Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 1 * PART 3 * BOOK 69
REDEEM, REDEEMED, REDEMPTION – PART 3
Various Scripture References
For those of you joining us on television again, we want to welcome you to a Bible Study that we trust will help you to learn to study on your own. I’ve said over and over, it’s not that difficult. Just learn to separate some of these things. You can’t just keep it all jumbled up. It’s not an impossible Book, not by any stretch. Remember, we use all the Bible for our learning, but Paul’s books, Romans – Philemon, are for our Grace Age doctrine.
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Okay, we’re going to continue on with our theme of redemption. First we saw that Adam and Eve needed to be restored to fellowship, but Adam of course plunged the whole human race into a need for redemption. This is going to be our next program, how that Christ in the work of the cross is going to redeem not just Israel but the whole human race. After Israel experienced the national redemption of the Red Sea, we still have that hope of a spiritual redemption in their future.
All right, we’re going to jump in, to start this half hour, in Isaiah chapter 59 verse 20. We know that Job spoke of a redeemer, one of the earliest books written in our Bible. But now, Isaiah in verse 20 says:
Isaiah 59:20a
“And the Redeemer shall come to Zion,…” That’s a future promise from Isaiah’s point in time 700 years before Christ. A redeemer would be coming to Jerusalem to Mount Zion.
Isaiah 59:20b-21a
“…and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, (or in the Nation of Israel) saith the LORD. 21. As for me, this is my covenant with them,…” That is Israel. Now, I can never emphasize enough, and you know that this has been my teaching from day one, that with the onset of the Abrahamic Covenant all of God’s dealing was primarily to the Jew. There were some Gentile exceptions, but that’s what they were, they were exceptions. God has been dealing with the Nation of Israel. He’s going to continue to deal with Israel even as Christ makes His appearance for His earthly ministry.
Isaiah 29:21
“As for me, this is my covenant with them, (Israel) saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.” That’s almost a word for word repetition from Jeremiah 31:31 where He calls it a “new covenant I will make with the house of Israel.”
All right, let’s jump all the way up to our New Testament and jump into Luke chapter 1. Again, if you really get this concept of Scripture, the four Gospels are not that much different from the Old Testament, especially from Genesis chapter 12, the call of Abraham on. It’s all tied to Israel. Everything is God dealing with Israel. He hasn’t left the Gentiles out of His mind, but He’s going to have to deal with Israel first, and then He’ll deal with the rest of the world.
All right, Luke’s Gospel chapter 1, and I want to drop in at verse 68. The setting for this little portion of Scripture is the father of John the Baptist. He was one of the priests laboring at the Temple. When the little fellow was born, they asked the mother what his name would be. Elizabeth said, “John.” Well, that threw them a curve. Nobody has ever been called John before. So they look up old Zacharias who has been stricken speechless throughout the nine months of gestation. They find him up at the Temple compound. They asked him, what’s going to be the name of this baby? And he wrote the name, “John.” Well, they were all shook up, of course, but now the Lord gives him back his speech. I guess, in that case, we’d better start at verse 67. Now, Zacharias has gotten his speech back. Look what he says.
Luke 1:67-68
“And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, (So, everything he says is God moved. This isn’t just the voice of a wishful thinking Jew. This is the word that God wanted spoken.) and prophesied, saying, (or he spoke forth saying) 68. Blessed be the Lord God of (The world? No. That’s not what it says.) Israel; (Now we’ve got to keep Scripture in its context. We have no validity whatsoever in saying, well, He meant everybody. No. He meant what He said.) Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and (What?) redeemed his people,”
Well, this is prophecy ready to be fulfilled. Isaiah said, “The Redeemer would come to Jerusalem.” And here He is! He’s in their midst. John the Baptist will in short order be announcing Him to the Nation of Israel. “Your King is in your midst.” He’s ready to fulfill all the promises made to the Patriarchs and to the prophets. Here He is! So, Israel is put on the spot. All right, let’s read a few of these.
Luke 1:69
“And He hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.” Now again I always ask the question. How many Gentiles in the House of David? Not a one! This is all Jewish. This is Jewish ground.
