Be Ye Perfect — Art Katz

This is tape number k-o-o -1 art cats with the message entitled be ye perfect. Isn't that strange that as the world becomes more slapdash and haphazard and approximate? God does just the opposite in the get by world.

Where any kind of combination works the more bizarre and grotesque the more likely it is to be successful. There's a God who insists more singularly Upon purity and perfection. Have you noticed that? He's the God of the perfect be thou perfect and walk thou before me as Inga says, what do you think of them apples?

God's Call to Perfection

You think he's a wolf in or does he really mean it? Is it a vague standard toward which we should aspire? Or does God actually intend that we obtain perfection. The doctor said about my kneecap. The only way that damage could have been done is if you perfectly came down.

Smack dab a three-point landing right on the heart of your kneecap. Is that every accident you squirm you fall you to it you twist your body some angle, but you came down in perfect precision. Only way to go can you believe that I'm almost getting so bold in these days that I can begin a service like this or a message like this and Have the affront tree or is it Jewish chutzpah?

To suggest that you're going to hear something perfect and Then people come up to you at the F at the end of the message and say but art you choked and spluttered a few Times and you mispronounced one word and you were ungrammatical in one particular place.

How was it perfect? The perfection of God children doesn't have to do with impeccable grammar. It has only to do with this that it has its perfect origin in heaven and It's perfectly the fulfillment of him who spoke it and The great wonder is that he can do things like that through a Brooklyn accent or a high squeaky voice of the kind that our brother Ernie has.

What a marvel. Praise the Lord. So I'll tell you what children. I just feel like going for broke tonight. Don't you? In this lapdash age when which anything goes doesn't your heart covet the thing that is perfect.

Let's just ask that God will speak perfectly. Whatever it is in his heart It'll be the perfect expression of what he intends To go forth to his children this night by his spirit, okay? So precious Holy God Lord if there's anything in which we delight it's to boast upon you.

You do all things well mighty God and It's just a wonder to stand still and to see your salvation. And so I ask precious God That of what you have spoken in the sixth chapter of Romans is true. What you have described in the second and third chapters of Colossians is true.

That we are complete in you who is the head of all principality and power in whom is it all fullness and knowledge? I ask that you make your wonder Manifest out of this earthen vessel this night. Right through this Brooklyn accent and every peculiar thing that has to do with my personality.

I ask that you be so the possessor of it's that these people might know that they've heard perfectly from the Living God. Give us hearts to receive it Lord and to do it and we'll thank you praise you for it in Yeshua's Holy Name Amen.

The Danger of Good Intentions

Well, I'll tell you the way in which God begins To write a theme like this upon the heart of a servant. Not too far from here at a Midwestern City, I was invited for breakfast With some of the Saints in the neighborhood whom I've known through the years.

I think there must have been six seven or eight of us we had a lovely time of fellowship and When the meal was over and it was time for someone to pick up the check. Precious lady sitting to my left did so and I turned to her casually not even thinking what I was asking.

And I said did God tell you to do that. And she said why. Yes, of course I. You can always tell when someone has that nervous giggle That they're kind of spoofing. So I repeated my question again. Did God ask you to do that?

And she giggled a little nervously again and didn't say yes or no and I pressed her one last time and then she admitted that God had not told her to do that and So I said well, why then did you do it?

Well, she thought it would be a nice thing to pick up the check. And I'll bet there are nine of ten people sitting in this room Who don't have the foggiest notion of what I'm speaking about right now and would perfectly agree with that woman that it's a nice thing to pick up the check.

I Don't know of a single person in the history of Christendom who has ever been rebuked or reproached or criticized for picking up a check. It's a good thing and Nobody ever thinks to question good things Except the God who is increasingly insisting upon the thing which is perfect.

You just keep doing good things like that and I'll tell you there shall come a moment in your life individually and in our life corporately a crucial moment in a life or death situation When great issues are hanging in the balance and if you have been Habituated to doing good things born out of your human will and volition and mind.

You are going to miss the perfect life-giving thing of God. I want you to turn with me to the book of Genesis. Isn't that always a beautiful place to begin? Third chapter beginning with the 22nd verse the familiar story of Adam and Eve.

