Step by Step to Perfection - Zac Poonen - September 22, 2019

[Music] I want to read a verse in Hebrews in Chapter six leaving work Hebrews six verse one leaving the elementary teaching of Christ or the word of the beginning of Christ let us press on to perfection the entire Christian life is to be a pressing on to perfection so we must not confuse health with growth the little baby can be 100 percent healthy yet but it is immature he does not understand much growth comes slowly we can have a healthy tongue but yet we may not have grown spiritually it takes time the entire Christian life is birth to perfection let's turn to proverbs chapter 4 proverbs chapter 4 verse 18 I told you that proverbs is one of those books which has got a lot of New Covenant truths in it in the Old Testament it's one of the closest to New Covenant truths for example it speaks a lot about the use of the tongue in Proverbs sometimes you take time to read proverbs I read proverbs and many times I find it's a very profitable book to read especially young people I would encourage every young person to read there are people who say read one chapter a day in one month you cover proverbs and read it again and again proverbs 4:18 the part of the righteous who is the righteous the righteous person is the person who is born again the person who received Christ into his life declared righteous by God he does not suddenly become perfect very important to understand that it's a part it's a way jesus said there's a narrow gate and a narrow way that leads to life it's not just the gate and because so many people emphasize the gate we try to emphasize the way not that we ignore the gate but if everybody's talking about the gate let's talk about the way there's a narrow gate and a narrow way that leads to life I've often pictured my own ministry like this jesus said going to all the world and preach the gospel to all creatures he also said make disciples and Matthew 28 teach those disciples to do every single thing that I commanded Matthew 28 verse 20 and I'll be with you always I've taken that promise very strongly to myself I have been called according to Matthew 28 verse 20 to teach disciples every single thing that Jesus commanded and if I do that Jesus says he'll be with me always he'll always be with my tongue to speak if I am determined to do what's commanded in that verse not me you as well but how many Christians are there who believe that we must do everything Jesus commanded and Jesus commanded some very strong things like we read yes the earlier in this session he talked about overcoming telling lies and overcoming anger and so many things but it's a part in the part of the righteous person proverbs 4:18 is the like tip like the light of dawn like sunrise that this makes the day brighter brighter brighter brighter brighter until the Sun comes to the noonday position that is the full day so being born again is like sunrise do you become perfect overnight no the full day is when Christ comes back and when Christ comes back to earth we read in 1 John chapter 3 verse 3 verse 2 rather we will become like him when he comes back what does it mean to be perfect to be perfect means to become completely like Christ that is God's goal for us but that will not happen until he comes again but that does not mean we should be at the sunrise position all our life no it's a path the path of the righteous begins with sunrise and becomes brighter brighter brighter brighter brighter until we become like Christ completely one day so many people confuse I'm born again that's it no it's not snotted from there we had to press on to perfection as he read in Hebrews 6:1 let us not just stay there all the time let's not just be babies all the time I mean many of us have got babies do you want your baby to remain a baby all the time you want your baby to be healthy but is that enough oh my baby is healthy my baby's healthy it's not growing but it's healthy you're not happy with that it must be healthy and it must grow so to be healthy is to be free from conscious sin that means the sin I'm aware of I confess and ask the Lord to forgive me and cleanse me and if I keep doing that I will gradually press on to perfection become a little more like Christ year by year by year by year till one day I become like him turn with me to 1 John chapter 3 and verse 2 beloved one John first John chapter 3 verse 2 we are children of God we are born again he become children of God but it has not yet appeared what we will be what we will be is perfect in Christ exactly like Jesus Christ and the way I speak the way I think the way I look at people the way my attitude to everything in the world is exactly like Christ that is when he comes again but what how do I get there is it just by waiting saying one day he'll do it no we will be like him when he appears it says here we know that when he appears we'll be like him but until then what shall I do what did we read in proverbs 4:18 like the Sun rises in the sky more and more perfect it says in verse 3 if you really have this hope of Christ's coming in fixed on you you will keep on purifying yourself to which standard of purity to his standard of purity it's an amazing verse the mark of a true disciple of Jesus it's not that he's become like Christ no Paul said at the end of his life his are not perfect now surely another thing that I've discovered in sixty years of being a Christian and in the last 44 years of being a more serious wholehearted Christian that the more the closer you come to God the more you grow in the