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Colossians chapter 1 verse 12,
giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son. Now let's look over in chapter
2 and verse 10, and let's read that verse of Scripture, and
ye are complete. in him, which is the head of
all principality and power." Well, it's holy and righteous,
Heavenly Father, we pause once again to ask for your blessings,
ask for your assistance, and ask for the Blessed Holy Spirit
to work through the message tonight, to apply the Word to every heart
exactly as you see it needs, that souls may be saved, that
Christians may be edified and sanctified and that, Lord, your
name may above all be honored and glorified. Bless this young
couple, and be with them, and supply their needs for your work
that are with us tonight. For we ask it in the name of
our precious Lord, and everybody said, Amen. Thank you, and be
seated, please. The title of my message tonight
is Complete in Christ. Complete in Christ. Now, if you
looked at the text tonight, you'll notice that it said this in verse
12, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints. That word there
means the same thing as fitting. We've been prepared. And then,
of course, over in chapter 2, verse 10, if you notice there
also, it says that we have been made complete in Him. perfect
in Him, in need of nothing else but Him. Now, having given you
a little light on those scriptures tonight, I'll proceed with the
message tonight. You know, the Holy Spirit, in
these scriptures that we read, wants every believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ to know and understand and have the assurance that God
has made us meet, or God has made us fit for heaven. God has prepared us. We don't
lack in any way whatsoever as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ
tonight. Nothing needs to be added. We are complete in Him. We are perfect in Him. Now, that
doesn't mean that we, as far as our everyday life is concerned,
are living above sin. But this has to do with our position,
our standing in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing else
that needs to be done to us tonight. The Lord has fixed it to where
we have everything we need. And we are not to be troubled,
and we're not to be misled by anyone that would come along
and assure us that having trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as our
Lord and Savior, that that's only a good first step. That
there's a second step. and a third step, and a fourth
step, and so forth and so on. It might vary sometimes with
the number of steps that they might suggest. Well, that's good,
but there's other things that you need. That's a step in the
right direction, but it's not enough. Now, God anticipated
such teachings as that. God anticipated also the immature
saint of God who hasn't studied and hasn't grown in the Lord
as he should and doesn't know his word, to say, well, is there
something else I need to do in order to be complete as a saint,
in order to be fitted and ready to go to heaven without a moment's
notice? He anticipated that and he answered
our question and he put it in the Bible so that we would know
and so that we could stand upon it because If there's one thing
that's plain in the Bible, and there's more than one, it is
this, that God wants us when He saves us, to know that we're
saved, to be assured that we're saved, and to rejoice in that
salvation, to have the peace that comes from being saved,
because otherwise, you can't do anything for the Lord. You're
always like a dog chasing its tail, trying to get the matter
of Well, am I all right? Is there anything I didn't do
or didn't do? No. Listen, if you put your faith and trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ with all of your heart, you're all
right. And you don't have to go to ask a preacher, and you
don't have to go to ask someone else who's supposed to have some
knowledge apart from the Scriptures. You can just look at Scriptures
like we've read here tonight to you, and the Blessed Holy
Spirit will assure you through the Word of God. And He'll say
that every day you go to it. Excuse me, he'll not change it.
And that will give you strength. And along with that strength
will give you encouragement. And that'll help you to grow
and that'll help you to become stronger in the Lord and your testimony
and life and your battle for the Lord Jesus Christ will be
greater and greater. Because you know where in you
stand. I like that song, Christ a solid
rock I stand. All of the ground is sinking
sand. That's exactly what the Lord wants us to know. He's not
trying to keep us like some teach, wondering whether or not we're
complete, so that we'll be watching our P's and Q's, as it were,
making sure that we live faithfully. As some say, well, if I preach
to my people or told my people that they were complete in Christ
and they were complete eternally, Then they just go out and live
like they wanted to. No. Not if they're complete in Christ,
they won't. Not if the work of the Holy Spirit has been done
in their life. Not if they're a new creature in Christ Jesus.
