I just read to you from Job how that build-ad said
to Job, he said, God will not cast away a perfect man. He won't
do it. If a man's perfect, God won't
cast him away. He won't tell him to get out
of my presence. And Job said, well, you told the truth. I know that's the truth. But
I also know this is truth. How will a man be just before
God? How's that going to happen? And
Job goes on down and says, if I say that I am perfect, if I
say I'm perfect, my own mouth shall condemn me, and I'll prove
that my ways are perverse, and that I don't even know and I
despise my own soul, because that's what will happen. If you
say you're perfect, and want to be accepted of God on the
basis of something you do to make your perfection. Job said,
if I've done that, then I despise my own soul because I'd end up
being deceived and being eternally lost. So where in the world are
we going to get perfection at? Look here in Colossians chapter
1 with me then, in verse 25. We'll talk a little bit about
perfection. whereunto I made a minister according
to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill
the word of God, to preach the word of God, fully preach it
to you." The mystery, even that mystery which had been hid from
ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to his people,
to his saints, because it's to them that God would make known
what is the riches. of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
Now watch this, whom we preach, warning every man, teaching every
man in all wisdom, now watch it now, that we may present every
man perfect in Christ Jesus. And I labor for this, striving
according, not by my own ability, but His working which worketh
in me mightily. So where are we going to find
perfection at, Jane? It says here, present every man perfect
in Christ Jesus. That's why I picked that hymn
out that Gary wrote this morning. Perfect ones. Perfect ones. Can
we grasp perfection? A man in whom is no flaws, no
faults? The mind cannot no more grasp
perfection in the flesh and in a man than it can grasp eternity. to have no beginning and no ending.
And when we try to conceive, to grasp perfection, to be without
flaw, to be without thought, we're lost. We're lost when we
try to conceive of this because we are in ourselves so imperfect. We're just so imperfect in everything
that we are, everything that we think, everything that we
do. But there is perfection. God is perfect. God is perfect. Oh, He's perfect in all of His
attributes. One attribute cannot be presented
against another. He's as perfect in His grace
as He is in His hatred. He's as perfect in His love as
He is in His wrath. He is as perfect in His mercy
as He is in His justice. Oh, you can't say he's greater
in one attribute than another, because that would make him imperfect.
So he's perfect in all of his attributes. He's without block. He's without sphincter. Blemish,
that's why Job said, who can answer him more than a thousand?
And when he passes by, I don't see him. I can't perceive of
him. Well, if he don't do something
for me, I'll never know anything about him. And oh, beloved, his
glory, his glory is unsurpassed. He said he would not let no flesh
glory in his presence. Power, people talk about power. All power belongs unto him. Wisdom, he knows all things from
the minute to the dust particle in the air to the most immense. As far as the East is from the
West, and he has no contingency plans, nothing is going to ever
happen that he'll have to back up and say, I need to try another
shot at that. And he comprehends all secrets. All secrets. I'll tell you what
he told Ezekiel. He said, Ezekiel, come here,
I want to show you something. And there was a whole bunch of
the elders of Israel sitting in there, and they were worshipping
the sun, they were worshipping the moon, they were worshipping
idols, and they had all these deceptions. And they all thought
they was in the dark, and nobody knew anything about it. And God
said, see them sitting in there? He said, they said, nobody knows
what's going on. But I'm just going to let you
see. I mean, God, beloved, knows the secrets and intents of a
man's heart before he knows what he's going to think and what
he's going to do. And He grasps all knowledge. All knowledge
is in Him. And you know why He knows the
end from the beginning? Because He declared the end from
the beginning, and He done it without thinking. If He ever
has to stop and think about anything, He's imperfect. And that's why
I say God is perfect. And that's why Job asked this
question, and everybody else, and even God said, Who's going
to counsel me? Who's going to counsel me? And
let me show you something. You teach Colossians, and everybody
knows where Ecclesiastes is, don't you? That's right after
the book of Isaiah, back to your left. You got the Song of Solomon,
and then you got Ecclesiastes. And I want you to look here in
Ecclesiastes 3 with me. You see, not only is God perfect
in all of His attributes, in His knowledge, in His omniscience,
in His wisdom, but His works are perfect. Even everything
he does is perfect. Look what it said here in Ecclesiastes
chapter 3 and verse 14. I know. Now here's something
he knows. I know that whatsoever God doeth,
it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor
anything taken from it. And God does it that men should
fear before Him. And oh, beloved, so God is perfect. Oh, if we're going to find perfection,
we're going to have to find it outside ourselves. Not only is
He perfect, His works are perfect. And let me tell you one thing,
one thing, that on this earth, right here on this earth right
now, that is perfect. Right now on this earth. Even
after the fall of Adam, when all perfection is lost in the
human race because of man's sin, because of man's disobedience
to God, there's only one thing on this earth that is perfect.