Christian life you know what the more filth you see in yourself not the type of Filth you think of in the early days of anger and sexual lust and bitterness and murmuring all that is gone but you know very subtle things like an inner judgment of somebody which you should not have judged mostly inner things wrong attitudes wrong motives it's the finer things of the Christian life which become more and you become more and more sensitive to and you repent of that and like that you press on to perfection so that's like we sang in that song just now lord help me judge myself each day if I do that I press on to perfection so we can picture it like this our flesh is like a big black circle in the midst of that one day I am born again Christ comes in really born again a little white circle think of a five-o to draw a diagram here of a big black circle the unconverted person and in the midst of that circle Christ comes in and he's born again one little white circle is coming into the middle of that black the rest of the circle is still black but this person is a wholehearted Christian and he wants to become like Christ he knows that'll take a lifetime and so God allows them to be tempted it's through overcoming temptation that we become like Christ and so even Jesus was tempted so we are tempted and if you look around this white circle and the edges of that white circle a battle is going on think of a little wavy line on the edge of that circle battle battle battle I'm battling with some particular temptations and over a period of time I overcome them my circle white circle becomes a little bigger and then around the rim of that circle again another battle is going on with some new temptations and I battle battle battle battle over a period of time I overcome that the white circle becomes a little bigger I become a little more like Christ it's still a way distance to become totally like him but God allows me to be tempted area by area by area and gradually like it says here I purify myself just as he is pure it's my responsibility I can't say Lord Jesus make me pure it says he purifies himself you remember Jesus had take my yoke upon you and learn from me that is spiritual growth so it's a picture of Jesus used pictures that everybody can understand for example he spoke about the vine and the branches and when he spoke about take my yoke upon you it is a very common picture that everybody in Israel could see all farmers would have two bullocks two oxen with a yoke upon them plowing a furrow together it was never one oxen alone always two I mean those in the villages of India see that regularly two oxen with the yoke on top of them and think if now one oxen has died and now the senior experienced ox has to teach a new ox how to plow a straight furrow in the in the field and that's a picture of Jesus teaching me how to overcome sin and so he says take my yoke upon you he's the senior ox and I'm the junior one and I tend to slow down I tend to go wayward and he says no no no stay under the yoke keep pace with me don't rush your head don't lag behind don't wander off here and there submit to my yoke look at me see how I do it and you'll do it that is what Jesus meant when he said take my yoke upon you and learn from me learn from me the senior ox how to plow a straight furrow you've been plowing all crooked all your life now little by little you won't become perfect overnight but a day will come when you'll be absolutely straight if you learn from me so the question is not is your life absolutely straight now is it straighter than it was last year then you are progressing or to use an illustration of an education that's also used in Scripture Hebrews chapter 5 pressing on to perfection can be learning to plow a straight furrow or the Sun making the day brighter and brighter or like it says in Hebrews and chapter 5 and think of this word verse eight although he was a son referring to Jesus he learned obedience from the things he suffered you say did the son of God have to learn something here on this earth which he did not know in heaven the answer is yes as God how could he learn obedience who did he have to obey nobody then many things God knew in heaven he knows everything but there's one thing God could never learn obedience the Angels could learn obedience man could learn obedience but God he doesn't obey anybody he had to come to earth and become a man and then learn to obey his father then learn to keep the commandments and where did he learn it in the school of temptation temptation is where you learn obedience and when you are tempted you discover whether you learn - whether they have learned to obey or not it's like when a student is studying in a school and then finally at the end of the year the teacher gives an examination then you discover whether the student has learnt anything or not examination time tests what you learnt in the year in the same way temptation tests whether we are growing so for example a student in first grade the first grade student doing mathematics does not know trigonometry and algebra and calculus and all doesn't know anything it knows addition subtraction maybe it doesn't even know division maybe that's in great - I don't remember now but it's something like that but you start with addition and subtraction and then how does a student learn addition and subtraction by making mistakes two plus two is four but what is two plus twenty-four Oh that make mistakes finally you learn to plus 24 26 so student learns through mistakes but finally at the end of the year the