I shared with him that we had done an all-day seminar back in 2001 in St. Paul, Minnesota, that covered an overview of the Bible between Genesis – Revelation, and that we might be able to put the CD of the seminar into print. So, I contacted Jerry and Lorna Pool and they agreed to do the little book for the ministry.
Les Feldick Ministries has ministered to thousands and thousands of members of the Body of Christ over the years, but we still get many questions. Hopefully, this will answer some of those questions. We hope you enjoy the contents. -- Les
This book is divided into the following sections:
Creation and the Trinity
Absolutes and Cain & Abel
The Abrahamic Covenant Part 1 – The Promise of the Land
The Abrahamic Covenant Part 2 – The Promise of a Nation of People
The Abrahamic Covenant Part 3 – The Promise of a Government & The King and the Kingdom
The Gospel of the Kingdom preached to Israel
The Gospel of the Grace of God and the Gentile Body of Christ
The Great Jerusalem Council where Christianity almost ended
The Rapture of the Body of Christ and final comments
CREATION & THE TRINITY
For openers, let’s go to the book of beginnings, Genesis chapter 1. One of my favorite verses is the first one.
Genesis 1:1a
“In the beginning…” Wasn’t God wise? He didn’t tell us when that was for a purpose, because it’s not for us to know. And besides, what difference does it make?
You know, I’ve got geologists in my classes. Oklahoma is still oil country, so I have geologists in my classes there, and they are seeing the reruns like you have been. If you’ll remember in Genesis chapter one, I was not very kind to the geologists. This one fellow came up to me in my Tulsa class one night and he said, “Was your mother frightened by a geologist when she was carrying you?” I said, “No, why?” He said, “Why do you hate us so?” I said, “I don’t hate you. I just hate geology. The practice. The discipline. It’s a fake. It’s manmade. It’s all man’s ideas.” He said, “Yeah, you’re right!”
So, I don’t have much time for geology the discipline. But just because some poor soul has got his degree in geology doesn’t mean I have anything against him. But you see, mankind has just become deluged with man’s ideas rather than what the Word of God says. Genesis 1:1 starts right off with a simple statement.
Genesis 1:1a
“In the beginning God…” Now, I always have to stop right there, because that three-letter word G-O-D in the Hebrew is Elohim. And Elohim in the Hebrew is a plural word.
In other words, when it’s translated with regard to pagan gods, g-o-d-s, it’s still the same word, Elohim. It is gods, plural. So when we look at Genesis 1:1, we see that our God is a plurality. I know that there are a lot of people that are all hung up and cannot agree to our teaching of the Triune Godhead. But the evidence throughout all of Scripture is that He is a plurality. I can give you instance after instance where He is referred to in the plural pronoun.
I know I’ve got you in Genesis chapter 1, but you guys know how I teach by now. So jump up to Psalms chapter 2 for an example of how accurately Scripture always refers to God in the plural pronoun. Psalms chapter 2 and you can drop down to verse 3, where mankind responds to God’s overtures of ruling over them. This is what mankind says.
Psalms 2:3
“Let us break (What’s the next pronoun?) their (speaking of God) Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” Plural. All the way through Scripture you’ll find that God, Elohim, is referred to in a plural sense, not singular. Okay, back to Genesis 1, if you will.
Genesis 1:1a
“In the beginning God (Elohim – the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit) created…” Now there again, the Hebrew word is far more inclusive than our English word. The word created in the Hebrew is bara. Now, I don’t expect you to be students of Hebrew, but the word bara in the Hebrew means “out of nothing.” At the same time, it denotes something perfect, something intrinsically beautiful. So what we have here is the Triune God sometime in eternity past consorted together—the three of them—that they were going to bring all this into being.
Now again, another verse comes to mind. Go back to Acts chapter 2. Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost. Now, my Oklahoma people are used to this. I’ll be going along and all of a sudden a verse hits my mind and we go chase it down. We’ll probably be doing that all day. But in Acts chapter 2, Peter is addressing the nation of Israel on the day of Pentecost, and look what he says in verse 23, speaking of Jesus of Nazareth.
Acts 2:23a
“Him, being delivered (that is up to the cross) by the determinate (or the determining) counsel and foreknowledge of God,…” Now stop and analyze this a minute. What does that tell you? Who planned Christ going to the cross? God did! It was all in His foreknowledge. It was all in that determining counsel.
I had one individual write and he said, “You’re using the word counsel as council instead of counsel.” I use it both ways, because what is a council meeting? Well, it’s when several men get together – your city council. But what’s the purpose of the council meeting? Well, they counsel with one another to make decisions. Isn’t that right? Well, that’s exactly what God did. The Triune God came together in a council meeting, if you please, and they consorted between the three of them to bring about this act of creation and this horrible human history. It was all preplanned.
I just told some folks yesterday that one of the amazing things that I cannot comprehend, nor do I think anyone in this room can comprehend, is that 6,000 years ago God set everything in motion when He set up creation, put man in the Garden, and left mankind with a free will. And as they become nations, they can raise armies, they can declare war, they can sign peace treaties, they can do this, and they can do that. God is not treating them like puppets on a string.
And yet here we are 6,000 years later with mankind and we are exactly on schedule to the very 24 hour day. We’re not a day late or a day ahead. The Sovereign God in His own Omnipotent way of doing things has guided the whole system through 6,000 years of human history. Unbelievable! I can’t fathom it, but yet I believe it. And this is what we have to take by faith.
Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” After that counsel in eternity past, the Triune God determined to not only create a universe, but in that universe He would put one little tiny BB and on that BB He was going to put the human race. And that’s all we are. Out of the vast company of stars, our planet is just one little infinitesimal spot. Yet it’s on that spot that God has chosen to put mankind and set up this whole plan of redemption.
All right, so in the beginning (whenever that was) the Triune God, after determining a whole blueprint for the future, created the Heaven and the Earth. And that’s the only spheres that we are to be concerned about. I don’t worry about outer space. I don’t worry about space travel. All we have to be concerned about is that God is dealing with one little piece of real estate in the universe and that’s planet Earth. Then, of course, the other entity is Heaven. And we are a people who are mindful of these two areas – Heaven and Earth. Well, so much for that.
I’m not going to go through the first five days of creation. I’m going to bring you up to the sixth day of creation which is in verse 26. Here we have another evidence of the plural pronoun. Verse 26:
Genesis 1:26
“And God (Elohim, the Triune God) said, (not just to Himself, but between the three of them) let us (see the plural) make man in our image, after our likeness: (the Triune God) and let them (these newly created creatures) have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
Now, I’m going to explode a myth. I think most people who have been raised in church and Sunday school think the only area of influence that Adam and Eve were concerned about was the Garden of Eden. Well, that’s a bunch of bologna. What does this tell you? They had dominion over the whole planet!
Adam actually became God’s Governor of the planet, as Adam was given total dominion over everything, not just the Garden of Eden. Now that was quite a responsibility, wasn’t it? Now, that should blow away all the dust that most of us have been covered with—that Adam and Eve were just in charge of the Garden of Eden. Don’t you believe it, because this verse says he had dominion over all the Earth.
Now, why am I making such a big deal of it? Because, you see, that dominion that God had given to him—he lost it when he disobeyed and ate. Now, who picked up that dominion? Satan! Just as soon as Adam fell and lost that given dominion over all this planet, Satan picked it up. What does the Scripture call Satan? Again, jump up to the New Testament to pick that up. Go to II Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3.
II Corinthians 4:3
“But if our gospel (of salvation) be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:” That’s why the world around us has no concern about this Book or about spiritual things. They’re lost. They have no discernment of spiritual things. But why are they the way they are? Next verse.
II Corinthians 4:4
“In whom (that is in lost people) the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” Well, who’s the god of this world? Satan is! He picked up dominion when Adam lost it.
Now this all comes into play when we come to the Book of Revelation. Hopefully we’ll get there this afternoon. But in Revelation chapter 5 we’ll see that a scroll is up there in the throne room in Heaven, and no one is able to open that scroll that is sealed with seven seals. In Scripture symbolism, what is that scroll? It’s the mortgage that Satan holds on the planet. He picked it up and literally holds the mortgage on the planet ever since Adam fell. And only Christ can pay off that mortgage. So, that’s the whole purpose of the final seven years of Tribulation. Christ will finally, once again, take away the powers that Satan has enjoyed these last 6,000 years and take dominion Himself.
Now, coming back to Genesis chapter 1, and verse 27:
Genesis 1:27a
“So God created man in his own image,…” Now again, we have to be careful. God wasn’t a God in a human body with eyes, ears, nose, and so forth. That was not what was depicted when man was made in the image of God. Remember. God is a Spirit-being. He never was in a human body until Christ took that body in Bethehem.
So, if we were formed in the image or likeness of God, it had to be in a realm of invisibility. Now then, bring it right down to each one of us. Where are we invisible? Well—in the mind, the will, and the emotions—our personality. That’s invisible. You know, I always like to make it graphic enough so that people will get an impact.
If you were a pathologist and you were doing an autopsy—I’ve been there on quite a few back in my earlier years working with a pathologist. And I would always have the job, I don’t want to make you sick before lunchtime, but my job was always to take the crown off of the skull and take the brain out and get it dissected and ready for the slides.
So, I can graphically tell you from personal experience that never in all those autopsies that the old Colonel and I performed together did I ever see anybody’s mind. Did I? Of course not. Does that mean he didn’t have one? Well, of course he did. So why didn’t I see it? Because it’s invisible.
The mind is an invisible part of us. But it’s real. Now does that tell you something? This is where we operate in the realm with the spiritual things—it’s in the realm of the invisible. And God, the Spirit God, the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—were always invisible. They were Spirit. So when God created man in His image, He made man an invisible entity of soul and spirit. But that invisible entity cannot function in time and space, so what did God prepare for that soul and spirit? The human body. Now think about that.
This old body was created for the sole purpose of being a dwelling place or, as Paul calls it in II Corinthians, a tabernacle; a temporary one in which our real personality functions. And that’s what we are. The fact that you’re blonde and someone else is a brunette, someone is male and someone else is female, that isn’t what really makes us different. That’s only a difference in the physiological realm. But where are we all intrinsically different? In our personality.
We all have a unique personality. Some of us are easily exercised toward maybe a hate-mode, others are easily exercised toward love, others are easily made to laugh, others are easily made to cry, others have certain disciplines in which they excel and others of us not at all. But what makes us so different? Our personality—our soul and spirit and mind and will and emotional make-up—and that’s where we were created in the “likeness of God”.
In that same light, let’s jump all the way up to the New Testament and clear to Colossians chapter 1 and drop down to verse 14, because I want to make sure you understand who we are talking about, or who Paul is describing. In verse 14 Paul says:
Colossians 1:14-15
“In whom we have redemption through His blood, (Now, any doubt about who he’s talking about? Of course not – Jesus Christ.) redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15. Who (this Redeemer, this One who shed His blood) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature;”
He is the image of what kind of God? Invisible! Jesus Christ, when He became flesh, became the visible manifestation of that invisible God in Genesis 1. He became “the visible image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.” In other words, He was before anything that ever existed. Now look at verse 16.
Colossians 1:16
“For by Him (Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, but God from eternity past.) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”
Now, you see, the vast majority of professing Christians do not know that. They do not realize that Jesus of Nazareth was the One who created everything—as being part of the Godhead. Now we know that the Father was involved and the Spirit was involved, but the Triune Godhead council held in eternity past delegated the responsibility of creating to the Son. And, oh, I wish more people would understand that, because they take the name of Jesus so lightly, as though He’s just another item after the fact.
But listen, Jesus of Nazareth was the One who created everything in Genesis 1:1. That’s why one day He’s going to finally assert that by being King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Now come back to Genesis chapter 1 when the Triune God, in consort with all three of them, decided to create man. They made man in the image of God in the realm of the invisible, but in order to have a dwelling place for the personality, they created the body out of the dust. All right, verse 27:
Genesis 1:27
“So God created man in his own image, (That is like I’ve said now, in the realm of the invisible.) in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Now you all know enough about your Bible that Adam was alone for a period of time until Eve appeared. But when God created Adam, who also was created at the same moment? Eve!! Now this throws a curve at people, but I’ve never had flack until we started the series in Genesis in Florida. Bless their hearts, a few people in Florida could not get it through their heads, and a few of them called the station and complained that this Les Feldick says that Eve was in Adam. Well, of course she was. Now, let’s read on and I’ll make my point. Verse 28:
Genesis 1:28a
“And God blessed (Him? No.) them,…” What does that tell you? Well, they’re both there. But they’re in one body. Eve hasn’t been brought out of Adam yet. That doesn’t come until Adam has brought out all the animals and named them. But here God is blessing them.
Genesis 1:28b
“…and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,…” There it is, again, that Adam was to have total dominion over all of creation.
Then He goes on and explains how they were to function so far as their diet. They were not to kill anything. Death, of course, is an unknown entity; so they’re going to eat only of things that grow naturally—the fruits and the nuts and the herbs and so on and so forth. All right, so come down to verse 31.
Genesis 1:31
“And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was (What?) very good.” Now again, the Hebrew makes that much stronger. It was more than very good. It was gloriously beautiful. It was perfect.
There wasn’t a flaw anywhere. God saw that there was nothing more, there was nothing that had to go back. You know if you build a new home, your contractor usually has to come back three times and make corrections – the door isn’t swinging just right or a window doesn’t fit or whatever. But when God was through, there was nothing that needed correction. It was perfect. All right, now when you come into chapter 2 it says:
Genesis 2:1-2a
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and (What?) he rested…” Now, we just covered this in our last taping the other day in Hebrews, and I was so excited as I was preparing for that tape that I could hardly wait for Wednesday to come.
I’m going to throw it out to you now as well from Genesis like I did the other day from Hebrews. When God finished the work of creation, including the man Adam, everything was so perfect that He didn’t have to fret and wonder—Now what did I miss, what do I have to fix up? He could do what? He could rest.
Now, normally, if you’ve had a really fast-paced day and you get home, what’s the first thing you want to do? Sit down. I know I do. In fact, I’m at the place now where if I’m up 30 minutes I want to sit down. But whatever, that’s a significant act of rest—it is that we get off of our feet and we sit down and we rest. Well, that’s what God did.
After those six days of creation, it was so perfect that He sat down and He rested. That’s what the 7th day indicates. It was a day of rest. Now, it’s amazing—there’s one other time in all of human history that God does the same thing again. Not create – but rested. And when was that? When He finished the work of the cross so mankind could gain salvation!
Now, let’s go back to Hebrews and look at it. Hebrews chapter 1 and we’ll start at verse 1 with the same word.
Hebrew 1:1-2
“God, (the Triune God) who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers (That is the fathers of Israel—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.) by the prophets, (on up through Israel’s history) 2. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he (The Triune God, in this case, did what?) made the worlds;” So, what have you got again? Scripture giving God the Son the credit for all of creation!
John’s gospel, chapter 1:1-14 says the same thing—that it was the Son who made everything. It was the Son who became flesh and walked among us. All right, now when Christ finished the work of the cross, as we see it in this next verse, verse 3:
Hebrews 1:3
“Who being the brightness of his glory, (In other words, like we saw in Colossians, Jesus Christ is the manifestation of the whole Triune God in all of its glory. So Jesus the Christ, the Son--) being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, (Now, here it comes.) when he had by himself (just like in creation, without any help from engineers or anybody else) purged our sins, (Paid the sin debt for the whole human race, He did what?) sat down…” Why? Because the work of salvation—the death, burial, and resurrection—was finished!
And any time man tries to put their filthy fingers on it by adding to it or subtracting from it, they mar it. It is such a complete finished work. That’s why I constantly repeat and repeat and repeat—we’re not saved by works, we’re saved by the grace of God through faith and what? Faith and faith alone!!
Because it’s a finished work, beloved. Just as surely as creation was perfect and God rested, so also this great plan of salvation has been totally consummated (finished) and we dare not try to add to it. We rest on it and it alone. But how many in Christendom are doing that? Not many!
I read a tremendous anecdote just a few weeks ago. And it kind of shakes you to your toenails. I’ll admit it does. It was the account of a pastor in Chicago quite a few years back now. I don’t imagine he’s alive anymore. But he had a huge congregation, and his church was packed to the gills, including the balcony. He read II Corinthians—turn with me so you can keep track of where I’m at—II Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17.
He read this verse to his huge congregation on a Sunday morning. I’ve been using it a lot lately, and I’m going to continue to use it because, beloved, you’ve heard me say it on the program before and I’ll probably be saying it again—our churches are full of lost people, and what a pity. You see, this is what the man realized and he read this verse.
II Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, (He’s been placed into the body of Christ by virtue of believing for his salvation.) he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Now that’s the perfect picture of a person who has experienced true salvation. We are different. Nothing thrills us more than a letter, and they come in by the hundreds, “you’ve changed my life.” No, I don’t, but the work of salvation does. Many of you have experienced it. A lot of you have already told me how that we’ve been responsible for such a dramatic change in your lifestyle. That’s as it’s supposed to be. Because if we’re in Christ, we are a new creation, all things that were old are passed away. Our whole lifestyle becomes a new pattern.
Well, anyway, getting back to the pastor. He read the verse and he said, “Now I’m going to ask a favor of you folks. All of you who claim to be Christians, please stand.” Every last person in that sanctuary stood including all the people in the balcony. “Now,” he says, “Please be seated.” And he read the verse again. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, behold all things are become new.” He said, “Now, in light of that verse, I’m going to ask those of you here—if you are in Christ and you have been made a new creation, please stand.” Did he get the same response? No way. It was just one here and there, a sprinkling throughout that vast congregation.
Well, that doesn’t surprise me a bit. You know, I think I’ve shared with you, probably in one of the past seminars. Years ago when we were still farming here in Iowa, we were in what we thought was a pretty good Bible-based, fundamental church. We thought we preached salvation Sunday after Sunday. We had a dear old Lutheran fellow who came to know the Lord, and he would come and visit our church on Sunday evenings.
He was one of the leading businessmen in our little old rural town, and he came in and sat beside my dad who, of course, was a farmer from way back. And the church was filling up. In those days it would fill up on Sunday morning and Sunday night and usually on Wednesday night. And as that church was filling up, he leaned over to my dad and said, “You know, Ted, if the Lord comes this week, they’ll have church as usual next Sunday.” Shocking, isn’t it?
Boy, I’ll tell you what, my dad couldn’t sleep for several nights, and one day he said, “You know, Les, I believe he’s right.” Because that man was a businessman and he knew how these people lived. He knew how they operated. So here’s where we have to draw the line and say, “Well, we can’t look at hearts.” We know that. But the warning is, if you’re not in Christ and you have not experienced a genuine salvation, you’re lost. It’s just that simple.
So Christ finished two great works—the work of creation and He rested; the work of salvation with the finished work of the cross and He sat down—because there was nothing more to be done. Everything that needs to be done for mankind’s salvation has now been accomplished. When He died for the sins of the world, was buried, and rose again, that took care of everything. Just believe it and rest in it!
