Now Bildad is talking here and
says, Bildad the Shuet said, and he's talking to Job. And look what he says to Job
down in verse six. If thou wert pure and upright,
surely now he would awake with thee and make the habitation
of thy righteousness prosper. He said, if you are pure and
upright, God would awake for you and make the habitation of
thy righteousness prosper. Now look down in verse 20, look
what else he tells Job. Behold, God will not cast away
a perfect man, neither will he help the evil doers. Now Job
answers him, verse 1. Answers everything that he said
here. Then Job answered and said, I know it is so of a truth. I
know if I was pure, God would have waited for me. I knew that
God won't cast away a perfect man. I know that's so. You've
told me that. I know it's a truth. But how shall a man be just with
God? How's he going to be perfect
with God? How's he going to stand pure before God? If he will contend
with Him, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand. God is wise in heart and mighty
in strength, who hath hardened himself against him, and hath
prospered. He removes the mountains, and they know not, he overturns
them in his anger. He shakes the earth out of her
place, and the pillars thereof tremble, which commanded the
sun, and it rises not and seals up the stars. God alone spreads
out the heavens, treads upon the waves of the sea. His God,
which made Arcticus and Orion and Pleiades, in the chambers
of the south, which doeth great things past finding out, and
yea, wonders without number. He goes by me, and I don't see
him. He passes on also, but I perceive him not. Behold, he taketh away. Who can hinder him? Who will
say unto him, What doest thou? If God will not withdraw his
anger, the proud helpers do stoop unto him. How much less shall
I answer him, and choose out my words to reason with him?
Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer him, but
I would make supplication to my judge. If I had called and
he answered me, yet would I not believe that he had hearkened
unto my voice. For he breaketh me with a tempest, multiplies
my wounds without cause. He will not suffer me to take
my breath, but filleth me with bitterness. If I speak of strength,
lo, he is strong. If I speak of judgment, who shall
set me a time to plead? If I justify myself, my own mouth
shall condemn me. If I say I am perfect, it shall
also prove me perverse. Though I were perfect, yet would
I know not my soul, I would despise my life." about God would not cast away
a perfect man. Man was pure that God would await
for him. And Job said, I know that's true.
But he says there in verse 19 of chapter 9, if I speak of strength,
lo, he is strong. And if of judgment, who shall
set me a time to plead? Listen to what he says here. If I justify myself, My own mouth
shall condemn me. If I say I am perfect, it shall
also prove me perverse." If I say these things about myself,
if I claim these things, though I were perfect, yet would I not
know myself, I would despise my life. He said, if I claim
perfection in this life, I claim to be perfect before God, I'd
be perverse and condemn myself, and I'd end up without any hope
for God whatsoever." That's what he's saying. Perfection. We're going to talk about perfection.
Now turn to Colossians with me, chapter one. Perfection. Talk about perfection. You know, Paul said, I would
to present you as chaste virgins to Christ. I don't know about
you. Maybe you can grasp perfection.
I can't. I just can't. I cannot more grasp the
idea of perfection than no more than I can eternity, without
beginning, without any ending, to grasp eternity. There's a
time that there ever was any time before God. There was only reason there's
time because God said, let this be the beginning. Because there
was a time before there was a beginning. So once there was a beginning,
there'll never be an ending. And for us to grasp eternity,
we just can't do it. We just can't do it. There's
people been in eternity. Adam, Abel. Abel's the first
man to die on this earth. And he'd been in glory now for
all these thousands and thousands of years, and it just, I mean,
not even a snap of a finger, not even a twinkle of an eye. So we can't grasp that. How are
we going to grasp perfection? When we try to grasp and conceive
of perfection, to think of something without thought, we become at a loss, you know,
because we, in ourselves, we're imperfect. imperfect. But I know where perfection's
at. I know where perfection's at.
I know a couple places it's at. First of all, perfection's in
God. God Himself is perfect. God is a perfect being. Perfect
in all of His ways. Perfect in all of His acts. Perfect
in all of His will. Perfect in all of His doings.
