Okay, it’s good to see
everybody in again this afternoon. For those of you out in television, believe
it or not it’s raining cats and dogs in Oklahoma on Labor Day weekend. That’s
kind of hard to believe, isn’t it? But anyway, we are glad you all braved the
weather. You’re here, and we can fellowship together and study together. For
those of you joining us on television, we always like to invite you to just sit
down and study with us. Compare Scripture with Scripture with us. We don’t stick
to any denominational line. We’re just going to see what the Book says. It’s
between you and the Lord to determine what the message is for you personally. We’re going to do something totally
different for these next few programs. I don’t know where we’ll go or how far
we’ll get, but it just suddenly dawned on me the other day that it’s been a
long time since we’ve done some of these things on the timeline. And these
last two years we have picked up a huge share of our audience, and they’ve
probably never studied this stuff with us. So for those of you who’ve been
with me for twenty years, yeah, it’s old stuff. But if you haven’t been with us
very long, hopefully it’ll be an eye opener. I’ll never forget, and I don’t
know whether you were there at the time, Gary, but we had just finished our
first thirty minute program over there in the old studio. After those four
programs, the camera guys all came up, and we were trying to decide how we
could arrange things so that when I’m at the blackboard the audience wouldn’t
be looking at my backside. And one of the fellows who had been in my class for
about fifteen years down at McAlester, he’s gone to be with the Lord now, was
walking by, and he heard what we were talking about. He stopped and he said, “Look,
fellows, I’ve been looking at that guy’s back for twenty years and all I ever
did was learn, learn, learn.” So we never changed a thing. We’ve never tried
to overcome the fact that when I’m at the board you’re just going to have to
wait until I turn around again. So, we’ll be doing that today sometime. So anyway, we’re going to start
clear back in Genesis chapter 3 with what I call the very first prophetic
statement of Scripture. Adam and Eve have just eaten of the tree. They’ve
fallen, and the curse will immediately follow. They will be out of the Garden
of Eden and starting a whole new concept of life. It’s going to be under the
curse. It’s going to be a whole new relationship with God—not in complete
innocence, but through the process of sins forgiven. We’re going to look at that all
the way from Genesis chapter 3 up until the last verse of Revelation. We don’t
know how long it will take. Maybe we’ll do it in four programs or maybe in two
or maybe in eight or twelve! I don’t know. We’re just going to go as the
Spirit leads. So join with me now in your
Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 3. I think I’m going to go all the way up
to verse 6, because it may have been a long time since most of you have had
this reviewed. Here Satan has just approached them in the Garden. You remember
the instruction from God was, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil thou shall not eat.” The tree of life was also in the midst of the
Garden, but they partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All
right, we’ll pick that up in Genesis chapter 3 verse 6. Genesis 3:6 “And when the woman saw
(Now this is another point I like to make. She’s not called Eve until sometime
later.) that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the
eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
So, now they’ve both eaten. Now verse 7, because of that act of disobedience—now
always remember, it isn’t just the fruit that was the problem; it was their act
of disobedience. That was the sin. That’s what caused the fall. Genesis 3:7 “And the eyes of both of
them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves
together, and made themselves aprons.” Now, if you remember when we
taught this, God didn’t tell them to go and sew fig leaves together. They did
that of their own volition. So the point I always like to make is from Proverbs
14:12 that says, if I remember right, “There is a way which seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Well, that’s a perfect example
here of Adam and Eve with their fig leaves. They thought it would be
sufficient. That it would cover their nakedness and God would never know the
difference. But it wasn’t. It was the way of a spiritual death. Always remember
that. They rationalized just like Cain did in chapter 4. Now verse 8: Genesis 3:8 “And they heard the voice
of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his
wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the
garden.” Now think about that a minute. What did they do? They ran
from God and hid. Now, let’s just compare
Scripture with Scripture. Keep your hand here and go all the way up to John’s
gospel chapter 3 verse 18. This is the Lord speaking in His earthly ministry.
John 3:18-19 “He that believeth on him
(That is on God the Son up in verse 17.) is not condemned: but he that
believeth not is condemned already, (Why?) because he hath not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19. And this is the
condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil.” Now watch verse 20, this
is Adam and Eve all over again. John 3:20-21 “For every one that doeth
evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be
reproved. 21. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may
be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” In other words, Adam and Eve
started the whole ball rolling that men in their sinful condition do not run to
God as God would have them, but what do they do? They go the other direction,
and they hide and they deny. They live a life of denial. All right, come back with me to
Genesis, then. So, this is where it all started. That’s why the book is
called Genesis. Genesis means beginning. This book in the opening part of
your Bible is the book of beginnings—verse 8 again. Genesis 3:8-9 “And they heard the voice
of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees
of the garden. 9. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where
art thou?” Now that’s another interesting
thing. Do you think the omnipotent God didn’t know where those two people
were? Well, of course He did. But have you ever realized that all through His
earthly ministry, whenever He was confronted by someone; whether it was the
Pharisees, the Sadducees, or whatever; how did He invariably answer? With a
question. He always does. Over and over He would open a conversation with a
question. Well, same way here. He wasn’t asking the question because He
didn’t know where they were. He was asking a question to put them on a
soapbox, as I put it. They had to respond, because He’d now asked the
question, “Where are you?” And what do you suppose they said? Genesis 3:10-11 “And he (Adam) said,
I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked;
and I hid myself. 11. And the LORD said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?
(Now here comes another question. God knew. But the point is to bring Adam up
to the place where he had to respond.) Hast thou eaten of the tree,
whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” Now look at
Adam’s answer. The human race is already showing all of its frailties right
here. Just as soon as we’re confronted with guilt, what’s the number one thing
we all do? Find a scapegoat. She did it! I didn’t. It’s her
fault. And she’ll be the first to tell you if I miss an intersection—it
happened again the other day up in Minnesota. We missed an intersection. I
should have turned left, and I went straight. Whose fault was it? Hers!
Because when she should have been watching directions, she was showing me
something that she was fiddling with. And I was looking at what she was doing
and went right on through. So, eight miles down the road I said, “Honey, we’re
on the wrong road.” And she said, “I’ll bet it was back at that intersection
when I was showing you my stuff.” And that’s exactly where it was. But that’s
human nature. We might as well face it, and it started with Adam. Genesis 3:12-13 “And the man said, The
woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13.
And the LORD God said unto the woman, (to Eve) What is this that
thou hast done? And the woman said, (Sorry, it’s all my fault! No!
What does she say?) The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” See,
there always has to be a scapegoat. All right, now here we come to
where I want to take off from Genesis to Revelation over the next several
programs. Genesis 3:14 “And the LORD God said
unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all
cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and
dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:” Now here’s
the verse, verse 15, the first prophecy in Scripture where God is foretelling
something that’s going to take place hundreds, yes, a couple thousand years out
into the future. And what is it? The promise of a coming Redeemer. Genesis 3:15a “And I will put enmity
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed (in other words, all
the demonic forces of Satan) and her seed;…” Now stop right
there. Whose seed? Eve’s. You see that? Most people miss it. We’re already
talking about the Messiah. He’s going to come as a result of the promises made
here to Adam and Eve. Now you say, “Wait a minute. Wait
a minute. I don’t get this.” Okay, let’s jump all the way to the New
Testament. Go up to Galatians. That’s the only way we can understand these
things. Go up to Galatians chapter 3 verse 16. I have to purposely force
myself to wait until you’ve all found it; because that’s the one complaint I
get from the TV audience. Slow down. I can’t find them fast enough. So I try
to remember that. Galatians chapter 3 and we’re going to drop in at verse 16.
Galatians 3:16 “Now to Abraham and his
seed were the promises made. (We’ll be looking at that. I don’t know
whether today or next taping.) He saith not, and to seeds, (with
an “s” on it, plural) as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which
is (Whom?) Christ.” All right, but I said back there
it was the seed of the woman. Jump across the page in my Bible; go to Galatians
chapter 4 verse 4. And those of you who have heard me teach a pre-Christmas
class, this will remind you. I’m always using this verse for Christmas instead
of Luke chapter 2, because nobody else uses it. But here it is. This is the
only time that the Apostle Paul refers to Bethlehem—never a reference to His
birth. That’s what Christendom puts all their emphasis on, you know, Christmas
and the celebration of all that. But Paul doesn’t. All right, now I think
here’s one of the reasons. Galatians 4:4a “But when the fullness of
the time was come,…” Now, what does that mean? That at the exact day
and hour and minute that God had prescribed from eternity past Christ was
born! Not a day late. Not a day early. Right on schedule. That’s what the
fullness of time is. Galatians 4:4 “But when the fullness of
time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a (What?) woman, (Now
we just got finished with a series of programs on the incarnate Christ.
Remember? And what did we say the incarnate meant? God in human form.
The God-Man in the flesh, and that’s exactly what it was when God sent forth
the Son, Christ Jesus, by means of the woman, so that He would be now the God-Man.)
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” It went all the way back to
Genesis 3:15. All right, go back there with me now, once again. Genesis
chapter 3 verse 15, now this is prophecy. This is God telling us things that
are going to take place over the next 6,000 years. And it’s accurate to the last
little detail. Read verse 15 again. Genesis 3:15a “And I will put enmity
(a running battle) between thee (Satan) and the woman….” And
I told the class here not too long ago. I think the woman here was
already looking forward to the Nation of Israel, which is always referred to in
the female gender. And it is through Israel that Satan is always trying to defeat God, because Satan knows if he can destroy the
Nation of Israel, he’s the winner. Because in all of God’s prophecy, not just
in His first advent, but all the way up to the second advent, Israel is the key
player. Never forget that. If Satan can destroy Israel—that’s why Satan is
using that guy over there in Iran—oh, Satan would love nothing better than to
have that guy succeed in wiping Israel off the map. If Israel is gone, God’s program falls apart, and Satan’s the winner. So we know it’s not going to
happen. It’s merely a threat. It will never happen, because God will not let
it happen. But all right, it’s going to be a running battle. All right, then
read on. Genesis 3:15b “…and between thy seed
(Like I said, that is the demonic and the wicked hosts of Satan.) and her
seed; (That is the seed of the woman, which is Christ.) it shall
bruise thy head, (In other words, that’s the only place you can defeat
a serpent, on the head. He did that at the cross. That’s where Satan became a
defeated foe.) and thou (Satan) shalt bruise his heel.
(the seed of the woman)” Which, of course, was the suffering and
all that was accompanying at the cross. All right, so now we have the
beginning of the human experience. Adam and Eve will now be cast out of the
Garden. They’re going to have to live under and with the curse. They’re going
to have to battle the sweat of the face. They’re going to have to battle the
insects and the drought and death and everything else that’s associated with
the curse and that is still with us until this day. But we who know our Bible know
the day is coming when it’s going to end. It’s not going to last much longer,
because one of these days Christ is going to show that He is still superior to
Satan. He’s going to come and yet complete His prophetic program. All right,
so here we have the first, that I call, true prophecy here in Genesis chapter
3. Now, for the next eleven
chapters it is nothing but a sad commentary on the race of Adam. Do you know
that? There’s just not much good stuff in the first eleven chapters, except a
record of the down, down, down, down direction of the human race leading up to
the next great event. What was that? The flood. Okay, now I think we’ve
probably got it up on our timeline. No, we didn’t start with that, yet. We
started with Abraham. But the flood, 1,600 years in round figures after the
creation of Adam. Now I’m getting used to saying it over and over so bear with
me. Think! Stop and think. Sixteen hundred years is a long time. That’s a
long time. All right, so from Adam until the flood, sixteen hundred years, and
they’re mostly living to be 800-900 years old. So, only God knows how many
children every couple had. So, you had a tremendous
population explosion. By the time of Noah’s flood I’ve always been comfortable
with the number of four billion people on the then-known world, maybe more.
But out of that four billion people—let’s just look quickly at their behavior
in Genesis chapter 6, so that we get a full understanding of why God was so
severe in His judgment on that generation. Genesis 6:5a “And God saw…” Now
remember, when we were studying the theophanies several months ago God is
invisible until Christ appears at Bethlehem. It’s the invisible Triune God who
would appear from time to time in a temporary human form. But God for the most
part all through the Old Testament was in the invisible realm of the Triune
Holy Spirit, God the Son, and God the Father. All right, so whenever you see
the word God, back here in Genesis especially, it’s the Triune invisible
God. Genesis 6:5 And God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his (man’s) heart was only evil continually.”
In other words, what does that mean? Those people could not think a decent
thought even once in twenty-four hours. It was just nothing but a mindset of
continual wickedness. Well, we’re getting there, aren’t we? The world is
getting there. We’re not there, yet, but we’re getting there. All right, now
verse 6. Genesis 6:6-7 “And it repented the LORD
(or God was sorry) that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at
his heart. (So He’s got to do something. He just can’t let it go until
everybody kills everybody else.) 7. And the LORD said, I will destroy man
whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the
creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me (or it
makes me sorry) that I have made them.” But then we know-- Genesis 6:8a “But Noah found grace in
the eyes of the LORD.” But I want to keep on this picture of
wickedness. Come down to verse 11. Genesis 6:11a “The earth (Now
we know the earth then wasn’t as we know it now, because the flood completely
changed the makeup of the planet’s surface. But however much land mass there
was before the flood it doesn’t make any difference. I think it was pretty
much totally occupied by human beings.) The (whole) earth also
was corrupt...” Now, don’t read that word
casually. You know what the epitome of corruption is to me? I did this with a
bunch of Sunday school kids years ago. I hope you’ve got a good stomach. How
many of you have ever raised potatoes in your garden? Come on, raise your
hands. Oh, most of you have. All right, now when you’re digging potatoes,
when the new ones are ripe and ready, and you’re scratching through the dirt,
what will you invariably run into? That old seed potato. To me that’s the
epitome of corruption. Because when I was kid, and I’d hit that thing, I just
couldn’t stand it! Well, that’s the way God felt about planet earth. The
whole thing was just like that old seed potato that was rotten to the core.
What else could He do? Destroy it. He had to get rid of it. Genesis 6:11 “The earth also was
corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” We think Baghdad has been bad. And it has. But you know what? That was just a sampling of the
whole planet just before the flood. They were killing each other over and
over, and that’s what violence meant. It was a society of nothing but murder
and mayhem. Genesis 6:12-13 “And God looked upon the
earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh (not just some of it,
all of it) had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13. And God said unto
Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with
violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
And, of course, that brought in the phenomenon of Noah’s flood. Now I think I’ve got time. Go
all the way back to II Peter. I tell especially high school and college kids,
always be aware that you will never see the secular world, in science or
anything else, they will never admit to a Noahic Flood. II Peter chapter 3 and
always remember this is the mentality of the secular world to this very day.
And in it they totally reject the scriptural account of a Noahic Flood. II Peter 3:4-6 “And (they’re) saying,
Where is the promise of his coming? (We hear that all the time lately,
don’t we?) for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they
were from the beginning of the creation. 5. For this they willingly are
ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth
standing out of the water and in the water: 6. Whereby the world that then was,
being overflowed with water, perished:” And what does Peter say? “They
are willingly ignorant.” They do not want to believe the account of
Noah’s flood. Okay, once again it is good to
see everybody back. For those of you out in television, when I say to have
them back—they go out and have a coffee break. It takes a little bit to get
this many people served and back in here. We always like to make it known, if
you’d like to come in sometime and visit us for an afternoon of taping, that we
start about 12:30 p.m., and the cameras roll at 1 p.m. We’re usually out about 4:15 - 4:30 p.m. It’s just a nice afternoon. We’ve got a lot of visitors
today. In fact, more than I can take time to point out, but we always like to
welcome out-of-state folks. Okay, we’re going to keep right
on going where we left off in Genesis. We’re just going to make a big picture.
That is the way a gentleman put it one time when I was in a class in Florida. He said, “Les, I love the way you fill in the big picture.” Well, that’s the
first time I’d ever heard it put that way, but that’s so true. You know,
people will call with questions, and I’ll say, “Well, sometimes, you know, God
gives us enough credit that we can fill in some of these things, as long as you
do it scripturally, and just fill in the big picture.” The other one we like
to use is connecting the dots. It all fits if you just compare Scripture with
Scripture. So, we’re going to keep going
on. After the flood the population starts expanding once again. God has
instructed Noah and his three sons and their families to replenish or to fill
up the earth, which meant that they were to scatter. Not stay in one place.
But, man is always rebellious. Isn’t it amazing? Man never does what God
wants him to do. Let’s jump in at chapter 11 verse 1. Genesis 11:1-4b “And the whole earth was
of one language, (Now remember, it isn’t the whole world as we know it,
but for them.) and of one speech. 2. And it came to pass, as they
journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn
them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime for mortar. 4. And
they (the population in general) said, Go to, let us build us a
city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven;…” In other words, it’s going to
be a place of worship. Not that they thought they could build a tower to the
Heaven of the heavens, but it’d be a place of worship where they could make
contact with what they conceived of as God. Genesis 11:4b “…and let us make us a
name, lest we be scattered…” Now, do you see the rebellion? In
casual reading you miss that. But God said, “Scatter and replenish the
earth.” Man says what? We’re not going to. We’re going to stay right
here lest we be scattered. All right, then verse 5: Genesis 11:5-6 “And the LORD came down
to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6. And
the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language;
and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which
they have imagined to do.” Now, don’t just read that casually. On what basis could God say
something like that? That whatever they imagined they could do it. Why?
They’re not that far from the pre-flood civilization, where you’ve heard me say
it once, and I know a lot of people doubt me, but I think they had a technology
almost equal to our own just before the flood. Because remember, they started
out with a super brain at creation. There was nothing that had deteriorated.
And they lived 900 years to use all that brainpower. So when I see evidence
that at some time in the ancient past there is evidence of computers and
internal combustion engines and maps like you can’t believe, then I have to
say, yes, I believe that. I think it was before the flood when they had
tremendous technology. All right, so this just makes
sense. These are only 200 years removed, so enough of that technology would
have been made available and God said it – there’s just nothing to restrain
them that they can’t do, unless He does something drastic, which
was to confuse the languages. Now stop and think! What is one of the major
reasons that we have had such an explosion of technology in the last 50 years?
Well, the whole world has
almost again become one language. Because in the scientific world, whether
it’s Japan or Europe or America, what is the basic language of science?
English. So, we’re just about back full circle. Like here, when they had
the advantage of one language, there was almost nothing to stop their ability
to invent and so forth. And so the Lord said, “There is nothing that
they can’t do.” So He had to interrupt it by confusing the languages. Now remember, time-wise we’ve
got the Flood 1,600 years after Adam, and then 200 years after Noah, we have
the Tower of Babel. All right, now we’re going to skip the next 200 years and
jump all the way down in this same chapter 11 to verse 31. Here we’re at about
2,000 years after Adam and 2,000 years before Christ. Abraham stands at the
midpoint between creation and Christ’s first coming. Genesis 11:31-32 “And Terah (the
father of Abraham) 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; (Now the Chaldees, remember, were
the people of Babylon.) to go into the land of Canaan; (Which is
down at the eastern end of the Mediterranean.) and they came unto Haran, (Which is up north of present day Lebanon in present day Syria.) and
dwelt there. (That’s where God stopped them.) 32. And the days of
Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.” All right, before we go any
further, I want you to jump ahead with me to Joshua the last chapter. I think
that’s chapter 24. Because I want you to see what kind of a family this was
before God intervened. Remember now, that the Tower of Babel began 200 years
before. This meant that the whole then-known population had come under the
influence of Nimrod, who was the instigator of paganism. The other names of
Nimrod are probably Zeus and Osiris and some of those other pagan names. They
all referred to Nimrod. He was the beginning of all pagan religions and
idolatry. All right, so this little
family that we’re dealing with was no different. Joshua 24 verse 2 and remember
the setting. This is Israel now after having gone into the Promised Land.
Joshua has helped them occupy it, fought all the battles. It’s time for Joshua
to move on and die and join the forefathers. But look what he says. Joshua 24:2 “And Joshua saith unto
all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers (your
forefathers) dwelt on the other side of the river in old time (I
think that’s the Euphrates River.) even Terah, the father of Abraham, the
father of Nachor: and they (The whole family what?) served
other gods.” Plural. So, what were they? Pagan idolaters. Every
one of them. All right, now naturally,
especially in the Orient, who is the head of the family? Well, the patriarch,
the father. In this case, it was Terah. Now how far do you think Abraham
would have gotten separating from idolatry as long as the old patriarch stood
there with his power over them? Well, it probably wouldn’t have happened. So,
what does God wait for? He waits for Terah to die. All right, now we can move
into Genesis chapter 12. This is the way God works, you know. Sometimes He
moves in miraculously, but on the other hand, sometimes He just lets things
take their course. So now we come into chapter
12. Terah is dead and gone, but they are still living up there in Haran. They’re out of Ur, but they’re in Haran, which is between Ur and Canaan. Chapter
12 verse 1 and now we can pick up our timeline on the board as well. Genesis 12:1 “Now the LORD had said
unto Abram, (back there in chapter 11) Get thee out of thy
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I
will shew thee:” Now why is God laying down those stipulations? To
separate them from idolatry. From paganism. He doesn’t say take the family with
you, but rather separate from them. Well, what does Paul write?
Same thing. “Be separate.” What does Revelation say? “Come
out from among them.” Why? Because a believer cannot consort with the
unbelieving world day in and day out and have any spiritual growth. It’s
impossible. Now, we’re in the real world. We know that. But you still cannot
mingle with the unbelievers and have any spiritual growth. So the concept is
always the same: separate yourselves from the gross, unbelieving world. Verse
1 again: Genesis 12:1-2a “Now the LORD had said
unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from they kindred, and from thy
father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: (Now here come the
promises and the prophecy.) 2. And I will make of thee a
great nation,…” Now we think of Israel today as nothing but just a
little tiny nothing in the affairs of the world. But you’ve got to remember,
back here in antiquity people were still tribal. There were no real national
entities as yet. So, this little Nation of Israel is going to become one of
the greatest tribes in that part of the world, before everything starts
exploding around them, if I can put it that way. All right, so they are going to
become a great nation in the eyes of antiquity. Even though in today’s world
they were pretty small. Genesis 12:2b-3 “… And I will bless thee,
and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3. And I will bless
them that bless thee, (Now this is a promise that holds today just as
much as it did 2,000 years before Christ.) I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth thee; (Now, here comes the prophecy of
all prophecy.) and in thee (in Abraham) shall all families
of the earth be blessed." Well, how can you and I living clear up
here in the 21st century, clear over on the other side of the world,
be blessed by the blessing given to Abraham? Through the work of the
cross. Through this Book. Every word of this Book, yes,
including Luke, is written by Jews (Romans 3:1-2). That’s the role of the
Nation of Israel. Through the Nation of Israel not only came this Book with
all of its prophetic utterances, but though the Nation of Israel came the
Messiah, the Savior of the world. That’s what this prophecy is talking about.
That through Abraham every nation on earth will be exposed to the glorious
gospel of Jesus Christ, because nationally speaking He was a Jew. You see
that? All right, now this is
prophecy. This is what I’m always maintaining, that there is not another book
on this planet that could even come close to this one because of the
prophecies. Oh, I want people to know that. The Koran has no prophecy. The
Book of Mormon has no prophecy. All these other religious books of the world
cannot prophesy events hundreds if not thousands of years before they happen.
But this one does. And it’s not pie in the sky, because at the first advent,
as I’ve said over and over on this program, over 300 distinct prophecies that
were written hundreds of years before were fulfilled at Christ’s first coming. Otherwise, Zechariah—let me
just give you one example. I hope I can find it. Sometimes I feel like I’m
walking into a buzz saw, because I may not find it when I want it. But I’m
thinking it is Zechariah chapter 9. Zechariah chapter 9. Now this is written
almost 500 years before it happened, and this isn’t something that happens
every day that someone would say, well, that’s just a shot in the dark. No.
