What did the song say to us just now? "Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ dwelleth in us." Interesting. What a salvation is this! There is something entirely unique about the message of the Gospel. There is something entirely unique about the Christian faith that cannot be found anywhere in the world.
The uniqueness of the Christian faith lies not in our holding this or that doctrine. The uniqueness of the Christian faith lies not in that we have interesting-looking church buildings or that we have certain sacraments like the communion and baptism. Oh, what a salvation this! What is the hymn writer singing about? He said the unique thing about the Christian faith is that it hinges entirely upon a relationship. Now if today you claim to be a Christian, the extent to which you are a Christian hinges entirely on this matter of whether Christ dwells in you, and whether in some way you are sensible of this fact, whether in some way you are aware of this fact. Otherwise, what kind of a salvation are we talking about?
Now, today we want to continue in the series of messages about regeneration, about salvation, about renewal, about perfection. And I am still on this matter of perfection. Why are we still talking about perfection? The words of Paul in Colossians chapter 1, verses 28 and 29, continue to drive me forward as it did drive Paul forward. "For this I toil and I strive," the Apostle Paul says, "to present every man perfect in Christ." This is a goal that I know of almost no church today that interests themselves in such a goal.
Today we are content in the churches if we can talk about a person having made a decision and having been saved. We are content if a person is baptized, and we are relieved with that. But to talk about perfection seems to be entirely beyond the scope of the goal of any church that I know of today. Yet this was the one goal that burned in the heart of the Apostle Paul. "For this I toil and I strive," Paul says. For this one thing I toil and strive — not just to get somebody saved, that he makes a decision, that he gets baptized. All that is good, but that is one step along the way to perfection. And I toil and strive to present every man perfect in Christ.
Do you know of people concerned with that today? We are happy if somebody signs a decision form, and that is it. The whole thing is over. It is finished. Now we wait for eternity. Oh no, not for the Apostle Paul. And neither for me. And I trust neither for any of you here, if you so much as understand what perfection is about. Why was Paul concerned about perfection? Well, we have seen already that it is a command that the Lord has given to us, that we are to be perfect as He is perfect. But I will tell you another reason which is exceedingly practical.
I would like to ask any of you present here, whether you know of one dynamic, Spirit-filled Christian. Think of him at this moment or her. Do you know such a person? Can you think of such a person? Have you ever met such a person? Think for a moment — somebody you know that comes to your mind right now, that strikes you as a person who is indeed one who knows the God in whom he or she believes. Do you know such a person? Think of that person. I know such a person. And that person immediately causes me, when I think about him or her, to reflect upon Jesus. Because somehow that person is like a mirror — when you look at that person, that person reflects your thought away from him or from her to Jesus. There is a remarkable Christ-likeness about that person, isn't there?
Do you know such a person? Maybe a simple Christian. Maybe a Christian worker. Maybe a pastor. Maybe not a pastor. I wish there were more pastors of this sort. The church desperately needs people of this kind. But how few there are, aren't there? And maybe when I said, "Do you know such a person?" your mind, your mental computer, is going, ranging through all the information stored up there and having a hard time coming up with a name. But you are fortunate if you know such a name, if you know such a person.
Now when you think of that person, what quality will come to your mind about that person? What characteristic will emerge when you think about such a person? I can tell you categorically that in every such case, few though they are, in every such case without fail, there is one thing about that person which will be very clear when you know that person. That person is, without fail, someone who strives for perfection. Without fail. There is no exception to this rule. This is a spiritual law.
Every Christian who manifests any spiritual power in their lives will be a person who is driven with that same driving motivation that Paul had in Philippians chapter 3, verse 14: "I press on towards the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus my Lord." What is the high calling? Do you know? What is the upward call? What is that call? That call is nothing more or less than what the Bible calls perfection — Christlikeness. And there is no Christian, let me say to you, there is no Christian who manifests any power in his life who is not driven by the Holy Spirit, because no one who is left to himself will have any spiritual drive in him at all.
But the person who manifests spiritual power in his life, spiritual qualities, spiritual excellence in his life, is a person who is driven by the Holy Spirit towards the goal of perfection. That's what Paul says in Philippians 2, just the previous chapter, that it is God who is at work in us to will, because the natural man never wills spiritual perfection. Have you ever seen a natural man who wills spiritual perfection? He is not interested in any spiritual things. Everything that drives the natural man is money, position, wealth, praise from men. Spiritual things have never interested a carnal man.
So how can anyone be interested in perfection, in spiritual power, in spiritual Christlikeness, unless the Spirit of God is driving him? And so it is God who is at work to will such a thing and also to accomplish it, to do it. That is why Paul wants to present every person perfect in Christ, because he knows there is no Christian who will manifest any spiritual dynamic, any spiritual power, any spiritual quality, unless that Christian is so open in his heart to the Spirit of God as to let Him drive him forward to that goal, that high calling, which is perfection.
It is interesting how many times that verse is quoted, isn't it? People like to quote that verse from time to time to give themselves some sense of direction. They are not unfamiliar with this verse being quoted: to press on towards the mark. And yet nobody ever told us what was the mark. Because I was a Christian for so many years, and I heard people saying, "Yeah, let's press on towards the mark." And I thought, "Well, what's the mark? Where are we pressing on to?" "Oh yeah, I forgot that bit." What was the mark? We are all pressing on, but nobody knows where to.
