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 - MIllenial Kingdom, Heaven, Hope, And The New Earth
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A world without tears isn’t a dispensational fantasy, it's our future. And this future is what enables us to endure suffering and motivates us to share our hope with 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.
From Good Creation To Abnormality
SPEAKER_01Welcome 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_02The original creation, when God made everything, God said it was very what? Good. And there was no tears, there was no crying, there was no suffering, there was no pain, there were no inefficiencies in labor, no problems in life. That's normal. That's normal. So with the introduction of sin into our world through Adam, now we experience what is called abnormality. And so death is an abnormal adembration or addition to what God originally made and designed us for.
SPEAKER_01It's so easy to gloss over or not even think about. The distant future is so distant and abstract. What possible impact could it have on your life, on my life today? And if we think about the future in this world, it's hard enough. But what about the future of heaven? The Millennial Kingdom and beyond. So many of us have a tough time just planning for retirement, or planning our vacation for the next year, or thinking about what type of person do I want to be like and moving toward that goal. So you can imagine, you probably even know deeply how much harder it is to think about heaven. The new heaven and the new earth that is talked so little about in the Bible. We only get glimpses of it. And yet, keeping heaven in mind has a big impact on our life. When we think about the millennial kingdom and ruling and reigning with Christ, this should influence us today. When we think about the new heaven and earth and being perfectly close and intimate with God and learning about Him forever, this should impact our relationships today. And when we consider that there is a place eternally distant from God, it should also impact our relationships with others and how we tell them and what we tell them of the Creator we serve.
Why The Future Should Shape Today
Millennial Kingdom And Eternal State
Isaiah 65’s Mixed Timeline
New Heavens And New Earth: Derived?
Revelation 21: The City’s Design
SPEAKER_02The New Testament framework, right? We're focusing on the first four events, which are the birth of the king, the life of the king, the death of the king, and the resurrection of the king. After this, we'll move on to the ascension and session and we'll look at the beginning of the church on the day of Pentecost. So that's where things are going. But in the doctrine or the event of the resurrection of the King, we are now been dealing with the doctrinal fallout, the doctrinal implications. And the doctrine that relates to the resurrection of the king is the doctrine of glorification. And it deals with three areas the doctrine of the glorification of God, the glorification of man, and the glorification of nature. So we've been detailing that, and uh there was just a little bit at the end of the glorification of nature that we had yet to finish. So we want to talk about the new world that ultimately will be glorified. And to do that, uh, well, let's see. Yeah, we'll just we're gonna turn to Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65. Remember that in um in the outline the scriptures give us, you basically you've got a period of history, a 1,000-year period, what we call the millennial kingdom, to emphasize the duration, because millennium means 1,000 years, sometimes called the messianic kingdom, uh, to emphasize the ruler of that kingdom, who will be the Messiah. And so this will extend for a thousand years according to Revelation chapter 20, where it's used seven times, even though the nature and characteristics of that kingdom are well developed by all the prophets in the Old Testament and uh in a few places in the New Testament. So that is one period of history that's very unique, we said, because in that in that world, man, at least believers, will be in a glorified state, will be in resurrection bodies, ruling and reigning with Christ. This is what the crowns are all about when it talks about the crowns that we receive as rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. Crowns are indicative of kingship, rulership, and those uh rewards that we receive will be uh utilized for our ruling and reigning with Christ in that uh millennial period of history. So that's a period where you've got immortals, glorified, resurrected people reigning over mortals. And we said that's shouldn't be considered strange, even though it may be considered strange to us, but it's not ultimately strange because for the first two thousand years of history, angels die, you know, which can't die, but uh spirit beings dwelt on the earth with man. So we also have the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ in his resurrected body, he was here on earth as a glorified individual for forty days and forty nights, so to speak, right? After his resurrection. So again, you have there a picture of an immortal living among mortals. So it's not that strange. Um, after the thousand years, then you move into what we call the new heavens and new earth, and that's mainly pictured in Isaiah, I'm sorry, uh, Revelation 21 and 22, but sort of the background for that is Isaiah 65. I told you to turn there, but see, I didn't turn there, so I'm gonna go now. Isaiah 65. And we were here last week, and I pointed out, I think, verses 20 to 25. Isaiah 65, 20 to 25. But if we back up this week to 17 through 19, we read the first usage in the Bible of the expression the new heavens and new earth. It's picked up later in Revelation 21. And here he says, For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in what I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing. So that would probably be a reference, in my understanding, to the actual new Jerusalem that's described in Revelation 21, and her people for gladness. I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people, and there will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying. And at this point, um we are in our minds, obviously everyone attracted to Revelation 21 and 22. And I do think 17, 18, and 19 refer to that period of history where there's no weeping, there's no crying, there's no tears, and so forth. But then I showed you last week that verses 20 through 25 actually talk about the possibility of one dying at age 100. And that can't occur in the in the ultimate new heavens and new earth, right? Revelation 21 and 22. That doesn't happen. So what's happening here is a mixture, there's a mixture in the first usage of new heavens and new earth of the millennial period and what we consider the eternal state. Okay? And so the Old Testament prophets do this commonly. They just kind of mix things together, like the first and second coming of Christ are often mixed together in the same passage. And we don't know until hindsight that, oh, there's over 2,000 years between these two verses. And uh even our Lord recognized this when he quoted Isaiah 61.1 in Luke chapter 4. And uh he says, of the first part of Isaiah 61, 1 and 2, this has been fulfilled, but he didn't say the rest of it had been fulfilled, and the rest of it has to do with the second coming. And yet, if you read it just straight through, you think, well, this all sounds like the same time, but we find out later it's a separate time. And the same thing's happening here. He's reflecting on the new heavens and new earth as just a broad picture that includes the millennium and the eternal state. And in one of those, the millennial kingdom, there can be death, right? But even here it's much improved because as we read last week, you know, if somebody dies at age 100, they'll be thought accursed. So, but today, if we think you die a hundred, you know, well, you lived a long life, you know. But there it says the one who we will live as long as trees, you know, so people will live uh, you know, probably the full thousand years. So some people. So uh you're not gonna die. I don't think the believers are gonna die in that period. Okay, the mortals will live to the end, and then something will have to happen to transition them over to the new heaven and new earth, what we call the eternal state, where there's no crying, no tears, no suffering. So there's this whole concept that we want to move now to in Revelation 21, where we look at what that new heavens and new earth will look like in its eternal state. And there's a big question that I think people still discuss, and that's the question of whether the new heavens and new earth is an entirely new creation or whether it's a derived creation, meaning that it's derived from previously existing elements that compose our current universe. Now we know that the Bible speaks of three heavens and earths. The first heavens and earth is the one