Going on to Perfection

Two weeks ago, I gave a sermon about the meaning of four words, and I said it was very important, because we read these words all the time. They're all in the Bible, they're biblical words, and we read them all the time. And yet, without an understanding of how those four words, what the real meaning is, the depth of the meaning, and how they fit together, we can't really understand the New Testament message.

There's certain truths we must have when we talked about that, and we're going to talk about more of that today, because what we're going to do is build off of that into another word today. We're going to go through the meaning of another word, and then that's going to lead to what we talk about tomorrow when we talk about Pentecost and the pouring out of God's Spirit. The four words we talked about were salvation, which simply means deliverance.

Deliverance for people who are lost and in danger. Of course, that's a description of the whole world. It's a description of us. Without God, we are lost and in danger. That's the basis of the New Testament message. Everything else comes out of that. Everything comes out of these four words in the concept of what God is doing. And so God must call us to salvation because we can't save ourselves.

We can't even understand it. We don't even know we need it until God does something. So God opens this door of salvation. He calls us, and it's only by this favor that He gives to us, this grace that He gives to us that allows that to happen. Then we talked about justification and how the Bible says you're justified by faith, not by works. How Abraham was justified, not by circumcision, his works, but when he believed God. And we went through and showed how because of that faith God called him, He responded to that.

We have a responsibility to respond. It's not what the Calvinists teach that once God shows you grace, it's irresistible. So if God calls you to be in heaven and you go out in your mass murder and kill 40 people, you're still going to heaven. And if God doesn't call you and you worship God and you're good your whole life, you're still going to hell.

That's Calvinism. That's not true. God's grace can be resisted because of free will. God's power can't be resisted, but that's the thing. He gave us free will. So we must respond. As we respond and have faith, He justifies us. And as I said to anyone sitting in this audience, whether you're baptized or you're a young person in the church, you're justified.

God has allowed you to be able to have the opportunity to come before Him. That's a privilege. He let you do that. Well, I thought, well, there's a whole other process. So that's why He says Abraham believed He was justified. Then he made a covenant with Him and He was circumcised. As I said then, if Abraham had said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, I like this relationship with you, but I'm not going to be circumcised, he wouldn't be the father of the faithful.

There was another step he had to do. That's what sanctification is. God makes a covenant with us and He separates us, which means He begins to make us holy. We are separated. So when you respond to God and you repent and you receive God's Spirit, the covenant of baptism, laying on His hands, then you are separated. He's gone through a process of calling you, salvation, justifying you, letting you have a relationship with Him, you're responding, and now He enters into a covenant with you and He really begins to sanctify you.

He makes you separate. The separateness of being a Christian must be in our minds. Now, we're going to have to go through a discussion of that in terms of, and we're going to do that some this summer, what does it mean to be separate and be part of the world, right? Are we all to become hermits and just live out in the desert someplace and not even talk to anybody? How do you do that? Well, we're going to talk about that.

So then we become sanctified. Sanctification is a process, and you'll see the word sanctification. We went through it numerous times last week. We'll go through it a couple times today. We're now being set apart. We're being changed. And the last word that we talked about is transformation. And the word transform and transformation in the New Testament many times comes from the word the well in English we call it metamorphosis, which is a Greek word. You are literally becoming going from one life, type of life, to another type of life.

We're going from being human beings to the literal children of God, or as we talked about glorification. And that's a whole other word we need to talk about sometime. But it's glorification. So we now have another word we're going to look at.

And another word that we're going to define. That word is, and you'll see it either perfect or perfection. Sometimes it's translated mature. Now every place you see perfect or perfection or mature, it's not the same Greek word, but much of the time it'll be the same Greek word.

Or a derivative of that word. Now I mentioned a derivative of the word.

You know, if you look these words up in Greek, you're going to find they're spelled slightly different. They have the same root word. And the reason why it can be used as a verb, or it can be used as an adjective, it can be used in different ways. So it has a slightly different spelling.

But it has the same root, telios. The same root is what's important, because it tells, there's subtle differences in how this word is used. What's interesting, you don't have to know the Greek. If you really study the English, you can see it in the context of what is being said.

