Why Isn't the Church Mentioned in Prophecy?

Okay, good to see everybody in again today, and we always marvel at the fact that so many of you drive such a distance. We've got folks here from near Oklahoma City and various other places around the state, and we just want you to know that we're glad you're here. And again, for those of you joining us on television, we always are so appreciative of your letters, as well as your financial help, but mostly how we just appreciate the statements that you make over and over, that you're into the Word, you're studying it on your own. And of course, that's the reason we teach, is to help you not only just read your Bible, but to study it and to enjoy it. Once again, we always like to make it known that all the past programs, and that's now almost nine years worth, isn't it, honey? We have nearly nine years of programming available on videotape, the audiotape, and they've all been transcribed into little books, and if you can use any of this material, you contact us either by the 800 number or drop us a line, and we'll get the information to you. Okay, now, I think we're going to buy up the time. We've got a lot to cover again today, and we're just going to drop right back into our study. Now, Jerry has already got on the board our study this morning, or this afternoon, really supposed to start with Philippians chapter one, but as I was preparing for today, I happened to realize it's been a long time since I had put the timeline that brought us all the way from Genesis on up through and into Paul's epistles. And for the benefit of many of you who have just found us in the last few months and may not have caught any of our teachings out of the Old Testament, I'm just going to make a real quick review of it, and in order to save time, I've put it on the board ahead of time. And what we've done is start a course back with the Old Testament program is the way I like to look at it, and the reason I call it the Old Testament program is that nothing, nothing in the Old Testament or in the Gospels ever spoke of the church age. That was something that was unknown, and as Paul puts it, it was a mystery kept in the mind of God. And Deuteronomy 29, 29 is a verse I've used so often over the years where it says so plainly that our God is a God of keeping secret, and that's His prerogative. He's sovereign, and if He doesn't want to reveal something, He doesn't have to. And so it was His prerogative not to reveal anything concerning this last 1900-some years of Gentile period, but everything in the Old Testament, of course we've got the first eleven chapters that dealt with creation, and then the Noahic flood, and then the Tower of Babel, and then that whole human race had just simply gone down the tube, so to speak, and God pulled off one man. I suppose I really should do it the way I usually do. He pulled off one man out of that mainstream of humanity, and of course those people are also going to go back into the mainstream, but He pulled off one man, Abraham, back there in Genesis 12, and He gave him a covenant, and that covenant said that He would one day make out of that man Abraham a nation of people, and that nation of people would be separated from all the rest of the human race. It was to be a covenant people, and then one day He would put them in their own homeland, and that's all delineated then in Genesis 15, and it was certainly not just from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, but it would be all the way from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates River, down to the Red Sea, and then back up to the River of Egypt, and that was all deeded to Abraham, of course, back there in Genesis 15. Well then, as time went by, we went through the patriarchs, of course, and the appearance of Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve sons, and then Israel became a nation while they were in captivity down in Egypt, so that when Moses brought them out, they were now one of the largest nations in that part of the world. So from the call of Abraham and the giving of the Abrahamic covenant, we see God dealing almost exclusively with that Jewish nation. Then when you get to Daniel, and Daniel, of course, is writing about 500-600 years B.C., Daniel is revealed a time outline for Israel's next 490 years. Now those of you who have heard me teach very long have heard me say that prophecy is directed only to the nation of Israel, and almost always, not always, but almost always, within a time frame. In other words, when God first promised Abraham that the nation of Israel would be coming on the scene, He gave it a time frame of 430 years, and that's exactly what it was, from the time of Abraham's call until Moses took them out in the Exodus, 430 years. Well then, one of the other major prophecies is the one in Daniel 9, where he says 490 years are determined upon thy people, and so that 490 year period of time was, according to the Old Testament, to take them on up to the cross, but also would include the seven years of wrath and vexation. Now I guess, in order to make this scriptural, I'm going to even have you here in the classroom go back with me to Psalms chapter 2, which I have always referred to as the outline of the