NT Framework - Maturity & Worship

Strange things become normalized, but not by God. What kinds of strange things? Science that denies any hint of design. Worship that is about the persons feelings and not Gods attributes. Enjoyment and pleasure outside of the Divine Institutions. And it all starts with the failure of the Church.

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. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today, the full lesson fromJeremy Thomas.
Here's a hint of what's to come.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Now what I mean by when I say, at the end of this,
this integrated system that Godhas here and it's all under His
interpretive control, is I meanthis I mean God interprets
everything as it truly is.
Do you know a fossil, forexample?
Until you know the fossil'splace in the plan of God, it's

(00:31):
interesting to consider how twomen can impact our view of
doctrine so profoundly.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
How is it that two men who lived centuries ago
could demonstrate so manyaspects of fellowship, of
sanctification, of maturity, ofworship, of obedience, of
rebellion, of sin, ofrestoration, confession?

(01:00):
How is it that two men coulddemonstrate so many aspects of
God's love toward us, hisattributes of righteousness and
justice and truth andomniscience and our proper way
of responding, demonstrating tous what spiritual maturity is
like, what spiritual failure?

(01:20):
is like, and what restoration.
Yes, we're talking about KingDavid and King Solomon, and it
is astounding to see howrelevant their lives from
thousands of years ago are forus today.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Okay.
So we're going through theframework in the Old Testament.
Again, it's a review, right,because we already taught this I
don't even know how manylessons a year and a half ago or
so, whenever we started it.
And so now we're preparing forthe New Testament framework and
to do that, what I'm doing isgoing back and just highlighting
the big points of the OldTestament framework.
So in the framework, we takethe historical events, we

(02:00):
emphasize the historicity ofthese events.
These are real events thathappened in space and time, and
then what we do on the otherside is we link doctrines to
them.
So those main events for theOld Testament are the creation
of the world, where we learnabout God, man and nature.
The fall, where we learn aboutsin and suffering.
The flood, where we learn aboutjudgment and salvation.
The Noahic covenant, whereagain we learn more about God,

(02:23):
man and nature, and stabilityand nature that God has provided
for our present world, theworld after the flood.
And then we go to the call ofAbraham, where we learn about
the doctrine of faith andjustification, because Abraham's
justified by faith.
And the Exodus, where we againlook at judgment, salvation, as
God judges Egypt but he savesIsrael.
It's very clear.

(02:44):
And we add the dimension thereof substitutionary blood,
atonement, because the blood ofthe lamb on the door and all of
this imagery that teaches usabout what the Messiah will come
and do as the lamb of God whotakes away the sin of the world.
And then we move to Mount Sinai, right, and we talk about three
doctrines revelation,inspiration, canonicity.

(03:04):
God speaks through men in theBible.
That's a summary of those threedoctrines.
And so we've done Mount Sinai.
And then the conquest.
And this is where the rest,most of the rest of the Old
Testament, focuses on thedoctrines that we introduce at
the conquest.
So I want to bring these up.
So we are reminded that, withJoshua and that whole generation

(03:27):
that went in to take the land,that the whole picture is one of
sanctification.
And there are phases tosanctification.
You know there's your position.
Israel had a position, bydefinition, in the Abrahamic
covenant.
They are God's people throughwhom he will bless the world,
whom he would give a land andbring the seed, the Messiah.
But that's not the only phase.

(03:47):
They also had their experience.
That's defined by the Mosaiccovenant.
They're supposed to keep thatlaw right, but of course they
can't.
They failed.
But the aim in theirsanctification was to learn
loyalty to God, and the samething is true for us.
I mean, in the New Testament itsays that, both for the Old and
New Testament, that we are tolove the Lord, our God, with all
our heart, mind, soul andstrength.

(04:08):
Again, I always just describethat as loyalty, because loving
the Lord, your God, with allyour heart, mind, soul and
strength means to learn loyaltyto Him, to be loyal to Him, put
Him above everything else.
So Israel was to learn loyaltyto God through his word,
especially in the Mosaiccovenant.
And then, of course, there arethe dimensions, and there are
two dimensions.

(04:29):
There's the fellowshipdimension.
Either the nation was infellowship or out of fellowship,
and either you are infellowship or you're out of
fellowship, right, at any givenmoment.
It's just back and forth.
Whenever you're walking by theSpirit, you're in fellowship,
right.
Whenever you're filled by theSpirit, you're in fellowship.
But by the Spirit, you're infellowship.
Right.
Whenever you're filled by theSpirit, you're in fellowship.
But when you sin, of course,now you are out of fellowship
and you're supposed to confess,to get back in fellowship.

(04:51):
So that's the any momentdimension, the fellowship
dimension.
The other dimension is thelong-term, or what I call
maturity dimension, the maturitydimension.
So maturity, of course, islooking at your Christian life
over the long haul, how manyyears you've been a believer and
how long you've been in theWord and how long you've been
living the Christian life.
It all builds up as you becomemore and more mature.

(05:11):
So that's one of the dimensions.
And then the means.
The means are both law andgrace, because there is law.
Israel had the law of Moses.
The church has the law ofChrist.
So there is law.
That's the content that we areto obey.
But that's not enough.
It's just saying you need to dothis, you need to do this, you

(05:32):
need to do this.
That's just do's and don'ts.
That's not going to work.
That's going to just end upbeing some kind of legalistic
system or something.
So we also have grace as theother means.
You have to have grace.
Apart from me, you can donothing.
So we have to have thisenabling grace in order to keep
the law of Christ.
And so those are the two means.

(05:54):
And then enemies.
We know what those are, right,the world, the flesh and the
devil.
The world is the cosmic systemaround us.
The devil, he's the arch enemy,spirit being the arch enemy of
God.
And then there's our own flesh.
Sometimes we refer to it as thesin nature, but it's our
natural inclination ordisposition to do evil that we

(06:15):
inherit from Adam.
And so, now that we believed inChrist, the good news is we're
no longer under the penalty ofsin and we don't have to live
under the power of our sinnature.
We can be set free from that ifwe live through faith.
And so these are the basic ideasof sanctification, all taught

(06:36):
in the period of Joshua and theearly pages of the book of
Judges.
And that generation had partialobedience, so they enjoyed
partial victory.
But Joshua looks to a greaterthan Joshua, who is the Messiah,
who will have total victory andbring in therefore total

(06:59):
obedience and therefore totalvictory.
So we still look for that inthe future messianic kingdom.
So we're going to draw fromthis, though in the period of
Solomon, because we've had Davidand God made a covenant with
the house of David, and David'shouse is therefore eternal.
An eternal dynasty will comefrom him, an eternal throne and

(07:23):
an eternal kingdom, and so thatwould come through David's line,
and with David, again, weemphasize fellowship.
We went to that dimension insanctification and we just
amplified it because he's theguy right.
He's the guy who pictures abeliever who is growing and
maturing, who is a man afterGod's own heart.
And then he gets out of it.

