to turn back in your Bibles to
Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1, we will
look at what the Apostle Paul said in verse 28. I want to call
your attention to something that I've been thinking about for
a while, and I trust that this will speak to your heart. The Apostle Paul says in verse
28, whom we preach, the whom has an antecedent to it. And
that's over in verse 27, where he describes the riches that
have been given to the Gentile churches, and he describes the
riches that were given to them as Christ. In you, the hope of
glory. Every child of God, every believer
in Christ, every man or woman begotten of God the Father by
the Lord Jesus Christ has within themselves a treasure, and that
treasure Christ himself it is he of whom the Apostle uses the
phrase whom we preach whom we preach the title of our message
in our thought for today is Perfecting men through preaching the preaching
that perfects men Now automatically, saints, upon that type of title
and statement, we are asking the question, what is the aim
and goal of preaching? What is the purpose for which
we would subject ourselves to biblical proclamation, or exposition
of the scriptures, or what we know for now thousands of years
that goes on in local assemblies is the practice of oration, preaching. What's the aim of preaching?
The apostle Paul says the aim of preaching is not to tickle
your flesh. That the aim of preaching is
not designed to be merely therapeutic in the sense that it's designed
to make you feel good. That biblical preaching is not
catered towards merely the temporal felt needs of individuals that
come to church. That's what a hospital is for.
That's what a psych ward is for. That's what medication is for. Biblical preaching is not designed
to please men, but to please God. And in this way is biblical
preaching designed to please God. Biblical preaching, when
it is done right, results in the perfection of men and women. When biblical preaching is done
accurately, men and women are made perfect before God. That is an astounding objective
on the part of preaching. If men and women are to stand
before God, accepted, received for all eternity in a state of
absolute righteousness before God, what Paul says is that it
will be the consequence the work of the ministry by which souls
are brought under the hearing of God's Word and Brought into
a state by which before God they can be called perfect perfect
now Automatically we would want to address a couple of things
as we work our way into our text and that is what is preaching
Well, I have told you before preaching is not merely whooping
and hollering. I Preaching is not bantering
about emotional gestations by which people are entertained
by how you sweat profusely as you are preaching the word. That's
not what preaching is. Even though our churches have
said for a long time, you haven't started preaching yet, brother.
Preaching. is declaring God's word, God's
way to the hearts of men and women. And biblical preaching
is very much an exercise of words to the minds and hearts of men
and women. You are being preached to when
the content is right and the motive is right and the spirit
of God is present in it. So let me share with you three
fundamental definitions of preaching. There are four or five, but I
wanna share with you three, particularly today, so that you can know what
preaching is. Don't you wanna know what this
business is that you find yourself engaged in every week when you
come to church? Now, you don't want someone to run across you
and say, ma'am, sir, why do y'all go to church week in and week
out, year in and year out for 30, 40, 50 years? And you go,
you know, I don't know. You don't want people to catch
you empty-handed out of pocket when it comes to the central
mechanism by which God brings us into a saving knowledge of
him. You want to be able to say, you know why week in and week
out you hear the word, isn't that right? You hear the word
week in and week out because it's by the word you and I are
saved. It's by the Word that you and
I are sanctified. It's by the Word you and I are
made sure before God. It's by the Word of God that
we can be clear in our conscience that when I die and depart from
this life, I will stand before God accepted in the Beloved.
It's through the means of preaching that that takes place. And preaching
is defined three ways in the New Testament, a couple in the
Old, but three ways in the New. Preaching is defined as heaven
opening up, and God speaking from heaven to a man and telling
that man to say exactly the same thing and no more to the people
that are listening to him. The term Paul is using in our
text, verse 28, is a term that means that he is merely announcing
a heaven-sent message. It's what an ambassador does
when he represents a kingdom and a king, and he brings the
message of the kingdom and the king to the people, and he simply
says, thus saith the Lord. The people are not regarding
the ambassador. They have no regard to his dress,
his attire, his entourage. They are regarding the message
that he is bringing. And if they have any respect
for the authority of the message of the king, then they will get
busy with responding to the nature of the proclamation. Am I making
some sense? So in the first sense, biblical
preaching is saying what God says. Do y'all folks go to church
and they hear preaching and at the end of the message they go,
man, that was a good message. And you ask, okay, yeah, but
what did he say? I don't remember, but it was good. Am I telling
the truth or what? So stay with me right now, because
what you have to be able to do every time you come to church
is ask yourself, is my motive and aim for coming to church
right? Because it could be that on the last day when you stand
before God all of the sermons you ever heard Were a miss because
either the preacher and the preaching and the church was wrong Or you
had no ability to hear the word of god correctly As I as jeremiah
put it in the book of jeremiah the harvest is ended the summer
is over and we're still not saved That's a dreadful condition to
wake up in. Am I telling the truth? And there
are masses of people who have sat in church for years and years
and years and have died under the wrath of God because they
did not know the aim of preaching. The first sense in which preaching
then is to be interpreted and understood and grasped by you
is that, is that person speaking to me, saying what God says? You got that? Not what makes
you feel good, but what God says. Kara. You ain't gone is our term. It's to bring the word down,
bring it from heaven and declare it unto men. Now we move into
the other aspect of preaching and it's called the content of
preaching. Are you with me? the content
of preaching. Okay, he has declared the word.
Now, explain that word in the general sense in which it means.
This is the phrase euangelon, from which those of us who are
called to preach, we preach what is called the gospel. I am a gospel preacher. Our elders
are gospel preachers. Our teachers are gospel preachers
and teachers. And whether you know what the
gospel is or not, you will know now the gospel is, has been and
will always be the person and work of Jesus Christ. That's
what the gospel is. The gospel is not about you.