This was a unique event. Oh, this is so thrilling. And this is just one out of
hundreds that were fulfilled to the last jot and tittle. All got it? Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O
daughter of Zion; (That’s Jerusalem and the Jews.) shout, O
daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King (We’re going to be talking
about that now. This is the promise in Genesis 12 that out of the Nation of
Israel will come a king and a kingdom.) cometh unto thee: he is just, and
having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, (or a donkey) and
upon a colt the foal of an ass.” Well, when did that happen? On
the Triumphal Entry. Fulfilled to the last jot and tittle that He came riding
into Jerusalem, off the Mount of Olives, across the Valley of Kidron, and up to the Temple Mount on the colt of a donkey. And it was written five hundred
years before. King Cyrus, the king of Persia, was named by a Jewish prophet a
hundred and fifty years before he was born. Now, I can take you back to
Psalm 22, just for an example now, so that you’ll know what I’m talking about
that this is the only Book on earth that can do this. Even the best of the
soothsayers, the best of them, can’t get over 50%. That’s their batting
average. The best of them and that, of course, is guesswork. That’s all it
is. But this is so obvious. Psalm 22 verse 7 and I’ll let you judge for
yourself. Who are we talking about? This, of course, was written by King
David. And when was King David? A thousand years before Christ. Now, look at
these descriptive words in verse 7. Psalm 22:7-8 “All they that see me
laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8. He
trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he
delighted in him.” Who are we talking about? Isn’t that exactly what
they said of Jesus as He was on the way to the cross? Well, if He’s who He
says He was, let Him call ten thousand angels. See, this is all prophesied.
This is what would happen. All right, verse 9: Psalm 22:9-10 “But thou art he that
took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s
breasts. 10. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my
mother’s belly.” What’s David talking about? The Messiah. All right,
now verse 11. Psalm 22:11-12 “Be not far from me; for
trouble is near: for there is none to help. (Now these, of course, are
the mind and thoughts of Christ as He was on the cross or going to it.)
12. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.”
In other words, all the Roman army and everything that pertains to it.
Psalms 22:13 “They gaped (or
stared) upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.”
Picture the crowds as He was hanging on the cross. Now, if you know anything
about crucifixion, this next verse is a typical description of the suffering. Psalms 22:14a “I am poured out like
water, and all my bones are out of joint:…” See, that’s what
crucifixion did. As they hung there, their bones would literally be pulled
from their sockets. Psalms 22:14b-15a “…my heart is like wax;
it is melted in the midst of my being. 15. My strength is dried up like a
potsherd; (a piece of clay) and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws;…”
Okay, stop a minute. What was one of the seven statements from the cross?
Remember when He said, “Behold, I thirst.” This is why. This
is a graphic description of crucifixion one thousand years before it happened.
Psalms 22:16 “For dogs have compassed
me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: (Who are the dogs?
The Romans. Who were the rest of them? The taunting Jews. But now don’t stop
there.) they pierced my hands and my feet.” You see that, all
written a thousand years before it happened. Verse 18: Psalm 22:18 “They part my garments
among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” Did they do it? Well, of
course they did. You know that. They cast lots for His tunic, the one that
was supposedly woven without a seam. They cast lots for it. All prophesied.
Now that’s just a little sampling. The whole Old Testament is scattered with
those kinds of statements. No other book on earth can do that. All right, now let’s go back to
Genesis chapter 12. You got all that free for nothing. I wasn’t planning on
that. But see, this is what we have to understand, that this Book is so
supernatural. There is no way we can doubt that it is inspired of God, even
though men wrote it. All right, back to chapter 12 and the call of Abraham, as
we call it. And I want you to see verse 3 again. Genesis 12:3a “I will bless them that
bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee;…” And history supports
that. Any nation or empire that turns on the Jews is going to sooner or later
go down to their doom. I think Germany is still suffering the results of
Hitler’s hatred for the Jewish people. All right, but the best part of all is
this last statement of the verse. Genesis 12:3b “…and in thee (In
Abraham, because out of Abraham would come Israel, and out of Israel would come the Messiah, and the Messiah would become the Savior of the world.) shall
all the families of the earth be blessed.” Now, that’s the beginning of
our timeline as we’ve got it on the board. And now we find that from Abraham
all the way up, all the way through, and we’re going to follow these from
Abraham to the appearance of the Nation of Israel under Moses. Then comes
David and then come the prophets. In between we have the Babylonian invasion,
the destruction of the Temple, the exile to Babylon, and then all the way up
through Christ’s first advent (we’ll be looking at the details in time), then
the crucifixion, then 40 days with the Twelve, and then He ascends back to
Glory. Then, according to all the Old
Testament and including the gospels and the first eight chapters of Acts,
everything was pointing to the next big event in human history, which would be
the seven years of what we call Tribulation and the horrors of it, which would
trigger the Second Coming. And then in would come that glorious heaven on earth
1,000 year kingdom. And that’s something that very
few church people know anything about. I am aghast at how few church people
know anything of this earthly kingdom. You know, I had someone send me a book
awhile back, and I know the fellow meant well. He had written it. He had
signed it and sent it to me, but what a travesty. I don’t remember the exact title,
but the idea of the book was what’s Heaven going to be like? My, a book that
thick. What’s Heaven going to be like? Well, I knew right away it had to be a
lie, because there is nothing in this Book that tells us what our Heaven, the
real Heaven, is going to be like, except for one word. Glorious! You’ve heard
me say it. It’s going to be glorious. That’s all we know. So, what did the guy write
about? The earthly kingdom. Every reference that he used was a reference to
this glorious kingdom, where the lion will lie down with the lamb and so on and
so forth; and tremendous production, with every man living under his own fig
tree. Well, those are all things concerning this earthly kingdom. Yes, it’s
going to be heaven on earth, but it’s not the Heaven of the heavens that we
think of. And this is where people are what I call ignorant of this Book. And
it’s sad. There’s no reason for it. It’s because they don’t read. They won’t
study. They won’t compare Scripture. And like I’m learning to tell them when
they try to make a point of argument, the only reason you don’t see it is
because you don’t want to. And that’s what it’s all down to. They don’t want
to see. No, they’ll never see it. But if they want to, it’s as plain as plain
can be. All right, so let’s just take a
brief run at Abraham and the Nation of Israel coming on the scene, as I always
put it. Then after they become a nation and they get into the Promised Land,
let’s jump up to Exodus chapter 19. Oh, my goodness, this half-hour has gone
already, and I just got started. Exodus chapter 19, now Israel has become a nation. The twelve sons of Jacob have made their appearance. They went down
into Egypt, remember, because Joseph was sold into slavery. He was down there
and became God’s divine appointment. Pharaoh gave him authority to save the
grain through the seven years of plenty to be ready for the seven years of
famine. That’s the setting. All right, because of that the famine came to Canaan, and Jacob and the other sons of the family were about starving to death. When they
hear there is grain in Egypt, old Jacob sent the sons, all but Benjamin, down
to Egypt. Well, when they get to Egypt to draw their grain, unknown to them who is parceling out the grain? Their brother
Joseph. You know, I was reading a book, Carla, yes, I got a good book a while
back. It’s from a secular point of view, but yet it just makes it so
graphically plain how that Joseph was in total control all of Egypt, especially in the parceling out of the grain during those seven years of famine. So, when
the brothers came over from Canaan to Egypt, he was the one that had to deal
with them. Well, he immediately recognized them, if you remember, but they
didn’t know him. Well, out of that situation then, the whole family is moved
into Egypt under the Pharaoh and Joseph as the second man in Egypt. So Israel, as the Scripture says, “became a Nation down in Egypt.” All right, then after 700-800
years, God raises up Moses. You know the story. Moses goes in and confronts
Pharaoh. After the plagues we’ve got Israel coming out of Egypt. All right, they go to Mount Sinai—we’ll pick this up in the next half hour. Remember, God
makes promises to that Nation concerning the next several thousand years of human
history. All prophesied. All legitimate. And even though it hasn’t all
happened yet, we can rest assured that it surely will. Okay, again we’re glad you’re
all back. For those of you joining us on television, we just have to take a
minute and thank you from the depths of our heart for all your kind letters,
your cards, your prayers, and above all that keeps us on the air, your
financial help. We just thank you for that. And we pray that you pray that
we’ll continue to reach more and more hearts, because the kind of people that
catch us on television usually have never heard any of this before. And I guess that’s what hooks
them, because it’s not just what Les Feldick thinks, it is right here in plain
black and white. And why, why does the majority miss it? Well, I guess I know
why. I’ve said it over and over. The world population was 4 - 5 billion at
the time of the flood. How many believers? Eight. That’s a precious small
percentage. Up through Israel’s history what percent of even the chosen people were true believers? One tenth of one
percent. And then you come to the Lord Jesus Himself. He put it plain as
day. One time I told a gentleman who was a member of a great religion, with
probably a billion people on earth, and he was trying to convert me. And I
said, “Now wait a minute, the Scripture tells me that you’re wrong and I’m
right.” He says, “Where?” I said, “When the Lord Himself says ‘broad is
the gate and wide is the way that leadeth to destruction and many go in
thereat. But narrow is the way and straight is the gate that leadeth to
eternal life. And few there be that find it.’” Never forget that. I’ve always
made the statement on this program. When it comes to the things of the Spirit,
the majority is always wrong. Think about it. When the twelve spies went in
to search out the land of Canaan, what was the majority report? Ten – can’t do
it. Wrong! They could have had it without lifting a sword. But the
minority—the two—were right. But it didn’t carry. Well, it’s no different
today. The majority of Christendom is going down the wrong road, because they
will not look at what the Book really says. Okay. We’re going to continue
on now in the big picture of connecting the dots starting from Adam and the
Fall and the curse, the coming about of the Nation of Israel, and now they’ve
come out of Egypt as a Nation of people. Not as a ragtag bunch of
carpetbaggers, as Cecil B. De Mille showed it, but they came out organized.
And it says armies, but it really was by tribes. All twelve tribes had their
own banner. They were all organized. And as they get around Mount Sinai, they
encamp by tribe—total organization. All right, that’s where we’re
going to pick them up now in Exodus chapter 19. They had just recently come
out of Egypt. They’re gathered around Mount Sinai, and God is now ready to do
something totally different once again. He’s going to put the Nation of Israel
under the Law. Exodus 19:1-2 “In the third month,
(Now, in Biblical history the first month was April, so this would be April,
May, June. It would be in the month of June.) when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of
Sinai. 2. For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of
Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the
mount.” Mount Sinai. Now verse 3, here’s where it gets interesting. Exodus 19:3a “And Moses went up unto
God,…” Now remember, God is up in the Mount in much the same kind of a
situation that you had back in chapter 3. Maybe we’d better go back and look at
it. Go back to Exodus chapter 3 so that you see how completely God
communicated with this man Moses. Now you know I teach as I feel the Spirit
leads. I didn’t intend to do this. So, this is back while Moses was spending
his forty years in the wilderness, remember, herding sheep. And one day out
there on the desert, he saw that bush on fire, and it wasn’t consumed. It got
his curiosity aroused. So he goes over and checks it out. All right, then the
voice in verse 3. Exodus 3:3-4a “And Moses said, I will
now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 4. And
when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God…” Now, do you see
the terms of Deity in one verse? LORD in one instance and God in the next. Exodus 3:4-5 “And when the LORD
(That’s always the term for God the Son.) saw that he turned aside to
see, God (Now that’s the whole Triune God.) called unto him out
of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. 5. And God said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the
place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” Now watch the language. Exodus 3:6 “Moreover he said, I am
the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob. (See, He’s made His point.) And Moses hid his face; for
he was afraid to look upon God.” Well, you come all the way down to
verses 13 and 14. Verses that I always like to use to show the connecting of
the dots of Scripture. Exodus 3:13a “And Moses said unto God,
(The same person speaking out of that bush is the same one that’s speaking to
him up on Mount Sinai. The same God.) Behold, when I come unto the
children of Israel, (Now remember, this is before he’s gone back to
Egypt.) and shall say unto them, The God of you fathers hath sent me unto
you; and they shall say to me, What is his name?...” And I always have
to stop there. Why would they ask that question? Because every god in Egypt, hundreds of them, all had a name. If you had a god, he had a name. So, how can you
come to us with a God without a name? Moses was right. That’s the first thing
they’ll ask. What’s His name? Exodus 3:13b “…what shall I say unto
them? 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 (That’s His name.) hath
sent me unto you.” Now, we’ve got to compare Scripture with Scripture
to get the impact of it, otherwise you miss it. Go all the way up to John’s
gospel, chapter 8. And here Jesus is being confronted by the religious leaders
as usual. Let’s jump in at verse 48, because this is so foundational. John 8:48-51 “Then answered the Jews,
and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, (Now, you
know the Jews hated the Samaritans, because they were half-breeds. They
weren’t Gentiles. They were half-breed Jews.) and hast a demon? 49.
Jesus answered, I have not a demon; but I honor my Father, and ye do dishonour
me. 50. And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth.
51. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see
death.” Well, boy, that was a strong statement to these religious
leaders. John 8:52-53 “Then said the Jews unto
him, Now we know that thou hast a demon. Abraham is dead, and the prophets;
(They’re dead.) and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never
taste of death. 53. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and
the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?” Who do you think you
are? We’d say today. John 8:54-55 “Jesus answered, If I
honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that 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: but I
know him, and keep his saying.” Now stop a minute. Do you
remember what He said in John 14 when Philip said, “…show us the Father…”?
Remember that? What did He say? “Have I been so long time with
you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen
the (Who?) Father.” Now, that’s beyond us, unless
we take it by faith. But that’s the Trinity. That’s the Triune God—that when
they saw Christ, they saw the whole Godhead. This is what they couldn’t get
through their heads. That He was a member of that Triune Godhead, as we call
it. Now verse 56: John 8:56 “Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” Now that’s why
I’m glad we read Genesis chapter 12 verse 2. What did the Lord tell him? That
out of you is going to come a nation of people. All right, this is all through
that Abrahamic Covenant. All right, reading on. John 8:57-58 “Then said the Jews unto
him, Thou are not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 58. Jesus
said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, (What?)
I AM.” Who did He claim to be? The I
AM of Exodus 3. And who is the I AM of Exodus 3? Jehovah. Who is Jehovah in
the Old Testament? The LORD. Who is the LORD of the Old Testament? God the
Son. Who is God the Son in the New Testament? Jesus Christ. See, it all ties
together—same person, different terminology. All right, now back to Exodus
19, if you will. Here we have Moses confronting the same God that he did in
the burning bush – the same God who appeared unto Abraham – the same God who
would later be born in Bethlehem. Exodus 19:3-4a “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;
(Here it comes now.) 4. Ye have seen (you have witnessed, you
have experienced) what I did unto the Egyptians,…” And what did
He do to the Egyptians? He miraculously pulled the
whole Pharaoh army into that cavern of dried Red Sea with walls of water. They
must have been several miles apart, because I can’t comprehend it otherwise.
And those stupid Egyptians came right in and suffered like nobody’s ever
suffered since. And God brings the water back and kills every one of them.
And, you know, that became one of the greatest miracles in all of Scripture. Do you remember what Rahab said
when the Jews were confronting Jericho? What did she say? “We have
heard how your God opened the Red Sea.” All right, always keep those
things in mind. This is what He’s referring to when He talks to Moses. Exodus 19:4 “Ye have seen what I did
unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto
myself.” Now that’s a play on words. They didn’t fly, but it was just
as miraculous that He pulled that whole nation of people through the Red Sea before the Egyptians caught up with them. Israel didn’t lose a man, and
yet the timing was such that the minute the last Jew stepped out on the east
side, the last Egyptian comes in on the west side, and the water comes back.
He gets them all. Boy, don’t you wish you could fish like that? He got them
all. Not a one left. Miracle of miracles. All right, so He says, “I
bare you on eagles’ wings and brought you unto myself.” His chosen
people. Here comes the promise now. Exodus 4:5 “Now therefore, if ye
will obey my voice indeed, (Ring a bell? That was Adam’s problem. He
couldn’t obey God’s voice. And it’s mankind’s problem even today.) and
keep my covenant, (See, it is conditional.) then ye
(the Nation) shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for
all the earth is mine:” What does that tell you? He’s
Sovereign. It’s His world. It’s His universe. He can do whatever He wants to
do. And if He wants to take one little nation of people and set them head and
shoulders above all the rest of mankind, that’s His prerogative. And that’s
what He did. They are the chosen race. Exodus 19:6a “And ye shall be unto me
a (What’s the next word?) kingdom...” Now, what do you
need to have a kingdom? Two entities. You have to have a king, and you have
to have subjects. That makes up a kingdom. All right, this is a promise.
You’re going to be a nation of people with a king ruling over you, and you will
all be– Exodus 19:6b “…a kingdom of priests,
(of God or of Jehovah) and an holy nation. These are the words which
thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” I just had an
interesting conversation the other day because of an article I had read. Turn back with me to I Peter
chapter 1. Now most of Christendom tries to make us in the Body of Christ
priests of God. And the reason they try to do that is because of this little
verse in I Peter. But now here’s where I object strenuously. Peter is not
writing to the Gentile church. This is where what does the Book say
comes into play. Now you want to remember that
our New Testament lays out just exactly the way our timeline would even down in
this dispensation of Grace. Exactly. We’ve got the four gospels. We’ve got
the Book of Acts, and then we’ve got Paul’s epistles. Then as soon as Paul’s
epistles end, we pick right back up with Israel, again, in view of the Kingdom.
So, look what Peter writes. I Peter 1:1-2a “Peter, an apostle of
Jesus Christ, (writing) to the strangers (Not to the
citizens, but rather the non-citizens) scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father,…” Now you know that couldn’t involve Gentiles up there in what
we now know as Turkey. So, who is he writing to? Jews! Fellow Jews who were
believers that Jesus was the Messiah. Now turn over, at least in my
Bible, to chapter 2. Then we’re going to flip right back to Exodus 19, so that
you’re sure to see the identical language of these two portions of Scripture.
I Peter chapter 2 verse 9—now this is what I call Bible study. You compare
Scripture with Scripture and you ask yourself, who is Peter writing to? Well,
it’s obvious. He’s writing to the Twelve Tribes scattered throughout the
then-known world, especially there in Asia, or what we call Turkey. Now look what he says. I Peter 2:9 “But ye (See?
Not they--) are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an
holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:” That’s
Peter writing to Jews thinking that the Tribulation was right out in front of
them. He had no idea that it was going to be 2,000 years of Grace to the
Gentile world. Now go back to Exodus again.
Exercise your brain, now. Turn it on and look at the language. Identical.
Verses 5 and 6. Exodus 19:5-6 “Now therefore,
(God is speaking to Moses up there in Mount Sinai just after the Red Sea.) if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a
peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: (Now
here come the identical words of I Peter chapter 2.) 6. And ye shall be
unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which
thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” All right, now to tie that
together, I’m going to try something that I don’t think I’ve ever done before.
Let’s jump up to Isaiah chapter 42. Keep your hand in Exodus and go to Isaiah
42 so that you can connect the dots. Now, while you’re looking, I have to ask
a question. What’s the role of a priest in any religion? Go-between. So
every Jew was to be a go-between between their God and the people around them.
All right, who were the people around them? Here they come. Isaiah 42, this
is prophecy. Isaiah 42:1 “Behold my servant, whom
I uphold; mine elect, in whom (Now we’re talking about a person, not
the nation. A person) my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him:
he (this person) shall bring forth rule (or government) to
(what people) the Gentiles.” All right, drop down to verse 6. Isaiah 42:6 “I the LORD have called
thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give
thee for a covenant of the people, (Now who is Scripture addressing? Israel, the Nation. The king first, who’s going to establish a government over the
Gentiles, but now the people who, according to Exodus, are to be a nation of
what? Priests. Go-betweens. All right, for what purpose?) for a light
to (Whom?) the Gentiles;” Now we know it never happened.
But it wasn’t God’s fault. The promises held. So why didn’t it happen or
won’t happen? Because of Israel’s unbelief. They’re not going to have this
opportunity to proclaim salvation to the nations during the Kingdom Age,
because only believers are going to go in at the front end of the Kingdom.
That’s John 3. “Unless ye be born again, ye cannot enter the kingdom of
heaven.” So what happened? In Israel’s unbelief, they lost this opportunity to be evangelists during the Kingdom, so God
changed His prerogative, and He said, well, then we’ll only let believers go
into the Kingdom. But God didn’t drop the ball completely either. So
when will Israel have a chance to yet evangelize the nations? They’re going to
fulfill the great commission, which was never given to the church in the first
place. They’re going to fulfill it where and when? During the Tribulation.
By whom? The 144,000. They’re going to circumvent the globe. I had a question the other day,
“Where do you get that?” Well, I can show you. It doesn’t say they’re going
to circumvent the globe, but good land, the language says it. Come back with
me and I’ll answer the person’s question. Maybe I won’t have to write the
letter. Go back to Revelation chapter 7 where the 144,000 are sealed. Chapter
7, now this is really going far off of where I intended to be, but I hope I
don’t lose you. Revelation 7, here we have the beginning of the Tribulation.
And I think the two witnesses are the preachers that these 144,000 young Jews
will be listening to. But anyway, in Revelation 7 verse 4: Revelation 7:4 “And I heard the number
of them who were sealed: and there were sealed 144,000 of all (that
means twelve) the tribes of the children of Israel.” All right,
after they’re sealed, now verse 9, naturally they’re not going to stand around
in Jerusalem and say, well, what do we do next? What are they going to do?
They’re going to go out and begin to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom as
Jesus said they would in Matthew 24. All right, now it doesn’t say they
circumvent the globe, but good heavens, what does verse 9 say? Revelation 7:9 “And after this I beheld,
and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and
kindreds, and people, and languages, stood before the throne, and before the
Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands:” What does languages
mean? The whole world! All the languages. All the nations are going to have
representatives of the work of these 144,000. Go on down to verses 13 and 14.
Revelation 7:13-14 “And one of the elders
answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And
whence came they? 14. And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to
me, These are they which came out of the great tribulation, and have washed
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
So yeah, it doesn’t say they’re
going to circumvent the globe, but we know they did. It just says that they
preached to all the nations and all the languages and all the tribes. What
difference does it make whether I say circumvent or whether the Scripture says all
nations and language? Okay, I’ve got one short minute
left. Back to Exodus chapter 19. The promise in verse 6 is that Israel could be a “kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” In other words,
one set apart for God’s purposes, verse 7. Exodus 19:7-8a “And Moses came and
called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these
words which the LORD commanded him. 8. And all the people answered together,
and said, All that LORD hath spoken we will do.…” And they begin to
get themselves ready for a system of religion that we call Law, a works
religion. Okay, good to see everybody
back for our number four program this afternoon. Again, we want to welcome our
television audience. And we just trust you will, as so many have written, take
your Bible and your pen in hand and study with us, because we’re not going to
be preaching at you, hopefully. I think I’ve only done that once or twice in
thirty years where somebody came up and said, “Les, you did everything but the
invitation.” But I normally claim to just be a teacher. I’m not going to
preach at people. I just want folks to see what the Book really says. And it’s
not that difficult. That’s what we’re trying to do, even in this series of
programs. It is to show how everything fits from Genesis through Revelation.
It’s not that difficult. All right, we’re going to take
this program, now, and continue on the concept that Israel is looking forward
to a coming earthly kingdom, because that’s what God promised Moses on Mount
Sinai back in Exodus 19: that Israel would be a “kingdom of priests.” And,
you remember, I made the point (I think it was on the program) that in order to
have a viable kingdom, you need two entities. What is it? The king and his
subjects. All right, so now we’re going to look at the king aspect. And the
ideal kingship of Israel, of course, was King David. He was a man after God’s
own heart, and, I think, the apple of God’s eye! So, we’re going to jump from
Exodus to II Samuel chapter 7, and we’re going to look at God dealing with King
David. Now on our timeline, remember,
Abraham appears at 2,000 B.C. Then we’ve got almost 500 years between Moses
and Mount Sinai and King David, who rules and reigns about 1,000 B.C. You can
pick that up on the timeline. It’s not up there yet, but it will be in a
moment. Okay, II Samuel chapter 7 and let’s drop down to verse 8 where God is
speaking to David through the prophet Nathan. II Samuel 7:8-10a “Now therefore so shalt
thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from
the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over
Israel: 9. And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all
thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the
name of the great men that are in the earth. 10. Moreover (on top of
all that) I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant
them, that they may dwell in a place of their own,…” Now,
as you read this, think back that since 1948 this has all been fulfilled. They’re
there. By divine appointment. God said it. God promised it. And these
preachers and theologians can pooh-pooh this all they want. They’re lying
through their teeth, because God cannot lie. Man can, but God can’t. And God
has said He’s going to “bring them back and plant them,” and you
and I have seen it. II Samuel 7:10b “…I will plant them, that
they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the
children of wickedness afflict them anymore, as beforetime,” Now, keep
that right between your ears, because we’re going to jump up to Luke in just a
little bit, and you’ll see the same thing repeated. That’s what I like to do by
connecting Scriptures. All right, now verse 11: II Samuel 7:11 “And as since the time
that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to
rest from all thine enemies. Also, the LORD telleth thee that he will make
thee an house.” Now, I have to stop. The first
impression you get of “a house” is a building, right? So I suppose the first
thought is that we’re talking about Israel’s Temple. No. We’re going to talk
about a different house. When you have a royal family anywhere in history,
it’s always called The House of such and such. The House of Togarmah. The
House of Windsor in England. The House of Orange in Holland. The House of
Hapsburg’s in Austria. It was called a house, because it’s a royal bloodline. Out
of that family is where the kings and queens always come. So, the “house” that God is
promising David is not a physical building of wood and stone and rock, it’s a
royal bloodline. It’s the family of David. And we call it the House of
David. Okay? Now read on in verse 12. II Samuel 7:12 “And when thy days be
fulfilled, (In other words, he’s going to die physically like everybody
else.) and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will (Now watch
the I wills that God speaks in the Old Testament. If they haven’t
happened, they will. God’s Word will never fail. So, after you’ve died--) I
will set up thy seed after thee, (in other words, other sons and so
forth) who shall proceed out of thy bowels, (Inner-most being—in
other words, they will be genetically children of David.) and I
(God says) will establish his kingdom.” That is, this coming son
of David. II Samuel 7:13-14 “He shall build an house
for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.”
