What Changed After Paul's Final Warning to Israel?

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for over 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. Okay, good to have everybody back, and we're going to look at something a little bit different this time from our last half hour. Instead of the timeline of all of Scripture, we're going to look at a timeline of sorts that covers Paul's Church Epistles. It's amazing, and the reason I like to teach these things is to show how intrinsically, how beautifully all of the Bible puts together. Everything fits from Genesis to Revelation, and everything is so programmed, if I may use the word, that no human could have ever dreamed it up. Now we're going to see that there are 7 of Paul's Epistles that were written to the Church, and they're called the Church Epistles. Now do you think the Apostle Paul sat there and beat his brains out, saying, how can I divide this up so I come up with the number 7, which is of course God's perfect number? No! Paul just wrote those letters as it was appropriate, and it just fell out that there were 7 of them that were written for the Church. And many times within his letters, I think we pointed out one in particular when we were teaching Romans. Here he comes out with 7 distinct things that God had accomplished for the nation of Israel. Now again, do you think Paul sat there and beat his brains out, saying, how can I put this in 7? No! And so all of this just points up the inspiration of everything, even to the way they were lined up in our New Testament, which isn't according to his chronological order, but the Holy Spirit put them in exactly as they were supposed to be when men of God put the New Testament together. Now I've made this point before, way back when we started Romans, that all the books of the New Testament are sometimes in various copies of Antiquity, are in different order. In other words, every New Testament that's in libraries across the world are not always Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Even the 4 Gospels may be mixed up, and the same way with the little epistles of Peter and John. They're not always in that order, but every one of Paul's epistles are always in every copy of the New Testament that's available. The epistles of Paul are always in the same order that we have them today. Now that tells us, of course, that the Holy Spirit was in total control when the men who met approximately 350 A.D. and put the canon of Scripture together and formulated our New Testament. So always remember that God has particularly brooded over these Pauline epistles, because they are the ones that are appropriate for us today. Now I've got my studio audience already turned, so those of you in television, you're going to have to find this in a hurry. Second Timothy chapter 3. Now our lesson is going to be in Ephesians chapter 1, so Roy's got the right number on the board. We're going to be looking at Ephesians verse by verse, but before we do that, I want you to look at 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, where the Apostle Paul writes, "...all Scripture, the whole Bible from cover to cover, is given by inspiration of God. I know nothing irks me more when even good men," and I'm sure they mean well, but they will sometimes give, for example, Luke, the writer of a good portion of our New Testament. The Gospel of Luke and most of the Book of Acts is written by Luke, who I've said for years and years was not a Gentile, he was a Jew. And now, bless their hearts, I'm getting articles from people out in TV land proving almost beyond a shadow of a doubt that Luke was indeed not a Gentile. He was a Jew, and of course I always just base it on the verse in Romans, where Paul says, "...what advantage then hath the Jew?" And then he answers it in the next verse, "...much every way, because unto them the Jew was committed the word of God." Well how in the world can you make a statement like that, and then have something like the whole Book of Luke and the whole Book of Acts written by a Gentile? Well it just won't fit, and so on that basis I've always felt that Luke was a Jew. Granted he had a Roman name, but so did Paul. See Saul was his Jewish name, Paul was a Roman name, and I think much the same thing happened with Luke. But whatever, all Scripture, even though Luke, I guess I dropped my thought. They give Luke credit for being a tremendous diarist. In other words, he must have just kept a perfect diary every day, especially as he traveled. No, no, I'm sure that a lot of these things were in Luke's mind. He remembered things that took place, but he didn't write the Scripture from what was in his memory. He wrote the Scripture as the Holy Spirit inspired him to write it, in the same way with the Gospel writers. They may have remembered a lot of the things that took place in Christ's earthly ministry, but they didn't write from what they remembered. They wrote from what the Holy Spirit inspired them to write, and always remember that. All the writers of Scripture, even though they were part and parcel of that point in time, and their personality shines through because of it, yet what they wrote was not from notes that they had gathered. It wasn't from hearsay. It was as the Holy Spirit moved them to write. All right, so now then back to our verse. 