We turn today to the Word of God, to John chapter 17, to this great prayer known as the High Priestly Prayer of the Lord Jesus. And we read from verses 20 to 23, John 17:20-23. And this is what the Lord Jesus prayed: "I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word." He is praying for the disciples, of course. "That they all may be one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them, even as thou hast loved me."
Now there is enormous riches in this passage. And you will know that we have been expounding on a series of messages concerning perfection. And I have been stressing perfection as the goal of regeneration and renewal. The importance of perfection in the scriptural teaching can simply not be underestimated. Its importance, I fear many have not yet fully grasped, that we are to be perfect, even as He is perfect.
We started this series speaking about regeneration and renewal. And today we want to ask some questions. If then we are regenerate, what further need is there to speak about perfection? We are born again. We are saved. Why still talk about perfection? Isn't that some kind of extra? Some kind of more than is really necessary? Why don't we just settle at the level of regeneration? We are regenerate, and that's fine and good. I hope that some of the answers to these questions you are already aware of, in view of the past series of expositions on this matter. But today I would like to pull, as it were, all the various strings together, so that we can bring everything together into focus, as to what perfection means, or why is perfection necessary.
Now, we have seen, for example, at Matthew chapter 5 verse 48, the Lord's command — it is a command, I ask you again to bear in mind — be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. Remember, that is a command. The same is true in Luke chapter 6 verse 36: be merciful, as your Father is merciful. That is also a command. Now, speaking of mercy, we want to grasp something very clearly here: that none of us are expected to attain perfection in our own strength. That God's mercy, His sustaining grace and power, is what makes such perfection at all possible, before we can even contemplate, because otherwise it is so out of reach that we might be wasting our time even to talk about such things. But because it is a command, and because He is the Father of mercy, as the Apostle Paul speaks of God, who in His enabling strength not only commands but empowers us so to live, then we are left without excuse not to be striving, with all that His power inspires within us, to press on to perfection.
We already saw earlier on that in Colossians chapter 1 verse 28, Paul says that he strives and toils with all his might. Today we don't like words like strive and toil, we don't like words like work. But Paul likes them, and he uses them with astonishing frequency, whether we like them or not. With all striving and toil, to do what? To present every man perfect in Christ. That is what Paul says. Why did Paul work so hard, if regeneration was all that matters? I mean, as long as you get somebody saved, then you say, "Okay, nice chap, best of luck, carry on well, and hope you make it to the kingdom." That is the attitude we find in the churches today. The attitude is that you just get them converted, get them into some church with some fellowship, hopefully, and then that's it. That's the end of it. Where do you hear preaching about perfection? Where do you hear the exhortation that we must be holy? We must be merciful? What has happened?
I want to say that even salvation, if separated from the scriptural teaching of perfection, will become illusory, will vanish from sight, vanish from your grip. The gospel — the gospel — is the whole counsel of God. The gospel is not just regeneration. The gospel includes, as a vital part of the gospel, perfection. Why do we need to be perfect? We saw in earlier messages that the Apostle Peter says that we have the word of God so that we may grow up into salvation. Grow up into salvation. This I have already expounded in detail; I shall not go into further detail now, but just to remind you of these points, that salvation is something to grow up to. Why is perfection necessary? Because it has to do with growth. What's the importance of growth? Well, if you have life, you will grow. That's very simple. If you don't have life, you don't grow. Growth indicates the vigor of life within you. Salvation is an entire process that is graciously designed, and that growth indicates that we are in the process of that salvation, that we are growing up into salvation, to use these remarkable words of the Apostle Peter.
And secondly, perfection is essential and not just a luxury, even on the very elementary statement to say that we are regenerate. You say, what do you mean? Well, what I mean is very simple. What does regeneration mean? Regeneration means to be born of God. What does that mean? Well, that means that if you are truly born of God, you of necessity, as also the Apostle Peter says, become a partaker of His divine nature. Now, what does that mean? Well, that means that if you are a partaker of His divine nature, that if He is holy, you must be holy too. And if He is merciful, then you must be merciful too. Therefore, perfection is the inevitable consequence of regeneration. If it is not, one doesn't have to be an advanced logician, an expert in logic, to understand such a thing. If we are truly regenerate, if we are truly born of God as we claim to be, then inevitably His nature will be found in us. Is it not? It remains for us merely to grow. This is the first point: to grow in holiness, to grow in mercy.
These things are a matter of life. It is not a matter of quality. When we speak of mercy, we are not saying that being merciful is a rather good ethical policy to have. We are speaking of the inner dynamic of the spiritual life, where holiness and mercy are qualities of character, not a matter of deliberate policy of the mind. There is the important distinction. We can choose, as a matter of deliberate policy, from time to time, to be merciful. I see a beggar, and I decide that he may need some money. I decide by deliberate policy to give him a few dollars to make me feel good. That does not come from within the character. It is simply that I decided that today I am in a good mood, and therefore, because I am in a good mood — or maybe I decide that it is rather nice to be kind to poor people as a matter of policy.