(Who are we talking about? Messiah Jesus – who’s going to be this King of
Israel.) 14. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. (Now
we come back in the language to the Nation of Israel itself.) If he
commit iniquity, (We know God the Son never will, so now we’re talking
about the Nation.) I will chasten him (or punish) with the
rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:” In other
words, God did that, you remember, with the Babylonian invasion. He did it
with the A.D. 70 Roman invasion. He’s going to do it once more in the
Tribulation, but the final end will be Israel’s glorious blessing. II Samuel 7:15-16 “But (in spite of
all the chastisement) my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took
it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. 16. And thine house (This
royal family starting with King David and ending with King Jesus when He
returns to set up His kingdom.) and thy kingdom shall be established
forever before thee: (Not just for a thousand years, it’s going to slip
right on up into eternity.) thy throne shall be established forever.” All right, now let’s jump all
the way up to Luke chapter 1. And here we’re dealing with Zacharias, the
father of John the Baptist. If you know the account, John the Baptist’s father
was stricken dumb, unable to speak, at the very conception of John in the
mother Elizabeth. For nine months Zacharias had to labor as a priest at the Temple unable to audibly speak. All right, let’s jump in at verse 57. We’re going to take
our time so that there are no gaps for questions. Luke 1:57-58 “Now Elizabeth’s
(That’s John the Baptist’s mother, the wife of Zacharias the priest.)
full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son. 58.
And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy
upon her; (Because she was beyond childbearing age, remember.) and
they rejoiced with her. Luke 1:59-62 “And it came to pass,
that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him
Zacharias, after the name of his father. 60. And his mother answered and said,
Not so; but he shall be called John. 61. And they said unto her, There is none
of thy kindred that is called by this name. 62. And they made signs to his
father, (See, he couldn’t speak.) how he would have him called.”
Luke 1:63-65a “And he asked for a
writing tablet, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they all marveled.
(That he and Elizabeth were in full accord that this unusual name would be used
for this child.) 64. And his mouth was opened immediately, (The
minute he wrote John, he got his speech back.) and his tongue was
loosed, and he spake, and praised God. 65. And fear came on all that dwelt
round about them: and all these sayings…” In other words, here is this
elderly couple that has had a special child, evidently. It’s been miraculously
declared by his losing his speech and gaining it back. Luke 1:65b-67a “…and all these sayings
were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea. 66. And all they
that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child
shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him. (That is, the
child.) 67. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit,…” Now, that’s the key, because of
the things he’s going to say. He doesn’t speak, as I’ve said over and over
before, he doesn’t speak as a well-meaning Jew, or somebody who was sort of
exaggerating. Everything he says is directed by the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:67b “…Zacharias was filled
with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying,” Or spoke forth. It
doesn’t mean that he’s telling future events, as much as he is speaking forth
the Word of God. Now you’ve got to remember, how long has it been since
anybody has written anything to the Nation of Israel? Four hundred years.
From Malachi to the appearance of all this was four hundred years. We call it
the four hundred years of silence, where God never spoke a word to Israel through prophets or through miraculous appearances – nothing. Four hundred years of
silence. And I suppose that was one reason that this caught Israel so off guard. Now, let’s read on. Luke 1:68a “Blessed be the Lord God
of (The human race? Who?) Israel;…” See
how Jewish this is. That’s what I want to emphasize now. This is all Jewish.
This is God dealing with Israel. This isn’t the beginning of Christianity, for
heaven’s sake. This is the fulfilling of the Old Testament. Most have got it
all wrong, and they teach it wrong. They’ve got it all wrong, because this is
not the beginning of the Church Age. This isn’t Christianity. This is just an
extension of the Old Testament promises. And that’s what he’s referring to. Luke 1:68-69 “Blessed be the Lord God
of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, (Israel) 69. And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his
servant (Who now?) David;” See how we’re connecting it?
David is the one that began this whole genealogical line that led us up to the
appearance of the Messiah. All right, now as I emphasize the Jewishness of all
this, I know there are going to be questions out there in television. Now wait
a minute, you mean He didn’t have anything to do with the Gentiles? Not a
thing! All right, now I’m going to use
Scripture to back that up. Keep your hand in Luke. We’re going to jump all the
way up to Ephesians chapter 2. And I’ll make statements, coming up in the next
few programs, that Jesus, nor the Old Testament prophets ever had anything to
do with the Gentiles, with the exception of a few. Precious few exceptions –
Jonah went to Nineveh, the Syrian general Naaman, and Rahab on the wall of Jericho; and then in Christ’s earthly ministry, only two – the Canaanite woman and the
Roman centurion. That’s all. He never had any evangelical
contact with Gentiles. Now, they may have come, and they may have eaten all of
the free food that He gave out, because even the politicians know that if you
want to get a crowd, offer free food. They all like a free lunch. So, there
may have been some Gentiles at the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the
4,000. I won’t deny that. But there was no spiritual contact. None, except
those two. Now look why. In Ephesians
chapter 2 verses 11 and 12, and this is as plain as language can make it. And
why can’t people read it? Ephesians 2:11 and 12 – this is from the pen of the
Apostle Paul writing to his Ephesian believers at the city of Ephesus. Ephesians 2:11a “Wherefore remember, that
ye (Gentiles) being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are
called Uncircumcision by those who are called the Circumcision…” In
other words, Jews referred to Gentiles as Uncircumcised. See that? Now verse
12: Ephesians 2:12a “That at that time…”
While God was dealing with His covenant people Israel, from Abraham in 2,000
B.C. all the way up to the time of Paul’s conversion, the Gentiles had no
access to God’s saving grace. Except the very few exceptions I mentioned. Ephesians 2:12a “That at that time ye
were without Christ, (What’s the other word for Christ? Messiah. They
didn’t have the hope of a coming Messiah. They didn’t even know what the word
meant.) being aliens (or non-citizens) from the commonwealth of Israel,…” Now, of course, we’ve gone
against that in this country. We give just as much rights to the non-citizen
as we do to the citizen, if not more. But that’s not the norm. In any other
nation on earth, the illegal immigrant doesn’t have any rights. He’s not a
citizen. And it certainly was true with Israel. The non-citizen had no
rights. Ephesians 2:12b “…you were aliens from
the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers (In other words, they were
not participants.) from the covenants of promise,…” Now, we have
taught the covenants in days gone by: the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic
Covenant, the Palestinian Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant.
They were all between God and Israel, in which the Gentiles had not one smidgen
of rights. All right, here it is. Ephesians 2:12c “…you were strangers from
the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:”
Now, some bleeding-heart liberal will say, well, God was unfair. No! How long
did God deal with the Gentile world before this kicked in? Two thousand
years. From Adam to Abraham God tried
to deal with the whole human race. He made salvation available to anybody that
would just follow His instructions. For 2,000 years He dealt with them. What
did they do with it? Walked it under foot. They scorned it. All right, so
that’s when God set them aside, and said, okay, I’ll bring out another little
nation, and I’ll deal with them. All right, so for 2,000 years God did. He
let the Gentile world go, as Paul writes, and He dealt only with His covenant
people. All right, then when the
Covenant people rejected everything, He turned, once again, to the Gentiles.
Now for 2,000 years, again, He’s been bringing salvation to the whole world.
God’s never unfair! Don’t ever even think it. He’s always fair. In this Age
of Grace that we’re in today, as the Body of Christ is being filled, one can be
saved by believing in our heart for salvation, “that Jesus died for our
sins, was buried, and rose again.” God calls that a free gift. We
find those instructions in I Corinthians 15:1-4 and in several other Scriptures
of the Apostle Paul. All right, coming back to Luke,
now, this is why it’s all Jewish. God is still on covenant ground with His
covenant people, and the Gentiles have no part of it. All right, back to Luke
chapter 1, and we left off at verse 69. Luke 1:69-71a “And hath raised up an
horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; (And that’s
Jew only.) 70. As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have
been with us since the world began: 71. That we (the Nation of Israel) should
be saved from our (Not our sins, yet, but what?) enemies,…”
Now, do you remember what God
told David back there in II Samuel? The very same thing. That they were
spared from all their enemies because of God blessing King David. They didn’t
have to worry about the Philistines and what-have-you when David was ruling.
He was in control of that part of the world. All right, then they lost it
all. Now, here comes the possibility that they can enjoy that same thing once
again, where they wouldn’t have to worry about invading armies of the
Babylonians or the Syrians or the Egyptians or anybody else, because this
coming king would save them. Luke 1:71b “…from our enemies, and
from the hand of all that (What?) hate us;” Now, you’ve
got to remember, the whole Middle East has hated the Jews since day one. And
we wonder—how long are they going to get away with it? Well, now a verse just
comes to mind. We’ve got time. Let’s go back and look at it. I hope I’ve got
the right one. I think I want to go to Ezekiel
35. Some of these come to mind, and I’m not always sure where it is. But here
it is, Ezekiel 35, lest you wonder: is God always going to let the Arabs get
away with it? Huh-un. No, their day is coming, and I don’t think it’s all
that far off. All right, Ezekiel 35, now this is written almost 600 years
before Christ, and we’re seeing it get ripe for fulfillment. Oh, it’s getting
ripe. Their day is coming. Ezekiel 35:1-3 “Moreover the word of the
LORD came unto me, saying, 2. Son of man, set thy face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, (Who was Mount Seir? Esau. And in the scheme of
things, who is Esau? One of the fathers of the Arab world—Ishmael, Esau, the
sons of Keturah, and so forth. All right, so this is a prophecy against the
offspring of Esau.) 3. And say unto it, (That is, the kingdom of
the offspring of Esau, the Arab world.) Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold,
O Mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand
against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.” Ezekiel 35:4-5 “I will lay thy cities
waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
(Now, look at the next verse) 5. Because (Not because God is
unfair. Not because God is hateful, but because of the opposite. He’s just.) thou
(Remember who we’re talking about now, the Arab world.) hast had a
perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, (or their problems) in
the time that their iniquity had an end:” Now, you want to remember, Israel would have to be chastised from time to time by their enemies. And this is one of
the things I always had a hard time comprehending. He used the Babylonians to
chastise Israel, and then He comes back and He blasts the Babylonians. The
only conclusion I can come to is because they overdid it. Instead of just
simply defeating Israel, they tortured them and murdered them by the millions.
They overdid it, and then God had to come back and punish them. So anyway, I
think it’s the same way today. There are times when God uses instruments to
punish God’s people, and then He has to come back and punish the punisher,
because they take advantage of the situation. All right, back to Luke chapter
1. Reading on, goodness, we’ve only got two minutes left. Okay, verse 71,
again, repeating it. Luke 1:71-73 “That we should be saved
from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us: (In other
words, God’s going to utterly destroy them.) 72. To perform the mercy
promised to our fathers, (The patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and
the Twelve Sons; the beginning of the Nation of Israel all had these promises
given to them.) and to remember his holy covenant; 73. The oath which he
swear to our father Abraham,” That’s why I’m always going
back to Genesis 12. Everything rests on that Abrahamic Covenant, because out
of that covenant came the Nation of Israel. Out the Nation of Israel came the
Word of God. Out of the Nation of Israel came the Messiah, who went to the
cross for the sins of the world. This is all part of that Abrahamic Covenant.
All right, but Israel is only looking at the Kingdom aspect. They’re not
looking at the Cross. They’re looking at the King. All right, come back to
Luke 1, verse 74. Luke 1:74 “That he (this
God of Abraham) would grant unto us, that we (the Nation of
Israel) being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him
without fear,” In other words, living in the midst of peace and
material prosperity, but it’s also going to include the spiritual. Luke 1:75-77 “In holiness and
righteousness before him, all the days of our life. (And now he comes
back to his own son, John the Baptist.) 76. And thou, child, shall be
called the prophet (or the foreteller) of the Highest: (The
Son of God, who will be appearing some 30 years after all this is announced.) for
thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; 77. To give
knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,”
To whom? His people – Israel. Okay, good to see everybody in
again this afternoon. My goodness, I think we’ve got every chair filled.
We’ve got a lot of out-of-state visitors today. We’ve got two up here from Florida. We’ve got six back there from Pennsylvania, and we’ve got several other new ones
from our area. We want to welcome every one of you. For those of you joining
us by television, again we’re just going to open the Scriptures and hopefully
clarify a lot of questions. Because I can tell from the mail and the phone
calls that some of the things we teach are just absolutely new to so many
people. And yet it’s not new. It’s been in here for thousands of years. The
only thing is, so many just can’t see it. But we’re going to do our best to
keep opening the Scriptures. It’s not what I think or what any denomination
thinks, but what does the Book say. All right, for just a little
refreshing of our memory, I’m going to look at a couple of verses we closed
with in our last program, which on television, of course, was just yesterday.
But for those of us in here, it’s been two weeks ago. Turn back with me to
Luke chapter 1. We’ve been looking at this whole concept of “connecting the
dots” of the big picture from Genesis to Revelation. The biggest share
of it, of course, starts in Genesis chapter 12 and the call of Abraham and the
appearance of the Nation of Israel. The first eleven chapters of
Genesis are what I call a disaster. It is pitiful how everything went down,
down, down, from the time of Creation until God called out Abraham. Well, in
the last taping we came up through the Old Testament showing the person of the
coming King and how He had been prophesied all the way up through the Old
Testament. Today, we’re going to look at the physical aspects of the Kingdom
over which this King will one day rule. So, just to pick up a little
mind refresher from our last program, turn back with me where we stopped in
Luke chapter 1, where Zacharias the priest has now had this outpouring of
information from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It’s not just, like I
always say, the wishful thinking of a good Jew, but rather, this was the very
mind of God. All right, I’m going to drop in
at verse 69. This is just part of his speaking forth of what was about to
happen so far as Old Testament prophecies were concerned, and that is that the
Messiah was now in their midst. John the Baptist will soon start announcing
it, but here Zacharias, at the birth of John the Baptist, is letting Israel
know what is about to happen. Luke 1:69-71a “And hath raised up an
horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; 70. As he spake by
the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: 71.
That we should be saved from our enemies,…” And I always make the
point: now we’re not talking about sin, yet, we’re talking about their mortal
enemies living all around them, even as they are today. That’s why it’s so
appropriate. Luke 1:71-74 “That we should be saved
from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; 72. To perform the
mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 73. The oath
(or the covenant) which he swear to our father Abraham, 74. That he (God)
would grant unto us (Israel), that we being
delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him (God) without
fear,” Luke 1:75-77a “In holiness and
righteousness before him, all the days of our life. 76. And thou, child,
(Speaking of John the Baptist, who has just been born.) shalt be called
the prophet (or the forth teller) of the Highest: for thou shalt
go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; 77. To give knowledge of
salvation…” Now we’re dealing with the sin problem. Luke 1:77-78 “To give knowledge of
salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, 78. Through the
tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us.” All right, now that’s where we
stopped. I’m going to go back now and pick up the other side of the prophecies
and that is the Kingdom itself and all of its physical properties. We’re going
to take you all the way back to where we’ve been many, many times over the last
many, many years—to Exodus 19. And remember what we’re talking about. The
last programs were the promises concerning this person, the Messiah, who would
be the King over the glorious Earthly Kingdom. Now, I’m going to go back and
start in Exodus and bring along all the prophecies concerning the physical
attributes of the Kingdom. Before we go any further, before I have the guys
turn the board, I’m just suddenly reminded – because of all the questions we
get showing the confusion in all denominations about this Earthly Kingdom. People can’t get it through their heads. Yeah, I’ve got heads nodding. You’ve run across it. They
can’t get it through their head that when time ends as we understand it, and
the Tribulation has run its course, and the earth has been devastated by God
judging the iniquity of mankind; that the earth is going to be totally
renovated, regenerated, and reconstituted. (Those were the words that are used
in Scripture.) It’ll be an earth like the Garden of Eden, and that will bring
in the thousand-year Earthly Kingdom. And they can’t get it through their
head. Well, now I’ve just suddenly
brought to mind, when my youngest son Todd went up to Southern Illinois
University back in the late 80’s. And the first Sunday he was up there in Carbondale, he found a church and he went to a Sunday school class with college kids. He
was up there working on his Masters. And the subject in that Sunday school
that morning was the Kingdom of Heaven. And all they could talk about was the
invisible, spiritual aspect of that Kingdom of Heaven. And he said after about
twenty minutes he just couldn’t hold it any longer, and he interrupted, and he
said, “Now wait a minute. You’ve got it all wrong. This isn’t an invisible
kingdom. It’s a visible, veritable kingdom over which Christ is going to rule
and reign as King.” Now, how I picked it up, we
came in the house from church and the phone was ringing. Todd was on the phone
all shook up because of what he had just experienced at his Sunday school in
church. And I mean he was shook up. Almost, he probably wouldn’t want me to
say this, but almost in tears. Because when he pointed out their error that
this isn’t something invisible and spiritual, but it’s a physical visible
Kingdom, and he said, “Dad, what do you suppose they almost screamed at me?”
And I said, “Tell me.” They said, “You mean it’s a political thing?” And he
said, “Well, if you want to call it that. Yes. But it’s going to be a Kingdom
over which Christ is going to rule and reign.” He said, “They couldn’t get
it.” They just scoffed and scorned him, and he said, “I’ll never go back.” I
said, “I don’t blame you, I wouldn’t either.” But see, that’s the mentality of
Christendom. Because Todd wouldn’t go to some offbeat, liberal church, he went
to what he thought was a rather biblical one. But see, they have no concept of
this earthly, glorious, one thousand year Kingdom over which Christ is going to
rule and reign. But it’s through all of Scripture, as I’m going to show you
today continuing on from the last taping. All right, the first real
mention of this Kingdom is in Exodus 19, so turn with me there. We’re going to
jump in at verse 3. And then we’re just going to do a lot of Bible reading today.
So those of you out in television, bear with me. We’re just going to let the
Scripture speak for itself. I don’t have to comment on it. It’s so plain.
The language is so evident, that we can just let it speak. Exodus 19:3-5a “And Moses went up unto
God, (Up there at Mount Sinai remember, and they’re all gathered around
the mountain. They’ve just escaped from the Red Sea experience.) 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; 4. Ye have seen what I did
unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto
myself. 5. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my
covenant,…” Which he’s going to give now in chapter 20, the covenant of
Law – the Ten Commandments and all the rest of it. Exodus 19:5-6a “Now therefore, if ye
will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye (Now we’re
talking about the Nation of Israel again.) shall be a peculiar treasure
unto me above all people: (They’re going to be the chosen race. And
God says I can do this, because I’m Sovereign.) for all the earth is mine:
(And now here it comes.) 6. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of
priests,…” Now way back, I haven’t done it
for a long time, I said the Kingdom is the Kingdom is the Kingdom is the
Kingdom. What Kingdom is it talking about? That thousand year reign of
Christ, where the world is going to be totally under His dominion. It’s going
to be Heaven on Earth, and that’s why it’s called the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s going to be completely void of sin and death and disease and all the things
concerning the curse, because the curse will be lifted. Satan will be
removed. He’s locked up in the abyss. So it’s going to Heaven on Earth. Keep that locked in your mind
that we’re talking not about Heaven of the Heavens. The Bible doesn’t tell us
much about that. All we know about the Heaven of the Heavens – it’s going to
be glorious! But we get all these descriptions of this Earthly Kingdom, and we’re going to look at them today. All right, so Israel is given the prospect
that when this Kingdom comes in, and all the nations are going to be
represented. They’re all going to be starting on a population explosion right
along with Israel. But every Jew had the prospect of being a priest. Not just
the tribe of Levi, all of them. But they’re going to have to meet God’s
conditions. If they would be obedient, then God would bring in this glorious
opportunity for every last Jew – verse 6. Exodus 19:6 “And ye shall be unto me
a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. (Now, you see, that’s
exactly the same words that Peter uses in his little epistle when he addressed
the Jews of his day – that they were promised to be priests and a holy nation.
That’s not to us. Paul never ever calls the Grace Age believer a priest.
We’re members of the Body. We’re ambassadors. And we are certainly the
promoters of Truth and all that. But we are never called priests in the Body
of Christ. All right, so every Jew had the prospect to be a priest in this
Kingdom.) These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of
Israel.” All right, now let’s jump all
the way up to where the prophets begin to lay out this Earthly Kingdom in all of its physical and political, if you want to use that word, attributes. Jump
up with me to Isaiah chapter 2. As far as I can tell, this is the real first
prophetic utterance, unless David may possibly have it in the Psalms. But of
the prophets, this is the first instance that we have this Kingdom alluded to.
Isaiah chapter 2, might as well start at verse 1. Isaiah 2:1-2a “The word that Isaiah the
son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2. And it shall come to pass…”
Now, does time mean anything to our God? Nothing. He’s timeless. So even
though Isaiah is writing 700 years before Christ, and this hasn’t happened yet,
don’t you believe this stuff that everything ended in A.D. 70. I can’t, can
you? I just can’t get over it. How in the world they can say this kind of
stuff. But anyhow, this has not happened yet. Does that mean it isn’t going
to? Well, of course not. God is timeless. His wheels grind slowly, and it’s
going to happen! Now we can see the evidence that we’re getting closer and
closer. I still like to go back to my
old cartoon of the caveman. Yeah, every once in a while I pull it on Iris.
You know, the old caveman was sitting in front of his door and he had a big
sign over it -- “The End Is Near.” And then he must have had a second thought and
he put “er” on the end of it. “The End Is Nearer.” Well okay, it’s
nearer now than it was two weeks ago when we were here. It’s getting closer
and closer and closer. And again, I’m always going back to that verse in
Galatians. I did in the last taping. How did Paul refer to the birth of
Christ at Bethlehem? “That when the fullness of the time was come, God
sent forth His Son.” What does that mean? God, in His foreknowledge,
knew exactly what day Christ was going to be born. He knew the hour, but He
doesn’t necessarily reveal it. Now, it is the same way here.
God knows when this is going to come to pass. We don’t. All we know is that
we are getting closer and closer. All right, back to Isaiah chapter 2. Isaiah 2:2 “And it shall come to pass
in the last days, that the mountain (or the Kingdom) of the
LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, (Now
remember, the word mountain in the Old Testament verbiage is a kingdom.)
and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” All
right, so this Kingdom is going to be above all the other kingdoms of this
world. “…and all nations shall flow (Where?) into it.” Now, as we come up through the
Scriptures this afternoon, keep those words uppermost in your thinking. That
everything in that Kingdom is going to flow into the capital city of that
Kingdom, which will be Jerusalem. All right, let’s jump all the way up to
chapter 9. Now, all we’re going to do all afternoon is just look at these
chronologically unfolding Scriptures that are describing this coming Kingdom,
that regardless of how you look at it, has not happened yet. But it’s going
to. Verses 6 and 7: Isaiah 9:6a “For unto us a child is
born, (a reference to Bethlehem) unto us (Israel) a son is given: and the government…” Now, you want to call it
political? The only trouble is, in our understanding of Scripture, if it’s
political, it’s bound to have what go with it? Corruption. Absolutely. But
not in this one! This is going to be a government that is as holy and
righteous as God Himself. So, you can call it political, but leave the
corruption aside. Isaiah 9:6b-7a “…the government shall be
upon his shoulder: (That is, this one who was born in Bethlehem.) and
his name (when this Kingdom comes in) shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. 7. Of
the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, (In
other words, it’s going to slip right on into eternity, and it’s going to be--)
upon the throne of David,…” Now stop. Where was David’s throne?
