Can You Be Perfect?

Good afternoon, brethren. It's good to see all of you here on a chilly Sabbath day. Also, welcome to those who are online. Nice that we can be here after the weather we've had recently. You never know from week to week whether we're going to be meeting, whether we're not going to be meeting, whether we're going to be online. So it's just nice to see all of you here face to face. It was a delight to hear our lovely special music. Always a wonderful addition to our Sabbath services. Well, as messages already have been addressing, we're on the countdown to Passover in the Days of Unleavened Bread. So I expect that many of us will be speaking about topics that relate to or are connected to in some way the upcoming days. We're always reminded as Passover approaches of the simple fact that the sinless life of Jesus Christ is an unattainable goal for those of us who are human beings. Probably one of the best-known scriptures, if you take a core of scriptures that are known from the New Testament and memorized across the Christian world, would be Romans 3.23, that simply says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so we all know that. We all know as we move toward Passover that every single solitary human being who has ever lived, except Jesus Christ, has fallen short and has sinned. We all stand in contrast to Jesus Christ. The only one who's lived a sin-free life. There are a number of places that allude to that, but one of the most pointed can be found in Hebrews 4. I don't think you need to turn there. I'll just read it to you briefly. It speaks in Hebrews 4 and verses 14 and 15 saying, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. And so we have a sinless sacrifice, an example that has been set for us, but someone who has lived a life that none of us has or is able to live. A very simple fact, but it begs another question. We can never stand before God and say, God, I am sinless. But that raises another question. Can we one day stand before God? Perfect.

Can we stand before God? Perfect. I realize this Psalm, that question may sound like playing word games, but it's a legitimate question. Because from God's perspective, and in the way that he uses terms, you can become perfect even though you have been a sinner.

You may ask, well, how is that possible? This afternoon we'll explore how that's possible. I'll lean heavily on using the New King James, but I'll simply reference, if there are any of you who still use the Old King James, the Old King James primarily, the New King James secondarily, will use the word perfect. It is amusing as you walk into commentaries how many commentators are simply uncomfortable with the word to the place where they have to find a substitute. And we will see some of those substitutions as we go along. Let's start with a fact. God has called some people perfect. So we start with the fact. There are some people in the Bible who have been described as perfect. Now, it wasn't somebody writing about them. This is what God said about them. So, you know, when somebody has a personal opinion, well, that's one thing. When it's simply taking down what God has to say, that's something totally different. Turn with me to Genesis 6.

In Genesis 6, in verse 9, it says, this is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. Now, if some of you are deep diggers, and I know some of you are, you are aware that there is more than one opinion about the phrase perfect in his generations. But there are enough commentators, enough biblical scholars, who make the point that the word refers specifically to Noah, the individual. Noah, the individual, of course, lived in a world that is described in verse 5. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord said that he was sorry that he had made man, with the exception of Noah. So Noah is described as perfect. The pulpit commentary makes a comment about the word perfect here in the New King James as it relates to Noah. And the pulpit commentary simply says, perfect can mean complete or whole. That is, perfect in the sense not of sinlessness, but of moral integrity. And so even in its definition, the definition is a definition that's exclusive of sinlessness. So I'll read it again. Perfect in the sense not of sinlessness, but of moral integrity. Notice sinlessness isn't the focal point. We aren't seen in that light, but we can be seen by God as people of moral integrity. Cambridge, Cambridge Bible for students and colleges, adds a little more light. It says regarding the word perfect here in Genesis 6, where the margin will say blameless, the word perfect means without flaw. Now, as a ritual term in the Old Testament, it is used of animals for sacrifice that were perfect. That means they were free of blemishes. Transferred to morals, it denotes integrity as in the account of Job. Cambridge's explanation provides an excellent segue to the book of Job. And so as we turn to Job, we are all very, very familiar. It's such a well-known portion. The encounter of Satan, who comes among the sons of God and is engaged by God in a conversation regarding Job. Three times in a very short span of time, as God dialogues with Satan, he asks Satan if he is aware of this man who God describes in this fashion. Job 1-1, there was a man in the land of Oz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright and one who feared God and shunned evil. Now, we've arrived since probably the most of you are like I am reading from the New King James, but if you were reading this from the Old King James, it would read, there was a man in the land of Oz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect. And it's the same root word that was used regarding Noah in Genesis chapter 6. And so the New King James and other translations, other more modern translations, will take the word perfect out of the text and put blameless in its place. The conversation goes on, verse 8, And then the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, and that there is none like him on the earth a, if we were reading the King James, a perfect and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?