Perfect in His creation. perfect in His... Who else has
the majesty that God has? Who else has the glory that God
has? There's not a spot or blemish
in the character of God as long as God has been, and God never
was a time without Him. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am He that was, I am He that is, I am He that is to come. He said, Jesus Christ, the same
today, yesterday, and forever. I'm not the same yesterday and
today. I will be the same this evening
that I am this morning. Will you? No, we won't. But God's not that
way. When you talk about power, all
power belongs unto Him. Wisdom? Wisdom not only knows
all things, but wisdom ordains everything. There's wisdom behind
every act of God. There's wisdom behind every move
of God. There's wisdom behind everything
that God does. He didn't just wind this thing
up like winding up a clock. I'm going to let it wind down
until the time runs out and then it's all over. That's not the
way things happen. He declared the end from the beginning and
from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying,
all my counsels shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. And oh, when you talk about immense,
the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. And all of His attributes
are immense, His dominions over everything. It's said over in
the Psalms, and I read to you this morning, that articus He
put up there. Orion he put up there. Pleiades
he put up there. And they can't count the stars
in the Milky Way, but the Scripture says that God put the stars in
heaven and calls every one of them by name. Perfect? Oh, he's perfect. He comprehends every secret. Every secret you and I have.
Everything we've ever thought, he comprehends it. He grasps
all knowledge. He has all knowledge, and He
has perfect knowledge of you and me and everything that's
ever been on this earth. He has perfect knowledge of it.
And He had perfect knowledge of it before it ever was. Perfect
knowledge of you and me. Perfect knowledge. And you know
there's never been a time that He had to think? He never had to sit down and
say, I need to decide the way to do this. I need to figure
out a way to do this here. He's never ever thought a thought. When you're as wise and as powerful
and as glorious as God, who knows all things, you don't have to
think. And that's why he said, who has
finished counseling? Who ever had to counsel God?
And I'll tell you something else about him. You look over at Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes is right after Proverbs. His works are perfect. Not only
is God perfect, And men can find fault with Him
all they want to, but I don't care how much fault they find
with Him, and how much they argue with Him, and how much they harden
themselves against Him, and how much they ridicule Him. It has
no effect on Him whatsoever. Man can stand with both fists
raised up in God's face and cuss Him for all his worth. It does
not move him one iota. It does not change what he's
going to do. It does not change his attitude. It does not change anything about
God. And a man can be Devoted to God as much as He can be devoted
to God. But I'll tell you something else,
that doesn't change God either. Whether you're against Him or
whether you're for Him, God's going to be God as long as God
is in the heavens and as long as there's a God is God before
anything ever was and He'll always be God. What we do does not change
Him one way or another. And you hear people talk about
him all the time, but it has no effect on him. Now, you've
hurt my feelings. You make me angry. You make me
sad. You can run me through a thousand
emotions, but you cannot do God that way. Look what he said here about
his works. His works are perfect, too. Look
down in Ecclesiastes 3.14. I know that whatsoever God doeth,
it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor
anything taken from it. And God doeth it, that man should
appear before Him." Oh, and I'll tell you something
else now. We're talking about God. That's perfect. We're talking
about perfection. Perfection's in God. God is perfect.
His works are perfect. And there's one thing on this
earth that's perfect. One thing on this earth that's
perfect. Even after the fall of Adam, when all perfection
was lost because of man's sin, because of man's disobedience,
one thing on earth that's perfect. And you know what it is? The
perfect will of God contained in the Scriptures. That's what's
perfect on this earth. This perfect will of God contained
in the Scriptures. I saw a fellow the other day
being interviewed. He wrote a book. He's a Muslim,
and he wrote a book, and he's got four degrees. And this fellow,
he wrote a book on the history of Jesus Christ, the real history,
the natural... And I heard him being interviewed
the other day, and the first thing he'd done is he attacked
the Bible. He said the New Testament, the Bible's not literal. You
can't take it literal. That Jesus Christ wasn't the
Messiah. That it has so many contradictions
in it. And the more he talked, the aggravated
I got. And he's a Muslim. And one woman asked him, How
are you a Muslim? How can you be a Muslim right
about Jesus Christ? And you know what? That done,
that made people so mad that she didn't even ask that question.