from creation to the flood. The second is from the flood until the end of the millennium. I'm sorry, yeah, the end of the millennium. And then the last one is what we just called the new heavens and new earth. So we do have three heavens and earths in the Bible. When a heavens and earth is just a Hebrew expression for universes. So we basically have three universes. Um, the one that we live in now, the present universe that we live in now, was it derived from the previous universe that existed up till the time of the flood? Sure. In fact, we can go out in this world, we can look at geology, we can look at artifacts and fossils and so forth, and indications of early technology and so forth, and know that in fact this world is derived from a previous world. I'm of the opinion that the future new heavens and new earth is derivative of the current universe. This one will basically be burned up, right? This is quite clear in 2 Peter 3. But then the new heavens and earth will be composed of it. Now you may you may say, well, why? Why is it not an entirely new creation that's not derived from this current one? I think because it mirrors the resurrection body. And because of the descriptions of it here that we're going to look at in Revelation 21 and 22. So we're using our our concepts of the resurrection body here. The resurrection, Christ's resurrection body. This was the only resurrection body, except for perhaps those in Matthew 25 or 27. Um we're not discussing that passage, but there could have been some who were raised after Christ uh in the first century. But um, was Christ's resurrection body an entirely new body or was it derived from his previously existing body? Derived or non-derived? It's derived. We know that because the body was not in the tomb. It was that body that was in the tomb that was wrapped up, and the face was, the head was wrapped up too, and it was that body that was actually transformed into a resurrection body. And the same thing is going to be true for us. You say, Well, I don't know where uh, you know, I will be. I mean, if I go to corruption when I die, and you know, people used to make the joke of like, well, and then your body goes into the soil as it decays and the elements are returned, and they go to the grass, and the cow eats the grass, and the grass goes through the cow's uh stomach system and then it comes out the back end. And you know, people would go into all these types of details to discuss the the type of disgusting detail that um can be involved in the what happened to all the elements that and atoms that composed us. But i is not God able to uh take the very nature and essence of who we are wherever we may be and put us back together again immortal. No. If he can create the universe out of nothing, he can create us out of something. And uh it's a lesser miracle than creation itself. So the idea then is that this new heavens and new earth that we read of in Revelation 21 and 22, I think is derivative, just like the resurrection body is derivative. Now, let's look at some of the elements of this. Uh verse 1, 21.1. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. It's a new cosmos. For the first heaven and the first earth passed away. Uh first protoss can mean previous, prior, the one we currently live in. And there is no longer any sea. Now that's interesting. No sea. I like the sea. Do you like the sea? Um, but in this heavens and earth there won't be any sea. So this is what we call a dissimilarity, you know, or a difference, right? This is something unlike our current world. We have seas. Now there's speculation as to why there won't be any sea, but in the ancient world and uh pick something like the story of Jonah. Why would this uh um you know the Phoenicians were the main seafarers in the ancient world? They carried goods and services across the Mediterranean and so forth. The Jews didn't go to sea. They didn't do that. Why? Because the sea's dangerous. It could get stirred up by a storm, and it's considered up to in the Old Testament to be very uh dangerous. And um so when you see Jonah getting on a ship and setting out to sea, you should be thinking, what in the world is this Hebrew doing? Um He he'd more he'd he'd rather go out to sea where Jews didn't really go, than he would go to Nineveh to tell them what God what God wanted to tell them. So uh this could have an indication that there would be no more turmoil, dangers of of the sea in the future, new heavens and new earth. I also saw a holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride and so forth. And he goes on to describe that God will dwell among us, and we shall be his people, and he will be our God, right? That's God's ultimate desire in history, is to dwell with man. It started that way in the garden. He wanted to dwell with man, and what came in between and caused a barrier between us and God? Sin, right? And so he has ever since been seeking to reconstitute us so he could dwell among us, and uh that took place in the form of the Shekinah glory in the Old Testament, right? The pillar of fire by night, cloud by day. In the tabernacle, it says Exodus 25, build the tabernacle, I will dwell among you. You will be my people to Israel, and I will be your God. Um and so he dwelt with them until the Shekinah glory left the temple in the Babylonian exile. And then, of course, um he has never returned in that sense, but he has returned in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, which God dwelt among us, right? And um ultimately then he's going to return in the millennial kingdom and dwell among us. But then finally, the ultimate realization of this hope is here in the new heavens and new earth. He'll wipe away every tear, verse 4. There will no longer be any death, no longer be any mourning, no crying, no pain. The first things have passed away. Now, none of those things are normal, and this is one of the most important points for Christians to get in their mind. Death, crying, suffering, tears, these are not normal, right? Because we've got the original creation when God made everything, God said it was very what? Good. And there was no tears, there was no crying, there was no suffering, there was no pain, there were no inefficiencies in labor, no problems in life. That's normal. That's normal. So with the introduction of sin into our world through Adam, now we experience what is called abnormality. And so death is an abnormal adembration or addition to what God originally made and designed us for. So this will all be removed, though, and we will go back to what is quote unquote normal. Okay? No death, no crying, no tears, no pain, no mourning. And then you begin to sit and read about all the things that He made. Now, there's things that are unlike, you know, for example, those no sea. But notice things like, let's come down in the chapter, let's read verse 12. We're going to get a view of the holy city, Jerusalem. It comes down out of heaven. It has the brilliance of God's glory, right? Shining through this stone wall. Now we have stone walls today, right? So this is a similarity. And they may not be made of jasper, crystal clear jasper wall, by the way, 72 yards thick. A 72-yard thick wall. That's 226 feet or something like that, 23 feet. Thick wall. Almost the thickness of a football field, right? And it's crystal clear, you can see right through it, and the glory of God shines through that wall. But this is something that's similar to our world because we have we and known cities in the world that have been surrounded by walls. What is this saying anyway? I mean, I believe this is literal, this will literally be there, but what is it saying? It's talking about the security, the security of the city, that nothing evil will ever enter it, nothing evil will ever topple it. By the way, did the Garden of Eden have, so to speak, a barrier around it? It must have, because there was a gate that the angels, the charity beam, were stationed at to guard entrance into that garden to go to the tree of the knowledge of the tree of life. So you'll see some similarities between the garden and the ultimate city. Everything starts in a green lush garden, it ends in this beautiful city. Um that's a similarity to our present creation, showing the derivative nature of it. Verse 20, or verse 12, it had a great and high wall, which 12 gates. Okay, we have gates. The gates have 12 angels. Uh why are these angels there? Well, we find out later in the chapter. They're they're basically standing there to guard it. Now the gate remains open. These gates are composed of pearls. Okay, so well, we've heard of the pearly gates. But anyway, there's one great pearl for each gate in reality. And an angel stationed at each gate. Um, again, showing what? Security. You set a guard there to security. And what will never come in? Well, we're being told in verse 8, 21, 8, but for the cowardly and the unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. See, they'll never be able to enter. Um mentioned again later in verse 22, 15. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons. Outside. See, they'll never enter. There's the point is that there's never ever going to be a meeting of those who were in unbelief, who died in unbelief, and those who died in belief, right? There's a total separation in the final state of things. Uh verse uh 21 uh 14 the wall of the city had 12 foundation stones. If you have 12 foundation stones, I mean, how many do you really need to have a stable foundation? So this is showing, pointing up. The stability that this will never ever crumble. This will never ever fall. It's eternal, right? It's literal, but this has impact on meaning as well. Then they measure the city, you know, and you can read 1,500 miles. It's like half the size, or maybe like 40% of the size of the United States of America. I mean, this is the biggest city. I mean, we thought we've seen metropolises, you've never seen anything like this. The materials are described, the foundation stones are described. Again, these are all things that come from our current reality, like pure gold for the streets, the various stones and things that compose the foundations. Why do they share something with our current creation? Well, to show that the new heavens and new earth, New Jerusalem, is derived from this creation. Okay. So there are things that are like, there are things that are unlike, and that's just like the resurrection body. There's also trees there, right? There's also food. You can eat, you know, the tree of life is there and it gives off a different fruit every month. Can you imagine? What kind of tree does that in our world? We have trees that give off fruit, but if it's an apple tree, it's an apple tree, unless you try to, you know, what do you call that when you graph, thank you. Graft something in, okay. But the point is basically our trees in this world had the genetic capability of producing one type of fruit. But whatever these trees are, the tree of life, whatever this is, it can bear a different fruit every month. What does that look like for those of you who are interested in biology or chemistry or what what does that look like? Um, well, you may get to investigate. Um, there's a whole new world. We'll get into that today. Some of the repercussions, one of the repercussions of the resurrection is education, and I want to talk about that if we get enough time. Okay, so these are the great things about a nature glorified. Um, and you'll be able to eat there. You don't have to eat, we know, but you'll be able to eat. I mean, it's it's it's it's a remarkable world. And this all belongs to us, Paul says in uh his epistles. All right, I want to take us to the next PowerPoint because I want to now start moving into the doctrinal application of the glorification. And to do this, I want to start with a quote that I've already used in past weeks from George Eldon Ladd about the resurrection. Now remember that everything, when we study an event like the resurrection, we're not studying it like it's a bead. Like you might go in or a stone in a jewel jeweler. You might go in and look at one stone. Maybe you're looking at the diamonds, or maybe you're looking at the rubies or the emeralds or whatever. We're not studying these events as if it's just like one stone. Okay, we're trying to show that all these stones are related and tied together like beads on a necklace. Okay, so the resurrection is linked to other events in the scripture. And um, in this way, we're not viewing things piecemeal but as holistically from God's vantage point. He says that Jesus' resurrection is not an isolated event that gives to men the warm confidence and hope of a future resurrection. Um I mean, it gives me a warm hope, right? But let me ask a question. Does the resurrection give a non-believer hope? No. In fact, it's one of the things that's scary about the gospel. It's one reason unbelievers don't want to talk about the gospel. I mean, the gospel, we say, what's good news? Why doesn't everybody want to hear good news? Well, because this good news has some scary elements to it. It indicates that you have to get right with God, or else you'll be resurrected not just unto life for those who do believe, but those who do not will be raised to everlasting destruction. So that's not a thing that people want to think about. It doesn't give them a warm confidence and hope. He says it is the beginning of the eschatological resurrection itself. In other words, Christ is the first one raised from the dead, right? And if he's the first one raised from the dead, then there's surely more to follow. But the beginning's already taken place. He says if we may use crude terms to describe sublime realities, we might say that a piece of the eschatological resurrection, that's the future resurrection, has been split off and planted in the midst of history. He's saying the first century. You have an actual resurrected person who was in this world. And that, of course, is very significant. He says the first act of the drama of the last day has taken place before the day of the Lord. I mean, it's already done. So, with that in mind, that background of the resurrection itself having already occurred, I want to make four applications. The first one is the resurrection gives us the hope we need to handle suffering well. In other words, it's an incentive. It's an incentive. How many people suffer? Anybody? Oh, never mind. I thought we might have some people that suffered.
SPEAKER_03Turn over to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Which we were here last week, but you know, we end up here a lot. That's okay. It doesn't hurt to look at 16 and 17 because they're interesting with respect to suffering.
No Tears And True Security
SPEAKER_02Um I believe that all Christians will go through some degree of suffering. But you'll notice there's a pattern that's being laid down in verses 16 and 17. The Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God. And if we are children, we're heirs also, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ. This is a first class condition, since indeed, since indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also what? Be glorified with him, share in his glory. So there's a path to glory, and that path is suffering comes first. Suffering and glory. Why did Christ come the first time? Did he come to reign in glory or did he come to suffer? He came to suffer. There's a pathway, it's a sequence. You have to go through the suffering first and then the glory later, right? And so the same path that he took is actually the same path that we take. By the way, this is the worst it's going to get, okay? If you're here today, this life is the worst it's ever going to get. You're suffering now, but guess what? You're going to be reigning in glory later. Now, he then brings up the application that we should take from this in verse 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time, that's what we're going through now, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. And this glory is reflected in our resurrection and in a glorified nature that we will be living in. Do you see how this gives us incentive? Because we know the future, because we have hope, not just the I hope so, but because we have certainty of the future resurrection and that things now are the worst they're ever going to be. As long as we have that future expectation of a resurrection, it's incentive for us to suffer well now. Like we can we can deal with it. Whereas if we don't have a resurrection hope in the future, how in the world could you ever deal with it? How could you ever deal with it? See, all the pain, suffering, and we read this already, in the new heavens and new earth, all the pain, suffering, the tears are all going to pass away. Usually, you know, we think of, well, think of the prayer requests that we have here. Not all of them, but how much 90% of them are related to so-and-so has physical problems, uh, some illness, some something's going on with their physical body, and we're we're gonna pray about it, right? Well, you know, the ones that really bother us are like little ones, you know, like a little five-year-old that gets cancer, you know. Uh the 15-year-old Ian Nasworth, who was killed in a car accident a few weeks ago, 15 years old. That stuff bothers us, right? When we get older, we say, Well, I'm old, you know, I expect it. I I got cancer, you know, or whatever, I expect that. Guess what? It's all abnormal. It's all abnormal. It's not normal. It's a result of sin coming into this world through the first atom, right? And it's infected everything. And because of that, we suffer and we mourn and we have tears. But all this is gonna go away. But the question is, how? How are we gonna handle it now? I mean, you don't know exactly what sufferings the Lord has in store for you in the future. Sometimes we sit there and go, we see something happen to someone else, just a terrible tragedy in someone's life. And we're like, Oh, I hope that doesn't happen to us.
