Jer 16:1-12 [Our] Carcases Shall Be Meat for the Fowls of Heaven

[Study Aired August 21, 2021]

Jer 16:1  The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
Jer 16:2  Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.
Jer 16:3  For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;
Jer 16:4  They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
Jer 16:5  For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.
Jer 16:6  Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
Jer 16:7  Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
Jer 16:8  Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.
Jer 16:9  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
Jer 16:10  And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?
Jer 16:11  Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
Jer 16:12  And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:

In this chapter, Jeremiah is told not to take a wife “in this place” because any wife married [or] children born in this place… this land… “shall die of grievous deaths… [and] they shall be as dung upon the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.”

Jer 16:1  The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
Jer 16:2  Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.
Jer 16:3  For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;
Jer 16:4  They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

Jeremiah was commanded to refrain from getting married “for our admonition”. Everything that happened to him was for the purpose of teaching us how we are to have the mind of God:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

If we are being admonished by Jeremiah not to marry, what does that tell us? Before we answer this question, we must notice that there is a qualification to this commandment. That qualification is “in this place… in this land”. “This place [and] this land” means that while we are apostate Israel and Judah ‘You shall not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.’ These words of Jeremiah are just the less mature Old Testament way of saying ‘come out of her my people…’:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Let’s always remember that every word of God is Christ-centered. Of Him, through Him, and to Him are all things:

Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Christ is the ‘new man’ in the Lord’s elect. However, if we are to understand the meaning of this command to refrain from marrying and having children in ‘this place’ we must acknowledge that before Christ can be in the new man, there must first be an old man who is seduced and is joined to a harlot:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Every single religious human being is an “inhabitant of the earth” (Jer 22:29).

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

However, it is given to very few to “hear the word of the Lord” in “this present time”:

Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Mat 22:13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

The ‘call’ has gone out to all men, and billions have responded to that ‘call’. However, very few are chosen to endure to the end being divided from family and friends and being hated of all men.

Israel’s and Judah’s hearts and minds, as types of our hearts and minds, were in Babylon long before they were carried away to that land. Babylon, symbolizing the religions of this world, is the ‘place’ in which we are commanded not to marry and have children. Any children conceived in “this place” will “die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.”

The ‘sword’ which will consume them is these very Words of God coming out of Jeremiah’s mouth and through his pen. The famine that will consume them is their rejection of the Words of the Lord.

Just as the death and destruction of the giants in our land are nourishment for our new man, so our apostate old man is becoming the “dung upon the earth and… meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.” In this scenario “the fouls of heaven, and beasts of the earth” are the positive application of these words, and they represent our new man who is nourished and strengthened by the utter death and destruction of the kingdom of our old man.

The fowls of the air are also nourished and strengthened by the decomposition and dissolution of all the false doctrines we believed while we were so prominent and established in all the lies of our Babylonian harlot wife, the wife we have while we are in “this place”. In this prophecy those lies and false doctrines are typified by ‘dung’, which must decompose to become nourishment for our new man.

This is Paul’s estimation and the value he placed upon all the qualifications he had achieved while striving to excel in keeping the law of Moses and being prominent in the church of his day:

Php 3:4  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:
Php 3:5  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;
Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

This is what the spirit calls the church which “glories in the flesh” and strive to please “the people” (1Sa 15:15-21), and follows the dictates of this world rather than the dictates of “the Creator” as did King Saul:

1Sa 15:15  And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
1Sa 15:16  Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
1Sa 15:17  And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
1Sa 15:18  And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
1Sa 15:19  Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
1Sa 15:20  And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
1Sa 15:21  But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
1Sa 15:22  And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

When we take lightly the words of the Lord, because we fear “the people”, our families and our friends, the Lord considers that “rebellion… and stubbornness [which are to Him the equivalent of] “witchcraft… iniquity, and idolatry”.

It all amounts to spiritual adultery against Christ, whom we say is our husband.

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

In Revelation 17 the “gold and precious stones and pearls” are all the scriptures which we have twisted and “wrested” to cover our own idols of our hearts (Eze 14:1-9) in our attempts to please men. We simply cannot “please men” and remain faithful to our spiritual ‘husband’, Christ:

Gal 1:10  For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

2Pe 3:14  Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
2Pe 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2Pe 3:16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness .
2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Peter considered Paul’s epistle’s as much ‘scripture’ as any of “the other scriptures” and he, through the holy spirit, condemned those who treated them lightly as King Saul did, and He condemned those who “wrested” Paul’s epistles to make them fit around the idols of their heart.

This is what we are when we ignore the Lord’s commandments, or “wrest” them in our attempt to please both God and men:

1Co 6:16  What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

When we are “joined to an harlot” our ‘father’ and our ‘husband’ is the great red dragon who empowers the beast which we are by nature:

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

When we are coming out of Babylon, we are becoming espoused to Christ as a chaste virgin, and He is also becoming our spiritual ‘Father’:

Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Our next verse speaks of the Lord rejecting “this people”:

Jer 16:5  For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.

