Message From The MessengerWhen That Which Is Perfect Is Come

... a Message from the Messenger
Bible 1611.Com / Sluice Box Adventures.com / Old Paths Baptist Mission © 2014

This message reveals the true meaning of I Corinthians 13:10.

Today’s religious apostasy has clouded this identification of “that which is perfect.”

• The Jews Require A Sign
• Tongues In The Book Acts Is A Known language
• The One-Time Event
• The Holy Ghost Received By Three Groups
• Peter Uses the Keys Three Times
• The Baptism By The Holy Ghost
• The Special Case of John the Baptist’s 12 Disciples
• Time To Go To I Corinthians
• The Spiritual Gifts That Are Gone
• That Which Is Perfect

When That Which Is Perfect Is Come

Little by little and step by step, we have seen THE LANDMARK being removed from our nation.

This LANDMARK we have already seen to be God's Holy Bible.

In the English language it is the A.V.1611, or any edition thereof.

 It is the absolute inspired [maintained inspiration] word of God.

 In this message, I want to deal with the glue that is being used to meld together all the religious sects into one great amalgamation to become the one-world church [the anti-church for the anti-christ].

Man is by nature religious.  No wonder!  Satan is fervently religious too. Now let that sink in!  All the religious roads go to Rome!  One of the sleights of the Devil in the total contrivance with the carnal mind of man at the helm is to take a verse [or verses] out of context, or omit, add, or change the words.

Remember, every translation [over 200 different translations in the English language] of the Bible beginning with the Revised Standard of 1881 and right up to the present [1996] are guilty of this.  These translations, which are based on the various formulated Greek Texts [over twenty of them] have ushered forth from the pens of liberal hell-bent scholars beginning with Tragelles, Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort in the nineteenth century.

Satan has been busy and he will perform any amount of tomfoolery just to get someone to prove by using the Bible, [not believing the Bible] some predetermined doctrine to be true.  This is like trying to take the cart before the horse.

Doctrine should be formulated through the Holy Ghost.  He provides the illumination [John 16:13,14] and as a result of the Scripture explaining Scripture . If this happens, then the true teachings will emanate.  But, true to form, man goes into it [The BOOK] with his own pre-conceived notions [man's doctrines] and pushes and shoves at the scripture [God calls it "wrest"] till he achieves his goal [which is his pre-determined doctrine].

Let me add this.  Problems will arise even with the misapplication of Scripture; that is, erroneously applying something to you personally from God's word, when God's word was applying it to someone else.  By the way, this can happen to anyone of us. 

Now God has a commentary on this in II Peter 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."

Now, you say; "Brother St.James, that verse is talking about someone who is unsaved."  Yes, I agree, but I say look on.  Look at the next verse. "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."

Now that verse is aimed squarely at you and I, brother and sister. "Beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, Fall...."

Some years ago in the beautiful Anchorage, Alaska bowl, I was employed with an engineering company.  I was part of a design team developing construction drawings for projects at the giant Oil Field on the north slope of Alaska 800 miles away.  One of the drafters I worked with was a young man.  His name was Tom.  I remember how Tom and I immediately hit it off very well.  He was a Christian, but we quickly recognized that there was a vast chasm or a great gulf between us.  We attempted [as good friends] to persuade each other of the error we saw in the other's doctrine.

There was to be no meeting ground.  Let me explain.  Tom was a member of a church, which was some twenty miles north of Anchorage, and his father was the pastor. [Watch out for those groups that avoid the New Testament name for the local body, "the church"].  His church was begun as an offshoot of the largest church in Anchorage, Alaska, a Christian Center.  [Here we go again, watch out for those groups that avoid the New Testament name for the local body, "the church"]. "Loopers", as they are commonly known, have satellite groups all over the Pacific Northwest.

Their view of the church holds that the office of the apostle is for today.  Therefore, they have apostles!  They have this doctrine of "The Church Perfect," of which they are members in particular.  Tom explained that all the other Christians [outside the Loopers] were destined to go through "The Great Tribulation" and suffer death while "the Church Perfect" [Loopers] was to survive in safety from all danger in the wilderness.  They had it all.  The gifts of prophecies, tongues and knowledge! They had been baptized in the Holy Spirit!  Yeah!  I can still see Tom sitting there with his headphones on while working at his PC station and just gyrating with the rhythmic beat of his "Christian Rock."  Bless his heart!  My compassion for him was as from a deep well. I would pray, "Oh, my Lord Jesus Christ, can I be used in Tom's life."

I. THE JEWS REQUIRE A SIGN

I Corinthians 14:21 "In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord."  In Isaiah 28 in verse 10-13 the prophet points to a future event.  He is speaking to Israel, and he is speaking to them of precepts and of lines. "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line; here a little, and there a little."

