Book 44

 

Through the Bible with Les Feldick

LESSON 2 * PART 3 * BOOK 44

I Timothy 1:1-16

Okay, good to have everybody back.  I usually have to explain what that means.   We take a break between each half hour taping, and the coffee and cookies are kind of hard for the people to leave behind.   Iris used to bake the cookies, but now most of the ladies and some of the men are chipping in and bringing them.

Okay, we’re just an informal Bible study. We always like to let folks know that we appreciate your financial help, your prayers, and your letters.  Nothing thrills us more, as I’ve said over and over, than when people let us know that they’ve found salvation. As one person wrote, “If it weren’t for you, I’d still be lost.”  Well, that’s encouraging, you know.  And so many others say that for the first time in their life they enjoy their Bible.  Well, that’s the only reason we teach.  We don’t try to twist arms.  We don’t try to convince someone that they’re wrong and we’re right. But just simply to get people enthused about reading and studying their own Bible.

All right, we’re going to pick up right where we left off in I Timothy chapter 1 and down at verse 8.  Paul is still admonishing Timothy, of course, as to what to be aware of as he would soon be leaving the scene.  I think even at this point in time—I think Paul realizes it wouldn’t be too long until either the Jews or the Romans would bring his ministry to an end.  So now verse 8:

I Timothy 1:8

“But we know that the law (Now whenever he speaks of the law, we think primarily of the Ten Commandments.  But it could also envelope the whole Mosaic system of temple worship and so forth.  But generally, we think of law as the Ten Commandments.) is good, if  (the condition is) a man use it lawfully (rightly);”

And I think we pointed that out a couple of programs back. Going back to Romans chapter 13, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.”  When we use it in that respect, it is – it’s a good instrument.  It certainly shows us the very mind of God—which is the benefit of all humanity.  But now go into verse 9 and we have the other side of the coin – how the law affects the unrighteous.

I Timothy 1:9-10a

“Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10. For whoremongers,…” and so forth.

Now I want to take you back again to Romans chapter 3, where we see both those facets explained from Paul’s letter to the Romans with regard to the Law for Israel who were under the Law, and how the Law applied to the pagan, wicked, immoral Gentiles.   Romans chapter 3 and I’ll drop in at verse 19.  Now this shows both sides of what Paul is talking about in Timothy.  For the righteous man, it’s good if you use it right.  For the unrighteous man, it is his condemnation.  All right, Romans 3 verse 19:

Romans 3:19a

“Now we know (no ifs, ands, or buts) that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law:…”  Now stop right there.  Who was under the Law?  Well, Israel!  Israel was under the Law and Israel alone.

The world around Israel had no concept of what it was to have the Ten Commandments as part of their moral code.  But don’t stop there.  Even though it was given to those who were under the Law, the overall impact of the Law was that all the world, not just Israel, all of humanity:

Romans 3:19b

“…that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”

Now you see, the Law had two premises here.  Number one for Israel—it was the very backbone for their national behavior.  It was around which everything revolved.  It was their national entity.

But for the unbelieving world, it was an instrument of condemnation.  Every person on earth, according to the Law, was an enemy—a law-breaking citizen of the earth.  And all the world was declared guilty by virtue of the Law.  Even Israel under the Law became almost as lawless as the Gentile world around them.

I always like to point that out by going back to Judges, the last chapter of Judges—chapter 21.  And, of course, this was that 400 year period of time that Israel was on a roller coaster spiritually.  They would come from the depths of despair overrun by their enemies and their neighbors, and then God would bring in a judge. Then Israel would have a spiritual renewal. They’d come back up and would enjoy the blessings of God. And then down they’d go, back into idolatry and all that it entailed. Then the day would come, and they would come back up.  At the end of the Book of Judges, of course, they are down at one of those low levels again.  They are in a place of a spiritual desert.  And verse 25 says it all.  And you know, whenever I look at our American fabric of morality today, this is the verse I have to think of.  As Israel went, so many times we see our own beloved nation going.

Judges 21:25

“In those days (when Israel was at the bottom of her spiritual life) there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”    What do we call it today?  Situation ethics.  If you’re in a situation and you’re comfortable with it, and it is okay in your own eyes, do it!  But that doesn’t line up with the Word of God.  So here again we find that the Law—so far as Israel was concerned, and it was used lawfully—it was good.  But to the Gentile lost world, it was condemnation. It showed them their horrible sin.

All right, if you’ll come with me to I Timothy 1:10—where Paul, again, is delineating the behavior of the lost world.  These are those who are operating under the energy of the flesh.

I Timothy 1:10

“For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;”

All of that is laid out in the open by the Law.  Because when the Law said, “Thou shalt not—,” this is what God knew was best for the human race.  Because (as I said in one of the previous programs even this afternoon) if society could keep the Law, then this world would be a good place to live.  But man can’t do it.  Man’s greed, man’s old Adamic nature flies in the face of the moral code.  Now let’s move on to verse 11.

I Timothy 1:11

“According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to (Whose trust?  Paul’s – not Jesus’, not Peter’s, not John’s, not James’s—to no one but the Apostle Paul was committed this Gospel of Grace.) my trust.”  And, you know, the vast majority of Christendom still doesn’t know that.  They, as I’ve said over and over—especially the last several months of our teaching—treat Paul as an unwanted step-child.  Oh, he’s there, but they don’t want anything to do with him.

How many times have Iris and I both experienced it in our travels. Even here in Oklahoma someone will come up and say, “I’ve always detested Paul.  He’s a woman hater.  He’s arrogant. He’s an egotist.  But you’ve shown me something totally different.”  Again, in just the last few weeks, it has happened a couple of times.  Someone has said, “You have totally changed my attitude toward the Apostle Paul. I see now he is the one that we have to adhere to.  He is the one that God designated as our apostle.”

All right, so look at the verse again.

I Timothy 1:11

“According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.” Who did God give this gospel to?  The Apostle Paul!  You know, I’ve so often used the verse, and before we go back and look at Paul’s Gospel, we’re going to look at it again for the umpteenth time.

II Peter chapter 3 verses 15 and 16.  I’m going to drum this home every chance I get. Because how many people, when they ignore Paul say, “Well, I go by what Jesus taught.”  And Peter, of course, is the epitome of what Jesus taught.  He was with Him those three years.  This is why, as I’ve said on the program before, and I’ll say it again—I suppose 90% of our Sunday morning preaching is out of the four gospels.  That’s where they think it’s at.  Well, I’ve got news for them, that’s NOT where it’s at.

That’s background like the Old Testament is background. It’s for our learning. But you won’t find the gospel of salvation in the four gospels.   It’s not in there.   I pointed out to someone just the other day. Stop and think. When Christ was walking the dusty roads of Palestine and the Twelve were with Him, He hadn’t gone to the cross yet.  He hadn’t died yet.  How can they be proclaiming a gospel of salvation that hadn’t been finished?  He told the Twelve in Luke 18:

Luke 18:31b, 33-34a

“…we go up to Jerusalem, and all things written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.  33. And they shall scourge him, and put him to death; and the third day he shall rise again. (So far so good, but what does the next verse say?)  34. And they (the 12) understood none of these things:…”

They didn’t know He was going to die.  And after he was crucified, they had no idea He was going to be resurrected from the dead.  That was all unknown to them.  It wasn’t until God reveals that post resurrection. That post ascension Christ who now reveals to the Apostle the gospel of the blessed God as he calls it here in Timothy.  Look at II Peter chapter 3.  Now this is Peter himself, the legalist of Galatians chapter 2, who now at the end of his life writes to his Jewish readers.

II Peter 3:15

“And account (or understand) that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation; even (Now look at this carefully.) as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;”

Well, what do you suppose is the wisdom that Peter is referring to?  The revelation of those mysteries!  Paul is always saying, behold, I show you a mystery. I am the minister of the mystery which was hid in God.  It was kept secret.  All right, this is what Peter is telling us—that the wisdom given unto Paul now comes through his epistles.  Now verse 16:

II Peter 3:16

“As also in all his epistles, (Not just the Book of Hebrews, which I think he refers to in verse 15.) speaking in them of these things; (that which pertains to salvation and our eternal destiny) in which are some things hard to be understood, (At the end of his life, probably A.D. 65 or 66, Peter still couldn’t comprehend the whole revelation that had been give to Paul. He said it’s hard for him to understand and not for him only.) which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, (twist) as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”

Well, what is this gospel of salvation?  Back to I Corinthians, if you will, chapter 15, which we use so often.  I trust that people who have been listening to me for a period of time can almost recite it in their sleep.  I Corinthians 15 and the first 4 verses is the most explicit, clear-cut explanation of the Gospel in all of Scripture.  This says it all, yet not quite all, because Paul doesn’t mention the blood here. That has to be implied from other Scriptures.   I Corinthians 15 verses 1-4.  Here is the Gospel for us Gentiles today.  This is the Gospel of the blessed God he referred to in I Timothy chapter 11.  This is what you must believe in your heart for salvation.

I Corinthians 15:1a

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel…”  Not A gospel.  Now we’re down to one.  I grant you, in the last program I said there were two: the Gospel of the Jew—which was the Kingdom Gospel; and the Gospel of Grace—which was for the Gentiles.  But the Kingdom Gospel dropped off the scene. Now we’re left with ONE Gospel—the Gospel of the Grace of God—Paul’s Gospel.

I Corinthians 15:1b

“…which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, (After all, these Corinthians to whom he is writing had come out of paganism.) and wherein ye stand;”

I Corinthians 15:2

“By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.”   And I always qualify that: it is to know what you believe.  And here’s the Gospel in verse 3.

I Corinthians 15:3-4

“For I delivered unto you first of all (That’s the first thing that Paul brought to the Corinthian people.) that which I also received, (From whom?  Peter?  No. From John? No.  From Christ in His earthly ministry?  No.  But rather from the ascended Christ after His death, burial, and resurrection. That’s when he received it.) how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; 4. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures:” That’s our Gospel of salvation!