It's not about me. It's not about us. It's about
him. You know that you have heard
the gospel that day when the preacher takes the Word of God
and preaches from the Word of God about Jesus Christ, who is
the Word of God. You know, you have heard the
gospel that day when he preaches concerning the person of Christ,
who he is and all of his attributes, both as divine and as human,
as well as what he did in terms of his incarnation, his atonement,
his resurrection and his work from his throne of glory in saving
sinners from every nation, kindred, tribe and tongue today. You are
presently hearing the gospel right now. What that means is
you and I are set on the sideline audibly listening to a work that
God does alone. It has nothing to do with you
and me. It has everything to do with God. Now, at this point,
here's the question you get to ask. Am I interested in the gospel? Or does other things tickle my
fancy? Do I come to church so the preacher
can tailor make a message specifically for my needs? Or am I coming
to church to hear about the glory of God in the person of Christ?
to wet my soul once again with the goodness of God and the sweetness
of Christ. Euangelon is what we do. We proclaim
him. That's what the text says. There's
another word that I want you to get that's going to move us
more into our message today. And that's the term that means
to preach in such a way that we take all a biblical truth
and impress it upon your mind and upon your heart in explanation. in appeal, in example, in warnings,
in declaration, to help you see vividly in the depth of your
soul what the text of scripture is saying concerning Christ and
God and man and eternity. That's what we do. We call it
expository proclamation, where we take the text by the grace
of God and explain it to you. By the time worship is over with,
you've learned a little bit more about your Savior and where you
stand with him. Am I making some sense? That's
what worship is supposed to be after you have sung and after
you have prayed and after you've given. You better ask the question,
did God speak today? Did God speak today? Did I hear
about his son? Did my soul make its acquaintance
with the Lord Jesus Christ? This is what we're talking about.
And what the apostle Paul is persuaded of is this, ladies
and gentlemen, listen to me. If a person who was called to
preach Execute his office accurately men and women will be made perfect
before God huge You know what the Word of God says there's
no perfection apart from preaching Men and women will not be made
right before God until they hear the gospel faith comes out and
hearing by what the Word of God concerning Jesus Christ. This
is therefore an indispensable means. And so I want to arrest
the weariness that comes upon souls when they wonder whether
or not I should continue under the hearing of the Word of God
or not. Let me ask you a question. Yesterday, You ate, didn't you? I would gather to think that
most of y'all had a meal yesterday. If you didn't eat yesterday because
you're too broke and poor, I got $5, I'll give it to you right
now. You can actually leave and go eat. I want to make sure you
eat. But if we all have eaten yesterday, we had a meal, didn't
we? Guess what you're going to want to do again today? Eat again. Do you understand why? It's because
what you did yesterday requires also being done today and what
you do today requires also being done tomorrow until you breathe
your last breath because there is a purpose behind eating and
so there's a purpose behind preaching. I need to ask you another thing
with that analogy now that I have your attention. I doubt very
seriously if any of you have eaten something yesterday that
you never ate in your life. See me, I love eating the same
thing over and over and over again. I'm not one of those fellas
that likes to try new things. This frustrates my wife, but
she has never ever seen me sick to my stomach because I am a
cat curious to taste this and that. See, I know what I like. And so when we go out, I look
for perusing the menu, the things that I know my stomach can endure. And I say, Jess, do you want
to enjoy yourself? Do you want to finish this excursion,
call a vacation without laying up sick because you tried something
you didn't know? And I go, no. So sir, would you
give me a piece of sirloin steak with a mashed potato and some
vegetables, I don't care if this is an Italian restaurant. My point is this, when men and
women are very clear on what the word of God teaches, they're
not looking for curious diets and meals, strange things to
eat. They don't have a problem eating
the same thing over and over and over again. Am I making some
sense? So and I would throw a caveat
for those of you who are vegetarians. See, I can't hardly even get
the word out because I'm the last thing from a vegetarian.
But bless you, as long as you eat the same thing, too. And
here's the reason for which we eat. We eat first and foremost,
according to the word of God, for strength. We eat for strength,
not for pleasure, for strength. And after our body is strengthened
with the proper diet, pleasure can be the byproduct. Am I making
some sense? And sometimes when we're really,
really, really down, we can eat for comfort. Sisters, y'all know
what I'm talking about. Now your brothers know what I'm
talking about too, but they just won't say it. We have our comfort
foods. May I say to you, Jesus is our
food for strength. May I say to you, Christ is our
food for pleasure. Can I say that he's also our
food for comfort? When I'm down, I can eat a piece
of chocolate cake and feel pretty good for a few minutes, spiking
my sugars and having a good night's sleep. I know what's going on.
My wife has taught me. I'm simply sharing with you the
practical things that go on in our everyday life as an analogy
to why God calls us to the habit. the habit of the preaching of
the word. So I want to lay it down once
again, as we work through our text, the aim of preaching is
in order to perfect men, to perfect men. So Paul says in first Corinthians
chapter 121, that after the wisdom of God and the foolishness of
men, it was through the foolishness of preaching that God was pleased
to save souls. He said in Romans 1, 16 and 17,
I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that will what? Believe. He makes
it very plain. We preach Christ and him crucified,
the hope of glory. He also said in Titus chapter
one, verse three, that God was pleased to manifest his word
through preaching. How is the Word manifested? Through
preaching. How is the Word of God brought
to revelation, made to bear upon our hearts and minds in an understandable
way? Through exactly what I'm doing
right now, preaching to you. How does God penetrate the hearts
and minds of men and women and bring His Word to their soul
in an authoritative way by which they are apprehended? It's through
proclamation, through preaching. And that preaching changes lives. It changes you. It changes you. In fact, it puts you on a course
of perfection. Now, I want to talk to you guys
about perfection for a moment because that's the term he uses.
Listen to it again. Whom we preach, warning every
man and teaching every man in all wisdom in order that we might
what? Present every man perfect in
Jesus Christ. What's this concept perfection?
Now, In our present vernacular, the way we use perfection is
in a very general and pragmatic way. Like, again, if you went
to a restaurant and you had a really good hamburger, you'd say, man,
that hamburger was perfect. Right? Or, you know, you went
through some experience, you know, maybe you're an athlete
and you enjoy playing basketball and you had a great game, you'd
say, man, I had a perfect game that day. Or there was an experience
you had with somebody, a group of people or another individual.
