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 - The Church is not Isreal
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Don't let your arrogance redefine what God has said in the Bible; His message is clear and we should rejoice in understanding what He said.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome And Series Setup
SPEAKER_00Welcome 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_02It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Then three chapters later he says, What? Walk by the Spirit, and he'll produce the fruit of the Spirit. So when we conjoin these ideas together, what's happening is when we trust the promise of God, we have faith in the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01We're trusting some promise. The Holy Spirit produces the life of Christ and it's messed up manifested before men.
SPEAKER_02So this is this is not true in the Old Testament. The Messiah was not in Old Testament believers, in Israel. This is a new truth.
SPEAKER_00I really don't understand why some people, in what I perceive to be arrogance, try and take the simple message of the Bible and redefine it into something far more complex, something that God never intended it to be.
Israel And The Church In Politics
SPEAKER_00What are we talking about today? Israel and the church. And this message is so important for our modern current politics. For Israel is slighted as a nation. They are being cast off by every other nation, just as the Bible foretells. But we don't want to be a part of that group that puts aside Israel and counts them as nothing in God's plan. They still have a purpose. They still have a future. They have promises that God has not fulfilled for them. So let us not stand here and cast judgment. Let us look to what the Bible says. The Church and Israel are different. They have different purposes and missions, both to glorify God, both to bring salvation, that message to the unbelieving world. Don't try to redefine the Bible to make the church Israel. That's not what God has said. It's not what God has intended, and it's not what God has planned.
Covenant Theology Versus Dispensationalism
SPEAKER_02Okay, the distinction between Israel and the church. Before we get rushing into this, last week I mentioned as we contrasted covenant theology with dispensational theology, one of the points of this distinction is on the issue of salvation itself. While there's much that is shared, there's a little bit that's different. And so basically what I said is that in covenant theology, which their main focus is all on salvation because they see that as the chief purpose of the Bible. And dispensationalism says no, salvation is a purpose, but the chief purpose is the glory of God. But in their discussion of salvation, usually they say, just like we would say, salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But then they would also say that the faith that saves is not alone, it is always accompanied by work. And by saying this, what they're saying is that there are different types of faith. And only saving faith is real faith, and it bec that type of faith produces works in the Christian life. And so what they've done is something that is called what is called lordship salvation, sometimes called mastery salvation or discipleship salvation, which has been around for many, many centuries, but has had a resurgence since the late 80s.
Lordship Salvation And Defining Faith
SPEAKER_02So someone sent me something, a document that comes from uh BSF, which is material that's sometimes used for teaching and things like that, Bible study, fellowship. So they were concerned that this was lordship. So I wanted to walk you through this document very quickly so that you can see, like in a practical real-world example, as you read what you're reading. Um the doctrine of faith in the BSF study on Daniel, it says Daniel lived with consistent and courageous faith. True. By the way, don't forget that throughout the whole book of Daniel, Daniel's a believer. Uh, there's nothing in there that discusses when he became a believer. He was just marched down to Babylon, probably about 16 years old, right? And the rest of the story picks up from there. He was already a believer. It says he believed God and lived for him while exiled, even when standing strong in faith put his life in jeopardy. What is faith? Okay, so now it backs up. What is faith? Well, most simply they say faith means believing God and acting upon what he has declared as true. Now, first of all, when you define something, you should try not to use the word that you're defining. In other words, if somebody says, what is a contrast? A contrast is a contrast between two things. Um, you should try not to use the word uh that you're defining in the definition. Um, what are apples? Well, apples are they're these red things, these they're apples. You you shouldn't do that. So when you say faith means believing, well, faith and believing are actually the same from the same Greek root. And you know, it's not so helpful. Trust could be more helpful, but anyway, you shouldn't do that. But they say faith means believing God and acting upon what he has declared as true. Acting. Uh that means doing something. This is incorporating works. Okay, more than passive agreement with facts, true faith produces action. Um, I mean, in a way, but this is not, let's, let's, let's, let's not get confused here. Um, they want it to not mean just passive agreement with facts. Well, I mean, like, when you believed in that Christ died for your sins and rose again, what action was there other than you were convinced that that was true and you appropriated it as true for yourself? Like Christ died for me and rose again. Like, and he's the one who produced the action of saving me. I didn't produce any action, I just believed this promise of God that if that Christ died for my sins and rose again. Um, what they want to do then is tag along after that some action that has to happen. My question always is, how much action? You know, like what if I fail one day? Uh has anybody ever failed in the Christian life? Well, did that mean that you are not really a believer? Well, we'll see. Saving faith involves three essential elements. First of all, they say saving faith embraces specific truth or content. Now, I have no problem with this. Yes, you have to believe content. Like, what are we believing? Uh faith that saves stands on the essentials of the gospel, the truth about salvation in Christ. Okay, fine. Second, saving faith leads to conviction. Now, first of all, it's the other way around. Um, you're convicted, and that's what leads you to faith. They're calling it saving faith again, but that's implying that there's non-saving faith. Um, not really. You either believe it or not. I mean, you either sat down in that pew this morning or you did not. You either believed it would hold you up or you did not. There's nobody who is partially having faith in the pew right now. You either fully believe it and sat on it, or you didn't sit at all, which means you don't believe it'll hold you up. There's no partial, we'll see, faith. It's either you have faith or you don't. So the idea that saving and non-saving faith is just a complete distortion of biblical reality. Um, but they say saving faith leads to conviction. Again, wrong order. A personal trust in and response to Christ's personal love and offer of salvation. Third, say, and this is where the big problem comes in. Saving faith, they do it again, saving faith, brings commitment, an active choice to repent from sin and surrender to Christ. Well, first of all, repent doesn't mean that, but okay. It doesn't refer to sin. By the way, God repented several times in the Bible. God repents. Let me ask you a question. Therefore, does repentance have to deal with sin? No, it has to deal with whatever is in the context. God never has to repent of sin because God's not a sinner. Um, so repentance just means a change of mind about something. It may be sin, but usually it's not in the biblical context. Usually it's not. Usually it always refers to a change of mind. So saving faith brings us commitment, they say. They're trying to bring commitment into faith. Now, faith means that you're receiving something that's a free gift. You're not making a commitment. He's making a commitment to you. God is the one who's committed to us. When we believe in Christ, he's committed to do what? To save us. We don't make a commitment to him in order to be saved. We believe in the only begotten Son of God. This it says this over 198 times in the Bible, that it's just believing. But no, they've always got to add this other stuff, the surrender and so forth. As Daniel demonstrated true faith, and yes, he was a believer. He was exercising faith as a Christian, not to go to heaven as a Christian. Okay, go on, go on. Okay, people often wrongly equate faith with hopeful optimism or their commitment to a religious system. Yes, and I agree with that. Mental agreement with the Bible without heart commitment to Christ also falls short of true faith. There they are. Now they're really getting into it.