prophetic program, or the Old Testament program, and I think it's so easy to see and to follow. Psalms chapter 2. You might as well start at verse 1. We'll just read quickly through them. So, Psalms chapter 2, verse 1. "...why do the heathen," that is the non -Jew, "...why do they rage, and the people," the Jews, "...imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers," again of Israel, "...take counsel together." So you've got Jew and Gentile now conspiring against the Anointed. And they say, verse 3, "...let us break their bands asunder," that is the bands and the control of the Godhead, "...let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords," or their reins, "...from us." Verse 4. "...he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, and the Lord shall have them in derision, and then," see that's a time word, it doesn't specify a day, but it's a time word, "...after they have rejected and crucified the Messiah, then he," that is the Lord, "...shall speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure." That of course is the tribulation, so that's why I've called it the wrath and vexation. 490 years coming up after the Babylonian captivity of course, and bringing us all the way up to the appearance of the Messiah at 483, and then the other 7 years are still all included in the Old Testament account, the wrath and vexation. And then the next verse in chapter 2 is, "...yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion." What is that? Well that's the Kingdom. Now that's all the Old Testament ever knew, all the prophecies that you can read, Joel 3 and Zechariah 14, and you just go through all the Old Testament. This is the program, 490 years are determined upon the nation of Israel to bring about the Messiah, to crucify Him, to bring in the wrath and vexation of God, and then Christ would return and set up His Kingdom. Plain as day, all the Old Testament speaks to that. That's all Jesus spoke of, that's all Peter could speak of, because that's all they knew. But in the mind of God, kept secret was our lower line, and that's basically the same thing all the way up to the crucifixion, 483 years, but instead of the 7 years taking place shortly after the crucifixion, God has now opened up our timeline with a parenthetical period, unknown how long, we never can set a date on when it will end, but it's a parenthetical period of time that He has pushed the wrath and vexation out into the future, and since this is something totally removed from the Old Testament program or prophecy, it cannot be mixed with prophecy. So that's why I am such an adamant proponent of the Rapture, is that the Church cannot go into that which pertains to Israel. And the Tribulation is Israel, the whole Book of Revelation is directed to the nation of Israel. And once people see that, then it's easy to understand that yes, if God is going to pick up where He left off with Israel up here, then it stands to reason that He has to remove the Body of Christ and take it out in what we call the Rapture, and then we will still have the unfolding of the rest of the prophetic program. Seven years of wrath and vexation, the Second Coming of Christ, and then the setting up of the Kingdom. Now as soon as you understand that process, this whole Book just opens up plain as day. But you know, even so much of the stuff that people send me from our TV audience, bless their hearts, they mean well, but they've got it all jumbled up together. They don't separate anything. I finally had one guy who said that yes, we've got to rightly divide the Word of Truth, but we've got to separate the New Testament from the Old Testament. Well that's oversimplifying it. You don't just separate the New Testament from the Old Testament, because the four Gospels or Christ's earthly ministry in the early chapters of Acts are still Old Testament. Now let me show you what I mean by that. Turn with me to Acts, I like to use just a few of these verses that just scream at us. They just literally scream at us, if we'll let them. Acts chapter 3. So far as Peter was concerned, he was on this top line, he was on the Old Testament prophecy and the prophetic program, and he knew nothing of the mysteries that were revealed to Paul down here. And so by the power of the Holy Spirit, he wasn't ignorant, he wasn't out there by himself. The Holy Spirit was directing everything he was doing in Acts chapter 3. Now remember Pentecost is in Acts chapter 2, so this is some time later, maybe a week, two or three weeks, but whatever. He goes through another, almost like chapter 2, telling Israel that the one they crucified was the Messiah, was the Christ, and then he comes all the way down to verse 24 and 25. And I don't see how he can make it any plainer. And he says, "...all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many have spoken, have foretold of these days." So what's he talking about? Christ's First Advent, the whole picture, His coming, His ministry, His crucifixion, His death, burial and resurrection. Yes, that was all back there in the Old Testament, it was prophecy. And so Peter says, "...everything that they prophesied, you've seen it happen." But don't stop there. Verse 25. Verse 25. "...you, Peter says to those Jews to whom he's preaching, you are the children of the prophets." See that's why I said back here, this was predominantly Jew only. That's all the prophets wrote to, they didn't write to Gentiles, they wrote to Israel. Now the only time it refers to Gentiles back here, is how God will pronounce woe upon them, for the way they have treated Israel. But nothing in the Old Testament is written to those Gentiles. And so as he writes to the children of Israel, the nation of Israel, under the Law now for the last 1,000 years at least, look what Peter says, "...you are the children of the covenant which God made with our fathers, when He said unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." So you see up here, Peter is still looking forward to this wrath and vexation, and the coming of the King, because he's still on the Old Testament prophetic program, he has no concept whatsoever that God is going to all of a sudden do something totally different. He's going to go after those Gentiles. Now the Jew had an understanding that, yes, they were to be vehicles, in fact we were just talking about it, somebody had it come up in their Sunday school class. Turn back with me to Isaiah 42, and we'll just look at a couple of these verses. Of course, God hadn't given up totally on the Gentiles, but they were going to have to be brought to Himself through the nation of Israel, they were the vehicle. But you see when we get to the apostle Paul, it's totally different from that. He turns to the Gentile without Israel, oh he uses the Jew, Paul, but not as a vehicle of Judaism. But nevertheless, God's purposes for the nation of Israel, here we see it in chapter 42, verse 1. "...Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my elect, in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him." Now the Him of course refers to whom? Christ, the Messiah. "...I have put my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment, or rule, government to what people?" Gentiles. See how plain that is? Sure God had His mind on the Gentiles, but He's going to have to do it through Israel. Turn here in Isaiah to chapter 59. Now these are all verses that people who have been watching the program for 5 or 6 years, they've heard it before, but for those of you who are just tuned in and are just new listeners, hopefully this will tell you where I'm coming from. Isaiah 59, starting at verse 20, and the Redeemer, it's capitalized, speaking of the Messiah, the Christ. "...And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto all them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord." Now here you've got to know your Bible, it's not speaking here of His crucifixion. When He comes to Zion, it's to be what? The King! Because you see, David ruled from Mount Zion, not from Olives, not from Moriah, but he ruled from Mount Zion. So this is a reference to His coming to be the King. And so the Redeemer, as the King, shall come to Mount Zion, where He's going to rule and reign for those thousand years. And then he says in verse 21, "...this is my covenant with Him." And he goes on, and he almost gives word for word, the New Covenant, which Jeremiah 31, verse 31 says, "...is strictly to the house of Israel." Now let's come on down into chapter 60. Verse 60. "...Arise, and shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee." Well when did that happen? Bethlehem, when He was born and presented Himself as the King. "...for behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people. But the LORD shall arise upon thee, the nation of Israel, and His glory shall be seen upon thee." Hopefully because they have embraced their King and their Messiah. Now the next verse, "...and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, Israel's, the Jews." You know I'm always stressing, keep your hand in Isaiah, people learn that this is the way I teach. These verses pop into my mind, and I just have to go back and look at them. Let's just look at the verse I referred to earlier, Deuteronomy 29.29. And then while you're that close, I'm also going to have you look at chapter 32, verse 8. But let's look at Deuteronomy 29.29 first, since we're there. And again, this is so obvious, my goodness a child can understand this, the secret things. Yeah, secret things, everybody knows what a secret is, it's something that nobody else knows but you and the other person. So the secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do the words of this law. In other words, God can keep things secret, but when He reveals it, what are we to do? Believe it! Now turn the page to Deuteronomy 32, and verse 8. This is really the verse I had in mind with regard to Isaiah. Verse 8 of Deuteronomy 32, when the Most High, now those of you who have been in my classes week after week, whenever we see the term, Most High, that is the name of God with regard to what people? Gentiles. Whenever you have God referring to Gentiles, as their God, He's the Most High. That's the only thing He's called throughout the whole Book of Daniel, where we're dealing with Nebuchadnezzar and so forth, the Most High. So when the Most High divided to the nations, their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of these Gentile people according to the number of the children of Israel. What did I tell you? At the very core of all of God's dealing with the people of the world, is the little nation of Israel. And you can't take that away from them. You know, I haven't got time. I just shared with someone just again the other night. If someone casts doubt on the Scriptures and actually asks you, why do you believe that Book anyway? You answer with one statement, because of the Jew. The Jew is living proof that this Bible is supernaturally written, because everything concerning the nation of Israel is unbelievable in view of the fact that they've been scattered under every nation, or into every nation under heaven. And now here they are thousands of years later, back in their homeland, back with their old original Hebrew language, that should have never happened, never. But this Old Book said it would, and so it's living proof. All right, back to Isaiah chapter 60, verse 3. Isaiah 60, verse 3, "...after the glory would arise upon Israel through the coming of their Messiah, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings that are brightness of thy right hand." All right, I've got one more I want to look at quickly, and that would be in Zechariah chapter 8, verse 20, and it says almost the same thing, "...thus saith the LORD of hosts, it shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, the inhabitants of many cities, the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts, and I will go also, yea, many people, and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts, where? In Jerusalem, where he is now set up his throne, and to pray before the LORD." Now verse 23, "...thus saith the LORD of hosts, in those days, then it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all the language of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, and they shall say, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." See Israel's potential, but when the Messiah came and presented Himself, proving Himself with signs and wonders and miracles, what did Israel do? They killed Him, they rejected Him, they said nothing good can come out of Nazareth, and so they dropped the ball, and they lost that opportunity of being this light to all the nations of the world. But it didn't stop God, God just picked on one little Jew, a little fellow, I read again the other day that he was short in stature, and he turns the Roman Empire upside down. One man, and we're going to be commenting on that when we get into Philippians. How that one man was such a vibrant testimony of the Gospel, that he just literally permeated that wicked, vile Roman Empire with the Gospel of the grace of God, aside from Israel. See Paul never did say, you've got to go to Jerusalem and worship at the Temple, Paul never said, well bring your sacrifices, Paul said that's all done. Christ satisfied all the demands of the Law when He died on that cross, was buried three days and three nights, and rose in power and glory, and announced through this Apostle something that had been secret in all the prophetic utterances. We're going to put this wrath in abeyance, God's going to postpone it, it's going to be out in the future, and God opens up the timeline with about, I think 1900 more years than Paul expected, because I think he expected the Lord to return and take his little group of believers out in his lifetime. But here we are, 1900 some years, and I think He's going to take it out in my lifetime. Maybe He won't, but I'm pretty sure He will. But if not, the Gospel of grace will continue on amongst primarily the Gentiles. Israel is blind to it for the most part, I know Jews are saved, don't ever take that away from them, but for the most part they are blind to it, they can't believe that He was the Christ, and so it's predominantly a Gentile period of salvation. But one day it too is going to come to an end, and the body of Christ will be complete, and Christ will call it out, He's going to meet us in the air, He's going to come down and we'll meet Him in the air, and then will yet come the prophetic program. It's not going to stop, it's not going to be something God forgot about, but the wrath and vexation will come, followed by the Second Coming, and then followed of course by that glorious Kingdom on earth. So always remember that the prophetic program was something that Jesus never alluded to. Now He knew it, He could have told us the exact day and hour that the Lord would come, but since it was a secret held in the mind of God, He couldn't. And if you'll just check His language throughout His earthly ministry, you'll notice there were times He could have made reference to the church age, but He didn't. He just glaringly leaves it out of the picture, and so it's kept secret, and that's why then the apostle Paul is always referring to the fact that He was the One to whom the secret of the church age was revealed. And you know, I've told people who don't know what I'm talking about, well, just take your concordance and look up the word mysteries, and with the exception of one in Matthew 13, look at the mysteries as they're referred to in Paul's epistles. 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, Tinta, Oklahoma, 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.