Foundation:
(& then some)
Milk vs. Meat
(Continued)
“…For the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD; and are become such as have need of MILK, and not of STRONG MEAT; For every one that useth MILK is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a BABE. …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.5:12-14
(The following is a continuation of our last teaching in which I am laying a foundation for your understanding of God’s Word as it is addressed TO this day and age regarding the MYSTERY which is, as I have pointed out, THE most important topic in God’s Word to us, and yet, virtually no Christians even know what it is!! It is, therefore, necessary to help you build a foundational understanding of God’s Word itself so that you can see how this MYSTERY is set before us and how to practically carry it out in your life. So far we have seen that ‘there is only ONE WORD OF GOD and that God knew exactly what HE meant to say when and where HE said it’ and that ‘the important thing is what HE meant and NOT what we THINK He meant and if I am teaching you the accurate, authentic Word of God, as HE meant it, it is (the same as) HIM speaking, HIMSELF, and it WILL have HIS desired and intended effect in your life’! Furthermore, we looked at God’s Word in the sense of being ‘the ‘owners manual’ for life from the manufacturer’ and we also compared it to being the intended ‘program’ for the ‘computer’ of our mind. Finally, we had begun to look at the analogy God uses in His Word (as we see in the verse above from the book of Hebrews) regarding the ‘MILK’ or foundational principles given to the new believer, compared to the ‘MEAT’ or advanced principles, intended for those who have matured in Christ, all of which are found exclusively in the ‘epistles’ or letters of Romans through Thessalonians. I truly hope that you take this teaching to heart as this ‘Foundation’ is what should be, but is not, taught to every child and new Christian in every Christian Church!) …Witness what God says in 1Co.3:2,3:
“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, (to live by love) for ye are yet carnal: (‘going by’ the five senses = selfishness!) for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk (live) as (mere) men?” (and not as sons of God) (KJV) If we ‘backtrack’ in 1Corinthians a little bit, to chapter 2, we can see what Paul was talking about, in practical application, in his reproof teaching to the believers in Corinth who, being ‘immature’ Christians or ‘BABES in Christ’, could not yet ‘receive’ the greatness of this MYSTERY! 1Co 2:1-8 & 3:1-7: “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God; For I resolved to know (or teach) nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (i.e.: And not the resurrection as well as the MYSTERY; that it would be ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’!) I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. (i.e.: He allowed them to see his own weakness and ‘humanness’ in being ‘meek’ to God’s perfect guiding instead of pretending he was perfect!) My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, (i.e.: operating the manifestations of the spirit, (1Cor.12:7-11) ‘walking by the spirit’, showing up at the right place & time, (like right after someone just finished praying to God for help) or teaching (by revelation) from God’s Word exactly what answered the questions in someone’s heart at that particular time, (without knowing their need) healing, casting out devil-spirits, etc.) so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the MATURE, but not the wisdom of this age (‘dog-eat-dog’/Me! Me! Me!) or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, (the MYSTERY!) a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.” - “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants (BABES) in Christ. I gave you MILK, not solid food, (MEAT) for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly; (i.e.: ‘going by’ their senses, believing the selfish lies of this world and not yet living by the spirit of LOVE within them) For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, (denominations & divisions!) are you not worldly? Are you not acting (selfishly) like mere men? (and not in love as sons of God!) For when one says, “I follow Paul,” (Pat Robertson?) and another, “I follow Apollos, (Billy Graham?)” are you not mere men? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? (or Billy Graham, or Pat Robertson or your favorite minister or me or anyone else!)Only servants, through whom you came to believe-as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things (like LOVE!) grow.
Here I must re-emphasize a research principle I have pointed out before, that you must determine who the Word of God is speaking TO! In most sermons and bible teachings I have heard, (and I have heard many) NO distinction whatever is made between the different sections of God’s Word regarding who is being spoken TO!; yet, certainly, a Christian is not being addressed by the commandments which were given to Moses (and written TO the (spiritless) Jews) any more than he is being commanded to abstain from eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, like Adam and Eve were; Nor are we being addressed by the law of tithing (again, written TO the Jews) any more than we have a promise from God that we will bear a child at the age of 99 years whose descendants will have an exclusive, everlasting covenant with Him, like Abraham did; Yet I hear ministers bounce back and forth between all these sections of the Word as if they were all addressed TO us in this time! As I pointed out in our last study, they are not and it is simply not accurate to teach them as if they were, for God only ‘backs up’ that message which HE intends and it is only that Word which ‘shall accomplish the purpose whereunto (HE) send(s) it’! ALL scripture which regards that time prior to the day of Pentecost, as Rom.15:4 says, was written ‘for our learning’!