How can a Muslim, who don't even believe that Christ is much of
a prophet, write anything right or true about Him? How can anybody
that believes the Koran is their Bible and then try to tell us
that our Bible's wrong? But I'm telling you, the Word
of God, this is the perfect will of God. If there's one contradiction
in it, I'd like somebody to find it. If there's one thing that's
not true in it, I'd like somebody to find it. If there's one thing
that my faith cannot find rest and foundation on in the Word
of God, then I wish somebody could find it. But I'm telling
you something, the perfect will of God is contained in the Holy
Scripture. It's perfect in all of its parts.
You can't explain? Creation, apart from this book.
You can't explain man's condition and how he got to be a sinner
apart from this book. This book's the only one that
told us the condition we're in and how we got there. There's
no way in the world you can tell a man how he's going to be saved
unless you believe this book and find it out in this book.
You cannot find out anything about yourself that's right,
just, and true about God, about Christ, about salvation, about
how a man's saved. You can't find out nothing except
it's in this book. And I'll tell you, it's perfect
in all of its part, and it's perfectly true, and it's free
from error. It's free from error. It's perfect, and listen to me,
it's perfect in all that's necessary for a man to know. The only thing that problem with
us is, is that we're too slow to learn, and we got this whole natural
mind that we have to deal with when we're reading. And not only
is it perfect, and it's all that's necessary for man to know, but
it's perfect to guide us, This can be that thy blood were as
a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Wherewith shall
a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according
to thy word. Thy word forever is settled in heaven, O Lord.
It's perfect to guide us in this world, perfect to warn us and
keep us from the way we should go and the way we shouldn't go.
And not only guides us and encourages us, but it also warns us, don't
do that, don't go here, don't act that way, don't do this,
don't listen to this man. I'll tell you, it warns us as
much as it does, it guides us. And when we come to ourselves,
so God's perfect, His works are perfect, the perfect will of
God contained in the Scriptures, the Scriptures are perfect. But
when we come to ourselves, come down to ourselves, to us, to
look at ourselves, where is perfection? Anybody here want to raise their
hand and say it's me? Huh? I looked here in Colossians
1 with me just a moment. Are you back over there in Colossians
1 with me? Look in verse 21 of chapter 1,
talking about when we come to ourselves, look at ourselves,
where is perfection? And this is what he says about
us and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works. Enemies in your mind. Enemies
of who? Enemies of God. Enemies of righteousness. Enemies of holiness. Enemies
of truth. Alienated. We wasn't even in
God's family. And listen, it's enemies in your
mind by wicked works. Do you feel that perfection's
in you in any way? In any way at all? Every day, every
single day teaches us there's no perfection in us. Our conscience
tells us that we're imperfect. Conscience tells us, oh, how
imperfect we are. And the harder we strive, To
be like Christ. We'll make, we'll make, we'll
commit to ourselves. We'll say, I'm going to do this for so many
days. I'm going to commit to this particular thing for so
many days. And generally it won't last more
than three days when you commit to it. Is that not right? Our consciousness
tells us we're imperfect. And the harder we strive to be
like Christ, the more we strive and go after thunder and thirst
death, the more we see imperfection. in ourselves. Paul said, I know
that in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. And honestly,
honestly, before God, that man, at this moment, we have to confess
that in the way we live, the way we conduct ourselves in this
world, no perfection. And when we talk to one another,
in our conversations that we have even with our husbands and
wives and children and one another, our conversations, we have to
say, no perfection, no perfection. You may long for perfection,
may even moan for perfection, cry tears because of your imperfections,
but every tear you shed says imperfection. Every sigh, when
you sigh, says imperfection. Every harsh word that comes from
your mouth says imperfection. Every duty that we neglect says
imperfection. Guilty, guilty, guilty before
God. If I say I am perfect, my own
mouth shall prove imperfect. If I say and justify my mouth,
I shall be condemned in my own heart. Guilty, guilty, guilty
before God, imperfect. But now listen to me. Perfection,
according to scriptures, is absolutely necessary for all who hope to
enter into glory. You're not gone unless you're
perfect. Nothing but perfection can be in the sight of God. Because
we lost perfection, and because we're not perfect in ourselves,
does it mean that God has changed His demand for perfection? God
still demands perfection. I'll show you that from the Scriptures.