Not if they're born again. If these things are true in their
life, you don't need to worry about that. God knew that. God knows how people are. But
if you're people who are just looking to go through a ritual
to try to escape the fires of hell after you've lived a life
of sin, and all you're looking for is just religion to soak
yourself in, you might do things like that. But these people that
the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, addressed, this
was not the kind of people he's talking to. He's talking to people
who were firm believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, having recognized
at some period in their life, some time in their life, their
lost condition before God. And having been convinced of
that, saw the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Savior, and put their
faith and trust in Him with all of their heart. There'd be no
room left in their heart to trust anything else. Only Christ. Therefore, Paul writes to them,
and he tells them, and the Holy Spirit wants them to know that
they are complete in Christ. There's nothing else that needs
to be added. And so, dear people, tonight,
echoing the words of Scripture, speaking in behalf of the Lord,
I say tonight, you can rest assured, if you've trusted Christ as your
Lord and Savior, that you don't need anything else as far as
the salvation of your soul. Now, no matter how earnest, and
no matter how sincere, and no matter how some people may be
that come along and say, well, that's good you've trusted Christ,
But there's something else you need. The Lord said to you, they're
wrong. They're wrong. Don't let them
bother you. In fact, you might get concerned
about them because there's a big weakness, a big defect in what
they profess as salvation. Might get concerned about them
according to our text, according to the very Word of God. And
that's all that really matters. I do not recommend that you go
by feelings. Since the Bible says, Thus saith the Lord, thus
saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord, Jesus Christ quoted the
Scripture in the Scripture, the Scripture is the Word of God. The Scripture is what never changes. The Scripture can be depended
upon. And that's where we can get, remember what I've said
so many times, your feelings aren't worth anything. unless
they rest upon the truth of God's Word, that according to the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have put your faith and trust
in Jesus to save you. A lot of folks tonight feel they're
saved and lost. Matthew 7 tells us that there'll
be a great crowd one day that'll stand before the Lord, and they
will have thought that they were saved always, and they'll say,
look at the work, the good work that we've done, and the Lord
will say, I never knew you. You never were mine. Well, you
see, it wasn't because they had been saved by grace through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was because they had looked
at some other way. They had looked at works, really,
and they felt that they were right with God. As for me, if
I were to get to what they call the pearly gates and someone
were to say to me, Why should you be let in here? I say, you
got a Bible? Is there a Bible here? And they say, yes. I say, hand
it to me. And I just quickly fall over
to John 3.16 and said, there it is. And I knew if I still
any good, boy, I belong here. This is the place where I belong.
I've been prepared for this place. For heaven is a prepared place
for a prepared people. And God has prepared them both.
And that makes them solid, very solid, very solid. Satan cannot
get our souls. I'm thankful for that. Because
if he could get one child of God, he'd get them all. That's
what I can't understand about some people, is that they think
that the devil can get some people's souls once they're saved, but
he's going to leave the others. Now, knowing the devil, from
studying the Bible, there's no way he'd leave God one. If he
could get one, he'd take every one of them. I don't believe
that. Based upon many of the teachings
of the Word of God, I'm sure that Satan can't get our souls,
but he'll do the most damage to us that he can. And what that
means is that he will rob us. He would rob us without blinking
an eye, without hesitation. of the great blessing of rejoicing
in the liberty of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, he
doesn't want to see us do that. He knows he can't have our souls.
But if he can confuse us, he can take away from us the joy,
the rejoicing that's ours, and he can leave us in a miserable
condition. Well, he's done that much good.
He's done that much. He's taken the glory away from God. He wants
to do that every time he gets an opportunity. And so he would
be working on us, and he'd like to turn our attention to some
kind of legal bondage and servitude, where the Lord has started something,
but he can't finish it. We have to finish it by our efforts.
Okay, so the Lord saved me. He put me on the road to heaven,
but I got to stay there by my own efforts. So if I make it,
I get part of the glory, because I'm responsible for making it,
after the Lord put me on the road. No, that's not what the
Bible says. There's not a saint that's walking
the streets of glory tonight that's taking any credit for
being there. If a fellow jumped up in heaven
tonight and said, well, I tell you what, it took me a lot of
work, but I finally got here, I think the angels would all
look at one another and say, who let that dude in here? How'd
he get in here? He doesn't belong here. Who in
the world was watching the gate? Of course that won't happen.