Because the rudiments of what's being discussed tonight goes back to the whole inception of the human race. And we're still pulling the same boo-boo. How many of you know that there's a scripture. Where is it?

I think in Luke the 14th chapter that says those things Which are honorable or estimable in the sight of men are an abomination to God. What do you think of them apples. I'll tell you children. There are a lot of good things that the world applauds roundly and that even Christians applaud Which are a stench in the nostrils of God?

God keep us from good things Which intrude and defer us from the thing which is perfect. So we know that Adam and Eve blew it and The 22nd verse the Lord God said behold the man is become as one of us To know good and evil and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.

Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken so he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the Garden of the of Eden cherubims and a Flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.

Now you say art what has this to do with what you've already spoken? And my answer is everything. Then as now children, there are only two trees from which we can eat. In fact as I go on with the Lord, it seems to me that there are only ever two things in any issue.

Have you noticed that it's always a polarity. It's always a choice between light or darkness the kingdom of God or the kingdom of this present world God's Prince or Satan's. The tree of the knowledge of good or evil or the tree of life always a choice of polarities.

You can know that you're really converted when you're no longer bewildered by what's what seemed to you in times past as overwhelming degrees of choice. That was my predicament as an atheist. But somehow as a believer everything has become grossly simplified.

In or out in Christ or not in the light or in the darkness in the spirit in the flesh. In his kingdom in the world. Eating of the tree of life for eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Then as now God's people ate from the wrong tree and I'll tell you that it's an intoxicating fruit. It's a giddy thing to have the your mind in operation. Tempting and a wonderful kind of an intoxication to have powers of choice and To know about things and what to do that's right or wrong.

But there's an interesting little statement in a booklet by watchman me. That really bears investigating. Here's what he says one of the most serious misconceptions among the children of God is that actions are determined by right and Wrong they do what their eyes tell them is right.

They do what their background tells them is right. They do what the years of experience tell them is right. And a lot of you are looking at me and saying aren't isn't that right? No, that's wrong. That children is Judaism.

That's ethical humanism that has to do with the operation of mind and God has called you to be a people of the Spirit. And I'll tell you especially in the last days there are going to come such perplexities and things that confound minds so unconventional and independent of previous experience.

That if you're going to go by what you've done in times past and what you think is right or wrong. You're going to miss it and if I could take hours I could tell you of episode after episode after episode at the leading of God's Spirit.

That has led me again and again and again To unconventional responses wholly in contradiction to what I thought was good. There are two sources of life. Two trees from which we can eat the knowledge of good and evil judgments based on the operation of our minds or the tree of life and To live from that tree is life indeed.

God said that he established cherubim with flaming swords to keep the way of the tree of life and I can tell you children that in the second Adam God has put aside the cherubim and our return to the garden has been provided.

We can eat from the tree of life. It's the same life, which is eternal and the same life, which is abundant. It's the life which God has invested in his son and that's why the scripture says he who hath the son hath life and he who hath not the son hath not life and That's why my Jewish people are condemned and have no alternative.

But to operate continually from their own source of life from their own energy from their own mind and the end thereof is exasperation futility frustration broken minds broken bodies death. Now I'll give you a little for instance of how God began also to add my understanding.

I Got a letter from a precious boy in California who had read the book in Israel. And he really was a kindred soul a an intent seeker after truth. He had been into cults and Eastern religions and philosophy had gone to Paris and studied even all his life long a seeker after truth and Somehow they got a copy of my book and he sensed the kindred soul and he writes me a letter.

He's ready to come to the East Coast and he's going to sit at my feet. We're going to go to discuss the great issues of life. When I read his background I wasn't so quick to invite him under my roof. And I was just about to think of a nice letter to put him off when I got a long-distance phone call of the same boy.

Expressing the desire to come flying at his expense. That's the kind that God loves that constrains God and will not let him go. At that time. I said look I'm going to be in California in a couple of weeks.