SPEAKER_03I hope we don't have to face that. And um but here's the thing we have a real hope out there that eclipses all that.
Suffering Now, Glory Later
Christianity’s Answer To Evil
SPEAKER_02And that's what gives us the incentive to be able to cope, to be able to handle it, to be able to what the Bible calls suffer well. Right? Because we're all gonna suffer, but not everybody suffers well. Some people suffer very badly. They become bitter, bitter, and angry, especially against God. That's not suffering well. Suffering well is trusting and sought God's sovereign provision for our lives, that he loves us, that he has a purpose for us. Now, we actually have a real hope because the one who's res who the one who we are trusting in has already been raised from the dead. He's already conquered death. So we know in the future that we'll be resurrected like him. And this gives us the ability to handle our own sufferings well. What does James 1, 2 through 4 say? James is famous for this. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that it tests your faith and it builds perseverance. You know, uh, most people are like, I know. When I face a trial, the first thing I do is I'm not like, oh Lord, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. I love this, this is so great. I know that you're working in me to make me a stronger believer, to take me to a higher place. That should be our response. If we know the patterns of Scripture that God has worked through other people's lives, you know the endurance of Job, right? James 5. So we should look at the lives of past saints who've been through sufferings, right, and be able to apply that to our own lives. And that's the goal. That's what we're trying to do. But we so often slip and we don't count it all joy. But the resurrection does give us hope so that we can count it all joy. Now, um, Christianity is usually criticized, and if I were if I were an unbeliever and I were to make one argument against Christianity, it would be this argument. But I'm going to show you this argument is empty. This is the argument that um the God of Christianity is is has a contradiction within himself. It's the idea of the problem of evil, right? And it's the idea that God has these two attributes that atheists will say can't get together in the same God because of evil. And the problem goes basically like this if God is all-powerful and God is all-loving, why hasn't he taken away evil? It must be because he's not all-powerful and he can't take it away, or he's not all-loving because he won't take it away. Now that's a typical way that this problem is pronounced by atheists against Christianity. And maybe you can feel the pressure of that argument. You're like, yeah, why doesn't he take away the suffering? Is he so you know weak that he can't? Or does he really not love me and he won't? You know, now let's look at this diagram that you've seen time and time and time again. Christianity is represented on the top where we have the creator-creature distinction. Paganism is on the bottom where everything is just one. There's no separation. And you notice the little infinity symbols in either direction. So the question when you look at this diagram is who really has the problem of evil? In the upper diagram, we have a creation that God made that was very good. And of course, sin entered, and now you have this admixture of good and evil. Something's good, something's evil in our world, right? But look, and that's where we live now, and that's the tension that we live in now. We live in the good evil section of history. But look at the future, what God has planned to do. He's gonna judge, and that judgment is a separation. It's a separation of the good out from the evil. It just hadn't happened yet. What's the Christian answer to the problem of evil anyway? Well, he is gonna separate it. He is gonna solve the problem of evil. But right now, what is he doing? 2 Peter 3 9 tells us he is patient, he is long-suffering, he's giving people an opportunity in this world to believe the gospel and cross over. Cross over out of death and into life, right? That's the period of history we live in. God's not so weak that he can't remove the evil, and God's not so unloving that he won't. He's just patient as well. He's just patient as well. And he's patiently waiting. Now, so that's the Christian answer to the problem of evil. What's the what's the pagan answer for the problem of evil exactly? It's going to go on forever and ever and ever and ever and ever, and you can never escape it. You can never get out of it. Wasn't it the people in the 70s in America who got into the Eastern religion thing? Oh, this is so cool. Let's get into this, man. Yeah, man. Let's smoke, dude. Let's get out there and think about, you know, Eastern religion, bro. And we're gonna go into reincarnation and all this. This is this is rocking, man. And then it didn't take too long before, you know, they began to catch up with the people in the East who realized that reincarnation isn't this lovely idea because reincarnation means I have to come back into this bottom line. In other words, I've never escaped. I just come back to a fallen, messed up world. And this goes on and on and on. So why do I want to come back? So they invented the doctrine of nirvana, right? And nirvana, you know, the famous rock band over in Seattle, right? Named after this concept. This concept that you just you're like a drop of water that falls into the ocean, and you lose all of your identity. You just become a part of the one. So this was their concept of nirvana. And it was their only way of escape. Escaping what? Escaping the horror of that bottom line. I mean, who wants to come back and do this all over again and again and again and again and again? Like the honky tonk song, right? I was a sailor. Okay, I'm not gonna sing, but you know the song? Then he comes back and it's is it Willie Nelson and some other guys? And um you come back again and again and again and again. That song's all about reincarnation. Um, not exactly that's their answer. And the answer is no hope. Okay, because there's ultimately no judgment and no separation in paganism where you finally get the good sifted out from the evil. So now the question is who had who really has the problem of evil? Is it Christianity or is it those who reject Christianity? See, it's very clear to see that we have an answer and they have no answer at all. So that's the first application. The resurrection gives us hope so that we are able to cope with our sufferings because we actually have a future where God is going to resolve it and give us resurrection bodies. The second one is an interesting one. This was brought up by um maybe you know that you know uh Jay Adams. I don't know if you've heard of Jay Adams. Jay Adams came along in the 1960s and he started writing books about biblical counseling. Okay, and the reason he did this, and all this caused an uproar in Christianity. It was almost as big as the creation evolution debate in the 60s, brought about by Morris and Whitcomb's book, The Genesis Flood. What Adams was saying was that, hey, look, uh with the modern