After setting forth in such glorious
terms as only inspiration could have given, the Apostle Paul,
as he wraps up this chapter and comes to the end of this great
extolling of Christ, says in verse 28, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching
every man in all wisdom for this purpose, that we may
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Now, in these words,
the apostle tells us that the aim and purpose of his preaching
was that those to whom he preached might at last be brought into
a saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ, that they might
be made perfect in Christ, and in the end, that they might be
presented by him before God the Father as trophies of his matchless
grace, perfect in Christ. What an astounding statement. Perfect in Christ. Now that's
my message this evening. I pray God will give me grace
to declare it. What do we really know about
perfection? We see something and say it's
just perfect. Taste a delicious piece of cake
or a dish served up, just perfect, just perfect. What do we know
about perfection? Really, nothing, nothing. It is not possible for any mortal
mind to be capable of grasping any real idea of perfection. no more than we can grasp any
idea of eternity. When we think about eternity
without beginning, without end, without limitation, without change,
without progress, without regress, without any possibility of any
alteration, we're simply lost in trying to comprehend its meaning,
eternity. Finite minds cannot comprehend
the infinite. That's one reason that this book,
the more I read it, the bigger it gets. Folks, sometimes when
I was a younger man, I used to think about going deep in the
Word. And I hear folks talk about going
deep in the Word. You're just scratching the surface.
And most of the time, folks think they've been in deep waters. They've just been in muddy waters
and don't know the difference. Infinite cannot be comprehended by the
finite. As I began to think about preaching
to you on this subject and tried to think about perfection and
how I can preach this message to you, I quickly realized this
is just too big for me. To be perfect, is to be without
fault, without flaw, without sin, without blemish, entire,
complete, wanting nothing. It is to be of such quality that
nothing can improve the quality. We simply can't understand it.
Perfection is just foreign to our minds. Perfection is foreign
to this world. It's foreign to it. In this world,
we will never know anything about it. We'll never be able to comprehend
it, never be able to describe it. These things are clearly
revealed in the book. The Lord, our God, is perfect. God is light, John said. In Him
is no darkness at all. Look at Him from any point by
which you can perceive Him. at any point from which he is
revealed. Look at him in all his glorious being and in all
his works, and you will never be able to find any fault with
God. Our Lord Jesus Christ was tempted
of the devil, but Satan found nothing in him with which to
tempt him, for he is perfect. And the Lord God Almighty Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit is perfect, nothing wanting. complete, entire,
whole, without blemish, without fault, without a flaw, without
weakness. He is perfect. He is that one
and the only one who is perfect. I know this too. The world as
God originally made it was perfect. I often try to imagine, especially
when I'm driving down the road by myself and Look out at God's
handiwork and see God's creation in its splendor. And I think,
wonder what this was before sin messed everything up. The Lord
God looked upon everything he made, God who's perfect, and
said, behold, it was very good. God said so. And one of these
days, he's going to restore it to that. Very good. The revelation
of God in Holy Scripture is perfect. All scripture, all of it, is
given by inspiration of God. God breathed. Holy men of God
spoke in time past as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Now, this is what we mean by
inspiration. Men who wrote the scriptures
wrote with infallible direction, by the absolute direction of
God the Holy Spirit. Well, that seems often mechanical. Call it that if you want to,
that's alright, I don't care. But men wrote exactly what God the
Holy Spirit would have them to write so that the revelation
given in Scripture is without fault, without flaw. It is inerrant
and it is for us a perfect rule, the only perfect rule of faith
and practice. It is that rule which God has
given us by which the man of God, all of them, you and me
included, is throughly furnished and prepared unto all good works. We have no rule of faith but
this book, and this book is perfect. But, Pastor, how can you say
that the Bible is inerrant, perfect, when it was written by fallen,
sinful men? It wasn't. It was written by
God the Holy Spirit. He just used the hands of men.