Look in Leviticus 22. Look in Leviticus 22 and verse
21. God said, Be ye holy as I am
holy. Now, a lot of people say, you
know, that you've got to, how am I going to be as holy as God?
I can't be holy. And next Wednesday night's message
is out of Psalm 15. Who shall stand in the hill,
the holy hill of God? Who shall ascend into God's hill?
Who shall stand before Him with pure hands and a clean heart?
Who shall abide in the tent of the tabernacle of the Most High? He does not lift it up his soul
under bandage. He does never lift it up his
soul in pride. He does never go on and on and
on. So I tell you what, if you're
going to go in God's presence, if we're going to go to glory,
we've got to be ye holy as I am. Look what he said in verse 21
here, Leviticus 22. And whatsoever you offer, whatever
you offer, and whosoever offers it, Whosoever offers, whatever
you, if you come this morning to offer something to God, if
you offer a sacrifice of peace offering unto the Lord to accomplish
a vow, or a freewill offering, and what you put in offering
this morning was freewill, I'm sure it was. If it's a bead or
sheep or whatever it is, whatever you bring to God, it shall be
perfect to be accepted at anything you bring, whether it's a prayer,
Whether it's money, whether it's an attempt, whether it's a worship
or whatever it is, it's got to be without spot or blemish to
be accepted. It must be perfect to be accepted. Perfect. If one wants to be saved
by God's holy law, and Bruce Crabtree told me the other day
about a famous, famous preacher. Famous, famous Presbyterian preacher. He was making fun of people who
refused to be brought under, said, we won't have the law as
a rule of life. He said, free from the law, happy
condition. He said, oh, listen, they say
they're free from the law and happy condition. They don't know
they're in a miserable condition. Well, I do know this. If one
wants to be saved by God's law, he's got to keep it from beginning,
perfect, perpetually, and all the time. He cannot one day,
one day decide, I'm going to pick this one and let that one
go. He said, we know That whatsoever the law says, a man's got to
do that law, he's got to continue in that law to do all things
written in that law, the book of law. That's the whole of the
word of God. He's got to do it all. And he
says, but that it is evident that a man is not justified by
the law in the sight of God, to just shall live by faith. For everyone who does not continue
in all things of the book of the law, he's under the curse.
And so a fellow wants to keep nine commandments as a rule of
life, but he doesn't want to keep Saturday as the Sabbath. And if he's going to go under
the law, he's going to start paying in tithes, and that's
what you've got to do. You know what you've got to do when you
pay tithes? You've got to bring ten percent of everything you've
got. If you've got a corn patch this year, you better bring ten
ears. If you've got a thousand ears, you bring a hundred of
them and give them to the preacher. That's what it's for. If you've
got a hundred cows, you better bring ten of them and give them
to the preacher. If you put up a thousand barrels
of hay, you bring a hundred of them and give them to the preacher.
That's how their lives, how their beautiful priesthood was kept
up under the law. So if we're going to do this,
we're going to start law keeping, we're going to have to, we're
going to have to, let's just quit serving, let's just move to Saturday,
because that was the Jewish Sabbath. I mean, we're going to either have
to do it or we're going to have to say, well, I'm guilty, I can't
do that. But you know what verse 13 of
Galatians 3 says? Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for he is written,
Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Oh, but listen now, unless we
can find perfection somewhere, we must have perfection. We don't
have to get it from ourselves, but we're going to have to find
it someplace else. And I'll tell you why. God would be unjust. God would be unjust if He did
not punish sin and reject a man who is not perfect. God would
be unjust to do that. When Vildad told Job, God will
not cast away a perfect man, Job said, that's true. But how
in the world am I going to be perfect before God? How am I
going to be just before God? You see, God would be unjust
if He did not punish and reject a man who is not perfect. He'd
be unjust. If He accepted you, with your sin and your imperfection,
the way you are, that he'd be unjust to do that. Huh? The judge of all the earth must
do right. The soul that sinneth, it must
die. Cursed is every man, continueth
all things. If God does not punish for ever
transgression, You listen to me now, I'm talking about God,
not talking about man's ways of doing things, man's way of
thinking. If God does not punish every transgression that a man
commits on this earth, he loses his throne and he's unjust. He
must punish every transgression that everybody's done on this
earth, or he's unjust and he'd have to give up his throne. If