In Heaven? No. Jerusalem, and in particular, on what mountain? Mount Zion. And that’s where Christ is going to have His headquarters in this thousand-year
Kingdom. On Mount Zion. Isaiah 9:7b “…upon the throne of
David, (where David’s throne was in the past) and upon his
kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from
henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” All right, let’s just go a
little bit further to Isaiah chapter 11. I’m just taking these as they unfold
in Scripture. In Isaiah chapter 11 we look at another aspect of this glorious Earthly Kingdom. And I’m going to emphasize that word ‘earthly’ all afternoon; so
that people get it out of their heads that we’re talking about some kind of a
spiritual, invisible entity. No. We’re talking about this planet that’s going
to renovated and made new like the Garden of Eden. It’s going to be beautiful
beyond comprehension, but it also has all of the other attributes of planet
earth, the animal kingdom. And that’s what we see here in this chapter. Okay,
Isaiah chapter 11 starting at verse 1. Isaiah 11:1a “And there shall come
forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,…” Now, that’s just Old Testament
language that out of the family tree as we refer to it, we have Jesse. Out of
Jesse came David, and then down through the hundreds of years of Israel’s history came Jesus of Nazareth, the promised line of David and Solomon and so
forth. Isaiah 11:1b-2 “…and a Branch
(is a reference to Christ) shall grow out of his roots: (This is
what’s going to happen to the Christ, the Messiah, when He returns and sets up
this Kingdom on earth.) 2. And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon
him, (the sevenfold spirits of God) the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the LORD;” In other words, He’s going to have all the
attributes of the Godhead in His Kingdom rule. Isaiah 11:3-4a “And shall make him of quick
understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge
(Or rule—now, we’ve gone over all this before. For a lot of you, I know this
is review. But we have a lot of listeners out there who have never heard this
before, believe me.) he shall not rule after the sight of his eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4. But with righteousness (With
all the righteousness of the Godhead remember, because that’s who He is. He’s
God the Son.) shall he rule the poor, and reprove with equity for the
meek of the earth:…” In other words, the beatitudes are going to become
the constitution of this Kingdom. Isaiah 11:4b “…and he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth, (In other words, to prepare it for
this Kingdom economy.) and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the
wicked.” That’s all past. That was done during the Tribulation. Now,
back into the Kingdom again. Isaiah 11:5-6 “And righteousness shall
be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reigns.
(Now we come to the animal kingdom.) 6. The wolf also shall dwell with
the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the
young lion and the fatling together; (No controversy between these wild
animals. No death. No tearing from limb and so forth.) and a little
child shall lead them.” Because these incoming people
at the beginning of the millennium are going to be flesh and blood. They’re
going to be marrying and having families and having children. That’s the whole
idea of the Kingdom. But there’s no sin. There’s no Satan. Everything is
going to be harmonious, as Adam and Eve could have had it had they not eaten of
the tree. Well anyway, how can this happen? I always have to do this, because
otherwise people say, “Well, now this doesn’t make sense.” All right, come
back to Genesis chapter 1. How can all these carnivorous animals: the lion,
the wolf, the tigers, and the leopards—how can they all be cohabiting with
little children and with lambs and goats, which would ordinarily be their
easiest prey? But here’s the reason. Genesis 1 verse 30 and this is
the way it’s going to be again. Now, this is before Adam ate. This is before
the curse fell. This is the way God originally created it. All right, Genesis
1 verse 30: Genesis 1:30 “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 food: and
it was so.” Now what does that tell you? Everything. The
carnivorous, as we call them, the lions and the leopards and the goats and so
forth are all going to eat of things that grow naturally. That’s what we mean
by the herbs. Nothing will kill something else for its diet. And that’s why
it’s going to be so glorious. All right, now with that
concept, since the curse will be lifted and Satan is locked up, yes, this
becomes very believable. Back to Isaiah 11 and now verse 7. Isaiah 11:7 “And the cow (the
domesticated cattle) and the bear (That would never happen
ordinarily, but it’s going to because it’s going to revert back to the pre-Fall
and so) shall feed; (that is together) their young ones
shall lie down together: and the lion (of all creatures) shall
eat straw (Or herbs, or grass, or forage, however you want to put it.) like
the ox (cattle).” The lion won’t have to have meat for
its diet. The lion’s full digestive track will be changed again so that it
will be like it was before the Fall, where everything ate those things that
grow naturally. All right, then verse 8: Isaiah 11:8 “And the nursing child
shall play on the hole of the asp, (a poisonous snake) and the
weaned child (See, we’re showing that there are different stages of
children just like today. There’s going to be infants and toddlers and older
kids, and they’re all part of this glorious Kingdom economy now.) shall
put his hand on a cockatrice’ den.” And now verse 9, here’s the
frosting on the cake, as we like to put it. Isaiah 11:9 “They (All these
inhabitants of this glorious, Earthly Kingdom over which Christ is ruling and
reigning.) shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: (There’ll
be no death, no pain, no injury. It’s going to be glorious, and yet they’re
going to be there in flesh and blood bodies.) for the earth (Not
heaven, the earth) shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the
waters cover the sea.” In other words, everything is going to be as
perfect as God can make it! Why can’t people believe it?
Does it stretch their imagination? My goodness, you know, if God could create
the universe with all of its billions and billions and billions of stars and
galaxies, you tell me that He can’t make this possible? Why, this is nothing
compared to what He’s already done. And all He asks us to do is what? Believe
it! That’s why faith is the key. God wants us to believe what He says. And
He’s going to reward us accordingly. Okay, it’s good to see
everybody back. You’ve had your coffee, and again we want to welcome our
television audience and say thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh, I just can’t
thank you enough for your prayers and your letters of encouragement and then,
above everything else, your financial help. After all, television is
expensive, and I will not run up a bill. If we can’t pay for the time, then we
have to drop the station. So far we haven’t had to. It just keeps coming in.
And we just thank you from the depths of our heart, because even through the
summer when a lot of ministries have a hard time, we haven’t had any drop at
all. So again, we just know it’s a God-thing, and we just praise Him for it. Okay, we’re going to keep right
on with our line of the coming Earthly Kingdom. For this series of programs,
we’re going to be looking at the physical attributes of this Kingdom and
hopefully help people see that this Kingdom is going to be right here on this
planet earth, although God is going to renovate the earth first. The whole
planet is going to be renovated and made like the Garden of Eden, and, as we
pointed out at the beginning of our last program, even the animal kingdom will
revert back to the behavior that it had before the Fall. In other words,
nothing killed something else for food. There was no death. And it’s going to
go back to that. All right, now we’re going to
continue on up through the Book of Isaiah, and we’re going to start in Isaiah
chapter 34 verse 1. The reason I’m doing this is to show you that the Kingdom
will immediately follow the horrors of the Tribulation, which ends, of course,
with the Battle of Armageddon. That’s why I’m going to start here with chapter
34; it’s just an introduction to the Kingdom described in 35. Isaiah 34 and we’re going to
start at verse 1. Now remember what we’re doing. We’re going back to see
what’s going to take place just before Christ returns and sets up His Kingdom.
Isaiah 34:1 “Come near, ye nations,
to hear; and hearken; ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein;
the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation
(or the wrath, the vexation) of the LORD is upon all nations, and his
fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered
them to the slaughter.” Now we have done this before.
You’ve got to realize that those final months of the seven years are going to
be beyond human description. The Lord Himself said it in Matthew 24:21 – “For
then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the
world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” So, don’t ever think for a
minute that this is just a stretch of a prophet’s imagination. This is the
Holy Spirit inspired account of those coming days. Isaiah 34:3-4a “Their slain (in
other words, the dead) also shall be cast out and their stink (or
their odor) shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall
be melted with their blood. 4. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll:…” Revelation
says the same thing. All right, verse 5. Isaiah 34:5 “For my sword shall be
bathed in heaven; behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people
of my curse, (Which, of course, is the whole human race.) to
judgment.” Now, let’s skip some of these,
because it’s just a graphic description of the horrors that are going to take
place at the Second Coming. Now, I wasn’t intending to do this, but again, I
have to whenever I get the chance. You know, there is such scorn lately of the
Rapture. I think we’re under attack more than has ever been in the last 2,000
years. Where people are almost getting hateful of our teaching of a sudden
disappearance of the believers. And when they try to write letters of argument,
and I’ve mentioned this before, the only Scriptures they use are all those
pertaining to the Second Coming; which, of course, are the four Gospels and
Revelation and the Old Testament. They utterly ignore Paul’s Epistles, and
that’s where the Rapture is. And see, this is another thing
they can’t get through their heads—that the references to the Second Coming are
all like this—the horrors and the death and the destruction that’s going to
take place on planet Earth leading up to Christ’s Second Coming. Paul never
speaks of those kinds of things. And I think I did it in the last taping. All
Paul speaks of leading up to the Rapture is a social breakdown. II Timothy
chapter 3 starting with verse 1, “…in the last days perilous times shall
come. 2. For men shall be lovers of themselves… 4. …more than lovers of God.”
There’s going to be this moral breakdown and apostasy in Christendom but not a
word about death and destruction. Not a word. And that triggers the Rapture.
But the Second Coming is filled with these kinds of prophecies. All right, let’s go on into
chapter 35 of Isaiah and get away from all the language of horror and get into
the language of hope of this glorious Earthly Kingdom. Now remember, this is
primarily promised to the Nation of Israel. This is not promised to the Body
of Christ. Now, how much we are going to have to do with this Earthly Kingdom
I’m getting further and further removed from understanding, because a lot of
the things that I always used to associate with it aren’t for the Body of
Christ, they’re for the Nation of Israel. So, again, I’m just going to leave
it at that. Here the prophet again is addressing God’s chosen people. Isaiah 35:1 “The wilderness and the
solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and
blossom as the rose.” Now, isn’t that a far cry from what we just read
in chapter 34? My! What a difference. Do you see that? Isaiah 35:2 “It shall blossom
abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon (Now Lebanon, of course, in antiquity was known for its beautiful
landscape; the cedars of Lebanon, you know that.) shall be given unto it,
the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, (which are beautiful places in the
land of Israel) they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the
excellency of our God.” Isaiah 35:3-4 “Strengthen ye the weak
hands, and confirm the feeble knees. 4. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance,
(back there in the Tribulation) even God with a recompense; he will come
and save you.” Now we come back to those that have survived the
Tribulation and are now going into the Kingdom. Isaiah 35:5-6a “Then the eyes of the
blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6. Then
shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb will sing:…”
All of these things that were part of the curse will suddenly be corrected.
Now verse 7: Isaiah 35:7-9a “And the parched ground
shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation
of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. 8. And an
highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring
men, though fools, shall not err therein. 9. No lion shall be there, nor any
ravenous beast shall go up thereon,…” Because that’s all part of the
curse. All right, now the last verse. Isaiah 35:10 “And the ransomed of the
LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs (see, not the cry of
wrath and death and destruction, but--) and everlasting joy upon their
heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee
away.” Now this is on the planet, beloved, not up there in what we
call Heaven; but it’s going to be a heavenly atmosphere on this planet. All right, now let’s jump ahead
to Jeremiah 23 verse 1, and he picks up the same tune that Isaiah has just left
us with. While you’re looking it up, I’ve got my timeline back here in front
of me, and we’re going to run over that for a minute, quickly. Remember that
the first eleven chapters of Genesis took us up to chapter 12—the Abrahamic
Covenant and the appearance of the Nation of Israel. All right, now from Genesis
chapter 12 all the way up through our Old Testament economy 500 years after
Abraham, we come to Moses, and we started out with that in Exodus 19 and the
giving of the Law at about 1500 B.C. Five hundred years later (1000
B.C.), we have David and Solomon and the Nation of Israel at the peak of glory
in its Old Testament time. Then we come to the time of the prophets and
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Then, of course, at the time of
Daniel, about 600 B.C., we have the Babylonian invasion and the destruction of
the temple. And that has all been called the “Time of the Gentiles” – when
Israel would be under the heavy boot of first the Babylonians, then the Medes
and then the Greeks and then the Romans, which takes us all the way up to sometime
beyond Christ’s First Advent. All right, now all the prophets
are talking in terms of two distinct events always in succession. The first
one is, there had to be judgment and chastisement, and that was such as the
Babylonian invasion. Israel had gone into stark idolatry and rebellion and God
chastised them with that Babylonian invasion. They went out into 70 years of
captivity, but then they came back and rebuilt the Temple and went under God’s
blessings for a period of time. That led us all the way up to Christ’s earthly
ministry, bringing the prophets all these promises of chastisement and
blessing, chastisement and blessing—three of them. Now the first chastisement I’ve
already mentioned was Babylon. Then the next one was the Roman invasion in A.D.
70. They’ve been under the chastisement for almost 2,000 years; and the
blessing is about to come, which will be this glorious Kingdom. Now all the
Old Testament promises are leading up to Christ’s First Advent. Then, so far as
prophecy was concerned, yes, He would be rejected. He would be crucified.
He’d be three days in the tomb. He’d be resurrected and then spend forty days
with the Twelve. Then He ascended back to Glory, and then, so far as the Old
Testament and the Gospels and everything were concerned, in would come the
Tribulation. Those final seven years are always divided 3 ½ and 3 ½. That’s why we can determine a
seven-year period. Daniel speaks of 490 years. But only 483 were fulfilled.
So, we’ve got seven years left. That’s just plain arithmetic. All right, then
we come to the Book of Revelation. It stipulates 42 months and 42 months,
that’s 3½ years and 3 ½ years. Another chapter will say 1,260 days and 1,260
days; 3 ½ years and 3 ½ years. All of Scripture fits into this seven-year time
frame. So, don’t let people try to foul your thinking with all these other
things. But we have this final seven years always divided in half, because the
first half will not be anything like the last half. All right, then, as we’ve
already seen today, these seven years will lead up to the Second Coming and the
coming in of the Kingdom. Now, all through Scripture there was not one hint
but that it would all be coming right down the line. In other words, the
Tribulation would take place just a few years after the ascension and the
Second Coming. So, this was all going to take place in the lifetime of people
living here after Christ ascended back to glory. Now think for a minute.
Take the twelve disciples, for example. What do you suppose was their average
age? Just a guess. How old do you think the disciples were? In their
thirties? All right, now we know that from the crucifixion until sometime
after Peter starts preaching at Pentecost, we’ll say five years go by. And
that would have brought in the Tribulation. So, five plus seven would take you
twelve years beyond the crucifixion, and you’d have the what? The Kingdom. All right, so if the guys were
40 and twelve years later they are still only what? Fifty-two. So you see,
this whole top line could have easily taken place in the lifetime of the people
that were living at the time that Christ ministered. They had no idea that God
was going to do something different. Because you see, after we’ve gone past
the ascension, instead of the Tribulation taking place, Israel rejected it all when they stoned Stephen. That was shortly after His ascension, remember.
All right, so they stoned Stephen. And who are we introduced to at the stoning
of Stephen? Paul—who would be going to the Gentiles—not with the Gospel of the
Kingdom, but rather with the Gospel of Grace. And that’s what you have to
understand. That all of a sudden Israel rejects their Messiah; rejects all
these Old Testament promises, and God says, I’ll do something different. Just
like He did when He called Abraham. He had one race of people. He had been
dealing with them for 2,000 years, and what does God say in so many words, I’m
going to do something different. And He raised up Abraham. All right, now it’s the same
way when Israel rejected and rejected. They stoned Stephen—we’ll not have this
Jesus of Nazareth ruling over us—and we’re introduced to the next major player,
Saul of Tarsus. All right, that means that God was going to put this whole
timeline on hold. That’s why we drop it down to a second line now. Instead of
bringing in the Tribulation, we bring in the Dispensation of Grace. When this Dispensation of Grace
for the out-calling of the Gentile Body is complete, it has to be taken out so
that God can finish this top line dealing with Israel. And it’s so obvious
from Scripture if you realize that only Paul speaks of the Rapture. Nobody
else knows about it, as it was given only to Paul. The Rapture will happen
when the Body of Christ is complete and just before the seven-year Tribulation
begins. And so, as I’ve already pointed out, the Second Coming is associated
with nothing but the wrath and destruction and the vengeance of God setting the
stage for the Kingdom that’s still future. All right, now at break time I
had Sharon put on the board, again, the three circles explaining the Kingdom of God. I thought I did that Kingdom of God and Body of Christ six months ago. I
went back and checked the books, and you know how long it was? That’s over two
years, Sharon. That’s over two years ago. Man, it seems like six months. But
anyhow, we did a whole series on the circles that she’s got here now. The Kingdom of Heaven and The Body of Christ, but they’re all in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is everything from eternity past to eternity future that is under God’s righteous control.
There’s nothing of evil in here. There’s nothing of eternal doom in here.
There’s nothing of the Lake of Fire in here. This is only that which pertains
to God’s righteousness, which would be: Heaven, the angelic hosts, the Old
Testament saints, the Gospel’s, Christ’s earthly ministry saints, the
Tribulation saints, and the Body of Christ saints. We’re all in the Kingdom of God. But we’re not in there in a mumble-jumble group. We’re in there in two
totally separate entities. Everything pertaining to the
Old Testament believers all the way from Adam until the Second Coming, which
would include the Tribulation believers, they’re in the Kingdom of Heaven. They’re either going to come in here as flesh and blood, having survived the
Tribulation and having become believers from the 144,000 preaching. If they’re
martyred, they’re going to be resurrected and brought into the Kingdom of Heaven along with the Old Testament Saints. If they’ve managed to stay alive,
then they’ll come into the Kingdom as flesh and blood, as we’ve been looking at
now this afternoon. All right, now if we don’t get
to it this afternoon, then in our next taping we’re going to talk about that
other group of believers who are in the Kingdom of God, which is the Body of
Christ. But they’re two totally separate entities. And that’s what we have to
understand. Okay, now let’s go back to
where I just was in Jeremiah chapter 23. Let’s start at verse 1. Now again,
we’re going to be looking at the physical attributes of this glorious Earthly Kingdom that’s coming. Like I said in the last half hour, we don’t know when, but
it’s closer today than it was yesterday. Tomorrow it’s going to closer yet,
because we’re moving ever nearer and nearer. Now again, we’re going to back up
a little bit in time to the reason God had to bring in wrath and destruction. Jeremiah 23:1 “Woe be to the pastors
that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! Saith the LORD.” Now
remember, who is Jeremiah writing to? Israel. The pastors here are the
priests and the religious leaders of Israel. Jeremiah 23:2-3 “Therefore thus saith the
LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; (This is
all Jewish.) Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have
not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith
the LORD. 3. And I will gather the remnant (the believing remnant) of
my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them
again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.” Now
then, we’re coming into the Kingdom economy again. Reading on… “And I will set up
shepherds over them who shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be
dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD. 5. Behold, the days
come, (Now it hasn’t happened yet. Nobody can ever tell me that this
took place any time in the past.) saith the LORD, that I will raise unto
David a righteous Branch, (And that’s capitalized, because Branch is
another one of the Old Testament terminologies for the Messiah. All right, and
so--) and a (What’s the next word?) King shall reign, and
prosper,…” Now that just reminds me. You
know, sometimes I do things that I don’t intend to do. Come back with me to
Revelation, so that we compare Scripture with Scripture. That’s the name of
the game. Now Revelation is a New Testament book that is written in the same
order for the Nation of Israel, to give them a road map of what’s ahead. It’s
not church language; it’s Jewish language. All right, so Revelation chapter 19
and let’s just start at verse 11. Now remember why I came back here, the word King
that Jeremiah uses. Revelation 19:11 “And I saw heaven opened,
and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and
True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.” See, that’s
the Tribulation. Revelation 19:12-14 “His eyes were as a flame
of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no
man knew, but he himself. 13. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood:
(because of His victims) and his name is called The Word of God. 14. And
the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine
linen, white and clean.” Revelation 19:15 “And out of his mouth
goeth a sharp sword, (in other words, the Word of God) that with
it (His Word) he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them
with a rod of iron:” (In other words, there’s no funny business in the
Kingdom. He’s going to be a benevolent King, but He will tolerate no
opposition. All right, so He’s going to rule with an absolute, and then--)
and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of
Almighty God.” As He winds up the Tribulation. And now here it comes.
When He appears at His Second Coming and He sets up His Kingdom, here’s His
title now. Revelation 19:16 “And He hath on his
vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
My, that reminds me of Handel’s Messiah, doesn’t it? But that’s what He’s
going to be. He’s going to be the King of Kings! Why is that so hard for
people to swallow? He has every right, and all of Scripture is prophesying
it. All right, back to Jeremiah. My goodness, I’ve only got three minutes
left. Back to Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah 23:5 “Behold, the days come,
(See, it hasn’t happened yet.) saith the LORD, that I will raise unto
David a righteous Branch, and a King (God the Son!) shall reign
and prosper, and shall execute judgment (or I always take the term
government) and justice in the earth.” Now, is that plain
enough? We’re not talking about Heaven; we’re talking about planet Earth. Jeremiah 23:6 “In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called,
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” And if I remember my Hebrew right, that’s
“Tsidkenu.” Jeremiah 23:7-8a “Therefore, behold, the
days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, who
brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; (That’s
what it’s always been so far. But at this point in time, it’s going to be a
little different saying.) 8. But the LORD liveth, who
brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country;
(Primarily Russia and northern Europe.) and from all countries whither I
had driven them;…” And we know, from Deuteronomy
30 verses 1 and 2, that the Jews would be scattered into every nation on this
planet. And then at a point afterwards, God would bring them back to their
homeland. We always use that in association with the signs of the times of
Matthew 16. And there they are, back in the land! My goodness, I tell
everybody that if for no other reason, we know this Book is true because the
Jew, against all odds, is back in their homeland. And our politicians are too
stupid to know the difference. It’s just unbelievable. Why can’t anybody
recognize that these people who have been scattered for 1,900 and some years
are, against all odds, back in Jerusalem? Back in their homeland. All of
Scripture says it was going to happen. All right, now we’re going to
end this so we can move on in our next program, but again verse 8: Jeremiah 23:8 “But, The LORD liveth,
who brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north
country, and from all the countries from whither I had driven them; and they
shall dwell in their own land.” Does this Book lie? Well, it can’t.
So, is it going to happen? Yes, it’s going to happen. And we’re getting
closer every day. All the things that are taking place in the world are
getting ready for this glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus
Christ. Okay, all of you out in
television, come and see us sometime. We have a great time on these Wednesday
afternoons. Again, we always like to remind you that we’re so appreciative of
all your prayers, your financial help, and your encouraging letters. My
goodness, how we love our mail time! Okay, we’re going to come right
on with the theme that we’re showing the attributes of this physical, political
Earthly Kingdom over which Christ is going to rule and reign. And all these
Old Testament promises will finally become a reality. This isn’t just pie in
the sky. This is going to happen, because it’s the Word of God. All right, we’re going to jump
in at Jeremiah 31 and verse 11. Now all of these verses are applicable.
They’re all speaking of this glorious coming time for the Nation of Israel.
I’m just sort of hitting the highlights. In your spare time read the rest of
these chapters. Jeremiah 31:11a “For the LORD hath
redeemed Jacob,…” Now stop a minute. Will there be any unbelieving
Jews going into the Kingdom? No. The Lord made it so plain in John chapter 3
when He was speaking to Nicodemus. What did He tell him? Nicodemus, you
should know this. No one goeth into the Kingdom unless they be born again. Or
what we call now and I prefer, born from above. So, there’ll be no unbelievers
going into this Kingdom. It’s going to be a Kingdom of righteousness, and
it’ll be a righteous government. It’s going to be a righteous environment.
We’ll be looking at some more of that when we finally get into the New
Testament description of these things. But here we have the redeemed of Israel who will be going into the Kingdom. Now, let me just throw some
numbers at you. We know from Zechariah chapter 8 that one third of Israel is going to come through the fires of the Tribulation and go into the Kingdom. Two
thirds are going to be lost. All right, Israel today is around 15 million
people. One third means five million. That’s a pretty good chunk of people.