“This people… this place” and “this land” are one and the same as our next verses demonstrate:

Jer 16:6  Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
Jer 16:7  Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
Jer 16:8  Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

The Lord has “taken away [His] peace from this [rebellious, apostate, self-righteous] people”. “This people” means the kingdom of our old man. He has no pity and will not mourn the destruction of that kingdom. Rather, He tells us to:

Rev 18:20  Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

Notice how closely our next verse parallels the description of the great whore of Revelation 18:

Jer 16:9  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

Here is this same message in:

Rev 18:23  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

Clearly “this place” of Jeremiah 16 is the self-righteous whore of Revelation 18, to whom we are all joined, each in our own order.

Jer 16:10  And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?

It is clear that at one time we really were completely unaware of just how far from our True Husband we have become. This is what we truly think of our adulterous ways at this time of our lives:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

This is exactly what the church of Laodicea thought:

Rev 3:17  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:

Clearly the “great whore” of Revelation 17 and 18 is “the seven churches of Asia” who have “that woman Jezebel, the seat [Greek: ‘thronos’, throne] of Satan, [and] the Nicolaitans” among them.

The seven churches of Asia may be totally unaware they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”, but ignorance is no defense when we have been given the Lord’s commandments in such plain words. King Saul attempted that defense while disobeying the Lord’s commandment, and the Lord was having none of it:

1Sa 15:20  And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

King Saul, a perfect type of our self-righteous old man, is in effect telling the Lord, “Look Lord, I did everything you told me to do except for the strong meat part. I may have been weak in the faith, but you should bear with me. That strong meat isn’t really that important.”

It is not a good strategy to attempt to play mind games with God and refuse to “go on unto perfection” clinging only to those six milk doctrines which appeal even to those who cannot accept the strong meat of the Word of God:

Heb 5:9  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
Heb 5:10  Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
Heb 5:11  Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
Heb 5:12  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.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  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.

Paul, using the words “…when for the time ye ought to be teachers” clearly demonstrates that when we “bear with the weak” we do so with the goal in mind of “with one mouth and with one mind glorifying God”:

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye [“Ye that are strong”, Rom 15:1], but not to doubtful disputations.
Rom 14:2  For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
Rom 14:3  Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
Rom 14:4  Who art thou [who are weak (vs 2-3)] that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he [that eats all things] shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

No one with the mind of Christ will force “strong meat” down the spiritual throat of a babe in Christ who eats only spiritual herbs and drinks only spiritual milk.

Rom 14:5  One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Rom 14:6  He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
Rom 14:7  For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
Rom 14:8  For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
Rom 14:9  For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
Rom 14:10  But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Rom 14:11  For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
Rom 14:12  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
Rom 14:13  Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
Rom 14:14  I [Paul who is not “weak in the faith, esteemed every day alike, and was spiritually strong in the faith] know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
Rom 14:15  But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.
Rom 14:16  Let not then your good be evil spoken of:
Rom 14:17  For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Rom 14:18  For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.
Rom 14:19  Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.
Rom 14:20  For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
Rom 14:21  It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
Rom 14:22  Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
Rom 14:23  And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Let us be very careful that we do not cause a weak brother to be “damned if he eats” our strong meat. For him it would be a sin to eat our strong meat, and it would make the weak brother to die.

Num 4:15  And when Aaron and his sons [“We that are strong (Rom 15:1)] have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.

So, what exactly constitutes spiritual ‘herbs’ and spiritual ‘milk’ of the Word? As it turns out, we all at first confuse the milk of the Word with strong meat of the Word. When and if we are confused in this way it is because God Himself has already written it in our books to attempt to convince Him that we have been fully obedient when, in reality, we have not been fully obedient. We have kept only the things that are popular to keep.

the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation. Here are the milk doctrines which we just naturally think of at first as being strong meat:

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection [spiritual maturity]; not laying again the foundation of 1) repentance from dead works, and of 2) faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of 3) the doctrine of baptisms, and of 4) laying on of hands, and of 5) resurrection of the dead, and of 6) eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

King Saul, as a type of each of us, was willing, and even desiring, to go out and fight against an enemy who everyone recognized as an enemy. He was willing, and even desirous, of fighting against outward enemies, but He was not willing to stand up to enemies within his own people, and he chose instead to please them, typifying the enemies within the body of Christ, rather than fear God and keep His commandments to the full regardless of what his family and friends thought of him.