Now, you hear a lot of invitations, and they will speak of—do you believe that Christ died for you—and that’s as far as they go.  That’s not the Gospel.  The Gospel is that Christ died and was buried and rose from the dead. 

And as Paul says in this same chapter a little further on, if we cannot believe in the resurrection, we of all people are most miserable, because that’s the heart of our Gospel.  That’s the heart of our hope for eternity. If Christ had not been raised, then we’re just like an animal.  We die and it’s over.  But that’s not the way it is.  Christ DID arise from the dead.  He IS alive evermore.  And as such, of course, He will one day take us unto Himself.

And now I’m going to show in a few verses what Paul is constantly referring to as his Gospel, even as we did in an earlier program.  Turn with me now to Romans chapter 2 verse 16.  A verse, again, and maybe I’ve said it before—very few church members realize this verse is in the Bible.  They don’t even know it’s here.  I’ve experienced it over and over when they come up and tell me, “I didn’t ever see this verse before.”  But look how it is again so exclusivist.  Verse 16 of Romans 2.

Romans 2:16

“In the days when God (in the person of Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne) shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ (And how are they going to be judged?) according to my (Paul’s) gospel.”  That’s what it says.  Now I know that there were people that lived before Paul began preaching the Gospel of Grace.  But as I’ve said so often, even when we teach Tribulation events, it’s numbers.

There have been more people living on the planet in this last 2,000 years since Paul’s Gospel than ever lived before.  So the vast majority of the human race is going to come before God lost, and they are going to be judged according to Paul’s Gospel.  That’s what it says – “According to my gospel.”  And, you know, most people don’t even realize what that is.

All right, let’s look at another one.  Romans chapter 16 verse 25.  This is a verse that I use often.  And it is a verse that you will not hear routinely in Sunday morning preaching.  You just don’t hear it.  It’s just like it isn’t here, but it is—right in front of you.

Romans 16:25a

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel,…”  Now you see, whenever Paul teaches or preaches this Gospel, he always associates it with the power of God.

You go up into Romans chapter 6 and some of these other chapters, and he likens it to the same power that raised Christ from the dead.  It is the power that raised us from our lost position.  That’s the kind of power we have exercised. That’s what we are trusting in.  It isn’t just a matter of easy-believism, but by faith we trust what God accomplished on our behalf when Christ died, shed His blood, and rose from the dead.   And then it’s the power of God that does everything that needs to be done.  All right, back to the text, verse 25 again.

Romans 16:25

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, (Now here’s Paul’s Gospel again.) and the preaching of Jesus Christ, (not according to Peter, not according to John, not according to Christ’s earthly ministry) according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since (How long?) the world began.” 

That’s why I said several programs back, that there was no way that Abraham could be saved by Paul’s Gospel.  It hadn’t been revealed yet.  They had no concept that God would save a pagan Gentile out of his deepest sin by just simply exercising his deepest faith in what God had done.  It was unbelievable.  It had never been heard of.

Oh, God had the Gentiles on His mind in the Old Testament, of course, but it had to be through Israel.  But now He’s going to the Gentile world without Israel.  And that was unheard of.  That’s why it was a secret kept in the mind of God.  That’s why Paul is constantly referring then to his revelations of these things that had been kept secret since the world began and now have been made manifest, as he says in verse 26.  Now let’s go a little further with Paul’s Gospel.  Let’s turn the page, at least in my Bible, to I Corinthians chapter 1 verses 17 and 18.

I Corinthians 1:17a

“For Christ…” Now always remember, when Paul speaks of Christ speaking to him, where is Christ?  In Glory! Ascended.  The work of the cross is finished.  Everything that God demanded of the human race was fulfilled in that work of the cross.  So now look what he says.

I Corinthians 1:17a

“For Christ (the ascended Lord) sent me not to baptize, (Notice that is not the same as Matthew 28:19.  Paul had a different mission for the Body of Christ.) but to preach the gospel:…”  What gospel?  Paul’s Gospel.  And what is Paul’s Gospel?  That Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the dead.

I Corinthians 1:17

“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, (In other words, not with smooth oratory.  Not with some preacher that can keep an audience in his lap with comedy, but–) lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.”  And then verse 18 says it so plainly.

I Corinthians 1:18

“For the preaching of the cross (that death, burial, and resurrection) is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved (Here it comes now.  I just said a moment ago–) it is the (What?) power of God.”

You see, that’s why good works can never save anybody.  Our good works do not involve the power of God.  Joining a church does not involve the power of God.  Being baptized does not invoke the power of God.  This is something that God releases the moment He sees our faith.  And that’s a heart thing only God can see!

My, I always have to just shake my head.  How can people keep on doing that which only God can do?  Man can’t look on another man’s heart.  Only God can do that.  No deacon can look at somebody and say, “Oh, yes, you’re a believer.”  It’s impossible.  No preacher can look at a man and say, “Oh, yeah, you’re a believer.”  It’s impossible.

We go by their words, but only God can look into the heart.  And when God looks into the heart and He sees that faith, then He does all the rest.  He invokes the power of eternal life.  He invokes His justification.  He invokes His forgiveness.  He invokes the power of the Holy Spirit to indwell us.  Hey, that isn’t anything that man can do.  That is all involved in that work of the power that is released the moment we believe.  And then, of course, yes, we’re going to grow in our Christian experience to become more involved in Scripture, in prayer, and in witnessing.

 

Through the Bible with Les Feldick

LESSON 2 * PART 2 * BOOK 44

Paul – First In the Body of Christ – Part 2

I Timothy 1:1-16

Okay, it’s good to see everybody. Again, we’re going to be getting right back to I Timothy chapter 1 and verse 2.  For those of you joining us on television, oh, my, how can I say it, Honey?  We just thrill at your letters.  Many times you’ve told us you feel like you’re sitting in one of the back rows and are a part of this class.  And that’s the way we like to keep it.  We want to keep it simple. We want to keep it in such a way that anybody can identify with us.  Hopefully we can help you to see what the Scriptures really say.  I don’t claim to have all the answers.  I don’t claim to be 100% right about everything. And I certainly don’t mind someone disagreeing with me on some things, as long as it doesn’t disagree with the basic fundamentals of our faith.  So, we do appreciate your letters, your financial help, and most of all your prayers.

Iris and I just got back again from 3,200 miles of travel. We realize that the prayers of God’s people are with us.  Okay, let’s get right back. This is Bible study, and we like to teach in a way that you can compare Scripture with Scripture.  And again, as our letters indicate, to help you understand what you read.  All right I Timothy chapter 1 verse 2. This letter is written to Timothy.

I Timothy 1:2

“Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: (as I brought out in the last program) Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

Now you want to remember that Timothy was up there in Asia Minor in the central part of Turkey.  You remember his grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice, were Jewish. Timothy is part Jewish. His father was a Gentile, but evidently came to know the Lord through Paul’s ministry—probably in his first missionary journey, if I’m not mistaken.  But whatever, he was a real, young person at the time when Paul first met him.  I pointed this out, I think, in one of my other programs—how that Paul at this time is probably in his early 40’s and Timothy is probably around 18 or 20.  There was about a 20 year age difference between the two men, but Timothy had just become such an avid follower of the Apostle Paul.  And for this reason, then, Paul is more or less passing the mantle of his ministry over to this young man, as well as he will to Titus.

All right, so here he says that you’re my own son in the faith.  Verse 3 is where I got the remarks from our last program that I thought Paul was probably up in northern Greece at the time that he writes this letter to Timothy.  Who at the time is over in Ephesus and the area of western Turkey, or that part of Asia Minor at the time of the Roman Empire.  He says in verse 3:

I Timothy 1:3

“As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,”

Now remember what I said in the last program?  That was Paul’s constant concern—don’t be deceived.  Don’t be led astray.  But, you see, it can come in a hundred different forms.  It was no different then than it is today.  And it’s so subtle.  You want to remember that the Devil has one objective. That is to lead people from God’s salvation. That’s his sole objective.  And he doesn’t care how he does it.  He’ll use the Scriptures. He’ll use churches.  He’ll use anything that you can imagine.

But you think, oh, there’s nothing wrong with those things.  No, not in their own innocent situations. But if they are used by the Devil to misguide people and to teach untruth, then he’s the winner.  Because, you see, God is absolute.  This is what I’m always trying to stress. You do not treat God like a Santa Claus.  You do not just tweak His nose and say, “Well, this is the way I think it ought to be.”   No, no!  God is Sovereign.  He’s absolute.  I’ve used the word often throughout the programs – exclusivist!  We have an exclusive Gospel.  You cannot water it down with teachings of another and assume that God will accept it.  He will not.  He is Sovereign.  He is absolute.  And He is exclusivist.

I always have to remind people of the Lord’s words Himself back in Matthew when He says, “Narrow is the way…”  And how many find it?  Few!  Few!  Why?  Because the majority wants to bend the rules and say, “Oh well, certainly God will accept me.”  No, He won’t.  God is absolute.  All right, so here again he said to teach no other Gospel other than what Paul had taught Timothy himself in I Corinthians 15:1-4.  Now verse 4 and this is exactly what we see in our day and time.

I Timothy 1:4

“Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister (or bring up) questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.”

A lot of times I’ll get questions in the mail from something way back in the Old Testament.  And it isn’t even pertinent.  I’ll write back, “Why do you spend your time majoring on minors?  Major on the majors!  Get into the truth of Paul’s Gospel.  Get into the truth of Paul’s letters, because that’s where we are today.”  I even made this statement when we finished our series in Revelation a few years ago and started in Romans.  I’ve always noticed that it’s not at all hard to keep people interested in Genesis or Revelation, because both of those are pretty far removed from where we are in our present day and time.

