Okay we continue in our series, A More
Perfect You, The Pursuit of Perfection in Christ. This is lesson number three and
the title of this lesson is The Holy Spirit and Perfection. So in our
lesson so far we have discussed the two concepts of perfection and how
they are related to each other. This study is based on the
title A More Perfect You and I I explained the title refers to the two
types of perfection and how each of these affected our lives, just a little
review of that: first, conditional perfection referred to as
justification or salvation or righteousness or holiness the Bible refers to this
conditional perfection in a variety of ways. This is the state of perfection
given to us by God based on our faith in Christ, happens a baptism, it is a
perfection that is the same in quality as the perfection Christ attained
through perfect obedience and that's the point what we could not do physically
emotionally spiritually what we could not do attained perfection through
obedience to the Law Christ has done He's done that and He has offered that
perfect life for us in order to gain for us this conditional perfection. It is the
standard that we will be judged by, God in judgment will look at our
conditional perfection and accept us because of it and it's an awesome thing
to think that God is going to judge us according to a perfect law. Now it is the
status that enables us to approach God now with confidence in prayer and in
worship, it is the status that gives us the courage to try to serve and please
God with our puny efforts here by us wrapped in this
sinful flesh. The promise of God in Christ is that one day we will shed
our outer garment of imperfection and will actually be what we are only
considered to be at the moment, so that's conditional perfection. Actual
perfection, talk a little bit about that; now conditional perfection is a status
that we are given by God, a status that God sees when He views us, a status we
will be judged by, actual perfection is what we and others actually see in us.
Actual perfection is the status of perfection we actually achieve through
the help of Holy Spirit, through the help of God's Word, through the help of the
church in our own submission to these tutors and these enablers. Actual
perfection is the way of life that we choose to pursue when we become
Christians and receive that conditional perfection from God based on our faith
in Christ. So we are considered perfect this guarantees our salvation and our
hope of heaven, being this way however prompts us to pursue actual perfection
as a lifestyle. So it would be ridiculous and foolish if one receives baptism
receives conditional perfection and then goes back and pursues the imperfect
lifestyle that originally condemned that person that makes no sense. Now the
only option available to the one considered perfect by God is to pursue
actual perfection before men as a witness of faith and as an offering of
thanks to God. And so actual perfection is that state pursued by those already
considered perfect by God through faith. For a new Christian to do this would be
frustrating and or excuse me for a non-christian to do this would be
frustrating and hypocritical because you know perfection through human effort is
impossible but for the Christian the conditionally perfect one this is a
valid lifestyle choice because it affords
an opportunity to achieve two goals: first of all, the pursuit of actual
perfection is a powerful witness to those without Christ because it sets
Christians apart from all others it's a way of setting us apart from the world
of sinners and non-believers. And secondly, it's a wonderful instrument
of praise because the effort involved honors God and signifies how strongly
the Christian believes, I pursue actual perfection not to save myself I do that
in order to say to God I believe, in order to say to God I love you, in order
to say to God I want to serve you, that my faith is sincere and real. And
therein lies the differences and purposes of these two ideas.