(07:44):
Right, he's not out at battleleading the armies of Israel in
the spring when kings went outto do battle Psalm 5.
He's hanging out at the palace.
He looks down, you know, fromhis high bird's eye view, down
at the city of David, and he sawa woman bathing who was not
clothed and he calls her up andwe have this whole problem that

(08:04):
he created because he was out ofit spiritually, got out of
fellowship with the lord.
Before long he plots to haveher husband murdered right, and
so he teaches us aboutfellowship.
Because when nathan comes tohim, the prophet and and
convicts him, and it comes to arealization that he has done all
this, he confesses right, sohe's.
He confesses right, so he'sconvicted.

(08:26):
He confesses and he's restored.
Those are your three steps forfellowship.
So now we come to the nextperiod that grows out of David's
generation and Solomon.
David's on his deathbed, butSolomon is to be the king, to

(08:46):
sit on the everlasting throne ofdavid and, as a young ruler,
solomon in first kings three, heasked the lord to give him
wisdom.
Remember, and the lord saysbecause you didn't ask for
riches and because you didn'task for honor, but you asked for
wisdom, I'm going to give youmore wisdom than anybody has had
in the history of the world orwill have after, until the Lord

(09:11):
Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ says tothe nation Israel in the book of
Matthew, he says a greater thanSolomon is here, and so Solomon
is the wisest individual in thehistory of the world until
Jesus Christ.
In fact, if you read this storyjust read 1 Kings 3 through 11

(09:34):
today you'll see that Israel wasbecoming so great that all the
kings of the world, not just theQueen of Sheba, but all the
kings of the world, were comingto Israel to hear his wisdom and
to see the magnificence of thekingdom of Israel in this period
of history, which is why wecall it the golden era of
Solomon.

(09:54):
Right, the golden era ofSolomon.
We wonder and at least I'vestudied a little bit about this
idea why the Greek thinkers likeSocrates and Plato and
Aristotle began to developphilosophy in the 5th century,
6th century before Christ, andwe think that the basic

(10:17):
presupposition under these guys'philosophy was that the
universe is intelligible, inother words, the universe
actually makes sense.
Was that the universe isintelligible, in other words,
the universe actually makessense?
But this was not a part ofpeople's thinking that we knew
of outside of the Jewish worldbefore that time.
And so Greek thinking couldnever really get going.
Because if you don't think theuniverse works together as a

(10:39):
coherent harmony, then how farcan you go in your thinking?
You can't go very far.
So where did this idea come fromthat the universe was an
intelligible whole, that itcould be understood, that it
made sense?
Well, it comes from Hebrewtheology, and specifically
through Solomon, because this isthe time period when kings are
coming to Israel to hear thiswisdom and they marvel.

(11:03):
Read the story of the queen ofSheba coming in 1 Kings 10.
And she says I heard of thesethings, but what I heard wasn't
even half of what it is theglory, the splendor, the wisdom.
And then she, so to speak,exported that back to her
country, as did the other kingswho came, and Hebrew exiles
would have taken these ideas ofJewish theology out into the

(11:26):
Greek world when they went intocaptivity and so forth.
So Phoenician sailors in thestory of the book of Jonah.
Right, they are the main oneswho sail those waters of the
Mediterranean, and so they'recoming into people of all
different groups and Hebrewslike Jonah, and they're learning
Hebrew theology, they'regetting these ideas and they're

(11:48):
exporting them around the world,and so that's why you have this
explosion of Greek philosophy,with Socrates, plato and
Aristotle, because theyinherited a basic presupposition
that you have to have, and thatis that the universe is an
intelligible whole.
And that only comes from Hebrewtheology, because Hebrew
theology is talking about acreator, a God over everything.
So it's a fascinating storyabout how the Solomonic era

(12:11):
really became the basis for theexportation of Hebrew theology
into the Greek world.
They did away with some of thegood theology and just kept the
presuppositions and built theirown systems, but that's where
it's coming from.
So that's an interesting story.
Now, what we have in the time ofSolomon is really not just one

(12:31):
generation.
You have to go back in theheritage of Solomon.
Solomon comes from the line ofBoaz, and that's the story in
the book of Ruth, and that guyis a godly guy.
That guy is loyal, he is kesed.
He's repeatedly referred to asone who is loyalty and grace
keen, okay, and so this is agreat guy.

(12:54):
And then, down the line, you'vegot Obed, and then you've got
David, and then you've gotSolomon.
So this is a spiritual heritage,and what I like to encourage
families to do is build upon thespiritual heritage.
Go one step further.
So you're somewhere in the line.
Maybe your parents weren't evenbelievers, so you are the

(13:15):
beginning of a heritage.
Or maybe you're two or threegenerations down the line and so
you're building on the heritagethat was left to you.
But this is an important thingto build a spiritual legacy or
heritage that goes throughseveral generations.
Okay, and that's what we'reseeing here.
We're seeing a culture in thetime of Solomon that developed

(13:36):
as a byproduct of severalgenerations being loyal.
It doesn't happen in onegeneration.
You take a few steps.
If you're the first generation,the next generation takes a few
more steps and takes it further, and then the next generation
can go further, right and build.
Okay, and so that's what we'reseeing here.
In the time of Solomon, you areseeing the greatest biblical

(14:01):
culture the world has ever seen.
Period.
Solomon himself was are youready for this?
A poet, a songwriter, abotanist, a zoologist, an
ornithologist, an entomologist,an ichthyologist, an architect,
a politician, an economist, ajudge, a naval engineer and a

(14:22):
military tactician people fromeverywhere in the world yes,
they came to hear what this guyhad to say because he was a
multi-latitudinal genius.
Now, unfortunately, solomon'svast kingdom and his wealth
eventually led to his spiritualdecay because he failed to trust

(14:47):
the Lord to provide securityfor his vast kingdom and so he
tried to take matters into hisown hands.
He is marrying foreign wives tomake treaties with other
nations, to have protection fromthem, and he multiplied horses
for himself.
And people say what's theproblem with horses and
multiplying horses?