But there are people tonight, the devil likes to take away
from God's people whatever he can. See? And we need to remember that
tonight by not grasping, by not resting upon God's unfailing
promise in his word, such as we've seen tonight, that we believers
have everything we need that fits us for heaven. By not grasping
that, by not believing that, we are robbed of the peace that
God would have us to possess in this troubled world. on this
battlefield of life. Imagine fighting the devil, fighting
sin, disease, all the problems that you face in life, and when
you're in the middle of it all, and you're so burdened, you say,
well, I hope that I hold out and eventually make it to heaven. Boy, that's not very comforting,
is it? That's not what I think. I think,
well, boy, I'll tell you one thing right now. When this life
is over, I'm through with this mess. I've got a home in heaven. I'll be there with the Lord Jesus
Christ and all the saints of God. And it's enabled me to shift
the load and carry it and endure when otherwise it would look
mighty bleak. I actually feel sorry for people.
who think they're saved, who say they're saved, and they don't
know for sure whether they're going to make it to heaven or
not. Amen. They could go, and then to be a hundred years old, and be right down to the last
day of their life, and not make it to heaven, because they failed
in some way. Now, I've never been able to
have one tell me what that particular failure was that would wreck
everything, but they believe it. Oh, listen, dear people tonight,
God wants us to have more than that. Part of the riches tonight
that we have as Christians is the assurance that God gives
us. You can be broke and not have a nickel of money, but you're
talking about rich in spiritual blessings. You'll always be. You always see the teaching of
incompleteness, even though we're in Christ, dishonors. And it robs the Lord of the glory
and praise that's due Him. You see, we're to offer up sacrifices
of praise to God. Well, if we take away from God
the completeness that's in Christ Jesus, and we don't give Him
the glory for that completeness, we're actually robbing Him. of
what belongs to him. And old Satan likes that. He
doesn't like God either, you know. He likes to rob God of
His glory. He likes to see the saints of
God acting up. He likes to see the saints of
God grieving the Holy Spirit. He delights in that. And then
the Bible says he's an accuser of the brethren, so he likes
to run to God and say, hmm, look down there. That's one of yours. The Bible says he's an accuser
of the brethren. But the Lord wants us to have more than that.
Now, this teaching of incompleteness, you know, dear people, it brings
an unnecessary burden. Isn't life full of enough burdens
without us having something we don't have to carry? It makes and it gives an unnecessary
burden to our lives and a distraction from the enjoyment of so great
a salvation, as the Bible says, as God has given us as believers. distracts us. And we get distracted
enough, folks, especially in the modern age. Sometimes we're
so busy we can't even sit down and think about what we have
in Christ. For we're so busy looking at
those things that are here today and gone tomorrow. We're so busy
looking at the wrapping paper we can't see anything else. The
glitter of the lights. But we have more than that. The
unbelievers in the years past, the centuries past, were amazed
and could not understand how a child of God could be tied
to a stake with a bunch of sticks and wood around it and a fire
lit and stand there and burn, singing praises to God. What
did they have? What was wrong with these people? What in the world? What kind
of people were they? They had an assurance, folks,
that was stronger than the pain that came from the fire. And
the world just marveled that not only did they live faithfully,
but they could die so faithfully. And, dear people, you get that
kind of faith from the Lord, and He uses His Word, the Holy
Spirit does, to build us up and strengthen us. You may say tonight,
Brother Gordon, I don't think I can do that. Maybe not right
now. You don't think you could. But,
dear people, the Lord can strengthen you. He can strengthen you in
His Word. They're dying right now in different
places of the earth. Over in one place, they said
to some Christians, the Muslims did, we're coming for you when
we get in power. Well, thanks to the American
government, I understand, the Muslims got in power. At first,
they lost the election because it was found that everything
went up in the board, but with pressure from our beloved president
and his bunch, it was overturned for the Muslims. And now the
Muslims, those peace-loving Muslims, you know, said, we're coming
for you. And the Christians know they
mean it. And they've already begun to feel the steam. And
they know what's coming. They know that it's very possible
that they will die. Listen, dear people. They're
going to need something to stand if they're going to stand. They
need something to stand. Scriptures such as we're reading
tonight are meant to strengthen God's people so that when the
time comes, we can endure what the world throws at us. Listen,
dear people, tonight. This preaching and teaching of
incompleteness in Christ, just simple faith and trust in Him
as our Lord and Savior mars and hinders our testimony to others
as to the all-sufficiency of being in Christ." I walk up to
a fellow and I say, look, Christ is my Lord and Savior. And I
don't say, etc., etc., etc. When I say, Jesus Christ is my
Lord and Savior, put a period at the end of it. There are some
people, when they say, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior,
they say, but you've got to be baptized, but you've got to have
this experience, you know, but you've got to do this. Uh-uh.