I mentioned in the taping last Wednesday that I cannot begin to comprehend this tremendous plan of salvation. It’s beyond me how the God of glory took on human flesh, suffered, died, and had poured on Him as He hung on that cross, not just my sin and yours, but the sin of every human being that has ever lived or will live till the end of time. Now that’s beyond our human comprehension. And that’s why He had to be God. No human could have done that. No Buddha, no Mohammed, no anybody could ever have taken the sins of the whole world upon himself. But Christ did!
And you see, even Adolph Hitler, when he gets to the Lake of Fire some day, and I’m sure he will, is going to be able to say like everybody there with him, “I’m here because I chose to be. I didn’t have to be here. Christ paid my sin-debt, but I never cashed in.” That’s going to be the plea of lost people by the billions. They are going to realize that they didn’t have to be there. God had already made reconciliation. God had already forgiven them of their sins, but they didn’t take it by faith. And, oh, what a travesty that the world even today is walking underfoot this so great a salvation!
Well, back to Genesis. God rested, because everything was perfect. And now He places Adam in the Garden over here in chapter 2, and we can come all the way down to verse 15. And like I said, we’re going to have to go over 1,000 years per hour, so we’re going to keep moving. Now He’s got man in the Garden – verse 15.
Genesis 2:15a
“And the LORD God took the man,…” Not the man and the woman, He took the man. But on the other hand, don’t forget that Eve is in Adam in the invisible realm, or however you want to put it. She’s there because she is part and parcel of creation in Genesis 1:26. But now we are dealing with just the man. Verse 16:
Genesis 2:16-17
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
In other words, when Eve told Satan (Lucifer) that they were not to eat of the tree, where did Eve get her knowledge? Well, from her husband. She wasn’t there when God told Adam not to eat of the tree. Adam is alone. How do I know? Next verse, verse 18:
Genesis 2:18-20
“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; (Plain enough?) I will make him an help meet for him. 19. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air;…(And He says to Adam that he was to name them.)...and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20. And Adam gave names to all cattle,…(and so on and so forth)...but (now watch this) for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.”
What does that mean? He’s still alone. Now, we don’t know how long after Adam was created this takes place, but it was certainly a matter of days. So, we find that Adam is still alone. I like to put a little more of an emphasis on this. How do you suppose Adam must have felt as all these creatures were coming like they did to Noah’s ark—two-by-two, the male and the female—what was the natural response of Adam? Where’s mine? Everything has its mate, so where’s mine? God read his mind and said—don’t worry Adam, I’m going to bring you a helpmeet. You, too, will have your mate. Now verse 21:
Genesis 2:21a
“And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: (First case of anesthesia—God put him to sleep. First case of surgery, as God literally opened him.) and he took one of his ribs,…” I’m going to stop right there. If any of you know anything about the Hebrew, that word rib is used in other places in the Old Testament as a chamber. In one of the descriptions of the ark, it’s side-chamber.
I’ve read many an article by Rabbis where they just ridiculed the English translation of rib. Whoever heard of translating the word tsalah as a rib? It’s a chamber. It’s a side-chamber. Now that makes a lot more sense, doesn’t it? Because—now you won’t believe me, but I’ve had tons of people ask me if men have one less rib than women. No, you don’t. Their theory is that if God took one of them, we must have one less than you gals do. God didn’t take a rib – God took a side-chamber.
Now, what do you suppose is in that side-chamber? Well, the most intrinsic part of a woman and it follows right on with Genesis 3:15 where it says the seed of the woman. Well, what is the seed of the woman? Her reproductive area. That little walnut-sized, the gonad, reproductive area. I am confident, and you may not agree with me, but I am confident that that is what God took out of Adam. That little walnut-sized area of reproductive cells and around that, then, God created the woman.
There’s a theological reason why it had to be that way, but I’ve got to show you from Scripture. Turn with me all the way up to Romans chapter 5, dropping in at verse 12. Now this is Paul writing and Paul, of course, reveals a lot of things that the rest of Scripture does not. Here is one of them.
Romans 5:12
“Wherefore, as by one (Woman? No, by one pair? No, but rather by one--) man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;…” We find all the way through Paul, I Corinthians 15 is another reference, that sin made its ugly entrance into the human experience through Adam.
Now think logically, if Eve had never been in Adam, if Eve had always been a totally separated created being, would she have been part of the fall? No, she couldn’t have been, because she would have been a totally different species of creation. But since she was in Adam at creation, she is part and parcel of Adam. Consequently, when Adam fell, not just the men of the species fell, but the women as well. So you have the whole human race under the federal headship of Adam now a fallen race.
If you look at it logically, you have to realize that had Eve not been in Adam, if she had been simply created separate from Adam, then God would have to have a Redeemer separate for the women as well as a Redeemer for the men. But that’s not the way it works. We are all one fallen race.
Now every time we teach this, I am reminded that when we were teaching this on the Florida network—I don’t know how many people called, probably two or three—but they complained that I was calling Adam a homosexual. Good grief! Can you imagine that stupidity? Horrors! I have never ever even thought anything like that. All I said was that Eve was in Adam in the realm of the sexual reproduction until God took it out and formed Eve around that.
So I guess that caused a little bit of furor, and one of my best friends of the managers—there were several stations involved—one of the managers called and said, “Les, I think you need to call the president of the network, because even he is getting a little bit stirred about this concept that Eve was in Adam.” So he gave me his phone number and I called the president of the network. As soon as I told him who I was, he said, “Oh, wait a minute, I have two of my other executives here with me. Can I put you on a conference call?”
I said, sure, I don’t mind. So we go on a conference call and he said, “Where do you get this idea that Eve was in Adam?” I couldn’t believe my ears. So I took him back and read these verses we just read—that male and female created He them and he put them in the Garden, but Eve doesn’t come on the scene until God takes her out of Adam. Now those three men each had their own Bible on this Christian network, and all three said they had never seen this before.
On an earlier program, evidently I had used Ezekiel 37—the dry bones. I had forgotten that was in an earlier program, but one of them said, “Now where do you get in Ezekiel 37, the speaking of the dry bones, that that is referring to Israel?” And, again, I couldn’t believe my ears. So I asked them, “Well, who do you think the dry bones are?” They thought it was speaking of the Church. I said, “Oh, come on!”
Turn to Ezekiel 37 for a moment. Now I have to admit, that I kind of revel in these kind of situations. I said, “Let’s just look at Ezekiel 37, at all the descriptions of the dry bones coming together and all of a sudden they come alive. Flesh comes upon those bones and the skin.” All right, Ezekiel 37 and I’ll drop down to verse 10.
Ezekiel 37:10a
“So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived,…” That is all the dry bones that had been out there for centuries. These are a picture of Israel out in the dispersion for hundreds and hundreds of years. As a corpse that dies and becomes nothing more than dry bones, so the Jew became outside the land and away from his temple and the priesthood. And they’ve been out there for centuries.
But the prophecy is showing that one day Israel is going to come back to life, and we’ve seen it in our lifetime—how the nation of Israel is coming back to life. In fact, I’ll come to it later when we get to Abraham. But just stop and think, a little tiny nation of three million people (2001), that’s no more than some of our metropolitan areas, living in an area that is smaller than half of New Jersey. Imagine, three million people living in a postage stamp size piece of real estate—and they’re in the news every single day. Why? Because this Book says they will be. So what you’re seeing today is the fulfilling of this Book. I tell people constantly that if someone asks you—why do you trust the Bible to be the Word of God? Just tell them to look at the Jew.
The Jew is living proof that this Book is true. They should have assimilated and disappeared a thousand years ago, but here they are. Don’t ever let somebody try to tell you that those aren’t Jews living in Israel, because they are just as Jewish as anybody in the Old Testament. They have resurrected the Hebrew language. In fact, when we get over there our guide will tell us over and over, “If Isaiah or Jeremiah would come to the ticket office at the airport in Tel Aviv, they wouldn’t have a bit of trouble.” And a dead language had never before been resurrected. Never! It’s the only time in human history that a language that passed off the scene has come back to everyday use.
Well, so much for that. Let’s go back quickly to Genesis. Adam and Eve are complete in their union. They are now together, and they both understand that they are not to eat. Well, I don’t think I have to go through the temptation and the fall. You all know how that transpired, and because of the fall Satan picked up dominion of the universe. Not just the planet Earth, but the whole universe. I think that when we get to the end of time and before we go into eternity, God will totally, totally destroy this whole universe and He will create all things new, because everything has been defiled by this master counterfeiter, Satan.
ABSOLUTES & CAIN AND ABEL
Now, let’s go quickly into chapter 4. As you go to chapter 4, put your thumb in there, and go all the way up again to Hebrews chapter 9. I make no apology for flipping back and forth, because our mail shows us constantly that people are seeing for the first time that this Book fits from cover-to-cover. It all dovetails and everything fits. There’s no contradiction. There’s nothing impossible to explain. And we show that by flipping back and forth.
Hebrews 9:22b
“…and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” Or forgiveness! Now that is why, you see, right from day one when Adam and Eve fell, God restored them by killing a sacrificial animal back there in Genesis chapter 3. Without the shedding of blood it is impossible to have forgiveness.
All right, I call that the first absolute. If you’ll come with me over to chapter 11, still in Hebrews, we have a second absolute. Two absolutes of Scripture—I’m sure there are others, but these are the two I call the most important. There’s no way you can circumvent them. You can’t ignore them. You can’t go around them. You have to face them head on. These are absolutes that God will never bend. He will never compromise. All right, here’s the second one.
Hebrews 11:6a
“But without faith it is impossible to please God:…” Simple statement? Yeah. Profound? You better believe it. Because the first thing that God looks for in the life of a human being is his faith.
Now why is that such an important thing? Take it into your own everyday experience. I don’t care who you are—if you know that you have made an honest statement and you know from the depths of your being that it’s honest, and then you have some joker come up and tell you that you are a liar, how would you feel? Now come on, you’re all just as normal as I am. If somebody would do that to me, I would feel like knocking their head off. Here I have given you what I know is the absolute truth and you’re calling me a liar?
Now listen, isn’t that exactly what mankind does to God every day? You see, anytime that man refuses to believe what God has said, he’s calling God a liar! That’s why faith is so all-important in our dealing with God. God’s not concerned about your works until He sees your faith. You work for nothing unless you have faith. Now in our study in Hebrews on television, we’ve been in the first three chapters for a long time. And those whole first three chapters are dealing with two premises—that Jesus of Nazareth was God the Son, the preeminent Son of God. And the other thing was God’s great controversy with Israel.
When He told them to go in and take the Promised Land, it was all prepared for them, everything has been made ready. The poor old Canaanites worked their heads off for 400 years getting everything ready—the vineyards, the farms, the orchards, the houses, everything the Canaanites had worked 400 years to prepare. And now God tells Israel—I’ll drive them out with hornets. You won’t have to lift a weapon. You won’t lose a drop of blood. You go in and you take it. It’s yours. I’ve promised it to you.
And what did Israel do? Oh, we can’t do it. There’s giants in the land. There’s no way we can go in and take it. And you know, I don’t think there’s anything in Scripture repeated as often as—harden not your hearts as in the provocation—which refers to Israel’s refusal to go in at Kadesh Barnea. What a travesty! When they had seen God open the Red Sea and had seen everything there at Mt. Sinai, and now the Word of God said go in and take it, there’s nothing to fear, it’s waiting for you. And they rejected it in what? Unbelief!
And there’s nothing in the realm of the human experience that God detests like unbelief. I mean, it’s sobering. And here we are—we can present the Gospel of salvation as a finished done deal. And all God asks is just believe for your salvation that Jesus died for your sins, was buried, and rose again.
He doesn’t ask you to roll over and grovel in the dirt, repent and do all this. All God says is believe it. But the miraculous part is, the moment we believe it, God comes in and works that work of regeneration and then, of course, it’s going to, like we saw earlier, make us a new creation.
But you don’t get there by working. You don’t get there by joining some church. You get there by believing that finished work of the cross. That’s what God said. And when mankind refuses to believe it, His wrath is going to fall. How many times haven’t you heard the unbelieving world say, “Well, if you’ve got a God that has got such love and mercy, how can He send anybody to a place as awful as that Lake of Fire?” Easy! He’s done everything to keep them from the Lake of Fire.
He’s done everything that made it so simple that they don’t have to lift a finger to escape it. All they have to do is believe it. But will they? No. They are just like Israel. “No, we can’t do it. I don’t believe that. That’s not enough. I’ve got to do something.” No, you don’t have to do anything but believe it. Now, two absolutes—don’t forget them as we go back to Genesis chapter 4—without the shedding of blood there is no remission, and without faith it’s impossible to please God.
We have the perfect example of that right here in the beginning of the human experience with Cain and Abel. Two perfect illustrations of the use and the rejection of these two absolutes. Chapter 4 and we might as well start in verse 1.
Genesis 4:1a
“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, (In other words, they consummated their marriage relationship, and she had the child.) and bare Cain,…” Now don’t believe these jokers that say Cain is a result of Lucifer and Eve. I don’t know where they get it. I know some teach it, but there’s NOTHING in Scripture to indicate that. Cain was the legitimate offspring of Adam and Eve. All right, she bare Cain, and she thought this was already the Redeemer as promised back in chapter 3. She thought this was the son that had been promised.
Genesis 4:1b
“…and she said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.” And if you have a margin, it indicates that she thought it was even Jehovah. She thought it was the promised Redeemer; but she was wrong, of course. Then verse 2, a little later on, naturally, she has Abel. Now this follows the course of Scripture all the way from cover-to-cover. First we have the natural, and then the spiritual.
We would have ordinarily thought that God would have brought Abel on the scene first because he is the believer of the two. But God never does. God always shows us the natural first and then the spiritual. And, of course, it follows into our own experience. As an unbeliever, we were in the natural. We had no spiritual relationship with God. But when we became a believer, now we’re spiritual.
When you come to the very end of the human experience, you’ve got the appearance of the anti-Christ; who, by the way, does not mean against the Christ—he’s a counterfeit Christ. He’s going to be the master counterfeiter even as Satan was in the early beginning. Here again, first the natural—the non-spiritual, the anti-Christ; and then the Christ, the spiritual. You watch for that all through Scripture, this is the process—first the natural and then the spiritual. Okay, so first came the natural, now comes the spiritual.
Genesis 4:2a
“And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep,…” I hope you realize that in Scripture a half of a verse can not only cover 25-30 years, it can cover 1,000 years. We cover a whole bunch of years here when we see that all of a sudden these boys were born and now they are grown men.
Genesis 4:2c
“…and Abel was a keeper of sheep (with his flocks and herds) but Cain (who went the other direction) was a tiller of the ground.” So, Cain became a farmer. Now verse 3 and remember what we’re showing – the two absolutes—without the shedding of blood there’s no forgiveness, and without faith there’s no pleasing God.
Genesis 4:3a
“And in process of time…” Which simply means in the Hebrew, “after days of instruction.” See, God never let the human race go without any kind of instruction.
Now there was no formal system of worship between Adam and almost up to Abraham, I’d say. There is no formal system of—I don’t like the word, but for sake of a better one—there was no formal religion. Every man was responsible for approaching God as the head of the home, the priest of the family, with an animal sacrifice.
Genesis 4:3
“And in process of time (God had instructed both of these young men, as well as probably other brothers and sisters that are already on the scene.) that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground as an offering unto the LORD.” Now we don’t know what he brought. I think I told you last year, I think it was in this seminar, that in my own mind I just picture a bunch of carrots, because those beautiful red carrots and those green tops are kind of an attractive setup.
He brought something that grew in the ground which meant it was bloodless. There was no blood in whatever he brought. So number one, he rejected an absolute. He did not bring a blood sacrifice. All right, he brought of the fruit of the ground, which also meant, then, that if he didn’t do what God said, he did not practice any what? Faith! Faith is taking God at His word.
Had Cain practiced faith, he would have done what God said to do, but he didn’t. He rationalized. And when he rationalized, what did he do? When you begin to think what someone else must think—you can’t do that. Cain rationalized and said—Well, surely God knows that I’m a farmer. He knows I don’t have any animals. I don’t have to go bargain with my brother. If I do it in a good state of mind and I’m sincere, surely God will accept me. Well, you don’t tweak God’s nose like a Santa Claus. You either do it God’s way or you’re in danger. So, Cain was destitute of faith in the first place and broke the second absolute by not bringing a blood sacrifice. There was his problem.
Now the reason I emphasize that—in my own denomination down in Oklahoma I’ve got two guys, one in my Tulsa class and one in McAlester, who both teach 6th grade boys in their Sunday school class. And that Sunday school quarterly had completely gutted all of this. They were simply saying that poor old Cain just didn’t have the right attitude. Never made a mention that his number one problem was not bringing what God said to bring.
So the one fella—in fact, he’s the one who transcribes all our programs and gets them ready for the books, Jerry Pool. So Jerry wrote the denomination and he complained about how they were treating Cain and Abel in this Sunday school quarterly for these boys. You should have seen their reply. Two pages long and they danced around the subject and never addressed it. The closest they came to getting Cain off the hook was that he simply had a bad attitude. They never once admitted that they should have addressed the fact that Cain did not bring a blood sacrifice and that Cain was destitute of faith. Isn’t it amazing? Then at the end of the letter, they told Jerry that evidently he was more righteous than they were.
Then we wonder why the church in total has gone down the tube. They will not look at these absolutes. I don’t care what denomination you’re in, you will probably agree with me. They are going around these absolutes and trying to make some other way for salvation, but it will never work. Now we come down quickly to Abel who was the picture of a man who fulfilled both. He brought a blood sacrifice and he did it in faith, because that’s what God said to do. Consequently, Abel was accepted.
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT * PART I
THE PROMISE OF THE LAND
Now, I’m going to go all the way past the flood, as you’ve heard that often enough. We’re going to go past the Tower of Babel and come all the way up to 2000 B.C. and the call of Abraham. Genesis chapter 11—we are approaching midway between Adam and Christ’s first advent—the call of Abraham and the appearance of the Children of Israel.
Genesis 11:31
“And Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.”
I guess I’d better put this on the board. Remember, the Euphrates River has its origin clear up in the land of Turkey. I’m trying to put this up here on a big enough scale so that you in the back can see it. Here is the Mediterranean Sea coast, and here is the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan Valley, and down to the Dead Sea. The Euphrates River begins in Turkey in the Ararat Mountains, and then it circles all the way down to the Persian Gulf. There is absolutely no proof, but most people agree that Ur of the Chaldees is down here between Babylon and the Persian Gulf.
So when God spoke to Abram down here at Ur, he migrated up the usual way of the fertile crescents of the Euphrates Valley until he got up into an area fairly well north of Canaan which is called Haran. So, Haran is where they stopped after leaving Ur. O.k., let’s pick up the text.
Genesis 11:32
“And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.” Now let’s drop into chapter 12. This is the midpoint in time between Adam and Christ at His first Advent, and only 11 chapters have covered those first 2,000 years.
Genesis 12:1a
“Now the LORD had said…” And again, I always like to point out in our studies that whenever you see the word LORD in capital letters, it’s Jehovah—and Jehovah was God the Son! So when you see LORD, we’re dealing with Christ in His Old Testament operations. Now He’s still in the realm of the invisible. He’s still part of the Triune God. But He will step out of that invisible from time-to-time and make His appearance as He did with Abram.