That’s more than Dallas or Fort Worth put together. All right, that will be
the remnant of Israel going in on the front end. Now then, from all the other
nations of the world there will just be a smattering of survivors who are
believers that will go into the Kingdom as Gentiles. And that’s what you
always have to remember. The millennial reign will be primarily Israel’s thing. They are going to be the head nation of the nations by virtue of numbers.
But all the other nations are going to be represented with a few and the
population, of course, will grow from all directions. All right, so that’s what
we talk about when we speak of the inhabitants of this glorious Kingdom. Okay,
now I’m going to start reading in Jeremiah 31 verse 11 again. Jeremiah 31:11-12 “For the LORD hath
redeemed Jacob, (or the Nation of Israel) and ransomed him from
the hand of him who was stronger than he. 12. Therefore they shall come and
sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow (That same word that Isaiah
used – all the nations shall flow into it.) together to the goodness of
the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and
of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; (Are you
getting the beautiful description here?) and they shall not sorrow any more
at all.” It’s going to be Heaven on earth. Now that’s the only way I
can put it. It’s going to be Heaven, but on planet earth, for a thousand
years. All right, verse 13. Jeremiah 31:13-14 “Then shall the virgin
rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their
mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their
sorrow. 14. I will satiate (or I will actually fill) the soul of
the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
saith the LORD.” I’m just going to keep reading for a few more verses. Jeremiah 31:15-16 “Thus saith the LORD; A
voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for
her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
16. Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from
tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come
again from the land of the enemy.” In other words, the Jews are going
to be coming back from wherever they had been scattered. Jeremiah 31:17 “And there is hope in
thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their
own border.” The Jews are going to all be where they belong. All right, now let’s just skip
across in this same chapter to verse 31, where we now have the spiritual
conditions of the Nation of Israel. Verse 31, this is what we call the New
Covenant. Jeremiah 31:31a “Behold, the days come,…”
Now, I can’t refrain from reminding you, what does that tell us? It’s going to
happen. I don’t care how much they scorn or ridicule. You know, Christianity
is under attack like almost not since the Dark Ages. Our media hates us, and
they falsely accuse us of everything but the truth. And we’re just going to
have to learn to live with it, because we’re not going to turn them around. Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, the days come,
(Because God has promised it.) saith the LORD, that I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:” In other words, the whole Nation is going to be involved. All the tribes. Not just
Benjamin and Judah, all of them. Now verse 32, this new covenant will not be: Jeremiah 31:32a “Not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand
to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke,…”
In other words, this is not like the covenant of the Ten Commandments that
Moses got at Mount Sinai. This is a totally new agreement between God and Israel. Jeremiah 31:33 “But this shall be the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days,
(In other words, after these last 1,900 and some years of dispersion. After
the horrible seven years of Tribulation. After all those years have gone by--)
saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in
their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” That’s
God’s promise. Now verse 34: Jeremiah 31:34a “And they shall teach no
more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the
LORD:…” In other words, as it was in Deuteronomy. When they got up in
the morning, what were they to do? Memorize Scripture. When they sat down for
noon time lunch, what where they to do? Memorize Scripture. When they went
to bed at night, what were they to do? Memorize the Scripture. In other
words, study it. That won’t be necessary, because every Jew will have it
automatically. All right, that’s what He means here. Verse 34 again: Jeremiah 31:34 “And they shall teach no
more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD:
for they shall all know me, (It’s going to be a given.) from the
least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive
their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Israel is finally going to arrive. Verse 35. Jeremiah 31:35 “Thus saith the LORD, who
giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the
stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar;
The LORD of hosts is his name:” He’s the Creator, remember? And it’s
Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Jeremiah 31:36 “If (that’s
conditional) those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then
the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.” In
other words, if the universe that’s been there for however long you want to put
on it—if you’re a creationist, it’s less than ten thousand years. If you go
beyond that, it could be billions of years. But whatever, however long it’s
been there it has never deviated. The sun has never moved out of its place.
The planets have never moved. You know, I had an interesting
experience. I shared with you in our last taping that we had a couple people
come over to visit us from England. We were outside one evening and standing
on the deck. It was a beautiful, Oklahoma, clear, starlit night. You city
people don’t know what it’s like. The stars were just like they were a hundred
yards up. And this Brit said, “There’s the Big Dipper. It’s in the same place
as it is in England!” And you know, it is kind of a shocking thing. We know
that from textbooks, yes. But to actually hear it from someone – it’s in the
same place that it is in England. Well, of course. But has it ever moved?
No. It’s exactly like it’s been since creation. All right, so what God is
saying is that it’s just as apt to fall out of its rightful place as it is for Israel to lose their identity. Now you Preterists out there, I know they are listening. I
get books from them all the time. One of them even expected me to autograph
it. Ha! Sorry, fellows. I will never condone Preterism. Because, you see,
Preterism says that Israel disappeared in A.D. 70. Well then, if that’s the
case, then the Bible is a lie. Or they’re a lie. Now you decide. But this is
what God says. That if the ordinances of creation: the sun and the moon and the
stars and the planets and the galaxies; if they disappear or “depart from
before me, saith the LORD, then shall the seed of Israel.” Well, I guess if the universe
falls apart, everything goes, doesn’t it? You and I included. But this is
what God is saying: that His promises with Israel are just as secure as the
universe. Now isn’t that enough? How in the world can mortal men say that
this is a lie? But they do. Jeremiah 31:36-37 “If those ordinances
depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. 37. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven
above (And we don’t even know where Heaven is. We know it’s there, but
we don’t know where.) can be measured, and the foundations of the earth
searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they
have done, saith the LORD.” Now isn’t that amazing? So,
will God ever give up on Israel? Never! His promises are secure with the
Nation of Israel. And I’ll take it one step further. If God can’t keep His
promise with Israel, do you and I have any assurance of our salvation? Well,
of course not. If He can’t keep His word with Israel, He has no reason to keep
His word with me or you. But oh, beloved, He will not break His word with Israel. He will not break His promise with us. We are safe for eternity, because His Word
is true. I’ll stand on that until the day they shoot me. His Word is
true. All right, now I’ve got to finish the chapter, I think, and then we’re
going to move on to another one. Jeremiah 31:38-39a “Behold, the days come,
saith the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner. 39. And the measuring line shall yet go
forth over against it…” In other words, all these Kingdom promises are
going to be fulfilled. All right, verse 40: Jeremiah 31:40 “And the whole valley of
the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron,
unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the LORD;
(In other words, all of the things that were ravished in those closing days of
the Tribulation will disappear. It will never be remembered in this glorious
Kingdom.) it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.”
All right, now let’s just turn the page. I want to go to chapter 33.
Let’s see, I want to drop down to verse 7. You know, I just had a hard time
picking out some of these key portions, because it’s all full of these Kingdom
promises. Now, when we get to the New
Testament, I’m going to give you a verse that I’ve used over the years. But
hopefully, it’ll mean a lot more now than it did before. All right, Jeremiah
33 and we’re going to drop in at verse 7. Jeremiah 33:7-9 “And I will cause the
captivity (or the bringing in) of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, (In other words, by an act of God, and we’ve already seen it.
That’s why they’re back in the land. It was providential.) and will
build them, as at the first. (Now look at this promise.) 8. And I
will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me;
and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby
they have transgressed against me. 9. And it shall be to me a name of joy, a
praise and an honor before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all
the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the
goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.” That is,
unto the Nation of Israel. Well, I’d like to just read all
these verses, but I’m afraid people might get a little bit impatient. So let’s
just skip on down to verse 12. My, there are some good verses up there. Verse
11: “the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and bride,” and
all that makes up a common, ordinary human society. Now remember, they’re not
angels. They’re humans. All right, now verse 12: Jeremiah 33:12 “Thus saith the LORD of
hosts; Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast,
and in all the cities thereof, shall be an habitation of shepherds causing
their flocks to lie down.” Now, what are you gathering from this?
Seemingly what kind of a society or a community will the Kingdom be?
Agrarian. Have you noticed that?
Agrarian. It’s not going to be metropolitan. It’s not going to be urban.
It’s going to be agrarian. There’s a verse back there someplace that says, “every
man will sit under his own (What?) fig tree.” In other
words, there will be orchards. It’s going to be agrarian. We’re going to have
the beauty of the country. Now, I’ve never been a city
dweller. Neither has my little wife. And every time we go through one, we
just can’t imagine the horror of living in a big city. But you know, when
these city dwellers come out and we take them around the ranch, you know what
flabbergasts them? All the open space. We can go for miles and not meet a
car. Well, they just can’t imagine that. But I think that’s what the Kingdom
is going to be. It’s going to be so beautiful. There’s not going to be that
beehive of contracted dwellings and so forth. From the language, I get at
least, it’s going to be agrarian. Okay, let’s move on. Verse 14. Jeremiah 33:14-15 “Behold, the days come,
saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto
the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. 15. In those days, and at that
time, will I cause the Branch (See, there’s that word again. That term
of God the Son in the Old Testament. He’s called a Branch, whenever you see
that with a capital ‘B’.) of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.” There’s not going to be any
sin. No wickedness. No immorality. It’s going to be glorious. But it’s
still going to be in a human environment. Families. Husbands. Wives. And
children. But no Satan. No death. No curse. All right, verse 16. Jeremiah 33:16a “In those days…”
That is during these thousand years. Now, I’d better emphasize. The Old
Testament does not put us in a time frame. We have to go to the Book of
Revelation to get that. And that’s where we get the thousand years. And after
the thousand years, so on and so forth. So always remember that. The Old
Testament does not give us a time frame, but the New Testament does. Jeremiah 33:16-18 “In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be
called, The LORD our righteousness. (And again, that’s the Hebrew term
Tsidkenu.) 17. For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to
sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; 18. Neither shall the priests the
Levites want a man before me to offer burnt-offerings, and to kindle
meat-offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.” Now, there will be some
sacrificial offerings in the Kingdom, and that’s hard to reconcile. And I for
one cannot do justice to it, so I just sort of leave it alone. But, yes, there
will be a certain amount of animal sacrifice. It’ll be limited, of course, but
I think it’ll be a memorial much like our communion table. All right, verse
19. Jeremiah 33:19-21a “And the word of the LORD
came unto Jeremiah, saying, 20.Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break
my covenant of the day, (Now, here we come back again to God proving
that He will never let go of Israel.) and my covenant of the night, and
that there should not be day and night in their season; 21. Then may also my
covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to
reign upon his throne;…” Now, here is a good statement.
When we speak of the throne of David and Christ as a Son of David, this is
where the connection comes from. Christ is genealogically the Son of David. We
pick that up, of course, in Matthew’s genealogy. So always put those two
together, that Christ will sit upon David’s throne as the Son of David,
genealogically. Not losing sight of His Deity. All right, verse 22. Jeremiah 33:22-25 “As the host of heaven
cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply
the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me. 23.
Moreover, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 24. Considerest thou
not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath
chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that
they should be no more a nation before them.” In other words, I think
he’s referring to the two kingdoms before they would be brought together: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Jeremiah 33:25-26 “Thus saith the LORD; if
my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the
ordinances of heaven and the earth; 26. Then will I cast away the seed of
Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be
rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their
captivity to return, (or their control of his people. He’s going to
bring them back.) and have mercy on them.” Okay, now we’ve got time
enough. Let’s jump one more to Ezekiel chapter 36, and I’m going to jump down
to verse 24. Now, this is still another prophet. See, we’ve had Isaiah talk
about it. We’ve seen Jeremiah speak about it. And now here comes Ezekiel.
Probably in our next half-hour we’ll have time to go on up to Daniel. Then in
our next taping we’ll take a look at how the New Testament approaches this
Kingdom economy. All right, Ezekiel 36 verse 24, and look at the promises
here. Oh my, they ought to just give you goose bumps, because we’ve seen some
of this already take place. Ezekiel 36:24a “For I will take you from
among the heathen,…” The Gentiles. Now, I think we looked at that
some time ago. In fact, I think in my seminars in Florida I started every one
of them with the same verse in Matthew 16, “you can discern the signs of
the weather, but you can’t discern the signs of the times.” Isn’t that
what I was on? Yeah. And what is the major sign of the times for you and me
today? The return of Israel to their homeland. That’s a sign of the times!
Because the end-time could not even begin until Israel was back in the land.
They have to be there, because that’s where the Lord is going to return and set
up His Kingdom. All right, now Ezekiel says the same thing. Ezekiel 36:24 “For I will take you from
among the Gentiles, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you
into your own land.” How can anybody deny this? It’s beyond me, but
they do. You know how they deny it? I sent you the book. They claim they’re
not Jews at all. They’re Czars from the Russian Steppes, and that they simply
took over the Jewish libraries and synagogues. That’s what they do with the
Scriptures. That’s what they claim, that these aren’t Jews at all. They’re
imposters. Well, who in the world would want to be an imposter and step in to
all the hatred that the Jews get? Ezekiel 36:25a “Then…” Now, they
haven’t done it yet. Even though Israel’s back in the land, they’re not
experiencing these spiritual blessings yet. They’re still there in unbelief.
They’re secular. Many of them are even atheists and agnostic. But they’re in
the land, so the rest will come. Don’t worry. Ezekiel 36:25 “Then I will sprinkle
clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from
all your idols, will I cleanse you.” Now of course, the Babylonian captivity,
I think, broke them of idolatry. But nevertheless, it’s still in their
background. Ezekiel 36:26-28 “A new heart also
(Remember what the covenant was in Jeremiah 31:31? I will put it in your
heart. You won’t have to memorize it everyday. It’ll be there. It’ll be a
given.) will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart
of flesh. 27. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my
statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, (or my ordinances, or my
government) and do them. 28. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave
to your fathers; and ye shall be (What’s the pronoun?) my people,
and I will be your God.” Now, do you remember in Israel’s past, when Israel was out in rank unbelief and the prophet or whoever it was that was
writing, what would God tell them to call them? “Your people.”
He wouldn’t claim them. But the day is coming when once again God will say, “My
people.” See, what a difference that makes? To Moses He said, they’re
your people. To Daniel He said your people. But the day is coming. That’s why
the pronoun is so important here. The day is coming when you shall be, verse
28-- Ezekiel 36:28b-29 “…my people, and I will
be your God. 29. I will also save you from your uncleanesses: and I will call
for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.” In
other words, if we get time and get to Amos yet this afternoon. I don’t know
whether we’ll make it or not. But what does Amos speak of? That the reaper
will follow the planter and the planter will follow the reaper. In other
words, it’s going to be a continuous production of food and fiber with no
opposition from insects or weeds or thorns. It’ll be easy. No sweat of the
face. That’s why I maintain that I think it’s going to be an agrarian
economy. Okay, for those of you joining
us on television, just in case you’re catching us for the first time, we’re
just an informal Bible study. I always make the point. I’m not trying to
attack anyone. And hopefully we can just get people to see what the Book
says! I don’t want anyone to go into a Sunday school class and say, “This is
what Les Feldick says.” That doesn’t amount to anything. Be able to say, hey,
this is what the Book says. Hopefully we’re making some headway. All right, we’re going to keep
right on with our subject of the physical attributes and the qualities of this Earthly Kingdom that’s coming. And now we’re going to move on up to the next of the Major
Prophets, Ezekiel. So, those of you in the studio can be turning with me to
Ezekiel chapter 47. We’re going to start reading at verse 1. And again, I’m
going to do like I’ve been doing all afternoon. We’re going to do more reading
than usual, but hopefully the Scripture can speak for itself if you understand
what we’re trying to show: that these are all promises given to the Nation of
Israel that’s in their future. It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s going to
happen! All right, verse 1. Ezekiel 47:1-2 “Afterward he brought me
again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the
threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward
the east, (He’s speaking of this millennial building in Jerusalem.) and the waters came down from under the right side of the house, at the
south side of the altar. 2. Then he brought me out of the way of the gate northward,
and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh
eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.” All right, now we looked at
these before. But here is this river of water that’s going to come out from
underneath the throne room there in Jerusalem during the millennium. The river
will run out east to the Dead Sea, and it will totally cure the Dead Sea and make it fresh water. Everything that’s associated with the water that flows to
the Dead Sea will cause life to come. That’s opposite of what the Dead Sea is now. Then the other half of the river will flow west to the Mediterranean.
This is all during this 1,000 year reign of Christ. All right, let’s move on a few
verses, and then we’re going to go on into the Book of Daniel. All right,
verse 7. Ezekiel 47:7-8a “Now when I had returned,
behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the
other. 8. Then he said unto me, (Now this, I think, is an angel
speaking to Ezekiel.) These waters issue out toward the east country, and
down into desert, and go into the sea:” Now if you know Jerusalem, we can stand on the Mount of Olives and on a nice clear day you can almost see
the Dead Sea. That’s east about 18 or 20 miles, if I remember right, from
Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. All right, so this is what he’s talking about.
From under the sanctuary this water or this river will flow east to the desert
and into the Dead Sea. Ezekiel 47:8b-9a “…which being brought
forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. (That is into the Dead Sea. These waters are going to be so pure that they will purify the salty,
mineralized waters of the Dead Sea.) 9. And it shall come to pass, that
every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come,
shall live: (In other words, it’s going to be a water of life, or it’ll
be life-giving water.) which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come,
shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these
waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed;…” If you’ve been to the Dead Sea, and many of you have, I’m sure. Absolutely nothing lives in the Dead Sea. Nothing, because it is so saturated with salt and minerals. That’s why you
can’t sink in it. You float. I’ll never forget the time my dear little wife
over here tried to swim in the Dead Sea, and it just flipped her upside down.
She wasn’t quite ready for it. But, that’s what it is. This water from the
mountain in Jerusalem is going to totally change the Dead Sea to a fresh water
sea. Ezekiel 47:10a “And it shall come to
pass, (See, it has never happened yet, but it’s going to.) that
the fishers (fishermen) shall stand upon it from En-gedi even
unto En-egliam; there shall be a place to spread forth nets;…” Now,
someone just asked me at break time: are we going to eat meat in the
millennium? That is, if we’re there. I’m still not sure whether Church Age
people are going to be in the millennium or not. Because after all, they’re so
separated from Israel in so many ways; I’m not putting us automatically in the
millennium. But anyhow, are the citizens of the millennium, the humans, the
people who have come in at the front end (Israel as well as Gentiles), are they
going to eat beef? I don’t think so. Because there’ll be no death, and you’d
have to kill them to eat them. Here’s what made me think of it. What was my
answer? We’ll probably eat fish. It’ll probably be the main diet, because the
fishermen are going to stand on the shores of the Dead Sea, now made fresh. So
we know they’re going to eat fish. They’re not going to catch them just for
nothing. Ezekiel 47:10b “…to spread forth nets;
their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea,
exceeding many.” The Mediterranean. In other words, every species of
fish that is now in the Mediterranean will also be in the Dead Sea. Now that
seems unbelievable, but the Scripture promises it. All right, then verse 11. Ezekiel 47:11-12 “But the miry places
thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to
salt. 12. And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that
side, shall grow all trees for (What?) food, whose
leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall
bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued
out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for food, and the leaf
thereof for medicine.” Now that doesn’t mean to cure disease, but it’s
therapeutic to maintain good health. Well, those are all statements
concerning this glorious Earthly Kingdom. Now, let’s skip over to Daniel
chapter 2. This is the fourth Major Prophet that also speaks of this glorious Earthly Kingdom. And remember, in Daniel’s previous verses he has seen the image of
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, which was prophetic of all the Gentile empires that
would be coming up through history from 600 B.C. as we had it on the board.
Again remember, that Daniel writes from this exile to Babylon in 600 B.C. All right,
so from Daniel’s time on, all these Gentile Empires will be holding forth and
will be occupying and controlling the city of Jerusalem—first the Babylonians,
then the Medes and Persians, and then the Greeks, and then the Romans. All right, so that takes us on
up past the time of Christ until the Roman Empire disappears. Now again, just
for a quick review, remember that this is the only timeline that the Old
Testament and the Four Gospels, the first eight chapters of Acts, and then the
little epistles at the end of our Bible including Revelation, this is the only
timeline they understand. Because Paul doesn’t appear until Stephen is
martyred. We’ll see that in our next taping. When Stephen is martyred, as I
just talked to somebody at break time, who are we introduced to? Saul of Tarsus. And what does that mean? A whole change of modus operandi. Instead of Christ and
the Twelve holding forth, all based on these prophecies that we’ve been looking
at all afternoon, all of a sudden all this is put on hold. We go into something
totally different that no other portion of Scripture has any knowledge of. And
that’s why it’s referred to over and over as a secret held in the mind of God
until He revealed it to the Apostle Paul. And that’s why I’ve become more
Pauline with every day that I get older. Because if Paul doesn’t teach it;
then you have to careful, because he alone is the Apostle of the Gentiles
(Romans 11:13). And that turns people off. Tough luck. I mean, you’d better
accept it, because that’s the way it is. And if Old Testament promises agree
with some of the things that Paul gives, great. But if they don’t, then
they’re not valid. Because he alone is the Apostle of the Gentiles. But here we’re still dealing
with the Old Testament, so back to Daniel 2, again, verse 44. Daniel 2:44a “And in the days of these
kings (That is, starting with Nebuchadnezzar and those other four great
empires leading up to the time of Christ’s earthly ministry.) in the days
of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be
destroyed:…” In other words, after all these
Gentile empires have come and gone and the Tribulation unfolds. Now remember,
there’s nothing in here of the Church Age. Keep that out of your thinking.
This is all part of the prophetic scriptures. After all these empires have come
and gone and the Tribulation has passed, then “shall the God of Heaven
set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.” And I always maintain that the
1,000 year millennium will slip right on into the eternal, somehow or other. I
can’t explain it, but evidently it’s going to go into eternity. Daniel 2:44b-45 “…which shall never be
destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall
break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
(Why?) 45. Forasmuch as thou sawest (Now remember, this is God
speaking to Daniel, and Daniel is in turn interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.)
that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, (So, it’s a
reference to Christ’s Second Coming.) and that it broke in pieces the
iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God (the
God of Creation) hath made known to the king what shall come to pass
hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.” Now, what it really amounted to
is that these great empires that had come and gone were depicted in this huge
image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The stone would strike it on its feet. It
would roll it down like a steam roller until there was nothing left but dust
and chaff, and it would blow away into the dust bin of eternal history. And
Christ’s Kingdom would become a reality. Well, now let’s move on over in
the Book of Daniel to chapter 7. Now, instead of interpreting a dream of
someone else’s, Daniel has his own. He has his own vision in chapter 7. Let’s
jump in at verse 9. He sees the same series of empires, only he sees them as
carnivorous beasts of prey. But he still sees the Babylonian, the Medes and the
Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans; and how they would occupy Jerusalem over various periods of time. All right, but now you come up to verse 9. In his
vision, in his dream-- Daniel 7:9 “I beheld till the
thrones (of these Gentile Empires) were cast down, and the
Ancient of days did sit, (I feel this is a reference to God the Father
who is on the Throne.) whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of
his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his
wheels as burning fire.” Then come all the way over to verse 13. Daniel 7:13 “I saw in the night
visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man (That’s Christ again in
an Old Testament analogy.) came with the clouds of heaven, and came to
the Ancient of days, (That is, to God the Father.) and they
brought him near before him.” Now, anytime I teach verse 13, I can’t
help it even though we’ve done it not too long ago, come all the way with me up
to Revelation chapter 5, because it’s a perfect parallel. Just see how
beautifully this corresponds. Daniel sees the Son of Man coming before God the
Father. John the Revelator sees almost the same thing. Revelation 5:1 “And I saw in the right
hand of him who sat on the throne (in the hand of God the Father) a
book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.” Now
for sake of time, I’m going to take verse 3. Revelation 5:3-4 “And no man in heaven,
nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to
look thereupon. 4. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and
to read the book, neither to look thereon.” Now you remember when I
taught this, this was a mortgage, in type. Satan is holding the mortgage on
planet earth and only one can pay it off. And that is Christ the Son of God. All
right, verse 5. Revelation 5:5 “And one of the elders
saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, (which is Jesus the Christ) the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book,
and to loose the seven seals thereof.” Revelation 5:6a “And I beheld, and, lo,
in the midst of the throne and of the four creatures, in the midst of the
elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes,
which are the seven Spirits of God…” Which is another description of
God the Son—who has now finished the work of the Cross. He’s ascended back to
Glory. And now it’s time to fulfill prophecy. Verse 7. Revelation 5:7 “And he came and took the
book out of the right hand of him who sat upon the throne.” Now verse
9. Revelation 5:9-10 “And they sang a new song,
saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, (or this mortgage) and to
open the seals thereof: (And to be able to start paying it off, which
of course Christ will do with the seven years of Tribulation. And this is why
He can do what He’s doing.) for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to
God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; 10. And
hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” All right, now come back to
Daniel chapter 7 and we’ll start at verse 14. Remember, these are all the
promises given to the Nation of Israel. So, after God the Son comes before the
Ancient of Days, put in what He did in the Book of Revelation where He took the
mortgage, and He paid it off, and Satan is totally defeated. Paid off, and
he’s imprisoned in the abyss and in comes the Kingdom. Verse 14. Daniel 7:14 “And there was given him
(God the Son) dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, (and in this
kingdom) that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his
dominion is an everlasting dominion, (Here, again, it makes it sound
like this Kingdom is going to go beyond the 1,000 years.) which shall not
pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” And it’s
a visible, earthly, political monarchy, benevolent kingdom, animal kingdom with
humans: children, babies, and adults. No death. No suffering. No sickness.