student gets 100 percent in mathematics does that mean he's understood everything in mathematics no but at his level he got 100 percent what addition in subtraction that's all you give him a division sum he gets zero he doesn't know how to do it this is growth year by year by year pressing onto perfection and says your Jesus also from the time he was a little child he was tempted in all points as we are we read that in Hebrews 4:15 the previous page he was tempted in everything as we are exactly like us and in that temptation was the way he was tested and he learned obedience as God in heaven he could not be tempted he could not learn obedience but here it says he learned obedience by suffering what is that suffering mean not physical suffering that is he had only for the last 24 hours of his life I never read that in all those thirty three and a half years anybody beat him or whipped him or hammered him no he never experienced any physical whipping or weeding for thirty three and a half years but in the last 24 years hours of his life he suffered a lot physically but this is not bad this is the other suffering where when you're your temptation your flesh tells you to do what you want to do and God says don't do that do what I want you to do and the Bible says in John 6:38 jesus said I came from heaven never to do my own will but the will of my father so Jesus had something in him not sin he had no sin in him but he had something called my will and he denied it you see in the Garden of Gethsemane he how he struggled but he said no I will never do my will I will never do my will I will do the Father's will that is overcoming temptation in a situation where you know what God wants you to do in a provocation when somebody provokes you you know what how God wants you to react now it is a choice would you react like that or will you please yourself for example if somebody yells at me and calls me bad names and does all types of things my flesh my natural flesh tends to okay let me relieve myself by giving him a piece of my mind telling you what I think of him but if I say no I have to suffer I have to suffer by putting my natural desire to tell him what I think of him to death that is the suffering spoken of here I want to do something God wants me to do something else I put my flesh to death that is a suffering it's an inward suffering that Jesus went through all through his life it's called suffering in the flesh inwardly because of that he never sinned that was that's what it means when he says he learned obedience and like that at the end of his life when he cried out on the cross it is finished what was finished first of all our sins were finished there are many things that were finished my old man was finished the devil's power was finished but one more thing was finished every temptation had been overcome in those thirty three and a half years every temptation that any human being can ever face was overcome in 33 hours it was finished that means he graduated from the school of obedience and that's what it says in the next verse having been made perfect means he completed his education so if I were to paraphrase verse eight and nine it's like this when he was God there's one thing he could not learn that's obedience he could not be tempted then he cannot be an example for us if he came here as God he would be no example for me he could not say follow me and say I can't follow you it's like an angel coming from heaven with his wings and flying across a swimming pool and say follow me I say I can't follow you get rid of your wings first teach me how to swim and if Jesus said if Jesus had come as God he could not have been an example for me he was God but he took the form of a man who could be tempted to do his own will but he never did it always obeyed and thus he can say okay I've come here as a man now I'm tempted like you but I deny myself follow me take up the cross die to yourself follow me and if you do that year by year you'll become more and more perfect like Christ you'll be like going from first grade to second grade second grade to third grade that's what we need to examine ourselves now the the half-hearted worldly carnal Christian never bothers about that he only thinks I am born again it's like I entered school good you entered school but he's been sitting in the kindergarten for twenty-five years how many of you would like your children to sit in your kindergarten even for two years leave alone 25 years do you know the number of Christians who are sitting in the kindergarten for year after year out of 40 years they are sitting in the kindergarten and their boast is I joined school and born again is that why you'd send your children to school is that why God puts us in the school of temptation I want to ask you my brothers and sisters how far have you progressed in the school of obedience it says here that Jesus became perfect and let me paraphrase that means he completed his education verse 9 and now here's the paraphrase now he has become a professor in the same school that he's become a teacher in the same school to teach obedience to others who enter the school so that they can get eternal salvation that's verse 9 so Jesus is there now as a teacher and he's a teacher because he's gone through the whole thing himself he can teach us all the way from kindergarten to the highest class because he covered it all he said it is finished I've completed my education and so it's a wonderful this is the pressing down to perfection so what does a child do if he's studying mathematics and