Telios literally means that you achieve a goal, an end. There's an end goal to something. And you achieve it. You arrive there. Now, it doesn't always mean you're there.

It doesn't always mean you arrive. But it means there is a destined goal for you that is set that you're on the journey towards. This is real important to understand perfection.

Because sometimes we could go to a scripture like Matthew 5, and people get very discouraged. I talked to people over the years that read Matthew 5, 48, and they're just discouraged. Because this is what Jesus said. Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. And it's like, I give up. How can I be perfect? I try to be perfect. And if you're a perfectionist, you can drive yourself crazy trying to be perfect.

Because you'll come up with all kinds of scenarios. You'll try to work through every detail. And of course, life is much messier than that. It'd be nice if it was, where we can fix everything, but we can't. So if you're a perfectionist, you look at this and you overthink it.

So if this is what God wants, I can't do that. I'm a failure. I can't be perfect. I mean, no one's perfect. If I just had enough faith, I'd be perfect. Oh, but I don't have enough faith, so I failed again. I can't be perfect because they don't have the faith. So, God, what am I supposed to do? I don't have the faith. I'm not perfect. I can tell you all the things I did wrong today. I have failed. I'm so inadequate. Maybe if I pray more. But you know, this morning I lost my temper with my spouse, and I yelled and said some really nasty things. So I got to go repent before I can... Okay, now I got to go repent, which means I'm not perfect, which means I failed already, so I can't be perfect. So you find yourself sitting there eating that half gallon of ice cream.

You know, feel the anxiety because why? I'm not perfect. Oh, no! I'm on a diet. I just failed again. I mean, you just... that just is a never-ending spiral down. You can't get out of that. How can I be perfect as God? And Jesus says, won't be perfect.

Reach this end goal where God is.

But you're not there yet. I'm not there yet. Nobody's there yet. You know, it's interesting when you look at this passage in Matthew, how it's at the end of... well, it's actually in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount when He's giving all these instructions on, okay, this is what you must grow in. This is what you must do. This is what you must become. He didn't say, this is what you are. And what's the goal of it? Let's go back to verse 43 so you can look at the context in which He says this. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Well, that's not in the Bible, but it was an interpretation. 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 persecute you. And now, as you learn to do this, here's what happens. I want you to look at the emphasis that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. This all has to do with God as Father. It has to do with a relationship with God. He says, so you can't do what's natural.

That's natural for us to hate our enemies and love our friends and our family, right?

That's just natural. He says, because why? Because your sons, your children of your father, and He uses the word father in this whole passage, for He makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good. He says, rain on the just and the unjust. He said, you know, God is even kind to evil people.

Now, He doesn't accept evil people. That's a whole different subject.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? The most despised people in society. And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? He says, so our journey, this path we're on, is different than what's normal. It's different than what we feel. We're going to talk about emotions a lot this summer, too, because what we feel isn't always what is right. And that's hard for us. It's hard for me. It's hard for you. And that's why Jesus said, I sanctify them, what? By the truth. He sanctified Himself. He says, I'm going to make myself holy. And we're going to talk about that a little bit today. And then He talks about, He talked about, we read it last time, sanctify them by truth. They got to know what the truth is, so they can't tell. Their feelings and their own thought processes will take us someplace else. So this is what He says. And then He completes it with, therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in Heaven is perfect. In other words, do these things and you're moving towards being like your Father. It's a relationship issue.

We look at this and say, I failed. That wasn't the point. Of course you failed, or you wouldn't have to give the instructions. Why would He have to give the instructions if we're all perfect?

He gives the goal. He gives the purpose. You are becoming perfect.

And so when we look at this word, we're going to look at it, and it's very short. So I'm not going to go and say, okay, the Greek word here is spelled this way because there's these little different, they all have this, if you look at them, it's all based on teleos. It's all based on the same root, but it's because they have slightly different meanings. Or like I said, it's a verb or it's an adjective. The basic meaning is the same.

