Address—Bruce Anstey
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I'd like to speak the subject of perfection, Christian perfection, and look at the way in which God works to make believers perfect. So let's turn first of all in Hebrews chapter 10.
Verse one for the law. That's the law of Moses having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers. Thereunto. Perfect verse 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, and every priest standing daily, ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices.
Which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever, sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember.
No more.
As I said, I'd like to speak about perfection. And this is where God begins, by perfecting the conscience of a believer. And since this is a gospel meeting, we are going to speak about what the Lord Jesus Christ did at the cross in order that people can be saved. And the whole theme of these two chapters, chapters 9 and 10 bring before us the idea, the thought, the teaching that the law.
And law keeping could never make a person perfect before God. It could never perfect the conscience, but the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ could. And so you find here, as I have read to you, that all the Old Testament sacrifices that were made, they could never take away sins in a judicial way. And so the sacrifice of Christ comes in, in order that God may be able to clear sins away once and for all and forever.
And so it's a beautiful chapter to read to see how that God has glorified himself over the question of sin.
It was at the cross that God took up the question of sin, and he has settled it once and for all and forever.
There the Lord Jesus Christ became the sin bearer, and he bore the sins of all who would believe. And there in that one sacrifice, God's claims of divine justice were satisfied once and for all and forever. And I don't suppose there's anyone here in this room that is a stranger to this message.
I can't imagine there's anybody here that does not know that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But yet what a privilege we have here this evening to tell forth the message of that redeeming grace once more.
That one sacrifice, how precious it was to the heart of God and how valuable it is to every believer. And it through it, it is how God has begins the process of perfection. It's first the perfecting of the conscience. We find here that God starts with the perfecting of the conscience of the believer. If you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have received him as your Savior God.
Has perfected your conscience with regard to the question of sin and guilt.
How beautiful this is to be able to say that you can have your conscience cleared forever through resting in faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what it says here. For by one offering verse 14 he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. It doesn't say perfect until next time they send. No, it says perfected forever. And so that is the work that God does in the conscience.
Of every person who would put their faith and their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we hope that every person here knows what I'm talking about, knows the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Savior, and knows what it is to have a purged conscience, as it is also called in this chapter. That means that the conscience is not aroused with regard to judgment of sin and standing before God. But if you're not a Christian, you're not a believer. You haven't received the Christ as your Savior.
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Your conscience is alive and well tonight. It is that still small voice that speaks that we were reading about a couple of days ago in First Kings 19. And God does use the conscience to address the fact that we are sinners before Him. And if there's someone here that still has the the burden of the guilt of their sins, that they can look up to the Lord Jesus this very hour and ask him to save them, and he will wash their sins away and give them the joy and the knowledge of sins.
Forgiven. Look what it says here too, Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.
Yes, the spirit of God bears witness of the fact that Christ worked in one application by faith to the conscience of the believer perfects the child of God before God in his sight. And how beautiful it is to see that the Spirit of God would come to work as a witness. It is not a witness in US. Notice it says He's a witness to us. How is he witness to us, you might ask? He's a witness to us and what he has written in the Holy Scriptures.
And wherever a Bible could be found, which is everywhere in North America, and you could open a Bible and find the witness of the Spirit of God to us and what he has written.
About the believer and his standing before God as being perfected forever. And so there's no need for any Christian, every any believer to have any doubt about their salvation because the assurance it can be found in the witness of the Spirit of God and what he has written. And he quotes from an Old Testament passage here of how the Spirit of God witnesses and he witnesses throughout the scripture of this blessed fact He fastens on. I believe Jeremiah 31.
And he speaks about how that the Spirit of God has borne witness and the great fact that their sins and their iniquities of every believer will not be remembered anymore. This means that God deletes them from the divine record that he has kept. You know, God has records, He has books. He has kept a record of every life that has ever been lived in this world. That means that he has a record of your life. He knows all your sins.
Everything you've ever done, everything you've ever thought that has been a sin, your attitude and everything like that, has been kept, as in an unabridged record before the eye of God, and with his eye resting upon that he can from the authority of the work of Christ and in the power of His blood.
Wash that record clean and set the believer before him with a perfected conscience. God wants us to be perfect and this is where he begins by perfecting the conscience.
You know I.
Read a story one time of a an Englishman who was, I would suspect wealthy because he owned a Rolls Royce and he went touring on the continent and I believe he was in France somewhere enjoying his little holiday. And what happened was his car broke down. Actually what happened was the car broke an axle and so he got to a place where he could make this known and he I don't know how he contacted England, but he got to the Rolls Royce factory and let them know about this, that he had a breakdown.
