Notice once again in verse 28
of Colossians chapter one. Whom we preach. Not what we preach. Here's what
I believe. Well. We don't preach a what? We preach a whom. That's a vital
distinction. whom we preach. You see, salvation is not a what.
Salvation is a whom. It's not a system of doctrine
you give assent to. It's not a philosophy. It's not
a lifestyle. It's not a worldview. Salvation
is a person. Paul said that when we preach,
we preach as ambassadors. of Christ. That means if I'm
preaching, Christ sent me for this message tonight, and I'm
speaking as his spokesman. That's what preaching is. We
preach as ambassadors of Christ bringing his message. The Lord said regarding those
he sends to preach, he that heareth you, heareth me. Strong language, isn't it? And
he that despises you sets aside what you say. If I'm the one
who sent you, if you're my ambassador, he that despises you and sets
aside what you say, despises me. If I'm his messenger and
you treat with contempt or set aside my words, it's not me you're
rejecting. If I'm bringing his message,
it's him you reject. Whom we preach. I think of so many different
scriptures. Paul said, we preach Christ crucified. He's our message. They cease
not. It was said of the apostles to
teach and to preach Jesus Christ. Paul said, we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants for
Jesus' sake. Now, what we preach is determined
by who we preach. This is so vital. Whom we preach. And the passage before us in
Colossians 1, Paul had proclaimed in no uncertain terms who he
is and what he did. Look back in verse 15 of Colossians
chapter one. This is who he is. Who is the
image of the invisible God? All you'll ever see of God is
Jesus Christ. I want to take the opportunity
to say this statement. I'd like to say the statement every time
I preach. Jesus Christ is not like God. He is God. He is the
image of the invisible God. That's who he is. He's the firstborn
of every creature, for by him were all things created that
are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
whatever we're talking about, all things were created by him. And I love this, for him, for
his own glory. And He is before all things. All things. He comes first. He's before it. He caused it.
He's in control of it. And by Him, all things consist. All things are held together.
I love that passage of scripture you read in 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. where it says in everything give
thanks for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning
you. And I got to thinking everything that happens, it doesn't matter
what it is, this is God's will in Christ Jesus concerning me.
And therefore I have reason to give thanks. You see, by him
all things consist and they're all held together. And he is
the head of the body. What is the body without a head? You don't even know who he is. You can't The head is the identification
of the body. He's the identification of the
believer. You wanna know who I am? Look to who he is. That's who I am. That's the heritage
of every single believer. He's the head of the body, the
church, who is the beginning, the cause. He's the cause of
all things, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
he might have the preeminence for. It pleased the father that
in him, should all fullness dwell. Now that's who he is. He's the
one in whom it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness
dwell. And then Paul tells us what he
did. We looked at these in past weeks, verse 20, and having made
peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all
things to himself, by him I say, whether they be things in earth
or things in heaven, and you that were before time alienated
enemies in your mind by wicked works, Yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh the death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in love. What a glorious presentation. Now, whom we preach. The preaching of a person doesn't
mean we do not preach doctrine. We preach the doctrine of Christ.
As a matter of fact, you can't say something about him without
speaking something of his doctrine, the doctrine of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, the passage that came to my mind when I thought
of whom we preach, I thought of a message Christ preached
and two separate responses to this message he preached. Now,
turn back to John chapter six. I want us to look at the responses
before I look at the message itself. Verse 59, these things said he
in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore,
of his disciples, people who claimed to be his followers,
when they had heard, said, this is an hard saying. Who can hear it? Now, that word
hard means literally dry. This is where the term dry doctrine
came from. Dry. It's one time translated
austere, when remember the servant said thou, I knew that thou art
an austere man and you reap where you don't sow and pick up where
you didn't lay. You're unsympathetic to humanity. You're austere, dry, hard, and
austere. Now this was their assessment
of the Lord's Sermon. Now let's go on reading. When
Jesus knew it himself that his disciples murmured at it, he
said unto them, Doth this offend you? Are you offended by what
I've just said? What, and if you shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where he was before? Now what he means
by that is if you think you're offended now, you'll really be
offended then. When you see who I am and I'm
seated at the right hand of the Father and everything I said
is words of truth and you'll really be offended then. Verse
63, it is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you
that you call harsh, dry, austere, They are spirit and they are
life. And that's quite a combination
of his words, isn't it? They're spirit and they're life. But there are some of you that
believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not and who should betray him. And he said, therefore said
I unto you that no man can come to me except it were given him
of my father. Now, do you hear what he said to these people?
