Turn with me to Colossians chapter
one. Colossians chapter one. It's
good to see old friends again. And it's a real privilege to be here. I pray the Lord would be pleased
to meet with us. Start in verse 25, Colossians
125. whereof I am made a minister
according to the dispensation of God which is given to me."
God gives us a space of time, an amount of the gospel, an amount
of understanding, and He gives it for us for those that we minister
to, to fulfill the Word of God, to fully preach it. The mystery
which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now
is made manifest to the saints, the mystery of godliness, the
mystery of the Godhead, the mystery of faith, the mystery of Gentiles
being saved by the grace of God, and is made manifest to His saints
to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles. And God does make it known, and
He's the only one who can make it known. which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, whom we preach, Christ,
warning every man, teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto I also
labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in
me mightily." One of the things that we as preachers are do as
we labor in the gospel is to prevent every man perfect in
Christ. And that's what I want to talk about tonight. Perfection
in Christ. Perfection in Christ. Now perfection
is something the human mind cannot get. I don't believe a human
mind can grasp it. To have something without any
flaws, without any faults in it. I don't care what it is. You know, in this world, you
just can't grasp it. We cannot no more grasp the idea
of perfection than we can eternity. You know, to have no beginning
and no ending. Eternity is forever. There is no time to start it,
no time to end it. And so, you know, when you think
about eternity, when you start thinking about perfection, we
can't grasp eternity, we can't grasp perfection. And when we
try to conceive, try to grasp perfection, to be without fault,
to be without flaw, And you know what? We're lost because we are
so imperfect in ourselves. We are so imperfect. And there's
only, you know, perfection. There is perfection. But it's
not in us. Perfection's in God. He is perfect. He is perfect in all of his attributes.
Perfect in his power. Perfect in his glory. Perfect
in his righteousness. Perfect in his purpose. purpose
in all that he does in this world, all that he's done for everybody
on this earth, whether it's salvation or damnation, God is always perfect
in his doings. He's perfect in his majesty. I mean, beloved, all of his attributes,
what attribute is not perfect in his being? What attribute
of God has got any flaw or blemish in it at all? Wisdom. Oh, the
wisdom of God, the perfection of his wisdom. He knows all things
from the minutest to the most immense. And I tell you, we have to make
contingency plans. God has no contingency plan.
He ain't got no plan B, no plan C. He knows the end from the
beginning because he purposed the end from the beginning. He
comprehends all secrets. He can't grasp all knowledge
that goes on in every mind on the face of this earth at any
given time and any place about anybody. The greatest mind to
the simplest mind, God grasped it all. And he does everything he does
without thinking one thought. That's the thing I'm talking
about. He don't even think. We have to think, we have to
sit and ponder. But God does everything without
thinking. Never thought a thought. He uses
language to express it to us, but his self, we know that he
has no thought. Not only that, but his attributes
perfect, but his works are perfect. His works are perfect. You know,
keep Colossians and look with me over in Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes
3. Ecclesiastes 3. You got Isaiah,
and then you got Song of Solomon, and then you got Ecclesiastes. God's works are perfect. Everything
that God does is perfect. Perfection's in God. His works
are perfect. That's why he said, he which
hath begun a good work in you, he shall perform it. It's God's
work, and any work he does is a good work. And look what he
said here in verse 14, Ecclesiastes 3, I know. that whatsoever God
doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it. Nothing,
anything can be taken from it. And God does it that men should
fear before him. His works are perfect. His works
are perfect. And now when we come to this
earth, God, this glorious being, his self is perfect. His works
are perfect. And on this earth, on this earth,
something we possess right now that's perfect. And that's this
blessed book. Oh, there's perfection in it.