(15:07):
It was basically likemultiplying war machines for
himself, like tanks today.
That was the equivalent in theancient world.
So they were for battle and forprotection.
He went one step further thanthat and he began to worship the
idols of the women that hemarried from foreign nations and

(15:29):
set up temples for them andworshiped idols, and this
imported then idolatry intoIsrael.
And what happened toward theend of his reign is a spiritual
rot set in, and this caused theLord's blessing on that culture
to begin to decay as theyunderwent divine discipline.

(15:50):
And then the prophet announcesat the end of Solomon's life
that the kingdom would bedivided.
So the kingdom had been unitedunder David all 12 tribes and it
had survived as all 12 tribesunder one king in the time of
Solomon.
But now, after Solomon passesaway and his son comes to the

(16:11):
throne, it's going to be splitand you're going to have two
kingdoms the northern, which isknown as Israel, and the
southern, which is known asJudah.
So that's the story of the timeperiod of Solomon, and I want
to talk about the doctrinethat's associated with those
pages of scripture, and that isit focuses on the aim,

(16:32):
certification, um, the aim,which is the, the idea of saying
what is the goal or what is thetarget.
You know, if you shoot riflesand handguns and all that stuff,
you have, you have sights andand you have the target, like
that's what you're eitherputting your sights on or lining
up your sights for your frontsight, all that stuff, and you
have to know your sights workand you have to know what you're

(16:53):
aiming at.
If you think you're ever goingto hit it, you have to know what
you're aiming at, right.
So what are we aiming for insanctification?
What was the nation Israelaiming for?
Well, of course, we've alreadydiscussed it the aim was to
learn loyalty to God through hisword.
For him, that meant meditatingupon the Mosaic law day and

(17:13):
night so that they would be ableto keep it and therefore find
success.
And that's what you find in thetime of Solomon right,
tremendous success.
Because you're talking aboutnot just one generation, but
you're in like the fourth orfifth generation, from Boaz to
Obed to David, and now you'vegot Solomon.
You've got at least four, maybeeven more generations back
behind that that have beenbuilding loyalty to God and

(17:34):
passing it on.
So this becomes the idea thatwe want to work with in the time
of David, and that's the aim ofsanctification and what it
looks like when we move intowhat I call advanced
sanctification.
Advanced sanctification,advanced sanctification.
Advanced sanctification isbasically the idea of your now
seeing that the Bible applies toevery area of life, and there's

(18:00):
no area of life that you can gointo.
That is a separate compartmentthat God doesn't have anything
to say about.
God has spoken to every area oflife.
Now, the Bible is not amathematics textbook, but it
contains the presuppositionsunderlying mathematics, In other
words, why mathematics worksand who established and governs

(18:23):
the universe so that math worksright.
The Bible is not a biologytextbook, but it definitely
contains the presuppositionsunderneath our biology and the
principles that are involved,that these things are the way
they are because God designedthings in a certain pattern.
So we can't say, well, I'mgoing to just be a biologist and

(18:45):
go through the secular blah,blah, blah and accept all the
humanist philosophy and garbageto put it French, garbage that's
underlying their underlyingpresuppositions.
No, we have to start with.
The God of the Bible is theultimate presupposition for
biology and what we'rediscovering in the design

(19:06):
features that he has built intoorganisms the DNA, the
endoplasmic reticulum, theribosomes, all that transfer RNA
, messenger RNA, all this likevery, very complicated stuff
that people look at and say, wow, this is so neat.
And I'm like, yeah, but youwon't take the next step,
because the next step is how didall this get there?
Like, where is all thisinformation coming from?
Information doesn't come out ofnothing.

(19:27):
Information comes out of a mind, a mind that puts information
there.
So in advanced I'm just tryingto give you the idea that, in
advanced sanctification, you'rebeginning to see that every area
of life is rooted back to andrelated to, god in some way.
So let's talk about what thisresults in this results in what
we call a high biblical culture.

(19:48):
So here are the big ideas forthe aim of sanctification.
When you're talking aboutadvanced sanctification that you
see in the time of Solomon,when there was so much blessing,
it says in the text of thosepages that you know everything
in the temple that was engravedin cedar and all this was then
covered in gold.
Everything's covered in gold.

(20:08):
And it says silver was not usedin that day, it wasn't
considered valuable.
So you know, just everythingwas just gold.
He was bringing in 666 talentsof gold a year, which is 666
times.
Let's just say somewhere around70 to 80 pounds of gold they
were bringing in every year.
He built a naval fleet down inthe Red Sea.

(20:31):
I mean like he was going allover the world sending ships out
, you know, discovering thingsand bringing back all sorts of
different trees.
It talks about almond trees andall sorts of very interesting
things that were coming toIsrael, because Israel was just
like the center of everything.
So that was a biblical cultureand we want to talk a little bit
about that with the connectionto the golden era.

(20:53):
So the first point is biblicalculture is a byproduct of
advanced sanctification.
What does this mean?
Okay, this means number oneyou're educated in the
Scriptures.
But it means a little more thanjust being educated in the
Scriptures.
It means being educated in theScriptures to the point you're
able to explain the scripturesto other people.
Can you explain to someone elsewhat you know, or think you

(21:20):
know?
The best test to know if youreally know something is if you
can explain it to someone else.
And so advanced sanctificationis being educated in the
Scriptures to the point you canexplain it, articulate it to
someone else.
And also this another thingthat is related to it is you
yourself are applying theScriptures to your own life.

(21:43):
You yourself are applying theScriptures to your own life.
It's not just all up here andlike, oh, I know so much
theology, this is what everyseminary student thinks.
They get out and here and like,oh, I know so much theology,
this is what every seminarystudent thinks.
They get out and they're like,oh, I know all this stuff, I sat
under the best professors.
This is what you thought, too,whenever you went through
whatever discipline you wentthrough to study.
And you, oh, I went to the bestschools and I know all this

(22:03):
stuff.
Yeah, but you haven't got outthere and applied it.
That's just theoretical.
You actually need time in lifeto have the situations arise
where you have to apply what youlearn, because those situations
don't come up instantaneously.
So education is, in one sense,it's just a way to compact a lot

(22:24):
of information and give it toyou, and most of the times the
people who are learning that saywhy will I ever need this?
You haven't lived long enoughto need it, that.
When you see that, then you go,oh, okay, but you probably
won't see it until you're 45 or50 years old.
And people who are older thanme, they're saying well, no, you
really won't see it untilyou're 65 years old, and that

(22:48):
may be okay because I stilldon't have all the experiences I
could have that require me toapply the things I've learned.
So being advancedsanctification means you're
educating the scriptures, but italso means three other things
that you can explain them tosomeone else, that you're
applying them in your ownpersonal life, to your

(23:08):
experiences and, lastly, you'repassing them on to the next
generation, which means that youhave to have a generation to
pass them on to.
So if you're 20, you can'treally do that.
When you're 30 or 40, you startto get to that point where
there's another generationbehind you and you can pass it
on to them, and the byproduct ofdoing all that is what we call
biblical culture.