makes a mistake in a problem okay the teacher doesn't say okay you failed no we learned by making a mistake here's the correct way to do it and learns correct and the final examination that student still gets a hundred percent but he learns through making mistakes and that's exactly how we learn too as we seek to progress in the Christian life we slip and fall when we confess our sin now it's a lot to forgive us now if you argue with the teacher saying no no no no that's not a mistake then you remain in the kindergarten forever but if you are listening to the Holy Spirit when he says what you did was wrong and you listen to the teacher and say I'm sorry lord please forgive me he will cleanse you from all your sin so I told you that James was the first book of the New Testament to be written fifteen years after the Pentecost the letter of john first letter of John was probably the last letter written which is about 65 years after the day of Pentecost many people feel 1 John was the last book written we don't know he perhaps even after revelation anyway it was around the same time 1 John 2 John 3rd John and revelation so what does John say now people have read the book of James like you heard a little bit about this this morning and it's very easy to get discouraged when you read James oh if I can't control my tongue my Christianity's what zero no where am I and then John writes his letter saying but when John 1:9 if we confess our sins let's hope for you he's faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so where people got discouraged reading the book of James we come to John and says hey let's hope for me okay I slipped up with my tongue but I'm not lost I'm born again I'm pressing on I haven't finished my education yet I confess it that means to confess is to say the same thing that God says that's what confession is God says that was not the right way to speak like he told Moses Moses should have said yes Lord I'm sorry it's not the wages I should speak and when God tells you in some situation that is not the right way to speak to your wife that's not the right way to speak to your husband oh that's not the right way to speak to your child that's not the right way to speak in your office you agree with God he can be saved Lord I agree with you that is then I confess my sin or you can argue with God a lot of Christians do no no I'm right in what I said you're arguing with your own conscience you can convince that other guy I was right in what I said you're wrong what have you gained by convincing him your conscience is still shouting at you you're wrong you're wrong you're wrong listen to that voice of conscience don't try to justify yourself before people and say I was right you will never grow spiritually Jesus told the Pharisees this was one of their sins in Matthew sorry Luke chapter 16 Luke 16 and verse 15 Jesus told the Pharisees you people justify yourselves before men you want to prove to men that you never did anything wrong that's the way to damnation that's why you'll remain a brood of vipers till the end of your life you want some you discover something was wrong but you will not admit it no no I'm right you see particularly if you have built up a little reputation in a church that people think you're a little spiritual are you little holy then it becomes very difficult to admit that you were wrong that's when your test gets tested we must always be willing to be absolutely honest what does it mean to walk in the light the Bible says the blood of Jesus will cleanse me only if I walk in the light to walk in the light means just to be honest and I've seen through my life that sometimes the new born born-again believers are more willing to be honest then some people have been believers for 20-30 years those believers have been believers for 20-30 years they're sometimes very difficult for them to admit that they were wrong somewhere I've seen that it's pathetic when I see it I've seen that in CFC churches people are not willing to admit that they were wrong but a new born believer he immediately says yeah I'm wrong it's like and then you see I've seen those other believers they never grow I've seen with my own eyes the believers come up to a certain point and then they get a reputation in the churches holy people oh that's a holy sister that's a holy brother it was very very spiritual they're not like these other carnal ones in the same church and that holy brother sister becomes so proud I've seen that with my own eyes but he doesn't see themselves or she doesn't seat herself you know why because they're not broken they're not humbled they don't listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit they don't acknowledge I have not yet become like Christ there are a million areas in my life where I have to become like Christ let me humble myself and say I was wrong they don't have the grace to do that and I've seen people stagnate you know like a stagnant pool there's water there but it's a stagnant pool filth muck mosquitoes insects rubbish all types of frogs and other things growing there and stinking a stagnant pool that's how many Christians are but a Christians life should be like rivers the river is always fresh water and I tell you this my brothers and sisters please take me seriously there's only one way to remain like a fresh river and that is if you determined to press on to perfection if you keep saying to yourself I'm not perfect yet I will be perfect only when Christ comes but one thing I do I'll press on to perfection and I will never like Jesus said