SPEAKER_01Okay, true faith, see.
SPEAKER_02So now you've got to have, now they've done another thing, mental agreement versus heart commitment. They've separated the mind from the heart. Biblically, you can't do that. These are not two separate types of ideas in the Bible. That is post-Kantian humanistic philosophy. That's what Kant did. Are we gonna go with Kant and neo-Orthodox view of the Bible? No, we're not gonna do that. We're gonna let the Bible define its own terms. And you don't separate, as so many people do, head knowledge from heart knowledge. That is not biblical thinking. That is pagan philosophy forced on the Bible. Go read Immanuel Kant again if you really want to learn all that stuff. Um the Bible doesn't separate it. Only when sinners realize the depth of their own sin and fully trust. Now, again, is there such a thing as partial trust?
SPEAKER_01Like I either believe you or I don't. There is no in-betweens, but by putting that qualifier in their fully trust, they have done something.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so let's read this sentence and I'll I'll spend a moment on this one. Only when sinners realize the depth of their own sin and fully trust the finished work of Christ does a true journey of faith begin.
SPEAKER_01What did Jesus say about the faith of a mustard the size of a mustard seed? Didn't he say it was able to move mountains? Did he have to did he say you had to have this enormous full faith?
SPEAKER_02Or did he have to say did he say you have to have the faith the size of a mustard seed? Well, I'm gonna go with Jesus over whoever wrote this curriculum. For a believer, genuine, genuine faith, here we go again. Genuine faith. Does it ever, by the way, does it ever say this in the Bible? You have to have full faith, you have to have genuine faith, you have to have true faith, you have to have more than mental agreement. Have you ever read any of that ever in the Bible, even one time anywhere? Anyone? No, the reason you haven't is because this is not biblical, this is. So you have to read this stuff. Then he adds this it always propels every step in following Christ. Now we're talking about another Greek word, akaluthheo, which is a follower, which is a disciple. Discipleship comes after salvation. When you, as a child, are sitting there seven years old, and you hear the gospel and you believe in Jesus Christ, you're not promising to follow him all the days of your life. You're thanking him that he saved you from the penalty of sin. That's what you're thanking him as a little seven-year-old, right? It's only later, as you grow in the word, that you learn, oh, we're supposed to follow him. So Akalutheo to follow is not the same thing as having faith, nor is it required to go to heaven. This is not biblical. Trusting their father's unshakable promises, even when challenged by desperate circumstances, God's children find refuge in him that cannot be shaken. Of course we do. Daniel did not rely on human strength alone, but believed and acted upon what God said was true. Amen. Does your faith give you hope for eternity and strength for today? Not really. Does your faith give you hope for eternity and strength for today? Not really, but his promises do. His promises are what give me hope for eternity, and they give me strength for today. Not my faith. My faith falters. I don't always live by faith. If I depended on my faith, one day I'd have hope, the next day I wouldn't. One day I'd have strength, the next day I wouldn't. See, it doesn't work like that. He is the object of our faith. His promises are the object of our faith after we believed in Christ. So, no, don't let people write these types of things that just confuse. You know, if you if you have to fully trust, then a person's going to be questioning all their life if they really fully did or not. And that's why they start looking at their works and trying to evaluate if they've got the right works to prove that they had full trust or true faith or genuine faith. And that's not the right focus. That's all looking in to try to find out if you really had the right kind of faith or not. By the way, there's so there's not different kinds of faith. What did Jesus say? He who believes in me has everlasting life. That's it. It's not any more complicated than that, is it? So these types of things make me mad. I'm not mad at you. I get mad at this.
SPEAKER_01I love you. Okay. These types of things are distortion. Okay.
