Today we continue in our rather long series on regeneration, renewal, and perfection. And just a moment ago we spoke about winning the crown or the medal. And all of you who have taken any note whatsoever of the Olympics will have noticed that it has to do with perfection. It has to do with perfection. Perfection without which no one obtains the crown. No one obtains the crown of life, the crown of righteousness at the end of the race.
Michelangelo was once working on a statue for which he is famous. And when you look at the statues of Michelangelo, it strikes you with a certain power, a certain realism as it comes across. Once in Rome I gazed upon the statue, the sculpturing of Michelangelo, in his sculpturing of Moses. And there the force, the power, the personality of Moses is vividly portrayed in every expression of his face, of the position of his body, his arms. And once when Michelangelo was working on one of his statues, somebody noticed that he had spent an entire month, a whole month, doing little more than polishing an arm here, taking off a minute portion of marble there. And to the observer, all this was trivialities, a waste of time. Chiseling a little bit here, and he would stand back, look at the statue, take off a little thing there, and he would stand back again for one month. One month he did nothing more than polish a little here, polish a little there, put a little line where the hair could stand out a little more clearly, a little line so that the angle of the beard would be just so, a fraction of a millimeter.
People say, these observers said to Michelangelo, "You appear to have been wasting your time. For the last month we have seen nothing but this little touch here and a little touch there, and standing back and a little touch for one month of this. These are trifles." And Michelangelo understood what perfection was. He said, "It is precisely what you call trifles that make up perfection. And perfection is no trifle." The difference between a gold medal and a silver medal, if you have noticed, is often the fraction of one point. The fraction of one point. That's what makes the difference between a gold and a silver medal. Not some vast difference. A fraction of one second. Literally one four-hundredth of a second, sometimes one five-hundredth of a second. You think this is getting to the point where it is getting quite absurd. No. It is that fraction of difference. That slight fraction of superiority that makes for perfection.
And God, God is a God of perfection. Look at His handiwork. Look at His creation. I was admiring a moth the other day. Have you ever admired a moth? It was standing in our bathroom. And I called Helen and I said, "Look at this moth. What a remarkable moth is this." I never had such a good look at a moth. And this moth was most interesting. It was delta-winged, as most moths are. Like the most advanced supersonic aircraft. Long, long before man ever thought of delta-winged aircraft, there you find a moth. A moth. A humble moth. In the most streamlined mathematical aerodynamic form. Long before our physicists sat down at the drawing board, God had already created a moth, aerodynamically shaped, delta-winged.
I stared at, looked at this moth. I forgot what I went into the bathroom for, whether it was to comb my hair, to brush my teeth that night. But I was absorbed with this moth. And I said, "Helen, look. Look at this moth. Look at the remarkable beauty of the design on its wings." What a remarkable design. At the end of this delta wing, there was a dark border. And then there was this lighter color. And in this lighter color were all arches, like this. All through the shape of this delta wing were arches. And some arches had special patterns. And through all this, there was another arch that spanned the entire wing. A humble moth that nobody even bothers to look at. God spent His time putting His little touches into the beauty and perfection of the design of one moth. Compared to that, Michelangelo and his touching up this and that... Well.
The perfection that God puts into His creation. There is nothing wishy-washy about His creation. As anyone who has looked down a microscope, who has looked through a telescope, has ever observed. There is nothing wishy-washy about His creation. The perfection of design. The perfection of every detail. Is simply breathtaking to anyone who bothers even to use his eyes and to think about it.
But I'm not through yet with my friend the moth. Because this moth was quite remarkable. There stood upon its head, coming forth from the head, two things that looked like feathers. Exceedingly beautiful in design. Like two feathers of a bird's feathers, branching out on both sides, so that it looked like a crown upon its head. A crown on the head of a moth. God has crowned even a moth. I stood amazed, gazed in astonishment at the beauty of the design of these two things, which are not what we regard normally as feelers, but look like two fans, like this. Two fans, standing up in majestic design upon the head of the moth. I gazed in wonder and admiration, not at the work of Michelangelo, but at the work of my God and my King. "Oh Lord. Amazing. You crowned the humble moth." Remarkable.