So we say, "Let's press on to do more Bible study." Okay, maybe that's okay. Press on to do more Bible study. Press on to spend more time in prayer. Okay, that's also quite a good goal. But how would you show that the call is to spend more time in Bible study? And so in the end, all of us, with a lot of zeal and a lot of enthusiasm, we are pressing on towards the mark — we don't even know where it was. We don't know where we are going. Have you had that experience? I even had a conference — I saw a conference which had as its title "Press On Towards the Mark." At the end of the conference, you go around and ask the conference, "Well now you have spent the whole conference studying 'Press On Towards the Mark,' will you kindly tell me, what is the mark?" It would have been very interesting if we had been given permission to make such a survey, because most of us had not the vaguest clue what the mark was we were supposed to be pressing on to.
Perfection. Why? Because we don't know what perfection is. And that is why this long series of messages about perfection. And I say it is very, very practical that we are pressing on towards perfection, not because simply that God has given us such a command that we are to be perfect, but because — let me say to you — your life. Let's not talk about somebody else now. Your life, as you are sitting here today and all the coming days in which you are going to live, will not be marked by one shred of spiritual power. Not one ray of spiritual power. Not one ray of spiritual excellence. Not my words — not one ray of it, until you make it your goal to say, "I shall press towards that mark, and so help me God."
Until that day, your life will be just flat. If you don't believe it, look at your life right now to see just how much spiritual dynamic there is in it right now. And that spiritual law will apply. You will be able to evaluate how much dynamic is in your spiritual life right now by simply asking: How much does pressing on towards that mark mean to you? And insofar as it means little to you, to that extent your spiritual life will have little power. And insofar as it means something to you, your life might have a little bit of something of power. And if that mark means a lot to you, there will be a lot of power in your life. But I'd like to see how many there are who have that kind of power.
So we are talking ultimately about the practical matter of how to live the Christian life. When we talk about perfection, we are not talking about some high-flying theory which is of no use to you and to me, as though we have accomplished so much already in the Christian life that we have time to talk about perfection. No, no. We are not talking about something that is high in the sky, beyond our reach. We are talking about that which motivates us.
Perfection that we are talking about is the perfection of the heart. I think I have expounded on three different types of perfection from Philippians 3. And you will recall that this chapter is primarily about perfection. And now we are looking at the power aspect of it. It is in this chapter where Paul says that he is pressing towards the mark, that he is also talking that perfection has to do with knowing Him: "That I may know Him," he says in verse 10 of Philippians 3, "and the power of His resurrection." That is, that I may continue to experience Him and experience the power of His resurrection, which I expounded the last time — what the power of the resurrection means in our lives, that it is not something merely in the future when our bodies will be raised, but that every Christian experiences here and now the resurrection power of Christ if he has anything like a living faith.
Just last night I was sharing with brothers Joe and Eric and Yiming my concern that I still find in our church that many people do not seem to experience God in a deep way in their life. And I was sharing with them — this thing bothers me. I see some degree of sincerity of faith. I see a growing measure of love for one another. But what disturbs me is I still do not see that God is real through many of you in a very deep and powerful way. And this bothers me. And this is why I would aim to present every one of you, all of us, perfect in Christ.
And I'm searching for the reason why. Why is God not yet that real to many of us? And I find that one of the reasons, perhaps the primary reason, is the one we are dealing with right now. Perhaps you are pressing towards the mark, but not with too much dynamic, not with too much enthusiasm, not with too much conviction. There is a certain lukewarmness, if I may say so. Perhaps a little bit more warm than cold, but still a certain lukewarmness, a certain hesitancy, a certain lack of determination in the pursuit of perfection, of Christlikeness, of knowing Him with the same determination that Paul had.
He was so determined to know Jesus that he says, "I am willing to suffer with Him. I am willing to die with Him. I am willing to suffer. Indeed, I have already suffered the loss of everything, and I am willing also to suffer the loss of my own life right now." Have you got this kind of determination? Or by comparison to that intensity of determination, you are still relatively cold? The fire does not burn very brightly.
I constantly share things that the Lord is doing in my life. It is ongoing. All the time things are happening. And I would like to hear more people, at communion or prayer time, saying, "I experienced the Lord last week dealing with me in this way. I experienced the Lord doing this in my life, and doing that in my life, and doing something else in another person's life — remarkable things." I don't hear this kind of sharing very much, do I?
And I am experiencing these things, and some of these things I can't share with you because it touches on the lives of some of you. I was sharing with them just the other week, without mentioning names. So I was driving to Toronto — very misty, very foggy, and difficult road conditions. But I was communing with the Lord in the car, because this time, the last time I was traveling alone to Toronto, Helen was not there. It was very quiet in the car, so I was communing with the Lord, concentrating in the car. I don't mean that Helen talks a lot — that was not my implication. But simply that I had nothing else to do, no one else to talk to except to commune with the Lord.
And then I thought of someone in the church. As I thought about this person and that person's needs, the Spirit of the Lord moved in my heart, and I said, "Lord, I'm going to do something as You move me. As You are moving me, I claim this person for You. I claim this person. How long has this person been in need? How long has this person been left in a desperate condition? No one can help that person, least of all himself. I claim him for You." Very simple prayer. I took hold of him by faith for the Lord.
And then when I arrived in Toronto, there were many things to do — fellowshipping together and discussing matters of the church. And it was early on Tuesday morning, that 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning — I don't remember exactly the time — when I heard the voice of this brother that I had claimed for the Lord, calling me, calling my name. Unusual experience. I have heard the Lord speaking to me, but I never recalled any person calling me in the middle of the night. And if I was asleep at the time, I was wide awake by the time I heard the call. And I heard his voice speaking to me, and I knew that God had answered my prayer. I knew that God had done a work in his life.