When Does The Church Begin
SPEAKER_02Now, as far as covenant theology and dispensational theology, when does the church begin? Uh, this is the first question we want to answer, and we'll spend quite a bit of our time here. Um, I teach both Israelology and dispensationalism at the seminary, so this is really my wheelhouse. Um who are in covenant theology will say that the church began with Adam in the book of Genesis. This comes from R. B. Kuiper. He said, Isaiah, David, Abraham, Abel, and a host of others were members of the one body of Christ, his church. And if we assume, as undoubtedly we may, that Adam and Eve, excuse, believed the promise of God that the seed of the serpent would indeed bruise the hill of the seed of the woman, but that the woman's seed would bruise the serpent's head, then it may be asserted that they constituted the first Christian church. R.B. Kuiper, in this view, the church is simply the one people of God, which is what we would expect from covenant theology, because they hinge everything on their idea of the covenant of grace, which says that God made a covenant with Adam and his elect offspring to save them. That is, there's one people of God, and they are the church and Israel, because that's all the same thing in their thinking. So there it is. Some say the church began with Adam, not on the day of Pentecost, but with Adam in Genesis 3. Most, however, would say in covenant theology began with Abraham. This is also from our become uh I'm sorry, this is from uh Douglas Bannerman. In the history of Abraham, we see the church of God visibly set up, built upon the gospel declared to him, that is Abraham, and the covenant made with him and his seed. So, in this view, the Abrahamic covenant is the expression of the earlier covenant of grace that God supposedly made with Adam to set up the one people of God. The church is not new in the New Testament, but it's a continuation of the old. As Kuyper said, the church under the new dispensation is identical with that of the old. It is not a new church, but one and the same. It is founded in the same covenant, the covenant made with Abraham. That is just simply to say that Israel and the church are the same thing. Okay? And the church therefore began with Abraham, in Bannerman's view, or Kuiper's view, it began with Adam. So no distinction. What did Jesus mean in Matthew 16, 18 then when he said, I will build my church using a future tense? Did he mean that he could he possibly have meant that, you know, I'm gonna continue doing what I've been doing for the last 2,000 years? Gonna keep building the thing that I've been building the last 2,000 years? Or does the future tense actually have significance and meaning and mean that the church had not begun to be built yet, but it would be in the future?
SPEAKER_01Are you gonna go with Kuyper and Bannerman and John Stott and you know all these guys? Or are you gonna go with Jesus? As one of my seminary professors and good friends now, David Olander said, He said, You agree with me and Jesus.
SPEAKER_02You know, you and Jesus when you get the right view, that that's the way you are. Um what about dispensationalists? Well, most say on the day
Proof One Spirit Baptism Starts
SPEAKER_02of Pentecost. Some say later with Paul, like Acts 9 or 13 or 28, but we're not gonna talk about those people today. Um and I'm gonna give you four or five, I'm gonna give you five proofs that the church began on the day of Pentecost. The first one is that spirit, the spirit baptizing ministry did not begin until Acts 2. In other words, the Holy Spirit's the third person of the Trinity, right? Everlasting.
SPEAKER_01He's gotten certain ministries in the Old Testament, such as restraining sin. He temporarily uh indwells kings, prophets, priests to do their functions.
SPEAKER_02He filled people in the Old Testament who were constructing various furniture for the tabernacle and things like that. So he has ministries, right? One of the ministries he doesn't have in the Old Testament is this idea of baptizing a person. So it's obviously a dry baptism, you're not getting wet. It's a baptism that's carried out by the Spirit. What it does is it identifies the person with Christ, it puts them in Christ. And this is a ministry that did not begin until the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, and it's the distinguishing marker of what puts a person in the church, which is the body of Christ. So when I was in seminary, uh Dr. Robert Leitner taught this, I don't know how many times, how many occasions he taught this, but it's down to the point now where you know I just basically ripped through this type of thing real fast. So I'll just rip through it real fast, then we'll go through the point point by point. Here's the deal Jesus said, Matthew 16, 18, I will build my church. So it was still future. In Acts chapter 1, verse 5, he says, not many days from now you will be baptized by the Spirit. Not many days from now. Not many days is like a key phrase, right? Because it means not many days. Um you will be baptized by the Spirit. So it's going to happen not many days from Acts 1.5, which in not many days was Acts chapter 2. So okay. Now, the Spirit baptizes us into one body. 1 Corinthians 12 13. For by one spirit we were baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek. Now the body is the church. Ephesians 1 22 and 23, Colossians 1, he says, his body, which is the church. So the body is the church. So when you're baptized by the Spirit into the body, the body is the church. So you're being baptized into the church. In Acts 1.5, it was still future. In Acts 11.15, Peter comes along and says, Well, so then, you know, the Gentiles, they were baptized in the same body as us Jews in the beginning. He'd just been at Cornesius' house, the Gentile. So in Acts 1.5, it was still future. In Acts 11.15, it was past. So it has to be somewhere between Acts 11.15 and Acts 1.5. The only logical place is not many days from now, which was the day of Pentecost. So that's the sum and substance of the argument. But notice, first of all, point A, the church was still future. After Israel ejected the Messiah in Matthew 12, Jesus announced, I will build my church. So it's future. He was not already building it, it was an entire future building project. So it could not have begun to be built before he uttered these words. That's just simply not possible. I don't care if your name's Bannerman, Piper, I don't care what your name is. Your name's not Jesus, and you're not right. Number two, Spirit baptism is still future in Acts 1.5. After he died and he was resurrected, he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. At this point, the Spirit baptism was, of course, still future because Jesus said so.
SPEAKER_01Is that enough?
SPEAKER_02Third, the spirit baptism the spirit baptism required is what brings about entrance into the body. For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, 1 Corinthians 12 13. By one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jew and Greek. Now, but then you have to define that the body is actually the church. And so we have Ephesians 1:22 and 23. He put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body.
SPEAKER_01So the body is the church.
