So today we continue in this long series of exposition on regeneration and renewal. And I'm still wondering when I will be permitted by the Lord to conclude this series, since it seems that we have run into over 20 messages in this series of regeneration and renewal. But it is of the utmost urgency that we understand these fundamental truths of the Word of God concerning regeneration and renewal.
And as you know, many of the last messages have been concerned with a matter of perfection, a subject that the Church today doesn't want to talk about. I wonder whether you have heard anywhere a message on perfection. Not to say that we have been preaching on this for some over 10 messages already. It's a subject we don't really hear about, and the Church is happy not to have to talk about because it's rather embarrassing to talk about perfection when you can barely get to the minimum level. And perfection seems to be so far above the minimum level that it seems unrealistic, impractical to talk about perfection.
But today we will continue to more closely define what the Word of God means by perfection. Now the importance of talking about perfection is this. You know the Word of God, the letter to the Hebrews tells us, is like a sharp two-edged sword discerning into the thoughts and intentions of our heart. That Word of God, while we are looking at it, is actually looking at us. It is examining us, looking at the thoughts and the intentions of our heart. And you will find that the Word of God, particularly the message on perfection, has a way of making you feel quite uncomfortable when it starts looking at your motives for being a Christian at all.
What do we mean by this? You see, why there is a resistance to this whole subject of perfection is this. Really, all that concerns us is salvation. All we want to do is get ourselves saved. All we want to do is stretch out the empty hands and grasp to ourselves the gift of grace in salvation. If I can be saved, who cares about perfection? I mean, what has perfection got to do with me? I am only concerned with salvation. That's why I'm here. And so let's get back to the subject of salvation. Now let's not talk about perfection, perfection. I mean, that's okay for the small bunch of fanatics who think that somehow they have already attained to all there is to say about salvation, and now they want to go a step further than salvation. They want to talk about perfection.
But those few people in the church who are conceited enough to think that they can actually go beyond salvation and go into these lofty subjects of perfection are surely out of touch with reality. You see, why are we Christians at all? Why are you a Christian? Is it because your primary, not to say your all-consuming concern, is to be saved? And once you can hopefully achieve this objective, once you can be sure that you are saved, we'll close the subject there. I am sure that I am saved, and that's it. Who has time to talk about perfection except when one has idle thoughts? Too much time, then we'll talk about perfection.
In other words, Christians today have the tendency to go for the lowest, the lowest level. Me, I — all I want is to get saved. That's the only subject that interests me. But perfection? Then you're looking at it with binoculars, and you can barely see it. It's out of sight. I mean, here we are talking about space shuttle theology. I mean, we are shooting off some way out of orbit, into orbit, or wherever. It doesn't make too much difference. We can barely get off the ground, and we are talking about going into satellite theology. Space shuttle theology — this is too much. If I can ride a bicycle, that's good enough. If I can drive a car, that is really something. I even got a driving license. I mean, to fly an airplane is already not in the conversation. As long as I can get from A to B reasonably fast, I get myself there, that's good enough. Who worries about space shuttle? That's for people, you know, high-tech type of Christians, who are simply out of touch with my basic needs.
We want to talk about bicycle theology. We want to talk about, yeah, motorcycle theology, maybe it's one stage higher up, or maybe automobile, or automotive theology, but nothing to do with rockets and the like. Also, you know, you've got to keep your feet firmly on the ground. I mean, when you take off into the air, it gets a little bit risky. So we are the type of Christians who think ourselves to be very practical because we can keep our feet or our wheels on the ground. And we don't want to take off into flight of fancy. And therefore, of course, there are left only a few of such impractical preachers like myself who keep coming back every Sunday when I'm due to preach. What is the subject? Perfection. So why not come down to earth again? Let's get back to this business of bicycling. It's good for the health, you see. So why not come down to earth?
The great problem with this thinking is that in the Bible, perfection has nothing to do with impracticality. It's not impractical. Perfection is precisely what the Christian life is about in the Bible, as I will continue to demonstrate to you. Much as it is uncomfortable to us — we can barely get to the minimum and we are still talking about perfection. Well, what can I do? Paul said to the Ephesian elders, I preach to you the whole counsel of God. I left nothing out of the message that was important for you. And he kept saying that his objective, as I have reminded you at the end of Colossians chapter 1, is to present every man perfect in Christ. Paul says, for this I toil and for this I labor. What? To get you saved? No. To present you perfect in Christ.