Jer 16:11  Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
Jer 16:12  And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:

Walking after the imagination of [our] evil heart” is self-righteously serving the Lord as we see fit. Keeping days, months, times, and years, and ignoring Galatians 1:10 and Colossians 2:8, is the equivalent of bringing back King Agag and the best of the cattle. To us it is no big thing, and Christ and His Christ are simply going overboard and becoming Pharisaical when they make such a big deal over these words:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

What does the holy spirit consider to be the bondage of King Saul and of us as King Saul, who wanted to please his people more than his God. This is what Paul in Romans 14 calls “weak in the faith”:

Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

Col 2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

That is the “beggarly elements” and the “bondage” to which the holy spirit refers in Galatian 4:9. How does our desire to please our families and friends to fit in with the world set with the Lord?

These are His inspired words:

Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

That is the fate of us all of us when “for the time [we] ought to be teachers” and we are not yet given to “go on unto perfection”, and we are still given to choose to remain on the ‘milk’ and ‘herbs’ of the Word.

What is the fruit of being given this timid spirit? As we saw in the case of King Saul:

1Sa 15:28  And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou [One who is willing to make a big deal out of the words “touch not mine anointed” (1Sa 24:6 and 1Sa 26:9)].

Our spineless old man “cannot inherit the kingdom of God [because] he is more fearful of his fellow man than he is of his God.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Here is the fruit of spiritual weakness “when for the time we ought to be teachers” (Heb 5:12), instead of fearing family and friends more than we fear God. This is the fruit that refusing the strong meat of the gospel produces. This is the fruit which is produced by us after the spiritually strong have borne our spiritual weakness for so long and we are yet given to eat only herbs and esteem one day above another. We will repeat the last three verses of Hebrew 5 and the first few verses of Hebrews 6 to get the contrast:

Heb 5:12  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.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  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.

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.
Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Heb 6:7  For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
Heb 6:8  But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

By using the words “for the time you ought to be teachers” and Peter’s admonition to “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” we are being admonished against becoming stagnant in our spiritual growth by remaining on spiritual ‘milk’ and spiritual ‘herbs’.

Then we are instructed by the holy spirit that, for those who do “shall fall away” after having been “once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come… it is impossible… If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance.”

This is what the apostle John called “a sin unto death” of which he admonishes us:

1Jn 5:16  If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

The woman caught in the act of adultery and the Corinthian fornicator both sinned a sin that was not unto death. Stubbornly “putting away… faith and a good conscience”, like Hymaenaeus and Alexander, is “a sin unto death”.

1Ti 1:19  Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
1Ti 1:20  Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Stubbornly teaching the false doctrine that everything is spiritual and inward and that therefore “the resurrection is past already… is a sin unto death”:

2Ti 2:17  And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 2:18  Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

We will all ‘marry in this place’ and have spiritual wives and children ‘in this land… each in his own order’. Nevertheless, when we see that it is all a work of the Lord in our lives, to be repented of, then the Lord will destroy our old kingdom and establish His new man and His kingdom within us (Luk 17:20-21). Those who are given to stubbornly cling to the false doctrines of those who marry in “this place” and are not given “place for repentance”, will die grievous deaths in “this land”, because they are given to sin a “sin unto death”:

1Jn 5:16  If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

That is our study for today, and I pray you were edified and encouraged by these words.

Here are our verses for our next study:

Jer 16:13  Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.
Jer 16:14  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
Jer 16:15  But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
Jer 16:16  Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
Jer 16:17  For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.
Jer 16:18  And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.
Jer 16:19  O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
Jer 16:20  Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
Jer 16:21  Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.

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Isa 59:8-14 The Way of Peace They Know Not

[Study Aired May 10, 2020]

Isa 59:8  The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
Isa 59:9  Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
Isa 59:10  We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
Isa 59:11  We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
Isa 59:12  For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
Isa 59:13  In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
Isa 59:14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

As this very prophecy has informed us, the scriptures are not even intended to be understood by the masses of Christianity, much less the uncalled world. The scriptures are deliberately written ‘line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little, that they may go and fall backward and be snared and be taken.’

Isa 28:9  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.
Isa 28:10  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
Isa 28:11  For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
Isa 28:12  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.
Isa 28:13  But the word of the LORD 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.

The scriptures themselves tell us they are not intended to be understood by babes in Christ. They are written in a way that keeps their wisdom hidden from all but “them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts”. That was exactly what Christ said in answer to the question from His disciples who wanted to know why He spoke only in parables to the multitudes who came to Him.

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away  even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

One way that goal is accomplished is with the use of the plural third person. Using the plural third person causes all self-righteous, carnal babes in Christ to place the admonitions of scripture outside of themselves. “That they might go and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken” is always applied to “That evil sinner somewhere over there, or some hedonistic heathen. It never applies to me while I am a carnal babe in Christ.”