And God comes back to the same conversation again in chapter 2. I'll just simply tell you where, verse 3. We don't need to read it because it says the same thing we've already read twice. This is a man that I consider to be perfect. Now, since both the pulpit commentary and the Cambridge Bible for students and schools, or for schools and colleges, both made the point that this perfection has to do with moral integrity. I'll give you some homework. I don't want to take the time in the sermon. It isn't really necessary. But if you want to understand what moral integrity means, just read the first 34 verses of Job 31, and you will have a very thorough commentary on what moral integrity means. Because Job has taken a beating from his three friends to the place where he's tired of it, and he stands up and he says, this is who I am. This is how I live. This is my value system. This is how I conduct myself. And it literally is a beautiful commentary on what the term moral integrity means. It means he lives his life toward his fellow man in a way that is unimpeachable, where nobody can shake their finger and say, hypocrite, or you fall short in these areas.

With the lives of Noah and Job, we begin to see a picture. So we get to enter the front end of a picture, that for God, perfect and blameless are the same thing. Not that a person has never committed sins, but that he or she lives a blameless life.

Blameless? I don't know about you, but I blame myself whenever I feel I perform below the level I believe that God expects of me. And so when I look at one meaning the same as the other, I'm not given a great deal of comfort, but we gain a little ground. We gain a little ground. So an inch at a time, if you will. What we've done so far is to at least recognize that for God, sinlessness is one thing, being perfect is another thing, and being perfect is connected to blamelessness. Let me throw something in the mix, because as you try to process these things, as I said, if I ask you, are you blameless? And I stare at you square in the eye, and I just stood there silently, I expect that I would see somebody who would either physically or visually or facially begin to squirm. Because I don't think any of us feel that way. But we have to define these things as God does. Turn with me to Genesis 9.

The flood's over, the water's receded, life is returned to normal. Noah was a farmer, so he went back to farming. And in Noah's farming, he had a vineyard. And so it says in verses 20 and 21 of Genesis 9, and Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard, and then he drank the wine and was drunk. Now, I don't need to go on to what happened after that. We just need to stop right there. God said Noah got drunk. Okay, we've got an interesting proposition. We've got a man who has committed a sin that is unequivocal. You can go back to Galatians chapter 5 verses 19 to 21, where God says, no drunkard will enter the kingdom. That follows from 1 Corinthians 6 verse 1, talks about the same thing. So this is not a minor situation. But we have a perfect man who's gotten drunk.

A drunkenness is a sin.

Noah was a man that was considered to be blameless. And we're trying to understand perspective.

So where are we? I'll come back to where we are. But I want to take you to something that's a little easier for us as human beings to deal with mentally. Okay. Working toward perfection sits a whole lot easier upon the human spirit than the blunt question, are you perfect?

If I ask any one of you, are you perfect? I already told you what I would expect to see. If I asked you, are you working toward perfection, I would expect a clear face and an easy answer. Yes. That's why I'm here. That's where I'm headed. That's what I want. And I would see somebody that would answer that comfortably and easily, because it is our aspiration. We want to move that direction.