And they said, we'll take care of it. And what happened was the very next day, two men showed up with an axle and all the tools that would be necessary to fix it. And they fixed it as fast as possible. And they sent them on their way. He sent him on their way, his way. And he said, well, just bill me and send it to my office. When I get back to England after my holiday, I'll take care of the bill. Well, what happened was several weeks passed and he hadn't got any bills from them.
And so being a prudent man, he called up the Rolls Royce factory and said, I just want to take care of that bill about the the problem that I had with my car when I was in France and the breaking of my axle and I still haven't received a bill for it. So I would like to take care of that. And the person that looked after him on the phone told him that they have looked over the records and can't find anywhere where there has been a record of.
Him.
Having an axle repaired and he thought, well, perhaps they have.
Just been behind on their bookkeeping a little bit and billing and so on. And so he thought he waited a little longer. So he had a few more weeks passed by and it was about another month and thought he would call him up again because he wanted to settle this bill that he owed. And he called them again and they told him, Sir, was that serial number was that particular automobile that we built in the Rolls Royce factory. We have no record at all that there was ever a broken axle. In fact, Sir, we have never had any of our Rolls Royces ever, at any time have a broken axle.
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You understand what was going on. They wanted to take no part in the fact that that automobile could be connected with such a malfunction.
You know very well what they did. They got rid of that bill as fast as possible. They didn't want anybody to know that such an automobile was such a reputation, could have such a thing attached to it. They deleted it from their records. And I just like to think of that with regard to God as he looks down at the believer who in simple faith trust the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. God deletes every sin and iniquity from the divine record.
Sins are a little different from iniquities. As I understand it, iniquity is the evil intent behind the sin. The sin is the act. God looks after everything from the beginning to the end, and it's all taken care of under the blood of Christ. I've heard people say that God forgets sins. The Bible doesn't teach that, friends. I've heard little fancy little expressions say forgiven, forgotten forever. Well, that's nice, but the Bible doesn't teach that because forgiveness, rather forgetfulness.
Is.
A human weakness. Just like I might forget my keys, somewhere I lost them, I made a mistake and I can't find them and then all of a sudden I find them somewhere. We would never want to attach such a weakness to a divine person as we are speaking, God himself, No, God doesn't forget sins. He.
Deletes sins from the divine record of every believer and he doesn't on a righteous basis.
That one sacrifice that I was speaking about that the Lord Jesus made, and so friends.
The Lord Jesus would like to delete your record. God would like to delete your record. And if you were to turn in the records of God in heaven tonight and come to where my name is, you would find an absolutely blank page. Because the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanses us from all sin. And God has given that assurance to me. And I can stand here on the authority of this book that I read from the word of God, that my conscience.
Has been perfected. As far as the judgment of my sins are concerned, there's a little hymn that goes now in the glory he waits to impart peace to the conscience and joy to the heart. Friends, do you know anything about that? I hope that every one of you can say yes, I know the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, and I know that I'm on my way to heaven. And I know that my sins are gone on the authority of what God's word says.
The great witness of the Holy Spirit has made it known in the word of God. Isn't that a wonderful thing to be able to rest our faith on for eternity? What better beginning could we have in the Christian pathway? But you know this is only the beginning. How wonderful that is. God would desire to perfect us not only as far as our conscience is concerned, but as to our state and to our final condition.
And I'd like to speak a little bit about that tonight, because I believe it or it is connected with those things that accompany salvation. So let's turn to a Second Corinthians chapter 13.
2nd Corinthians chapter 13.
Verse 9 For we are glad when we are weak.
And ye are strong. And this also we wish or should read, where we pray.
Even for your perfection. And then also another passage in Colossians chapter one.
And verse 28 the end of verse 27 says, Christ in you the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, where unto I also labor and striving or should read, and combating according to his working, which worketh in me.
Mightily.
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Now we find here that the apostle not only prayed, but he labored in Word and doctrine that those who had received the Lord Jesus Christ would be perfect. Now what does he mean by this? Because we just had in Hebrews 10 that those who trust the Lord Jesus as their Savior are perfect before God as far as their standing is concerned, as far as their conscience is concerned.
Yet he is praying that these believers would come to perfection. Well, you know, the word perfect has the idea, and sometimes you'll read it in the margin of your Bible, the thought of maturity or full growth. And sometimes it's translated that way, as we'll see as we go along here.
And so we find that what the Apostle was seeking to do was to not only preach that every man might be saved, but he sought to teach them that they might arrive at full Christian growth because he was interested in not having his converts just crossed the line of salvation, and then leave them as they as they are. His great desire is that he might present them before God in Christ as full grown and mature Christians.
