That Which Is Perfect Is Come

Reading from II Chronicles chapter 7, beginning at the first verse, "Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifice; and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good; for His mercy endureth forever." Then reading in the sixth chapter, reading in the sixth chapter in the twenty-second verse. "If a man sin against his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house; Then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, by requiting the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head; and by justifying the righteous, by giving him according to his righteousness. And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee; and shall return and confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house; Then hear thou from the heavens, and forgive the sins of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers. When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; yet if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them; Then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou hast taught them the good way, wherein they should walk; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given unto thy people for an inheritance. If there be a dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillers; if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land; whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be: Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house: Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men:) That they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, so long as they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers." (Read II Chronicles 1:1-3; 6:22-31.) One of the things that's to be noticed here in Second Chronicles in the seventh chapter is that it says that God is good. I like this because it says, For He is good; and His mercy endureth forever. God is good. The Bible says, God is good. And it tells us that there's none good but God. There is none good but God. Out of a whole world there's none good but God. There's never been any good but God. Never has there been any good but God. The Bible said, All have gone astray. Every man has turned to his own way and God has laid upon Jesus the iniquity of us all. He was the one that was bruised for our transgression. Our chastisement was upon Him, by whose strips we're healed. And so then we find that God is good. God is good and there's none good but God. So we realize to begin with what kind of God that we have. You know so many times people wonder about God and they seem to get baffled in their minds and they don't understand God; and they're always asking questions about God, or they're always surmising as to what kind of God He is. They seem to never come to an understanding as to what God really is. It's very clear that God is good. It says here that God is good. His mercy endureth forever. So God is good. And because God is good, then mankind has a feeling of security that they could not have otherwise. So then we know that God is good and we know that inasmuch as God is good, it was proven when God the great Eternal Spirit was made manifest in a human body, when the Bible said that God walked among them, went about doing good, healing all that was oppressed of the devil. So then God did that in the body of the Lord Jesus, even though it was the body of the Lord Jesus the Son of God, yet Jesus said, Of myself, can I do nothing. And He said, The works that I do it is my Father within me that doeth these works and I do nothing of myself. So we find out that God was in Christ Jesus. The Bible said, Christ that is in Jesus or God. Within the body of Jesus the Bible said, Reconciling the world back to Himself. To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world back to himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, but showing them mercy through His goodness. And so then we see God. We look at Jesus. We look at the life of Jesus and we see God. We find out that it is God that did all these wonderful miracles that wrought these healings, that supplied the people's needs when they were hungry as He broke the fishes and the loaves. Jesus did all of this; and yet it was God the great Eternal Spirit, our Heavenly Father that tabernacled in that body of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Not in measure as it would be to me or to you or someone else, but it was in the fullness. It was the fullness of God that was in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or that is to say because of the blood atonement, God not being able to get to anyone except through the blood, therefore throughout eternity He will be looking at us through the righteous blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And our life consists of the atonement as to the blood. In that the Bible said, The life is in the blood, the eternal life is within the eternal bloodstream of Jesus, the same way that our temporal life is within our bloodstream as we're told by scientists. So then we find that it is a glorious thing to know that God Almighty, the great Eternal Spirit actually came down into this world and walked among men. And when God saw the Revelation of Jesus Christ, if you'll read real close you'll find