he lets one sin, one transgression, go unpunished, then he ceases
to be God, ceases to be holy, ceases to be true, ceases to
be righteous. He must have perfection and we
must have it or be eternally lost and rejected of God. Without
it, now listen to me, without perfection we'd be unfit company
in heaven itself. Do you know what it says in Hebrews
10.23? We've come unto Mount Zion, the
city of the living God, to the just, the spirits of just men
made perfect. If you weren't made perfect,
you wouldn't be fit to go to heaven to be. Angels are perfect,
you couldn't be around them. God is perfect, you couldn't
enjoy Him. The spirits of most just men
already in glory, they're perfect, you wouldn't enjoy them. So we
must be made perfect. We can never enjoy heaven at
all. And let me show you something. You keep Colossians here just
a minute. We're going to get to it in a minute. Look over
at Revelation 21. Death does not change a man. This is what
gets me. And you all get this. You know,
that's why I don't go to funerals. If somebody who doesn't know
the Gospel doesn't preach it, I just don't go. I go to visitation
because I'm not going to go here. lies and being made to be something
they're not. Look at Revelation 21-27. Death
does not change a rebel into a son of God. Death does not
change a devil into an angel. He says here, Revelation 21-27, And there shall
in no wise enter into it, Anything that defiles, neither whatsoever
works abomination, or makes a lie, but they which are written in
the Lamb's book of life." That's all one's going to be there.
Now look down in verse 11 of Revelation 22. This is the end
now. This is when it's all said and
done. Our lives are done. He that's unjust, he's going
to be unjust still. You leave this world unjust,
you're going to face God unjust. He which is filthy, let him be
filthy still. You filthy in your sins, filthy
in your self-righteous rags, you'll still be filthy. And he's
righteous, he'll be righteous when he leaves this world as
he was here. Let him be righteous still. He that's holy, let him
be holy still. And I behold, I come quickly
with my rewards with me. What's my reward? My salvation,
my grace, my eternal reward is to give every man according to
his work shall be Alpha and Omega, the beginning, the end, the first
and last. 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. Now, what's outside the city?
Dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, adulterers, and whosoever
loveth, and maketh a lie. People say, well, it's just a
little white lie. All right, let's go back to Colossians. I'll get to where I'm going in
a minute. You stay with me. I'll get there. Talking about
perfection, we've got to be made perfect. Well, where in the world
are we going to find it? Where are we going to find this
perfection? Well, the ceremonialist, you know, the fellow that likes
ceremony, he said, I'll tell you what, I'll give you perfection.
Bring your little baby up here and let me sprinkle it. Put it
in the cupboard. Here, I'll give you this bread.
Grace, God will give you grace through this bread. Here, take
this wine. There's some great, God will
give you grace through this wine. Well, let me go give this fellow
here his last rites. He's fixing to die. And I need
to pray over him, get all of his sins forgiven before he leaves
this world. Oh, my. And then they have the
ceremonies. I tell you, you know, you know
how many people, Baptists believe and so many people believe in
this world that unless you pray, they see you pray through what
they call an old fashioned altar. They don't believe you're saved
at all. If they wasn't there and didn't see you go through
that moaning and groaning and crying and praying through, they
wouldn't believe that you got any salvation. They want that
old time salvation. I can take you to the place,
I can tell you the time. And they got to have a time and
a place and experience. And if you ain't got a time and
a place and experience, you ain't got no salvation at all. Now
that's a ceremony. That's a ritual. Ain't that right? And if you don't go through their
ceremony and their ritual the way they think it ought to be
done, Did you not say it to Tom? Now, let me ask you this. Where
was Christ in what I just said? Did he trust Christ? Did he look
to Christ? Did he get to Christ? Did he
trust Christ? Did Christ put his sin away?
There's only one heaven in this universe that a man can go to
and be accepted of God, and that's Christ. Christ is our altar. And, oh, let me tell you, some
say perfection is to be attained by the flesh. Now, I know this
is true, because I've met too many people this way. Not only
is the Sermon that says perfection, but some say perfection is to
be attained by the flesh, by duties that we do. John Wesley,
and you can find it yourself. Get on the Internet, Google it,
and find it yourself, or get one of his books. He taught that
a man's sinner's perfection was attainable in this life. He taught
and preached, and that's why they were called Methodists.