So let's look now at how the Holy Spirit works in creating the state of
conditional and actual perfection. So this section the Holy Spirit and
perfection. When you watch certain programs certain religious television
especially religious television that involve big showcases and singing and
a kind of a show business type approach to worship what you're
seeing is a kind of perversion of the work of the Holy Spirit by
those who see it in human terms. For example Hollywood style
spectacles using lights and sensual music, manipulative staging, group hysteria
tactics, emotional appeals, all of this done to produce a spiritual experience
which they claim is proof that the Holy Spirit is working and present in their
ministries and their assemblies. People jumping up and down they're
getting all hot and sweaty and bothered and hallelujahs and so on and so forth
and they're saying you know because I'm having this experience it must mean
that the Holy Spirit is active and working all right. We in the Churches
of Christ are being affected by this because we want to have our churches
become exciting in worship, we want our people to feel something, we
want to prove that we have the Holy Spirit in some recognizable way. Well
there's nothing wrong with being excited or feeling something because of
our faith I mean there are legitimate spiritual desires that we have and these
are legitimate spiritual needs that we have. The problem arises when we try to
manufacture these experiences through human fleshly ways rather than through
spiritual biblical ways and that's my my point here. Much of the efforts
at changing worship styles in many of our churches stems from
the false notion that if we can create some kind of feeling at worship due to
the music or the presentation or the introduction of new elements like drama
or soloists or worship teams whatever then somehow we will be more spiritual
and thus more satisfied spiritually. With the true results of this approach to
heightened spirituality is twofold: first of all a sense of elitism, people
who manufacture spirituality in this way become like spiritual snobs, they begin
to see their value as Christians rise because they have a superior spiritual
level produced by their different worship styles, this of course leads to
division because anyone who doesn't use their approach is somehow spiritually
inferior. Now we see this happening in the Corinthian church for example I mean
I'm using a biblical example here where the brethren were not manufacturing
false spirituality but they were misusing legitimate
spiritual gifts. No matter whenever spirituality is false
or misused division ensues. We see this happening in our own
brotherhood today, where labels like progressive and traditional are being
attached to different churches, your church a traditional church are you a
progressive church? We never had that before, we never put labels on
ourselves like that before. When this happens it's only a matter of one or
more generation before there'll be a visible separation between those who
ascribe to one view or the other; the progressive churches will want
to have a different name and identify themselves in a different way. Now it's a
shame because both sides are right in a way and wrong in a way. For example the
progressives are right in that there needs to be a constant effort to
make the faith relative to each new generation, they're wrong however in
thinking that superficial changes and in some cases biblical changes will address
the need of the modern culture to know and experience God in Christ at a
deeper level. You don't experience Christ at a deeper level by adding instruments
to your musical program in worship and yet some people think that
that's going to make a huge spiritual difference. This is only possible
to deepen this is only possible through the actual work of the Holy
Spirit not staged techniques or multimedia shows. Now that appeals to the
desire to be entertained to be visually and emotionally stimulated. Now the
traditionals are correct in holding that any change that compromises scripture is
dangerous and not worth the short-term gains, they're wrong however in their
thinking that the way that they have culturally adapted New Testament worship
and practice is the only way mm-hmm. You want to think the way we do it in our
town and our church is the only way that it needs to be done anywhere else and
everywhere else. I've seen many different cultural groups
Asians Africans Caribbeans whatever adapt the practice of New Testament
Christianity in ways that we here in North America would think strange but
are perfectly within biblical guidelines. Rigid traditionalism doesn't
represent the spirits presence anymore then progressive emotionalism does,
those who are strict traditionalists think that any change
is the loss of the spirit and it's the other end you know the
progressives think the same thing if you do anything different than they do the
spirits not there. And so manufactured spirituality it leads to a kind of
Christian elitism which is most visible in our brotherhood in the
progressive traditional lives and lines of divisions being drawn these days
unfortunate but true. Another result of manufactured spirituality: loss of faith.
What does the Bible say? Faith comes by hearing and hearing the words of Christ
Paul says Romans 10:17. So if this spiritual principle is applied and
extended we can also say that loss of faith comes from hearing words
that don't come from Christ so if faith comes from hearing the words
of Christ the loss of faith comes from hearing the words of someone else and
believing those. It's sad to note that those who pursue manufactured
spirituality and create the elitism that seems to come with it also produce a lot
of burned out souls. For example and yet today we don't hear a whole lot about
them but there was a time back in the 80s and 90s in the early 21st century
the Boston Movement what we originally called the Boston Movement or the
International Churches of Christ Movement whose spiritual elitism was
based not on their worship style but on their absolute narrow focus on personal
discipling and through this they created incredible numbers of baptisms and large
assemblies in arenas and schools which they took great pride in,
baptizing 100 200 300 people a year and the question was always so how
many is your church baptizing it took a great pride in their discipling ministry.