Even after the fall, when man lost his standing, lost all sense
of perfection, and all beloved, and when all perfection was lost
because of the fall, man's sin and man's disobedience. One thing
on earth is perfect, and that's the perfect will of God contained
in this book right here. God's will, the perfect will
of God's contained in this book. You wanna know what God's will
for you is? The Bible tells us. You don't wanna know what God's
will for every man is, it's in this blessed book. You wanna
know what God's purpose is, it's in this book. And that's why
it says, beloved, there's perfect in all of its parts. The scriptures
are, I mean, you take Genesis, take the revelation, take it
all, put it together, it's perfect in all of its parts. You can't
separate one from the other, it all goes together, it's one
glorious story, one glorious thing put together. And it's
perfectly, and I'll tell you this, it's perfectly true and
free from any error. God's Word does not have any
error in it. And I love the King James. I'm
gonna tell you why I love the King James. I know everybody
goes on about translations and transliterations and that, but
I love the King James because it's the most honest translation
on the planet and on this earth because it's the only book that
puts all the words that was added by the translators in italics
And so you can tell where the translators put their words in
and you can sometimes take and just bypass those words and it
still gives sense. When Christ, it says, for when
Christ. Well, just when Christ is our life. And so you see,
beloved, it's perfect in all of its parts. And I'll tell you
something else that's perfect about it. It's perfect in everything
that's necessary for man to know about God, about sin, about salvation,
about yourself, everything that's necessary for you to know. It's
in this blessed book. God's got it for us. Perfect
to teach us. Perfect to guide us. Perfect
to warn us. Perfect to instruct us. Perfect
to keep us. Perfect to comfort us. Perfect
to give us assurance. Perfect to bring salvation in
the hands of the Holy Spirit to dead sinners. Perfect. That's
why David said, thy word is forever settled in heaven. Forever settled.
Forever settled. All scriptures given by inspiration
of God. And then when we come to ourselves, to look at ourselves, David said
in Psalm 119, he says, I've seen the end of all perfection. Job
said, if I say I'm perfect, then my own mouth shall condemn me.
But when it comes to ourselves, to look at ourselves, we have
to say, where's perfection? Look here in verse 21 of Colossians
chapter one. Look at verse 21. He said, you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. That's what we were. That don't
sound like a mind pretty perfect to me. That don't sound like
anything close to perfection. Enemies in your mind by wicked
works, wicked thoughts, yet that's the people that he reconciled.
Do you feel, and I ask you this question, Do you feel that perfection's
in you in any way, in anything you are? You see, every day teaches
us, every day that goes over our head teaches us that we're
imperfect. Our consciences tells us that
we're imperfect, that we're imperfect. And the harder, the harder we
strive to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, to live to His glory,
commit to Him, it seems like the more imperfection we see
in ourselves, how far short we come of the mark. Paul said,
I'm pressing toward it. He didn't say, I've got there
yet. But oh, it seems like the harder we strive, it seems like
the farther back we are. It seems like the more we long
after Christ, it seems like the farther He's away. It seems like
the more we yearn for Him, it seems like And we commit, and
that's why Paul said, now know that in me, in me, in my flesh
dwells no good thing. And honestly, honestly before
God, we have to confess. I say I won't say you, I'll say
me. I have to confess right now that in my conduct, in my conduct
at any given time, alone or in the presence of somebody else.