They were called Methodists because they had a method from the time
you saved the things that you went through to get to where
you wanted to go. And that's why they called them Methods.
They had a method to the way a man was saved. A method to
the way a man groaned in grace. A method to sanctification. A
method to justification. A method to the way that you
were saved and sanctified. They had a method. That's why
they called them Methods. They had a method. Did you ever wonder why it's
called Methodist? Now you know. And I'll tell you, Thomas Aquinas,
do you know where prayer to saints and getting grace from saints
started at? There was a fellow named Thomas Aquinas. He was
the first man that taught this. He says that there's some saints
that have enough grace in themselves, have more grace than they need.
So if you'll ask them, They'll give you their grace because
they've got more than they need. And here's the first one to start
talking about praying to saints. To get grace from saints. And
I'm sure he had plenty enough to give a whole church house
full of folks enough grace. He probably had so much he could
give a whole bunch of folks grace. And this is what they say, beloved.
They say, oh, you've got to trust Christ first. You've got to believe
Him first. Then you lead a real, dedicated,
devoted life. And we got, he got a thing that
James brought me something Wednesday night, it says, train yourself
to be, lead a godly life. Train yourself to lead a godly
life. Christ first, believe they say,
lead real, real devoted life and observe religious duties.
Get up, read so many scriptures first thing in the morning. Do
some work. Pray and go over your life before
you go to bed at night and make sure that you got all your guts
in a row and you ain't done this, that, and the other. Count all
the sins you haven't committed. Pray over all of them. Get them
all took care of before you go to sleep. And then you'll start
climbing. You'll start climbing in religion.
And you'll get higher and higher. You'll get high enough to be
justified if you live a good enough life. And then you'll
live a world more holy life than you'll be sanctified. And then
you'll go on until you reach the highest place. Oh, take me
up and set me on higher ground. You can't get on higher ground
than the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you, it don't take
much to show them that they're perfection. 1 John 1a says this,
if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth
not ends. If we say we have not sinned,
We make God alive. That's your sinless perfection,
all to pieces. Oh, but listen, I ain't done. I ain't done. Now, look with
me at Colossians 1. Look down at verse 25. Colossians
1.25. He said, where have I made a
minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you to fulfill or to preach the word of God to you? And this
is what he says we're going to preach. Even the mystery, which
has been here from ages and from generations, but now when the
preaching is done, is made man the pest to the saints. The saints
hear it and understand it. Because it's the saints to whom
God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery. That's been here, but now we
see it, we understand it, God's taught it to us through preaching.
The riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, now
listen to it, which is Christ in you, which is the hope of
glory. And it's Christ whom we preach,
warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that
we may present Christ, may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. And that's what we're laboring
for. Now, if you want to talk about perfection, look down at
Colossians 2.9. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him. That word, complete, means the
same word as perfection. You're complete in him. And,
oh, beloved, perfection. I know where to get it. I know
where to get it. I know where it's found. Found
in Christ. And listen to me. God's people
are in Christ. And not only are God's people
in Christ, but Christ is in Him. When did we get in Christ? Well,
the Scriptures tell us we were chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world. We were in it by election. God
chose us in Christ. God gave us grace in Christ before
the world ever began. And I just read it to you there
in Revelation 21-27. It says everybody that's not
written the last book of life, they're not getting in. If you
read it, you know when was the last book of life written. You think every time somebody
believes that Christ gets out of his book and writes his name
down in it? No, no. He had a book, the last book
of life, He stood as a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
and he's got a Lamb's Book of Life, and Paul told the Philippians,
he says, those whose names are written in the Book of Life.