SPEAKER_02And then lastly, in Acts 11, 15, Peter says spirit baptism had already begun or it was passed. Peter says, as he explains what happened at Cornelius' house, and as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, it's the Gentiles, at Cornelius' house, as he did upon us, that's the Jews, at the beginning. And I remember the word of the Lord, how he used to say, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And that's a quote from Acts 1.5, right?
SPEAKER_01So where between Acts 1.5 and Acts 11, 15, and 16 did the church begin. Well, I mean, us Jews at the beginning, that's got to be the day of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_02I mean, there's really no other place in the book of Acts that even makes sense. And after Acts 2 in the book of Acts, where Jews were baptized by the Spirit for the first time and placed in the body of Christ as the first members, the first fruit. Then you have the Samaritans added in Acts 8, and then in Acts 10, you have Gentiles. And then this statement was made. So, conclusion, the church must have begun between Acts 1.5 when the baptism was still future, and Acts 11, 15 to 16, where Spirit Baptism was past. So the only logical place is Acts 2, the day of Pentecost. And Dr. Leitner made us memorize this argument and spit it out on many tests.
Proof Two Four Required Events
SPEAKER_02Second argument is that there are four events in Jesus' life that had to occur before the church could begin. First of all, the death, then the resurrection, then the ascension, and then his session at the right hand of the Father. Those four things. The death, the resurrection, the ascension, and the session. So first of all, the death. The church is built on Jesus' death. So how could it be built on how could it be built before he died? The church's Lord's Supper, which Christ instituted at Israel's last Passover, right, is a memorial of Christ's death. And it could not have been instituted before his death. It's just not possible. And so the church requires Christ's death before it can begin. You know, Israel had the Passover. We don't, we have the Lord's Supper. But it did grow out of it, right? It grew out of the last Passover. But it's a memorial of his death. And so since the church doesn't take Passover, but we take communion, and communion is a memorial of his death, then of course his death had to happen first before the church could be there to memorialize it. Second, the resurrection. The church is built on the resurrected Christ. Amen. It could not have been built upon a dead man or someone who'd never been born. He is the cornerstone of the building project. Ephesians 2, 19.
SPEAKER_01Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 19. By the way, the key word for Ephesians is church.
SPEAKER_02You want to know the nature of the church, Jew and Gentile one body, then this is the book to study. To get all the details. Ephesians 2, 19. So he says to the Gentiles, so Gentile believers, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, Jewish saints, and are of God's household. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. He's the cornerstone. The resurrected Christ is the cornerstone, and the cornerstone had to be laid before the rest of the foundation was laid so that it was all square and level. And then, of course, you could begin building the church on top of it. So the church is built on the resurrected Christ, which means it could not have begun to be built before the resurrection. And definitely not with Abraham or Adam. The ascension is the third event. Christ had to ascend before the church could begin because he had to go to the Father so that he and the Father could send the Spirit. John 14, 26 and 15, 26. If I don't go, I won't send the helper. But if I go, I and the Father will send the Spirit. To do what? Well, to baptize believers into the new church, the body of Christ, which he was going to build. Additionally, he had to ascend. We're here in Ephesians 4, so let's look at Ephesians 4, 7. Ephesians 4.7. He had to ascend in order to give spiritual gifts to the church. By the way, did Israel have spiritual gifts? Did every believer in Israel get a spiritual gift when they believed? No, they had offices, prophet, priest, and king. They didn't have spiritual gifts. The ascension did not occur until Acts 1, 9 through 11, but that had to happen. So chapter 4, verse 7, he could dispense spiritual gifts to the church. He says, but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, and he quotes Psalm 68, when he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. This is speaking in Psalm 68, a passage where Jerusalem is finally taken by King David. The city was a Jebezite city before that, right? But David went up with his mighty men. They snuck into the city through the water system. They were able to take the city. And of course, war booty. And he gave this gifts to his soldiers and so forth. And what Paul is doing is he's taking that passage which talks about David ascending up to Jerusalem and taking these captives and the war booty. And he's applying it to what Christ did at his ascension, going up, ascending to heaven on high, right? And he dispenses spiritual gifts. Verse 11, he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. So the ascension had to occur before the church could begin, because part of the church is that each believer in Christ receives a spiritual gift or gift the moment they believe in Christ. That could not be given until he ascended. So three things so far. The death had to happen first, because the church is built on his resurrection. The resurrection had to happen because it's built on his resurrection, and he had to ascend so he could uh pour forth the spirit and uh give spiritual gifts to men. And lastly, the session, Christ had to be installed in his session at the right hand of the Father before the church could begin, because that's the position from which he would send forth the Spirit with the Father, John 15, 26.
SPEAKER_01And this, of course, happened on the day of Pentecost, which was evidenced by the tongue speaking on that day, which Peter explains as a pouring forth of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02So second argument for the church beginning on the day of Pentecost and not with Adam or Abraham. Christ first had to die, rise, ascend, and take a seat in session before the church could begin.
SPEAKER_01And therefore, the only logical place it could begin is Acts chapter 2.