In my conduct, I say imperfect. I have to say imperfect. And
in my conversation, if I get in a conversation with anybody,
with you or anybody else, I'll have to say honestly before God
right now, imperfect, imperfect, no perfection. We long for it. Oh, we long for it. We moan for
it sometimes. We cry tears for it. But every tear that we shed says
imperfection. Every sigh that we have, every
time we sigh when we're in heaviness, says imperfect. Every harsh word
that comes from our mouth, imperfect. Every ill thought that comes
through our mind says imperfect. Every duty that we neglect says
imperfect. And in ourselves and in ourselves
before God, we have to say we're imperfect. But I'll say this,
without fear, that perfection, according to the Scriptures,
is absolutely necessary for everyone who ever hopes to enter glory
and be in the presence of God. Absolutely necessary. God said,
Be ye holy as I am holy. And just because we lost perfection,
We lost our perfection in Adam. We lost our perfection in our
fallen nature. Does it mean that God has lowered
his standard and has changed his demand for perfection? Leviticus
21, 20, 22, 21, and Scott Richardson wore this out more times than
I can tell you. He said, it must be perfect to
be accepted. And I mean, he said, every freewill
offering you bring, whatever you bring, if you bring it, it
has to be perfect. It must be perfect. And if someone
wants to be saved by what they call God's holy law, it must
be kept perpetually. It must be kept perfectly. You
look over here in Galatians with me, Galatians 3. And this is
one thing I told our folks Sunday night. I'm not going to tell
people how to live. I'm not going to tell them what
to eat. I'm not going to tell them what to drink. I'm not going to tell them where
they can go and where they can't go. I'm going to leave everybody
in the hands of God. I'm not going to set any standards.
I'm not going to set any rules. I'm not going to set any conduct.
I mean, God, if he can't take care of his sheep, a poor, pitiful
preacher like me, sure enough ain't going to do it. And oh, people want to be, they
keep, you know, these fellows, they keep saying, You know, we're
justified, but the law is our rule of life. You can't separate
the two. If it's our rule of life, then
that means, beloved, it's what we seek to be justified by. How
can you have His rule of life without wanting to be justified
by it at the same time? And let me tell you something.
Look here in Galatians 3.10. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Now when he talks about
the book of the law, he's not talking about Ten Commandments.
He's talking about the whole book. If you're going to go under the
law, you know what you're going to have to do? These fellas,
if they'd be honest with themselves and quit putting people under
bondage, they'd have to keep a Sabbath. They'd have to start
on Friday night at 6 o'clock, and do nothing till six o'clock
Saturday night, Saturday evening. Now, is that not right? But they
can keep nine of them, but they can break that one right there.
And I'll tell you something else about this. And he says, but
that no man is justified by the laws in the sight of God. It's
evident the just live by not law, but by faith. And the laws
not have nothing to do with faith. The man that doeth them shall
live in them. And I'll tell you, let me tell you something. If
a fella's gonna go this law route, these fellas gotta be honest,
and I'm telling you something. If you're gonna go to the law
route, then you're gonna go to, if you're gonna go to tithing,
let's just use that for an instance. If you're gonna go to the law,
then if you put up hay, if any of you fellas put up any hay
this year, if you put up 100 bales, bring 10 bales and bring
to this preacher right here. If you got 10 head of cattle
and you bring him the best calf that you got, don't bring him
no ear that's been froze off in the winter and got a pink
eye. Bring him the best that they
are. That's where we gotta go over the law. If we're gonna
go over the law, I mean, you gotta go it all the whole route. It's not just the Ten Commandments,
it's all of it. And that's where they mistake
it. That's why the Catholics are
so big, because they got the priesthood, and they can, people
can do what they want, they don't have to bring nothing. They got
somebody else take care of their sins. And I tell you, if we're
gonna go the law route, I mean, you've got to go whole hog or
die. They talk about whole hog sausage. Well, I tell you what,
you've got to have the whole hog and all the sausage in it
if you're gonna go the law route. Ain't that right, Don? You can't
just pick and choose and say, well, listen, you know, well,
let's just, no, no, they gotta go the whole route. And if they
don't go that way, you know what they are? They're under the curse
and they're putting everybody else under that awful bondage.
And I ain't gonna do it. I'm not gonna bring myself under
it. God saved me from it, and I'm not, I mean, hold a shotgun
on me, and I'm not going back under the law. Oh, beloved, listen,
unless we can find perfection somewhere, we got to find it
somewhere. We must have it. Must get it
from ourselves, or we gotta get it someplace else. And let me
say this about it. God would be unjust if he did
not punish and reject a man who is not perfect. if God would
be unjust if he did not punish and reject a man who is not perfect.