We can mentally handle moving toward perfection as a process. It allows us to look in the mirror and see our warts and our bumps and still say, I see them clearly, but it doesn't change where I'm headed and it doesn't change my destination. And we plow on. Three scriptures will help us to see that attaining perfection in this life is considered possible. I want you to go to Matthew 5. Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5. Verse 48. It's the end of chapter 5. It's a wrap-up statement. It's only two lines long, and it begins with, therefore, which is a conclusion term. Therefore, you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. That's a rather blunt statement. It's not, you ought to hope one day you might get there. This is a statement that says, this is what you should be. You don't word things that way unless you believe they are attainable. But this is a bite-sized chunk. That's not a naked statement. That's just hanging out there, and it applies to everything. It's a part of a context. A context that begins in verse 43. So, what we are looking at is, this is a chunk that we bite off as one single chunk that we can say, okay, I'm going to focus on this. And God says, if I focus on this, it is possible. And it looks as if He has an expectation that I should reach a place where He could say, regarding what He says between verse 43 and 48, that I have reached a point of being perfect. So, He starts out by saying, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. He said, you have heard because it isn't in the Bible. It was a part of the rabbinical teachings of the day. It was a very clear statement that you shall love your neighbor, taken from the Old Testament, extrapolated by the rabbis, that if that is true on one side, that we can flip the coin over, and on the other side, we should hate our enemies. Now, the Jews had enough problem in that they wouldn't bow to idolatry. So, in the Roman world, they were not much loved, but they were also known not only for having their own distinct religion, but they were known in the Roman world as a hateful people.

And based on rabbinical teaching, they may have deserved a portion of that reputation. So, He said, this is what you've been taught. This is what the rabbis have been preaching to you, but that isn't what I'm going to preach to you. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you, and persecute you, that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good, and He sends rain on the just and the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If the only people you love are your friends, you're really no better off than any Joe Blow on the street, is what he's saying. And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not the tax collectors do the same? Now, the heart of this is verse 44, isn't it?

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you, and persecute you. You know what? If you take that verse apart and you number it, and you you assign a number to each of the components, and you start out with baby steps, and you say, all right, He's telling me that I need to be perfect like my Father in heaven is perfect, so where do I start?

You know where I would start? I would start at the same place that the Bible would have started to this group of people. I would have started back in Exodus. I would have started where God said, if you have a neighbor and he's an enemy, and his ox or his mule falls in the ditch, you don't walk by it and leave it there. You pull it out, and you take it home, and you feed it until you can find your enemy and return it to him.

Now, that's very practical. You've got somebody in your neighborhood you don't like. Now, you've got an application. You don't say, these neighbors I get along with, these neighbors I don't. If something happens to this neighbor that I like, I'll be Johnny on the spot. That one, he's on his own. No, he's not on his own. Now, see, that's something I think all of us as human beings, we could process that. If somebody you don't like has a flat tire, you treat him the same as somebody you do like who had a flat tire.

I reflected many times on a benefit that probably very, very few in this room would have the privilege of having. I know Mr. Duncan would, and Mr. Horner would, and other than Mr. Duncan and Mr. Horner, there may not be anybody else in the room who has had the same modifying experience. Now, knowing the way life is so varied, there are some of you that probably have, but I know because of what we've had as our work, that we three have been put in that position. In the 1960s, especially, when the church was growing exponentially and you were visiting new people all the time, every week you were visiting brand new people, you met people who were enthusiastic about the church, who had family members who were antagonistic, and you walked to environments where somebody was so eager they couldn't get enough, and somebody else would just as soon wish you had dropped dead.

And over a span of time, God, in his delightful, amusing way, would take that person, who hated the fact that you even walked in their door, and convert them. And you'd sit there and look at a human being that you are now beginning to counsel, who had been nothing but an antagonist and hateful, who now said, I can't get enough, teach me more.

And it gave you the long view. It gave you the long view. By long view, I mean, you looked at a person who today was an enemy with an awareness that he had the potential to become a friend. We don't see that anymore because we have so rarely any new people walk in that it's a rare, rare, rare occurrence for anybody even to be put in an environment where that can happen.

But you know, when you go to the Feast of Tabernacles, you're reminded every year of a time when every single solitary person that doesn't like you because of your religion will be clamoring to have you teach them that same religion. That's the long view. If you can look at your enemies with the long view, they're not enemies. Oh, they are for today, but they're not enemies. I've mentioned to you years ago a film called The Scarlet and Black, and when I look at some of these other portions, it said, Bless Those Who Curse You.

We sing a song every so often, Bless the Lord Eternal, O my soul, bless his holy name. Bless simply means you speak favorably about somebody. That's not that hard. If you've got an enemy, you don't have to say something nasty about him. If you want to go there in baby steps, don't say anything about him when somebody's not happy with him. And the next thing, find something good about him because there's nobody who's 100% rotten. There's got to be something you can say good about virtually everybody.