So let's go to Hebrews 1. I'm sorry, Hebrews 6, verse 1. Hebrews 6.

I cut out a whole bunch of scriptures last night because I had this way too big.

So Hebrews 6, verse 1. He's writing to Jewish Christians, and he says, therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, okay, he says, okay, we've gone through who Christ is. We have all learned that. That is the foundation of everything. He says, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of, and then he gives a whole bunch of doctrines. The point he's making is, you can't move on to perfection unless you know who Jesus Christ is. I don't mean to know about him. You know who he is, and you understand these basic doctrines.

You have to know them to go on.

And that's why every once in a while we have to go back and make sure there's not cracks in the foundation. We have to go back through these basic doctrines. Now, we don't go through them all the time in great detail. Why? We should know them. You can't be sanctified unless you're in the Scripture.

It's how God talks to us. We have to know basics. We have to understand what builds off of them. Going on to perfection, I'll notice here, he doesn't say, know who Christ is, know these doctrines, and you've arrived. You are now perfect. He says, now you have the basis to move forward towards perfection. We're going to have to define, okay, what is the end goal here? You're now moving towards the goal. You lay this as the foundation of your life, and you can move towards the goal. So, what this means, by the way, complacent Christianity, it's moving forward. Complacent Christianity is simply moving backwards. I mean, all of us have times in life where we just sort of stall out for a while. Maybe we just get involved too much in the world, or we're overwhelmed with the problems of life, or too much involved in the job. We sort of stall out, but you can't stay there. Complacency is moving backward. The command is, go forward towards perfection. We're now into this transformation. We're now into the metamorphosis concept. But this is about the goal. This is about what do we morph into, okay? When does it arrive? Wouldn't it be nice to wake up tomorrow morning and say, wow, I'm perfect? It's not going to happen, right? It's not going to happen, right?

So we have to even know, how does the process end? 2 Corinthians 12.

Look at another place where derivative of this word is used.

Because this one is a really hard concept.

Paul is talking about this trial that he has. There's been all kinds of concepts of what it is.

Poor eyesight, malaria, epilepsy. There's been a lot of discussions. What is this exactly? We don't know. But he even says that Satan is using it to attack him. So verse 7, lest I should be, Paul says, exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations. In other words, God's given me so much, he's going to keep me humble. Now that's a concept right there that's hard. You mean God's going to let this trial stay on me so I can stay humble? Now this is the conclusion he had come to. A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Whatever this is, he said, Satan uses this to discourage me. He uses this to try to get me to give up. He uses this to bring me against God, to turn me against God. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might be departed from me. Now we know this. We've often said, see this shows that sometimes God doesn't heal you immediately with something. There's some trials he doesn't take away, but there's something Paul says here that is very uncomfortable, at least to me, and yet we have to understand it. And he said to me, my grace, my favor, what I've given you, God says, is enough. I have called you. I have called you to salvation. I have justified you. I am sanctifying you. I am transforming you. He said that's enough. For, now listen to this, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. God says you want to know what perfection is. You only find my perfection in your weakness. You only understand, and we begin to understand what Mr. Parriman was talking about a few minutes ago. We only really get to understand how great God is and get beyond our own concepts of how spiritual and great we are in our weaknesses. And in those weaknesses, we can see the strength of God. He's perfected. We get to see His end goal.

I don't know. That's a hard one for me because I don't like suffering.

But only sometimes in our weaknesses.

I'd like to be able to run again like I did when I was 30.

And I, you know, that would be a miracle that everybody would be amazed at, right? We'd probably have dozens of baptisms and hundreds of people in the church if I could go run again.

But you know, I can't.

In this life, I won't. But that's weakness.

And God's strength is, you don't need to run, son. Do what I want you to do.

For my strength, God says, is made perfect. In what weakness? His weakness He has none. It's in our weaknesses that we find the perfection of God. He says, therefore, most gladly, this is hard too, I would rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. He says, I'm learning to be comfortable with my weaknesses. See, he was an older man at this point. He had been beat up, stoned. That man must have been a physical mess in so many different ways.

