Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas

NT Framework - Dispensations of The Name

• Jeremy Thomas • Season 6 • Episode 194

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History isn’t random noise; it’s a crescendo revealing who God is through the dispensations He set up. God reveals his glory across history, from the divine name to the resurrection, and why this gives real, certain hope. 

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. 

Framing God’s Glory And The Divine Name

SPEAKER_00

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

And this is what we call the glory of God. The glory of God is the re is the revealing of God's essence or attributes to the human race.

Resurrection As Certainty And Hope

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Four simple letters. All consonants, no vowels. An unknown pronunciation. No meaning in and of itself. Until the Creator God stepped in and started to imbue those four letters with meaning. I am Yahweh is what we say. And over time he created and expanded and filled that name with more meaning, adding his character attributes to each letter, to the phrasing, to the pronunciation. It grew and grew. As the Bible expanded, that name took on more. Took on more weight, more meaning, more purpose. The whole purpose of history is for us to understand that name ultimately a God whose name that is. We learn. We praise him, we pray to him, we ask him for help, we grow in knowledge of him. And what will we do in the future? The very same thing, except for praying for help. This is a God who wants us to know him and has spent all of creation expressing himself to us that we may know him. And ultimately spend the rest of eternity with him, learning and glorifying him, lifting him up in so many ways that we can't even comprehend now.

