Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Hello, friend. You’ve joined us for Grace in Focus. We’re so glad you have. Today we’re going to discuss the Church, and the question does it appear in the Old Testament, perhaps in some different representative form? Let’s think about that today. Grace and Focus is the ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society, and we have a website, faithalone.org. There’s much to learn about us there. Many articles that we’ve written, you can research and read for free, find out about our regional conferences, and you can subscribe to our free magazine. It is also called Grace in Focus. It is a full-color published bi-monthly magazine, with great Free Grace articles, and yes, it is free. With one exception, if you live outside of the 48 contiguous United States, you must pay the postage, otherwise, absolutely free. Get details at faithalone.org. 

And now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Leon Adkins. 

LEON: Bob, Wes sent a good question. Do you believe or know of anyone who does believe that the union of Jews and Gentiles, although not explicitly revealed, is found in some form in the Old Testament? 

BOB: Okay, so Leon, what do we call the union of Jews and Gentiles on equal footing in one body? What do we call that? There’s a New Testament name for that. 

LEON: We call that the Church. 

BOB: That’s called the Church, right? And it’s also called the body of Christ. So Wes’ question is essentially, is the Church in some form in the Old Testament? Do we see indications of it? Well, basically, Wes’ question comes down to the fact that in the book of Ephesians, Paul calls the union of Jews and Gentiles in one body the Church, a mystery, right? The Greek word for mystery is an awful lot like the English word. It’s musterion, or you could say, mysterion, because you can transliterate the second letter with a Y or a U. So this, mysterion, or this mystery, the question is, what does that mean? You’re familiar with Agatha Christie, right, Leon? 

LEON: Oh, yes. 

BOB: When she writes a mystery, typically, what’s the mystery about? What is it we’re trying to figure out? 

LEON: Well, basically, we’re trying to figure out who committed the crime. 

BOB: All right. And in most cases, the crime is murder, Murder on the Orient Express, right? And typically, she’s trying to give us clues along the way as to who committed the murder, the crime, right? Now, when you get to the great reveal at the end and you find out that the butler did it. Is that the first time in the entire book that we learned there was a butler? 

LEON: Usually not. 

BOB: Never. I mean, she always tells you who the cast of possible criminals are, right? And if it’s the butler, we typically even know the butler’s name, it’s Jeeves or whatever his name is. But it’s not like the first time in the book, we learn of the existence of someone called the butler is at the great reveal, because otherwise it would be kind of a boring book, right? I mean, what’s the mystery if we’ve not even heard about the person until the very end? 

So what she does is she tells you about a whole bunch of possible people who could have done the crime. And then she drops hints. Well, here’s my question. If you’ve ever read an Agatha Christie book, have you ever come to the point where you guessed? I think the butler did it. Or I think the husband did it. Or I think the wife did it. Or I think have you ever come to the point where you thought maybe it’s this person? 

LEON: Not often. Usually it’s the person I would least suspect. 

BOB: Okay. But here is my point. Zane Hodges used to love to read mysteries because he loved to try to figure him out in advance. And like you, I’m basically reading along just enjoying the read and not trying to figure out who did it, right?  I may think, oh, I’m inclined here, but she may be giving me false clues, right? She may be leading me astray. 

But the truth is a mystery doesn’t mean in the New Testament, something that’s never been revealed. What it means is, something that has not been finally revealed. So we haven’t had the declaration that this is the case. So for example, in terms of the Church, in my opinion, the Church is clearly stated in Psalm 45. I once heard Zane Hodges preach a sermon on Psalm 45. And he said that the Church was in Psalm 45. Now Zane didn’t say, by the way, I’m explaining to you everything there is to know about the term mystery. But in Psalm 45, one of the Sons of Korah says in verse six, “Your throne, oh God, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions.” 

We know from Hebrews chapter one and verse nine that he’s talking here about the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the God here is the Lord Jesus Christ, the scepter of righteousness is that of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, “and your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces by which they have made you glad. King’s daughters are among your honorable women at your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.” 

Now what Zane said is this, “King’s daughters are among your honorable women”, that refers to redeemed Israel to believing Jews. And then it says, “as your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir”, the queen refers to the Church, the body of Christ, which the New Testament calls the bride of Christ, so he said, the queen is the bride of Christ and the honorable women refer to Israel. 

And so this verse, Psalm 45:9 refers to both Israel and the Church. 