So when it says, Bless Those Who Curse You, either say nothing bad about them or find something good about them. So what Christ is saying here, for the most part, is attainable. They have to be trainable, but it's attainable. And so when he ended this saying, You be perfect like your Father in heaven is perfect.

Take verse 44 apart, and if you see a weakness, work on it. There's nothing there that is not attainable. The scarlet in black I referenced is about a Catholic prelate at the Vatican in World War II. And when the Germans came in and they were going to cart all the Jews in Rome off to concentration camps, he put his life and the life of his fellows on the line to save every Jew he could.

One of his fellow priests was tortured to death by the German Gestapo. When the Germans fell, the Commandant, who had been his adversary, who had a shoot-to-kill order on him the entire time that he was commandant, was put in prison. That Catholic priest visited that German Commandant in prison every single day for years and years and years. And there came a time eventually where that Commandant asked the Catholic priest to baptize him.

Now, that's an example of somebody who captured the element of not holding grudges against those who persecute you. His persecution was, if I find you outside of the walls of the Vatican, you're dead. If any of my snipers identify you, you're dead. That's persecution.

There's a note from Albert Barnes in chapter 5 and verse 48. On that statement, Be you therefore perfect? It says, The Savior concludes this part of the discourse by commanding his disciples to be perfect. The word commonly means finished, complete, pure, or holy. Now we add some more. Now we add some more to blameless. You know, if you get all of these down where you can do everything it says in verse 44, that project's finished. If you can conduct yourself in the fashion that each of those points is requesting, God can say, looking at you, okay, on this element, we're finished. Let's move on to something else. The word commonly means finished, complete, pure, holy. Originally, it applied to a piece of mechanism as a machine that is complete in all of its parts. Applied to people, it refers to completeness of parts or perfection, where no part is defective or wanting. That's attainable. That's attainable.

Hebrews chapter 6 in verse 1. The basic doctrines. I don't even need to go there. Hebrews are saying we don't need to lay again the foundation. It goes through all the fundamental doctrines, and it says now we don't need to go back and re-establish that you need to repent. You need to be baptized. You need to have the laying on of hands. You will one day have a point of judgment, and there will be a resurrection. He said, I don't need to go back over that again. He said we need to go on to perfection. I am no qualified judge of everybody in the room. I'm not even sure at times that I don't have to appeal to God to say, God, I'm not a qualified judge of myself. But I know one thing. I know there was a time 20-some years ago where you had to determine whether you were complete or whether you were not. And I look at a group of people who had a complete understanding of what God expected of them and said, I'm not going to give it up.

There were many more who were not complete. And as a result, they failed that particular test.

Ephesians 4, if you'll turn there.

Our ministerial responsibilities, our congregations, our Sabbath services, our Bible studies, our retreats, all of the things that make up our life are all a part of a program.

Ephesians 4, verse 11, it says, He Himself, speaking of God, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man. That's part of our journey. We come to Sabbath services to grow. We fellowship to grow. We study our Bible, or attend a Bible study, to grow. He said, I put together a way where all the body can move forward toward a destination to a perfect man.

So what have we seen so far? Well, we've seen in the case of Noah that you can be perfect in God's eyes. We see men who have fallen short in terms of sin.

Let's go a little further. I'm going to turn this one totally upside down.

From God's perspective, you can be sinless, but not perfect.

Turn with me to Hebrews 2.

Again, as we walk through this, we're walking through it to try to understand God's mind. That when He advocates for perfection, when He says it's attainable, we ask ourselves how?

In Hebrews 2, speaking of Jesus Christ in verse 10, For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

This was a process of making Jesus Christ our sacrifice perfect through suffering.

As we head toward Passover, we will focus on two things. We will focus primarily on the sinlessness of Christ and His sacrifice as we take the bread, we take the wine, and as the scriptures are read to us, we will focus on the sinless, perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Though it will not be the spotlight of Passover, all of us are aware that coupled with that, an inextricably linked, they can't be taken apart, is that He was also sent to become our high priest. One who could advocate on our behalf before God the Father, could stand before the throne of God and be our advocate.