out it says, The tabernacle of God is among men. Jesus was the tabernacle of God. If you remember when He stood on the mountain, Moses and Elijah appeared, and there James and John, Peter, it was said, Let us build three tabernacles. And the Lord said, This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him. Or that is to say, This is the tabernacle in whom I am pleased to dwell, even my Son the Lord Jesus Christ, to wit that God was in Christ Jesus. And so then we see that God the Eternal Spirit was tabernacling within the body of the Lord Jesus. And when it was said that we should remember Moses as a tabernacle of God, or we should remember Elisha as a tabernacle of God He said, Nay, one tabernacle. I am pleased to dwell in my Son. And thus we see by that, that all of the prophetical utterance all the way from Adam coming on down to Jesus, all the way from Jesus on over as to what prophetical utterance could be given as represented by Elijah being caught away, being typical of the rapture, that all of this was swallowed up in Jesus Christ. That the law and the prophets were in Jesus, that all of this emanated from the great Eternal Spirit. And that God had gathered all of this together in one and in one, and in one He dwelt, even the Lord Jesus Christ. We look back we get a real good example of this as a typical thing. The allegoric types, we look back at Samson. In the days of Samson, we see that after that his eyes had been put out, and after that the hair that represented the glory and the strength of God, references as to the church ages, the seven locks, references as to the church ages, the seven locks, after that they had been taken away, we see Jesus as the little boy leads him over to the pillars, he asked that he might place his hands upon the pillars. And here when he places his hands upon the pillars, all of a sudden he pushes on the pillars and he finds his strength has returned to him. And when he pushes on the great pillars, the whole cathedral begin to crumble and three thousand people were killed at his death. And then we go all the way over to the New Testament and we find Jesus standing here on the mountain again, this that had been a symbol in Samson's life, now we see the reality of it. And here stands the two great pillars of the earth as to Moses and Elijah. And here they stand. And here Jesus the great Samson of God, here he stands in the midst of these pillars. And all of a sudden he pushes as we say, and Moses is gone and Elijah's gone. There's nothing left, holding up the entire world except the Lord Jesus Christ. That is to say, dying with his enemies, Jesus was made sin, though he knew no sin, yet he was made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. And the two thieves one on either side showed this. And so then it was a great triump and a victory with Samson when the pillars went down. And a great demonstration of the supernatural strength as to the return as to bring forth a resurrection this we see in Pentecost when three thousand souls were added unto the Lord. Three thousand souls, three thousand had been destroyed as to that of Samson's death, and here three thousand as to a restoration of the church as to the beginning of the great church of the living God. So we see the wonderful acts of God. We see how that He hath come down into a human body, walked the earth, went about doing good, healing all; and then that was to let us know what kind of a God that we have. You know in the Old Testament, they wanted to worship the sun, the moon, the stars, images or whatever, but God told them not to do this. One of the ten commandments is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Another one is thou shalt not worship graven images. And so then worshipping all of these things, they did not know the true God. But God would always warn Israel, don't do that. Someday he could have said, that I will bring forth the object of worship. Whereas the word God means object of worship, and He brought forth the true object of worship, which was the Son of God, the tabernacle in whom He was well pleased to dwell. And this he let Peter know. I believe that inasmuch as God let Peter know this, that it was the proof of what He allowed Peter to know when He said, Who do men say that I am? And Peter say, I say, That thou art the Christ. And Jesus said, Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, Peter. That is this is not an intellectual learning. Flesh and blood has not given this unto thee, but thy Father which is in heaven. That is to say the Holy Spirit has revealed this unto thee. And this is the key, Peter, I give unto thee the keys to the kingdom. Because the kingdom was the Eternal Spirit within Jesus which was the Christ Spirit. That Christ Spirit was heir alone to the great Eternal Spirit which is the greatness of God within him ownself because God is a Spirit. And they that worship God must worship God in spirit and in truth. In the book of John Jesus tells the woman at the well, said, And the day shall come when men shall worship God in spirit and in truth. For God seeketh such to worship Him. So then we see this great eternal treasure. Peter unlocks the door both to the Jews and to the Gentiles; and then it is said that the law and the prophets are