Hey, but salvation is enough, no? I would like you to understand that perfection is in the regeneration and renewal series, not by accident. Because without perfection, we are not even talking about salvation, as I will try to demonstrate to you. We have taken perfection out of salvation. We have watered down salvation. We have done whatever we like with salvation, rather like the Jews did whatever they liked with John the Baptist. We do whatever we like with God's word. And we have decided, for some reason unknown to us, mysterious to myself, that perfection does not belong in the context of salvation. That perfection and salvation are two different subjects.
God does not tell us anything that is not pertinent to our salvation. And if salvation did not include perfection, I wonder why God bothered to tell us about perfection. Surely, if anybody knows about our weakness, it is God who knows our weakness. He knows our weaknesses better than we know it ourselves. And does He ever know how weak we are? And if He thought that perfection was really irrelevant to salvation, why did He bother to tell us all this? It is we who have decided that perfection doesn't belong in the subject of salvation. But God has decided contrary to that. And if we decide to truncate God's word, to dissect God's word, to take parts of it out — beware whether you have your salvation at all.
Well, you see, we have to get a very clear grasp on this matter of perfection precisely because, and I remind you again, in Scripture, there is no way you are going to escape perfection. There is no way you are going to get to salvation without perfection. And that is why it is so essential that we understand the scriptural teaching of perfection very, very clearly.
The church has had a theological device, and that is to separate salvation, that is justification, from sanctification. Did the theologians ever come to our help, to our rescue? They neatly separated these two things: justification that has to do with salvation, and perfection has to do with sanctification. Of the many disservices that our theological friends have done for us, that is another one. Because nowhere in the Bible, nowhere in the Bible are you able to separate these two subjects so neatly as to cleave it with a knife right down the middle and chop away sanctification from justification.
It is this tragic state of affairs in the church today that is costing us so terribly. How is the church ever going to become the image of the glory of Christ in the world today? How can it be the light of the world? How? If you separate these two things? If we are just content that we get saved — you save yourself, I save myself, and bye-bye, that's it. Who talks about sanctification?
So ignorant are people now, is this, that Brother Wai was sharing the other day in Toronto that he had written an article about Christians being the light of the world, and somebody phoned him up and challenged him: "Jesus is the light of the world. Where does it say in the Bible that you are the light of the world, that Christians are the light of the world?" And Brother Wai said he nearly fell off the chair to hear this. Could it be possible that a Christian leader — this is one of the leaders apparently in that fellowship — didn't know that the Lord Jesus said, "You are the light of the world"? She didn't know that. He had to show her chapter and verse in the Bible, that Jesus expects us to be the light of the world. That is the state of affairs. She had never been taught that Christians are supposed to be the light. She didn't even know that that verse was in the Bible. Imagine that.
That's what happens when you separate sanctification from justification and don't allow these two things to belong to one another. We try to separate them into different stages and only the first stage is important for salvation. The second stage, well, that's the second stage rocket, we can let it fly, we don't need that anymore. You know, in the early church, this kind of introduction that I have spent so much time talking about wouldn't have been necessary. It would have been ridiculous that one has to spend time saying that sanctification and justification are the same thing. But we have arrived in the 20th century. We have arrived in a day and age where you have to spend so much time explaining that this is the case, that these two things cannot be separated.
Now let us bear in mind that in Matthew 5:48, the Lord Jesus said, "Be perfect as your Father is perfect." Now, "be perfect" is a command, and anyone who fails to carry out a command is disobedient. I would like to ask you whether you think, even if you don't know deep and complicated things in theology, that a person who lives in disobedience to the Lord is going to be saved. Let's put it as simply as that. He said, "Be perfect." And we say it doesn't matter to be perfect. So we disobey his command, and we think we are going to be saved. Is that difficult to understand? Let's put it as simply as that.
Another thing, so much of the Lord's teaching, because of this separation of the two, we can't understand anymore. Why did the Lord insist that except a man deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, he cannot be my disciple? Can we be saved without being a disciple? And we have gone through all this before. Today the church separates between a Christian and a disciple. It's nowhere to be found such a separation in the Bible. But again we have decided that discipleship is not necessary to salvation. It's really amazing. And that is the common view in the churches today, that discipleship is not necessary to salvation. It is us who are in error, we are told, that we fail to distinguish these two things. We are in error? Amazing. Because the only category of Christian known in the Bible is disciple.