Perfection. Perfection is what the Lord looks for. And He looks for perfection in you and in me. Indeed He does. And Helen, gazing at the moth for a while, said, "And look at its wings. It looks like a royal mantle. The mantle of a king, coming down from the shoulders and spreading out to the floor, with the dark border underneath. Crowned with a royal mantle." I said I hadn't noticed that. I was thinking of delta-winged aircraft. And truly when I looked at it again, I said, "Yeah. She's right. It does indeed look like a royal robe." Remarkable. My God and my King.
And you think, or do we think, that we can live any kind of wishy-washy Christian life and God will accept it all? That He minds not how we live from day to day? That He cares not for the trifles? He will overlook our rude and inconsiderate word, our arrogant gesture, our tilted head, our careless glance, our loveless action, our unclean thought? He minds not these trifles? If you think that He does not care about these so-called trifles, look again at a moth. Look again at any little creature. Look at a blade of grass. Look at ever so humble a little flower. Look, and think again.
That on that day, when you and I stand in His presence, will you say that He will overlook the trifles? That He is not interested in these trivialities? What is life if it is not composed of trivialities? What is a body if it is not composed of minute little cells? Is it not these minute little cells that make up the body? Is it not trivialities that make up the whole? What you call or I call trivialities — what makes a life? But the seconds that tick away. These valueless seconds that we think matter not to us. But life is composed of nothing but seconds put together. It makes a life. There are no such things as trivialities before God. Because everything is made up of so-called trivialities. Look around, and these things are made up of so-called trivialities, so minute as an atom. And will you call an atom a triviality too? Or a second — is a triviality? What is a triviality? How will you define a triviality? What constitutes a triviality?
So concerned is the Lord about details that He says, "You will give an account of every careless word that you have spoken." That is what the Lord Jesus says. He cares about every word that we speak. That's how concerned He is about so-called trivialities. And how many careless words have we spoken? Words that fit in neither here nor there, that do not constitute a beautiful pattern but mar the whole thing. Have you ever taken some photographs to be developed, and then when the photographs came back, you look with eager enthusiasm at your beautiful self in the photograph? And to your great annoyance, what did you see? One speck, right there, in your cheek. Well, you can say, triviality. I mean, what is a speck? But suddenly a speck, because it lands on your cheek, is no longer a triviality. Suddenly the speck becomes all important. It has ruined the beautiful picture of yourself.
Triviality. Why didn't you just say, "It's a triviality"? No. You might even take it back to the photo shop and say, "What is this? I mean, I pay all this money, and what do you do? You put a speck in my beautiful face. I mean, all these people who haven't seen me before will think that I have a speck in my face when I don't." Just look at it. Beautiful. What are trivialities? The whole conversation — does it not just like the speck in the picture — everything is going on nicely, and suddenly one little wrong word, and what does it do? The whole situation changes. Triviality. Just a little word. No triviality. Suddenly to you that word is very important. What is a triviality?
Oh brothers and sisters, through this whole series of messages I have stressed to you the biblical teaching of perfection is most vital for us to grasp. And if we go on into major sins, into things which are by all definition no trivialities, and God will not accept even the trivialities, what will happen to us if we commit sins which by anyone's definition is no triviality? So think carefully. Through this whole series I have stressed the biblical teaching of perfection because of its exceeding importance. Because God is a God of perfection. God is a God who does not overlook trivialities, because no one concerned with perfection and who is perfect overlooks these things. Constantly we need to come to Him for cleansing. Constantly. We live in total dependence upon His grace.