And he says, yeah, I understand. But he says, I boasted that. I boasted my weakness because here you can see God. Therefore, I take pleasure in firmities and reproaches in needs and persecutions. It distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Do you realize the depth of that? Do you realize the depth of what he just said? Because you and I are always in distresses, right? You and I are always in needs. Not too much persecution, but sooner or later it comes. In everybody's life, some persecution comes sooner or later.

In reproaches, in infirmities, physical illnesses and physical problems, he says, in all these things, he says, that's what I'm strong because God helps me through it. Because God does something in my life I can't do myself. That concept of perfection, God is perfect. God is making us perfect. Therefore, it is in our weakness that we are learning perfection because we're learning Him.

There's a whole lot easier things to preach than that.

But it's the truth. It's concrete. It's basic to what we must do, what we must become.

You see, we talked about how last time we talked or gave the sermon last week, how God, you know, He has to supply through the Holy Spirit the understanding. He does the calling. He opens our minds. He has to supply the ability, the knowledge, the power. All has to come from Him.

But the process in us isn't easy and that's what we submit to. And it's in the difficulties that many times as people turn against us, family members, different things happen because we follow the truth. As those things happen, we find the strength of God. We find His perfectness.

Now, let's go to Hebrews 2. Look at where this word is used in another place.

Hebrews chapter 2. Because this is a passage that is misunderstood many times.

Let's start in verse 9 so we can see the, what he's going to add, the sort of the context here. He says, But we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God might take death for everyone. And then here's this next statement, which is, there's all kinds of attempts to interpret this.

For it was fitting for Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation, Christ, perfect through sufferings. And I've heard and read where, well, Jesus must have had some moral imperfection because He had to be made perfect. So one of the reasons Jesus came was to be made perfect. So what was His problem? Because also here in Hebrews, it says, He learned obedience. See, He had to learn something. He had to learn obedience.

The word perfect doesn't always mean moral. It means an end goal. You have to look at the context to see what the end goal is. Jesus did have to learn something to be perfected. You know what it was? How can you be the Passover sacrifice unless you're sacrificed?

He became the perfect sacrifice. He had to learn death. He never died before. He had to learn suffering to fulfill His end goal. All through the Old Testament, there are prophecies about this Messiah, and He's going to be a lot of things. One, He's going to be a sacrifice for humanity.

He had to do that. He had to show this is what a perfect sacrifice is, which means He had to do it, understand. That's how He was perfected. He wasn't perfected morally. He wasn't perfected mentally. He wasn't perfected spiritually. He was perfected as a sacrifice. It says that He had to be like His brethren. Now, there's only one way He could be like us. He had to become like one of us.

So He was perfected as one of us. He came as a human being. I just can't imagine that. To give up, to lay aside, it says in Philippians, what He was to be this.

Well, if He's going to be a brother, He's got to be perfected to be a brother by becoming a brother.

How about the firstborn from the dead? It talks about how He became the firstborn of the dead. There's only one way you could do that. You have to die and be resurrected. That's how He is perfected. He wasn't perfected in character. He wasn't perfected in personality. He wasn't perfected in His... because He was perfect in that way. He became the perfect brother. He became the perfect sacrifice. He became the perfect firstborn from the dead.

Look at what it says here. Just give me another verse 14.

It is much then, as the children were back to basics, have... were taken to flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy Him who had the power of death that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage. For indeed, He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham, to human beings, those called by God. Therefore, in all things, He had to be made... this is how He's perfected, not because there was some imperfection in Him... to be this, He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that, He Himself has suffered being tempted, is able to aid those who are tempted. You can't ever go to God and say, you don't know what it's like to struggle with temptation. And Christ is there, and He's right hand saying, oh yeah, I do. That's how He was perfected. He was perfected by experiencing this for us. He became the perfect high priest. See, if you go through the book of Hebrews, it becomes obvious how He was perfected. He became the perfect sacrifice. He became the perfect high priest by showing us this is how you do it. He became the perfect family member who died and was resurrected to show us how it works. That's amazing. That is amazing to decide to become like us, to show us perfection, to become perfected by experiencing something, by sharing it with us.