There's a huge difference. He used the character of men.
He used the personality of men. So that when you read Peter's
writings, it's obviously not reading Paul. When you read Paul's
writings, it's obviously not reading John. Those men wrote
what they were directed of God to write. But God, sovereign
as he is, uses even their personalities in expressing his revelation
on paper for you and me. The word of God is perfect. and
the holy, perfect Lord God. Turn back to Leviticus for a
minute. I want you to see this. Leviticus 22. The holy, perfect
Lord God will not. Let me state that a little more
dogmatically. Cannot. Because God's perfect. He will not. He cannot. Accept or approve of anything
short of perfection. Leviticus 22, 21. And do so offer
a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, to accomplish
His vow, or free will offering in bees or sheep. Look at this. It shall be perfect to be accepted. Perfect. Either perfect, or you're
just as well off for a man's blood or a hog's blood. Perfect,
or you're just as well take your knife and try to slit God's throat.
Perfect, or you're just as well spit in God's face. It shall
be perfect to be accepted. God won't accept anything else.
The Lord God Almighty requires perfection. The God of heaven
demands perfection. He will not accept any man's
person, any man's service, any man's sacrifice, be it ever so
great, be it ever so costly, unless that man, his work, and
his sacrifice are entirely, without blemish, perfect before him. Perfection is absolutely necessary. for you and me if we hope to
go to glory. Absolutely necessary. Folks talk
about doing the best you can, talk about God will, if we mix
our faith with our works, God will bend his law and he will
accept us in our fault. It ain't so. It ain't so. God
demands perfection. But no man can ever give it.
No man can ever render it. There is no man living. No mere
mortal who ever has lived, is living, or shall hereafter live
who is perfect, who can make himself perfect. There's not
a man who can even imagine what perfection is. We can't even
think a perfect thought, much less do a perfect deed. We're
nothing but sin. Listen to this. The Lord looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. And he says, this is what
I found. They are all gone aside. They
are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Well, Pastor, are we without
hope? Must we forever be banished from
God? Must we forever suffer the wrath
of God? Oh, no. Blessed be God, there
is hope. Hope for such things as we are.
in all our sin, depravity, helplessness, guilt, and brokenness. There's hope for sinners like
us because the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, the God-man, the
sinner substitute, takes fallen, depraved, dirty, sinful, hell-bent,
hell-bound, hell-deserving sinners like you and me. and makes them
perfect before God. Perfect before God. As a man,
my substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ rendered unto God that
perfection which God requires of me. As my substitute and legal
representative before God, the Lord Jesus rendered unto God
for me a life of perfect righteousness, a work of perfect obedience,
and a sacrifice for perfect atonement and the perfect satisfaction
of divine justice. And all that he has done for
me, he has done for every believing sinner in this world. Well, how
on earth could the life of one man, let's acknowledge that he's
a perfect man, but how could the life of one man, the obedience
of one man and the death of one man give perfection, satisfaction,
acceptance for a whole innumerable multitude of men to the infinite
holy Lord God? This is how that man is God Almighty. And what he did, and what he
is, and what he offered to God is therefore of infinite value,
infinite merit, and infinite efficacy. If you believe on the
Son of God, that perfection which he is,
is yours. If you believe on the Son of
God, that perfection, which he is, is yours. Now, let's look
at our text. And I want you to see four things
here. Here, first, the Apostle Paul tells us that the constant
theme of his preaching was the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ, whom we preach. in whom we preach. Our dear friend,
Charlene Dennis, the black lady who was down here a couple of
weeks ago, I told her a story. You've heard me tell it before.
There's an old black man outside Birmingham in the country sitting
on his porch. He had a great old big bass fiddle. And he'd
just sit there. He'd hold that fiddle in one
hand. Just sit there and pluck that string. And pluck that string.
And a fellow walked by and saw him there and he watched him.