psychology psychology movement in the universities and and all of this, uh Christians started uh bringing uh the ideas of Freud and his you know interest in sex, uh Maslov, Hierarchy of Needs, Fletcher's Situational Ethics, right? Bringing all these guys into Christian counseling and mixing the Bible with these uh secular psychologists and using this, trying to use this to you know bring Christian, you know, create Christian counseling. I I've told people for years there's three types of counseling. There's three types of counseling. Whenever you need counsel, these are the three types. You need to find out what type the person is going to be employing. First of all, secular counseling. That means they're going to be using Maslow, Floyd, Skinner, Fletcher, all these guys, right? I mean, that's where they're that's their source material. Second, Christian counseling. Okay, that's Christians who use the Bible, plus they use secular counseling. Okay, in other words, they mix it to. What I call an accommodation. You're accommodating. And the third is what we call biblical counseling. Those are people who say, we don't really need Maslow, Freud, Skinner, and all that stuff. That's all coming from paganism. The Bible is sufficient. There's only one group there of counselors who actually recognize the Bible is sufficient. And it's the third group, biblical counseling. And that's what Jay Adams came along and started writing, like a book competent to counseling, competent to counsel. What he was saying in the book competent to counsel is who is competent to counsel? Do you need a degree in psychology to be able to counsel Christians? His point was no. The one who knows the Bible the most is the one who is the best counselor in the world. Because he understands what God has said about the human condition, exactly what truth is, and is able to apply it to someone who needs counsel. So he believed that through our lives we face several cross, so-called crosses and resurrections. He says this is like a pattern that we go through. And so the resurrection here is going to hopefully encourage you, okay? The cross to resurrection pattern assures us that we too have crosses in life that lead to resurrections. I mean, aren't we supposed to take up our cross and follow him?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02This is a pattern he's saying in Scripture. Jesus went through this pattern, and we're to follow this pattern. Now, what's the end of the pattern? The end of the pattern is that he's elevating us to a higher place. In other words, through the cross in your life, the difficulties, the tragedies, the struggles, on the other side of that, there's resurrection. In other words, he's taking you to a higher place. Okay, so let's read the quote and then maybe look at some of the verses. But it's such a good quote. I'll just make some comments along the way. Counselee, okay, now that's that's the person who's getting counseling, the person who needs is getting it, must be given a vision of overcoming evil with good, of turning tragedy into triumph. In other words, what are you doing? You're giving them hope. I mean, if they don't have a vision of that, that there's any way through this difficult thing, whatever it is they're facing, how could they how can they go on? So the counselee has to be given this vision that evil can be overcome with good. Tragedy will be turned into triumph. He must see that it is God's purpose to use crosses to lead to resurrection. When sin abounds, and we must be entirely realistic about the abounding nature of sin. And he's right. In all of our lives. There's a little bit of sin that causes problems, right? He says, nevertheless, the counselor must point out grace even more abounds than the sin. Is that biblical? Yeah, that's Romans 5.20. That's Romans 5.20. As sin increased, grace abounded even all the more. Right? So grace abounds more than sin. That means there's a solution. He says, there is a solution to every problem. That's what that means. See how he thought about that passage about grace abounding more than sin? And he said, you know what? That means that even in the worst cases of sin in our lives, there is grace that trumps that sin.
SPEAKER_03Did I say trump? He says, but that is not all.
SPEAKER_02Let's see what all the rest he means. He says, it is a solution that is designed to lead one beyond the place where he was before the problem emerged. I mean, you are at a specific place in your spiritual life right now. What he's saying here is what? That on the other side of this cross that you're going through, you will be a step up higher in your spiritual life. You're not going to come out at the same place any more than Jesus came out of the cross in the same place he was before. No, he was a step higher in the resurrection. He says, No man was created lower than the angels, and by descent, sin descended into still lower position. Christ's redemption doesn't did not merely put man back into his original condition. He has raised him far above the angels. I mean, that's our position in Christ, right? Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, we are seated in Christ where? In the heavenlies. Seated in Christ where? In the heavenlies. Where is the heavenlies? Is that above all the angels? Yes, it is. In fact.
SPEAKER_03So positionally, we're already there. Job learned it at length.
SPEAKER_02Did he not? Did God take Job and his sufferings in his life, and then after it was all done, bring him back to the same position, or did he bring him to a higher position? A higher position. If you read Job 42, 12, what do you think you read there? Anyone have any conjectures as to what that verse says? It recounts all the blessing that God gave Job after he lost everything. Remember, he had like several thousand sheep and oxen and all these things. He had 10 kids, right? This verse recounts that he received double of all those things. Except children. He received 10 children again. The exact same number. One of which was named Jemima.
SPEAKER_03You know, Aunt Jemima? Anyway. Um he does he he took him to a higher place.
SPEAKER_02And that's what he does in our own crosses and resurrections through our life until we get to our actual resurrection. Right? He's he's bringing us to a higher place.
SPEAKER_03Joseph experienced it, right? Where where did Joseph end up? Second only to Pharaoh. Second only to Pharaoh. And Jesus accomplished it. Where does he sit? Where does he sit? He sits through the right hand of the Father in the highest position in the universe. As the heir of all creation. One day to come and reclaim everything. And every knee will bow. And every tongue will confess that he is everyone. Above the earth, on the earth, and under the earth. Universal worship, universal recognition of the king of kings.
SPEAKER_02So enough said about that point, I think, is that we can be encouraged whenever we're facing trials, crosses, right? Because on the other side of it, he's taking you to a higher place. Philippians 1 6. Right? Let's look at look at Philippians 1 6.
SPEAKER_03Just as a verse that kind of shows this concept. Philippians 1 6.