No. No. No, no. That's not the way
it is. That's not what the Bible says.
When I say to someone, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior,
period, they'll stand there waiting for more, but there won't be
any more than that. That's it. That glorifies Him. That honors
Him. That's a strong testament. They
say, what do you think about this and this and this? I don't need that.
If Jesus Christ saves me, yeah, what good are these things going
to do me as far as my salvation is concerned? You mean I can
get over-saved? Suppose I get over-saved and shoot over heaven.
Where will I go? If I'm saved through faith in
Christ, that's all I want to be. There's nothing saying, well,
He's one of the super saints. You know, it's a strange thing
to me, but there was a period of time in the history of our
country whenever everything became super. And I looked at it, and
I said, it looks like the same stuff it was before it was super.
See? They used to have Bible conferences.
Next thing I knew, they were having super Bible conferences.
Isn't that strange? It sounds like the same Bible
conferences I heard before. The super ones. I think we kind
of caught on to some of the tricks of the world. Using a little
psychology to make people think there was something there that
wasn't. Dear people of the night, it
is important that we stick to the Word of God because that's
the thing that really matters. Christ is all-sufficient. Lacks
nothing. We can recommend Him to the biggest
sinner in the world and say, everything you need, He has and
He is. You'll be complete and perfect in Him. And he says,
you mean to tell me that if I will turn from my sin and unbelief
and put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that God will forgive
me for all my sins and I'll stand before Him justified, just as
if I had never sinned? And that's all it is to it? Well,
it sounds too easy. I said, wait a minute, sir. Perhaps I've not
explained to you adequately. On a hill far away stood an old
rugged cross. I'm going to tell him about where
the price was paid. And when I got through, he would
not dare say. It was too cheap. He could not pay the price. And
that's the grace and mercy and love of God to him. And God would not only save what
we needed, but he paid for it, too. Not just like God, is it? Always goes a stepfather. I'm
glad he did. You see, dear people, a deceived
family friend or or a deceived friend or family member may think
that they're helping us by warning us. And you know, a lot of folks
tonight are lost and religious, and they're very insincere. When
they come to us and talk to us about things, and they're wrong,
they're very sincere many times. They really care about us. I
don't doubt their sincerity, but you've been sincerely wrong,
which I have learned in life many, many times. I've been sincerely
wrong about the roads I could take and been sincerely lost." We won't go through that, because
every man knows that's what that is. The wife says, we should have
turned back there. I don't know where I'm going.
It's on down here. So the wife just sits there.
Now, if you don't have a GPS, Even though I must confess that
sometimes I'm watching the GPS, and my wife says, should we turn
here? And I say, what are you trying to do, honey? Confusing
so many? This thing says going down here
and turning, even though I found out that those things are getting
wrong sometimes, it's better to run up to the ocean and say,
what am I doing here? So I even watch them. I even watch them. So there's people who sincerely
come to you, and they'll think that they're helping you, and
they're giving you a warning. And even though we've experienced
the blessedness of this psalm, listen to it, Psalm 32 and 1,
blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Now, they think that by giving
us the warning, even though we have experienced the blessedness
of that psalm of our transgression being forgiven, they think they're
helping us by saying, that's still a lot to be done before
we are really, finally in the proper condition to enter our
eternal home. But they aren't doing us any
good. They'll really kill Joyce if we pay them any attention.