ANNOUNCER: We will rejoin in just a moment, but years ago, Zane Hodges wrote The Gospel Under Siege. Sadly, this is still true, and GES president Bob Wilkin has recently written its sequel. Bob’s new book, The Gospel is Still Under Siege, is a book about theological clarity on the biblical teaching about eternal salvation. It is available now, secure yours today at the Grace Evangelical Society’s Bookstore. Find it at faithalone.org/store. That’s faithalone.org/store. Now back to today’s content. 

BOB: Well, Zane didn’t explain that that’s his understanding of mystery. In other words, no one reading, Psalm 45:9 was going to come away with the fact when he talks about the queen that he’s talking about something called the Church or the body of Christ, and that the queen was going to be Jews and Gentiles united in one body. But anybody reading Psalm 45, I think, would come away with the fact that whoever the honorable women are, are different than the queen, right, Leon? 

LEON: Right. 

BOB: They’re not the same. Now you could say the queen comes from among the honorable women, right? Or you might say the queen is independent of the honorable women. You wouldn’t know. But you have that information. 

So I agree with Zane. I think Psalm 45 is clearly talking about the Church. After all, it’s cited in Hebrews 1:9 talking about the fact that we can be partakers with Christ. We can be his metachoi, his companions. And in fact, the word used in verse seven, the oil of gladness more than your companions in the New Testament, that’s translated metachoi your partners. And we can be partners. 

So I would say, look, there’s lots of references to the Church in the Old Testament. It’s just they’re not clear that this is Jews and Gentiles united in one body and that this is a separate dispensation from the law of Moses. You can’t get all of that. 

But let me give you a couple more examples. Remember when Enoch was taken, he didn’t die, for God took him in Genesis chapter five. And remember Elijah was taken up by God in a whirlwind. And he didn’t die. It’s possible, I think that an Old Testament person could wonder is God going to be taking up his people who are alive and catching them up like he did with Enoch and like he did with Elijah. They might not grasp that that’s going to be a different group of people than the Old Testament saints. This would be the Church. 

But it seems to me that both Enoch and Elijah are types of the Rapture of the Church. Now, the Rapture is also called a mystery in 1 Corinthians 15. But yet the Rapture is taught in the Old Testament. The Rapture is alluded to when Lot and his family are taken out of Sodom or when Noah and his family are saved via the ark. I think all of those are types of the Rapture and that God intends to save His people from the wrath, which is about to fall in the Tribulation. But again, that’s a mystery because you wouldn’t get that unless you have the greater reveal. 

So it’s wrong to think that the Church is nowhere found in the Old Testament. By the way, I don’t have all the verses, but there’s a lot of verses in the Old Testament that indicate Gentiles are going to be part of God’s kingdom. And that Gentile nations are going to be part. For example, Egypt is going to be one of the kingdoms in the Millennium, one of the kingdoms on the new earth. The Old Testament talks about that. But getting the idea that Jews and Gentiles will be united in one body, a separate body called the Church. No, that’s something you don’t get without further revelation. 

I like Wes’s question, and I would say, yes, we can see lots of indications of the fact that Gentiles are going to be part of the family of God. In 1 Corinthians 10:32 Paul says, “Give no offense to anyone.” And then he says to the Jews, and I think he says the Greeks or the Church of God. But let’s see what he says there. 

LEON: 1 Corinthians 10:32, “Give no offense either to the Jews, to the Greeks, or to the Church of God.”

BOB: Okay, notice the three groups. Dispensationalists often say on the new earth and in the Millennium, there will be three separate groups, the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Church. So the Church won’t be part of the nations. In Revelation 21:24 it says the nations will bring their glory and honor to the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Jerusalem. Well, the nations refer to the redeemed nations, the redeemed Greeks. And then you’ve got the Jewish people, the Jewish nation is going to exist forever, but you’ve also got the Church. And the Church is designed to rule over the nations and Israel. If we’re faithful, we’ll be glorified and we’ll rule and reign. 

So, Wes, it’s a terrific question. I would encourage all of you to meditate on this concept of mystery. In fact, I’d encourage you to look it up. It occurs about 27 times in the New Testament. Thanks for your question, Wes. 

And Leon, let’s keep grace in focus. Amen. 

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Thank you for joining us each day this week. We wish you a great weekend. We hope you are able to fellowship with other believers at a grace-filled church. Keep grace in focus and we look forward to being with you again on Monday.