Now you see, it is very important to understand these distinctions, which I do not have time to go into, but I will merely touch upon. If we are regenerate, then mercy comes out from the innermost being. I can't help being merciful, whether I think it happens to be good policy right now or not is beside the point. It is because I am regenerate that I, of necessity, from the inner compulsion of the new being, the new man, am merciful. I don't decide that holiness might be a rather good social policy to have. It might also be good for my mental health, you see, to be either merciful or holy. Now people may decide to be merciful for those reasons, but that does not make you regenerate. You may decide to be holy for your personal reason. But whatever reason you might do any of these things, if it does not come from within, you are no better off than a Pharisee, who also decides that holiness is good social policy. He also has decided that it is good to be seen praying in the public places. It is good that people think that you are pious. Indeed, it is good to be pious, whether people think so or not. But it does not come from a regenerated being, not from within. This distinction is vital to understand.
When we speak about perfection in Scripture, we are not talking about an ideal that we set before us and say, "Okay, we think this is an important ideal, and we will work towards it." It is an important ideal. But that's not the reason we are pressing on towards it. It is because we are born anew, and God's power impels us in the direction of perfection. As Paul said, "Let all who are perfect be thus minded. Have this mind in you." What mind? To press towards the mark of perfection, to be like Him. That is an inner compulsion. Why is perfection necessary? Because you can gauge yourself as to whether you are truly regenerate or not. As Paul says, let a man examine himself. That's what we need to do. See whether you are truly regenerate. The question is not that you think holiness is rather good to be — not essential, but good — as many Christians would say. Our brothers and sisters in the churches all agree it's very good to be holy, very good to be merciful. But that's not what we are talking about. We are talking about a person being holy or merciful because the Spirit of God has come into him and changed his life and given him an inner dynamic that drives him forward, as Paul puts it in Philippians, to will and to do of His good pleasure. There is perfection. Do you have that dynamic? Or do you merely say, "Well, it's all very good to be holy"? We are not talking about this. We are talking about life.
The third thing, and I move on very quickly because we need to cover a lot of ground — the third point as to the importance of perfection is what the Lord Jesus speaks about in the whole of John chapter 15: that we bear fruit. That is the whole purpose, that we bear fruit. At this point I have expounded on before, and I said I am merely summarizing these points. Are you bearing fruit? That is the question. Now, fruit follows exactly the previous point. It comes from an inner dynamic. The life that is within causes the branch to bear fruit. The branch did not decide that it is rather good to bear fruit from time to time, because it doesn't look good that another branch has a lot of fruit and I don't have any fruit here, so I've got to get some fruit together. You see. And if I can't get any fruit, then maybe when that guy is sleeping, I pinch one and tie it onto my branch. "See this beautiful apple I have here?" Ah, you see. But here we are speaking about bearing fruit from within, the dynamic of life within.
Now this is something that we must grasp, that the Lord Jesus says that if a branch does not bear fruit — John 15:6 — it will be cut off. It is very salutary for us to bear this warning in mind, because a branch that does not bear fruit has failed of its purpose for being a branch abiding in the vine. It is a branch; it is in the vine. But if it does not convey life outward, it will be cut off. Perfection is nothing other than the transmission of God's life outward beyond ourselves. What we speak of as a transitive love: a love that does not just retain, is not just retained in us, but passed on to others.
I would like you to ask yourself again: what kind of Christian are you, if you claim yourself to be a Christian? Are you one of those branches that are forever wanting to draw life into itself but producing nothing? It all stops there, like all the water collected in the Dead Sea, and that is why it is dead, because it does not go anywhere from the Dead Sea. The Lord Jesus is teaching us in John 15 that salvation itself is transitive. What does that mean? If you want to be saved, and you keep that salvation to yourself — if you want to be saved truly for your own sake, you won't have it. I wish that evangelists would tell the hearer: "You want to be saved? Well and good. But remember something: if you keep that salvation to yourself, if you think that God's love is just for you to keep, rather than to turn you into a channel to pass on this love to others, this life for others — you won't be saved." Take it from the authority of God's word: you will not be saved. Unless you become transitive, unless you become a channel through which God's power, God's love, God's life flows forth to others. The very person who is so concerned for his own salvation and his own salvation alone will simply not be saved. There is an unequivocal statement I can prove to you from anywhere in Scripture. Unless you bring forth fruit. And the Lord Jesus says, "Herein is my Father glorified, that you bring forth much fruit." But if you don't bring forth much fruit, at least you have to bring forth some fruit. And if you don't bring forth any fruit, you will be simply cut off. As straightforward as that.
