Why Did God Hide Secrets in the Bible Until Now?

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. OK, and again, we're glad to have everybody in for another afternoon. And I know some of you have driven quite a distance, and we appreciate the effort that you put forth. I've always said I couldn't do it. In fact, Iris and I were talking about it on the way up again today. What would we do if we got here and there was no one here? I'd turn around and go back home. I just couldn't teach an empty room. So we appreciate the fact that you do come in and become part of the class for us. Again, for those of you joining us in television, how we do appreciate hearing from you. And most of you express the fact that you feel like you're a part of the class. And I was thrilled again the other evening when someone showed me all the notes that they had taken throughout their Bible and everything else just watching the program. So we trust that we are reaching out and that we're getting many and more and more all the time who are becoming involved in studying the book. We don't want you to necessarily go by what I say or what anyone else says, but if we can just help you to study on your own. That's the reason I teach, is to get people involved in this book of books. All right, now then, maybe I should remind our audience once again, don't forget that all the programs way back to Genesis 1, that's about three and a half years worth now, are available on videotape. The first 48 programs are in print. You can write for them and hopefully we'll have some more without too much time going by. But anyway, just call us on the 800 number or drop us a note and we'll get you the information so that you can order these things. All right, now as we ended our last program, for those of you who are with us in our last taping and for those of you who have seen the last program on television, we have finished our study of the book of Revelation and prophecy per se and we are now moving into the New Testament, where we skipped over when we left Daniel, remember, and we went to Revelation. And so we're going to prepare ourselves for a study of the Gospels. Now, we're not going to take them verse by verse and chapter by chapter, just like we skipped some of the minor prophets coming up through the Old Testament. We're just going to hit the overall scheme of things, bringing God's dealing with the human race, beginning with Adam, all the way out to where we ended then in the book of Revelation a couple of weeks ago, the introduction to eternity. So what we're going to do as we come through the Gospels is just pick up the main theme of how all these things unfolded, preparing everything for the end time. Now, we always have to realize that the Bible is simply God's record of history written in advance. And the other thing I always like to emphasize, a lot of people don't realize, is that this book is a progressive revelation. In other words, God didn't see fit to just give the whole picture back here in Genesis. Now, all the seeds of it are back here. But as we come up through the Scriptures and on in through the New Testament, we're going to see that there is a constant revealing of something that had never been revealed before. Now, I'm going to try and show you a few verses that indicate that before we actually go into the book of Matthew. And the reason I'm doing this is, when I first started teaching these kind of classes, beginning with Genesis, now this goes back 23 years ago, but when I first started going through, I was just not satisfied with the way I had always been taught, the four Gospels, Christ's earthly ministry, and the book of Acts. And so, believe it or not, the first two or three times I went from Genesis to Revelation with some of my classes, I would just sort of skip the Gospels and the book of Acts because I just didn't feel, I guess I use the word comfortable, with the way I had always been taught and from the Sunday school material and so forth. And then, all of a sudden, the Lord began to just open my eyes to this very fact, that God did not just all of a sudden dump everything on the human race, but that it is progressive and that there are certain aspects of Scripture that were kept hidden in the mind of God until He saw fit in His own time to now reveal it. And this is the way we have to look at Scripture. Now, to prove my point, I'm going to take a few verses throughout Scripture that show this is exactly how God did operate. And so, we're going to start way back in Genesis again, in chapter 21, verse 33. Genesis 21, verse 33, and of course, we're still dealing with the man Abraham back here. Verse 33 says, "...and Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba," now remember, that's down in southern Israel, "...he planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord the everlasting God." Now, those of you who were with us when we were way back there in Genesis, remember we would always stop and look at these various names of deity. It's always the same God. But His name would be used in accordance with a particular situation, or a particular point to be made. In other words, way back in Abraham's dealing with God, when he was going to offer Isaac, you remember, and God provided a ram in the thicket. You remember what the name of Jehovah was there? Jehovah-Jireh, we covered all that a couple weeks ago. Well, it was an intrinsic name of God depicting a particular need. All right, now Abraham here in this particular case calls upon the everlasting God. Now, in the English you don't catch it, but see, in the Hebrew this is a totally different word than the Jehovah God and so forth back in Genesis chapter 4. Then you got El Shaddai in chapter 17, I think it is, where He is referred to as the fruitfulness of God, the God of fruitfulness, El Shaddai. But here we have still another name of deity, and in the Hebrew it's El Olam. In other words, God, the everlasting God, but it's interesting that in the Hebrew this word Olam, when it's used in common usage, always refers to things hidden. And it refers to God's sovereign ability to hide things. So, put it in this light. He is the everlasting God, eternity to eternity, but He is also the God who can keep things secret until He sees fit to reveal it. You got me now? Okay, now that's what the term here in the Hebrew means, that He is the eternal God, but He is also the God who keeps secrets, and He doesn't have to reveal them until He is ready to in His own time. All right, now we brought this out several weeks ago, and one of my students down at Wilberton just came back right away the next week, and he was so excited, and he had found this verse in Deuteronomy 29, 29, that I had even missed before. And so I'm going to use it, because it just says it so beautifully. Deuteronomy 29, 29. Deuteronomy 29, verse 29. I'd like