I can show you that in the book of Job. Look with me in Job chapter
eight. Job chapter eight. Here's what,
you know, God, the judge of all the earth, he must do right.
The soul that sinneth, it must die. And if God does not punish
for every transgression, every transgression, I mean either
for eternity separated from Him or in His Son. If God does not
punish every transgression, He loses His throne. He's unjust. And look what Job said here in
Job 8 and verse 20. This is old Bildad talking now.
Look what he says. Behold, God will not cast away
a perfect man, neither will He help the evildoers. Now that's
a true statement. That's a true statement, but
then look what Job says up here. In verse two, I know it is so
of a truth, but how should a man be just with God? Everything you said is right.
He won't cast away a perfect man, and he won't help an evildoer.
You said it right, but do you know where I stand? Unjust. Now how in the world is he gonna
justify me? You see, we must have perfection or be eternally
lost, rejected of God. And I know if we didn't have
perfection, we wouldn't be fit company in heaven itself. We
wouldn't be fit before the throne of God, fit to be among the saints
before the throne of God. The angels are perfect. In fact,
it says the spirits of just men made perfect are in glory right
now. and we must be made perfect.
We can never, ever enjoy heaven. He says in Revelations 22, he
said, he that's unjust, let him be unjust still. He that's a
liar, let him be a liar still. He that's without, a dog, keep
him without. He that's righteous, let him,
whatever way you're found when you face eternity, that's the
way you'll be throughout eternity. Well, we're in the world's perfection
to be found. I just, I'm gonna get there.
I'm gonna get there. I will. Believe me, I'll get
there. Where's perfection to be found? Well, that fellow that
likes his ceremony says, I'll tell you how I'll give it to
you. Bring your baby up here and let me sprinkle him. Let
me put him in the church and he'll be fixed up. Oh, listen. And if you're a Baptist, what
you do is you just bring him up here Dedicate the Lord, put
him on the altar. Don't have to sprinkle it. And
oh, I'll tell you what else. Here, take this bread and take
this wine. They're sacraments. God'll give
you grace for them. You'll get some perfection through that.
And oh my. I'll tell you how you can get
perfection. Come up here at this old-fashioned altar and pray
through. Pray through. I don't have a clue what that
means, Larry. Well, you say that, didn't we?
Don't have a clue what it means. Prayin' through, what in the
world does that mean, prayin' through? Prayin' through what? There's a hole in the easel you
gotta get through or somethin'. Oh, when you start thinkin' about
the things that people say, you just wonder, oh, my soul, what
in the world's on people's minds? But that's where we were if it
wasn't for the grace of God. Some say perfection's to be attained
by the flesh, by duties. John Wesley. You can get any
of his works you want to, but he taught sinless perfection.
He taught it. He taught sinless perfection.
Thomas Aquinas. You know where saints' worship
started at? Thomas Aquinas. He is the first
Catholic who ever taught that saints have enough merit in themselves
to give you some, too. They got enough merit, got enough
grace in themselves to give you some grace and to give you some
merit. And that's where saint worship started at. Saint so
and so, you know, you got a different saint for everything. Well, Thomas
Aquinas taught that. He said, in fact, naturally,
he had enough grace to give grace to somebody less than him. He
had enough merit to give some of his merit to somebody else.
Boy, I tell you, if you had any merit, would you not give it
to your children? If you had any grace, would you not give
it to your children if he was able to give it? I take my children,
and I've often thought, and I've preached to people for years
and often thought, if I could turn their head sideways and
pour it in, I'd pour it in. I'd hold them till it got in
there. But you can't do that. And oh, beloved, and this was
on one of the bulletin boards back home. Train yourself to
lead a godly life. Train yourself to lead a godly
life. They'll say Christ first. Oh
yes, Christ first. Must believe, they say. Then
lead a little devoted life, observe all your religious duties, and
then after a while you'll get better and get higher and get
higher and higher, and then you'll be justified. And then you get
a little bit higher and you'll get sanctified. And then you'll
reach out high as a plane and ain't nobody get as high as you
are. You're way up there. But I tell
you what, you know what it takes to ruin their perfection? Don't take much. Don't take much. But oh, look here in Colossians
1. Oh, bless His name. Look here. Look what it says.
Present every man perfect in Christ. The mystery of God is
Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 2.9 says this. For
in Him, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete, complete in Him, which is the head of all principalities
and power." That word complete is the same word as perfection.