Glorification Of God, Man, And Nature

What Worship Is And How It Grows

Seth And The Birth Of Substitution

SPEAKER_02

Dealing with the life of Christ, well, really the birth, the life, the death, and the resurrection, at each of these uh great events, what we do is take some time to deal with the doctrines. The doctrines that come out of the resurrection of Christ, which really point to the eschaton, that is to the last things, because with the resurrection of Christ, you have the first piece of the new heavens and new earth already having walked in this present heavens and earth for 40 days with his disciples, teaching them, making appearances, and so forth and so on. So we know there's a certainty to the future. When we say we hope that uh these things will transpire, future things of the Bible, our resurrection, the kingdom, and all that, um, we're not saying it in an I hope so sense, like maybe it will, maybe it won't. But we're we're saying we have this hope uh in us, this guarantee of this future, this certainty. And so we are uh assured of it. We just don't know when all these things will transpire, and so we await, and we are still supposed to wait patiently. So with the the the resurrection of the king, we're gonna deal with three doctrines um that all relate to the gl to glory or the glorification, because resurrection is the glorification of the human body, but it's much broader than that. So we deal with the doctrines of God, his glorification, man, his glorification, and nature, the glorification of nature. And if you're keen, you've caught on that, you know, this these three doctrines, God, man, and nature, the same three doctrines we learned way back at creation. Genesis 1. I mean, what what are the three great ideas in Genesis 1? Well, God, who God is as the creator, man, whom he created in his image, and nature, that which he created that is non-man. And so we come full circle with the resurrection, which means to us that the way that things began in creation, what we call protology, first thing, somehow everything's gone wrong, right, in between and has to be restored, so that in the end there's a restoration and what we call eschatology. So protology and eschatology closely relate. And if you've ever read your Bible, you know that Genesis 1 and 2, which are the creation story, are mirrored closely by the last two chapters of the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22. In the first two chapters, you have the creation of heavens and earth, and the last two chapters the creation of a new heavens and new earth, right? In the first two chapters, you have this garden where man is placed to dwell with God. In the last two chapters of the Bible, you have a city where God is dwelling with man. In the first two chapters, you don't have any sin, suffering, evil, pain, sorrow in the last two chapters of the Bible. All sorrow, tears, pain are wiped away, right? And never to more to return. So a lot of parallels between protology and eschatology, and the doctrine of the glorification of God, man, and nature points us to what things will be like in that future eschatology. So last week we spent some time dealing with the glorification of God. I didn't get finished with the glorification of God, right? But I wanted to raise us to new heights thinking about the um worship itself. We we worship as a modern, uh hot, hotly discussed modern topic, you know, contemporary, traditional, da-da-da-da-da. Which, like I said last week, is kind of a shallow idea. Basically, what we want to do is try to trace the concept of how worship happens. You can't like force yourself to worship. Um, worship has to be a natural response to who God is that is loaded with appreciation for what he has done. So that takes time. It takes time for us to see what God has done in history as well as what he does in our own individual lives, so that we can have appreciation for it. I mean, you don't wake up one day, you know, when you're 14 years old and have a lot of things to worship God over because you haven't had much experience in your own personal life. And so you haven't seen his hand in your life repetitively to conquer the big difficulties of life, which seem to just escalate as life goes on, right? So we're all in personal process, right? And through our own personal histories, we learn more and more to appreciate God as we see him at work in our lives to overcome the obstacles that we have to face. But there's also the whole bigger picture of history where God's hand is at work. And I'm gonna take us through history to watch the history of worship of God, just briefly, so we can see that it takes time. And what God is doing with history is he is basically revealing himself, and this is what we call the glory of God. The glory of God is the is the revealing of God's essence or attributes to the human race. He's making himself known through not just his word, but his works in history. So everything is designed to glorify him. Uh the Westminster Shorter Catechism said the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's the chief purpose, they say, of man, really, it's of all things, uh of all of nature as well. So it's a grand purpose. Um Charles Ryrie said the underlying purpose of God in the world is the glory of God. I mean, in other words, what is the story about? What is history really all about? What's the ultimate aim or goal or purpose? It's the glory of God. Uh John Wahlberg said, All the events of the created world are designed to manifest the glory of God. All the events of the created world are designed to manifest the glory of God. So again, just so we don't get confused on the word glory, glory is a word that comes from the root weight, the root word for weight or heaviness. It refers to one's essence or attributes. We used to say, you know, we'd worry about the big boss coming, you know, where, you know, into where we, the employees, were working. You worry about who? The boss. Why? Because he carries weight. And if he says something, you know, we better, you know, get on board with what he has. Why? Because he has weight. He's the boss. Well, who's the boss of the world, the universe? Well, God is. Okay, that's his essence. He carries weight in this sense, right? And he can throw it around if he wants to. You don't want to be on the other end of him throwing his weight around, right? So as history is progressing, what God is doing is revealing his essence through the events of history. And so it really, his history really is his story. Um, and so you can go to each event in history, and I chose Bible events here. You can go to each of these and you can identify certain attributes of God that are easily seen through these events, right? So creation, power, his power is seen by the ability to create intellect, so forth. So that's the whole idea is to go through each event of history and analyze it to try to discover what attributes of God are being displayed. Like one of them right now, just so we all know, you know, I mean, is it a wicked world out there? I mean, is it are the world wars in the world and the oppression and, you know, uh people trafficking, are these wonderful things that God is looking upon with pleasure? Well, no. So, what attribute of God are we learning about right now? Patience. His long suffering. It's discussed specifically in 2 Peter chapter 3, that God is patient. Because we wonder, my goodness, well, how can he put up with this? What he's putting on display now, one of the attributes, is patience. Another one, according to Romans chapter 11, that's being put on display right now, as Gentiles are the preeminent people that come to salvation, is his mercy toward us. His mercy. He's merciful. And so we have to look at history through the lens of Scripture, and this teaches us that it's all about God. So these things are happening with God's glory. Um, go on. And that makes it the ultimate purpose of history. That means that it's very important to remember history, and the Bible keeps telling us this over and over and over. Remember, do not forget, you know, do not forget times past. Um, I've got Isaiah 46, 9 and 10 up here is one of the verses that mentions to remember. Uh that verse says, Remember the former things long past, for I am God, there is no other. I am God, there is no one like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things which had not been done, saying, My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure. You know, do not forget the past. Remember, because He is He is the God of not just creation, but history, right? And we remember in Passover, Israel remembered in the Passover. We remember in communion. That's what we're doing. We're remembering what He did for us on the cross. Why? Because that's crucial. We're we tend to forget. We're forgetful creatures. And you can't live the Christian life if you forget. You just can't. It's a constant remembering. What does Paul say in Romans 12 when he finally comes to the application portion of the book? I mean, it's dealt with sin, the whole world's under sin. He's dealt with justification by faith. He's dealt with sanctification by grace through faith by means of the Spirit. He's dealt with glorification, which is the doctrine we're studying now. He's dealt with the question, what about Israel or God's vindication of his purposes for Israel? And finally, he comes to chapter 12 and he says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You know, our minds have to be renewed constantly, and that's part of that is remembering. And so a lot of the truths we go through here, we go through over and over and over and over. And you're like, Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. Yeah, but the reason we have to say that do that is because we will forget if we don't reinforce it. So now we want to move through the uh glorification of God and how it is progressive in time. It is progressive in time. Meaning, we're gonna start back in Genesis. We'll go to Genesis chapter 4, verse 26, to show that the glory of God or his attributes being revealed to us takes place progressively, and that this is the basis for worship. You know, you don't see worship right off the bat in early Genesis, you know, chapters 1 and 2. It takes some time. You're into chapter 4, after the stories of, you know, the fall, after this, the event of Cain, you know, murdering his brother Abel, and then the curse that was on him, and others are born in the societies and uh begin to grow up. And that's when you see an event that prompts the worship of God. And the reason is because it takes time to think about what God is doing in history for it to sink in so that we see it and catch it, and we then have appreciation for him. So, Genesis 4.25. Uh Adam had relations with his wife again. Uh Yada, intimacy, intimate relations with his wife again. Now he'd had them before, now he has it again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth. Or she said, and now we have basically a description of the meaning of the name of Seth. You'll notice this in the Bible a lot that names have significance of meaning. And so the meaning that's described here is not coincidence, it's not incidental, right? It's important to what's being said that because it's what prompts worship to happen after men reflect on the meaning of Seth and his introduction into the human race. Now, who's already been killed? Who was murdered by his brother? Abel, right? Earlier in chapter 4. Now we're at the end of chapter 4, a few generations later, uh have passed, but I mean, Adam and Eve still having children, they kind of live a long time. So named him Seth, for she said, God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel.