justify myself before men the moment I justify myself before men I'm a Pharisee let me take an example a husband and wife come into a little conflict and immediately one of them says no I am right what I'm doing right you're wrong huh the way to Pharisee ISM has started right there and they don't see it they claim to be born-again Christians you know very often I have spoken on this matter when a husband and wife have a tension between them who should take the first step to restore that relationship very important in the villages in India the standard rule is always the wife because the husband is the king he's forever the king he's never wrong and in heathen cultures that is the way the husband is never wrong so even if the husband slaps the wife the wife has to apologize for some stupid thing she did that is heathenism but what is the Christian answer for husband and wife have a conflict who should take the first step to restore that relationship as soon as possible to tell you let's take an example let's go to the next let's go to the dictionary what is the dictionary the life of God God had a problem with man who took the first step who God why did God take the first step because he was most spiritual so if a husband and wife have a conflict who should take the first step the one who is more spiritual and since both people think they are spiritual they should be also running into each others arms why isn't it like that because they are conceited they think the spiritual one is the one who will not apologize wrong the spiritual one is the one who apologizes first whose quick to acknowledge he's most sensitive to sin spirituality means more sensitive to sin when you become hardened to sin you don't feel it see try if you put a pin to your cheek you feel it you put a pin to the sole of your feet you don't feel it why is it because it's all I feel is so hard so the most sensitive you artisan you feel it immediately it's the mark of walking in the light is you're very quick to sense B to sense that you have sinned if the sense of having sinned is gradually disappearing in your life I want to say you're a backslider even if everybody thinks in the church that you are a wonderful Christian you're just fooling yourself and one day when Christ comes again you'll get the shock of your life you'll get the shock of your life he who has ears to hear let him hear she who has ears to hear let her hear that everybody thought he was so spiritual and Jesus exposes you for the proud person you were and the people who suffered because of you you could have been a blessing to so many people but you were not because of pride God gives us grace to the humble so I want to encourage you my brothers and sisters always be willing to consider the possibility that you were wrong and be quick to set it right quick to confess to God say Lord I was wrong I'm sorry forgive me I'll give you one example it's an example I use often sometimes we don't realize where we've done something wrong I was thinking of a young brother who used this years ago came to our CFC Church in Bangalore fine young brother we were very close to him and we encouraged him and helped him used to sleep in our home because he was young and he was good late for him to go back home he'd sleep there and I would even lend him my clothes he's get up in the morning and go to the kitchen make coffee himself and go to college and we helped him so much then he grew up and he got a good job and he went to another town and we never heard from him for years and I thought what an ungrateful guy that is after all that we did for him so many years we helped him he doesn't even bother to write as a letter telling us how things are going on and when I thought like that just thought I never said it to anybody the Lord said you are sinning i said 'my lord what did i do we helped him so much where is my sin and the Lord explained to me where my sin was and I got a light that day it's like I got a promotion to a higher class I learned something new and that was the Lord said when you did good to that person you did it as unto Him you should have done it as unto me because you know Jesus said if you do it to the least of these my brother's you've done it unto me you remember that word in Matthew 25 so the Lord showed me that when I served that person even if I served him for years in my house I was not serving him I was serving the Lord because this is one of the least of his brothers and I did it isn't it was under the Lord and the Lord said if you want thanks expect it from me not from him I learned something that day I must never expect thanks from people I serve because I'm not serving them I'm serving the Lord if you've done it to the least of these my brother's you've done it unto me I thank God for the light I got out of that but it took me many years to get that light because I have to grow to go to fourth grade fifth grade I can't learn in the kindergarten what I learn only in the fifth grade that's why it took me time to learn it but there are some people even after 25 years they don't learn it because they have no passion to press on to perfection they have a great desire that that children must get a good education and go higher and higher and higher but they themselves don't seem to have much of a desire to press on to perfection in their Christian life I thank God that God gave me that desire I can't even take credit for it but I see in the life of the Apostle Paul towards the end of his life Paul says in Philippians 3 he says brethren verse 12 I am not