He said, some of you don't believe, and here's why you can't. You can't, it's beyond your grasp.
No man can believe, except it were given to him of my father.
Now that's what the Lord said to these people. From that time,
many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Then said Jesus unto the 12, will you also go away? Now I
try to picture this in your mind, this great crowd leaving the
Lord. They said, we've had it with this, we've had it with
this, we're going back. And the Lord watched them leave.
and something that I think is very significant. He didn't ask
him to come back. He didn't say, let me rephrase
what I said. He watched him leave. He knew their response to his
word. And he said unto the 12, will you also go away? Then Simon
Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life. life. These words that these
people are counting harsh and dry and austere and unsympathetic
toward humanity. We find these to be nothing less
than words of life, life giving, life sustaining words, words
we must hear, words there's no life apart from these. And we
believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the
Living God." Now there we see two vastly different responses
to this message. Now in this message, in John
chapter 6, probably most of you are familiar with it, he gave
what we call, and we shouldn't call this the doctrines of grace,
that's what people use, the doctrines of grace, but it's the doctrine
of grace. You see, any time the word doctrine
is used in the plural, it's always with reference to false doctrine
in Scripture. Did you know that? It's not the
doctrines of grace, it's the one doctrine of grace, the doctrine
of Christ. You know, when people call this
the five points of Calvinism, I just want to cringe, because
this is the gospel. This is not to be named after
some man. What if this was called the five
points of Sharonism, Claire? Why, you'd cringe, wouldn't you?
I mean, we don't want anything like that. This is words of spirit
and life. We don't attack some man's name
to this. I'm sure John Calvin would be
appalled if he ever thought his name was attached to the great
truth of salvation by grace, which our Lord brought out so
clearly and so powerfully in this passage of Scripture. Now
look with me in John chapter 6. This is the Word of Christ, whom we
preach. See, when we preach this, we're
preaching Him. You see, what you believe is
determined by who you believe. All together. If you believe
Him, You'll believe his doctrine. Now, in this passage of scripture,
he said in verse 36, but I say unto you that you also have seen
me and believe not. All that the father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I'll
in no wise cast out for I came down from heaven not to do my
own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the
father's will which sent me that of all which he hath given me,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day. Now this is a reference to divine election. The Father
giving the Son of people. And he says, this is the Father's
will which is in me, that every one that he's given me, I will
be one of them. I'll save every single one of
them. When he said, it is finished,
mission accomplished. They were all saved. There's
divine election. Verse 40, and this is the will
of him that sent me, that everyone would, this is divine election,
this is particular redemption, this is the will of him that
sent me, that if everyone would seeeth the Son and believeth
on him, may I have everlasting life. And I'll raise him up at
the last day. Now any time, the glorious truth of God electing
a people and Christ dying for the elect and accomplishing their
salvation is presented. Oh, and we always present it
every time we preach. We also present this too. Anybody
who sees the Son. Anybody who sees who He is and
believes on Him, they're accepted. They're accepted. God, let me
remind you, you can't preach the gospel and not preach election
and Christ's effectual redemption for His elect. Somebody that
preaches something opposite of that, they do not preach the
gospel. But your and my, what we need to do is not try to figure
out whether or not I'm going to elect. I'm to see the son and
I'm to believe on him. That's all I'm called upon to
do. Let's go and read. The Jews then
murmured at him because he said, I'm the bread which came down
from heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith,
I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, and put yourself in his people's place. They knew
the Lord. They saw the Lord grow up. They knew his parents. They
knew where he worked. It's not just a carpenter's son.
How's he saying I came down from heaven? We knew when he was born.