In the four Gospels, which were also written ‘for our learning’ and not directly TO us, John 13-17 contains what is, in my opinion, the greatest teaching ever taught (before He was crucified) by Jesus! It was given to His apostles at their ‘last supper’ and continued, afterward, on the way to the place where Jesus knew that the soldiers would come and take Him to be tortured and crucified. He knew that this was His last teaching to them before that event, and everything He taught them was to prepare them for that time in the future, fifty days later, when they would receive the gift of holy spirit and what they were to do when they did receive it! In this context, because we, also, have received this gift, it is most interesting to examine what He said about ‘the Comforter’ in chapters 14-16, and, even more specifically, what He taught them about a section of the Word which had not been written yet! John 16:7-16: “…I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor (or ‘Comforter ’-KJV (the gift of holy spirit))will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him (it) to you. When he (it) comes, he (it) will convict (admonish, i.e.: teach)the world of guilt:in regard to SIN and RIGHTEOUSNESS and JUDGMENT: In regard to SIN, because men do not believe in me, (set forth in ROMANS!) In regard to RIGHTEOUSNESS, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; (set forth in EPHESIANS!) And in regard to JUDGMENT, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (set forth in THESSALONIANS!)
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. (as they hadn’t received the spirit yet) But when he (it), the Spirit of truth, comes, he (it) will guide you into (THE) ALL TRUTH: (THE ‘SEVEN CHURCH-EPISTLES’ = ROMANS-THESSALONIANS!) . He (it) will not speak on his (it’s) own; he (it) will speak only what he (it) hears, (from Jesus!) and he (it) will tell you what is yet to come. He (It) will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see (perceive)me.”. (in these future writings, by the holy spirit which you will have at that time!)
In context, Jesus was teaching them that, in the near future, they were going to receive spirit and how it would work! (and, understanding this, look at the rest of what He said in these chapters!) This was essential ‘preprogramming’ because, as He said, He wasn’t going to be around to teach them but that they would ‘receive their instructions’ from that ‘Counselor’ (KJV-‘Comforter’) of the holy spirit in combination with the ‘ALL-TRUTH’ (Romans-Thessalonians) which would be written then! (at that future time!)
In these ‘epistles’ (letters) we have a very unique section of scripture because it is ‘new doctrine’ written exclusively TO a ‘new people’ (us!) of a truly ‘new age’! (now!) Never before had there been a people like us! Prior to Pentecost, most of the time, there was only one or two people on the entire planet who had the spirit of God! (and all of them are written about in the Old Testament) That person only had that spirit upon him conditionally (& temporarily) only as long as he was, as it describes in Job 1:8:
“…blameless and upright… (by works, acording to the law, and also) fear(ing) (respecting/obeying) God and shun(ning) (avoiding) evil.” (If this condition of his heart changed, he lost the spirit!)
One primary thing which was affected by this was God’s communication with man because HE can only speak directly to a person who has his spirit! At that time, when God wanted to communicate with His people, HE would speak to that one (Prophet) who had His spirit and tell him/her to ‘Say unto My people…’ who did NOT have the spirit. Many times the other people rejected that person, (and, thereby, rejected God!) even to the point of killing him, and then any direct communication from God was cut off!
On the day of Pentecost God began to ‘pour out’ His spirit ‘unto all and upon all them who believe’ in Jesus Christ and the MYSTERY began to unfold! This meant that one could no longer have the holy spirit ‘by works’ or by being ‘good’, (as described above from the book of Job) but, as it says in Eph.2:8,9: “…It is by grace you have been saved, (made whole) through faith-and this not from yourselves, (or determined by what you do or don’t do) it is the gift of God; (HE did it!) Not by works, (not you!) so that no one can boast.”
