Apologia Live - God Rules Over the Earth

So, I'm going to read the text, we're going to spend the next two weeks on. Hear now the words of the living and true God. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures... ...group Bible study, where I walked into this room, wasn't really a Bible study, they were playing a VHS cassette tape of some old, very, very poorly done, typical Christian film, made in the 70s, and it was about the tribulation, and it was awful, okay?

And it was about the rapture, and it was about seven years of tribulation, and all these different things, and so when I walked into the church, and I started to grab hold of, okay, what does the Bible teach?

I was taught, well, this is what the Bible teaches, and so when I went to Bible college, I was a fanatic about prophecy and eschatology, and so what I did was I immersed myself in it. Tim LaHaye was my homeboy, I loved Hal Lindsey, these are my favorite books, they're still on my bookshelf today, mostly for future kindling, for campfires, right?

But I loved it, and when I was in Bible college, my prophecy class and eschatology class, I got 100 plus bonus points, right? I remember being in the classes, and I remember my professor, standing at the board and giving me the charts, and here's the chart, and I remember specifically the charts being on the wall.

Here is the way of history, this is where we're going, right? Like this, here's where we are now, and then we're waiting for this event, and then this is going to take place next, and then here's where this happens, and then this is where this happens.

It was a timeline, really helpful to see it on a board, by the way, right in front of me, and I can remember distinctly, like it was yesterday, that each point in that timeline had particular pointers with verses next to it.

So it said, okay, here's this point, and here's the Bible verse that says that, and the professor, who was a great and godly man, would say things like, you guys need to make sure that you understand this, because it's a biblical story, and make sure you take some of these verses, and you put them into your heart, and you memorize them.

So I did, I followed, and I remembered, okay, on that part, this Bible verse goes with that. On this part, this Bible verse goes with that. And so it was years later, when I started talking about it, I started to feel really convicted, like you're sinning kind of conviction.

Anyone know what that's like? No? It's just me? I hope it's not just me. Okay. Where you're sinning, and you feel like you're grieving God in some way. I was talking about the book of Revelation, and I remember I was talking about it, and I felt very, very grieved, and I felt upset by it.

I didn't mention it to my friends that I was talking to, so I went home, and I immediately got into prayer, and I remember that I asked the Lord, I said, what was that? What God are you trying to show me?

Did I say something that was wrong? If I did, Lord, I am willing to be corrected. I remember going to deep prayer, Lord, help me to understand. If I in any way misled, help me to understand and correct me.

I'm willing to take the blinders off and change my glasses. Just show me. And so what I began to do is I actually got into the text of God's word, and I committed to something. I'm going to read the text and the whole story, and I'm going to let God speak, and not come to it with any pre-commitments in terms of what the story is.

I'm just going to read it. And I started going back in my mind to those Bible verses that were on that board. And I started going through them one by one, verse after verse after verse. And I began to read the text and let it just speak, not with what I was taught that it says, but what does it actually say.

And I immediately began to see as I read the text for itself, it had a unified story. It did have a consistent story. But the story that I was reading in the text itself was not the story that I had understood.

And so I committed after that point to always let the text speak for itself, and let all of the text speak for itself. Let the word of God be the word of God. Let God's story be a consistent story that I embrace, and I don't force anything into.

What's important here, I think, when we come to text in the Bible that are often used as proof text, we need to make sure that we're very, very careful. Let me give you a great example that's right here in the text.

In Matthew chapter 7, verse 1. Go to it in your Bibles if you have them open right now. Matthew chapter 7, verse 1. Judge not that you be not judged.

Now, stop.

Take the verse, rip it out right now, and now begin using it as a sword on anybody who ever confronts you over your sin. Anybody ever met anybody that does that? How important is it to let the biblical narrative speak consistently and fully?

You all know right here it is really, really important. How many times have you guys come out with us to the abortion mill, and you go out and you call out to somebody pleading for the lives of these babies, calling out to them with the gospel, telling them you love them and you'll help them.