In the course of God's dealing with Israel, he had determined that he would someday "speak to this people" with "another tongue." "For with stammering lips and another tongue will I speak to this people. To whom he said, this is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken."

I Corinthians 14:21 is the fulfillment of the prophecy given to Isaiah hundreds of years before.  God's word is TRUE. "For prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." II Peter 1:21 I Corinthians 1:22 "For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom."

To those that have named the name of Jesus Christ, [Christians] who have trusted Him for their salvation "to be revealed in the last time" [1 Peter 1:5]; that is, in that period of time from Pentecost to the coming translation of the saints [which is the church, i.e. "a spiritual house, an holy priesthood" I Peter 1:5].

This last century has been a time of spiritual declension.  This has been a time of the clouding over of the eyes.  No longer can we understand the basic differences between the Jew and Gentiles [the Greek]. "For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom."

When you get right down to it, there are two groups of people on this earth. "The Book" shows that.  Some would have us think that the categorizing of people by gender [male and female], or by the color of skin, is more distinctive and of more importance than the differences between the Jew and the Gentile.

This false view comes as a result of spending more time [the leavening process] reading the newspaper or watching the television than reading their Bibles.  In contrast, it does not take too long for a Bible believer reading God's word and meditating on its precepts to find the truths and joys therein. "I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate in thy precepts." [Psalm 119:14,15]  This will result in the believer being "filled with the Spirit." [Ephesians 4:18]

Remember this important statement of fact by God through His apostle Paul. It will help you understand "His Book" by "rightly dividing the word of truth." [II Timothy 2:15]  Please, get this down!

The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.  Check it out.  Every Jew has this thing built into his very nature.  The first "Jew" was a Gentile until he was called out of his country [or nation]. [Genesis 12:1,2]. "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing."

Abram became Abraham by the covenant established by God. [Genesis 17:4,5]  “The token" of this covenant was visibly made known to Abraham by the "circumcision of the flesh of his foreskin." "This token" is shown [comparing scripture with scripture] to be "a sign."

 In Romans chapter 4, verse 11, Abraham received the sign of circumcision. "And he received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe."

The Jew requires a sign in order to believe.  Look at Exodus 4:30 and see how signs needed to be performed by Moses "in the sight of all the people" so that they would believe that the Lord was visiting His people and intending to bring a great deliverance and salvation from their 400 year bondage to the Egyptians. [Acts 7:36] "He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years."

God used visible signs that were great and wonderful to convince Israel to sing a song of His mightiness. "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake,saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and the rider hath he thrown into the sea." [Exodus 15:1-2]  Israel experienced "signs and wonders" from God by his direct intervention in their affairs down through time.  Remember the walls of Jericho and how they came down?

This represented to them a mighty sign of God going before them and delivering their enemy into their hands.  Consider this, how God gave Israel the seventh day [along with the special Sabbaths] as a sign of His being the Lord God "that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you" [Exodus 31:13].

 This truth that the Jew requires a sign reached such proportions even in the very face of the presence of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, with the unbelieving Pharisees [Jews] that God refused to give the very signs they demanded before they would believe in His Son [that He was the prophesied Savior of Israel].

Matthew 12:38 "Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas."

Now, focus on this: "God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?" [Hebrews 2:4].

To sum up, the signs and wonders that were performed by Jesus Christ [and His apostles] when He came to this earth almost two thousand years ago were to be a signal to Israel of who He was, and having rejected Him, to judge them.  It would be by occasion of their unbelief that the Gentiles were to be grafted in to partake "of the root and fatness of the olive tree." [Romans 11:17b]

Israel's rejection of these signs was prophesied centuries earlier in the most exacting precision. "[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." [Romans 11:8]. "Salvation is come unto the Gentiles" [Romans 11:11]. This is where the term "mystery" shows up.

It is a New Testament truth unknown to the Jew in his setting of national Israel.  They tripped up over this thing of God signifying a change in his dealing with man; with a beginning of a new dispensation. "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what the riches of his glory of his mystery among the Gentiles; Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory," [Colossians 1:26, 27].

See also, Ephesians 1:9,10].  The change in the dispensation reveals that God can modify His dealings with man without regard to man, at His own discretion, "according to His good pleasure."  Note Ephesians 5:32, and see how God revealed the "great mystery concerning Christ and the Church." God used signs and wonders in the confirmation and the revelation to the Jew of "the mystery of the Gospel" [Ephesians 6:19] whereby if they, the Jews, are to be saved, that they must see that: "Neither is there salvation in any other: For there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

Brethren, now we are ready to begin to read "The Acts Of The Apostles" in chapter two.  Come on, now!  Read it and believe it, and take note of something.  Not one person involved from Acts chapter one, verse one right up to Acts chapter ten is a Gentile [of the nations].  Cornelius was the first Gentile to be saved [Acts 10].  Those that heard Peter on the day of Pentecost [Acts 2:9-11] were "Jews and proselytes" and the Ethiopian eunuch was a proselyte to the Jewish religion.