Suddenly, in one day, there were 3,000 people with holy spirit! Then, almost immediately, there were 5,000 more!; And more!; And more!; Each one with the spirit of God unconditionally and permanently within him! Now began a new era and a new kind of scripture was required; A doctrine which was suitable for a new kind of people, with whom God could communicate directly! This is why we have statements such as we find in 1John 2:27:
“As for you, the anointing (of holy spirit within you) you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as (since) His anointing teaches you about all things and as (since) that anointing is real, not counterfeit-just AS IT HAS TAUGHT YOU, remain in him.” And also, this is what God was talking about in the prophecies, which are now coming to pass, quoted in Acts 2:17,18:
“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams; Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.” And also in Heb.8:10,11:
“…This is the covenant I will make with (them) after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” ‘No longer’ would it be a situation where one man, who had the spirit, teach his ‘neighbor’, who did not ‘because they will all (by experience) know’ God!; Because they would ALL have His spirit! If we examine this section of John 16 (above) closely, we see that, not only did Jesus tell them that there would be something called ‘THE ALL-TRUTH’, but He also divided it for them into three sections, stating what each section would accomplish! To further understand this we have to look at 2Tim.3:16,17: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, (God-breathed) and is profitable for DOCTRINE, for REPROOF, for CORRECTION, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, (i.e.: mature, fully equipped) throughly furnished unto all good works.” (KJV) Here we see that this ‘instruction in righteousness’ is further subdivided into: Doctrine, (teaching of the truth) Reproof (correcting practical error) and Correction. (correcting doctrinal error) and, in the ‘All-Truth’, it breaks down like this:
-ROMANS - Doctrine (Basic, Foundational, ‘MILK’!)
CORINTHIANS - Reproof (back to Romans)
GALATIANS - Correction (back to Romans)
-EPHESIANS - Doctrine (Advanced, ‘MEAT’!)
PHILIPPIANS - Reproof (back to Ephesians)
COLOSSIANS - Correction (back to Ephesians)
-THESSALONIANS - Doctrine (The Ultimate; Eternity!)
The reason it is called ‘instruction in righteousness’ is because, by the loving sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, WE HAVE ALREADY BEEN MADE RIGHTEOUS and we have forgiveness of all our sins, eternal life and God’s spirit permanently within us and, since, by the introduction of that spirit, we have been ‘born-again’, suddenly and permanently becoming sons (children) of God, regardless of what we have been or done in the past, and, because we were not righteous before, we, then, need instruction in (the righteousness of) who and what we have (now, already) become as God’s workmanship! (Eph.2:10) We now have that third part (SPIRIT) to us which we did not have before we came to believe, which makes us whole and complete, as referred to in 1Thess.5:23: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole SPIRIT and SOUL and BODY be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (KJV)
And also in Col 2:10:
…And ye are complete in him, (Jesus Christ) which is the head of all principality and power: In the ‘church epistles’ we see this pattern come to life in (the above outlined) three sections. The first three books (Romans, Corinthians & Galatians) of these great epistles of God’s Word, which ARE the first or basic teachings (MILK) of Christianity, are referred to in 1Pet.1:23-2:2:
“…You have been BORN AGAIN, not of perishable (temporary) seed, but of imperishable, (permanent ‘seed’!) through the living and enduring Word of God, for, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; (temporary!) the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the Word that was preached to you. (of THE MYSTERY) Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander (selfishness) of every kind. (and) Like newborn BABES, crave (the) pure spiritual MILK, (of the Word) so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.” (wholeness)
Take note of the last words in this passage! We, as ‘newborn babes’, having just recently been ‘born again’, are to ‘crave’ (defined as “to dote upon, i.e. intensely desire/crave possession (of)” and used most often (in God’s Word) in the sense of longing to see someone beloved) the ‘milk’, or basic principles of the Word of God; and I love these last words: ‘so that by it you may grow up in your salvation’! The word ‘salvation’ is translated from the Greek word sozo which, in part, means ‘to make sound’ or complete! In other words: When we first become saved, receiving the holy spirit which (already) makes us whole and complete, we are to earnestly desire the basic, foundational principles of God’s Word so that we may develop properly in this ‘wholeness’ WHICH WE ALREADY HAVE!
(It is important to realize here that this righteousness and wholeness that we have is of God’s doing and not our own! The message of the New Testament is epitomized in statements such as we find in Col.3:15,16 “LET the peace of Christ rule in your hearts… LET the Word of Christ dwell in you richly…” Again, these are things we already have! As it says in Phil.2:13 “…It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”. With this in mind, consider: The people of Israel were called God’s ‘servants’ whereas we are called God’s children. A servant, because he has a different relationship to the master than a child of the household, must work to improve and develop himself. A child, on the other hand, especially when he is a baby, has very little to do with his own development. He merely trusts and ‘LETS’ himself be cared for and grows thereby! This is a fundamental truth which few Christians understand because many religions, though they say you are ‘saved by grace and not by works’, still try to tell you, in one way or another, that you are responsible for changing and making yourself grow! If you could have saved yourself, you wouldn’t have needed a Savior! Likewise, once you are born-again, you cannot ‘add one cubit to your stature’ (i.e.: change/grow spiritually) unless ‘God gives the increase’! Take a look at the following verses:
Rom.14:4: Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And HE WILL STAND, for THE LORD IS ABLE TO MAKE HIM STAND
2Co.1:21: …IT IS GOD WHO MAKES BOTH US AND YOU STAND FIRM IN CHRIST. He anointed us,
1Th.3:12,13: May THE LORD MAKE YOUR LOVE INCREASE AND OVERFLOW for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you; MAY HE STRENGTHEN YOUR HEARTS so that YOU WILL BE BLAMELESS AND HOLY in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
2Th.2:16,17: MAY OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF AND GOD OUR FATHER, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, ENCOURAGE YOUR HEARTS AND STRENGTHEN YOU IN EVERY GOOD DEED AND WORD.