He walked by another day and saw him. He walked up to him and
he said, he said, buddy, did you ever notice that most folks
when they play that big old fiddle like that, they'll run that thing,
their left hand up and down the neck of that thing and they'll
play every one of those strings all the time? He said, yeah,
I noticed that. He said, how come you just constantly
plucking that one string? He said, Dave's looking for the
right string, I found it. And this is the string. Christ
crucified. This is our message, Christ and
Him crucified. Paul said, whom we preach. He did not find himself in a
position where he stood before men and got up and offered opinions
and theories. He did not stand before men and
offer advice and options. He did not give men propositions
which they could consider, but rather he preached a person.
Now, I hope you see this. Paul knew that the only hope
for sinners is a person. He understood that the only comfort
for believers is a person. Paul was not in love with orthodoxy,
purity, morality, or religion. He was in love with a person.
He knew, loved, worshipped, trusted, and proclaimed the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. And he wanted all who heard him
preach. to know that person, to trust that person, to obey
that person, to walk with that person, to love that person. Paul wanted men and women to
livingly and lovingly be united and wed and married to the Son
of God. Now, that's the object of preaching. When I was in college, I didn't
have Just a few professors, just a
few who knew anything at all about God, very few. You can
count them on one or two fingers. But one of the homiletics professors,
pastoral theology professors, he used to make this statement.
He said, boys, where there's no summons, there's no sermon.
Standing up and talking to men and women about religious facts
and about doctrinal positions, and about religious history is
not preaching. Opening the scriptures and telling
men the mere natural meaning of a passage is not preaching. That is not preaching. Preaching
is calling for men and women to grab hold of Christ. Preaching
is setting before men and women the person of the Son of God
and calling for you to lay hold of him. Preaching summons as
men and women to a person. Paul knew that preaching in the
biblical sense is not merely instructing people in doctrine
or in morality or even in righteousness. That preaching which points sinners
to, uplifts and describes and displays the Son of God, that
alone is preaching. That alone is preaching which
declares the beauty and the glory and the grace and the majesty
of the Lord Jesus Christ, calling for people to get hold of Him,
calling for people to believe Him, calling for people to walk
with Him. Now here's the second thing.
All God's people, all of them, are in Christ. We are accepted in the beloved. We are members of his body, of
his flesh, of his bones. Of him are you in Christ Jesus. We are partakers of Christ. Now, all those are biblical statements
made in the New Testament. All of them are statements made
by the Apostle Paul himself. We are in Christ. In Christ. What a wondrous statement. In
Christ. This is what I mean. This is
what Paul means by that. This is what the Spirit of God
means by that. The people of God are one with Christ. You remember in Ephesians 5,
Paul goes into a rather lengthy description of the relationship
of a husband and wife. And it says a man loves his wife,
he loves and cherishes his own body. He said, for this call
shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall be joined
unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. He said, this is
a great mystery. But he said, I'm not talking
about that. I wouldn't waste my time talking
about men and women. Oh, no. I'm talking about Christ
in the church. We are members of His bone and
of His body. One with Christ. One with Christ. as really and truly and immutably
united to and one with Christ, as His deity is united to and
one with His humanity. When Jesus Christ shall cease
to be the God-man, then we shall cease to be one with Him. We're
one with Him in Christ. In Him, by God's sovereign election,
He chose us, put us in. We are in Him because before
the world began, God Almighty said, I will be their God and
they shall be my people. And He declared that we are indeed
His sons and daughters by His free grace. We are in Him by
divine election. The only way anybody will ever
get to be in Him is if God Almighty, before the world began, put you
in Him. In Him by God's choice. In Him
by God's decree. In Him by God's work. In Him
because God said, I'm their God, they're my people. And we're
in Him by the purchase of His precious blood. If I go down