And here is the second reason why the teaching of perfection is so important. Because it makes us profoundly conscious of our imperfection. And because we now know that God regards with the utmost concern every imperfection, and yet we are imperfect, what does it do to us? It makes us profoundly — this is the second point of the importance of the biblical teaching of perfection — it makes us profoundly dependent upon His grace. We must every moment cling to Him for His grace. His grace to be perfect in heart. His grace to forgive us where we have not been perfect. His grace to see us through to the end. It is grace from beginning to end. It is precisely the teaching of perfection that makes us most conscious of our utter dependence upon grace. It is precisely the rejection of the teaching of perfection that is also the rejection of the necessity of grace. Because if God is not concerned about perfection, grace no longer becomes urgent for us. It is no longer always necessary for us. It is no longer moment by moment necessary for us. We can go for long chunks of time without the need for grace anymore. But when we realize that God looks with perfect eyes and looks within our hearts for a perfect heart, then we know every moment, every moment, every second, we could not survive without grace.
Now, there is a third reason why I have stressed through these long series of messages the need for perfection. It is because there is the tendency in these days always to stress doctrine. Doctrine, doctrine, doctrine. Everything is doctrine. As though God looks down upon us and He only wants to know, "What is your doctrine?" That the most important thing to God is the doctrine you hold, not the life that you live. Not the person that you are. Not what you are in the depth of your heart. But merely, like all other academics, it would appear that God has been transformed into some kind of academic theologian of the church. He is only concerned to look at your doctrines.
And so concerned is the church with doctrines that they can literally fight each other with tooth and nail over doctrines. So little concern about what one lives like, what one is in one's innermost being, what one is in terms of the life we live, that we can disregard this whole thing about what we are, how we behave. We can just fight each other with tooth and claw over doctrines. No, we will do more than that. As we have been seeing in recent times, we will even slander our opponents. We will speak evil of our opponents. We will tell lies, perhaps because we think that the end justifies the means. That is what happens when you put all the emphasis on doctrines. Life becomes so secondary. The quality of your life becomes secondary. You can slander your opponents. You can tell lies about them in the interests of safeguarding your doctrine.
When you see these things, you see what is happening. Therefore, in this third point, you must realize why Scripture emphasizes perfection. Because perfection has to do with life. "Be perfect." "Be" — is to be. What is "being"? Being is what has to do with life. Perfection. It is not "believe in perfection." It is "Be perfect, as I am perfect." "Be holy, as I am holy." "Be merciful, as I am merciful." It has to do not with some kind of positional perfection. It has to do with practical perfection in one's life. And the day we get away from the stress on perfection, we will soon slide into arguing over dogma.
When I look back at church history, in the fourth century, in the councils of Chalcedon and Nicaea, as I have from time to time mentioned before, even as a young Christian I couldn't believe it. That already, only three centuries after the Lord Jesus came, there were bishops of the church, pastors of the church, fighting with each other literally — I mean literally — fighting with each other over doctrines. We have been sidetracked by the evil one, deceived by the evil one, into thinking that the primary thing that God requires of us is right doctrine, not right living. Right doctrine.
I receive large numbers of magazines sent to me by various theological seminaries, mostly asking for money, by various church organizations, various publications. And in various of these publications you see time and again the emphasis, that there are advertisements asking for pastors. "This church requires a pastor. That church requires a pastor." And of course, as you know, in the Chinese churches there is a great lack of pastors. And I looked through the list of requirements for pastors. Number one is always your academic qualifications. That's number one. And then always whether you have the right doctrinal positions as far as that particular church is concerned. It is always the same thing.
And you look down through the list. It will say whether you are married or not married, preferably married, usually between the ages of 30 and 40. Which means if you are not yet 30, your chances of becoming a pastor are quite poor in most churches. And if you are 40, you might be regarded as over the hill, perhaps. I don't know why usually between 30 and 40. Whatever. And so you look on through the list, and not one of the qualifications mentions the quality of life. Not one is concerned with spirituality. Not one. The only concerns are academic. Look through the list sometime for yourself. Examine them carefully. Occasionally I am refreshed by one advertisement which says, "We are looking for a godly man, a spiritual man." Oh, that's very rare indeed. And I take careful look at what is this church. I would like to meet these people there.