But I was a little bit skeptical about holding my audience’s interest when I started Romans. But fortunately the Lord has surprised me, and people have remained interested.  But usually people like to be in that area that they are not immediately concerned with.  And the same way with a lot of questions, they lead up to nothing more than arguments and discussions with no truth to them.  So Paul is warning Timothy—don’t be caught up in some of these things that just simply tend to bring argument.  Now verse 5 and here’s where the meat of everything is.

I Timothy 1:5

“Now the end of the commandment is love (or charity) out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: (or untainted, or unadulterated).”

Now when it comes to Paul speaking about love, I think there’s one chapter that should immediately come to mind.  That is Romans chapter 13 starting in verse 8.  This is this whole concept of love as Paul is admonishing Timothy to concern himself with.  All right, Romans 13 verse 8:

Romans 13:8

“Owe no man (or defraud) any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.”  That’s quite a statement, isn’t it?  How do we fulfill the law?  With love.  When we speak of Christ and His death on the cross, what put Him there?  The love of God!  His love for humanity put Him there.

The purpose of His going to the cross was to fulfill the demands of the Mosaic Law.  Love is the fulfilling, then, of the Law.  All right, just stop and think.  This is just plain, logical, good common sense.  If you have got the agape love, God’s love, which comes only by virtue of our salvation experience, can you steal from your neighbor?  No!  You can’t steal from someone you love.  Can you commit adultery if you really love your spouse?  No way.  Can you be envious if you’re a loving type of person?  Impossible!  So you can go through all the various aspects of the Ten Commandments, and you’ll suddenly realize that love does indeed fulfill the Law.

That’s what Paul is teaching.  We don’t have to keep the Law because we’re scared to death if we don’t we’re going to be stoned to death, as Israel was under the Law.  We don’t have to be afraid of the wrath of God striking us if we break one of the commandments.  But the whole concept here, Paul says, is that if we have the agape love. We have that love that only God can instill.  Then look at verse 9.  And this is all it says, that this is the mind of God for the human race.  This is God’s best for humanity.

You know, it’s amazing.  I said once and I’ll say it again.  The Ten Commandments are so all-inclusive of human behavior, that if, and that’s a big if—because man is unable to do it.  If mankind could keep the Ten Commandments, do you know we wouldn’t even have to have a legislature.  We wouldn’t have to have a code book, or constitution. The human race would need nothing more than God’s perfect law.  But man can’t keep it.

In fact, I was reading awhile back that Lennon and Trotsky and the fathers of Russian Communism were actually trying to pattern that after Acts chapter 2—the church in Jerusalem when they had all things common.  But what Lennon and Trotsky did not take into consideration was the Adamic nature of the human race.  And you know, it may be a beautiful concept, but it won’t work.  Because the Adamic nature is greedy, and they are going to get all they can out of the system.  We’re seeing it in our own beloved nation.  The whole idea is, not what I can do for the government or the nation, as John Kennedy said, but what can it do for me.  That’s the whole basis anymore for our thinking – what can I get? 

Well, you see, love doesn’t operate that way.  Love is what?  Keeping the other person’s highest good.  Remember that?  And this is the love that Paul is talking about.  All right, come all the way down to verse 10 where it says:

Romans 13:10

“Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love (the agape love) is the fulfilling of the law.” 

All right, now if you’ll come on over to Titus chapter 2 for a minute, you can see how Paul enlarges on this whole idea of living, not under the Law, but under Grace.  How many hundreds of times have I said it over the last many years on television that Grace is not (What?) license! Grace doesn’t say, “Go out and do as you please because God’s Grace is going to cover you”.  No, no!  The Grace of God is quite the opposite.  If once I understand all that God has done for me, then doesn’t it follow that I’m going to do all I can to please Him and be according to His precepts and not the world’s?  All right, Titus chapter 2 and drop down to verse 11.  This is just plain, good logic.

Titus 2:11-12

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. 12. Teaching us (the grace of God does) that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, (Not in eternity, but where?) in this present world;”

This is what God expects of us.  This is what He has empowered us by His Holy Spirit to do.  But does He force us?  No, we’re under Grace.  We’re unlimited.  We’re free. All right, in that light, I’m going to take you all the way back to Romans again.  Romans chapter 6 and I just pointed this out to one of the groups in Florida, if I’m not mistaken. As a believer in Grace we have total (What?) freedom!  We are not constrained with rules and regulations.  We’re not under thou shalt and thou shalt not.  No, that’s not Grace.  We’ve been set free.

Now the unbeliever thinks he’s free.  But I’ve got news for him. He’s under the Devil’s chains.  He has no freedom.  He is under the god of this world, whether he knows it or not.  You see, we’ve been set free.  God does not put on us a heavy hand of rules and regulations, but that’s not license.  He has given us freedom, and He has given us the free will to exercise that freedom.  But based, again, on our whole love concept of God as well as our fellow man, then the choice is up to us.  Romans chapter 6 and let’s just drop in at verse 11.  Look at the language.  See how clear it is that we are left with the free will?

Romans 6:11

“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Now what does that word “reckon” imply?  It’s up to you.  If you want to let old Adam control your life, if you want to be a miserable Christian, you can be!  You’re not going to lose your salvation because of it.  You’re not going to be a happy, victorious Christian, but that’s your freedom.  That’s your liberty.  Now let’s come on down to the next one in verse 12.

Romans 6:12

“Let not sin (Old Adam—I always use that in the place of the word sin. But again, what does the word “let” imply?   It’s up to you.  God isn’t going to force you.  You’re now set free. And this is the liberty that Paul is constantly talking about.) therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” 

But can you?  Yes.  You’ll be miserable.  You won’t be a happy Christian.  But God isn’t going to come and zap you if you do, because we’re free.  All right, next one, verse 13, and the language is all the same.  Different words, but it means the same thing.

Romans 6:13

“Neither yield ye your members…”  Can you?  Sure you can.  But I’m going to give you the warning – you’ll be miserable.  Because a sinning believer cannot be happy.  He cannot enjoy the things of this world as a believer.  But he’s free to.  God isn’t going to knock him off his feet because he doesn’t live victoriously.

You remember—I think it was back in either I or II Timothy—I called them “garbage can Christians.”  Some of you who have heard me teach before, I think that’s what it really is.  In a great house there are things of gold and silver and beauty—expensive.  But in every home, I don’t care whether it’s a millionaire’s or a pauper’s.  What does there also have to be somewhere in the back?   A garbage can!  You can’t get along without it.  Well, the believer has that choice.  Do you want to be something that’s beautiful and functional in God’s purposes, or do you want to be a garbage can?  It’s up to you.  Now come back to I Timothy 1 verse 5.

I Timothy 1:5

“Now the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart,…” See, the world knows nothing of that kind of love.  The world is constantly living in the me generation. Do you know that?  The whole system is based on—what’s in it for me? But for the believer, we’re on the love basis.  What is the other person’s highest good?  Now then verse 6.

I Timothy 1:6

“From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;”   Do you see what that’s saying?  Just a lot of empty chatter that doesn’t amount to anything.  But how many are involved?  Fortunately, not all, but some.  And I take that word for what it really is.  A certain percentage is going to be doing this as believers. “…having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;” And now verse 7:

I Timothy 1:7

“Desiring to be teachers of the (What) law;…” Now, do you see what Paul is warning Timothy about?  Timothy, one of the most subtle enemies that we have are people who are going to come in and try to take this out of Grace and put it back under the Law.  Legalism.  And it comes in a hundred different shades of colors, and every one of them is as devastating as the one before.

So Paul is constantly admonishing us to beware of those who would put us back under the Law in one sort or another.  Now that doesn’t mean that you have to go all the way back to circumcision and temple worship and sacrifices and all that.  That’s not necessarily what he means.  Anything that smacks of legalism, and when I speak of legalism, I trust everybody knows what I mean.  Legalism is doing something that you can do of your own volition.

I’ll use one example that is very easy to understand.  Joining the church.  Now just think about it.  Can anyone make up their mind at some point in time and just simply go to some group and say, “I want to join the church.”  Of course they can.  There are a lot of groups that would be glad to take you.  But, you see, that’s the flesh.  That’s not the will of God, necessarily, to simply say, “I’m going to join the church.”  That is legalism.  And you can use any of the other facets you can think of that say, “This is what you have to do,” and you say, “Yeah, I can do that.”  That’s legalism.  It’s of the flesh.  But Paul says don’t give in to those people.

I Timothy 1:7

Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.”   Now, do you know what that’s saying?  They’re not going to do it based on Scripture.

Now hopefully, 99.99% of the time everything that I teach is based on Scripture.  And, boy, if I don’t make that plain, I hear about it.  They will say, “Well, Les, you said–.”  I don’t know how many million times I’ve heard that—“Well, you said–.”  Well, I’ve learned to be all the more careful that I don’t say anything that is of my own thinking, unless I qualify it.  “Now this is what I think, or this is how I feel about it.”  Otherwise, I simply say, “Now this is what the Book says.”

Now I’m going to take you back to Galatians again, if I may, where he says that these people are desiring to be teachers of the Law, understanding neither what they say nor what they affirm.  So let’s go back to Galatians; which, of course, is the little letter that was written to a group of Gentile churches up in Galatia.  Galatians chapter 4 and these little congregations were primarily Gentiles saved by Paul’s preaching of the Gospel of Grace.

But the Judaizers from the Jerusalem area were coming in, as we mentioned in our last program, and telling these people that Paul’s Gospel was not enough.  They had to be circumcised.  They had to keep the Law.  They had to keep the Saturday Sabbath.  They had to watch what they ate and all the things that pertained to the Law.  So Paul hurriedly writes this little letter to the Galatian churches to warn them and to admonish them not to be brought back under the Law.  Don’t be dragged back into legalism.  Now we’re going to start, just for the fun of it, all the way up in verse 19 of Galatians 4.  I haven’t done this in a long time. And he’s going to go all the way back to Genesis as his allegory.  And he says:

Galatians 4:19a

“My little children,…” Now remember, the whole concept here is to show the difference between Law and Grace, and how that Law was to be kicked out the back door, never to be brought into our Christian experience.