to the store, Shelby sends me after something. And I walk through
the line and I pay for it. When I walk out the store, I've
got it in my hand. It's in my hand. The Lord Jesus
Christ ransomed our souls out from under the curse of God's
holy law, out of the hands of divine justice, and we're in
His hands as His purchased possession. As sheep purchased by a shepherd
are His and in His hands. We are in Christ by the blessed
graft of grace. In Romans 11, 24, Paul speaks
of many women being grafted into Christ, grafted into him. Now, if you're going to graft
trees, it takes two cuts. There's got to be a cut made
in the original stock, and there's got to be a cut made in the branch
to be grafted. And you take and cut the original
stock. And then you cut the branch, and you put the two together,
and you put some mud around them, and you pack them together until
they're at last made to be one. That grafted branch grows into
the original stock and becomes part of it. Now, that's exactly
what happens when sinners are saved by God's grace. Christ,
the original stock, was cut to death at Calvary. And in the
new birth, He comes and cuts you to death. And drafts you in Jesus Christ. So that first thing you know,
you're in Him. He binds you to Him by His grace. And you are united to Him so
thoroughly united to Him that you are one with Him in Christ. Drawing the sap of life from
Christ. Holding to Christ, but held to
Christ. Clinging to Christ, but bound
to Christ. So that you and Christ and Christ
and you are one. That ought to be enough to cause
you to fall down and worship for a little while. One with
the Son of God. And we are in Christ by the living
union of faith. Faith is the fruit of the graft,
not the cause, the fruit. When a sinner believes on Christ,
it's because he's been grafted into Him. Faith is that which
is produced in us by God the Holy Spirit in giving the new
birth. Faith in Christ doesn't affect
God's decree. Faith in Christ doesn't affect
His blood atonement. Faith in Christ doesn't cause
God to do anything. But faith in Christ is the result
in us of what God has done for us. And faith in Christ brings
us into a living, knowledgeable union with our Savior. And as
such, entitles us to all the rights and privileges and blessings
of the sons of God. For you are the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus. Children of God by believing
him. Paul understood this. He said,
I know whom I have believed. He said, I recognize that Christ
is mine and I'm his. And he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. All right, and here's
the third thing, and I want to camp here for just a few minutes. Every person who is in Christ
is perfect in Him. What a statement. Can you begin to grasp anything
of this? The majesty of our text is beyond
me, but this is what it says. Believers, every one of them,
are perfect in Christ. Absolutely, immutably, everlastingly
perfect. Let me see if I can get your
attention. Let's suppose they're sitting
here. Someone who last night was a drunk. a dope-head, whoremonger,
adulterer, blasphemer. And just now, I'm telling you
just now, just now, God's given you faith in Christ. You're perfect
in Him. Perfect in Him. Perfect in Him. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
He's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Christ
took it all away at Calvary. Behold, all things are become
new. That's not talking now about our experience. That's talking
about the blessedness of reconciliation. When a sinner is reconciled to
God in his heart, God declares to him that he's reconciled to
God on the grounds of justice satisfied, righteousness brought
in, atonement made. And God has wiped away all your
sin. And God has stamped on you righteous. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creation. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things have become new. Now, I realize this is a
fact, but it's a fact very much contrary to my daily experience. Brother Pruitt just read Psalm
73. Couldn't have read a better passage
in preparation for this message. David said, I was as a beast
before you. Here I am, man chosen of God,
anointed of God, made king in Israel. And I got to looking
at my surroundings and got to looking at things that my flesh
would take delight in. And I found misery and disconsolation
in everything around me. And I looked over across the
fields, and I saw my pagan neighbor. All his sons are sitting at his
table. All his daughters are sitting there with him. All his
grandchildren, their eyes bug out with fatness. He never had
a heartache, never had a trouble. And I said, it's foolish to serve
God. Oh my God, what have I said? Then I went in the house of God.