Genesis 12:1
“Now the LORD (God the Son) had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, (which was Terah) unto a land that I will shew thee:” He doesn’t tell Abram where they’re going; but rather, you go and I’ll get you to where I want you! All right, here comes the Abrahamic Covenant
The Abrahamic Covenant is probably the least understood in Scripture and yet it is the most important. Unless you understand this Abrahamic Covenant, you will never understand Christ’s earthly ministry or our role in the scheme of everything! Everything rests on this Abrahamic Covenant. Let me show you why.
Turn to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 32 and drop down to verse 8. Has everyone got it? Underline it, because this is a profound statement.
Deuteronomy 32:8
“When the Most High (the Triune God) divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds (or borders) of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.”
Now, do you know what that really means? That in God’s dealing with all the nations of this world since the beginning of time, once the Nation of Israel appeared on the scene, everything in God’s program is based on the Nation of Israel! I like to put it like the hub of a wheel. All the nations are the spokes, but the hub of everything is the Nation of Israel!
You cannot escape it. That’s why even though they’ve been out there in dispersion 2,000 years, yet here they are. God has kept His thumb on them. They have not been destroyed by outside forces, and they have not quite destroyed themselves. However, there was an editorial in the Jerusalem Post a year or so ago titled, “What Hitler Did Not Accomplish, We’re Doing it to Ourselves.”
The editorial went on to say that 52% of even Israeli Jews are marrying Gentiles, let alone the Jews out here in the Gentile world. And of those 52% of Jewish young people that are marrying Gentiles, only 20% raise their children in the Jewish system—which means that 80% of the offspring of these Jewish people who are marrying Gentiles are being totally separated from Judaism.
The editorial went on to say that if this were to continue that, yes, in a few more years the Nation of Israel would lose its identity simply by assimilation and intermarrying. When I read that, do you know what that told me? We’re closer to the end than you have any idea. We are getting so close, beloved, because Israel is not going to disappear!
Jeremiah chapter 31 says that the sun and moon will fall out of their position before Israel will cease being a nation. We have to rest on the Word of God. And to keep Israel from destroying herself by intermarriage, God is going to have to intervene and give that elected portion of Israel their chance at survival. Looking at Deuteronomy 32 again:
Deuteronomy 32:8
“When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adams, he set the borders of the people according to the numbers of the children of Israel.”
Don’t forget that. Now come back to Genesis Chapter 12. Here is our benchmark from which everything else, now, is going to fall—the Abrahamic Covenant. Now Abraham was not Jew, he was a Syrian. But he’s going to be the father of the Jewish race. Now verse 2—God says to this man a whole series of promises. Now what’s a promise? Well, it’s something that God says and He expects it to be believed. This is why He chose Abram.
Let me recap for a moment. We have come 1,600 years from Adam, and that whole civilization was destroyed in the flood. We start all over again with 8 people. In 200 years those 8 people had multiplied to the numbers that were at the Tower of Babel. We’re already talking about thousands. Then we go another 200 years until we get to the Call of Abraham.
The problem is, when we study the Old Testament we think 200 years as nothing compared to thousands. But listen, 200 years is still 200 years. Go back in our own nation’s history 200 years—go back to 1800. What were we? Just a bunch of pioneers clearing the wilderness. We had no highways, no technology, and no modern conveniences—with just a few million people at the most. Look what’s happened in 200 years. So when I say from the Tower of Babel to the Call of Abraham was 200 years, it was just as much time to reproduce people as it has been now. So, don’t let that time-factor throw a curve at you.
So, 200 years after the flood we have the Tower of Babel, and 200 years after the Tower of Babel we have the Call of Abraham. And there are already multitudes of people scattered through this Euphrates Valley of the Middle East. So now God says to Abraham, or Abram as he is known first.
Genesis 12:2
“And I will make of thee (That’s a promise.) a great nation, and I (God says) will bless thee, and make your name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:” And he was to all the people around him. Now here comes the crux of the matter.
Genesis 12:3
“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee (Abraham) shall all families of the earth be blessed.” All the nations of the earth one day will be blessed. Well, that’s a very dormant statement, isn’t it?
But you see, it’s all fulfilling—because through this one man Abraham and through these promises of God given to one man will come not only the Nation of Israel, but will come this Book which was written totally by Jewish men. And out of the Nation of Israel came the Messiah. The Messiah, in turn, became the Saviour, not only of Israel, but of the whole human race. There is a direct affinity between Christianity and Judaism—absolutely there is! Because we all have the same origin, and our whole plan of salvation came through the Nation of Israel.
Now we’re going to see, between now and the noon break, how for the next 200 years from the Call of Abraham and the giving to him this covenant promise, we’re going to see God dealing almost exclusively with this little nation of people. He is going to prepare them for the day when the Nation of Israel can go out and draw all the nations of the world to a knowledge of their God. But just like at Kadesh-Barnea when God opened the gates and said to go in and take the land, what did Israel do? In unbelief they backed away.
Now it was the same thing when Christ came to the Nation of Israel. He came to fulfill these Old Testament covenants. He offered Israel His Kingship and His glorious Kingdom and the opportunity of being priests of Jehovah to all the rest of the world. But just like at Kadesh, what did they do? Rejected Him in unbelief! Israel dropped the ball; and God, in turn, sent one little Jew, the Apostle Paul, to do now what Israel should have done as a nation. The Apostle Paul, then, became the Apostle of the Gentiles! (Romans 11:13)
But that’s for this afternoon. Before noon, hopefully, we’ll get from Abraham to Christ’s first advent and through all the promises that are intrinsic to this covenant made with one man—that he would have a nation of people, he would be given greatness, and out of him would come the Saviour of all of mankind!
Again, reviewing this Abrahamic Covenant, mark it in your Bible—he is promised a nation of people, and one day out of the nation would come the Redeemer of all mankind. I guess I could put up here what I normally do when I come to this covenant. You already know it quite well. This covenant not only involved the promises of becoming a great nation; and, naturally, if you’re going to have a nation of people, they are going to dwell in an area of land. And if everything is going to be as it should be, then they must have a government. And this government is going to come in the person of a King, who in turn will be the Son of God! That is your Abrahamic Covenant in a nutshell!!! Here was one man that God knew would believe what He said.
Genesis 15:6
“And Abraham believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” What did Abram do for righteousness? Believed! That’s all he did. He wasn’t yet circumcised. There was no law, no priesthood, and no temple. So what did Abram do? He believed God. Now let’s see what Paul says about it. Keep your hand here in Genesis and come all the way up to Romans chapter 4. I have to have a reason for my constantly screaming, “IT’S FAITH PLUS NOTHING!”
Oh, beloved, multitudes have been led astray by saying—no, it’s faith plus. And others are hammering away—no, you must repent and be baptized according to Acts 2:38. Beloved, that flies in the face of all this; because look what the Scripture says.
Romans 4:1-2
“What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? (Now Paul was a Jew, so he speaks of Abraham as his father in the flesh.) 2. For if Abraham were justified by works, (by doing something) he hath whereof to glory; (I like to use the word brag.) but not before God.” Abraham could brag if he had done something to merit salvation, but he didn’t. Abraham had nothing to brag about.
Romans 4:3
“For what saith the scripture? (The one we just read in Genesis.) Abraham believed God, and it (his believing) was counted unto him for righteousness.” You can’t make it any plainer than that. All the way through Paul’s epistles, then, we have this emphasis of believing for faith.
Ephesians 2:8-9
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; (plus nothing) and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Romans 1:16a
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it (the salvation gospel of I Corinthians 15:1-4) is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth (plus nothing);…”
Now, that is not license. That doesn’t give you the opportunity to say, “Well, I’m a believer, I can do as I please.” No way! From the moment we believe, God works a work of regeneration as we saw earlier this morning. He changes us so that we don’t want to do the things that the lost world does. It becomes repugnant to us. Rather, we live a life pleasing in His sight. You can’t do that in the flesh. That has to be a Spirit-precipitated thing.
I’m thinking about a guy we won to the Lord down in Oklahoma. I mean, he was something else. He was a good-looking fellow. He was a street fighter, as his knuckles were all beat to smithereens from his youth. He was a hellion. His wife left him because he had three smutty-type women on the string. I mean, that’s the kind of guy he was. This guy couldn’t say two words without one of them being a name of Deity.
He started coming to one of my classes, and for the longest time I didn’t know what his past was. Finally someone asked me, “Do you know that guy over there?” I said, “Well, I know his name, but what about him?” “Oh, he’s something else.” For three years that guy never missed a single class. Finally, one night after class, the guy said, “Les, we’ve got to talk.” Well, he and his estranged wife came up to the ranch. We led him to the Lord and his life turned 180 degrees. Within a month his wife came back, miraculously, and they became a testimony of God’s grace.
Well, sometime later after one of our classes was over, we had a guy that had come in to visit who was one of these smart-alecks who thought he knew it all. He was the next thing to an atheist. I mean he was an agnostic that had all the answers. This gentleman we had won to the Lord always took care of our coffee pot. Everyone was gone and he was over there rinsing out the coffee pot, but he was overhearing this guy spewing out all this garbage. So he walked over and tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Look, mister, when you get saved, then you’ll realize that you’re wrong and Les is right.”
That’s what it takes. Once you become a believer, then this Book opens up to you. Until you’re a believer, the Bible is so much gobbledygook. That’s why we try to teach it in such a way that untaught believers or young believers can get an understanding that all this fits from beginning to end.
Romans 4:3
“For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.”
Now come back with me, again, to Genesis chapter 13 and drop down to verse 14.
Genesis 13:14
“And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:” Now here it is, if you have any doubts why the Israelites are in the land tonight, here is the reason, and don’t you ever let anyone tell you it belongs to the Palestinians. It was given by God to Abraham as part of that covenant concerning the Nation of Israel. Verse 15:
Genesis 13:15
“For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.” That means it will never end or quit being Israel’s land. Now back to chapter 15 where we were a moment ago, in verse 6 again.
Genesis 15:6-7
“And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. 7. And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.” Now here is where Abram shows his humanity. He was just as human as you and I are. All right, God, you’re making a lot of promises. How do I know you’re going to keep the promises? Well, here it is!
Genesis 15:8
“And he (Abram) said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it (this land)?” Now God is going to condescend with all His goodness, and He’s going to satisfy Abram’s question by literally going through a title deed transaction according to the laws of Hobrobe, who was a Babylonian law giver for Abraham’s day.
In the succeeding verses, you have God coming down in a theophany. He’s walking between these animal carcasses and thereby He is transferring a title deed for the whole Middle East to Abraham. Well, I’m not going to read all these verses. Verse 9 – they were to take these sacrificial animals and separate them, lay out the pieces. Verse 12:
Genesis 15:12-13
“And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. (In that visionary state, God says to Abram--) 13. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety (know for certain) that thy seed (Abram’s offspring) shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;”
Now here is what I call the first instance of true prophecy. Now, I know in Genesis 3:15 we speak of the coming Redeemer through the seed of the woman. But that is not yet fulfilling the qualification of true prophecy. True prophecy is when God makes a statement concerning Israel and nobody else. All prophecy is directed to the Nation of Israel, and almost always God wraps it in a time-frame. Now what’s the time-frame here? 400 years! That’s a long time. God says after 400 years they are not only going to be subjected to slavery in Egypt, but they are going to come back to the land of Canaan where God and Abraham are now standing. Ok? Let’s read on.
Genesis 15:13b
“…that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them: (Egypt) and they (the surrounding Gentile nations) shall afflict them (the Children of Israel) 400 years;” Now there is your time-frame that wraps that prophecy. Then verse 14:
Genesis 15:14
“And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: (reference to the plagues) and afterward shall they come out with great substance.” And they did. The Egyptians unloaded all their wealth on these departing Hebrews just to get rid of them. Remember, that was prophesied 400 years before it happened. That’s why this Book is so tremendous and we can believe it. The Nation of Israel is a constant confirmation of all this. All right, so God says 400 years, and in verse 16 He says:
Genesis 15:16
“But in the fourth generation they (the Children of Israel) shall come hither again: (To Canaan. They were there when God promised it to Abram. The nation has developed in Egypt, and now God says they will come here again. And the reason God is waiting 400 years is right here.) for the iniquity of the Amorites (which was an all-inclusive word of the Canaanite tribes) is not yet full.”
Now don’t read over that casual like. Pick it apart. What is that telling you? That God in His Sovereign Grace is going to give these Canaanite tribes 400 years to clean up their act. And if you want to know what clean up their act means—when you get home tonight read Leviticus chapter 18, for I won’t read it in a mixed audience. That chapter will give you the filthy, filthy lifestyle of these Canaanites. It had gotten so filthy after the 400 years that God in total fairness, in total rightness, told the Children of Israel that He would drive those Canaanites out with hornets, and they could have all that the Canaanites had prepared for them, because they deserved His wrath and my judgment.
And then God warned Israel, don’t you ever get like those Canaanites, because if you do, there will be an abomination in the land, and I’ll have to deal with you like I’m dealing with them. And, of course, Israel did fall into all the filth of the Canaanites, and they did suffer the consequences. Israel has suffered for centuries.
Now I like to tie that with our own period of time. Matthew 24 tells us that the time of the Gentiles is filling and so is the Body of Christ filling. The only thing is that the Body of Christ will get full first! Then the cup of iniquity that the Gentiles are filling with their lifestyle today will reach the full mark, and then will come the wrath of God once again. God is not going to let this filthy world get away with what they’re doing. Their day of judgment is coming and don’t ever forget it.
All right, Abraham is promised that it will be 400 years before his coming generation will come back to the land of Canaan again. Now verse 18:
Genesis 15:18a
“In the same day (When God made this land transaction with Abram, deeding the Middle East to this one man and the succeeding generations of the Nation of Israel.) the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given…” It’s a done deal. It’s already been done.
It’s amazing that out of all of Israel’s Prime Ministers since 1948, there has been only one that reminded the world that this land was deeded to Israel when God deeded it to Abraham! Do you know who it was? Menachem Begin—and he said it more than once. “This land has been deeded to us. It’s ours!” Don’t you buy the media or the world opinion and fall in line that Israel does not belong and that it belongs to the Palestinians.
I guess this is as good a time as any. Let me take you back to Leviticus chapter 26. I didn’t really intend to do all this today, but I’m going to take the time. This is still under the time of Moses. This is before they go into the land of Canaan under Joshua. So Moses writes, speaking on God’s behalf.
Leviticus 26:32a
“And I will bring the land into (What’s the word?) desolation:…” I hope these new translations haven’t fouled that word up. Boy, I’ve got no time for these new translations. I can’t help it. Every time I pick up an NIV, I just about vomit.
Why are they just totally gutting the meaning of Scriptures? Now, I know I’m probably coming down a little hard on them, but here is an example. What are some of the other translations? Do we have any other translations? What does it say? See, they water it down. The Word of God says the land of Israel is going to be a desolation. Now what does desolation mean? There is nothing going on. It’s a total wilderness.
Leviticus 26:32-33
“And I will bring the land (the promised land) into a desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. (at how desolate it really is) 33. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.”
Now that happened the first time during the 70 years of captivity when Nebuchadnezzar came and took Israel captive. But that was a limited period of time of 70 years. Well, the same thing happened again after the crucifixion when Israel rejected the offer of the King and the Kingdom and said—away with Him, we’ll not have this man rule over us. What happened in A.D. 70? Well, God, by His own Sovereign design, brought in the Roman General Titus who destroyed the City, destroyed the Temple, literally reaped havoc with the whole Temple mount, and Israel went into a dispersion that has lasted until our time. Now the Jews are coming back home and have been now for quite a while.
All right, remember God said that when He would take the Jew out of the Promise Land, He would make it so desolate that even their enemies could not live there. Did God do that those two times? Most people don’t know this. If you remember in one of my earlier programs, all I had to go by was a gentleman who was in one of my little home Bible studies up in Iowa. He had been on defense service with the British army, and, of course, Great Britain had rule over the Middle East until after World War II – you all know that!
Melvin has gone on to be with the Lord in glory, but I’ll never forget what he shared with us back in the early ‘70s of his experiences with the British army in Palestine. He said “It’s the most God-forsaken piece of real estate you ever laid your eyes on. There is nothing there. Absolutely nothing!” So, I took that and fitted it into one of my programs way back. Yet it was ringing in my mind something else that said basically the same thing.
Well, about two months ago I ran across a book and it quoted it, and lo-and-behold this book was written by Mark Twain—the same guy who wrote Huckleberry Finn. You’ll have to bear with me, because you won’t believe me unless I read it to you. Now this is straight out of Mark Twain’s book. I think the title of the book is Innocents Abroad or The New Pilgrims’ Progress by Samuel Clemons or Mark Twain. Now listen to this.
While visiting the land in the 1860s, that’s at the time of our Civil War, this is what Mark Twain said: “The soil is rich enough, but it is given completely to weeds. A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with a pomp of life and action. We never saw a human being.” Now compare this with what we are hearing in propaganda. Remember, in 1860 – “We never saw a human being on the whole earth. We pressed on toward Jerusalem. The further we went, the hotter the sun got and the more rocky and bare, repulsive and dreary the landscape became. There was hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the Olive tree and the cactus, those friends of a worthless soil, almost deserted the country. Jerusalem is lifeless! I would not desire to live there, as it is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land. Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes.” This is Mark Twain describing the land of a desolate Israel. “Over it broods the stench of a curse that has withered its fields and feathered its energy. Palestine is desolate and unlovely!” So, that’s 1860. You can see that God keeps His promises. That when Israel is out of the land, He makes it desolate so no one else can move in and occupy it!
Well, I just read a book last week by a Jewish Rabbi. The title of his book is Fantastic Prophecy from the Torah. Now, you know what the Torah is? The first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy! He never once quotes from any other portion of the Old Testament, and he certainly doesn’t quote anything from the New Testament.
But out of those first five books he is throwing light on the present-day scenario as a fulfillment of prophecies. This is a Jewish Rabbi! You don’t ordinarily expect the Rabbi to talk in terms of prophecy. He made this point, and it fell right in line with what I read—that God, as soon as He uprooted the Jews from the land, I use the word Palestine because you all know what it means—as soon as the Jews left Palestine, it became a desolation.
And until the turn of the century of A.D. 1900, God kept it desolate with earthquakes and disease, primarily malaria. That rang a bell. Those of you who went with me to Israel—whenever we go to these archeological digs, it’s these beautiful Roman cities that were devastated and covered up with sand from the wind blowing off of the Mediterranean. One after one was built, destroyed by earthquakes, rebuilt, and destroyed by earthquakes, so God kept the land desolate from A.D. 70 until about 1900.
Then, beginning in 1900, for the last 100 years, there has not been a severe earthquake in the land of Israel. That’s part of the fantastic prophecies that he was referring to. Since 1900, malaria has been almost obliterated. Since 1900, the rains have increased. In the last 100 years, now, Israel has little by little been coming back from desolation into the near Garden of Eden that it is today. Now, is there any doubt that God is in control? He kept it desolate for 1,900 years without any real population. The Rabbi pointed out in his book that even Jews who would try to set up housekeeping in Jerusalem never lasted more than one generation and disease would wipe them out. The Palestinians would come in and within a generation they, too, would be wiped out. God kept it desolate for 1,900 years.