It’s going to be Heaven on earth. Why is that so hard to comprehend? Well,
let’s look some more. Hosea, I want to go to chapter
4. I might as well start at verse 1. Oh goodness, time’s just about gone
again. Hosea chapter 4 verse 1. Hosea 4:1-4 “Hear the word of the
LORD, ye children of Israel: (Now, is there any doubt who this is written
to? This has nothing to do with us Gentiles. This is God dealing with Israel.) for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because
there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. 2. By swearing,
and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out,
and blood toucheth blood. 3. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that
dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the
fowls of the heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. 4.
Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that
strive with priest.” Hosea 4:5-6 “Therefore shalt thou
fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night. and I
will destroy thy mother. 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;
because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt
be no more priest to me: seeing thou has forgotten the law of thy God, I will
also forget thy children.” All right, now we come all the way down,
and I want to bring you over to the chapter where—I was thinking chapter 10.
Come all the way over to Hosea chapter 10. Now again, we’ve backed up a little
bit into Israel’s time of chastisement and wrath, but here comes their final
blessing. Hosea 10:12-13 “Sow to yourselves in
righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: (In other
words, it’s been out of production.) for it is time to seek the LORD,
till he come and rain righteousness upon you. 13. Ye have plowed wickedness, ye
have reaped iniquity: ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust
in thy way, (in other words, their human understanding) in the
multitude of thy mighty men.” Hosea 10:14-15 “Therefore shall a tumult
arise among thy people, and all they fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman
spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon
her children. 15. So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your great
wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.” But now we come all the way
down to the ultimate blessing in chapter 13 verse 9. Remember, all the way
through the prophets it was chastisement and blessing. Chastisement followed
with blessing. And here comes the final, the setting up of this glorious
Kingdom in verse 9 chapter 13. Hosea 13:9-10a “O Israel, thou hast
destroyed thyself; (in other words, because of their unbelief)
but in me (The Lord is speaking.) is thine help. 10. I will be
thy (What?) king:…” All the way through Scripture we’ve
got this coming King ruling over this glorious Earthly Kingdom. Hosea 13:10-11 “I will be thy king: where
is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? And thy judges of whom thou
saidst, Give me a king and princes. 11. I gave thee a king in mine anger, and
took him away in my wrath.” Then come down to verse 14. Hosea 13:14-15a “I will ransom them from
the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy
plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine
eyes. 15. Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come,
the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall
become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up:…” Hosea 13:16a “Samaria shall become
desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God:…” Hosea 14:1 “O Israel, return unto
the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.” Let’s move
on to Zephaniah, if I can find it, chapter 3 verse 14. And this will take us,
I imagine, to the end of the half-hour. Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 14, what’s
the first word? “Sing.” That’s the opposite of oppression and
wrath. Zephaniah 3:14-15 “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. 15. The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy; the
king of Israel, even the LORD (See that? That’s Jesus of Nazareth.
The God of Glory.) is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any
more.” Zephaniah 3:16-17 “In that day it shall be
said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.
17. The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will
rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee
with singing.” All right, now I think for sake of time I almost have
to skip a verse or two here. Come down to verse 19. Zephaniah 3:19-20 “Behold, at that time I
will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, (or
the lame) and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise
and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. 20. At that time I
will bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a
name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your
captivity before your eyes, saith the LORD.” Okay, now if you can turn real
quickly to Zechariah chapter 14. This is a verse that we’ve used over and over
through the years where it makes it as plain as language can make it. If I had
time, I’d like to start at verse 1, but we can’t do it. We’ve got 30 seconds
left. Zechariah 14:9 “And the LORD
(That’s God the Son, that’s Jesus of Nazareth, that’s Jesus the Christ.)
shall be (at some future time) king over all the earth: in that
day there shall be one LORD, and his name one.” Again, for those of you in
television, if you’re a new listener, we’re not associated with any group. I’m
not a pastor of a church. I’m just a cattle rancher. But we love to teach the
Book, and the Lord has given me the opportunity to do this. We don’t try to
attack anybody. We don’t try to elevate anybody. We just simply try to get
people into the Book, and it’s working. My, if you could read our mail! It’s
working. People are saying, “For the first time in my life, I’m understanding
what this Book is all about.” Well, what more could we ask. That’s our whole
purpose in teaching. It is to help folks to put all this together. All right, again we have to
thank you for all your prayers and your letters and, of course, your financial
help. We don’t want to forget that. But keep praying for us, because the
devil doesn’t like what we’re doing. We are under satanic attack, and I think
most of you realize that. All right, I’m going to
continue on what we started in the last two tapings, or the last eight
programs. That is more or less as Jerry titled it – “Connecting the Dots of
Scripture,” didn’t you? Jerry titled it for me. We’re connecting the
dots. I came up with that at one of my seminars. I think it might have been
the one in Oklahoma City a year ago, where I don’t know how many people used
the same expression on their way out. They said, “Les, today is the first time
somebody connected the dots.” Well, you know what that means. When you just
simply get all the subject matter tied together so that it makes sense. This
is what we hope to do, and we started with the previous eight programs way back
in Genesis and came up through the Old Testament and the promises, as we see in
the verse we’re going to open up with – Romans 15 verse 8. So, for those of you in
television, the studio has got a jump on you. I gave them the verse before we
opened. Find Romans 15 verse 8 and I just called it, to the audience here, the
introduction to the Book of Matthew. And you say, Paul? Introducing Matthew?
Well, in reality it does. Here it is. Romans 15:8 “Now I say that Jesus
Christ was (Now, naturally, that’s past tense from when Paul is
writing.) a minister of the circumcision (That’s Israel, remember. So, He was--) a minister of the Nation of Israel for the truth of God, (It wasn’t something Paul dreamed up, but--) for the
truth of God to confirm (or fulfill) the promises made unto the
fathers:” Now, if you think about that
for a minute. Isn’t that the perfect introduction to the four gospels? Well,
for most people it doesn’t mean that at all. But it should. Because you see,
as we ended up in our last program, I think the last verse I used was: Zechariah 14:9 “For the LORD (God
the Son, Jehovah) shall be king over all the earth:…” And very few in Christendom
understand that. They don’t know what we’re talking about. So, we have to just
patiently keep repeating and repeating and it finally sinks in. All right, so
look at the verse again. Romans 15:8a “Now I say that Jesus
Christ (in His earthly ministry) was (years before Paul
writes) a minister…” A sent one. A particular instrument that
God used between Himself and the Nation of Israel. God sent Him to Israel for what purpose? You know what most people say? Well, to go to the cross. No,
the cross hadn’t even been mentioned yet. There’s no inkling of a cross except
in Psalms 22, and maybe if you’ve got a lot of imagination, Isaiah 53. But the
cross was unknown in the Old Testament prophets. They didn’t know He was going
to go to Roman crucifixion. But what did they know? He was coming to be a
king over a kingdom. So all the prophets, and that’s
what we’ve shown in the previous eight programs, were depicting a glorious,
earthly Kingdom over which Israel is going to be the major player. They’ll be
the major nation on earth, because Jesus Christ will be the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. All right, that was the promise
made to the Nation of Israel. That not only would they be a favored nation,
but the day would come when they could enjoy God Himself in the role of the Son
who would be their Messiah and King, and Israel would be the top dog of all the
nations. That’s what the Old Testament prophets are all about. All right, now
we’re going to look at how it began to unfold. “He came to fulfill the
promises...” Now, come back with me to
Matthew chapter 3. We touched a little bit in previous programs on the
announcement to Joseph and Mary of this virgin-born Son that was coming. We
also alluded to John the Baptist and his parents, and how John the Baptist’s
father recognized through the leading of the Holy Spirit that this was the
favored son to announce the coming of Israel’s Messiah. This is where we’re
going to start now. John the Baptist is now full grown, and he’s beginning his
ministry to the Nation of Israel. Now, I’m going to emphasize it
all afternoon. Who or to whom did Christ come? Israel! And next month – no,
this month already – we’re in November. In fact, I was just thinking when I
was back there having my private prayer time. I think I should encourage
everyone in my listening audience: you call the White House. You can find the
number. It’s available to everybody. You call the White House and ask for the comment
line. I do it periodically. It’ll just be an opportunity to leave a forty
second recording. Well, it won’t take forty seconds for you – just admonish
our President don’t force Israel to give away one acre of land. That’s all you have to say. And
if we bombard the comment line with that kind of a statement, I’m sure he’s
going to have the wherewithal to think twice. Because that’s what it’s all
going to be about. See, he and Condoleezza Rice want to give back East
Jerusalem and some of the West Bank. And I say it flies in the face of the
promises of God, except that it probably has to happen for the end-time
scenario. And I guess you’re all aware that we’re getting close. But nevertheless, Christ came
to the Nation of Israel. John puts it this way, “He came unto His own (Israel), and His own received Him not.” All right, now in
Matthew chapter 3 we have the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist,
who is really an Old Testament prophet. In fact, back up a few pages to
Malachi. Just go back to Malachi chapter 3, because some of these preachers
and theologians get all riled up with me when I make this statement that the
four gospels are just an extension of the Old Testament. The only thing that’s
changed, is that the Messiah is in their midst. Nothing has changed. They’re
still the Nation of Israel. They’re still worshipping at the Temple. And
they’re resting on the Old Testament Covenant promises. Nothing has changed.
So, I make no apology. The four gospels are an extension of the Old Testament. Malachi 3:1a “Behold, (the
prophet writes) I will…” Now whenever I see those words “I will”
in the Old Testament, what do I put on them? The promise. That’s a promise
of God. He’s going to do it! As I wrote to someone just this morning, anytime
you have a prophetic statement from the lips of God Himself, you mark it down
it is going to happen. It may take a couple more thousand years. I don’t think
so. But even if it does, it’s going to happen. Anything that God says, “I will
do,” is going to happen. Have I made my point? Because most of Christendom
scorns this anymore. They’re throwing out prophecy by the truckload. They
don’t want anything to do with it. And I beg to differ. All right, now look
what God says through the prophet Malachi four hundred years before it happens. Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I will send my
messenger, (a reference to John the Baptist) and he shall prepare
the way before me: (That’s what John the Baptist did.) and the Lord,
(God the Son) whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,
(Did He? Of course He did.) even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye
delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.” Now verse
2. Malachi 3:2-3a “But who may abide the
day of his coming? (Now, again, I’ve got to stop. Who do the Old
Testament prophets write to? Israel—the Jew, the Nation of Israel.) and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like
fullers’ soap: 3. And he shall sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver:…” Now, what’s the analogy? How
do you purify gold or silver or mercury or any of the heavy metals? Heat.
The more you heat it, the more the impurities come to the top. And that’s the
analogy here. This is what God is going to do with His covenant people Israel. It’s going to be cleansing them like the refiner’s fire or a purifier of silver. Malachi 3:3b-4 “…and he shall purify the
sons of Levi, (Now, who were the sons of Levi? The priesthood. The
religious leaders.) and purge them as gold and silver, that they may
offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. 4. Then shall the offering of
Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as
in former years.” Malachi 3:5-6 “And I will come near to
you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers,
(the false teachers) and against the adulterers, and against false
swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow,
and the fatherless, and those that turn aside the stranger from his right, and
fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts. 6. For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” All right, now there’s the Old
Testament promise of a coming herald or announcer of a coming Messiah. And
remember, it was 400 years before it happened. That was the last word that God
gave Israel before He spoke to Joseph and Mary and Zacharias and Elizabeth, the
parents of John the Baptist. All right, now John the Baptist begins his
ministry. Back to Matthew chapter 3. Matthew 3:1-2 “In those days came John
the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, (And this was his
sermon. This was his message.) 2. And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom
of heaven of heaven is at hand.” Now again, I’m gathering from
the letters and phone calls I get that 90% of Christendom do not have a clue
what this Kingdom of Heaven really is. They think it’s some kind of a
spiritual entity. Something up there in the ethereal. No. The Kingdom of Heaven is a literal and physical and, as I mentioned in the last taping,
political kingdom. Christ is going to rule and reign as a legitimate King.
And whenever a king rules, there are politics involved. Not the rotten kind
we’re used to, but you have to control the masses. And how do you do that?
With political laws and rules and so forth. All right, now sometimes I
don’t know where I’m going to go next. I guess this is one of them. Jump
ahead to Matthew chapter 19 verse 27. Now maybe you think it doesn’t connect,
but on the other hand I think it will. So that you see what I’m talking about,
that we’re talking about a kingdom over which a government will hold sway. All
right, Matthew 19 verse 27. We’re at the end of the three years of His earthly
ministry. And Peter is speaking. Matthew 19:27 “Then answered Peter and
said unto him, Behold, we (the Twelve) have forsaken all, and
followed thee; what shall we have therefore?” Now put that in the
realm of present day politics, and it’s real easy to explain. If you’re going to support
someone running for office, and you’re going to put a lot of time and energy
and maybe even some money in it, what are you going to expect in return? Now
come on, you’re all normal humans? You’re going to want to be in a place in
his administration. I want a job. I don’t care what it is. But if I’m going
to work for you and you win, I want a job. Okay. Fair enough. That’s what
Peter is saying. Lord, we’ve been with you for three years. Now when you come
and set up your kingdom, where are we going to be? Look what the answer was.
Matthew 19:28a “And Jesus said unto
them, Verily I say unto you, That ye who have followed me, in the regeneration
when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory,…” Well, when
is that? In the Kingdom Age! When He sets up His earthly Kingdom and the
capital in Jerusalem. And this is the prospect for the Twelve. Of course,
Judas lost his. Mathias comes in. But it’s still the Twelve. Matthew 19:28b “…when the Son of man
shall sit in the throne of his glory,(In that regenerated,
reconstituted, remade earth like unto the Garden of Eden. We’ve been stressing
that over the last several months. All right, now where are the Twelve going
to be?) ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging (or
ruling) the twelve tribes of Israel.” Now, is that gobbledy-gook?
That’s plain English. Where are they going to be? They are going to be under
the throne room there in Jerusalem. All twelve men are going to have a
distinctive tribal relationship with one of the twelve tribes, ruling under the
King. Now, is that so hard to see?
Man, it’s as plain as English can make it. That’s what it’s going to be.
Christ is going to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but under Him are
going to be the Twelve Apostles—each with one of the twelve tribes and their
jurisdiction. All right, now speaking of the
King, let’s go all the way back to Isaiah. We may have used it in the last two
tapings, but let’s look at it again. I’ve got to convince the doubters that
we’re talking about a literal, physical, political kingdom. Isaiah chapter 9,
I think it is. I hope it is. Isaiah 9 verses 6 and 7, now if this doesn’t fit
with what we’re talking about, land, I don’t know what does. But this is
written 700 years before the Matthew prophecy. But it still fits. It’s the
Word of God. You know, when we were down in Georgia the other day, I don’t know how many people said that what our ministry has done
for them is just like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. That when you’ve got
everything as it should be, it all fits. Well, that’s the way this Book is.
If you get it all put together, it fits! Isaiah 9:6-7a “For unto us (the
Nation of Israel) a child is born, unto us a son is given: (That
was the whole purpose of Christ coming to the Nation of Israel in Bethlehem.) and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
(Who? The Son that was given, that was born in Bethlehem.) and his name
shall be called (When he becomes this glorious King in
the Kingdom.) Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting
Father, The Prince of Peace. 7. Of the increase of his government and peace
there shall be no end, (In other words, no enemy is ever going to
come in and upset it.) upon the throne of David,…” And that’s
why I always put it where? Mount Zion. Just south of the Temple Mount that
you see in the news all the time lately. About a quarter of a mile south and
down a little bit was Mount Zion. And that’s where His throne is going to be.
And that’s where the Twelve will have their twelve thrones. Isaiah 9:7 “Of the increase of his
government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon
his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and justice from
henceforth forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”
In other words, that Kingdom is going to slip right on into eternity, I think,
on the new heaven and the new earth that we see in Revelation 21. All right, now let’s come back
quickly. My goodness, time is almost gone. Back to Matthew chapter 3 and here
comes John the Baptist, the heralder, the announcer that the King is in their
midst. Consequently, what’s the message? Matthew 3:2 “…Repent ye: for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Well, now why was repentance
the prerogative? Because it’s going to be a sinless kingdom and Israel had to get righteously right with their Messiah before the Kingdom could be brought
in. The sin problem had to be dealt with. You don’t hear much about sin
anymore, do we? No matter how vile everything gets, they never call it sin.
But Israel had the same sins that we’ve got today. They were listed when we
were back there in Malachi. They robbed the widows. They committed adultery.
They were everything. Well, they had to repent of all that, and be ready for
this glorious King and His Kingdom. Matthew 3:3 “For this is he who was
spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, (Now, I didn’t look at Isaiah. I looked at Malachi. I
could have taken you also back to Isaiah, but I didn’t for sake of time. But
this is how Isaiah put it.) The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, (Now, maybe I can clarify it a little
bit and change the preposition – Prepare ye the way for the Lord. Get
ready for Him. He’s coming!) make his paths straight.” In other words, let His
ministry come to full fruition, like Romans 15:8 said, that He could
“fulfill the promises made to the fathers.” All right, now come on
across the page to chapter 3 verse 11. Not only where they to recognize who
Jesus was, but now they had another prerequisite, they had to follow this
repentance with water baptism. Boy, that makes everybody smile, doesn’t it?
Nothing makes people feel better than when I agree with water baptism. Well,
for these Jews it was appropriate. Of course it was. Come all the way back with me
to Leviticus. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus—because we’ve got to make all of this
make sense. I’ll never forget. Quite a few years ago now, I was at a
funeral. As I was walking back to my car, one of the pastors in that community
(he’s gone on to be with the Lord now) was walking the other way. He just
yelled across the street. He said, “Les, I watch you every morning.” And I
was shocked. And I said, “You don’t disagree?” “He says how can I? You prove
everything from the Book.” Well, that’s what I like to hear. Well, now here’s my take on why
did these Jews need repentance and water baptism? Well, I should have even
gone one book further. Keep your hand in Leviticus; go back to Exodus 19.
Here’s where it all begins. I’m sorry about that. But people who know how I teach.
It doesn’t bother them. So, I hope nobody out there cares. Exodus 19 verse
6. Israel is just out of Egypt and gathered around Mount Sinai. In chapter 20
God is going to give Moses the Ten Commandments. So we’ve got the Nation ready
for the Law. But before they get the Law, look what God promises, again Exodus
19 verse 6. Exodus 19:6a “And you (the
Nation of Israel) shall be unto me a kingdom (with a king, but
they’re to be) of priests,…” Every Jew a priest of Jehovah. Not
just Levi, every Jew was going to be a go-between. Exodus 19:6 “And ye shall be unto me
a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt
speak unto the children of Israel.” All right, now come back to
Leviticus. If they’re going to be a priest of Jehovah, like the Levites, what
are they all going to have to go through? Water washing. Now, Leviticus
chapter 8 verse 1. Leviticus 8:1-4a “And the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, 2.Take Aaron (Now, he was the first high priest, if you
remember.) and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing
oil, and a bullock for the sin-offering, and two rams, and a basket of
unleavened bread; 3. And gather thou all the congregation together unto the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 4. And Moses did as the LORD
commanded him;…” All right, now then, verse 5. Leviticus 8:5-6 “And Moses said unto the
congregation, This is the thing which the LORD commanded to be done.
(Now this is the first time. This is the beginning of Israel’s religious history.) 6. And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and (What?) washed
them with (What?) water.” And that was the whole idea of
preparation for the priesthood. Now, as Judaism went up through
the years then, it just became a ritual where the priests would be constantly
washing, washing, washing. In the water. In fact, one time Iris and I were
way down in the lower parts of Ancient Jerusalem. We had an archeologist
guide, and he was showing us what they thought had been the house of Caiaphas
the High Priest. Seven bathrooms! Seven. But they weren’t just bathrooms,
they were ritual baths. For what? That constant cleansing, cleansing,
cleansing. Come back to Matthew 3. So, if
Israel is going to be a nation of priests, what is every Jew going to have to
use as an introductory rite? Water. Baptism. And that’s the way it is
translated in the book of Hebrews. Washings. Washings. But the Greek word is
baptizo, so the two are synonymous. When you wash, you baptize. When
you baptize, you’re going to have a symbolic washing. All right, so quickly
now, and then we’ve got to wind it down. Where John the Baptist says, Matthew 3:11 “I indeed baptize you
with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I,
whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with (Water?
No. but--) the Holy Spirit, and with fire:” Okay, good to see everybody
back. Again, we’re going to go right on with our study of Christ’s earthly
ministry. We’re going to do like we did in the last program. For the next
several programs, I’m going to start with Romans 15 verse 8 that says what
we’ve been looking at so clearly. And while you folks are all
looking that up, for those of you joining us on television, again, we want to
emphasize the fact that we’re not out to push for numbers. We’re not trying to
convince people how wrong they are. All we want to do is have them see what
the Book really says, because tradition is a vicious thing. And that’s why the
Apostle Paul is always warning against it. Beware of tradition. It’s like what I told one young
man on the phone. He said, “Well, I’m believing what Grandpa believed.” And I
said, “If Grandpa is in Hell, are you going to follow him there just because of
tradition? You’ve got to go back and see what the Book says, not what Grandpa
thought.” That is my whole premise. We want folks to see what the Book really
says. All right, so if you’ll come
back with me again, just for an opener, back to Romans chapter 15 verse 8. I
don’t care if we read it often enough that you’ll know it before the afternoon
is over. Romans 15:8 “Now I say that Jesus
Christ was (You remember I emphasized the past tense verb.) a
minister of the circumcision (Not of the whole human race, but rather
Israel.) for the truth of God, to confirm (or to bring to
fruition, or to fulfill) the promises made unto the fathers:” Now, that’s as plain as
language can make it, isn’t it? That Jesus came to the Nation of Israel as the
God-sent One, even though He was the Son of God Himself. He came to the Nation
of Israel to fulfill all those Old Testament promises that we looked at in the
last two tapings. How that Abraham was promised a nation of people, and that
God would use them intrinsically and specifically to bring about His purposes.
Then it wasn’t long, at least about the time of King David in 1,000 B.C., that
we have the whole idea of a coming Kingdom. And David is the picture of the
symbolism of this coming King and Kingdom. David wouldn’t be the one, but
it would be the One in the lineage of David. So, we had the promise then of a
king, almost beginning with King David. That earthly Kingdom will last for a
thousand years according to Revelation. Which is still future. Well, then all
the prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and then all the Minor
Prophets—that’s all they write about—this coming glorious day for the Nation of
Israel. But in the meantime, the nation
of Israel would, because of their sinfulness and their unbelief, go through
horrible times of correction and discipline. But through it all and through
two different terrible times for Israel—the first one was the Babylonian
invasion when the Temple was destroyed in 606 B.C., and the second time in A.D.
70 when the Romans destroyed everything and Israel was sent into dispersion—but
always with the promise that the blessings would still come. All right, now here we come at
the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry. When we closed in our last half
hour, John the Baptist had been pleading with the Nation of Israel to repent of
their national sins, because they were to be prepared for this glorious,
righteous Kingdom on earth, which would be absent of any sin. It’s going to be
heaven on earth. Well, you can’t take all the sins of the flesh into that kind
of scenario. So, the whole message of John the Baptist was to repent and wash
with the water of the Jordan River and be ready for this glorious Kingdom.