He was there to plead mercy for our weaknesses. God, in the Word, as this was planned ages ago before the foundation of the world, determined that He couldn't do this without knowing how it felt to be a human and experience all the trials, the pains, the sorrows, and the hurts that go along with being human.

It doesn't matter what kind of horrific death a person has experienced, crucifixion will allow you to feel compassion for every kind of horrible death that man can suffer. A hungry man is a hungry man. A thirsty woman is a thirsty woman. Hunger and thirst are universally the same. A cold person is a cold person. We all shiver alike.

Until He had experienced all of this, Jesus Christ was indeed sinless, but He was not yet perfect. Now, we go back to what perfection means. Complete. Finished.

And as I said here, He was made perfect through suffering.

There's probably more said about perfection and us, us and perfection, in one place than any other in the New Testament. That's James chapter 1.

In three verses, verses 2, 3, and 4, more is said about perfection, coupled with being a human being than anywhere else, I think, in the entire Bible. At the end of verse 1, James says, greetings. And in verse 2, he says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Now, we all know that that verse is modified by a verse elsewhere in the Bible that says, no trial for the moment is pleasant, but it's grievous. So, it doesn't mean you smile in the middle of your trials. It means you're profoundly grateful after you've recovered at what God has done to move you along in spiritual growth. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Now, your margin will probably say endurance, and that's really how you ought to look at it. You know, patience is something you exercise while you're enduring, so it's hard to uncouple the two. But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. We are perfected in the same way Christ was.

You know, Jesus Christ totally yielded to what He had to go through. He prayed, Father, if it's possible that this cup can pass from me, please do. Nevertheless, Thy will be done. He told His Father, I don't want to go through this. It's the last thing I want to experience, but I also yield myself to you. You and I are perfected the same way. Totally yielded to God. That's where perfection lies. Totally yielded to God.

Totally accepting that He will guide things where they ought to go toward the end goal of our salvation. I think most of us, when it comes to appreciating trials, I think most of us do it in the rearview mirror. Driving into a trial, it's, oh no, I don't want to be here. In the middle of the trial, help me get out of this. In the rearview mirror, God, I learned so much from what I just went through. If we see it coming, we don't want it. If we can find a way around it, we'll find a way around it. In the middle of it, we're wishing we weren't there. In hindsight, there are trials that we thank God for for the rest of our lives because of what we learned from them. What James is saying here about perfection is reaching that place where you say, I can't see, I don't know where it's going, I don't like it, but I'm not quitting.

I'm going to hang on. I'm going to be like Jacob and the angel. You can dislocate my entire hip, but I'm not letting loose. Eventually, you come to the place where you say, I can see a trial coming, but I've learned enough from previous trials to know that even though I have a clue why this is coming and where it's going, that when it's all over, I'll thank God for what I learned and the growth that has taken place. So what do we have?

This would be a rather good-sized chunk conclusion. You hate to use the word conclusion because people figure that's two sentences. It's going to be a little more of a conclusion than that because there's a lot of substance here. But let's conclude. So what do we have?

Well, what we have is all of us are more comfortable being told that perfection is a process because we can then get on the escalator and know that we get on and it's a while and I can get adjusted and I can handle things a little bit at a time. We know there have been people that God saw as perfect, so we know that it's not unattainable or He would never have said of them, have you seen my man? He's perfect. We can see arriving there in portions of life and see that as more attainable in our limited vision. And so when we see something like Christ parsing out, no longer treating people as friends and enemies, and that you can reach the place where you see man like God sees man, you say, okay, I got a lot of other areas to work on, but if I work on this one, I can see that what He said in verse 48 is reachable. We can see that from God's perspective, sinlessness and perfection are separate, and so we don't confuse the two.

So as we wrap it up, the question is, so what is perfect to God? I think at times, brethren, we live in a very conflicted world. We see our failings, we see our frailties, and we know our sins. I think it's natural for any human being, and rightly so, to be very cautious about having the word perfect attached to their own name, because that's heady. That's heady. Heady to the place where pride comes in, and now it all evaporates. So we just hold that kind of thing at arm's length. That's probably not a bad thing. But perfect is about commitment. Perfect is about the commitment to live God's way without any wobbles.

