Why Are Believers Not Appointed to Wrath?

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now here's your host, Les Feldick. Once again we'll go through program number four today and then that will suffice for another month. And again we like to always welcome our television audience. My goodness, how we are just amazed that we've got listeners where we've got listeners, and how the Spirit is opening hearts. You know, I so often use the analogy of Paul dealing with Lydia in Acts chapter 16, and I've mentioned more than once that my prayer almost daily is, Now I hope somebody doesn't take that wrong. I mean by that the response of Lydia, that the Spirit opened her heart so that she listened to the things spoken of by Paul. And I think every believer should pray that. Lord give me Lydia's today, somebody that I can open the Word to, and they'll be respondent, and they'll listen. And so we are, we're realizing that there are so many who never, never had an interest in God's Word before. And the Spirit is opening their understanding, and we're just seeing it everywhere we go. Now again we like to always let our new listeners know that we have the books and the tapes and the audios available, we keep them nominal. We put 12 programs on each one of these, and if you're interested you give us a call or drop us a note. And same way, I've been thinking of it finally, been wanting to do it for many, many months, that if you're interested in our newsletter, the same thing, just drop us a note and get on our mailing list and you'll get a newsletter quarterly free. We don't charge for those, and I'm always emphasizing that your name is safe in our mailing list. We do not share it with anyone, we do not use it to appeal for funds, we've never yet written anybody asking for money, and I won't. I'll go to the grave first. But whatever, if you're interested in any of these things, you drop us a note and we'll be glad to respond to you. Ok, I think that's all we have in that area, let's get right back to where we left off in I Thessalonians chapter 5, and again verse 7, where we have this constant flip side from one to the other. Those who are left behind are left behind because they've been in spiritual darkness, they're enjoying the things of this world, and they have no appetite for the things of the Spirit. So then Paul says in verse 7, "...for they that sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith, and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation." Of course these are the same things that he listed in Ephesians chapter 6. And then verse 9, oh what a tremendous lesson for believers, "...for God hath not appointed us as believers to wrath." Now in that plane, these people that are insisting that the Church is going to go into or through the tribulation, they have to just blink and miss this verse. But here it is, we as believers are not appointed to this day of the Lord, the day of judgment, the day of wrath. I don't care whether they want to call it the tribulation, or they want to call it eternal to come, it's still the same premise that those of us who are part and parcel of this day of Christ, are out of here before the day of judgment falls on this planet. Over and over Paul makes that so plain, but what I've learned from our mail, from talking to people that call, is that when everyone who says they can't agree with my stand on the rapture, they hardly ever look at Paul's epistles. All the verses they give me to back up their theory is Old Testament, the four Gospels, and Revelation, which is of course, all attendant with the tribulation and the day of the Lord. But you see, Paul never alludes to that, as I've been showing now for the last three half hour program. Paul alludes only to the day of Christ. Now there's one exception, and we'll probably get to that in our next taping session next month, and that's in chapter 2 of II Thessalonians, where he comes the closest to end time prophecy of any place in all of his letters. But here he's talking only about we as believers not being associated with the day of wrath, the day of the Lord, but rather how we have not been appointed to this day of wrath, but we obtain salvation, not only from eternal hell fire, but we're also going to be saved from this horrible seven years on earth, and all through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's verse 10, who died for us. See how Paul is constantly bringing up that finished work of the cross, the Gospel. And again, wherever we go, we're finding people who have been in church all their life, have never heard the pure, simple, complete, finished work of the cross, Gospel. They just don't hear it, and it's so sad. And I can't figure out why. My lamb, they all celebrate Easter, they can all talk about His crucifixion, but they can't seem to put that package together, that when we believe it, it becomes our means of salvation. And that they somehow miss, and it's a sad commentary. But now Paul again says, we're not doomed to the day of the Lord, we're not doomed to an eternal separation, because Christ died for us. That whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Now the word sleep here is a reference to physical death, but it doesn't make any difference if we die physically, we're still alive with Him eternally. Now let's look at Colossians chapter 3, verse 3. For you are dead, that is the old Adam that we're born with, it's been crucified, it's been put to death by virtue of our faith in the Gospel. You are dead, but just like that kernel of wheat that falls into the ground, and it hits the moisture and the sunlight, what does it do? It dies, but brings forth new life. And that's the allusion that Jesus makes in John's Gospel chapter 12, that before we can have eternal life, we have to die to the old Adam. That's a premise of Scripture. For you are dead, you've been crucified with Christ, Galatians 2. You are dead, and your life, your eternal life is hid with Christ, and where is that? In God. Now I make an allusion to the kernel of wheat. Come all the way back to John's Gospel. I haven't used any of the Gospels all day, but I've got to use it once in a while to satisfy some of these people, and the way they may think I'm taking the Gospels out of the picture. No, no way. It's just that it's not directed to us as Paul's epistles are. But look what Jesus said in John's Gospel chapter 12. And I love these verses, because it backs up my teaching that Jesus had nothing to do with Gentiles all through His earthly ministry, with the two exceptions, the Canaanite