SPEAKER_01

For Cain killed him. Now the meaning of the name Seth is substitute. One who's been appointed as a substitute. Who ultimately becomes a substitute? Right. Right. The Messiah, the predicted seed from Genesis 3.15.

Abraham’s Call And Altar Worship

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Were these people thinking about this, the meaning of the name Seth, what the significance of Abel being murdered and then replaced by Seth, a substitute? Yeah, they were. They were seeing a concept of substitution that God would later utilize by the Messiah to bring about our salvation. So, but it had took some time for them to think about it because look at this. Verse 25, to Seth, to him also a son was born. So this kid, Seth, obviously grew up to the age of procreation, right? And he called his name Enosh, so he has a son named Enosh, and then it says, men began to call upon the name of the Lord. Why? Why did it take Seth growing up, having a child, this guy named Substitute, or appointed as a substitute, because it took time to think about what God was doing through Seth. And then when it began to dawn on them what he was doing, they began to become appreciative. And the Old Testament term for worship is call, they call on the Lord. And that's what the men began to do at that time, not before. So they're beginning to appreciate that God has a plan and purpose that involves the substitute for them. Somehow it's going to come through Seth. They're beginning to see the messianic seed line. See? That's what's happening here. And that it's that type of thing that has to happen in our own lives when we see God shaping history a certain way, that what happens in our mind is we start to get really attracted to that because it's so beautiful what he's doing.

SPEAKER_01

Alright, let's go to the next one, Genesis 12. This is Abram before he was renamed Abraham, right?

Burning Bush And The Meaning Of Yahweh

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And you have verses 1 through 3, which are famous verses for the promises that later become a covenant in chapter 15. The covenant, the Abrahamic covenant. Now the Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your country, which was verse 31 of the previous chapter, was Ur of the Chaldeans. So go forth from Ur of the Chaldeans and from your relatives and from your father's house. Now leave all your family. Now that's not by the way, is this easy to do? Just leave all your uproot and just leave everyone? No, it's not. Okay, but he's to go forth from his relatives and from his father's house to the land, he says, that I will show you. And there I will make you a great nation. I will bless you, make your name great. So you, Abram, shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, Abram, and the ones who curse you, I will curse. And in you, Abram, all the families of the earth will be blessed. And so Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Well, that wasn't exactly on the agenda, right? He's a relative. But he went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran, which is outside of Ur. Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. Thus they came to the land of Canaan. Now they're there. This is promised land. Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem to the Oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. So if this is going to be his land, well, there's people that are in the way, all right? The Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your descendants I will give this land. Okay, this land. So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. And he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and I on the east. And there he built an altar of the Lord, and he did what? He called upon the name of the Lord. See, he's beginning to understand the promise of God that God has making to him, the significance of it, and he has appreciation and worship because he's learning who God is. He's learning about God. And it's when we learn about God that God is revealing himself. He's glorifying himself, he's showing himself off. Let's go over to Exodus chapter 3. Isn't Exodus 3 the burning bush?

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And then Exodus 6. Is this the burning bush? I don't have this one again.