You see, it's all has to do now with learning, with dogma. Because if you put the stress on dogma, then you have to put the stress on learning. Because dogma has to do with learning, with education, with training. Everything now is put on the intellectual level. Because dogma puts the stress on the intellectual level. And the situation then becomes exceedingly dangerous.
But when you look into the Scriptures, the stress remarkably is not at all on dogma. When you are looking for an overseer, a pastor, a leader of the church, the stress is always on the quality of his life. Read for yourself and see. Let me give you an example. Let us turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3, and look carefully at this whole list of qualifications and read for yourself what Paul instructs Timothy about. 1 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 to 7. And Paul is instructing Timothy as to how to choose a servant of the Lord. By our standards, he should have said, "First of all, see what his educational level is. Minimum level should be college or university graduate," as I see in most of these advertisements. Nowhere here does Paul concern himself with your educational level. He doesn't concern himself with doctrinal matters, even to our surprise. We are brought up with the stress on doctrine. We can't grasp this thing. Through the entire first seven verses of this chapter, he not once mentions doctrine.
1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1: "The saying is sure. If anyone aspires to the office of bishop," which literally is overseer, "he desires a noble task. Now a bishop or overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an apt teacher, no drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and no lover of money. He must manage his own household well, keeping his children submissive and respectful in every way." And so it goes on. It speaks of the kind of person he is. It even touches upon a certain gift that he may have, the gift of being able to communicate well. But there is not a mention about doctrine.
But you say, "Ah well, but this is easy to understand. Because Paul assumes already that Timothy will choose somebody with the right doctrine." And why doesn't he also assume that Timothy will choose somebody with the right kind of life? If he assumes the one, why does he not assume the other? How can we argue from assumptions? The quality of life is paramount in Scripture. It is the most important thing in Scripture. Throughout Scripture, that is the emphasis.
Does it mean then that we should go to the other extreme and say that doctrine is not important? Oh, not at all. I am in no way asserting that doctrine is of no importance. But then why the stress upon the quality of life? Brothers and sisters, why? The reason is very easy to understand. Very easy to understand. The reason is simply this: that when your heart is perfect with God, only then will you be able to discern true doctrine. Only then will you be able to discern which doctrine is true and which is false. Did you ever realize this?
It is for the same reason that you cannot truly understand the Word of God at all when your heart is not right with God. This is a matter of experience. We don't have to argue about this. It is a matter of fact. You go and commit some sin and read the Bible and see whether any of that Word of God can enter into your heart. No. It cannot. It can no longer speak to you. Your heart is closed. Sin has blinded your eyes. When your heart is not absolutely perfect with God, you cannot discern truth anymore.
Therefore, to stress righteousness of life, perfection of heart, in its very self already guarantees that the Spirit of God can reveal to you who speaks the truth and who does not. You come to church with some grudge, no matter how small, against a brother or a sister, and you will find that your discernment for truth has been totally warped. It is a matter of spiritual fact. This is not theory we are talking about. This is not doctrine we are talking about. This is fact. You know it is true. If you don't, just experience it for yourself. You come with a little bit of grudge, ever so small, against a brother or sister, and notice at once your whole mind is biased. And bias means you can't look straight anymore. You can't see straight anymore. You can no longer discern the truth. You have lost the capacity to tell truth from falsehood the moment there is impurity in your heart. The moment your heart is not perfect with God.
This is the reason why Paul, in the wisdom of the Lord, doesn't have to tell Timothy about these things, about doctrine. He says, "Select a man whose heart is right with God, whose walk is true to God." And that man will have eyes like an eagle. His spiritual discernment will be sharp as a knife. He will be able at once to discern, "This is true, that is false."
# The Importance of Perfection (Part 2)
The moment he sins, or he hides some sin, some discontentment in his heart, his spiritual perception is gone. If for a moment his commitment to the Lord and to the Lord through the Lord, through the church, is no longer perfect, his spiritual perception is gone. That is an absolute truth.