How many times have you heard from people, hey, judge not, lest you be judged. It's one of the most abused verses that you will hear on a Saturday morning at the abortion mill. You will hear many, many professing believers, when in open, outright rebellion against God and His commandments and truth, you will hear them say things like, hey, you can't confront me, judge not, lest you be judged.

What is that called? That's proof texting, and it's proof texting that is dangerous. Because the Bible actually does tell us in the whole narrative to judge with righteous judgment. The Bible actually tells us to judge, not according to our own standards, but to judge according to God's standards.

Amen? So we bring the Word of God to bear on any situation. We're not ultimately in that point judging according to our standards. We're relaying the message. And in the text itself, when it's used as a proof text, ripped out of its context, it's abused.

Judge not that you be judged. Oh wait, there's more. Matthew actually wrote something else after that. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, when there is a log in your own eye?

You hypocrite.

First, oh wait, there's more. First, take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. He doesn't say, hey, you get a log going out of your eye, so shut your mouth and say nothing ever.

He says, first deal with yourself, and then you'll be able to consistently go to somebody else to deal with them and to restore them. The text actually does encourage righteous judgment in how you handle those situations.

So it's a fantastic, I think, opportunity to talk about the importance of not simply proof texting. Now why do I bring it up now? We're going to spend two weeks on this.

Two weeks.

I thought it would be important to do two weeks on this because the text itself is just amazing and it blesses, but I thought it was important because it is possible, I believe, to go to this text with a preconceived notion that will destroy ultimately the meaning of the text.

Let me tell you what I'm getting at. Oftentimes in Western Christianity today, and this may exist in this room right now, we picture our ultimate future as a disembodied, gassy, cloudy existence. So I'll give you an example of how this is fleshed out.

Now listen closely because maybe you've asked this question. So someone will say something like this to me, and I can tell you I heard it lots of times while at the hospital. We had Q &A like every night.

People were going to ask me any question they wanted, and I heard this a lot, a whole lot. They'd say, hey, do you think we're going to recognize each other in heaven? Now think about what is behind that question.

Why wouldn't we recognize each other in heaven? Why wouldn't we recognize each other in the eternal state? We have this notion of heaven as it's some place out there, some disembodied existence that has fat babies playing harps on clouds, right?

That's heaven, right?

We're going to go there.

Now that sounds very much like hell to many of us, right? But the idea is the spiritual is the best, the physical is really broken and icky and dirty. You know what that sounds a lot like? It smacks very similar to first and second century Gnosticism.

The idea that God created the world and that matter is somehow evil and that creation is a throwaway is not a Christian idea. Let me ask you a question. When God created the world, what did he say about it?

It's what?

It's good. God created the world. He said that it was good. God interacted with his creation. He actually steps into it. He's actually in the incarnation, a part of this creation. The Bible recognizes that sin enters the world and corruption enters the world, but it doesn't mean that the creation itself is inherently evil and dirty and a throwaway.

As a matter of fact, the idea that the spiritual is somehow the place you want to escape to because the physical is evil is very distinctly pagan and not Christian. I'm going to embrace that for a second.

It's oftentimes our understanding of the future, watch, that we want to die and escape the world to get to heaven one day, which is very much better. Isn't it true that Paul says that he longs to depart to be with Christ, for that is better?

Well, of course.

But here's the truth.

Watch this.

Brothers and sisters, what does the Bible tell us about our future? Is Christ coming back? Come on now. Is he coming back? Yes. He's coming back to do what? To judge the living and the dead. He's coming back for a resurrection of the just and the unjust.

But let me ask you a question. When that resurrection happens, where do we spend eternity with God and each other?

Where?

On earth. Our future as Christians is not a disembodied, gassy spiritual existence apart from God's good creation for all eternity. God created the world. It was good. He put his image into the world.