And you know what that is? The perfect will of God contained
in the Holy Scriptures. Everything God wants us to know
and wills for us to know and reveals Himself to us in any
way is right here. This is perfect. I know some
people say, I read a thing this week, and I sent it out to a
bunch of my preacher friends, and I said, this is the horror
of religion. Over 50-something percent of
what they call now evangelical Christianity, the preachers do
not believe that all the Bible is complete. That there is certain
things in the Bible that is not true and is not to be believed
and not to be trusted. They debate over whether the
first eleven chapters is really real or not. Whether the virgin
birth is real or not. It's the idea, it's the moral
story that's presented in the scriptures that people's interested
in. But God's blessed book is perfect in all the parts of it. As you can go from Genesis to
Revelation and not find the flaw in it. Not find an error in it. Not find a contradiction in it. It's perfect, it's perfectly
true, and it's without any error. And if you ever find anybody
finds an error in it, mark it down. The error's in the man,
it's not in God's blessed book. I ain't gonna take time enough
to listen to a man tell me what, how, where the Bible's wrong
here, where the Bible's wrong there. It'd been better here
if they'd done it this way, that way, and another way. God gave
us an English Bible and the English language, and we don't have to
know the Hebrew or the Greek or any other language. Most of
us don't even know good grammar, and God gave us a blessed book
that we can sit down and read. And a common language for us
to understand. That's a wonderful thing, ain't
it? And it's perfect, and I'll tell
you this, it's perfect in all that's necessary for man to know.
If God wanted you to know anything more than this, He would have
gave it to you. So if somebody comes to you and says, God gave
me a vision, God gave me this, God gave me this other thing
that does not contradict this, don't believe it. I'm telling
you something, God gave us this right here so that everything
that's necessary for me and you to know is in this blessing book. It's perfect to guide us. You
want to know which way to go? Look at God's Word. It directs
us. The steps of man is not... He don't even know how to direct
his steps. God said that He'd direct the steps of His people. Perfect to warn us. Perfect to
instruct us. Perfect to make us know what
God would have us to know. And, beloved, no wonder the Scripture
says, Thy Word, O Lord, is forever settled in heaven. forever settled. Heaven and earth will pass away,
but thy word, thy word will never pass away is what he said. The
scriptures are profitable, given to us in the inspired of God
and given for us for doctrine, for instruction in righteousness,
for reproof, for regroup and correction and instruction, everything
we need. And it's perfect. It's perfect. But, oh beloved, back over here
in Colossians with me. And when we come to ourselves,
and to look at ourselves, we have to say, we're in the world
of perfection. Where is perfection? Look there
in verse 21 of Colossians chapter 1. Look what it says about us. And you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind, by which it works, yet now hath
He reconciled." Alienated enemies, which it works. That's what we
were. Let me ask you a question, a
couple of questions. Do you feel that there's any
amount of perfection in you at all? At all? Any perfection in you in any
part of your life? Any moment in time, is there
any moment in time, in you, and under any circumstance that there
is perfection in you? Every day teaches us imperfection. Our conscience tells us. Our
conscience tells us that we're imperfect. And the harder, and
I know this and you know it too, the harder we strive to be like
Christ, the more imperfection we see in ourselves. That's why
Paul cried out and said, oh, oh, I know that in me that is
in my flesh. Well, that's no good thing. No
good thing. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me? Would a man that's perfect in
his flesh, perfect in his doing, cry out, oh, wretched man, am
I who shall deliver me? Oh, and honestly, honestly, right
now, before God, we have to confess, right now, in our conduct, in
our conduct, from the time we get out of bed till we go to
sleep at night, no perfection. Imperfect, imperfect. In our
manner of life, day in and day out, in our conversations and
what we say, no perfection, no perfection. You may long for
perfection. You may moan for it. You may
cry tears for it. You may absolutely abhor yourself
because of your imperfection, but every tear we shed says imperfect. Every sigh we sigh says imperfection. Every harsh word we speak says
imperfection. Every duty we neglect says imperfection. Every time we pray and our mind
wanders, it says imperfection. What are you going to do? Go, God! Oh, God, I'm guilty
of imperfection. But let me tell you something. According to the Holy Scriptures,
it's absolutely necessary for anybody to be saved and to enter
into glory. Perfection is demanded that you
have it. You must be perfect. I mean,
if you're going to be saved, if you're going to enter glory,
if you're going to enjoy God, you must have perfection. That's an impossibility to go
to glory and enjoy God and know God and know Christ without perfection. And just because we lost perfection
in the fall, because we lost perfection through our sinfulness,
that has not changed the demand that God has for perfection.