Not long ago a particular pastor was discussing with me concerning something I had said about the biblical teaching that the image of God in Adam was not lost to the fall. But theology had been so ground into him, and drowned into him, as indeed it has been to me, that I noticed after a little while, I saw with amazement that he could not grasp a point. He was quite incapable of grasping it. Not that he was not willing to. He was not hostile or arguing in any way, in a contrary way. He was trying to understand, but he could not. And immediately it came to my mind that the way to help him was not to produce further scriptural evidence, which had already been produced. It was already evidence to anyone who cares to look at Scripture. The Scripture has nowhere asserted that the image has been lost. In fact, both in the Old Testament and the New, as I have shown, it not only assumes, but it states that the image of God is still there. But no, he couldn't see it.
And I began to realize that the way to help such a brother is not to produce more counter-arguments and more evidence. It is rather to ask, "Dear brother, how is your heart with the Lord? How is your commitment to the Lord? Let's get back to the basics. Let's not talk about doctrine at all. Let's turn away from this question of doctrine. Let's talk about the attitude of your heart to the Lord. May we speak on that? May you speak about my attitude of heart to the Lord, and I will speak to you about your attitude to the Lord. And together we will try as brothers, lovingly, to help one another. Not to condemn, not to criticize, just to help one another lovingly, to see whether there is some imperfection of attitude towards my God and my King, in me or in you."
This is the truest way to help one another. Not to argue about doctrine. But there are those who don't want to talk about this. The moment you talk about attitude to the Lord, they say, "Don't judge me." I am not to judge, my beloved one. I want to ask the question. And I want you to keep asking me. "Is my attitude to the Lord right?" Please keep asking me. I will not consider it judging. Do me the kindness of asking me this, that by the grace of God my heart may be perfect before God, that my eyes may be able to see the truth, that no sin will conceal the truth from my view.
We need to help those who oppose, not by long-winded disputes about doctrine. No, no. Beloved ones, let us reach out to them in love. And let us begin where God wants to begin: at our hearts. And it may be that in the kindness of God, if his heart is straightened out with God, he will help us if we are somewhere blind and have not seen the truth. How wonderful that we can help each other. But let us get to the heart. Because that, as we saw last time, is what perfection is about.
And now you can see why, through this long series of messages, I have constantly shown to you the importance of the heart. I pray that God may continue to show you the truth of this. I have not at all finished with this series of messages. In one or two more coming messages, I would like to expound to you yet more clearly what the Scripture means by the perfection of heart. What does perfection of heart consist of? But I hope that these three points concerning perfection will be most deeply embedded in each one of us. And if, when you come to the Word of God, and you find you cannot understand, the question is not always, first and foremost, to run through some commentary, to run through somebody else, to run here and there. But say, "Lord, is it me? Is there some hindrance in me?" Sometimes it could be that you are ignorant of some fact or other, and someone can help you on that. But most often, it is because of the heart.
Let us pray that the Lord will do wonderfully in us. Open our spiritual vision. I have seen many people who say to me, "I cannot see the preciousness of Christ. I cannot see why some Christians, like Paul, consider everything as loss in order to gain Christ." This mentality of perfection, because that is what perfection consists of, as Paul says in Philippians 3: "Let all those who are perfect be thus minded." Minded in what way? To pursue Christ, to consider everything loss in order to gain Christ. But who will do such a thing unless you can perceive the beauty and preciousness of Christ?
But how often when we read the Bible, such as Philippians 3, we can't understand. Not because we didn't understand Greek. Not because we didn't understand some terminology in there. Not because we lack certain knowledge of historical facts. It's simply because we do not share Paul's vision of the preciousness of Christ. Why do we not share that vision? Shall I go into a homily about the beauty and perfection of Christ? Will that indeed kindle some fire in your heart? Perhaps, and perhaps not. Because if the heart is in the first place not right with God, all that will just be sweet-sounding talk. It will be just like nice music that floats by the ears. It will not enter into the heart.