And he's saying I came down from heaven? How do you expect us
to believe that? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto him, murmur not among yourselves, no man can come to
me, except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I'll raise
him up at the last day. Now you listen to the language
of that. The Lord says, you don't believe me and here's how it
comes, you can't. You're unable unless God the Father is pleased
to draw you. And if he does, you'll be raised
up on the last day. Now, that's the language of the
Lord in this passage of scripture. He goes on reading and says,
I give unto them eternal life, not temporary life, eternal life. Now, this is clearly the great
doctrine of grace. And some people said these are
dry, harsh sayings, unsympathetic. There's no warmth in this. There's no life in this. We're
just living. We've had it with this. And somebody
else says, these are words of spirit and the words of life. Whom we preach. Now, some people saw them as
his words. Some people saw them as the words
of a mere man. whom we preach. You see, men don't hate a doctrine,
they hate a person, a person over whom they have no control
who rules and reigns. Whom we preach. Everything about the gospel,
every doctrine of the gospel is only understood by the whom.
Eternally united to him. I can't grasp that, but I believe
it. I've always been in him, chosen
in him. redeemed by His blood, justified
by His righteousness, called by His grace. Faith is in Him. We love Him. He's my husband. He's my Lord. He's my Savior.
He's my Redeemer. He's my all in all. He truly
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And I say this reverently. He
truly is my best friend. He's the only one. I said this
recently. You know, He's the only one who really knows me.
He really is. I mean, Lynn thinks she knows
me, and she does in a lot of ways. But he knows me a lot better. He knows all about me, and he
still loves me. Isn't that wonderful? Whom we
preach. You know, because we love his
person, we take personally anything that's said contrary to him.
You say something negative about Lynn, Aubrey, any of you, I love
you. Somebody comes up to me, to you all, and they say something
negative to me about you, I'm gonna defeat you because I love
you. I love you. That's not the way
of it. We love a person and we take
something personal that's said against him. Now, those who don't
love him can't understand this, but those who love him do. No
truth is understood apart from him. He is the key of wisdom
and knowledge. I love what Paul said in 2nd
Timothy 112, I know whom I have believed. I know whom I have believed.
And what I believe is determined by that. I'm persuaded. Because
of who he is, I'm persuaded. that he is able to keep that
which I've committed to him against that day. You see, I've committed
the entire salvation of my soul to a person. I'm not resting
in my belief or my understanding or anything about me. I've entrusted the entire salvation
of my soul to him, and I persuade he's able to keep that which
I've committed to him against that day. Whom we preach. Whom. Salvation's not a what. It's
a whom. Whom we preach, Paul said. Whom we preach. Literally, the
word means to report down. And that's what true preaching
is, isn't it? It's bringing a message from on high and bringing it
down. Now that's not to exalt the preacher.
The preacher's not to be exalted. That's to exalt the message.
Preaching is reporting down. I hope we all have a high and
lofty view of the preaching of the Word. First Corinthians 121
says it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. When Paul's talking about whom
we preach, we preach, we declare Him. God has manifested His Word
through preaching, which is committed to my trust. Turn to Romans chapter
10. You're familiar with this passage
of Scripture, but it does good to look at it once again. Whom we preach. Verse 13, for whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. What a blessed,
blessed verse of scripture. I never leave that. Lord, you
said in your word, whosoever calls on your name shall be saved.
I'm calling. Save me. Save me. Save me by who you are. Save
me by your name. Save me by your sovereignty.
Save me by your justice. Save me by your grace. Save me
by your holiness. Save me by your love. Save me.
Whosoever. Here's the promise. Anybody.
I don't care who you are. Anybody who calls on his name
will be saved. Isn't that encouraging? I love
the word whosoever. I'm a whosoever. Go on reading. How then shall they call on him? in whom they've not believed?
And how shall they believe in him in whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it's written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. Now, when God saves a man, he
sends him a preacher. That's how God operates. When
God saved Paul, what did he do? I know he brought him into the
third heaven and taught him the gospel. He did, didn't he? You can read
about that in 2 Corinthians 12, but what did he first do? He brought
Ananias to him, a nobody from nowhere that nobody ever heard
of, and you never hear of him after that. I think that's really
neat, the way he used such a, an insignificant man like me,
like you, he used somebody like that to come to Paul and preach
the gospel to him. God only speaks through the preaching
of the gospel. Now I hope we have a high and
lofty view of the preaching of the gospel, because if we don't,
We're going to have a wrong attitude toward the preaching of the gospel.
We'll start listening with the wrong attitude. And oh, it's,
it's, may God deliver us from that. And may we have a, a high
view of what he says regarding the preaching of the gospel.