Now, this is the kind of teaching that the churches don't want to hear. Or some churches don't want to hear. I'm sorry, but that's in Scripture. That's the way it stands in Scripture. We are not saved for our own sake. You know, the reason I'm stretching this point, I will tell you very simply. We have bred, if I may use that word, a generation of Christians who are no less selfish, and perhaps more selfish, than the multitude of non-Christians. They only think about themselves, their own salvation: that God saves me, and how many hymns is "me this" and "me that" and "me the other thing." And let me tell you, when I was looking for a hymn today to close this message with, concerning passing on God's love to others, loving one another, I couldn't find one. I searched through the Scripture, I looked through the index, I looked through the special headings — I couldn't find one. Maybe the nearest we have is the song "Channels Only." That is the nearest we could find. And it's really hard to find a song. The reason for it is easy to understand. We think of ourselves as the end of God's salvation: that God's salvation comes to me, it is for me, God loves me, and hallelujah. And you know what that does? That breeds a bunch of people who are unbelievably selfish, that even God exists to do nothing but to bless you. You are not here for Him; He is there for you. That's what kind of Christianity we breed. And this kind of Christianity, let me say, has nothing to do with the scriptural teaching whatever. Anybody who thinks in this sort of way — I fear for that person. I fear that such a person will find himself, or herself, without a share in the eternal kingdom, without a share in eternal life. God is simply not like that. Then He says it to you: God is not like that.
It is important, when you come to the Lord, that you become like Him, so that you understand how His mind works. Do you imagine that the Lord Jesus, who never gave a thought to Himself in His entire earthly ministry — that when He hungered after 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, He refused to turn one small piece of stone into bread to feed Himself with His own power. He would not do it. He would not. But you could say, just a small one — I mean, surely it's not unreasonable that in His hunger He could use His power. He refused to use any of His power, any of God's power, for Himself. No way. But when the crowds were hungry in the wilderness, 4,000 of them at one time, 5,000 at another time, He did not hesitate to multiply the loaves and the fish for them. For them, yes. But for Himself, no. Transitive love. Love that goes out to others, that forgets Himself. And you claim to be a disciple of this Jesus? Well, what kind of Jesus are you a disciple of? If you think that Jesus came simply for you, for me — save myself, hallelujah — and what happens to the others is not my problem. What kind of unbelievable selfishness!
I will tell you, you think that there is this kind of Christianity that exists, that when we say we are going to be saved from sin — the essence of sin is selfishness — and yet we preach a gospel that would encourage selfishness? That we only seek our own salvation, or primarily? And we make excuses: "I am not gifted to preach, I am not gifted to do this." Do you think that the only way to communicate life is through words? Or can your life convey nothing of God's love to anyone else? It is not believable. Every person can convey life to another if that life is truly in him. And only in the giving of life do you receive life. In the losing of your own soul do you receive life. He that saves his life, who thinks that he seeks his own salvation — that person will lose it.
I said earlier on that when you study the Scriptures, study it carefully, you will notice that the men of God have one distinction and one quality about them. They seem remarkably unconcerned about their own salvation. And this I have also made clear in an earlier point. So much so that they could not understand the Apostle Paul when he said in Romans 9, as I mentioned also in an earlier case, that he would be happy to be lost, to be condemned, if his condemnation could result in the salvation of Israel. There is transitive love. "If, Lord, I could perish — if my perishing could result in the salvation of my people, so be it, Lord. Let me go to hell that they may go to heaven." Where is this kind of mentality that the Apostle Paul had? The Lord Jesus descended into the depths, into the place of the departed dead. As the Creed puts it, He descended into hell, into Hades, for our sake, that we may have life in fellowship with the Father.
This then is the third point I want to stress with you. We must convey this life, pictured as bringing forth fruit. And unless you do this, brothers and sisters, I shall not see you on that day. You and I will not meet again in His presence on that day. I beg of you to understand it. God doesn't want to turn you and me into a bunch of selfish people concerned with our salvation: "I am saved. I am the elect of God. I am the predestined one. And cursed are these people who are ignorant of the word of God." What kind of Christianity is this? Let it never be found among us. Let it never be known, or ever thought of, in our midst.
God is merciful. God is — who? God is totally committed to us. Indeed, He is. That is the joy. But sometimes I dare not stress such points in a Christianity that is preoccupied with a personal salvation, as it's called — personal salvation. I dare not stress these points, because people are selfish enough, and you want to tell them about God's love for them. How God is totally committed to us. I use the term: God is totally committed to us. Indeed, He is. The evidence is on the cross. Look at the cross. If you have any doubt that God is totally committed to us, then look at the cross. His only Son hung there. If you have any doubt that Jesus is totally committed to us, look at the cross. We speak not only about total commitment to Him — that is only half the truth. We must stress also His total commitment to us. But as I say frankly, I dare not stress that in a Christianity so preoccupied with self-interest, personal salvation, rather than the salvation of all those round about us. May we have this attitude: so help me, Lord, that if I must go to hell for the salvation of others, that will not be too high a price for me. But many people say, how can Paul say such things in Romans 9? It's almost impure to say that. They have not yet understood the heart of Christ as Paul did.
Let us go on quickly to the fourth thing. Why is perfection so vital? Perfection is vital because, as I mentioned briefly earlier on, it is a command. If you cannot understand all the reasoning of the three points that I have just mentioned, if all this reasoning is too abstruse for you, too difficult to comprehend, let me put it to you simply in the fourth point. If you cannot understand it, you have got to do it anyway, because it is a command. Commanded us: "You shall be holy, as I am holy. You must be merciful, because I am merciful." That is the way it is. That should be easier to understand, is it not?