Crosses That Lead To Resurrections
SPEAKER_02Paul says in Philippians 1 6, I'm confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it or complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. You see how he's just constantly at work to bring you to a higher place in that verse? He's involved in your sanctification. Same thing in chapter 2, verse 12. Philippians 2, 12. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. He's talking about your own spiritual life, your spiritual growth, your sanctification. He says, why? For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. See, he's constantly at work in you to accomplish his good pleasure. I always say, Yeah, you're supposed to work out your salvation. I use like an outlet in the wall. That's my analogy. Because we assume, assuming everything's working, if you go to an outlet in your house, is there electricity there? Yeah, it's right there. All you have to do is what? Plug in. Okay? And this is the thing, okay? The spirit is always at work, okay? Like that electricity is always there. All you have to do is what? Plug in. And that's what it's saying. Walk by the Spirit. What do you have to do? Depend on Him. You know, let His electricity, so to speak, flow through you. Let Him work in your life. Now you can unplug and say, I'm going to walk by the flesh, right? But He's still there. The electricity went away, the Holy Spirit never went away. The Holy Spirit never went away. You just have to plug in, right? And that's what we do. We get back in fellowship, we plug in, we move on. Right? He's at work in us to produce what? His electricity flowing through us. It's not us, it's him at work in us, right? Producing his fruit. Okay, so that's a wonderful point. Third point. As if we needed to say this, but this should be probably majored on. The resurrection is an incentive to evangelize others. It's an incentive to evangelism. Why is it an incentive to evangelism? Because the first point here, if the first piece of the new heavens and new earth is already in place, that is the resurrected Christ, then guess what? There really is no time left. I mean, he's already complete. People need to get right with God now. Acts 17, let's look at this one when Paul was at Athens, invited to speak on Mars Hill before the philosophers of the day, to explain what he was talking about in the marketplace, about Jesus and the resurrection. They said, we want to know about these things. As he gave this address, he gets close to the end of it when they kind of cut him off. And in verse 30, therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance. Now, this is the time previous to the cross. This is when God was basically working with Israel. Israel was to be a light to the world. But as far as the Gentiles were concerned, they were just in ignorance. God is now, that is, post-cross, right, declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent. Now, does that include everybody? All men everywhere? Yeah, it includes people in every continent, every nation, every tribe, every tongue.
SPEAKER_03They should all do what? Repent. Have a change of mind. About what?
SPEAKER_02Well, about the ultimate order of things. And who's at the center of it all? They need to get right with God. They need a change of mind about God, about Christ, and what's going on. Therefore, verse 31. Because, here's the reason. Why do they need to get right with God now? Because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world.
SPEAKER_03Remember this diagram? Do you see right where he's going to judge the world depicted on this diagram? At that point, there's no turning back. There's no switching sides.
SPEAKER_02I mean, that is a scary point to think about. And Paul is very clear that, hey, this day when he's going to judge is fixed. And he's going to judge it in righteousness through a man whom he's appointed, having furnished proof to all men by doing what? Raising him from the dead. In other words, he's a perfect human. So there's not going to be any funny business going on in the courts. You're going to have to stand before him. It's going to be a perfectly a perfect justice will be implemented at that moment. And if you haven't repented and gotten right with God through the finished work of Christ, then you're in big trouble.
SPEAKER_03Like forever. Trouble. The biggest kind of trouble you could ever be in.
SPEAKER_02And that's why Paul is so what I call busy. I mean, have you traced his life? Have you just kind of studied his life? Turn to 2 Corinthians 11.
SPEAKER_03If you just follow this guy, you're exhausted following him.
SPEAKER_02You're like, I gotta quit, man. Stop. Slow down. 2 Corinthians, look at this guy. Why is this guy so busy? 2 Corinthians 11, I believe it's verse 22. I got the wrong verse here.
SPEAKER_031122. Did I say 2 Corinthians? 2 Corinthians 11, 22.
Urgency For Evangelism
SPEAKER_02Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I speak as if insane. I'm more so. Okay. More so a servant of Christ, he says. In far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number.
SPEAKER_03Now, how many times have you been beaten? I haven't either. So we're on the same boat here.
SPEAKER_02Often in danger of death. How many times have you often been in danger of death for the gospel? Five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes.
SPEAKER_03Five times. Three times I was beaten with rods. That would be about the Romans, Fasces, right?
SPEAKER_02From ancient fascism. Once I was stoned, remember that occasion in Lystraits and Acts? Guess what he did after he got stoned? They said they thought he was dead. He got up and he went back in the city.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Is that what you would do? Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I spent in the deep. How many nights did you spend in the deep?
SPEAKER_02I've been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, the Jews, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea. You're like, where are you gonna go? There's no danger, Paul. It's like the guy was looking for trouble everywhere he went, right? Why? Because he wouldn't stop. He would not stop preaching the gospel to people.
SPEAKER_03Why? Why was he like this? This is why. He realized this.
SPEAKER_02Every person is either going to spend everlasting punishment in evil or everlasting life in heaven. And he loved people that much. He realized, you know, the rest of it really doesn't matter. I mean, you're basically here for one decision in your life. And you basically get three score and ten to make it, right? And that decision is do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or not?
SPEAKER_03If not, everlasting separation from God.
SPEAKER_02If yes, everlasting life with God. I mean, it's Paul realized that. And that's why, you know, you can keep going there, right there in verse 26. Dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren. I've been in labor and hardships through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure, apart from such external things. In other words, he's saying that's all just the bodily stuff. That might affect your physical body. He says, on top of that, he says, there's the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. This is the psychological side of it, the emotional side of it. Who is weak without my being weak? In other words, I empathize with people. And that is, is that heavy? Does that weigh on you? Oh, yeah. And we all know it when somebody dies in the family or something like that. All of a sudden we're just wrecked. Physically, we're exhausted because we're emotionally and psychologically disasters, right? We're exhausted. He says, Who is led into sin without my intense concern? Not just concern, but intense concern. You think Paul knew of people's sin problems? Sure, he did. And was he concerned about it? Yeah, he wasn't like, well, that's just their problem. They can deal with that. No, he had his own intense concern, was wrapped up in their lives. If I have to boast, he says, I'll boast what pertains to my weakness, and he goes on. But the point is that this man was so urgent in his gospel proclamation. And the reason is because he realized what the resurrection of Christ meant. It meant that it's over, okay? It's over. Time, there's no more time. People have to get right with God now. And so he went to reach as many people as he possibly could. We have some missionaries like that today that I know of. I mean, I'm like, I don't, I don't know how these people just keep going. I don't know. They're so dedicated to reaching all their people, you know, their tribe, their people for Christ. And they just go and go and go and go and go. You know, and you're like, what am I doing? Well, I mean, I I I, you know, for years I was like, I just feel guilty. I'm just sitting here in a pulpit. I'm sitting at home studying, I'm whatever. Yeah, but I also realized that God has a plan for everybody's life, and this is his plan and purpose for me. And so I just be I became content with that. This is what God wants me to do. Minister in what I would consider in the 21st century to be the greatest country on earth that is going to the garbage can. And one of the most difficult places in the world to minister because people have had so much Bible over the last 250 years in this country that what? They don't even care anymore. They're not even interested. You can say whatever, and they'll just, eh, whatever, that's your thing. And it's very, very difficult to minister in this culture, so don't downplay it. It's it's it's a struggle. But we should, right, have an incentive to evangelize others. I mean, every person you meet, that person is going to either spend eternity in heaven or hell. Hell. I mean, what what more can you do for them than in the right context at the right time, give them the gospel?