When I say wobbles, I am not talking about failings. I'm talking about commitment. You know the scripture that talks about a double-minded man, that he's unstable in all of his ways? That's the wobble. Yeah, I'm all for doing God's way right now, and then something comes along. Well, I really—that's a double-minded man. It's an instability. So when I say commitment without wobbles, I can look in the mirror and say, God, I'm having a hard time living up to the standards I know that you want from me. That's a failing. But I'm not going to say, God, I'm trying to find a way to cancel out what you're telling me because it doesn't make me feel good to have to do it. When God sees a person fully committed to living his way of life, and he sees that person through a lens that starts using the term perfect, ever stop and look at how long Abraham lived after the point where God asked him to sacrifice Isaac? And he said, I now know this man. I'm not guessing anymore. I'm not putting out something to see if he will do it. I know this man.

Abraham lived after that point in time longer than most of the people in this room have lived so far.

But God said, this man, I am totally comfortable that I know where he is. A complete package, blameless in terms of commitment to a way of life. Still capable of slipping? Like Noah? Absolutely. But no slip changes commitment to the direction. You know, times we have to stand back as the old saying goes, look at the forest instead of standing there looking at the bark of the individual tree. Why are we here? Where are we going? God wants children. It's the only reason we're here. We're here in Iblink in time. We're here today, God, tomorrow in terms of the expanse of time. So we're very, very temporary. But we're here because God wants children. It's the only reason we exist. But he wants to know that those children are in harmony with him for all eternity. And so we're here in class, and the class is to find out on the part of the instructor, are we with it forever? He gives a whole system of beliefs and practices and says, are we on the same page? And then he walks through all of the shades. Are we on the same page because this is my social circle? Are we on the same page because that's where my spouse is? Are we on the same page because that's where my parents are? Or are we on the same page because I want to be on the same page with God? Now, it may take him a while to find that out because we're not that stable in those areas. He may do a little probing, a little checking, a little testing to find out when we say, this is the only way I want to live.

I can look at myself in the same way that many of you who have been in the church for decades can look at yourself. I know my failings, I know my weaknesses, and I also know that there is absolutely, positively, no other way of life that I want to live. There isn't anything out there that I want as I want this.

I look at a room full of people. We're all paddling in the same canoe. That's why you're here. That's why you've been here 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. That's why you're here. You will wrestle with issues, all of us, throughout our lifetime because we're human. And that's part of why we go through the days of an oven bread annually. That's our annual reminder that life is always about overcoming. Life is always about, I need some unleavening. I need an annual reminder that leaven is there and it wants to grow. But that's not in competition with your commitment.

No wavering.

When you have an unwavering commitment that says to God, and you say to yourself, and you do so with a clear conscience, there is no other way of life in this world that I want. I am where I belong and I am where I want to be. In God's eyes, you may be much closer to perfect than you realize.

For God, perfection consists of bringing a child of his to completion. As I said, completely committed, completely focused. As we saw in James chapter 1, completely yielded. I don't know where I'm going. I'm in the back seat and you're chauffeuring. I don't know where I'm going. I get apprehensive at times, but I know that you know where I'm going and I know that you care enough about me that we will get where we ought to be whether I know that or not.

When God sees that's who you are, you're in that same world as Abraham was.

He says, I've completed that. Now, endurance has to be there, but he says, I've arrived at what I want. I want complete, total commitment to a way of life.

As I said earlier, does that mean you'll never slip again? Of course not. That's the humanity of it all.

Isn't God's point either? God only wants to see that you, our heart and soul committed to both him and his way of life, to his way of doing and to his way of thinking. And when he's convinced, when he says, I know that commitment is there and it doesn't wobble. I've got a human being with warts. They make the mistakes. I pick them up. In terms of commitment, I don't see any variableness at all.

God says, this is someone to whom I can give eternity. That's perfect.

Are you there yet?

I could ask the same thing. Am I there yet?

We may not necessarily know, but what I do know is you can get there.