You go through the Scriptures, and every, every offering that
God said to bring to me, He said, bring it without spot, bring
it without blemish. I don't want anything you got
that's got a spot in it or a blemish in it. It's got to be without
flaw, it's got to be perfect, it's got to be perfect to be
accepted. If you bring anything to God, It's got to be perfect. And I
mean, beloved, the priest would look it over from end to end,
top to bottom, inside and outside, pull back the fur, and everything
to look to see if there's a blemish. If it was, take it away! And oh, beloved, if one wants
to be saved, and a lot of people seem to think that they can by
God's law, put it all in their front yard, put it on their walls
and everything else, but by the very fact, beloved, that God
says, love me. That means love perfectly. So
if God says, love your neighbor as yourself, that means perfectly.
Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. And oh,
and if it's going to be saved by law, you must be kept perpetually
and perfectly. Paul said it this way, that no
flesh is justified by the sight of God by the law. He said, it
is written, he that keeps the law and wants to be saved by
the law must keep it continually. And if he doesn't do that, cursed
is the man who keeps it not continually. Oh my, how many defense don't
do that? You got to do it from start to finish. And let me ask
you this. Well, let me tell you this. I
ain't going to ask or tell you. What if you started, say, when
you was 30, and you did, you lived what you thought was a
good, perfect life, acceptable to God. What are you going to
do with the 29th year and the 364th day before you turn 30? What are you going to do with
that year when you wasn't perfect? Huh? Because God's going to come
back and He's going to look at everything up to the... He's
going to look at all of it. He ain't going to just pick and
choose over it. Do you get that? No imperfection can be in His
presence. And listen to me now, unless
we can find perfection somewhere, And we're going to have to have
perfection in ourselves, or we're just going to have to get it
from somebody else. And I'll tell you something. Listen to
me now. Here's one, and I just read it to you over in Job. God
would be unjust if He did not punish and reject a man who is
not perfect. If He ever received a man into
His presence who is imperfect, then God would not be just. He
would defile his holy character and destroy his throne. You see,
the judge of all the earth must do right. And the soul that sinneth
it shall die. And that's what I said, said,
God will not cast away a perfect man. Job said, that's true. But
how's a man going to be perfect just before God? Where God can
look at him and say, you're a justified man. I don't see any fault in
you. I don't see any sin in you. I don't see any imperfection
in you. I see nothing but spotlessness and glow in perfection. And Job said, how's that going
to happen? Oh, let me tell you, if God does not punish for every
transgression, every transgression that a man does, he loses his
throne and he's unjust. We must have perfection or eternally
be lost and rejected of God. Now, that's just the way it is.
And I tell you, everyone, everybody in here knows something about
God's grace and knows something about their sin. They know what
I'm saying is so. And let me tell you this, without
perfection, we'd never, never be fit company for the saints
in heaven itself. We'd never be fit company for
heaven. Could you imagine somebody that don't? You know, if we went
right now, if we went to heaven the way we were, we wouldn't
be in our cells. Let me show you something over
in Hebrews. Keep with Colossians. Look over in Hebrews with me,
chapter 12. The angels are perfect. The ones that haven't fallen. The saints that are in glory
now are perfect. Look what it says here in Hebrews
12 and 22, just a moment. But you come unto Mount Zion.