Luke 1:70-71
“As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, you name them.) who have been since the ages began: (What did the prophets say?) 71. That we should be saved from our enemies, (The physical enemies, their neighbors, the Arab world, the Roman world, Israel was to be saved from all those Gentiles enemies.) and from the hand of all that hate us.” Which were, again, the same people.
Luke 1:72-73
“To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 73. The oath which he swear to our father Abraham.” Now you see, everything goes back to Genesis 12. You can’t separate it. It’s just an on flowing of those Old Testament statements. Now verse 74.
Luke 1:74-78
“That he would grant unto us, that we (the Nation of Israel) being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, 75. In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. 76. And thou, child, (speaking of John the Baptist) shall be called the prophet (the forth teller) of the Highest: (John would be the forerunner of the Messiah.) for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; 77. To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, 78. Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,”
All right, so here is the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry, which is directed completely to Israel with only two exceptions, the Canaanite woman and the Roman centurion. It was all Israel. Everything in His earthly ministry is spoken to the Jews who are now under the Old Testament economy of the Law. The Temple is operating. The priesthood is operating. Into that comes Jesus of Nazareth (Gal. 4:4).
For the sake of our study this afternoon, we haven’t got time to go through His earthly ministry, so we’re going to jump all the way over to the Apostle Paul, because Israel has now rejected the Messiah out of hand when they said in so many words, “we’ll not have this man to rule over us.” You know, once in a while the Lord is patient with me. In His own time He revealed it. I made that statement on a program a long time ago and people wrote and said, “Les, where did you get that statement, we’ll not have this man to rule over us? It’s not in the Bible.” And you know, I looked and I looked and I looked and I had to admit, you know I’m wrong. I must have pulled that out of the woodwork someplace. But the other night I was reading in one of the Gospels and there it was! It was in one of His parables. When the husband went to a far country and he sent his son and so forth and then the statement was made, “we’ll not have this man to rule over us.” Well, it was a direct reference to Christ, but I was remiss in quoting Him as such, although He is the one who said it in the parable.
So, they rejected Him. They crucified Him. Peter comes back in the early chapters of Acts and he pleads – repent of the horrible sin of killing your Messiah. I had someone write me the other day. They said, “Peter preached death, burial, and resurrection.” And I have to write right back and say, “But not for salvation!” He had to preach resurrection. Otherwise, how could he tell the people of Israel that their king was still coming? A dead person can’t rule. So, the first thing Peter had to convince Israel was the one they crucified was alive. Indeed He was. And He would still come and fulfill the promises. But Peter never associated it with salvation. Never. He just simply says, “the One you killed, God raised from the dead.” He doesn’t say – believe it with all your heart for your salvation like the next apostle, Paul, does. Paul says, you believe it if you want salvation!
All right, now we’re going to look at the approach of this whole idea of redemption not just for Israel, not just for the Gentile, but for the whole human race. That’s why I’ve got it up on the board now – Humanity. The whole sphere of humanity comes under this work of redemption. That is when God the Son took on flesh and ministered for three years to the Nation of Israel, was rejected, crucified, shed His blood. He was buried, raised from the dead. All right, now what have you got? You’ve got the three attributes, again, of redemption. The person? Jesus Christ. The blood? Calvary’s cross. The power? Resurrection morning. Now we’re all set to proclaim redemption to the whole human race. This is for everyone!
All right, Romans chapter 3 and I almost have to start, whenever I go into chapter 3, I just can’t leave verse 19 alone. I can’t help it. I wasn’t intending to use it today, but I’m going to have to.
Romans 3:19a
“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law:” Well, Beloved, there was only one group of people whom God put under the Law. Who was it? Israel! Israel alone had the Temple. Israel alone had a priesthood. Israel alone rested on the prophets and the Old Testament. That has nothing to do with us Gentiles except as it’s going to unfold now through this Apostle. Now Paul is making it so plain that Israel was under the Law, the Ten Commandments. But, since it is God’s moral law for the human race, it didn’t stop at Israel’s borders. It put the whole human race under condemnation. Read on.