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

But they “that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts” can look behind themselves and see that they themselves are the “carnal… babes in Christ”, and that every admonition of scripture is  being given to them personally and their own old man, encouraging them (us) to “grow up into [our head], Christ”:

Eph 4:15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

It is of utmost importance that we all know we are not to become complacent with knowing the milk doctrines, including the milk doctrine of the salvation of all. There are those who believe that the doctrine of the salvation of all is strong meat. That was what I thought for several years. When I first learned the Greek word aion is defined as ‘an age’, and that aion, or its adjective aionios, is the Greek word from which the English words forever, forever and ever, eternal, eternity, everlasting, and world are all translated, it seemed at that time, back in the early 1970’s, as a very large, spiritual, 16 ounce, T-bone steak. It was nothing more than the Truth of the milk doctrine of “eternal judgment”, the last of the six milk doctrines of Hebrews six:

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

The Christ we thought we knew was a Christ who would think nothing of tormenting most of mankind in flames of literal fire for all eternity. That ‘Jesus’ was what Paul referred to as “another Jesus”.

2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

We have all been in our own pre-ordained time “carnal… babes in Christ”. At that time in our walk we believed in “another Jesus”. We must all want to get past being a spiritual babe in Christ if we want to get past ‘falling backward, being broken snared, and taken’:

Isa 28:9  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.
Isa 28:13  But the word of the LORD 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.

The only way to get past being satisfied with the milk of the Lord’s Word is to “grow up into Christ” and acknowledge that all of His words speak to each of us  in our own time, including these words of our study today:

Isa 59:8  The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
Isa 59:9  Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

The knowledge of the milk doctrine of universal salvation, absent the doctrine of the chastening grace of the judgments of God, will keep us from going beyond the first principles of the oracles of God, and we will remain spiritual “carnal… babes in Christ… such as have need of milk and not of strong meat”, and we will continue thinking that the doctrine of universal salvation is that big 16 ounce T-bone steak, when it is really nothing more than the milk of the Word.

Heb 5:11  Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
Heb 5:12  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.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  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.

Notice how here in Isaiah 59:8-9 the holy spirit goes from the third person – “There is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths” – to the first person. “Therefore, judgment is far from us, neither does justice overtake us: we wait for light but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.” The third person, ‘they’, the first person, the ‘us’ and the ‘we’, are all one and the same. All the Lord’s admonitions are speaking only to those who “are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts”. They are addressed only to those to whom the Lord, through fiery trials in this age, has given ‘eyes that can see and ears that can hear… the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven’ (Mat 13:9-15). While it is true the Lord uses Satan as “the god of this world” to blind the eyes of the world from His plan and purpose… from understanding ‘the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven’, He clearly tells us that it is He who has blinded their eyes, and that it is all being done “after the counsel of His own will”.

Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Continuing the Lord’s admonition to us:

Isa 59:10  We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
Isa 59:11  We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

Only those who are given eyes that see and ears that hear can see and hear these words of admonition from the Lord addressed to ”us [who have all] groped for the wall like the blind… as if we had no eyes”. Only the Lord’s servants realize just how blind they are without the mind of Christ, and the scriptures make that very clear:

Isa 42:19  Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant?

These verses are not encouragement to stay blind and deaf, and they are not saying we are to remain in that state. They are telling us that all these admonitions have a personal application to each of the Lord’s messengers He is in the process of purifying and perfecting.

Isa 59:12  For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
Isa 59:13  In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
Isa 59:14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

Every one of the Lord’s servants and every one of His messengers know in a very personal way the total darkness that is the blindness the Lord places upon each of us, even as we thought we had already seen the light of the Truth. Coming out of Egypt appears, at the time, to be our very salvation, and it is indeed a joyous thing to discover that we will neither be tormented for all eternity nor will we be annihilated. It is very comforting to discover that are we baptized into the death of Christ and raised with Him in newness of life.

However, these are milk doctrines which are like honey in our mouths.

Heb 5:12  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.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

We are then told these “milk” doctrines also called “the first principles of the oracles of God”. These milk doctrines are listed for us in the first two verses of the very next chapter:

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

These “first principles of the oracles of God”, these “milk” doctrines, are specifically designed to nourish spiritual “carnal… babes in Christ”:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Babes very often are totally unaware of their limitations. I tell the story of my 3-year old son watching my brother and I drive steel fence posts into the ground with a 16-pound sledge hammer. After watching us for a few minutes, he asked if I would let him use the hammer, and just for our amusement I consented. My brother and I got a good chuckle when my three-year old struggled just to get that 16-pound hammer off the ground. That story is very instructive of us as the story of James and John requesting to be seated at Christ’s right and left hand in His kingdom demonstrates for us.

Let’s look briefly at that account and at what happened shortly thereafter:

Mar 10:35  And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire.
Mar 10:36  And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you?
Mar 10:37  They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory.
Mar 10:38  But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
Mar 10:39  And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized:
Mar 10:40  But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.