(Transcriber: Les and the audience must have had a break at this time. When Les returns to speak, his first words are:)
Okay, Daniel writes by inspiration, of course.
Daniel 12:8-10
“And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? (all these prophetic things that Daniel had seen) 9. And he (the Lord) said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 10. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” All right, now let’s back up to chapter 12 and verse 3.
Daniel 12:3-4a
“And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. 4. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end:...” Now that doesn’t mean the exact last minute. But in the end-times God is going to start revealing things from the Scriptures that people before never understood.
Now it’s amazing that up until, again, about the middle 1800s, as we began to have a technological explosion, we also had an explosion of biblical understanding. Let me qualify. I think it was in this same book by the Rabbi that he made the point that up until about 1860 you could have transported people from almost any point in time and plopped them down anywhere in the world in 1860 and they would not have suffered culture shock. They would have still been using open fires for cooking, for the most part, still been using animals for beasts of burden.
There was no technology to really speak of. In isolated places, yeah—Guttenberg had invented the printing press. But as a general rule, across the whole human spectrum, things had not changed enough that you could have taken somebody from 100 B.C., plopped him down in the Midwest in 1860 and he wouldn’t have suffered from culture shock. But from the middle 1800s what happened? Technology began to unfold. You have the discovery of electricity, the discovery of steam, the internal combustion engine, and then came the flight of the Wright brothers. Ever since the middle of the 1800s, we’ve been having an evolving explosion of technology.
Now, it’s the same way scripturally. Since about the 3rd century, prophecy became almost an unspoken thing amongst all of Christendom. Many of you come from the Catholic background, many of you from mainline Protestant and you know as well as I know that prophecy was never taught. It was just an unknown subject. But then about the middle 1800s, especially in England, some Bible scholars began to see the end-time scenario at the end of the tunnel.
Some began to write about Russia becoming a world power. They began to write about a consortium of European nations becoming a revived Roman Empire. They began to write about these final seven years. But until that time, it was never mentioned. So I think the verse not only applies to the secular world, that there would be an increase of knowledge, but even for you and me.
Now let’s face it—I can humbly say that I have a far, far greater understanding of this Book than my parents had. And they were good people. They were in church every Sunday morning. But they didn’t have an understanding of this Book that I’ve got. And as things are progressing, my kids are going to put me to shame, because look at what the Christian has now at his disposal—the internet, libraries full of books—although I’m going to qualify that. Be careful what you read. That’s why I don’t use commentaries, because I don’t want somebody frying my brain. But nevertheless, we are living in a time when there is not only an explosion of secular knowledge, there’s an explosion of biblical knowledge. And it all is screaming at us that we are approaching the end of the days.
ABRAHAMIC COVENANT * PART II
A NATION OF PEOPLE PROMISED
All right, let’s go quickly back and pick up the coming to age of the Nation of Israel. Again, I have to do a lot of skipping to even get part way through today. After God has deeded the whole Middle East to this man, Abram, now it’s time for the nation to appear. Well, of course, Abram and Sarai are now 80 and 70 years old, respectively, and no child. How are you going to get a nation of people without a child? Well, Abram and Sarai got frustrated. Without any instructions from God and at Sarai’s suggestion, Abram quickly obliged when she says use Hagar as a surrogate mother so that I can have a son. Okay, Genesis chapter 16—here begins the turmoil of the whole Middle East.
Genesis 16:1a
“Now Sarai (I’m using their early names, Sarai and Abram. Later on it will become Sarah and Abraham – the ‘h’ comes into play.) Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. 2. And Sarai said unto Abram, (not the Lord, but Sarai) Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her….” Which was perfectly in accord with the laws of Khammurabi (Hammurabi).
This wasn’t an immoral act, it was one of necessity. And you want to remember, in the ancient antiquities a son meant everything. I mean, after all, that’s all they lived for, was to propagate their family line. Abram and Sarai are getting impatient, so she jumps into the secular world’s laws and she has Abram sire a son by her handmaid, Hagar. All right, now you know what the situation was. Ishmael is born, and we come to the time of promise when Abraham is now 100 and Sarah is 90. The Lord comes and says, now, Abraham, it’s time for you to have your son. Ishmael was of the flesh. Isaac is going to be of the promise. All right, here it comes.
Genesis 17:15-16a
“And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah (Here’s the change in the spelling.) shall her name be. 16. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her:…” Now who’s making the promises here? God is. God is promising this couple a son. They are way past child-bearing. Abraham is now 100, Sarah is 90, but God is promising a miraculous child birth.
Genesis 17:17-19a
“Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? 18. And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael (Now, he’s 14.) might live before thee! 19. And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: (which means laughter) and I will establish my covenant with him…”
Now underline that. This is God dealing with Abraham, and Ishmael who was of the flesh will not be part of these covenant promises. This has to be through the son of promise, Isaac.
Genesis 17:19
“And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, (In other words, a covenant that will never end.) and with his seed after him.” Which will be, then, the nation of Israel.
Now in verse 20 God’s not going to put a curse upon Ishmael, but rather a blessing. And because of Abraham’s lack of faith, Israel has had to put up with the Arab world for 4,000 years. And they are still putting up with them. They are still a thorn in the side of the Jew.
Genesis 17:20
“And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee; Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.” That’s the Arab world, primarily.
Genesis 17:21
“But (Underline that word. In spite of all that--) my covenant will I establish with Isaac, (That’s God speaking. That’s not some Jew. It’s not Les Feldick. It’s not some theologian. God says—I will establish my covenant with Isaac.) which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.” Here’s another example of God appearing face-to-face with Abraham and He leaves.
Genesis 17:22
“And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.” See how plain that is? He appeared to him in a human form and then disappeared and went back into that invisible Godhead.
You have God appearing to Abraham in chapter 18. In chapter 19 you have the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and then in chapter 21 we have the birth of Isaac. Isaac becomes, then, what I call the first real Jew. He is second after Abraham in the nation of Israel, and I think I can rightfully say that he is Jew, a member of the race that has been promised to Abraham.
Again, I guess I’m going to have to cross all the way over to the appearance of Jacob and Esau. Now we’ll come up to chapter 25. Isaac is now grown and has gotten a bride from their relatives up in Syria, with strict instructions never to marry a Canaanite. Isaac and Rebekah now have their firstborn and they are twins, Jacob and Esau.
All right, Genesis 25 verse 23. Now I have to cover this, as we are prone to say that Jacob was totally wrong in what he did. Well, on the surface, yes. But beneath the surface, in God’s sovereignty, Jacob had to do what he did.
Genesis 25:23
“And the LORD said unto her, (that is Rebekah) Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner (or different kinds) of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder (the firstborn) shall serve the younger.”
Now we know that Esau was born first, which means in life Esau is going to be subservient to Jacob by God’s Sovereign degree! Okay, got that? Now let’s go on—verse 27. Time goes by, like I tell you, time just keeps going. The years are rolling by, time back then is no different than time now. They lived longer, but a year was a year just like it is now.
Genesis 25:27-28a
“And the boys grew: and Esau (who was now a grown young man) was a cunning hunter, (And if I’ve got my chronology right, they’re now 24 years of age. They are twins, remember, so they are both 24.) a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. 28. And Isaac loved Esau,…”
Well, that kind of figures, doesn’t it? A father likes his son to be rather macho and to be out there hunting and bringing in the venison, so Isaac naturally loved Esau. Jacob was probably a little more on the effeminate side. He’d rather be in the kitchen with his mom. I’ve got one son that’s the same way. I mean, he’d rather be in the kitchen with mom than be out there with me and the cattle. That’s all well and good. We all have our differences. Now, he’s not effeminate. He’s manly, but he likes to cook and he likes to spend time with his mom. Well, I think Jacob was the same way. You’ve got these two totally different young men. Esau, a macho type, he’s a hunter; and Jacob, more or less the home type. All right, now look what happens.
Genesis 25:28-30
“And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved (or favored) Jacob. 29. And Jacob was cooking pottage: (In our English vernacular, he was cooking what? He was cooking soup—plain old bean soup.) and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: (He was hungry.) 30. And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red soup; (We know it was lentils and lentils are beans.) for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.” Which means red. He had an affinity for red.
Genesis 25:31
“And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.” Now think about that—if you want a bowl of soup, I’ll trade you a bowl for your birthright. Here’s the kicker. The birthright was a spiritual, invisible thing. By what little faith they knew, they understood that beginning with this covenant made with their grandfather Abraham, there was a promise waiting in the background by which all the nations of the world would be blessed.
Now, I don’t think they fully understood what that was. But Jacob, a man with a particle of faith, understood that there was something to be gained by having that birthright. And by being the younger of the two, he knew that he wasn’t in the line of things. So the only way that he could get it was to get it away from Esau. So he bargains with him—I’ll give you a bowl of soup if you’ll agree to let me have the birthright. What does Esau say? Let’s read on.
Genesis 25:32-33
“And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: (he thought) and what profit shall this birthright do to me? 33. And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.” Sold it for a bowl of bean soup. Now, what was Esau’s real problem? It wasn’t hunger. His real problem was that he had no real faith!
The birthright being a spiritual thing didn’t mean a thing to Esau. Whatever he had heard from his father and grandfather didn’t mean a thing to him. But Jacob picked up on it and he, through a particle of faith, said I want that. I want that. God honored Jacob’s faith, and He laid the wrath of God on Esau because of his unbelief. Esau was destitute of faith just like Cain was.
We have these examples as we come up through Scripture. The next big one, as I’ve already mentioned, was Kadesh-Barnea when the whole nation of Israel, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb and probably Moses and Aaron, were in the same fix. They had no faith, which brings us all the way up to the great faith chapters in Hebrews—chapter 11 and 12.
In Hebrews chapter 12 we pick up Esau once again. See, this is what the Old Testament is supposed to do for us. You won’t find salvation back here, but there is so much to learn from the attitudes and behaviors of these Old Testament people. Esau becomes a warning, then, to everyone of us to not be destitute of faith, or as the Book of Hebrews says—don’t take these things lightly.
This is serious business, you eternal destiny is at stake and that is not to be taken lightly. All right, Hebrews 12 and verse 16:
Hebrews 12:16
“Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau,…” Stop right there. Why was Esau profane and a fornicator? Because he had no faith!! Why do we have blatant immorality taking over our country? No faith. People no longer respect the Word of God. People laugh at the fact that the Book says, “Thou shalt not!”
That’s a joke and why? There is no respect for the Word of God! They don’t believe it anymore. Hey, that’s old fashioned. I’ve got news for them. God’s wrath is going to hit this nation like no other nation on Earth. I don’t say that for lack of patriotism, and I hope it will happen after we (the Body of Christ) are gone. But listen, never has there been a nation so exposed to this Book as our nation. Never! And we’re going to be held responsible. And one day, when God finally concludes that there is no turning around and there is no hope for this country because of their blatant rejection of His Word, His wrath is going to fall. It’s going to fall and they will have nobody to blame but themselves.
All you have to do is go back into Israel’s history. Israel is a perfect example. They had all those things going for them. They had the Word of God. They had the priesthood. But over and over what did Israel do? Down into the pit of immorality, idolatry of the worst sort and God judged them for it. God does not hold out forever. So, back to Hebrews 12:16—this man Esau showed his lack of faith in his lifestyle. He was immoral. He was profane. And because of his lack of faith, for one bowl of soup he gave up his birthright. Well, of course, it was in God’s sovereign design. Then verse 17:
Hebrews 12:17a
“For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing,…” Now that’s not the same as the birthright, remember. The birthright was a spiritual promise, but the blessing was to inherit the biggest share of the estate. The blessing back in those days was that the oldest son would get two parts. Since there were only two, that meant that Esau would have gotten two parts and Jacob one. But as it ended up, Jacob got the two parts and Esau had one.
Now here’s what’s interesting, he gave up the spiritual birthright without a blink of an eye. It never bothered him one whit. It didn’t mean anything to him. But you see, the material, it was the old father’s estate that he hated to lose. He bawled his manhood eyes out because he missed the material. Any different today? No. Most people couldn’t give you a plug nickel for your spiritual inheritance, but the material? My, they’ll go to court. They’ll bring in the lawyers to get every last dime. Well, the human race has never changed. Esau becomes the epitome, again, of a person with no faith. Materialism, secularism—that was his world. The things of the spirit meant nothing.
All right, you all know the story of Jacob. After he got the blessing, he had to flee for his life, and he goes to the kinfolk up in Syria. He gets his wives, Rachel and Leah and the handmaids, and out of them they formed the twelve tribes of Israel. They come back into Canaan and, of course, the families are multiplying. Joseph is now down in Egypt because the brethren had sold him into slavery, and now chapter 46—we’ve got to keep moving along.
In chapter 46, these men have been warned—DO NOT go into Egypt—stay in the land of promise. It began with Abraham. It was repeated to Isaac, and it was repeated to Jacob and the twelve sons. DO NOT go down into Egypt, because Egypt spoke of the world, and Canaan spoke of the place of blessing.
All right, now the famine has been in the land and Joseph is, by sovereign design, in Egypt with all of the grain bins full. Jacob and the other sons are starving to death over there in Beersheba. Look what God says. And God is sovereign. He can do that. He can change His direction. Verse 2 of chapter 46 says:
Genesis 46:2-3
“And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. (Now, look at what God says.) 3. And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; (Now highlight the last part of that verse. God says--) for I will there (in Egypt) make of thee a great (What?) nation:”
Now, the next time your Sunday school class comes to a big debate as to where the Jews came from, now you know. They came as a result of the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They became a nation of people while they were down in Egypt. And when Moses finally leads them out, they are the greatest nation in that part of the world, by virtue of numbers, than any of the other tribes. They are greater than the Amalekites. They are greater than Edom. They are greater than any of the others, because God sovereignly said, in Egypt you will become a nation of people.
So when Moses leads them out 430 years after Ur of the Chaldees, they are now a nation of people—anywhere from 5 to 7 million strong. Now we can’t imagine. In fact, some of you who watch the internet, there’s an interesting logistic out there. I’ve got copies of it at home—where someone checked with the military as to how much it would have taken to keep 3, 4, 5, or 6 million people supplied with their needs out there in that barren desert. Well, it was train loads of water every day.
If they cooked with outside fires, and evidently they did, it would have taken train loads of wood to keep their fires going. It would have literally taken train loads of food to keep them fed. So don’t ever picture the nation of Israel going out there into the wilderness as just a rag-tag bunch like Cecil D. Demille showed. It was a population—what’s the population of Minneapolis/St. Paul? Are you 2 or 3 million, yet? Yeah, about that.
Okay, can you imagine the whole megaplex of the twin cities moving out into the desert? That was Israel under Moses. Now, I started using the number 3 million when I started teaching some 15 or 20 years ago. I did it with trepidation, because I started with the number 600,000, which was the number of Israeli young men who were fit for war. Then I just started calculating—how many people would it take to have 600,000 young men between the ages of 20 and 25 and single—and I came up with 3 or 4 million people.
I’ve read articles by the Rabbis where they taught that 7 million Jews came out of Egypt, a nation of people. Now then, let’s move on up quickly to Exodus chapter 3. The only reason I stopped for this one, again, is to pick up and magnify who the God of the Old Testament really is. Who was Israel dealing with, anyway? In Exodus chapter 3, remember, Israel has now been led out of Egypt by virtue of the Red Sea experience and Moses is going to be the deliverer.
But before we get to the exodus itself, I want you to stop at Exodus chapter 3 where Moses looks at the burning bush. You all know the account—how the bush was on fire but was not consumed. All right, I’m going to bring you all the way down to verse 13, because I’m doing everything for sake of time. In verse 13, after Moses has been conversing with God here at the burning bush, I want you to take notice that all the way through it is God. God said this and God said that. When you come down to verse 13:
Exodus 3:13
“And Moses said unto God, (speaking out of that burning bush) Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?” Which would be typical, remember, because Israel was steeped in all the gods of Egypt—hundreds of them—and they all had a name. So the first thing Moses knows is these Israelites are going to say—all right, we’re acquainted with such and such of the god of Egypt. So what’s this god’s name?
Exodus 3:14
“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” All right, now let’s follow that into the New Testament, again. Who is the I AM of the burning bush?
Come all the way up to John’s gospel chapter 8. It’s so plain that there’s no room for argument. John’s gospel chapter 8 and we’re, of course, in Christ’s earthly ministry, and the Jews are confronting Him. They are blaspheming Him. They are accusing Him of being illegitimate. They are accusing Him of being a son of the Devil. Come down to verse 52.
John 8:52-54a
“Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a demon. (See that? They are accusing him of actually being an offspring of Satan.) Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. 53. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? 54. Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me;…”
I should stop here just a moment, because there is a lot of confusion about Christ during His earthly ministry. At times He will pray to the Father, and at other times He will simply act on His own. Now, what’s the difference? Well, you want to remember that He came as Deity and as human. He never let the two interfere, and yet He could exercise His Deity on one hand and on the other hand respond totally from His humanity.
So, whenever you see Jesus approaching the Father, it’s from His humanity. When He performs a miracle, such as raising Lazarus from the dead or calming the wind on Galilee, He works from the Deity side. But He never lets them cross over. So don’t be confused when Jesus prays to the Father. He’s merely praying from His humanity side.
Now, just to show you how beautifully Scripture is put together—anything that pertained to His humanity you will find in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. For example, the temptations in the wilderness are recorded in the three synoptic gospels, but not in John. And various other aspects of His humanity—if I’m not mistaken, I think sweating the drops of blood—are recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but not in John.
But John records Him from His Deity side. So, anything that pertains to His humanity you will not find in John’s gospel as much as you will in the other three. This is all in the divine purpose.
All right, He is referring to the Father from His humanity side that in Himself it is nothing. All right, reading on in verse 54, He said:
John 8:54b-56
“…it is my Father who honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: 55. Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: (Pretty strong language, wasn’t it?) but I know him, and keep his saying. 56. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.”
Now remember, the Lord communicated with Abraham face-to-face more than once. So Jesus could rightfully say, “He saw my day and was glad.” Now verse 57 and look at the Jews’ response.
John 8:57-58
“Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? (Abraham lived 2,000 years ago! Who do you make yourself? Look at His answer.) 58. Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”
Who was the I AM of the burning bush? Christ! God the Son. We don’t call Him Jesus back there, but it’s the same person. All the way up through the Old Testament, whenever you have a manifestation of God dealing especially with the Nation of Israel, it’s God the Son. It’s Christ. We don’t call Him Jesus in the Old Testament; we refer to Him as the Son. Psalms chapter 2 calls Him the Son. So make no mistake that the person of the Godhead speaking out of the burning bush was the same person that became Jesus of Nazareth. He’s the same person that called everything into being. He is the Creator God of the universe. But He is particularly Jehovah of the Nation of Israel.
I’m not going to bring you through all the plagues and so forth, as you’re all quite aware of that, but I want to bring you all the way up to Exodus chapter 19. Israel is now out of Egypt, and they are encamped around Mt. Sinai. In chapter 20, of course, God is going to give Moses the Ten Commandments. But here we’re ahead of that and God is dealing with the nation, giving them some prospects that they can look forward to. Remember, they’re encamped and Moses goes up onto the mount unto God.
