Who Goes Into the Kingdom? What the Bible Really Says

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. Once again, it's time to roll and go right back and pick up where we left off in our last program. I always like to make our television people feel as though they're part of our program, and we trust that you're able to follow these references with us. And again, for any of you who may be catching our program for the first time, we are just an informal Bible study. We just hope that we can compare Scripture to Scripture and bring to light some of these things that have probably either never been understood or are totally confused. Now, I don't ever claim to have any special revelations. I don't think I teach that much different than a lot of men who are far more important and more educated than I am. But all I trust I'm able to do is maybe make it a little simpler, a little easier to understand. Now, we've been talking about the Kingdom the last few weeks. Christ has returned, the Tribulation has run its course, and I think the question that comes in everybody's mind, well, who is going to go into the Kingdom? Are they going to be flesh and blood? Will they be having families? Will they be reproducing? Why, absolutely, and this Kingdom will be on earth. It will be the utopia, is the word that the secular world likes to use. It will be the utopia that they've been looking for. But let's just take a few references out of the Old Testament to show that this Kingdom idea has been on God's mind from the very onset of the book itself, but especially after the call of Abraham. Because as I stressed many, many months ago now, the Abrahamic covenant was that covenant between God and the nation of Israel that He would make them a nation of people, a separated, special nation of people. He would put them in a geographical area of land, and then at the appropriate time, He would also come to be their king or to set up the government. And that, of course, comprises then the Kingdom that everything is looking forward to. Now, I'm going to have you start for this half hour back in Psalms chapter 2, where, again, we've taught several months ago. But in Psalms chapter 2, we have the format of prophecy more or less laid out, and we have the rejection, of course, of the Messiah in verse 2, and then how God just literally ridicules mankind in His frustrations, thinking that He can rule without God, and so He'll have them in derision. And, of course, that's where the nations of the world are tonight. And now then in verse 5, "...he shall speak unto them in his wrath, and in his sore displeasure he will vex them." Now that's the tribulation. And then you see the next verse brings in the Kingdom. Verse 6 of Psalms 2, "...yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." Now that's the Kingdom, as it will be centered then in Jerusalem, where, of course, Zion is. And then if you'll drop down to verse 8, the verse says, "...ask of me, and I shall give thee," that is the Messiah, the King, "...I shall give thee the heathen," or the Gentiles, "...for thine inheritance." In other words, it isn't just going to be an Israeli Kingdom, it's not just a Jewish Kingdom, but it's going to include the whole human race. "...and I shall give thee the uttermost parts of," not heaven, but what? "...the earth." And so this Kingdom is going to be on earth. All of the Scripture defines it as such. Now as you leave Psalms, I'd like to have you come, let's go to Isaiah chapter 2 for just a second. Isaiah chapter 2, another verse that we've looked at previously. Isaiah chapter 2, verse 1 and 2. Isaiah 2, verse 1 and 2, "...the word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem." Now you see, Jerusalem is at the very center of all this. Verse 2, "...and it shall come to pass in the last days." In other words, that final thousand years, that seventh thousand. "...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." In other words, it will be over all the other nations and empires that had previously existed. "...it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it." That is this Kingdom that Israel's King will one day set up. Now I'm going to come back to Isaiah 11 at a later time, but let's skip that for now and come all the way into Matthew. Now as I've stressed before, we haven't taught the Gospels yet, because again as I explained to a lady that called the other night, I said we were coming up through the Old Testament and I had finished teaching prophecy out of Daniel, and we had so much request for going on with prophecy out of the book of Revelation that I stopped short of going into the book of Matthew and studying the book of Acts and Paul's letters and went instead to Revelation. So hopefully if the Lord tarries, and as we've been talking throughout the afternoon of course, we don't know how much longer we're going to be here, but whatever, if the Lord tarries when we've finished Revelation and we get to the other end of the Kingdom and finish the White Throne and all that, then we'll come back and we'll come into the book of Matthew and retrace our steps. But for now, in Matthew chapter 3, you've got John the Baptist coming on the scene. In verse 1, in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, "...Repent