No, we of ourselves cannot drink of the cup that [Christ] drank, neither can we of ourselves be baptized with His baptism. James and John were not yet even converted. The very fact they fled from Him, at the time of His apprehension by the Jewish mob, demonstrated just how unprepared they were to drink of His cup or be baptized with His baptism:

Mat 26:47  And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.
Mat 26:48  Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.
Mat 26:49  And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.
Mat 26:50  And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.
Mat 26:51  And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear.
Mat 26:52  Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Mat 26:53  Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
Mat 26:54  But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?
Mat 26:55  In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me.
Mat 26:56  But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.

Peter is like all of us. Not one of us of ourselves can resist the urge to preserve our soulish life. But we are also James and John who think they are capable of drinking of Christ’s cup and partaking of His baptism. This is a time of great trial, and we will fall seven times before we learn that of ourselves we can do nothing without being in Christ and Christ being in us. Christ was nothing of Himself, and we are nothing without Him:

Pro 24:16  For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

Joh 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

The fear of disobeying the Lord is born of a deep realization of the Lord’s omnipotence and the fact that He really is working and performing in us what He has appointed for us and is working all things after the counsel of His own will:

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

Eph 2:8  For by [“chastening”] grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Accepting and believing these truths is strong meat which we as babes simply cannot receive. This is what Christ said to His own disciples after spending 3½ years with them:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

Like Christ’s apostles, we are first spiritual “carnal… babes in Christ, and as such we are yet to learn that “the grace of God… chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godly lives in this present age”.

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching us [Greek: paideuo, chastening us] that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world [Greek: aion, age];

The physical and spiritually immoral darkness, the absolutely insane judgments of our secular leaders, and the hypocrisy of the outward world is merely a reflection of the spiritual hypocrisy within the Lord’s servants while we are “yet carnal”, blind and deaf and without judgment.

Isa 59:12  For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;

Like a family without a spiritual home surrounded with the spiritual walls of the New Jerusalem, we were open to being invaded and occupied by “every wind of doctrine” and every false doctrine of the adversary. That is exactly what happened to every one of us. We come to Christ seeking forgiveness for our sins, but the Lord gave us over to spiritual Pharisees who immediately turned us into twofold more the children of Gehenna than themselves. Then we become the self-righteous Pharisee who seeks the souls of others to make them as self-righteous as we are:

Mat 23:15  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

This insanity of being so rebellious and at the same time self-righteous is expressed in these spiritual words:

Eze 38:4  And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:

Amos uses the same language to describe how the Lord makes us to err from His ways and hardens our hearts from His fear (Isa 63:17).

Amo 4:1  Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan [David said the “bulls of Bashan have beset me” – Psa 22:12] that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.

[Psa 22:12  Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
Psa 22:13  They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

Psa 35:16  With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth.]

Amo 4:2  The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.
Amo 4:3  And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the LORD.
Amo 4:4  Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:
Amo 4:5  And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

We are brought to conviction of our blatant sins, and then like Job and his “miserable comforters” we succumb to the even more insidious sin of self-righteousness. When we become so ‘righteous’ that we literally contend with, reprove and condemn God, our judgment is inevitable and certain.

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

But we simply must be brought to see that these words are addressed to us:

Isa 59:13  In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

If we have ever believed and taught anyone that God would either torment or annihilate His creatures, we have ‘lied against the Lord’ (vs 13). If we have ever believed He was a three-headed, God we have lied against Him, and we have departed from Him. There is neither time nor space to list all the egregious false doctrines and words of falsehood to which we have all subscribed and uttered from the heart.

Isa 59:14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

How can “equity… enter” while we believe such monstrous doctrines as eternal torment, annihilation, and substitutionary atonement which gives us all a get-out-of-jail-free card. There is no justice in either eternal torment or annihilation, and there is no justice in the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, which by-passes the doctrine of being judged according to our works.

Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

Does that sound like the doctrine of substitutionary atonement?

Truly, while in bondage to the doctrines of Babylon, “judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands far off because Truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter our hearts and minds with such unjust false doctrines occupying the Lord’s temple.

With so many lies and false doctrines dominating our hearts and minds, every one of them contradicting the doctrine of Christ, which teaches us to love our neighbor and our enemies, it is easy to understand why this last verse of our study today corresponds with the first verse of our study today which tells us that of ourselves “the way of peace they know not”:

Isa 59:8  The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

It is becoming clearer every day that the scriptures, like the cloud at the Red Sea, are designed to keep this world in the darkness it is already in, while simultaneously shining like the sun in its full strength upon the Truths of the Lord’s words for those whom He is dragging to Himself in this age.

I just listened to a video entitled “Who Is the Beast of Revelation 13?” I was intrigued because this minister began by quoting this verse in his opening prayer:

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

He closed his opening prayer asking the Lord to ‘help us all to read, hear and keep the things written in this book’, so he had me hooked until it soon became abundantly clear that this minister believed that the beast of Revelation 13 will be ‘a very handsome… charismatic… son of Satan who will bring peace to the middle east and to the world just before Christ returns to crush the kingdom of this end time beast’.