Exodus 19:3-4
“And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; (This is what God say.) 4. Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, (back at the Red Sea) and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.”
Now Israel didn’t sprout feathers and fly. They walked, but by some divine act they must have been speeded up some. I can’t reconcile the distance that they covered coming through the Red Sea and all that, unless God supernaturally speeded them up somehow. But the main point is they walked. They did not fly, but it was as if God had given them wings of eagles. Verse 5:
Exodus 19:5a
“Now therefore, (because of all that God had already done for this covenant people—covenant by virtue of what He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) if (conditional) ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,…” The covenant He is going to give in the next chapter—the Covenant of Law. So, if the nation will keep God’s covenant--
Exodus 19:5b
“…then ye (the Nation of Israel) shall be a peculiar treasure (Now that word peculiar does not mean odd as we look at the word today. The word peculiar back in the Hebrew meant something of intrinsic value—something you couldn’t even put a price on.) unto me above all people:…”
Now stop and look at that real good—because a lot of people are still writing to me and asking, “Where did the Jews get the idea that they are the chosen race?” Well, here is one of them. God has decreed that they are above all the other nations by His Sovereign decree. Because you see He says:
Exodus 19:5c
“…for all the earth is mine.” God is Sovereign, and I guess if there is anything I’ve emphasized over the years except Faith Plus Nothing, it is the Sovereignty of God. He is absolute in His Sovereignty. He doesn’t have to ask anybody. Whatever He does is His business, and He can do whatever he wants.
In His Sovereignty He has declared the Nation of Israel a chosen, covenant, elevated people above all the rest of the world. That’s why, as I said earlier this morning, Israel, as a nation of people, is the proof of this Book. If anyone ever asks you, “Why do you think the Bible is the Word of God?” You just answer these two words, “The Jew.” He is living proof that this Book is true. I’ve already shown you that Moses foretold in 1500 B.C. that the day would come when the Jews would be in every nation under Heaven and they have been. Quite a few countries now are completely rid of Jews. They are going back to Israel. But still they have been in every nation under Heaven, because God said they would be. And now they are back in the land.
Not through any quirk of politics or the UN, you know that. But by virtue of God’s Sovereign decree they are back in the land. Unbelievable! Yet, this Book makes it believable. All right, so here they are, a chosen treasure above all the people—for God says, the earth is mine; I can do whatever I want. But here is the next verse that I want you to see before we move on.
Exodus 19:6a
“And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of (What?) priests….” In any religion what’s the role of a priest? Well, a go-between between man and God.
I mean, if you’re a Buddhist, you cannot approach Buddha unless you go through their priesthood. Even you Catholic folks, you have your priesthood that you predominately go through. But, you see, Israel was to get to the place where every single Jew was going to be a priest of Jehovah—a go-between, not between Jews and Jehovah, but between Gentiles and Jehovah.
Every Jew was to get to the place to take these pagan Gentiles and bring them in to a knowledge of their God. That was their prospect. All right, now from this point on we have the giving of the Ten Commandments and the giving of the Law. We have the giving of the priesthood, the Temple worship, all to be a schoolmaster for these Jews so that when the right day would come, they would be a prepared people for a unique opportunity. This is the whole purpose of setting aside the Nation of Israel—to prepare them to be the evangelists to the whole world.
All right, now I’m going to bring you all the way up to Isaiah, because we don’t have to go through all of Israel’s history. It’s a roller-coaster because of their unbelief. But I want you to see from Isaiah that this is exactly what God had on His mind concerning these covenant people. Come with me to chapter 42, and never lose sight of the fact that all the way up to now, since Genesis chapter 12, we are dealing primarily, not exclusively, with God and the Nation of Israel. They are the number one object of His operation. All right, here’s a good example.
Isaiah 42:1
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: (Now of course, who are we talking about? The Messiah, Christ, the One that’s coming, their king.) I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment (Now that word judgment there does not mean punishment, but rule—government.) to (What people?) the Gentiles.” God hasn’t cancelled the Gentiles. God’s got them on His mind. But it’s going to have to be through Israel that He will reach out to the Gentile world. All right, come on down to verse 6.
Isaiah 42:6
“I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, (Now we’re talking about the nation.) and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, (For what purpose?) for a light of the (Whom?) Gentiles;” See how plain that is? All right, let’s go to another one in Isaiah 59 starting at verse 20.
Isaiah 59:20a
“And the Redeemer….” Boy, that’s a new word now, isn’t it? The Redeemer, the One that’s going to buy the nation of Israel back.
Now here again, I always have to stop and explain. When Adam sinned, so far as God and the human race was concerned, what happened? Well, God lost them. Satan picked up everything. All right, if you have lost something through a hock shop, or you have mortgaged it to a bank, what do you have to do to get full ownership? You have to redeem it. You know that. You either have to pay off the note or you have to go to the hock shop and buy your product back before you can establish ownership.
That’s the whole idea of the word redeem. All right, when God lost the human race when Adam fell, He sets in motion this whole scheme of redemption whereby He can pay the purchase price and once again have total control of His creation. Israel is within that big picture of redemption in a smaller redeeming. When did God lose Israel? Well, when the brothers sold Joseph into Egypt. As a result of that sale of their brother down into slavery, God lost control of His covenant people.
Now, in order to gain control and bring them back into that covenant relationship, what did God have to do? He had to pay the price of redemption. And that’s the whole idea of bringing Israel out of Egypt through the Red Sea experience—which was, again, a picture. Over and over and you have no idea how many Jewish people we have touched with this, that when they put the blood on the door down there in Egypt, it was in the outline of a cross. Which showed that out in the future was a redeeming thing that would apply to the shed blood.
When you bring Israel out of Egypt and bring them to the shores of the Red Sea, when there’s no hope and everything is closing in on them, and at the last moment God, by His power, opens up the Red Sea and they go through like a burial and a resurrection. So, in the redemption of Israel out of Egypt, you have a picture of the redemption of the human race. As Israel is literally buried in the Red Sea, even though it was dry land, yet when they came out on the other side, they are a redeemed nation of people. And they’re setting the stage for the redemption of the whole human race. All right, now in verse 20:
Isaiah 59:20-21a
“And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, (This is Old Testament prophecy, remember, in a future day.) and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD. 21. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD;…” Here is the new covenant that will become operative when Christ returns at His Second Coming. Now drop down into chapter 60 verse 1.
Isaiah 60:1-3
“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, (Now don’t forget, who is Isaiah writing to? Israel! This doesn’t apply to us, this is Israel.) for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. 2. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD (God the Son) shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. (Now look at the next verse.) 3. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” That was Israel’s prospect. That was Israel’s possibility. They would be the vehicle to bring salvation to those pagans all around them.
All right, now you come up through the Old Testament and you have all these warnings concerning the judgment to come, but you also have all these prophetic statements of the coming of their Messiah and of the coming King and His Kingdom. All right, now before I go any further, I want to come up and recap my timeline. This top timeline—if you have your notebook, draw a line clear across the top of your page. Beginning especially where we saw the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis chapter 12, everything is the prophetic program for the Nation of Israel with nothing concerning the Gentiles as yet. Everything is looking forward to Christ’s first coming.
The prophets foretold His death, burial, and resurrection, but they didn’t understand it. They had no idea of how it was going to happen. The cross was a Roman invention. They knew nothing of a cross back here, but everything is looking to the whole prophetic program. As He would have finished His earthly ministry and had been crucified and raised from the dead, would ascend back to glory. That’s in Psalms 110 verse 1. Look it up so that you’ll know it’s in the Old Testament as well as what we teach from the New.
Psalms 110:1
“The LORD said unto my Lord, (God the Father said to God the Son) Sit thou at my right hand, (The next word is a time word.) until…” What does that mean? Oh, when He ascended back there almost 2,000 years ago as we saw in Hebrews, He had purged mankind of their sin. He had finished the work of salvation. It was complete, and He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
But He’s not there forever. Now don’t picture Him sitting on a stool with God the Father up here on a throne. These are merely positional terms. He is at the Father’s right hand interceding for us. But Psalms 110 warns and says there is coming a day when He will arise from that seated position, and He’s going to return back to the planet. And that’s what we’re looking for at any time. All right, back to Psalms.
Psalms 110:1
“The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Now, what’s implied there? There’s coming a day when the Lord Jesus Christ is finally going to have Christ-rejecting mankind under His foot. That’s what’s implied. His wrath and His judgment are going to be poured out on them.
God has given them 2,000 years of His Grace. Salvation is open to anybody, rich or poor, black or white, if they will simply believe it (I Corinthians 15:1-4). But mankind will not believe for their salvation, and in their rebellion they are getting deeper and deeper into their wickedness—just like the Canaanites in Abraham’s day. But when the day finally comes when His Grace is shut off, then He is going to have the human race under His foot and His wrath will be poured out. “Sit at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” So we know the day is coming when Christ will once again intervene into the affairs of mankind.
Now getting back to my chalk board for a moment—we have all the way from Abraham where God has been dealing primarily with the nation of Israel. That’s Jews only with a few exceptions. I can just briefly hit a few of them. We know Rahab, a Jericho citizen, was an exception. We know that Ruth the Moabite was an exception. Jonah was sent to Nineveh, who were Gentiles, an exception. But other than those, God is dealing all the way through here with Jew only.
Now let me show you how Paul puts it. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2 for a moment. Even the Apostle Paul points that out—how God dealt only with the nation of Israel until after the crucifixion when He turned to us, the Gentile world, when He selected the Apostle Paul to be the Apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13).
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 11—this is the Apostle Paul writing to you and me. Paul always addresses the Gentiles, whereas the Old Testament addresses the Nation of Israel. Jesus in His earthly ministry addressed only the Nation of Israel, with two exceptions, and we’ll look at them later. Paul writing to the Gentiles clarifies it for us.
Ephesians 2:11
“Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands.” In other words, Jews referred to the Gentiles as uncircumcised. Now verse 12:
Ephesians 2:12a
“That at that time…” Now, I’ve got to stop and show you when. What time? From the very promises made to Abraham until we get down into this Age of Grace of which Paul is the epitome. All the way through the prophetic program, as I will show you in a moment, everything was directed only to the Nation of Israel. Nothing was given to us Gentiles for that 2,000 year period of time from the Call of Abraham to the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 9. Now read on.
Ephesians 2:12
“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, (How much rights do aliens have? None. Not supposed to anyway. So we have no reason to claim any of these covenant promises to Israel. We’re aliens to that.) and strangers from the covenants of promise, (So, can we claim the covenants? No way! They are only between God and Israel, and we can’t horn in on that. We can have no part to those covenants and Paul makes it so plain. So, Gentiles between Abraham and the conversion of Paul were in bad spiritual shape.) having no hope, and without God in the world:”
So those Gentiles back there between Abraham and Paul were lost? Yes! They had no hope or affiliation with God. They knew nothing of the God of Israel. They were steeped in their paganism and idolatry, and they were lost. Now don’t get too picky and say that God was unfair. Because you want to remember, that from Adam at 4000 B.C., for the next 2,000 years, all the human race had an opportunity for salvation. And what did they do with it? They walked it underfoot! Now we’ve come on this side of the cross almost 2,000 years and what is the world doing with God’s salvation plan today? Same thing. They’re walking it underfoot.
Don’t you believe this garbage that there are 50 million believers in America today. No Way! No Way! You’ll see with the illustration I gave you this morning—there are so few of the total that have a true knowledge of salvation. They’ve depended on anything and everything but the finished work of Christ. That is faith in His death, burial, and resurrection for their salvation (I Corinthians 15:1-4).
(Transcriber’s note: Be careful and try not to mix Peter’s message of salvation in Acts and Paul’s message of salvation together like I did and like so many do. It won’t work for your salvation. It must be Paul’s message only in this Age of Grace.)
So, God is not being unfair, as He balances it all the time. He gave the whole human race 2,000 years and then had to destroy them at the flood because of their wickedness. Two-hundred years later they’re all bowing their knees to Nimrod and the Tower of Babel. Two-hundred years after that there is not another man left that God can use except Abram because they’re all steeped in idolatry.
So, for the next 2,000 years, yes, God deals only with the Nation of Israel. So those pagan Gentiles were without God and without hope. They were lost! But now we’ve come another 2,000 years and God is balancing it all out. The whole human race, Jew and Gentile, has had every opportunity at salvation. So God is not to blame if they miss His offer of salvation. I guess I can let it go at that for the time being.
Where were we? We’re coming up through the promise of a coming King. Zechariah! Let’s stop at Zechariah. Someone just asked me last night to show a verse or two that show a coming King in the Old Testament. I’ll give you the easiest one to find, and that would be here in Zechariah chapter 14.
Zechariah 14:9
“And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.”
In order to get the scenario here, you must remember that the King and Kingdom is going to follow this prophetic timeline.
I guess I’d better recap it all the way to the end. Out of the Old Testament was the promise of a coming King and Kingdom, but there is going to be the rejection. There is going to be His death, burial, and resurrection—we pick that up mostly in the Psalms. He’s going to ascend back to the Father’s right hand, then was to come the wrath and vexation, then His Second Coming, then the 1,000 year Kingdom. And during this 1,000 year Kingdom-rule, Israel would have had the opportunity to be a testimony to the Gentiles.
Now this top timeline was interrupted right here after His ascension, shortly after Israel rejected everything. In spite of all the preaching that Peter and the Eleven could do, Israel would have nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth. So, after Israel had established that they would not have this man to rule over them, again God does something totally, totally different.
Something that was never even hinted at in the Old Testament! Something that was never hinted at in Christ’s earthly ministry! Never did Jesus give any indication that there would come a time when Gentiles could be brought into this whole concept of Grace we are now in. Not a word!
If you would take Romans through Philemon out of your Bible, you would have absolutely nothing for us Gentiles. We would be without hope and without God in the world still. Paul is the only one with this message.
In reading your Bible, you can jump over Acts, all the way up to Jude and Revelation, which is the road map for the seven years of Tribulation and the unveiling of the 1,000 years of the Kingdom.
If you take Paul’s epistles out of your Bible, you would only have this top prophetic program concerning Israel. But praise God, when Israel continued to reject, instead of God bringing in the Tribulation and the wrath and vexation of God that was promised all the way through the Old Testament, God stopped his time-clock for you and me, and he pushed all of this Tribulation and Kingdom out into the future.
I know some people rebel at that, but I’ve got a good way of overcoming it. You’ve always got to overcome the opposition; otherwise, you’re like a whipped dog. Stay in Zechariah, and here is the whole end-time scenario from the Old Testament. This is prophecy. This is my top line on the board, before there’s any hint of 1,970+ years of Church Age.
Zechariah 14:1-2a
“Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, (That is the Tribulation and vexation.) and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. 2. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; (That’s the Battle of Armageddon. It’s coming. We’re getting closer every day.) and the city (Jerusalem) shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished;…” You’ve never seen rape like is going to take place in those closing days. Now verse 3:
Zechariah 14:3-4a
“Then shall the LORD (God the Son, again. Jesus the Christ) go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. (That’s the final act of the Tribulation.) 4. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east,…” We’re not talking about pie in the sky; we’re talking about the Mount of Olives that is sitting in Jerusalem right now tonight. So, His feet shall stand in that day at His Second Coming.
All right, now let’s jump up quickly to the book of Acts chapter 1 and verse 9. Remember, Jesus has now been with the Eleven for 40 days after His resurrection. They are gathered on the Mount of Olives on the East side of Jerusalem for His ascension. I don’t think they had any idea that He was leaving. He’s in His resurrected body. They had been seeing Him and watching Him for 40 days.
Acts 1:9-10a
“And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven…” Can’t you see them?
Have any of you been to Cape Canaveral and watched a rocket take off? Yeah, some of you have. For you this should be realistic. Just like they stand on the highways along the east coast of Florida and watch those rockets finally disappear. We just had some visitors from Florida before we left the other day. They live on the shores of Okeechobee, and on a clear day they can see those rockets take off. So, you might imagine that these eleven men were in that same mode. They watched as He left from the Mount of Olives like a rocket at Cape Canaveral, and up He went. Now read on.
Acts 1:10-11
“And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; (two angels) 11. Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”
Is that plain enough? You don’t have to have a rocket degree to understand that. The same Jesus who left in that resurrected body from the Mount of Olives is coming back just like we read about in Zechariah. Now let’s come back to Zechariah and verse 4.
Zechariah 14:4
“And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall separate in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.”
It’s going to create a river, and that river is going to flow clear water in both directions—to the Mediterranean and down to the Dead Sea. Now verse 8:
Zechariah 14:8
“And it shall be in that day, that living waters (purified water) shall go out from Jerusalem; (That is under the throne of Christ Himself.) half of them toward the former sea, (the Mediterranean Sea) and half of them toward the hinder sea: (the Dead Sea) in summer and in winter shall it be.” And now verse 9:
Zechariah 14:9a
“And the LORD (God the Son, Jesus the Christ) shall be king over all the earth:...” Not just Jerusalem or Israel, He will be King of kings and Lord of lords over the whole planet, and that kingdom will run for 1,000 years leading us into eternity.
Now, let’s quickly look at Christ’s earthly ministry. Again, I can’t emphasize enough, that except for Paul’s epistles, this top line is the biblical timeline. We come out of all the Old Testament prophecies and come to Christ’s earthly ministry. Christ will be rejected, raised from the dead, ascend back to glory. Then according to prophecy, in would come the horrors of the seven years of Tribulation, then the Second Coming, and then the thousand-year reign.
But unbeknown to any other portion of Scripture, out-of-the-blue God does something miraculous, and what is it? He saves old Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. That is the big “Y” in the road. Israel will go into dispersion and the Gentiles come into the Body of Christ. But before we get there, let’s look at Christ’s earthly ministry for just a moment.
Come back to Matthew chapter one. And, again, I do this to show you how intricately the Scriptures have been brought together. And when these idiots, and that’s all I can call them—how they spurn and ridicule the veracity of this Book. I can’t comprehend it. They claim to be such scholars, and yet they can miss simple things that a layman like myself can readily see. And you will, too, if you will just look at it and study it.
Matthew 1:1
“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
Now, I goofed! I covered the first two parts of the Abrahamic Covenant—the Land and the Nation! I covered the land and then the nation part, but what about the third part? Well, you don’t pick that up till you get to II Samuel chapter 7. So let’s go back and pick up the prophecy of a coming King after the bloodline of King David.
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT PART III
THE GOVERNMENT * THE KING AND THE KINGDOM
It’s probably all right that I did it this way, because Matthew says the son of David who was the son of Abraham. So let’s come back to II Samuel chapter 7. Now over the last several hundred years, Israel had been ruled first and foremost by judges. Then they wanted to be like the nations around them, so they demanded a king. We had King Saul who ended up being kind of sorry. Then after King Saul, we have King David. And King David is the forerunner of the Kingship of Jesus Christ. In verse 12 we find David is toward the end of his life. It won’t be long till his son Solomon will be ruling the nation. Nathan the prophet is speaking to David, and Nathan says:
II Samuel 7:12
“And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, (Remember, Nathan is God’s prophet, so it’s really God speaking through Nathan.) I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels (innermost being), and I will establish his kingdom.”