And I heard God's prophet read God's Word. And I understood
there he had I understood that their eyes bug out with fatness
because God's fattening them as calves to slaughter them on
Thanksgiving Day. Oh my God, I was as a beast before
you. And that's our daily experience. My knowledge of myself compels
me to disclaim all personal righteousness. Godliness and holiness. I read an article late last night,
actually earlier this morning. A fellow wrote, missionary preacher
in South Africa, and he was talking about what it takes to be a good
pastor, what it takes to be a successful pastor, and all those things. And he didn't point the finger
directly at himself. He just sort of pointed it this
way. And he said, what it takes is personal holiness. That's what it'll take for you
to go to hell. That's exactly right. That's
exactly right. You ain't got any. You ain't
got any. This book doesn't even talk about
such nonsense. No, no, no, no. In me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. All our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags in God's sight. Pastor, you're talking out of
both sides of your mouth. No, I'm not. I'm talking straight. This passage
is not talking about our view of ourselves. It's not talking
about how we perceive what we are and what we experience in
our daily conduct, in our daily lives, not at all. The passage
is declaring to us God's view of his people in Christ. Perfect! Perfect. In spite of our many
countless sins, the people of God in Christ are perfect in
his sight, washed in his blood, robed in his righteousness, united
to his person, sanctified by his grace. The Lord God sees
no blemish in his people. Listen to what he says. Lindsay
has been dealing with Solomon on Sunday mornings. Behold, thou
art all fair, my love, my dove, my undefiled. Did the Son of God say that to
Baba Estes? Does the Son of God so describe
Don Fortner? Well, what on earth is He talking
about? Let me show you two texts. Turn to Jeremiah 23. Looking at His church, from the
crown of her head to the soles of her feet, He sees no spot,
no blemish, no infirmity, no fault in her. God sees us in
Christ as He sees Christ Himself. And in Him is no sin. Jeremiah
23, 6. Hold your hands there and turn
to Jeremiah 33. Jeremiah 23, verse 6. Jeremiah 33. All right, look at verse 6 in
chapter 23. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall
dwell safely. Who's that? That's God's elect.
And this is the name whereby he Who? Jesus Christ the Lord. This is the name whereby He shall
be called, Jehovah's Akinnu, the Lord our righteousness. Oh, what a name! We call Him
Jehovah's Akinnu, the Lord our righteousness. Jehovah's Akinnu,
our only righteousness. Jehovah's Akinnu, all our righteousness. Now hold on to your seat and
look at verse 16 of chapter 33. In those days, shall Judah be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name
whereby she shall be called. What does God call you? The Lord
our righteousness. And God calls things as they
are. The Lord, our righteousness. Some of you, I know. Constantly drudge along in bondage
and all of us from time to time do so. Simply because we fail
to grasp and grasp fully the fact that our justification in
Christ is complete justification. It is the great fault of preachers
in our day that believers' redemption, justification and sanctification
in Christ is not fully and faithfully preached. Oh, God, graciously
burn this in our hearts. Our entire standing before God,
the whole of our acceptance with God, All our salvation, all our
redemption, all our justification, all our sanctification, all our
holiness is Christ alone. That's all. That's all. Paul says, follow peace with
all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
And almost everybody. Almost everybody interprets that
in direct opposition to the teaching of Holy Scripture. They say,
now you, God saved you, now you keep on working until you learn
to live in peace and until you learn to live in holiness, without
which no man shall see the Lord. That just is not so. What Paul
is admonishing in Hebrews 12, 14 is the same thing he describes
of himself in Philippians chapter 3. He says, I count not myself
to have apprehended that for which I am apprehended of Christ
Jesus, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things that
are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before.
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God, Christ. I'm following Him who is my peace
and Him who is my holiness. And one of these days, I'm going
to have Him really. I'm going to be with Him really. Our perfection in Christ is not
imaginary. It's real and true. It's a positional
perfection. He was manifested to take away
our sins, 1 John 3, 5. And in Him is no sin. Now, are
we in Him? Are you in Him? Yes, I'm in Him. I'm in Him. I know I'm in Him
by God's decree, by His redemption, by God's grace, by God's call,
because I believe Him. Oh, I don't have to believe Him,
but I believe Him. He's all my hope. And God says
in Him is no sin. And I don't care what anybody
else says, that's the truth. I don't even care what Don Fortner might
say. That's the truth. It is an imputed perfection.