As with all Babylonian ministers, the words “for the time is at hand” simply are not there in Revelation 1:3. This minister read that verse but did not see or hear those words. To that minister the entire prophecy of the book of Revelation is only for the generation which happens to be alive at the time just prior to the first resurrection and the thousand-year reign of Christ and His Christ. He spoke often of the anti-Christ, and again made him out to be only an end time personality who is the same as the end time beast of Revelation 13.

Truly, our last two verses apply to each of us when we were where this minister and all of His kind are:

Isa 59:13  In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
Isa 59:14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

That is our study for today. Here are our verses for our next study, and as we will see, the Lord continues to assure us that if we are His elect, He will never leave us.

Isa 59:15  Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
Isa 59:16  And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
Isa 59:17  For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
Isa 59:18  According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
Isa 59:19  So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
Isa 59:20  And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
Isa 59:21  As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.

[Study Aired March 16, 2020]

What must be fulfilled in the generation that God is judging is described within the verses of Matthew 24, written for the sake of God’s elect who are the generation that Christ is referring to (Mat 24:34)

Like all scripture it “is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”. What must be “fulfilled” in this generation is described for us in (Col 1:24) and accomplished by our hope of glory within who can give us the ability to drink the cup of his suffering (Col 1:27). Matthew chapter 24 just expands for us what that affliction is and tells us what we can expect to see unfold in the lives of those who God is working with both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Php 2:13).

A tree is known by its fruit (Luk 6:43-45) and if we are connected to the vine (Joh 15:5-7) and blessed to continue in His word to become disciples indeed who bring forth much fruit (Joh 8:31, Mar 4:20) then we must be “This generation [that] shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled”.

“This generation” is speaking of those who are predestined to be judged first in this life (1Pe 4:17, Eph 1:12, Joh 15:16, Rom 8:28-30), and that judgment is expressed through parables which hide God’s purpose and meaning from those who are not meant to understand these things which are hidden from the world at this time by God’s design (Mat 13:10-11).

The chapter culminates in pointing to the readiness required of God’s servants, the sacrifice of our life and time required in order to be that blessed servant who is providing spiritual meat in due season when our Lord returns (Mat 24:45-47).

With that in mind, I want to end with an FAQ Mike wrote at least 10 years ago, answering a former Jehovah’s Witness who was grappling with Truth of which we have been discussing on various Monday studies since May 2019.

“Conclusion to our Matthew 24 series: an FAQ from Mike.
When Will Matthew 24 Be Fulfilled?

[Excerpt from the question section]

…I also am struggling with letting go of some of the dispensationalism teachings of the JWs. Surely Matthew 24 describes some future event (I thought). But some of your explanations make a lot of sense to me, but yet confuse this carnal, milk-minded brain of mine. Maybe you can answer: when will the resurrection (first and second) occur? Is the resurrection a unique experience to each person (shortly after death)? Or is it a one-time, all-encompassing event that resurrects all of the elect (in the first resurrection) and then the rest of the dead at the second resurrection? And if it is a one-time event, what about all of those still living (on earth) at the time of “the end” just before the first resurrection? I think my dispensationally-trained mind is having a hard time with these sequence of events.

My carnal mind almost gets angry that Jesus (in Matthew 24) would almost seem to be mocking people by saying, “Oh yeah, there will be wars, earthquakes, famines, diseases… and then the end will come”. If your understanding of these words is true, isn’t Jesus just telling people, “You are going to live in a corrupt, imperfect, and violent world; then you will die, and then I will come?” If so, why all of the details? Aren’t the details important to identify the “last days”?

As I have read much of your material on the IWWB site, I have observed your quotation of Ecc 9:2-3 several times. Do these verses not refer to this “one event” or “same event” to both the righteous and the wicked alike… do these scriptures not simply refer to death? Of course, I can see that Heb 9:27 adds to the “sum of the words”…. hmmm, maybe I just answered my own question… When will Matthew 24 be fulfilled?

Hi T____,

Thanks for sharing with me your story.

It is only natural, and it happens to also be spiritually healthy, to share with others what has been our journey in coming to know Him who is the Truth. This is done at all of our Bible conferences, and having heard the stories of many from all around the world over the years, it has become clear that while the details may vary, the essential elements of all of our stories are exactly the same.

In your latest e-mail, you ask:

As I have read much of your material on the IWWB site, I have observed your quotation of Ecc 9:2-3 several times.  Do these verses not refer to this “one event” or “same event” to both the righteous and the wicked alike… do these scriptures not simply refer to death?  Of course, I can see that Heb 9:27 adds to the “sum of the words”…. hmmm, maybe I just answered my own question.

If Ecc 9:2-3 refers only to death, then Christ was lying when He said this:

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

… and this:

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

If Ecc 9:2 refers only to physical death then Christ was also lying when he said this:

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Rev 22:7  Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
Rev 22:8  And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9  Then saith he unto me, See [thou do it] not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

All who are in Christ and are truly our fellowservants, “Keep the sayings of this book, and the things written therein.” In the end “all things come alike to all.”