Proof Three Mysteries And Christ In You
SPEAKER_02Third argument, the church and truths related uniquely to the church were mysteries in the Old Testament. So it's important to know what a mystery is. There are 15 mysteries in the New Testament. Fifteen different times something is called a mystery. So a mystery, don't think of something mysterious, like you know, Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie, you know, something you've got to figure out. Some mystery. The word actually can have that type of meaning, but in these contexts it doesn't have that type of meaning. It means something previously unrevealed that is now revealed, because it's something that was hidden in God. And so it couldn't be known. It was a mystery in that sense. Couldn't be known because God is the only one who knew about it. But now in the New Testament, he's revealing it. So it's something previously unrevealed, now revealed. Like I said, 15, we won't go through them all. But first of all, the body of Christ was a mystery. We're here in Ephesians. I said the key word of this book is church, so here we are. Ephesians 3, 1 through 12 describes the composition of the body of Christ, which is Jewish and Gentile, who are sharing now equal spiritual privileges. So notice verse 2, Ephesians 3.2. He says, If indeed you have heard of the stewardship or dispensation of God's grace, which was given to me for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery. So see, it was hidden in God, it had to be revealed to him. So before it was revealed, it was a mystery, but now he's making it known. He says, as I wrote before in brief, that's 2, 11 through 22, if you want to do all your study on Ephesians. By referring to this, he says, When you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men. In other words, it was hidden. They didn't know about it, because it was a mystery. As it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets, that's Paul and others, by the Spirit. To be specific, so now he tells us what the content of the mystery is. Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members, and fellow partakers of the promise. Three fellow words. They're all co-words, soon words in the Greek. It has a little prefix soon on there, which is one of their prefix uh prepositions. So fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, that's the body of Christ, the church, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So that's the sum and substance of this mystery, that Jews and Gentiles now share equal spiritual privileges in the body. This was a mystery in the Old Testament. Nobody knew anything about this. So if this was a mystery in the Old Testament, well, it wasn't there in the Old Testament, but it's something that we have now. Because in the Old Testament, Jews and Gentiles did not share equal spiritual privileges. Jews had uh had far more privileges spiritually than Gentiles did in the Old Testament, but not anymore. So therefore, the body of Christ could not have existed in the Old Testament. Second mystery, the Messiah in believers was a mystery. In other words, the Messiah in dwelling believers. Hold your church in Ephesians, hold your church. Hold your church. You are the church, you know. Okay, hold your place in Ephesians and just dash over two books to Colossians chapter 1, verse 26 and 27. Usually we think of the Holy Spirit indwelling us, but the Messiah also indwells the believer. Colossians 1, 26 to 27. He says, that is the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations. In other words, here again, that's a definition of the mystery, right? Something previously unrevealed, hidden. But now he says has been manifested to his saints, verse 27, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, and here it is, which is Christ in you, the Messiah in you, the hope of glory.
SPEAKER_01How does this work? When we live by faith, what happens is the Holy Spirit produces what we call the fruit of the Spirit, right? That fruit is a manifestation of Christ in us. What does Paul say in Galatians 2.20?
SPEAKER_02The life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Then three chapters later he says, What? Walk by the Spirit, and he will produce the fruit of the Spirit. So when we conjoin these ideas together, what's happening is when we trust the promise of God, okay, we have faith in the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01We're trusting some promise.
SPEAKER_02The Holy Spirit produces the life of Christ in us and it's messed manifested before men. So this is this is not true in the Old Testament. The Messiah was not in Old Testament believers in Israel. This is a new truth. So the church is obviously distinct from Israel. The third one here is the church is the bride of Christ. I said, Hold your place in Ephesians because we're going to go back there, right? 522 to 33. One of the classic texts on husbands and wives. Wives first, wives get three verses, and the men come later, husbands second, they get eight verses.
SPEAKER_01So deal with that.
SPEAKER_02You know, wives be submissive or subject to your own husbands, husbands love your wives. It goes through the whole thing, right? Describing the husband-wife relationship. You think that he's talking about husbands and wives, and then he comes to verse 32 and he says, This mystery is great, but I'm speaking with reference to Christ in the church. In other words, you thought I was talking about husbands and wives.
SPEAKER_01That all along, what I've been teaching you about is the relationship of Christ in the church. So the church is the bride of Christ, and you see that over in Revelation 19 as well.
SPEAKER_02But that is another mystery. Now, was Israel the bride of Christ? No, Israel is the wife of Yahweh. We'll talk about this in a minute. But they had a total, they have a they have a relationship with the first person of the Trinity, whereas the church has a relationship to the second person of the Trinity. They're both marital relationships. And they're both with different members of the Trinity. Now they're metaphors, but this you have to keep the metaphor straight. You can't just blend them all together. Otherwise, God becomes an adulterer because he's married to two different women at the same time.
SPEAKER_01You can't do that. That is the logical end of replacement theology is that God is an adulterer. Next.
SPEAKER_02In other words, this is not something that's the content of Old Testament revelation. You can read the Old Testament, but you'll never find anything about the rapture. That's a new truth that's been revealed. He says in verse 51, 15, 51, Behold, I tell you a mystery.
SPEAKER_01We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. And he's not talking about the nursery. You all know that. But that is a good phrase you could put on the wall in the nursery.
SPEAKER_02This is the idea that not every believer in the church will die, right? But there will be one generation that will be left alive when he comes for us at the rapture, and that those people will just be changed. He says, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. So those who've already died, they're going to be raised imperishable on that day. They get their resurrection body. But those of us who are alive, he says, we will be changed. How quickly? In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. If you were standing there talking to somebody on the streets in the grocery store, and they blinked their eyes and they weren't a believer, and the rapture happened while they blinked their eyes, you'd be gone.
SPEAKER_01And they would not know where you went. They'd be like, Where do you go? Because that's how quickly it will transpire.
SPEAKER_02It means it's from a word, uh, atomos from which we get atom when we study atoms and chemistry and physics and so forth. It means something that can't be cut, not cut, not to cut.