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church
of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and we've come to
God the judge of all," now watch it now, "'and to the spirits
of just men made perfect.'" Men would enjoy heavenly not perfection.
And so we must be made perfect. We can never enjoy heaven. We
can never enjoy God. We can never enjoy one another
then. And this is what preachers are
so guilty of and people are so guilty of. They think that death
changes a rebel into a son of God, but it doesn't do. When's
the last time you went to a funeral? And that was a person who never,
ever thought about God, never mentioned God, never darkened
the church outdoors, as they say. Had no interest in the scriptures,
no spiritual interest in anything. And all of a sudden, they die.
And when they're dead, they become from being a God-hating, Christ-rejecting,
Holy Ghost-denying rebel to the finest fellow that ever walked
on the earth. How does that happen? I'll tell
you, as the tree falls, so shall it. Death does not change a person's
nature. God said here, he that's unjust,
let him be unjust still. He that's guilty, let him be
guilty still. He that's holy, let him be holy still. For without
are whoremongers, and dogs, and adulterers, and idolaters, and
all them that love us and make us alive. I mean, you die a God-hater,
and you'll live a God-hater throughout eternity. You die without knowing
Christ, and you'll live all eternity without ever knowing Christ.
And people say, well, if they could ever come back out, they'd
make it. No, they wouldn't. The Scriptures
tell us that they continue to blaspheme God. Death don't change
your nature. You don't—the only reason that
God wanted to—He didn't even want out of hell. All He said
was, is, I want water. And he was here arresting his
brothers, said, oh, I don't want them to come to this awful place.
Go tell them, go tell my brothers, and I'll tell Abraham, said to
him, said, you don't want to tell something. Your five brothers
have Moses and the prophets, if they won't hear them, they
wouldn't come if somebody rose from the dead. People think that death changes,
but death doesn't change you. God will change your nature here
on this earth, or you're going to die the way you live. And I'm glad if you, to save
somebody that you love, you save the person you love the very
most on this earth. Would you change God's nature
and character? Would you have God change his
nature and character in order to save him? Would you do it? Would you change God the way
he is? To get somebody through? Well, then if you've done that,
then it's not sure that you can forgive people. No, we wouldn't
change God for 10,000 worlds like this. We love Him the way
He is. Love Him the way He is. All right. We've got to be perfect.
God demands perfection. Just because we're sinners don't
mean He lessens His demands. When we're in the world, we're
going to find perfection. Where are we going to find it? God
demands it. He Himself is perfect. Where
are we going to find it? Well, people who love ceremony,
they say this, they say, well, I'll tell you what, you come
on down here to this, come on down here to the front here and
get on these benches here. Get on the front and come down
here and I'll tell you what you do. You start crying and you
start praying and we'll go through this ceremony. We'll have this
sinner's prayer. You're a sinner, ain't you? Oh,
yeah. Well, if we go through this sinner's prayer and you
repeat after me, you believe God does what I do? Well, then
come and stand up and tell it. That's a ceremony. That's a ceremony.
Ceremonies love it. Oh, they say, bring your baby
up here. We'll baptize that baby. We'll go through that ceremony,
and we'll sprinkle some water on his head, and water on his
head, and we'll tell you, oh boy, you'll feel so religious,
you'll feel like you've dedicated your baby, you'll feel like you've
done something for God, and your baby's safe now. Oh, I'll tell you what you do.
I know you don't know God, I know you don't care about God, but
listen. Let's get the lights turned down low. Let's get the
music just right. Let's get some smoke going up
through the center and all that. And we'll dress in all white.
We'll get us some funny hats to put on our heads. And y'all
come on down here. Take this bread and take this
wine. And oh my, you're in good shape. There's a fellow dying. Preacher,
would you come pray with me for him? And they make that prayer
over a dying man just because the preacher prayed. Oh, I know what will save you.
I know what will save you. Let's go in the baptistery pool.