Galatians 4:19-21

“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, 20. I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. 21. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?”

You see, even right here in the Bible Belt.  Haven’t you talked to someone about their eternity, and they’ll say, “Oh, I’m keeping the commandments. I’m doing the best I can.  Surely God will accept me.”   And this is what Paul is dealing with.    Don’t you know what the Law demands if you’re going to be under the Law? And what is it?   If you’re going to keep the Law to get into God’s Heaven, then you’ve got to keep it every jot and title—which no man can do!    So, it’s foolish even to think you can.   So Paul is warning them—don’t you realize what you’re saying?  You can’t keep the Law good enough to satisfy a Holy God.  That’s why Christ had to die to fulfill the Law.  Well anyway, he comes on down and says in verse 22.

Galatians 4:22-23

“For it is written, (coming all the way back to Genesis) that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, (Which, of course, was Hagar.) and the other by a freewoman. (his legitimate wife, Sarah) 23. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; (God didn’t tell Abraham to have that child by the slave girl.  Abraham and Sarah decided on it between themselves. So, Ishmael was of the flesh.) but he (Isaac) of the freewoman was by promise.”  God had told Abraham that he would have this son of promise.  Now verse 24 and we’ll wrap this up quickly.

Galatians 4:24-25

“Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, (Law – the Ten Commandments) which is Hagar. 25. For this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.” 

Now remember, Paul is writing this in about A.D. 60.  The Temple isn’t destroyed until 10 years later. And he says, “…to Jerusalem which now is….” So what’s he talking about?  Under the Law – Temple worship, sacrifices, the whole nine yards.  Now, for sake of time, we come down to verse 26.  And, again, I want to have you read verse 30, but first verse 26.

Galatians 4:26

“But Jerusalem which is above is free, (That’s us, the heavenly people.) which is the mother of us all.”  We’re under Grace and not under Law.  Now come down to the verse that says it all – verse 30.

Galatians 4:30-31

“Nevertheless what saith the scripture? (Not what does man say; not what does your church say; but what does the scripture say?) Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.  31. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.”

Well, what’s he saying?  We’re not under Law.  We’re not under legalism. We’re under the Grace of God.

 

 

Through the Bible with Les Feldick

LESSON 2 * PART 1 * BOOK 44

PAUL – FIRST IN THE BODY OF CHRIST

I Timothy 1:1-16

Okay, good to see everyone in today. We always make a special welcome to folks who have never been here before.  For those of you joining us on television, I always try to make it understood that we’re non denominational and not associated with anyone. We just hopefully teach the Word in such a way that anyone and everyone can read it and understand it.

Of course, nothing thrills us more than when you write to that effect—that for the first time in your life you’re enjoying your Bible. We get so many letters that will say something to this effect: what used to be covered with dust, now we’re wearing it out.  Of course, that’s what we feel the Bible should be.  It should be just worn out.  Periodically, we should have to go and get a new one.

So anyway, we’re glad you’ve joined us. We’re going to be looking at Paul’s letters to Timothy. We’ll be starting at chapter 1 verse 1.  And we always like to give a little backdrop whenever we start a new book or letter.  Remember, those earlier epistles that we normally refer to as the prison epistles—Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon—were written during an imprisonment that evidently Paul overcame by gaining an acquittal by using his own expertise as an attorney himself.  And during the time of his freedom, he writes I Timothy and Titus.

And notice that both of those are almost alike, because they are both for the same purpose.  Timothy, of course, is being put in charge of those in the area of Ephesus in Asia Minor; whereas Paul writes to Titus with the idea of caring for the little churches on the island of Crete.

So understand that these are not prison epistles, per se.  But they are in-between that time between his first and second imprisonment.  Then when he is arrested the second time, maybe a year or two later, he is in prison and awaiting his martyrdom. At that time he will write II Timothy.  So as we study II Timothy, it will be in that light—that he now knows his time is at an end, and he realizes now that the Lord is not going to come in his lifetime.

I trust you all realize that throughout Paul’s ministry he honestly thought the Lord would be coming for the Church during his lifetime.  And he spoke in that regard all the way through.  Now of course, by the time he gets to his second imprisonment, he no longer makes that kind of a statement.  Again, remember that Timothy and Titus are going to be written to mostly pastors or church leaders—because, after all, there is no hierarchy involved in Paul’s earliest congregations.  There still had to be someone in charge of maintaining order. As we will see here in our programs today, the admonition is to constantly be on guard against false teaching.

Now don’t think for a minute that false teaching is something that has come up in our lifetime.  Christianity has been up against it from day one.  And consequently, then, that is his admonition to not be deceived.  Be not deceived, beguiled, and beware. Those are the kinds of words that you see throughout Paul’s epistles.

We’re going to start now with I Timothy chapter 1. Remembering, now, Paul has just recently been released from his first imprisonment.  He is now writing to his son in the faith, Timothy.  All right, verse 1 of I Timothy chapter 1:

I Timothy 1:1

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;” Now, of course, here again, it is so plain that his apostleship was a direct command of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I was reading a book about Paul just the other night. And that how, even during his lifetime, so many of the early church people—even some that had been his converts—were constantly doubting or casting a bad light on his apostleship.

And if you remember when we taught the Corinthian letters, I pointed out constantly how he had to defend his apostleship.  In fact, one of the ladies here told me awhile back that “Yes, Paul had to defend his apostleship, and you defend Paul, and we defend you.”  So I guess that’s about what it boils down to. Because you see, the vast majority of Christendom still puts Paul off to the side. They’d rather not have anything to do with him.  And yet we’re going to show that just on this verse alone, Paul’s apostleship is mandatory for our salvation and our Christian walk, as well as our hope for the end of the Church Age.

We’re seeing more and more – in fact somebody just sent me a book by Tim LaHaye, one of the authors of the Left Behind series.  And his whole premise in this last book someone just sent me—I don’t know when it was published—was just what I’ve been telling my classes.  Never have I seen such an attack on the pre-tribulation rapture as we’re seeing lately.  And again, it’s always because they will not look at the authority of the Apostle Paul.  So, Paul is an apostle by the commandment of our Lord and Savior.

Now we might as well chase it down in Scripture.  Go back with me, if you will, to Acts chapter 9—which, of course, is the account of his conversion on the road to Damascus.  We’re not going to cover all of that, because most of you understand how he was a (What’s the right word?) bona fide Jewish zealot.  He just lived and breathed religion.  And he thought that anybody that had embraced Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah of Israel was a heretic and had to be removed from Israel.  That’s what his persecution was attempting to do.

Boy, you talk about ethnic cleansing.  Old Saul of Tarsus had one of his own.  He thought he could literally cleanse Israel of anything that smacked of Jesus of Nazareth.  So now he’s on the road to Damascus.  And the sole purpose is to arrest Jews up there in Syria who had embraced Jesus as the Messiah; although they were still, of course, in Judaism.  His whole purpose was to go and arrest them and bring them back to Jerusalem. Hopefully they would be sentenced and be put to death.

All right, now as he goes, of course, the Lord meets him. You know the account.  How He struck him.  How the light blinded him.  And Paul’s response was, “Lord, what would you have me to do?”  All right, now I’m going to bring you all the way down, for sake of time, to verse 11.  Where the Lord not only deals with Saul of Tarsus out on the highway leading to Damascus, but also leap-frogs into the city itself to deal with one of the Jews who had become a believer of Jesus of Nazareth, or what we call the Kingdom Gospel.  Here it is in verse 11.

Acts 9:11

“And the Lord said unto him, (Ananias) Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, 12. And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.”   Now verse 13 says it all.  Ananias knew all about this guy.

Acts 9:13-14

“Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints (or believing Jews) at Jerusalem: 14. And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.”   They knew what his purpose was.  He was going to arrest them and take them back to Jerusalem.  And hopefully they would be put to death or be put in prison.  All right, now verse 15 and this is the Lord’s response to Ananias.

Acts 9:15-16

“But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: (Now that’s the Lord Himself speaking as to why He has this Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.) 16. For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” 

Now those of you who have been with us all the way through Paul’s Epistles, you understand how the man did indeed suffer over and over and over.  I’m sure the only thing that kept him going was remembering how he had persecuted those before him. We know it’s just part and parcel of Paul’s apostleship.

Let’s go on to Acts chapter 22 for a moment.  Now Paul rehearses that same conversion experience, but in the first person.  Now in chapter 9, of course, it’s telling the account of it.  But in chapter 22, we have Paul coming back to Jerusalem after having been out in his ministry amongst the Gentiles for several years.  This is where I want to show how it must have just struck the apostle to the heart that he was going to have to go to the Gentiles, because he was a good Jew.  He was a religious fanatic. And then to be told that he was going to go to the Gentiles!

Now the parallel of that is Jonah.  Now a lot of people don’t realize that Jonah would rather walk the plank than go to Nineveh.  Why?  Because Jews had nothing to do with those pagan Gentiles.  They had no concept that the God of Abraham would ever have time for those Gentile dogs, as they called them.  This man’s perception was no different, and now he has to go to those Gentiles.  So all of this comes in on the man, plus the fact that now he’s going to have to suffer inexorably for it.

So in Acts 22 he has been rehearsing his conversion up there in verses 1-16.  But now I want to use the coming verses to show the mentality, or the attitude, of the Jewish people towards Gentiles.  Now here he is.  He’s the Apostle to the Gentiles.  He’s been out now for several years.  He comes back to Jerusalem, and he addresses this Jewish multitude.  Now verse 17, as he addresses this Jewish crowd in Jerusalem, this is what he says.