I mean, showing how it's supposed to be done. So, no, Jesus never had a moral deficiency.

That's not the issue. But to be all those things, He had to do all those things. He had to carry them out to perfection, and He did it for us.

So you start to see perfection. Even He had to come and be perfected, but not morally, but to carry. Okay, I got to die to be the sacrifice. And He did it perfectly. He did it perfectly.

Hebrews 10 verse 1. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, He's talking here about especially the Day of Atonement, the sacrifices all year long, but He was specifically zeroing in on the Day of Atonement, these sacrifices which they offered continually year by year, make those who approach perfect, that there was no way for the human beings to reach perfection through the Levitical priesthood.

They could only be justified. When they sacrificed an animal for their sins, God said, you can approach me. They're justified, but they're not sanctified. They're not being transformed. It's why they failed. It's why they failed, because they could not be made perfect. Sanctification has to do with God's perfecting us to become His children. That's what sanctification is, and that's why tomorrow is so important, because you and I can't do that on our own.

Let's get down to verse 11.

Every high priest, we just showed how he became the perfect high priest by doing what? Well, the high priest has to do a sacrifice. So it says he sacrificed himself. Now that's the perfect high priest. He sacrificed himself for humanity. There's the perfect high priest. He was perfected. He perfected the office. He perfected what he had to do. And every high priest stands ministering daily, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins they can only do. See, the faith that God accepts me into a relationship because of this sacrifice, okay, God will now let you talk to Him. He'll let you pray to Him. But there's no perfection in it in the inner person. It doesn't happen.

But this man, he says of Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. From that time, waiting till his enemies are made, his footstool.

For by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. You understand? The old system could lead you to justification. It can't lead you to perfection because you can't be changed in the person because God's Spirit was important.

So he's perfecting those who are being sanctified.

But the Holy Spirit also witnessed to us for after he said, now, okay, let's... he says, now let's explain a little bit how the Old Testament, to the right of Hebrews says, Paul, that let's explain a little bit how the Old Testament told us this was going to be done.

This is the covenant which I will make with them. Remember, God made a covenant with Abraham after he was justified, and then he was circumcised, became part of the covenant, and then God's Spirit was in him. It wasn't just with him. It was in him.

This is the covenant I will make with them after those days says, the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts and in their minds I will write them. And he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now there is a remission of sin. There's no longer an offering for sin.

So we know there was going to be a new covenant.

Now that's a whole other subject, okay? But there's a new covenant in which God literally dwells in people. That doesn't mean we're God, okay? That means His Spirit comes into us. We keep overthinking this. We keep trying to be perfect when we can't.

When, as Mr. Perriman said, it's getting up every day and saying, God, help me do it right today. And when you fall, you ask Him to pick you up. You're going on to perfection. He's not going to give up on us. We give up on Him. Understand.

Because God doesn't have to give up on us. He has all power. He can do it. The question is, is whether we'll go along with it. That's the question. He has no doubt that He can bring everyone in this room to perfection. He can do it. So He doesn't, oh, no, today, I don't know if I can help so and so. I don't think I have the power to help them.

But see, we actually believe that. Oh, God can't help me. He never has that doubt.

The issue is us. Will we, as Paul said, he's perfected in my weakness. Or we keep trying to perfect ourselves. Look what I did. Look what I did. Look what I do. You don't do it. You don't do that. I'm better. I'm better. I'm more perfect. And God says, no, you're not. Or you wouldn't be saying that.

But He doesn't doubt His abilities. He doesn't doubt His strength. He can bring the worst person to conversion if they repent. He can. I mean, He's doing it in us.

He can do it in anybody. He's doing it in us. So sanctification is produced by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It's produced then by a covenant we make with God.

Just like Abraham went from justification to sanctification when he was circumcised, but he was justified before. You and I are justified before, but the sanctification really takes hold when God's Spirit goes from influencing us to being in us, which is baptism and leg on of hands. And now we have the covenant. We're in the covenant.