And it was so good that at the end of that experience, you know
what you said? That was what? Perfect. That's the pragmatic
way in which we use the word perfect. And it has a semblance
of truth to it. But in reality, the word perfect
Ladies and gentlemen, can be ethereal, it can be ambiguous,
it can be hard to define when you begin to work with the idea
what exactly is the concept perfection. And here's the reason why perfection
can be so difficult to grasp, okay? It's because perfection
really requires the individual who is using the term to know
precisely what they are talking about. So when you and I use
the word perfect, we're generally using it in what we call a conventional
way that falls short of the meaning of it. But let's talk about perfection
in terms of its fundamental meaning. Perfection is that which is being
described for which the thing that it is, is functioning totally
sufficiently according to its design. So that when you say
that was perfect, it means that the thing that you are talking
about is operating on all cylinders, if I can use an analogy. It's
functioning according to its design. It's meeting every need
that it has the capacity to do. Y'all got that? I'm dealing with
a practical application of the word perfection. But in order
for you and I to say a thing is perfect, a hamburger is perfect,
a car is perfect, my wife is perfect, you know, my job is
perfect, or whatever you call perfect, the reality is you actually
have to be the person who has designed that thing for you to
be able to call it perfect. Are you staying with me for a
moment? See, because perfection presumes or assumes that you
understand fully the scope and design and magnitude and the
nature of the intricacies of the things that you are calling
perfect. And isn't it crazy that in our present generation, this
stupid human race, mine, the one I live in, is telling God
it knows how to define itself? Isn't that dumb? And I would
say this, that there are very few things that you and I really
can call perfect, because there are very few things that you
and I are the author of, are the creator of, by which we can
call it perfect. I'm drawing you in to explain
to you the danger of euphemisms and terms that we use all the
time for which we really don't qualify to use those terms. It's
perfect. Now, you know, we're flattering
people when we say that. That's okay. That was perfect,
man. But in reality, the only person that can actually, in
an authoritative way, call a thing perfect is its maker. That's why I love God. Love Him. because God can call
a thing perfect because he's the creator thereof. Am I making
some sense? There are two areas then in which
I want to define the concept perfect and then share with you
a spectrum of the idea of perfection that you and I need to consider
as we think about the practice of hearing the word of God. Perfection
can be understood in the moral sense, in the moral sense of
a thing being morally right, being ethically right, being
completely righteous before God. Like a man or a woman might be
called perfect, but if they are, they're being called perfect
in the moral and ethical sense. Psalm 37 verse 37. Psalm 37 verse
37 says, march the perfect man, mark him. Regard the perfect man and regard
the upright man He uses the word perfect and upright in psalm
37 verse 37 If you guys have that verse and the word perfect
there has as its synonym the word upright It describes the
status of that man Morally you guys got that but in the moral
sense for you or not to be perfect. It means that we are sinless that we are without flaw on a
judicial and a moral level, that ethically we always do the right
thing. Are you with me so far? Moral
perfection implies that when justice and righteousness examines
you, it finds no fault with you. So a perfect man or a perfect
woman operates according to the design for which they were made,
and that is they live in perfect conformity to God's law. Perfect
men and perfect women you ask crazy about what the Bible teaches
the Bible teaches that every believer is perfect and God goes
around calling believers perfect in that while He called Noah
perfect. He called Job perfect. Listen
to this. He called David perfect He even
caught a saw Asa perfect. I Isn't that wild? The scriptures
call believers perfect. Now watch this now. If perfection
means that on a moral level, we are operating in a state of
flawless obedience before God so that God never sees in our
actions, in our motive, in our deeds, any variation from his
high standard of righteousness. How on earth can God call me
Perfect. He must see something I don't
see. Because I know I'm not perfect. And guess what else? I know you're
not either. And yet God calls the believer
perfect. Isn't that wild? And so there is a moral ethical
perfection for us to grapple with when we talk about God's
word. Listen to the text. I want to show you the implications
of it. Mark the perfect man. Behold the upright man. For the
end of that man shall be what? Shalom. Actually the Hebrew word
is shalom. It's a derivative of shalom because
in the Hebrew language the vowels are put in there by the translators
and the scribes. But the word means to have a
kind of peace. I want you to get this now. That
never ever has to worry about being in danger of being rejected
by God forever. It's the kind of peace in the
soul and in the mind of the man that's perfect, the man that's
upright, by which they can stand before God and never have to
worry about God rejecting them for all eternity. Now that's
peace, isn't it? That's peace. In fact, look at
verse 38. Watch what verse 38 says. Watch verse 38. For verse
38 is the antithesis of verse 37. But the what shall be what? How? Together the end of the
wicked shall be cut off. That's your antithesis. A perfect
man is at such a state of peace that in his mind and in his soul
and in the whole of his being, he never ever has to ever worry
about God cutting him off, God rejecting him, God sending him
away, God punishing him. Isn't that a wonderful place
to be in? And when the Lord Jesus Christ comes to his people and
say, peace be unto you, you get an implication of what I'm talking
about now. It's not just saying, peace,
I'm going to take care of your bills. He may not do that. Peace, I have taken care of your
ills for all eternity. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Then there is the other aspect of perfection that I want to
call you to that's going to be the bulk of my message, because
I want you to get this message today. And that is what we call
the functional or organic side of perfection. Perfection is
inclusive of a process that takes place when a thing is made and
designed and is called upon to function, it is declared perfect
when it actually executes the thing for which it is made. If
you and I make a car and that car is designed to go 100 miles
per gallon and we drive it and it comes to discover that it
only goes 99 miles per gallon. I still take the car. But if
it only goes 99 miles per gallon, the author must say that car
is not what? Perfect. So when we talk about
perfection now, what we're getting ready to talk about here for
a moment is perfection in terms of its demonstrable capacity,
demonstrable ability to demonstrate its full efficacy, its full sufficiency. And what God does when he talks
about believers being perfect, he talks about believers being
perfect through a process. Are you hearing me? A process.