(23:29):
Again, biblical culture, then,is the ability to see that God's
thoughts, let's just say,reverberate into every area of
life Music, mathematics, biology, zoology, business, economics,
politics.

(23:49):
I say politics is not like aseparate idea from the bible.
I mean, god created the firsthuman government after the flood
and he gave human government apurpose, which was essentially
to curb evil, to slow evil andto set up a system of justice
right where you could slow thegrow of evil.

(24:12):
So politics a lot of times theysteal ideas that really should
be dealt with in the churchprimarily, and then they say
well, there's separation ofchurch and state, so you can't
talk about that in the church,or something like that, whatever
baloney.
We know all that stuff.
Church and state separation isjust baloney, right?
I mean Thomas Jefferson'sletter and all that stuff.
We know all that stuff.
Church and state separation isjust baloney, right?

(24:32):
I mean Thomas Jefferson'sletter and all that stuff.
We know all that.
So no, we have to talk aboutthese areas, because these areas
are again all addressed by theBible.
And unless you're in advancedsanctification, yeah, you don't
see that.
But if you're in advancedsanctification level, you see,
oh yeah, every area of lifeGod's word touches, and so I

(24:54):
have to think his thoughts afterhim in these areas, and that's
how my way of thinking getsshaped by him.
So that's biblical culture andit's a byproduct of advanced
sanctification that can takeseveral generations to get going
.
Second point biblical culturehas a unified view of life.
Here's what happens in advancedsanctification.
You realize that God'somniscience, which is his

(25:19):
knowledge, that he knows allthings actual and possible, that
he can know His omniscience, isbehind everything in creation,
like all these design featureswe talk about.
I mean, isn't a brilliant mindbehind that?
I mean we can't even come upwith these ideas.

(25:45):
The truth is we don't evenunderstand these ideas yet After
studying them for decades inlaboratories.
We still don't even understandthese ideas yet After studying
them for decades in laboratories, we still don't totally
understand what all is going oninside these complicated systems
that God has designed.
So we have to see there's anomniscient mind behind all of
this, and so this starts todefine for us what true

(26:07):
education is, true education,and this is not the way our
society sets things up.
They set things up exactly theopposite.
The way our society sets upeducation is this way you become
a specialist.
My son was telling me about ityesterday how the industry and
bikes and it's true foreverything, but in bikes like

(26:29):
they, are specialized in onelittle aspect.
Maybe it's gear, I don't knowenough about it to know but
maybe someone does gears butthey don't know about composite
alloys and things like that.
They're just over here doinggears, okay, but if you want to
know something about that,they'll tell you like a whole
world of information, right?
So that's the way our societyis set up education you become a

(26:52):
specialist in one area, butyou're basically an idiot in
every other area.
Okay, the Bible.
I remember in college there wasthese two brothers, twins.
One of them went to work forBoeing and he told me that he
worked for two years on onecubic foot of an airplane wing.

(27:12):
That's what he did Interesting,not after about three weeks.
So it's very specialized In thescriptures.
It's not like this.
Remember what I said aboutSolomon, that he was an
ornithologist, he was anichthyologist, he was an

(27:34):
entomologist, he was a botanist,he was a zoologist, remember.
He was a politician, he was anaval engineer, he was a
military tactician.
That's not just one area,that's all sorts of areas, and
that's what we mean by having aunified view of life.
True, by having a unified viewof life.
True education is not aboutbeing a specialist in one area
of life, but it's having anunderstanding of many areas that

(27:55):
seamlessly integrate into thewhole under God's interpretive
control.
I just packed a whole lot inone sentence.
I'm going to unpack a littlebit of it.
Okay, true education is notbeing a specialist in one area,
but it's having an understandingin many areas that seamlessly
integrate into a whole underGod's interpretive control.
What do I mean by that lastpart, that seamlessly integrate

(28:18):
under God's interpretive control?
First of all, I mean everythingin the universe is seamlessly
integrated.
Things are working in aharmonious pattern.
What do they call this?
The Copernican principle?
And when they talk about lifeon earth, they're like there's
only one place you can live inthe universe, guys, and we're on

(28:40):
it.
I don't know why people we weretalking about this last week,
right I don't know why peoplewant to go to Mars, like that's
dumb.
I mean you first.
I'm staying here.
This is way more interesting.
And, besides, you can't livethere anyway, so go die there.
I guess it's going to take youa long time to get there and
you're never going to make itback.
Go for it.

(29:01):
So the whole universe, asthough, is working according to
a pattern.
It organizes things and thingsare organized in a certain way,
and this is where God has setout on this thing called earth,
where people are, and the onlyimages in the whole universe are
of him.
You know, people, even angels,aren't made in God's image.

(29:23):
So super interesting things arehappening right here Now, but
the whole thing's workingtogether.
Now, what I mean by when I sayat the end of this, this
integrated system that God hashere and it's all under his
interpretive control, is I meanthis.
I mean God interpretseverything as it truly is.
Do you know a fossil, forexample, until you know the

(29:50):
fossil's place in the plan ofGod?
No, you don't know a fossiluntil you know the
interpretation that God puts onthe fossil, because His
interpretations are correct.
So you can put a label on afossil that says you know 4.6

(30:12):
million years ago, okay, orwhatever, and you don't know
that fossil.
I mean you could be apaleontologist and study fossils
all your life, but you don'tknow what they are until you
know their place in God's plan,which is obviously the flood.
It's a picture of the originalorganisms that God created and

(30:32):
lived during the time of Noahand then were destroyed in the
flood, and so there are lessons.
They're not just fossils, theyare evidences of death and that
God destroyed the whole world ina global flood.
So only when we know thosetypes of things about a fossil

(30:56):
do we actually know what theyare, because everything is under
God's interpretive control.
We don't know a star or a galaxyuntil we know its place in the
plan of God, and the Psalms talkabout this.
Right, job talks about this,talks about Orion, it talks
about the star arrangements.
It talks about times andseasons that are kept by virtue

(31:18):
of the movements of these things.
Right, it talks about there forthe glory of God in Psalm 19.
So you know, because a lot oftimes I'm honest.
I mean I'm looking at stuff outthere and I'm like that's 16
gazillion years away and we'vegot the starlight issue and all
that to deal with in Genesis,but like what is the purpose of
that out there and one of theaspects of it is just to marvel