Now there is a two-fold thought there. Naturally, the one he is talking about is Solomon. Remember, the glory of Israel came to its peak under King Solomon. But the thought doesn’t stop there. Solomon is just a pre-cursor of everything that is going to lead to the coming of the King of kings, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the Lion of David! Now verse 13:
II Samuel 7:13
“He shall build an house for my name,…” The first and only thing most people think of when they read that is that Solomon built the Temple and he did. But the Temple is only secondary. What we’re talking about here is a royal blood line!
And again, I have to go back into history to explain that. If you were to go into Europe’s history tonight, and you could go back to the various dynasties, you will find in Austria, for example, there is the House of Hapsburg. All the kings and queens of Austria came out of that royal family. Now the one you are probably better acquainted with is the one in England, and that would be the House of Windsor. So, all the royal family of England comes through the House of Windsor – it’s a royal family. In Holland, it’s the House of Orange. All the kings and queens of Holland’s history came by way of the House of Orange.
Now that’s exactly what we mean when we talk about the House of David. We’re not talking about a building of brick and stone, but rather we’re talking about a royal family. The promises were given to David that beginning with him there would be a royal house, and it would lead up to and culminate with the Son of David, Jesus the Christ, who will one day rule over not just the Nation of Israel, but the whole world. Verse 13:
II Samuel 7:13-14
“He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. (Because Christ is going to be the final fulfillment of it all.) 14. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. (Now he comes back to Solomon and the Nation of Israel in particular.) If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:”
But now verse 15 and this is why God has never given up on the Nation of Israel. Oh, they deserve to be given up on. My, all you have to do is look at the rank-and-file of Jewry today and what are they? They are rank in their unbelief. Most of them are steeped in wickedness and sinfulness, but God doesn’t give up on them.
II Samuel 7:15a
“But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from (King) Saul,…” Who was an example of an unbelieving Jew. Now verse 16:
II Samuel 7:16
“And thine house and thy kingdom (the House of David, and the Kingdom that’s going to come through the Son of David, Jesus the Christ) shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.”
Now we’re ready to present the King. If any of you have had any Sunday school training at all, you know that Matthew depicts Christ as the King. Luke depicts Christ in his humanity. Mark depicts Him as the servant. And John depicts Him in His Deity. But here we’ll see in Matthew the kingship of Jesus Christ.
THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM
PREACHED TO THE NATION OF ISRAEL
Matthew 1:1
“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” In other words, through the genealogy. I’m not going to take time to read all these names, but you will find that this genealogy only goes back to Abraham, and it stops.
If you read the genealogy in Luke chapter 3, you’ll find that genealogy goes all the way back to Adam. Now why the difference? Luke depicts Christ’s humanity, and Matthew depicts Christ’s kingship.
Now where was the first idea of a king of Israel approached? The Abrahamic Covenant! Up until Abraham, there was no prophecy concerning a king. So the genealogy of Jesus Christ goes back to where the idea of a king originated – Abraham! But on the other hand, Jesus Christ was human. He was born of a woman. He was flesh. So that genealogy goes all the way back to Adam.
Do you see that? Now man could have never thought of that, but God does. So we have these two concepts. Yes, His genealogy goes all the way back to Adam in His humanity, but His genealogy as far as being the King only goes back to Abraham. Come up to chapter 3.
We have John the Baptist and he is prophesied in the Old Testament. Malachi 3:1 says he is going to come as a herald. He is going to announce the coming of Israel’s king. That was his role! John the Baptist begins his ministry, and here in verse 2 he sets the stage.
Matthew 3:2
“And saying, Repent ye: for the (What?) kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Now most of Christendom has been programmed into the thinking that the Kingdom of Heaven of Scripture is a spiritual kingdom. And it is, to a point. But it also is a literal, physical, earthly kingdom, as Zechariah told us in 14:9—He will be King over all the earth.
So, as Christ makes His appearance to the Nation of Israel, it’s on this top Old Testament timeline. He’s going to come and present Himself as the King ready to give Israel that thousand-year rule and reign (Rev.20:4). But Israel in unbelief is going to crucify Him. He’s going to be raised from the dead and ascend back to glory. Then according to the Old Testament, they should have had the Tribulation, and then Christ would return and set up His glorious Kingdom on Earth.
But instead, God did something totally, totally different. And what did He do? He opened up the timeline by not bringing in the seven years of Tribulation at that time. Instead, down on this second timeline He opens up this glorious Age of Grace—a 2,000 year hiatus that is never, never alluded to anywhere in Scripture until we come to Paul.
Are you still in chapter 3? Let’s drop down to verse 11. And remember, John the Baptist is preaching only to Jews, only to the Nation of Israel. Here John the Baptist says:
Matthew 3:11a
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but…” Now you’ve heard me teach often enough, what does that word “but” mean in Scripture? The flip-side. Yes, John the Baptist is preaching water baptism, but there is a flipside—it’s not always going to be that way.
Matthew 3:11b
“…but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, (That is the King, the Lord.) whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and (I like to use or, if I may.) with fire:”
Now again, that gives the two alternatives—not only for the Nation of Israel, but the whole human race—as you can be baptized by the Spirit which indicates salvation or a rejection of that salvation is the doom of eternal fire! You cannot get around it. Those are the two alternatives! The Apostle Paul will say the same thing as you either accept God’s salvation or we are condemned already (Romans 8:1).
All right, but here we’re dealing only with Israel. This is not Grace! Either they would succumb to repentance and water baptism, or they would never experience salvation. Now I want to bring you all the way up to chapter 9, because we’ve got a long ways to go before evening. Matthew chapter 9 and we’re going to come up with a term that you will never see in any of Paul’s teaching. Matthew uses this term and Peter preaches it to the Nation of Israel in early Acts, but the Apostle Paul never alludes to it. Jesus does Himself.
Matthew 9:35a
“And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom,…” Now I think most of you understand the definition of the word gospel. What is it? Good news! My, there has been good news given to man all the way up through human history. In other words, when God brought Israel out of Egypt and brought them to Sinai and gave them the Ten Commandments and the Temple worship—compared to life in slavery, what was that? Hey, that was the best news Israel could have ever gotten.
When Jesus comes on the scene, He’s giving them the good news about the coming glorious earthly Kingdom over which He is going to rule and reign. You get a picture of this Kingdom in various portions of the Old Testament. The one I like the best is in Isaiah chapter 11. Let’s go back and look at it. This is the prospect of this glorious earthly Kingdom that’s still coming. We might as well start at verse 1. Remember, this is all part of that top timeline up here—the prophecies concerning God dealing with the nation of Israel.
Isaiah 11:1-2
“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, (That would be David’s father. Here we go again, the House of David and out of that House of David--) and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. (referring to the Messiah) 2. And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;”
Isaiah 11:3-4a
“And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4. But with righteousness (As the eternal God, He is going to rule with righteousness.) shall he judge (rule) the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth:…”
Now here are the beatitudes, and this is when the beatitudes of Matthew will become a reality. We can’t live in the beatitudes today. It’s impossible. But when Christ sets up His earthly Kingdom, the beatitudes will become the constitution of the Kingdom. You remember some of them, such as the poor shall inherit the Earth, and so on and so forth. Now continuing on:
Isaiah 11:4b
“…and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, (which will proceed during the Tribulation) and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. (There will be no wicked people in this Kingdom.) 5. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.” Now here come some of the glorious attributes of this glorious earthly Kingdom. This is coming!
Isaiah 11:6a
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; (or baby goat) and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;…” Now don’t let someone spiritualize this—this is literal!
Remember before Adam fell and everything was in that beautiful, innocent state, with no sin and no curse? This was the way it was. There was no killing. There was no eating another species. Because, if you remember, Genesis chapter 1 says that everything ate of that which grew naturally. Nothing killed something else for its diet. It’s going to revert back like it was before the fall of mankind.
The Earth will be restored, Ezekiel and Isaiah say, as it was in the Garden of Eden. It’s going to be glorious. No sin. No curse. No death. And Christ will be ruling from Jerusalem with a hands-on government of total equity, of total fairness. Even the animals of the world are going to enjoy that Kingdom of peace where the wild animal will lose his wildness. Now read on.
Isaiah 11:6b-7
“…and a little child shall lead them. (Little kids will play in amongst these, what we call wild animals.) 7. And the cow and the bear shall feed; (that is together in the same pasture) their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.” In other words, their whole digestive systems will revert back to what it was before the fall. Now, let me show you from Scripture. This is the way it was before Adam fell.
Genesis 1:29-30
“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, (not just in Eden) and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. (Now look at the next verse.) 30. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat; and it was so.”
Are there any indications that anything would kill something to eat? Never. Everything ate of that which grew naturally, and that’s why Isaiah can write what he writes—that even the lion will eat grass like cattle. The curse will be removed from this whole ecology as we now understand it, and we’re going to revert to something so beautiful that human understanding cannot comprehend it.
All right, now back in chapter 9 of Matthew we have Jesus proclaiming the good news of this coming Kingdom on Earth over which He will rule and reign. It is a Kingdom so glorious that we can’t explain it. All right, along with that preaching of the good news of the Kingdom back in Matthew 9:35, He also--
Matthew 9:35b
“…healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” Plain enough? Not just one here and there, He healed them all. He healed everyone, whether they had faith or not. That wasn’t the point. He healed them all.
All right, as He begins this earthly ministry to set Israel up in preparation for the coming of this glorious King and Kingdom, He chooses His twelve disciples. All right, here we’ve got them in chapter 10 verse 1.
Matthew 10:1-2
“And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. 2. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these;…” We don’t have to go through these names, as most of you know them already. Now verses 5 and 6—most people don’t know these verses are in their Bible. Please read the verses slowly.
Matthew 10:5-6
“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, (Now that’s an order.) Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
(Transcriber note: Some time after this seminar, Les begin using one of his, and one of my, favorite verses to show why Jesus came to the Nation of Israel.)
Romans 15:8
“Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision (Israel) for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:”
Now I’m glad I said what I’ve said. What was the purpose? Well, beginning with the Abrahamic Covenant, God is to prepare the Nation of Israel to be the vehicle to bring salvation to all the nations around them. But they had to be a prepared people.
So, basing everything on those covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He could not let these twelve men go anywhere but to Jews. So once again, like I had on the board, it’s Jew only with two exceptions. Not several like I showed in the Old Testament, now there are just two exceptions. All right, we’ll look at one of them right now in chapter 15. Here is one of the two exceptions that Jesus made. Other than that, they went to no one but Jew only.
It wasn’t because He didn’t have compassion. It was because He was committed to that Abrahamic Covenant. He was committed that salvation could not go to the rank-and-file Gentiles until either Israel had been totally converted, or as we now look back at it, He had finished the work of the cross. Now, I’ll show you why I’m saying what I’m saying. Matthew 15 and drop down to verse 21. This was all though those three years of His earthly ministry.
Matthew 15:21-22
“Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. (which were Roman cities up there on the Mediterranean Sea coast) 22. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same borders, (or city limits) and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a demon.”
A valid request? Of course, but what’s the problem? She’s a Gentile. She’s a Canaanite. Now look at Jesus’ reaction.
Matthew 15:23
“But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought (begged) him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.” No doubt this had been going on for several days, and the disciples were fed up with her.
They said—Lord, send her away. We can’t deal with her anyway, because she’s a Gentile. So get her out of the way. Now Jesus doesn’t get upset at the twelve. On the other hand, He’s not being less than compassionate. Nevertheless, He understood His role as the promised Messiah to the covenant of the Old Testament, and He could not break that covenant relationship. Now read on.
Matthew 15:24-16
“But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Do you see how plain that is? I have not been sent to anybody but the Nation of Israel.) 25. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. (And again He rejects her.) 26. But he answered and said, It is not right to take the children’s bread, and cast it to the dogs.”
Well, who were the children? Israel! Who were the dogs? Gentiles. He says—I can’t take that which belongs to my covenant people and give it to my non-covenant people. I can’t do that because that’s against everything. But she doesn’t quit.
Matthew 15:27
“And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Can’t I have even a crumb? Can’t you heal my daughter which would be like giving me a crumb off of your table? Now the Lord condescended and said--
Matthew 15:28
“Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”
Then we have one other time when Jesus ministered to a Gentile, and that would be the Roman Centurion which we won’t read about. He also was adhered to when he requested that his son be healed.
Now, come on over to John’s Gospel chapter 12. Once again we have Gentiles who somehow or other want Jesus to minister to them. Here we have Jesus and the Twelve in the Temple area for that last Passover. He is going to be crucified in a matter of hours. The crowds are gathered. You’ve got to remember that although Rome was in control of that then-known world, they gave the Jews a lot of liberty for their Temple worship.
Rome permitted them to come from all ends of the empire to Jerusalem for these various feast days. The city is packed with people coming for the Passover feast. And in the midst of this mass of Passover people around the Temple complex, here are some Gentiles. It doesn’t say how many. We can only guess. Now verse 20:
John 12:20
“And there were certain Greeks (Gentiles) among them that came up to worship at the feast:” Now, I do not believe that these Greeks were worshipers. I feel they were on-lookers. They were curiosity seekers. They were interested in how these Jews carried on in their Temple worship, especially for the Feast of Passover. So these Gentiles were among the Jews that had come up to worship.
John 12:21
“The same (these Greeks) came therefore to Philip, (who was one of the Twelve) which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.” Now again, I think we can fill in some details—just use a little imagination.
Jesus had been performing all these miracles for three years, and His fame had spread so that even Gentiles were curious about this Jesus of Nazareth who was performing all these miracles. These Greeks are simply curious. They want to see this man.
Now Philip remembers what Jesus had said back in Matthew 10:5 that we read earlier, and what was it? “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and to any city of Samaritans enter ye not.” But on the other hand, he didn’t want to take full responsibly. So what does he do? He finds Andrew in that crowd.
And again, read between the lines. What do you think he said to Andrew? Hey, there are Gentiles that want to see Jesus. We know what He is going to tell them, but on the other hand we can’t take that much responsibility to keep them from Him. So Andrew must have said—well, let’s go tell Him.
Yeah, I think you can read between the lines and not violate Scripture here. So the two men have decided that they are going to tell Jesus that Gentiles want to see Him. Now in verse 23 this was Jesus’ answer when they told Him that Gentiles want to see Him. He doesn’t say bring them to me. He doesn’t say take me to them. Look what He says.
John 12:23-24
“And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. (Remember, the crucifixion is only about 72 hours away.) 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” What was Jesus talking about? His death, burial, and resurrection!
Every time you come to spring time and you plant seeds in the ground and you see that seed germinate and spring forth, what should it scream at you? Resurrection! That’s the whole basic lesson of nature—that as those seeds die and are brought to new life and new production, so was Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
So what was Jesus saying? That He could not be an object of salvation to these Gentiles till after He had finished the work of the cross. Then when He sent the Apostle Paul out to the Gentile world, Paul immediately starts out with—you are not under the Law, you are now under Grace!
(Transcriber Note: On the tape, a break was taken for lunch and some words were missed when Les started taping again. However, I think looking at what we are now going to pick up on, Les is showing just how much tolerance the Jew had for the Gentile in Paul’s day.)
THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE GOD
THE BODY OF CHRIST
Acts 22:20
“And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.” Paul is attempting to convince his Jewish audience of what he is now attempting to do as far as they are concerned. He still wants these Jews to realize that he (Paul) is now a believer in this Jesus of Nazareth. Now verse 21:
Acts 22:21-22
“And He (the ascended Lord Jesus) said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. (Simple enough? Yes. Now look at the next verse.) 22. And they (this Jewish crowd) gave him (Paul) audience unto this word, (What word? Gentile! And when Paul dropped that word Gentile, look what happens.) and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live.” Do you see that?
That was the thinking of the Jew of Paul’s day. They were still in that mentality that only the Jews had any relationship with God. Their thoughts of all Gentiles were—those Gentiles where nothing but pagan dogs!! Now, that was just to give you the picture of the thinking of the Jews of the Gentiles that Paul is going to be ministering to.
Now come back to Acts chapter 9. We find Stephen has been martyred, and Saul of Tarsus has been heading up the persecution that brought that about. Saul was satisfied that he had pretty much cleansed the whole land of Israel of all these Jews who had embraced Jesus as the Messiah. He’s either got them in prison or they are dead—which, again, is typical of religious zealots. Religious zealots only have one mind—if I can’t get them to agree with me, kill them. It’s no different today.
The whole ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia was the very same mindset. The Muslims said if they don’t convert to the Muslim religion, kill them. The orthodox said if those Muslims can’t come under our religion, kill them. Well, that’s exactly the way Saul of Tarsus was. If you can’t get these Jews to recant and deny Jesus was the Christ, put them to death. And he had been successful. He thought he had the homeland pretty well cleansed, so now he wants to go up to Damascus.
Now if you know your Middle East geography, Damascus is probably a hundred and twenty-five miles north and east, not that far from the northern end of Galilee. So now he’s going up to Damascus in Syria, all under the Roman Empire, and he’s going to arrest and bring back to Jerusalem for trial and prison or death any Jews that he could find that embraced Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah. Got the picture?
Now again, that tells you how much clout the religious leaders of Israel had with the Roman government. Because even back in antiquity you did not go into a foreign country and arrest people and drag them out. So he had to have extradition permission from the Romans and the Syrians to bring these Jews out of Syria and back to Jerusalem. Okay, now let’s pick it up.
Acts 9:1-2a
“And Saul, (Saul of Tarsus) yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter (killing people) against the disciples (or the followers) of the Lord, went unto the high priest, 2. And desired of him letters to Damascus…” Now again, I think it was letters of extradition, permission to bring these Jews out of Syria into Jerusalem for their trials.
Acts 9:2
“And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way,…” That is who had embraced Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. They had believed the Gospel of the Kingdom and they were Jewish believers. They are not members of the Body of Christ. They are not saved in this Age of Grace. They are still under the Jewish top line up here on the timeline. They are still on that prophetic program. All right, he goes to Damascus and he wants to bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Acts 9:3
“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:” Now remember, this was a religious Pharisee. He knows all about the God of Heaven. Immediately, when that tremendous light came from Heaven, old Saul of Tarsus knew he was dealing with God. Now, he certainly had no idea it was Jesus of Nazareth, but he knew it was God, the light from Heaven.
Acts 9:4-5a
“And he fell to the earth, (Whether he was walking or on a donkey or horseback is beside the point. He fell prostrate on the earth.) and heard a voice saying unto him, (from Heaven, remember) Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 5. And he said, Who art thou, Lord?...” Now remember when I was back in the Old Testament this morning, who was Lord all the way up through? God the Son!
God the Son was the Lord. He was Jehovah. So what he’s really saying is, “Who are you, Jehovah?” Even if he did not say it from his mouth, his mind said Jehovah. “Who are you, Jehovah?” That was the name of God so far as Israel was concerned. Look at Jehovah’s answer.
Acts 9:5b
“…I am Jesus whom thou persecutest:…” Can you imagine how the man must have felt? Here the very God he thought he was serving by stamping out all these Jews who had put their faith in Christ’s Messiahship was the God he was dealing with.
Now, I’m going to show you in just a moment how much this man suffered over about 25 years of time for the sake of the Gospel. How in the world did he put up with it? Because he never forgot the suffering and the murder that he himself had caused when he was trying to stamp out any semblance of Jesus of Nazareth.