The analogy is that of a seed. whether that seed is corn, wheat,
meal, whatever. In the seed, you have the potential
for the perfection of everything that that seed possesses. Is
that true? But until that seed goes into the ground and die
and produces everything inherent in that seed, guess what? That
seed has not come to what? Perfection. A child, when it
is born, conceived. This is why abortion is so horrendous. at the moment of conception,
that little bitty embryo, even though it cannot be seen with
the naked eye, possesses all of the faculties of a full-fledged
human being, am I making some sense? So that if it is snuffed
out, even though you can't see it with the naked eye, in God's
sight, you have killed a whole person. If you were to have given
that child time to grow, he would have come into what we call full
maturation. And that's the way our word is
used, coming into full maturity. You know what Paul is saying?
Proper preaching, when done right, is designed to grow you up. Do you get that? Proper preaching,
when done right, is designed to grow you up. Have you ever
met people 50, 60, 700, 800 years old that still ain't grown
up yet? Now you know there's a problem
there, don't you? You know what that is? A lack of maturity. And we could carry that over
into the spiritual dimension and deal with all kinds of professing
believers, could we not? So-called born-again so-called
believers been around for 10 20 30 years in Christ and have
not come to what? Maturity, so we're going to talk
about some of the practical aspects of it Why are we to be under
the preaching of the Word of God so that you and I can be
established in what God has? Purpose with regards to us being
in his presence for all eternity and that is to be declared to
be made a and to be demonstrated as being perfect before God.
So here are five aspects of perfection that I want to call your attention
to. First is this, that perfection is the purpose of God. It's God's
purpose. Y'all got that? So back in Deuteronomy
18, where Moses was telling the children of Israel, when you
come into the land and possess your inheritance, do not act
like the heathen. Don't behave like them because
the heathen are imperfect. Y'all got that? This is how you
are to behave, therefore walk perfectly before the Lord your
God. In other words, walk according
to design. Function according to your relationship
with me. Walk in light of your calling. Y'all got that? Perfection then
is functioning fully according to design. You know what God
says in Matthew chapter 5 verse 48 the Lord Jesus says be ye
Therefore what perfect even as your father in heaven is what?
Now what I'm talking about is a standard that automatically
grips you and me in that right a standard that grips me and
say wait a minute preacher You're asking me to be something that
I can I am asking you to be something that you can but I am not asking
you to be something that you're not and In fact, I wasn't the one asking
you that. Go back and read Matthew 5, 48.
It was a brother much better than me that said, be ye perfect
even as your father in heaven is perfect. And who was that?
Christ. The son of god said to you and
me be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect what he's
laying out before us Is the grounds of the relationship between the
believer and his heavenly father you guys got that? He has always
called for perfection. And in fact the reason for which
christ died is in order to perfect us Y'all got that go with me
in your bible to hebrews chapter 10. I want you to see it in hebrews
10 verse 16 I want you to get this now. It is the purpose of
god for the perfection of his people And God does that through
preaching. It is the purpose of God for
the perfection of His people. And God does that through preaching.
I am in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 16. It's also in another place. But listen to this, Hebrews chapter
10, 16. This is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws in their heart and
in their mind will I write them and their sins and their iniquities
will I what? Remember no more. What is God
going to do? He's going to put away our sins.
In the putting away of our sins, what is He doing? He's establishing
our innocence, isn't He? He's establishing our innocence
so that He can call us righteous. And righteous, as we have already
declared, means what? To be perfect before God. In fact, that's what the Hebrew
writer also says. By the one sacrifice has Jesus
forever perfected those that are sanctified. The goal and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ then by his death on Calvary
Street is to position us where we could be perfect before God. In fact, what Paul's declaring
is we're preaching to you a perfection that is not found in yourself,
but it's found in another. And that other is whom? Jesus
Christ. Going back to our text then.
Colossians chapter 1 I want you to see this when Paul says our
aim is to preach in such a way That we are to present me imperfect
before Christ We read over in chapter 2 verse 10 these words
now listen to it is he speaking to a church? that's going through
the same temptations that all churches go through and that
is being distracted from the course to which God has called
you and And listen to what he says over in verse nine, for
in him, the him is whom? Christ dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And you are what? Where? In him. You see what he just
said? He said to the believers at Colossae,
you must remember that your completion is not in yourself, but it's
in your substitute. that your perfection, it's the
same term, ladies, the word complete, and brethren, the word complete
there is the same word for perfection. Your perfection is in whom? Now, I want you to get that,
that makes it a little bit more comfortable now, right? My perfection is
in Christ. Well, what Paul is saying is
that he preaches Christ in order that men and women may be found
in Christ so that the perfection that's in Christ might be in
you. We preach Christ crucified in
order to present men and women perfect. i.e. if we don't preach
Christ, if we preach something else, it's impossible to perfect
men. Perfection will only come by
our presenting to you the person and work of Jesus Christ and
then praying that the Spirit of God will take you and place
you in Christ and place Christ in you so that the perfection
that's in Christ might also be in you. You got that? That's the goal of God. Now,
I'm going to explain that a little bit further down the line, but
I want to go on to the next aspect of perfection for us. Teleos
is the term. Perfection is not only the purpose
of God. Perfection is not only found in the person of Christ
because he is perfect, isn't he? But perfection is also the
position of the believer. That's the position of the believer.
You've been taught this a long time at grace. You've been taught
that all that you are You are in Christ. And all that you were,
Christ was for you. Haven't you been taught that?
You're not been taught that Christ as our substitute bore all of
our sin, all of our evil, all of our wickedness, all of our
misdeeds, all of our nature, all of our character into himself
so that all of the judgment that should have come on us came on
him. You've been taught that. That's the doctrine of substitution.
the doctrine of transfer. You also have been taught that
everything that Christ is, we are where? In Him. You've been
taught that here. You've been taught that your
true identity according to the Father is in the Son. Y'all got
that? You've been taught that in order
to get to really know yourself, you better know Him. because
your real identity is in Christ, which means if we're talking
as we are today about perfection and perfection is that flawless
state of moral and ethical uprightness before God, by which I will never,
ever be found before God to have violated his law and thus be
called a transgressor. That status of being is my position
presently in the person of Christ. Now, I receive that by faith.