SPEAKER_01In other words, an interval of time so quick that it can't be cut in half. So the rapture, and therefore, of course, the church is different because this was not revealed in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02So if the church was a mystery in the Old Testament, it could have not possibly existed in the Old Testament because then it would have been known. Right? So the church is different from Israel. That means God has a different plan for Israel than He has for the church. He's got different things going on. They're all saved the same way. That's not a problem. It's just He's got different uh purposes for you. Fourth.
Proof Four One New Man
SPEAKER_02Um fourth reason most say on Pentecost is the church is not Israel but one new man. Go back to Ephesians. Remember, I said this book is all about the church, so you get a lot of truths about the church right from here.
SPEAKER_01Ephesians 2, verse 15.
SPEAKER_02You can see in verse 11 that he's, you know, you formerly, you Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which are Jews. So you got Jews, Gentiles, all in this context. Um He says, verse 12, remember that you were at that time, this is in the Old Testament, separate from Christ, separate from Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, that is, citizenship in Israel and all the rights that came with being a citizen of Israel. And you were strangers to the covenants of promise. Having no hope, and you were without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off, Gentiles, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who made both Jew and Gentile one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. By abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is the law of commandments. So what divided Jew and Gentile in the Old Testament, this barrier was the law of Moses, right? And ordinances which had specific like dietary laws. You know, kosher versus non-kosher. I mean, Jews didn't go eat with Gentiles. It just, you don't, you didn't do that. Why? So these it was it provided a barrier between Jew and Gentile. But he says that has been broken down. Okay. So that in himself he might make the two, that's Jew and Gentile, into one new man.
SPEAKER_01So a new man that's neither Jew nor Gentile. So the church can't be a continuation of Israel. It's a new man. It's not an old man with new clothes, it's a new man. That's neither Jew nor Gentile. So, yes, the church is not Israel.
SPEAKER_02It's a different thing. And lastly, although some other arguments, but the term Israel is used 73 times in the New Testament, and not single one of them is used of the church.
SPEAKER_0173 times. It either refers to the land of Israel, twelve tribes of Israel, the man Jacob who was renamed Israel, but every time it refers to Israel. In other words, Israel means Israel and church means church. It's not convincing to say that Israel means church. When Israel is used 73 times in the New Testament, it never once means a church. But a lot of Christendom believes this. Roman Catholicism believes this. Reformed churches believe this. A lot of churches believe this.
SPEAKER_02But we have 73 references. Are you going to go with Jesus and Paul and the Bible? Are you going to go with what these theologians said? You can read the Bible for yourself. It's not that complicated. So these are five arguments that the church did not begin until Pentecost. First of all, the spirit baptizing ministry did not begin until Acts 2, and that's necessary to put a person in the body, and that body is the church. And that did not begin until Acts 2, because it was still future in Acts 1.5, but not many days from now. Secondly, four events in Jesus' life had to occur before the church could begin.
SPEAKER_01That's the death, the resurrection, the ascension, and the session. He had to die because the church is built on him.
SPEAKER_02He had to be resurrected because it's not built on a dead guy. He had to ascend because he had to go to the Father so he could pour forth the Spirit and send spiritual gifts to men. And he had to be in session to do that at the right hand of the Father. Third, the church was a mystery in the Old Testament, right? Truths about the church were a mystery. It wasn't known in the Old Testament, it was completely hidden in God. God was going to do it, but nobody knew about it because he never revealed anything about it. But he did in the New Testament, and he tells us the nature of what it is. And then, of course, the church is a new
Proof Five Israel Means Israel
SPEAKER_02man, and lastly, Israel's used 73 times in the New Testament, not once in the church. Now there are 14 distinctions between Israel and the church. Actually, I found another one at the end. I was like, oh, 15. But I didn't want to change every slide to 15, so I just left 14. Israel was party to four unconditional covenants. The Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 15, the Land Covenant, Deuteronomy 30, the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7 and 1 Chronicles 17, and the new covenant in Jeremiah 31. And one unconditional, or one conditional covenant, the Mosaic covenant, right? Guess what? The church is party to none of these covenants. They're all made with Israel. Now we do get to partake of the spiritual blessings of the unconditional covenant, but we're not party to the covenant. We just get to
Key Distinctions Israel Versus Church
SPEAKER_02partake of the blessing, spiritual blessings of some of these covenants. Why? Well, because salvation is of the Jews. Jesus said that in John 4 22 to the Samaritan woman, right? This is neither here nor there, but you know, people will worship and Spirit and truth and so forth. He says, Hey, salvation's of the Jew. You gotta figure this out. I think she got saved. But uh we don't have any direct covenants made us. They're all made with Israel as a party. We just get blessed because we're connected to them because the Messiah is Jewish. Uh second, Israel is an ethnic nation, but the church is composed of people from every nation. Now, Israel is a distinct uh ethical, uh, I'm sorry, ethnic uh group of people that are descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
SPEAKER_01With Jacob being the key individual, because he's renamed Israel, right?
SPEAKER_02And so it's a descent, it's a biological, and it relates to the father. So the mother didn't matter, by the way. And don't do modern genetics, Gregor Mendel. And don't, I mean, you can ask me all about that. We can talk about that, but before I was in seminary and all that, I was a biologist, right? And worked in genetics and so forth. So I know how genetics work. Um, but in the Bible, it's it's not genetics. They're not thinking in that, in those terms, like, well, what percentage Jew are you? 116th or 132nd? You know, it's not like that. But every semester I have students who bring this up. So it doesn't work like that. If the father was Jewish, all the and the mother was Gentile, all the children were 100% Jewish. You say, but that's not right because, no, that's right because guess what? Jesus said. I mean, I'm just gonna go back to that every time. He's the God of the universe, he created everything, he's omniscient, he knows everything. Does he have any Gentile women in his line in Matthew 1? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Little girl named Rahab, she's in there, little cutie pie, real sweet gal. Um, how about Ruth? Is she in the line? I think she was a Moabite, definitely not an Israelite.