SPEAKER_03So they can believe. Say, well, where where are you with this? The last one. The resurrection defines the goal of education as I mean, what is the goal of education?
SPEAKER_02It used to be the Harvard motto was something like uh learn the truth in in Christ or something like that. It's something about truth. The goal of education being truth.
SPEAKER_03It's not like that today, but anyway. Um the goal of education is to learn about God.
SPEAKER_02And to enjoy him forever. See, this is where there's a disconnect. Most people think and and and if you're not if you're not a thinking Christian or you're a non-Christian, this is education is boring.
SPEAKER_03I mean, like, why do you got to take those classes? To pass the test.
Education As Worship
SPEAKER_02So I can get a degree, so I can get a job. So I can make some money, so I can have some cars. So I can get a house.
SPEAKER_03You find out after a while that stuff doesn't really matter. I mean, if that's all there is in life, really. If that's all there is in life, that's stupid. What a waste. Get some cars. After a while, you don't care about cars. It's silly. It's a silly little thing.
SPEAKER_02So, in the but in that outlook, I mean, education is a bore. You're just doing it to pass the test, to get the degree, so you can make the bucks. I mean, that's all. You're not really interested in the subject matter. I mean, why would you be? I mean, there's nothing there. But when you think about reality in terms of the of the creation, the created world that we see, I don't know if this was true for you, but let's let me back up. This was true for me. Uh, this happened to me. When I really realized, I was already a Christian, but when I really realized that creation was true and not evolution, and I was in, you know, I was doing biology and chemistry, those were my degrees. Um, all of a sudden I got really interested in biology and chemistry and physics and other things like that. I got really interested. Why did I all of a sudden get interested? Because I realized I wasn't just discovering uh ideas or facts, I was discovering a person who was behind those facts, who designed it all. And I was like, whoa. And all of a sudden, everything was super interesting. I began to think about the interconnectedness between all these disciplines. And this is what we call worship. Education became worship because worship is appreciation for God and His infinite wisdom as displayed, not just in my spiritual life, but in the in the created world around me. You know, people used to use the uh teleological argument, the argument for the existence of God that's along the lines of design. In other words, they looked at it creation, they saw design, and they said design argues for a designer. That designer is God.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_02Roughly that's the teleological argument. Then the atheist came back, and the atheist said, Yeah, but we also see items that depict maldesign. Like it could be improved upon. And this was the counter to the teleological argument. So the argument, the teleological argument does have some weaknesses, but the interesting thing about it is that the Bible also accounts for why there's maldesign, things that could be improved upon. And that is well, we don't live in the original created world, do we? We live in a fallen world. So the original design, that's the perfect one. Whatever it is. Now, since the fall, it's been distorted. It's not perfect. But the Bible actually accounts for both of those. So maybe you could modify the teleological argument to account for both to show that God is actually there. But I got real interested. You know, I would look at structures and study things. I remember we used to live in West Texas. They had all those windmill farms. And you'd see these windmills come through Fredericksburg Main Street. One, I don't even know how long those things are. I'd say like 130 feet, 140 feet, going down Main Street of a town of 10,000 people. I mean, the thing went from one light to the next almost in town. And you're watching this, and I got interested in these because who likes to drive through the countryside and see these windmill farms? You're like, ah, it's just such an eyesore. But got interested in these. The guy who designed these thought that a perfectly smooth surface on this turbine, you know, would be the best design for efficiency of generating. Then the guy was actually studying these micro, you'd look at a he was looking at the tails of humpback whales. And they noticed these micro bumps all over the tails of these whales. And they knew that they were super efficient. And so they began to build wind turbines with little perturbations all over them. Far more efficient. In other words, they're borrowing from God's design to make the things in our world. Same thing as the Eiffel Tower, right? Some of you probably know the story, Gustav Eiffel, who built the tower, right? It's an upside-down femur. He got his design from the femur, which is the strongest bone in the human body. And he said, this structure, something about our femur, he wanted to make this thing. And nobody wanted it, of course. Now it's like one of the most famous icons in the world. But Gustav Eiffel got his idea from the human femur. A creation of God was the inspiration for that. See, we depend so much on design features for the ideas that we come up with to make things, to make the world a better place. But the God who did all this is never recognized. I was thinking just the other day about sound. You know, we got these wavelengths, right? Different wavelengths, different sound. By the way, we can't even hear them all, can we? We're only hearing a very small part of the wavelength spectrum. The rest of it, we have no idea what it sounds like. Does that mean it doesn't make a sound? It means that we just can't hear it. It makes you wonder, in the resurrection, will we be able to hear other frequencies that we've never heard before? What did Paul say when he got caught up to the third heaven and he came back? He said, I heard things unexpressible that I'm not permitted to say. Maybe he wanted to describe some things, not just conversations, but wanted to describe sounds that you've never heard. But the world is created in such a way it's almost like, you know, you have this tympanic membrane here that separates the inner and outer ear. It's so interesting, right? These are for what? These are for catching wavelengths, right? If you have big ones, it gets better. That's why they grow bigger as we get older, guys. Right? So we can actually hear what our wife said, huh, honey? Because we've been tuning her out for 40 years. God says, I'm gonna make them grow. Their cartilaginous structure continue to grow, just like your nose, by the way, guys. It happens. You have this tympanic membrane there. These wavelengths move along, they vibrate it like a tympanic drum, right? Like the surface. Right inside it, three little bones, malleus, incus, and stapes, right? And it causes them to do and transmit, and then there's an electrical signal after it moves this fluid in there. It's an electrical signal that sends uh signal to your brain where your brain interprets that. I'm sure this all just evolved, right? Um, I mean, it's not complicated at all. I mean, we've got an electrical system, we've got chemical system, we've got uh, you know, physics issues going on. This is all super, super complicated. Education became for me, and hopefully it does for you, worship. Because you're not just looking at pieces, you're looking at the God who built all these pieces, and you're impressed with Him.
SPEAKER_03And you can't you never get over it. Now you can do this with everything uh math and design. We have these things called imaginary numbers. Why do we have those?
SPEAKER_02Because if we don't have them, we can't work the equations out.
SPEAKER_03What? But how do why does it work? How does it work? We don't know, but we just know that if we don't have them, it doesn't work, so we have to have them.
