What Do Angels Learn From the Church?

There it is. 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, it's good to have everybody back, and we'll continue on here in just a moment. But for those of you joining us on television, I realize that every day we have new listeners. We're just an informal Bible study. We have no denominational hang-ups. We've got various and sundry groups represented here in the studio, and we can tell from our mail that we are certainly reaching people from every imaginable background. And we'd just like to invite you to get your Bible and pencil and notepad and just simply search the Scriptures. I never want anybody to just say, well, this is what Les Feldick said. That counts for nothing. But be able to say, this is what the Word says, what does the Bible say. And don't get caught on just a denominational hang-up, because when we come before the throne, whether it's the white throne of lost people or the Bema seat for believers, the Lord isn't going to ask you, well, did you follow what your church taught? We're going to be judged on the basis of what does the Bible say. And never lose sight of that, because eternity is going to reveal what you have done. Now, of course, we've got all the past programs available from Genesis on up to where we are presently on videotape, the little audio cassette packages, as well as the printed page. And you call or write, and we'll get the information to you. Now, again, this is time for Bible study, and we get one major complaint, and that is, why aren't you on 60 minutes instead of 30? Well, I don't think I could stand 60 minutes every day, and I don't think my listeners could. But we're going to buy up the time that we have available. Ephesians chapter 3, and we'll come down now to our next verse, number 9. Spent the whole half hour on verse 8, that we are to be seeking out the unsearchable riches of Christ. And now verse 9, and to make all. Now the word man is italicized, so it definitely was not in the originals. So he's writing, to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world, or age, or human experience, is what the Greek really means here, is the cosmos, from the beginning of the world, has been hid in God, who, that is, the same God who created all things, how? By Jesus Christ. And oh, people have a hard time swallowing that, but whatever. Let's drop back up to the first part of the verse, where Paul is now in his apostleship, and by his writing, his various and sundry letters, is reaching out so that all, not just a select few, but that everybody might be able to understand what it is to come into this fellowship. Now whenever we speak of fellowship, I think the secular world even speaks of it. You can have your various service organizations, your lodge organizations, and after all, when everything is said and done, what's the purpose of their meeting? Well, the fellowship. That's the main purpose, is to have consort with one another. All right, now it's the same way here. Paul is trying to bring out the fact that to become a believer of these Pauline truths brings us into a fellowship of like -minded people. Now I've stressed this over the years on the program, that when you are a true believer, and you can go a thousand miles from home and get into a fellowship of like-minded believers, you're not a stranger over five minutes. Why? Because we have that like-mindedness of what we are in Christ by virtue of simply believing what He has done on our behalf. All right, so now he's trying to help everyone see what is the fellowship of the mystery. Now not everyone's going to agree with me. I don't expect them to, and they don't have to, but to me when Paul speaks of the mysteries, he's speaking about this whole volume of revealed truth that had never been revealed before. Now that's what the idea of a mystery is, that it was a secret, and something secret is something that no one knew about except God Himself. And this is the whole thing behind Paul's teaching, is that beginning with his revelations, God is now opening up to the human race concepts that had never been reached before, and that is the mysteries. Now I'm not going to just put it on a singular. Now I know some Bible footnotes will say that the mystery was that God was make of Jew and Gentiles the body of Christ, and that's the mystery. Well, now I disagree. That's part of the mystery, but the mystery is this whole volume of the Pauline truths, and again you can start with what is man? The Old Testament really doesn't tell you, but when you get through Romans chapter 5 and 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul reveals that man is a created being who has fallen from his relationship with the Creator, and only Paul points that out. Only Paul. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Come back to Romans chapter 5. I like to use Scripture as often as we can, because I'd rather you read as listen to me any day. Romans chapter 5. Now you won't find this anywhere else. Now of course Jesus alluded to it in His earthly ministry by making the remarks that they were hypocrites and they were sinful and all that, but Jesus never really let them know why. See the difference? And the same way in the Old Testament. One of the Old Testament prophets, I don't remember now exactly which one it was, what does he say? I think it's Ezekiel. The heart is wicked, and desperately so. Who can know it? But how did it get that way? Well Paul tells us. See Romans chapter 5, verse 12. Wherefore as by one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death came with it. Now that's the only place in Scripture that you can find that sin and death are synonymous. But here Paul makes it so plain. This is part of the revelations that you won't find anywhere else. And then death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. Now I'll just flip over to 1 Corinthians 15 a moment. 1 Corinthians 15, and dropping down to verse 45. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 45. And so it is written, the first man, Adam, was made, or created, a living soul. The last, or the second Adam, was, and again that's added by the translators, a quickening, or a life-giving spirit. How be it that which was not first is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. Now look what it says. Verse 47. The first man, Adam, he was of the earth, earthy. The second man, or the second Adam, is the Lord from heaven. Now you see, that's a concept that was never revealed before in Scripture, at least not this clearly. And what does it tell us? That Adam, the head of the federal race, the created one, was the one who plunged the whole human race into rebellion. For which there was only one remedy, and that would have to be what? The next Adam, the second Adam, who was not just a created being as Adam was, it's God Himself, who came now then to set everything straight that Adam had corrupted. And you won't find that anywhere else but Paul. And this all goes back to what I said in the last half hour, searching out the unsearchables. Well, I guess until Paul's revelation, it was unsearchable. They had no way of understanding everything that had unfolded, because God had been keeping it secret. But now with the revelations given to this apostle, yes, I can do like I did in the last half hour and go all the way back and reconstruct how that God has been unfolding everything, and will continue to unfold on into eternity, all because of these revelations of the mystery. All right, now if you'll come back to Ephesians chapter 3. So some of the other parts of this revelation were that God would justify sinful men by simply believing the gospel. Now listen, you can't find that anywhere else. You just can't find it. But oh, here he makes it so plain that in the mystery, in the revelation, how that Christ died, was buried and rose from the dead, and we believe it, then we can become all things in Christ. All right, now I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the mysteries, because we've still got other references as we go on up through the Scriptures in days to come. All right, but now verse 9 again. Now that only goes back to Adam. That doesn't go back to the creation of the universe, but the age that he's speaking of here is the beginning of the human experience, or the beginning of Adam, which from the beginning of the human age has been what again? Hidden. Hidden. Now you see how often this comes? Now I know people think I repeat a lot, and I do it purposely because it's the only way we learn, but you know that's what the Bible does. Do you realize how many times Scripture repeats and repeats and repeats, sometimes in a short span, sometimes over a period of maybe four or five different books, but it's still repeating and repeating and repeating. Why? It's the only way it soaks in, and I'm getting less apt to apologize for it, because again of our mail, and I'm adjusting according to what people are seeing, and they said it takes over and over before it soaks in. Now for a lot of you, you've heard it ever since you were little, but you've got to remember there's a lot of people out there who have heard none of this, absolutely none of it. And so bear with me, I'm going to for their sake just keep repeating. All right, all these revelations of Paul now then were hid in the mind of God. He didn't tell the Old Testament prophets, he didn't reveal it through Christ's earthly ministry, he didn't reveal it to Peter and the eleven and the acts, but now he's ready to turn to the Gentile world, he's going to let Israel go out into a dispersion and into a spiritual blindness, and now he's going to reveal for his own intents and purposes things that had never, never been revealed before. And this is what you have to look for, and only Paul is the one to reveal it. In fact, let's go back again for a little touchy review, back to Galatians 1, where he makes it so plain that it was a revelation from the ascended Lord and not from the twelve in Jerusalem. Now we know that when Paul first began his earthly ministry of the missionary journey and so forth, the only Scripture he had was the Old Testament, that's all he had. But based on those Old Testament promises and that Christ had come and had died and shed his blood, he could now preach the