NT Framework - Gods Glory trumps Mans Salvation

Do you read the Bible to find out how to live? Perhaps you read it to find out how to be a better person? While these are good uses of going to Scripture, these are not the primary purpose of the Bible. The ultimate purpose is to reveal God and for His creation to glorify Him. 

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. 

Transcript

Welcome And Series Setup

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Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy

God’s Ultimate Purpose Is Glory

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it.

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What is the ultimate purpose of God? Well, dispensationalists are saying it's doxology. You know, we we sing a doxology every time we meet. Right? Praise God from whom all blessings flow. And we go into the whole doxology. Doxology is a word that refers to the glory of God, glorification. Okay. And so what dispensational are saying is like, what is the ultimate or underlying purpose of God in all of history? You know, like what is God doing? Why this plan? And why not another plan? Well, because this plan is the one that brings God the greatest glory. So we have to, of course, understand what that means. What does it mean? The glory of God. What is the glory of God? Usually people think of a light. That's not far off base. Glory and light are, these are definitely connected concepts. So ultimately, in this view, the underlying purpose of history is God's own glory. Now, God's glory is this: it's the revealing of something, which is what light does. You shine light on something. In our modern day, what we'd say is it highlights something. You know, if you take your highlighter and you're reading a book, you know, because you're studying, you might highlight certain things because those are key items. What the glory of God means is that he's putting himself on display. He's highlighting something about himself through the events of the Bible, all of them from Genesis to Revelation. So that means that through the events of the Bible, that God is making himself known to creatures who are able to see the events and understand what's transpiring, meaning men and angels. So let's look at let's look at this, because there's five major themes that contribute primarily to the glory

Kingdom Purpose And Human Rule

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of God. I mean, everything does, but there's five huge themes in the Bible that I've been able to deduce over the years. The first one is the kingdom purpose. I mean, right there in Genesis, God says to the man, I want you to rule. I want you to rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and so forth. I want you to rule over this earth. You see, in creation week, it begins with in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and it says, and then in the very second verse it says, and the earth was. There's a focal point on the earth. And that's because God created us in his image to rule over this earth. It's a kingdom purpose. He didn't want us to rule over Mars, Elon Musk. Okay. As interesting as that may be, it's definitely not as interesting as what has transpired on earth. God wants us to rule over the earth. Now, what does this reveal about God? It reveals that he is a sovereign, that he is a king, and that what he has done is he's made man in his own image to be lowercase kings and to rule over this earth. We'll say kings and queens, right? Because he also made Eve. So that is the kingdom purpose, and through it we learn something about God. We learn that he's a king, we learn that he's sovereign. It teaches us wonderful lessons about that. It highlights it. That's a part of the glory of God.

The Seed Promise And Grace

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The second major theme that contributes to God's glory is the seed promise. Or the seed is the Messiah, so the Messiah promised. After man fell, God made an announcement that the seed of the woman would be in conflict with the seed of the serpent, and that the serpent would be crushed, you know, by bruised on his head, whereas the seed of the woman might be injured on his heel. And this is sort of a preparatory for what's going to unfold later. In the Messiah, the seed coming right to restore man's right to rule, because we lost that through sin and the fall. And so God, through the seed, is going to restore that right to rule. And that's why the Bible sets up got Adam, the first Adam, and then you've got the last Adam, right? Christ. Why is there this parallel? Because Adam was given the right to rule, he lost that right. Now Christ has come to reclaim it through his pivotal cross work and resurrection. And so what does this reveal? What does all this story about the seed reveal? Well, I mean, a lot of things, but that God is very gracious. He's very gracious. He didn't have to do this. He could have just said, Oh, you guys messed up. Just send the whole thing to the lake of fire. And there's no requirement other than the fact God wanted to reveal that he is, in fact, gracious, he's benevolent, he's kind, and so he has promised a seed.

Covenants Reveal God’s Faithfulness

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The third major theme that makes a major contribution to the glory of God is God's covenant strategy. And when we say covenants, again, we're talking about the biblical covenants, the ones that are actually listed in the Bible. There's more than the Abrahamic, the Davidic, and the New. There's also the Noaiic, but we're not particularly looking at this, but at the Noaic at the time. But the this is God's strategy. I call it the covenant strategy. Started with Abraham, right? And God is through this strategy is going to establish his kingdom through these unconditional biblical covenants. Because if you look at these covenants, they have physical promises in them. And they also have spiritual promises in them. So a physical promise, for example, will be like the land. A physical promise would include a temple. These things are included in the unconditional covenant. They also have spiritual promises. God said to Abraham that anyone who curses you will be cursed, anyone who blesses you will be blessed. In Galatians 3, Paul comes along and says that we're being blessed through Abraham because we're justified by faith. That's a spiritual blessing. And we receive the indwelling spirit. That's also another spiritual blessing. So there are both physical and spiritual blessings in all of these unconditional covenants. And so the Abrahamic covenant promised these three major things: land seed blessing, Davidic covenant promises an eternal king, an eternal kingdom, and an eternal throne. The new covenant promised Israel and Judah his law would be written on their hearts. That's spiritual. Forgiveness of sins, that's spiritual. Indwelling spirit, that's another spiritual promise. But permanent restoration to the land, that's a physical promise. Agricultural abundance, that's another physical promise. Population growth, that's physical. Temple, cities rebuilt, security in the land, those are all physical or physical and spiritual to some extent. So what does the covenant strategy of God reveal? If these are all about glorifying God, what do the covenants reveal about God? The unconditional covenants. They reveal that God is faithful, that he has integrity, that he keeps his word. And so we can expect that God will fulfill all the details of God's covenant plan for Israel just as he stated it. I mean, they are covenants, right? Covenants? I mean, we would say in our language, it's like a contract, it's like a legal document. Now, do the details matter in the legal documents? When you read a legal contract, is it poetic? Or is it technical, legal terminology that's just to be taken in the ordinary literal way? There's not you don't put figures of speech and things like that, and certainly not allegories or things like that in context. The language is technical and detailed, and everything must be kept exactly as it is intended and written. So when God said, I'm gonna make give you a land, I'm gonna give security in the land, I'm gonna give you a new heart, Israel, and the parties are Israel and not the church, then if God is has any integrity, he's going to do that. So the covenants reveal his faithfulness, his integrity as our God. And I'm glad about that. I I I am it it would be impossible, I think, for anybody to move me off this point. And I can move off some issues and shift shift a little bit on some ideas in the Bible or whatever. But this one there, I don't see how it's possible. Because if I were to say that now these covenants are going to be fulfilled to the church, to a different party, that's completely changing the parties that are involved in a contract. And so these things are made to Israel, and God will do it.

Where To Watch And Final Request

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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 writing us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.