[Note: This is Part A of the sermon on Matthew 5:43-48, delivered 23 January 1983, Montreal. The series is titled "Regeneration and Renewal." Part B continues directly.]
Today we continue in our series on regeneration and renewal. We want to look at the goal toward which renewal is proceeding: the difficult word, perfection. Let us turn to Matthew 5:48, reading from verse 43: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Here we come to this difficult concept of perfection. Shall we run away from it? And how shall we run away except to run away from what the Lord commands us? What I shall aim to do today is to help us get a picture of what the Lord wants — because we cannot obey a command we don't understand. If we are commanded to be perfect, how shall we press toward this goal if we don't even know what perfection means?
Let us refresh our memories. Last time we spoke on the importance of growing. We saw that growing is not optional but essential to survival. We saw from Ephesians 4:14 that spiritual infants are tossed about by every wind of doctrine — and the danger, of course, is shipwreck. No one tries deliberately to get shipwrecked; every captain and crew aim to keep the ship afloat. But the power of the waves, the winds of doctrine blowing here and there, have caused many a shipwreck, because people did not have the strength either to discern or to cope with these waves.
When I watch children growing up, my heart fears for them. They are not able to discern even the dangers. They cannot tell where the rocks are beneath the water, let alone resist the waves. What to adults are obvious dangers are not visible to them at all. We see the rocks below the surface, but they can't see them. That is the literal danger of childhood — and equally of spiritual childhood.
Another example is from 1 Corinthians 3, where Paul says to the Corinthians: "You are still infants. I cannot speak to you as spiritually mature people. You are carnal." Infancy and carnality are synonymous in Paul's use here. When you are rather carnal as a young Christian — not yet free of the influences of the flesh, the old ways of thinking — that is a very dangerous position. As Paul points out in Galatians 5 and 6, if you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh reap corruption.
I was counseling a marriage in Hong Kong three years ago that was falling apart. The wife was in tears through the whole two hours of my last visit before leaving Hong Kong. And as I observed husband and wife, I felt I was dealing with two children. Physically they were grown-ups, but morally and spiritually infantile. I had in one hand to rebuke them sharply in several respects, and on the other hand to gently urge them forward. Through two and a half hours of struggle I finally managed to hold that marriage together, because both had such an infantile way of thinking that it was going to destroy what could have been a good thing.
So then, where does the importance of perfection lie? Let me briefly sum it up in three points.
First: survival. We must press on to perfection if we are going to survive. I stressed this last time and repeat it again now.
Second: obedience. We have to press on to perfection because it is a matter of obedience. The Lord commands it here: "Be perfect." He gave us no choice as to whether we like to be perfect or not. It is a command. If anyone says that you can be saved and it doesn't matter whether you press on to perfection — that you are saved and can now do what you like, settle into your career and house and forget about spiritual things — such a person is living in disobedience to God. And disobedient people are not going to inherit the kingdom.
Third — and this is the essential point we will spend more time on today — pressing on to perfection is the path of power. There is no Christian who enjoys power in the spirit who is not totally oriented toward perfection. I say this categorically: there is no person in the church today who understands anything about spiritual power in practice who is not wholeheartedly pressing on toward perfection.
There are people who know they would like power and think there are easy, quick ways to get it. Let me tell you: there are none. No sudden experience, no particular kind of baptism, will give you lasting power. You may have a moment of uplifting and excitement — I have nothing against that. But power is something deep, a continuing moving of the Spirit. It has to do with the inner determination to press relentlessly toward perfection. And no one who does not have this mind will know what power is about. You will not go into seminary, collect degrees, and come out with power. Power is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of perfection.
Now, this power is not for our own satisfaction. Power is essential to gain the victory, because if we are to survive we must win. You either fall toward Christ or against him; you either win or you lose. To be defeated is to face shipwreck. And this is why I am concerned to speak about the secrets of victory, the spiritual secrets. It is absolutely vital to understand and capture this vision of victory — a church that does not know defeat.
The Lord spoke to his little band of disciples, imperfect as they were, and said in Luke chapter 10, verse 19: "I give you power over all the power of the enemy." Somebody standing by the side might have burst out laughing — look at this pitiful sight. Here are twelve fishermen, and seventy more not-yet-fully-trained disciples. And he's going to make them invincible. That's what he said: I give you power over all the power of your enemy. You are unconquerable as of now.