So when I got back to Montreal on Wednesday night, Helen told me at once, "This person has called you just half an hour ago." I said, "I know what has happened in that person's life. I know." She said, "How do you know?" I just came in through the door. I said, "Then I told her what happened — how I claimed this person for the Lord on the way to Toronto, how I heard his voice, almost as in the Macedonian vision." In fact, Calvin reminded me of the Macedonian vision. In this case I didn't see the vision; I heard just the voice, very clearly, calling me. I knew exactly that voice, and I knew what the Lord had done as soon as I heard that voice.
And I said to Helen, as I came in, "There are so many of these things. It's good that I have witnesses, otherwise many people will say, 'You're always telling us all these amazing and wonderful things.' But I'm glad I have witnesses. Otherwise somebody might even think I'm making all this up." So I said to Helen, "You will see what the Lord has done in this person's life." Wonderful is the power of the Lord.
The following day I was quite unwell, and so I slept in most of the day. I think those who went to Toronto that weekend, most of them got sick on the way back. But the following day I phoned him back, and the first words he said to me is, "I have committed my life to the Lord." I said, "I know." I don't know whether my reply struck him as unusual or not. "I know." Because the Lord had done this thing. And later I told him why, because I said, "If the Lord had not shown me this, I would have been very skeptical if he said to me he had committed himself to the Lord." But such is the power of the Lord. So remarkable are His ways.
Now I don't mention the name of this brother, and I'm sure he knows who is being spoken about. But in due time, perhaps the Lord will lead him to share his own experience of the Lord dealing with him. But our God is the living God. And these things go on all the time. And I'm not saying that we are looking for signs and wonders. No, not at all. I'm not interested in signs and wonders as such.
I'm a person so little interested, as I shared with those co-workers of the first team last night. And I haven't even written a record. I've never written down a record of His dealings, so little do I pay attention to the signs, the wonders, the marvels of His working. And often I said to them, I feel ashamed because I've forgotten so many of the dealings and the marvelous instances of His working. Many years ago I kept a diary, and only sometimes as I flip through the old diaries I see notes of what the Lord did, on which day, at what time. I don't take notes anymore. The Lord's workings are so constant that I don't take any notes of these things anymore, because I don't want to have my heart and mind fascinated with these things. I don't want you to be fascinated with these things, but that rather you follow the Lord. And when you follow the Lord, the signs and wonders will follow. You don't follow signs and wonders; signs and wonders follow us.
I've shared with you marvelous things of the Lord's doings. A fish coming out of the water, swimming to our feet. I'm glad I had a witness there, otherwise somebody is going to say, "That really was a fishy story." Who ever heard of a fish swimming out of water to your feet? And there we were standing by the lakeshore, and I've many times pointed out to you — those of you who visit us, I've shown you where the place is where the fish swam out of the water to us. Have you ever heard of a fish swimming out of water? As I said, many people said, "Well, that was a very tall story." I'm very glad that Pastor William was the other person present with us. And I'm also glad that he is not such a collaborator with me that anyone would suspect him of conspiring to invent such a story. I mean, he's not that close to me as to do such a thing. In fact, the first team even ate of that fish. We had it for supper together, many years ago.
But so we can go on, speaking of the fact that God is so real. And sometimes I wish that in the sharing downstairs I could hear more of people saying, "Oh yes, I was following the Lord, and the Lord did this, and the Lord did that." How come I'm not hearing this? This is what bothers me. This is why I'm concerned to present every man perfect in Christ. Because if you walk with God, you will see the greater works that He will do, just as we read in John 14, verse 12: "The works I do," the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "you will do also. And greater works than these, because I go to the Father." That means, "I will send you the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will dwell in you. And when the Holy Spirit dwells in you, you will see marvelous things" — not because we are caring about the marvelous things, but because we care about our marvelous God.
I would like to see this church filled with people who manifest God's power in their life. That each one of you, when with anyone else at the place of work in which you work, in their college, in your school — when they meet with you, they will see there is something unique about this person. There is something different about you. There is a quality about your life. "I wonder what it is. What is that quality about your life?" And you will say, "Well, it's not me. It's nothing in me. It is God living in me." And you say, "Oh, now I understand. I was trying to figure it out all the time — what is that thing about you that makes you so different? Now I understand. It is because God dwells in you."
If no one has ever said that to you, there is something wrong with your Christian life. There is a problem there. You are a candle that is not giving forth any light. What is the use of having a lamp that doesn't shine? The quality of a lamp is to shine. Maybe you are a lamp, but you don't shine. But if you do shine, those around will take notice — there is something about you.
Now today I want to very quickly deal with a number of matters. First, I would like to address the question of the lifestyle of the Christian. Why do I say this? Because you are saying, "Well, you are stressing perfection. You are stressing about this single-minded pursuit of the high calling, of being Christlike, of being perfect, of knowing Him. But does that not make the Christian life a very intense, a very exhausting kind of lifestyle?" Now that is the first thing I want to address quickly today. Why? Because we are familiar with a term called perfectionism. And all the psychologists tell us that perfectionism is a very bad thing for you. Oh, bad for you. Bad for your health. Bad for your general performance.
And today, you see, here is Reader's Digest. You see, I brought this copy of Reader's Digest. Now look, look at this. What it says here. It says, in an article on page 151, April issue, this month. You see, almost anticipating that I am going to continue to preach on perfection. Perfection. Ah, and it says here: "Perfection Can Be Bad for You." You got the title? "Perfection Can Be Bad for You." Here it is, you see. Can you see the big letters? "Perfection Can Be Bad for You." And this is written by a person who is a psychiatrist. And here is the subtitle. It says: "Yes, striving compulsively for impossible goals can lead to depression, troubled relationships, and decreased productivity."