But where is the danger? We don't know what to do with the Lord's teaching. We really don't know what to do with it. Maybe the whole of the Lord's teaching was only for this higher group of core people called disciples. So He had nothing whatever to say to us ordinary Christians who want to be saved by faith. He has nothing to say. Because He has only something to say to disciples. How to become a disciple? You must deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me. What does that mean? How can this be?
Well, if that isn't sanctification, if that is not perfection, if that is not the very foundation of perfection, then what is perfection? That is perfection. In His very basic teaching to the crowds, He spoke to the crowds: if you want to be my disciple, deny yourself, take up your cross. He said that at the very first thing to anyone who wanted to be saved. At the basis of that, I hope you begin to see that perfection is precisely this total giving of oneself to Christ and totally denying oneself. He starts at that level. No vague statement about faith that one doesn't know what it means.
But now we are faced with this reality, and this is why in the remaining moments I'd like to define more precisely what perfection means. What is it that the Lord wants from us when He says you must be perfect as your Father is perfect? What is it that He is asking of us? Now all of you who have at all tried to live the Christian life will immediately realize and immediately have sympathy for those who say that perfection is impractical, because if you have at all seriously tried to live even for one day as a Christian, you have immediately found how difficult it is. How difficult to love God with all your heart and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. Just one day with your roommate, with a teammate — no easy task. But whoever said salvation was easy?
Now what is it that the Lord wants from us? And I base today's message basically on Philippians chapter 3, and perhaps we can turn to Philippians 3 for these three main points that I would like to put through to you. Philippians chapter 3 is important for our purpose because it speaks of three types of perfection. Three types of perfection. And we must distinguish very clearly between three types so that we are not getting confused with which type of perfection we are talking about.
You know, in this world one of the great difficulties we have to wrestle with is that many things go by the same name, and those of you who have ever studied philosophy will realize that this is one of the great problems that every philosopher and thinker has to wrestle with. And in the Christian life it is no different. The reason is that human language is a little bit limited in its vocabulary and therefore it describes different things with the same words. And that's why when you open a dictionary, I guess you get used to seeing that the same word can mean different things — sometimes totally different things, sometimes things which have a certain similarity but which are nevertheless different.
Philippians chapter 3 is the chapter on perfection par excellence. You can say it is really the chapter that defines for us as fully as it will ever be possible to talk about perfection. Three types of perfection.
The first of these is in chapter 3 and verse 6. We will read from verse 4. "Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If any other man thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised from the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law blameless" — perfect. That's the first type of perfection.
You see, Paul was about as perfect in terms of the flesh as you can get. He says, if you think you have something to boast in the flesh, I got much more to boast than you have. He said, as far as religion is concerned, I'm unbeatable, or at least pretty hard to beat. You see my situation is like this, and he goes to list his whole circumstance. In terms of religion and law, Paul was perfect. He had a record that really couldn't be overtaken.
He fulfilled everything that the law requires. He was himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews, the finest of the Hebrews, Pharisee of the Pharisees, trained under that great scholar Gamaliel. And to demonstrate his outstanding commitment to the law, the law of God, he persecuted the church, that cult — the church. You know, the word "cult" today is bandied about very liberally. You know that the church was in fact a Jewish cult. It was regarded by the Jews as a cult, and Paul regarded it as his duty before God to persecute with the utmost zeal this Jewish cult that went by the name of Christians. That little cult at that time, rather insignificant, by some guy who called himself a Messiah with a bunch of twelve disciples wandering around, mostly fishermen, this kind of people. And this little bunch of ignoramuses — he would certainly in his view regard them as unlettered, untrained in the theology, the theology of the rabbis. This bunch of ignoramuses, these people profess to know a new way to God, and surely more arrogant than that you couldn't get. That cult he determined to exterminate.
And you see, in Acts chapter 7, the record of the destruction, the putting to death of Stephen, and the scattering of the churches, thanks to the zeal of none less a person than Paul. So as to righteousness under the law, when it comes to keeping the law, he was blameless. That's just another word for perfect. There was no flaw. Blamelessly, without a flaw, without any lack of anything in his commitment to the law, he was under the law perfect.
Now that's the one kind of perfection. Now this type of perfection, I must stress to you, is very important for us to grasp. It is a perfection that is born of the carnal man. There is a perfection that is carnal and there is a perfection that is spiritual, and we must carefully distinguish between the two so as not to be confused. The carnal perfection is a very dangerous thing, and though I am preaching on perfection, I want to warn you of this type of perfection. It is dangerous and it is deadly.