Faith is obedience in Scripture. The obedience of faith, as it is called. The failure to obey a command — disobedience — is unfaith. It is the opposite of faith. If we are justified by faith, then this part of faith is equally essential to our justification. For faith is obedience, and obedience — we have been given specifically what we are to obey. To obey the gospel means what? We can all believe the gospel. And I think Christianity and Christendom is full of people who believe the gospel, but very few who obey it. The gospel was not given to us merely to believe in the sense of intellectual assent. It was given to us to obey. And if you ask, what is the content of the gospel that we are to obey? It is precisely this: the lordship of Christ. And when we speak of the lordship of Christ, can we make it more vague? Or shall we say, "Oh yes, He is Lord in my life." What is the content of this lordship? The lordship has been given to us. He commanded us: "You shall be holy, as your Father is holy." There it is. Obey. You don't obey this, and you say you have saving faith. Where is the saving faith? What is the saving faith that you are talking about? Is it the scriptural one? Or do you think you will enter heaven on your own conditions? That you will print your own ticket, as it were, to heaven. Say, "God's ticket is too expensive. I've got a better way. I'll go down to the Hong Kong guys, and they can cut the thing down in the back street for me." And they stamp one there. "Here is the ticket. I make my own." And I suspect that many Christians have gone about making their own tickets to heaven. They think they are going to enter on their own terms. Well, you try it. You try it on that day.
When I was in Hong Kong last time, I was quite surprised. Some American tourists were there buying things in the shop. And this person on the counter, in Tsim Sha Tsui, he took out an instrument and he ran it across the green banknotes, the US dollars. And the light came on. You see, when all these American tourists were fascinated, they said, "What's this?" He said, "Well, with this instrument I can tell whether your banknote is genuine or false. You see, if it lights up, it's genuine. If it doesn't light up, it's false." Wow, these American tourists — even in America they'd never seen that before. I've never seen it before myself. All you have to do before is hold it up to the light and do things, and then nowadays they're so sophisticated that even that they can deceive you. But they put this thing across the dollar, the light turns on, okay, the next one, next one, like this. So if we think we can print our own tickets to heaven, I'm afraid at the gates of the kingdom we shall have a shock. Traditionally, Peter is supposed to be the one guarding the door. So if man can produce some electronic instrument, let me tell you, you're not going to fool Peter with your ticket. You must grasp this point very clearly. We are to obey the gospel. And this is integral to the whole gospel: that we be holy, God's people in this generation. A people merciful, as God's people.
But our time is going quickly. We are to obey the gospel.
# Perfection in the Oneness of God's People (Part 2)
I take particularly as my text today verse 23: "I in them, and thou in me," and notice these words, "that they may become perfectly one, that they may become perfectly one." What for? What is so important? "So that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me." Now there are vast riches in here, and I must move quickly.
First of all, notice the comparison here. You ought to be one because God is one. You see the parallel? Holy because He is holy. Merciful because He is merciful. One because He is one. God is one, and therefore we must be one. The one distinction of this matter here is that previously it was stated as a command. Here the Lord is praying that His people might have the grace, the power from God, to fulfill the command. Thanks be to God. Because if we had only the command and not His intercession, then all this would be futile, isn't it? But is it possible? Look at the church today. That they may be one. You can't even get one church to be one, never mind all the church of Christ universal to be one. Many churches, you have internal problems. You have infighting between elders. It's wrestling for power. Because we have a church of people who think that all God is there to serve me, to bless me and my family and my household and get me to heaven. Oh, God is simply there more or less as a glorified servant of ours, if we may dare to say so. We dare not say so, but that's the truth of the matter all the same. How can such a church be one?
The first thing we need to notice is that this oneness is based on a close interrelationship with God. I'm still wanting to answer this question: what is the purpose of perfection? If so far the four answers I've given to you have not yet clarified your mind, let us press on with a few more observations. But before we come into the matter of expounding this verse, I have three preliminary observations to make very quickly.
The first is that we must understand that perfection is not merely a personal matter. We think of each person individually striving for perfection. There is truth in that, but that is not the whole truth. Perfection in Scripture is a communal matter. I'm very afraid of this cliche that we are used to among evangelicals in particular — "personal." Personal this and personal that, and personal salvation and a personal savior and personal everything. We have personalized checks and personal bank accounts and personal everything. Oh, it's so good to be personal. Personal. Now that's very fine because we are all very individualistic, and I'm very scared of this word "personal." I know what it meant: that salvation must also reach the individual person. And we have no doubt about that. But this stress on the personal to the neglect of the communal is very disturbing to me. Because in Scripture the stress is quite the reverse. The stress in Scripture is constantly on the communal. That we are one body in Christ. That we are one bread. We have one faith. One Lord. One baptism. It is always stressing what we have in common rather than what is personal to me. This difference in stress is very important.