Well, after that you don't want to think about perfection again. I mean, this is going to lead to depression, is going to result in troubled relationships. Maybe your whole marriage is going to fall apart. And decreased productivity. So this, of course, is a very common notion today. Perfection is almost always thought of in a negative way. And perhaps when I began to speak about the series of messages and came to the point about perfection, immediately the idea of perfectionism struck your mind. Well, I'm not unaware of psychology, too, really.
Now in this article, then, it tells us that perfectionism — by which is meant... here's what he says. And he says, "By perfectionism, I do not mean," and he stresses the word "not," "I do not mean the healthy pursuit of excellence by those who take genuine pleasure in meeting high standards." Well, we are quite comforted by that. What he doesn't mean... "Without concern for quality, true accomplishment would be rare." So he says by perfectionism he does not mean the pursuit of excellence. But that's what we mean by perfection. If that's what he doesn't mean... or perhaps we should phrase it another way.
When I talk about perfection, I am not talking about perfectionism in the sense that the psychologist or psychiatrist is talking about. He says what he's talking about: "I am talking about people who strain compulsively and unremittingly toward impossible goals and measure their self-worth entirely in terms of their achievements." Who strain compulsively and unremittingly toward impossible goals. Impossible goals. What are they? Is Christlikeness possible or impossible? Well, obviously, humanly speaking, it's impossible. So it must be striving towards an impossible goal. But it is not impossible by the power of God.
So perhaps we can take that as a warning. If you are trying to become Christlike through your own strength, if you are just trying outwardly to imitate Jesus, if you are trying to behave in a nice way which you think that's the way Jesus would have behaved, then you are striving towards an impossible goal. That is, you are trying to become Christlike in your own strength, in your own energy. In this sense we would agree with this psychiatrist. You are trying something impossible. And if you do that, you are likely to head towards depression, troubled relationships, and so on. Now that is a good warning for us.
But then we have another magazine here. It is a Christian magazine. And I am wondering why the Christians are conspiring with the non-Christians. This one is sent out by a Christian organization. And I wonder if you can see the big words there: "No One Is Perfect — Not Even the Perfectionist." Why are Christians telling us this? I thought that Christians are supposed to be striving for perfection. And here is a Christian organization telling us that no one is perfect. Well, nobody needs to tell us. I am sure you know that you are not perfect, and I know I am not perfect. So why is anybody telling us this? "No one is perfect, not even the perfectionist." It seems to be telling us that you are not perfect.
# The Lifestyle of One Who Pursues Perfection
It's because we know we are not perfect. If we knew we were perfect, we wouldn't be pressing on towards perfection. So this kind of statement is redundant. And then I find this also more remarkable because I know of no church that strives for perfection. So before anyone even started to strive for perfection, they're already told not to. It's quite remarkable.
And the main reason is this person writing here is another psychologist employed by a Christian organization. I'm very interested how many psychologists today are employed by a Christian organization. It seems that they are taking over a large portion of the work of churches today. And then there's a section which says symptoms of perfectionism. And here it goes like this. The perfectionist is most likely to be a person who is a workaholic, who is dependent on his work to give him pleasure and satisfaction. Work is all-consuming in his life and he is helplessly controlled by it. Well, I use something like that.
And then it goes on with other such things. A perfectionist person is indecisive. So if you are an indecisive person, then you are maybe a perfectionist. I'm not sure the logic can work backwards in this way. But at least there's a possibility that if you are indecisive, you are a perfectionist. And he takes problems at work very seriously. So you should learn not to take problems at work very seriously, otherwise you might be a perfectionist. And when someone makes a statement about his work, he interprets it as an affront of criticism. So if anyone criticizes you and you are offended, then maybe you are a perfectionist.
Now, this way of interpreting perfectionism is becoming so wide as it becomes pretty nearly meaningless. And it goes on and it says, as a result, he cannot relax and play. So if you have difficulty playing or relaxing, then certainly you are a perfectionist. And he is often described as grumpy, anxious and isolated. So if your roommate is grumpy, anxious and isolated, you best examine him because he may be a perfectionist. Very dangerous person to have around. A perfectionist Christian is usually thing-oriented rather than people-oriented. His worldview, in his worldview, things have a higher priority over people.
So it seems that under this category, most Christians are perfectionists. So I am wondering whether I need to preach this message at all. Maybe we are all perfectionists already. And he is very meticulous on how things should be done. And it goes on further to say, because of his tendency to be a workaholic and thing-oriented, a perfectionist Christian is also unable to express warm and tender emotions. Now you really know your roommate. Because he cannot express warm and tender emotions, most likely that person is a perfectionist. And I hope he is not so because of hearing this series of messages, that he is not so warm and not tender, because he was listening to our preaching too much and became a perfectionist.
You see how confusing it is? You are striving for perfection, and then Reader's Digest tells you it may be bad for your health, and a Christian organization tells you that it's no good either. It makes for indecisiveness. But somewhere on, further on, he contradicts himself and says that the person might be authoritarian. So I am not sure whether he is indecisive or authoritarian, which one it is. But we won't worry too much about our friends with psychology. It seems to me there is some conspiracy to confuse us all on this issue.
And that is why I say, let's talk about the lifestyle of a Christian who is powerful and who is effective. What is his lifestyle? Is he a very tense person, who is a workaholic, who is so occupied with this or that thing, or this or that job, that he is not able to be warm and tender, that he is driven compulsively, like some drug addict, towards something called excellence? Is that the way a servant of God is, a true servant of God? Are we like this? Or should we be like this?