All right, now let’s jump back to Matthew chapter 5. Now then, we’ve got the
timeline up here, again. While you’re looking for Matthew chapter 5, I’m going
to review a little bit. Here we’ve come all the way from Adam to Abraham,
which was two thousand years. In that first 2,000 years there was just one
disaster after the next. You have the Flood. You have the Tower of Babel—a total rebellion. And then finally we have the appearance of Abraham in 2,000
B.C. Five hundred years later we’ve got Moses who brings the children of Israel out of Egypt, and they become a nation to be dealt with. Then 500 years after Moses, we’ve
got David. Then a hundred years after David, we have the writing of the
prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah and so forth. All right, in about 600 B.C.
they were taken out and exiled to Babylon. Then they come back after 70 years,
reestablish the Temple, and reestablish the city and the nation. Then the
Minor Prophets come in. And then, at the end of this two hundred year period,
after Malachi finishes his prophecy, we have four hundred years of silence.
And then we are just now beginning the three years of Christ’s earthly
ministry. Now, that’s just a brief description of the Old Testament timeline.
And everything is looking forward to this King and His glorious Kingdom. All right, jump up to Matthew 5
verse 17 and this, again, is the Lord speaking. If you have a red letter
edition, it’s in red. Matthew 5 verse 17, the Lord says: Matthew 5:17 “Think not that I am come
to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”
The same word that Paul used in Romans 15. He came to fulfill. Now, the
casual reader here, and probably most preachers, thinks He’s talking about the
cross. No, He’s not talking about the cross. He knows of it, of course. He’s
God. But that wasn’t the first priority. The first priority was to present
the King and His Kingdom to Israel, putting Israel on trial. Now you know, every once in a
while I get a letter – what if? It’s a good question. I don’t mind it a bit.
What if (yeah, you all are thinking the same thing) Israel would have accepted
His Messiahship? What if Israel would have said, okay, we’re ready? Bring in
the King and the Kingdom. What would have happened? Well, the last one that called,
I said, that’s hypothetical. That’s all it is. It is hypothetical. It could
have never happened. But why? Because Christ had to die, and had they
accepted the King and the Kingdom, that would have upset all that. So, why did
Jesus come preaching and proclaiming? He knew they were not going to accept
it. In His foreknowledge He knew that it would bring about the crucifixion.
And what was the crucifixion? The preplanned plan of God to bring salvation to
the whole human race. He knew how it was all going to unfold. So Israel could, in good faith, be presented with all this, because there was no danger of
them accepting it. Because God knew they wouldn’t. All right, so then I use
another one as an example. When they went up to the Promised Land under Moses,
what did God tell them? Go in and take it. It’s yours! You won’t lose one
drop of blood. I’m going to drive the Canaanites out with hornets. Well, did
He mean it? Sure, He meant it! But did Israel believe it? No. Did God know
they wouldn’t? Yes. And then again, just stop and think. What if Israel would have accepted the Promised Land under Moses? That would have blown everything
out of the water. That would have just upset the whole apple cart. But God
knew that they would reject it, go back out into the wilderness, and then
finally come in and grow as a nation over another thousand years. So,
hypothetical? Yes. But you can never make it reality. All right, but here the Lord is
showing again that all these promises of the Old Testament prophets were
legitimate. They’re going to happen. Oh, it didn’t happen in His first
advent. But they’re still valid promises. And now we’re getting close. My
goodness, anybody that can look at today’s news and not see that we’re at the
end--! Now, of course with God, you know, a hundred years is nothing. That’s
what tempers me all the time. You know, it hit me when we
were teaching the Book of Isaiah a year or two ago. That Isaiah was writing
like all these things were going to happen when? Next week. Next month. But
how long was it? A hundred years. It was over a hundred years, and then the
Babylonians came. But with God, time means nothing. But on the other hand, as
we see the world today, the signs of the times are all around us. Surely it
can’t be much longer. But we don’t know. All right, but here the Lord
Himself says that He did not come to destroy anything of the Old Testament
promises. He did not come to upset the Law and the Temple worship. He came to
fulfill and to bring in the Kingdom. All right, now as part of that
process of bringing Israel into the Kingdom by virtue of their faith and
believing who He was, let’s just jump up in Matthew to chapter 9. And here I
have to take it slowly, because if the preachers get on my case about anything,
it’s this concept of two gospels of salvation. It just bends their noses all
out of shape. They get all riled up. And that makes me so angry. I have
never said we are under two gospels. No. There’s only one in this Age of
Grace. But during Christ’s earthly ministry and the Twelve ministering to Israel, it couldn’t be our Gospel of Grace. Rather, it was the Gospel of the Kingdom.
The cross hadn’t happened yet. And this is where I get upset. How can you
claim that Jesus and the Twelve preached the same message that Paul did, when
the cross was unknown? But most can’t see that. I read an article the other day
by a famous one. He’s even dispensational to a point, but what did he claim?
There’s never been more than one Gospel. I’ve shared this with you before. I
had one guy tell me at one of my seminars out East. I said, “You mean to tell
me you think Adam and Eve were saved by Paul’s Gospel?” You remember what the
answer was, don’t you? “They must have.” No must have about it. We’ve got
no room to put that word in there. Then I jumped up and I said “Well, are you
going to say the same thing with Abraham? Abraham was saved by believing in a
death, burial, and resurrection?” “He must have.” Oh! You know, that’s when
my temper almost gets unleashed. How in the world can educated--but see, thank
goodness. I think I’ve shared it with you on the program. I had one Baptist preacher call
here, oh, quite some time ago. Time goes fast. I think I shared it on the
program. He had two earned Ph.D.’s in theology. That’s the way he put it.
“Les, I’ve got two earned Ph.D.’s in theology, and after I retired I found your
program. I started studying all your stuff on the internet. And I’m calling to
ask one question. How in the world did I miss all of this for forty years and
with all that education?” Well, that’s just one out of many now. If they will
just take the time to look at what it says. How can Jesus and the Twelve preach
a death, burial, and resurrection when the Twelve knew nothing of it? In fact, the gentleman I just
referred to before. About ten minutes before he finally blew his stack, which
was ten minutes before we were due to close. I went back and talked to him
afterwards. I had just shared Luke 18. Turn with me. Now, this is the way I
teach. You know that. I’m not going to stay on an outline. Well, we’re just
going to let the Spirit lead. And this is what I shared earlier. Yet, when I
came back and asked him what his problem was, he tried to maintain that Adam
and Eve and Abraham and all the rest of the Old Testament were saved by Paul’s
Gospel – faith in the death, burial, and resurrection. How could they? And I
said, “Sir, I just quoted Luke 18 ten minutes ago. Didn’t you hear it?” No,
he didn’t hear it. But look what it says. Luke 18 verse 31, now I know I
get exercised. When something is so plain, how can the vast majority reject
it? But they do. They don’t want anything to do with this concept of a
separate gospel for Israel compared to Paul’s Gospel of Grace to the Gentile
world. All right, but look at 18. Just before His crucifixion, a matter of
three or four days, verse 31. Luke 18:31 “Then he took unto him
the twelve, (Peter, James, John, the rest of them, the regular twelve) and
said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written
by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.” Now,
here’s where His Deity comes up. He knew the end from the beginning. Luke 18:32-33 “For he (speaking
of Himself) shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and
spitefully entreated, and spitted on: 33. And they (of course the
Romans) shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he
shall rise again.” Plain? Well, as plain as language can make it.
But, what does the next verse say? Luke 18:34 “And they (the
Twelve) understood (How much?) none of these things:
(not one word) and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the
things which were spoken.” Now, I just had a lady come up and tell me
how she appreciates Deuteronomy 29:29. Now, you all know what that one is? I
use it all the time. Yeah, the “secret things belong to the Lord our
God.” In other words, God can keep
things secret as long as He wishes to keep it secret. He’s Sovereign. And He
does. And then little by little, He’ll reveal. All right, here’s another
good example. It wasn’t time for the Twelve to understand. So, then the question comes up.
Why did He say it? For our benefit. Not theirs. For our benefit. Because
what does this tell you? He was God. He knew exactly what was coming. And
you’ve heard me say it over and over. He could have named every Roman soldier
who tortured Him. He could have named the guy that was going to drive the
spikes through His hands. He was God. But in order to bring about
everything up at Jerusalem, He dare not tell the Twelve or let them understand.
Can you think for a minute what those twelve men would have done had they known
that the Romans were going to try and arrest Him? Why, they’d have fought it
tooth and toenail. And Jesus couldn’t have that. So God providentially
blinded them, shut their ears, and they didn’t comprehend. All right, read again. “They
understood none of these things: and this saying (That He was going to
die and be raised from the dead.) was hid from them, neither knew they
the things which were spoken.” Now, if you have any doubt about that,
all you have to do is just use common sense. If they’d have known that He was
going to die and be raised in three days, where would they have been on Sunday
morning? Out at the tomb! Were they? No, that was the last thing that they
ever dreamed of. So, it was totally kept from their understanding. Well, you see, when Peter was
having his feet washed, I always say he pulled them back under the chair. And
he said, Lord, you’re not going to wash my feet. Remember? And what
did the Lord tell him? Well then, Peter, you have nothing to do with me.
Well, then Peter stuck his other foot in his mouth, and what did he
say? Well, then give me a bath! And what did the Lord say? Peter,
you don’t need a bath! You have that. But what did he need? His feet
washed. Well, again the Lord said the same thing. Peter, you don’t understand
now, but you will. And that, of course, is the way God works. All right, now back to
Matthew. The Lord Himself says that He’s going to fulfill all of the things
written in the prophets and everything like that. This is going to be the scope
of His ministry: to give Israel a total opportunity to believe what this Jesus
of Nazareth has to say. Now, it’s the same concept today. Why do I stress
Faith Plus Nothing? What does God look for? Faith! That’s His favorite
prerogative. He’s looking for our Faith. Now, I explained to somebody.
I think when we were in Georgia the other day. Why is that such an important
fact? Well, just bring it into your own daily experience. What if you knew
something as solid and as right as anything could be known. You tell it to
someone, and he grins at you and says, but I don’t believe you? Now, if you’re
a normal human and you have that normal Adamic nature to react, what would you
like to do with that individual? Swat him, wouldn’t you? You mean you can’t
believe something that I know is true. No, I don’t believe you. Well, that’s the human element,
of course. But look, how must God feel when He has done everything that needs
to be done and has told us in this Book that if we believe it, He will claim us
as His own? That’s what He wants. That’s the faith we talk about. To rest on
that finished work of the cross without anything added to it. No baptism. No
church membership. No tongues. No tithing. No good works. Christ did it
all. It’s complete. And we have to realize that when we place our faith in
that finished work, yes, as I hear it over and over and over, Les, it changed
my life!!!! I’ve got people in here today
that I know, since you’ve heard this message, you’re life’s been changed.
There’s one right there. Came out of Viet Nam. A church member, baptized to
the whole hilt, and Jerry says, “I was as lost as lost can be.” But, when you
believe this Gospel of salvation, it transforms your life. It changes your
life. Then all these other good things become part of it. But for salvation, I
will scream it until the day I die, don’t you add anything to what Christ
has done. It’s complete in itself. All right, but He couldn’t
preach that to Israel. It hadn’t happened yet. But what could He tell Israel? I’m the promised Messiah. I am the Christ. All right, back to Matthew chapter 9
verse 35. Now, I hope I’m not upsetting the flow here, so that you hear that
John the Baptist proclaimed Him as the coming promised Messiah and King, and Israel needed to repent and be baptized to be ready for this coming Kingdom. All right,
then Jesus said: Matthew 5:17 “Think not that I am come
to destroy the law,…(And anything that is part of Judaism with its Temple worship, the Law.)…but to fulfill.” All of that. Now to Matthew
chapter 9 and verse 35. Matthew 9:35 “And Jesus went about all
the cities and villages, (That is of Israel. He never left the land of Israel.) teaching in their synagogues, and preaching (not the Gospel
of the Grace of God. But the what?) the gospel of the kingdom,…”
That’s what it says! All right, let’s, just for sake of comparison, before I
run out of time. Keep your finger here. We’ll be back. Go all the way up to I
Corinthians 15. Now, I don’t have to tell most
of you what that is. You already know it. But for sake of our new listeners,
and my goodness, every day’s mail; I don’t know how many will say, we’ve just
caught your program for the first time. I Corinthians 15:1-4. Now, this is
Paul’s Gospel of salvation. When I talk about faith in the Gospel of the Grace
of God, this is it. All got it? I Corinthians 15 and we’ll start at verse 1. I Corinthians 15:1a “Moreover brethren,
(So he’s writing to fellow believers in Corinth.) I declare unto you the
gospel which I preached unto you,…” That’s what brought them out of
their paganism. This simple Gospel brought them out of paganism, mythology,
and all of its immorality and its drunkenness, and it made them children of
God. I Corinthians 15:1-2a “Moreover, brethren, I
declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received,
and wherein you stand; 2. By which also ye are (What?) saved,…”
The simple word that we still use today. If you want to escape eternal
damnation, what do you need? You need to be saved. You need salvation. And
this is what does it. I Corinthians 15:2 “By which also ye are
saved, if ye keep in memory (In other words, you don’t just blindly
say, yeah, I believe. No. You’ve got to know what you believe.) what I
preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.” Because if you
don’t believe the truth in your heart for salvation, it’s for nothing. Now
here’s the Gospel, verse 3. I Corinthians 15:3a “For I delivered unto you
first of all (He was the first proclaimer of this Gospel of Grace.
Peter, James, and John knew nothing of this Gospel. They only knew the Gospel
of the Kingdom.) that which I also received,…” Now, I’ve got to
stop. Received from where? From heaven. Now keep your hand in a third
place. Go back to Galatians chapter 1. See, this all fits. Now he’s writing
to the Galatians who are beginning to be fed some false teachings by the Jerusalem Jewish believers. You can read about in Acts 15:1-5. So, this was written to
the Gentile believers up there in central Turkey. All got it? Galatians
chapter 1 and drop in at verse 11. Now remember why I came here. In I
Corinthians he says, “that which I also received.” Now I’m going
to show where he received it from in verse 11. Galatians 1:11-12 “But I certify you,
brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me (I Corinthians
15:1-4) is not after man. 12. For I neither received it of man,
(a direct reference to the Twelve, of course) neither was I taught it,
(by man) but by the revelation (Or a revealing, from whom?) Jesus
Christ.” And where’s Jesus Christ? In glory. All right, so where
does this Gospel come from? The Ascended Lord of Glory. See, with all the
authority of the Godhead. All right, back to I Corinthians 15:3 and 4 for the
beautiful Gospel of Grace. I Corinthians 15:3-4 “For I delivered unto you
first of all that which I also received, (from the Ascended Lord) how
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; 4. And that he was
buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures;”
That, beloved, is the Gospel. As simple as A-B-C. Believe it for your
salvation. But, oh, mankind puts
everything but the kitchen sink with it, trying to add to what God has already
done. And God won’t have it. Because even when He spoke from the cross, what
were those final three words? “It is finished.” He didn’t say
it’s almost finished. It’s finished! It’s complete. It’s done, and
everything else detracts from it. Paul says in Galatians 1:6-9 that if you add
or take away from this beautiful Gospel, you can’t go to heaven! Okay, good to see everybody
back. We’re just going to jump right in where we left off in the last program.
We’ve got a lot to cover. My, I thought I’d be way beyond this by now. But
we’re going to take it slow enough that anybody, hopefully, that will read and
listen will understand. We’re going to start with that
same verse in Romans 15 verse 8, because it says it so plainly. That Jesus
Christ came to the Nation of Israel. Not to the whole world, yet, but to the
Nation of Israel. It isn’t until after the Apostle Paul is saved on the road
to Damascus, and the ascended Lord saved him and instructed him to go the
Gentiles. Until that time, as you’ve been seeing, I hope, on the daily
programs in the Book of Acts, it’s all Jewish. And how in the world anybody
could push Gentiles into the first eight chapters of Acts, I’ll never
understand. But here it is again. Romans 15:8 “Now I say that Jesus
Christ was (past tense) a minister of the circumcision
(the Nation of Israel) for the truth of God, to confirm
(or to fulfill) the promises made unto the fathers:” All right, now let’s come back
to Matthew 9 where we left off in our last program. Matthew 9 verse 35 again.
Matthew 9:35 “And Jesus went about all
the cities and villages, (That is in the Nation of Israel.)
teaching in their synagogues, (And you know Gentiles didn’t have much
access to the synagogue.) and preaching the gospel (or the good
news) of the kingdom, (and along with it) and healing every
sickness and every disease among the people.” Now, you see, this is what a
lot of people are trying to push into Christendom today. This very verse: that
along with salvation you should be able to experience healings and all these
miracles. No, that’s not for us in the Body of Christ. This is Jesus dealing
with Israel. It was part of the Kingdom Gospel. All right, again for sake of
comparison, I didn’t get time in the last program. We looked at I Corinthians
15:1-4, but now I want you to turn over to Acts 20:24 a moment. And just note
the difference in language. Language. The use of words. That’s why we have
language - to express and to define certain things. All right, now in Acts
20:24, Paul is at the end of his ministry. He is on his way back to Jerusalem for the last time, and he is meeting with the Ephesian elders, if you’ll
remember. Luke is writing and is quoting Paul, of course, but Paul says, Acts 20:24 “But none of these things
move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, (Because he’s been
persecuted and tortured and has been suffering for twenty some years. And so
he says--) that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry,…” Well, now that’s the same word
that he uses concerning Christ’s ministry to the Nation of Israel. In other
words, he was God’s sent one. He had a ministry, not specifically to Israel, but to the Gentiles. And over and over he refers to himself as the Apostle of the
Gentiles. Of course he had a ministry with the Jews. But just like we are
today, most of our response comes from Gentiles, a few Jews here and there. We
had a couple again in the last few weeks. But it’s not very often. All right, so now in this verse
in Acts, Paul refers to his ministry as having been received, like we saw in
the last half-hour in Galatians 1:11-12. He received it from the ascended Lord
Jesus in Glory. Acts 20:24b “…that I might finish my
course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to
testify the gospel of the (kingdom? No, but rather the gospel of the--)
grace of God.” Two totally different messages. The good news of the
Kingdom was that the King is here. He’s ready to offer the Kingdom. Believe
it. But Paul’s message is that the work of salvation has been accomplished.
Christ finished it. It’s God’s grace that is now being poured out. Believe it.
Two totally different messages. And then preachers and teachers try to mix
them. Horrors. Well anyway, back to Matthew.
Now we can just slip into chapter 10. Here we have the direction that this
Gospel of the Kingdom is to go from the Lord’s own lips. Matthew chapter 10
and I know a lot of people don’t like these verses either, but I can’t help
that, because that’s what the Book says. Jesus is just beginning His earthly
ministry. He’s chosen the twelve disciples in verses 1 through 4. And now verse
5. Matthew 10:5-6 “These twelve
(The same twelve that you’re all acquainted with.) Jesus sent forth, and
commanded them, (Now, that’s as strong a word as you can get. He
commanded them.) saying, 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 house of Israel.” Why? Because He was the
minister of the circumcision—the Jew. He was fulfilling the promises made by
the prophets, and those promises were all directed to what people? Israel. Not Gentiles. All right, now when people call and they’ve run into a buzz saw
with either a Sunday school teacher or a preacher or something, and they
ridicule this idea that Jesus sent the Twelve only to Israel, I say, “Okay, now you’ve got to use Scripture.” Now, let’s turn over to Acts chapter 9.
You talk about contradiction, and see, that’s what the unlearned would call
it. They say, “Well, the Bible contradicts itself.” No, it’s not
contradiction, but rather it’s a change of direction. Now naturally, if you have two
different sets of directions and they contradict each other, in reality it’s
not a contradiction, it’s a change of directions. And that’s what we have
here. Now remember, what did Jesus just say? “Go not into the way of a
Gentile.” Plain? Now look at Acts chapter 9. Ananias is the
believing Jew in Damascus that the Lord is going to use as a vessel between
Himself and Saul of Tarsus. All right, so now verse 15. Acts 9:15a “But the Lord said unto
him, (to Ananias, the believing Jew in Damascus) Go thy way: for
he (Saul of Tarsus) is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name
before (or to, what people?) the Gentiles,…” Now, in my understanding of
language, that’s two contradictory commands. Right? The one says don’t you go
to a Gentile, you go to the Jew. To the other He says, go to the Gentiles.
Plain as day. Well, what is it? Two totally different programs. One was for Israel. The other is for the Gentile world, but it will also include Israel if they want to believe the message. All right, so back to Matthew once again. Matthew 10:5-6 “These twelve Jesus sent
forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of Gentiles, and into
any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6. But go rather to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel.” Why does He confine it? Because of the covenant
promises all the way up through the Old Testament. They were all given to the
Nation of Israel, and Jesus came to fulfill them, as we saw in Romans 15:8.
Well, how in the world could He, as the righteous God of Glory, muddy up the
whole situation by now canceling the work of the covenants and bring in
Gentiles? It wouldn’t work. He wouldn’t be God. He’d have been a liar. So,
He keeps it separate. All of His ministry is to fulfill the covenant promises
to Israel. Now, lest you think I’m
stretching the point, here we go again. Go back to Ephesians chapter 2 and drop
in at verses 11 and 12. Now, why am I coming to this? Because of what I just
said about Jesus and His loyalty to the covenant promises that were made only
to Israel. No Gentiles in those covenants. Not a Gentile is mentioned in the
Abrahamic Covenant, except that one day through Abraham God would go to the
Gentiles. The same way in the prophets,
that one day when Israel was in the place of obedience, God would use them to
reach the Gentiles. But the covenants had nothing to do with Gentiles. And
here’s why. From the pen of the Apostle Paul. Ephesians 2:11a “Wherefore remember
(call it to mind), that ye…” Now, here’s where
we’ve got to stop. Always determine who is writing? The Apostle Paul. Who is
he writing to? The Ephesian Gentiles up there in Turkey. No Jews. Just
Gentiles. All right, what’s the situation? Well, Paul has now been ministering
to these Ephesian people. Many of them have become believers, and they have
come into the Body of Christ. Ephesians 2:11-12a “Wherefore remember, that
ye being in the time past Gentiles in the flesh,
(genetically) who are called Uncircumcision by (Whom?) that
who is called the (Jew) Circumcision… 12. That at that time…” Well,
now you’ve got to stop and qualify. What time? When God was dealing with Israel back in the Old Testament economy, and when Israel alone was under the covenant promises.
Now here’s why. Ephesians 2:12a “That at that time ye
(as a Gentile, your Gentile great-great-great grandparents) were without
Christ, (or Messiah) being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, (What does that mean? You weren’t citizens of Israel. You were outsiders.) and
strangers from the (What?) covenants of promise,…” Now, what does that mean? You
had no part in the covenants between God and Israel. You were a Gentile.
People have a hard time getting this through their heads. How could God
abandon the Gentile world for 2,000 years and deal primarily, with a few
exceptions of course, but He dealt primarily with the Nation of Israel. How
could He do that? Well, because for the first 2,000 years He dealt with the
whole human race. Beginning with Adam and Eve and Cain and Noah and all the
way up until the call of Abraham, God was dealing with the human race. They
all had an opportunity for salvation. But what did they do with it? They
walked it underfoot. They had more desire to murder their fellow man than to
get right with God. So He brought in the Flood and destroyed that wicked
generation. Then they start over with Noah’s three sons and it didn’t improve
anything. Two hundred years later they’re
all there at the Tower of Babel, falling under the wicked leadership of Nimrod;
ready to embrace every dream of a pagan god that Nimrod could come up with,
with Satan’s leading. But they had every opportunity, and they rejected it.
So, don’t ever blame God for not giving the Gentiles a chance. They had just
as much time as Israel did. All right, now He comes to the
Gentiles with His Age of Grace. Now, for 2,000 years the vast majority of Jews
are left out in the cold. Not by God’s design. It’s their own fault. A Jew
can be saved if they want to be. Nationally, of course, yeah, they’re set
aside. But they’ve still got the opportunity, so God has never been unfair.
