear? Who's my costume designer? Who's doing my hair? You know, you have no idea what you're doing. This is the world is totally lost. They don't know what's going on. They couldn't read what's happening in Israel. You know, if you read it to them right off the pages of the Bible. Oh, yeah, whatever. We can see this, right? But we only see it by God's grace, right? We only see it by his grace. But God is ultimately, see, through all this, putting himself on display, guess what? You get to be a part of it. Now, if you understand that, you start to appreciate. And that means you are actually going to experience real worship. Not singing, which is wonderful, nothing wrong with singing, but real worship from the person that you are, and not just to go through some words. Do you see where I'm going? All right, I want you to have a rich life, not one that's just very shallow.
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 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.