The Mystery of the Church: Why It’s Not in the Old Testament

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Good evening, and again, it's good to see everybody. And we're going to get right into the Word where we left off last week. And for those of you joining us on television, again, I want to thank you for all of your letters. It's been a real encouragement to hear from everybody. I think we've been hearing from almost all over eastern Oklahoma as well as here in Tulsa. And so we just again ask that you would be part and parcel of our classroom, find a Bible, take some notes, and we trust that the Lord will bless you for it. Now, if you'll remember, the last time we were together, we went from Genesis 24, the calling out of a bride for Isaac, wherein Abraham the father sent his servant, if you'll remember, up into a far country to his original kinfolk to find a bride for his son Isaac. And we likened the servant to the work of the Holy Spirit in calling out the bride of Christ. And I told you that we would be jumping then from Genesis 24 into the New Testament to follow up this illustration of how God has now sent the Holy Spirit amongst primarily the Gentile, not exclusively. Some Jews, of course, are being saved, but it's primarily the age of the Gentile for a Gentile bride for God the Son. And so in order to really explain how that all came about, you remember, I went back to Psalms chapter 2, whereby we put up this timeline the last time we were together, that from the call of Abraham beginning there in Genesis chapter 12, we're under the Abrahamic covenant. Of course, about 490 years after Abraham, we had Moses and the law, and so Israel goes under the law. And then in Daniel chapter 9, God says, 490 years are determined upon your people Israel. And that's something else that I emphasized a few weeks ago, how that all during the Old Testament, all during the program of prophecy, God would tell everything long before it happened. And that's what prophecy really is. He would say to Abraham that in so many generations they would be down in Egypt, but He would bring them back. That was prophecy. And then He foretold their Babylonian captivity, that they would be 70 years in Babylon. And He foretold that Cyrus, the king of the Medes and Persians, would send a decree to put them back in Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. Everything was laid out ahead of time, and that's why we call it the prophetic program. And in that prophetic program, there is not one hint of the church age. It's just not in there. You can't find it because it isn't there. And so God had a reason, and then you'll remember several weeks or months ago, I don't remember now, time goes so fast, you remember we used the term Jehovah Olam. And if you'll remember, I'm trying to refresh your memory now, that word Olam is translated in some places as everlasting, or the everlasting to everlasting God. It is also translated as the God of time. And then in another place, the same word is translated hid and hidden. And you'll remember I emphasized then that even though God lays everything out to the nation of Israel openly and prophetically, yet God has seen fit by virtue of His being Jehovah Olam to hide and keep hidden the church age. So I went back to Psalms chapter 2, the last few weeks we've been together, and this is the way Psalms 2 unfolds. You come out of the Old Testament. The Messiah appears. He's rejected by Jew and Gentile alike. They crucified Him. And then Psalms chapter 2 says that after He would ascend and sit at the Father's right hand, now then we know that the Holy Spirit came down. That isn't in Psalms 2, but it's in other references, which we'll see in a minute. And then Psalms 2 says the next thing that would happen would be the wrath and the vexation. You remember? The tribulation, and we get the seven years from Daniel, and we'll be looking at that, hopefully, in the next few programs. And then Psalms 2 says that after the wrath and vexation, yet have I set my King on the holy hill of Zion, the King in the kingdom. Now that's the Old Testament program just laid out so beautifully, but not a word of the church age. So now what we want to do is follow some of these Old Testament references and pick up one where the Lord Jesus gave one little hint. He didn't tell us what He was doing, but we can now see that He was giving a hint. And that we'll pick up in Luke chapter 4. But before you go to Luke 4, go back to Isaiah chapter 61. Isaiah 61. And we can begin with verse 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath appointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. Now there again, if you'll look at that carefully, you've got the same unfolding line of prophecy. Go back and look at it again now. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives. Now that all took place at His first advent. And then He comes down to verse 2, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Well, when did He do that? During His earthly ministry. He tried to tell Israel who He was. And He performed all of His miracles as proof of who He was. And yet, what did Israel do? They rejected Him. But now go on in verse 2. After the word Lord, there's a comma. And the day of vengeance of our God. Now what's He referring to? Tribulation. Just like Psalms calls it wrath and vexation, Isaiah here calls it the vengeance, or the day of vengeance of our God. There again, you've got a semicolon. And then what's the next statement? To comfort all that mourn. Now what's He referring to? The kingdom. Now when you read the Beatitudes in Matthew, always remember that Beatitudes are primarily the description of the atmosphere and the climate in the kingdom. It's when the kingdom comes in that the poor will be blessed, and that the meek will inherit the earth. And He said, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Here it is. These that He has come to comfort are those that are mourning in the verse of the Beatitudes. Now, keep your hand here in Isaiah 61, because we're going to come right back for a comparison. But now, if you will, turn to Matthew chapter 4, where Jesus, during His earthly ministry, rather early in His ministry at this point in time, in, not Matthew, I'm sorry, Luke. In Luke chapter 4, you'll find that He's up in the area of Galilee, and just a few miles west of the shores of the Sea of Galilee is the town of Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, and it's still a tourist attraction. In fact, some of our group didn't get back from Israel, and that's kind of cut into our numbers, but nevertheless, we've had a few that have been over there for the last ten days, and I'm sure that they have had their eyes opened as to the geography of a lot of these things, and Nazareth would be one of them. All right, now verse 16 in Luke chapter 4. And He, that is, Jesus, came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Now, what does that tell you? He lived under the law, and He kept the law. All right? And He stood up for to read. Now, that was customary, that when a visitor would come into the synagogue, one of the ministers would bring him a scroll, and he would have the privilege and the honor, then, of reading Scripture. Now, you want to remember, all they had was the Old Testament. It wasn't in book form. It was in scroll. So they brought him the book of Isaiah, verse 17. And they were delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, or the scroll, he found the place. Now, whenever you find that word found, what does that tell you? He looked for it. In other words, he didn't just open the book and start reading. He looked for it. And when he found it, he found the place where it was written. Now, verse 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Where is he reading? The verse we just read back there in Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book. And he gave it to the minister and sat down. And all the eyes of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, now watch this carefully, this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. But now flip back to Isaiah 61. And remember, He's God. He knows the end from the beginning. And so Jesus knew exactly where to stop in this verse in Isaiah. Now, if you've got Isaiah 61 again, come down to verse 2. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And he stopped and sat down. But what's the punctuation mark in your Bible? It's a comma. That's not the end of the sentence. Now read on. And the day of vengeance of our God, and to comfort, or to bring in the kingdom all that mourn. Now why did he stop where he stopped? Because Jesus knew that this Old Testament program was going to be interrupted at some point in time shortly after His ascension. And the day of vengeance would not come in, the kingdom would not come in until some later day. Now we're going to show that from some other portions of Scripture that this prophetic program stops. And I like to point up or use the analogy of God's time clock. Everything has been on schedule. In fact, we'll go back maybe right now and pick this one up. That there was to be 490 years of God's dealing with Israel before the king and the kingdom could come in, 483 years culminated with the crucifixion, and then God's clock stopped right here. It just stops short. And it won't pick up again until it's time for the church to be completed and the bride is complete, and then He can bring in again those final seven years. So maybe now would be a good time, I hope I don't run out of time, to come back with me to Psalms chapter 2. And beginning with Psalms chapter 2, we're going to show how that over and over, and I haven't got all of them, I've just picked out a few of the plainest ones, where we can see definitely that this Old Testament program was interrupted. And interrupted for the purpose of calling out the bride of Christ to complete the body of Christ, take it out of the way, and then continue on with this prophetic program. Psalms chapter 2, come down to verse 3, where the leaders of the Gentiles and the Jews