And I believe this is very important, that God wants us to go on in the Christian path. There's an exhortation we'll read later. And it says let us go on to perfection. And God wants us to go on to perfection. We'll never reach perfection here in this world. It is a work in progress.
Very surely. But there will be a one one day when the Lord comes.
We will reach that full perfection before him in that day and so.
Perfection. Christian perfection, in this sense, is a moral and practical thing that God is seeking to accomplish in our lives.
And you know, we're told in Second Chronicles chapter 12. I think it is about Jeroboam no rehoboam. It says of him that he did evil.
Because he applied, not his heart, to seek the Lord. And what we learned from that is that if we don't go on in our Christian path after we get saved, we're going to go backwards. Because there's no such thing as being static as far as our Christian state is concerned. And so that means we need to apply ourselves in the things of God and get serious about the things of the Lord, that we might grow and we might go on to perfection.
It's very important. There was a little boy that was sleeping at night one time and he fell out of his bed and there was a thud on the floor. His parents came running, want to know what it was and he sat there in a daze in the middle of the night and he said what happened? He said I stayed too close to the getting inside.
And you know, that's a real problem that we Christians have too.
Is that we stay too close to the getting inside as far as salvation is concerned. I'm not saying for a moment that you can fall out of your salvation that you have in Christ. We just read about it being perfected forever. But there is such a thing as falling, going backwards in our Christian pathway and not making progress. And you know, 1/2 or more of our problems as Christians comes from the fact that we do not go on to perfection. We don't have an exercise to go on.
And grow in the things of God. Paul's great desire was that they would go on to perfection. And it should be our desire to every one of us that we would please the Lord. You know, if you're Christian and you're saved, you know the great thing that you find that what the perfecting of the conscience does is that it makes us thankful. I didn't read it because I'm trying to cut corners here tonight, but you'll find there in Hebrews chapter 10 that he says that having therefore boldness.
We can enter the holiest as purged worshippers because the great effect of knowing that your conscience.
Has been purged and has been cleansed and perfected Is that it makes us thankful. It makes us worshippers.
You know, but God wants us to go on to Christian perfection, as these verses tell us. So let's look at some of the areas where He would seek to bring us to Christian perfection. Turn now to one page back in your Bible to Philippians chapter 3.
Verse.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before I press toward the mark or the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
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Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded, And if any of, if any in anything, be the otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, where until we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as you have for us an example for many walk, of whom I have told you often.
Tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
And so we find here that God is seeking to work perfection with regard to the focus of our hearts, the perfecting of the focus.
Of our hearts.
He works first of all in perfecting the conscience. But as I said, that's just the beginning. Then he would seek to go on to perfect the focus of our hearts. And the apostle here speaks of his own history and he talks about how that when God picked him up, there was a great radical change in his life. And how this happened was that he got a glimpse of Christ in glory and it changed the whole.
A course of his life, and he became interested in a whole new set of things and values. It was Christ that was before him. And I believe that this is how God would bring us to perfection in this way the perfecting of the focus of our hearts. And that is that he would set Christ before us and the attractiveness of Christ. And what happens is there is a transforming process.
Press that goes on in our lives.
Isn't that beautiful?
You know when we get saved?
There's usually numerous things that we have as far as ambitions and goals and pursuits in our life. Things that have been that have held us in the in pursuing those things, when the Lord picks us up and saves us, He wants to perfect the focus of our hearts intention and get us to the point where you find the apartment here. When he says there's one thing I do that is to pursue after Christ was Christ in glory and that prize that was there with him.
And this is what God is seeking to do with everyone of us, to perfect the focus of our hearts, and to give us to shed those things that may have captured our attention in times past, and to give us to have one singular and soul.
Object in our life.
You know.
It's so easy to get taken up with so much in this world. There's so many good things to do that are natural, that are things that are not necessarily evil, but things that capture our attention. And we all have ambitions and so on. But these things can get in the way of running after Christ and pursuing Christ in glory.
And one of the things that God would do is to set before us the attractiveness of Christ in such a way is that we would start letting go of some of these things to devote ourselves to Christ and His things. You see, the perfecting of our hearts, what it does is it makes us devoted Christians. It makes us devoted. If the first one makes us thankful Christians, the second one that I'm Speaking of now makes us devoted Christians.
You see, how does it happen? Well, I believe it happens like this when we spend time with the Lord Jesus.
What happens is that he becomes more precious to our hearts. We had in this thing last night. I believe it was.
That we need to take time to be with the Lord Jesus, spend time with Him, and the more we spend time with him, the more attractive we are to His person and the beauty that there is in Him and His love. Dear young person and older person. For that matter, do we take time in our life to be with the Lord Jesus?