ye..." Why? "...for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Well now why was John saying that? Well because the King was there. Christ was on the scene, and He was about to present Himself to the nation of Israel as their promised Messiah and King. And so they were to prepare for that spiritually with that repentance and the baptism of repentance that John of course preached. Now that term, the kingdom of heaven, is just rampant throughout the book of Matthew, and we'll just look at a couple of them. And you come on over, I think it's to chapter 4 in Matthew. Drop down to verse 17. Matthew 4, verse 17. Now Jesus has begun His earthly ministry, and so from that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "...Repent..." And again, why? "...for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Come on over to chapter 9, verse 35. Now this is all in fulfillment of those promises made to Israel through that Abrahamic covenant. And now here it comes. The nation is there, they're in at least part of the promised land, not all of it yet, but they're in the land, and now He's come to present Himself as their King. Chapter 9, drop down to verse 35. "...And Jesus went about all the cities and villages of Israel, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching..." What? "...the gospel of the kingdom." You see that? Healing every sickness and every disease, and so on and so forth. Now when you come into chapter 10, and we'll be looking at all this in detail when we come into the New Testament per se. He now chooses the twelve, verse 2, and they're named, and I don't have to run over those, you all know them. But then you come down to verse 5. "...These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them..." Now watch this. "...He commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and go not into any city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Now why did Jesus do that? Why did He qualify it in such a narrow frame of reference? Well because the Abrahamic Covenant had nothing to do with anyone but the nation of Israel, and He knew that. He was the Framer of it. He was the One who made that covenant. And don't think for a minute He was confused. I think I've shared that, maybe even on television. I remember several years ago, I was checking the cattle in my pickup, and I think it was on a Sunday afternoon, and I was listening to a preacher of a large church, somewhere up in the Midwest, I don't remember where. And I was never so shocked, and I usually shock the ears of people that I rehearse it to. He was using this as well as the Canaanite woman for his sermon subject. And he says, "...at this point in time Jesus was still bigoted." He wasn't taking the Gentiles into consideration. He said, "...Jesus was still bigoted because He didn't fully understand the scope of His ministry." Now I'm almost quoting him word for word. Now imagine. But see what the poor gentleman did not comprehend was that Jesus fully understood. He was not being bigoted. He had a heart for the Gentiles, but it wasn't time. But He had come to fulfill the promises made all the way back to Abraham. And so He commanded the twelve not to go to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now I'm not going to take the time, because we run so short of time every time. But do you remember when He spoke to the Canaanite woman? It was the same reason. She was a Gentile. And He says, "...I can't give to you Gentiles that which belongs to the children." That is Israel. Well anyway, you come down now in chapter 10, after He says, Now let's go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, verse 7. And as you go, that is to the twelve now remember, and as you go, preach saying, "...the kingdom of heaven is at hand." You see that nomenclature? Over and over, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now as you come on through Matthew, just stop at chapter 19. Now I'm just hitting a few of the highlights of course. This is not intended to be an in -depth study of Matthew by any means. But now in chapter 19, as we have gone up through His three years of earthly ministry, and the twelve have been just so dutifully going with Him every place they go. And now finally in verse 27, and you know I always like to bring out the point that these twelve men were just as human as you and I. They weren't some super, super spiritual. They were common ordinary fishermen and what have you. And so now they've been with Jesus for probably at least two years, maybe a little more. And Peter answered and said unto Him, that is to Jesus, Behold, we have forsaken all, that is their fishing and their jobs and their occupations, we have forsaken all and followed Thee. What shall we have? Therefore." Now Peter wasn't talking about his salvation, he knew he had that. He had already believed that Jesus was the Christ. But what is he talking about? What are we going to have so far as our reward and a compensation for having left everything behind? Now look at Jesus' answer. And Jesus said unto them, Verse 28 "...Verily I say unto you, that you who have followed Me," Now He's talking about the twelve or the eleven, we've got to leave Judas out of course. He's talking about the eleven