Now, I just can’t make it graphic enough—how that man must have just melted in heartache and heartbreak that the very name that he was trying to stamp out was the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Never lose that. So immediately, he didn’t have to argue. He didn’t have to say—oh, God, I’m not that bad. Immediately Saul of Tarsus became a believer in Jesus Christ.
Now you want to remember, this whole concept of our Gospel of salvation—that Christ died for the sins of the world and that He was buried and that He rose from the dead—was not revealed until Paul goes out into the desert. Paul was not saved by what we call our Gospel of Grace.
Before I go any further I’m going to have to clear away all your cobwebs. Jesus and the Twelve, under the Law and only to the Nation of Israel, preached the Gospel of the Kingdom. The Good News that the King is coming and is going to set up His Kingdom promised to Israel under the Law.
Never did Jesus or Peter or anybody else say to stop temple worship. Under Christ’s ministry, I’ve said it over and over on the program or wherever I teach, everything that Jesus said in His earthly ministry was under the Law. Never did He tell anybody not to keep the Law, as Paul does. Never did He say you no longer have to keep temple worship.
They maintained temple worship. They maintained their diet of kosher food. They were still under the Law. That was the Gospel of the Kingdom that so many denominations today try to put Gentiles under. They were to believe that Jesus was the Christ and that He was going to bring in the King and the Kingdom.
Now with the appearance of this man, Paul, we’re going to come into a whole new scenario. Everything is going to change under the same God. Now, instead of proclaiming the king is coming, we now proclaim that Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, died for the sins of the world and that he arose from the dead. That’s the Gospel of the Grace of God (I Corinthians 15:1-4).
All right, so that you can see it in print, stay here in Acts and go over to chapter 20. Keep your hand in chapter 9, because I’m not through there. Now, I want you to be able to see the two terms used in Scripture. Jesus went into the synagogue preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. Peter in early Acts preaches to Israel the Gospel of the Kingdom, saying—you killed the Messiah, but God has raised Him from the dead. He’s alive and He can still be your king. Now repent and be baptized in water.
But Paul never mentions that. Paul preaches the Gospel of the Grace of God. Acts 20 verse 24 where he says to the Ephesian elders as he’s on his way back to Jerusalem for the last time. He’s at the end of his public ministry, now, because he’s going to come under arrest and most of the remaining years of his life he will be in prison in Rome.
Acts 20:24
“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify (or to proclaim) the gospel of the grace of God.” To testify the Gospel of the Grace of God. Over and over throughout his epistles he’ll refer to it as MY Gospel or that Gospel which I preached to the Gentiles.
So, here’s where you have to draw the line of distinction. Jesus and the Twelve in fulfillment of this Old Testament line of prophecy could preach nothing but the Gospel of the Kingdom in view of the prophetic program. But when Israel rejected it, God stopped it short, and He opened up that timeline and He introduced the next 1,900 and some years of not proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom but the Gospel of the Grace of God. What a difference.
We’re not looking for a coming King. We are looking for the Head of the Body of Christ to meet us in the clouds of the air. See, this is what separates all of this from this which is still in the future. I hope you see what I’ve done. I’ve taken this event of the Tribulation and the Kingdom Age and put it out here.
So, after this 2,000-year interval of the Gospel of the Grace of God, then this timeline up here is still going to be fulfilled. Are you with me? Okay, this is why I adamantly teach pre-tribulation rapture of the church. Because, you see, this Body of Christ will never mix with that top line. It cannot. It’s a whole different entity.
The prophetic program was for Israel. The Grace program is for Gentiles. We are a heavenly people, whereas Israel is an earthly people. All of Israel’s promises were earthly and will be earthly when Christ sets up His Kingdom.
Our promises as believers in the Grace Age are heavenly. And once we get into the heavenlies, we will never again be an earthly people. Now I think, and I have to say this carefully, I think that once Christ returns and sets up His Kingdom, we will probably commute from the heavenlies and have places of authority in the earthly Kingdom.
I can’t say that definitely, but whatever. We are a heavenly people and Israel is the earthly people and you can’t mix them. The church in no way, shape, or form can go into this final seven years. That’s for Israel. Now the rest of the world is going to come under the judgment of it; but so far as believers going into this period, that flies in the face of Pauline doctrine. Because Paul sets us so completely apart from that prophetic program that I’ve got on the top line.
All right, now let’s come back to Acts chapter 9. After Saul of Tarsus realizes that the One he was trying to stamp out is the One he was actually trying to serve, then we come down to God dealing with Ananias, the very man that Saul probably intended to arrest. The Lord says to Ananias in verses 11 and 12--
Acts 9:11-12
“And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, 12. And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.” In other words, God sets everything in order so that it will all work. When Saul of Tarsus has Ananias come in, he’s going to be ready. Now Ananias argues with God.
Acts 9:13-15a
“Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: 14. And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. 15. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way:…” Now, here is what I want you to highlight. Here is where we have a complete change in the modos operandi. Up until now God has been dealing with the Nation of Israel under the Law (this is 7 years after the cross) and in fulfillment of all Old Testament Covenants. Now we’re going to see something totally different.
Acts 9:15a
“But the Lord said unto Ananias, Go thy way: for he (Saul of Tarsus) is a (divinely) chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles,…” Can you imagine how Saul must have felt when God said I’m going to send you to those pagan Gentiles? Had he not been trying to overcome all the damage he had already done, I imagine he would have rebelled. But he was in no place of rebellion. Now look at verse 16 and what God promised this man.
Acts 9:16
“For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” Now, you want to know how much he suffered? Come back with me to II Corinthians and let’s check it out. And Paul is still suffering, because do you know that the vast majority of Christendom wants nothing to do with this man.
I’ve had so many people call and write and say, “Les, I’ve always been told to almost hate this man Paul.” Really! Had a lady call and say, “My, until I started listening to you, I hated Paul. I had both my daughters convinced to hate him. But you have changed our thinking.”
Well, they aren’t alone. I’ve heard it for the last 20 years. “Well, my pastor says he doesn’t even want to preach out of Paul. My Sunday school teacher says he shouldn’t even be in our Bible.” So, I know whereof I speak. But if they don’t read Paul, they can’t be saved according to Galatians 1:6-9—because they’ve got to believe the gospel given to Paul from the risen Lord to have salvation.
Now, look what the man went through so that you and I can have this great salvation. II Corinthians chapter 11 starting at verse 22 and the reason he had to write this was the Corinthian believers were also turning against him. The Corinthian believers were saying, Well, Paul, who are you? We can see that Peter spent three years with Christ. We’ll listen to what Jesus said, but you, you’re an imposter.
So, he had to constantly defend his authority or his apostleship. And that’s what he’s doing right here. He’s defending who he is in God’s operation. All right, verse 22 and he’s referring back to the Twelve, as well as some of the others in Jerusalem such as Apollos. Paul says--
II Corinthians 11:22-23a
“Are they Hebrews? (Now remember, he’s talking primarily about the Twelve.) so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. 23. Are they ministers of Christ? (Now, he humbles himself.) (I speak as a fool) (What’s his answer?) I am more;...” He is head and shoulders above the Twelve, because he is the designated apostle to go to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13).
Israel is going to slip off the scene. The Twelve are already losing their authority, and all the things concerning Israel are falling through the cracks. Now we’re coming to this whole new unfolding of God’s grace. All right, so he says--
II Corinthians 11:23b-24
“…I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths (or near death) oft. (Now imagine, look what he went through.) 24. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.” Or 39 stripes. They could use 40 stripes, but normally would stop at 39 so as not to miscount. Now, you know what that was? Those 39 lashes with the cat-o’-nine tails with sharp metal on the ends was normally enough to almost kill a man of youth and full strength.
This man went through five of them. Can you imagine what his torso looked like from the waist up? Because, you see, what they would do—they would take 20 lashes from the front and drag it up the back. They would take 20 lashes from the back and drag it up the front. So that by the time they were through with those 39 lashes, that torso was hamburger. And he went through five of them. Five of them! Near death often. All right, read on.
II Corinthians 11:25a
“Three times I was beaten with rods,…” Now, you remember that poor kid in Singapore a few years ago? My, the world cried because he was going to get a few lashes with a bamboo rod. Hey, the Apostle took that three times; which, again, was enough to kill a good man. But he survived it all. All right reading on--
II Corinthians 11:25b
“…once was I stoned,…” That was up there in central Turkey in Derbe and Lystra. They dragged him out for dead. In the Greek, that is literally dragged him like a dead horse. They literally tied a rope to his feet and dragged him out of the city for dead. Paul probably was dead. You can read about that experience he had there with death in II Corinthians 12:2-4 before God brought him back. All right, read on.
II Corinthians 11:25c
“…thrice I suffered shipwreck, (Those of you who were with us on the Mediterranean a few years ago, you got a pretty good idea of what that was like.) a night and a day I have been in the deep;”
II Corinthians 11:26
“In journeyings often, (He was never home to rest up.) in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen (the Jews), in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
II Corinthians 11:27-28
“In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.” Those little assemblies that he had been founding throughout the Roman Empire! Listen, that’s what that man suffered for 25 years for the sake of the Gospel; and, as it turned out, so that you and I might have a chance for salvation.
Well, let’s come back to Acts chapter 9, because we’ve got to follow this now to the place where he becomes the revealer of what he calls the mysteries. Now invariably, when I have someone try to debate with me, I maintain that this bottom timeline is totally separate from this top one, and they try to swing the church up into the seven years of Tribulation. I always have one answer for them. “Have you ever studied the letters of Paul?” “Well, no.” “Have you ever made a study of the mysteries revealed to the Apostle Paul?” They don’t even know what I’m talking about.
Well, here we go, Acts chapter 9. He’s saved in a moment when he realizes who he’s been trying to oppose – that it was Jesus of Nazareth. Then you come down to verse 20 after he has been relieved of his blindness and he’s been fed and, yes, he’s been baptized according to the Jewish economy.
Acts 9:20
“And straightway he preached Christ in the (Market place—that’s not what it says. Where does he go?) in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.” The Jewish message for the Gospel of the Kingdom. Remember, Saul of Tarsus is a Jew. He has no idea yet that God is going to give him a message for the Gentiles.
It was Ananias that God spoke to. Saul of Tarsus has no idea that he’s going to have a particular ministry to the Gentile world. So as soon as he recognized that Jesus was who Peter, James, and John had been trying to tell Israel that He was, he thinks he’s going to continue right on with the Gospel of the Kingdom. So he goes to the synagogue, to the Jew.
Now look what he preaches. Now watch your Bible carefully, because I just told a teacher the other day you’ve got to shock people once in awhile. And the best way to shock them is to have them read their Bible and then you put something in there that’s totally off-the-wall. That wakes them up. All right, look at what your Bible says.
Acts 9:20
“And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.” That He died for the sins of the world and rose from the dead? No, it doesn’t say that! He doesn’t know that gospel, because that gospel hasn’t been revealed yet. The only thing that was gospel so far was that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God! Do you see that? Okay, let’s move on.
Acts 9:21-22
“But all that heard him were amazed, (That even this old persecutor had come to that place—they were amazed.) and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests? 22. But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is (the Messiah) the very Christ.”
That’s all he knows—just exactly what had been revealed during Christ’s earthly ministry, that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. Nothing about His death, burial, and resurrection. He doesn’t know that yet. Okay, now move on.
Acts 9:23
“And after that many days were fulfilled, (We don’t know how long, a couple of weeks.) the Jews took counsel to kill him:” That is the unbelieving Jew. Not the little company of believers like Ananias, but the rank-and-file of Jewry, now detesting Jesus of Nazareth as much as Saul had before. And now they want to kill him. They are just as religious a fanatic as he was.
Acts 9:24-25
“But their laying await was known of Saul. And they (these Jews) watched the gates day and night to kill him. 25. Then (knowing that he would never get out of the gates of the city, these believers, like Ananias, who were also adherents of Jesus of Nazareth--) the disciples (Not the Twelve, for goodness sakes, these are just simply believing Jews in Damascus.) took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket.”
What a way to start a ministry. Horrors! How would you like to be dumped over a wall in a strange city in a foreign country in the middle of the night? But he was. All right, now we have to pick up a gap in-between Acts 9:25 and verse 26 by going to Galatians chapter 1.
Here Paul picks up, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, remember, he picks up the account of his conversion on the Road to Damascus and after they let him down the wall in the basket. Where did he go? Well, he tells us right here. Galatians 1 verse 11, now I wish I had all night to teach this. I really do. If I had the voice and the strength, I would just keep going till morning. Here we go.
Galatians 1:11a
“But I certify you, brethren,…” Now here again, we always have to qualify. Who is Paul writing to? Gentile believers up in central Turkey, in the area called Galatia, Asia Minor. To those in his little congregations he had started who were now being bombarded by the Jerusalem church who were believers of the Gospel of the Kingdom, that Jesus was the Christ. But they are still under the Law. (Acts 21:20 is just one example.)
So I feel, under the leadership of Peter, James, and John (Acts 15:1-6), that they are sending people to Paul’s little newly-founded congregations under Grace and trying to put them under the Law that they were under. And that’s why the little book of Galatians was written, because Paul was so alarmed that these Judaizers were coming into his little congregations and trying to put them under Judaism.
He almost hurriedly has to write this letter to the Galatians. The six themes of these six chapters are—you’re not under Law, but rather under Grace! You don’t have to keep circumcision. You don’t have to keep the dietary laws. You don’t keep what the Law demands, because you are under Grace! All right, let’s see what he says.
Galatians 1:11-12
“But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me (to bring these Gentiles out of their paganism) is not after man. 12. For I neither received it of man neither was I taught it (by man), but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Hold everything. What does revelation mean? An unveiling! A pulling the tarp off of something so you can see it clear and plain. Where is Jesus Christ at this time? In glory. The ascended Lord is now revealing to this man this whole new concept of grace. Separated from everything pertaining to Israel, Grace pertains primarily to Gentiles. Yes, Jews can be saved, but they are not very likely, because they must come to Christ the same way Gentiles do—by placing their faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as now there is no difference (I Corinthians 15:1-4).
But nevertheless, this was a whole new revelation that no one had ever heard before. So consequently, the Holy Spirit has taught the Apostle to use the words, “the revelation of the mystery.” The secrets—things that were kept in the mind of God and not to be revealed till this man came on the scene. Keep your hands here in Galatians and let me take you back to Deuteronomy chapter 29:29, because I have to have scriptural authority to say what I’m saying.
Deuteronomy 29:29a
“The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: (Now a secret means a secret, means a secret. So what’s a secret? Something that nobody else knows anything about.) The secret things belong unto the LORD our God:…” He’s Sovereign! He can keep things secret as long as He wants to. Now read on.
Deuteronomy 29:29
“…but those things which are revealed (What is one of the other words for revealed? Revelation! So those things that are revealed and are a revelation--) belong unto us and to our children…” Now of course, Moses is writing to Israel. But nevertheless, the whole concept of God keeping things secret goes all the way up to the Apostle Paul.
So that you can see what I’m talking about, before we go back to Galatians, let’s stop at Romans chapter 16:25. Now, I’ve had seminars all over the country this summer, and in everyone of them, and I’ll ask you, have you ever heard a Sunday morning sermon, have you ever heard a Sunday school lesson that uses this verse? And if I get a hand here, it will be the first one from here to Atlantic City. But we never do. Nobody will teach it, because it doesn’t fit their theology. That would get them out of the comfort zone.
Romans 16:25
“Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, (the gospel of the Grace of God) and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.” That means what it says and says what it means. That this apostle was given a revelation of things that had been kept totally secret from the time of creation until it was given to this man.
Now, I’ll give you another one over in Ephesians chapter 3, and let’s start at verse 1. Then we’ll get back quickly to where we were in Galatians as our time is running out.
Ephesians 3:1a
“For this cause…” Because of all he has written in the first two chapters including “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”
Ephesians 3:1
“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you (What?) Gentiles.” See, the prophets wrote to Israel. Jesus and the Twelve ministered to Israel. Paul ministers to you and me, the Gentiles!
And isn’t it amazing—I tell you what, the devil is so coy! When this apostle tells us “that Satan can transform himself into an angel of light” (II Corinthians 11:14), it’s almost an understatement. Why do you suppose that everything pertaining to Gentiles is between Romans through Philemon? That’s Paul’s epistles!
Then why are 90 to 95 % of your Sunday morning preachers across the land preaching out of the four gospels? Think about it! Hey, the devil knows what he’s doing. They can preach the four gospels till they’re blue in the face, and you won’t get Pauline doctrine, including how to get to Heaven. The four gospels is Jesus addressing the nation of Israel under the Law.
My own pastor is guilty of that. Once in a while he’ll get into Paul’s letters and I’ll ask him on the way in, “How long are your deacons going to let you preach in Ephesians?” In about two weeks, he’s back in Matthew. But he’s not alone. All you have to do is look over that congregation. When he’s in the four gospels, they’re sitting there on the edge of their seats. But if he teaches some of Paul, they almost fall asleep. Hey, the devil knows what he’s doing. Now back to the Apostle of the Gentiles in chapter 3 of Ephesians. So Paul says--
Ephesians 3:2-3
“If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you Gentiles: (Now the word Gentiles is not in there, but it’s certainly implied.) 3. How that by revelation (by a revealing) he made known unto me (the Apostle of the Gentiles) the mystery; (secrets) (as I wrote before in few words,” These secrets that had never been mentioned anywhere else in Scripture.
And again, when most try to put the Body of Christ up here on this top line and into the coming Tribulation, that flies in the face of what Paul is teaching. See, this top line is not part of the mystery. This top line is all back in prophecy for Israel.
But we’re dealing with things that have been kept secret since the world began, and that puts us in a place all by ourselves. So, you can’t put the Body of Christ up in the prophetic program. You do violence to Scripture!
I got a manuscript a few years ago from one of the NBA basketball stars. I’m not a name-dropper, so I won’t give his name. But he gave me a manuscript that thick. The Chicago Tribune had a headline that this guy was looking for the soon return of Christ and that was admirable.
But that whole thick manuscript and everything he was using was this top timeline prophecy. He was quoting everything from the Old Testament, from the four gospels, a couple from Acts, and the rest from Revelation.
So I wrote him what I thought was a really kind letter and said, “You know, I admire you. You’ve done a lot of study on that, but you missed the ball. You’ve struck out. Your problem is you never went to Paul. You are in the Old Testament program concerning the Second Coming.” It was all true, but he had nothing concerning the Rapture of the church before the Tribulation began, which you can only find in Paul. Now back to Ephesians chapter 3.
Ephesians 3:3-4
“How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words. 4. Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery (or the secret things) of Christ.)”
What is Paul talking about? How that when Christ died the death of the cross, He took upon Himself the sins of the whole world. You won’t find that any place else. Oh, I know John the Baptist said, “The Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world,” but that’s as far as it ever went.