When I speak about perfection, am I saying that we should all be like this? That we have a goal in front of us, and that the Apostle Paul was striving with this intensity, and when you see the Apostle Paul, his brow would be knit together, and his eyes looking in the distant goal, and you are talking to him, and he says, wait a minute, I am concentrating. And you say, excuse me Paul, can I interrupt for a moment? No. I am pressing towards the goal. And you should too. And press on towards the goal. Is that the concept?
And I am a bit worried, because I am caricaturing the matter, but it seems to me we are thinking that unless we are like that, we are not really the kind of Christian we ought to be. We should become like this. We should become so intense, so focused upon this goal, that nothing distracts us. That talking to people is a distraction. We should press on towards the mark. Is that the way we get an idea?
And you see, I am stressing this, because we don't really know how to think about perfection. Even more difficult to think about perfection by the time we are finished with our psychologists, who have told us that, yeah, this kind of person is very difficult to get on with, he is very tense, he cannot relax, he does not know how to play, he does not even know how to smile, he is all consumed with his work. And you say, well, let us not talk about perfection anymore, because after this I am going to be a nervous wreck. Is that our understanding of perfection? If so, you haven't got the biblical picture at all. You haven't got the correct picture at all.
Let me stress this back to you. What is the lifestyle of a person who is pressing on towards perfection? Well, I hope that if you know me, and by the grace of God I press on towards perfection, that you don't find that I am quite such a tense, workaholic type of person. I wonder if you have gathered with a group of servants of the Lord and been struck by the fact that there is so much joy, that they laugh so easily, that they find it so easy to be happy, that they find it so joyful to be a Christian. And then you are wondering, maybe this guy is not pressing on towards perfection. I mean, a guy who is pressed on towards perfection, according to your understanding, should be really browsed, knit together, very intense expression on his face. And look at these people. They are all laughing together and so happy together. People must be on the wrong track. I came to the wrong place.
I find it something quite remarkable that when you pursue hard after the Lord, it becomes so easy to be happy, so easy to be relaxed. And I wonder whether some Christians find it offensive when they gather together with servants of the Lord. Maybe you have met together and you overheard the first team gathering together and laughing and laughing and you are saying, hey, what are they doing inside there? How come these guys never stop laughing? And maybe if you got a meeting of the third team together, you might be surprised how happy everyone is together. Enjoying their fellowship in the Lord and you say, maybe these thirteen people, they are not mature enough. These people have not learned to knit their brows together and to focus with that distant view that looks past everything and everyone. Like some preachers, they look right past the wall there and you are saying, is he aware of my existence? Is he preaching to somebody else?
If you had met the Apostle Paul, you would be very surprised what a restful, joyful person he was. As a young Christian, I had the privilege to meet some mighty men of God. As I shared with some of you, at that time I took it for granted that all Christians were like that. Only later I discovered that God in His remarkable ways led me to meet some mighty men of God that being a young Christian, never having met men of God, I thought, as I said, all Christians were like that. It was a sad discovery later on to discover that very few were like that.
But I noticed the mark of these men was first their single-minded devotion to the Lord, that relentless pursuing after Christ and His perfection, His likeness. And yet combined with it a remarkable relaxedness, joyfulness, peacefulness, in the midst of intense pressure. I have never seen anyone so relaxed, so thankful, so peaceful as these men of God. And when you have lived under the communists in China, you really know what pressure is. When every moment their life hung in the balance, I could see no sign of stress, no sign of strain, no fear, no anxiety. Thankfulness marked their life. Peacefulness, joy.
What are the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace. And love never looks past people, it's concerned with people. In the very pursuit of Christ, it is absorbed with the need of every brother and sister. It is Paul who said, I strive and I toil to present each one of you, dear one, beloved one, perfect in Christ. He said, hey, I thought you were pursuing after Christ, how come you got time for me? That's precisely how he has time for you. If he were not pursuing after Christ, he wouldn't have time for you. It's precisely because he is pressing on to his perfection, he takes everybody with him.
Nobody goes towards perfection alone. No one who knows what perfection is thinks he can go it alone. We go on to perfection together or we don't go at all. I don't strive on to perfection and think I leave everybody else behind because that's not the way to go for perfection. We go together. A body grows together. We can't have a finger that says, I'm going to grow to master finger, super finger, bionic finger, and for the rest of the body, I don't care about it. What kind of a member of the body is that? It is as everyone goes together towards perfection than I go anywhere towards perfection.
So let me give a number of pointers and then we must close. Our time has gone by so very fast. I would like to leave with you five basic principles of spiritual perfection and how we may attain to it. For if I simply said it's needful to be perfect without telling you how, then we are not going anywhere either. But I wanted to first and foremost rule out the notion that being a Christian that strives for perfection means we are perfectionists in this negative sense. If that is what perfectionism means, we are not perfectionists in that sense. But we are going to strive for perfection without being perfectionists according to the psychologist. Because you will find that in that pursuit for perfection your whole lifestyle will change. There will be an intensity of love combined with a relaxedness of love. Those of you who have been in love will understand what I mean. Love is very intense and yet strikingly relaxed with one another. Isn't that the marvelous combination? And those who know what love is will know what perfection is.