Everyone is a Jew [or Samaritan] up till that point.  Everything prophesied in Mark 16:15-18 was fulfilled in the book of Acts. Everyone Jesus Christ was speaking to in Mark 16:15-18, were Jews ["afterward he appeared unto the eleven"].

Everyone at the feast of Pentecost was a Jew.  The Jews require a sign.  They witnessed "many wonders and signs." [Acts 2:43] "And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles."

 II. TONGUES IN THE BOOK OF ACTS IS A KNOWN LANGUAGE

At the time of the feast of Pentecost there were present Jews and proselytes from a multitude of nations. "Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and Proselytes," who made this declaration; "Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God."

Look at it!  They heard the Gospel in their own tongue [or language].  The main point to let soak in here is that the use of tongues in the book of the Acts is always shown to be a use of a known tongue [or language].  It is never an unknown tongue.  Everybody present was hearing the Gospel in his own language.  It was a miracle!

The Jews require a sign!  This event was to be a sign from God of his dealing with Israel in a different manner.  This is the fulfillment of Isaiah 28: 10-13 and explained in Acts, chapter 14:21. "In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and lips will I speak unto this people: and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord."

III. THE ONE-TIME EVENT JESUS CHRIST AS THE BAPTIZER

To understand the phrase, in Acts 2:38: "ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost," we must find the prophetic statement made by John the Baptist of our Lord and Savior Jesus, that He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Ghost. "The same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost" [John 1:33].  In Matthew 3:11, it is reinforced, and is pointing to a future event. "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with Fire."

And again in Mark 1:8, "but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." And for the fourth time, in Luke 3:16, "he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire:"

These four verses aim squarely "point blank" at what occurred in the upper room on the day of Pentecost with the 120 believers.  It occurred once!

IV. THE HOLY GHOST RECEIVED BY THREE GROUPS

The several references to the Holy Ghost "being received" after this particular event occur four times.  First, to the Jews when the three thousand got saved, Acts 2:38,41; the second time, to the Samaritans, in Acts 8:17; and third, to the Gentiles [Cornelius], in Acts 10:44.  Notice the order: first, to the Jews in Jerusalem, then to the Samaritans, then last, to the Gentiles.

Now does not that fit with Acts 1:8?  Amen!  See how exact the Spirit of God has it given in "this Book." "The Holy Ghost is come upon you: [the 120 believers in the upper room] and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all in Judea, [the three thousand] and in Samaria, [the Samaritans] and unto the uttermost part of the earth" [the Gentiles].

Oh my!  How perfect the Bible is!

V. PETER USES THE KEYS THREE TIMES

Peter had the keys; ["the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" [Matthew 16:19].  Peter's presence is required. In "The Acts Of The Apostles" there are three instances where these keys were utilized. 

Once with the Jews at Jerusalem; the second time, with the Samaritans; and the third time with the Gentiles.  These events are foundational in the formulation of the body of Christ [and not to be repeated again].

VI. THE BAPTISM BY THE HOLY GHOST

The only baptizing ministry that the Holy Ghost is performing throughout this age is something he does each time an individual gets saved.  It occurs at the moment a person is "born again" or "translated" into the kingdom of His dear Son [Colossians 1:13].  It occurs when the Spirit of God baptizes us into the body of Christ. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free: and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."

This is the true doctrine of the "Baptism by the Holy Ghost" revealed in the Bible.  It should not be confused with the event prophesied in Luke 3:16, John 1: 33, Mark 1:8 or Matthew 3:11, that occurred on the day of Pentecost.

 It should not be confused with ministry of the Apostle Peter and his use of the "keys" to heaven.  If the believer can get it straight concerning this; he or she will be able to avoid the "abyss" of error.

VII. THE SPECIAL CASE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST'S 12 DISCIPLES

The last instance recorded in the book of the Acts concerning "the Holy Ghost" coming on a group of men and speaking "with tongues" is in Acts 19:1-7.  These "certain disciples" were Jews that believed in Jesus Christ but knew nothing about the Holy Ghost.  They believed only the message of John the Baptist.  They heard from John "that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus."

Again, this is a one- time event, never to be repeated again!  These disciples of the earlier dispensation [dealing with the nation of Israel] who believed in John's message needed to be brought forward into the new dispensation, the body of Christ.  The Apostle Paul would be God's chosen means this time.

VIII. TIME TO GO TO I CORINTHIANS

It will not take much effort for the Bible believer to ascertain by the reading of this epistle that Paul was dealing with a church filled with trouble and carnality.  In chapter 1, verse 11, "it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you." Again in 3:5, "For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?"