(31:41):
that in three Hebrew words Godcreated all that.
Three Hebrew words, it justsays, and the stars also.
And your jaw is supposed todrop, your jaw is supposed to
drop at the wonders of our God.
So this is seeing everything asunified under his plan, built on

(32:04):
his omniscience.
He knows that he knows allthings actual and possible.
That changes the way you lookat everything around you all day
long.
Know that he knows all thingsactual and possible.
That changes the way you lookat everything around you all day
long.
Because it gets to number four,where we'll see what mature
worship is really about.
It's not about singing somesongs.
Singing songs are great, butthat's not, you know, like some

(32:25):
locale or sphere or isolated boxof worship.
You'll see, worship is talkingabout everything in your whole
life, how you're thinking andwhat your appreciation for God
is like.
So the third point then, beforewe get to that, is biblical
culture points to total victory.
This is an interesting point,because if you, let's say you
have partial obedience to God,then you'll have partial

(32:47):
biblical culture.
Right, I mean, it can only bethat way.
But if you have total obedience, you will be having a totally
biblical culture.
That's the end of that.
Now Solomon gives us a glimpsein his era of what total
obedience will produce.
They didn't have it, but theyhad four generations of built-up

(33:10):
loyalty and it was growing okay.
And what was the result?
A very high biblical culturethat God was blessing
tremendously, to the extentpeople from all over the world
were coming to see what wasgoing on there and they were to
give testimony.
Hey, this is the God, the onetrue God.
It's the God we worship.
You should worship him too.
This was their greatopportunity.

(33:35):
But Solomon and his generationdidn't have total obedience, so
they didn't have total victoryand they didn't have total
biblical culture.
But Solomon does foreshadow theone who will bring in a totally
obedient culture and a totalvictory, and that's the Lord

(33:55):
Jesus Christ.
In this way he foreshadows theMessiah.
So when his offspring, that'sSolomon's offspring, the seed,
the Messiah, comes and rules inthe future kingdom, we'll see a
totally biblical culture,because he's going to take
Israel and he's going to put hislaw upon their heart.

(34:16):
He's going to put his spiritwithin them and no man will
teach another, for they shallall know him, from the least to
the greatest Right You're goingto have in Israel a totally
obedient people and a totallybiblical culture in the
millennial kingdom.
So we'll get to see what itlooks like there.

(34:38):
So what's our point?
We're the church, so what arewe supposed to be doing?
Well, in the church, our goalis again to learn loyalty to God
as believers and producepartial sub-pockets of biblical
culture in our own lives, in ourfamilies, in our life, in our
family, in our church community,to build as much biblical

(34:59):
culture as we can.
As we do that, what does it dofor us?
It prepares us to reign withHim in the millennial kingdom.
So we're in training now forreigning then, and so we want to
produce as much biblicalculture as we're in training now
.
Right, we're reigning then, andso we want to produce as much
biblical culture as we can inthe world.
By the way, this is we staveoff.
By doing this we stave off thecorrosion in our own culture

(35:21):
that's taking place becausepeople see, had a guy call me,
he's from the other, but he'shere when he can be here.
He says you know, I came to yourhouse on Christmas and we had
him over for a few hours and Ihad no idea.
But this is just last week.
He calls me and says I didn'tknow what you had in your family

(35:43):
even existed.
I didn't know.
Like that it could actually bethis where I could have mature
conversations with people whoare 14 years old, you know, and
stuff like that.
Like he's like it changedeverything.
Like I realized, you know mystandards are what I hoped for
way too low but that there's apossibility.

(36:06):
And he's talking about biblicalculture.
He's seeing it.
Kids that not, they're not justdo what mom and dad say because
mom and dad say to do it, but,out of respect, want to do it
because they recognize this isbiblical model and they want to
follow Ephesians 6.1.
Children, obey your parents andLord, for this is right.
They know they can't do thatwithout Ephesians 5.18 being
filled by the spirit, right.
So he was just seeing thatright.

(36:27):
He was just seeing that right.
It's no kudos to me.
This is kudos to God and to hisgrace, because what we're
trying to do in my family isbuild on the generations of
loyalty in both of our families,robin's and mine.
We're trying to build on thatin the next generation so that
they can go further than us.
My hope is that they go wayfurther than us.
That should be every parent'shope, right.
And so biblical culture pointsto a time when Jesus Christ will

(36:53):
come back and Israel will betotally obedient and there will
be a totally biblical culture.
And that's what we're lookingforward to in the kingdom.
I mean, the Lord Jesus Christsaid seek first the kingdom and
his righteousness, see and so,and that's the period of history
where we will get to see it.
See, and that's the period ofhistory where we will get to see
it.
See.
Right now it's just trash outthere, folks.
It is trash, it's trashy.

(37:19):
And this is the greatestcountry in the world, so just
think what it's like in otherplaces.
Fourth point biblical cultureexpresses mature worship of God.
What is this, this idea ofworship?
If I could just summarizeworship in one word, I would say
worship is appreciation for God.
It's appreciation for God, butlet's flesh this out a little

(37:45):
bit.
In a biblical culture, god iscentral to everything and every
thought is taken captive to him.
I think Colossians says thisright Take every thought captive
to the obedience of Christ,every thought.
Remember what I said aboutsanctification, advanced

(38:06):
sanctification.
It's not just talking aboutsomething like what most
Christians say oh, that's areligious thought.
What are you talking about?
God made everything.
Every thought you have shouldhave God central to it Years ago

(38:30):
.
I mean, you know it's one of thetoughest subjects for a lot of
people is mathematics right, andeverybody struggles with it on
some level.
But this was one where I waslike, well, how you know, I
didn't, I couldn't see yet, likehow does this relate to God?
I got this book by James Nickelcalled Mathematics is God's
Silent, and I didn't read thewhole book, but I've thumbed
through it enough to gather theideas that he's gaining and

(38:54):
presenting.
And the idea is like, no, youcan't even do math unless God
created mathematics and iskeeping it stable.
I mean, like what would happenif tomorrow, two plus two was
five?
Wouldn't all of your matheducation be completely a waste?
I mean you wouldn't know ofyour math education be
completely a waste.
I mean you wouldn't knowanything about math if these

(39:14):
categories, you know numericcategories, weren't stable.
And then you have to ask thequestion well, how do they
remain stable?
I mean, is that just there?
That's what the world is.
It's just there.
We just go on, we just act likeit's just there.
It's not just there.

(39:34):
Things aren't just there.
That's the stupidest idea ever.
Things are just there,organized.
No, no, just come live in myhouse for one day, you'll see
that things are not just stayingwhere they are in an organized
fashion.
It's just not that way.
So something is there upholdingthis all the time.

