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Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 1 * PART 4 * BOOK 53
James 1:1-2 - Part 2
It’s the Word of God that is powerful. James 1:1
"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting." James 1:2
So remember, these little Jewish epistles at the back are written primarily to encourage Jewish believers under the pressures of persecution and hatred. Then Christ would return to the Mt. of Olives and set up His Kingdom (promised to Israel), and then Israel could be priests of Jehovah and they, in turn, could reach out to the Gentile world. Now that’s the whole Old Testament program in a nutshell.
Remember Peter is addressing the Nation of Israel. The thought goes right on in to verse 20. The times of refreshing would come when...
God would send Jesus Christ. Where would God send Him? Back to Jerusalem to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies.
Jesus couldn’t just return to the world as it was. He couldn’t return to that sinners’ planet covered with all the wickedness of mankind and set up His Kingdom. Now, you’ve heard me allude to this on the program many, many times. Well, that’s what God’s going to do with all of man’s activity. Can God have all these nightclubs and these discos and these gambling casinos in His Kingdom? Whom heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things." Now my oldest son and his son are getting interested in restoring old cars and stuff like that. I like to read about restored tractors and stuff like that. Alright, that’s what Peter is talking about in restitution. Start at verse 30:
Jeremiah 25:30
"Therefore prophesy thou (this is telling Israel what’s coming in their future) against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, (what’s that a reference to? Reading on in verse 31.
Jeremiah 25:31-32a
They’ve rejected Him. It’s absolutely awful. Jeremiah 25:32b
Alright, back to Acts chapter 3. Peter wants the Nation of Israel to repent of their sins. Alright, read verse 21, again now, in light of what we’ve just read:
Acts 3:21
"Whom the heaven must receive (or hold) until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." Alright now let’s go down to verse 24:
Acts 3:24
Peter isn’t talking about 2000 AD. So that, within a matter of 10 or 20 years, Christ would be ready to return and set up the Kingdom. That’s all Peter knows. Now let’s read on in verse 25, and this isn’t Church language...
"Ye are the children of the prophets…" Israel - not the Gentile world, but Israel. Now as prophecy is fulfilled on Israel the whole Gentile world will get involved, of course.
Acts 3:25
"Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed."God is using this man, who was not one of the Twelve, but one of the six to make a last appeal to the Nation of Israel. And we don’t have time to take it verse by verse, but we’ll just hit the highlights. So let’s begin in Acts chapter 6, verse 15.
Acts 6:15
The religious leaders of Israel. 2. And he said, Men, brethren and fathers,…."
How many Gentiles would a Jew call his father? Now let’s go all the way up to the end of his message - let’s go to chapter 7 and begin with verse 51, Stephen is now ending up and remember he’s addressing the elite of Israel. "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: (or Spirit) as your fathers did, (back in history) so do ye. 55. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing (not seated) on the right hand of God,"
Psalms 110:1, "Come and sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool." The next verse:
59. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Saul of Tarsus:
Now looking again at the timeline as far as we’ve come, all the way up through Christ’s earthly ministry - we saw He was rejected, but God rose Him from the dead; and called Him back to the right hand of the Father, waiting for the day when He could return and yet set up His kingdom.
To the Gentiles.
Alright, I haven’t got time, we’ll have to do it in our next program, but when we come back next month, we’re going to draw the second timeline that shows how this prophetic line is now going to be totally stopped right here after the ascension, with the Tribulation and the Kingdom Age all pushed out into the future and we’re going to come into a parenthetical period of time of 2,000 years where God is going to be dealing with the Gentiles in the Body of Christ instead of Israel.

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