Acts 22:17-18

“And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance; 18. And saw him (That is Jesus of Nazareth.) saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they (the Jews) will not receive thy testimony concerning me.”  Now Paul comes back to the first person, and he says:

Acts 22:19-21

“And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee: 20. And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.  21. And he (the Lord Jesus from Glory) said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.”

Now the next verse is what I want you to see.  The next verse shows the attitude of the ordinary, everyday, commonplace Jew.  These were the people, of course, that thought just like Saul of Tarsus had before his conversion.  Verse 22:

Acts 22:22

“And they (his Jewish audience) gave him audience (or listened to him) unto this word, (the word “Gentile”) and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live.”

Now, that was the mentality of the Jewish populace at the time of Saul’s conversion.  And his mentality was no different. Yet, of course, because of his persecution, he now suffered and suffered for the sake of the Gospel as it was going out to the Gentile world.

All right, now I can take you back to another account of how Paul had to deal with the people of his own race.  I want to bring you back to Acts chapter 15.  And over and over, when I teach this chapter in areas where we’ve never taught before, and if people have never heard me teach, when we show them these verses in Acts 15, they’ll come up, sometimes half a dozen at a time, and their statement is, “I never knew this was in the Bible.”

But this is what Paul is up against.  All these little congregations were probably a lot like our home Bible studies.  They weren’t huge congregations.  They met in homes.  And as soon as he would get a little group established, he would move on.  I mean, he had a lot of territory to cover.  And as soon as he would leave, this is what would happen.  All right, let’s read it, verse 1 of Acts 15.

Acts 15:1a

“And certain men which came down from Judaea (that’s Jerusalem) taught the brethren,…”  They would come in and seemingly have the knowledge and the authority. They would actually usurp the position of teaching.  So they would teach these Gentile believers of Paul’s preaching, and this is what they said.

Acts 15:1b

“…Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.”  Quite a statement, wasn’t it?  That’s what they were teaching.  Oh, now Paul’s gospel is alright as far as it goes, but that’s not enough.  You have to be circumcised!

Now, the reason I go all the way to verse 5, is because I once read a commentary where he said it really wasn’t that big a deal, because, after all, the Jews knew that they couldn’t force circumcision on the Gentiles.  He kind of pooh-poohed the idea.  But it didn’t stop with circumcision.  You go up to verse 5.  They didn’t stop there.  Look what it says in verse 5 of chapter 15.

Acts 15:5a

“But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed,…” In other words, these were the religious Pharisees of Israel who embraced Jesus of Nazareth.  They were believers, but they knew nothing of Paul’s Gospel of Grace. So consequently, what did they say?

Acts 15:5b

“…saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them (To do what?) to keep the law of Moses.”  Well, that just flew in the face of everything that Paul said.  Because what did Paul start out with?  “You’re not under Law, you’re under Grace!”

And yet these people were saying, well, the one alone isn’t enough. You’ve got to have both.  All right, let’s see how Paul deals with that. Let’s go to Galatians chapter 2.  No, I want to start with chapter 1.  Galatians chapter 1 and this is exactly what Paul is dealing with—where these false teachers would come into his little groups of believers up there, especially in Asia Minor, which is now Turkey, and tell them that Paul’s gospel alone wasn’t enough.  They had to practice circumcision and keep the Mosaic Law.  Now look what he says about it.

Galatians 1:6-7a

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:  7. Which is not another; (In other words, it’s not totally different, but it was so subtly adulterated. They’re not coming at you with something totally different.) but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert…”  Now you know that Paul is constantly warning us of any kind of perversion of his Gospel.  Here’s the clearest one.  They were not just simply throwing Paul’s Gospel to the wind and saying, don’t have anything to do with that.  But they were leaving that set and then coming in and adding to it—Law-keeping, circumcision, and so forth—which, of course, made it a perversion.

In fact, remember when I taught Corinthians, Paul used the example that he did not come with an adulterated, perverted product.  And I showed you from the language of the Greek, that it was when they took wine and watered it down and sold it for the real thing?  Well, that was a perversion. That wine was adulterated.  Well, that’s what they were doing with Paul’s Gospel.  They weren’t throwing it out, they were perverting it.  And listen, we’re up against the very same thing today.   They are adding everything to Paul’s Gospel of I Corinthians 15:1-4—how that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again.

I’ll go on a little further here in Galatians chapter 2, because I want you to understand that when Paul speaks of his gospel as having been by way of the commandment of the Lord Jesus, it is indeed different than anything even Israel had ever heard before.  Now in Galatians chapter 2 verse 2 and this is 14 years after his conversion, so he’s already been out there amongst the Gentile world for 10 or 12 years.  Now he’s been brought back to Jerusalem. This is the same meeting that we just looked at in Acts 15.  He says in verse 2:

Galatians 2:2a

“And I went up by revelation,…” In other words, he didn’t go up because he had an idea it was time to go to Jerusalem.  He didn’t go to Jerusalem because the Antioch Church thought he should.  The Lord instructed him.  The Lord no doubt laid upon him and said, now, Paul, it’s time you go and meet with the leadership up there in Jerusalem.  So he says.

Galatians 2:2a

“And I went up by revelation, and communicated…”   Now, I always stop at that word, don’t I?  Because communicated means he made sure they understood what he was saying.

Now, I think we’ve all experienced times when we have told somebody something and they missed it completely.  Well, when you communicate, you don’t miss it.  You make certain that they understand what you’re saying.  This is what Paul is saying.  When he went up to Jerusalem, he made certain that Peter, James, John, and the rest of the leadership understood where he was coming from.  Now look what he says.

Galatians 2:2b

“…and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles,…”  Now, you see, when you come on further in this chapter, it clarifies that indeed.  There were two messages.  One for Peter and the Eleven and the Jews of that day to believe, and one for the Gentiles that was revealed to Paul in this Age of Grace—which is totally different.  Today, everyone must believe Paul’s Gospel of Grace.   Now I know this throws a curve at people.  Oh, they can get so riled up.

I remember one young man out east someplace.  I’d already been teaching for nearly two hours.  Started at 7 and it was about quarter to 9, and, my, he was getting exercised.  He was trying to interrupt me, and, finally, I just had to tell him to be quiet, and I would talk to him when I was through.

So I went back afterwards, and he says, “Where to you get this TWO gospel bit?  There has never been more than one.”  And I said, “Now wait a minute.  Do you mean to tell me that Adam and Eve were saved by believing that Christ died and rose from the dead?”  He said, “They must have.”   “They must have?”  I said, “Crucifixion hadn’t even been invented yet.  That was a Roman invention.”  He didn’t know what to say about that.  I said, “Okay, I’ll put the words in your mouth.  Are you going to tell me that Abraham was saved by believing that Christ died and rose from dead?”  You know what his answer was?  Same thing – he must have!!

How could he?  Paul makes it so plain that it was a mystery that had never been revealed until it was given to him.  I said, “You haven’t got an ounce of ground to stand on.”  But, you see, people get all upset.  Because they think there’s always been one gospel. But look what it says here in the few moments we’ve got left.  Verse 4 and this is the Judaizers, the leadership of Jerusalem, who are trying to put Paul and his converts back under the Law.

Galatians 2:4

“And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty (living in Grace) which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into(What?) bondage:” Whenever Paul uses that word, what’s he speaking of?  The Law!  Oh, they wanted to bring them back into the Law and under bondage.  Next verse:

Galatians 2:5

“To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; (So that what?) that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.”  That it wouldn’t be covered with legalism.  Now verse 7:

Galatians 2:7

“But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision (the Gentiles) was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision (Jew) was unto Peter;”  Now every time I teach that verse, what do I ask?  How many gospels have you got in that one verse?  Well, if you can count, two.  The gospel of the uncircumcision is one, and the gospel of the circumcision, as I understand numbers, is two.  Plain as day.

And we know now from the record, that’s the way it was. This is why there was so much friction between the Jewish community and Paul and his Gentile converts.  And there was.  All you have to do is go back into some of the historical aspect of all this. There was so much friction.  All right, come on down to verse 8.

Galatians 2:8

“(For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, (Jews) the same (the same God) was mighty in me toward the (other segment of the population)Gentiles:)”  And then verse 9:

Galatians 2:9a

“And when James, Peter, and John, who seemed to be pillars, (They weren’t any more, because their whole—whatever you want to call it—was falling apart.  It was no longer the center of everything.  But they still thought it was.) perceived (understood) the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship;…”

They were gentlemanly enough to shake hands and say, all right, Paul, you’ve convinced us.  Your message to the Gentiles is for you to take, and we’ll stay with Israel.  Look at the verse again.

Galatians 2:9

“And when James, Peter, and John, who seemed to be pillars, understood the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we(Paul and Barnabas) should go unto the heathen, (Gentiles) and they (Peter, James, and John and the rest of the leadership in Jerusalem) unto the circumcision (Israel).”

And all the way through this, we have this concept that because of the commandment of the Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul was indeed the Apostle of the Gentiles.  All right, in the minute or two we’ve got left, we’ve got one more portion to prove that this man was writing by inspiration.  He’s God’s man for this Age of Grace.  Ephesians chapter 3.  My goodness, I think I could teach these 9 or 10 verses every night of the week and never get tired of it.  Because it is so plain.  It is so explicit. Yet the majority of Christendom just totally ignores it.

Ephesians 3:1a

“For this cause,…” In other words, all that is written in the first two chapters.  And most know, I guess, chapter 2 verses 8 and 9.

Ephesians 2:8

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” So with that as the background, he says in chapter 3.

Ephesians 3:1-2

“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, 2. If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:” See how plain that is?  Now come all the way down to verse 9, the capstone of everything.

Ephesians 3:9

“And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, (That is this whole concept of Grace.) which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”

Well, what’s the man saying?  That everything that he is taking to the Gentile world had been kept secret in the mind of God until it was revealed to him.