Let's get in the water. And that water will wash your
sins away. Because you obeyed God in that
one night. You going to get perfection in
your life? Does bread and wine give you perfection? Does water
give you perfection? Prayers through on an old passion
will give you perfection. I tell you what, you'll never
have to have somebody teach you how to pray if God ever makes
you a sinner. You'll be praying a sinner's
prayer for the rest of your life. Isn't that true? You'll be praying that sinner's
prayer for the rest of your life. God have mercy on me! Lord, I
need you! I'm helpless! I'm weak! Oh God, forgive me! I'm sorry I can't listen. I'm
sorry I thought I'd done it. Oh my, we pray the sinner's prayer
for them until we're going to be with glory. And oh, some say
it's perfection to be attained by the deeds and duties that
we do in this old fashion. John Wesley taught, and you can
find it yourself, get on the internet, go to the library,
pray and get his books, do whatever you want to, but he taught sinless
perfection. That you could actually get to
a place in this life where you have no more sin in your life. Oh, Thomas Aquinas, he's the
daddy of what we call Roman Catholicism today. He is the first man who
taught this, that there's enough merit in some saints. Say, you're
a saint, and you live such a good life, and a holy life, and a
perfect life, that you have enough merit in your life that you could
give somebody a son. And so they created these saints.
So you bypass God. That's real worship. You bypass
God. You bypass Christ. And you call on St. Thomas or
St. Jude or St. Christopher or some
other saint. And they've got enough merit.
They're going to give you what they've got. Scary, ain't it? But there's
people this morning by the millions and millions and millions going
right now and some priest is doing some hocus pocus over them. And they're calling on some saint,
you know, and, well, I'm going to travel today, so I'm going
to call on a saint that's going to give me merit for my travel.
Me and Cody was talking about this. We go down, we went to
Chiapas, and that's way, way, way south in the southern part
of Mexico. And you've got to go over these
incredible mountains. I mean incredible mountains, dangerous.
And we go through there, and I remember this, and there's
a lot of truck drivers. And they would have every imaginable
saint that you could imagine on the dash of their trucks,
stuck in the grill of their trucks, on the bumps of their trucks.
I mean, they had every face covered. They had Mary. They had all the
saints. They had Mary with the baby.
I mean, you name it. They had it on their truck. They
had all their bases covered. They had every safe that you
could ever imagine. It's in the Catholic Church, on their trust.
So they'd get there safe. But oh, beloved. And here's what
they say about that. They say, oh yes, Christ is first.
Yeah, you've got to have Christ first. Must believe, they say.
But then here's what you've got to do. Here's what you've got
to do if you want to have perfection. You've got to observe all your
religious duties. You've got to pray so much a
day. You've got to afflict your body. You've got to keep it under
control. You've got to be dedicated and
devoted. Oh, my, oh, your devotion's got
to be until, oh, you just can't hardly, you're just almost enraptured. And observe all your religious
duties, and you'll start climbing. And you'll climb here, and you'll
get the stuff done, and you'll climb a little higher, and eventually,
you'll reach that highest plane where sinner's perfection's at.
Can you get any higher than Christ? Huh? Oh, my. I'll tell you what. I get around
somebody like that, it don't take me long to mess up their
profession. You know, it wouldn't take me
long. Start talking to them, you know,
find out real quick that I was perfect as I thought I was. You
know, start questioning about God, start questioning about
Christ and the relationship with Him. You don't think I'm a heathen,
do you? Yeah, I do. I do. I think most
people are heathens. I think most Americans are heathens.
And they want to go over to preach to the Africans and the Haitians
and everything else, when we need preachers in America to
start preaching to the heathens in America. And most heathens
is in a Baptist church, in a Catholic church, in a Presbyterian church,
being told everything to salvation but Christ. Making them twofold more of the
child of hell than they themselves. Well, here, let me show you where
perfection's at. I'll get there. It takes me a while, but I'll
get there. Look what he says now. Here in Colossians 1, 28. Whom we preach, talking about
Christ, warning every man. Colossians 1, verse 28. Whom we preach, warning every
man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present
every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Look in chapter two, in verse
nine, let me show you this. Colossians 2.9. For in Him, I
love this, for in Him, always in Christ, in Him, dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And listen to it, and you are
complete in Him. And that same word, complete,
is the same word as perfection, which is the head of all principalities
and powers. Perfections in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And let me tell you something.