And really, we ought to be strong enough that we pity them and
say, no, no. I need to explain to you more.
I need to explain to you what salvation is all about, what
salvation is in a person. And the Bible says it's free
because Christ has paid for it. There's been many a person that
thought that they needed to do something for themselves, who
were real relieved when they found out, in what they already
knew was a losing battle, that the price had already been paid,
and that all they had to do was turn to Christ and put their
faith and trust in Him. And whew, that was all over.
That was all over. This is a shocking thing. I've
heard some preachers say that it really shocks folks who are
depending on something else besides Christ. Preachers say, well,
I couldn't go to hell if I wanted to. Oh, that just locks wheels,
wheels, tires, and brakes. Because he said, I'm saved by
the grace of God. Amen. And I'm saved eternally. Now,
I've never met anybody that was saved and wanted to go to hell.
But that sure gets some attention. That sure gets some attention.
Another fellow said, if I go to hell, I'll go to hell with
my arms locked tight around the neck of Jesus. Well, don't sweat
it, son. Amen. All you'll ever know about hell
is what you hear. You won't go. You won't go. Listen, dear people,
tonight. As one dear brother has pointed
out, even in some of our singing and some of our preaching and
some of our praying, we hear this claim of a condition of
incompleteness of believers in Christ. But in Christ, we are as safe
as knowing His family was in the ark when the flood was on.
That's safe. That's safe. It grieves me, and
I've said this, but I haven't said this in a long time, and
I'm going to say it again. The monk of mine has a song that
he really loves, that you hear us never sing here. If working
and praying has any reward, then surely some morning I'll see
my dear Lord. That is one of the worst songs
that a Christian could ever sing. It is a work for salvation. It
is a work for salvation. They'll never see the Lord. They'll
never see the Lord, if that's the way they look at it. I shall
never remember whenever this man was a member of the church
I pastored, and I said, that song is not proper for us to
sing. Because it works. But he said,
well, I like it. I like it. And I think, best
I could tell, what he liked was the melody. And he just liked the melody,
and that was it. But my singing is supposed to
glorify God. And I thought, singing contrary
to the gospel, I'm not glorifying God? But the devil sure is having
a heyday, isn't he? And some child or somebody else
in the congregation is listening to that and says, well, that
song is all about works. No, no, we're complete in Christ.
How this dishonors our Lord, no matter how strongly we may
think to the contrary, it doesn't honor and glorify God. If not
now, dear people, on the basis and assurance of God's Word,
we cannot rejoice on this earth as being complete, perfect, and
meet or fit for heaven, then when can we do so on this earth? Do we have to wait until we're
finally in the gates of glory and say, well, I made it, so
now I can finally put my heart into it and just rejoice? Because
I finally made it, but I didn't know if I was going to make it
until I finally felt my foot hit the street of glory. If that's
it, I don't find that in my life. Paul said such things as this.
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Okay, Paul, I want what you've got. I want it just like that. See? When he was in the midst of an
indecision in a rockin' hard place, I say, he said, I have
a desire to depart and be with Christ. How do you know, Paul? You've got to make it. Why? He knew it because the Lord
said so. He knew that. That's the way
God wants us to be. God means for a little while,
for a little of what we will do a whole lot of in glory to
start here. He starts giving us glory. I mean, we start giving
Him glory and praise and honor for being saved. See, whenever
the car has four flats and gasoline is five dollars a gallon and
the washing machine is quenched and we don't have, it looks like,
enough money to make it, You can always lean up against an
old finger and say, well, anyway, praise the Lord, I'm still saved. Isn't that right? Praise the Lord. I don't have
to worry about that. Isn't that wonderful? Sure. Sure. We'll never praise
the Lord enough in this life. We'll never be thankful enough
to Him. We never are. Sometimes we get so busy enjoying
His blessings until we forget to give Him the glory part. Isn't
that something? It's sad, isn't it? Sure. As we draw to a close tonight,
I'll admit we all, in this life, we grow as Christians in grace
and knowledge and love and maturity. But all has been done as far
as our being fitted for heaven at the moment of our new birth.