 

Through the Bible with Les Feldick

LESSON 1 * PART 4 * BOOK 44

2 Thessalonians 2:14 -3:18

Again, we always like to let our audience know that we’re not associated with any group, and we’re not underwritten.  In fact, I want to emphasize that.   I just had a call last night that said, well, now do these various cities have somebody that underwrites you?  No.  We do not.  We depend totally on the free-will offerings of God’s people. We can only go as far as we have funds available.  We’re here to teach the Word with no ax to grind.  Hopefully, I never attack anybody or any group. We’re just going to see what the Bible says.  Now at the end of the program, you’ll notice that we do have various things that are available for study helps and so forth.

All right, now my lesson today is not in line with our going through the Bible. We just finished the Thessalonian letters, and I wanted to fill in this half hour—before we start the letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon—with some questions that come in constantly.  I put it in my newsletter that will be coming out in the next week or two, but I know that only a small, small percentage of our audience gets the newsletter. So I decided to use this half hour to point out the false teaching that is inundating people concerning three things.  Two primarily, but these three things that I’ve got on the board that were all introduced way back in the Book of Genesis before the Mosaic Law ever began.

These are some of the arguments that people will give me. Well, we must keep the seventh day Sabbath, because it was already in vogue before Abraham.  We have to tithe, because it was already practiced back with Abraham.  I’m just going to show that all of these things that we’ve got here on the board—the seventh day Sabbath, tithing, and circumcision—were all introduced way back in the Book of Genesis.  But then they all three became part of the Mosaic Law.  So that when Paul writes in Romans 6—you’re not under the Law, you’re under Grace—it follows that these three, as well as all the rest of the Mosaic system disappeared.  They’re no longer valid.

All right, so we’re going to use the Scriptures. We’re not just going to use what Les Feldick thinks.  We’re going to use the Scriptures.  Let’s start in Genesis chapter 2 verse 1 and particularly verse 2.

Genesis 2:1-3a

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2. And on the seventh day (That’s our Saturday.) God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it (That is the seventh day.) he had rested…”

Now there’s not a word there about worship.  It all indicates a lack of labor.  Okay, that’s where the seventh day Sabbath was first introduced in Scripture—when God Himself rested from the six days of creation.

All right, now the next one we’re going to look at from the Old Testament, before even the Law, was this whole idea of tithing.  This, of course, was introduced when Abraham had defeated the over-runners of Lot and the fellows at Sodom.  We’ll come all the way up to Genesis 14 for this one.  Genesis 14, and, oh, for sake of time, I can’t read all of these I’d like to.  I’m going to come down to—boy, I can’t find the verse that I want!  Okay, verse 20, there it is.

Genesis 14:20-22

“And blessed be the most high God, who hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.  And he gave him (That is Abram gave to God.) tithes of all. (That is of all the spoil.) 21. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. 22. But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, 23. That I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:”

But he did give the tithes of that spoil to God.  So here we have the concept of tithing, or the ten percent as people like to look at it, way back here before the Law was ever introduced.  All right, now the third thing—it doesn’t affect us so much in our western culture, but nevertheless, I’m going to use it.  Because it is part of these things that were introduced back here to Abraham and that were all funneled into the Mosaic Law.  The seventh day Sabbath, tithing, and circumcision all became part of the Mosaic Law.  All right, the next one I want to show you is circumcision. It’s the first time it’s introduced. That would be in chapter 17.

Genesis 17:10

“This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; (This is God speaking to Abraham.) Every man child among you shall be circumcised.” Now verse 12:

Genesis 17:12a

“And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations,…” Now verse 14:

Genesis 17:14

“And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.”  Circumcision, then, became the covenant sign between Israel and Jehovah.    All right, now what I want to do is show how all three of these concepts—the Sabbath and tithing and circumcision—were picked up by the Mosaic Law as we go on into Israel’s history.

Now turn with me up to Exodus. We’re going to take them in this order as we’ve got them on the board.  Because that’s the way they came in Genesis.  Now in Exodus 16, the Law still hasn’t been given.  That doesn’t happen until chapter 20.  But God has just begun showering the manna on the children of Israel as they go into the wilderness.  So here is where God is going to begin the concept of the seventh day of rest, as He Himself had practiced it back in Genesis.  All right, now look what it says in Exodus 16, after they have been receiving the manna.  Verse 23:

Exodus 16:23

“And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake today, (That was on Friday.)and seethe (or boil) that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.”  The Sabbath day, Saturday, and so verse 25:

Exodus 16:25-26

“And Moses said, Eat that today; for today is a sabbath (a day of rest) unto the LORD: today ye shall not find it in the field. 26. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.”

All right, the Law hasn’t been given yet. But it was something that God incorporated. Because now Israel was beginning to labor to pick up the manna.  All right, when you get into chapter 20—turn over to that in Exodus.  Here you’ll find that the seventh day Sabbath becomes part of the Ten Commandments.  It becomes part of the Mosaic Law.  Exodus chapter 20 verse 8 and it’s the same concept that He just gave them in chapter 16.

Exodus 20:8-10a

“Remember the sabbath day, (the seventh day) to keep it holy. 9. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: 10. But the seventh day is the sabbath (or the rest day) of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,…” and so on and so forth.  It’s that constant reminder that God instituted the seventh day of rest back there in Genesis chapter 2.

So here we see, then, that the seventh day Sabbath was introduced way back at creation.  It was repeated to the Nation of Israel when they started picking up the manna.  And then just a few weeks later, it became part of the Ten Commandments.

All right, now let’s do the same thing with tithing.  We’ve already seen that Abraham tithed of the spoil that he got from defeating the kings that had overrun Sodom and Gomorrah.  All right, now let’s see where it picks up in the Law.  Leviticus, and, oh goodness, if people would just do a word-study of tithing, they wouldn’t have so much difficult.  Because it’s totally different than what most churches are practicing today.

Leviticus 27:30-31

“And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S: it is holy unto the LORD.  31. And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof.”  In other words, if a gentleman wanted to take cash to the Temple instead of grain or sheep or something like that, he would have to pay a 20% penalty.  If he wanted to turn it into what today we would call cash.  Now verse 32:

Leviticus 27:32

“And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD.”  In other words, if they would count their sheep coming out of the fold, that’s what it meant to go under the rod.  They would have the counting rod over the gate, and as the sheep went by the rod, they could count.  All right, now out of those sheep, or whatever it was that went under the rod, they were to keep count.  And one out of every ten was given to the Levites.

Now the purpose of the tithe was that the Levites did not own any of the property.  They had no income. So God provided for the Levite tribe, the priests’ tribe, with the tithes of the other tribes.  So the tithe is not biblical, unless it is given to the Levites.  I wish people could understand that.  The tithe was that which was given to support the Levites.  All right, now verse 34:

Leviticus 27:34a

“These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel…”  So tithing is not, now, just something that came from Abraham. It is now part of the Law.

Now, I’m going to show a couple more verses.  We’re going to have to go real fast on these, or I’m going to run out of time.  II Chronicles chapter 31 verse 5.  II Chronicles—that’s right after the Kings—II Chronicles 31 verse 5.  II Chronicles 31—in fact, I’m going to look at verse 4.   Start at verse 4, Honey.

II Chronicles 31:4

“Moreover he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the (Who?) Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of the LORD.” This is law.  Even though it is not in the Ten Commandments, that doesn’t mean it’s not law.  Now when you come down to verse 6:

II Chronicles 31:5-6a

“And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly. 6. And concerning the children of Israel and Judah, who dwelt in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep,…”  One out of every ten that went under the rod.  See that?  You know what that meant?  If somebody had 19 sheep, how many did he give?  One.  He didn’t kill one and give him nine parts of it.  He took one out of ten.  And until he hit 20, he gave one.  Then he gave two.

That was the true tithe.  It was one out of ten animals, and it went to the Levites.  All right, now let’s go over a little further in history to Nehemiah.

Nehemiah 10:34

“And we cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, (Those are the people who would need the help from the other tribes.) and the people, for the wood-offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the (What?) law:”  That’s what I want people to see.  This was according to the Law.  Not just the Ten Commandments, but the Law.  Now under that same line of thinking then, verse 37:

Nehemiah 10:37

“And that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto (What people?) the Levites, (They were the ones to accept the tithes.) that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.”

All right, then the last one that everybody likes to use to put their people under the pressure of tithing is Malachi.  And you’ve all heard this one.  My, you know they love to use this to pressure their people to bring ten percent of their income.  Well, that’s not what the tithe was.  The tithe was one out of ten of the grain or the sheep.  And it was only for the Levites who were the priestly tribe.  All right, Malachi 3—drop down to verse 8.  These are the verses that I know a lot of people like to use.

Malachi 3:8

“Will a man rob God?  Yet ye have robbed me.  But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?  In tithes and offerings.”   In other words, they weren’t bringing that one out of ten to the Levites.  They weren’t keeping up what God had demanded of them. So consequently, verse 10:

Malachi 3:10

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house,…” They were to bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my own house.  Well, who in the world served in the house of the Lord in Israel?  The priests.  The Levites.  And that was the purpose of the tithing; because they had no flocks.  They had no land.  They had no orchards.  They had to depend on the tithes of the people.

Now on top of the tithes, there were also offerings that were other than the tithe.  And that came from their various other commodities—their fruits and vegetables and so forth.  All right, now that pretty much covers the fact that tithing and the seventh day Sabbath and circumcision all went into the Law.

Now, to show you that circumcision was practiced all the way up to the time of Christ, as you well know, but I still want to show it from Scripture.  Come all the way up with me to Luke chapter 1.  Because I have to establish, now, that all three of these concepts—the seventh day Sabbath, the tithing, and circumcision—all funneled down into the Mosaic Law.  And the Mosaic Law was in force when Christ began His ministry.  You’ve heard me say that over and over.  Everything that Jesus said or taught was under the Law.  He never went contrary to the Law of Moses.  All right, in Luke’s Gospel chapter 1, we’ve got John the Baptist, verse 59.