(39:55):
Colossians 1.15,.
It says that Christ issustaining all things.
I mean that means at everysingle moment, at every point in
space, throughout the entiretyof the universe.
His hand is keeping it right,in the order that it is, which
then changes your whole way oflooking at miracles, because now
you realize that all that he'sdoing in a miracle is just

(40:15):
suspending the way that henormally operates in an area,
for example, walking on water.
Typically, you don't walk onwater, I mean, you step on the
water, you go under.
We know this is the way itworks.
And everybody says that'sgravity.
No, that's the hand of God,idiot.
This is the way it works.
And everybody says that'sgravity.
No, that's the hand of God,idiot.
This is not a game and they'relike well, we can't have
miracles.
The Bible says miraclessupernatural, that can't be,

(40:36):
it's impossible.
It's impossible on what grounds?
You mean, everything is justthe way it is, and it just works
that way.
All the time just stays thatway.
So you're saying something waycrazier than what I'm saying,
because what I'm saying is aperson is actually controlling
this and giving us the stabilitythat we have.
And every once in a while, in alittle space on top of where

(40:57):
his two feet were placed on theSea of Galilee water surface, he
suspended.
That.
It's his word.
I think he can suspend it.
That's not too difficult tounderstand.
But your idea that it's alljust that way, that's crazy.
Not too difficult to understand.
But your idea that it's alljust that way, that's crazy.
So this is the idea of worship.
You're taking every thoughtcaptive to Christ, okay.
And when you do this, you startto have an appreciation for his

(41:23):
thoughts and you realizethey're superior to my thoughts.
This is called humility.
When you're admitting thatGod's thoughts are superior to
your own thoughts.
Nobody wants to admit this.
They think they're smart.
I came up with this idea.
Look at me, put my name in line.
No, when you recognize thateverything that you have and

(41:49):
everything you are is only bythe grace of God and he's
upholding and sustaining.
He gave you your talents, hegave you your spiritual gifts,
all this stuff.
All of a sudden you start torealize, oh well, then he's
superior to me and his thoughtsare more important than my
thoughts.
And this is what results inworship, because worship, again,
is this appreciation for whoGod is and what he's like.

(42:11):
Right, and you're thinkingabout this, you're kind of just
marveling about it and realizingyour brain is just a peanut and
you're just here, just in yourpeanut brain, trying to discover
some things that God has done.
And it's a journey.
It's an exciting journey, butstill and it's a journey, it's
an exciting journey, but still Ijust have a peanut brain.
His is immense.

(42:33):
Biblical culture, lastly, haslimits.
In the present we still live inthe world, we still have the
flesh and the devil still roamsright, those enemies are still
present.
So there is more biblicalculture that we can develop, but
it is limited by the world, theflesh and the devil.
But in the future, in theresurrection, what happens to
our flesh?

(42:54):
Our sin nature?
Zap gone right, no sin nature.
What happens to Satan in themillennial kingdom?
He's bound.
And then what can we do inresurrection bodies with no
Satan around?
We can build a totally biblicalculture with the Lord, jesus
Christ in his millennial reign.
So all of that to say, look backat the period of Solomon.

(43:17):
You can see the greatness ofthat culture that was developed
through several generations ofbiblical loyalty.
We can do that now in our ownlives, here, here now in Spokane
, wherever you're from right andshow the world.
And then this is all preparingus for the time when Christ
comes back, and he does it on alarge scale.
We get to see what it wouldlook like.

(43:37):
Amos was looking forward to it.
We heard from Amos this morning, chapter 5, let justice roll
down like waters, righteousnesslike an everlasting stream.
That's a depiction of themillennial kingdom that we
cannot wait to see what it lookslike.
Much better than this trash.
The kingdom divided is the nextevent.

(44:02):
Briefly, through this one, thisis the period of Rehoboam, but
very important.
See, solomon's golden era didnot last.
Why didn't it land?
Because they did not continueto keep on learning loyalty to
God and they did not keep onapplying divine wisdom to every

(44:25):
area of life.
What happened was toward theend of Solomon's reign is to
begin to lose appreciation forGod, and people started to
become more and more autonomous,and this resulted in spiritual
decay.
And and people started tobecome more and more autonomous
and this resulted in spiritualdecay and the culture started to
rot.
You know, america started offas a Judeo-Christian-based
nation in the world, one of thegreatest nations in the West,
found on some of the greatestprinciples in our Constitution,

(44:46):
right?
But what has happened over thelast 200 years?
What has happened?
230, 40 years?
Gradually decay as we did what?
As we rejected thosejudeo-christian principles.
See, that's what happened.
That's what's still happening.
We're at rapid pace now.

(45:08):
So there are three steps todecay.
That happened in the time ofRehoboam, who was Solomon's son,
who took the rule.
So the first was rejection ofthe Davidic dynasty.
This happened with Rehoboam.
Rehoboam comes to the throne.
The elders of the northernkingdom came to Rehoboam and

(45:30):
they said hey, your fatherSolomon, he laid heavy taxes on
us.
I mean, the burdens are it'stoo much, too much taxation,
because he was trying to, youknow, protect and secure this
giant kingdom.
So taxes were going up, right.
So Rehoboam said hmm, aboutthat?
He went and talked to his fratbuddies and his frat buddies

(45:52):
said we think you should, youknow, raise the taxes even more.
And he also talked to Solomon'selders and Solomon's elders
from the previous generationsaid no, that's a good idea.
We think you should, you know,reduce the taxes.
These people will serve you andlove you forever if you do this
.
And guess whose advice he took?
He took the frat buddy's advice.
He went back, he told thenorthern kingdom you know some

(46:15):
very nasty things in 1 Kings 11.
And said we're going to raiseyour taxes.
He thought it was bad underSolomon.
It's going to be like stings ofscorpions with me.
So get ready, guys.
And they said okay, that's it.
We are no longer with theDavidic house and the nation
split, fortunately without acivil war, because the prophet
got in there and said no, we'renot going to do that.

(46:37):
So they split peacefully.
Now you've got the northernkingdom of Israel 10 tribes.
You've got the southern kingdomof Judah with two tribes, judah
and Benjamin.
So that's the first step downin decay.
It was the rejection of theDavidic dynasty.
They rejected David and David'shouse.
The second step down was therejection of the temple worship
in Jerusalem.
Because what happened?