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If we do, it'll happen is that our hearts affections will become perfected and focused on the one singular object that really leads us to Christian perfection and maturity. You know when you get saved you need to establish a quiet time in your life. Every one of us should have a quiet time in their life when you can be alone with the Lord Jesus, with your Bible open and just to enjoy his company and to speak to him because it's in these times.
That God works to bring before us our hearts, the attractiveness of Christ. And when we have Christ before our hearts as being the attractive one, what happens is that those things that were once very important to us fall by the way, and we become like the apostle. He had great ambitions, you know. He wanted to be a top dog in the Jewish religion. You may not have had those kind of ambitions. Maybe you want to be top dog in some field of sport or music or something else in this world.
But you know Christ and the power of that person before the soul can transform your life and make you perfect. As he's speaking here now, as I said, it was definitely a work in progress, and the apostle here would not venture to say that he had already reached that. But nevertheless, he said there's one thing that he did do was to pursue without any distraction after Christ and reached forth to those things that were before.
And he was pressing towards a mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The mark of the goal, as I understand it, is Christ in glory himself. The prize is to be like Christ in glory. How wonderful. This is what he was pursuing after, and it changed his life entirely. And he says there in verse 15, Let us therefore as many as be perfect to be thus minded.
That is to be just like him.
And so Christian perfection in this sense with regard to our hearts affections and the object for our heart is to be like the Apostle Paul and to have one thing in his life. There was only one thing that he had in his life, and that is the mark of Christian perfection. Now as I read a little further here, you'll find that there are three minds in these verses. There are those who are thus minded, there are those who are otherwise minded, and there are those who are earthly minded. And each one of us are in either one or the other of these three states.
Right here as we sit in this room as Christians, we are the thus minded and we pursue after Christ with nothing else in our life. He's everything Now we may be otherwise minded and may have a few things that we still kind of keep going on the back burner. A few irons in the fire, so to speak, and we have Christ too. It's lively to see here that the apostle has patience with those, and he speaks about how that nevertheless, wherever you have advocated to in your life walk by that he's much as saying walk up to the light that you do have.
And continue following after Christ, and those things will have their find their proper place and he put them aside. But then he speaks about another class, and that is those who are earthly minded and the 8th in a bracket. It's in a parenthesis because he's really talking about those who are mere professors, who are not, have no divine life. Their conscience has not been purged and perfected, they're not believers, and they mind only this.
The things of this world and they were bringing imperfections in amongst the people of God and influencing other and Christians to take up with earthly things. But even though those people were only mere professors, it's possible for a true believer to get caught up in the earthly mindedness and so he becomes an earthly minded Christian. Some of us may be that way here, just minding the things of this world and.
Christ is not everything to you. I would just say that, you know, we could beat this podium around, we could sing to you, we could plead with you, whatever. None of that is going to change, but what will change you and transform your life is.
Having a quiet time with the Lord every day to spend time with him. It is the power of His person that is going to do it all. The preaching in the world will never transform anybody. It's the power of Christ, person before the soul by the Spirit that will change our hearts and lead us on to perfection. And let me say again, if we have no heart to go on to perfection, we're going to go backwards into sin. And you're going to.
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Reap the what you sow. If you go back into sin, there's really only One Direction to go as a Christian, as one who has started on the Christian pathway, and that is to go on to perfection.
Well.
The devil you know, he's trying as hard as he can to bring things into our life, to hinder the process of us going on, to have a singular object. I remember hearing a story one time happened in in Iowa where they have those huge farms and at that certain time of the year when the harvest is going, I understand that they try to round up as many hand harvest. Those were farmers here know more about this than I do. At any rate they would run up as many people as they can. They brought them to town.
I brought them to the farm and on this one occasion there was this mentally handicapped young man that was brought along to help and he became the object of ridicule, sad to say, of the other workers. And they had great fun poking fun at this man. That was a terrible thing, sad to say. And anyway, this young man, he, he had these huge pair of pants on with enormous pockets.
And what they would do through the day, the other workers asked to keep themselves entertained as they go and throw their arm around him and say hi, I don't know his name, Don, let's say hi, Donnie, how you doing? And while they're putting their armor on him, they slip a stone into one of his pockets. Another guy would come up and do that and slip another stone into his pocket. And through the course of the day he had a they got both pockets as full as they possibly get. And he never caught a whiff of the fact what they were doing.
And he was walking around with about 10 lbs of rocks in his pocket and it was getting awful difficult for him to carry on his work until finding near mid afternoon. One of them would say, hey Donnie, what's that in your pocket? And he would go on and he would find out and then he would empty his pockets and sad to say, they do it all over again the next day and he never caught up to what they were doing.