mysteries, see? But they don't become a printed fact until his letters appear, and that's why I can stand here and tell you without any argument that you won't find these things written previously because they're not back there, but yet it was all building on it. Galatians 1, starting at verse 11, Galatians 1 verse 11, where he says, I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. See how plain that is? Why? For I neither received it of man, nor whether I taught it, that is by man, but where did he get it? By revelation, see? By revelation of Jesus Christ. Now the first thing you always have to ask yourself, where is Jesus Christ when Paul gets the revelations? Well, he's in heaven. He's already finished the work of the cross. He's already experienced the power of resurrection. He has already ascended back to the Father's right hand, and now some years after Pentecost, and he has saved this fellow on the road to Damascus, now the ascended Lord reveals it. Now, whether he came down and person to person taught the apostle back there at Mount Sinai, or whether it was through visions, or how, that I don't know, the Bible doesn't say. But this is close, he said, that all of the things that this man is now teaching and preaching and writing was revealed from the ascended Lord in glory. And then come on down to verse 16, the whole purpose of his coming on the human scene was that to reveal his Son in me, and that I, see, that I might preach him among the heathen, or the Gentiles. And immediately he says, I didn't confer with flesh and blood, neither did I go up to Jerusalem who those who were apostles before me. You see what he's saying? I didn't go up to Jerusalem and ask Peter and James and John, hey, fill me in, tell me what you know about Jesus of Nazareth. Oh, no, because God didn't want him to have anything of their input whatsoever, because see, they were still tainted with their legalism. Now listen, when you're steeped in legalism as much as Peter, James, and John and the rest of them were, hey, you never get over it. You never get over it. In fact, a verse that I like to use, and I've used it before, and I'm going to use it again. Come back with me to Peter, his little epistles way at the back, his second letter, 2 Peter. And remember that Peter writes his little epistles about the same time that Paul writes these prison epistles. So he's probably writing in the same neck of the woods that Paul is writing Ephesians, just before they're martyred, both of them. And remember now, this is some 25, 30 years after Pentecost. Verse 15, 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 15. We've used the verse before, and I'll probably use them again. And this is what Peter writes, and I think he was writing to believing Jews. And he says, account, or understand, that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. Now you know I made the comment, I think, to one of my classes the other night. Do you realize that the major purpose of this Bible from cover to cover is to bring lost people to a knowledge of salvation? That's the major purpose. Everything else falls into the lower categories. All right, now Peter is saying the same thing, that the long-suffering or the patience of our Lord is salvation. Now watch this, even as our beloved brother Paul, also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you, as also in all his epistles, Romans through Hebrews, in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, well, what things? Salvation, see, salvation, in which, in his epistles, are some things, what's the next word? Hard to be understood. Now you would have thought that by now Peter would have been such a deep-thinking theologian that he wouldn't have had any problem. He should have been able to discern what Paul was writing about and said, yeah, yeah, that's all, I've known this for years. No! Here after all these years, Peter by inspiration still says that in Paul's epistles are some things hard to be understood. That's quite an admission, isn't it? That's more than most people will say today, but he had to admit that after his legalistic law-keeping background, to be able to read and understand, and yes, swallow some of these things, was hard for Peter to do. And he shares it with his fellow believing Jews, in which are some things hard to be understood, which, again speaking of Paul's epistles, watch your grammar, which they who are unlearned and unstable twist, as they do also the other scriptures, and what's going to be their end result? Their own destruction. That's pretty tough language. That is pretty tough language, that when people take the things of Paul and twist them, and the reason they're going to twist them is to try to make them fit with Christ's earthly ministry. That's what they do all the time. And if they can't twist them enough, and they're not going to fit, then they throw it aside and they're not going to have anything to do with Paul. And see Peter saw that, that these people are twisting the writings of Paul, but when they do it, what are they doing to themselves? Their own destruction. Their own eternal doom. Well we've got a half a