And here is the vital principle we must derive. You do not have power only when you reach perfection — if so, we would despair of ever having any power, looking at perfection through binoculars in the far distance and thinking, when I finally get there, then I will be powerful. No. Notice carefully: these people were not even fully trained. Their spiritual perception was not staggering — quite limited, as you know. It is to these people, still inadequate, that he says: "I give you power over all the power of the enemy."
The principle of power can be summed up simply: so long as you are truly committed to press on relentlessly toward this perfection, you are equipped with this power — now. The power will increase as you progress toward perfection, but real power you already have. Not very great power at this stage perhaps, but genuine power which will continue to increase as you press closer toward the mark.
I press this principle here so that you do not become discouraged. Many people are pressing toward perfection and after one year it seems the same distance away as when they started. I risk repeating myself, but: so long as you are determinedly driving in this direction, you will be granted power that will surprise you. Test this in living that life in action — you might be surprised what power is available. As you advance, the enemy falls back. The Lord is saying: there is nothing that can stop you in achieving this perfection. I give you power over all the power of the enemy means nothing can stop you on this path. You keep going and the enemy falls back. Resist the devil and not only will he fall back — he will actually flee, run for his life from you.
I think the training team can refresh their memories. Before we started the training, many were counting the cost — seven people in full-time training, plus family members, in expensive Canada, when we could barely cover the ordinary expenses of the church. The beads of sweat breaking out on foreheads. And yet it all came to pass. The problem disappeared. Problem after problem: we advance, and the problem falls back.
And then I still remember the day when we sat around the table and began to dream — one day maybe we can go to Israel and learn about the scriptures on the spot. Everyone was saying: too expensive, no way, it's too far. At best we can keep dreaming, they said. And then what happened? Last year our feet were standing on the soil of the land, and we were as those who dreamed. Here we were in Israel —
[Continues in Part B]
# Perfection as Maturity and Inner Strength (Part B) — Power Available Now; Spiritual Passivity Rebuked; God's Power and Human Effort; Perfection = Holiness = Power = Victory; Exodus and Deuteronomy; Joshua
[Note: This is Part B of the sermon on Matthew 5:43-48, delivered 23 January 1983, Montreal. The series is titled "Regeneration and Renewal." Continues directly from Part A.]
You press forward and the impossible comes to pass again. Can you see? It is wonderful to walk with the Lord. It is so glorious an experience. The impossible has a remarkable way of becoming possible. By the time the second team came into training, people didn't worry about the finances anymore. I didn't hear anybody say much about the finances. They said, yeah, a lot more people, but somehow we'll manage. They had begun to learn the lesson. And I haven't heard anyone say anything about the third team's finances now, because we have become used to overcoming this particular problem. The power to drive back the enemy — I hope you can capture this vision.
But now let me stress again: this triumphant power is given to those who press relentlessly. And here we must deal briefly with a pitfall along the way, because when we use words like "strain every nerve" — Paul's own expression — there are some who find something offensive about it. They say: ah, human effort. As though human effort is something to be ashamed of. There is a danger of stressing God's grace in such a way that we pass the whole responsibility to God, and there is a danger of stressing human effort so much that we have lost sight of the fact that we can accomplish nothing except by God's power. Our spiritual minds have great problems holding these two vital things in balance, and it is always considered more spiritual to stress God's part rather than ours. That is false spirituality.
Look at Matthew 5:48: "Be perfect." That is a command. If there were nothing for us to do, there would be no point commanding us. I sit back in my armchair and wait, and God makes me perfect one day — in which case there is no point commanding me to be perfect. The command implies that you have to do something about it. Therefore, to say that striving toward perfection is works — then we must say the Lord is teaching works. He commands us to perfection. Because it is beyond our natural attainment, we must depend on his grace. Because it is a command, we have to strive for it. That is the balance.
When we lose the balance, several things happen. There are those who might be called the quietists — spiritual passivists — who say it is very spiritual to leave the whole thing to God and do nothing. They say: I will say nothing but what God moves me to say. This sounds very spiritual but is deceptively so. If God doesn't inspire me to love my brother, I will not love him. If God doesn't inspire me to serve him, I will not serve him. Whether I love my brother or not depends on God's inspiration — it sounds pious, but leads to total paralysis. Even the elect can be deceived by teachings cloaked in spiritual-sounding language. That is why maturity — which scripture defines as discernment between true and false — is essential for survival.