Luke 1:59

“And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.”  All right, when you come across the page to Luke chapter 2, we have Jesus in full accordance with the Mosaic Law in verse 21.

Luke 2:21

“And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”

All right, then further up into our New Testament—come all the way up to Philippians—all the way up to Philippians chapter 3.  And here we see Paul reminding us of his Jewish background—being born and raised and educated under the Law.  All right, in Philippians chapter 3, might as well start at verse 4, Honey.

Philippians 3:4-5

“Though I might also have confidence in the flesh.  If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: (And here’s why.) 5. Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;”

Circumcised?  Absolutely!  According to what?  The Law.  According to the Law.  Now then, in the few moments we have left; let’s see how all three of these disappear when Paul says that we’re no longer under the Law.  We are now under Grace.  And Grace is that total freedom from the Law.  Now, if people are comfortable with not practicing circumcision, and I think 99% are, how can they drop one and hang on to two?

I mean, I just can’t reconcile this with Scripture.  I always say the same thing in Acts chapter 2.  How in the world can people hang on to the things in chapter 2, but not have a thing to do with their bringing all things to the common place and living off the kitty?  They won’t do that.  But Acts chapter 2 teaches it.  Well, there again, I tell people—how can you take part of a chapter and say, yeah, this is for me, but I won’t touch this.  Well, it’s the same way here.  If you don’t think circumcision is appropriate because we’re no longer under Law, then neither are these.  That’s my argument.

Okay, now let’s look. What’s the first one?  The seventh day Sabbath—I Corinthians chapter 16.  All got it?  Here Paul writes:

I Corinthians 16:1-2a

“Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.  2. Upon the first day of the week (Which today we call Sunday, not because it’s a pagan day of the sun.  It’s just simply because, historically, it has been named Sunday.  Has nothing scriptural, anti-scriptural about it. It’s the first day of the week.) let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him,…”

Now I can also use that verse for the next segment, for tithing.  They were to bring their offerings, not their tithe.  They were to bring their offerings on the first day of the week, not the Sabbath—a total departure there in just one verse.  Well, I was going to take you back to another one in the Book of Acts.  Back to Acts chapter 20, Honey, and this is how the early church practiced it.  And there’s no denying it—Acts chapter 20 verses 6 and 7.  This, of course, is back during Paul’s ministry.  All got it?  Now he says:

Acts 20:6-7

“And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas (That is over there on the western Turkish coast.) in five days; where we abode seven days. 7. And upon the first day of the week, (See?) when the disciples came together to break bread, (Fellowship, see?  And worship.) Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; (which would be Monday) and continued his speech until midnight.” 

All right, now let’s see—Colossians chapter 2.  Boy, I’m going to be running right up against the end.  Colossians chapter 2 starting at verse 14.  Now, I’m still showing how that first and foremost the seventh day Sabbath is not for us, because it became part of the Law.  We’re not under Law.  We’re under Grace.  All right, look what he says in verse 14.

Colossians 2:14-15

“Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, (That’s the whole system of Law.) and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15.And having spoiled principalities and powers, triumphing over them in it.”  Now then verse 16, here it comes plain as day.

Colossians 2:16

“Let no man therefore judge you in food, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the (What days?) sabbath days;” Paul said, don’t let anybody confuse you and try to put you back under the Law that was crucified with Christ.

All right, then our last one again—circumcision.  That, of course, is so obvious when you come back to Galatians chapter 5.  Galatians chapter 5, so that all three of these concepts which went into the Law, have now been abrogated by Paul’s declaring us not under Law but under Grace.

Galatians 5:1-2

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty (What does liberty imply?  Not under Law) wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (Now here it comes, and where we’re going to be able to close.) 2. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, (According to the Law—if you’re going to practice circumcision according to the Law as part of your salvation.) Christ (the crucified, risen) shall profit you (How much?) nothing.” Circumcision went away with the Law.

 

Through the Bible with Les Feldick

LESSON 1 * PART 3 * BOOK 44

 Circumcision was Nailed to the Cross!

II Thessalonians 2:14 – 3:18

Ok, it’s good to see everyone in today.  We trust that as we study the Scriptures, you’ll be fed from them.  For those of you joining us on television, we remind you again that this is an informal Bible study.  Many of you write and tell us you feel like you’re right there on the back row.  Another thing people comment on is that everybody here has their own Bible and their own notebook.  We’re just thrilled with that, because it shows that we’re not here just to be entertained.  We’re here to study.  We’re here to learn and become skilled in the use of the Word of God.  Because after all, that’s why the Lord has left us here.  So that we can share these things with others who probably would never be touched by the Word of God if it weren’t for believers out in the work-a-day world.

We’re going to get right into the Book. The other announcements can come at the end of the program.  We’re going to start with II Thessalonians today and finish up the book of Thessalonians.  Then I’m going to have a little digression for our next half-hour program, so that when we start the next book (the next series of twelve programs), I can start with I Timothy chapter 1 verse 1.  I’m trying to sort of time it to that end.  But we’re going to finish II Thessalonians first in this half hour. We stopped at chapter 3 and verse 4. So we’re going to go on now to verse 5.

II Thessalonians chapter 3, dropping in at verse 5 where, remember, Paul is writing to these believers up in Thessalonica who had just recently, you might say in a matter of weeks or a month or two, had come out of abject paganism and idolatry.  He’s encouraging these believers about, really, the soon return of Christ for the Body of believers.  Because you want to remember, it wasn’t until almost the end of Paul’s ministry that he began to realize that the Lord was not going to come in his lifetime.  When Paul began his ministry and began to talk about having kept the faith and so forth, he was confident that the Lord was still going to return in his lifetime.  These two little letters of Thessalonians really show that.  He’s always talking about waiting until the Lord comes.

Because never forget, these people were under intense persecution.  Not only from the Roman authorities, but they were under pressure from the Jewish element who felt that this Christianity was just an inroad and was false teaching concerning their ancient religion.  So these Thessalonian believers were under a lot of pressure. Consequently, these are the things that Paul writes.  So he says in verse 5:

II Thessalonians 3:5a

“And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God,…” Now stop and think about that a moment.  If you’re under a lot of physical pressure and pain and maybe losing your source of income—which, of course, still happens in many areas of the world—it’s pretty hard to relegate that with God’s love, isn’t it?

That would almost seem as if that’s God punishing them.  But you see, the whole premise of this is that God never stops loving us, even though the pressures may mount, and it may seem as though God is far from us.  Yet Paul wants us to know that the love of God is always with us.  It never leaves us even under pressure.  I’m going to come back to Romans for just a little bit and look first, before we even finish the verse, at this love of God.

I think one chapter where we can see this the clearest is Romans chapter 5. We can almost spend several minutes right here in this chapter.  Then we’ll look at a couple others but Romans chapter 5, and you can almost start at verse 1.  And remember now, Paul always writes to the believer.  He does not write to the unbelieving world, but only to the child of God.  He says in verse 1.

Romans 5:1-2

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2. By whom also we have access by faith (our believing and trusting) into this grace wherein we stand, (that is positionally) and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” And then you come down to verse 5.

Romans 5:5

“And hope maketh not ashamed; because (What?) the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us.”  In other words, in spite of all the pressures, in spite of all of the disappointments of life, the Holy Spirit is constantly reminding us that the love of God is still constantly with us. We never have to fear that He’s forgotten us.

You know, whenever I think of the love of God—I can’t help it—I didn’t intend to do this.  It’ll probably make me run out of time.  But come back with me to John’s Gospel and the account of Lazarus.  I hope I can find it.  The key to that whole scenario is how the Lord loved Lazarus and his family.

That’d be back in chapter 11.  I was looking too far ahead.  John’s Gospel chapter 11 and you all know the story of Lazarus.  How the Lord had been out of town for those three or four days and gets word that Lazarus is dead.  All right, in John’s Gospel chapter 11 dropping down to verse 3 and assuming that my listening audience knows the story of Lazarus.

John 11:3

“Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou (What’s the word? Lovest.) behold, he whom thou lovest  is sick.”  Now come down to verse 5.

John 11:5

“Now Jesus (What’s the next word?) loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.”  He had a love for those three people that was so evident everybody knew it.

Now come all the way down through that chapter.  He has now come back to Bethany, and He is about to raise Lazarus from the dead. Come down to verse 35.  Most people know it as the shortest verse in the Bible.

John 11:35-36

“Jesus wept. (Because of the circumstances.  Then verse 36, here it is again.) 36. Then said the Jews, Behold how he (What?) loved him!”  Now isn’t that beautiful?  Here were three people, probably typical of the ordinary Jewish people at that time, nothing extra about style=’color:red’> them.  Yet everybody understood how Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus.  I never can forget that chapter when I think of the love of Christ.

All right, now come back to Romans chapter 5, Honey, and come down to verse 8.  Verse 8 and this is the love of God that Paul is constantly referring to, even back in the Thessalonian letter.

Romans 5:8

“But God commendeth his love (This whole concept of the love of God just keeps coming up constantly.) God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet (What?)sinners, Christ died for us.”  This is something that the world can’t understand—that God could love His worst enemy.

And, of course, that was epitomized at the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus.  Oh, how Saul hated the name Jesus of Nazareth, religiously.  Just detested it and couldn’t work hard enough or fast enough to stamp out any memory of Jesus of Nazareth.  And instead of turning His wrath on the man, God showed him His love and saved him by His Grace.

Well, I’m going to bring you on over to Romans chapter 8.  Again, even though the word itself may not be shown so clearly, yet it is so evident that it’s the love of God that keeps us, that protects us, and that is a constant comfort in our everyday experience.  Okay, let’s drop into Romans 8 and all the way down to verse 35.  Verses that I usually write right back to people when they question me on my stand on eternal security.