Am I making some sense to you? The believer finds comfort in
this truth that in Christ, I'm perfect. In Christ, I'm perfect. Now, I know that because the
word of God has been preached to me clearly enough for me to
understand the riches and the treasures and the blessings of
what it means to be a believer. So you can see believers walking
around comfortable in this reality, not in myself. That's another
point we're getting ready to get into. But in Christ, I'm
perfect. And I say that a little bit humbly.
But I say it confidently because God can't change, lie, or fail.
And if his word said it is so, isn't that right? By faith, I
receive all that Christ is into myself because God said, whosoever
believeth on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And
everlasting life is the reward, ladies and gentlemen, the reward
of being right before God. The gospel is good news, isn't
it? It's the reward of being right before God. It's the reward
of being right before God. And every believer is an object
of grace in this sense. You wake up daily finding yourself
right with God on the grounds of something God did, not you.
You touch yourself and say, Lord, how could this be? You bless
the brother like me to stand before your presence accepted
in the beloved. Hallelujah. And so we are talking
about perfection being God's purpose, perfection being in
the person of Christ, perfection being the position that every
believer has. We had a series here about a
year ago called In Him. This is called union in Christ,
union with Christ. If you don't learn the doctrine
of union with Christ, you will fail to enjoy the benefits that
come with being in Christ. like you know when you mess up
and you do that about once or twice a year and your head is
really feeling bad the only way you recover from messing up is
remembering that you are in him and that you can go to him having
been in him and declare that his blood and righteousness has
put away all your sins and made you accepted in the beloved.
Am I telling the truth? And you find yourself rising
up again out of your mess to walk with God continually. We
call it a miracle of grace. For though our outward man is
perishing daily, our inner man is being renewed again and again. You know how you mess it up so
bad you say, this is it. I'm done. God's gonna throw me
away. Lord, I done messed up so bad. And the next day you start experiencing
the mercy and forgiveness and restoration of the Spirit of
God. Am I telling the truth? You know what that's called?
It's called being in Him. It's called God purposing your
perfection in the person of Christ and positioning you there so
that what we're getting ready to deal with now, a process takes
place. A process. Now, this is the part
that becomes tricky for my brothers and sisters, and I really don't
want you to miss this. For some reason, we act towards
God differently than we act towards ourselves and our everyday life. But God made us in a way, ladies
and gentlemen, that the everyday common things of life as a pattern
represent spiritual things. That's why earlier I said to
you, did you eat yesterday? Are you eating today? will you
eat tonight? You're going to eat an hour after
you leave here and then later on tonight you're going to eat
and before you go to bed some of y'all going to eat. Am I making
some sense? Well that is what we call a process
by which your body is strengthened and sustained and matures. Now some of us are maturing way
past maturation stage because we're continuing to eat. But
nevertheless, the analogy is there. Y'all got that? The analogy.
So let me deal with the process for a little bit because this
is very important. When Paul says in Colossians
chapter one, verse 28, whom we preach, warning every man and
teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man
complete or perfect, he's using the term perfect in the broad
spectrum of not only their potential but also a process by which they
come into maturity so that they can be everything that God wants
them to be now and for all eternity. You got that? So the seed in
you grows. The you who are the seed is called
to grow. Now I'm dealing with what is
called the organic aspect of maturity or perfection. When
you are a farmer and you plant seeds, you expect that seed to
what? When we have children, we expect
them to do what? Grow up and out. Right? They reach a certain maturation
state, and we say, perfect. Take your suitcase and go, because
you've grown now. Right? Well, in the Christian
faith, it's the same way. Turn with me in your Bible to
Ephesians 4. I need you to see this. I need you to understand
that when we are talking about perfection, we're not talking
about a mere static concept. Because if we're talking about
a mere static concept, we're going to make the mistake of
going around content, as it were, that I'm in Christ. But I'm failing
to realize that to be in Christ is a vital union of an organic
nature by which the same things that happened to Christ when
he was here for us is happening to us because of Christ in us,
the hope of glory. Am I making some sense? I want
to grow, don't you? And the aim of preaching is to
grow us up. So I'm going to read these portions
of scripture and make our advancement. Listen to what Ephesians chapter
4 says, starting at verse 11. Listen to these words carefully.
And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some
pastors, some teachers. We call it a five-fold ministry.
It's really a four-fold ministry. When you understand the Greek
language carefully, you understand that pastor-teacher is one concept.
Pastor-teacher, that's what I'm doing. I'm a pastor-teacher.
So it's a fourfold concept, you understand that? And it has everything
to do with the foundational tools by which the church is built
up. The foundational tools by which the church is built up.
So listen to the language. If we are operating out of the
gifts correctly, by which the word of God is revealed to us
through the apostolic and prophetic ministry, and by which the word
of God is delivered to us through the evangelical and pastoral
ministry, if we are doing the word right, we will grow. Listen to verse 12. Because it
was given he gave these gifts for the what of the Saints for
the what of the Saints The growing up the maturing the perfecting
of the Saints Hence my burden for us at grace is that you would
understand that every time you come to hear the Word of God
is That you come to hear in order to be perfected Not to leave
the same as when you came not to simply be affirmed in what
you know, but to be stretched and challenged in order for you
to be more effective when you leave. Am I making some sense?
I want to be older in the faith after the sermon than I did before
the sermon. I also want to be stronger. The
analogy again is that of the body. One may have a body where
he weighs 150 pounds, he's six feet tall. That's going to be
kind of slim for a brother, right? But he has all the potential
in himself if he works out to grow his muscles, to develop
strength in order to execute his calling in a more effective
way. Am I making some sense there
as well? And this is what the Apostle
Paul is saying. So watch the language, saints. Here it is. Here it is.
The purpose for which God gave us the gifts of preaching and
teaching and ministries for the perfecting of the saints, that
is the maturing of the saints, for the what? Oh, stop right
there. See that word work? People get
the heebie-jeebies and all kind of hermeneutical problems out of
that for the work for the work of the ministry. You know why
God saved you? To use you. You got that? He saved you to use you, but
he can't use you until he grows you. He saved you to use you,
but he saved you first to grow you so he can grow you up in
order to use you to help somebody else. First and foremost, in
the body, in the family, because we're all a family. I could give
you a bunch of indicatives of what we are. One is we're family.
