Please turn to Isaiah 28. We read in Isaiah 28:7-13:
But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of JEHOVAH was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
I will stop reading there.
This is an interesting passage in the Bible. God uses this passage to help us to understand how we must approach the Bible and understand the Bible, and yet many in the churches today do not follow God’s methodology of coming to truth. As a result, we find that many do not recognize the truth.
I would like to go through this as far as we can. I will begin in verse 7. It says again in Isaiah 28:7:
But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way…
We can use this word “erred” in different ways. For example, “I made a mistake.” This is how we use this word. “I erred. I should have done or said something else, but I made an error on my part.” But when the Bible uses this word, it really relates to doctrine.
We read in Psalm 119:21:
Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments.
God has given His commandments and people err from them. They go “out of the way” from His commandments.
We find this also in Proverbs 19:27:
Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.
So if you look up this word, you will find that it relates to Biblical truth, to Biblical teaching and doctrine; and here in Isaiah 28:7, it says:
But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way…
I think that we can understand the phrase “out of the way,” because Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life.” To err through drink and wine and to go “out of the way” means that they have left the path to Heaven. They are no longer on the narrow way. They are on the broad way “that leadeth to destruction”; and God is indicating here that the making of this grievous error is done “through wine, and through strong drink.”
I have a couple of verses related to this. Let us go to the next chapter of Isaiah. It says in Isaiah 29:9-14:
Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For JEHOVAH hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
God is indicating here that He is not literally talking about wine or strong drink. We read again in Isaiah 29:9:
…they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger…
“They stagger” like a drunken man.
Have you ever seen someone coming out of a bar at 2:00 A.M.? (If you did, what were you doing out at 2:00 A.M.?) But have you ever seen someone coming out of a bar who cannot even walk straight? He has to hold onto a wall as he tries to get to his car (that has a designated driver). He is staggering because his drinking has hurt his reflexes and his sense of perception. At this point, a thorn could go into his hand and he would not even feel it. All of this is because of his drinking wine, strong beer, or any type of alcohol.
God is using this picture, but He is making sure that we understand something. It says again:
…they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
This is a spiritual thing. This is a spiritual drunkenness that God has in view.
Go to Matthew 24. It says in Matthew 24:42-51:
Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
This is Jesus setting the watch for the watchmen. It continues:
But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So if someone begins to eat and drink with the drunken, then they will not know the day or hour. This is what it said in Matthew 24:50:
The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
This is because this servant has taken his ease. He is eating and he is drinking with the drunken. As a result, he is a very poor watchman.
Jesus started out this passage in Matthew 24 with the command:
Watch therefore…
Then He spoke well of the servant who gives “meat in due season.” He did not say “milk” but “meat.” Babies start out on milk and then they have to develop and graduate to meat.
So the blessed servant, the faithful servant, will give “meat in due season,” but then Christ warns those who become drunken and wind up having no idea about the day or hour of His return.
If we also go to Isaiah 56, this is a passage that relates to what is going on today in the church world. It says in Isaiah 56:10:
His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
Being blind watchmen is a good description of the role of the churches and congregations of our day.
Jesus said to watch. He set the watch. The churches recognize this and it is like they are telling the watchmen that it is good for them to go up to their towers. Then it is as if they hand them a trumpet and a looking glass but tell them that, whatever they do, they are to never think that they can see Christ coming; they are never to think that they can see the enemy approaching.
When we read in Ezekiel 33 about the watchman who sees the sword coming, that sword belongs to the Angel of the Lord. It belongs to Christ Himself. This is God coming in judgment.
The watchman in Ezekiel 33 can see this; but the instruction to the church’s watchman today is that, first of all, he cannot see this. It kind of makes us wonder why they would set someone up in a watchtower if they cannot watch. If they cannot watch, it is an impossibility for them to see anything; and yet they are telling people that Jesus said to watch.
So it is as if they give the watchman the trumpet and then they tell him to make sure, no matter what happens, that he never blows the trumpet; that he definitely never blows it with a certain sound. But we read in 1 Corinthians 14:8:
For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
This is referring to the battle of Armageddon, but the churches instruct their watchmen not to blow the trumpet. They are to take it with them, and yet they are not to blow it. They are not to wake the people. They are not to disturb them with this information about the enemy coming with a sword.
This is ridiculous, and yet, basically, this is what they are doing. This is why God is mocking them. God is mocking them here in Isaiah 56:10 as He indicates:
His watchmen are blind…
They cannot see their faulty teachings. The errors of their pastors and priests and the errors of the theologians have blinded their eyes to where they cannot believe that we can know the timing of Christ’s return.
So Isaiah 56:10 says:
His watchmen are blind…they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark…
They are like a dog that “cannot bark.” This would be like putting a guard dog in a junkyard that could not bark. Would you put a dog in there if he could not bark? A dog that cannot bark has no sound coming out of his mouth. It would not be possible for him to scare away a thief and to warn anyone that the thief was there, because he cannot bark. This is how God is describing the churches of our day.
Then we find “drink” again in Isaiah 56:12. God says:
Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.
It is the drink that is making them think that tomorrow will come, that day after day will follow. They are quite relaxed. This is why they are basically saying, “Peace and safety,” as they take their ease.
Let us go to Proverbs 31 where we also read about “wine” and “strong drink.” We read in Proverbs 31:4:
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:
This is instruction for all of God’s people. It is not for us to physically drink alcohol, to have a glass of wine, to have a beer or to have a drink. This is not for the people of God, because we do not need this. We do not need this because God has enabled and equipped us to face life soberly with a sound and sober mind. We do not need any assistance. We do not need any help to get through the day, because God is our help. He is our aide. When things go wrong, we go to Him and we cast our burdens upon Him.
Then look at what it goes on to say in the following verses. We read in Proverbs 31:5:
Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
On a physical level, we can see how the Bible is difficult enough to understand when someone is in their right mind and has their wits about them; but to drink and then to try to understand the Bible would be nearly impossible.
Then we read in Proverbs 31:6-7:
Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
What is man’s “poverty”? What is the “poverty” of the richest people on earth? Their poverty is that they are not saved. Their sins are upon them and they are subject to the wrath of God because of them.
Turn to Proverbs 10. Proverbs 10:15 says:
The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty.
This is referring to an unsaved individual. Because they are subject to destruction, they are very poor.
We are aware of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. While the rich man lived, no one would have thought that he was poor; and yet he was. He was very poor. This was proven once he died and ended up in the “place of torment.” Lazarus had no money. He was a beggar who had poor medical care and someone who was full of sores. It says that “moreover the dogs came and licked his sores,” and yet he had everything. He had true spiritual riches, because he was a child of God.
The Bible indicates this in Revelation 3:17-18:
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich…
This is the true state of man. We are “wretched, and miserable, and poor,” because our destruction is our “poverty.”
This is what Proverbs 31 [Note: Chris inadvertently referred to Proverbs 30] is getting at when it says in Proverbs 31:6-7:
Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
This is what people do. They drink and they forget their worries. They forget their troubles. It makes it easier. It’s been a long and hard week, and then Friday night and Saturday comes around and it is time to drink and to relax; and yet there is also a spiritual meaning to this.
If one’s poverty is their destruction, what kind of drink, in a spiritual sense, could make them forget this? What could make them forget this is a gospel that teaches people that they can accept Christ or that gives them certain steps to do in order to get saved. They then make them believe that they are no longer subject to destruction. They wind up believing that they are no longer subject to being eternally destroyed on May 21 or on any other day. This is what they think.
When individuals go to churches that are teaching these kinds of gospels, or when people place themselves under the hearing of these types of gospels, it is like drinking in strong drink and wine, in a spiritual sense. They are becoming drunk with the idea that they are now right with God.
This is an illusion. This is not fact and this is not true. Nothing changes when someone walks down an aisle and accepts Christ. No one truly becomes saved from doing this, and yet this is what people think. This is one of the reasons for why God is using this kind of language.
If we go back to Isaiah 28:7, it says in about the middle of the verse:
…the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way…
Again, they have wandered astray from the true way of salvation. It continues:
…they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
This is referring to “the priest and the prophet.”
Look at Jeremiah 8:10. It says:
Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
This is referring to religious leaders, to those who are ruling in the churches and congregations. We can apply this to them. In Israel, the prophet would supposedly declare what God had said. The priest would put this into action and then minister these things to the people.
Look at Jeremiah 5:30-31. This says:
A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means…
So these prophets were to declare the word of God.
To update this to our modern times, this means that this is referring to the churches and to those who teach in the churches. They speak forth and declare the Word of God. They have their theologians who say, “This is what the Bible is saying,” and then “the priests bear rule” by these things, by the “tradition of men,” by the “precept of men,” by the “doctrines of men,” which are all the gospels of men. God takes notice of this and He is telling us that they “prophesy falsely.”
A lot of times, we do identify the pastors and the ministers and the priests as the culprits, because God does this often in the Bible, but they are not alone. Look at the rest of Jeremiah 5:31. After God says:
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means…
Then He says:
…and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
The congregation is not guiltless. Who put these men in these positions? Who keeps these men in these positions? It is the congregation. Why do they do this? Why do they not run them out of the church when they are teaching these things? The answer is because they want them to teach these things. They love to have these things so, to have salvation in their own hands, to be able to get themselves saved by a simple choice or to be baptized and have the church indicate that their sins are washed away.
Whatever the church is indicating through any kind of a work, it is false; but the people remain because they like it and they want it, and this is the way that they want it; and so God is pointing this out. However, there will be “greater damnation” and “greater condemnation.” Even so, the people are also involved with this.
Let us go back to Isaiah 28. It says in Isaiah 28:8:
For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
When people drink too much, this is what follows. A lot of times, they vomit. They drink too much for their body and their system cannot handle it, and so they vomit. This is the analogy that God seems to be following here. This also says:
For all tables…
If you remember Psalm 23, it says that the Lord “preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” This is the word that is actually used for “table” in relation to the showbread being on a table.
I think that God is relating this to how He serves His people. He gives them bread. He gives them drink. He gives them spiritual nourishment, and yet through false teachings and gospels, which are likened here to strong drink and wine, the tables are made very unclean. It is not the beautiful “table of the LORD” that He sets for His people in the presence of their enemies, but it is a very ugly and filthy table.
Then we read in Isaiah 28:9:
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?…
If we were to sum this up, God is asking the question, “Who will be able to understand the Bible and how will they be able to understand it?” because He says:
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?…
Luke 24 is the chapter that speaks of Christ rising from the dead, and it says in Luke 24:44-45:
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
It takes God’s action for anyone to understand the Bible. It takes His opening of the mind of understanding for us to understand annihilation, for us to understand the end of the church age, for us to understand the date of judgment and the five months. In all of these things, God is in control of who is able to understand them and see them and who cannot, and He does this through a very definite way. God has a methodology that He lays out in the Bible that must be used in order to come to understanding. He speaks of this in Isaiah 28:10:
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
What is the best way of summing this up? The Bible actually does sum this up in the New Testament when He says, “comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” We are to compare Scripture with Scripture. This is a description of what it means to compare “spiritual things with spiritual.” We are to compare “precept upon precept.” A precept is a law, and the whole Bible is a Law Book. Notice also that God doubles this:
…precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line…
When we read, we read one line and then we go to the next line. This is what we do as we go all through the Bible. We go “line upon line.”
This is God’s way. This is His methodology for coming to truth. This is the way that He shall “teach knowledge” and this is His way of making people “to understand doctrine.” It is “here a little, and there a little.” It is here in Isaiah, and then we go over to 1 Corinthians 2. We are “here a little”; now let us go “there a little.” It says in 1 Corinthians 2:13:
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
“The Holy Ghost teacheth,” and so if we are following the Bible’s hermeneutic of “precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little,” if we are being very careful by checking out one word to see how it is used in other places, and if we then look at the context of what God is speaking about to see how this is addressed in other places, then we are following the way God wants us to follow.
The only other thing is that we have to harmonize and fit our conclusion. Like the pieces of a puzzle, everything has to fit in its place. If something is not fitting, then you stop. You never say, “The Bible has a lot of verses to support a teaching. Even though there are a couple of verses that do not support it, I have more that do. Therefore, this is what I am going to teach.”
But, no; you have a couple of verses that do not support your conclusion. God needs to then open your eyes to see how they fit. Once they do, you can be sure and say that the Bible guarantees it. You can then say, “Absolutely, this is what the Bible says.”
This is what has happened with this information about Judgment Day being on May 21st. God locked this in. All of the pieces fell into place and now we know. Now we know and we can be sure of it. We can also be sure that this is not a man’s teaching, which is very important.
Again, notice that it says in 1 Corinthians 2:13:
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
So “the Holy Ghost teacheth,” but I thought that I was listening to Mr. Camping. I was; but since he followed God’s methodology and he did it carefully and it fit with the whole Bible, it was God teaching. It was the Holy Spirit who was teaching.
This is where a lot of people are making a mistake. This is where the charge of Camping-ite comes from. They think that we are following a man. No; no. We hear the Holy Spirit’s voice. We hear Christ’s voice. We check it out and we see that the Bible is teaching this; and, yes, God used an individual to bring this forth. How could He bring this forth without using an individual? I do not know. Nobody ever gets into this. He had to use somebody. He had to use Louis Pasteur to find a vaccine that others could then build upon. It had to be an individual that invented one thing or another and then others built upon their work.
So here God is saying that this is what we are to do. We are not to look for the plain and literal meaning and to seek no other meaning. The Bible does not tell us to do this. The Bible does not say, “Try to find out what this meant to the people of that day.” It does not tell us to do this. It says to compare “spiritual things with spiritual” and that “the Holy Ghost teacheth.”
Look now at Mark 13. This is a parallel chapter to Matthew 24 and it is dealing with Jesus answering the disciples’ question, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” In Mark 13:11, it says:
But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate…
This is an incredible statement! God tells us to “meditate upon these things.” Yes; we were definitely to mediate and to think about what we were going to say. We were to “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you.” Do you not have to premeditate to do this? Why is He saying not to premeditate at some point? Why were we not to premeditate or to think on these things?
The reason was because the information about the end was sealed up. It was sealed up and if you tried to come up with an answer to the solution to the end of the world and all that the Bible had to say about eschatology and the end times when it was the year 500 A.D. or 1,000 A.D. or 1500 A.D., you should not have bothered. You should not have bothered, because you were not going to come to truth.
Of course, this knowledge was sealed up along with everything else; but if people had listened to God, we would not have pre-mill eschatology and post-mill eschatology and a-mill eschatology and all of the errors that are out there in the churches. However, they went ahead and did think, “This is how it is going to be,” and commentaries were written by the theologians, and yet God is saying:
…take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye…
This is because it is in the hour of judgment, the hour of the Great Tribulation, when this information would be opened up. Then it goes on to say, “that speak ye”:
…for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
How does the Holy Ghost speak? It is not through a dream or a vision or a tongue. God has said that He will not do this.
So God is saying, “In that hour, you are going to speak; but it is not really you; it is the Holy Ghost. It is Me. I am going to speak in that hour.” This is referring to “the hour of his judgment” that the book of Revelation speaks of, “the hour” of the Great Tribulation. This is when God is going to speak.
He just told us in 1 Corinthians 2 how He speaks. We read again in 1 Corinthians 2:13:
…the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
When you teach, you have to speak. God is not just somehow making people understand these things apart from speaking, but He is moving His people to speak or to teach. Since they are following His way that He has laid out, then He says that He is the One speaking.
This is what is going on today. It is not really Family Radio. It is not the individual believers, but it is God. Actually, in this verse, God is basically taking full responsibility for the doctrines and for the teachings that are being taught at this time.
So if someone does not like what is being opened up at this time, if someone does not like that there is no place called “hell” where people were to suffer forevermore – how anyone cannot like this, I do not know because this is a wonderful mercy of God – but if someone does not like this, their issue is with the Holy Ghost; because the Bible has revealed this and the Scriptures indicate this when we go “here a little, and there a little.” “Precept upon precept; line upon line,” the Bible is teaching this. Therefore, God Himself is teaching this; and so if someone does not like this, their problem is not with man; it is with God.
Going back to Isaiah 28:9, we read:
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
In Hebrews 5, God also uses this kind of language. Towards the end of chapter 5, He says in Hebrews 5:12-14:
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
God is speaking about His Word and He is relating it to those who drink milk and to those who can eat meat, “strong meat.”
If you have had children, you know how this is. For quite awhile after they are born, they drink milk. Then you start slowly giving them more and more food until they can eat solid food. At some point, they can eat meat.
So God is using this picture of those who are involved with the Gospel and reading the Bible. They start out with milk, but they have to progress. It is fine for a baby to drink milk; but if someone who is 10 or 15 or 20 or 40 years old drinks nothing but milk, they are going to have a problem. They would be someone who would experience stunted growth. In this case, spiritually, what we have is people who are not moving on to the more complete teachings of the Bible. They are stuck.
In the churches today, the reason that they are stuck on doctrines that are for babes and have not moved onto perfection is because of their hermeneutic. They do not follow comparing Scripture with Scripture. They follow other kinds of teachings, other kinds of ways that they think will bring them truth; and yet what they are doing hinders them and holds them back from truth so that they cannot understand things as they should.
So Hebrews 5:14 says:
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age…
The Greek word that is translated here as “full age” is teleios. This is found 19 times in the New Testament. It is translated as “perfect” 17 times. It is translated once as “full age,” and it is translated once as “men.” These are the only times that this word is found.
For instance, it says in Matthew 5:48:
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
These are two instances of this word teleios. He says here, “Be ye therefore perfect.” We know that God is perfect, and He is commanding us to be perfect. In all things, this is His standard. His standard is absolute perfection. If you fall short, you “come short of the glory of God” and you sin against the Law of God; but there is also a standard of “perfect knowledge,” of “perfect understanding.” Men fall short of this, too, and have fallen short throughout the whole church age.
We are now living at a time when God is opening the Scriptures and revealing the fullness of all that He wants His people to understand and to know. He is really bringing His people “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” He is filling up our understanding to the degree that He had meted out, and God’s people are learning all kinds of things.
We are just presently learning about the good possibility of there being a rolling earthquake. This was more information that we could not understand until we had all of this other information. As this is looked at, according to His timetable, He opens up the Scriptures.
Let us look at this word “perfect” as it is found in Ephesians 4:13. We read in Ephesians 4:13-14:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine…
We are to become perfect in knowledge. We are to become like God; that is, God knows perfect truth. Therefore, we must reach this standard. Then we will “be no more children.” We put away the “milk,” and now we have the “strong meat.” We come to truth and we are no longer “carried about” with this teaching and with that teaching and with all of the errors that are out there.
Look at 1 Corinthians 14:20, which also has this word teleios. 1 Corinthians 14 is a chapter that is dealing with tongues, as God indicates that tongues were permissible for the church at Corinth. In the church at Corinth, tongues were permissible by God until the Bible was completed. Afterwards, tongues were never permissible by God again, because God would not be communicating in this way. He would communicate only through His Word. We read in 1 Corinthians 14:20:
Brethren, be not children in understanding…
We will again find this word teleios and it is in the context of not being a child. This is related to doctrine, to understanding. It continues on to say:
Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice [or evil] be ye children, but in understanding be men.
This is the word teleios. Like “perfect” in Matthew 5:48 or the word translated “full age” in Hebrews 5, we are to be perfect in understanding. This is what God is doing today.
Turn to the previous chapter in 1 Corinthians. It says in 1 Corinthians 13:8-9:
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
When? When did we know “in part”? When did we prophesy “in part”? Is this what we are doing today?
No; this is referring to the church age. As God was moving Paul to write this in the first century A.D., is it not true that the church only knew “in part”? They did not have all kinds of information that we have today. If you think that they had understanding in everything, just look at the church’s teaching on baptism or look at their teaching on salvation. In many, many churches and in probably all of them in some way or another, they teach that salvation is up to an individual.
So this statement in 1 Corinthians 13:9 is a statement that was dealing with the 1,955 years of the church age:
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
Then we read in 1 Corinthians 13:10:
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
Is this referring to Heaven? Is this referring to May 21st when God takes His people up into Heaven? Is this saying that it is then that the “perfect is come” and when “that which is in part shall be done away”?
No; this is not referring to Heaven. This is referring to now. It is now, because now is when we are being corrected and given “strong meat.” God is giving us understanding of numerous doctrines and teachings in our day.
So then, who is perfect? God is perfect. When is God going to come? This is a little misleading:
But when that which is perfect is come…
What does this mean?
Let us go to John 16. It says in John 16:13:
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth…
The Holy Spirit is perfect, just as God is perfect. The Bible says, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
So “when that which is perfect is come,” then we can be expected to be guided into “all truth”; not partial truth, but “all truth.”
Did this happen in Acts 2? No; the church understood partly and they prophesied partly.
So when was this going to happen? This was going to happen during the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is what is happening during the “latter rain” in our day when the seals are being taken off of the Bible. Christ, the Holy Spirit, is guiding His people into “all truth,” into perfection, into a perfect understanding of what the Bible has to say. We do not understand everything in the Bible, but we understand everything that God wants us to understand.
This is kind of like the Trinity. We understand that there is a Trinity. We understand that God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, “these three are one”; but we do not really understand this. We do not know how this is possible.
We also understand that God is eternal and that He has always been without beginning. We understand this, but we do not really understand this. How can this be?
Everything that God wants us to know at this time, He is opening up. Since He is probably opening up something new right now concerning a rolling earthquake, we can be sure by the time that we get to the last day that “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” will be given to us.
This is what 1 Corinthians 13:10 is telling us:
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
It is hard to change and I do not like it. I was at work when they first brought in computers. We had to stop doing the written timesheets and we had to do them online. I did not like this at all. I am not really comfortable with change, and neither are a lot of other people in many areas of their lives, neither is the church and neither is national Israel.
This is what happened to national Israel when God brought about the change that the Gospel was to include the Gentiles. It always had, but there came a time when it was stated very clearly and boldly that the Gentiles would also be “heirs of salvation,” and the Jews rejected this. They rejected Christ as the Messiah. They wanted a certain stability in keeping their traditions that they had been following, because their “prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means.” This was their gospel and their church. Up until today, nearly 2,000 years later, they still hold to this in stubbornness and in rebellion against God. In essence, they are saying, “This is the way that we are comfortable in worshipping and we will not change.”
This is exactly the same with the churches of our day. God is coming and He has “done away” with this teaching and with that doctrine. He has put it away. Here is the truth. There is no place called “hell.” There is no place of eternal torment. God annihilates sinners.
How many cannot accept this truth? This is like Peter who, at first, refused when the unclean animals were brought down on a sheet and said, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.” But God was indicating that He had made a change. The only difference was that He brought Peter around. He changed him and brought him around to understand the truth.
God will do this for His people, even if, initially, we are stubborn. We can be stubborn, too, but God will do this for His people.
Then in 1 Corinthians 13:11, we read:
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child…
Again, He is referring to a “babe,” to little children, to the understanding of little children who are on “milk.” They need to go on. They need to graduate to meat.
Baby food used to be graduated. The little children graduated up to the carrots and the peas. Then they graduated up to the meat sticks. I will not tell you how long my children ate the meat sticks, because they really liked them.
So you have to move on. You cannot stay on milk. This is not possible. If you remain believing the partial truths that your churches are teaching and you do not humble yourself and bring yourself “under the mighty hand of God” and submit to what He is teaching through His Word, you are going to be destroyed. Shortly, you are going to face this destruction. This will come upon you “as a thief,” because your hermeneutic, your methodology for studying the Bible, forces you into blindness; it forces you not to understand and see these things. As an individual, you need to go to God and to ask Him to “guide you into all truth:”
So 1 Corinthians 13:11 says again:
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Turn over to the next chapter, to 1 Corinthians 14. Maybe God had a reason for allowing the translators to translate 1 Corinthians 14:20 in this way:
Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
Be grown up. Be one who is brought to completion and perfection. Do not be a little child any longer, but be a man and put away these childish doctrines. Put away the idea that you can do anything to get yourself saved or that you can repent unto salvation. No; put all of these things away.
Finally, we read in 1 Corinthians 13:12:
For now…
This would be referring to the church age. It continues:
…we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
God used the language of “face to face” for a good reason. When He speaks “face to face,” it is plain and not in similitude; that is, He is making the Scriptures understandable.
This is like when God spoke to Moses. The Bible tells us, “And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face.” We know that God gave revelation to Moses directly.
So this is referring to a very clear form of speaking or communicating. This is what God is doing now with His people. “Face to face,” He is making these things plain.
Let us stop here.