He knows that there were some people he knew whose names were
written in the Book of Life. We are in Christ. When did we
get in Christ? Chosen in Christ. Elected in
Christ. Set in Christ. And our Lord Jesus
Christ, not only did He choose us, but He came to this earth
in time to pay our debt, and pursued a flesh, and became a
man on this earth to pay our sin debt that you and I could
not pay. He redeemed us from our debt,
from our sin, from our ruin, from our corruption. And He stood
good as our shirt. You know what a shirt He is? It's somebody who stands good
for somebody that's incompetent or unqualified to do for themselves. And it's more than going to the
bank and signing a note for somebody, because then you're just checking
on it. But Christ, beloved, He took all our responsibilities,
and God never once looked to His people for anything. He only
looked to Christ to pay. He said, they're yours. You take their incompetence,
you take their unqualifications, you take everything that's wrong
with them, and you make it right. Not only you make it right, but
make them right. Make them competent, fit to come
into my presence. Me to be inheritance of the saints
in life. Make them qualify them. How are you going to qualify
them? Give them. You take their death and I'll
give them their life. You take their sins and I'll
give you their righteousness. Your righteousness. You take
their disobedience and I'll give you your obedience to them. And I'll tell you something,
we're so identified with Christ in such a union with Christ in
what Christ did, we did. When Christ lived, Paul says,
you know, I live in my flesh by the faith of the Son of God.
And he's not talking about his faith in the Son of God. He lives
by faith, the faith of Christ Himself. It's Christ's faith,
it's Christ's faith that we look into. It's His faithfulness,
not our faithfulness. If it was just our subjective
faith that He's talking about, then that would be, you know,
we're trusting in Christ's faithfulness to us. I live in the life that
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
listen to me, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Do you trust your faith? for
His faithfulness. Oh, my. When our Lord Jesus Christ
died, we died with Him, crucified with Him. When He suffered on
the cross, we suffered with Him. When God's wrath was poured out
on Him, God's wrath was poured out on us. When God's justice
was against sin, it was against sin and us. You see, our sins
were laid on Christ. Christ Himself bore our sins
in His own body on the tree. And then He turns around and
gives us His righteousness. And just like we were in Adam
in our sin, we're now in Christ in righteousness. We were in
Adam disobedient, in Christ we're obedient. In Adam we died, in
Christ we're made alive. And then let me tell you this,
I've got to hurry, I took too long and I know I'm wearing you
out. Not only are we in Christ in the covenant election, we
are in Christ actually. We are actually right now. Those
of us that are believers, we're actually in Christ right now.
I'm actually, while I'm standing here this morning, I am in Christ
actually. It's not a theory, it's not something
that I speculate about. Huh? As I said, you know, and
what I mean by that is, is that when we hear the gospel, and
we understand the gospel, and we believe the gospel, and we
trust Christ, we actually become members of His body. We were
always in Christ, but in our knowledge, in our experience,
that's when we actually become in Christ, in our experience.
You understand what I'm saying? It's one thing to be in Him in
a covenant election, but it's another thing to experience being
in Him, and experience Him being in us. Faith comes by hearing,
hearing by the Word of God, and as we've heard these things.
You see, we were always in Christ, but we didn't know it. Do you remember when you found
out? When you found out you were in Christ, and always been in
Christ, and now you are in Christ? Oh, we didn't know it. Even though
we were securing him from the foundation of the world, we didn't
know it. We were heirs with him, but we didn't know it. We were slaves to sin until he
came and saved us and made us free. We didn't know, and that's
why we keep saying this over and over and over and over and
over again, because we're praying to somebody one of these days,
and I love to hear it myself over and over and over again.
I've downloaded a whole bunch of messages this week. And I
got a message that I ain't listened to yet. Christ the perfect Savior. And if I get up here in two or
three weeks to preach on Christ the perfect Savior, I ain't going
to tell you where I got it. I downloaded it. You see, I'm
like Scott Ridges. The only thing I got original
to me is my sin and everything else I got from somebody else.
He said, I don't know who I stole this from, but I'm going to pass
it on to you. Oh, you see, beloved, faith lays
hold of the inheritance in Christ. By faith, now, we're no longer
under tutors, no longer under school bachelors, no longer under
governors. We've come of age. And let me close with this. Let
me close with this. And I hope that you can stay
with me about four or five more minutes. Every soul, every soul
that is in Christ is perfect right now. If you're a new believer, if
right now, this moment in time, you in your heart, you say, I
believe, I believe, I'm looking to Christ right now. If you're
in Christ, if you're a new believer, you're perfect. Perfect, complete
in Christ. And that believer, and I'll tell
you, this is me and you and everybody else, that believer that's fallen
into sin, when he falls into sin, he doesn't lose his perfection.