Now let me go through these points very, very quickly as our time is pretty nearly gone. To attain to spiritual power, which is why we are talking about perfection: the first principle is remove the body of flesh from your heart. I'm using Pauline theology now and Pauline theology is not easy to understand, but I have to use his terminology because when you read the Bible you've got to get used to his terminology. Remove the body of flesh from your heart. Let me read to you Colossians chapter 2 and verse 11. Colossians 2:11 reads like this: "In him also," that is in Christ, "you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ."
Now clearly you will find Paul's language quite difficult to understand, but it is not that difficult to understand if you have experienced it, if you have done it in your life. If you have put the body of flesh away from you, you will know what it means. If you haven't done it, you will have a hard time understanding. Let me read to you this verse again. "In Christ you were circumcised." What is circumcision? Circumcision is cutting away the flesh, cutting away a piece of the flesh, and this is removing all flesh. "A circumcision made without hands," that is, God did it. We did not and we cannot remove the flesh from our lives, from our hearts, but it is the Holy Spirit that does it. That is why it is made without hands, without human effort. "By putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ," when you became baptized, as the next verse tells you, and you were buried with him in baptism, verse 12, in baptism we received the circumcision of Christ, and when in baptism you received the circumcision of Christ, you removed the body of flesh. Can you grasp this?
Now let's turn to Romans chapter 2 and verse 29 to get the other side of the picture. Romans 2:29 reads like this: "He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision," we just talked about circumcision of Christ, "real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal. His praise is not from men but from God." He is a Jew not because, and you are not a Jew because you got circumcised in the flesh. You are only truly a Jew if you are circumcised in the heart. The body of flesh has been removed from your heart because the circumcision is in the heart, so the flesh is removed from the heart. The body of flesh has been removed.
Now why most Christians are impotent and why perhaps you are impotent as a Christian, if you are impotent, is because you have never dealt with the body of flesh in your life. Have you? Place this question for a moment very honestly. Have you honestly dealt with the flesh, the body of flesh? Why does Paul say not just flesh but body of flesh? Because it is the body where the flesh is. This body has to be removed from our heart. Now our hearts are either controlled by our bodies or our hearts are controlled by the Spirit. And if our bodies control our hearts, then the flesh controls our hearts through the body. The flesh cannot function except through the body. The flesh has no existence apart from the body.
Now look at your thinking. How does your thinking work? If you are thinking, your thinking is dominated by the kind of clothing you are going to wear, by the food you eat or didn't eat or would like to eat, by the comforts of life, by the things which make for the comforts of life, namely money and other things. If your thinking is dominated by the body — now I have noticed that most young people, most teenagers, their thinking is dominated by the body. Just look at it for yourself. Talk to teenagers, talk to young people, and all their conversation is dominated by the things regarding the body: clothing, hairstyle, makeup, food, physical relationships between friends. By physical I mean simply not that they are on a spiritual level, I am contrasting it with spiritual, contrasting with physical. Their friendship is simply made up of, can we play together, can we play ball together, can we dance together, can we go out together? The friendship itself is entirely on a body level, that is, what you can do in playing this or making up or doing each other's hair. All this is very fine, but if your thinking is dominated by the body of flesh as most people's thinking is, you still don't know what the Christian life is about. Your thinking is still not dominated by the Spirit. Your life is going to be powerless.
I don't have time to develop this point at great length. Let's read Romans chapter 6, verse 6. Romans chapter 6 is the chapter on baptism, and this is what Paul says: "We know that our old man was crucified with him," with Christ, "so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin." We were crucified with Christ. We were buried with him in baptism. What for? Why do you want to get baptized at all? And I'm speaking to those number of you who have been baptized and others who are about to be baptized. Why do you want to be baptized at all? It says here Paul uses his difficult way of saying things, but on the other hand very picturesque and easy to understand. "We know that our old man was crucified," that the sinful body, the body of sin in other words, "might be destroyed," cut off from the heart, removed — not physically literally destroyed, of course, but destroyed as to its influence upon our heart, its capacity to control our thinking.
Now that is the first and most basic point in spiritual power. Not one of you, let me say without any reservation, not one of you will have the slightest spiritual power in your life until you get the body of flesh out of your heart. And as long as the body of flesh controls your thinking, you will be a powerless Christian and most likely a disgrace to your Lord. That is the first point. We must rush on very quickly, but this point is exceedingly crucial to understanding the secret of perfection.
Before we move away from that, let me read one more verse in Romans chapter 8, verse 13. Romans 8:13 says this: "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." There are many Christians who have made shipwreck of their lives because they have not put to death the deeds of the body. The body is still dominating your thinking, and though you have been baptized at least in name, you have never allowed the body of flesh to be destroyed as far as its influence upon your heart is concerned.
I think I am speaking very practically to most of you here: powerless Christians, weak Christians, unhappy Christians, tense Christians. I see a lot of tense Christians. A servant of God is a very relaxed person. But a Christian who is powerless is a tense Christian. Why? Because he knows he is not living as he ought to live, and the flesh and the Spirit are fighting it out inside of you. And when you have the Spirit and the flesh fighting it out inside of you, you have tension, and you are struggling with hypocrisy, you are struggling with unhappiness. A Christian who does not strive for perfection by the Spirit of God is not only a powerless Christian, he is an unhappy Christian. He is a tense Christian. Look at your roommate, the person you share your apartment with. You see tension there? Look at your wife, look at your husband. If you see tension there, you know the battle between the Spirit and the flesh is still going on, which should have been settled at baptism but it wasn't. Why? Because you compromise, and you keep compromising, and therefore you pay the price in lack of power, lack of joy, lack of the fruit of the Spirit. No love, no joy, no peace, nothing. No wonder you don't even know what is the lifestyle of a Christian who pursues perfection.