What does he say to Adam? He says to do what to the garden? To protect it, to keep it, and to do what? To have dominion over the earth, to be fruitful and to multiply. Adam falls into sin. Eve falls into sin.

And then what happens to Adam and Eve? They're thrust out of the garden, and they go into, ultimately, a wilderness. But what does Jesus, who is the second Adam, do? What does our representative do? Jesus comes, and he takes the curse upon himself.

He actually wears on his head, while being crucified, the very symbol of the fall. God, when Adam fell, said, Cursed is the what?

Crown.

And it will bring forth. What?

Thorns.

So thorns were a visible symbol of the fall itself in creation. And what God does in redemption is that Jesus, the second Adam, represents us perfectly, goes to a cross and dies, is resurrected in a garden, which is where death entered in a garden.

Jesus conquers it in a garden. And when he comes out, the women mistake him for a gardener because maybe he's doing some gardening? Working the ground? Jesus in the atonement wore the very symbol of the fall.

Here's my point. Jesus doesn't come into the world that's broken, save sinners out of it, and then throw away creation. That idea is simply not biblical. Jesus comes into the world to bring salvation, redemption, and his rule to bring redemption over the whole earth, that all the families of the earth would return and worship God.

And Jesus comes into a real world. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever considered how concerned Jesus is with this physical world? He's so concerned with this world itself that he actually took on flesh and entered into it.

And when he redeemed his people, he redeemed us, paid for our sins, and when he was resurrected, brothers and sisters, was Jesus resurrected in a spiritual body and not a physical one, or was Jesus raised in his physical body?

In his physical body. So our resurrection, Paul says, will match his resurrection. We will be raised in the way that Jesus was. We will be raised physically. To do what? To live with God forever in a fully perfected, redeemed world.

In the biblical worldview, you have the physical and the spiritual both together, both good, both meaningful. Oftentimes, we think about heaven as the ultimate goal, as if it was a place somewhere out there that we go to that's a disembodied existence.

When in reality, the story goes like this in the Scriptures. We die. The Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die and then the what? And then the judgment. When we die, we go, of course, to be with God immediately.

The Apostle Paul says as much in Philippians. What does he say? He says, I'm hard-pressed between two things. I don't know what I want to do. He says, to remain with you is ultimately fruit for the gospel.

If I stay here with you, I get to bear fruit for the gospel with you. He says, but to depart and be with Christ is far better. He says, so I'm hard-pressed.

I don't know which one I want. They're both great.

And so we know that when we die, we do depart to be with Christ. The word there that Paul draws from, by the way, is from the Greek. It is a naval term of weighing the anchor to depart to go to be at your destination.

And so Paul says, I long to weigh the anchor to sail away to be with Jesus.

That's far better.

That's what Paul says, right? So we know that when we die, we go to be with Christ. But we also know, 1 Corinthians 15, that after Jesus puts every enemy under his feet, all enemies under his feet, the last enemy, after every other one is defeated, is going to be death, Paul says.

And then he says, after that, Jesus is going to deliver the kingdom over to the Father after all things are put into subjection to Jesus. So if you die today and you're in Christ, the moment you open your eyes, you are in the very presence of Jesus.

And when Jesus returns for the final resurrection and judgment, we will then spend eternity in physically resurrected, glorified bodies in the physical cosmos with Jesus. Did that mess you up? Now think about it for a second.

I know that there are people in this room, and I don't want you to feel bad about it at all. If you've thought about the eternal state as simply a disembodied spiritual existence, I want to encourage you, go to the text.

See that God is fundamentally concerned with the world that he's created. Here's the point, watch this. First century Jews, if you read their writings, Second Temple Judaism, if you read their writings, of course, it's not divinely inspired, but if you see what they believed about the world, they had no concept of a destruction of the physical cosmos and the end of the world as we often speak about today.

They would have considered the idea that God throws away creation as utterly pagan and not monotheistic. They believed that the only creator, the one and only true and living God, created the world and it was good.

He put his image in it, we failed, but Messiah was coming back to redeem all of creation. And they had no concept of a world being thrown away and done away with. They believed in a future renewed world.

And then you can understand the excitement by the way of Jesus. Think about this for a moment now. They knew sin entered the world. They knew that justice was not on the earth. They knew that they were not ultimately in a place before God where they knew they had peace because they didn't have a real atonement.

The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. They knew that. They knew there are people still dying. They knew that their relationship with God was broken and so they're waiting for Messiah in anticipation.

They knew the story of creation. We fell on our first parents. They knew they were supposed to be the light of the world. They knew that Israel had blown it and gone into exile. They knew Adam failed, Israel failed.

They knew they needed Mashiach, Messiah. They knew Messiah was coming as the king. They knew the text. Two of the most popular texts in the first century for the Jews. Daniel 7, Daniel 9. Daniel 2 was there too.

But Daniel 7 and 9 were huge. Daniel 7 is the divine son of man, the Mashiach. And it says that he came up to the ancient of days, was presented before him, and to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that what all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him.

His dominion is everlasting and will not pass away. And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. They knew it. They knew Messiah was coming. They knew he was coming to rule the world. They knew that this redemption was on its way.

They knew that all the families of the earth were going to be blessed in Jesus. They knew the promise to Abraham. What's the promise to Abraham? What? In you shall all the nations of the earth be what?

Blessed. That Abraham would have descendants as numerous as the what?

That's a lot of stars.

You ever looked at a clear sky with no light pollution? It's trippy. It's stunning. So many stars. And God says, look up. That's how your descendants are going to be. As numerous as the stars. They knew the story was playing out.

They knew, listen, that they had walked into, here's how we have to see it. If you walk into a movie, right? You walk into the movie theater. My kids hate going to the movies with me because I don't care to be there for the commercials.

So, like, I'll show up when the commercials are playing and they're, like, very frustrated with Dad, right? But what if you showed up into a movie when it was three quarters of the way done, right? You walk into the movie.

It's almost over. You may actually be able to figure parts out and get to the climax and understand it. You might start to understand a little bit about the characters and the plot. You might understand a few turns.

But the characters might say a few things that you have no context of. And you might actually not understand. I don't even understand how that connects. And you might actually put together those pieces in your own mind and be absolutely and utterly wrong.

But you got to the end and you could see it. The Jews of the first century understood that they were there three quarters of the way to the end of that film. And there was an entire film or process or narrative.

That had occurred before that,.

And they knew that story. And what was it? Messiah is coming to save us, take away our sins, to rule the world, to bring justice on the earth. And here's the point I'm making. They never had a concept anywhere that Messiah was coming to the world and throwing away the world.

Their entire context of Mashiach coming was that he was bringing salvation to the earth. Here, the physical world. Nations were going to come to God. They were going to be redeemed on the earth. Not taken out of it, disembodied.

But salvation was coming to the world and God was actually going to establish justice. Isaiah 42 on the earth itself.

That was the story.

That was the narrative behind the film that they had walked into and understood. And so what's important, I think, is you go to this text. Do not lay up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

We can do to that text what we do to Matthew 7 -1. We can say, oh, okay, so God isn't concerned at all with the physical world. So I don't need to build anything. I don't need to store up anything for my family.

I don't need to be concerned with the world because that over there is the better. We can do to this text and we can do to many texts and proof text it and rob it from the narrative of the Bible. What's the whole story?

Think for a moment about two key things. Grab hold of this. Matthew 3, John the Baptist enters into his ministry and the first words out of his mouth, repent for the kingdom of heaven is what? At hand.

And when Jesus leaves the wilderness, really only a few verses after that, when Jesus leaves the wilderness and he conquers Satan in the wilderness, he comes out doing what? Proclaiming the good news of the kingdom.

That's what they wanted. That's what they anticipated. The rule of God is coming to the earth. They understood it. He's coming here. Messiah is going to rule the world. It's an important aspect for us to understand that yes, brothers and sisters, when you die, you are going to go into the presence of God for all eternity as a gift of God's grace through Jesus Christ.

Amen? Let me just say something. God is still concerned with his good creation. Brothers and sisters, we need to reject a pagan view of the world that says the creation is a throwaway and that the spiritual is the higher and the better.

The biblical worldview, both are meaningful, both are good. And I want us to rest on something for a moment here so that we read this text in the context of the entire narrative so we can draw from the text itself what is its meaning and actually begin to apply it in our lives.

So I want to point us to a few things in terms of what is to be expected in the future. Just so you can hold on to them this week, you can pray through them, think through them. Let's look at a few texts that are actually right here before us.

Go to Matthew, Sermon on the Mount. The very beginning of the Beatitudes, Matthew 5. Jesus conquers Satan again in the wilderness and now he comes after proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and he sees the crowds, verse 1.

He went up on a mountain and when he sat down his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of what? Heaven. Heaven, but in the other Gospels it's kingdom of God.

Heaven and God, very important, are synonymous terms in the text. Heaven for them was not so much a place simply you go, but heaven for them was the very presence of God. The very presence of God. So watch this.

Let me give something for a little bit of a shock value. Let me give you something for a little bit of a shock value. Not simply to startle you for no reason, but to give you some truth that needs to start being embraced by us.

What were they expecting to come to the earth? The kingdom of God? The kingdom of what?

Heaven.

Same thing, amen? Same thing, synonymous. Kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven. Which means if Jesus is the king who brought his kingdom and he's ruling on his throne, then what is now on earth? Kingdom of God or another way, the kingdom of heaven.

So what ultimately has hit earth? Heaven. Does that mean that this is all there is? That there's not a future state of consummation? Absolutely not. There absolutely is a final day where Jesus wraps up all of history, but it is important for us to start talking about the fact that heaven and earth have been united again and Jesus is in the process now of bringing that kingdom to the ends of the earth so that God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

Do you see it? So in the Beatitudes, Jesus is talking about his kingdom and he says something important here. Watch here, verse 4. Blessed are those who mourn, for they should be comforted. And here it is, verse 5.

Take a look at it. Blessed are the meek, for they will go to heaven. Right?

Wait, does that?

It doesn't say that, does it? Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit what? The earth. Are you a Christian? So are you the meek? Whose world is this? Now, you might think for a moment, okay, so what's the point?

Brothers and sisters, it's everything. It's the whole thing. Because if you're a Christian and you believe that the earth belongs to the devil, if you believe that pagans and unbelievers are ultimately going to dominate on this earth and that it belongs to the devil and God isn't concerned with it, it's a throwaway, then you live accordingly.

You and I will live accordingly. Douglas Wilson, my friend, says, he says, you hit what you aim at. And if as Christians we believe that it is the unrighteous who inherit the earth, then we live accordingly.

We build accordingly. We aim at that. Jesus says, the meek shall inherit the earth.

And by the way,.

Right after it,.

Jesus moves on. And what does he say?

He says, church,.

You are the salt.

You are the light.

Which means that you're the preservative in the world. You give it its flavor.

You are the one.

That dispels the darkness. You are the city on the hill. Jesus doesn't say to the church, Father, take them out of the world. In John 17, read the high priestly prayer of Jesus. What does he say about the church?

He says, Father, I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. And what are we doing today in the West, our culture? What do Christians often do? As soon as bad stuff happens in the world around us, our first response is to tweet it.

Right?

To Facebook it right away. Bad stuff happens in the world, and the response is what? Lord, get us out of here.

Right?

Now we laugh about it because we understand how wrong that is. Because you see, Jesus saw evil in the world, and he came to conquer it. He came to put it under his feet. He came to bring redemption. And when Jesus talks about our mission in the world, he doesn't say, you are to flee from the world.

You are to be taken out of it. He says, you're the salt. You're the light. You inherit the earth.