It's sad, isn't it? But you know what? We have an enemy that's doing exactly the same thing. Trying to slip things into our life when we're not aware of it. And to bring in those things that are weights that are only going to tie us down. And to get us occupied with different things in this world so that we do not have Christ as our sole object and we become earthly minded. Let's be careful that we don't allow our lives.
To be affected by the enemy of our souls, and I believe that the maintenance of our souls is done.
By keeping short accounts with God and keeping in the presence of our Lord Jesus, let's move on now to 1St Corinthians 14 verse 20. Brethren be not children in understanding how be it in malice be children or babes, but in understanding be men or should be translated, as the margin puts it, be perfect.
Be perfect. Now let's read Hebrews.
Chapter.
5 Hebrews chapter 5 verse 13.
For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to them that are full of full age, or them that are perfect, even to those who by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection. Here we have another aspect of the Lord's working.
To perfect the child of God the Christian.
Not only is he seeking to perfect the focus of our our hearts, which would make us devoted Christians, He's seeking to perfect our understanding. Here we have the perfecting of our understanding, and this makes us intelligent Christians. One makes us devoted Christians. This one will make us intelligent Christians.
And we're told from Proverbs 19 that is not good, that the soul will be without knowledge.
And how does that take place? Well, as I read there in Hebrews chapter 5, it is through handling and by reason of use, the word of God, the word of righteousness.
God would have us to be intelligent Christians. He wants us to be knowledgeable, to know his will and to know the the truth of God. And it's a great privilege to have a Bible and to be able to search the Scriptures and to learn the truth.
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And how are we going to have our understanding perfected by spending time in the word of God if our hearts affections are going to be perfected by spending time with the Lord Jesus?
Our understanding will be perfected by spending time in the scriptures. Dear young person is the scriptures.
Your food every day.
The reading of the word of God, is it something that is a great part of your life or is it just an addendum to your life? You know, it says here that those that use milk are unskillful in the word of righteousness, for they're just babes. If we stay just with the simple things of scripture, the elementary things, we're not going to grow and go on to perfection. But then he says that those that are are perfect or full age or mature.
Why? They take strong meat. And that would bring before us the idea of those full those things that pertain to the full revelation of Christian truth. God would have us to take up with and to learn the truth of God. The Christian revelation has been given to us, and God would have us to know these things so that we may order our lives a right. You know, there are a lot of people that tell us the doctrine is not important.
What is important is that we live right now. There's no truth to that at all, because doctrine forms our walk. God cares about what we believe because it affects our walk. You know, we I could turn you to some scriptures in Timothy that tell us that if we have bad doctrine, it's going to lead to ungodliness. But if we have sound doctrine, it will lead to godliness. And so it is important what we hold as far as doctrine is concerned, and we need to be careful about these things.
And it's beautiful because when you read the scriptures and learn the truth, and the doctrines of Scripture brings before us none other than the person of the Lord Jesus, wouldn't you want to know more about him?
And his the great blessings that belong to us. And yet there are Christians that are telling us that doctrine is not important.
Well, it is important, and if we don't pay attention to doctrine, we could get into some error and we may be tested on it sometime and we could be LED away. For doctrine actually saves us as far as getting away from the path of faith we're told in First Timothy Chapter 4 and do keep.
In getting established in sound doctrine, he says you have saved yourself and others that hear thee and so it has a place, the 6th chapter and verse one that I read here. Well, let's read the end of verse 14. He says even to those who by reason of use have their senses exercised. You may say I can't understand the scriptures. Well that may be true because we have to start off as as a babe. That can take the simple things and maybe the deeper things the scripture there are more difficult.
But it says here that even to those who by reason of use, they'll have their senses exercised and they're going to grow to discern both good and evil. What I see here that he's saying is that even if you don't understand these things, if you spend time in the scriptures and by reason of use, comparing this passage with that passage and so on, you're going to grow. And there's going to be a development in your soul as to understanding and comparing those things and knowing those things that differ.
But it's going to take getting involved with the Word of God in a serious way in our lives. Therefore, leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. Let us go on to perfection, he says. And that's important. What he's talking to here, as far as the Hebrew Christians are concerned, is that the principles of the doctrine of Christ, or could be the word of the beginning of Christ, is really the sum total of the truth that came out in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus.
And while he was here in this world, and these Hebrew Christians were staying with that. And that's all they knew. And they weren't really going on and getting established in Christian truth of what we have in the Epistles. And the exhortation here is to not stay there where they were, but to go on to perfection, which is full understanding of what belongs to us as Christians. It's kind of like the Old Testament and the New Testament and the.