SPEAKER_01

Um in the first part of the chapter,

Yahweh Filled With Mercy And Justice

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The angel of the Lord appearing to him in a blazing fire from the midst of the bush, right? Verse 2. Behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush wasn't consumed. This is a strange sight, right? So Moses, I've got to go see this thing. And as he gets close, of course, you know, he says, Don't come near, take off your sandals from your feet, for the place at which you're standing is holy ground. So he does this, and then God identifies himself in verse 6. He says, I'm the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. So this is the covenant line. God made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Interesting because he'll come back later and he'll look at the back of God. Well, look at that passage. So the Lord says, I've seen, surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I've given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters. I'm aware of their sufferings. And so he's come down, of course, to deliver them. He's going to use Moses. But Moses asked in verse 11, he says to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh? Okay. And verse 12, he said, Certainly I will be with you. Okay, that's kind of a key phrase. You get down here in verse 13, and Moses is saying, Okay, well, if they ask me when I go to deliver them, who who are you, or what is his name? The end of verse 13, he says, What shall I say? You know, what am I going to tell them? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. The Hebrew verb is repeated there twice. Okay, I am who I am. And so you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am hath sent me to you. There's a lot of discussion about this name, but a name is what captures someone's essence, the nature, their being. Come over to chapter 6, because this this event in the burning bush was significant in that God was revealing something about himself that had never been revealed before. So Exodus chapter 6, verse 3, or 2, and 2 and 3, God spoke further to Moses and said to him, I am Yahweh. Now you see that capital Lord, L-O-R-D, all caps. That's the Hebrew tetragrammaton, meaning four letters. They don't, it's a consonantal language, so they didn't have vowels. So you had to know how to pronounce it just from growing up around it. But the pronunciations were lost. So we don't know how to pronounce this name. When I say Yahweh, I mean that's not exactly necessarily the pronunciation. Um, it's really just four letters, four consonants, Y-H-W-H, you know, in the Hebrew. And so God spoke and said, I am Yahweh. And I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty. Okay, El Shaddai, there's a name of God, a title, El Shaddai, but by my name Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them. So Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not know God by this name. Now, the thing is, if you go back to Genesis and you read Genesis 1 through 50, you read the whole thing, you're going to see the name Yahweh used over and over and over and over and over. So you can see the liberals would come along at this point and say, point out in the Bible, say, Well, see, here's a contradiction. Exodus 6.3 says, God didn't make himself known by that name. But if we go back there in Genesis 1 through 50, he uses that name over and over and over. Therefore, the Bible has a contradiction, the Bible's wrong. They don't understand the point. The point is, he did not make known the significance of the name. What is the significance of the name? In its first understanding or connection, it's what we saw in Genesis, I'm sorry, Exodus 3 in the burning bush. I am who I am. Now, what is going on in the whole burning bush thing? I mean, we know there's a bush, it's on fire, it's not burning up, we get it, right? Or do we? Do we get it? Do we understand the significance of what was going on there where God says, I am with you? Moses is like, who's going to go with me to, you know, deliver these people? And God says, hey, I am with you. The picture of the burning bush is a picture of Israel in her fiery ordeals. Was she in a picture? Was she in fiery ordeal in Egypt? Well, you better believe it. The taskmasters, I mean, this went on for 400 years, generation after generation. What is God saying to Israel? He's saying, I am with you in your fiery ordeals. I made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I am with you. I am with you. So what is this teaching them about God? See, this is this is filling up the name Yahweh with content. And God has a special purpose for Israel, right? A covenant that He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

SPEAKER_01

And he's saying, I am with you through all of your fiery ordeals. Does that have significance for the Holocaust? 75 years ago? Yes, it does. It still has significance today for what's going on today.

SPEAKER_02

Because God made a covenant with him. Does it matter if Israel's righteous or perfect? No, that's irrelevant. What matters is that God is righteous and perfect, and God has made certain promises to them that He's going to keep. And so He's saying, I am with you in the fiery ordeals. You'll go through all these fiery ordeals, but guess what? You won't be burned up by them. What are we seeing today? The same thing is happening. What happened in the Holocaust? The same thing. Okay? No one will ever destroy the Jewish people. God is going to be with them. And this tells us something very special about God, right? I mean, it gives us confidence, it gives us security. Because He's with He's with us too. We're not the Jewish people, but He's still He's with us. He's made promises like this. So this is important. Now the next stage we go into something like that shouldn't be Deuteronomy. That should have been Exodus, excuse me, wrong reference. I have constantly made that wrong reference. And I can't seem to correct my memory. Exodus 34, 6 through 9.

SPEAKER_01

This is a story where Moses is hid in the cleft of the rock, right? He wants to, you know, look look at God. Did I say 34, 6,000? Is it 32, 6 through 9? Oh goodness. No, it's 34. That's right. Yeah, here we go.