Mitch, right? You know, somebody says, well,
the preacher will get big headed because God uses him in that way. No,
he won't. No, he won't. Not anybody that really belongs
to the Lord. Lord knows how to keep his people down. He knows
exactly what they need. And nobody, nobody who preaches
the gospel, if they're preaching the gospel is going to get big
headed about it. They're just not going to do it. They know
it's, it's, it's of the Lord's mercies. But remember, Mitz just
read that scripture, know them, which labor among you and over
you in the Lord and esteem them very highly in love for the work's
sake. And in Hebrews 13, 17 says, obey
them that have the rule over you. And that doesn't mean they
bark out orders and, and you, Do what they tell you to do.
It's literally be persuaded by them who are your guides. Be
persuaded, be convinced by them who are your guides. Do you understand
what you're reading? How can I? Except some man should
guide me. The writer to the Hebrew said,
obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves.
You know, the only way you can submit is if you want to. Nobody
can make you submit. Nobody can order you to submit
or command you to submit. The only way you can do that
is if you want to and you feel like it's what the Lord would
have you do and it's in your best interests. For they watch
for your souls as they that must give account that they may do
it with joy and not with grief. For this is unprofitable to you.
May the Lord enable me to be a listener. May the Lord enable
you to be a listener. Who doesn't give the preaching?
but it's an encouragement. Oh, may God make me an encouraging
hearer. Whenever I hear the gospel preached,
I want somebody, whoever's preaching, I want to be an encouragement.
If they're preaching the truth, I'm their fan. I'm behind them
if they're preaching the gospel. Be careful and prayerful about
your attitude towards the preaching of the word. Pray for the preacher
and pray for yourself that you'll be able to hear. Paul said, Preach. This thing of preaching. Look
at the emphasis the scripture puts on this thing of preaching.
That's going to exalt the preacher. I know that. Do you think for
a second that I think I'm any more important than anybody else
or I have some kind of special life? I don't think anything
like that. I'm a chief of sinners. I'm amazed that the Lord allows
me to preach. But what a blessed privilege
it is to preach. To preach the gospel. Preach
the word. Whom we preach. You know, I read
recently about a man, it was in some kind of religious movement,
but he was thinking there's certain, he was actually saying there's
certain doctrines that should not be preached to young believers
because they wouldn't be ready for it, and it would mean too
much for them. And what he was talking about,
he was talking about things like election, and Lenin had told me, he said,
we believe those things, but we don't want to preach them because
it's not something for a young believer to, and I thought, Are
you that presumptuous and arrogant that you think you have the ability
to know which doctrine should be preached and which shouldn't
from the Holy Word of God? This is the Word of God. This
is not some textbook. This is the Word of God. All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Is there some message
of Scripture that shouldn't be preached? Nobody should understand
that. Don't preach that. This is the word of God. Do you
think you have the ability to decide which part should be preached
on and which shouldn't, which doctrine should be brought out,
which shouldn't? No, preach the word. Don't hold it back. Paul
said, I preach unto you all the counsel of God. Now, Paul said
whom we preach. Now back to our text. Well, may the Lord enable me
and you to be preachers of him. whom we preach. And the next
thing he gives two words to describe what happens in this preaching
of him. Whom we preach, warning every
man and teaching every man in all wisdom. Now this is what's
going on in true preaching, warning and teaching. The word worn is quite often
translated admonished, admonishing, and teaching. Admonishment has
to do with what is wrong. Teaching has to do with the impartation
of positive truth. Now, the people the preacher
preaches to are, like himself, sinners. I know that's what I
am. I know that's what you are. And
that alone creates plenty of wrong to deal with. warning every
man. You see, there's something every
man carries with him, and it's called self. Self. Self-righteousness, self-centered,
self-willed, self-serving, self-promoting, self-absorbed, self-indulgent,
self-asserting, self-conceit, self-confidence, self-conscious,
self-complacent, self-deception, self-delusion, self-exaltation,
self-gratifying, self-important, self-interest. It's a word called
self-ish. It's kind of a funny word, isn't
it? Selfish. Selfishness. I know the word
altogether. I'm very familiar with the word.