It is this type of perfection that is rightly labeled as fanaticism. What do we mean by fanaticism? It means human enthusiasm, human zeal, the eagerness to establish one's own righteousness before God. It is man-centered, preoccupied with human ideas of perfection. And the other day our sister Grace shared with us very rightly of the two types of zeal, and I wonder whether you could understand her message. Two types of zeal: one is the spiritual zeal for God, the other is a human zeal for God which can take the form of a very carnal jealousy, and it's often translated as jealousy in Scripture, envy and jealousy.
It is this kind of carnal zeal that the Corinthian Christians had, as you can see in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. There you have that kind of zeal, that kind of striving of a carnal nature. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 1 onward: "But I, brethren," he's speaking to these Christians, "could not address you as spiritual men but as men of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even yet you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is zeal" — or jealousy, you can translate it either way — "for while there is zeal and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving like ordinary men? For when one says, 'I belong to Paul,' and another says, 'I belong to Apollos,' are you not merely men?"
You see, they were very zealous and they thought of themselves as quite perfect, because zeal is the expression of perfection. You burn with concentrated, single-minded devotion to something. In that sense, zeal is the expression of a perfect commitment of heart. But a perfect commitment of heart inspired by the wrong motive — it is of the flesh, it is of the self. It is exceedingly dangerous because it splits, it divides among people. It seeks to say, "I am of Paul, I am of Peter." Well, Paul is saying, what's the difference between Peter and me? We serve the same God, we follow the same Lord. What is this zeal for one or the other? Because what motivates this kind of zeal, this kind of perfection, this single-minded devotion to some idea, to some theology, to some dogma, is the self. Very dangerous.
But nobody outwardly can easily tell the difference. It is you — you who must tell what the difference is. You must look into your motive and ask yourself, is this perfection that I seek, is this zeal that I have, is it spiritual? Is it really devoted towards God? Or is it I myself that is at the center of this whole business? Because if you have this kind of zeal, it will blind you to spiritual things. You will be so totally blinded, you couldn't see what is light and what is darkness, what is true and what is false. This kind of zeal, this kind of perfectionism, is of the utmost danger, and I have to warn you of it because it is human of origin. It is not inspired by the Spirit of God. It does not center in God and it does not center in the concern for others.
It is this kind of person that is a threat to the church. It is this kind of person that attacks in the most vicious manner, by slander or any other method, fellow Christians. It is this kind of person of which the Lord Jesus warns his disciples that in the last days there will come people who will put you to death and think — they really think — that they are serving God. Just as Paul does here in Philippians 3. He thought he was serving God when he put Stephen and other Christians to death and in jail. He thought he was serving God.
# Three Types of Perfection (Part 2)
Who studied at the feet of Gamaliel the Great, the Great Rabbi, Gamaliel the First, often called Gamaliel the Great. I studied under these two. I learned the theology of the rabbis. I was fighting against God and I didn't know it. I didn't know it. Why? Because I was in bondage to the flesh. Are you in bondage to the flesh? If so, I beg of you, I beg of you, forget about perfection that we are talking about here. Because you're going to end up with the wrong kind of perfection. You've got to start with regeneration. That's why it's in this series. You cannot start at the end of this series. You start at the beginning, at regeneration. Because what is born of the Spirit is Spirit. If you are born of the Spirit, you are Spirit. That's how we are spiritual. We don't make ourselves spiritual. We are born spiritual. By God's creative, transforming work.
But when you become spiritual, when you have life, what does life do? Life grows. Everything that is living is in the process of development and growth. And therefore, what grows moves towards an objective: the fullness of the stature of Christ. That's the first type of perfection. And I beg of you, beloved, to distinguish carefully what perfection we are talking about. So that is the first type. Any person who has not been regenerated should never think about perfection. Because one of these days, you are going to be shooting fellow Christians. You are going to be executing fellow Christians. You are going to be calling them all kinds of names. You are going to call them cult. You are going to call them this and that and the other things. And you are thinking you are doing God a wonderful service. Just like Paul.
And some of us may be put to death by this type of Christian. Be well prepared for it. Because these are the most dangerous. Let me tell you, the threat, as I have warned you before — the threat to Christians today is not the unbeliever. The greatest danger in these last days, as the Lord Jesus warned us, will be misguided, carnally minded Christians. I beg of you to grasp that. And have no bitterness in your heart. The reason I am telling you is that you have no bitterness. And that day, when they will do all manner of evil to you, in the name of God. Yes, in the name of Jesus.