SPEAKER_02

Um now he was to go up, right, and cut two stone tablets. By the way, there's two copies of the Ten Commandments. It wasn't that you had, you know, one through four on one tablet and six through ten on the other. No, it was a complete copy of all ten on each tablet. There's reasons for that under stipulations of law in the ancient world. But there was a reason for this. And so two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments on each one, verse four, he cut out the two tablets like the former ones. He went up early in the morning, he went up to Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him. He took the two stone tablets in his hand. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed. Okay, so there's this passing by, which we know is later described as being, you know, placed in the left of the rock, and Moses seeing the back of God, so to speak, not full glory. But during this passing by in front, he proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh El, Yahweh God, compassionate. Now look, what's happening? What's happening to the name Yahweh? Compassionate, gracious, slow to anger? Isn't this name of God now getting filled up with meaning? What does Yahweh mean? It doesn't just mean I'm with you in the midst of your trials, Israel. Now it's it he's revealing more meaning in the name. The name also means he's compassionate, he's gracious, he's slow to anger, he's abounding in loving-kindness and truth, he keeps loving-kindness for thousands who forgive and so forth. Yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. So he's also just, right? You can see how much is now accumulating to the name Yahweh. Because what is God doing? He's revealing himself. This is how the glory of God takes shape progressively in time down through history. I mean, everything was not known about God from the beginning, right? As history has marched forward, we've learned more and more and more and more and more and more about God. Because the revelation of his glory is progressive in time. And so, interestingly, very interestingly, this description of Yahweh, the filling up of his name here that is given to Moses, is exactly what Jonah says when he goes to Nineveh.

Christ As The Radiance Of God’s Glory

SPEAKER_01

In Jonah chapter 3 or 4.

SPEAKER_02

And the thing he says, I knew, I knew that you were gracious, I knew that you were compassionate, I knew that you were loving.

SPEAKER_01

But I don't like it that you're like that. That's that's the dilemma of Jonah.

SPEAKER_02

Is Jonah knows ex it's not that Jonah doesn't know who God is, it's that he knows exactly who God is, and he doesn't like it because it means that God wants to reach the Nineveh.

SPEAKER_01

And Jonah's like, I want you to kill the Ninevite. Now, that's the the one thing you can kind of like about Jonah is that he's just blatantly obvious and blatantly upfront and honest. I mean, I know who you are, I don't like that. I just don't like it. But this is the way that God shows himself into history.

SPEAKER_02

Um, Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. So this goes on through history. God keeps revealing himself more and more and more so that we can appreciate him more and worship him more and more. This is why it's important to know history, right? Because through it you're learning about God.

SPEAKER_01

And you're learning to appreciate, and your worship can become more genuine.

SPEAKER_02

So, Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, further revelation about God. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and many ways, which is what we've been looking at, right? In these last days has spoken to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. Genesis 1, right? And he is the radiance. This is the Son. The Son is the radiance of His what? His glory. And that's what we're studying here, the doctrine of God's glorification. Well, Christ is the radiance of his glory. In other words, if you've seen, what did Jesus say?

SPEAKER_01

If you seen me, you've seen the Father. What's the greatest revelation of God ever in the history of the world?

SPEAKER_04

The Son, Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01

They said, Jesus even said, Why do you say, show me the Father?

SPEAKER_02

You're looking at the exact radiance of his glory. And it goes on to say, and the exact representation of his nature. And his nature is his attributes, right? His sovereignty, his righteousness, his justice, his love, his omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, immutable, eternal, eternality, right? I mean, it was all embodied and captured in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was all there. I mean, if you saw him, what were you seeing? You were seeing God, right? This is why it was such an egregious thing that the nation rejected him. You're looking at God in the face and you're saying, crucified. Can you imagine?

SPEAKER_01

Well, yeah, it's not a good moment for the nation Israel.

Angels Learning Through The Church

Glory Expands Through Space And Time

SPEAKER_02

So this is to elicit worship, right? To elicit worship. Ephesians 3.10, God is doing, there's also angels, right? What is God doing? We won't have to go through all these, but Ephesians 3.10, God is making himself known to angels through his work with the church. It's like, you know, we have the Bible to learn about God and the things of God. Angels, of course, have the Bible, but they also have the church. And we're like their Bible. And through us, they learn about the manifold wisdom of God, the manifold, many aspects of the wisdom of God. When they watch what he is doing with the church, and you say, Well, my goodness, the church is a wreck. Yeah, I know it is. But God is doing things through the church, some things we don't understand what all he's doing. And the angels are looking at all this at the church, and they're learning about God, which is how God glorifies himself to the angelic realm. And so there's a whole lot going on with history, not just with men, but also with angels. And this is all part of the progressive revelation of God's glory in time. But there's also, oh, so a statement. History is a crescendo of revelation. You know, a crescendo, you know, like uh when you start in music very softly and you increase in volume, then you got the day crescendo. But history is a crescendo of revelation culminating in a marveling that is beyond expectation, and every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. I mean, the whole of history is just great crescendo. And we're working our way to this time when every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord, which we'll talk more about next next week. Um the glorification of God is not just progressive in time, it's also uh extensive in space, or extends in space. Psalm 139.