Nothing needs to be added. We're saved as we'll ever be.
Complete. Perfect. I keep repeating that
tonight because it's important, because you need to stand firmly
on that if you're a believer tonight. I don't care what you
see a fellow doing out here. Listen, dear people, let me tell
you something. If a man rose up out of the cemetery out here,
came back to life again, and walked up to me and said, well,
I'm back, but I'm here to tell you that this stuff about being
saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone is a bunch
of Baloney, I'd say. Sorry, sir. Might as well stay
in that hole, if that's what you came back to tell me. Because
I believe the Bible over you. That's right. I mean, you'd stand
out there and call fire down from heaven and turn around and
tell me that Jesus Christ is not enough, and I'll say, get
behind me, Satan. I know about you. I've heard
about you. Now, that's the kind of faith that God wants us to
have in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. that
none of the shenanigans, none of the sleight of hand, none
of the supposed great visions, none of the supposed to be trenches
that a lot of false teachers go into trying to deceive people
will shake us. So I don't care what you had,
I don't care what you did, but I know what I have and who I
have. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. So you just levitate
about six feet off the ground if you want to and cut a flip
in the air. But Jesus Christ is still my
Lord and Savior. I'm going to change anything with me. I've
got the Bible for that. That's what we have to be. That's
what we need to be as we fight for them. As believers, I'll
repeat again, we are fully and completely fitted and prepared
and ready for heaven in Christ, having received Him as our Lord
and Savior. Amen. God forbid that we call
God a liar and dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on
the cross. By denying that we have all we need in Christ. The
Lord never half-saved anybody. Never half-saved anybody. Never
started and then left you. Said, before you had me, I got
you started, you finished. And I said, well, you needn't bother,
Lord. They even started it, if you
don't finish it, don't turn it over to me. Because I know I
can't finish it. That wouldn't have been news
to me. I said, I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. You see, I'm
in trouble. It's got to be all the way, Lord.
When you get through with me, you better say, I've completed
the work. The work is protected. Nothing
else is needed. You're fit for heaven just like
you are. I have made you fit. I've done it. So you don't have
anything to worry about. Now, that's what I'm looking
for. That's what I need. To know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
is to be as good as in heaven already. It's not a matter of
whether I'm going to heaven or not. It's just a matter of when.
The weather has been taken care of. See, the Lord assured me
that. Therefore, the when is really
not that important. When? It's figured out that sometime,
you know. When? When do when? I'm going. What would you do if you knew
when? Huh? I don't know. I said, go
ahead, Lord, and slip up on me there and take me by surprise.
Really, if the Lord said, here's this piece of paper, you just
check how you want to go. It said down there, while you're
asleep, I'll just call you on out and take you on home with
me. I said, that's my wet rathers
right there. As I said before, I was a pallbearer one time with
a bunch of fellas, and we're taking this body around, and
it's a good time for conversation about when you die. But pretty
obvious, you're looking at the future there. And the subject
came up, how we wanted to die. But everybody said, well, I'm
going to die like this, and I'm going to die like this. And I'll
never forget this man. He's dead today. And he says, I'm going
to tell you all one thing. They ain't made the way I want
to die yet. Bless his heart, he died of cancer.