As He was made to be sin for us, we have been made the righteousness
of God in Him. But it is also an imparted perfection.
1 Peter 1.4 tells us that in the new birth, we have been made
partakers of the divine nature. God the Holy Spirit comes and
creates Christ in us. That's the hope of glory. Turn
to 1 John 3. Let me show you this quickly.
1 John 3, 5. You know that He was manifested
to take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. Now look
at verse 9. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. What that means, preacher, is
that anybody who's born of God doesn't continually practice
sin. How'd you get that out of that?
Well, that's what I've always heard preachers say. I wish folks
would learn to forget what they've heard preachers say and read
what this book says. He that is born of God does not
sin. It can't mean anything else.
Look at this. For his seed remains in him and
he cannot sin. He can't sin. He's born of God. Do you remember how Paul spoke
in Romans? He said, Concerning sin is no
more I, but sin that dwells in man. So the believer is a man
with two distinct natures. There is in David Peterson that
old man Adam, named David Peterson, who can't do anything but sin. And there is in David Peterson
that new man, Christ, who can't do anything but holiness and
righteousness. And the two at war with one another.
So that we are made to be partakers of Christ. And there is now created
in us this new man. This new man that's perfect before
God. And that old man has already
been punished at Calvary. And that old man will drop in
the grave and we will rise with this new man. In the perfection
of Jesus Christ the Lord. Well, what happens when a believer
sins? What happens when a believer
sins? It is strange we use language
like that, when a believer sins. Merle Hart, when did we not sin? Oh, but I'm talking about horrible
outward sins. David and Peter committed some
horrible things outwardly. But I want to tell you something,
there's not a man or woman sitting here tonight who hasn't committed
more horrible things inwardly. Well, what happens when a believer
says, well, before I was saying, you've committed just as horrible
of deeds today, me too. Well, what happens when a believer
says, In us, a lot. Our hearts grow cold and hard
and heavy. Communion is lost, sweet fellowship,
so many things happen. But before God, buddy-duddy,
nothing happens. Nothing. God Almighty will never
charge you with sin. Won't happen. Won't happen. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. James, he charged
your sin on his son. And he doesn't ask for anything
else. That's all. Look in 1 John chapter 2. You
see this perfection. is an immutable perfection. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that you said not. A fellow asked me a few
weeks ago about a passage similar to this in Exodus. He said, God
gave His law that you said not. I said, what does that mean?
I said, what does it sound to you like it means? He said, it
sounds to me like you gave it so you just don't sin. I said,
that's what he said. Don't sin. Don't do it. Don't
do it. But it ain't never going to happen.
It ain't never going to happen. Strive not to sin, but it ain't
never going to happen. Subdue the lust of your flesh,
but you're not going to quit sinning. It ain't going to happen.
My little children, these things write unto you that you sin not.
And if any man sin, then if he'll repent enough,
beat himself up enough, and do penance enough, and give enough,
and work enough, he might maybe one day win himself back into
God's good graces. That's religion talking. This
is God talking. If any man sin, we have an advocate. We haven't lost
him. We have him. We have it! Jesus Christ the righteous. And
He's the propitiation. He's the justice, satisfying
atonement on the mercy seat for our sins. And not just for ours,
but for God's people everywhere. Now such a glorious, blessed,
gracious truth as this ought to have a profound, positive,
practical influence on our lives. Some folks say, well, don't preach
that. Men will take it as a license
to sin. That's antinomianism. Let men act and say what they
want to. I just, I'm either getting old and crotchety and don't care,
or I'm getting smart and don't care. But I don't care what your
way is. I just don't care what men say. I don't care. I can't
preach that for folks who do bad things with that. That's
kind of like saying let's quit making ropes because some idiot
hung himself. Let's quit making guns because some fool went out
and shot up a bunch of people and it was the gun's fault. He
wouldn't have done it had he had a gun. I'm not going to rob
God's people of bread because some fool put some rat poison
in it. This is what God says. Perfect. Oh, if God Almighty has made
me perfect before Him. What deep, abiding peace and
assurance I ought to have before Him always. Sometimes I feel saved, and sometimes
I feel as lost as hell. Most of the time, the latter.