But once your heart is, by the grace of God, being purified, being set right with Him, look what happens to your spiritual vision. Look what will happen. Try it for yourself and see. And what you could not see before now becomes evident to your eyes. When Paul says, "We with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord," you scratch your head and say, "Well, but I don't behold the glory of the Lord." Yes. But Paul did say something else before that: "with unveiled face." You look through a veil, you can't see the glory of the Lord, at least not clearly. But he says, "We with unveiled face." What is the veil? Is the flesh still having some grip upon your heart? And as we saw in some previous message, that this veil is the flesh. And be that veil ever so thin, to that extent it will obscure the glory of the Lord to your eyes.
How will the fire of God be kindled in our lives if we do not see the glory of the Lord? How will it be kindled? There is no way it can be kindled until we behold like Paul. But is it true to your experience? Do you not understand the statement of Paul in Corinthians? Because you haven't studied enough Greek? Do you not understand the statement because you don't know enough about the history of the New Testament or the Old Testament? No. Why don't you understand it? Because you don't experience it. Why don't you experience it? Because the veil is still on your face.
That is what I mean. My beloved ones, that's what I mean. Not until the heart is purified. Not until the heart is cleansed. Not until the veil is removed by the grace of God. How else will it be removed but by the grace of God? Can we tear it from our face by our own strength? By our own wisdom? By our own skill? No. Only in Christ, by His grace, will it be removed. And then we will behold His glory. And then we will be transformed. And when you see the glory of the Lord, with what doctrines can you not understand? What doctrines will you be confused about? Everything will become clear.
That's why I say, that's why the Scripture stresses first and foremost what we are. And when we have sorted that out, all doctrines will be sorted out. And when that is not sorted out, no doctrines will be sorted out. And the church will continue to disgrace the Lord in this generation by fighting each other tooth and claw, sometimes behaving much worse than non-Christians. May we be granted so to run the race by His grace as to obtain the crown. And by His grace we may be perfect of heart.
Let us pray. "O Lord our God, how slow we are to understand the things of Your truth. How dull is our spiritual understanding. How we argue endlessly over this and that doctrine, thinking ourselves to be knowledgeable and learned and wise, when all the time our lives are out of tune with You. When on that day, how shall we be vindicated? How shall we stand in Your presence? Shall we stand in Your presence, O Lord, and be justified because our doctrines are right though our lives are wrong? Will You judge us on the basis of what we hold in our denominational views? Your Word tells us that each man will be judged according to his works, and every life will be examined, every heart will be searched. O Lord, have mercy upon us, that we may truly stand before You in fear and trembling, such that we may know how to cast ourselves totally upon Your mercy and Your grace, and cling to Your grace and Your mercy, that You may transform us from day to day into the fullness and the beauty of Your dear Son, that we may fulfill what You have commanded of us, to be perfect even as You are perfect.
O gracious Lord, redeem us again from the superficiality that imagines that as long as we are doctrinally right we are always in the right. Help us to realize that we cannot even be doctrinally right until our hearts are right with You. Hear our prayer. Accept our praise for Your kindness to such unworthy ones as we are. And O Lord, remove every veil, every hindrance from our hearts, that beholding Your glory we may be transformed from one degree of glory to another to the praise of Your name. That on that day, O Lord, we may receive from You the crown of righteousness, the crown that You will give to us of Your grace. We thank You in Jesus' name. Amen."
Amen. Let us sing in closing the hymn number 77, "I'd Rather Have Jesus." I'd rather have Jesus. I wonder if you really do rather have Jesus. And as this song cannot be sung with much genuine conviction, or at least not with much depth of conviction, then may the Lord help you and may the Lord help me, that in this coming week and in the coming days we could sing with some degree of genuine conviction: "I'd rather have Jesus than anything." Hymn number 77.
I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold,
I'd rather be His than have riches untold,
I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands,
I'd rather be led by His nail-pierced hand,
Than to be the king of a vast domain
Or be held in sin's dread sway.
I'd rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.
Please be seated. After a moment of quiet prayer, we are dismissed.