What Saves You? Head Knowledge vs. Heart Belief

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. And again, good afternoon, good to have everybody back. Well, we just haven't lost anybody today, have we? And for those of you on television, again, in case somebody is just for the first time tuning in, we're non-denominational, I'm just a layman, I'm not a pastor, don't address me as reverend or doctor or anything else, I'm, as your introduction just said, I'm a layman, I'm a rancher, and we just do this for the Lord without any compensation. We just love to do it, and we're just laying it up. We trust in glory, and we trust that in the process we can bring people who do not know the Lord to a knowledge of Him, and we can help believers come into a closer walk and realize that this is an exciting book. I was thinking yet again the other evening, you know, you can take all the great authors of the world, the James Mishners and the Uruses and the Danielle Steeles and anyone else you can think of, you roll them all up into one, and they can't come close to this one. You just can't come close to this one, and that's why I love to teach it, as most of you know. All right, now then, if you will come back with me where we left off in Exodus chapter 35, we stopped at the last verse, and now that Moses has put the call out to the people of all the things that are needed, I've often said, would to God that church people could respond today like Israelites did here. Why pastors would just be beside themselves, wouldn't they, if they would actually have to tell their people, hey, quit giving, quit giving. We got more than we know what to do with, but that's what happened here. I mean, this finally gets to the place where Moses says, don't bring any more. We've got all we can handle. Verse 1, chapter 36, "...then wrought Bezalel, and Oahab, and every wisehearted man, in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding, to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary." Now there again, we've got to stop. Who is giving them the ability to perform these tasks? God does. God does. Where do you get the ability to do what you do? God gave it to you. Never lose sight of that fact. Whatever you and I are or ever hope to be, it's because of what God has done in and through each one of us. I've stressed over the years that every believer, I don't care how untalented you may think you are, every believer, God has a role. He has given you a gift. And oh, I've seen people who thought they had no gift use a gift tremendously and didn't realize they were using it. But yet, you see, this is exactly what happened here. God gave gifted people to bring about His work, all right? Verse 2, "...so Moses called Bezalel, and Oahab, and every wisehearted man, whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come to the work to do it." Where does it have to start? With the heart. With the heart. A question came up in one of the classes last week, "'Lest you're always saying that all God is looking for is to believe, well, how do I know that I have believed enough?' Have you ever wondered that? That's a good question, because you see, a lot of times I think people get the idea, well, if I just believe, then evidently I'm all right. Well, you see, most people, especially in our beloved nation, believe in the historical fact that Christ lived, died, maybe even they'll give a head knowledge assent to the fact that He rose from the dead. But see, that's not believing. That's not what we talk about. Believing doesn't come from the head, it comes from the what? The heart. Now, we always point to this part of us, and even the Bible does, and I didn't realize that until here a while back as I was going through all this again when the human and the thuman was put, which were stones of course, put in sort of a little pouch. Why were they put on His chest? Why not on His back? Why not on His hips? Because it was the love of Israel next to the heart. So even the Bible speaks of the heart as in the chest area. Now, we're not talking about that pumping organ. We're not talking about the organ that takes our blood and sends it down through its veins and arteries and so forth. When we talk about the heart, we're talking about that very central part of us that has a relationship with the spirit world, and it's in that area where God has to begin and finish His work. So when I talk about believing, trusting, having faith in the gospel, I'm talking about a true heart belief, not just a head knowledge. I'm sure many of you have heard the expression that a lot of people are going to miss heaven by 12 inches, and what do they mean? They had it in the head, but they never got it in the heart, and there's something to that. And so we always have to be sure that we are believing not just because we can give a mental assent to something, but because God has literally opened up our ability to believe these things and trust our whole eternal destiny on it. If I couldn't do that, I wouldn't sleep at night, because you see, I know enough about this book to know that there is an eternal doom coming for those who do not have that kind of a heart faith. And I'll tell you what, I couldn't sleep at night if I thought I was going to go out into that kind of an eternity. I mean, listen, it's going to be awful for those who are lost, and we can't compromise that. But for those of us who believe, and as it shows here, it begins in the heart. All right, now I've got to go on. I told somebody a moment ago, I'm going to try and finish Exodus, but I'm afraid we're not going to succeed, and it just…there's too much left up here. That's the problem. I'm still going to use this. If not today, we'll use it our next time. Verse 3, They received of Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service, and they brought yet unto him free offerings every morning. And then verse 5 and 6, And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work. Verse 6, And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp. Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. The people were…what's the next word? Restrained from bringing. Oh, they were still going to bring more, but they had to tell them, Hey, enough. We don't need any more. Verse 7, For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and even too much. All right, now then we're going to start, and I'm not going to take all this verse by verse, but we begin here now as they begin to construct these things with the linen curtains. Now the linen curtains are that which comprise what today we would probably call the outer fence. Now the point I'd like to make is that all the dimensions of this tabernacle in the wilderness are all divisible by five, every one of them. Everything is divisible by the number five. Now, of course, five in Scripture is the number of what? Grace. So even we're talking law, yet the attribute of God that even gives the law to Israel is what? Is grace. What prompted God to bring them out of their slavery? Is grace. And what prompted, as we used the analogy last week, what prompted God to go seeking for Adam and Eve after they had disobeyed? Is grace. So always keep this in mind, that grace is that one attribute of God that keeps Him dealing even with the nation of Israel after having just made the golden calf, having gone into gross immorality, yet why didn't He destroy the nation? Is grace. Why does He come through now and give them this whole system of worship? Is grace. And so everything in the dimensions here, remember now, are divisible by the number five. So now the linen curtains then are going to be an outer fence. Now this is 150 feet long. It's going to be about 75 feet wide, and it's going to be, I think, seven and a half feet or two and a half cubits or whatever it is high. In other words, it was made high enough that nobody could just simply look in. This outer fence was to keep all this from the view of the casual onlooker. Now the other thing I want you to understand is that this tabernacle was always set with the door or the gate in that outer fence always set to the east. Now I've put the names of the tribes up here, and if you can't see them, I'll read them off. To the east, and the tribe that would always lead whenever they left, whenever they journeyed, was always Judah. Now Reuben was the oldest, wasn't he? But you see, Reuben sinned, and consequently God in His sovereignty brought Judah to the place that Reuben should have enjoyed. Reuben was the eldest. He should have been here. But he was, again, an immoral person. You remember, he was the one who had a relationship with his father's wife or concubine or something. But anyway, Judah now takes the place of leadership, and of course the other reason, who comes out of the tribe of Judah? Christ does. Jesus comes from the tribe of Judah, and so it says that the scepter shall never leave Judah. So on the east, and they'll always move out in that direction, you had Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. Then on the south were the three tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad. On the west were Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin. And then on the north side were the three tribes of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali. There's your twelve tribes. Now of course Levi isn't mentioned, but Levi picks up that territory then that just surrounds the whole tabernacle area. They are not listed as one of the twelve tribes even as they go into the nation of Israel. So the linen fence, that's all around the outside. Now then let's just go to the next one, and we have the curtain of goat's hair. Now the curtains of goat's hair, now here again I've just made a rough sketch of this little tent. This is the outer frame of it. Now the goat's hair is going to be that first layer that sits over the main frame, which of course are made of, I don't think we've come to it yet, the main frame of course is made of again that acacia wood covered completely with what? Gold. Everything in this is covered with gold. And so this main frame made of wood covered with gold, and then the first curtain that lays over the outside edge will be this goat's hair. Then the next layer will be the ram skins dyed red. I think they're next in here, yeah, verse 19. Next layer over the top was the ram skins, they were dyed red. And then the very outer area of course was the seal skins, or what the Bible in our King James at least calls badger. And I always have to explain that a little bit. The badger as we know it in the North American area is a big fur-bearing animal, but in the biblical sense it was a seal. It was a sea animal, hairless, but it was a skin that could withstand all of the extreme weather of the Sinai. It could stand the heat of the sun, it could withstand the wind and the rain, but above everything, the part I like to point out was that it was not pretty in its appearance. Now the reason I'm pointing that out is because all of these things, and you can see that, the goat's hair of course is going to refer I think to, when we come to it, the scapegoat. You remember that term? Remember the scapegoat? That was the part that the high priest would lay the sins of Israel upon? Well, I think the goat's hair is in reference to