(46:58):
Rehoboam's the king now ofJudah and Jerusalem is in the
tribal allotment of Judah andthe temple's there in Jerusalem.
But now you've got these 10tribes up north.
They need a king Jeroboambecomes the king of the northern
kingdom, right?
And the Lord said look,jeroboam, I'll give you an
everlasting dynasty, just like Igave David, if you'll just

(47:19):
learn loyalty to me.
Okay, in the Mosaic law, andpart of the Mosaic law said you
got to go to Jerusalem andworship.
Well, that's not in the tribalterritory that Jeroboam ruled,
it's down in the southernkingdom of Judah.
And so he says to himself okay,well, part of the law says
we're supposed to go up toJerusalem three times a year,

(47:39):
all our males right, and worshipthe Lord.
But if we go down there,they're going to defect from my
kingdom.
And so he got afraid, right, hegot afraid that he was going to
lose his people and that he'sgot to secure it, right.
So what does he do?
He builds an altar way north inIsrael at a place called Dan,

(48:02):
the northern border.
And he built another temple andaltar on the southern border,
at a place called Bethel, about15 miles from Jerusalem.
And he said you don't need togo to, you can just go to Dan or
Bethel.
Look how convenient they are,by the way, you don't even have
to walk all that way.
If you live up north, just goto Dan If you live further south
, you don't have to go all theway to Jerusalem, just stop at
Bethel, it's good enough.
And he set up the golden calf.

(48:24):
It's remarkable, you know, likefive, six centuries later the
golden calf is still an issueafter Moses and all that.
And so this is the second stepdown.
They rejected temple worship inJerusalem.
The third step down is rejectionof the Lord himself.
So three rejections rejectionof the Davidic dynasty,

(48:44):
rejection of the temple worshipand third, rejection of the Lord
himself.
This occurred during the reignof King Ahab, so later in the
story, after Rehoboam and soforth, ahab marries the nicest
girl in the Old Testament.
Her name's Jezebel.
Remember her?
How many girls you know namedJezebel?
People just don't use that namevery often.
This girl was an unbeliever whowas the daughter of a pagan

(49:06):
priest of Baal from Phoenicia,and Ahab allows her to come in
and basically take the reins inthe north and she makes
basically the official statereligion Baalism in the northern
kingdom.
So this is a huge step downfrom where Solomon was.
Solomon permitted, he marriedthese foreign wives and he had

(49:26):
mix.
He would worship Yahweh at thetemple, but he would also
worship their gods too.
So it was had mix.
He would worship Yahweh at thetemple, but he would also
worship their gods too.
So it was a mix.
But this is a wholesalerejection of Yahweh altogether
and it's a total endorsement ofpagan worship.
And so in Ahab's day in theNorthern Kingdom, they rejected
the Lord altogether.
And so what's so interesting isyou follow the story of the

(49:48):
North and the South.
In the South south, they had adavidic covenant.
You only see one family everreigning on the throne, and it's
david's house, through solomon.
But in the north there'sturmoil, there's chaos, there's
confusion, there's kingdomchanges, dynasty changes.
Nine, nine dynasty changes,nine different families, uh,

(50:08):
take the rule and reign on thethrone in the north.
So it's very chaotic, but it's.
It's very chaotic because oftwo things basically because
they left the lord totally andentirely, which is what's
happening in this country, right, just wholesale rejection of
the lord altogether, um, butalso because they didn't have a
covenant.

(50:28):
They didn't have an everlastingcovenant.
So God secured in the southernkingdom a government and a
dynasty.
So what do we learn here?
Okay, well, divine discipline.
We learn relative mainly inthis story to the northern
kingdom, and the first idea thatis very important is compound
carnality is a difficult road torecovery.

(50:50):
The first idea that is veryimportant is compound carnality
is a difficult road to recovery.
So divine discipline plugs intothe fellowship dimension,
because when you get out offellowship and then you stay out
of fellowship, let's just say,for a long period of time, what
develops is compound carnality.
So that's what I mean thatyou've got a whole lot of sin

(51:11):
and sin patterns going on inyour life because you haven't
kept them in check, you'veallowed them to get away from
you and they're running rampantin your life, and so that's what
I'm talking about when I talkabout compound carnality.
So compound carnality is aresult of being out of
fellowship for long periods oftime and just living like the
world.

(51:32):
This was the situation in thedays of Rehoboam and Jeroboam.
Particularly we're talkingabout Jeroboam, the northern
king of those people.
Their consciences were searedbecause they sinned and then
they didn't confess, and so theysinned more and they didn't
confess that and sinned more andover time your conscience
becomes seared like callousedand more and they didn't confess
that and sin more and over timeyour conscience becomes seared
like calloused and patterns ofsin start to develop in your

(51:53):
life that are very difficult todefeat.
So this is where you don't wantto be.
But you've probably knownbelievers who got way out of it.
Believers who got way out of itand they ran into drugs and

(52:14):
alcohol and sex and money, lustand power lust and and they're
into all these things and it's ait's hard to get out of that.
Once you've gone into that deep, it's hard to get out.
So that's what I mean by thisfirst point, and the last two
are being like how you stop that.
Don't, don't let yourself getinto that point.
But to overcome a deep-seatedcarnal problem, the believer has

(52:38):
to be committed to something.
First of all, constantlyconfessing.
Like they've got to get back ontrack.
I think the book of hoseadiscusses this to a pretty good
degree.
When you confess, you getrestored to fellowship.
So they're going to be doingthis a lot.
It almost seems stupid like howmuch they're going to be
confessing.
But the problem is they'retrying to get out of this thing.
But respond to God, confess,he'll restore you.

(53:02):
Then you have to stay in theWord.
That's another thing, a key.
You have to stay in the word.
I mean, they're not normally inthe word.
They're normally smoking potand doing other stuff?
Okay, whatever it is they'redoing.
Okay, but they're not in theword.
Okay, they're running from God.
So get in the word, okay.
And lastly and this one, I thinkthis is probably one of the
most important ones of all theseyou have to get in close with a

(53:26):
group of strong believers.
You have to have thataccountability yeah, you're not
just, I mean, nobody's on theirown god's with every believer.
But there's a reason the biblesays don't forsake assembling
yourselves in book of hebrews,you know, because you need that
close-knit bible family.

(53:46):
Okay, you need that.
And especially if you're inthis situation of compound
carnality, I mean you're way outof it.
So you need someone in yourlife who is like a post, who is
firmly planted, or a group ofpeople who are firmly planted,
that you can cling to and holdon to, who will help you develop
a new pattern of living.
Because getting out of that oldpattern of living that doesn't

(54:07):
take overnight.
It's going to take months andmaybe years.
So you've got to get in closewith a strong group of
Bible-believing Christians andyou've got to develop a new
pattern of living Constantlyconfess, stay in the Word Now.
So how do you keep from goinginto compound carnality, like
the generation of Rehoboam andfollowing and Jeroboam.