A bunch of us are family members. Am I telling the truth? We love
each other. We don't always like each other,
but we love each other. Am I telling the truth? Because we're family.
And so family becomes a priority for us. So we don't neglect family.
We take care of family. And we long and desire for every
member of the family to grow up and some of them to get out. We want them to be missionaries
out there. Am I telling the truth? So I'm
using a metaphor of a family raising children. It is not natural. This go hurt. It's not natural
for your son and daughter to stay home for the rest of their
life. So our desire at Grace is to
grow up the family in such a way that we can take some of our
grown kids and send them out and do the work of the ministry. Got that? That's what we're talking
about here. So our purpose when we come week
in and week out is not to go through the motions. It's to
actually feed on Christ and grow in Christ so we can go for Christ. Now listen to what he says. Until
we all come into the unity of the what? So that's this is what
we call grand central station The work of the ministry is designed
to bring us all together in one place And that's faith in christ
And once we get there, we stay there because faith in christ
now is explained more articulately in the next clause and of the
what knowledge of the son of god That's what we call faith
in christ That's why, ladies and gentlemen, I said at the
beginning of my message, you are not hearing biblical preaching
unless Christ is being preached. If a person is just talking to
you about this, that, and the third, and has your ear, and
it's tickling your fascia, and it got you all jazzed up, and
hasn't proclaimed the person and work of Christ, technically
speaking, he has not preached. To preach is to preach Christ. To preach to Christians is to
bring Christians in contact with the true and the living God through
their, through his son, Jesus Christ, so that they come to
know God better, so that they become more acquainted with their
savior, so that when they leave, they are more secure in their
calling, so that when they depart, they are more determined in their
purpose. Am I making some sense? We are
not only eating, then we're exercising every time we come. I use an
acrostic when I think about communicating anywhere I communicate. The acrostic
is I-C-E. Now what does that word mean?
I know y'all went to government schools, but what does I-C-E mean? Ice. I knew it took a minute. Ice. When I preach, I want to
ice it. I want to inform you. I want
to challenge you. I want you to be edified. I want
to inform you. I don't want you falling asleep
on me because I'm telling you the same things you've been hearing
all your life and you've never heard nothing new. There he go
again with that same old sermon that he preached five years ago.
Every bit. Didn't even add nothing to it. Y'all remember that girl up in
church? Said, oh, pastor preaches the same thing. I never do that.
I just, I start with a text and I go. That way it's at least
there's something new about it. The goal is to inform and then
the goal is to challenge you. That part people don't like.
But you are not hearing from God. If God doesn't challenge
you. You are not hearing from your
God. If God's purpose is to grow you up in Christ, whenever he
speaks, he's going to challenge you. And you are not hearing
from God in a way of the gospel if it's not building you up.
That's what the word edification means. To build up. To strengthen
and that's our job now listen to it again before I go on to
my further points Till we all come into the unity of the faith
of the knowledge of the son of god into a perfect man Do you
see it? You see what the aim of the whole ministry is is to
make us a perfect man Unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of christ for the apostle paul He comprehended ladies and
gentlemen a vision of one man. You know who that man is christ
and every member in the body of Christ being members in particular
you and I and every believer all over the world from the beginning
of time to the end of time being attached to the person Christ
and growing up in him until we become completely mature. Now you can view that on what
we call an evangelical term, missiological term, by finding
lost sinners and bringing them into the body because the moment
you're in the body you're in the body. Or you can view this on a sanctification
level, and that's to say that the whole church collectively
grows up and becomes mature and functions as they ought to. And
the latter part is really what's in view. Can I talk about that
a little bit? See, we have in the evangelical
church played the game of numbers for several decades now. So folks
are so superficially driven by the numbers game that whenever
you talk about your church, they ask you, so how many folks in
your church? What's the point? How many folks in your church?
There's some relativity to that, but really what's the point?
What if all the folks in your church were lost? What's the
point? You got issues. If all the folks
in your church are carnal and fighting and arguing and going
after worldly things and don't have God's glory as their chief
interest, what's the point of having a thousand members who
don't know God? You're just asking for a headache.
True? What we're talking about is not
only how many, what kind of people do you have in your church? Are
you possessing people in your church who are committed to the
glory of God, who are sound in the gospel, who understand their
mission in Christ, who are operating out of love, who are driven for
the salvation of sinners? Are y'all hearing what I'm saying,
saints? That's what I'm talking about. Because the church of
Jesus Christ is an extension of Christ Himself. And if you
really want to know what a church is supposed to be doing, Just
turn and look at your master and observe what he did and you
got it. In fact, I'm getting ready to
share with you the burden for which I call perfection a process. And that is, it is a process
as Paul is underscoring it here. Let me go through verse 15 so
you can see that I'm talking more about the growth of sanctification
that prepares us for ministry. He says that we must come into
the full statute of the fullness of Christ in order that we henceforth
be no more what? You guys see that? Go from children
to adults, tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine. Don't you meet Christians like that? Caught
up in this wind, caught up in that wind, caught up in this
new thing, that new thing, that other thing. And you wonder when
they're going to settle down. Well, they won't settle down
if they're not brought under sound doctrine. And if they're
not really Christ, they're just a religious person hopping here
and hopping there, hopping everywhere until they get too old to hop
anymore. And then they just get stuck. The believers called to
grow so that when he or she grows, They are committed to such a
mission that's clear to them that they can't be tossed by
the winds that come. The winds are coming, but they
don't toss a brother or sister who's grounded in Christ. Let
them come. All winds do for believers is
make them stronger. That wind came to go. Am I telling
the truth? It just came to go. It might
just blow some debris out of my hair. If you got any hair,
just blow. blow but you came to go and once you're gone I'm
still here which is what I'm gonna get to in our next point
here you grow up in order to be mature in order not to be
tossed to and fro by the slate of men and cunning craftiness
whereby they wait lay and wait to do what but speaking the truth
in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head
even whom Christ so it's a process ladies and gentlemen, and there
are many verses that will underscore that but in Luke chapter 19 turn
with me in your Bible to Luke chapter 19 because I'll set it
forth there our Lord Jesus Christ. Did you know he had to be perfected?