In chapter five, Paul is dealing with the problems of fornication in the church.

In chapter six, the problem is that they are taking one another to civil court before the unsaved ["before the unjust"].

In chapter seven, the Apostle Paul has to clear the mud out by teaching the doctrine of the place of the man and woman in the divine order and giving instruction concerning marriage.

In chapter eight, he has to deal with them over the issue of the believer's personal liberty and the need for self-denial warning them not become a "stumblingblock to them that are weak."

In chapter nine, Paul has to make a self-defense of his ministry as an apostle of Jesus Christ before the Corinthians.

 In chapter ten, the problem is lust, murmuring, and idolatry.

In chapter 11, the Spirit of God through Paul is instructing them on basic truths of the differences between the man and the woman, the length of hair, and their misuse of the Lord's Supper.

Having given all this, now it is time to go to I Corinthians chapter 12-14.

IX. THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS THAT ARE GONE

In I Corinthians chapter 12, the Apostle Paul by the Holy Ghost is primarily dealing with a Gentile body of believers at the city of Corinth.  Let's go to the heart of all this: "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren."

In the next three chapters of 1 Corinthians, God reveals through the Apostle Paul his mind and purpose concerning the "manifestation of the Spirit" during this transitional period [God turning away from national Israel and placing individual Jews and Greeks into the body of Christ, which is the church]. "That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." [Ephesians 3:6]

This transitional period [which is recorded in the Book of Acts] is where God confirms to Israel the change in dispensation. "God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?" [Hebrews 2:4]

This confirmation, given to the Jews with the transition into a new dispensation, is the purpose for the gifts listed in I Corinthians 13:8. "Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away."

Charity is shown to be permanent. "Charity never faileth!"

 In contrast "prophecies, they shall fail."

Why will they fail?  It's because prophecies came as "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" [II Peter 1:20,21].  Please note that this was the Spirit of God moving holy men to speak His revelation to man.  This shows the difference between "prophecy" and the resultant, which is the written word of God.  The written word is now perfectly complete in the most exacting detail [included as a set cannon or "books"].

Revelation 22:18 nails down the intricate relationship between prophecy [which is the word spake] and "this Book."  Remember scripture explains scripture. "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 the book:"

The Bible is the written word of God.  Prophecies came, as holy men, moved by the Holy Ghost, spake.  These prophecies had failed or stopped, when God finished His Book.  He gave us the 27 books of the New Testament [during the apostolic period], adding them to the 39 books of the Old Testament.

The gift of knowledge, "it shall vanish away."  What is this gift of knowledge?  For the answer, let me quote Jonathan Edwards:

"It was a particular gift of the Spirit with which some persons were endowed, whereby they were enabled by immediate inspiration to understand mysteries or the mysterious prophecies and types of the Scriptures, which the apostle speaks of in the second verse of this chapter [I Corinthians 13], saying,

"Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge." As for the gift of tongues, "they shall cease."

Now when will this happen?

The Bible shows that it has happened already.  It happened when the Jews [which require a sign] rejected Jesus Christ as their Savior.  From Acts 1:1 till Acts 7:60, the Spirit of God showed His people the way of salvation was through the shed blood of His Son at Calvary.  Note: a peculiar thing.  Look at verse 55 of Acts chapter seven.  It is a sight of great importance: J esus standing on the right hand of God! Everywhere else in the Bible where this position is mentioned, Jesus Christ is "sitting" on the right hand of God.

It is at Stephen's death, at the hands of the Jewish nation, that we see a turning point concerning the use of the "sign gift" of tongues and other manifestations of the Spirit.  We see a gradual fading away of the "signs and wonders" performed before Israel, and by the end of the book of Acts, [which is the close of the Apostolic period] the use by God of "signs and wonders" ceased. "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

Now remember the reference: "now we see through a glass, darkly." Everything becomes very clear for the New Testament believer, toward the latter part of the apostolic period when II Corinthians was written. Read in II Corinthians 3:18. The glass is no longer "darkly."

Do you see the transition? What was dark has now become clear.

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." II Corinthians 3:18

X. THAT WHICH IS PERFECT IS GOD'S WRITTEN WORD---THE BIBLE!

"When That Which is Perfect Is Come" is a reference to the written word of God, which is now completed and established as the written revelation of the mind and will of God.

XI. JONATHAN EDWARDS GOD'S LEADER IN REVIVAL!

At no time has our nation experienced God's grace in the revival of His people [Christians] and moved so powerfully to save the souls of men, woman and children, as occurred in the 18th century in the years before the United States of America was formed.

 It was at its height in 1740 and Jonathan Edwards was on the "leading edge."

It was his understanding also that "when that which is perfect is come" was a reference to the written word of God.