Gospels where the Lord ministered those things that we might call the.
Word of the beginning of Christ, which is essentially to do with.
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How one could be a good subject in the Kingdom doesn't really bring before us in the Gospels, full Christian ground. You have to get that, as I've been saying on Epistles. Nevertheless, what he's saying here, to make it simple, is that they're on a bridge like the Gospels or like a bridge from the Old Testament into the New Testament to the epistles, and they're on a bridge. And he's like he's saying well.
Get off the bridge. Go on, go on into what we would have in the Epistles.
Don't go back to the Old Testament laying a foundation of repentance and all those things that would stand for Old Testament ground of things, but to go on. And God wants us to go on too. Now let's turn to Ephesians chapter 4 and we'll find that he has given us much help. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11 and 12 and 13.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints.
For the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man unto the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ. That we henceforth be no more children or babes, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of man, and by the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Now here we find that God anticipated that we would say, well, we don't really understand the scriptures, some of those deeper things that Paul brought out even.
Peter said they're hard to be understood.
So God says I'm going to give you gifts and helps things that would aid you to understand the word of God. And we're thankful for the gift that God has given the apostles and the prophets that he mentions here have passed off the scene. But we still have their benefit in the fact that they have written scriptures and they have, they're recorded for us here and we get the benefit in that way of the apostles and prophets. But we also have today evangelists, pastors and teachers, and we're thankful for them.
They can help us build us up in the most holy faith, and they can teach us.
And it says here for the perfecting of the Saints. And then it goes on. If you read the other translation, Mr. Darby's translation, it says.
With a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ. You know what he's talking about here. He's saying that these gifts are operating for the perfecting of the Saints, with a view that they would be able to work in the work of ministry and to be able to help in the edifying of the body of Christ. You see, God wants every one of us to get established in the truth and reach some Christian perfection whereby we can also be a help in the work of the ministry.
In the edifying of the body of Christ, he doesn't want us to be tossed to and fro with all the wind of doctrine that is out there today.
No. He wants us to be established in the most Holy Faith, and that happens by taking heed to the word of God, spending time in the scriptures, and allowing ourselves availing ourselves of the gifts that God has given in teaching and ministering and so on. We have it in books of ministry, in tape ministry, and through oral ministries we have at this Alaskan Pines retreat here. And so we should avail ourselves of it. And when they teach us these things, we should receive it.
Thankful to tell you here that most of the things that I have learned, I have learned because others have taught me.
For us thou that thou hast not received, People have taught me these things. I've learned them. I've sought to be a student in some measure to to capture them and to learn these things. And this is what we need to do if we're going to get the benefit of the gifts. We don't want to be like those people. To say, I don't need that, I've got the scriptures and I got the spirit of God. That's all I need.
No, God would not give you an avalanche of the gifts if we didn't need it. And so we're thankful for those who would help us in doctrine. You know we need to have willing hearts to receive from them and to You know there's no better time than when you're young, because you young people can learn better than us older ones. In fact, the older you get, the more difficult it is to learn, especially if you have certain ideas in your mind.
With regard to things, it's harder to unlearn them when you get older. I used to say it's almost impossible to teach someone who's over 50. I don't say that anymore.
But it is very difficult as older we get. And I was telling a brother today that as far as the cross section of the of the the Saints of God, whether young and were the middle-aged and ones who are are serving the Lord, laboring and so on.
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The most difficult ones generally are that are to correct or to help with regards to the truth of God as we speak. Now perfecting of our understanding is laboring brothers, administering brother. Now I'm not picking on them, what I'm just saying is it's because they're you're generally older and the older we get the more difficult it is to to be able to accept correction. But when you're young it's much easier to help a person that's younger. I could take a person that's 20 and sit them down into adjust their doctrine on something and they receive it, try it on someone who's 60 and find out what you get.
It's more difficult because those things become lodged in our hearts now. I'm not picking on the older brother here. I love my older brother. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm saying is, the time to get the truth is now, to learn these things and get your doctrine straight now.
I can be thankful for some of my brother who have adjusted and corrected me. I'm thinking now one particular occasion when I had something wrong with regard to the the judgment seat of Christ.
An old brother, Vern Clark helped me. I was had this idea.
Why are you laughing?
Well, yeah. Anyway.
As far as the the judgment seat of Christ was concerned, I had learned mistakenly that the judgment seat of Christ would be a public exposure when we get to heaven before all the Saints of God, we would be perfected at the time of all nature be gone. So you wouldn't be too embarrassed but.