There are some things we don't need to wait for any feeling at all. He who strives toward perfection will make it his first aim to do what he has already been commanded. The Lord commanded me to love — I don't have to wait for a feeling to love. I don't feel like loving. But I will love because I am commanded to love. I will care because I am commanded to care. You must often reject your feelings in order to strive for perfection. The Lord said, go and make disciples of all nations. What feeling do you need to wait for before you fulfill that command? Pressing on relentlessly toward the mark means doing what you know God wants you to do. He has already told you in his word and does not need to give you further feelings about it.
Now look at Colossians 1:29 — this most beautiful picture of the balance. Paul says: "For this I toil striving with all the energy which he inspires in me." There you have man's power and God's power. Paul is striving and God is energizing. He presses forward and God's power is energizing him as he goes on. He presses toward the mark with all the energy that God inspires in him. Both together. These two factors are the means by which we can accomplish this aim. Perfect balance.
Now, what is perfection? Perfection has a number of spiritual synonyms in the Bible. One of them is holiness. "Be perfect as your Father is perfect" can be paraphrased "be holy as your Father is holy" — this is in fact in Leviticus 11:44-45, 19:2, and 20:7: "be holy as I am holy." So perfection is nothing other than holiness, quite as straightforward as that. And why is this important? Because holiness is connected to power, and power is connected to victory. Perfection, holiness, power, victory — all connected. In fact, these are all different aspects of the same thing.
The Lord wants his disciples to enlarge their vision. He wants them to look at the unseen, to see not the enormity in front but the unlimited resources of God available to us. That is called victorious Christian living. Without faith, perfection is not even worth thinking about. It is beyond our reach, and without faith, holiness is not possible to us.
Let me take you into the Old Testament on this theme, to show the parallel between the Church and Israel. In Exodus 19:5-6, the Lord says: "Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." They are called to be a holy nation through keeping his commandments. The holy nation is a nation that obeys God's voice. Now what happens from holiness? Holiness leads to victory. Exodus 23:22: "If you hearken attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries." God empowered Israel again and again to gain the victory against hopeless odds. Take the case of Gideon — they were going to fight a countless enemy, already outnumbered to begin with, and the Lord reduced them to 300 men against a hundred thousand. This was to teach Israel that victory is of the Lord.
Notice the words in Exodus 23:27-28: "I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you" — they will run for their life. Holiness, perfection, power, victory: can you get the picture? God tells Israel: you are invincible so long as you walk with me.
Deuteronomy 7:6 shows why God chose Israel: "For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love upon you — for you were the fewest of all peoples." He chose a nobody, the weakest there is, so that the glory and the power would be seen to be of God. When Israel threw back the armies of Sennacherib — the Assyrian army was world power number one — they were going to crush this tiny nation, and they were thrown back. So the glory was certainly not of Israel. God chooses the weak and useless things for this very reason.
Deuteronomy 11:22-23: "For if you will be careful to do all this commandment which I command you, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways and cleaving to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. No man shall be able to stand against you." What a triumphant picture. And finally, Joshua chapter 1 — when they are ready to enter the land of promise: "Every place that the sole of your foot will set upon, I have given to you." Verse 6: "Be strong and of good courage, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land." Verse 7: "Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law." And verse 9: "Be strong and of good courage. Be not frightened, neither be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Then in verses 10-11 Joshua gives the order to move out.
I wonder if you can sense the tingle of excitement every Israelite felt that morning — girding his sword on his side, moving out to see whether God's words are true or false. That is what I would have us as a church experience. Is our God true or is he false? If he is false, let us forget about Christianity altogether. But if he is true — how will you know it until, like the Israelites, you enter the land and see whether the enemy falls back as you advance? If not, then the Christian life you live is not worth having. But I want you to gain this vision: that God makes us and determines us to live triumphantly, not only in our individual lives but as a church together. The synonym is: be perfect, be holy. Through holiness comes power, through power invincibility — not only when you become perfect in the full sense, but now. He grants us this victory in this very day, as you strive in obedience to his commandment. And your hearts will be filled with joy and worship. Let us be quiet before God in prayer. Thank you.