SPEAKER_01

Let's turn to Psalm 139, verses 7 and 8. This is a famous uh Psalm of David. Psalm 139, 7 and 8.

SPEAKER_02

He goes through several of the attributes of God, God's omniscience, and when he gets to verse 7, where he he moves not to his omniscience, but he moves to his omnipresence. Or his permeation of every place that can be.

SPEAKER_01

Right? Both inside and outside the universe. God's not just uh omnipotent inside space, he's he permeates outside of space. You say, what is that? I know but God is, right? I mean, before the creation of the world, was there any space? No. Space is a creation. So what was there? God. But isn't that a space? No. That's outside of space. And he's there too.

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And he's David is reflecting on the fact of God's eminence inside of creation, his presence wherever you go. He says, Where can I go from your spirit? I mean, in space. Is there a place I can go away from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you're there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, if I go to Pluto, if I go to another galaxy, you see, um, behold, he is there.

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He's as much there as he is here. Isn't he? And it's like, well, then he is making himself known where? Everywhere.

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If you go to the farthest reaches of space, will you see the glory of God through his handiwork?

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Yes.

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You will see it. It's unmistakable. You'll be seeing from a different perspective, from somewhere else in our cosmos.

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And we've never seen it.

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And how much more is there we haven't seen? And he's infinite. So it's infinite. You will always, for all of eternity, learn new things about God. Every single moment you will learn more about God. It's impossible not to. And guess what? You'll never know him entirely because he's incomprehensible. You can never know him entirely.

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His eternity will not be boring because it will be like new discoveries every moment. This is our God. Isaiah 45, 23 and 24.

Every Knee Will Bow: Isaiah’s Promise

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Now we could go to the Philippians 2, which is the one everyone knows, you know, where it says, every knee will bow and every tongue confess. But we're going to go to the background for that because this is where Paul quoted from when he was over in Philippians 2.

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Isaiah 45, verse 23 and 24. After one of the great verses there in verse 21.

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There's no God besides me. Righteous God and Savior. There's none except me. He's all alone, the creator, creature, distinction, right? There's no one like him. Verse 22, turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I'm God and there is no other. See, I mean, God is the only Savior. I have sworn by myself, the word has gone forth from my mouth in righteousness, and my word will not turn back. That to me, every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance, they will say of me, only in the Lord are righteousness and strength. Men will come to him, and all who were angry at him will be put to shame. See, the glory of God is extensive in space.

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Unbelievers, people who hate God, people who are angry at God, will never ever be able to escape God. What does Psalm 2 say? Let us tear their cords from us, let us tear their shackles away. You can't. You can't. He created you. He created all of this. And he's Lord over all of it.

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And in the end, he will be magnified. He says, My word will go forth. It will not return to me empty. It will accomplish what I have set out for it to accomplish. And that is the glorification of God from all men. Whether they believe, he says it right there. Turn to me all the ends of the earth, be saved. But those even who not are not saved and remain in anger toward him, they will bow the knee.

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They will confess that he is Lord of all.

Resurrection Order And God All In All

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So his glorification is extensive in space. And then more than all of this, the glorification of God continues into eternity. 1 Corinthians 15. So let's go there. 1 Corinthians 15, 20 through 28. In the greatest chapter on resurrection, which is the doctrine we're or event we're studying and the glorification of the resurrection body. 1 Corinthians 15, 20 through 28. Some of the Corinthians had stopped believing in the resurrection, right? Paul's been dealing with that. Up to verse 20, he says, now, but now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep, meaning he's the first resurrection from the dead, right? There are others who will follow. For since by a man came death, by a man also came resurrection of the dead, as an Adam all died. So Adam is the one through whom death came, right? Resurrection came to us through Christ. So also in Christ all will be made alive, but each in his own order. So there's an order to the resurrection. He begins to telescope down through history. We have Christ, the first fruits, that's in the first century. After that, those who are Christ that is coming, that's for us when he comes for us. Then comes the end when he hands, and this is after the kingdom, okay, the millennial phase of the kingdom. When he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has done what? When he's abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign. Christ must reign until he's put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. Amen. For he has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when he says all things are put in subjection, it's evident that he is accepted who put all things in subjection to him. In other words, the Father is not put in subjection to the Son. They'll be co-equals through all eternity. Verse 28, when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself also will be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, so that what? What is the purpose of history?