You know, the history of the church has many a wretched page written in it, where Christians put Christians to death. And when you look at the history of the church, those who are put to death were put to death for the most part, not by non-Christians, but by fellow Christians. Nothing is so terrible as to read of the Inquisition, where Christians tortured Christians to death in the name of God. Nothing is so terrifying. What the communists did to Christians in China would look mild compared to what Christians have done to one another. And not to say the reformers. The reformers, yes, let us remember, persecuted fellow Christians. That includes no less a person than Luther, who turned his hand against the Anabaptists. Thousands died. Not to say our friend Calvin, who did not hesitate to burn one or two people to death in the name of God and of justice.
Does it give me pleasure to say these things? I beg of you. Forgive me. But my heart pains me too much to think of matters of pleasure. Remember this. That all of us are in danger of coming to a zeal that is carnal. That is not centered in God and in love for the neighbor. And the moment you forget that no perfection that does not center upon God, that does not center upon Jesus and upon concern for the neighbor — that kind of zeal, that kind of perfection is carnal. And flee from it as fast as your feet can carry you. For that kind of zeal, that kind of perfection will take you to hell. It will take you to hell. The greatest enemies of the church are in the church today. And the very Antichrist that the Bible speaks about, as I have reminded you before, the Antichrist himself comes out from the church. As you know from 1 John: the Antichrists have gone out from us. They are from the church. The Antichrist himself will himself be a Christian. Be well prepared. We live in the last days.
Let's get on to the second type of perfection as our time is going fast. Where do we find the second type of perfection? That's in verse 15 of chapter 3, Philippians. "Those of us who are mature" — this word is of course the word perfect, which the RSV has decided to translate as mature. It's exactly the word perfect. Teleios. Teleios is the word for perfect. But translators can be pardoned if from time to time they prefer to interpret rather than to translate. And it is not wrong technically to translate it as mature. But of course, as long as you remember that this is the Greek word for perfect. "Those of us who are perfect, thus minded. And if anything you are otherwise minded, God will also reveal that to you."
Now he has just been saying that the characteristic of a person who is perfect is one who pursues after God, after the Lord Jesus with unrelenting zeal. Verse 13 onward: "Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." You see, when you pursue in that direction, it means your life is centered on the goal like the athlete whose life is centered on the goal he is trying to achieve. His whole thought is about that mark towards which he is running. His thought is away from himself, outward to that mark. And when Jesus is that mark, when He is that goal, then you can never be self-centered. That is where the direction of thinking becomes very different.
And Paul says, that is how all of us who are mature think. And if any of you don't think in this way, well, it's about time you did. That you think with Christ as the center and goal of your life. Is that the way you think? If that's the way you think, then you are already perfect in the biblical definition of perfection.
You see, we have to understand perfection. In this second category of perfection we have to subdivide into two things again, in order that we understand correctly what perfection means. Perfection in the scriptural sense has to do with an inner perfection as distinct from an outer perfection. What is spiritual is inner. It has to do with the heart, not an outward perfection. How do we understand perfection in an outward sense? We saw that the outward perfection is the characteristic of the first type of perfection we just talked about. And perfection that can be measured in terms of the law. Whether I kept this law, whether I kept that law, whether I smoked today or I didn't smoke today, whether I drank today or didn't drink today — it can be measured. It's a measurable external perfection.
But the inner perfection is the one that has its goal determined not by these external things, but by Him who also is invisible, namely He who sits at the right hand of the Father. It is an inner perfection because it has to do with the attitude of heart, the striving towards the goal. Now, have I made up this definition myself? Not at all. It would take me a long time exegetically to demonstrate this point, and I will have to leave this in most part for another time. But you see, perfection in the New Testament — how do you understand perfection? Do you go to a Greek dictionary and look at the word perfect and try to get a definition from there? That will not help you very much. Why? Because the idea of perfection in the Bible is derived from the Old Testament. The idea of perfection in the New Testament comes from the Old Testament. So we have to look into the Old Testament to see what it means.
And when you look into the Old Testament, you will see that the idea of perfection in the Old Testament has to do with the heart. That is the fundamental idea. It has to do with an attitude. If your attitude is of a certain kind, it is described as perfect, a perfect heart. And it is this type of perfection that God expects from us. True perfection, in the sense of being morally perfect, morally without thought or blame, in the sense of never doing one thing wrong — that is not what God expects of us. If He did, He wouldn't have provided a sacrificial system. It would not be necessary to have a sacrificial system. He knew that man could not be perfect in terms of his actions. Because being perfect in terms of his actions involves many other factors besides the intention of the heart.