Romans 3:19b-20
“…that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world (not just Israel now) may become guilty before God. 20. Therefore by the deeds (or the keeping) of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge (Of salvation? No, it’s the knowledge–) of sin.” Now, this is the complete opposite of what even most of Christendom is preaching today. “Just do the best you can. Keep the commandments and God might let you in.” Isn’t that the hope of most people? What a travesty.
The Law was never given to get anybody to Heaven, except to bring him under condemnation where he recognizes his need. That’s all the law the can do. The law is a convicting power. The law condemns every one who breaks it. And how in the world do people think they’re going to make it to Heaven by keeping something that no man can keep?
So, Paul makes it so plain that “by the law there shall no flesh be justified.” Not one, because only Christ Himself was sinless and never failed in the keeping of the Law. All right, now verse 21, here’s the flipside. We covered it in one of our “But Now’s”.
Romans 3:21a
“But now the righteousness of God…” This is the verse we used when we were looking at Adam’s salvation back in Genesis. That when God brought in the sacrificial lamb and shed its blood and saw Adams’s faith, He clothed him with what? Righteousness! Well, it’s the same righteousness that Paul deals with – “The righteousness of God without the law.” Now don’t miss that.
Romans 3:21
“The righteousness of God without the law (Leave it where God put it, as a condemnation and nothing more.) is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.” Of course, this Bible is a progressive revelation. You don’t take one page out of this Book. I’ll come back to the mosaic. You keep every little stone of the mosaic in place. You don’t ever take a portion of Scripture and say, well, that’s irrelevant. I can throw it away. No, you can’t. It’s a complete composite of the Word of God. All right, now verse 22.
Romans 3:22
“Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ (The faithfulness that Christ accomplished everything that needed to be done and it will never faileth. Now we know that you can put money in banks and a bank can fail and you lose it all. You can put your faith in an MD who is nothing but a renegade. He’s not what he claims to be and you lose it all. And all through life we can have experiences with men and women that are not faithful to what they’re supposed to be. But God will never let us down. He is always faithful.
Romans 3:22
“Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ (And this righteousness of Christ is imputed to–) unto all and upon all them that believe:” See how simple that is? There’s nothing else in there. This righteousness comes upon all them that believe plus nothing. And, oh, they muddy it up. They goof it up. But it’s so simple. It’s to those who place their faith or believe it. Then verse 23, beginning with Adam, because of Adam–
Romans 3:23
“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God;” The Ten Commandments prove that. No man can go through life without breaking those Ten Commandments. It just proves that he’s a sin-natured individual.
I made the comment in one of my seminars here the other day. I haven’t done it for years and years on the program. But you know, when that little baby is born and first brought in from the hospital, they’re sweet. Oh, they’re innocent. They’re loving. They’re cuddly. But how long until that Adamic nature shows its head? Not long and they have a temper. Oh, they can get angry!
Then it isn’t very long and they can lie like a rug. Who teaches them to lie? I know no Mama is going to say, “Now look honey, when I ask if you’ve taken a cookie, all you have to do is just tell me no you haven’t.” That’s the way you do that? No, that isn’t the way it works. They know how to lie. I’ll go one step further. They hear the neighbor’s kid use a bad word. Do they know where to use it? You better believe it! They know where to use it! You don’t have to teach them. Why? We’re born with that Adamic sin nature. Everyone one of us is. All right, now read on. Here’s the blessed hope.
Romans 3:24
“Being justified freely (without a cost) by his grace through the (What?) redemption that is in Christ Jesus:” Redemption – the same word that Isaiah and Moses used. It is the same word that Adam experienced. It’s the process where God is going to buy back that which He lost. He’s going to pay the price. He’s going to exert the power necessary to get it done. That’s our redemption. That’s where we are. “Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Now, what did Christ Jesus do?
Romans 3:25a
“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,…” His shed blood – you can’t take that out of the Gospel of salvation. Denominations take it out, but this Book doesn’t. Some of the new translations take it out. But God’s Word in its original purity hasn’t. So, we have to have faith that His Divine sinless blood was shed as the redemption price for our salvation. Never forget that!