You didn't know that The perfect one had to be perfected That's
right Because if perfection is a process Christ who assumed
the human nature had to go through that process too, didn't he?
Do you remember what the Bible says about Jesus when He was
born? That He grew in stature and in wisdom and in favor with
both God and man. You know what we call that? Process.
Whenever you use the term grow, we're talking process, aren't
we? Here, the very Word of God, the Logos of God, the perfection
of wisdom is growing in wisdom. We would call that a paradox,
right? It's really not a paradox. The area in which He grew was
in His humanity. But because he was a representative
for us, he had to grow. Because we've got to what? Grow.
So he grew in wisdom and stature. And over time, he entered into
ministry, didn't he? The process is the same for us.
You've got to grow up in order to enter into ministry. And once
he entered into ministry, all hell broke loose, didn't it?
Welcome to what it means to be grown. See, again, I'm telling
you what we tell our children. You know how our children think
they know everything. Am I telling you they know everything?
When they hit 17, 18 and let them do just six months in college,
you can't tell them nothing. Because their professors have
taught them that they have excelled your wisdom infinitely. You don't
even say things right. You know how they come back and
correct you on your grammar and you just want to throw your shoe
at them? Right? Remember that? Just tell him
you didn't forgot way more than they will ever learn in their
life. Just start just start raking on them But we have to grow up and then
enter into ministry We have to grow up to go into ministry and
our Lord Jesus Christ is going through his ministry and he's
headed to Calvary and Herod and the rulers tell Jesus that Herod
is going to kill him if he goes to Jerusalem You know what our
master says? Go and tell that fox. I love the Lord Jesus. He allows
me to be politically incorrect in my speech. People are like,
how come you so mean, Pastor Jesse? Because Jesus was mean.
I'm mean to the knuckleheads. I'm nice to the nice people,
but I'm mean to the knuckleheads. Here's what he said. Tell Herod,
today I work, tomorrow I'm doing cures. I'm healing folks. I'm
saving folks. I'm preaching the gospel. I'm
doing what God has called me to do. I'm manifesting my maturity. I'm manifesting what God has
called me to do. And on the third day, I shall
be what? Perfected. What a profound statement. You know what he means by that
statement? I shall be perfected. It means that he will have come
to the full termination for which he was made. That's Luke 19,
21. He had come to the full termination for which he had made. Here's
the analogy. I want you to get this. You're at the station.
You get on the train. You take that train and you know
where you're going. Your destination is New York.
And until you hit your destination, you have not arrived. That's
the way the word perfection is used. You got it. Jesus says,
I will have been perfected when I end up in Jerusalem, taken
by the hands of the rulers. crucified, dead and buried and
risen again on the third day. He viewed the whole of his ministry
as a process of perfection. And that's true for you. And that's true for me as well. I want to call your attention
to two more things. Go with me back to our text. I'll close
here. I want to call your attention to two more things. as we talk
about perfection in the context of both a moral and ethical standing
before God, by which God can call us justly righteous. In fact, he calls us perfect
people. We are called as an adjective, the perfect, but we speak wisdom
to those that are perfect. He says in verse 28, We warn
men and we teach men everywhere in all wisdom in order that we
may present them perfect in Christ. I call your attention to part
of the methodology of preaching that's critical for you and I
to grasp. And that's this. You and I must constantly be
warned. Warned. You see what he says? We warn men. We warn men. What does he warn them? He warned
them not to fall prey to slipping out of hearing the gospel. He warns the church not to fall
prey to being distracted from the ministry of the word of God.
He warns the church that it is possible if you are not careful,
that some hoodwink, some crook, some con can get a hold of your
head. You know, at that weakest point
in your life, when you are vulnerable to psychology and emotionalism,
and you want somebody to meet your felt needs, and they craft
the right message to shift you out of the place from which you
were hearing sound biblical truth. And now you go on a long excursion,
being blinded and deceived by some crook. And the next thing
you know, you end up way in Timbuktu spiritually. You go, how in the
world did I get way over here? Distracted. Distracted. The word worn there is a Greek
term that means to bear upon the mind. To bear upon the mind. So right now I have your minds.
And what I do when I warn you or admonish you is I press upon
your mind to remember, remember that your completion is only
found in one place, in one person, and that's Christ. that you will
never be perfect apart from Christ and that the process of growth
for you cannot occur apart from Christ. It doesn't matter how
good it feels for people to tell you this and that and the other
thing. So long as you are drifting away from Christ, you are, you're
thwarting your growth. You're hindering your growth.
You're endangering your growth. And the warning of scripture
is if you drift too far away, you might discover that you never
had Christ in the first place. Go with me to verse 21 and 22.
I gotta do this. Can I do this? I'll let you go.
I ain't been with you so long now. I'm so glad to be back with
you. Verse 21, 20. Seemed like I ain't been here
for a year. Now watch this now. This is what my sister said.
We missed you. That's it. There ain't been but
one week. Verse 21. Here it is. He says, and you,
this is a present, this is what we call a plural form of you,
all believers, Were sometime alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works. You have now been what? Boy,
that's good You used to be god's enemies And god used to be yours
And guess who fixed it? God did Isn't that love you used
to be god's enemy? And god was your enemy And guess
who fixed it? He reconciled you to himself
See, the preaching of the gospel doesn't tell you to reconcile
yourself to God. It tells you to be reconciled
because God didn't already solve that problem. That's good, isn't
it? Now, here's what he says. Having been reconciled to God
through the body of his flesh, in order that we might be, look
at verse 22, in the body of his flesh through death to present
you holy and unblameable and unreprovable, where? The phrase
I want you to get is to present you You got that What paul does
is he warns look at verse 22 if you have 23. I'm, sorry if
you continue in the faith Grounded and settled and be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel He says you will be presented
holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight if you continue
in the what grounded and settled and be not what? Moved away from
the hope of the gospel. Those kind of warnings are strategically
set in the scripture about every three or four books, aren't they?