There we would be. And I had taught that because I had understood that. And he came to me and he said, well, where do you get that idea? Scripture never teaches that. Well, you know, what happened was he took some books and ministry off my shelf and he showed me one by one. And the clincher was Jan Darby, that it was not a public exposure but a a between the individual and the Lord. And I'll tell you, you know, it wasn't easy for him to convince me. I mean, it was easy for him to convince me because.
You think of that particular subject of, you know, having your life flash up before all the Saints of God. But generally speaking, we are we're hard to correct, we're hard to adjust, and we need the help of the Lord to really get the benefit of the gifts that he's given to us. Now let's look at one other passage, Second Corinthians.
I'm thinking of.
Corinthians chapter 6.
Now I want to speak of another aspect of the work of God and perfecting us.
Of course. 11 O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open to you. Our heart is enlarged. You're not straightened, That means narrowed or restricted in us, But ye are straightened or restricted in your bowels, bowels, or your affections. Your heart now for recompense in the same I speak unto my children, Be ye also enlarged, Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord had Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth was an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are this temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell with them, and will walk with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.
And I will receive you.
And I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Chapter 7, verse one really belongs with the subject, and Chapter 7 would better be started at verse two. I read that verse. Now having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness or pollution of the flesh and the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
And so here we have another area where God would work to bring us to perfection. And that is the perfecting of holiness. Not only the perfecting of our conscience, not only the perfecting of.
Affecting of our understanding. But here the perfecting of holiness in our lives. This is what makes us Holy Christians. And we find here that the context is connected with separation. And we find in this passage as I have read that there are two parts to perfecting holiness. That is the outward and there is the inward. You see he talks about separating from unbelievers, but then he also talks about in Chapter 7 verse one the fact that we need to deal with those things that are unpure and pollution.
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Pollutions that are within our own hearts. So you have the outward and you have the inward. And that's important because you know it's possible to separate from the world and the world still be in us. You know, we can we can come out of the world, but the world doesn't necessarily come out of us. We can carry a lot of the world in our hearts. And so to have the one without the other is really just hypocrisy. To walk in separation from the world, but to be full of the world in our hearts is really not what he has in mind.
And it's not perfecting holiness in the sight of God. And so he brings out here how that there is the need for separation. He speaks about how that the Corinthians hearts were restricted or narrowed, their affections were narrowed, and that's one of the great effects of worldliness and the lack of separation. And that is that our hearts affection for Christ and his people become restricted and become.
Narrowed. And surely that's something that we shouldn't want in our Christian lives, and so it's important that we take care of this.
And he speaks about be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And I can't remember where I got this from. But someone said there's perhaps five different spheres of yokes. I'll mention them to you. There is the social sphere, that is we may join clubs and and.
Teams and all this kind of thing. Or just have companionship with people that are not the Lords. Then there is the business yoke.
Then there is also the ecclesiastical yoke. That would be our church fellowship with those with whom we walk and break bread. And then there would be the.
The matrimonial yoke that would be to do with marriage. It's possible to marry, marry an unbeliever, and then we have the political yo to get involved with the political parties and political causes and so on. These are various jokes that the Christian is to keep themselves separate from. If he is going to perfect holiness in his life, you know it's impossible to maintain holiness apart from separation.
It's not a popular subject, I realized. People don't like to be told that those things are worldly and they're only going to pull a person down and to hinder them from going on after Christ. But nevertheless, this is what the word of God teaches and we are to seek to perfect holiness in our lives. Notice in both of these verses, verse 14 and then Chapter 7, verse one. It's a responsibility that we have. It says be ye, not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And then chapter 71 Says let us.
Cleanse ourselves. And so it's our responsibility to pass judgment on those things that would only hinder us from developing and going on. You know what's going to bring a bad testimony on the Lord, too. Alexander the Great, I had heard, was, as you know, a great commander, the great army and all this. Anyway, at one point in the time of his his power, there was a soldier and who had been named of all things.
Alexander and he was a very poor soldier. He was disobedient, and he did all kinds of things that weren't right. And so one day they called him up, and Alexander brought him before him, and he said to him soldier.
Correct your ways or change your name.
He didn't want to be associated with that soldier who had was bearing the same name as the emperor and the leader of the army, the general of the army himself, he said. He said change your ways or change your name.
And I just thought about that. You know, we bear the very same name as the Lord Jesus Christ. We're called Christians. That's Christ's name there. It really means Christ ones. And so we bear the name of Christ in this world. And it's possible by our bad behavior and walking in unholiness that we can dishonor that name. And so the word that God would have for us is.