God's people are in Christ. How did we get in Christ? Let
me show you. Turn back over to Ephesians chapter
1. I'll show you how we got in Christ. And I'll tell you what,
we got in Christ decades before the world ever began. We just
didn't know it. Look what it said here in Ephesians
chapter 1 and verse 3. He's talking about spiritual
blessings. Blessed be the God and Father by our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. Here's the first spiritual blessing.
According as He hath chosen us in Him, there's that in Him again,
before the foundation of the world. And here's the reason
He chose us in Christ. And we were chosen in Christ.
We were in Christ before the foundation of the world. Now
that's what this is saying right here. Chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. Now that's God chose us in Christ
and when He looked at us in God's, in His blessed Son, we were without
blame, we were holy in Christ before you and I even knew we
were in Him. Ain't that right? And that's why it's God who has
saved us and called us with the Holy Calling, not according to
our works, but according to His purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now, when did
the world begin? Well, creation started when God
said, Let us. God's world existed before the
world did. And all the elect are in Christ.
And beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself the responsibility
of all those that were chosen in Him, given to Him by the grace
of God and the covenant of grace. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world to take only those people and their obligations
and their debts and to pay all of their debts. And we're so in Christ
and so united with the Lord Jesus Christ. that what Christ did,
we did. It says, Paul says, I'm crucified
with Christ. When was he crucified with Christ?
When Christ was crucified. And nearly before the, he was
a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. When Christ lived,
the scripture says we lived in him. When Christ died, the scripture
says, we died with him. When he rose again, the scripture
says, we were raised up together with him. When he ascended into
glory, it says, we were raised up together with him. And he
was sitting in heavenly places. And the scripture says, we sat
down in him. And remember, that's just in
Ephesians chapter 2. And that's all over the Bible. He was wounded for whose transgressions? Ours. Whose? Ours. Those chosen
in Christ before the foundation. His roots were our iniquity.
Whose? Ours. Those that were given to Him
in the covenant of Christ. Oh, beloved, our sins and, oh,
beloved, our iniquities and sins and transgressions was laid on
Him, and then His merit, His righteousness, His obedience
was given to us. It was a perfect exchange, a
complete exchange. He became who we are that we
could become who He is. He did what we couldn't do that
He could give us what we couldn't do. We couldn't pay for our own
sin, so He did. We couldn't die for our sin,
so Christ did. We couldn't run to perfection,
so Christ did. And now His perfection is ours. And also, we were in Christ in
election, and I tell you what, and then let me tell you this.
We were in Christ actually right now. Actually in Him right now. And what I mean by that is, to
our knowledge and understanding and our faith, we know we're
in Christ. You see, everything I said up
to this point, we didn't know until somebody came and told
us. I didn't even know I didn't have
a Bible until I was way up in my twenties. I didn't have a
Bible. I had a little New Testament
they gave me one time when I was a little boy, and I had no idea
what it was saying. But I do know this, that because I didn't
have a Bible, and I didn't know anything about the Bible, didn't
know anything about Christ, that did not negate the fact that
I was chosen in Christ for the foundation of the world. And then somebody comes along
and tells me that, and he says, God is just, and He'll justify
that man who believes on Christ, and I see my sinfulness, my inability,
and my impotence, and by God's blessed grace, He gives me faith,
and I love the Christ, and I trust Christ. Then Christ's holiness
and perfection and obedience is given to me, and God can now
look at me and say, perfect. with his spotless garments on,
I am as holy as God's own Son." Now, see, we were always in Christ,
and we were securing Him from the foundation of the world,
but we just didn't know it until somebody come along and told
us. How are you going to call on
Him of whom you have not heard? How are you going to believe
in Him of whom you have not heard? How are you going to hear without
a preacher? Somebody come and told you. And, oh, beloved, oh, bless
His holy name. We were just like anybody else
in the world. until God sends forth the Spirit
of the Son. When was the time? What was the
time? What was the cause that you started wanting to go to
start attending a service somewhere? What was the cause that started
you reading the Bible? What was the cause that caused
you to want to come and sit down and let somebody tell you how
sinful you are and how miserable you are and how impotent you
are? When did that start? What caused that to happen? You
went for years and decades and you didn't do it. What happened
that made you start to want to go here? And then what happened that after
you heard, you believed? What caused that? Oh, the Holy Ghost comes. And I tell you what, with sweet,
sweet violence, He begins to break in on a man's heart and
a man's will and bombard his ear until he just absolutely
surrenders. And the moment, the moment he
starts coming to Christ, he's there. The moment he believes,
he's perfect. He don't become perfect later.