(54:30):
First thing, here's a couple ofideas.
First of all, be very sensitiveto your sin.
Do you remember David Psalm 139?
Is this your attitude towardyour own personal sin?
If it's not, you've got tostraighten this up right now.
Search me, o God, and know myheart.
Try me and know my anxiousthoughts.
See if there be any hurtful wayin me and lead me in the

(54:53):
everlasting way.
If that's not your attitudetoward your own personal sin,
you need to.
This verse will change yourlife.
It'll change it forever For thebetter.
I should say that for thebetter, for the way, way, way
better.
Okay, we need to developsensitivity to our own personal

(55:15):
sin.
It is very easy to point outeverybody else's sin.
That is not what I'm interestedin and it's not what you should
be interested in.
You should be interested insearch me, oh God, see if there
be any hurtful way in me.
It's not about what they'redoing, it's about what you are
doing.
It's about what I am doing.
See, if we develop thissensitivity, we will not fall

(55:42):
into compound carnality, will we?
And you don't want to be downthat road.
The last thing you can do isjudge yourself to avoid divine
discipline.
This is 1 Corinthians 11, sojust go ahead and turn there.
All this is based on Scripture,y'all know.
I just haven't turned to a lotof passages because we're just
reviewing these things, but 1Corinthians 11, in the section
on the Lord's Supper and howsome were taking it improperly,

(56:06):
we find in verse 31, well, verse30,.
For this reason, many among youare weak asthenes like and sick
, and a number sleep, which isan idiom for physical death.
They committed sin unto deathby the manner in which they were
taking the lord's supper.
He says verse 31.

(56:26):
But if we judged ourselvesrightly, we would not be judged.
But when, when we are judged,we're disciplined by the Lord.
So how can you avoid divinediscipline?
By judging yourself rightly.
And that's tied into the samething of search me, o God, and
know me.
But the point is is that whenyou realize you sin, what do you
do?
You judge sin and you confess.
You judge yourself and youconfess.

(56:47):
You don't just hide it.
The opposite of confessing ishiding.
In the Old Testament Scriptures, in the Proverbs, the opposite
of confessing is hiding.
If you're hiding sin, you'renot confessing.
That's by definition right.
So what do we need to do?
Judge ourselves rightly, andthen God won't discipline us.

(57:08):
So there's a way to avoiddivine discipline.
That should be good news.
Okay, and it is good news.
But I think the main idea todevelop, the most important one,
is being sensitive to sin,memorizing Psalm 139, verse 23
and 24, search me, o God, andknow me.
See if there be any hurtful wayin me.
You could pray that everysingle morning.
It's not that complicated, butif you say that heartfelt, god

(57:30):
will make it known to you andthen that will pave a way for
future victory, and I thinkthat's what we all want.
Okay, so two events then thegolden era, when I mean they
were on top of the worldculturally because of the
developed loyalty to God forthree, four generations.
But then did you see how theythrew it all away in one

(57:52):
generation?
Did you see how they threw itall away?
You know I feel a lot.
That's what happened in America.
It is decaying through the1800s, okay, and into the early
1900s.
By the time you get to thefundamentalist, modernist
controversy in the 1910s and 20sand 30s, right in that era,

(58:14):
that was the worst part of ourcountry, right in there, because
that's when the churchbasically gave up the Bible.
They said, no, it's notinerrant.
Jesus didn't really rise fromthe dead, it was just this idea
of spiritual resurrection Makesme want to barf.
But didn't believe the Biblewas inerrant anymore, didn't

(58:35):
believe it was authoritative.
I mean, science came in andtook over this country Science,
which is why I said, hey look,science isn't even there unless
God is there.
So get over it.
Okay, like, just get over it,it's over.
All the early scientists werewhat christian?
Why?
Because they wanted to discovermore about god, so they were

(58:56):
excited about that.
But in the 20s and 30s, all thisgot taken away, and that's what
I mean.
Like this can all go away inone generation, and it has gone
away very quickly in our country.
If people that lived in the19-teens were here today, they
wouldn't recognize this country.
They wouldn't recognize it atall.
It's also been said that abartender in 1850 knew more

(59:16):
theology than the weeklyattendee at a church knows in
the 2020s.
A bartender in the 1850s knewmore theology because it was in
the air.
It was a part of everybody'slife Not anymore.
All sorts of other crazy thingsare a part of our.
If you walk out these doors,you're getting bombarded by the

(59:38):
craziest stuff.
You know, we think it's crazythat they have some of these
ideas that are going on in ourculture right now.
But when you realize thatsomething like this, that it can
all be thrown away in onegeneration like all of Solomon's
empire was basically thrownaway in one generation then it
makes sense.
It's because our culture isturned away from the Word of God
and it's turned away from Godhimself and it says, no, we're

(01:00:01):
not going to have the TenCommandments, we don't like
those.
Those are bad ideas.
I think it's a good idea tomurder.
I always want to post theopposite of the Ten Commandments
and say well, can we put theseup?
Thou shalt covet, thou shaltcommit adultery, thou shalt lie.
I want to put these up just tosay are you serious?
We can't post the TenCommandments, but you know they

(01:00:23):
don't want that.
Let's take God out of thepublic school and put what in
its place?
A false God.
That's all it is.
It's just substitution.
They didn't get rid of God,they just made a new God.
So it goes on and on, butthat's why we're in the
predicament we're in.
So what has to happen?
Quickly?
I'll just tell you real quicklywhat has to happen.
It's not Change America, it'sthe churches.

(01:00:47):
It is the church's fault.
I mean the people out therethat are unbelievers.
They need salvation, of course,right, but who is the one who
is supposed to take salvation tothem?
The message?
The church who is supposed tobe teaching the Bible and
training and discipling people?
The church how do we get mature, advanced sanctification, like

(01:01:09):
we saw in the time of Solomon?
Teach the Bible for severalgenerations?
What if the church has given upthe Bible?
What if the church has given upthe God of the Bible?
What if the church has given upthe Christ of the Bible?
Well then, the church is theproblem, and it is.
It's the church that needs tocome back to the Lord, and that

(01:01:32):
would result in the changing ofour country.
It's the only way.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with
Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today'slesson productive and useful in

(01:01:56):
growing closer to God andwalking more obediently with Him
.
If you found this podcast to beuseful and helpful, then please
consider rating us in yourfavorite podcast app, and until
next time, we hope you have ablessed and wonderful day.