SPEAKER_02And throughout the book of Ruth, it calls her Ruth the Moabites over and over, all the way to the end. Even though she adopted Israel's God. She did that didn't make her an Israelite. And you can adopt a Jewish God, but it's not going to make you an Israelite.
SPEAKER_01We're just as Gentile as the rest of them. Well, except some of them, some of us here. So the way that Jewishness is passed on is through the Father only. The mother doesn't matter one way or another. Okay, the children will all be Jewish if the Father's Jewish.
SPEAKER_02And that sets up a distinct ethnic identity in God's mind. The church is not like that. It's composed of people from every nation. What did he say in Matthew 28, 19? Go and make disciples of all nations, right? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all that I commanded you, and lo, I'm with you even to the end of the age. So the church is a distinct people that's composed of people from every nation, not like Israel. Israel has a physical temple. I always find this one super interesting. They always have a physical temple. The purpose was so that God can dwell among them. Build the tabernacle, Exodus 25, 8, that I may dwell among you. From the root Hebrew word for dwell is the root from which we get Shekinah, Shekinah glory. The idea that God had a visible presence among them in the tabernacle in the most holy place, this thick cloud with this light in between. Also signified by the fire that would go before them as they wandered in the wilderness in the cloud by day and the fire by night. That's all a picture of Shekinah glory. That's God's desire to dwell among them. He always does this with Israel in a physical temple. But the church is a spiritual temple, so God can dwell in us. 1 Corinthians 3.16, right? Which is a plural. 1 Corinthians 3.16. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you? So we're a spiritual temple. So Israel always has a physical temple. The church is a spiritual temple. So, question. Is Israel on center stage right now in world history or is the church on center stage right now in history? The church. When will Israel be back on center stage? Well, when there's a physical temple, right? There's actually going to be one after the church is removed and they build the tribulation temple. But you don't have the two going on really at the same time, so to speak. I mean, the one in the Gospels, it was there, you know, through the early part of the church and destroyed in 8070. But the author of Hebrews says, hey, it's ready to disappear. It's obsolete. It's not doing anything, it's not functional. The real functional temple at that time was already the church, spiritual temple. So we're center stage right now. But Israel's back in the land, so you can see that the church is coming to an end and Israel's going to be back on center stage again. Israel D. Israel was not a mystery in the Old Testament by any means of the imagination. Everybody knows that it began basically there in the book of Genesis. So, but the church was a mystery in the Old Testament. We've already gone through several passages showing that the church and truths related to the church were a mystery. Nobody knew about it. So they couldn't be the same. Israel had degrees of spiritual privilege that distinguished between Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free.
SPEAKER_01Look at Galatians 3.28. Because Israel had these degrees of spiritual privilege, but in the church, there's no degrees of spiritual privilege.
SPEAKER_02What do I mean? In the Old Testament, what I mean is this: if you lived in Old Testament Israel, let's just say you're a woman, just for fun, so I can get everybody to listen. If you're a woman in Old Testament Israel and you go down to the tabernacle or later the temple, could you go in the court of the men?
SPEAKER_01Could you step foot in that area?
SPEAKER_02No, it's the court of the men. You can't go in there. Now, could the women could the men go in the court of the of the women? Sure, they had to go through it to get to the court of the men.
SPEAKER_01So do you see that there were distinct spiritual privileges that men had that Israeli women did not have? Yeah. Now, what if you were a Gentile in Old Testament Israel? Could you go into the court of the Israeli women?
SPEAKER_02No. Even if you're a Gentile man, you can't do that. You had to stay out in the court of the Gentiles, right? Now, all this is a picture in the temple of how close one could draw to God. If you are a regular male in Israel, could you go into the court of the priest?
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_02If you are a regular priest, could you go in the most holy of holies, or did you have to be the high priest? Do you see that there were distinct religious privileges in terms of how close one could draw to God? That's the way it was in the Old Testament in Israel, but it's not that way in the church, which means this verse explains a whole lot. Galatians 3.28. No differences, spiritual privileges. He says, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free man, there's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01This verse is talking about the rights of spiritual privilege. Now you may or may not know this historically, but a Jewish man would, if he was Orthodox, he would pray, Thank you, God, that I'm not a Greek, that I'm not a woman, and I'm not a slave. And some people are like, uh you're a very bigoted person.
SPEAKER_02Uh no, that's not what he meant at all. What he meant was, thank you that I'm not a Greek because that means I can get closer to God because I can move into the courts of Israel. And thank you, God, that I'm not a woman because why? Because I don't like women? No. It's because it meant that he had even he could go closer to God as a man.
SPEAKER_01That was the only reason. But what Paul is saying here is that's all done.
SPEAKER_02So is there a distinction between Israel and the church? Absolutely, in terms of spiritual privileges. We have been elevated, so we're all an equal playing field. Thank God. It's awesome. Uh F here. Israeli believers were not indwelled by the Spirit. They only had prophets, priests, and kings temporarily, so that the Spirit of God was among them through those individuals, but he was not in them.
SPEAKER_01He just indwelled certain people. What is uh what does David pray in Psalm 51, his confessional psalm in the after the Bathsheba incident?