that scapegoat, which is right next to that. And then the ram's skin is dyed red. These are all pictures of Christ Himself in one of His attributes as He pertains to us today. Now then, the seal skin on the outer, that which could be seen if they could look over the fence as it was seen, was very plain. There was nothing beautiful about it. What does the Scripture say about Jesus to the unsaved person? There is no beauty that we should behold Him. To the unbeliever, He has nothing that appeals to them. But you see, when you come to the inside, now I haven't come to it yet, and I guess I'll have to find it in here. When you come to the inside, that would be, oh, let's come all the way to, oh, I missed it someplace. It should be probably in those linen curtains as well. Yeah, they were in verse 8. Not only was the outside fence made of linen, but so were the inside. Now here you have your wooden frame, and then inside that wooden frame were hung these beautiful linen curtains hung with gold or silver hooks. And it was a combination of blue, purple, and scarlet, fine twine linen, and then woven into it were likenesses of cherubims. Now use your imagination. Can you begin to imagine how beautiful that must have been? This is fine twine, as it's called, some of the best linen that craftsmen could create. Inner woven in all these colors of blue, purple, and scarlet, and then in that weaving were the likenesses of these cherubims, all through it. Now you see, you have a complete opposite. From the outside, Christ hath no beauty that we should behold Him, but once we become involved in Christ, now what is He? Oh, He is everything. He's beautiful. And see, only the believer can understand this, all that He is. And it's the same way as they would come into the tent. They would not see that beauty. They would not experience it until the priests would come inside, see? All right, now we've got to keep moving on. Then you'll find that all of these parts of the outer fence and everything else is set in sockets of either brass or silver. And then the other important thing I guess I want to come to is verse 35 now in Exodus 36, and that is the veil, as it's called, that separated the Holy of Holies from the sanctuary. Now this part, of course, was two-thirds of the size, and back here was the other third. This was, I think, 75 feet, no, yeah, 75 feet long, 45, 45 feet long, 15 feet wide. So the Holy of Holies was 15 by 15. That would leave this 30 by 15, this part here. But here is that veil. Now we're most acquainted with the veil as it was in the temple in Jesus' day, and at the moment of His crucifixion, what happened to the veil? Well, it was rent from the top to the bottom. Not from the bottom to the top, but from the top to the bottom, signifying that no man had anything to do with it. It was an act of God. But anyway, the veil back here in this little tent was that which separated the Holy of Holies from the main sanctuary. Verse 35 of chapter 36, "...and he made a veil of blue, purple, and scarlet, and again of fine twine linen, with the cherubims made he of cunning work. And he made thereunto four pillars of the acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold, their hooks of gold, and he cast them four sockets of silver, and again of intrinsic beauty." And the veil, of course, is that which pictures the very body of Christ. Now you see, the veil is what kept the presence of God from the view of the priests as they would practice their daily ministrations. They'd only come up to here. Only the high priest, once a year, would come in behind the veil, and we'll be studying that in another program when we come to the Day of Atonement. Now then, we made mention last week, or whatever, and I think I've got time to finish that. I'd like to have you come back to where we have the labor of cleansing. And I brought along, I don't know who put these up, I can't give credits, there's nothing on it, but here is someone who has given us at least his idea of these various furnishings, all made of wood, covered with gold, and except the mercy seat, which sits up here with nothing but pure gold, pure beaten gold, what formed these cherubim as they overshadowed then the Ark of the Covenant, which became the mercy seat. Now that is the piece of furniture that sat back here behind the veil. Somebody just asked me at one of our breaks, where do I think the Ark of the Covenant is tonight? Well, we know it's been gone ever since the Babylonian captivity and the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar, but there is nothing to indicate the Babylonians took it with them. So turn back with me to Revelation, because I think maybe others have had that same question. Come back with me to Revelation, hope I can find it, chapter 11, chapter 11, and of course this is the events taking place during the Tribulation. Things are getting rough on the earth, and now you come down to chapter 11, let's read verse 18 and 19. And the nations were angry, thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants, the prophets, the saints, and them that fear the name, small and great, and shouldst destroy them who destroy the earth. Now verse 19, and the temple of God was opened, where? In heaven. And there was seen in His temple the Ark of His Testament, or what's the other word? Covenant. So there was seen in heaven the Ark of the Covenant, and there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and an earthquake and great hail. Now, of course, there are those who claim they know where the Ark of the Covenant is, and we're quite sure that Israel is going to frantically look for it for when they get