Gospel & Eschatology: Filling the Earth From Sea to Sea

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Gospel & Eschatology: Filling the Earth From Sea to Sea

January 15, 2023

The resounding message of scripture is that the knowledge of God will fill the entire earth. We must trust God's word and not the newspaper or pew polls. Believe God's word rather than Man's word. For The King!

Key Texts:

* Hab. 2:14

* Psalm 72:8

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Transcript

(music) Don't think I will even ask you to make Jesus Lord of your life. That's the most preposterous thing I could ever tell you to do. Jesus Christ is Lord of your life.

Whether you serve him or not, whether you bless him, curse him, hate him, or love him, he is the Lord of your life because God has given him a name that is above every name so that the name of Jesus Christ every knee shall bow and tongue confess that he is Lord. Some of you will bow out of the grace that has been given to you and others will bow because your kneecaps will be broken by the one who rules the nations with a rod of iron.

(music) And I will not apologize for this God of the Bible.

(music) Hello friends, welcome to the For the King podcast. I'm your host, Rocky Ramsey, and on this podcast we proclaim the edicts of the king, namely and chiefly, that Yahweh reigns. And I am joined with Bryce on these Sunday episodes, but guess what? We actually have someone else here with us this morning that's going to help us think about God's word, Jason.

Welcome. Oh, thank you. There he is.

So we got Jason here with us today. So thank you for being on here, brother. And obviously Bryce per usual, it's not anything new to you guys.

So we're continuing on the dominion theology episodes, this train of thought we've been tracing throughout God's word of, you know, what dominion is, what do we mean by dominion and that Christ's kingdom being one of dominion. What's that going to look like? Well, we're going to continue on that train of thought and continue to expose that idea in God's word. So you can see that it's clearly taught in scripture.

It's not just we're not just creating an ex nihilo in our minds and trying to make God's word fit into this. This is something clearly taught in God's word. So and honestly, I think this this episode today is going to help you guys see just how explicit dominion theology is in God's word.

That God does have a dominion here on this earth. So we're going to look at two verses that kind of complement each other. Jason, Jason has a good verse for us to in Colossians.

We're going to look at as well. But the first verse we're going to start off with is Psalm 72 eight says he shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the river into the ends of the earth. So there's there's the dominion.

There's that word there that we've been harping on this whole series. This song clearly teaches that that's going to be all comprehensive. This kind of dominion is not just a kingdom like a like maybe a modern day nation would have a jurisdiction over some geography we're talking about from sea to sea to the ends of the earth.

That's that's all encompassing. Right. So Bryce had some context in Psalm 72 eight.

What exactly were you wanting to get out there? Yeah, it's important to note when you read through the Psalms, the song Christ is the Psalms. He's the entire fulfillment of what the Psalms are predicting and pointing towards. So when you go through this passage and it's talking about in verse seven and his days, shall the righteous flourish.

And then it says in verse eight, he shall have dominion from sea to sea. And then it talks about later on in verse 17, his name shall endure forever. We have to ask the question.

Who is that? Who is the one who fulfills these things? Yeah, exactly. So if his name shall endure forever, was it David? Yeah, no, because David is then and in the grave as Peter gets out and actually actually. Yeah, he was Solomon.

No, Solomon's dead actually in the grave right now. Exactly. You know, the whole point is that Jesus Christ is the one who is ascended to the right hand of the Father.

He's the one who has gained for himself a kingdom. Psalm one ten is one of the most quoted verses in the New Testament referring to the kingdom of Christ, which he is establishing that he rules in the midst of his enemies. Yeah.

Right. The Lord's another pastor to the Lord said to my Lord, sit in my right hand and tell me, make your enemies your vessel. So this is all pointing to Christ being the Lord, the King, the one whose name does actually endure forever.

So there's no way to weasel out of Psalm 17 about Christ. It is about Christ. It's obviously about the worship of Jesus.

Exactly. Any big thoughts there, Jason? That's good points. Very good points.

Yeah. And it's very clear when we when we look at the Psalms, like Bryce is saying, you can't place these things into any of the people that wrote the Psalms or that maybe the Psalms talk about. This has a greater fulfillment in Christ.

Jesus, I mean, David did have a he did have a kingdom. He had a dominion. That's when Israel was at its greatest kind of geographical jurisdiction.

Right. It's dominion. Right.