SPEAKER_02He says, Take not your spirit from me. Why? Well, because he had taken the spirit from Saul. It's there in the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 16, verse 14, that he was given the spirit to be king, but when God rejected Saul, he took the spirit away from Saul, and an evil spirit came and terrorized him, remember? So in the Old Testament, the indwelling of the Spirit was only in certain individuals, prophets, priests, and kings, and it was temporary. It could be lost. But now in the church, guess what? You you can't lose the spirit, Romans 8:9. If you don't have the spirit, I mean you don't even belong to him. So, Romans 8, 9, this is very different. And this is what's setting us up for a different spirituality in the church age. And that's why this is so important. This
Why Promises Matter For Trust
SPEAKER_02is it's a different way of the spiritual life for us. It's not the same as it was for Israel. Romans 8:9. However, you're not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God is in you. But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. In verse 11, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, okay, he will raise you, of course, from the dead. So all believers now are permanently indwelled by the Spirit. That's something that was not true of Israel. So these two people groups can't be the same. Um, gee, Israeli believers were under the Mosaic covenant, the law of Moses, and the Levitical priests. Well, we might all just summarize as the law. But the church believers are under the new covenant, the law of Christ, and a Melchizedekian priesthood, which we summarize as being ungraced. John 1.17.
SPEAKER_01Right? John 1.17. We'll just close with this. John 1.17. Israel is under a law system. We're under a grace system.
SPEAKER_02They were under law as a rule of life. We're under grace as a rule of life. He says in verse 17, well, 16, of his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. There are distinctions here, and we can go into all these verses here, and especially in Hebrews and 2 Corinthians 3. But Israel was under the Mosaic covenant that God made at Sinai, and the stipulations of that covenant were what we call the law of Moses, and it has a whole series of laws, lots of laws. And the ones who administered this law were known as the Levitical priests down at the physical temple or tabernacle, right? And we're not under that system. We are, as a church, under a new covenant. Now, again, that covenant was made with Israel, but God ratified it through Christ on the cross. Christ ratified it on the cross. And so it's now in effect, and we're receiving benefits from it. And the stipulations of the new covenant are the law of Christ. All the things we're commanded to do.
SPEAKER_01Cast your cares on him, for he cares for you, right?
SPEAKER_02Pray at all times. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks to God, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. All these commands are part of the law of Christ. They can only be fulfilled, though, if we walk by the Spirit, right? And the one who's administering the law of Christ is our Melchizedekian priest in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01So are we Israel? Are we something distinct from Israel? We're definitely something distinct.
SPEAKER_02Different law, different covenant, different priesthood. They can't be operable at the same time. Hebrews 7.12 says it. It says they can't be operating at the same time.
SPEAKER_01So the death of one means the beginning of another.
SPEAKER_02But we have to get this across because what happens on the day of Pentecost is monumental in the history of the world. Nothing like this had ever been seen. Why is Peter having such a hard time going to Cornelius' house? What was the big deal there? Well, they're Gentiles. I mean, even from Jesus' perspective, Gentiles are quote unquote dogs.
SPEAKER_01Just unclean, nasty, filth. And things have totally changed now, right?
SPEAKER_02So Jew and Gentile are one in Christ. And there's something unique and tremendous that he is building right now. It's called His church. And it ain't Israel. And God's not done with Israel. He still has a future for Israel. And that's why we have to keep these two things separate, because the moment you put them together and you go like this, and you just blend Israel and the church, then all God's promises to Israel are not kept literally anymore.
SPEAKER_01And that means our God is not God. It means he's a liar. It means he's arbitrary. He's capricious. And this is not the way the Bible paints him. The Bible paints him as if he said it, he will do it.
SPEAKER_02If he made a covenant, he'll keep the covenant. How much of the covenant? To the letter. To the letter. Why is this so important? Because if he doesn't keep his promises for Israel, who's to say he has to keep his promises to you? Maybe he can just change them and give them to somebody else. How does that make you feel? So this guy named Barry Horner, he wrote a book years ago. He used to believe that Israel and the church were all the same. And he wrote a book called Future Israel. In that book, he recounts his story of how he began to realize that that ain't right. And that the real bottom issue between covenant theology and replacement theology and all that and dispensational theology is the nature of who God is. That is really what the issue is. Do we worship a God who makes promises to certain people? And when those people don't measure up, he changes and gives the promises to someone else.
SPEAKER_01If that's the God you worship, that God is not faithful. Why would you worship this God?
SPEAKER_02Why would you be faithful? I wouldn't be a faithful person if I didn't believe in a faithful covenant-keeping God. I would be a manipulative, deceptive person, just like the God of the Bible, because he said, Be holy as I'm holy, and that would be the definition of holiness. And this is absolute craziness that the church accepts this. I cannot believe that there's more people out there in churches today that believe that the church has replaced Israel than churches that don't believe the church has replaced Israel. But that's pretty much the fact if you include Roman Catholicism.
SPEAKER_01When are we gonna just accept what the Bible says? This has been so misconstrued. But really, just love him. Just listen to his voice. Just read his word. And when you do, then you will think like him and you will be pleasing to him. And you will be known by as one who loves and cherishes his not the word of man. But the Bible also teaches that it's gonna go to apostasy, so am I surprised that this is happening? No. But I will stand up on the truth forever. Because John 8 32, you know the truth, it will set you free. Freedom. That's what we all want.
Final Exhortation And How To Watch
SPEAKER_00Thank 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.