until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached and men pressed their way into it. Or that is to say that it was by faith, once the kingdom come it was by faith that this minister went forth. It is by faith that men are translated by the spirit into the wonderful spirit of Christ, their spirit into Christ's Spirit. And through this Christ we have access to all things. The Bible said, And Christ within you is the hope of glory, inasmuch as the Bible said that, He alone was made heir to the glory of God. So then we see this kingdom of God coming forth because the rent veil came. At Calvary the veil was rent in twain. And the Bible said that Jesus made in Himself twain, two, both Lord and Christ. And this veil at Calvary was rent in twain as the Lord was separated from the Christ. And the bodily part as to the Lord was crucified, dead, laid away, that the law could no longer get to the inner part, which was the Christ, as to any acquisition. So fulfilling the Law, then it was folded up and laid away. The Bible said, Not one jot, not one title shall pass from the law until all be fulfilled. And when He fulfilled the law it was folded up and then it was laid away. And the Lord Jesus did that explicitly for you and I. That our bodies may be dead in the sight of God, having been made our sin, our sinful body that we might by His Spirit be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So then today we're bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. And God sees us not as that which is delivered for our offenses as to Jesus as unto sin, but that that was raised again for our justifications as Jesus that came forth, the Bible said, in a new form as He walked on his way to Emmaus. So then we find out that the veil was rent in twain. This was given to us in Christ before the world ever was, the Bible tells us. And it was by the foreknowledge of God that we became elect of God, and were predestinated or predetermined in the mind of God as to our goal, as to righteousness in Christ Jesus. For we are His workmanship in Christ unto good works. And what God hath made Jesus to be is what He wanted us to be. Or what He wanted us to be He made Jesus to be, that He could look at the perfect image, that He may not look at my faltering way of life or my depleted image. So then we find that God hath wrought this great, wonderful work in Christ and I am complete in Him. I am lacking nothing in Him for He hath perfected, that is made perfect forever, them that He has sanctified. And He has sanctified them once and for all by the offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus at Calvary. So then by the faith that was between Jesus and the Heavenly Father that never wavered, during the lifetime I've found my justification as to "the faith". And I find that I am made heir to that great faith by my believing, as I do the works of righteousness as to the best of my ability, encouraging my heart to have confidence and faith in the finished works of Calvary, then I receive the faith unto salvation, which is the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. So then I'm partakers of this wonderful glory. His faith needs no works, Paul said. My faith needs works. I must do the things to encourage my heart. Hereby encouraging my heart, I'm assured that God hears me. I know that if He hears me, then I know that I have the petition that I desire from Christ. So then we do these things, not that our own works can help us at all as giving us salvation. For it is by His justification. And He is our hope of glory. But our works it causes us to perfect our own faith toward this wonderful faith and act of God as to the righteousness of God in Christ. And in doing this it gives us a stabilization of heart and a confidence of heart as to human faith without wavering, that we might have the full benefits of that wonderful perfection of God. For the Bible tells us that we're sanctified by the faith which is in Christ Jesus. And it tells us that God hath perfected forever them that are sanctified or made them perfect forever. So we see that God has perfected, the Bible says. He has sanctified. And the Bible says, He hath glorified us. Seeing us as a predestinated finish work, He has called us unto good works through the Son of God, or made Him to be good works that He might not look on our faltering way of life. And imputing our faith unto us for righteousness, in that we believe in the righteousness, and not imputing our trespasses unto us. Whereas the Bible said, Blessed is the man unto whom God will not impute sin, but imputeth faith for righteousness. Or as it was with faithful Abraham. Four hundred and thirty years before the law ever came, then God confirmed this covenant in Christ, that the just shall live by faith, bringing forth faithful Abraham. And then of course many years later the law was added but added not for righteousness sake, but because of transgression. Or that is the law was added to bring to our understanding the death, the reason for death, the evils and things that hampered our life, that controlled our life, that came upon us through the fall of one man, even Adam. And then when the Law had finished it's course, Jesus folded it up and laid it away, because the Bible said that the law was added