23) If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and
which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am
made a minister;
24) Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill
up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's
sake, which is the church:
25) Whereof I am made a minister, according to the
dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil
the word of God;
26) Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and
from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
27) To whom God would make known what is the riches of
the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory:
28) Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching
every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
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cripture
tells us that preaching and teaching of the Word of God is by His wisdom. He
has not been and will never be come to be known by human knowledge. It takes
the enlightenment of the revelation of the Spirit.
We also
already know from scripture that things of the Spirit are understood only by
that selfsame Spirit. Therefore, our major witnessing needs to be to get man to
come to accept the Spirit of God, first.
You know, one without the Holy Ghost who is trying to understand spiritual things has a close parallel to an ad of sometime ago. At one time, there were opportunities given to obtain a secret decoder ring. These decoder rings were advertised on cereal boxes. Without them, it was impossible to be able to read the message on the box. Roughly, the same is true in salvation: if one expects to receive understanding of the things of God, he must have the necessary tools and equipment. In short, spirituality is impossible without and outside of the Holy Ghost.
Today, we are
exploring that very divisive and misconstrued subject—perfection. Just what is
"perfection?" It is sinlessness before God.
Since making mistakes in recalling details or facts is not sin, obviously one
does not need perfect recall to be "perfect in Christ Jesus." What
one does need is righteousness and sincerity. The prerequisite to being able to
obtain the above is the power of the Holy Ghost, conferred through the
infilling of that Holy Ghost and baptism in the name of Jesus.
The state of
spiritual perfection is dependent upon remaining sinless. Remaining sinless is
dependent upon one's operating within Jesus Christ. Therefore, insisting upon
operating outside of Him will mean that one is no longer "perfect" by
spiritual definition.
Those who are
saved need to always remember that in that natural men are not able to perceive
that which is spiritual, we need to be willing to exercise patience in our
dealings with the unredeemed. This is the way in which we will be able to win
them to salvation.
Contrary to
what we may believe, winning others to salvation is not primarily a function of
what we say. Yes, what people see of our lives is essential, but you may be
dismayed to learn that behind that profession or outward manifestation must be
a personal commitment to get down "in the trenches." The people of
God must learn to "put their money where their mouth is" and set
aside all to stand on the truth of the word of God. Consistency and unmoveablity, more than any other attributes, will bring
the cynical and jaded man of the 90's to salvation.
Instead of
trying to cultivate long, loud, "exciting" testimonies, it would be
much more profitable for everyone if we would deliver to them the gospel of
Jesus Christ in its unadulterated, straight truth.
It is
important, to us and those that we may touch, that we never move out of the
spiritual sight of God. No matter what, we must hold our ground.
We are lying
to ourselves when we try to convince ourselves and others that what comes out
of us are simply responses to circumstance and not the essence of what is
within us. We are going to have to come to accept that pressure exerted on us
form outside never changes us—it simply draws to the outside what is already
within.
It cannot be
preached too much that God is due all praise and glory for what He is doing and
has already done. There is nothing that He might allow that is not for the purpose
of winning others. Someone has got to show the World that the power of God
still works today. Who is better to do that than us?
Those who
have been made "perfect in Christ Jesus" need to know and accept that
they are perfect. Then, there will be neither need nor reason to take offense,
get upset, or mad. Those with this realization cannot help but to praise God.
No one would
dare try to convince you that a life with Christ will not present problems
and challenges. On the contrary, one could say that life will present more
challenges because you now belong to the Lord. But no matter what comes, one
must stay in his "position"—his position of perfection before Christ.