At what point is this process perfected? What is it perfected? How is it perfected?

Philippians 3.

Philippians 3.

See, we could just go through scripture after scripture where salvation is talked about, sanctification, justification, transformation, perfection. These words have deep, important meanings that we can take for granted without contemplation, without consideration, without thought, without meditation on it. Philippians 3.8.

That's not right because it's Ephesians. Philippians 3 verse 8.

He rubbed the cross and said, He said, Yes, indeed. I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. He said, When you get down to my life, Paul said, you know, he had a lot of good things in life. Paul wasn't a depressed man. He always rises up. Even when you don't talk about distress, you talk about being oppressed, you talk about being persecuted. But he always rises up. And he says, that's because God does it. He says, therefore, I'll take everything else in my life and it's immaterial to what God is doing. He says, And be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.

That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. That is so complex. I can spend 30 minutes trying to get through that one verse. That is so complex. But he's explaining his personal relationship with doctrine, with truth. This is his personal relationship that leads him into this relationship with Christ. For if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, not that I have already attained.

He sees himself, his whole life is geared towards the resurrection of the dead. But he says, you know, I haven't died yet. I haven't attained that moment yet. Not that I have already attained, or I'm already perfected. And some translations will translate this mature because, once again, it's the process of being perfected. He says, I'm not done. God's not done with me. I'm not through the process yet. But I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Jesus Christ has also laid hold of me. He says, but I know what God has done. And I know Christ has a hold of me and won't let go of me unless I push him away. He's not going to let go of me. And he said, because of that, I keep pressing forward. Christianity is pressing forward.

It can't be complacent. It can't be. As I always say, it's not a spectator sport.

It just isn't. You're in the, you're in the ring. You're in the arena here. It can never be complacent. So he says, I haven't attained it, obtained it yet, or attained it.

Now you know what's really interesting? Did Abraham and Sarah attain it? Moses. Surely Mary, the mother of Jesus, attained it. Surely Peter and John, they attained it, right? Do you realize Paul hasn't attained it yet? What do you mean? Hebrews. We're going to come back here to Philippians and conclude there. But let's go to Hebrews.

Chapter 11, the faith chapter, listing all these great people, men and women of the Old Testament, who were used by God, who followed God, who had faith in God, and all the things they did and all the things they suffered. And here's how he ends this passage.

Verse 39, and all these, having attained a good testimony through faith, all these people are true people of God, did not receive the promise. Verse 40, God having provided something better for us that they should not be made perfect apart from us. Abraham wasn't perfected yet because Christ hadn't died for his sins. He accepted God's forgiveness, but the process had to go on. Jesus had to fulfill all these things to be perfected as the high priest, perfected as the Passover sacrifice. He had to do all those things. He said he would. They're all predicted in the Old Testament, and then he came and he did them. He fulfilled the end goal. But you know, that's not the end of the goal. The end of the goal is the resurrection of those who are going on to perfection, and nobody's perfected until then.

And what Paul says here is that all those people aren't in heaven. They're not in heaven because they haven't been perfected. All those people are waiting for us. They're asleep. They don't know. They fell asleep. They wake up in the resurrection, but they're actually going to, you know, this time period. I mean, Abraham's going to say, well, wow, how long was I dead?

Over 3,000 years.

Because he was waiting for what? For all the people that God's working with now to be prepared to be perfected. If you get up today and say, I'm going to be perfect today, you will fail unless you die and wake up in the resurrection. You can't be perfect today.

You can be going on to perfection today. We can be humbled in our weaknesses.

We can constantly go to God and say, I messed up. I need to move forward. I have to press on. I can't always stay where I am. And if you don't take away some of my distresses and my infirmities, you must give me the strength. You must be perfect. See, we have to believe in the perfection of God.

Which a lot of times we don't. We doubt Him. Every human being doubts God at some point.

The Bible's full of people that doubted God. Every one of them.

Every one of them. You find they doubted God at some point.

And God says, no, no, no, no. You have to let me do my work because I'm the end goal here.

I'm the one that started this. I'm the one that ends this. And so you are being perfected for Him. You are being perfected for God.