woman and the Roman centurion, and they were exceptions. But here was what could have been a third exception, and He doesn't give into it, starting in in verse 20. Now I know this is kind of off the beaten path, but the point I'm trying to make is that as a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, so we die in order to experience new life. Now Jesus uses it Himself. Here He is at the hours leading up to His crucifixion, and the Feast of Passover crowds are gathering in Jerusalem, multitudes of Jews from all over the world. And then you come in to verse 20, and there were certain Greeks, Gentiles among them. Now they weren't worshipers, I don't think they were proselytes, they were just as I've said so often even on the program, what were they? Curiosity seekers, they were onlookers, just seeing how these Jews made such a big deal over these Feast days. And so these Greeks were among them who came up to worship at the Feast. It doesn't say they came to worship. Now verse 21. These same Greeks came therefore to Philip, one of the twelve, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and he desired, and asked him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip knowing that Jesus had nothing to do with Gentiles all through his three years of ministry, with the two exceptions, remember I'm always making that point in the Old Testament as well as in Christ's ministry, there were Gentile exceptions, but that's all. So out of those two exceptions, he had had nothing to do with Gentiles. And Philip knew that. I guess this is where I've got to go back and show it. Go back to Matthew, it's been a long time since we put it on the program, and I use it in our seminars quite often. But come back to Matthew chapter 10, now keep John, and keep Colossians, and keep Thessalonians, but Matthew chapter 10, and you'd be amazed how many people have been in church and Sunday school all their life, and they don't know this is in their Bible. And I've had folks now who have picked up on this and are teaching it themselves, and they tell me, lest my Sunday school class sits in front of me aghast. They never knew this was in their Bible, but he said, I just let them read from whatever translation they've got, and then when they're through reading, I'll say, now what does it say? And he said, they're so shook, they don't even like to answer. But here it is, see. Jesus had now chosen the twelve in the first four verses, and now verse 5 of Matthew 10. These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, into any city of the Samaritans, enter you not. Now you can't make that any plainer, it's just as plain as English can make it. Do not have anything to do with the Gentiles, don't have anything to do with the Samaritans, go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now that shakes people up. They think He came to the whole world, and I'll never forget a gentleman I had in our teaching in Jerusalem, and my, he happened to come in after about the third or fourth night. Some of you folks I think were with us, and oh yeah, Rocky's nodding, oh he got mad. He said, what do you do with John 3.16? I said, well, it certainly didn't apply to Gentiles in his earthly ministry. He came in the end result, yes, to go to the whole world, but he came unto his own, to begin his three years of ministry, and the reason he could not reach out to Gentiles was that he had come on the basis of the Abrahamic Covenant, and the Abrahamic Covenant was given to no one but the nation of Israel, and so being the God of creation in His sovereignty, he knew what most people today don't, and that was his position in that covenant. And so he had nothing to do with Gentiles, he couldn't, until he had committed himself to the nation of Israel, and they had shown their rebellion and their rejection, which I always claim was epitomized or was brought to a crescendo at Stephen Stoning in Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 8 introduces us now to Saul of Tarsus, who in Acts chapter 9 experiences a conversion road to Damascus, and a few verses later God tells Ananias, I'll send this man to the Gentiles. But until that it was Jew only, in fact I showed our Denver seminar, and the question came up. If you go to Acts 11.19, plain as day as English can make it, they went everywhere preaching the Word to none but Jew only, and that was 7 years after Pentecost. So here we have Jesus telling the twelve, go not into the way of Samaritan, go not to a Gentile, because you can only go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now come back to John's Gospel chapter 12, and do you think Philip had forgotten that in 2.5-3 years? No way! And so when these Gentiles said, we would see Jesus, Philip said, wait a minute, I don't know what to do with this one. So he goes and tells Andrew, who was supposedly the fisher of men. So he says, well I'll go check with Andrew, he's the old boy that really knows how to approach people. But does Andrew say, we'll bring him along, and we'll take him in to see Jesus? No way! Andrew too knows that Christ only deals with the children of Israel. So Philip in verse 22 comes and tells Andrew, and again Andrew and Philip in verse 22, together they're safety in numbers, Andrew and Philip go and tell Jesus, and you know why I think they were reluctant? All we can think of is the Lord's compassion and His patience, but do you think He could get a little sharp? I think He could. I think those men knew that if He would see them trying to bring Gentiles, He could have rebuked them, and He could have said, look fellas, just like He said in John 14, have I been so long time with you, and yet don't you know that I can't deal with Gentiles? And then He gives the reason, and it's so obvious. Now remember the reason I brought you back here is to show that when we as believers have died to the old sin nature, Adam, up springs what? New life. And here's the analogy. In verse 23. It took me a long time to get there, didn't it? And Jesus answered them, that is, Philip and Andrew, and He said, The hour is come, now you want to remember it's a matter of hours until He'll be resurrected from the dead. And so He says, The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified, now you know He wasn't glorified until He rose from the dead. Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abideth alone. Now you see Jesus was just simply making a point of biology. When you plant a seed in the ground, what's the first thing that happens? It dies. And unless it dies, it will not come up and reproduce. That's as obvious as daylight follows dark. So Jesus uses a point of science. Unless that kernel of wheat goes into the ground, it's buried, it dies, it can't bring forth fruit. But if it dies, then it will spring up with a new blade, and out of that new blade will come forth what? Much fruit. And of course He was using wheat as an example, and that one stem of wheat can come up and produce maybe 100 kernels. And that's the whole purpose of death, burial and resurrection. That now because of what Christ had accomplished, new life can come up for every believer. Now let's come to Romans chapter 6 on our way back to Colossians, and then we'll go back to Thessalonians for a few moments. But look what He says in Romans 6, verse 5. See and this is where good works falls by the wayside. It just simply disappears into the fog, because good works cannot take the place of dying. Good works cannot take the place of that kernel dying and reproducing. Now let's look at verse 5, Romans 6, for if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, every one of us in the eyes of God as a believer now, had to have been identified with Christ in the tomb. And I've put it this way for years. When Christ hung on the cross, He saw every believer dying to the old Adam. When Christ laid in the tomb, God saw every believer epitomized in that tomb experience. Now then, reading on in that last part of the verse, if we're in the likeness of His death, if God has identified us with Him on the cross, with Him in the tomb, then He can identify us also in the likeness of His resurrection. And what does resurrection depict? New life! See that's why God has arranged springtime the way He's arranged it. Every human being on the planet is once again reminded of what? New life, resurrection, and the whole Nine Yards. I think that's another one of the reasons that God says that every man has been lighted that comes into the world. My if they see that flower come up, that was nothing but a dead seed or a dead bulb, that's new life. When the trees begin to blossom out with their leaves, it's new life, resurrection. That's the picture. Then verse 6, still in Romans, "...knowing this," as a believer now, we know this beyond a shadow of a doubt, that our old man, our old Adam, is crucified, he's been put to death with Him, that is with Christ. That the body of sin, the old Adam, might be destroyed or put out of commission, that henceforth we should not serve that old Adamic nature. Why? Because it's dead! But out of that dead nature we get new life. Now let's flip back to Colossians a minute, and maybe we can get a verse or two more yet. Colossians chapter 3, verse 3, "...for you are dead, you've been crucified with Christ, the old Adam has been put to death, and your life, your eternal life, your new life in Christ, and where is it? It is hid in, or with Christ, in God." A safety factor, boy I reckon, what a place to be. Now you talk about security, you can't get it much better than that. Here we are with Christ, and Christ is in that God head, and there we are. Never to be removed, nothing like I showed you in the last program, even that wicked adulterous Corinthian, he couldn't be removed, he was with Christ, and he's going to suffer loss of reward, absolutely, God's not going to let him just escape without any reprimand, but he's not going to lose his salvation, and so for the true believer who is with Christ, we are hid in God, and in verse 4, we looked at all these in our Colossians study, but when Christ, the day of Christ, when Christ who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory." Now I know the Bible really doesn't tell us much about our eternal future, so far as what heaven is like, and so forth. All it can do is use superlatives like, "...I have not seen, nor ear heard what God has prepared." But it doesn't tell us what. We usually like to hear about the streets of gold, but I think that's mundane. That's mundane compared to the real, real experience. It's just beyond human comprehension, the things that God has prepared for us when we join Him in glory. Okay back to I Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 10, "...so Christ who died for us, that whether we are awake, whether we are living, or whether we have passed on by death, our loved ones who have gone on as before, it doesn't make any difference so far as the Eternity is concerned, we're all going to be together with Him one day." Now verse 11, "...consequently what can believers do that the unbelieving world cannot? Comfort!" Every day we get a letter I think that someone has lost their loved one, a spouse, a child, a daughter, a son. But what can we tell them? If they're believers, they're going to see them again. That's our comfort. So comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also you do. Paul says, I know you're already faithful in that. Paul thought the world of the Thessalonians. You know why? Remember I told you several weeks ago, how much time did Paul spend with the Thessalonian believers? Three weeks, maybe a part of the four. He says three Sabbaths. So that's three full weeks, and maybe a few days in the next, but not long enough to go through the fourth Sabbath. And out of that three week experience in Thessalonica, he had seen this little group of believers come out of paganism, out of spiritual darkness, and became so rooted, that several weeks later Timothy evidently brought him the news, and we're going to pick that up in the next letter, of how steadfastly these Thessalonians were standing in their faith, in spite of intense persecution from their pagan peers, in spite of the pressure from Rome, and in spite of the pressure from the Judaizers. These little ex-pagans stood fast, and Paul just shows his joy with them, that in spite of everything they were such a comfort to him. Now in verse 12, and he says, "...we beg you, brethren, to know them who labor among you and over you in the Lord, and admonish you to esteem them highly." Yes, God does expect believers to recognize their leadership, to recognize those who are feeding them spiritual truths, and we're to appreciate them. I know I have in the past, and I still do when I read men of God, how I can thank God that over the years He has raised up men who were faithful to His precious Word. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner-supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the Scriptures, and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK 74552, or call 1-800-369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.