2Th.3:3: …The Lord is faithful, and HE WILL STRENGTHEN AND PROTECT YOU from the evil one.
1Pet.5:10: …The GOD of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have endured a little while, WILL HIMSELF RESTORE YOU AND MAKE YOU STRONG, FIRM AND STEADFAST.
Jud.1:24: To HIM WHO IS ABLE TO KEEP YOU FROM FALLING AND TO PRESENT YOU before his glorious presence WITHOUT FAULT AND WITH GREAT JOY)
Your responsibility, when you are first saved, just like a newborn baby, is merely to desire the MILK, (i.e.: that ‘food’ specifically designed to meet your needs as a ‘newborn’) which will automatically cause you to look for it’s source because you are spiritually hungry and only one thing will satisfy that hunger and that is the taking in and ‘digesting’ of the first three (Romans-Galatians) of these seven epistles! That’s right, while the rest of the Word of God may look attractive to you, you will only ‘grow’ to the point where you can really digest (and benefit from) the MEAT (Ephesians-Thessalonians) after you first develop from the nourishment of the MILK!
Reading about ‘desiring the MILK’ reminds me of when my children were first born. Anyone who has ever held a hungry infant against their shoulder knows the feeling of that urgent, tensed little body squirming, with his head bobbing and lunging at anything solid, (i.e.: your shoulder, cheek, nose, etc.) thereby fulfilling it’s responsibility of desiring that milk; (and, by the way, please note here that the child has no concept of what that milk will do for his health, nor what it will help him to grow to be! He just craves it!; In fact, his whole being is centered on it! This is what our attitude for the Word should be!) All of this analogy holds up in regarding our spiritual ‘nourishment’ and growth. It is a built-in desire in a baby, just as it in us, to crave that which is perfectly designed for health and growth!
If you are a person who believes that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead, then God’s Word says in Romans 10:9 that you are ‘saved’ which also means that you are (right now!) whole and complete because when you believed, you received the holy spirit; You are born-again and, because God refers to the gift of holy spirit you have received as ‘seed’, who and what you are, and will absolutely become, has already been determined, forever, by your Father who made you just as the adult person the baby will eventually become has been predetermined by his/her inherited ‘seed’! Now, you could give kool-aid or beer or cola to a newborn baby, and he might even drink some if that was all he received, but he would be extremely unsatisfied (and you would definitely hear about it!) and would become sick and wouldn’t develop and grow properly, if he survived at all! In the same way, you can watch TV all day, read books and magazines, you can take in the philosophies of Oprah & Phil, from Leary to Russell, as well as Madonna & Snoop, (kool-aid, beer & cola?) none of which will sustain or improve your life because you are ‘not of this world’! That’s why God’s Word says that when you were born-again you became a ‘new creature’! (creation) See 2Cor.5:17:
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things (in that person) are become new.”
Just as in nature, wherever God gave life, (and certainly HE gave it all) He also provided the proper and perfect nourishment for that life to prosper. As any Doctor, Nurse or breast-feeding advocate will tell you, there is nothing so perfect for the growth and health of a newborn child as the milk which God lovingly provided! The same is true spiritually. God has expressed His vision and goal for our life, declaring what He has made and will make of us in Rom.8:29: “…Those God foreknew (us!) he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
and also in Eph.4:13:
“…Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Notice that both of these verses infer that this process is inevitable. That’s because it is! Just as surely as that newborn baby will someday grow into an adult, as you take in the proper nutrition of the MILK (ROMANS, CORINTHIANS & GALATIANS) of God’s Word, all of you who believe WILL grow to be like Jesus Christ for: ‘It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.’! Why not open up your bible and your heart and let it start right now?