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; [and] he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
Ecc 9:3  This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

It makes good sense to say that the “one event” includes a life of “all things… written therein.” However, it makes no sense at all to say that the one event of death, includes “all things… written therein” which all men are commanded to “keep.”

“Keeping the sayings of the prophecy of this book” is “one event” which will, in the end, be common to all men, but there is no logical way to describe death as “all things… common to all men.”

Not one person yet has ever been brought to hunger for a deeper knowledge of our Lord, and a closer relationship with Him, without first passing through the “furnace of iron” that is our fiery experience in Egypt and in Babylon.

1Ki 8:51  For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt,  from the midst of the furnace of iron:

“The furnace of iron” and “the valley of the shadow of death” are both part of the “all things… one event” which we all must endure, if we are ever to “know Him and the fellowship of His sufferings.”

Psa 23:4  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

If you see “dying with Christ” as a daily process, then yes, that “one event” is death, but only in this Biblical sense:

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Rom 6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Rom 6:8  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
Rom 6:9  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
Rom 6:10  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

That is the “one event” in which “all things come alike to all”. All men will, in their own appointed time, “reckon themselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive unto God.” To think of this “one event to all” simply as physical death is to completely miss out on the summation of the “many things I have yet to tell you ” of Matthew 24, which “many things” are later given us in the revelation of Jesus Christ, which we are all plainly told to “read, hear and keep.”

No one in whom the spirit of Christ dwells wants to either add to or take away from his part from the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

Rev 22:18  For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Rev 22:20  He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly [into the life of every man of every generation who “reads, hears and keeps the things written therein”] . Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Every word of God’s Word confirms that this, too, your story as a Jehovah’s Witness convert, is “common to all men,” whether a Jehovah’s witness or a Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal or Catholic. We all are brought to see our need for a Savior while still serving our the Egyptian taskmasters, which are the lusts of our flesh.

Exo 1:13  And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:
Exo 1:14  And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

Exo 2:23  And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
Exo 2:24  And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Exo 2:25  And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

When did He do this? Here is when He comes to us:

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

So we all cry out to God to deliver us from our own flesh, and we come with an innocent heart, seeking to know God and His peace. Here is how this stage of our walk is described in the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, which revelation we are to “read, hear and keep.”

Rev 2:2  I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
Rev 2:3  And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

We all come to God as babes in Christ, desiring to serve Him but with no “root in ourselves” as yet, and we come to Him while we are yet in the churches of Babylon, looking to those we love and respect to guide us in our new walk. Here is how Christ describes this part of our walk which is common to all men.

Luk 11:52  Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

When all of this is taking place we are no more aware that we are in the grip and influence of the great whore than a child is aware that he cannot yet eat strong meat. Anyone who has reared children knows that all children think they are qualified to do the things they see their parents doing long before they really are able to do so. This is as true in spirit as it is in this temporal life. We are living our lives at this time, with all the false doctrines with which we have been reared from our youth still firmly implanted in our minds, and in that part of our walk God answers our prayers “according to the idols of our hearts.”

Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

When I was in the Pentecostal church, God answered my prayers according to my Pentecostal idols of the heart. Later, as a World Wide Church of God member, my prayers were answered according to those doctrinal idols.

When I lived several years of my life believing the doctrines of the Concordant Publishing Concern, my prayers were answered according to those doctrinal idols. You were raised up as a Jehovah’s Witness, and God answered you according to those heart’s idols, for several years. If now you have lain aside all doctrinal and denominational biases, and have come to His word with a heart that wants only to inquire of the Word of God, then God will answer you accordingly.

It is good that you realize that you have indeed been being sustained by “the milk of the word.” While there is ‘milk’ in the churches of Babylon, it is all poisoned milk and will never lead you to know the true God of scripture. The orthodox churches all would have us believe that our heavenly Father will burn all sinners in eternal hell fire, if they do not repent and serve Christ now in this life. Many of the supposed cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Seventh Day Adventists, and at one time, the Worldwide Church of God, all believed in a heavenly Father who would merely annihilate all sinners. None of this is in accord with the scriptures which teach that is it is through figurative fire that all in Adam will be saved in Christ.

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

1Ti 4:10  For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

2Pe 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us- ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

1Jn 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

What I pray you will come to see is that universal salvation may seem like the strong meat of God’s Word, but it is really nothing more than milk. This is made clear when we consider that even though the apostles never once taught either eternal hell fire or eternal annihilation, they did teach the doctrine of “eternal judgment,” and that doctrine of “eternal judgment,” is the teaching that  it is through judgment that aionios (eonian) judgment leads to life for all men. This is but a milk doctrine, and so it is listed.

Heb 5:12  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.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  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.