But it was not from sea to sea. It did not cover the entire earth. David's dead.

David's kingdom actually dwindled and it went away. They got exiled right after that. Not talking about it's not talking about David, even though David had a type of a really awesome kingdom.

Jesus has the better kingdom and it's going to be as we've seen this text from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. So the other text I wanted to bring up here that has again, we're tracing just throughout the Bible. This is not just in one little place and we ice a G to this is just like all over the place and then quoted in the New Testament a lot.

Habakkuk 214 for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. So same kind of motif there, same kind of imagery. We know how vast the ocean is.

If you've been to the ocean, it's just it looks like it's never ending. That's what it looks like when you gaze out from the beach. That's the kind of dominion.

That's the kind of rulership or domain that Christ has. It's kind of it's kind of this never ending kind of domain all encompassing. And honestly, the seas do cover the whole earth.

If you just look at a globe, you know, most of the land mass, sorry, most of the earth is not land mass. It's water and the seas are continuous. We have different oceans that we call just because they're actually split up by the continents.

But it's all continuous. It wraps around the whole earth. The water does.

It's all over the whole. It's everywhere. So that's what the sea is kind of symbolizing here.

It's this all over the whole face of the globe is kind of what Jesus is. Like, yeah, I don't know any big. I just think it's cool to think about literally what the Bible is saying and think about the ocean.

You've been to the ocean before. Think about that. Right.

You know, this is just all found in the expression of Jesus and Matthew 28 of him having all authority in heaven and on earth. Yeah. And again, in light of that authority, as we've already talked about in episodes previous, for them to go out and make disciples of all the nations or we're going to go spread this water.

And cover the whole globe. Just like we talked about in Ezekiel 47 episodes previous, the water, the river now comes out into the sea. Everything can be no longer saltwater, but fresh water.

Fresh water. I think the idea that we have a very small view of our little world that we live in and not realizing that if we look, if we look at the creation, if we look at that from sea to sea, that we realize that we get outside of ourselves. And we're going to think about how much Christ is really going to reign in and how his gospel will go forth amongst the nations.

We tend to focus so much on what's going on locally in our own culture and forgetting that in other nations and other countries and tribes and regions, the gospel is going forth and spreading. Exactly. We tend to forget that the gospel is going forth regardless of what may be happening here.

So when we look at the seas and we look at those things, we just understand the expanse of God's kingdom. I think that's so important because most of our eschatology is done by what we see rather than what God's word says. Literally says the whole earth is going to be filled with the knowledge and the glory of the Lord.

That's literally what Habakkuk 2.14 says here that we're presenting to you guys. Do we take that seriously? Do we just worry about, oh, not everybody in my little local context is a Christian, so Jesus can't be winning. Well, actually, he's all over the globe.

He's working. And eventually he is going to win in your little region, your little part of this little story of God's redemptive history of mankind. He's going to win there too.

Our modern eschatology looks at it and going, well, he's coming soon instead of maybe we should self-reflect and look upon the reason we're in this situation. The condition of our nation is because we have failed to proclaim the gospel. So thus we very well be under judgment instead of, you know, that's why the gospel is not going forth is because we have been pacifist and quietist and we've not gone forth with the gospel.

So our modern western, I think eschatology oftentimes looks at it like, well, everything's going downhill. So Christ is coming back real soon instead of reflecting as a church and going, how have we failed here? We assume he's coming back and he's pleased with our work. When actually the fact that like the gospel is not going forth and our communities are in shambles and we're being judged is actually a point of his displeasure.

Yeah. And his judgment on our communities and we shouldn't view it as like we're getting closer to consummation. We're actually getting further from it because he says that he's going to consummate it when every enemy has been put under his feet.

So he shouldn't be like happy about that. Yeah. Or anticipate Jesus in a friendly manner when he's actually probably displeased that he's going to come back and we.

Well, if you even have that approach of like, well, it's a sinking ship as some pastors have said before, you don't publish, you know, browsing a shipping ship that I would say that's almost like, well, you're really being a sin there in some ways because you're just saying, well, I have a deepest attitude. So therefore I'm not going to do anything. I'm not going to rebuke the wicked.

I'm not going to go forth and proclaim the gospel because you want that if I don't do anything, Christ comes back sooner. Exactly. And it's sad.

So what do you think, Bryce? Yeah. Yeah. When you take that into consideration with you are the salt of the world and then you think, okay, if I'm the soul of the world, that means I'm always going to be a preservative.

Not true. The passage goes on to say that if salt has lost its savor of saltiness, what is it good for but to be trampled upon? Yes. Now, a lot of commentators will bring up the trampling as something that God does, but it's also specifically something that the wicked is doing.

You are being trampled over by the wicked because they don't, they just see you just as another, another speck on the dirt road. You're only good to just be walked on. There's nothing significant about you.

Yeah. But when you're acting as a true Christian, which is having salt, you're actually preserving the covenant, which God has given to all the elect, which will be from every tribe, every language, every tongue, all over. Every people group.

Yeah. And when you trace the theme of the salt in the old covenant, you see that the salt is something that's sprinkled upon the meat for the covenant. It's the salt of the covenant, which the salt is supposed to be the preserver of the covenant in history.

Yes. So that's what we're supposed to be doing in the New Covenant Age. And even another way to do a thought exercise for the reign of Christ in your life and thinking about when Jesus's reign will cease is you see here in Psalm 7 we do.

It says, "His name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as long as the sun." So if the sun goes down, you have a lot to worry about. But if the sun is going to keep coming up, then you have nothing to worry about.

Exactly. The same is with Christ's reign. Christ's reign doesn't cease just like the sun will rise every single morning.

Yes. That doesn't mean there's no night. It doesn't mean that you don't go through darkness or the valley of the shadow of death, whether as an individual or as a corporate nation or a church.

But what it does mean is the sun rises every single morning. Yes. And actually, Psalm 4, 18 says, "The just shall be as the rising sun, which rises brighter and brighter." Brighter and brighter until full day.

Yes. So that's the progression of history for the church. Yeah, where people of the day and not of the night, when the night does not last.

No, that's good. Last point I wanted to draw out of here, I was just kind of thinking about the content of this filling. We know he's going to have dominion.

He's going to have the knowledge and the glory of the Lord will fill the whole earth. What is that? Sometimes we have these words in scripture that seem kind of abstract to us. We kind of understand it.

What is that? What's happening? What's the mechanism? It's something we've already talked about. It's a very Sunday school, easy answer. It's the proclamation of the gospel and God's law going forth at the ends of the earth.

And Jeremiah 31, when it's talking about the New Covenant, which is a now no longer talking about just the land of Israel, but now the whole earth, the meek, shaun hareth, the whole earth. It's not just the land of Canaan. The whole earth has the seas cover the whole earth.

That's what we're talking about here. It is God's law going forth and being put into the hearts of New Covenant believers, which is his church, which is exactly what Jesus said to do in Matthew 28 in the Great Commission. As the gospel goes forth, teach them to obey all that I've commanded you.

Basically, I want you to tell them and my spirit's going to confirm it and place it and establish it in the hearts of the people you're going to proclaim the gospel to. So it doesn't happen by osmosis. It's not just this kind of, it's not a natural thing.

It is a thing of grace, which means that we partake in it as people of grace and the New Covenant believers. God is using us to go and proclaim the gospel. That's how the knowledge of the glory of the Lord goes forth.

So it's not like Jason was saying earlier, it's not that we take a defeatist attitude and we're like, "Well, we haven't done a good job proclaiming the gospel into this culture." Our culture has largely neglected it and disowned it and rejected it. Therefore, Jesus is coming back soon and we've done a good job. No, you should say, "Actually, I've done a poor job.

I didn't do what Jesus told me to do." And that's not what's going to happen in history, so we shouldn't expect that. So I think that's kind of maybe it should be our attitude. So we got to remember that we are God's tools He's using for this to happen.

It doesn't happen by osmosis. It's not like, it's not a natural principle. God's kingdoms doesn't just naturally spread all willy-nilly.

It happens through the church. People proclaim the gospel. Yeah, that's a good point to note because we have to bar against the heresy, frankly, of Charles Finney, who says that revivalism, the revival comes only through the proper methodology of performing righteousness and preaching correctly in prayer meetings.

That's not really the gist. The gist is it's the supernatural grace of God that intervenes in the life. So where does the saltiness come from? It comes from God.

Yeah, the Spirit establishing it. Exactly. So we always have to have that in mind.

That's the grace of God working through the people of God, through the nations. Exactly. Yeah, so I think that's kind of the main content.

The gospel going forth, people's hearts being redeemed and being made new and the law of God being established in their hearts. And now the holy of holies being the whole earth through Christ. We are His temple.

He's the cornerstone. He's building up His house, which is the whole earth. The earth is my footstool.

Sorry, the heavens is my throne. The earth is my footstool. What is the house you build for me? What is the place of my rest? And Isaiah 66 there.

Well, Solomon didn't build it. Isaiah couldn't build it. Jesus built it.

He's building God's "house of rest," which is where the saints dwell. And Christ is the only one that can secure a place. Solomon couldn't build a temple where God was pleased to dwell there.

He only did. He condescended to do that. Only Jesus builds that kind of house that fills the whole earth through His Spirit.

Yeah. So, yeah, God's making the whole earth His holy of holies and filling the whole earth. So, yeah, these texts are precious.

Maybe, you know, good ones to memorize when we think about, "Hey, what's Jesus' reign like?" You know, I think Psalm 72, 8 here in Habakkuk 2, 14 are good ones to memorize about what's that going to look like? What should I expect out of the future? Yeah. Any last thoughts, guys? I like Psalm 2 as well, you know. Oh, you're going to bring a Colossians to one.

Colossians, you know, but when you go back on Psalm 2, you know, there is, you know, in verse 7, "I will tell the decree, the Lord said to me, 'You are my son today. I begotten you. Ask him, you know, make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.'" You know, and then in Colossians, you know, in 1, it's saying that He is reconciling all things to Himself, all things were created for Him and through Him.

And we just, we don't believe in that. We don't acknowledge that. And then we are essentially just saying, "Well, we're going to give the world and our, you know, our community, our people, our families just over to the pagans." And we're just, I think we're in, we're in just downright sin.

We just refuse to acknowledge that all of the earth is God's dominion and His kingdom, and that He's using us as the vessels to go forth and to bring that to fruition, to reality. I've often said to people, like, if they're very aggressive in their worldview, imagine if we just did what God said. And if you think that if you give a couple generations of where we're at right now, that if this is a simple formula, if we just be faithful in our homes, we'd be faithful in what we do, eventually that begins to permeate society.

Wouldn't you want to live in society that is a godly society? You're more free. You're not under the tyranny of all these laws that we live under. If we actually live under the laws of what God has given us, we are so much more free than what we are under this tyrannical government that we live in.

Exactly. So if we just faithfully just live out the gospel over the course, because it spreads very slowly, you know, lemons the whole lump. It takes a while.

And by being faithful, just some of the small things within our own homes. But, you know, for people to say there's certain, you know, there's four forms of government. I hold to the belief that there's four.

There's the self-government, you know, you've got the church, government, family, you know, family, and then civil. But I think governing first starts with yourself. You have to be able to govern yourself, where you can govern your own family.

So, yeah, I think you start there and you sit small, you know, you don't start getting into these bigger things unless you start to deal with your own sin and living out that the gospel in your own life. So, yeah, I just think it's you start small practically and be faithful. And as you do that, it begins to permeate and lemons the whole culture.

Exactly. That's good wisdom there. That's true.

True things. Yeah. Yeah.

Christ is the one, obviously, who is the one who reigns. And what Jason's really hitting on is you just got to focus with what you've been tasked in the office you've placed in. Yeah.

So if you're a husband, love your wife well. Do that. God gave you a task.

Yeah. Do that. If you have children, love your children, I'll disciple them.

You know, teach them the catechism, teach them about the Lord. You know, do you go to work? You should go to work. Yeah.

Work hard to answer the Lord and not for men. Share the gospel with your neighbor, you know. That's just what it means to be a Christian.

That's just basic Christian living 101. Yes. And you don't have to even believe in this demininess mindset to do that.

Those things are commanded. But if you don't believe in it, you really are doing it in a futile manner. Yeah, exactly.

Awesome. Thanks for that, guys. That's a good wrap up here.

Yeah. Thanks for listening to this episode. And I would encourage you to go check out the blog.

I've been I put a new blog out and I'm trying to write more. So keep your eyes peeled for that. You can check me out for the King Pod on GAB or Twitter and kind of see what I'm tweeting there.

And you can connect with the podcast there and the things I'm doing. Thanks so much for listening, guys. I always end with the doxology to the end of the ages.

Mortal invisible. The only God be honored. Glory forever and ever.

Amen. Soli Deo. Gloria.

Thank you. Thank you.