SPEAKER_02Um art and creation. Think about you know, I used to want to be a marine biologist a long time ago. You, you know, Jacques Cousteau and all that stuff. That's what I thought I was gonna be. Scuba diaper down there looking at all these cool creatures. Um you know, it wasn't until about a hundred years ago that we even knew what was down there. Because we know nobody could go down there, right? Too many atmospheric pressures, you get too deep.
SPEAKER_03Uh, but now we've gone down there and we found color amazing. What's that doing now? Nobody's seen it in the history of the world to the last hundred years. It's for the glory of God. All that color. Things are unbelievable. Nobody ever seen. And we're just discovering it. What are we supposed to do with that? Worship. Worship.
SPEAKER_02You go out in the cosmos, right? The heavens. The heavens, what? They declare the glory of God. The earth is handiwork, right? You go out there, you know, we would study Venus. We study all this in homeschool. You study, is Pluto a planet? You know, you go through all this stuff. Every one of these planets has a different atmosphere, uh, different rotation around the earth, different time orbit around the earth, different rotational patterns. Everyone's different, you know, and it's like so interesting. You're like, boy, I'm glad we don't live on Venus where it's 950 degrees every day on one side, you know, the other side's like ice cold, like 200 and something below zero. Um, you know, you you can learn about every one of them, right?
SPEAKER_03And just a little peek into them. But then there's galaxies beyond that we have no idea anything about. Why are all those there? For the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02And one of the remarkable things is, and in the Hebrew, it just these are all described as stars, these features that are out there. And in three Hebrew words, he created them all. Just three Hebrew words. What kind of power is this?
unknownWhat kind of power?
SPEAKER_02What kind of brilliance is this? Now I've said all that about this creation, right? And we've investigated. We're investigating, we're still studying these things, we're still learning about all these things, right? And they should be endlessly fascinating for the Christian because it's not just the thing, it's the God behind the thing that we're learning about.
SPEAKER_03But here's the deal there's a whole new creation coming. A whole new one. We don't know anything about it.
SPEAKER_02The closest we got was the resurrected Christ walking on earth for 40 days, and nobody got to dissect his body to find out what his lymph system was like, or if he had one.
SPEAKER_03Nobody got it to investigate at all. Then we know there's going to be trees there.
SPEAKER_02Who's investigated that? Do we have DNA in the resurrection body, or is it a completely other system? Is it something totally new that you'll be able to investigate and learn about? Learn about who? Learn about the God who created all this. Another system. Like it is mind-blowing. I mean, if this creation is cool and neat and fun to investigate, wait till you get to the next one.
SPEAKER_03The one that's perfect.
SPEAKER_02And all along, again, who are you learning about? You're learning about God. See, what's the purpose of education? The purpose of education is to learn about God and it's to enjoy Him forever. And it can never be a dull moment. It can never be a dull moment. So, how do we get this way of thinking? We get this way of thinking by thinking about Proverbs 1.7, right? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. I lived on that verse for years. Because I thought the beginning of knowledge was me going to the university and listening to all the professors and listening to all the great courses and reading all the great books, and this was how I was going to become knowledgeable. No, what it meant was I was going to become an arrogant idiot. Because I was going to think I was so great, and I was going to think my intellect was so strong. No, the fear of the Lord, what's that? It's respect and being in awe of his nature. It's in other words, the way to become knowledgeable is to come to God and to respect him and live in awe of him. Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians throughout the book, if you study it carefully. Living every moment as if you're in his sight. If you live every moment as if you're in his sight, you're living in fear of him. Not like scaredy cat feared, not that kind of type of scared, but respect and awe and appreciation. Because he's watching. It doesn't matter what everybody else thinks, it matters what who thinks. He thinks. And if everybody doesn't like it, too bad. But he cares. And he's watching. And he's pleased. And that's all that counts. Another verse, Psalm 36, 9, in your light we see light. It's the only way. I mean, no, there's no such thing as an original thinker except God. He's the only original thinker. Everybody else who ever had a right thought was thinking a thought after God thought it.
SPEAKER_03Ever thought of that? We used to say with my father-in-law.
SPEAKER_02All thinking that is not biblical thinking is non-thinking. All thinking that is not God's thinking is non-thinking. Because it's unreal. It's not real. It's nothing. It doesn't mean anything. It's fake. It's a lie. It's a deception. It's a manipulation. So the only type of thinking that we need to employ is his thinking. And when we are thinking that way, we're thinking his thoughts after him. That's the point. 2 Corinthians 10. Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. How many? Every. Does that mean biological thoughts? Yes. Does it mean chemical thoughts? Yes. Does it mean physics thoughts? Yes. Does it mean electrical thoughts? Yes. Does it mean math thoughts? Yes. James Nichol wrote a book, Mathematics is God Silent. Should be read by every Christian. Should be read by every Christian. You say, I don't like math. Yes, you should read it. You're the people that really should read it. Because then you can really appreciate that math is not just there, whether or not God exists. Math is a testimony to the mind of God. And we only discover that and write it out in formulas. But we still haven't ingested it all. We haven't figured it all out. Physics is an open realm for Christians to go into and totally take over. I don't know why they're not. Totally take. We could take that one over so easily. Christians should totally do it. What is the chief end of man? What are we here for? Very simple. To glorify God and enjoy him forever.
SPEAKER_03That's it. To glorify God and enjoy him forever.
Awe, Wisdom, And Lasting Joy
SPEAKER_02Why is Ecclesiastes written? To show us that everything down here is vain. And the only thing that matters is him. The only place significance is found is him. The only place meaning is found is him. And what do we keep trying to do? Find it down here. We keep trying to find it down here. And the whole book of Ecclesiastes is written to head us off at the past so we don't waste our lives. Because Solomon had all the resources to try it all out, and he already did. And it's nothing. He says it's vain, right? What did he find out? That last sentence. And now we're 3,000 years after that. And Christians are still trying to find it in this world. You can't. You can't. You can't. You can't. You can't get over it. Quit trying. You're just hurting yourself. You're making yourself crazy. The only one who will ever satisfy you is God. Ever. That's because Ecclesiastes says, He said eternity in your heart. God said eternity in your heart. What's that? It's an infinite abyss. Can an infinite abyss be filled with all the money in the world? All the cars in the world, all the power in the world. Can an infinite abyss be filled by all those things? No. You need what to fill an infinite abyss? An infinite person. It's the only way. It's the only way. Alright, well, I'm sticking with that.
SPEAKER_01Thank 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.