Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 3 * PART 2 * BOOK 58
THE NATION OF ISRAEL MUST BE – PART 2
JUDE
Again we always like to emphasize, we’re not associated with any one denomination, we don’t attack anybody, and all we try to do is get everybody, whatever your background, into the Book and see what the Word of God says. Not what some denomination says, not what Les Feldick says, but what does the Book say! In fact, some folks up in Minnesota coined a little tune, and they’ll get a kick out of every time I say this, and that was the title of they’re little song, “What Does the Book Say!” And it went on from there, but anyway, we always like to thank our TV audience for your support, your prayers, oh how we enjoy the knowledge that you’re praying for us and for your letters, as well as financial help.
Now again, Iris is going to let me take the chance of – we’ve always sort of avoided doing anything that dates our program, because we never know when they’ll be viewed again, but most of you are aware now that we’re on a – what shall I call it, – a timed production, we keep making new programs once a month, but the daily programs are reruns. But anyway we’re making plans to once again take a tour back to the Holy Land. Since this is March of 2004, we’re tentatively making plans for March or April 2005. So if any of you are aware of that, or interested, why contact us and we’ll get the information to you- providing the Lord doesn’t come. We still hope constantly that the Lord will intervene with that trumpet call – I’m still a firm believer of the Pre-Trib Rapture and as the world seemingly is getting so right for the Tribulation, it just tells us we’re getting close.
Ok so much for that. Back to the little Book of Jude where we left off in our last program, and I was in verse 5, and I ran out of time, so we’ll go back to it. Where Jude says:
Jude 1:5a
“I will therefore (because of the constant fear of false teachers coming in amongst the believers) put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, (in other words this is nothing new) how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt,…”
So we go all the way back to the Exodus. The same Lord that was evident all the way up through Israel’s history is the One who had come in the flesh at Bethlehem, and had walked the three years of ministry, had been crucified, resurrected, gone back to glory, and the promise was that in a short order He’d be coming back, and yet fulfill all those Old Testament promises. Listen, this Book would fall apart if God did not fulfill every prophecy. They have to be fulfilled or it’s not the Word of God!
And so we know that all these Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel’s glory and the kingdom on earth are still coming. God has interrupted it in His sovereignty, but it’s still coming. And so even though they were looking forward in their lifetime as these little letters are written. Now as I said in our last program, we are right back in the same thing nineteen hundred and some years later we’ve got Israel back in the land, we’ve got the appearance of the Revived Roman Empire there in Western Europe. The world is getting in perplexity, everything is getting ripe for the fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures.
Alright, so Jude now then, is taking his Jewish believers back to Egypt. Well, we can do the same thing. We all study the Exodus and how God miraculously brought the people out of slavery and took them through the Red Sea, so it’s just as appropriate for us to remember these things as it was for the Jewish believers to whom Jude is writing. Alright, so he says, remember that when the Lord saved the people out of the land of Egypt miraculously after the plagues had pummeled Egypt. And then you remember on the night of the Passover when death went through Egypt and that really triggered the release of the Jewish nation out of Egypt and they went all the way to the Red Sea and then there was the obstacle.
You know I still like to use that as a beautiful picture of our own salvation today. There, Israel, coming out of abject slavery, no freedom, no liberty, brow beaten from sunup to sundown, and now all of a sudden they’re sprung loose, but they’re still on the wrong side of the Red Sea, and no place to go. Mountains on both sides, the Egyptian army and the chariots behind them and the Red Sea in front. And I always like to remind, like Jude is saying, remember, did God say well, hurry up and do something? Don’t just stand there, get to work? No, what did He say. “Stand still! Don’t try to do anything. You’re helpless. Let the power of God exert itself.”
And that’s what happened. God opened the Red Sea. No listen, have you ever stopped to think how much faith it took, knowing that that water was backed up, I don’t think it was within sight. I think that was such a long span that they couldn’t see that wall of water to the left, nor could they see that wall of water to the right. So when they stepped into the dry bed of the Red Sea, what did it take? FAITH! My, it took faith. How did they know it wouldn’t come rushing back in the next five minutes? Well, they didn’t, except by faith. And so they walked through on dry ground, by faith, coming up on the other side now, a redeemed people.
Well, that’s where we are. We were in the slave market of sin, hopelessly lost. But because of Christ’s redemptive work, and by faith we’ve appropriated it, we too now have come through the death, burial and resurrection and we’re on the other side and we now experience God’s saving grace. My what a beautiful picture.
Alright, but the pity of it is after they’d gone through by faith, went all the way down the Sinai under Moses’ leadership, and we’re going to see that a little bit more, a little later in the Book here, and now God takes them up to Kadesh Barnea to go in and have the Promised Land, to take it by faith. They didn’t have to worry about those oversized Canaanites. They didn’t have to worry about the fact that they were larger and more fit for war, because God said He would drive them out with hornets. And yet, how did they respond? In unbelief, abject unbelief, and said, “No we can’t. We can’t do it. The people are too big. The cities are too walled.” Well what did God tell them? “Take it.” So then what was the result? They went back into the wilderness and they died like flies until that whole generation of unbelieving Israelites are gone. What a sad commentary.