But this man Paul gets right down to the nitty-gritty. How that Christ from eternity past was designated to go the way of the cross and to be raised from the dead, to bring salvation not just to Israel, but to the whole human race. You don’t get that till you get to Paul and the revelation of the mysteries. That’s why Paul also refers to the Rapture as a mystery. It’s a secret! The rest of Scripture knows nothing of the Rapture, so how in the world can they teach it out of the Old Testament or in the four gospels or Revelation and put it back in the middle of the Tribulation? Well, you can’t. Paul alone teaches the Rapture, and Paul alone teaches that the Rapture will come before the Tribulation begins (II Thessalonians 2:7-8). But, oh, they love to mix it all up. And the god of this world (II Corinthians 4:3-4) is reveling in it.
We’re getting more confusion about end-time things in the last three years than I can think of in years gone by. I can show it to you from our mail. All these manuscripts and these books that are coming out putting the church into the Tribulation—Garbage!! That’s what it is, because Paul says we have nothing to do with what God’s going to do with Israel. Thank God! Oh, man, I don’t see why these people want to put us in the Tribulation. That’s going to be Hell-on-Earth. You know that, don’t you? Man, I don’t want to go in there. Okay, back to Ephesians and then we’ve got to keep moving.
Ephesians 3:4-5
“Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery (or the secret) of Christ) (Now watch verse 5, plain English.) 5. Which in other ages (generations) was not made known unto the sons of men, (See how plain that is? Nobody knew anything about this.) as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets…”
Now, he doesn’t claim to be the only apostle. Barnabas was one, I think. Silas was one, and they all got an understanding of these things. All right, then I want you to go down to verse 9. He’s writing all this--
Ephesians 3:9
“And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery (secret), which from the beginning of the world (from Adam) hath been (What?) hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:” Now you got the picture? This man had revealed to him things that no one else in human history ever had a clue.
Now the Lord knew, of course, but I’m talking about the Twelve and so forth. All right, back to Galatians chapter 1. They let him down in a basket (Paul in Damascus) in the middle of the night. Where does he go? Well, now he tells us.
Galatians 1:13-14a
“For ye have heard of my conversation (or manner of living) in time past in the Jews’ religion, (He was a persecutor.) how that beyond measure I persecuted the church (Or, that Jewish assembly of believers in Jerusalem.) of God, and wasted it: 14. And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation,…” In other words, he was accomplishing more from Judaism and he was cashing in on it monetarily.
But after his conversion, he chucked the whole thing and counted it but trash for the sake of the Gospel. That’s when, I think, he lost his family. Yes, I think Saul of Tarsus was married and had children. He had to have been if he could vote to put these people to death in Acts 26, I think it is. In order to vote, he had to be a member of the Sanhedrin. In order to be a member of the Sanhedrin, he had to be married and have children. But all that went down the tube in order to keep the Gospel going to the Gentiles.
Galatians 1:15
“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his (What?) grace.” He didn’t deserve it anymore than you and I do. But God’s grace poured out on the man and saved him, cleansed him. Now verse 16, but what was the purpose?
Galatians 1:16-17a
“To reveal (another revelation) his Son in me, that I might preach him among (What people?) the heathen (Gentiles); (Now watch it.) immediately (as soon as he hit the ground in that basket) I conferred not with flesh and blood: 17. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia,…”
Now again, stop and think. Saul of Tarsus knew all about Christ’s earthly ministry. He knew all about the work of the Twelve. He knew they had been with Christ for three years. Logically, what would have been the thing to do? Well, get back to Jerusalem! Find the Twelve, and find out first-hand from Peter, James, and John all about this Jesus of Nazareth.
But the Holy Spirit didn’t permit that. In fact, he made sure that did not happen. Instead of letting Saul of Tarsus find his way back to Jerusalem, from the backside of Damascus he sends him the opposite direction into Arabia. Now, you’ve got to know your Middle Eastern geography. Jerusalem is to the southwest of Damascus and Arabia is to the southeast. So, instead of going to Jerusalem and checking in with Peter, James, and John, God sends him into the desert of all places.
Now, I can’t prove this, but I’ve got a pretty good Scripture. If you will come over to chapter 4 in this little book of Galatians, there’s an interesting verse. If Saul of Tarsus was sent out into Arabia, I cannot envision our God, as meticulous as He is with keeping everything in perspective, that He would just send this man out into an empty area of the Arabian Desert. But look what chapter 4 verse 25 says. Now, I don’t want to be loose with Scripture. But on the other hand, I think we have enough here that I can pinpoint where in Arabia the Lord led this man.
Galatians 4:25a
“For this Agar is mount Sinai (Where?) in Arabia,…” Now what’s logical? Where did God give the Law to Moses? Mount Sinai. Where did Moses take the Law? To Israel.
Now, isn’t it only logical that the same God would take this man to the same mountain. You know what the Arabs call what they think is Mount Sinai? The mountain of God. Well, isn’t it only logical that it was to that mountain that God led Saul of Tarsus? I think so.
I usually put it on the board—the same God that gave the Law to Moses and instructed him to take it down to the Nation of Israel; the same God now takes this man and gives him all of the revelation of the mysteries of the Grace of God and sends him out into the Gentile world. Our God is beyond comprehension. All right, back in chapter 1 verse 16:
Galatians 1:16b-18
“...immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: (I did not go to Jerusalem and check in with the Twelve.) 17. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. 18. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.”
Now, if I can reconstruct—after he was let down over the wall in a basket, God led him out to Mount Sinai in Arabia, and for the better part of three years God taught that man one-on-one. I think there’s a two-fold reason for it. Number 1—when you’re as steeped in a religion as Saul was, it’s going to take awhile to get it out of his system. That’s only human nature. I’ve found it, especially with people who have come out of a cult. Oh, listen, they wrestle with it. They see the truth. They put their faith in Christ. But oh, that pull back into that cultic religion is unbelievable. It’s the human makeup. I think Saul was no different. So for a good part of those three years, I think God had to cleanse the man of all that Judaism.
The other reason I think he had to spend the whole three years in Arabia is because when he would begin his ministry, like I already mentioned, the Corinthians accused him of—you didn’t have three years with Jesus like Peter did. What could he answer? Oh, yes I did. I had my three years with Him. I think God did that to balance the scales. Just as the Twelve had their three years with Christ in His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus spent three years with the Apostle in Arabia. Now, you can take that for whatever you think it’s worth.
All right, let’s move on. So he goes on up into Cilicia in verse 21, which was his hometown area of Tarsus. He begins his ministry up in the Gentile area of Cilicia and Tarsus. Now we come into chapter 2 which is just as enlightening as chapter 1. Remember, the whole purpose of this Galatian letter is to prove to these Gentile believers that he has settled in little congregations that they are not under the Law.
You want to remember that Galatians is written almost eighteen years after he begins his ministry. A lot of people do not realize that those early believers went almost twenty years without anything written, except the Old Testament. It’s amazing that Christianity got off the ground. But this little book is written about A.D. 58-59, and I feel Paul began his ministry about A.D. 40. So here we are, 18 or 19 years after he has begun his ministry amongst the Gentiles that he writes this.
THE GREAT JERUSALEM COUNCIL
WHERE CHRISTIANITY ALMOST ENDED
Now, he’s been having so much opposition, twenty years from the Judaizers in Jerusalem, that the Lord finally instructs the Apostle to get up to Jerusalem and confront these Twelve with what I have shown to you. Okay, here it comes, chapter 2 verse 1.
Galatians 2:1-2a
“Then fourteen years after (That is after his conversion. Three years in the desert, so we’ve gone eleven years after he has begun his ministry.) I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. 2. And I went up by revelation, (In other words, the Lord revealed to him it’s time to go up to Jerusalem.) and communicated unto them (the Twelve) that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles,…”
See, how that designates it. He had to lay out to Peter, James, and John and the rest of them what he was now preaching to the Gentiles, which was far removed from what they had been preaching to Israel. All right, come on down to verse 4.
Galatians 2:4
“And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily (secretly) to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they (the Jerusalem leadership) might bring us into bondage:” Now when Paul speaks of bondage, what’s he talking about? The Law of Moses! Even Peter, back in Acts 15—in fact, let’s go back there quickly. In fact, we probably have to stop before we finish, and you can pick this up when you get home. Compare Acts 15 with Galatians 2. They are the same Jerusalem council. Acts is Luke’s account. Galatians is Paul’s. But look what Luke records in Acts 15 verse 1, and this is what Paul is up against.
Acts 15:1
“And certain men which came down from Judea (that’s Jerusalem) taught the brethren, (That is his Gentile believers, especially up in Antioch and over into Asia Minor.) and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.” Did you read that? That was what Paul was up against!
These believing Judaizers from Jerusalem were coming into his little Gentile congregations and this is what they were telling them—unless you practice circumcision, you cannot be saved. That’s the Law. Okay, let’s read on.
Acts 15:2a
“When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles…” The Twelve, they were the instigators of all this. They honestly thought that these Gentiles had to become adherents of Judaism. All right, so the Lord sends Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to settle the question with the Apostles. Now I’m going to drop down, for sake of time, to verse 5.
Acts 15:5
“But there rose up (once they get to Jerusalem and they go into this council meeting) certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, (They had recognized Jesus as the Messiah.) saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, (Paul’s converts amongst the Gentiles) and to command them to keep the Law of Moses.”
Can you put yourselves in Paul’s shoes? Every time he would come back to these little congregations, they were all in a stir—these men from Jerusalem say we have to practice circumcision. They are telling us we have to keep the Law. We have to keep the Saturday Sabbath. We have to keep kosher. They are driving Paul crazy. So, finally, he gets this meeting in Jerusalem to settle it—verse 6 says it.
Acts 15:6-7a
“And the apostles and elders came together (at Jerusalem) for to consider this matter. 7. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago...” You know how long ago? Twelve years—Peter had witnessed salvation of the house of Cornelius.
Now when people try to tell you that the Gospel went out to the Gentiles from the time of Christ on, hey, be willing to show them. If Peter saw the conversion of that Gentile house of Cornelius, why didn’t he take off into the Gentile Roman Empire? Did he? NO!! Where did he go? Jerusalem. And when he got there, what happened? They called him on the carpet—Peter, how could you go into the house of those pagan Gentiles, and on top of that you sat down and ate with them. Horror of horrors!
So here Peter has been cowering in Jerusalem for twelve years. They’re not going out to the Gentile world. Remember, Jesus told them not to in Matthew 10:5-6. They are still ministering to the Jews in Jerusalem.
And then they’re trying to upset Paul’s ministry by sending these Judaizers out there to tell Paul’s converts that they have to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. Isn’t that something? How many people hear that? Not many. But listen, this is what the Apostle was up against. And Christianity has been fighting legalism ever since. Oh, it may not be circumcision today, but it’s anything and everything else you can think of. But under Grace and Paul’s Gospel, it is by faith and faith alone in that Jesus died for our sins and rose again!
All right, now I think I’ve got enough here in Acts, but now verse 10, and this is what I was referring to. Peter finally comes to the conclusion that, yes, Paul is right. He doesn’t have to demand Law-keeping and circumcision from these Gentile converts. So Peter says in verse 10.
Acts 15:10
“Now therefore why tempt (test) ye God, to put a yoke (the Law) upon the neck of the disciples, (That is these Gentile believers.) which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” The Law was a yoke. The Law was the energy of the flesh. The Law had no power to help anyone like we have with the working of the Holy Spirit.
Now quickly, we need to go back to Galatians chapter 2 and finish it before we call it quits for the day. My goodness it’s 4:30 already. We’ll wind this up as quickly as we can. Verse 4 and Paul says:
Galatians 2:4
“And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:” They wanted to bring our Gentile converts into bondage under the Law.
Galatians 2:5
“To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.” They were pressuring him all day long. Paul, you’ve got to agree with us to teach your people to practice circumcision and law-keeping, and Paul would not. Then after a long time, Peter came to his defense.
Galatians 2:6
“But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man’s person:) (God didn’t care what Peter or John thought. God is on His own program.) for they who seem to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:” Do realize what that says?
When Paul came to this meeting in Jerusalem and laid out that Gospel which he was preaching to the Gentiles, and Peter, James, and John tried to rebuke that, Paul finally had to convince them that he has revelations that they know nothing of. So that’s what he means here when he says—“they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me.”
Galatians 2:7
“But contrariwise, (on the other hand) when they (the Twelve) saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision (the gospel of the Grace of God) was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision (the gospel of the Kingdom) was unto Peter;” Do you see these two vast differences?
The Gospel of the Kingdom under the Law was committed unto Peter and the Eleven. The Gospel of the Grace of God outside the Law, without circumcision, without law-keeping was committed to Paul. Those are two totally different concepts, and why I’ve had to drop Paul’s Gospel of Grace out of that top prophecy timeline that belongs to Israel and the circumcision. Paul’s Gospel of Grace won’t fit in Israel’s timeline. God has stopped the time-clock till this Grace Age is finished and taken out of the way in the Rapture of the church. Then, yes, God will start the clock again on this top timeline according to the Old Testament format.
Now one more verse and then I’ll take you back to II Peter chapter 3. But first, let’s look at verse 8 here in Galatians.
Galatians 2:8a
“(For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision,…” Circumcision is the Jew. Do you see how plain God made this? Look at it again!
Galatians 2:8
“(For he (God) that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the Jew, the same (God) was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)” Do you see this constant separating of them? Now the important next verse:
Galatians 2:9a
“And when James, Cephas, (Peter) and John…” Now that’s amazing right there. How do we normally quote those three? Peter, James, and John. But the Scriptures show us something. As Israel is falling through the cracks, the Twelve Apostles’ ministry is disappearing and Paul’s ministry is ascending! In Israel, Peter is no longer the head honcho. He was not even the moderator of this big meeting they are having. James is, and that’s why his name is first.
Galatians 2:9
“And when James, Peter, and John, who seemed to be pillars, (But we know things were falling apart for them as Israel was rejecting everything. So, these three men who seemed to be pillars--) perceived (or understood) the grace that was given unto me, (When the Lord finally got through to these three—look what they did.) they gave to me (Paul) and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; (What did they do? They shook hands. It was a gentlemen’s agreement.) that we should go unto the Gentiles, and they unto the Jew.”
They were saying—Paul, we’ll no longer interfere in your ministry to the Gentiles. We’ll stay with Israel, and you go to the Gentiles, and we won’t interfere. That was the gentlemen’s agreement. And had they ever broken that agreement, they wouldn’t have been gentlemen. So they all agreed--
Galatians 2:9b-10a
“…that we (Paul) should go unto the Gentiles, and they (the Twelve) unto the Jew. 10. Only they would that we should remember the poor;…” Which, of course, Paul did.
I’m going to give you one more verse and guess we’ll have to call it quits. We hate to, but we must. So come back to II Peter chapter 3. I think you all remember that earlier Paul called Peter almost a hypocrite, because Peter would not come in and eat with Paul’s Gentile believers on one occasion.
Remember on that occasion Peter withdrew and Paul said, “I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed.” Peter shouldn’t have looked down his nose at those Gentiles believers. Paul’s converts were just as much children in the family of God as Peter or anyone else. So Paul called him on it and withstood him to his face. But here, look at what old Peter does. You know, I admire him for this. I know this is by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but look what Peter writes in his little epistle at the end of his life just before he is martyred. My, what an eye-opener.
II Peter 3:15a
“And account (understand) that the long-suffering of our Lord is (What?) salvation;…” The whole purpose of this Book is to bring lost mankind to eternal salvation. God is not willing that any should perish.
II Peter 3:15b
“…even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;” Here, probably, Peter is referring to the Book of Hebrews that Paul wrote to the Jews. What is Peter admitting? That the Apostle Paul has knowledge that he knows nothing of. So Peter is saying—you go to Paul. And remember, Peter is writing to Jews. So he says—you go to Paul, because he has knowledge that I know nothing of. That was quite an admission, wasn’t it? And then Peter picks up all the rest of the Pauline epistles in the next verse.
II Peter 3:16a
“As also in all his epistles, (Romans through Philemon) speaking in them of these things; (about salvation) in which are some things hard to be understood,…” Bless Peter’s mind, he still couldn’t get a handle of Paul’s gospel without the law.
What is he admitting in that verse? That Paul had revelations that Peter still couldn’t understand. And here he is next to being martyred. I don’t know if Peter ever did get a full understanding of Paul’s gospel. But remember, Peter was steeped in Judaism. He was a good Jew. He was an Apostle of Israel. But have an understanding of Paul’s revelation; he has to admit that he doesn’t understand. Let’s read the rest of the verse.
II Peter 3:16b
“…which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest (twist), as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” Now, what is Peter putting on all of Paul’s writings? His stamp of approval. Don’t you ever let anyone tell you that they don’t have to pay any attention to Paul. Peter says you had better!
RAPTURE OF THE BODY OF CHRIST
Now in closing, then, only Paul speaks of what we call the Rapture. That’s why so many have the Rapture all confused with the Second Coming of Christ. Only Paul says:
I Corinthians 15:51
“Behold, I show you a mystery; (And why does he call it a mystery? Because no other portion of Scripture knows anything about it. And what is that mystery?) We shall not all sleep, (die) but we shall all be changed,” One day, and we feel soon, that’s going to happen.
The believers who have died are going to be resurrected from the dead, receive their new bodies, and rise to meet Jesus in the air. And in the next moment, the believers that are still alive are suddenly going to be gone, with a new body fashioned after Jesus’ resurrected body, and shall rise to meet Jesus in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord!
Only Paul teaches that! You can find the Rapture here in I Corinthians 15:51-58. Another good description is the sister Scriptures found in I Thessalonians 4:13-18. Most of Christendom rejects the Apostle Paul’s teachings, and most of them reject the Rapture! Don’t go by what I say, but rather what does the Book say? You just stay in the Book!!!! Let’s stand and be dismissed.
Transcriber’s comment: After the seminar, there was much applause, and then some of the people in attendance commented to the T.V. camera.
Lady: “I’ve been here since 1981 and have been to all his seminars.”
Gentleman: “I always enjoy Les’ Bible teaching. This is my third time to come to his seminar at Concordia University campus to watch him. I really appreciate Les and Iris’ ministry, as it has really helped me grow in my Christian faith.”
Gentleman: “I love the way he separates the Kingdom Gospel from the Grace Gospel.”
Lady: “I appreciate the overview of the Scriptures from Genesis - Revelation and the way he ties everything together.”
Gentleman: “Just the fact that you can spend the whole day studying your Bible with him, and it seems like the time went just like that.”
Young man: “Les is an incredible teacher, and he makes the Scripture so simple to understand.”
Transcriber: “My wife, Lorna, and I have known Les and Iris now for 29 years, and their ministry has a made a tremendous difference in our lives. I had been raised Baptist and had been baptized twice in water. The first time at the age of 13, but I had not been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ as I Corinthians 12:13 says we must be. I was 42 years old when I was introduced to Les at one of his Bible studies where we live. And that very first night Les showed me the Salvation Scriptures of I Corinthians 15:1-4. Needless-to-say, before I went to sleep that night I was secured for eternity! Lorna and I have enjoyed transcribing this very informative little book into print!” Jerry
Announcer: “We hope you have enjoyed this all-day seminar with Les Feldick. If you would like to know more about the Les Feldick Ministry or want to order study material, please write to us at Les Feldick Ministry, 30706 West Lona Valley Road, Kinta, Oklahoma 74552, or call us at 1-800-369-7856.”