All God's people are in Christ. How in the world did they get
in Christ? Chosen in Him, in a covenant of election. Chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. Paul says this,
he says, beloved God who has saved us and called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his
own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus.
When was it given to us? Before the world ever began.
So you see, the elect are in Christ, chosen in Christ. How
do we get in Christ? Chosen in him. And he came and
shed his blood, came to pay the debt, came to render that obedience
that you and I couldn't, came and had that perfection you and
I didn't. He came with the price that God required in his hands,
which was his own blood, which was his own obedience, which
was his own merit, which was his own life. That's what he
came for. And I tell you what, we're so
in Christ and perfect in Christ that this is what it is, what
Christ did, we did. He died, we died. That's why
Paul says, I crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet the
life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me. And let me tell you something
about that faith. It's not talking about our faith in him, but we
live by his faith. His faithfulness. If I had to
trust my own faith, I wouldn't last long enough to spit in the
wind, but we live by the faith of the Son of God. I live by
His faithfulness. His faithfulness to God, His
faithfulness to the Word, His faithfulness to the covenant,
His faithfulness to me from before the foundation of the world until
He carries me to glory. I'm looking to His faithfulness.
Ain't you, Donald? Ain't you, Terry, brother Terry? Oh, I tell you, when he suffered,
we suffered. We suffered. When he was on the
tree suffering the wrath of God, we were on that tree suffering
the wrath of God. When God's justice came down
and smote that shepherd, the sheep beloved, and plunged in
that sword of justice, he plunged that sword of justice in us. And that's why God's justice
can never, God's wrath can never fall on any for whom Christ died. And oh, let me say this, and
I will hurry. I'll tell you something. Not only are we in Christ by
the covenant election, but we are in Christ actually. Actually,
right now. Christ in you and you in Christ.
And what I mean by that is we are in Christ actually to our
knowledge when we believe on him. You see, faith comes by
hearing, hearing by the word of God. Now you see, we were
always in Christ, but we didn't know it. And we were always secure
in Christ from the foundation of the world, but we didn't know
it. Somebody had come tell us. And that's what's called the
gospel. because it tells you what Christ has done, not what
you gotta do. You know that Christ loved you
for the foundation of the world? Oh my, when I first heard that
I thought, really? You mean you're one of God's
elect? Really? You see, you're born babies and
then somebody's gotta come along and then you start finding out
about election? You start finding out about God's covenant. You
start finding out about Christ, our surety. You start finding
out about our oneness with Christ, our union with Christ. You start
learning these things, and then, beloved, you know, and it's when
you're actually in Him that you start learning these things.
It's Christ in you answering to Christ from the scriptures.
It's Christ in you answering from the gospel that's being
preached to you. That's why, you know, Mary was
in Wednesday night service. I told her before we went to
church, I said, we ought to just go to bed, not even go to church. You know,
I said, you know, me and her are both pretty low. I said,
but we went on to service. And boy, we got, we had such
a good service. But anyway, after we got left, we left, and she
said, boy, I feel, I said, ain't it amazing how the scriptures
take you when you're in physical bad shape, mentally bad shape,
spiritually bad shape, emotionally bad shape, and it lifts you up
just like that and renews you and makes your energy back, your
spirit back. I mean, it brings life back to
you. And boy, you may come in here dragging and walk out of
here dancing. Now, ain't that right? I've expressed
that myself. And oh, beloved, listen, we were
always in Christ, but we didn't know it. You know, as Paul talked
about, you know, as long as the heir is a child, he may own everything,
but as long as he's a child, he's under the heir and he's
under tutors. And that's what we were. We were heirs, but we
were under tutors and we were under governors until we grew up. And you know how
we found out we were in Christ? When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law. And you know what
He did then? Now see, that was done way back
yonder, before I was born. Do you know what happened? Then
He sends forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. And you know what the first thing
we do is say, oh father, father, father. We start crying out like
a baby. Abba, abba, abba, abba. You know,
we can't talk good language. All we can do is cry like a baby.