Let me move quickly on to the second point. The second point in the lifestyle of a Christian that pursues perfection is something quite remarkable: his total commitment is expressed in a joyful acceptance of suffering. If you have truly put the flesh out of your life, you are not afraid of suffering. You are not afraid of tiredness. You are not afraid of lack of sleep. You are not afraid of lack of health. You are not afraid of anything, not even of death itself. Does that mark your thinking, or you think this is talking foreign language to me? I think I am speaking foreign language to most of us. Is it not? Suffering? What has that got to do with perfection?
It has everything to do with perfection, as I have expounded elsewhere. But suffering is a subject which is not pleasant to those who have not let go of the flesh, but is very welcome to those for whom reaching that high calling of perfection is important. Paul brings in the subject of suffering in Romans in the most unexpected places. Have you noticed? Let me show you some examples of this. Romans chapter 5, in the middle of nowhere, he suddenly starts talking about suffering. And you say, what's the connection? I don't see any connection here. Because in chapter 5, verses 1 and 2, he is talking about justification by faith, and therefore he says in chapter 5, verse 1, "Therefore since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Verse 2, "Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God." Right. And suddenly, verse 3, "More than that," more even than that, more than the hope of sharing the glory of God, more than justification by faith, more than that, "we rejoice in our sufferings."
Hey, you say, Paul, I've lost touch with you at this point. I mean, verses 1 and 2 I know what you're talking about. Verse 3, what's the connection? I've lost the connection. He has gone on to perfection, and that's where you lost the connection. The Christian who pursues perfection rejoices in suffering. And when I see Christians around saying, ah, why did this happen to me? Why is God unfair to me? Why did he give me a wife like this? Why did he give me a husband like this? I was going on merrily until I met the likes of this one, and then we got married, and I thought heaven is going to begin on earth, and then what do I have? I've got one year of torture, two years of torture, five years. What is God doing to me? This is utterly unfair. And I was praying and God gives me a good job, and I got a good job, and the boss is grinding me into the ground. This is not fair to me. Why am I suffering this? I'm a good man. Doesn't God see whether I'm a good man?
Precisely because he loves you, he is going to give you something that's going to be good for you. Oh yeah, you say. Yeah, yeah. What is it? Suffering. You see, that is the mentality of a man of power. If we knew what is the spiritual quality of life, what is the path of power, you would rejoice. Much more than that. Much more than justification by faith. More than all this. More than that. You see how hard to understand Paul because our lifestyle is not his lifestyle. There is a man of God. He speaks a different kind of language from what we speak, do we not?
He goes on, for example, in Romans chapter 8. He is sailing on, talking about the glory of life in the Spirit, and you say, ah, this is good stuff, provided I can understand what he is talking about. But it is all good stuff as far as I can manage. And then he goes on here, and suddenly in the middle of talking about wonderful things about the witness of God's Spirit with our spirit, out of nowhere he talks about suffering again. He says, what is the connection? So look at verse 17. Verse 16 he is saying this: "It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him." You see, suddenly out of nowhere, talking about the Spirit witnessing with our spirit, suddenly out of nowhere he talks about suffering again. This man Paul is really strange. He is forever talking about suffering and rejoicing in suffering. He must be some kind of a guy who loves to suffer.
There is the mark of a man of power, a man who strives for perfection. Now you see why there are so few powerful Christians in the church, isn't it? We moan, we groan, we grumble, we murmur. Every little thing is a problem to us. But the man of God rejoices in it all. He is so happy. Now you know why those who serve God are so happy. If you can rejoice in suffering, what else can you not rejoice in? I mean, you can rejoice in a good meal, it will be easy compared to rejoicing in suffering. He is happy. When they threw Paul and Silas into jail, what did they do? They got together and started singing songs, praising God in the middle of the jail. What do you do with Christians like that? Christians like this — lifestyle so joyful, so relaxed. You can't depress this kind of Christian. He says here perfection can be bad for you because it depresses you. Paul hasn't heard about depression. He strives for perfection but he hasn't heard about depression. He knows how to rejoice, how to sing.
Oh, to see this kind of Christian. Do you see why my heart longs to have a church full of people like that? People who said, praise God, I had some problems today. My car broke down. He said, what, you're praising God? Oh, so good. Yeah, I got stranded on the road the other day. I waited in the cold for three hours. Praise God. Oh, so good. This guy must be out of his mind. Where have we met this kind of strange people before? But that's what makes us extraordinary, isn't it? If the non-Christian's car breaks down, he's cursing and swearing all the time, and your car breaks down and you're doing the same thing, except you use a little bit better language. What's the difference? How would anybody see any difference in you?
Oh, this subject is so important. Let me rush on to the third point. We have to close in two minutes. The third point: a Christian who has power, who strives for perfection, is one who sets his mind in the right direction. He learns to appreciate, to meditate on spiritual things. He lets the Spirit of God teach him how to think on spiritual things. He lets the Spirit of God lead him into all truth. His mind is learning to be set on the things which are above, as we read in Colossians chapter 3. Set your mind on the things which are above. Where does your mind settle down most of the time? I would think in most Christians the mind settles on the things below. The pull of gravity is too strong. It can't rise up. It's pulled down all the time. It settles on the things below. But learn to let your mind rise to the things which are above, filled with the Spirit. You rise up to meditate on what Romans chapter 8, verse 5 and 6 says: "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit."
Well, does it matter whether you set your mind on the things of the flesh or the Spirit? Well, it matters as much as life and death. Verse 6: "To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." Peace. So relaxed. I told you the lifestyle of a man of God is peace. So peaceful, so relaxed. When I fellowshiped with Brother Yang in China, his life was every moment in danger. Any moment the police would take him away because of his serving the Lord in all faithfulness. You never saw a person more peaceful in the midst of danger. His life spoke to me because I knew how much danger he was in. I was in little danger compared to him. He was in great danger. Every moment the police were looking for him, and he knew it. Oh, what peace. Not a shadow of fear, not a shadow of anxiety. Set your mind on the Spirit — it is life and peace. His life spoke to me more powerfully than a hundred eloquent messages. The calmness, the relaxedness, the joyfulness of a man of God. Why? His mind was set.
Now what are the spiritual things to set one's mind on? So many. Meditate on love, joy, peace, the fruit of the Spirit. The things that are to come. The glory of the church. The coming of the Lord. The power of his transformation. The things he can do in your life and mine. The things he could accomplish through us if only our lives were yielded to him. Have you ever thought what God can do through any one of you? Do you think that God can only use one John Sung, one Wang? He can use any one of us. He could make your light so to burn in this generation, any one of you, as to make the world marvel at God's power.
Fourth point, quickly. Letting Him will and to do, as I just briefly touched on earlier. Letting Him will and to do of His good pleasure. Philippians chapter 2, verse 13, a very important verse. Now never read this verse as though it is automatically the case. This verse is simply not true in most people's lives. We have to let it be true, otherwise it will not be true. We are most of us familiar with this passage. In verse 12 it says, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling." This was the text I preached at Robert and Mandy's wedding — preaching about fear and trembling at a wedding. So Joe is following along these tracks. "For God is at work in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
Now many pastors and people quote this verse 12 completely out of context, as though it is true in every Christian automatically, that it is true automatically that God is at work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. It isn't true. It is true only in the lives of those that Paul says in verse 12 who have always obeyed. Notice these words: "as you have always obeyed," even in my absence or in my presence. Whichever way, it is only in this kind of person that God is able to work of His will and His good pleasure.
Now we must let it happen. It doesn't automatically happen. Let no one fool you on this. Look around in the church and you will see that most Christians, God is not able to will or to do anything in their life. Their hearts are hardened. They are walking in the path of disobedience. How can God will or do anything in their life? If it were up to God, we would all be mighty men and women of God. If it were up to God to will and to do, each one of us would be towering spiritual giants. Why are we not towering spiritual giants? Because in most cases He cannot will and do His good pleasure in us.
So this fourth point means you must consciously will to let Him carry out His will and His work in you. It is when you learn this, to cooperate with His will, learn to let Him will His will in you, that you are going to experience wonderful things of the kind that I have shared with you. There is simply the secret: let Him will. Let His will be manifest in your will. Let your will be so yielded to Him that He can will through you and do.
Let's come to our final point, chapter 8 of Romans. The mark of a man of God is seen through the whole last portion of Romans 8, which we will not start now, all the way from Romans 8:28 to the end of the chapter. "For we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him," and so forth. Do you see the spirit of that passage? This fifth point is: for him who pursues after excellence and perfection in Christ, the powerful Christian is a Christian who is always marked by the fact that he relies confidently on God's power and His love.
You notice that he is so relaxed. Why is he relaxed? Why am I relaxed? Why am I not a nervous wreck? Why am I not this kind of a person who is striving like a workaholic? No, because it is He who is at will, who is willing within me. My will is simply yielded to Him, and He wills what He wants. I said, Lord, You will whatever You want in me, and You carry out Your purpose whatever You want. Because if it is me — whatever is Your will, You will it. Whatever thought You want me to think, I think it. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, "We have the mind of Christ." So let's think His thoughts. How many Christians know how to think His thoughts?
As a result of this way of doing things, we come to this point where you have this remarkable confidence in His power. Why? Because you have experienced His power. You cannot help experiencing His power when you live in this way. And when you experience His power in this way, you find that you are very relaxed, you are trustful of what He can do, and you are confident of His love for you. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Paul says. Who? Nobody can separate us from the love of Christ except we ourselves. We can separate ourselves from the love of Christ, but no one else. And that is why Paul goes through the entire list. He never once says you can't separate yourself. That is the whole exaltation. The whole problem is that we can. But through that list he mentions everything else except ourselves, because he knows no one, nothing, no power in heaven, on earth, or under the earth, when hell itself, could separate us from God. He has complete confidence in God's path, and he is not about to separate himself from the love of Christ, because he has already yielded his will totally and unreservedly to let God will whatever He wants in him.
So this is the Christian life. Restful, relaxed, yet dynamic, powerful, intense only in the way in which God wills His own intensity through us. What I mean by that is that our intensity comes from Him, not from ourselves. The very intensity of my devotion to Him, I find I cannot even credit myself for that devotion, because I notice it's He who is driving me forward. It is He who is willing His will in me. That is a remarkable state of things. And that is what Paul means: "It is I who live, yet no longer I." It is I, and not I. It is I who love Him, and yet no longer I, because it is He who is now driving me forward with the mighty power of the Spirit.
Have you experienced this kind of Christian life? I have given you the secrets of the Christian life. God is my witness to say that when you and I stand before the Lord Jesus on that day, not one of you will be able to say, "I did not live a victorious Christian life because you did not tell me how to live a victorious life." Not one of you will be able to lay that at my door on that day. So help me God, He will be my witness. But I am saying this to you not simply because I'm afraid of the judgment. Not at all. It is because God has given me such a love for each one of you. I pray that each one of you will be mighty servants of His in this generation. Let us pray.