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What is it all about? It's about what's going on right there at the end of verse 28, so that God may be all in all. It's the glory of God, right?

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That all things are from him, to him, and through him to God be the glory. Amen. This is the purpose of history. This is where everything is going. Revelation 21 and 22, the last two chapters of the Bible. We said earlier, eschatology reflects protology, right? Last things reflect first things. So in between in this story, something went wrong. And why Christ came is to start the process of restoring things, to bring things back to their proper order.

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So Revelation 21.

New Heavens, New Earth, Final Separation

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You see several contrasts here between the good and the evil. I've shown the diagram, right, where you've got the split, you know, between good and evil. And this, these two chapters depict that you've got this separation that will happen at the, let's just say the final judgment, for lack of being specific. But this final judgment that separates good and evil forever, and never shall the twain ever meet again, right? In other words, one of the differences between Genesis 1 and 2 and Revelation 21 and 22 is this. In Genesis 1 and 2, there's this thing called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat it, you will surely die. There's not one of those over in Revelation 21 and 22.

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There's just a tree of life, right? So is there any possibility for fall, a fall? No. So whatever the state is here, it's fixed.

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It's a fixed order. You see, verse 1, a new heaven and new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there's no longer any seed. We'll get into this next week because there's going to be a glorification of nature. And we, you know, I mean, it's going to describe a lot of things here about the new heavens and new earth. I mean, there's things like rivers, you know, there's a tree, there's fruits, and stuff like that.

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Um, do we have any of those things in this world? We sure do. Isn't that interesting? It's like, but there's no sea. There's no sea.

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But there's you have to start connecting. You start asking yourself, why are there things in the new heavens and new earth that are very similar to our heavens and earth?

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And then some things are different. Well, isn't it just like our resurrection bodies? That's because the same doctrine is being investigated here.

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The glorification of the resurrection body and the glorification of nature are related doctrines. We're supposed to see how they work together. One of the big questions that theologians discuss is whether the new heavens and new earth will be entirely new or whether it will be derived from the present heavens and earth. In other words, will the new heavens and new earth just be a completely new creation, totally unrelated to this creation, because everything that's here is just totally destroyed, all the elements, everything, gone. Or is the new heaven and new earth actually going to be derived from the elements from the previous creation? Well, let me ask you a question. What's the truth of your resurrection body? Is it entirely new and separate from the materials in this created order, or is it derived from them? This is how you learn to think scripturally. This is how you learn to solve problems, not by making it up, but by using things that we know surely to derive other ideas that can inform and help you be more precise in your thinking. And you see, yeah, streets of gold, right? Whatever, trees of life, all this stuff going on. City, okay. Elements like Jasper, sardonics, okay? What are these? Turk, what are these? Elements from our world. This is teaching us how God is going to create all things new. And um, you say, well, can God, you know, make all things new and not bring over any of the evil? Well, I mean, he does it. I mean, he's God. So it's not too hard from him. He does it with our resurrection body, he'll do it with all of nature as well. So let's look at some of the split here, this final separation. Notice verse 3. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he will dwell among them. What does God want? What did he want from the very beginning in Genesis? He wanted to dwell with man. He made us in his own image to have fellowship with him and communion with him. This is, and it's going to happen, and they shall be his people. And God himself will be among them. God himself. He will wipe away, of course, every tear from their eyes, no longer be any death, no longer be any mourning or crying or pain, which is or toilsome labor. There'll still be labor, but not toilsome. The first things that passed away. Now, there are those who will indwell this place. Verse 7, he who overcomes will inherit these things. That means you'll have part in these things. And I will be his God and he will be my son. That's the language of the Davidic covenant. It's amazing how God makes this close, close relationship with us in the future. But, verse 8, not for the cowardly and the unbelieving and the abominable and the murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and so forth. See, they don't have any inheritance in the new Jerusalem, in the new heavens and new earth. It says their inheritance is in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. You see, the separation? That's why it's so important to get right now with God.

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Because once things are set here, there's this a final separation.

Why Believe Now: The Call To Faith

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A bunch of description of the city and the foundation stones and the gates and the pearl, you know, the pearly gates and all that stuff. And we'll talk more about that next week when we look at nature. But notice verse uh 2126 or 2125 and 26. In the daytime. For there will be no night there. That's a difference, right? And some of us are happy because I really don't like the dark during the winter here. I could just go for all light, you know. I just go for all light. That sounds good to me. No night there, for its gates will never be closed, and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it, and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

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See that this is a very this is fine, this is finality, isn't it? This is finality. And it's it's serious. There's a place for those who have believed and are in the Lamb's book of life, then there's a separate place for those who have not. Continued in their uncleanness. Right? Let's look at another one. Verse 3, 22, 3.