He says, pray like this. Pray like this.

Father, your kingdom come, your sovereign rule come, and your will be done on earth, on earth, on earth, as it is in heaven. Now, one more thing I want to point out here that shows the expansion that God does.

Expansion. It's huge.

Huge.

In the Old Testament, Abraham's people were told something specific. They were told that they were going to get a physical land.

Right?

This is going to be your land. And in the Old Testament, you have all these promises about the unrighteous.

Being rooted out of the land,.

While the meek inherit the land. And the glory of the gospel and the kingdom of the Messiah is you go from a small bit of land, Palestine, to the entire world. And you go from being told that the unrighteous are uprooted out of the land and the meek inherit the land to now it says in the text that Christians inherit the world.

And Abraham's descendants not just getting the land,.

But the world.

And I want you to see it. So in the text in Matthew 5, Jesus says the meek shall inherit the what? But you want to see something to see where Jesus is coming from and what he's referring to, what they understood.

So to do that, just quickly, go to Psalm 37. So keep a finger in Matthew and now go to Psalm 37. Psalm 37 is a text like many others in the Old Testament that has a specific theme. Now listen closely.

By the way,.

A little shorter sermon today. Just so you know.

I'll try.

37, it says, fret not yourselves because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.

All right.

Let me ask you a question. Do you get to believe that today? Do you get to believe that today? Yes or no? Yes. So when we look around our world today, and oftentimes as Christians, I confess to it, you fall into despair because it's so evil, it's so awful, and it's every day on display, corruption, sin, and evil, and you're tempted to say it looks like the giants are filling the land and it looks like they're taking over.

We can't conquer these giants. Oh wait, that happened before in God's story.

Right?

You see evil happening in society around us and as Christians we look at it and we say it looks like the church has failed. It looks like that things are just going to keep going this way and descending and declining when the truth is God's word doesn't have the story where the unrighteous inhabit the land and ultimately conquer it.

He has the other story where it's the meek that inherit it and he takes the unrighteous out of it. God says this. Verse 3,. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way over the man who carries out evil devices.

Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself, it tends only to evil for the evildoers shall be cut off. But those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the what?

Land.

That was the context. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the what?

Land.

So, they understood. God would take the unrighteous out. He would leave the righteous in the land. The meek shall inherit the land. The meek shall inherit the land. And brothers and sisters, what did they do with the Psalms?

What did the Jews do with the Psalms? They sang the Psalms.

Where?

In synagogue, in church. So, the Jews knew their songs. The meek shall inherit the land. The meek shall inherit the land. However they sang it, right? And then Jesus comes along as the king, bringing redemption, coming into the world, and you know what he did?

He didn't use the word land. What did he say? He said the meek shall inherit the earth. You go from a land promise to a world promise with the kingdom of the Messiah. But there's more. Go to Romans 4.

Just to your right a bit. Romans chapter 4. And look at this little statement the apostle Paul uses here. A little bit of context. The apostle Paul is now explaining how a person is justified before God.

He says in Romans chapter 4 that God justifies people, counts them righteous,.

Apart from works.

He does it through faith. And it said the blessed man is the one to whom the Lord does not count their sin, but he counts them righteous. So, beautiful thing. Just pause for a second and just let this wash over you.

Seriously.

Don't let it go.

It says that God counts you in Christ through faith, righteous,.

Apart from works.

And then he does not count against you your sins. We call that double imputation. God counts you righteous. He doesn't count your sins against you.

It's glorious.

God forgives your sins and never remembers them. And you are a child of Abraham through faith. The same faith as Father Abraham.

You are.

That's the story. Abraham's our forefather. And he believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. And it says in the Old Testament,.

Listen,.

That Abraham would have descendants that were of the same faith as Abraham, as numerous as the stars. And what is Paul doing now? He's giving it to you. He's saying if you're going to be an heir of Abraham, you have to have the same faith as Abraham.