Why don't you save your money and I'll meet you at a certain place. Why don't you go and visit the Fultz family? With whom I've received my baptism in Holy Spirit and they'll be able to answer your questions and I'll meet you there.

And so he did and when I came two weeks later, they had answered his questions. He was saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and you never saw a guy more ready to go go go Than this kid in whom the light has broken.

We spent about a week or ten days together in a kind of a father-son or discipleship situation where I was taking him under my wing. He had a van and we would drive from city to city and meeting to meeting and he was sitting in meetings learning.

Listening and having conversations. I'm not the kind of man who lays down the great principles of the faith or the precepts. Just that's not my bag. I like to draw from the existential material of the day the things which God gives us which are alive in our experience and Then seek for the scriptural thing that is applicable to it.

Hearing God's Voice Rather Than Acting Impulsively

So we were driving from meeting to meeting one day. And I was sitting in my seat in the van with my arms over my chest looking out the window whistling having a ball. Not feeling under any constraint of compulsion to be clever.

Did you ever enjoy that? Hallelujah. To be free in Christ is to be free indeed. I was not on and I didn't have to be bright and impressive and show forth my erudition and learning in the ways of God. In fact, I've learned that if it's not God who opens my mouth the things that I speak are vain.

Even though they may be scripturally correct and well Meaning and motivated by goodly intentions. You know what? I've come to believe children after about 10 or 11 years. That the same God who created all the earth the universe and all that in it is is Able to open this mouth and to speak out of it.

He doesn't need kid cats his help at all. Well there I was silent just enjoying the peace That passes understanding and sure up. There was a hitchhiker standing by the side of the road and this kid when he saw this hitchhiker bang his foot was on A break and he stopped and I saw his face full of expectation boy.

He was going to witness. He was licking his chops and he opened the door and in came this hitchhiker. It was an American Indian and we learned he had been discharged from the service and he was I don't know kind of just drifting about and I took a seat on the floor of the van and off we drove and something my spirit went snap and I knew that God had provided us with a situation and sure up the we had hardly taken off when this young believer was coming on like gangbusters.

Man, was he sweating at it? Was he really cracking out those scriptures? I was amazed at his ability in so short a time and every word was like lead. About 40 minutes later was time for this hitchhiker to be discharged and he went out then this kid was so perplexed looking.

You never saw such a face and I took my seat again. I didn't say a word to him and off we drove. He was like pouting and behind the wheel he would let sneak a look at me from time to time when when was I going to tell him what was wrong and Finally couldn't contain himself longer.

He blurted out. Artie said what went wrong? I Turned and I said dear brother. You did a good thing to pick up the hitchhiker. But have you ever considered that the good is the enemy of the perfect. What would you think if a quarter of a mile further up the road there was yet another man standing waiting.

He it is whom God intended For divine encounter through you this day and you drove him by without so much as a look. Because the seat which God intended that he should fill you have already filled by your own good intention.

Let that sink deep into your hearing children. There's not a people on the face of the earth more compulsive. More sweaty and grimy in their Christian activity than the people of God do do do do. Campaigns programs my goodness.

What a wearisome nonsense. Getting in the way of God and I'll tell you he may have winked in times past at our well-meaning intentions and patted us. But we have come to the end of the ages and the purposes of God are so intricate so profound such a complex tapestry of purposes that span continents all intricately interlinked that no man dare presume.

To go off in his own skull as a self-appointed minister to do what he thinks is good. And if you want to see a morass and a jungle I invite you to visit Jerusalem and there you'll find every kind of Christian clod and amateur and self-appointed evangelist and missionary walking into each other and into walls making a mess of The holiest city on the face of the earth getting in God's way again and again and again.

You say I really don't figure you. I've read your book and I've heard your testimony and if my memory serves me correctly you yourself were picked up as a hitchhiker About 11 years ago off the side of the road.

You should have the most respect for picking up hitchhikers. I Shouldn't I do. But I'll tell you children. I myself do not compulsively pick up hitchhikers. I do not myself compulsively do anything and in my conscience does not bother me one wit.