But their manufactured spirituality also created the most serious division in our
brotherhood in the last century. And in addition to this what is rarely reported
is the dropout rate of their numbers. Some estimates as high as 50 to 60
percent, in other words they had to baptize ten people in order to
keep three or four, and those who dropped out were not simply people who quit
because they loved sin or they wanted to go back to the world they were people in
the most part who loved God but were so emotionally scarred by their experience
with these groups and cults and their cult-like methods that it took special
counseling and years of healing if ever at all
before they could feel anything except guilt and anger because in the
International Churches or Boston Churches the focus was on
evangelism and the method was control, one person controlled one other
person and the one person over here controlled a group of ten and another
person controlled a group of a hundred in it worked his way out and then you
had just a few people at the top that controlled everything not just in one
congregation but in the entire in that entire movement. So manufactured
spirituality is dangerous because it has power without any of the edifying
qualities of true spirituality. The result of that cult-like controlled
environment that produced a lot of baptism was people who were not
experiencing the peace that surpasses understanding, were not
experiencing a greater ability at humility and meekness gentleness
kindness, it was a very aggressive type of spirituality that they embodied.
So we don't see it much yet but the phenomena that takes place in many
Pentecostal and charismatic churches will begin to creep in our progressive
type churches in our brotherhood as well. So you know I'm talking about the Boston
Movement whose movement kind of came and went and did its damage and the
movements that are now taking place in our brotherhood are the progressive
versus traditionalist that's what's happening nowadays and it's
centers is mainly around our worship style. In the charismatic
movement there is a constant drive for greater and greater stimulation in order
to get that spiritual fix that everybody desires; so services get longer and more
numerous, worship becomes more elaborate more outlandish bands and plays and
pageants and parades eventually there's nowhere else to go emotionally. There's
no wonder that and I make this a personal observation here's no wonder
that a majority of blues and jazz and pop singers in the United States learn
their style and craft in churches and these people many of them left the
churches because it was a you know a non-paying type of show business and
they could do the exact same thing in show business but get paid for it. But
members leave also because they are burned out emotionally, the manufactured
spirit can bring them no higher so they they quit. So those congregations in our
brotherhood who think that they are so far ahead because of their
progressive brand of worship don't realize that others have blazed
this trail before and found it was a total dead end spiritually, it
takes some time but eventually it doesn't work. So if the spiritual
experience that you crave or are having has not been created by the Holy
Spirit then your religious feeling is illegitimate and it can lead you to
pride or worse still loss of faith. What is truly sad is that in the Bible
worship to God did not create a feeling worship to God was offered because the
feeling was already there. People who come to worship looking for
an experience or feeling are looking for the wrong thing, that's not to say that
there are not feelings and experiences that come from our worship but this
isn't the reason to come to worship that's my point. You may think I've kind
of wandered off here but I haven't, the original point was the relationship
between the Holy Spirit and perfection so here's the point: legitimate spiritual
feelings and experiences within the Christian life are generated by the Holy
Spirit in the Christian as he or she receives conditional perfection and
pursues actual perfection; in other words being considered perfect by God in
Christ, the knowledge of and the contemplation of and the sharing of this
priceless gift this is what gives rise to the experience of gratitude,
this is what gives rise to the feeling of peace, the emotion of happiness, these
are the legitimate feelings of the truly spiritual person. I'm not excited and hot
and sweaty I'm at peace I feel a deeper sense of gratitude an ongoing sense of
gratitude I'm emotionally a happier person and not because of material
real things but because what the spirit has given me through Christ. These are
produced by the knowledge of and the response to the gospel of Christ which
is spread by the power and the agency of the Holy Spirit. So no music or light
show or group or show or spectacle or huge crowd can manufacture within me the
feelings produced in myself by the cross of Christ. And from the beginning of time
the Holy Spirit has worked in concert with the Father and the Son to not only
make the cross happen but to guarantee that the good news of the cross be
spread throughout the world, very important not only for salvations sake
of course but for all the feelings that salvation brings and engenders in a
person. And so the spiritual experience evoked in me by the cross and what it
has done for me is timeless and it's limitless. For example it humbles me
rather than puffs me up, I mean if the experience of the cross of Christ and
being saved through it makes you proud there's something you haven't grasped here, it's exactly the opposite the greater
understanding I have of what Christ has done for me generates in me a sense of
humility not pride. It also joins me to all other believers
rather than separates me. Where there's argument and division,
that's not where the Spirit is, the Spirit is where there is unity and peace.