All those things that I mentioned, I struggle with and beat at me
constantly. Selfishness. Self. Self. It's a very comprehensive word. And there's plenty to warn about
self in there. I think of what our Lord said
when he said, whosoever will come after me, what's the first
thing he said to do? let him deny himself. The biggest problem, do you believe
this? The biggest problem you have is you. The biggest problem
I have is me, self. And so there's a lot of warning
going on in preaching, a lot of admonishing. You know, when
the children of Israel were to build the walls, rebuild the
walls of the temple, what did they first have to do? Get rid
of all the rubbish. There was so much rubbish to
move. And that is always involved in the preaching of the word,
warning every man and teaching every man. That's the positive
aspect of preaching. We preach the word. I love to
preach everything in the word. I love the word of God. Of his
own will begat he us through the word of truth. And it's the
word of God, it's the preaching of the word, whatever, any passage
of scripture, every doctrine of the scripture, it's all profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and
righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly
furnished unto all good works. Turn to Ephesians chapter four. Verse eight, wherefore he saith,
when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and
gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is
it? But he also descended first in the lower parts of the earth.
And that he descended is the same also, descended up far above
all heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some
apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors
and teachers. How come? For the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, For the edifying
of the body of Christ do we all come in the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man. Unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ that we henceforth be no more children
tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and
wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love
may we grow up into him in all things which is the head. even
Christ. That's what the positive teaching
of the Word is for, for the perfecting of the saints. Now back to our
text in Colossians chapter 1. Whom we preach, warning every
man and teaching every man in all wisdom, and here's our great
end, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Now that's the purpose of preaching.
to present every man, every believer, perfect in Christ Jesus. Now
this word perfect is used in two ways in the scripture. First,
it quite often is a reference to maturity. It's even translated
then of full age. Those who are grown up, it has
something to do with spiritual maturity. But it also means perfect. be ye perfect even as your father
in heaven is perfect. Now we preach him whom we preach
warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom and that's
true wisdom the preaching of the gospel is true wisdom that
we might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Now both of
those words could be used perfect is mature And that idea was expressed
in that passage that's just read in Ephesians chapter four, but
turn to Hebrews chapter five. Verse 14 says, but strong meat
belong to them who are of full age. Now that word full age is
the same word translated perfect, mature. What led him to say that? Look in verse 11 of this same
passage of scripture in Hebrews chapter 5. He's been talking
about Melchizedek. And he said, when for the time
you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you
again, what be the first principles of the oracles of God and become
such as have need of milk and not of strong meat, you become
dull of hearing. That is immature. You become
dull of hearing. You can't hear the gospel as
you should. You have to be taught the same
truths over and over again. You've never really been grounded.
Verse 13, for everyone that useth milk is unskillful, unexperienced
in the word of righteousness. He is a babe, but strong meat
belongeth to them who are of full age. Even those who those
who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both
good and evil to where they can tell the difference. Therefore,
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ. Let us go
on into perfection and to maturity, not having to lay again. I mean,
we ought to be grounded in these things. We ought not have to
lay them over and over again. The foundation of repentance,
a change of mind regarding dead work, seeing that every work
you ever did before God saved you was nothing more than dead.
A faith toward God, which is faith in Christ, the doctrine
of baptisms, which is the doctrine of union. That's what baptism
means. The laying on of hands, the transference of guilt, of
the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. Everything
God does is eternal, and this we will do if God permit. Now, we preach that God's people
may not be tossed to and fro with every wind, but that they
might be strong men in Christ Jesus. Oh, I want to be strong
in Christ, don't you? I want to be strong in His grace.
I want to be a mature believer. I don't want to be someone that's
causing people a baby. It just has to be served. That's
it. A baby has to be looked upon. A baby has to be dealt with.
You're thankful for them. You love babies. We love babies.