Now, I can’t answer the question, I’ve asked it for years as long as I’ve been teaching, I’ve had this question. If they came out of the slavery of Egypt, they came through the Red Sea by faith, were they all what we call “saved?” Well, if that’s the case, then why just a few months later they get up to Kadesh Barnea and their faith is totally absent and they go back into the wilderness and die, which he says here, “they believed not”. I can’t answer it. That’s in God’s hands. Now that’s why I’ve always made the comment, “It’s hard to put your thumb on Old Testament salvation.”
Were they saved once for all, or were they saved and lost? That’s what it would indicate here. They were saved out of Egypt, but when they returned back on Kadesh Barnea it says He destroyed them that what? “Believed not!” Tough question. I don’t have the answer, that’s where God is sovereign, thank goodness. And the same way today, people will say, “Well so and so did this and they did that. Do you think they’re saved?” I don’t know, only God looks on the heart.
Now we can be fruit inspectors, absolutely, if their life completely is in total disobedience and in total opposition to the Scriptures, then as I inspect their fruit, I think I can come to conclusions, but I can’t look at the heart. Neither can you. Neither can anybody else. No human being can tell another human being, “Well you’re safe”, but we can’t look on the heart. But it’s a good lesson here, how that we just cannot determine the salvation experience of these Old Testament Jews. So we’re to remember it, what all took place, how that God miraculously brought them out, brought them through the Red Sea, took them to Sinai, gave them the Law, the tabernacle, the priesthood, ready to take them into the Promised Land and then in unbelief they turned away, all except Moses and Aaron and Joshua and Caleb. Might have been a few others, not that I’m aware of, but whatever, Jude says “they were not believers.”
Now in verse 6, we jump into a different category – angels. Now I don’t deal a lot with angels because there again, there is too much you can’t put your handle on it and so I’m always a little cautious when we start teaching things concerning angels.
Jude 1:6a
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left (in other words, by choice, they turned away from their sovereign God as angels) their own habitation,…”
Now as a result of their own free will choice, turning their back upon the righteous God who was over them, where are they?
Jude 1:6b
“…he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”
And God is going to judge those fallen angels. Now I always like to think of the time that Lucifer fell, and that would take us all the way back to Ezekiel 28 first, and then Isaiah 14. Let’s go back and look at Ezekiel 28, now it’s been a long time since we covered this, but in Ezekiel 28 we have some interesting language. God is speaking through the prophet, and he says:
Ezekiel 28:13
“Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, the topaz, the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.”
In other words, he was a functioning angelic being. Verse 14, here’s who he is.
Ezekiel 28:14a
“Thou art the anointed cherub (or angel) that covereth;…”
Or ruleth. In other words this individual we’re dealing with was the ruling angel over some sort of angelic kingdom.
Ezekiel 28:14b-15
“…and I have set thee so: (in His Sovereignty, He placed this angel in this particular place of beautiful gemstones, as well as control over an angelic host) thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15. Thou wast perfect (he was a sinless angel) from the day that thou wast created, (here we know he was a created being) until (at some point in time) iniquity was found in thee.”
Now we drop back a few pages to Isaiah chapter 14, and that’s where we find the iniquity. And it’s so plain. Watch this carefully, this is interesting.
Isaiah 14:12-14
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! (now remember what he is. He is a ruling angel over a kingdom of angelic inhabitants) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! (that is later in his activity. Now here was his fall) 13. For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: (in other words, he would assume God’s position) 14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
Doesn’t that sound like old Satan today? He still thinks he’s going to do it. A group of us were talking just the other night, you sometimes wonder about this creature. He’s got tremendous knowledge and intellect. Is he so stubborn and still is so determined that he’s going to be victorious over God, or can’t he read? Because we know what his end is. But he must not. He doesn’t quit.
Of course, I’ve always said that’s the same way with liberals in politics and in religion they never quit. And Satan’s the same way. He will not quit. Even though he knows he’s defeated. Alright, so he says “I will be like the most High.” I’m going to usurp God’s throne. But God answers:
Isaiah 12:15
“Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”
And of course, we know that is his coming doom. But in the meantime, you see, he’s doing everything in his power to thwart God’s program. Now let me come back to Jude a minute. Back to Jude, verse 6. Satan of course, Lucifer, did not experience the incarceration that his followers did. And from Revelation, chapter 12 it would seem that one third of the angelic hosts followed Satan in his rebellion. And those are the ones waiting here under the chains of darkness for Judgment Day. And of course, Lucifer, who we know as Satan will not have benefit of judgment, he will go straight to the Lake of Fire when times ends as we know it.
I sometimes wonder where I can bring this in. You see, all the way up from the beginning you might say of creation and even right here, these angels were faced with what? Choice! They were evidently a free willed creature and they had choice. But you see, Lucifer and the third that followed him, did like a lot of people do today. They chose how? Wrong! They chose wrong in order to satisfy the self will. And all we have to do is just look across the whole spectrum of humanity. And isn’t that always the problem? To satisfy the self, momentarily, we choose wrong.