You know, the first thing I always say for a person that’s a true believer—yes, he’s secure.  Look what these verses say.  And it’s all based on God’s love for us—not only while we were yet sinners, but now even as believers.  So consequently–

Romans 8:35

“Who shall separate us from (What?) the love of Christ? (It is such a binding love that there is no way that anything can take this from us.) shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”  Now see, the Thessalonians knew all those.  But the love of Christ never left them.  And they understood that.  That’s why Paul commended them.  And then verse 37:

Romans 8:37

“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors though him that (What again?) loved us.”  This is the whole concept of our Christian experience. It is that God loved us as sinners.  He loves us even more as His blood-bought children.  So Paul could go on to say:

Romans 8:38-39

“For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, (Nothing!  Nothing!) 39. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from (What again?) the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Nothing can separate us from the love of God!  Now that’s just a sampling, you see. That’s not exhausting references concerning the love of God.  It’s just a sampling, but this is what Paul is referring to.  Now, if you’ll come back with me again—back to II Thessalonians chapter 3.

He was just reminding us that even though we may come under pressure, which we in America as yet know nothing of.  We know nothing of what it is to come under the pressures of persecution for being believers.  The day may come.  We hope not.  But anything is possible.  But these Thessalonians knew what it was, so he says:

II Thessalonians 3:5

“And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, (That saved them out of idolatry and is keeping them even through the pressures of everyday life.) and into the patient waiting for Christ.”  Now there comes Paul’s concept that the Lord was coming again at any moment.  He thought it’d be in his lifetime.

Now, of course, for 1,900 and some years the church has been in that waiting mode.  The church over the centuries has been waiting for what we call the imminent return of Christ.  Now of course, we are far closer than what they were 100 years ago.  We’re far, far closer than they were 200 years ago.  But it’s that same concept.  We are to be waiting expectantly for the return of Christ to take us unto Himself.

II Thessalonians 3:5b

“…and (let that love direct you) into the patient waiting for Christ.”  All right, back up a few pages to I Thessalonians chapter 1. You remember when we first started the study on the Thessalonian letters, I was constantly emphasizing that the Apostle had only spent three weeks with these new believers fresh out of paganism. He writes the letter probably within a month or two after he had left them.  I think he probably wrote within a month or six-weeks after having won these Thessalonians to the Lord.  Now look what he writes in Thessalonians 1, dropping down to verse 9.

I Thessalonians 1:9a

“For they themselves (That is, these other believes in the other parts of Greece.) show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you,…”

In other words, they accepted the man and his message.  You know, we were looking—in our class last night here in Oklahoma—back in Israel’s history when the prophets would come to the Nation and convict them of their sin and their wickedness.  Did they do like the Thessalonian pagans?  No.  They turned on the prophets, and they killed one after another.  And Jeremiah, of course, as I’ve always pointed out—the Babylonians found him in a dank dungeon.  Why?  Because the Jewish people didn’t like the message.  But see, these Thessalonian pagans didn’t respond that way.  When the Apostle Paul came to their city, they had a tremendous reception of the man and his message.

I Thessalonians 1:9b

“…what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;” Then as soon as they became believers, what were they expectantly looking for?  Christ’s return.  So what did he say?

I Thessalonians 1:10

“And (you knew) to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come.”  Now there’s another indication that Paul teaches that believers will not go into the Tribulation period, which is, of course, the Wrath of God.

So there is this constant concept throughout Paul’s epistles to not only recognize our salvation and not only our position in Christ.  Not that we’re to sit on some mountaintop and look for things to happen, but the subconscious—I think in the subconscious we should be constantly aware that maybe today, or maybe tomorrow, the Lord will come!  And it doesn’t have to take us over to the place where we quit working.

You know, I’ve always told people here in Tulsa.  There are things that I suppose that we should do and could do and sometimes we put it off because we feel we’re so close to the Lord’s coming.  I remember a year or so ago a gentleman called from Pennsylvania. He said, “Les, I was just ready to plant some apple trees, and I thought, why?  What’s the use?”  Well, I told him to go ahead and plant them.  I said, “Even though we trust the Lord will come before they ever bear fruit the first time, yet we don’t know.  So go ahead and plant those trees, and maybe the next generation will still be here.  We don’t know.”

But, nevertheless, the whole concept of Paul is that as soon as we become a believer, we not only serve Him as he said up in verse 9, but we have that expectancy that He will be coming at any moment.  Now, another one I always like to refer to in that same light is back in Titus.  The little letter to Titus behind I and II Timothy and we come to Titus chapter 2.  And I always like to start in this series in verse 11, but verse 13 will be our key verse.

Titus 2:11-12

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, (Now, not all are believers, but they’ve all heard.) 12. Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts (or desires), we should live (day by day, now) soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;”

You know, I’ve used the expression so often. We’re not to be so heavenly-minded we’re no earthly good.  That’s not what God wants.  But on the other hand, we are to live godly and soberly in this present world wherever we might be.  And then verse 13, this is what we’re to be doing along with everything else.  Along with our service.  Along with our occupation.  Along with our profession, whatever it may be.  We are to be:

Titus 2:13

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;”  Now, if you’ll look up that Greek word for appearing, it’s the same Greek word that spoke of His first advent when He came to the Nation of Israel.  Now how did He come?  In some invisible spirit realm?  No!  He came bodily.  And it’s that same Greek word that speaks of His appearing.  It’s going to be a physical, visible manifestation of the Christ.  And this is what we’re to be looking for.  And you know, I’m always going back to Acts chapter 1, where the angels told Peter, James, and John and the rest of them:

Acts 1:11b

“…why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, (That’s been walking with you, that’s been eating with you, and as they saw Him go.) which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”

All right, so Paul uses that same concept back here in II Thessalonians chapter 3.  That not only are we to delve ourselves into the love of God, realizing all that it does for us, but we are to be constantly expecting His return.  We’re to be ready at any moment.

All right, now in the few moments we have left, I’m going to move on to the last part of this chapter; which seems kind of odd, I suppose, to the casual reader.  But we’re going to see that this is one of the things that Paul taught even back in the Corinthian letters.  All right, verse 6, now he says:

II Thessalonians 3:6a

“Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly,…” In other words, we’re not supposed to just wink at it and laugh at it and think, oh, boy, somebody is really goofing up.  No, that’s not what we’re to do.  We’re to seriously withdraw our fellowship from those kinds of believers.  And he is talking about believers now.

II Thessalonians 3:6b

“…withdraw yourself from every brother (a believer) that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.”  Or the things that Paul had taught for believers to do.

II Thessalonians 3:7-8a

“For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: (There’s that other one where Paul says that we’re to be followers of him as he follows Christ.  Because, after all, he is human.  He has the same hang-ups and the same passions that we do. So he is the one that the Scripture admonishes us to follow.) for (He says we can follow him because–) we (he) behaved not ourselves (himself) disorderly among you; (In other words, I suppose I can put it back into the King James where he says–) 8. Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nothing;…”

Now, isn’t it amazing?  The Apostle Paul was so careful to never let anybody accuse him of taking advantage of a situation or sponging off of anybody.  So rather than take a free meal—or rather than take a salary, as we’d say today—he worked for his own wages.  He provided for himself.  Not that it’s contrary to Scripture, because he teaches it in the pastoral letters—that the servant of God is worthy of his hire.

So, yes, pastors are due their salaries and so forth.  But the Apostle wouldn’t do it, because he didn’t want anybody to ever say—since Christianity was just getting off the ground.  See, it wouldn’t take much to beat it down.  So lest there be any opposition using some of the things that they thought he shouldn’t do, he said, I won’t do it.  So he would never take anything for nothing.  He wouldn’t even take a free meal.   He said, we have never, never been chargeable to any of you.  Now verse 9:

II Thessalonians 3:9a

“Not because we have not power,…” It wasn’t because he didn’t have the power, because he did.  As God’s servant, as the Apostle, he could have demanded it of them.  He could have said, provide my needs.  But he never did, so that no one could ever accuse him of using his office for his own personal advantage.  Quite a cry from what we see today, isn’t it?  All right, now verse 10:

II Thessalonians 3:10

“For even when we were with you, (those two or three weeks) this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”  Quite a statement, isn’t it?  That just flies in the face of socialism and communism, where those so-called political ideas figure that you can take it from one and give it to the other.  That is never a biblical concept.  Paul says if you don’t work, you shouldn’t eat.

Now naturally, he wasn’t talking about those who were incapable of working.  We’re going to see, when we get into our study of the letters to Timothy, that he makes special provision for widows—because in that culture, there was no way for a widow to garner an income.  So the local congregations were admonished by the Apostle to take care of widows, or for those who are incapable of providing for themselves.

But what he’s talking about here is able-bodied men who could be out there making their own living and providing for their own. He says, if they don’t want to work, then they shouldn’t eat.  And I agree with it 100%.  If someone is able to work, I think they should be working.  If they can’t work, yeah, then someone has to provide. But now turn the page a little bit, Honey, over to I Timothy, I think it is.  I Timothy chapter 5 and this all fits with Paul’s admonition to believers not to be shirkers.  Not to be freeloaders.  We are to work.  And that’s the way God has always intended it.

I Timothy 5:8

“But (he says) if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”  Quite a statement, isn’t it?  So what does that tell believers?  You provide for your own family.  You work.  And you don’t wait for someone else to do it for you.

Now we’ll come back to II Thessalonians and finish up the chapter in the minute we have left. Then we can be ready for the Timothys after our next half hour.  Back to II Thessalonians chapter 3.  He continues on and says:

II Thessalonians 3:11

“For we hear (even amongst that little small group of believers up in Thessalonica) that there are some who walk among you disorderly, not working at all, but are busybodies.”

In other words, they were not working for any kind of an income.  They were simply circulating through that little group of believers trying to see how they could sponge off of someone else.  And, oh, how Paul condemns that.