I was reading in the history of dogma yesterday, just glancing through, how important is this distinction in stress. Where this writer, Seeberg, a German professor, in his now more or less classic volume on the history of dogma, stresses the distinction between Calvin and Luther as being a difference of temperament, a fundamental difference in emphasis. That whereas Calvin stresses law, stresses God's divine plan and purpose, which expresses itself in His predestination, His law, His decrees — that's not Luther's stress at all. Luther stresses the love of God, God's concern for man. Luther is closer to the scriptural emphasis than Calvinism. But whatever the theologians may think in all this matter, what I want to show you is that stress is not an unimportant matter. How you emphasize a thing is very important in the long term, because it affects the way you think, the way you behave.
Now if we keep stressing the personal, what happens is individualism. And when we stress individualism, oneness becomes ever more difficult to attain. I stress my right. I can do this. I have the right to that. We think of our rights and privileges. We think not of the benefit of community. Some people ask, what is the strength of the Japanese in their industry? What is the strength of the Japanese nation? This is not lying exactly here: in the stress of the communal rather than the individual. Is not the weakness of the West beginning to show itself in competition with the Japanese? They keep wondering how come they are going from strength to strength when we are getting weaker. When once the powerful West German economy is now struggling with enormous difficulties and financial deficits, they are looking across and saying, "How come?" At one time Japan was behind Germany. And slowly it kept coming up to the level of Germany. And now Germany has fallen far behind. It is steadily falling — that's the worst part of it. Not just that it is now behind, but it is constantly going in a downhill slide. Why? Well, because the union wants to make its demand here. "My rights," you see. "My rights" are there. Everybody goes on strike because of my rights. The company goes to pieces. Never mind. The company goes to pieces. It's my rights that count. Well, if you want to go on like this, you can't long survive. Those of us who come from Britain are very familiar with this line of thinking. Strikes and more strikes and strikes and more strikes. And one time we had a garbage strike, and there's mountains of garbage everywhere. Here's garbage everywhere. Do they care about the people, the community? No, the community doesn't matter. They can just go and stink it out. It doesn't matter, because I want my pay. That's it, my friend. Finally, even nurses go on strike. Everybody goes on strike. This is wonderful.
Now, what's happening is when you stress the personal — everything is personal — but you see, in Japan, they don't do so badly when they stress the communal. Because as the whole company advances, it has more income. It can raise the salary of the individual. So the individual is doing better and better all the time. And he realizes that his well-being is tied up in the well-being of the company. So he is loyal to the company. He doesn't want to destroy it with his strikes. And therefore, as the company keeps on doing better, so he himself does better too. It seems to make a lot more sense, doesn't it? What happens to our logic? But we are caught in the West in a certain society, in a certain structure, in which it is so designed that it has to use these counterbalances. And the result is that the counterbalances may be good at some times, but it can also be self-destructive.
Now, I'm saying all this not because I'm interested in one social system or another. I'm not really a sociologist, nor am I interested in that particular subject right now. What I'm concerned about is when we import these attitudes in which we have been brought up into the church, and you can start talking about "personal salvation." Maybe we ministers should have a union of ministers. And when the church deals unfairly with us, we'll go on strike. And we'll teach this bunch of people. You talk about personal salvation, or I talk about my personal income. Okay? So you don't bring me enough income, I go on strike. You've got no minister. Next Sunday, you go and do it yourself. You want to get baptized? Raise the pay. Yeah, baptized. No pay, no baptism. That's the way it is. My personal interest. Now, some ministers don't put it as crudely as that, but let me tell you, the way they behave is not far from there. Really not far from there. They put it more discreetly. They tell the church board committee, "My pay is too low, my friend. So I give you one month to raise the pay. We behave like civilized gentlemen. I don't belong to a union, but we will talk civilized. Next month, you can't come up with a better offer and put it here on the table — so, you look for another minister. Because if you don't know the facts yet, there are lots of churches out there who are looking for ministers for some guy like me." So you see — personal, eh? We all come down to the personal. So you say, what happened to the church? Well, they went. Never mind the church. Me. Because it's personal.
Oh, my brothers and sisters. Let me stress this point to you. Holiness in Scripture — the emphasis is not merely to be on the personal. That's why we have monasteries. You know why? Because they go to seek their personal perfection in a monastery. That is the basic monastic thinking. I lock myself in my little room and you don't disturb me until I get perfect. And when I become perfect one day, I'll come out and help you. But until then, bye-bye for now. He goes into his cell and he closes the door and he's gone. That's it. So he has turned his back on the world in the pursuit of holiness. Very commendable, but quite wrong. That's not the way to do it. We grow in holiness together. Either we together become holy, or — well, how am I going to get holy myself? There's personal holiness? What does that mean? If love of God is transitive, it has to go out to others. If it goes out to others, then my life, as it grows in holiness, is going to affect somebody else. Therefore, that person will be growing with me. And as he is growing, he is passing his love to me too. And so I'm growing as well. And in this interchange of life, that's what one body means. We grow together as one body, or we don't grow at all. That's the point. Now this point is exceedingly important, as you can see. We either grow together or we don't grow as we ought to grow.