Never. All right, but look what happened. Back to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2:12b “…ye were strangers from
the covenants of promise, (Because God wasn’t dealing with Gentiles, He
was dealing with Israel.) having no hope, and without God in the world:” That
was the plight of the Gentiles before Christ. Now you’ve got to remember,
there weren’t billons of people on the planet at that time. There were
relatively few. I think there was only one billion on the whole planet. No,
half a billion, if I remember right. Five hundred million at the time of
Christ. And, you see, the numbers have just been coming now in the last hundred
years. So, don’t think that you’ve got
billions and billions of Gentiles out there. No. But whatever there was, they
were without hope; they were without God in this world. That’s why they
were steeped in their paganism. My, just go back and read some ancient
history. The paganism that they worshipped, it’s unbelievable. But, now we
can’t leave this without looking at verse 13. Ephesians 2:13a “But now in Christ
Jesus…” Because of the work of the cross, God has leveled the whole
playing field. Every human being on the planet has access to that glorious
salvation which was accomplished at the cross. And all they have to do is
believe it. You know, years and years ago I made the statement – you don’t
have to cross a raging river. You don’t have to crawl up a sheer rock cliff to
get to a place where you can be saved. Where is it? Ground level. It’s right
in front of every human being, every step of their life. All they have to do
is turn and believe it, but they won’t. They don’t want to hear it. The
favorite thing is – leave me alone, I’m comfortable. All right, so back to Matthew.
Got to make a little headway, don’t we? So now then, the Lord has turned to Israel to preach the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. All right, now at the core, at the hub of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Gospel of the Kingdom is the Nation of Israel and her Messiah.
That’s where it all centers. That Israel’s Messiah was in their midst. Now, many of you have seen the
verse. I don’t know if I can find it. I’d better wait and look it up at break
time. But you’re all aware of the verse that says “the kingdom
of heaven is within you.” From that the theologians jump on it and
say, see, it’s an invisible, spiritualized kingdom. But, you see, the problem
is that the translators mistranslated a key Greek word. If you’ll look in a
real study Bible, that word ‘within’ should have been translated ‘in
your midst.’ The Kingdom of Heaven is in your midst in the person of
the King. See what a difference that makes, just one word. The King is in
your midst. He’s ready to bring in the kingdom. All right, now that becomes the
whole crux of the Kingdom Gospel, to believe that Jesus was the Promised
Messiah and Christ. That was the crux of the thing. All right, go over with
me now to Matthew chapter 16. Here we come to the end of His three years.
After all of His signs and wonders and miracles, the Scripture only gives us a
sampling. We only get a sampling. John ends his gospel with a statement that
if all of His miracles were recorded, the world couldn’t contain it. So
we just get a little scratching of the surface of miracles. But here we are
now, at the end of three years, and they are ready to go from northern Israel up to Jerusalem for the last Passover and the crucifixion. All right, verse 13 of Matthew
16. Now, I’m well aware that for many of you this is just review. And that’s
why I’m doing it. I want another clear-cut review. I want these new listeners
to see where we’re coming from. All right, verse 13. Matthew 16:13 “When Jesus came into the
borders of Caesarea Philippi, (That’s up at the headwaters of the
Jordan River at the base of Mount Herman.) he asked his disciples,
saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” Now remember, we’re
talking about Israel, Jews, not the Gentile world. Who do men in Israel say that I am? Well, you can tell by the answer that it would only be Jews that
were acquainted with these names. Matthew 16:14 “And they said, Some say
thou art John the Baptist: some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the
prophets.” See, the Jews had them on the tip of their tongue. Matthew 16:15-16 “He saith unto them, But
whom say ye that I am? (Do you twelve men know better than that? And
here’s Peter’s answer.) 16. And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art
the Christ (the Messiah, the Promised One, the Anointed One) the
Son of the Living God.” Period. Now, I saw little bit of this
morning’s program before I left, because I like to know what I was saying
fifteen years ago, once in a while. And I made it so plain. Does
Peter add – who died for you, was buried, and rose from the dead? No, Peter
doesn’t have a clue about that. But that’s what most of Christendom thinks he
said. Most of Christendom thinks that Peter says, oh yeah, you’re the one who
is the Son of God. You died for us and rose from the dead. No. Peter didn’t
have a clue about that. But he was right on that Jesus was that Promised
Messiah. See that? All right, now let’s just chase
some more of those references that prove the same thing. This is all God
expected them to know. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of
God. By what? The Word of God. Can the Word of God be available if God never
spoke it? No. So you can’t believe something until God speaks it. There
again, I’ll go back to Deuteronomy 29. If God has seen fit to keep it secret,
nobody can believe it. But the moment He speaks it, yes, then it becomes
something to believe and to place faith in. All right, so now then, these
people know nothing of a coming crucifixion. Go with me to John’s Gospel
chapter 11, the story of Lazarus. John chapter 11. You know the story.
Lazarus had been sick and Jesus purposely stayed away. He could have slipped
into town and healed him, and we’d have missed this. He purposely stayed away
so that Lazarus would die, so that He could perform the miracle of raising him
from the dead. It had to happen. All right, so we pick it up down in verse
22 of John’s gospel chapter 11. John 11:22-23 “But I know,
(Martha says) that even now, (now that he’s died) whatsoever
thou would ask of God, God will give it thee. 23. Jesus said unto her, Thy
brother shall rise again. 24. And Martha saith unto
him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. 25.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in
me, (Any hint of the cross? Not a word. So, what where they to
believe? Who He was. Everyone--) that believeth in me, (They
know that I am the Promised Messiah.) though he were dead, yet shall he
live.” That’s salvation for the Old Testament economy, bringing it on
up into Christ’s earthly ministry. It’s salvation by believing who He was. But now you want to remember,
there’s not a word in any of Christ’s earthly ministry about stopping Temple worship. They still went to the Temple. They still kept the Law. That was all
kept intact. But now they were to believe that Jesus was the Christ, too. All
right, back to Martha in verse 27. John 11:27 “She (Martha)
saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who
should come into the world.” Now, is that so hard to comprehend? That
was a simple statement of faith the same as Peter made. Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the Living God. And Jesus was satisfied. He said, “blessed
art thou Peter.” All right and the Lord here, too, He doesn’t condemn
her for having it wrong. But that was her profession of faith, “Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” All right, now let’s move
quickly into the Book of Acts chapter 8. You all know the story. How he was
riding his chariot, had been to Jerusalem to worship, and was on his way back
down to Ethiopia. And the Spirit encouraged Philip to catch up with him,
because the guy needed some explanation. All right, verse 29. Acts 8:29-30a “Then the Spirit
(the Holy Spirit) said unto Philip, Go near, and join
thyself to this chariot. 30. And Philip ran thither to him, (caught up
with him)…” Verse 32. Acts 8:32 “The place of the
scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like
a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:” Well, it
was reference, of course, to Christ’s work of the cross; but nobody could put
two and two together. All right, but now for sake of time, I’m going to bring
you all the way down to verse 35. Acts 8:35 “Then Philip opened his
mouth, and began at the same Scripture, (Isaiah 53) and preached
unto him Jesus.” Not a word about the death, burial, and
resurrection. Just the story of Jesus. Acts 8:36-37 “And as they went on
their way, they came unto a certain water: (Philip had evidently
mentioned the necessity for repentance and baptism, because the eunuch now
says--) See, here is water; what doeth hinder me to be baptized? 37. And
Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he
answered and said, (Now, here’s the eunuch’s profession of faith.) I
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” Period. That was his
profession of faith. All right, now we’ll come back
and start with our next program in this, because I don’t want to cut it too
short. We’re going to find that Saul of Tarsus is saved under this same
economy. He isn’t saved under the gospel that’s revealed after he comes on the
scene. Paul is going to be saved by this same Kingdom Gospel, and we’ll show
that at the beginning of our next program. Okay, good to see everybody
back. And for those of you joining us on television, we want to welcome you to
a simple Bible study. I want to keep it simple. I shared again with somebody
the other day, keep it simple. My, so many people get all wrapped up in things
that nobody can figure out. But it’s not that difficult if you just keep it
simple. So, we’re just glad to have you on board. We trust you will study and
learn to use the Scriptures so that you can study on your own. Okay, my little wife is the one
that keeps things moving, and she says we haven’t shown people our book again
for a long time. It’s eighty-eight questions with answers taken from our
television material, and it’s been so well received. We like to keep promoting
it, because it’s probably one-of-a-kind and about the best $11 you can spend.
My, they make such wonderful gifts. Okay, now we’re going to
continue on with where we left off in the previous program, how we are
connecting the dots through Scripture. We’ve moved from the call of Abraham and
the appearance of the Nation of Israel; all leading up to the promises of a
coming King and Kingdom. Jesus came in fulfillment of all that. Now, it was a legitimate
offer. I always compare it to when Israel went up to the Promised Land under
Moses. What did God tell them? Go in and take it. It’s yours for the
taking. You won’t lose one drop of blood because I’m going to drive the
Canaanites out. But, did they believe it? No, they didn’t believe it.
They had all kinds of excuses. The cities were well-fenced and the men were
giants and, oh, they just whimpered all night. So God sent them back out into
the desert. All right, now you have much
the same thing at His first advent. All the things were in place. It was a
valid offer. Yes, hypothetically, they could have had it. But God knew they
wouldn’t. So, the work of the cross was consummated because of Israel’s unbelief. In their unbelief, they demanded His death. But, you see, it was all
so supernatural. As we’ve seen even today, Israel stoned the prophets. Paul
recognized that he was part of putting those followers of Jesus to death. And Rome didn’t raise a fuss about that. But the leaders of Israel were prompted,
providentially, to bring Rome into the crucifixion, because He had to be lifted
up. He couldn’t be killed by stoning. He had to be crucified. So that brought
the Romans into the picture. That brought about, of course, the crucifixion and
burial and His resurrection. All right, now we’re going to
move over into His post-resurrection after the 40 days in the resurrected
body. We’ll move into Acts chapter 1. We are just trying to show how all of
this unfolded according to God’s timetable. But you have to understand the
timetable to really understand where we are with regard to our doctrine.
What do we believe? All right, Acts chapter 1, now it’s still Jewish.
Nothing pertaining to Gentiles as yet. Saul of Tarsus hasn’t been saved as
yet. All right, verse 2. Acts 1:2-3a “Until the day in which
he was taken up, (that is His ascension) after that he through
the Holy Spirit had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: (That
is the Eleven that are left. Judas is gone.) 3. To whom also (to
the Twelve, now Eleven) he showed himself alive after his passion…”
That is His death, burial, and resurrection. Now, you know, there have been
people down through the ages who tried to prove that the resurrection of Christ
was a hoax. But they invariably come away from it as believers, because there
was so much proof of His resurrection. Acts 1:3b “…by many infallible
proofs, being seen of them forty days,…” Forty days He spent with them
in the resurrected body. And it’s that forty day period with Christ that we
get a hint on our eternal body. It’s going to be a body fashioned after His
resurrected body. So, that’s the reason for these forty days. You pick them
up in the closing chapters of the gospels. Acts 1:3c “…being seen of them
forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Now fortunately, here about a year or two ago, we spent a whole series of
programs distinguishing the difference between the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom
of Heaven, and the Body of Christ. If you remember, the Kingdom of God is that overall sphere of God’s righteous influence and control: Heaven, the angels, all
the Old Testament believers, all the New Testament believers. Everything
pertaining to God’s righteousness can be included in that overall circle The
Kingdom of God. But in the Kingdom of God is that future Kingdom of Heaven which is coming on the earth. It is
predominately in Israel’s domain, although all the nations are going to
reappear. But that’s still future. Since it was rejected at Christ’s first
advent, it now has been postponed. We are now calling out the Body of Christ
and it, too, is in the Kingdom of God. So, when Paul says in
Colossians chapter 1 that we have been translated from darkness into the
Kingdom of His dear Son, it’s into the big circle of the Kingdom of God. But it’s also into the smaller circle of the Body of Christ. So, you have those three
entities in Scripture: the overall Kingdom of God, then inside the Kingdom of God you have the promised Kingdom of Heaven on earth and the Body of Christ, which
is now being called out. All right, so here we’re just talking about the big
picture, the Kingdom of God. All right, verse 4. Acts 1:4-5 “And being assembled
together with them, (the Eleven) he commanded them that they
should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,
which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5. For John truly baptized with water;
but ye (Speaking to the Eleven who are representatives also of the
Nation of Israel.) shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit (a
reference to Pentecost) not many days hence.” Now verse 6 is an
interesting verse. Acts 1:6 “When they therefore were
come together, (Jesus and these eleven men) they asked of him,
saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Well, now what Kingdom in Israel’s past was constantly a pleasant
reminder for Israel? Well, David and Solomon’s when Israel reached the peak of
her glory. Lord, are you ready to restore us to such a kingdom? Well, He doesn’t ridicule
them. He doesn’t say, now wait a minute, where do you guys get such an idea.
He merely says, like we say today, it’s not a matter of if; it’s a
matter of what? When. And that’s the way it still is today. There’s no if’s
about the Kingdom. It’s coming. We just don’t know when. Now, it looks like the whole
world is getting ready for the coming of Christ. The whole political
situation. The economic situation. The spiritual. The ungodliness. It’s all
screaming that we’re approaching the end time. But like I said in the first
program, God’s wheels can roll slowly. We don’t know when it will be. But
nevertheless, the world is setting the stage for Christ’s second coming. At
which time He will open up this glorious Kingdom to Israel. Verse 7. Acts 1:7 “And he said unto them,
It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put
in his own power.” So again, we have that same scenario where Jesus
said, it’s not for you to know. But that doesn’t mean it’s not valid. It is
coming. All right, now we’ll just stay here in the first part of Acts for a
little bit. Verse 8. Jesus is still speaking to the Eleven, and He says-- Acts 1:8a “But (regardless
of when the Kingdom comes) ye shall receive power, after that the Holy
Spirit is come upon you:…” Now, not too many tapings back, we did a
series on the Holy Spirit. And let’s come back. This comes to mind. I didn’t
intend to do this, but come back with me to Luke 24. Because this is what you
and I have to still recognize. That if we’re going to be led and controlled by
the Holy Spirit, we, too, want to be under this power from on high, which is
the power of the Holy Spirit. Luke 24:49, this is what Jesus is referring to
in Acts chapter 1 verse 8. Luke 24:49 “And, behold, I send the
promise of my Father upon you: but tarry (or stay) ye in the city
of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with (What?) power from on
high.” And what is the power from on high? The power of the Holy
Spirit operating on planet earth. All right, if you’ll come back
to Acts chapter 1 verse 8, that’s what He’s telling the Eleven. Wait here in Jerusalem until you are endued with that power from on high, which is the coming of the
Holy Spirit. Then reading on in verse 8. Acts 1:8b “…and ye shall be
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria,…”
Now, if you know your Bible, did they go any further? No. They never got any
further. That’s as far as they got. They didn’t get to the uttermost part of
the earth. Well, what happened? Israel’s unbelief. Israel the Nation is going to
continue to reject everything concerning this promised Kingdom, because they
couldn’t buy into Jesus of Nazareth as that Promised Messiah. How did they put
it? “Can anything good come out of Nazareth.” And the Nation
went down the tube into dispersion, waiting now, of course, for God to come in
and finish His second advent. But here we have it so plain. They never got
any further than Samaria. They did not get to the uttermost part of the
earth. But you know what? God’s promises never fail. So, how is Israel going to still fulfill this promise? Well, let me take you back to Matthew once
again. Matthew 24. And maybe this
will answer a lot of questions and save me a lot of letter writing. I
sometimes think I should just make copies of some of my answers, but I don’t
like to do it that way. So, I take the time to personally answer. Questions
come in constantly with regard to the Great Commission. You all know what it
says. But I’m not going back to the Great Commission. I’m going back to
Matthew 24, where Jesus is speaking concerning the Tribulation. Those final
seven years before Christ’s return. All right, verse 11. These are
all prophecies from the Lord Himself concerning these final seven years that Israel is going to have to go through. Matthew 24:11-12a “And many false prophets
shall arise, and shall deceive many. 12. And because iniquity shall abound,…”
Are we seeing it? Oh, the world is just succumbing to it at every turn. It
isn’t just America. We’re still the best. When you see the wickedness in
the rest of the world, we’re still fairly well blessed. Believe me. But it’s
going to be global. Matthew 24:12-13a “And because iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13. But, he that shall endure
(That is through these seven years.) unto the end, the same shall be
saved.” Physically. I don’t think this is a spiritual connotation.
They’re going to survive physically. Now a verse comes to mind. And
I always think that’s a hint that the Lord wants me to take a run at it. Come
back with me to Isaiah 24. Keep your hand in Matthew 24 and Acts 1. We’re
coming back. Now, this is Isaiah’s picture of these final seven years. In the
final days of them as the Lord says in Matthew 24. Isaiah, the first of the
major prophets, chapter 24 and I’m going to take time to read these verses so
that you’ll understand what the Lord is talking about in Matthew 24. Isaiah 24:1-2a “Behold, the LORD
(That’s the Old Testament term, remember, for God the Son.) maketh the
earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth
abroad the inhabitants thereof. 2. And it shall be, (It’s going to
happen.) as with the people, so with the priests; as with the servant, so
with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with
the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower;…” In other words,
the whole cross section of a society is now involved. Isaiah 24:3-4 “The land shall be
utterly emptied, (because of the horrors of these final hours of the
Tribulation) and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word. 4.
The earth mourneth and fadeth away, (In other words, all of its
activity is going to come down to nothing.) the world languisheth and
fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.” Wealth
isn’t going to make a bit of difference, because they’re all going to come
under the wrath of God. All right, verse 5. Isaiah 24:5 “The earth also is
defiled under the inhabitants thereof: because they have transgressed the laws,
changed the ordinance, and broken the everlasting covenant.” In other
words, they’ve broken every possible thing that God used to control humanity.
All right, now verse 6. Isaiah 24:6a “Therefore
(because of man’s total rebellion and depravity) hath the curse devoured
the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: (There’s no
quality of life left.) therefore the inhabitants of the earth are
burned,…” And I say, without any apology, that this is going to be the
nuclear unleashing of all the nuclear weapons that the world is accumulating. Isaiah 24:6b “…and the inhabitants of
the earth are burned, (What are the last several words?) and few
men left.” What does that mean? Now, come back to Matthew 24.
They’ve “endured to the end.” They’ve managed to stay alive.
Oh, maybe they’re under a pile of rubble. But they’re a survivor. And these
survivors, you see, are going to be brought before the King in Jerusalem. Now, I’ve got to follow that up
with Scripture, don’t I? You’re in Matthew 24. Turn over to chapter 25.
Here’s where the survivors are going to end up. Now, this may not be good
continuity, but bear with me. Matthew 25 and we now have the survivors of
Isaiah 24 brought before the King. Because remember, no unbelievers can go into
the Kingdom. So we’ve got to sort out the unbelievers of these survivors.
All right, here it is in verse 31. Matthew 25:31 “When the Son of man
(Now that’s the Son of God. It’s Jesus the Christ.) shall come in his
glory, (His second coming) and all the holy angels with him, then
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:” Just like we saw a few
programs back in Matthew 19. The Twelve are going to rule from twelve thrones
under the throne of Christ on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Matthew 25:32a “And before him shall be
gathered all nations:…” Now wait a minute? How many people are left in
the nations? Just a special few, the few survivors, remember? And that’s why
all these nukes are being accumulated. They’re going to use them, but not
until God gives permission to. So there will be a few survivors, I feel, in
every nation around the globe. Those survivors are representatives of the
nations. That’s all we’ve got here. Just a few, but enough to restart the
human race. Okay, so He brings them into Jerusalem and separates them. Matthew 25:32 “And before him shall be
gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as (or
like) a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats:” Now, when you
separate sheep from goats, that’s easy enough to understand. The sheep go here
and the goats go there. Well, that’s what He’s going to do with the believers
that have survived from all these Gentile nations. He’s going to separate the
lost from the saved out of these survivors. Matthew 25:33-34 “And he shall set the
sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34. Then shall the King
(See, this is at the onset of this earthly Kingdom.) say unto them on his
right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit (or be part of) the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:” In other
words, all the Old Testament is looking forward to this glorious, earthly
Kingdom over which Christ is going to rule and reign. Then the rest, of
course, explains how the goats who represent the lost will be sent to their
doom. All right, back up again to
Matthew 24. These survivors will have endured those seven years to the end, and
they’re going to be able to go into the Kingdom. But they can’t go into the
Kingdom unless they’ve heard the gospel of salvation. Nothing is automatic.
Every human being has to be presented with the plan of salvation, whether it’s
Old Testament, whether it’s Christ’s earthly, kingdom gospel message, or
whether it’s us in the Age of Grace. We all have to make our personal
affirmation of faith. All right, now verse 14. Here it is as plain, again, as
English can make it. And Jesus is speaking. Matthew 24:13-14a “But he that shall endure
unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14. And this gospel of the kingdom…”
Now, what’s the key word? THIS. What does that indicate? What has been
preached in His earthly ministry for three years? This same gospel that He and
the Twelve had been preaching to Israel will, during the Tribulation, be preached
to the whole world. Not just Jews. Everyone. Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and
then shall the end come.” Who’s going to have the glorious opportunity
to take this Gospel of the Kingdom to the nations of the world? Jews. What
Jews? The hundred and forty-four thousand. To back that up, come back to
Revelation. Back to Revelation chapter 7
verses 4 through 8. We’ve got the sealing, or setting apart, of 12,000 young
Jewish men from each one of the Twelve Tribes. You know what I tell people? I
think, I can’t prove it, but I think at the present time they’re already in Israel. I think these 12,000 Jews from every one of the Twelve Tribes are already in Israel. That’s how close I think we are to the end. But see, here’s the miracle of
it. Who knows what tribes they belong to? God does! And in His sovereignty
He’s going to have it arranged that they’re going to be there. And again, I
think, I can’t prove from Scripture, but it seems logical to believe that these
144,000 young Jews are going to hear the preaching of the two witnesses that
come in at the very opening of the Tribulation—from their preaching the Gospel
of the Kingdom, the King is coming, and the Kingdom is just over the horizon.
See how it all fits? The King is coming. They don’t
need the Gospel of Grace. That’s done. The church is gone. But the world at
the end of the Tribulation is going to finally have heard this Gospel of the
Kingdom from these 144,000 Jews. All right, go on into verse 9. Now we see
that these young men are literally going to reach every tribe and language and
dialect on the planet, which is today impossible. My goodness, the last I
read, there are still thousands of tribes that have never heard the gospel.
These men are going to do it. Revelation 7:9 “After this
(After they’ve been sealed. I think this is on the very opening day of the
Tribulation.) I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could
number, of (What?) all nations, (not just from Israel) and
kindred, and people, and tongues, (or languages) stood before the
throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their
hands;” What’s happened? They’ve become believers of this Gospel of
the Kingdom during the Tribulation, and they’re martyred as fast as they become
believers. They’re already in Glory and waiting for the Tribulation to be
consummated. Revelation 7:10-12 “And they cried with a
loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and unto
the Lamb. 11. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about
the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their
faces, and worshipped God, 12. Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom,
and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever
and ever. Amen.” And then verse 13. Revelation 7:13-14 “And one of the elders
answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and
where did they come from? 14. And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he
said to me, These are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” They heard
the Gospel of the Kingdom from these 144,000 Jews, they believed it, and they
were immediately martyred. That’s the horrors of the Tribulation. But on the other hand, you know
what? I think they’re going to be so glad to be martyred to get out from under
the horrors of that period of time. So, none of this is hard to believe. “And
these are they who came out of great tribulation,” and they’re martyred
as fast as they became believers.LESSON ONE * PART I
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE
Genesis through Revelation
LESSON ONE * PART II
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE
Genesis through Revelation
LESSON ONE * PART III
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE
Genesis through Revelation
LESSON ONE * PART IV
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE
Genesis through Revelation
LESSON TWO * PART I
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE
(Part 2)
Genesis through Revelation
LESSON TWO * PART II
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE
(Part 2)
Genesis through Revelation
Jeremiah 23:4-5aLESSON TWO * PART III
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE
(Part 2)
Genesis through Revelation
LESSON TWO * PART IV
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE
(Part 2)
Genesis through Revelation
LESSON THREE * PART I
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE
(Part 3)
Genesis through Revelation
LESSON THREE * PART II
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE
(Part 3)
Genesis through Revelation
LESSON THREE * PART III
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE
(Part 3)
Genesis through Revelation
LESSON THREE * PART IV
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE
(Part 3)
Genesis through Revelation
Copyright © 2007 Les Feldick Ministries. All rights reserved.