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

(Skipping down to the next section on the resurrection…)

You are right in saying all of the elect [are] (in the first resurrection) and then the rest of the dead at the second resurrection. The time-line is laid out in Revelation 20, and all the rest of scripture verifies that time-line.

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received [his] mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; andthey lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This [is] the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy [is] he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Look at verse 9.

Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

Verse 8 makes clear that all nations are deceived, and all nations are destroyed by the “fire from heaven.” I wondered for virtually all my life, how death could possibly be destroyed to comply with this verse of scripture.

1Co 15:25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

As long as human babies are being born in vessels of clay, also known as flesh, death will continue. Revelation 20:7-10 reveals that after the period of rule by God’s elect, God will bring the human race in flesh to an end.

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

While it is true that “fire from heaven” is symbolic of the means used to destroy death, the destruction of all flesh is essential to that goal, because death will never be destroyed as long as human babies continue to be born in bodies of sinful, corruptible flesh and blood.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

What do we see in the very next verse? We see the second resurrection at the great white throne judgment, which is the lake of fire which will purify all men. That fire is the Word of God, and the ‘lake’ is those in whom that Word resides.

Heb 12:29  For our God is a consuming fire.

Joh 14:9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou [then], Shew us the Father?

1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

These promises are only for those who understand that Christ’s Words never pass away, are lived in the lives of his elect in every generation since Christ, and are “the things written therein… the saying of the prophecy of this book” of the revelation of Jesus Christ within us.

Act 9:5  And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Time and again, Jesus tells us that we are Him and that how this world treats us is how it treats Him.

Mat 25:31  When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32  And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth [his] sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33  And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Mat 25:34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Mat 25:35  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36  Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Mat 25:37  Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed [thee]? or thirsty, and gave [thee] drink?
Mat 25:38  When saw we thee a stranger, and took [thee] in? or naked, and clothed [thee]?
Mat 25:39  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Mat 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Mat 25:42  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
Mat 25:43  I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Mat 25:44  Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Mat 25:45  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

This is the truth of the gospel for all who are in Christ:

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Be sure to read the study What Is “The Christ”?

My carnal mind almost gets angry that Jesus (in Matthew 24) would almost seem to be mocking people by saying, “Oh yeah, there will be wars, earthquakes, famines, diseases… and then the end will come”. If your understanding of these words are true, isn’t Jesus just telling people, “you are going to live in a corrupt, imperfect, and violent world; then you will die, and then I will come? If so, why all of the details? Aren’t the details important to identify the “last days”?

Absolutely! The details are important to identify the last days. That is Christ’s whole point! That is what this verse is all about:

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer [is] nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

As long as we refuse to believe that “this generation shall not pass till all these things shall be fulfilled,” then our understanding of what is ‘the last days’ is not in line with what is called ‘the end’ in scripture. These events found in Matthew 24 are the same imminent events found throughout the book of Revelation. Look at how the revelation of Jesus Christ is both introduced and how it concludes:

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Does “for the time is at hand” sound like this is prophecy is not to be fulfilled for another 2,000 years? Does “for the time is at hand” mean this book is only for the last generation before Christ’s return? That is what it means if you are a dispensationalist and you view all the sayings of this prophecy from that angle. However, in doing so you are denying that Christ’s words never pass away, and in doing so you are denying that Christ and His words are the first and the last and the is, was and will be He claims to be on twelve different occasions in this book alone. In doing so you are saying that the prophecy of this book has no personal application for any of God’s elect of any past generation and that these words are applicable only for those who happen to be standing on this earth at the time of Christ’s return. Nothing could be further from the Truth. It is He who tells us “I am the Truth” who concludes this prophecy with the same admonition with which He begins it.

Rev 22:7  Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

This prophecy begins and ends with the warning to all who read it that they are to “keep the things written therein,” and they are to “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” Both warnings say “the time is at hand… behold I come quickly.”

Like Christ in the 24th chapter of Matthew, these words are addressed to “whosoever reads” and not just to the last generation at the end of this age.

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand.

“The holy place” is the inner chamber of the temple of God, and the New Testament is abundantly clear that “ye are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you.”

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

The abomination of desolation is not at the end of this age for those who are given eyes to see that “the end” spoken of by Christ here in Matthew 24 is the end of the age that comes upon every generation of God’s elect.

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

So don’t be upset with Jesus Christ. He was abundantly clear that His words would never pass away and that they would be fulfilled “in this generation.” Who we all ought to reject are our Babylonian teachers who have blinded our eyes to all these obvious truths which are consistent with words which are, were and will be true in every generation.

I have no problem with the length of your letter when the heart is sincere in searching for the Truth and is not filled with “idols of the heart.”

God bless your sincere search to know the mind of God and Jesus, whom He has sent to us to reveal to us the Father.

Mat 11:27  All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and [he] to whomsoever the Son will reveal [him].

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike