Will you please turn to Philippians, the letter to the Philippians, Chapter 3, Verse 15.
As many therefore as are perfect, let us be thus minded:
and if ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you.
Again:
As many therefore as are perfect, let us be thus minded:
and if ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, our hearts are full of thanks. We are so thankful for all that Thou hast done for us. Thou hast not kept anything from us. Thou givest Thy blood, Thy flesh, Thyself wholly to us.
Lord, who are we that Thou shouldst be mindful of us? How we praise and thank Thee for what Thou hast done on Calvary’s cross. We thank Thee that it is finished. There is nothing that can be added or be taken away.
Grant us that vision. Give us that understanding. Enable us to have full faith and confidence in Thee, and draw us that we may truly run after Thee.
Dear Lord, we do want to glorify Thee, and we want to see Thy image be formed in us, that Thou mayest be glorified.
Here we are. We commit ourselves to Thee again for this time, trusting Thy Holy Spirit to reveal Thy heart and Thy mind to us and lead us into Thy truth. And we will give Thee all the glory. We ask in the name of our dear Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I find it very difficult to speak after the Lord’s table, because the Lord’s table is really the climax. We have been brought to His very presence. We see anew, afresh, what He has done for us.
And it is a perfect work. Nothing can be added. If only we have faith in trusting Him and what He has done for us, I do not think there is any need to talk anymore. So that is why I always feel it very, very difficult to speak after the Lord’s table.
If our hearts are really filled with Him, what else do we need? What else are we seeking for?
But because I have not finished my burden, I have to continue.
Now, everybody knows by now that our theme for this time is spiritual perfection. It is actually more than just a theme to talk about. It is something that is vital to our Christian life.
You know, we have the tendency—we are limited by ourselves, by our thinking, by our concepts, by our needs. So we always feel that if only God will do something to satisfy our need, to solve our problem, we are satisfied. We do not want anything more than that.
But, dear brothers and sisters, we must remember that God created us and He redeemed us with a very specific purpose. It is for His glory.
And because it is for His glory, He will not be satisfied until His glory is manifested in us. So He will continue to work in our lives until Christ is fully formed. And that is glory; that is His character, the likeness of Himself.
God does not want us to stop midway. He wants us to arrive at the end, and the end is God’s purpose in love for His people.
So we believe that spiritual perfection is God’s will for His people—not just for a few selected, special, so-called spiritual giants. It is for every child of God. God expects every child of God to grow up into maturity.
And if any one of us will be content and can be satisfied with anything short of that, I think he will grieve the heart of God. So I do hope that, at least at this moment, brothers and sisters, we do have a desire for that spiritual perfection.
It is not sinless perfection, but it is something that will answer the heart of God. God is perfect, and He expects us to be perfect—not in the same degree or measure, but in the same quality and nature.
So this is what we have been trying to present before you, brothers and sisters.
Now, this morning, I would like to go into this matter of the way to spiritual perfection. First of all, I would like to pose a question. I hope you will listen very carefully.
Is spiritual perfection something to be obtained, or something to be attained?
What do you mean by “obtained”? Obtain means that everything is already ready. It is a gift, freely given, universally given. You do not need to do anything. There is nothing required of you. All you need to do is to receive it by faith. That is obtainment.
Just like our salvation: we do not need to do anything. As a matter of fact, the more you try to do, the farther away you are from the salvation of the Lord, because it is a gift. Everything is prepared for you.
On Calvary’s cross, our Lord Jesus has borne your sin in His own body. Just believe in Him, and your sins are all forgiven. You are justified before God.
If you believe on the Lord Jesus, you have life. You receive eternal life—the life of God, the life of Christ. His very life will come into you, and you are born again. You do not need to do anything, and you cannot do anything. It is a free gift.
So it is something to be obtained. Everything is ready; nothing more needs to be done. Just receive it by faith, and it is yours.
Now, what is attainment? Attainment means there is a goal before you, and you have to run after it. You have to strive to arrive at the goal. A promise is there, but you have to attain to that promise.
Now, so the question is: is spiritual perfection obtained or attained?
Probably, if you have listened for the past day, you are a little bit confused. On the one hand, you hear that everything is done. As our brother mentioned, the new covenant—it is done. It is the work of God, accomplished in His Son, Jesus Christ. It is finished.
You cannot add anything to the new covenant. It is all there: absolute, unconditional, unlimited, ready to give to you. And from God’s standpoint, He has already given it. All you need is to accept it, receive it; then it is yours. You have spiritual perfection.
And probably you hear something else: how we need to strive, how we need to put ourselves into it, how we need to be diligent, and so forth, before we can really attain to this spiritual perfection. Now, is there any contradiction?
Dear brothers and sisters, so far as I am concerned, I believe that spiritual perfection is both to be obtained and to be attained. It is both.
When we think of truth—objective truth—which means that it is something that God has done in His beloved Son, and it is finished—the work of our Lord Jesus on Calvary’s cross is the truth, eternal truth.
Whatever He has done on the cross remains forever. Time will not change it. Circumstance will not change it. Condition will not change it. Nothing can change it. It is there, standing forever—no shadow, no shade. Truth forever. It is absolute.
That spiritual truth is our foundation. Without that foundation, there is nothing to build upon it. Without that foundation, whatever we have done will be false.
It does not depend upon your condition. Whether you believe it or not, it does not matter. It is not because you do not believe in it that it has lost its power. It is still as powerful as it was on that day when our Lord Jesus was crucified.
Now, this is objective truth. This is something that we have to have a very clear view of. There should be no doubt in our hearts. And this is our foundation.
And on the other hand, we find, on the experience side—so far as our experience is concerned—that is subjective. Objective is something already done, forever there, eternal truth, never changing. The subjective experience is personal.
In other words, it is the condition of our spiritual life. And it changes. It should be progressive. And it is something in which you have to use diligence in order to arrive at the goal.
So these are the two sides in the Word of God. On the one hand, we have to lay hold of the objective truth given in the Scripture. The firmer the hold, the better.
On the other hand, if we lay hold on that firm foundation, there is bound to be experience—personal experience.
Or, putting it another way, objective truth is God’s work in His Son; subjective experience is God’s work through His Holy Spirit. Objective truth is what God has done in His Son on Calvary’s cross. Subjective experience is what the Holy Spirit today is working in each of our lives.
And if it is real spiritual experience, it is to experience what the objective truth tells us. In other words, it is not just something far away. The Holy Spirit brings what Christ has done two thousand years ago into our very daily experience.
And this takes time. It requires cooperation.
So, brothers and sisters, in this matter of spiritual maturity, I believe, on the one hand, we need a revelation of our Lord Jesus. As our brother has emphasized yesterday, we need to have a revelation of the completeness of His work, the new covenant established by His very blood.
We need to know our Lord Jesus as the Mediator of the new covenant, and the clearer we are, the better. We need to have full faith in what the Lord has done for us on Calvary’s cross.
But, dear brothers and sisters, if that is all, how good it would be. We would have no responsibility. We would not need to go through a process, sometimes very painful, and we would already be there.
You know, sometimes I think, if after I am saved I am immediately raptured to heaven, how good that would be. Now, why does the Lord leave me here on earth and leave me so long?
Well, He has a purpose. He is bringing what Christ has done on Calvary’s cross into my very being.
Will you please turn to 2 Peter, Chapter 1?
You know, I read the Bible before I was saved. I was brought up in a Christian family. We had daily devotion. My father would lead the daily devotion. He would read from a big Bible, and then we would all kneel down and he would lead us in prayer. So from my childhood, I knew the Bible.
But even so, the Bible was like Greek to me. I did not understand. I read it. I knew it. I believed it. I never doubted the Bible as the Word of God. But somehow, it did not work.
The Bible was the Bible, and I myself were two separate entities. The same day, that afternoon when I was saved, I went into my room. I opened the Bible. It was 2 Peter, Chapter 1—not 1 Peter.
And somehow, He spoke to my heart. It was different. It was the living Word, because a relationship was there.
Now, I am thinking of 2 Peter, not 1 Peter—2 Peter, Chapter 1. In 2 Peter, Chapter 1, we will read from Verse 3.
Seeing that His divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that called us by His own glory and virtue;
whereby He hath granted unto us His precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Now, when you read these verses, what is the impression that they give you? Here you see very clearly: “His divine power hath granted.” In other words, it starts with God. His divine power has given to us all things.
Everything is given by Him which relates to life and godliness. Everything that relates to life—and the life here, of course, is eternal life, the life of Christ, God’s own life, spiritual life—all things regarding life have been given.
Life has been given. Everything that life is, is there. And then godliness. Now, what is godliness? Godliness simply means being like God. How can we be like God if there is no life?
But with that life given to us, God has given to us everything concerning godliness. How can we be like God? All the power is there. All the elements are there. The potentials are there. It is given, freely given.
And this is given through the knowledge of Him who has called us. The knowledge here is not bookish knowledge or mental knowledge. The knowledge here is experiential knowledge, intimate knowledge, personal knowledge.
We know God has given us all things regarding life and godliness: life given as a beginning, godliness given as the end. All have been given through the knowledge of the One who has called us by glory and virtue.
You know, we are all called by God. And when God calls us, He calls us by His glory. In other words, His calling is according to what He is—His glory. Therefore, when He calls us, He calls us to glory. Anything short of glory is short of His calling.
And He has not only called us by glory and virtue. Now, the virtue here, to me, is especially related to His work. In other words, He called us according to His glory, and He works to bring us into that glory.
Through which He has given to us—again, given. And when God gives, it is a free gift: no condition, no requirement; He does it all. And He has given to us the greatest and precious promises.
Now, in the Word of God, you will find great—not only great, but greatest—not only promises, but precious promises, all through the Bible, concerning this matter of life and godliness.
How glorious they are to me. “He that believeth on Me hath eternal life.” What a promise that is.
And thank God, He has not only given us greatest and precious promises concerning life and godliness—that is spiritual perfection—but, as our brother mentioned yesterday afternoon, He has put all these promises into a covenant.
Into a contract, into something that is binding to Himself. In other words, He comes and sends Himself to our level. He knows how little faith we have, how suspicious we are. We cannot believe anybody.
So He binds Himself, puts His promises into a contract, into a covenant—an everlasting covenant—to assure us that it shall be done.
And through these, we may become partakers of His divine nature. That is spiritual perfection.
So from these two verses, what you see is that spiritual perfection is the gift of God. It is not only promised; it is accomplished in His Son and is given to us.
Spiritual perfection is to be obtained. Everything is ready. Just receive it. Thank God for that. That is our blessed hope. That gives us joy and strength.
But then you read on from Verse 4 to Verse 5: “But for this very reason also.” It is not about something else. It is for this very thing: life and godliness, partakers of His divine nature, delivered from the world and lust.
In this very matter, for this very reason—for the very reason that God has given these promises, He has given us life and godliness, He has given us all things concerning life and godliness—for this very reason also, using therewith all diligence.
In Verses 3 and 4, it is all that God has done. We do nothing. Gift received. But from Verse 5 to Verse 11, it seems that it begins to shift to us. We need to use all diligence. We need to supply these additions.
God has given, but if we do not supply diligence, we will not get it. So this is human responsibility. God requires us to cooperate with Him.
In the final analysis, it is still His grace. But His grace works in us to enable us to cooperate with Him. So here you find we need to use all diligence.
Now, brothers and sisters, if spiritual perfection is given by God to all, why is it not all who exhibit, manifest, and express spiritual perfection? Why is it that today, among God’s people, there are more babies than grown-ups? Why is it?
It is because most people do not use diligence. They just sit back and try to have an easy time, instead of applying themselves to what God has promised, to what Christ has accomplished—applying ourselves, desiring it, pursuing it, seeking for it diligently.
And so it says, “In your faith supply also virtue.” If you have faith, if you believe, then faith without works is dead. It is living faith; there is the work of faith following it.
And with virtue, knowledge. You need to know the mind of God. If you want to work, you have to work according to His will. You need knowledge.
And with knowledge, temperance—self-control. And with temperance, patience. There is suffering involved, and endurance; godliness; and godliness, brotherly love; and brotherly love, love.
So you find that this life in us has within us all these qualities. The life of Christ in us has faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly love, and love.
All these qualities are in that life, but that life needs to be developed, needs to grow, so that all these things will begin to appear and be manifested.
For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be neither idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we say we know the Lord Jesus, then invariably you will find all these qualities will appear. But we need to be diligent about it.
For he that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.
Spiritual life is most practical. What is unseen can be seen. What is invisible is made visible. So the life of Christ in us is unseen, but it has to be visible. That is testimony.
Otherwise, we are blind. We think we have it; we do not. We are short-sighted, living just for this world, having forgotten the cleansing from our former sins. We even forget how the Lord forgave us.
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble:
for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Thank God, we have a calling. It is according to glory, to spiritual perfection. We are elected by God for that purpose. But we have to make our calling and election sure.
So, dear brothers and sisters, you see that in the very Word of God there are these two sides, and they complement each other. They do not contradict each other.
We need to put our full confidence in what our Lord has done for us. And if we have that confidence, then we will apply ourselves to yield to the Holy Spirit in our daily life.
So, dear brothers and sisters, I hope that we will not have a kind of confusion among us. Thank God, it is both. One is absolute—that is the truth. One is relative—that is our experience.
When you think of what God has done in Christ for us, it gives us hope, gives us joy. But it should draw us, give us that desire to seek diligently for it.
So, brothers and sisters, I would like to just mention a few things from the experiential side. When you do that, you have to take for granted that the truth side is already established.
Now, if the truth side is not established, there is nothing to build on. The Holy Spirit can only work upon what Christ has accomplished.
So I do hope, brothers and sisters, that we have a firm foundation of what Christ has done for us. And on that basis, we will pursue. So I will just mention a few things on the subjective side: how, in our daily life, can we arrive at the spiritual perfection to which God is calling us?
Of course, spiritual perfection is a Person. Spiritual perfection is Christ. Christ has already demonstrated to us, while He was on earth, that He is the only One who is spiritually perfect—absolutely perfect.
So when we talk about spiritual perfection, it means that it is only in Him that we are all made perfect. If it is not in Him, nothing can be perfect.
So the thing is, we need to know Him. If we know Him, He will bring us into spiritual perfection, because He is that perfection.
And, brothers and sisters, you find the Apostle Paul in Philippians, Chapter 3. What he considered as precious and important in life to him in the past, when the Lord met him on the road to Damascus, was completely changed.
On the road to Damascus, the Lord met this young man. And when the glory of the Lord took hold of that young man, that young man completely surrendered himself to the Lord.
And in this surrender, something happened: his mind was renewed.
In other words, before that, his mind was set upon the world and the things of the world. These were life to him. But after the Lord met him on the road to Damascus, in his surrender, his mind underwent a change.
Now he says, “I count all things as loss, as refuse, for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.” To know Him became his passion.
Dear brothers and sisters, in the way to spiritual perfection, our mind plays a very essential part. If our mind is not renewed, we will not be able to walk in this way of spiritual perfection.
Where your mind is set, that is where you are going. But we cannot change our minds. Only the Holy Spirit can do that, on one condition: consecration, surrender.
So, brothers and sisters, consecration is very, very basic to our Christian life. If we really want to grow in the Lord, in the knowledge of the Lord—and that is what brings us growth in our life—we need to present our bodies a living sacrifice.
We need to give ourselves completely to the Lord, hand over ourselves, our right to ourselves. “Lord, this is Yours. You have bought it with a price. Do whatever You like according to Your will.”
When we think of consecration, sometimes we think that by doing that we lose everything. But thank God, what we lose is something that needs to be lost. But what we gain cannot be measured.