No, no. With David, sinned with Bathsheba
and murdered Uriah, he didn't lose his perfection. And now
listen to me, he did not lose his perfection. He was as justified
in the sight of God as he was. God had made with him an everlasting
covenant ordering all things in sure. Now, he suffered for
his sin. His family suffered for his sin.
In the fact that God sent the sword, he chastised him and chastised
him severely. But David was as perfect Because
perfection's in Christ, not in our deeds. If we can lose our
perfection, you know how many times a day we can lose our perfection?
Huh? When Peter denied Christ, he didn't lose his perfection.
He lost his peace, he lost his comfort, but he didn't lose his
perfection. When Noah got drunk on wine laying
his tent naked, he embarrassed himself and embarrassed his sons.
But I tell you what, he did not lose his protection. He sinned,
and he grieved for it, and he was ashamed of it, and his son
got cursed for it. But he did not lose his protection. And I don't care what anybody
says. They say, if that gives you a
license to sin, if that's all it takes to give you a license
to sin, have at it. And I'll tell you that old believer,
that old believer, that old warrior. And I was talking to Brother
Paul the other day, and he was telling me about his daddy. He
said, his daddy's getting feeble. And I thought, oh my goodness.
Oh, he's so full of life and so full of bitter, and walking
in the pulpit, you know, with such confidence and such assurance,
and preaching gospel so powerfully, so clearly, so plainly. Last
time I seen him, he was shuffling along. And that old warrior,
that old believer, that old fellow that's fought to fight, fought
to battle, you know what he'll tell you when he's laying on
his deathbed, even while he's struggling around, he'll say,
there ain't no perfection in me. None whatsoever. He said, when I wouldn't do good,
I don't. When I wouldn't do evil, I do.
I find there's a war in my flesh. Oh, wretched man that I am. And
the believer with all of his infirmities, and how many infirmities
do we have? How many infirmities? You got
a hasty temper? Your tongue slips every once
in a while? You surely don't fall off the handle? You surely
don't let your tongue slip and say things? You're not like Saul
who said, I'm blind, but I'm cuddly. Oh, every soul that's in Christ
is perfect. And the thing is, are we justified
by works or by grace? Are we justified by Christ or
by deeds? It comes right down to that.
Either Christ justifies us, Christ makes us perfect, or our works
does. And if I had no good works whatsoever
at this very moment, through faith in Christ, I was completely
justified as if I had 10,000 good works. Bad works doesn't
get me lost. Good works doesn't make me better.
Christ, Christ makes us perfect. Christ justifies us. Christ puts
away our sin. And never ever look to yourself
for anything at any time because you won't find anything but imperfection. And that'll do to live by, and
that'll do to die by, because that's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to live by this blessed gospel. You ask me tomorrow,
well, Don, are you perfect? No, no, no, no. Is there anything
perfect today? Oh, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. On the way to service this morning,
me and Mary Bolt talked about how selfish we are. Selfish,
selfish, selfish. I don't want her to go, and she
don't want to go, and she don't want me to have nobody else.
It's an awful thing to go through. Selfish. That's imperfection. But Christ's not selfish. Christ
is perfect. And He loves us perfectly. Ain't you grateful for that? Our Father, Our Father, Our Father,
O Lord, O blessed Jesus, blessed Savior, O God, Oh, God, our souls,
our souls embrace you. Our hearts reach out for you. Our eyes of faith look up to
you. Our hope is so filled up, and
our faith and heart is so full, and it's because of you. Oh, Father, bring glory to yourself
through us as a body of believers. Help us to never waver, waver
on this blessed gospel of Christ us all. And thank you for these saints.
Thank you for this food. May our time this afternoon be
blessed with you. May we enjoy the food in one
another's company. Thank you so much for the saints
who prepared it and brought it with such love and care. And Father, for Christ's sake,
save you people in this place. In His name I pray. Amen. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Find in me Thine all in all. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left the crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. I hope God enables some of you
to trust Christ. You girls go on and get the dinner
ready. Holler at us when you're ready.
Just open the door and holler, come on in. Thank you.