The knowledge of all of this offers an endless capacity for my joy and my
thankfulness and my pleasure. Have you not ever
had a session of prayer personal private prayer where all you
have done is to give thanks? If you haven't try that, say to yourself I'm
going to shut off the phone and turn off the tablet whatever and I'm
going to go into prayer and all I'm going to do is give thanks and I'll start with
some simple obvious things you know I'm I'm thankful that I'm able to breathe
and I you know I've got a home and I have a job, just be thankful
for those things and ask God to lead you in that prayer and show you
some of the things that you need to be thankful for.
I mean it's endless you won't be able to get to the end of the prayer because
there are so many things to give thankful for to give thanks for
excuse me. And also all of this information this news this knowledge
renews my faith with every reminder of it, that's why I tried to set aside to
pray every day because every day I'm reminded of what God has done for me
especially through the cross of Christ. Now in addition to all of this
pursuing actual perfection and we're getting back to our original ideas here, conditional perfection actual perfection, so pursuing
actual perfection as my goal in life brings harmony into my life. Harmony
between myself and God as I strive to please Him, harmony between my conscience
and myself knowing that I am right because of conditional perfection and
I pursue right by pursuing actual perfection. The knowledge of one and the
pursuit of the other brings great peace and harmony to our souls. And also it
brings greater harmony between others and myself in that I now seek for peace
I now bring the good news I now am salt and light and no longer walk in the
darkness. The pursuit of actual perfection
produces all of these things in my life. Also this pursuit of actual perfection
creates a harmony that results in what Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit.
Things about me that are a cause for joy and peace and love and
other good things that not only I experience but others can see and
experience also because of me, another benefit. And so through the work
of the Holy Spirit helping to produce these things in me I become a channel of
God's blessings for other people, I become a conduit for spiritual feelings
that others can experience. Have you never been in the presence of a
person who is truly at peace with themselves, whose conscience is clear,
whose full of the Spirit, full of the fruit of the Spirit, have you never been
in the presence of a person like that and how their
influence on you it calms you, brings out the best in you, makes you want to pursue
what is right and good? Yea the pursuit of actual perfection produces not only
something in you but it also produces something in others who witnessed what
is happening in you. So this is the way that Christians begin to experience God
and share that experience with other people. Worship true worship takes
place when individual Christians who experience God legitimately in this way
come together and they infuse their singing and their praying and their
fellowship and their communion and their preaching and their giving and their
service with the spiritual feelings that perfection in Christ has produced in
them. You don't go to church to get these things you bring these
things to church and share them in public worship. When these things
happen there is no more progressives or traditionalists all are one in the
Spirit and there is no pride and there is no division there is no loss of faith
but rather the building up of the body in love. Every time you distinguish
yourself that isn't of love. And so this is the relationship
between the Holy Spirit, perfection and our experience of true spirituality as
a church. The Spirit is the one that produces that fruit, the Spirit is the
one that helps us in our pursuit of actual perfection, the Spirit is the one
that brings us together in this common pursuit this common experience this
common joy this common acceptable worship that we're able to offer to God,
why? Because of what the Spirit is accomplishing in each individual
Christian as he or she pursues that actual grace with the confidence excuse
me that actual perfection with the confidence of knowing that they have the
conditional perfection that God has bestowed upon them through Jesus Christ.
Okay, next time we will, I've talked about getting into the text next time I
promise we'll get into the text in our next lesson. That's it for this
time thank you very much for your attention, we'll see you next week.