because of transgression until the seed to whom the promise was made should come. That seed of course being Jesus as Isaac; in Him shall all nations be blest as to the natural as to natural Israel. So is there a spiritual Israel and a spiritual Christ. And this the Bible teaches is the perfect one. When Jesus came, who was perfect, then that which was in part was done away, and done away with. And so then when this was done away with we do not now see through the glass darkly as those that looked at the glory of God through the veil that was between them and that glory that was over Moses' face. That veil as to the body of sin has now been rent, it's been taken away, it's been put into the earth. And Rebecca as we say as to the typical sense has entered into the secret chambers of the mother. And now Isaac and the wife have seen face to face, and the veil that is called shamefacedness is no longer there. Or that is to say, Because man has sinned then he hath the body of sin as to the beastly side of life. And having this body of sin it is a veil between him and God, because God cannot look upon sin. So then He turns away. When God turns away He cannot look upon sin. When Jesus died at Calvary, if you remember the dark veil came. Everything turned dark, the sun turned dark and God withdrew, because He was now looking at that veil of sin. And He in all of His wrath smote that veil, that human form that was made sin, to break that, to take it away, to get it away from between His Son and the Heavenly Father. And so then the Bible said, As the sun became as black as sackcloth of ashes, God rent the veil. And when He rent the veil then this dark veil passed away and His Son came forth in that beautiful new form, not as to a body of sin, but that glorified form. Sown in weakness, raised in power, sown in corruption, raised incoruption, He came forth in that glorified body and then He ascended up to heaven. So then today there is no veil between you and I, the beastly body is now gone. The veil of intellectual infiltration as to the human way of life is now gone; as to that that deceived Eve and got between Eve and her eternal life as to God who is the Word that said, Thou shalt not eat thereof. In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. So then now that is gone. And we are now free, free from all of those kind of things. And the Law hath done it's work. It has revealed the impurities that's in us. And now we see those impurities, not being able to master them of ourself, God has by faith through Christ Jesus taken those things away, no longer under the curse. Cursed is everyone that hangeth upon the tree. He took the curse away. He turned us loose from that curse, and now then we have fellowship with God seeing Him face to face as one that looketh right in the face of that glory, that we might be changed from glory to glory as to the inner man into the greatness of Almighty God. So we see that which is perfect is come. And God hath walked in human form. He that is perfect. Now He is within my heart by the works of Jesus. The veil, the darkling veil of death is now taken away, and I am free from sin and corruption. So I do not desire to get entangled again with the yoke as to the beggarly elements of the intellectual reasoning and the gullible desires of the world because I am God's free man. I am not a child of bondage as to those beggarly elements as to that mind; but I have the mind of Christ and I am a free child and all things are mine. For the Bible said, God hath given us all things that pertain unto life. Makes us to ride upon the high places of the earth, feeds us with the heritage of Jacob, makes all of our beds in the time of our sickness. And the Bible said, His blessing maketh rich and addeth no sorrow. For I am the God that healeth thee and I forgive all of thine iniquities and I heal all of thy diseases. God is good. And so we see, the Bible tells us that it is God that giveth us the power to get wealth and His blessing makes us rich. To delight ourself in Him, the Bible said, I will give you the desires of your heart, to honor me with your substance as to strength, as to mentality, as to understanding, whatever you're blest with, as to your as to your financial prosperities or whatever, whatever you may have as tangible matter in the world, put it to work for God, use it for God, honor the Lord with it. And then the Bible says that your cup will run over. Try me here with, saith the Lord of Host. See if I'll not pour you out a blessing that you'll not be able to receive. And the Bible teaches that He will give you such an abundance you'll have to share it with somebody. Your cup will overrun. David said, My cup is filled up to the full and it overruns. So then we find we have to share our blessings with others because His blessing maketh rich. I will rebuke the devourer for your sake and He shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, the Bible tells us. So this is our blessing from God, that God is good and we're now free from the law of sin and death because of the works of our Lord Jesus to the full measure of the full stature, going on to a full reward and giving Him the praise and the honor and the glory.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.

Holiness Unto The Lord