You see, you may intend to be perfect in the heart, but because of insufficient knowledge of how to deal with this or that, because of insufficient understanding of spiritual things, the intention is there, the action is wrong. And so often I have to counsel people who come to me very disturbed because, you see, they did something wrong. They didn't intend to do it, but they did it anyway. The result is, often they didn't know what was the right course of action. Should we do it this way? Should we do it that way? We don't really know how to deal with the situation. And much of the counseling is because they don't know how to deal with this. What would be the perfect attitude in regard to my career, for example? I don't know how to deal with this question many people have. I do want to be perfect. I do want to follow the Lord my God with all my heart. But does that necessarily mean that I give up my profession? Necessarily no. But then, what should be the expression? You see, we don't know how to deal with concrete circumstances. Should I take this job or should I not take this job? I also don't know how to deal with this. And often, because I don't know, I do the wrong thing. I do the wrong thing. I realized afterwards it was the wrong thing. But I failed at that point, but the intention of the heart was right in the first place.
Now that is the way it is in Scripture. That is why the Lord knew that even if the heart is perfect, the actions may time and again be wrong. Now that's why I say there is an internal perfection and external perfection. God does not, and I emphasize this, expect that we will necessarily be perfect in all our actions. Because for that, as I emphasize again, there needs to be knowledge, there needs to be understanding of the will of God at a level that we may not yet possess. That's why we don't really know how to deal with this or deal with that. That is why we go to our pastors or to our counselors for help. Because if you automatically knew everything which is right to do, you wouldn't need these people. You wouldn't need to talk to them. In fact, you wouldn't even need the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is there to guide us into all truth. But often our communication with Him is rather poor, though the intention to be perfect is there. Communication is poor. So we often don't know yet what is the will of the Lord. We have to learn to listen. We need to learn to follow.
Now as I say, I don't have time to develop this point. We will have to leave this to another time, although the evidence is very important from the Old Testament. But suffice it today just that you understand the categories of perfection.
Now, this type of perfection then is what we can call spirituality. It is inward. It cannot necessarily be seen. And it is not to be seen. We are not perfect so that we can display it to other people. Look how perfect I am. That type of display perfection is the first kind, the carnal type. We pray so that people can see that we are praying. And normally I don't pray very much, but as soon as I have a visitor in my home, I spend two hours on my knees in a place where he could hopefully observe me. He still prays. Wow, one hour already. Oh, two hours? He's really a holy man. This kind of perfection is for others to observe.
But true holiness is not for observation. Nobody can see that perfection in the sense that you don't intend other people to see it. How long do I pray? I'm not going to tell you. Because if I tell you it was two hours, you think how holy I am. If I tell you it's half an hour, you thought, I thought he was a bit holier than that. But if I told you it's half an hour but the rest of the day I am all the time in communion with the Lord, I wonder how you calculate that. You see, there's no way to estimate these things. It is not for people to see. It is for God to look into my heart. It is a hidden thing.
That's what the Lord Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 6 of Matthew. When you pray, close your door. When nobody can see you, don't let anybody know how much you pray. I wonder how people know that Martin Luther prayed for three or four hours. How did they figure that one out? Did they peek in through the door somewhere? Did he have a keyhole that was quite big so that they could look in? How did they know? I never figured out. Because when we pray, we're not supposed to let people know how long we've prayed. Of course, sometimes we can't help it. If you're sharing a room, presumably you have some difficulty in this area. I mean, maybe you hide yourself somewhere else. But it is sometimes difficult. But the intention is to be hidden. It is of the heart.
True spirituality is not concerned to let people know how religious you are, how many hours you read your Bible, how many chapters you read a day. Somebody once said to me, you know, I read the Bible 40 times through. But when you talk with him, you wonder whether he has read it so much as once. Never mind 40 times. What has he been doing with the Bible that 40 times? What does it matter whether you read it 40 times and you can't even remember what was in the first chapter? It is the spirit that matters. And why did he tell me that he read it 40 times? I don't know. Why did he tell me this? I didn't ask him how many times he read the Bible. He just wanted to let me know. Very religious person. Okay, okay. You're a pastor, you know, so what? Have you read it 40 times? I don't know how many times I've read the Bible. I can't tell you. But he's wonderful. He managed to count 40 times. Exactly 40. How come it wasn't 39 and not 41? I'm also amazed at this. Such a round number. It must be that he told me at just the right moment.