minute left or so, now we've got a few minutes. Back to Ephesians chapter 3. So all of these revelations of this apostle were hid in the mind of God, the same God who created all things by Jesus Christ. Now again, the Old Testament never gives us a hint that it was Jesus the Lord, the Messiah who was the Creator, but you see Paul repeats it over and over. We get to Colossians, my goodness, he makes it as plain as day. That Christ was the visible manifestation of the invisible God by whom also He what? Created the worlds. And so this isn't just a quirk of the pen or a translator. Paul makes it so known, and then John comes back with it again in the book of Revelation, that Christ was the Creator of everything. All right, now let's move on to verse 10, and we'll make a little headway today anyway. So all of this revelation of the mysteries and these things have been hid and gone. Verse 10, all is to the intent that now, not going back to pre-Pauline time, but from Paul's time forward to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places. Now I prefer to put it in the heavenlies, which I think the Greek probably would express it. That in the principalities and powers in the heavenlies might be known by the church, and remember when Paul uses the word church, what's he referring to? The body. So that it might be known by the body of Christ, the manifold wisdom of God. Now you know, I've read that verse for years, and I dare say almost every Bible reader has, and we don't really catch what it says. Now I want you to read this very carefully. I'm going to read it again. All of this has been revealed to you and I as a member of the body of Christ with an intent, and what is it? That with our knowledge we can actually go to the principalities and powers in the heavenlies, which would be categorized in what type of beings? The angels. The angels. See? All right? That we might go now with the principalities and powers in the heavenlies, that we might let them know. Now this is what it's actually saying, that the church might let the principalities and powers in the heavenlies know the manifold wisdom of God. Do you catch it? Now this is mind boggling. Do you know that you sit here in this room and those of you out in television, that when you get a comprehension of the mysteries of Paul, you know things that the angels don't understand? That's right. I'm not stretching it. The angels never could comprehend the grace of God to save especially us Gentiles, but we have a knowledge that can actually reveal to the angelic hosts in heaven what God has done in and through us. Now listen, that's beyond human understanding, but that's what it said. Now read it again with that light. The intent is that now unto or to the principalities and powers in the heavenlies might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. That's what it says. All right, now what's the manifold wisdom of God? Well, you all I trust know what a manifold is. A manifold, like on the engine of your car, is the one that has many ports or holes. However many cylinders you've got in your car, you're going to have that many holes in a manifold, and that's all manifold means is many. Now, all the various facets of the wisdom and knowledge of God have been imparted to us when we begin to comprehend these mysteries, and this manifold wisdom is what God wants every believer to partake of and share it with others. That's our purpose. You know, I've said so often on this program, would to God that the church, I mean the church on the corner now, the congregations, whatever denomination, would teach their people instead of just preaching at them. And like somebody wrote me the other day, and they said, you know, every time I go in a bookstore, all I see are all these books on how to, how to get along with your kids, how to get along with your wife, and how to get along with your neighbor, and how to this, and how to that. Hey, we don't need books on how to, all we got to do is get into the book and begin to understand the manifold wisdom of God, and all those things take care of themselves. See, but oh listen, we're being inundated with all these books that are keeping people from the book, because I've never read one of them yet that really shows the manifold wisdom of God. All right, what we got left, one minute. Now verse 11, I shouldn't start it with one minute to go, but I can, and we'll come back to it in our next half hour. Now, this revealed wisdom that we can actually show to the principalities and powers and the heavenlies is going to be according to the eternal purpose which was purposed in Christ. Now, what's the eternal purpose? Well, I haven't got time to look now. We're going to go to 1 Timothy in our next half hour. But listen, the whole scheme of Scripture is, number one, to see lost people saved. God doesn't want any person to go to hell. He wants everyone to be saved, if that could only happen. But what's the second purpose of Scripture? For us to be used of God to reveal these things that may spare someone from an eternal doom. That's our purpose. Oh, God wants lost people saved. He wants believers to be a testimony.