who have rejected Christ's offer to be their king and to set up the kingdom, instead they say, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. In other words, what they tell Jesus, we'll not have this man to rule over us. Verse 4, He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision, and then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure, yet have I set my king. Now, right in between verses 3 and 5, you can put a parenthesis, put it in your Bible, with a dash between it. Because here is where the Old Testament program is going to be interrupted. The wrath and vengeance and the vexation did not happen at Christ's first coming. It all was stopped short. Now, if you don't mind marking your Bible, I usually have people put a few of these references in your margin, and then you can share it with someone else without having to go through a concordant. So in the margin here of Psalms chapter 2, and with that parenthesis between 3 and 5, the next one will be in Psalms 118 verse 22. So just move right along with me now through the Psalms to 118. We'll come down to verse 22. Psalms 118 verse 22. The stone which the builders refused. Now, who was that? Well, that was Christ. He's always the rock and the stone of Scripture. And when did they reject Him? Oh, when they crucified Him, and they said, Away with Him, send us Barabbas, and you know all the rest of it. And then the next half of the verse says, Is become the headstone of the corner. Now, He is not the headstone of the church. He is the head of the body, which is the church. But His headstoneship refers to what? His kingdom, which is still future. So you can put a little parenthesis right between the word refused and the word is. All of a sudden there's a break. The last half of that verse has never yet been fulfilled. Now, the next one we go to is a very familiar one, and it's Isaiah chapter 9. And especially at Christmastime, if you ever listen to Handel's Messiah, here is where that great hallelujah chorus gets its theme from Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6. Isaiah 9 verse 6. And now again, watch carefully, and by the time we get a few more of these, you're going to be able to see them before I even mention it. Verse 6, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder. What government? The kingdom. So now where are you going to put your parenthesis? Well, right after the word given. That happened at His first advent. The promised Son came to the nation of Israel. He came unto His own, and His own what? They refused Him, see? All right, so the last half of that verse is interrupted. Hasn't happened yet. But oh, listen. If everything that was spoken of in prophecy was fulfilled up to here, could it be the word of God and this not be fulfilled? Of course not. It's still going to happen because God said it will. And so He had the prerogative of interrupting it, and we're going to see how, if not in this half hour, surely in the next one. All right, now from Isaiah chapter 9. We've already looked at Isaiah 61, the one that the Lord Jesus interrupted, but you might want to stop there. Isaiah 61. And then put in the next reference, which will be Daniel chapter 9. And we're going to be looking at Daniel chapter 9 more or less in detail in the next few programs. Daniel chapter 9, and here is that great prophecy, the one that Jesus referred to, in fact, in Matthew 24. When He says, when you see that which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, well, here it is. Daniel chapter 9, and come down to verse 26. Now, I'm not going to try to explain the language here this time. Like I said, we'll be doing that in a little while. But in verse 26 of Daniel 9, after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, crucified, but not for Himself, and the people of the prince that shall come, that is, the people out of which the Antichrist will one day come. We know now that that was the Roman Empire. Daniel, of course, can't speak of it as such because it was still prophetic from his time. But we know that he's talking about the Roman Empire that destroyed the temple. Out of that Roman Empire shall come the prince, and on the end thereof shall be with a flood, and to the end of the war desolations are determined. All right, now where are we going to make the split? Well, it's going to be up after Messiah is cut off, and then the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. That all happened within a reasonable time of Christ's first advent. 70 A.D. is when the Romans destroyed the temple. So this is still associated, for the most part, with His first coming. And then the end thereof shall be with a flood, and to the end war desolations are determined. He shall confirm the covenant with many one week. That's the tribulation. That didn't take place at Christ's first coming, so it's been postponed. All right, now the next one is Joel, chapter 2. That comes right after Hosea. Joel, chapter 2. Joel, chapter 2. And here, of course, we have the introduction of the coming down of the Holy Spirit in that Old Testament program, even though it wasn't listed in Psalms. Here it is now in Joel. Joel, chapter 2. And come down to verse 28. Joel 2, verse 28. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Now, always remember, these prophets, the Old Testament, were always writing primarily to what people? To the Jew. Now, when did the Spirit come down upon the nation of Israel? Well, at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down. And this is the prophecy of it. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. This all took place at the advent of the Holy Spirit there at Pentecost. Then verse 29 is still referring to it. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days, I will pour out of My Spirit. That all happened. Now go on to verse 30. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, fire, pillars of smoke, the sun turned into darkness, the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. Did that happen? No. That's the tribulation. So you see, you put your parentheses now between verse 29 and 30. Everything in 28 and 29 took place at His first advent. In the remaining, it didn't. It's still ahead. So you put a parentheses in there. All right, now if you'll come on up through your Old Testament all the way to Zechariah. It's not very far. Zechariah is the next to the last in your Old Testament. And come down to chapter 9, Zechariah chapter 9. Drop in at verses 9 and 10. Zechariah 9, verses 9 and 10. I'd like to give you time so I know you're all seeing it with your own eyes. Verse 9, When did that happen? Well, His first advent. You know the story. On triumphal Sunday, He came riding in on that little young donkey. Now, verse 10. What's that? Tribulation. Armageddon. And then read on. The Gentiles, or the heathen as it's called in the King James. He'll speak peace to the Gentiles, and His dominion, His kingdom, shall be from sea even to sea. It's going to encompass the whole world, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. Now, where are you going to put your cutoff? Well, right between verses 9 and 10. Verse 9, And so there's an interruption. All right, now let's go into the New Testament. It doesn't stop with the old. Now let's go into Luke's Gospel, chapter 1. Luke's Gospel, chapter 1. And here's the announcement of the birth of Christ. Luke, chapter 1, verse 31. Now, where are you going to put your parenthesis? Well, between 31 and 32. Of course He was born, and of course they named Him Jesus. But in His first advent, did He assume the throne of David? No. And so, is the Scripture lying? Of course not. It didn't take place, but it's going to. All right, now then let's go all the way into the book of Acts. Acts, chapter 1. And while you're looking for Acts, chapter 1, I should have told you when you were back there in Joel to keep your hand in that one. Maybe some of you did. But if you can still find Joel, find it quickly, because Peter is going to quote from Joel like Jesus quoted in Luke from Isaiah. And what I want you to see is that Peter did not have the omnipotent insight that Christ had, and so he couldn't stop at the right place. He didn't know that this program would be interrupted. Peter preaches it as if this is all coming. Peter has no idea of a church age. Now, you got Acts, chapter 1? Or is it chapter 2? I'm sorry, chapter 2. Acts, chapter 2. And you know the account, how they've been ridiculing and they've been speaking in languages, and everybody said, well, they must be drunken. But Peter says, verse 15, these are not drunken. Acts, chapter 2, verse 15, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. It's only 9 o'clock in the morning. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. Now, when he says this is that, what did he say? Peter said, what you're seeing take place in our lifetime, what you have just experienced in His ministry, His crucifixion, His resurrection, and now the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, this is what Joel was talking about. It's all coming right according to prophecy. And Peter could see this whole thing. He knew that the next thing on the agenda would have to be the tribulation and then the return of Israel's king and the kingdom. And as I pointed out on the last program, then what could Israel do? Oh, then they could go out and bring the Gentiles to a knowledge of their God. But Israel rejected it. And so, as Jesus knew in Luke, chapter 4, where to stop, and that last half of the verse would not be completed until much later, Peter goes right on through it and doesn't know the difference. Let's read it now from Acts, chapter 2. This is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit, that your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood, fire, vapor of smoke. The sun turned into darkness, the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Why didn't Peter stop in the middle like Jesus did? Peter didn't know. So far as Peter was concerned, this was all that he knew. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.