To have a completely empty car and to drive past the person waiting for a lift and not pick him up for fear lest acting out of my own Impulse in my own mind and my own good intention. I have obstructed the perfect Intention of God.

Well, you say odd. Give me a for instance when God does stop you, okay. Have you ever heard of the autostrada in Italy? It's a superhighway no speed limits and I'll tell you I was going as fast as my VW van could take me.

Maybe 75 pushing 80 just having a ball whistling my way through the autostrada. Hitchhikers a dime a dozen every every five feet you can pick them up by the carload and my car was empty and As I was whizzing by out of the corner of my eye, I caught a blur of a blonde head and blue eyes.

I don't like to see the blue, but I sure saw the blonde at the side of the road just a blur and Instantly my foot was on the brake pedal and that car was coming to a convulsive shrieking halt. When that thing came to a stop and it's finished trembling.

My eyes were blinking. My mouth was open. Cats is that an economical way to drive. Before I could think further. This blonde head had come running down the side of the road and opened the car door and had come in and when he closed the door a Rush of the Holy Spirit that the hair was standing up on my arms and my scalp was tingling with the presence of God.

We hadn't driven two minutes. But I learned that this blonde head and blue eyes Belonged to a Jewish boy from New York City. Desperately lost and seeking for the deepest answers to life. Oh art where you're called to the Jewish people.

That's how come you identify that blonde head nonsense. There's a God who is able children if we'll get out of his way to do the thing, which is perfect. Give me an instance art in scriptures where well-meaning good intentions act.

If it had been followed would have had dastardly results. Okay, turn to Matthew the 16th chapter. This is one of the most well-intending acts that's described in all scripture. Matthew 16 and the 13th verse when Jesus asked the great question Who do men say that I the son of man am and they said some say that what John the Baptist some Elias?

I'm Jeremiah one of the prophets and Then the beautiful way that the Lord had to take a general question and make it pointed and particular and put his finger right on Our chest. I love that. But who say ye that I am now tell you what children.

There's not a one of us who has come to the end of that question in all its fullness. We're only at the beginning of understanding of who he is if we really understood we would be acting far less compulsively than we do and there was Impulsive Peter waving his hand the air went wanting an A for the day now out the Christ the son of the Living God and he was right, but he was only at the beginning of understanding and Jesus said blessed art thou Simon by Jonah for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father which is in heaven.

It was only the beginning of understanding, but it's the beginning also of blessing the correct identification of who Jesus is. And then we read in the 21st verse that from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and Be killed and be raised again the third day.

Step one is the first understanding of who Jesus is and the understanding that follows that has got to do with shame suffering pain death and The same Peter who was so quick to impulse to impulsively identify Jesus Took him and began to rebuke him Saying be it far from thee Lord.

This shall not be unto thee. And I'll tell you what children if there had been a benevolent organization in that generation Surely Peter would have won a plaque for the man of the year award on the basis of that one statement.

I can see him now receiving honorary PhD degrees and his picture in papers with the big black hat in the tassel and all kinds of Recognition Pulitzer Nobel Prizes. Who knows what the world would have celebrated.

So wonderful and seemingly a statement as what Peter made full of right. Sounding intention. It was good Lord let this be far from you and as much as the world would have celebrated that statement as good.

It's interesting to see what the response of the Lord was to the same thing He turned and said unto Peter get thee behind me Satan thou art an offense unto me. For thou savors not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Christ's Sufficiency in Ministry

I don't think that any of us have pondered that statement of Jesus as well as we ought. I'll tell you that it was always very evident to me. That drug traffic pornography orgies Witchcraft the occult had the origin in hell.

But it wasn't quite so evident that good things have their origin there also. And I'll tell you I'm seeing a Satan so crafty and full of guile that if he can't seduce and Corrupt the children of God by invitations to blatant sin he'll snare them on things that are good that he might keep them from the things which are perfect and As effectively keep them from the will of God as if they had fallen into deepest sin.

Thou savors of the things which be of men and not of God. Thou art an offense unto me it stinks. You say art. How can you then? Operate always from the tree of life rather from the knowledge the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Well, God has performed a minute a mystery and has invested all things in his son Christ Jesus. Let's turn to Colossians and be reminded of that again. Paul speaks in the second chapter in the second verse of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in the sixth verse?