That's all we can do. But now we have the inheritance
now. We're no longer service for sons. We don't need no tutors, schoolmasters,
governors. We've come of age. We've come
of age. And let me close with this. Every
soul, every soul that's in Christ is perfect, perfect right now. Not gonna be, not wants to be,
but is. You take a new believer, if you're
a believer and you right now, you believe, just right now,
you're as perfect as anybody's been a believer for 45 years.
And you cannot take something else, believers that has fallen
into sin. They're perfect. David, when
he fell into sin, just because he fell into sin, that never
meant that God disowned him. You know, he was still, in the
Lord Jesus Christ, he was still perfect in Christ. You take old
Simon Peter. Oh, there's no way in the world
that fella could've been saved. Listen at him. He's over there
denying Christ, and now he's over there weeping, and over
there he's over there cussing. But I'll tell you one thing,
that's the first one the Lord Jesus looked for whenever he
come from the grave. He said, where's Peter at? I
want to meet him. Tell him I'll be in such and such a place and
I want him right there. Where's Peter at? He was right there. I'll tell you Noah, I love what
God said one time, said Noah's son saw him naked, saw him laying
there, but said God never saw him naked. His sons may have,
God never saw him naked. You know why God didn't see him
naked? He had on Christ's righteousness. And I tell you what, if we're
going to start picking sins, what sins is wrong, what sins
ain't, then ain't none of us going to be saved by the grace
of God. And if we, you know, I tell you what, people want
to catalog sins, but I tell you what, we sin enough in a worship
service to damn the whole human race, the way our mind wanders
here, y'all, and everywhere. But don't we? But what would
we do if we wasn't perfect in Christ? Oh my, and that's why Paul said
that old believer, take a believer that's been on the road for years
and years. Take an old warrior that's been out the way for a
long time. You know what he'll say? There's no perfection in
me, but there is in Christ. You know what Paul said? He said,
when I would do good, I did evil. When the things that I hate,
I do. Things that I love, I don't do.
I see a war in my members. With my mind, I serve the law
of Christ. With me, I serve the law of Christ.
But in this flesh, I serve oh, this wretched flesh. But oh,
beloved, the older you get, the worse it gets, don't it? The
worse this flesh gets to be, it gets awful. And the believer, take the believer,
heavenly soul in Christ, the believer with all his infirmities,
If he has a hasty temper, perfect in Christ. If he has slips of
the tongue, perfect in Christ. Solomon said this, I'm black, but I'm comely. And I'll be asking you this,
beloved, are we justified by grace or justified by words? For by grace are you saved. through faith, and that not of
yourself, not of works, lest any man should boast. If I had
no good works at all that I could point to at this moment or any
other time in my life, if I had no good works at this moment
yet had faith in Christ, I'm as completely justified as if
I had 10 And if I don't have a good work
right now in the sight of God, I'm still justified in the sight
of Christ. That thief on the cross will
enjoy Christ in heaven as much as any man who's ever been saved
by the grace of God. Ain't that right? Ain't that
right? I'll tell you something, beloved. And Christ is the foundation.
Christ is the cornerstone. Christ is the tough stone of
our justification. Nothing in myself, nothing in
you can ever justify us, only Christ. And look in Hebrews 10.14,
and I'm done. 10.14, excuse me. Hebrews 10.14. Look what it says
right here. Hebrews 1014, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. How long it gonna be perfect?
If God's forever, we're gonna be... Lord bless you. Thank you
very much.