in particular. "...you who have followed Me, in the regeneration," Now we all know what regeneration means, that's when you restore something back to its original. So He says, "...when the earth is restored to its original state, as it was before the curse," In other words, when the curse is lifted, the tribulation will have ended, and the Kingdom is ready to come in, that's what the regeneration is speaking of. "...and in the regeneration, when the Son of Man," speaking of Himself, "...shall sit," where? "...on the throne of His glory." Which we know, as we've already seen in Psalms chapter 2, will be in Jerusalem. So He says, "...when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, you," that is the twelve, we're going to have Matthias of course in Acts, "...you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging," or ruling, "...the twelve tribes of Israel." Now isn't that plain English? When the Kingdom is set up, and the nation of Israel is now under their King, under the King will be the twelve original apostles, each ruling one of the twelve tribes from Jerusalem, there in the land of Israel. Now let's look at just another verse or two. Let's go to Acts chapter 1. Now let's look at Luke 21. I'm just sort of taking these off the top of my head as we go. I feel sorry for my wife, I can't give her verses in advance for the camera, she's just going to have to find them and hope she gets them quick enough. But now in Luke 21, beginning with verse 25. Luke 21, beginning with verse 25. Now again this comes back to the closing days of the tribulation, but that all is tied to the beginning of the Kingdom, remember. "...and there shall be signs in the sun, and the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. For the powers of heaven shall be shaken." Alright, that's the end of the tribulation. Now look at the next verse. "...and then shall they..." That is those that are still living here upon the planet. "...then shall they..." What's the next word? "...see..." Now lock that in your computer, because I'm going to come back and make a big point of this very word, see. "...and when they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory, when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws nigh." Now He's not addressing the world here, He's addressing who? He's addressing Jews. He's addressing the nation of Israel in particular. And then He says to them in verse 29, "...behold the fig tree..." And then down to verse 31, "...so likewise, when you see these things come to pass, know ye that the..." What's the next word? "...kingdom..." See, when you see all these things happening, the return of the Son of Man, He's coming now to the city of Jerusalem, to the Mount of Olives, "...then know that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." Now let's flip on over to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1, and now of course the crucifixion has passed, Christ has been raised from the dead in resurrection power, He has spent 40 days with the 11, they haven't chosen the 12 one yet, so He's been spending these 40 days in His resurrection body with the 11. Verse 3, "...to whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days..." Now here again, what's the verb? "...they saw Him..." How? "...with their eyes, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom." See that? "...pertaining to the kingdom." Now let's jump over to verse 6 in chapter 1. "...and when they therefore were come together..." That is Jesus and the 11 are up there on the Mount of Olives now. "...they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the king?" Hey, I just had a thought. I'm going to give you something to look for. I want you to search the Gospel accounts, and you see if you can ever find a single time that the 12 referred to the Lord as Jesus. Now that's thought provoking. You say, what are you driving at? I'm just asking you to search the Scriptures. You on television do the same thing, and see if you ever find a single instance that the 12 ever referred to Jesus as just Jesus. J-E-S-U-S. And I think you're going to have an eye opening. But anyway, that's free for nothing. "...wilt Thou restore the kingdom to Israel?" And then of course he said, "...it's not for you to know the times or the seasons." In other words, he didn't ridicule the idea that they had of ruling the 12 tribes. Don't think that Peter had forgotten that. He was just as human as you and I, and as I think I mentioned in a program previously, if somebody told you, and if you were working with some politician, and I imagine it has happened with our president, I wouldn't doubt that probably 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago some of these young guys got acquainted with him, and he probably said, well now if you work with me, and I get to be president, I'll put you in a place of importance. Now do you think any of those guys ever forgot that? Uh-uh. Uh-uh. They don't forget, and neither did Peter. Alright, so the kingdom you see has been this theme throughout all of Scripture that this kingdom is going to come on the earth where Christ will be the absolute King of kings and Lord of lords. Satan as we've already seen is going to be bound, there will be no sin. But now