True perfection can simply be defined as spirituality. That's what it is. It's spirituality. So when the Lord said, "Be perfect as your Father is perfect," He's simply saying, "Be spiritual as your Father is Spirit." That's what it is. We are simply to be truly spiritual. And what does it mean to be truly spiritual? First of all, it means that you are born of the Spirit. And secondly, you walk in the Spirit. Romans chapter 8. Walk in the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit.
Do you know what it is to be led by the Spirit? Do you experience His daily company, His leading? The Christian life — you said perfection? Perfection is spirituality. And perfection is spirituality, and spirituality is so practical. It means daily living with Him. And you say, that's not relevant to salvation? I beg of you, then what is relevant to salvation? If perfection is not relevant, then what is? As soon as you rightly understand perfection, you know it is simply a life oriented towards God. Walking with Him, communing with Him — that's perfection. And this is going to be our camp theme. It's wonderful that the Lord has led us in this way. That's why we're going to understand it, I hope, much more fully at the camp. Led by the Spirit. Oh, that's wonderful.
And I was saying that day, the homemakers — I said, any one of you here at this meeting, who know the Lord, who are truly Christians, you have all been led by the Spirit in one way or another. Maybe you're not aware of it, and I hope now you become aware of it. Brother Calvin was sharing in Toronto the other day, how he went to Toronto, and he began to see that he was being led by the Spirit all the way. Led by the Spirit into all kinds of details, that he was there because the Lord had led him, and even at the time he may not have been fully aware, but as he looked back he could see, the Lord has been leading me.
Who are the children of God? Who are the sons of God? It says there in Romans 8:14, as many as are led by the Spirit, these are the children of God. But being led by the Spirit, being truly spiritual — that is what perfection is in the New Testament. What is holiness? Holiness is precisely the same thing, to be spiritual. The world is carnal. The world is dominated by the flesh. Then what is it to be holy? It is to be separated from the world, not to be dominated. It is not geographical separation; it is spiritual separation. Holiness is simply spirituality. That is all it is. Or I shouldn't say "all it is" — that is the wonderful thing that it is. If you know what it is to be spiritual, then you are holy, then you are perfect in the biblical sense that we are talking about.
But being spiritual is vital to your salvation. In fact, it is inseparable from your salvation. The church today, let us say, let us acknowledge, is full of carnal Christians like the Corinthians. And these are the most dangerous type of Christians. And Paul is anxious to get them out of that state. And therefore, we must all strive towards perfection, namely to spirituality.
Now notice why I said that RSV translated quite correctly in this type, "mature." What does "mature" mean? Spiritual. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3, "I cannot speak to you as spiritual, as mature, as perfect." That's the same meaning. Spiritual, mature, perfect. They all mean the same thing. The spiritual man is the perfect man in the biblical definition. It does not mean he has no faults. It doesn't mean that he is as considerate as he might be. It doesn't mean that he is as kind as he might be. It doesn't mean he is as merciful as he might be. It doesn't mean he is as generous as he might be. It does mean, however, that his heart is totally set upon the Lord. His life revolves not around himself but around the Lord. That is spirituality. Spirituality is where your whole heart and mind are directed towards Him as the goal of your daily life. Not only at the end of your days but today. Now, your life is revolving around Him.
Our time is almost gone. Let me come to the third point and we must close. The remarkable thing about this paragraph, chapter 3 of Philippians, verses 12 to 16, is that Paul speaks in a rather self-contradictory manner. He says he is not perfect but he is also perfect. You say, well, Paul, come on, you just said you're not perfect, now you say you're perfect. Verse 12: "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect." I am not yet perfect. But then he goes on to verse 15 and uses exactly the same Greek word. He didn't even use a different Greek word. He uses the same Greek word for perfect that he just used a few verses earlier and says, I am perfect. Well, he just said he's not perfect, now he's perfect. And of course, in an English translation, you lose this remarkable paradox because one place is used as "perfect," the other uses "mature," so you don't realize it's using the same Greek word. Paul is consciously using the same Greek word twice, the first time saying he is not perfect, the second time saying he is perfect.
Is there a contradiction? Not at all. Because as I said, perfect is used in three different senses within this very same chapter. What does he then mean when he is not perfect? He means exactly what he has just said before. This perfection in which you do not, in fact, do anything wrong. This perfection in which the intention, not only the intention is right, but outwardly you do not actually do anything wrong. You never commit a sin in any external action. That is not possible at this present time. Paul does not claim perfection in that sense.