perfect he's absolutely honest I'm not perfect I'm not attained what does he mean I've not obtained I have not become like Christ that's my goal I have not obtained it yet I'm not perfect but I do one thing I've not graduated completely from high school but I'm pressing on because one day I lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me why did Christ lay hold of me not to make me a preacher no I don't believe that Christ laid hold of me to make me like himself and that's where all of us are equal if I say Christ later all of me to make me a preacher you can't be the email or you can't be a preacher because you didn't call you to be a preaching is a gift God gives it to very very few people a lot of people try to preach but very few people have the gift to bridge and if you don't have the gift it's you can't do it I might as well tell you life is like that it's like you're trying to go into heart surgery when you're never studied medicine you'll kill people and there are a lot of people who do that when they preach but if God gifts you then you can do it but that's not our calling our calling is not to become preachers our calling is to become like Christ and when Paul says I have not become perfect he's I've not become like Christ but I press on and he says further there is only one thing I do verse 13 what is that forgetting the classes I've already passed in and thinking of the classes I still have to pass in I want to complete my education I want to be an overcomer and new new areas so I have a saying here's this big black circle we're all there when we are unconverted we are born again a little white circle comes in and little by little we overcome overcome overcome the circle should become bigger and bigger and bigger and dear brothers sister in your family life your relationship with your wife and husband should be more and more heavenly as each year goes by more and more perfect not still perfect completely perfect yet but better than last year your wife should be able to say to you darling you're more christ-like than you were last year and your husband should be able to say that to you you're more christ-like than you were last year you're not perfect and I tell your husband and wife see very clearly that they each of them is not perfect each other but this is the wonderful thing in the Christian life to press on to perfection I want to say one last thing some people say brother sac you preach a high standard you discourage people some people go away from his church go to some other church okay let me ask you a question supposing somebody's sick in your house and you want to take them to a hospital will you say oh that hospitals too hygienic we don't want to go to such a hygienic Hospital let's go to a hospital where there a little bit of dirt in it which is not so hygienic will you decide that no why do you want to go to the most hygienic Hospital cause you hate germs when you want to go to a church which preaches a lower standard tell me something wrong with you is fear isn't spiritual health more important than physical health oh let's take the example was school you won't say oh I won't send my child to that school because they teach people so well all the children get good marks no no no I don't want them to go there let me send to an another school where everybody's failing maybe my child will come first in the class because all the others get 10% 15% my child get 25% and come first in the class is that the type of school you select for your kid I that's exactly what many Christians do they go to some church where everybody's getting 0 or 1 or 2% and they feel very proud I'm quite spiritual here are you crazy or what why is it we don't have the same philosophy when it comes to education and health I'll tell you why because we value education we value health but most Christians don't value spirituality I'm decided my life long ago to be spiritual is a million times more important to me than being healthy or being educated the same for my children I want my children not just to get an education on earth I want them to be spiritually minded and wholehearted and I decided that after they were grown up I decided that when they were one-year-old when I began to teach them not to tell lies to honor their father and mother to be obedient to be respectful to people and as they grew up to be faithful with money to respect the opposite sex who's going to teach them all that they don't come come out of the womb learning all that the parents have to teach them do you want it do you want perfection in your life and your family it's available I would say to you go to the church that preaches perfection wherever you find it and don't ever leave it that's the thing you will not regret it in the day of judgment because you will find in that day what the Lord has for you because you pressed on to perfection let's pray Heavenly Father we pray that we'll be gripped by these truths that can change our lives and give us an abundant entrance into your kingdom one day and we can see you one day face to face when you will turn around and say to us well done good and faithful servant that's what we long for help us each one in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: River of Life Christian Fellowship

Views: 42,857

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Keywords: sermon, rlcf, river, life, christian, fellowship, step, perfection, growing, spiritually, zac, poonen

Id: asSdUvgiqgY

Length: 43min 8sec (2588 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 23 2019