Secondly, of these three preliminary observations: growth is a process. Holiness is a process. And this point I have stressed before; I will not stress in detail again. The point here is this. I have already said that holiness in scriptural teaching is not the elimination of sin from our life. We do not become holy because somehow sin has been taken out of our life, the root of sin has been taken out, and it doesn't exist anymore — now I am holy. No, no. Holiness is not the eradication of sin, neither in the individual nor in the church. Let us be very realistic about this. We don't live in cloud cuckoo land. We wrestle every day with the realities of sin. We fight every day, not only on the individual level, but as a community. And holiness, or perfection in scriptural teaching, is the overcoming of sin, not the eradication of it.
Overcoming of sin means that we must constantly draw on God's power. That's why we live by grace. We don't live by grace simply in the sense that we were once saved five years ago or ten years ago and then we don't need grace anymore. We live by grace every moment. Some people say that we speak about our salvation by works. They don't know the teaching we are talking about. We talk about our salvation by grace — not once in the past, but all through our earthly pilgrimage. Every moment of every day. Because every moment of every day we have to overcome sin. And the Bible teaches us that the true Christian is an overcomer. Revelation is all the time calling us an overcomer. In all the letters to the seven churches, every one speaks about an overcomer. The only true Christian is the overcomer. Not eradication, but victory over sin. And this means for a church together. We learn together to fight against sin.
That's why we don't have to make a secret of sin. You don't have to try to pretend that you are more holy than you really are. You don't have to pretend that you are more holy than the guy next to you. He is fighting with sin. I am fighting with sin. Together we are going to fight this battle. Together we are going to win. And this is the beauty of the body, that we help one another to overcome sin. We confess our sins to one another. We tell the other person, "This is my weakness. What's your weakness?" And in this way together we will win the battle towards oneness. See, that's how we achieve, attain oneness. Oneness is brought about by this openness of attitude with one another, the realization that this battle is not to be won alone. We will fight together. We will win the battle together, side by side, as the Apostle Paul says, striving for the faith, side by side. Isn't that a beautiful picture? What do you mean by striving for the faith? We always keep thinking that this means preaching the gospel. We will come to that in a moment. This means living a life as God has called us to live it. Becoming a light in the world.
The third point of this preliminary observation is this: it is clearly to become like Him. The purpose of perfection is to become like Him. What's the importance of becoming like Him? We shall look at at another moment. Now let me summarize the teaching as we must very shortly close.
There are three aspects to this oneness, and all of them are important: that they may become one. In this 17th chapter of John, I can summarize the whole of the Lord's teaching here under three points. It deals with three things in this chapter, and if you ever want to remember this chapter, just remember these three things. One has to do with our relationship to God. The other with our relationship to one another. And the third with our relationship to the world. These three vital things are all covered in this chapter, in this matter of oneness. Let's look at it very quickly as we go forward.
The first point has to do with our oneness with God. Our relationship to God is spoken of as our oneness with Him. This you can see already in verses 21-23: "That they may all be one. Even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us." They may be one how? Well, you in me, I in you, and they in us. That is all the disciples in us. Jesus in the Father, the Father in Jesus, and we in God. Our relationship to God is described by this oneness. Now, what does this oneness mean? It means an internal unity with God. A unity of spirit with God.
Now, many people try to understand this in a physical sense. Of course, we are not physically one with God. In what sense are we one with God? We become one with Him at the deepest level of spirit. Now, many Christians don't understand very much about the human spirit, or in fact, spirit in any sense. And in the full-time training, we have been dealing in detail with this point. Suffice it simply to say that our oneness is at the spiritual level with God. Do you sense this oneness with God? Do you experience oneness with Him? A oneness not achieved by us, but a oneness into which we have been called by God. We cannot achieve oneness with God. That's not something we can achieve. It is something that God draws us into. "When I am lifted up, I will draw all men." We are drawn into union with Him, into this close inner connection with Him. It is something that is true covenantally. We are united with Him as one in covenant, externally speaking. But we are also one with Him internally. That is, I in them and they in me. This is one in the other, speaking of the closest possible inner communication with one another.
Now, it is quite clear that if we do not have this inner communication with God, this inner sense of oneness with God, any sense of oneness with one another is non-existent. Isn't it? It is not possible. The reason why you and I are one is because you are one with Him and I am one with Him, and therefore, obviously, we will be one with one another. There is no other way, you see.
What's the importance of being one with Him? Firstly, understanding. A person who is one with God has a deep spiritual understanding of God. Do you understand God? Do you know His mind? Paul says in 1 Corinthians, the first few chapters, chapters 1 and 2 especially, that we have the mind of Christ. Do you have the mind of Christ? It means if you have the mind of Christ, you understand Him. You understand the way He thinks. You understand the way He works. Now this is most important, that you understand your God. How do you pray to Him when you don't understand how His mind works? How do you preach the gospel or witness to other people when you don't understand the mind of God?
