10/21/07 – 42LAW - “PERFECTION“ - Part 3
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Hello!  This is Richard Vaughn

Today’s message is “Perfection – Part 3”

Before we begin, let us seek God’s guidance, “Heavenly Father, as we conclude this most important subject regarding the real truth about the perfection of character, I pray that You bless those listening today with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so that we may understand that every Christian can attain to perfection and why we need to know that. We pray for wisdom, knowledge and understanding so that we may live in the center of Your revealed will, as we ask in Jesus Name, Amen.”

Right now, I continue to keep my pledge, to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up my voice like a trumpet and to show God’s people where they are transgressing God’s law.

Last week we continued to look at this important subject of attaining to perfection of character and the promises from God to make it possible. 

"And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." Does this text mean that the human agent can remove one stain of sin from his soul? No. Then what does it mean to purify himself? It means to look upon the Lord's great moral standard of righteousness, the holy law of God, and see that he is a sinner in the light of that law. "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin." 1 John 3:4, 5 (Letter 13, 1893)  {7BC 950.10}

A mere profession of godliness is worthless. (How valuable is it? It is worthless.) It is he that abideth in Christ that is a Christian. . . . Unless the mind of God becomes the mind of men, every effort to purify himself will be useless; for it is impossible to elevate man except through a knowledge of God. The outward gloss may be put on, and men may be as were the Pharisees whom Jesus describes as "whited sepulchres" full of corruption and dead men's bones. But all the deformity of the soul is open to Him who judgeth righteously, and unless the truth is planted in the heart, it cannot control the life. Cleansing the outside of the cup will never make the vessel pure within. A nominal acceptance of truth is good as far as it goes, and the ability to give a reason for our faith is a good accomplishment, but if the truth does not go deeper than this, the soul will never be saved. The heart must be purified from all moral defilement. (Letter 13, 1893).  {7BC 951.2}

Romans 2:13 “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.”
Revelation 22:14 “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
Hebrews 13:21 “Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Psalm 40:8 “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.”

In my years of searching and following, I recognize that the wide broad way that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 7:13 which is heavily traveled by many, I’m not talking about the world, the broad way is crowded with religious people who are unaware that Satan is leading them to destruction. And in verse 14 He says, “…strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” If we are found on the broad road and are lost, whose choice was it?

Isaiah 55:7 “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

{1SM 366} “God requires the entire surrender of the heart, before justification can take place; and in order for man to retain justification, there must be continual obedience, through active, living faith that works by love and purifies the soul.”

1 John 5:4 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” We must be over comers.

Revelation 2:7 says, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life.” Is God asking us to be something we are incapable of being?

Jesus as God, became a man, divested of His Divinity, He met all trials and temptations in His humanity, and sought every morning for the power to do so. The very method He used is available to every child of God. We also, in our humanity, can be over comers by doing exactly as Christ did. Each morning we are to petition heaven for the power to resist all sin and temptation, and we do receive it. Then in our humanity we become partakers of the Divine nature. Even upon retiring we should ask for that same power to resist sin and temptation in our sleeping hours.

2 Peter 1:3, 4 “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

You see we have the resource to receive the power to be over comers 24/7/365. There is only one reason we will sin. We pull the plug. We separate ourselves from God, be it for an hour, a minute, or even a moment. We push the Holy Spirit from us when we choose to sin.

1 John 5:18 “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.”

Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” We can have the mind of Jesus or the same will power. No man can be forced to sin. It says this in 5T page 177 “No man can be forced to transgress. His own consent must be first gained; the soul must purpose the sinful act before passion can dominate over reason or iniquity triumph over conscience. Temptation, however strong, is never an excuse for sin.” 

Can you comprehend this statement of Paul found in Ephesians 3:17-20 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith (by what?) faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, (by what?) love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all (what?) all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, …”

James 1:4 says this, “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect (be what?) perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

Romans 6:6, 7 “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.” You liars out there that are teaching we will keep sinning until Jesus comes are deceiving the sheep of your flocks. God will require their blood at your hands.

1 John 3:5, 6 “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.”
1 John 3:8-10 “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.  Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”

{COL 69} “When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.”
{5T 214} “Not one of us will ever receive the seal of God while our characters have one spot or stain upon them. It is left with us to remedy the defects in our characters, to cleanse the soul temple of every defilement.”

When we started this lesson two weeks ago I gave two positions that many believe today. If we hold to the position that we will continue to sin until Jesus comes, we call God’s promises a lie, and we are therefore incredibly deceived into thinking that God somehow, at Jesus’ second coming, will cause a miracle that will make us suddenly righteous and acceptable.

And then there are those who believe God’s promises and are separating them selves from those associates and those things of the world that do not foster Christian growth. They pray for the power to be over comers and they cooperate with the Holy Spirit to see that the connection remains unbroken. Therein lies the secret to perfection.

But then there is a third group who are caught up in the yo-yo syndrome, up and down because they believe and claim the promises and ask for the power, yet fail to cooperate when the strong allurement from the world or some passionate thoughts snatches them away for a moment, an hour or longer? Conviction comes, but there is a hardening of the heart. 

The counsel is: “Study to show thyself approved, unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15. 

If after Jesus comes and we should wake up in the second resurrection, outside of the New Jerusalem, and paralyzing fear stuns our reality with the fact that we made the choice that placed us where we are, and left God with no choice, but to remove our names from the book of life, all because we made overcoming a part time experience.

Listen, surrender of the will must be total. Character perfection is very obtainable. The Bible tells us so.  
                                
Well time is up for this week. Next week we will begin a brand new study in God’s Word as week after week we expose many of the deceptions that Satan holds Christendom captive with. Next week’s study is “The Rich Man and Lazarus and What Happens to Us at Death” – Part 1. You might invite your pastors to listen as they need to know the real truth, also.If you would like to worship with seventh day Sabbath-keepers, come to the Victory Everlasting Gospel Church at our new location at the Hampton Inn Conference suite in South Hill, VA at the exit 12 interchange of Interstate 85. We meet at 9:30 am each Saturday the Lord’s Day and will be meeting there until our new building has been completed. Look, if you have been listening to these broadcasts for any length of time, you know Saturday is God’s Sabbath and He’s calling you to start keeping it holy. Why not begin this week?
Until next week, Jesus said in John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me”. Even so, come Lord Jesus.