So, brothers and sisters, in my heart I feel that unless we really consecrate ourselves to the Lord, there is no way to spiritual perfection. Our mind has to be renewed.
And when we consecrate ourselves, the Holy Spirit will do it. Oh, my, that is Romans 12:1-2.
Young people, you are told by your elders, “Do not love the world. Do not be conformed to the world.” But can you do it? You just love it.
You may outwardly obey, but when you become independent, you will be worse than the worldly people, seeking after the world.
You tell the young people, “Do the will of God.” Once I asked young people, “What do you think about the will of God?” She said, “Everything that is against me is the will of God.” Can you love it? Can you prove it? Of course not.
But with the renewing of the mind, it is different. You look at the world as dross, and you look at the knowledge of the Lord Jesus as the most precious thing in your life.
So, brothers and sisters, absolute surrender. Do not hold back anything from the Lord. So far as you know, give yourself completely to the Lord. Let the Lord have every key to your life.
And if you are not willing, you pray as I pray, “Lord, make me willing to be willing.” That is the first thing.
The second thing is very simple. If you want to know anybody, you have to live very close to that person.
So in the Scripture, the Lord said, “Abide in Me, and I in you.” That is the secret. Brothers and sisters, spiritual experience is very simple. Just learn to abide in Christ.
It is not those crisis, special experiences that count. It is your daily abiding in Christ.
When the first two disciples followed the Lord, John and Andrew, the Lord turned back and said, “What do you seek?” They said, “Where dwellest Thou?” We want to abide with You.
And that abiding made John know the Lord much more intimately than others.
How do we abide in Him? Once I asked young people, “Well, how do you abide in the Lord?” Some said, “Well, we need to read the Bible every day. We need to pray. We need to go to meetings, have fellowship.” All these are true.
But, brothers and sisters, the secret of abiding is in 1 John, Chapter 2. He says, “The anointing that is in you—obey the anointing, and you abide in Christ.”
Thank God, the Holy Spirit is in us. He is there to bring us into glory, to transform us. He is there to make Christ known to us. Whatever is not of Christ, He will show us. Whatever is Christ, He will also reveal to us.
And all you need to do in your daily life—big things, small things—is obey the voice of the Holy Spirit within you. That is the way to spiritual perfection.
And another thing our brother has already mentioned last night—you do not like to hear the word “discipline.” Discipline is necessary for growth.
Hebrews 12. And as our brother also mentioned, discipline involves suffering. Why? Because there is so much in us that is old, earthly, worldly, selfish, even satanic.
And all these things in us have to go. But when they go, it is our flesh that suffers. But it is necessary.
Because the Holy Spirit is not only working negatively to take away all these things that stand in the way of spiritual perfection, but at the same time, He is adding Christ into us.
Discipline is important. Do not despise discipline. It is the love of the Father, so that we can be partakers of His divine nature.
And finally, this matter of spiritual maturity is more than a personal experience. We find in the Word of God, why is it that we are not as absolutely perfect as Christ is perfect?
We have a measure of His perfection. It is because we are limited. Man is limited in his capacity. So we can only contain so much of the riches of Christ.
The riches of Christ, the fullness of Christ, the perfection of Christ, can only be expressed through our body.
So you find in Ephesians, Chapter 4: “Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
This can only be reached in the body, in the Body of Christ. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we cannot afford to be independent, thinking that you alone are sufficient.
You need your brothers and sisters. You need fellowship. You need to be helped by your brothers and sisters. What you do not have, they have; they can share with you. And what God has graciously given to you, you can share with your brothers and sisters.
And that is the way that we grow together into the fullness of the stature of our Lord Jesus. So may the Lord help us. Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee because Thy Word is perfect. We thank Thee for what Thou hast done for us—so complete.
We thank Thee for what the Holy Spirit is doing in us, so patient, so consistent, persistent, until what Christ has done on the cross is fully realized in Thy Body.
Oh Lord, may Thy bride be made ready to meet the Bridegroom. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.