We're enjoying none are to receive. The Lord would walk in him rooted and built up in him in The ninth verse were reminded for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.

Do you really believe that? How many of us tremble to witness the Jewish people? Intimidated lest somehow they be more clever than we and They'll notice our inadequate grammar and they have a greater knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures and will be made to look foolish.

As if God is asking us Out of our inadequacies to do anything God said to a man by the name of Abram in his 99th year Abram. Be thou perfect and walk thou before me. Do you remember that? Be thou perfect and walk thou before me.

Do you remember that and I will make thee a father of many nations and a father of many nations? I have made thee and I will and I will and I will and I will. Why did he wait for Abraham to be 99 years old before he?

Sprung that one on him because that's the age of utter futility and helplessness. It takes 99 years of walking into walls. Of well-meaning intentions of trying by our own fleshly exertions to produce from a Hagar the fulfillment of God's Word.

To show us that we have come to the utter end of ourselves and let go and let God. There's no accident that in the same breath that God said walked on before me and be thou perfect. He said also, I am Lord God Almighty, you know, he had never before introduced himself to Abram with that particular phrase.

No accident because the same God who calls us to perfection Is the same God who does not expect that we are to obtain it by our own striving and by our own weakness. But by every provision which is in him I am the Lord God Almighty and you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power.

Do you believe that? You nod your head now, but this is not when you expected to believe it. Will you believe it when you're faced with a mob of 300 students who are ready to flay the flesh from your bones?

Will you believe it before a cantankerous mob where the atmosphere is so angry and bitter that that with men shooting daggers at you with your eyes and your heart is beating like a trip hammer and you've had a time of prayer with the Christian students who have invited you and then you come out of that circle and stand all alone by a Microphone before that howling mob to begin the first of eight days of meetings in which they have put up Stickers all over the campus cats is coming one word.

And you were embarrassed to death is that hey, what are you guys doing. Cats is coming. What do you think I am Jewish Billy Graham? Well, aren't we prayed and when we felt that that we just advertised abstract gospel meetings.

No one would come so we used your name to attract people cats is coming. Well cats finally came. Standing at one o 'clock at the Student Union building before the microphone at which every day another radical comes and gives an incendiary Invitation to violence and to death and dare you to begin the first of eight days of gospel meetings.

Four to six meetings the day cats is coming. I'll tell you if ever a man felt himself to be 99 years old in Terms of his inability and helplessness. It's a servant in that situation then well, I gave about a 20 minute message and then I opened up for questions and answers and There was a guy who was standing right smack dab in front of me at the back of the room in a way when I walked Into that room and saw that guy's face.

I knew he was going to be trouble and sure of his was the first hand it went on up and you should have seen The expression on his face. What a wise alecky smirk and he elbowed his friends. I could read his expression and said watch this guys.

I'll take care of this cats and We'll end this thing right where it begins. It'll go no further than this. Hey, mr. Cassie shouted in the hearing of 300 students. Will you answer me one question? I? Went go.

Do you believe in hell. You know what children I Had never really ever considered the question. I mean, I believe you know, it's in the scriptures, but I had never really thought it out. And if you could sit me down you would find enormous gaps in my understanding.

Somebody came up to me after a meeting recently said oh art. It was so good tonight. How I would love to hear you preach on prophecy. I said you're not likely ever to have that opportunity. What's the matter she said.

I said I don't have a single message on prophecy. What do you think of that for Jewish man in ministry to the Jews? I? Don't have a single message on prophecy children. You know, how come because I only have the messages that God himself gives me.

They may not be many. But every single one of them have their inception in heaven in the heart of the Living God. I Try to cleverly construct the sermon that you would ask me to walk over a bed of hot coals and I was telling some people in a meeting the other night how I came to a Meeting like this in a place where I'd never been before a brand-new New Testament Fellowship and the word had gone out in that rural community.