Serious warnings like Hebrews chapter 6 and Hebrews chapter
10 and Matthews chapter 7, several passages. You know what they
warn us? I want you to watch this, that there's an innate
capacity on our part God by his grace doesn't keep us for us
to be moved away from the hope of the gospel Can I talk about
that verse for a moment? the word they're grounded is
a word that describes a foundation stone a Foundation stone like
in first Corinthians chapter 3. There's no other foundation
that can be laid than that which is laid even Jesus Christ and
Well, when Paul says that we are to be grounded, he's saying
that you and I are to be so founded in the truth of God's word that
we can become a foundation stone for God to build around us other
believers. That's huge. That's huge for
God to so bless you with truth that you become the means by
which an anchor is established for other believers to grow around
you. Well, don't count that strange
mama. That's what you're supposed to be in your home Daddy, you're
supposed to be that your children ought to find you as an anchor
to the home a solid rock Upon which they can draw from you
your wisdom and your experience so that as they grow in Christ,
they won't be easily moved You guys got that that's what the
word grounded there. The next word that Paul uses
is the word settled. Is that right settled? You remember
how we were growing up when we used to be knuckleheads? We're
not knuckleheads anymore, us grown folks. But remember when
we were kids, we used to be knuckleheads. And don't you remember, I just
need one witness. I don't need a lot of witnesses.
I just need one. Didn't you, from time to time, when you went
in your room and you sat down and said, man, that was dumb
that I did. That was so dumb. Why on earth did I do something
so stupid? Remember how you used to think that you go, man, what
you doing, Jess? You're talking to yourself saying
that was dumb. You're trying to figure out why
you would have acted the way you did. And then there was a
longing in you to grow up out of that kind of foolishness,
right? But remember now, that was when we were teenagers. We
don't have that problem now. We don't feel like that today.
Today we are really settled, aren't we? Let me explain that
word to you too. The apostle Paul says there's
a day in which I'm going to get to that. That's my last point.
I want to make sure I press it upon you. I won't expand it.
I'm just going to press it on you on your thoughts. He says
the kind of believer that you want to be is a foundation stone
for your son, for your daughter, for your brother, for your sister,
for your mama, for your daddy, for your brother or your sister,
for your coworker, for your friends, for the saints at grace. I have
to church that you're part of. You want to be a foundation stone.
they can always come back to and see the old landmarks of
biblical truth rooted and grounded in you. Am I making some sense?
That's the kind of stone you want to be for them. And then
the other thing you want to be is what we call it in the old
days when you bought a piece of property and you didn't have
time to establish the visible rights of it, you squatted on
that property. It's called squatters what? Squatters
rights. So you bought a piece of land
And what you did in order to claim that land is you squatted
on that property. Squatted. What Paul just stated
there is, I want you to be the kind of believer that not only
is such a foundation stone having biblical truth so deeply rooted
in your being that other people can be mature and grow up around
you, but I want you to squat on the gospel as your inheritance
and never be moved. so that when people look at you,
what they see is a man or woman that has claimed this land, claimed
it. Now the squatters right declares
that by virtue of the action of squatting, they own the land.
There's no other visible evidence that they own it other than they
squat and own it. And let me help you understand
something. A believer today, while we possess every spiritual
blessing in heavenly places, and the world is ours, the universe
is ours, glory is ours, all things are ours, at this present time,
don't nobody see anything of that which is yours, other than
you squatting on the promises of God, by the grace of God in
Christ, and saying, I ain't moving, I ain't moving, Watch this. I ain't moving till the U-Haul
truck drives up with all my goods and lets everybody see I own
this piece of property. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?
Which brings me to my last point. The burden of the preaching and
the burden of teaching primarily exists in this reality. Many
of you and lots of people that I have been preaching to and
teaching over the last 25 years will have to meet with me again
in glory at the judgment throne of God. There's a day coming
when the laborers of the gospel will meet before God with all
their labors. Are y'all hearing me? To give
an account before God of what they did and how it impacted
the people to whom they ministered. I want you to hear me now. There's
a day coming, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 14, 2
Corinthians 4, 14, we shall meet together before the Lord. We
will stand before God. It's a Greek term to present
means to stand together with. For many of you, you and I are
going to be standing together before God. Why? Knowing that
He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus. When is that? On the last day.
That's called the resurrection, right? Now watch this. And shall
what? Present us with you. There's going to be what we call
a presentation. That's our last point. Perfection is a day of presentation. where when God is through building
his church, stone upon stone, line upon line, person upon person,
believer upon believer, generation to generation, nation to nation,
when he's done, there's going to be a great day of presentation.
And everyone who has professed to be a believer in Christ, and
they profess that because they were under somebody's teaching,
they're going to be standing there with that teacher. Are
you hearing me? And if that teacher was a gospel
preacher, he preached to you the means by which you are to
be made perfect. And when he stands before God
with you on the last day, you and him will be presented perfect
before God. But that day has not come, of
which Paul also said in Ephesians 5, husbands love your wives,
even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might wash it with the washing of the water of the word in order
to present it to himself. A church without spot and blemish
or wrinkle or any such thing, there's a day of what we call
what? Presentation. And this is why Jude 24 says
that we are calling upon God who is able, able to present
us without fault and spotless and blameless, flawless in the
presence of his glory. There's a day of presentation.
Are y'all hearing me? A day of presentation. And there
are two things that you and I have to deal with right now. Is the
preacher preaching to me something that will make me perfect? Or
will he set me up for hell? Will he set me up for hell? And
am I listening to my preacher? as he preaches the gospel to
me. And am I positioned in Christ, who is my perfection, and is
the process of perfection taking place in my life, so I'm growing
up into Christ in all things, doing those things that grown
folk do, mature saints do, believers who are on a mission do, so that
when I die and I rise again, I will stand with him and all
the saints before the God of glory. and find out that what
he said back then was true. You are complete only in Christ. You are complete only in Christ,
which would say to you and me, make sure that the preaching
that you listen to is the preaching that exalts Christ, because only
Christ preaching will prepare you for God's presence in a state
of perfection for all eternity. Amen. Amen. Amen.