I guess the question that I'm trying to build up in your mind is who is going to go into the kingdom? Who is going to be in the kingdom? Alright, there are qualifications of course. Come back to John's Gospel, chapter 3. A portion that you all know probably forwards and backwards. You've probably heard dozens of sermons on it, and we have Nicodemus. John chapter 3 and verse 2, this same Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, and he said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Now you see he was head and shoulders above the concept of most of the Jews, at least he recognized that these miracles were telling him something. And he knew that Jesus was someone special. And so Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except or unless a man or a person, we've got to include the whole scope, not just the male gender, but except a person be what? Born again. Now I think a better is born from above. I think that's better than the word again. Except a person is born from above, he cannot see the what? The kingdom. Now what does that tell you? Who can go into the kingdom? Only believers. There will be no unbeliever in the kingdom. Now, you remember, and now come back with me to Matthew 24. You remember that several weeks ago, oh it was probably even, probably a month or two ago, I had my timeline up here, the seven years of the tribulation. And you remember that at the midpoint of the tribulation, we see the Antichrist coming in and defiling the temple at Jerusalem. And this is at the midpoint after the three and a half years have gone by, and the Antichrist comes into the temple and defiles it. And then Matthew 24, what verse is it? 15 I think, or 14? 15. Remember these verses? I know we look at them over and over, but that's what it takes. Matthew 24, verse 15, he says, "...when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet," verse 16, "...let them who be in Judea flee to the mountains." Remember when we studied those? I call this the escaping remnant of Israel. And they go down to the mountains to the southeast of Jerusalem, and we call them, if you'll remember, now this is review, we call them the escaping what? Remnant. It's not going to be the whole nation of Israel, but it's going to be a percentage. And they're going to escape to the mountains where God is going to protect them for this last 3 1⁄2 years. And then, as this remnant of Israel protected down here supernaturally, even as Israel was in the desert of Sinai for those 40 years, for 3 1⁄2 years, God is going to insulate them from all the horrible events of this final 3 1⁄2 years. Now then, here's the second coming. Christ is returning with glory and power. This group of Jews who I maintain go out in unbelief so far as Christ as the Messiah and the King, remember they're going to give glory to God as they see the event, but they're still in unbelief so far as Christ is concerned. But God in His mercy and in His covenant promises keeps this remnant of Israel insulated until He's returning, and then they're going to... What? Remember what Matthew 24 said? And they will see Him coming in the clouds of glory. All right, now let's go back and check out our Old Testament. Come back to Zechariah. Remember again, that's next to the last book of the Old Testament. Zechariah... Go back and find chapter 12 first. Zechariah chapter 12. Now remember that word I told you to remember? Put it in your computer. They will see Him. All right? Verse 10 of Zechariah 12. Verse 10 of Zechariah 12. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications. Now remember, this is the house of David. It's not any Gentiles. And they shall... What's the verb? Is there any difference between seeing and looking? Not so far as I'm concerned. And so they shall see or they shall look upon Me whom they have... What's the word? Pierced. What's that in reference to? His crucifixion. See? And they're going to suddenly have not only their physical eyes open, but their spiritual eyes will be open and they'll recognize that this coming manifestation of the Christ, of the Messiah, is the One that died back there on that Roman cross. All right, flip the page, at least in my Bible, to chapter 13. And now you come down to verse 6. And 1. That is of this remnant of Israel. And one shall say unto him, What are these... What's the next word? Wounds. See? What are these wounds in thy hands? And he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friend. Now then, this remnant of Israel will experience that new birth that Nicodemus was told he had to have in order to go into the kingdom. Now I've got to do this in a matter of seconds. This by far will be the largest number of people to survive the tribulation. This will then be the seed stock of the nation of Israel coming up and becoming the nation as we come into the kingdom and over which the twelve apostles will rule. Now no doubt all twelve tribes will be represented here. And I don't know if I've got time or not. I doubt it. Sharon's already counting seconds. But Isaiah says, Shall a nation be born in a what? In a day. 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, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, 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.