They had come from 60 miles away a hundred miles away. Hey, you got to hear this guy heard him in Jerusalem. And they came with their tape recorders poised and I came with the peace of God and they were expecting an encounter with God that was going to singly lead them at the crossroad where they were and I came without a message not knowing what to speak and I thought well when I'll pray in my motel room that night the Lord's Gonna give it to me nothing.

All right. Well, I'm as I'm driving to the meeting place. The Lord is going to breathe it to me nothing. And I came to them to the place of the meeting and I went to the back of the room I play to get prayed again a little bit more desperately.

Nothing. I Came and sat on the front row waiting to be called on. I was holding my Bible in my hands like osmosis. Waiting for something to come through the palms of my hands nothing. Finally if the time was ticking away is only a matter of moments.

I opened up the table of contents and I read through the books of the Bible. Nothing. I came up to the pulpit and I thought surely when I pray listen Lord, these people are expectant. I Prayed and I finished praying they all looked up and they were the tape recorders poised.

Nothing. I had a choice in that moment children. I Could have done something that was good. Or I could have done nothing. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever done nothing before hundreds of people?

With your face sticking out and hot flashes under your collar and your knees turning to jelly. Looking at the increasing faces of disappointment of the people of God who thought that you were some kind of an oracle or a mouthpiece talk about Dying.

Are you thought that the death of it that of which the cross alludes? comes at the end of the whole thing like when we're gonna be wonderful martyrs and it's gonna be over in a moment and Flitches a switch is going to be flipped and there'll be a cessation of consciousness.

Oh, come on. That's groovy. That's the easy part. The dying to which we're called is continual. It's a death which worketh in us and Life in them. I Hope you're listening most intently because God is speaking something which is perfect in that moment.

When you're feeling all of the pains and rigors of death, there is such an overwhelming itch to do something. And I could have thought of a lot of good things to do. I Could have spoken any number of messages which God himself has given in times past.

But I'll tell you if it's not a message for now. It's not a life-giving thing. So, you know what? I did. I did nothing. And I'll tell you there was a silence so heavy. You could have cut it with a knife and there are a few precious souls that I knew and their faces were masks of Disappointment and I just had a chokers brother and say finally these people I have nothing to say to you.

And they're speaking to themselves for this we came at a great distance. This is the hot shot of which we've heard he has nothing to say to us. What's the matter is he prayed up you see children and you're not even able to explain.

And finally I said something maybe we're at a new crossroad. Maybe this is a new dispensation and we're being phased out of the old game of sitting in rows. Looking at the backs of each other's heads looking up at a platform watching the professional do it.

Maybe God is wanting to start something new tonight in which we are all to be employed. Then the Adam's apples were bobbing out there. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope, and so we waited it was painful and Finally a new believer who had never before ever publicly spoken in a church Got up with a trembling voice and said already said I I have an impulse I certainly leading toward a certain scripture and he he said could this be it and he read me a scripture from Philippians and I said no, I Got no witness from the spirit of life that man sat down with such disappointment and embarrassed.

Blushing he had taken his heart in his hands to suggest something and it was not what God wanted. Now, I wonder if you can understand this. I believe that God prompted him to say that and yet it was not the scripture that God was going to employ.

Have you ever entered the school of obedience. It has not a cotton-picking thing to do with our understanding and. Then finally another person suggested a scripture and everybody leaned forward and it seems oh, maybe this is it.

This is not to be it nothing. What an itch to have taken that scripture and fabricate something good and I think I could have done a reasonable job. Nothing. Obedience unto silence and finally after another lengthy deadly pause there was an utterance in tongues and something began to well up by the spirit of life and far away in the other side of the room came an interpretation and then something began to quicken and God began to work and Before we had gotten out of that room that night God had done something.

Perfect, you know that we're complete in him. Who is the head of all principality and power and whom is it all the fullness of knowledge and wisdom? All you have to do is to be circumcised with him it says in the 11th verse.

With the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ buried with him in baptism. Wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead.

That's all you have to do is be buried with him again and again and again. And the third chapter says if there's a two-letter word if. If then if you then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above with Christ stands on the right hand of God.