Now from understanding comes communication. Have you been praying? Have you had a hard time in prayer? I'm sure you do, if you don't have this oneness with God. How to pray when you don't communicate really with Him? Your prayer will just be a matter of words. Because unless there is deep inner understanding, how can there be true communication? Isn't it frustrating when you talk with a person and you say one thing and he thought you said something else? Oh. And then it turns out after a long conversation, he says, "Well, that's not what I meant." And you say, "Well, how else will I know what you meant, because that's what you said?" "No, no, I didn't say that." "Well, but I heard you say that." "No, no, no, next time we'll have a tape recorder." There is no inner communication. You cannot communicate. Because one person says this and then he says he didn't say that and you said you said that and he said you didn't say that. Oh, this is really difficult to get anywhere with the conversation. So it's frustrating. You cannot communicate. And it is often because we cannot communicate that finally we say, "Forget it. I'm so tired of that. I like to be an individual. Be alone." And when I'm bored I go and watch the movies, because at least the movies can't argue with me. When I'm tired of it I stand up and walk out.
People love the television. Man's best friend. Because the television never talks back to you. You can scold it. You can even punch it if you like. It never does anything to you. All the time you have entertainment coming out. You don't like, just try another channel. You try that with your friend — when he bores you to death, you can't turn to another channel, because you turn the next channel and it's the same thing coming out. It's all on one channel. And TV is very entertaining. And nowadays you have cable TV. Wow. Some people can get 125 channels. I mean, that is a wonderful friend. It can even talk to you in color. Make music for you. You like to have whatever you like. No wonder they cost a thousand dollars — people find that cheap. They go out there and buy it. So wonderful. People are so boring. They're dull. They're unentertaining. They're colorless. They're not like the color TV, you see.
So the point is, since we cannot communicate, it's so much better. I can very well understand. There's no point criticizing people watching TV. I mean, TV is really much more interesting than people. After all, you have a whole selection of people there. When will it be that we can appreciate one another? Not until we really can understand God. Not until each person draws into this oneness with God. Things only then will change. And only when we communicate with Him can we pass on life to others — His life.
So we can see now the second point relates immediately to the first. The first was our relationship to God. The second is our relationship to one another, which is also here in John chapter 17. Many times — verse 11, for example, it reads "that they may be one." Verse 21, "that they may be one." Verse 22, 23 — all the time, four times this refrain comes back: that they may be one. This is the constant emphasis: the oneness of God's people.
Oh, that we might delight in one another. But it's so hard to delight in a person that obviously doesn't walk with God. But have you noticed what happens when a person walks close to God, when a person is one with God, when a person understands the mind of God, when a person can communicate with God — that person is so refreshing. Not even the TV can beat him now. That TV will lose every time. When you have a problem, try sharing it with the TV. Next time you have a pain in the heart that your girlfriend leaves you, you can talk to the TV about it. The TV will ignore you. It ignored you before. Why should it pay any attention to you now? And you can say, "I'm talking to you! I'm telling you about my problem!" No use. The TV doesn't pay any attention to you. Ah! Now you realize the brother is more valuable. You see. And that means which brother? Otherwise you go to the wrong brother and you get it all back in your face and you come back crestfallen and even worse off.
But the person who walks with God is so refreshing. You come to him and suddenly your problems begin to get lighter. After a while they start vanishing. How come? Amazing, isn't it? Because he is passing on God's life to you. He is passing on God's love, God's mercy, God's power, God's kindness. It's all coming across to you, and suddenly your problem is being lifted away and is beginning to vanish. Ah! Then you realize: now I see the value of my brother and of my sister. Now it is so vital to know that in this way the oneness becomes a reality, when we start giving ourselves to one another, sharing one another's burdens, taking each other to heart. Then we begin to live in the oneness that God has called us to.
The third thing I come to, because we must now speedily end, and it is our relationship to the world. Why must we be one? Well, it tells us in verse 21: "That they may all be one, even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." So that the world may believe. What happened to us in this generation? We talk about missions. We talk about outreach. We talk about evangelistic campaigns. We think we are going to save the world like this? Do you think so? The church thinks so. We have missiology as a subject in the seminaries in North America. I never heard of it in England, but they have it here. Missiology. That means the knowledge or science of mission. Even mission becomes a science now. The science of evangelism. Advanced techniques.
What do I read? I'm not sure that I have much problem with my glasses, but what I read here is that the world will not believe in the way it was meant to believe until we become one. There is no cheap way to evangelize the world, brothers and sisters. And many people are saying to me, "Why don't you go out in missions?" And let me tell you again, if you haven't heard it before, I have done more missionary outreach than most people around here have ever done, and most pastors have ever done in their lifetimes. Have you ever knocked from door to door? Let me tell you, I have knocked from door to door and talked to people at the doors of their homes or in their houses when they invite me in. Have you ever passed out tracts? Well, I have passed out tracts on boats and on the streets everywhere. Have you ever preached on the streets? Well, I have preached on the streets and main thoroughfares of cities. Have you ever preached in a marketplace where the next guy is selling tomatoes and the other guy is selling oranges and we are preaching the gospel here and your voice has to compete with theirs? Well, I have preached standing on a soapbox in a marketplace. Have you done personal work, person to person? Well, I have done that too, in buses, in planes, wherever they may be. Have you ever organized an evangelistic campaign? Well, I have organized many and preached at many myself. I don't think, if I may say so humbly, I need many lessons on evangelism and missions.