He died of cancer. But I've never forgotten him
to this day. This preacher latched on to what
he said, and I said to him, That fellow there is probably telling
the truth. They all were just so earnestly saying how they
wanted to go. But he said, they haven't made
the way I want to go yet. Well, me either. But I've got
to make a choice, but it's not going to make any difference
about that either. But if I'm complete in Christ, I'm ready. I'm complete in Christ. And then
sometimes when I look at the mirror, I don't know whether they're
making long-range plans or not. And as a comedian said, you know,
when the banks start mailing me my calendars out month at
a time, I'll know I'm looking back. They don't even want to
waste the whole calendar on me. But so far I'm getting my calendars
12 months at a time. So they don't know anything I
don't know. The other day I got something in the mail that said,
Burial plan. I told my wife, I said, throw
that away. Unless they know something I don't, I think I'm all fixed
up, ready to go. Maybe they got some inside information,
but I sure haven't. But I'm prepared in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what really counts. Somebody
said, well, I tell you what, I want to be buried here. Me
too. I don't know where. I want to be buried. My body. And we get talking about, well,
don't bury me too expensively. Well, I just got thinking about
that one day, and I said, if it makes us a difference, we're
not dead. And we ought not to be letting
them bury us. But if we're dead, it's not going to make one bit
of difference whether it's a cardboard box or not. So I put Bob in with that. I
said, that's something that, no, I'm saved. That's it. I'll
be with the Lord while they're wrestling around with this old
body, trying to figure out what to do. So my wife can bear me
standing up if I go first. She can bear me on my head, you
know. And if she decides that it's
too expensive, she just won't take me out there and leave me
for the better. She won't have a complaint out of that body.
Right? Because I'm saved. And the Lord
will resurrect that body one day. I'll get it back. It'll
be in better condition than I turned it loose, you think. When you're
saved, folks, when you're saved, you got it all. You got it all. You're complete. You're complete
in Christ. Listen, dear people. Neither
man nor devil can prevent us from going to glory, going to
heaven, going to be with the Lord. Can't do it. Can't do it. There's no way. Nothing can stop
us. God has prepared us for heaven. He says so in the text. We're
fit. for our inheritance. We've been fitted for it. We've
been prepared. We're ready to go. All it takes
now and all that's lacking now is a trip. And in the meantime,
while we're waiting, we need to get some work done, Christians.
We need to get some work done. Are you saved tonight? Do you
know the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior? Really and truly
tonight, no shuffling your feet. Make the question straight on,
what makes you think you're going to heaven if you say you are
tonight? It ought to be a short statement. Because I trusted
Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and nothing else. That's it. And if you've done that, that's
life changing. You might get backslidden sometimes down here,
but that's life changing. Everybody knows it to start with
and everybody will know it when you backslide. They'll say, well,
he's not what he was. What's happened to him? But,
dear people, tonight we are complete in Christ. Let me read that one
more time. Giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be protectors of the inheritance
of the saints in life, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son. And ye are complete in him, which
is the head of all principality and power. I can go home tonight. get me a cold drink of water,
and later lie down in that bed, and say, well, if I never live
to see daylight come, I shall wake up in glory. Amen. Thanks be to God. Can you do
that? I know how it is to be lost,
really, when you come to this. You know, you go to bed at night,
and you're hoping you've lived tomorrow. You say, boy, I hope
I don't die tonight. I'll go to hell. Oh, I'm telling
you. It's bad to be lost. Amen. And
you know, you want to drown that out. I know how that is. Get
out there and do something just to get that out of your mind.
Poor foolish thing. Poor foolish thing. You want
to go to hell, but you don't want to face it. But if you don't
turn to Christ, you're going to have to face it. You can't run far enough to get
away from that. Wherever you might be, God will
get you. God will get you. When He's ready
for you, He knows where you are. Listen, dear people tonight.
You that have never trusted Christ, God helped you tonight to see
your need of Christ. God helped you to see tonight that you're
lost and on the road to hell. You can't do a thing to save yourself,
and nobody else can save you, only Jesus Christ. Turn to Him. Put your faith and trust in Him
without reservation. Him only. Just Him. Just Him. I identify
my Lord and Savior tonight, I say that one right there in that
Bible. That one right there. That's
mine. That's mine. That one right there.
He's mine. And if He didn't really exist,
I don't have one. I'm perfectly willing to leave it that way.
Perfectly willing to leave it like that. Wouldn't change for
nothing because I know He really exists. I know I'm safe as I
can be in Christ. And tonight, the Lord wants you
to know that and stand on it if you've trusted Christ as your
Lord and Savior. But if you're not, you need to turn to the
Lord tonight. God help you. As we stand, please,
we're just going to play some strands of imitation.
Complete in Christ
Nothing to add.
| Sermon ID | 624111628430 |
| Duration | 43:22 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Colossians 1:12; Colossians 2:10 |
| Language | English |
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