But we don't want them to stay babies, do we? What if somebody's
20 years old and you're changing their diapers? You got some real
problems then. No, you want some maturity from God's people. But
you know, that's not really, that certainly has an application,
but I don't think that's really what Paul's talking about when
he says we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
He's talking about perfect. Perfect. Without fault. Now, when I talk about perfect,
everybody in here, particularly if you're a believer, you feel
so imperfect. Imperfect. incomplete. All that stuff about self, you
think of your own self, whatever self, you just feel so drugged
down by self. And this is how bad this self
drags us down. Believer, the holiness that you
have right now is the same holiness you'll have in heaven. And you think, how could that
be the way I am? the way I feel. Well, that's how much the flesh
drags us down. You're not going to be any more
holy in heaven than you are right now. Isn't that glorious? Scripture says we're already
glorified. That's what scripture says. That person who is feeling
their imperfection, let me tell you something. You are perfect
in Christ Jesus. Not you will be. You are. You can't get any more perfect
than you are. God said it shall be perfect
to be accepted. In Leviticus 22, 21, God can
accept nothing less than absolute perfection. That's who he is. He would cease to be God if he
could accept anything short of perfect perfection. And here's how good and perfect
we are. Look back in our text in Colossians chapter one. Verse 21, And you that were before
time alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet
now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death
to present you holy, and this describes every believer, holy
and unblameable, no blemish and unreprovable. There's no reason
to bawl you out. You're perfect in Christ Jesus. Perfect. Now, the perfection
is in Christ. We realize that, but nevertheless,
perfect in Christ Jesus. Jude 24 says, now unto him that's
able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before his presence, the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy. Now, how can that be? Turn to
Hebrews chapter 10. Beginning in verse five, when,
wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith sacrifice
and offering that what is not, but a body has now prepared me.
This is the Lord talking about the physical body that the father
prepared him and made him when he became incarnate in. burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure.
No animal sacrifice ever did anything for God. He never got
any satisfaction of that at all. Then said I, lo, I come, this
is the Lord Jesus speaking, in the volume of the book it's written
of me to do thy will, O God. Now above what he said, sacrifice
and offerings and burnt offerings and offerings for sin, thou wouldest
not. Neither has had the pleasure therein which are offered by
the law. Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will. He taketh away
the first, that first covenant, the covenant of works, that he
may establish the second. By the which will, by that will
he came to do. This is how supreme God's will
is. By the which will we are sanctified, altogether holy,
without blemish, perfectly sanctified, perfectly completed, never to
be repeated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
This is how it happened once for all. For every high priest
standeth. He never sits down. He's always
got something to do. And every high priest standeth,
daily ministering, offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down on the right hand
of God from henceforth expect until his enemies be made his
footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Now,
you're looking at somebody who's without sin, perfected in God's
sight. Somebody was telling me about
listening to a preacher say that on Judgment Day, we'll see our
sins, but God won't. I'm cringed at that. If they're
still there to be, if I can still see them, they're still around
somewhere. They're hanging around somewhere. They're not put away.
They're not gone. I don't want to see, I don't want to have
anything to do with seeing any, no, on Judgment Day. There's no sin there because
every believer is perfected, perfected in Christ Jesus. And that same person I described
so laden down with self who clearly sees their imperfection, they
are perfect in Christ Jesus. You see in Christ, there's no
sin. He was made to take away our sin and in him is no sin. perfect in Christ Jesus. And finally, Paul said in our
text in Colossians 1, the last verse. Where unto I also labor? It's where we get the word agonize
from. I labor striving, striving. I
labor striving, agonizing according to His working. He knew it was
the Lord's work. It wasn't him. He knew it was
the Lord's work. It was according to his working, which worketh
in me mightily. Paul recognized that this was
all according to the working of the Holy Spirit, which worked
in him mightily. And we pray that he'll work in
us mightily, that we might say with Paul, whom we preach. Warning every man and teaching
every man in all wisdom. that we might present every man
perfect. Now, believer, may God give you
and me the grace to do this when we lay our head on our pillows
tonight. Know this. I am perfect before
God. And that perfection is in Christ. Let me show you one last scripture.
I got to show you this. Turn to Psalm 138. Charles Spurgeon brought a three-point
message on this verse, one of the best messages I've ever read. He said in Psalm 138, verse 8,
he said, here's the believer's confidence. The Lord will perfect
that which concerns me. Now, everything that concerns
me, whatever it is, the Lord will perfect it. Well, how do
you know that, David? Well, here's how I know that. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. That's how I know he will perfect
that, which concerns me, because his mercy endures forever. And here's the next reason he
knew it would happen. Forsake not the work of thine
own hands. I'm the work of thine own hands.
I'm not the work of my own hands. I'm the work of your hands. My
salvation is your work and not mine. Therefore, I know. The
Lord will perfect that which concerned me. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you for our
glorious Savior.