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There will no longer be any curse. There it is. See, the fall is it's over. And the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and his bondservants will serve him. They will see his face. They'll see the face of God, and his name will be on their foreheads, and they will no longer be any night. And we know that, right? No, they will not need the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun because what? Because the Lord God will illumine them and they will reign forever and ever. What are we destined for?

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To be little peasants or to be kings and queens. Kings and queens reigning forever with the God of the universe. But not for the cowardly and immoral, right? Not for unbelievers, no. Not for those who never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 7, warning, right?

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Behold, I'm coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. I mean, get right with God, right? Let me figure this out.

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I wanted to show you one more verse, a little bit more here. Verse uh 11.

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Let the one who does wrong still do wrong. The one who's filthy still be filthy. Let the one who is righteous still practice righteousness, and the one who's holy still keep himself holy. Do you see the dichotomy? That's unbelievers and unbelievers. I mean, for per go on forever in filth versus go on forever in righteousness. This is a total separation. It's a final separation. And this is a part of the ultimate goal of history and the glorification of God. Verse uh 14. Blessed are those who wash their robes so they may have the right to the tree of life and enter by the gates of the city. But outside, see, are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices lying. See the separation? It's just total separation, and it's repeated over and over and over, so we get the sense of finality, and that's why it's so important to get right with God.

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But throughout eternity, for those who are with God in this new heavens and new earth, we'll constantly be learning more of him. Seeing and understanding more of him. And for those who are outside, they cannot escape his presence. And they will bow. And they will confess that Jesus. You know, it's a lot better to just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ now than to wait for this final picture, isn't it? It's a lot better. I mean, why would you want to? Well, because God loves you so much.

Closing Notes And Where To Watch

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That he gave his only begotten son, the unique son, the heir of the world, he gave him, he sent him into the created world through the Virgin Mary.

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To be born. Come down here in this filth with us. Nasty. Nasty! The God of the universe came down here and walked with us, among us, in this filth, and he was tempted everything as we guess what he didn't sin. I mean think of the temptation. Oh yeah, it easy here was God. No, he had it harder. Because he couldn't use his divinity to meet the temptations.

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He had to meet him in the same way that you have to meet him, and that is by the Spirit of God.

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Trusting in the Spirit of God, abiding, right? Walking with Him. No cheating. That's what Satan tried to get him to do in the temptations. If you're really God, you can turn this stone into bread. I'm not gonna do that. Then he wouldn't be like us in all things.

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He wouldn't know what it's like to face the temptation. It got so bad that the guy was sweating blood. You ever done that? What does the book of Hebrews say? You have not resisted to the point of shedding blood. No, nobody in this room, nobody in this world ever did that.

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Except Jesus Christ. No one. But he did it. You think of the pressure. You think of the pressure.

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All the temptation. It's like a balloon. You know, this you you know the you know the frustration of temptation. It's like it's just more and more, and you're trying to resist, and you're trying to resist, and it's just like a balloon that's blowing up, and you're like, I'm gonna go crazy. And the only way you can relieve the pressure is to fall is to go go for the temptation, right? And sin. And then it's like, oh, you know, but you're out of fellowship, you know, things aren't right, you're thinking not right, everything's wrong. The Lord Jesus Christ's balloon never popped because he never fell for a temptation.

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He never gave in, he never sinned. The pressure was unbelievable. But he did it. He made it. And he paid the penalty for you and for me. Now it's a free gift.

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You don't have to do anything to get eternal life. Just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Free gift. Grace are you saved through faith, not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. There's no boasting, it's only boasting Christ. Look what Christ did. That's where we boast. Look what he did. I didn't do that. I couldn't do that. You couldn't do that. Nobody could do that. Only he could do that. And he did it. So why would you why would you want to you would want to do it because this is the greatest gift that's ever come. Because you know you're a sinner in the hands of an angry God, like Jonathan Edwards said. You know you are. You know, we're all in trouble.

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And so we need someone who's not in trouble to get us out of trouble. And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross.

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And look at all these blessings he asked for us. Here we're on Revelation 21 and 22. I mean, we've got a world that it can't even really be comprehended.

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It's so far in one way from the reality that we have now. It's hard. It's hard to imagine. But this is the world it's gonna be because Christ has resurrected. It's 100% people need him.

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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 Spoke 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.