Because it means sometimes that you are inconsiderate. You forgot about somebody's needs. You did not remember to say something kind or appreciative. I do confess many times failing in this way. Somebody has done me a great kindness, a happiness. And I have failed to express my gratitude to that person as I should. That failure is sin. It's a mistake. And we have seen before that a mistake is sin. That's the biblical definition of mistake. We have watered it down, but we have expounded this quite fully the other time. In that sense, my error, my omission, my failure is sin. In this sense, I am nowhere near perfection. Nowhere near perfection. Nor will I ever be in the absolute sense as He is, as Jesus is perfect and failed in no action whatsoever. That level we cannot have at this time.
You see, we just said that perfection is spirituality. Now spirituality is limited for us. We have to realize that. Limited in this way. Just as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, "I see in a glass darkly, but then face to face I will see, and when I see Him, I shall be like Him." That is what 1 John says. We shall be like Him when we see Him as He is. In that sense, our spirituality is limited because we see in a glass, in a reflection, darkly. That means to say, there comes to a level in which my communication with God is limited by my flesh, so long as this body of flesh is with me. I cannot have face to face communication with God. My communication has to go through the veil of the flesh. Therefore I see. I see as through a veil. I can see, but it is not sharp and clear when this thick veil is removed.
That is why perfection in the absolute sense is only possible when we see Him as He is. When this body of flesh is no more. When we have put on immortality. And this is why Paul goes on in this chapter to the last part of this chapter. And he says this in verse 21: "The Lord Jesus who will change our lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power which enables Him even to subject all things to Himself." You wonder what's this got to do in this context? It seems to be irrelevant to this passage. No, no. If you understand perfection, this verse is very relevant to this passage. He is telling us, I said I cannot become perfect in the absolute sense because this body, this flesh is with me, and this flesh hinders my communion with God.
I have times of wonderful fellowship with God indeed, just as he talked about in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, where he was not sure whether he was in the body or out of it. He was transported into the third heaven. But you see, that was just a brief interlude, and then he was back again behind the veil, as it were, looking into a glass as it were darkly. And that is why he says in Romans chapter 8 that until that day we are still waiting for the transformation of the body. That is why he glories in 1st Corinthians chapter 15: when this mortal shall put on immortality, when this physical will be changed into a spiritual body, then, then we shall be perfect in all our actions because we shall have uninterrupted, unhindered communion with God. Sin now does not stand between God and us, but the flesh still stands there. And Paul longs, longs with an intensity as he cries out in Romans 7, "Who will deliver us from the body of this death?" This body of death is hindering my communion with God. That is why Paul said, "I wish to be with Christ." For him, death is a relief in that sense, that he can put off his flesh and be with Jesus. A true spiritual man has no fear of death. At Easter time, the Lord willing, he has no fear of death, because for him the carnal, the physical, these things stand in his way to perfection.
And that is why so few Christians understand verse 11 in Philippians chapter 3: "that if possible I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained it or am already perfect." You see, he associates this perfection with the resurrection. You can see very clearly this kind of perfection, this third type of perfection, is inseparable from the resurrection, when the body of flesh will be put away and we put on immortality, a truly spiritual body.
Our time is gone, but let me close with this practical question: what type of perfection is yours? What has the third point got to do with our discussion on perfection? You can tell how much a person is concerned with perfection by his attitude towards this world, this physical life. How much he fears death. No spiritual man fears death. The person who hangs on to this body is the one who fears death. The Lord said to his disciples, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body. What do you want to be afraid of them for? They can't do anything to your soul, to your spirit. They can kill your body but don't be afraid of them. Fear God who can destroy both body and soul in hell."
That's the issue — your attitude to this physical life, to this body. Does it alarm you if your health goes down? Does it worry you that your health is not as good as it should be? Does it bother you that your income is not as high as it should be? Does this world matter that much to you? How well you succeed in your profession — is it very important to you? Or is it that, in the light of Jesus as the center of all things, that you look at your job, you look at your health, you look at all these things, and you treat them as a steward would do the things that pass through your hands? You look after it, but you don't cling to it, as Paul says, using the world but not clinging to the world. Very practical with salvation.
Do you think spirituality is something else that has nothing much to do with salvation? May it be that you experience what it is to walk with God, to be led by the Spirit. Because only he who walks with God, who is led by the Spirit — only he is a child of God. That's what Paul says in Romans 8:14.
Let us pray.