to give you time so that you can read it with me. Deuteronomy 29, verse 29. See that word? "...the secret things belong unto the Lord our God. But those things which are revealed belong unto us." Now remember, Moses is speaking here directly to the children of Israel. So the us here is the children of Israel, but you see, it doesn't limit it to Israel. It's God dealing with any time in history that when He reveals something, then the people to whom He reveals it become responsible, as it says here, to believe it and to tie into it. So He says again, "...the secret things belong unto the Lord our God. But those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." All right, now let's come on up through the Scriptures, and I'm just going to bring you all the way to... Let's see, where do I want to go next? I think into John's Gospel. There are many others, but I'm just trying to hit some of those that are the most obvious. John's Gospel, chapter 13. And this is where we happened to be studying when this individual went back and started looking for other verses that things were kept secret and revealed later. And here we were in John's Gospel, chapter 13, and we drop down to verse 7. Now the setting here, of course, is Jesus has the 12, and He is washing their feet. You know the account. And how He came to Peter. And then you remember in verse 6 of John 13? John 13, verse 6, "...then Jesus came to Simon Peter. And Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?" Now you can understand that. You can understand clearly that Peter just felt that the Lord had no business condescending to such a lowly place of service as washing their old dirty feet. Now you want to remember back in those days, they wore sandals and the streets were filthy, and feet got filthy likewise. And no doubt Peter was very well aware of this. And so he says, "...dost thou wash my feet?" And then look at verse 7. "...And Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not." What's the next word? Now. But don't stop there. What comes next? But at a later time, you'll know. Now you see what He's saying? Peter was not in a position to understand all this as yet. And so Jesus plainly tells him, Peter, you don't know what I'm doing, but you will at a future day when God would reveal it. All right, now I just had another one and it left me just as quick as it came. But now if you'll just go with me then to Ephesians chapter 3. No, Romans. I want to stop at Romans. Romans 16. I like to take it in the order that chronologically as they come. Now Romans 16. Romans 16 and go all the way back to verse 25. Romans 16, verse 25. Now of course the apostle Paul has come on the scene and Paul is going to use a word I think that is unique to his writings and we'll look at that a little more in detail later. But here in Romans 16, verse 25, he says, now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation. Now remember what does revelation mean? A revealing of something that has never been revealed before through the revelation of the mystery. Now remember that comes from the Greek word mysterion which is translated secret. And so he says, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the secret which was kept, what's the next word? Secret. How long? Since the age began. Now do you see what he's saying? The same thought that God sees fit to keep certain things totally unrevealed until it's time to reveal it. All right, come in with me now then to Ephesians. Just keep that same thought. That's what I'm trying to show you now as we come up through Scripture beginning all the way back with the Hebrew term of deity, olam, which means that the everlasting God also has the sovereign capability of keeping things secret until it's his time to reveal it. All right, you got Ephesians 3? And just begin at verse 1. Ephesians 3, and we'll just begin at verse 1. Now again, this is Paul writing to Gentiles predominantly. And so he says, for this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, now watch how it came, which was given to me to you were. Now there was the process. How that, verse 3, how that by revelation, there's that word again, by a revealing of something that had never been revealed before. How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery or the secret again. See, as I wrote before in few words that whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery or the secret of Christ. Now what's he talking about? Something that no one else before had ever had an inkling of. Now I think it was in my last program as we took a little jaunt into Matthew. And I said, you'll find absolutely nothing of the church in the four gospels. Why? Because God had not seen fit to reveal this secret, which is really the body of truth that is involving the church. And so this is what Paul is making so clear. All right, now verse 5. Now you see how clearly this is put? I mean, you don't have to be a theologian. You don't have to be an expert in language to understand this. This is so simple. But you see, most of us have just read our Bible so fast and we'd read it so glibly that we just don't see what it says. But now look what the next verse says. Verse 5. Which in other ages or generations was, what's the next word? Not, see? It was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now. Now do you see the difference? That which had not been revealed before, now it is. And now it is revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit. Then drop down for sake of time to verse oh eight and nine. Paul says unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles, see, the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make all. Now the word men has been added by the translator so you can leave it in or take it out. You won't be violating scripture either way. And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery or the secret which from the beginning of the world or the age, the human experience, this mystery has been, past tense. What's the next word? Hidden in God, see, who created all things by Jesus Christ. Now isn't that plain? Now what the apostle is saying, just exactly what Moses wrote in Deuteronomy, that God in His everlastingness and in His eternalness has seen fit to only reveal things by bits and pieces as we come up through human history. All right, now while you're in Ephesians, I'm gonna have you turn back just one page to chapter two. And here again are some shocking words and most people just don't know they're in their Bible. I'm always amazed when people will see these things for the first time. And I'm not doing anything but just showing what it says. Now in Ephesians chapter two, drop down to verse 11 and 12. Ephesians two, verses 11 and 12. Now keep this whole concept in your mind that things were kept secret. And this is going back to what I said that you can't find