That's just fact. I wish I didn't have to tell
you that. That's just fact. But I'll be honest with you,
I'm probably in better condition when I feel lost as hell than
I am when I feel saved. But my feelings don't have anything
to do with anything. My standing before God is in
Christ, and I have His Word. I in His Word, I look to Him. And in the teeth of my sin, when I have no evidences to which
I can look, when I have no graces which give me any confidence,
when I have done nothing, feel nothing, think nothing that gives
me any peace, I look with all my corruption to Him who's my
Savior. Trust Him. Oh, how humble we
ought to be. I mean truly humble, not pretentiously. I'm God's, and He's taken such
as I am to be His own. how we ought to consecrate ourselves
to God. If ever there was a man, if ever
there was a man who ought with every breath to make every imaginable
sacrifice to God's glory, you're looking at that man. How highly we ought to esteem
one another. Paul says this is what the fellowship
of love is. Now how can that be? I saw old Lindsey Campbell. I can use you. You won't mind
too bad. I saw him driving down the road the other day and I
could read his lips. He was upset. I always expected
that of Lindsey. No. I don't care what I saw him
doing. I don't care what I heard come
from his lips. That man's in Christ. And I can't see anything
inside Him. I can't see anything in Him. I can't see what He is at heart,
but I know what He is in Christ. He's perfect. He's perfect. I can see something of what's
in my heart. It ain't nothing there but sin.
So it's just most reasonable that I esteem him better than
me. You esteem a man better than
you do yourself, you won't talk too bad about him. You esteem
a man better than you do yourself, you won't have too much to say
about him that's not good. You esteem a man better than
you do yourself, there's not much you won't do for him. Look,
not on your own things. but on the things of others,
each esteeming the other better than himself. I've preached too long. I'll
quit. But this ought to inspire in us confident hope with regard
to the future. Turn to Jeremiah 50, verse 20. Jeremiah chapter 50. Aren't you just constantly amazed
that religion, all brands of it, it doesn't matter which brand
it is, perverts everything? It doesn't get anything right. I mean, nothing. The whole religious
world, Hollywood included, talks about Judgment Day with terror.
One of these days you're going to pay. One of these days God's
going to get you. One of these days God's going
to get you for everything you ever did. Listen to me, children
of God. God got us for everything we
ever did at Calvary. And Judgment Day holds no terror
for you who believe. How come? Because when I meet
God in Judgment, I'm going to have then dropped the only thing
lacking concerning my everlasting salvation, flesh. and stand before Him not only
in a positional perfection, not only in an imparted perfection,
not only in a perfection that He sees, but I'm going to stand
before Him without even the smell of sin on me. Jeremiah 50, verse 20. In those
days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for. Justice will search the books
to see if justice can find, with its omniscient eye, with its
unbending strictness, any iniquity against Don Fortnight. And there shall be What does
it say? Somebody say it. None! None. How come? And the sins of Judah. And they shall not be found. Because, God says, I will pardon them. whom I reserve. And when God pardons, there's
no record. When God pardons, there's no
remembrance. When God pardons, in that day, in that day, this preacher will
see the end of his labors with joy and rejoicing. For I preached Christ to you,
and I'm going to present you perfect before His glory. And that's just about as good
as it gets. Amen.