But my eyes have since opened to realize that as long as the church is not the church that it is meant to be, we cannot reach the world. Because I am tired of people telling me, "Oh yes, yes, yes, well, that's fine." I just look at the church and what — I don't know what to say. "Ah, well, well, church — church people are ordinary people." "Well, that's precisely because they are so ordinary," you said that they were saved by the power of God, they are regenerate, but I don't see anything in their life, and I don't know what I'm supposed to answer to this. I say, "No, no, no, don't bother with them. You say what you've got to do is look to God, you pray to Him, you get salvation from Him." And they say, "Well, those people — presumably you told them the same thing, didn't you? Well, I don't see that they are any different from me." And you say, "Well, but that's not the point." Well, that is the point. That is the whole point. Because if regeneration doesn't change a person and make him a person that is different, so what's the point of being saved? The point is to get to heaven? It doesn't matter about these people, it doesn't matter they are nasty people — the point is get to heaven? And he says, "Get to heaven with this bunch of people in heaven? I'm going to have to see this lot? What I want to do in heaven? My worldly friends are more decent than they." And you say, "Wow, but that's besides the point." And they say, "No, that's precisely the point."
You know, you try knocking on doors — try it sometimes, by all means. And we have saved some, and I have registered decisions, I have got people who came to the Lord, I have done this and that and the other thing. And the point here is this: there is God's way of doing things. And if we try to short-circuit God's way, or bypass God's way, we think we are cleverer than God, that we will win souls by mounting missions regardless of whether the church shows forth the glory of the Lord or not, whether it is the light of the world or not — I feel so embarrassed when people say, "Yeah, look at the church. You know that church in Hong Kong? Yeah, they were fighting for that church building, and they both went to court, fighting each other in court, and both sides got their lawyers." I don't know where to put my face. And you say, "That's beside the point." You tell them that's beside the point. I've had enough of telling them that's beside the point. That's precisely the point. What does the Lord Jesus say? The Lord Jesus says "that they may be one, that the world may believe that You have sent Me to be the Savior of the world." That they may see here is the power of God manifested.
Now you understand — I hope you understand — why we work as we do. There is no cheap shortcut to the salvation of the world. Our love is to be transitive, to go out to others. When the church — even a small part of the church — begins to be one, the power of God will be so manifested through that church that you will see people coming to the Lord all the time. We can thank God we see people coming to the Lord in this church. We didn't mount any evangelistic campaign. We didn't pass out tracts. We didn't knock at anybody's doors. And we see people's lives being transformed every year, do we not see? How many are being baptized. Brother Soon was sharing with us at the communion how the power of God reached into his heart to change his heart. Did anyone put pressure on him? At least I didn't. I don't know that anyone else in this church did. Because if God's power and God's love cannot reach his heart like light shining in, then what are we supposed to do? We're going to talk him into the kingdom? We're going to use our three inches of incorruptible tongue to lash him into the kingdom? We're going to use our apologetic skills and say, "You sit down and listen to me, your philosophy will convince you"? That even if you were mentally convinced — what to do? We are talking about life. We are not trying to make intellectual converts. We are not trying to preach anyone into some philosophy. We are talking about life. I don't want to waste my time convincing people with philosophical arguments.
But think of it conversely, brothers and sisters: if the world does not believe — if the world eventually does not believe — will their blood not be on our hands? According to Ezekiel, that is exactly what will happen, because we failed to live as the light of the world. We failed to be the kind of people we were meant to be.
But one last point: is it at all possible? Is this not an impossible dream? We look at the reality of the church round about us and we think that we can be one? Let me ask you only this question: could it be that Jesus was wrong? That His prayer was an impossible prayer? He asked for something that could not be achieved? He asked God that His church would be one, but it is an impossibility? Do you believe it's possible? I don't know what will be the point for me to preach the gospel any further if it's impossible, that my Lord prayed for the oneness of the church when He knew that it was not to be a thing. Or could it be that in these last days we shall see a working of God when the Lord's prayer will be answered, when those who truly abide in Him will be drawn together by that power of God into oneness?
And it is my prayer that at the camp we shall begin to see and experience God's power drawing us into this oneness. We shall see the Lord's prayer being answered before our eyes. We shall see that it is possible. You know, I want to share with you as we close, the value of these camps in the past for me and what inspired — I remember the second camp, and so many shared with me that it inspired them with a realization: the church could be one after all. For all of us who have come from very unhappy church backgrounds, sometimes we lost faith in this possibility. I confess I lost faith in this possibility. One accusing the other, slandering the other behind the back, saying that you are preaching this and that and the other thing — things which they have never bothered to check for themselves. There is not even a love for truth. When Christians behave towards one another in a manner worse than non-Christians might behave to one another, we lost faith, have we not?
But the past camps have done something wonderful for us. The second camp, I remember, shared with me, it kindled a vision that after all the Lord's prayer was not a prayer for the impossible — in the sense that it was not something that God could not do. Impossible before man, but not impossible to God. May God grant us at this camp again to see the Lord's prayer being fulfilled, and that we experience the sweetness of communion with Him, the sweetness of communion with one another, and how, to us unworthy though we are, God's power will reach out and draw those who do not know Him into His eternal kingdom. Let us pray.