the church in the Old Testament. You can't find any mention of the rapture in the Old Testament or in the Gospels. And see, this is what throws a curve at people. They say, well, Les, how can you teach something like the rapture when the Old Testament doesn't even mention it? Well, the Old Testament writers couldn't mention it because it was still a secret kept in the mind of God. And only Paul had the revelation evidence. So only Paul writes of the rapture, nowhere else. Only Paul writes of so many of these things that are in that body of truth. And we're gonna probably in the next program point that out, the vast difference between the prophetic program as you have it in the Old Testament and this body of truth that Paul refers to as the mysteries that are suddenly now revealed. All right, but now verse 11 of Ephesians two. Remember, Paul writes to Gentile believers. And now he says, wherefore remember that you being in times past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hand. Now put that in plain English. What did the circumcised Jew call the Gentile? Uncircumcised dogs, usually. All right, now that's all Paul is saying. That at the time that Israel was still under all of the promises of God back in the Old Testament economy, and God was dealing, as I've said so often, with Jew only. All right, now Paul is carrying that further. And he says, back then when you who were uncircumcised as called by the circumcision in the flesh made by hands. Now verse 12. That at that time. What time? Back when God was still dealing with Israel on the covenant basis. That at that time you Gentiles were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise. Now you know I'll be talking about the covenants again in a little bit. But Gentiles were strangers to those covenants of promise, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, having no hope and without God in the world. Now people get shook up by that. They say, well, God wasn't fair. Hey, wait a minute. We can't ever accuse God of not being fair. He's always been fair. He's always just. He's always righteous. So he had every right in the world to do things the way he did it because he knew what these Gentiles would have done with a plan of salvation even if he had revealed it to them, they wouldn't have bought it. And so while he's dealing with the nation of Israel, he leaves these Gentiles in the state that Paul says they were in outside the covenant promises. They were not citizens of the commonwealth of Israel. And consequently they were without Christ. They were without God in the world. But don't stop there. Now he goes to the next verse. As a result of some revelations, Paul can now write, but now, see, things have changed. The Gentile is no longer in that position, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometime far off, see, outside the covenants, outside the citizenship of Israel, without hope, without God, all right, but you who were at one time far off, now were made nigh by what? The blood of Christ. And that refers to the crucifixion. All right, now, verse comes to mind that I probably should have hit on our way through. Go back with me again, if you will, to Luke 18. Because if I don't accomplish anything else in this 30 minutes, I hope I can accomplish that you understand that God did not reveal things until He, in His own timing, revealed it. And He didn't expect people to believe something that He had never said before. All right, Luke 18, beginning of verse 31. But once He reveals something, then what does He expect the human race to do with it? Believe it. And when they don't, God has every right in the world to reject them someday. Because He's sovereign. But He does not expect anyone to believe something that He has not yet revealed. Now, here's a good example. Here we are toward the end of Christ's earthly ministry. They're up in northern Israel, up in the area of the headwaters of the Jordan River, if I'm not mistaken, and they're on their way down to Jerusalem where He'll be crucified. So it's probably within the last week or so of His earthly ministry. And He has the 12. All right, verse 31. So He took unto Him the 12, and He said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished, for He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, spitefully entreated, and spitted on. And they shall scourge Him and put Him to death, and the third day He shall rise again. Plain language? Well, you can't get it any plainer. Did He know what was coming? Sure He did. He was God. He knew the end from the beginning. And so now He tells the 12 in plain language exactly what's going to happen. But don't stop there. Read the next verse. And they, the 12, the 12 understood none of these things. Not a bit of it. They understood none of these things, and this saying was, here's that word again, what is it? Hid, see? It was hid from them. Neither knew they the things which were spoken. Now Jesus told them more than once that He was going to go up and be crucified, and that He'd rise from the dead. But again, God never opened their eyes to it. And you all know, I think any kid that's been to Sunday school for a year or two knows that when Jesus was being crucified, did those 11, now Judas is gone, but did those 11 men know that come Sunday morning He'd be back amongst the living? Did they? No, not a one of them. I've always said, hey, had they understood that He was going to be raised from the dead, where would they have all been that Sunday morning? Outside the tomb, waiting to see it happen. But they didn't know, see? Let me show you another one while we got a moment or two. Go with John's gospel. John's gospel, chapter 20. And again, I'm going to come down to around, oh, verse six, I guess. And again, I just got to give you a little backdrop. You remember this is on the resurrection morning, and Mary Magdalene has come to anoint the corpse, and she's just aghast, the body's gone, and she's all shook up, so she runs and tells Peter and John, someone has stolen the body. All right, now we got to hurry, only got a minute left. So here they come, running to the sepulcher. Verse four. So they ran both together, Peter and John. And the other disciple did outrun Peter. In other words, John was a little quicker afoot than Peter. And he came first to the sepulcher, but he's more timid. He hasn't got quite the gall that Peter has, and so he doesn't go right into the sepulcher, but Peter does. So Peter following went into the sepulcher, sees the linen clothes lie, and the napkin, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in place by self. Then went in also that other disciple, John, who came first. Verse nine. For as yet, at this late time, for as yet they, Peter and John, knew not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. 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.