That’s why we have to maintain Christ’s Deity, that His blood was Divine. It was sinless blood. That’s why He had to be virgin born. Have you ever thought of that? Had He been born of an earthly father, his blood wouldn’t have been any more perfect than mine or yours. I mean, it’s impossible for a human being to have the Divine blood that was necessary for redemption. So, he had to be absent a human father. That’s where the virgin birth came in. Mary was impregnated by an act of God. Not by a human father. That’s intrinsic to our whole plan of salvation. He had to be virgin born, without an earthly father to pollute his blood. All right, so it was through His Divine sinless blood that He could–
Romans 3:25b
“…to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;” All right, now that word “propitiation” I don’t dare just fluff off. I’ve got to show that. If you’ve ever done a study with me, or anybody else, of the tabernacle out there in the wilderness, I hope you can picture it in your mind’s eye. Here was that beautiful white fence all around the altar and the little tent in the center with the laver of cleansing, and all these things that made up the Temple or the tabernacle complex. Every last jot and tittle of it was a picture of Christ in one form of His work of redemption or another. Every last bit of it was a picture of Christ.
Well, not only was it a picture of Christ the person, the Redeemer, it was a picture of His finished work. In other words, when the animal was killed and the blood was shed and it was laid on the altar, what was it a picture of? His own death at the cross. When the priest comes in and stops at the laver of cleansing, what was it a picture of? Who alone can cleanse us from our sins? God the Son. All the things in the tabernacle, everything about it, were not only a picture of Christ Himself in His physical appearance, but in His work. Everything He did was right there in that little tabernacle. Everything! And that’s the word – propitiation. All of that comes together for the act of redemption for us even today, for the whole human race.
All right, now I can’t leave without using verse 26, even though we’re moving on from the word redemption now. But in verse 26 Paul says:
Romans 3:26
“To declare, I say, at this time his (the Redeemer’s) righteousness: that he (the Redeemer, God the Son, Jesus the Christ) might be just, (absolutely fair) and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus.” Do you see that? God will never cut corners when it comes to our sin. He’s going to deal with it. But He’s going to deal with it and declare us just and justified, not when we’ve kept the commandments, but when we’ve what? Believed Paul’s Gospel. That’s all. Then God moves in and does all the work of transforming our lives and our appetites and all that goes with it.
All right, now let’s move ahead a little bit in the few minutes we have left to Galatians chapter 3. We have yet another reference to this work of redemption. Galatians chapter 3, let’s start at verse 10.
Galatians 3:10a
“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse:…” Now Beloved, stop and think a minute. How many people today are exactly in that position? It’s sobering. It’s frightening. The multitudes of Christendom are trying to approach God with a works religion. That’s law. And what are they under? The curse of God. Now that’s strong language, but that’s what the Book says. Not my idea. If you’re going to make Heaven by keeping the commandments, you’re not going to make Heaven. You’re going to be under the curse.
Galatians 3:10b
“…for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” In other words, if you’re going to make Heaven keeping the Ten Commandments, and you so much as steal a dime’s worth of something, you’re doomed. You’ve broken the Law. You’re under condemnation. You’re under the curse. All right, now verse 11, but that’s not the way it is. Praise the Lord, that’s not the way it is!
Galatians 3:11-12
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, (Why? Because even from the Old Testament economy–) The just shall live by (What?) faith. 12. And the law is not of faith: (The law is works. Do this and do that and don’t do that and so forth, that’s law. That’s not faith.) The man that doeth them shall live in them.” Again, if you’re going to make Heaven with works, then you can’t break one single commandment one time in your whole life. Well, you know, it’s impossible. Okay, now here comes the word we’re looking for.
Galatians 3:13a
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,…” What’s the word? Redeemed us! He has paid the price of redemption with His shed blood on the cross of Calvary. And you and I have been set scot-free. Now, we’ve got more verses to look at, but we’ll have to pick that up in the next half-hour, because I’m not ready to let this drop. We’ve got to come back in our next program.