their temple rebuilt, and that's not too far into the future. We know they're going to rebuild it, but whatever. The Ark of the Covenant, as it was experienced back in the early days of Israel, was the very indication of the presence of God. Now, we know that when Israel sets up their temple now, in the next few years, the presence of God is not going to sit over it. It's going to be a man-made religion for the most part. It's not going to be as it was back here, because Israel is so far from God tonight, there is no way God could manifest His presence with them tonight or tomorrow or whatever. But anyway, we know that the Ark of the Covenant and all these things were made of wood, the acacia wood, but covered with gold. And then coming into the next little room, we'll just point them out quickly. Up here on the north side was the altar of incense, on which they burned fresh incense every day. They'd bring fire from the brazen altar and put it on there and burn their incense, and that, of course, stood in the middle. And then on the south side of this front sanctuary was the candlestick, the seven-tiered candlestick. And then out between the actual tabernacle tent and the brazen altar where they burned the sacrifices was this laver of cleansing. In other words, when the priest would come in and begin his sacrifices here at the altar, the brazen altar, then he would have to stop at the laver of cleansing, which was filled with water, and it was brass. It was made of looking-glass. Now, even today, if you've been out in the garden, you've been out in the yard, and you get dirty, and you start cleaning up, how do you check up? With a mirror. And so it was the same process. The priest would come, and at the laver of cleansing, it was not only a wash basin, but it was a mirror that would reflect whatever need he had in cleansing, and then he could proceed on. Now, all of this, of course, is a Scriptural lesson for all of us, and now I'd like to have you turn with me to John's Gospel, chapter 13, John's Gospel, chapter 13. Now we know that there are still quite a few among us, I've heard of quite a few, who still practice foot washing, and I don't condemn them for it. And they'll say, well, it's in the Bible, but again, they are, I feel, they are bringing something in from God's dealing with Israel into the church, which is not necessarily instructed for the church, but whatever. We pick it up now, this whole cleansing aspect. Now, remember they didn't stop here and take a whole bath. They had to do that before they began their priestly ministry, but after they had stopped at the altar, and they had made their sacrifice, they would stop here and wash what? Hands and feet. Okay, now we pick it up in John's Gospel, during Christ's earthly ministry, and, oh, let's see. Let's start at verse 4. They are at the last Passover. Oh, I've got to do it quickly, don't I? And, verse 4, "...he riseth," that is, Jesus did, "...he riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself. And after that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples," what? Feet, "...and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. And he came to Simon Peter," and I've said over the years, Peter is always putting his footwear in his mouth, and here he does it again. "...he comes to Peter, and he said, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? And Jesus answered and said, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know. And Peter said unto him, Thou shalt," what's the next word? Never. "...thou shalt never wash my feet. And Jesus answered, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me," that is, your feet. And Peter said unto him, Well, then not my feet only, but what? All of me. I want a bath. Boy, I mean, if we're going to do it partly, let's do it right. Now move on to the next verse, "...and Jesus said unto him, He that is washed," Peter, you've had your bath. The priest had had his bath, but what did he need? He had to wash his feet and his hands, of course, "...he that is washed needeth not to save to wash his feet." In other words, he doesn't have to take a bath. All he has to do is wash his feet. But he says to Peter, You are clean. Every whit. You are all clean, but yet not all. Who was left out? Judas, the next verse. For he says, he knew who should betray him, therefore he said, You are not all clean. Now then, what was the setting? Well, you want to remember the Jews of Jesus' day did primarily their bathing where? In a public bath. But we also know that the sanitation of the ancients was not all that good, and the streets were what? Filthy. So, by the time they went from that public bath where they had taken a complete bath, by the time they got home, what condition were the feet in? Filthy. And so they needed foot washing. All right. Now the same thing. Now turn here to Ephesians quickly, because we're down to, oh, one minute. We've got time enough. We can do a lot in one minute. But now in Ephesians, we take that same analogy out of the Jewish background, and we bring it into the church age. And we have the same teaching, but it's on a different level. And what is it? Now Paul says, verse 25, oh, I wish I had 10, 15 minutes more on this verse. Husbands, love your wives, even as also Christ loved the church, I'm in Ephesians 5, verse 25, and gave Himself for it. Now remember who he's talking about. He's talking about us believers, we who are members of the body of Christ, that He might sanctify and cleanse it, not with the washing of a foot tub, not with a laver, but how? The washing of water by the Word. 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.