2 Timothy 3, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, and for correction. In other words, for someone who gets off course. And as I was mulling this verse, I told you so often, we drive 90 miles of course, we drive 90 miles up to Tulsa, and a lot of times I don't say a word for 90 miles, and I think my precious little wife knows why, because I'm mulling all this over in my mind as I drive. As I was thinking of this very word, correction, I remembered when we were putting men on the moon. They would make note of the fact that as those rockets were going through space, that they had to constantly correct their trajectory, because if they were off just a fraction of a degree with such tremendous amount of miles, they would have missed the moon by who knows how much. So what did they have to constantly do? Correct. Now that's what the Scripture has to do. It's so easy to get off course, but the Scripture is here to bring us back on course, and that's what correction stands for. So it's profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Now it's kind of unique then that all of Paul's Church letters, especially the 7 that we're going to put on the board, all fall into this unfolding kind of a category. Now that doesn't sound like good English does it? But I think I've said it before, that all of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation is a progressive revelation. In other words, as we come up through the Old Testament, God is always revealing something that the fellows back there didn't know. We come into the New Testament, and God begins to reveal things that weren't in the Old Testament. Then especially we get to the Apostle Paul, revelations that were never hinted in the Old Testament, revelations of things that Jesus never spoke of. But within the letters of Paul, and especially the 7 Church letters that we're going to be looking at on the board, again it's a progressive revelation going from the beginnings of his writings to the end, but it's going to be under this format. First doctrine, then reproof, then correction, and then instruction in righteousness. Now I point that out only just to show you how beautifully this Book is put together. Paul didn't just sit down and say, Now how can I do this? I've got to be able to put doctrine first. I've got to be able to somehow write in the area of reproof. No! I don't think Apostle Paul, when he wrote his letters, even realized that he was writing Scripture. I don't believe he knew that, and I think he would have been aghast if he could have seen down through the corridor of history of what his writings would become. Because he just wrote as the Holy Spirit inspired him to write, fired the letter off to these various churches by courier, and now you know the Book of Romans he sent to Rome from Corinth with Phoebe, a lady, and others went with some of his friends, Titus and Timothy and so forth. But I don't think he had any idea that this was going to become what we call Canon of Scripture. But whether he knew it or not, he put it out under this very format, first doctrine, then reproof, then correction, and then instruction in righteousness. Now I'm going to put together a timeline of sorts dealing with Paul's epistles, and of course we start back here with his letters that were written during his early missionary travels. I think most people are aware of his missionary travels when he left Antioch, and then he went up into Asia Minor, up to Antioch of Pisidia, and Derbe, and Lystra, and then later on in his second journey he went all the way over to Greece, and Athens, and Thessalonica, and all that. That began in about 40 A.D. when he came back from his 3 years of instruction with the Lord at Mount Sinai, and these letters then become what we know of as Romans, and then the Corinthian letters, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and then came the Book of Galatians. Now all those were written between the beginning of his earthly ministry, in fact none of them were written until about 56-58 A .D., and then Romans was written about 64 A.D., and Galatians was written earlier in about 60 A.D., and then the Corinthian letters were written somewhere in between there. It doesn't matter, but it was somewheres in that area of 62 A.D. Those four letters then were written during his time of missionary travels and so forth, and as I mentioned I think in that last half hour, by virtue of the Jews now being in every city in the Roman Empire, wherever the Apostle Paul went, where did he go first? To the Jew, to the synagogue, because they were in every city of any import, and so being a Jew himself, steeped in Judaism, having a love for his kinsmen according to the flesh as he calls them, every city that he would go, he would go first to the synagogue of the Jew, and he would expound to them out of the Old Testament, because you want to remember there is no New Testament. The Gospels haven't been written until after Paul has written his letters, so he couldn't even tell people, well if you want to know a little more about Jesus in his earthly ministry, read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They hadn't