Change your ways. We can't change our name, but we can change our ways through self judgment. And it's important that we do that. I don't have time to look at it because the time is passing by, but there are a number of reasons why separation is important in the Christian's life. I'll just rattle them off here. Restricts our affections and our hearts for Christ. We've already read that. Another thing is it takes away our appetite for divine things. Numbers Chapter 11. The Children of Israel were lusting after Egypt's food. Egypt's the type of this world, you know that.
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And when they did that, what happened is that their appetite for the manna, which is type of Christ in the word of God, became withered. They said our soul is dried and they had no appetite to eat it. They tried all kinds of things to make it palatable, but still they were miserable and they were weeping in their tents. And so we find here that it takes away the appetite for divine things. Another thing, third thing, we become corrupted and defiled. Is that a serious thing?
You know it says in First Corinthians chapter 15 Be not deceived, evil communications.
Corrupt good manners, and we can be corrupted by and defiled by the morals and the ways of this world.
Should be enough to frighten us. There was a bunch of schoolgirls that were in north of Scotland and they were going to go on a tour that they had. The tour was then out of a coal mine and there was an old miner there that was guest supposed to lead them into the mine. And this girl showed up in a nice white frock dress and she said, excuse me Sir, just make it a mind of a beat. Anything hindering me from wearing this white dress into the mind, he said. Laddie lasted rather, you know.
There's nothing from keeping you to wear this white dress into the mind, but there's considerable from keeping you from wearing that white dress out of the mind.
And you know, we can get awful dirty in this world if we don't practice separation and the Perfecting Holiness, not only outwardly but also in our hearts. Another thing is, if we don't break fellowship and stuff, we don't walk in separation. We could turn us away from fellowship with the Lord, you know, tells us in Deuteronomy that if they were to make the children of Israel, were to make links with the nations of the lands around them, what would happen?
It that's what Scripture teaches, Hosea 7 tells us that it will also hinder our development.
Our progress, our process of perfection that we're speaking about here tonight, you understand the word says there in Hosea Chapter 7 says Ephraim hath mixed himself with the peoples world. That means the nations around, not the people of Israel born as plural peoples. It's always the nations around, so they mix themselves with the nations around. And then it says he's like a cake, not turn. See. What's that? Well, that's an undone bit of bakery, isn't it? It's one that has not been completed.
It's you got to start it, but you didn't finish the thing. And so we find here that it hinders a person's development.
And that's a serious thing. We're not ever going to go on to perfection if we maintain links with this world. Hosea 7, the next verse, tells us that we're going to lose discernment.
Says that there are his enemies of devoured. His strength and Gray hairs are upon his head, and he knoweth it not. He lacks the sermon, doesn't even recognize the fact that there's been spiritual decay and decline. Why? Because he was mixing himself with the nations of this world. And so there's a number of reasons why. You see, I just don't think I can do it. You just don't realize that my friends have such a claim. Or I'm sure hope it's not true. But maybe there's someone here that's so immersed.
With people that are, they should not be that they. They just don't feel they have the power to do it. Well, the very pastors that I've read in Second Corinthians chapter 6 tells us that the Lord is going to stand up and he's going to help us. And there's a fourfold promise. He says I will dwell with them, I will be their God, I will receive you and I'll be a father unto you. And then he mentioned speaks of himself as being the Lord Almighty because he all powers at his hand and he'll help you to do that. Well, I'm going to read one last passage. This goes on to another aspect of perfection before we close, and that's in Hebrews Chapter 11.
Last verse of Hebrews Chapter 11. It's time to close.
Verse 40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. They without us should not be made purposely. What is He speaking about? Context is important here. He's talking about all the Old Testament Saints. That's what the chapters about. And he's saying there's a day coming when they're going to be made perfect, but they're not going to be made perfect without us. We're going to be made perfect together. And this points us to the coming of Christ.
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The coming of Christ.
When the Lord Jesus comes, there is going to be perfection in another sense. That is the final condition of the believer. There's going to be the perfecting of the body and the soul and the spirit in the sense that the fallen nature will be eradicated.
And we are going to be made like Christ and glorified in that day. That is what lies ahead for every believer with whom who has the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is what lies ahead for me. But friend, I get back to where we were at the beginning. If there's anybody that is in this audience that is still not received Christ as a Savior, what lies ahead for you, may I ask?
Are you going to someday reach that complete perfection of the final condition? No, you're not. You're going to pass into a lost eternity to stand before God and all your sins, to be judged in your sins, and to be cast into an everlasting lake of fire to bear your sins because you would not receive the Lord Jesus. I just entreat you take this seriously and to realize that you need Christ.
As your savior.
Let's thank God.