Now I think you folks know, our television audience knows, and for you fellows that are watching me in prison right now, my, we have just a tremendous ministry among prison inmates, I think almost every state in the union. And invariably they admit they made bad choices, starting maybe when they were teenagers, maybe later. But all their problems compound from making horrible choices. Or people will call with their marital difficulties and the first thing I tell them, Look, I’m not a marriage counselor. I don’t pretend to be. But I can tell you one thing, somewhere along the line you made bad choices. And they are the first to admit that. Alright, so what prompts us as human beings, God’s creation – created being, what prompts us to make these bad choices? Well, I think the Devil does. Satan would like nothing better than to see the whole human race rebel against the Creator as the angels did, because he’s the master of rebellion. So all of these bad choices, now not that Satan rides on the shoulder of every human being, don’t get me wrong, but he has a way of influencing the human race to make these bad choices.
Alright but now the point that I’m really wanting to make is concerning the nation of Israel. Now we know that anti-Semitism is coming up much like it did in the thirties, and forties, especially over in Europe, and it prompts me, and I want to remind my listening audience, why since day one, have the Jewish people suffered such hatred and such opposition from the rest of the world? Well, it isn’t because of their unique makeup, it isn’t because of their personality, it isn’t because of their looks, it’s because this adversary of God, this Lucifer, fallen now, and we know he’s Satan – knows that if he can knock Israel out of the earth’s existence, then God’s whole program falls apart. Because, as you see, as I’ve said over and over on this program, Israel is at the heart of everything that God does. And if you take the heart out, that kills the whole. And this is what Satan knows.
And so all you have to do is reflect back. Just as soon as the race was called out through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, my, what begins to befall those people? Well, the first glaring act of course, is when the brothers sold Joseph down into slavery. Hatred! Sin! Now you come all the way up through their history. Now there comes all of this what we think is, how could those people who have been blessed so richly, be so blind and practice such unbelief? Because Satan knows and he works on them constantly. If he can get Israel out of the way, he’s the winner.
Alright, let’s bring you all the way up to the Book of Esther. What happened in the Book of Esther? Well old Haman convinced the king to set out a decree that would kill every Jew in the empire, because they were the problem. And so the king fell for it. Fortunately God had His own little Jewish girl in the right place at the right time and thanks to Esther, the whole thing fell apart. But did Satan quit? No! He keeps on and so everything is directed to stop God’s program. When Christ is born, why in the world did Herod put out the decree to kill all the boy babies under the age of 2? To hopefully, get that Christ child that has been born in that two year interval. Well, why kill the Christ child? Oh, that’s what Satan wanted.
Now, you take it on up to the work of the cross, as many of you now have seen the movie, “The Passion”. Oh, what was behind the whole scenario? Satanic power! And so all the way down now since. Satan working overtime to stop God’s prophetic Scripture. And so why the hatred of Israel tonight? Why the threat to throw them into the sea? Why the threat to get rid of every Jew on the planet again? Oh that’s what Satan wants, because if Israel is gone, then everything falls apart. Never lose sight of that. And so this is the reason that they are so hated and so despised, is because Satan knows that without them God’s promises would fail.
Alright, now let’s continue on in Jude in the couple of minutes we’ve got left. Now verse 7, he jumps us up to an Old Testament event that almost every good Jew knew about and hopefully, most people who have anything to do with the Bible and Christianity today would know about.
Jude 1:7
“Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them (not just the two but even little suburbs) in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, (in other words, gross immorality) and going after strange flesh, (in other words that which was against normality) are set forth for (a what?) an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
Why can’t the world read this? Sodom and Gomorrha came under the judgment of God, not just to punish that group of people, but to tell the rest of the human race what God thinks about that kind of activity. It was an example showing us God’s reaction to the lifestyle of the Sodom and Gomorrhaites. But, oh, the world can’t learn and so they were set as an example and as that example they suffered the vengeance of eternal fire, but they’re not alone. Everyone who lives in that lifestyle is going to that same place.
Of course the thing that exercises me is you all know by now that I love history, and all you have to do is go back and look at history. In fact I was telling, I think a TV group the other day, do you know that 15 of the last 16 Roman Emperors were homosexuals? And out of those 15 or 16 Emperors of Rome, only 2 lived to a normal life end. They were either murdered, poisoned, assassinated. . That’s the kind of a society you get when they take over.
It’s historical proven that any empire that came under that influence went down the tube. And of course Rome the most graphic, and we’re to learn from it. That’s the whole idea of being an example. Now let me show you what Peter says about it. We looked at it a few weeks ago when we were in Peter’s little epistle, but you see the Bible is just saturated with all of this. And it’s to tell us, that this is not an alternative lifestyle. Now it isn’t that God doesn’t love them – God loves sinners of any stripe, and He’ll save them to the uttermost, but He’s going to bring down judgment wherever it becomes a complete practice of society. It’s coming! And the whole world will come under the judgment sooner or later.