been written yet, and so everywhere he went he simply had to speak the Word verbally, because there was nothing written until he began his letters. Now of course out here we're going to come to I and II Thessalonians, which are going to be at the very end of the 7 letters to the churches, and they are going to be the ones that are instruction. But the amazing thing is, even though they're at the end of the line of Revelation, these were written first probably in about 57 or 58 A.D. But the Holy Spirit, even though He prompted him to write them early, the Holy Spirit saw fit to put it at the end in our New Testament order. Now then, I want you to turn with me to Acts chapter 28. Now again this is all history as well as Bible study, because if you understand the historical setting, then you can understand where the Apostle is coming from, and why the Holy Spirit does what He does. Now remember, beginning with his missionary journeys out of Palestine, or out of the land of Israel, up into Asia Minor, beginning about 40 A.D. and around the city of Antioch up in Syria, and during those years from 40 A.D. until he goes to prison, probably in 64 or 65 A.D. But during this period of time of about 25 years, he is constantly appealing to the Jew on the basis of the Old Testament, but he has now written Romans, which is the Book of Doctrine. Romans is the doctrinal Book, so even though Galatians was written earlier, yet the Holy Spirit puts Romans in our New Testament exactly where it belongs, because all Scripture is given and is profitable for, first of all, doctrine. Then the next two books that we studied, and we've already come through them, they were for that next part of the format, and that was for reproof. You'll remember when we studied the Corinthian letters, my what did they need reproof in? Well all their problems. They had immorality, they had dissension in the Church, they had divisions, they were having problems with legal matters with one another, they had problems about what they could eat, and what they couldn't eat. I mean the Church was just beset with all kinds of problems, so we had to reprove them with those two letters of I and II Corinthians, but they're still appropriate for us even today. Then you come to the Book of Galatians, even though it was earliest, but it's in the fourth of the order of the Church letters, written before Romans, but after in our New Testament order. Now we have a Book that was written for correction. Now I think it wasn't that long ago, what did the Galatians need in correcting? Where were they slipping off to? Legalism. So the Book of Galatians was literally written to bring them back on course. You're not under Law, you're under Grace, and the whole 6 chapters of that little book was on that theme alone. But if you'll remember when we were in Galatians, what was he constantly referring to? Abraham. And then we use the allegory of Isaac and Ishmael as pictures of Law and Grace, constantly flipping back into the Old Testament, and using the Jew as examples, and appealing to the Jew to come out of their blindness, and out of their legalism, and step into the Light of God's Grace. Now that covered this whole period of time while Paul was roaming the Roman Empire, establishing churches, but now you've got Acts 28, and all of a sudden there's an interruption in Paul's ministry, and he's going to be arrested, and he's going to be taken to prison in Rome. Now turn with me to Acts chapter 28, and we're going to have to move rather quickly. Acts 28. He has now arrived at Rome after all the shipwreck and the turmoil of getting from Caesarea over there in Israel, and it came to pass that after 3 days Paul called the chief of the Jews, that is of the Jewish community in Rome. And he called the chief of the Jews together, and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people of Israel, or the customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. Now of course you all remember how the Jews hated the Apostle Paul. They treated him just like he had treated them earlier, and so they were constantly after his life, trying to kill him one way or another. Then you remember the Romans took him under their wing, and of course he had to appeal to Caesar, and so now he is in Rome waiting for justice to be meted out. Verse 19. When the Jews spake against it, that is his message of salvation, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar. Now then he says, I had nothing to accuse my nation of, and so for this cause, because he had no controversy with the people who had caused his arrest, I have called for you, to see you, and to speak with you, because that for the hope of Israel am I bound in this chain. See the man never lost his love for his kinsman according to the flesh, even in spite of the fact that they were constantly trying to put him to death. They were trying to upset his ministry, but he never lost his love for them. Now then after these Jewish leaders in Rome had come to meet with him where he was under house arrest, verse 25. And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed. In other words, they left. They couldn't agree on anything. After Paul had spoken one word, and this is what Paul told these Jewish leaders. Well spake the Holy Spirit by Isaiah. See he's going back to the Old Testament. Isaiah knew what he was talking about when he said, "...Go to this people, and say, Hearing you shall hear, and not understand. Seeing you shall see, and not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull at hearing, their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I could heal them." In other words, Israel has been constantly covered with a veneer of blindness way back in Isaiah's day. And so Paul is saying the same thing. I'm in the same situation. I have tried to get you to see the truth, but you would not. Now verse 28. Now remember where Paul is. He's in Rome in prison. Now he says, "...Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent to Gentiles." Now he has told them earlier in his ministry that if they're not going to believe it, he says we'll go to the Gentiles. So this isn't the first time, but it's the final one. He told them earlier, we're going to go to the Gentiles, and of course he always did. But he would still come back and appeal to the nation of Israel. But now it's final. Now this is final. So he says again verse 28, "...Therefore let it be known unto you, that the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it." It doesn't say they're all going to believe it, but they're going to hear it. "...And so when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves." Now you say, well what are you bringing all this out for? Well you see this makes again a point of departure in Paul's writings of the Gospels to the Church, or the Gospel of Grace written to the Church. And I'm going to do it like this. I'm going to make a big jump up, and now we reach a plateau that goes above Romans, and Corinthians, and Galatians. And when we get now up to the letter of Ephesians, we come to one of what we call the prison epistles, or the prison letters, however you want to put it. And after Acts 28 when he's in prison, and he writes Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, we're going to have the same format that we had here. Ephesians is now going to be a higher level of doctrine, Philippians is going to be a higher level of reproof, and Colossians is going to be a higher level of correction. Now you won't see that until we get to it verse by verse, but now here's the point I want to make. Once he makes this jump up into higher or deeper spiritual truths, you will find there is no longer any mention, I'll just put it this way, no mention, not once of a Jew or the Old Testament. Isn't that amazing? After the statement of Acts 28, from henceforth we turn to the Gentile, there is not another word in the inspired letters of Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians out of the Old Testament. Not once is the Jew mentioned, and what's the purpose? Well as soon as we get into these prison epistles and higher or deeper church truths, we're no longer concerned with that demarcation between Jew and Gentile, because now God is dealing with the whole human race on one level. Every person that is saved comes into the Body of Christ on the same level, whether he's Jew or Gentile, and the Jew has lost his identity so far as the church age is concerned as such. And this is what we have to be aware of, that this is in God's purposes, that now the whole idea is the bringing together of Jew and Gentile into one Body, and there is no difference. Now this is what a lot of our Messianic Jews are beginning to turn away from, is this Pauline teaching that for the Age of Grace there is no difference. A Jew has to be saved today as a sinner, as a fallen son of Adam, just exactly like you and I as Gentiles. And too many of them are losing sight of that. They're trying to jump back up into that place of privilege that they enjoyed before, unless it's not there. And they have to understand that. That we are now all one in Christ, and in these prison epistles of Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, there is no dividing between Jew and Gentile. There is no reference to the Old Testament. That's all for a purpose, and this is where we have to understand. Now this again leads to my teaching over and over again that people have to get out of the four Gospels and get into Paul's writing, because the four Gospels are still 90% Jewish. And that has all been set aside. That is no longer in God's program. Now that doesn't mean you throw it away any more than you throw away the Old Testament. But it's just as ridiculous to say, Well I go by what Jesus says, as it is what I showed you in the first hour, then you've got to go back to Leviticus chapter 5 and say, Well I can't touch a dead thing, because then I have to take a sacrifice to the altar at the temple. It's the same difference. And so we have to put all these things into perspective of the unfolding and the progressive revelation even of the letters of the Apostle Paul. So now in our next half hour we're going to start a verse by verse of one of these prison epistles, and we're going to be constantly aware that God is no longer making any reference to the Jew or to the Old Testament. And it's for His own purposes. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. 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