Because He wants children. This is why the process is going on.

See, we don't take this as important as He does.

He calls us to be perfected for Him.

You know, there's little children here. There's babies here.

Tim and McKenzie aren't here because they're the ones that are not quite big enough yet. But when they come, what's going to happen?

Oh, look at our baby! We're all going to run over and make faces and smile and do all the weird things we do. We just all turn into weirds when we see a baby, right?

Because, well, they're going to say, this is our baby. We made this baby.

Who was at the Stevens in the parenting class when they had their little baby.

They held it up to the camera and said, look what we made.

You know what that's God? No, I'm making you for me, God says. Look what I make. Look what I do.

This is the basis. We forget this. We're lost out there. We don't realize. We're like we're just stumbling around in the dark.

Let's conclude by going back to Philippians.

I mean, I just find that amazing.

That Mary and Moses, you think about it, they haven't, they're not perfect. They haven't been perfected. They haven't reached their end goal yet. The reason they haven't reached their end goal yet is because God says, no, no, no.

The people I call for that first resurrection, all are perfected at the same time.

Well perfected at the same time.

Let's go back to Philippians 3.

Let's go back to verse 12 again.

Not that I've already attained or I'm already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

Therefore, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do, he says, I know that I'm not perfected yet. I know I'm going on to perfection. I know that his whole life is about learning and being prepared to be perfected.

But one thing I do, there's something inspirational and there's something to aspire to. You know, I think, you know, we have four and five generations of people in the church.

And in doing so, it's easy for each generation to lose its aspirations. What am I doing here? And we scatter those aspirations in so many different things, we forget the one great thing that makes it worth getting out of bed in the morning.

The one great thing that can inspire you and drive you to obtain. And that is the Almighty God and his Son Jesus Christ are involved in your life. And there is a goal. There is a perfection, a teleos. There's a teleos for you. The God is established.

And every day, that's what we're headed towards, no matter what other things happen.

And he says, I haven't apprehended it yet, but this is what I do because of it.

Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I don't care what God doesn't care what your past is. I don't care. I don't tell me your past.

God, well, this is relevant and you need to want some accounting, but I mean, you know, God doesn't care about your past because he's already what? Called you for salvation, justified you. He's the process of sanctifying you and preparing you for your teleos. So you know what? He says, get rid of that. And Paul says, I had to. Can you imagine going around every day knowing I killed people in this congregation? I put that man's grandmother in jail, I mean, in prison, and she died from pneumonia in prison. Can you imagine what it's like to live by that? With that? He'd look at himself. I am. I am the most despicable man on earth.

He says, but I have to let go of that. I have to move on because that's not who I am anymore. I have to let go of it. I press forward. See, reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. It's interesting. He says, prize. Like I'm reaching for something so great. That's teleos. It's to be perfected. It's to be perfected. Therefore, let us, as many are mature, having this mind in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal this to you.

He's mature. He didn't say he's perfect yet. And he says, if you're not mature, God's going to have to show you. Just let God work with you. Nevertheless, to the decree that we have already attained. No, there's we're already partly perfect. We're already partly there. We're already growing. You've already changed. You've already, God's done all these things. He says, so hold on to what you've attained. Let us walk by the same rule and let us be of the same mind. I find it interesting that at the end, he's admonishing the church at Philippi. He says, because you're all being made perfect, hang together. Stay together.

Because nobody's perfect in the group.

Stay together because it's God that's doing the work. If we are understanding God's work in us and God's work in each other, we're going to hang together. Because that's what we see. We don't see perfection. We seek it, though. We're never complacent. We seek it.

But we understand what God is doing. So that gives us a definition of another word.

So next, well tomorrow, in the afternoon service, I'm going to be going through how all these things now fit together to bring sanctification into a practical terms that we can talk about and think about every day. So I hope all of you—this is great to have a double-sab of service, so—or double-sab of service back-to-back. So I hope all of you have a very wonderful, safe, and spiritually uplifting Passover season—a Passover. I'm already next year. Pentacosties.