The instant he trusts Christ, he's as perfect and righteous
as he'll ever be. Ain't that right? And that's why I'm telling you,
every soul that's in Christ right now, if you believe Christ right
this moment, if you in your heart right now said, oh, Lord, I need
you. I believe what that preacher's
saying. I believe it. I believe what you're saying.
I hear it. I hear it with my own ears. I know it so. If you've
done that right this moment, you're as perfect as the saints
already in glory. Now, ain't that right? The believer
who has fallen into sin, you think his sin, because he's fallen
into sin, that nullifies his imperfection? If his imperfection
was in him, yes, it would. Now, it hurts our standing, David. When he sinned, his state was
rotten, but his standing was affected. I mean, his state was
affected, but his standing was unaffected. He's still the man
after God's own heart. When Peter denied the Lord Jesus
Christ, his perfection wasn't in himself, it was in Christ
to start with. Our Lord told him what he was
going to do. And listen, when Noah sinned,
that never changed his perfection. I tell you, beloved, what we
do does not change our perfection. If that was so, we would lose
our salvation a thousand times a day. You lost your perfection
sitting in this service. Ain't that right? You would have already lost your
perfection sitting in this service if you was trying to find it
in yourself. So we have to find our perfection in Christ. Now,
does that mean I'm going to go ahead and fall? No. God help
me, no. But if I do, I'm not going to despair. I'm going to
turn around and come back to Christ the same way Simon Peter
did. I'm going to come to Christ the same way Abraham did. I'm
going to come to Christ the same way David did. Oh, I don't want to sin, I don't
want to fall flat on my face, I don't want to dishonor God,
but if I do, I'm not going to go into town and say I'm lost
and I can't... No, I ain't got nothing in me,
I got everything in Christ. Be done with self. Forget self. Quit trying to please God Himself
in flesh. And all the motive, the love,
the humility, and the desire is something God puts in us.
And oh, man, we don't have to go out here and do something
horrible in order to lose our imperfection. Just think that
you've done something good, and you lost it that quick. Oh, my. And I'll tell you something. You find the oldest believer,
the oldest warrior, and you know what he'll say? No perfection
in me. I'm impressed. That believer with all these
infirmities, oh my, you ain't got any, do you? If you think I ain't got none,
ask Mary Bale. And I'll tell you what, she'll
tell you yours too. You don't want to tell me mine,
you'll tell yours. You'll tell me on the way home. I'm just playing with you now.
But oh boy, you take the believer with all his infirmities, his
hasty temper, all the slips of the tongue. You know why Solomon
said, I'm black. I'm black. But I'm comely. Why am I comely? Because I'm
in Christ. Look what he says here in Ephesians 5.25. Just a moment. I'll wind this
up. Ephesians 5.25, talking about
our perfection. He says, Husbands, love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for
it. Now watch it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with
the washing of water by the word. Here we go now, that he might
present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Oh, we get blemishes on our face
and stuff like that, and we just do everything in the world to
cover up them blemishes, you know, put all kinds of makeup
on. But the only blemish, the only thing that will take away
the blemish of our character, the blemish of our nature, the
blemish of our conduct, the blemish of our character, everything
about us is the Lord Jesus Christ. No blemishes in Him. And let
me show you one verse of Scripture, and I'm done. You know, talking
about over in Hebrews 10, 14, you know, That thief on the cross, the
moment, the moment, he said, Lord Jesus, remember me when
thou comest into my kingdom. And the Lord said, today thou
shalt be with me in paradise. He was perfect immediately in
his righteousness. That in the moment of his death.
Hebrews 10.14. For by one offering, He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. What
sanctifies us? Verse 12 tells us, But this man,
after he offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God. In this one offering, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Forever. That's a long time, isn't it?
all time.