Perfection   (30:02)

II Corinthians 7:1.  Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Psalm 18:30, 32.  As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.

I John 2:5.  But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

Revelation 3:2.  Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.

Hebrews 12:12.  Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.

“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved.”  We often contemplate the commands of God, but we ought to contemplate His promises.  God has promised to walk among us this morning.  “Oh?”  And that’s why He says, “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves.”  If God is here, that ought to create first of all a spirit of worship and of attention.  But that word, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.  Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved.”

If a prince proposes marriage to a poor girl, she naturally will want to be ready for him and for marriage and for dwelling with him.  Well, that’s about the size of it.  God has promised to walk with us, to be our God, to dwell within us.  “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved… perfecting holiness.” 

I thought of that word “perfecting” when we sang that song, “More Love to Thee, O Christ.”  We can sing that for a million years and get nothing out of it unless we realize that the love of God is perfect, and God wants to perfect His love in us.  “As for God, His way is perfect,” and “It is God that maketh my way perfect.”  Now, if I had to make my way perfect, I might struggle and fuss and fume and labor, and never accomplish it.  But “It is God that maketh my way perfect.”

I suppose we’ve all discovered that that’s what God’s after in these meetings, in fact, in all the meetings in all the world.

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He says, “I have not found your works perfect before God.”   That’s an awful indictment which we ought to take to heart, because “God maketh my way perfect.”  And when we sang that song, there came before me a sight of what a sinner I am if I don’t strive to be filled with that love that God calls “perfect love.”  He talks about saints who have “not been made perfect in love.”  What is perfect love?  Well, we have a marvelous description of it in I Corinthians 13.

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You can be “made perfect in love” if you want to.  That’s what’s the matter: we don’t care; we don’t want to be made perfect in love.  But, oh, the call of God to be made perfect in His love!  It superceeds all the giftedness, and all the power.  Power to raise the dead, God says, means nothing if I don’t have love.  Beloved, I can be made perfect in love, in this life, upon earth!

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Beloved, it’s possible to be “made perfect in love.”  Why not?  Well, it would require some real homework—it would.  It would require a careful walk with God.  “He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”  “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ,” our Lord.  And when I see my great imperfection, I ought to do like Abraham: give glory to God, and take that promise to my heart, and walk out on that promise of God—like Abraham did.  “He went out, not knowing whither he went,” but he obeyed God and he went where God led him. And when God led him to the Mount Moriah to sacrifice his son, he didn’t question the wisdom of God.  He knew that “If I don’t follow God here, I’ll never be perfect.”

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I have trouble sometimes when I pray, especially at night, that sleepiness wants to overtake me.  You know, there’s a way to overcome that.  You can walk up and down, stick your head in a pail of cold water—any old thing.  I remember Bro. Durham, a very wonderful Pentecostal preacher in the days when they would fast and pray for weeks on end.  He’d say, “Shake yourself physically!  Wake yourself up!”  “Lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees.”

I found out that when I was working in my shop that I couldn’t do God’s will perfectly without taking off every once in a while.  I lost a lot of wages that way, but I never considered that.  I asked the boss for a day off that I might spent a whole day calling on the Lord.  Do you think that I lost anything?  I gained the Kingdom.

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Have you noticed it?  Have you discovered how He has spoken to us about His love, His joy, His peace.  And you still have a dump once in a while, or if not a dump, a little dumpling, and you’re still sensitive, and you’re still jealous.  We don’t know what’s the matter with us.  God has to tempt and try us—test us.

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We never find out what’s in us until we’re tested.  As long as the revival’s on, we can all shout and sing and act like top-notch saints.  But, oh, these tests!  “Prosperity shall slay the fool.”  My God, how do I stand up in the hour of testing? 

“Love suffereth long and is kind.”  This morning, we’re all “kind,” but how when you’re tested, when some real mean thing happens to you—still “suffers long,” still “is kind”?  What brand love do I have in my heart?  What love, what kind of love controls my thinking?  “Love thinketh no evil.”  O God, I thank You because I shall be partaker of Your holiness if I bow to Your discipline. 

“I have not found your works perfect before my God.”  Oh, in the revival, yes, I find them perfect.  But what does David say?  “Thou hast visited me in the night”—when no one is looking, when no one can control my actions, when no one can censor my thoughts.  O Jesus, is that the holiness You desire?  David was not a man after God’s own heart until he had gone through that deep cleansing, when he had cried, “O God, Thou desirest truth in the inward part, and in the hidden part shalt Thou make me to know wisdom.”  Oh, I’m so thankful that my heavenly Father loves me so deeply that he wants me to become like Himself by accepting His holiness.

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My, what a fuss we make when we’re a little bit sick!  And, “Why doesn’t the Lord heal us?”  Well, maybe your soul is sick.  That’s what was the matter with Asa, but “he sought not to the Lord.”  If he had sought to the Lord, God would have perfected him.

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And yet He’s not ashamed to call us “brethren,” and to lead us unto glory, and to walk among us, and to dwell within us, and to perfect us—make us “perfect in every good work to do His will, working in us that which is wellpleasing in His sight.”  Don’t you think we’re awfully slow about it?  Yes, we are; we admit it.  But wouldn’t it be wonderful to quit admitting it and get up, “lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet.”  It can be done.  Let’s go on a “diet.”  Let us “keep under this body, and bring it into subjection.”

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He tells us to exercise ourselves “rather unto godliness.”  Listen, do you have time for anything else?

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Praying “without ceasing” means that I am subject to my God who works in me “to will and to do of His good pleasure.”  And there’s nothing in the world that I have to do but His will.  And when I do His will, I have God with me, and God working in me.  Oh, my God is a great God and a wonderful God.  And I’m so thankful for one thing: that he sent the Holy Ghost, which is God Himself, and He’s with me, and He’s within me, and He guides me into all truth, and He supplies “everything that pertains to life and to godliness” if I want Him to.  But I don’t dare live anyplace else but in the Spirit.  “If ye live in the Spirit, ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.”  There is an impossibility.  You cannot be in light and be in darkness at the same time.  You can’t.

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God doesn’t look at the exterior; He looks at the heart, and God works His wonders.  And every one of our hearts is capable of being “made perfect in love.”… Every one of our hearts is capable of being the kingdom of heaven, with the great, dazzling King of glory exercising and exerting the unspeakable greatness of His holiness and the unsearchable riches of His grace.  “My heart”—my heart—“shall be Thy throne.”  Don’t talk to me about anything else!

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An illustration of failed dieting.  “They want everybody to know how they ‘labor to enter into rest,’ and they always get fatter….  I found out that if you really want to diet, you can….  You can be ‘made perfect in love’ if you want to.”    (from 4:19)

Would a beggar on a dunghill demur when offered a place in the palace?  “Oh, deny yourself also.  Hate your own life also.”    (from 28:27)

More Love to Thee, O Christ, a hymn by Elizabeth P. Prentiss, 1856.

Living for Jesus, a hymn by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1917.

O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee,
For Thou, in Thy atonement, didst give Thyself for me.
I own no other master, my heart shall be Thy throne.
My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ, for Thee alone

Date: “How He has labored these 36 years to make our way perfect.”  That may place this recording around 1961. “President Kennedy…”  That would be sometime from January 20, 1961 to November 22, 1963.

Audio Quality: Mixed