Bootstrap
Gabe Stalnaker

Fulness

Colossians 1:19
Gabe Stalnaker March, 6 2022 Video & Audio
0 Comments

In Gabe Stalnaker's sermon titled "Fulness," the primary theological theme is the fullness of God and its embodiment in Jesus Christ, as articulated in Colossians 1:19. Stalnaker argues that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, highlighting how this divine fullness allows for the complete reconciliation and salvation of believers. Supporting his argument, he references Colossians 2:9-10, asserting that everything pertaining to God and His chosen people is fully contained in Christ, culminating in a comprehensive interpretation of God's grace, righteousness, and mercy. The practical implication of this sermon emphasizes the believer's complete identity and completeness found in Christ, underscoring the significance of understanding one's union with Him as foundational to the Christian faith.

Key Quotes

“It pleased the Father that in the Lord Jesus Christ, all fullness should dwell.”

“All fullness has been placed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is able to hold it all.”

“God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.”

“We are complete in Him, nothing else to do.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

100%
That's a good one too. Turn with me if you would now
to Colossians chapter one. In the message last Wednesday
night, We read a verse of scripture and it was 1 Corinthians 2 verse
10, which says that God has revealed to us the things that he has
prepared and done for us by his spirit. He has revealed those
things to us by his spirit. It actually says, but God hath
revealed them unto us by his spirit, for the spirit searches
all things, yea, the deep things of God. The spirit searches the
deep things of God and reveals them unto us. We've been looking
at some deep things going through Colossians. some very deep things,
things that we naturally cannot understand, things that we just
cannot comprehend, cannot get our minds around. And tonight
is no different. We're gonna try to enter into
something that we naturally cannot enter into. So I pray the spirit
of God will help us. And I pray he'll open these things
up to us. We need his spirit. If we're going to worship him,
and if we're going to understand his word, we need his spirit. I pray that he will help us and
meet with us. Our text is going to be one verse.
This is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's Colossians
1 verse 19. It says, For it pleased the Father that
in him, that's in the Lord Jesus Christ, should all fullness dwell. It pleased the Father that in
him should all fullness dwell. To that God's people say, amen. It pleased the Father that in
the Lord Jesus Christ, all fullness should dwell. To that God's people
say, it pleases us too. It pleases us too. That in Christ,
all fullness should dwell. How thankful we are for the fact
that all fullness is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't we love the
Lord Jesus Christ? Hasn't the Father and the Spirit
given us a love for Christ? Singing those songs, it made
me think every time that we have a song that is just glorifying
so clearly and we're all singing it together, it makes me so excited
to sing in the great congregation. I just can't wait. Glorifying Christ. Isn't that the greatest thing
for a believer to do on this earth? That's going to be the
greatest thing for a believer to do for all eternity. Glorifying
Christ. Amen. Thank God. We agree. All fullness right there. All
fullness. I'll tell you what that statement
in this verse makes me think of him. Whenever I hear this
read, This is what it makes me think of him. It makes me think
he is great enough to hold it all. All fullness has been placed
in him and he is great enough to hold it all the breadth and
the length and the depth and the height of him is so great. He is able to hold it all. God
the Father has put it all right there. And He's able. He's the only one able to hold
it all. In Psalm 23, this is what David
said. And we can enter into this. David
said, my cup runneth over. Whenever the Lord first started
opening up the scripture to me, really opening up the word to
me and speaking to my heart, it was just, it fed me and fed
me and blessed me. And I would be listening to messages
and halfway through, I'd think, you're going to have to stop.
I just can't even hold it anymore. What we're saying is, we can't
hold it all. David said, I can't hold it all.
My cup is running over. It's just spilling over. I just
cannot hold it all. But he can. He can hold it all. All fullness. God the Father
put all fullness in the only place that was able to hold it
all. He put it in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let's see if the Spirit will let us enter into just a little
bit of the fullness that God the Father placed in Christ.
And then after we look at that, I wanna end the message by showing
you something that's just amazing. Just wonderful to see. All right, the first thing that
it pleased the Father to place in Christ. Look with me if you
would at Colossians chapter two, verse nine. Speaking of Christ,
it says, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. Do you ever get tired of looking
at that and considering that? In him, dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. All the fullness of the Godhead
resides, dwells in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
need to have a, clearer view of the Lord Jesus Christ, don't
we? Man sees this man, Jesus Christ, men and women see this
man, Jesus Christ, and naturally they don't see all the fullness
of God in him. But when the spirit reveals these
things, you get a changed mind about Jesus Christ and who he
is. And all of a sudden you see the
fullness of God, the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in this
person. That's called repentance, a changed
mind. Think about this. The father
chose to put his own fullness in the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Father chose to put all of
his own fullness in the person, in the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the Father chose to put the fullness of the Spirit
in the body, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We say,
you know, I don't understand that. I thought that you couldn't
contain God. I thought that the Spirit was
everywhere. I thought the Spirit blew where
it listed. Well, I don't understand it either.
That's the more we look at this, the more I realize I don't understand
it either. This is beyond comprehension. You can't contain God. You cannot
contain God. The spirit does blow where it
listed, but all the fullness of God, God, the father, God,
the son, God, the spirit dwells in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We heard read to us this morning.
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Just
amazing. God was in Christ, all the fullness
of God in him. Whatever the Lord Jesus Christ
did and whatever he does, the father did and is doing it. And the spirit did and is doing
it. all the fullness of the Godhead.
Turn with me, if you would, to 1 John chapter five. 1 John five. Look with me at verse seven. For there are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. These
three are one. Look at verse 20, it says, and
we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding. that we may know Him that is
true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God in eternal
life. What does that mean? That means
the fullness of all three of them are in Jesus Christ. If
you see Jesus Christ, you've seen all three of them. So that's
the first thing that it pleased the Father to put in Christ,
all the fullness of God, everything God is, everything God does,
everything that God will forever be. All of God's fullness has
been placed in the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, the second
thing that it pleased the Father to place in Christ, go with me
if you would back to Colossians. chapter two, Colossians chapter
two, verse 10 says, and you are complete in him, which is the head of all principality
and power. And you are complete in him.
All of God's chosen people, God has a particular people. He has
a chosen people. And all of those chosen people
were placed in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean?
I don't honestly know. But that's where God's people
are. He is in us. His spirit is in us. We are in
Him. joined together with Him. But
God the Father placed all of His people in Christ. The fullness of God's particular
people, meaning all of them, every soul chosen to be a member
of the heavenly kingdom, all of them have been placed in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Just listen to these scriptures.
Acts 17, 28 says, in Him, We live and move and have our
being. Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, we
were chosen in Him. Ephesians 1 11 says, our inheritance
is in Him. Verse John says, we abide in
Him. It says, we dwell in him. We just read, we were just in
first John 5 20. We just read, we are in him. That is true. We're in him. The fullness of God's people,
all of them have been placed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
fullness of everything that they are has been placed in the Lord
Jesus Christ. If God's people have been placed
in Christ, then the fullness of everything that God's people
are has been placed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we know what
God's people are in the flesh? Do we really know what God's
people are absolutely filled with? Just what they fully, fully
consist of in the flesh? Here's the answer. Sin. Sin. You look at man, you wanna see
sin? Look right, look no further.
Sin. If the fullness of God's people
was placed in Christ, then that means the fullness of their sin,
the fullness of everything that they are was placed in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The fullness of the only thing
that they are was placed in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of it
was placed by God the Father in Christ. All of it. 1 Peter 2 verse 24 says this,
it says, he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. The fullness of all of our sins
in his own body on the tree. The fullness of God was placed
in Christ. And what we're gonna see here
is everything. is in Him. Everything pertaining
to His kingdom is in Him. God is in Him. His people are
in Him. Everything that they are, God
the Father put it in the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore,
God the Father put something else in Him. All right, here's
the third thing. Turn with me, if you would, to
Revelation 14. If a sinner ever sees this and
gets a hold of this, it will bring absolute joy and peace
and comfort. This is just the most glorious
thing we could ever see. Revelation 14, look at verse
19. It says, and the angel thrust in his sickle
into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth. Who is the
vine? Who said he was the vine? Christ
did. He said, I am the vine. He said,
my people are the branches. They're the fruit. They're the
grapes, okay? Cluster of grapes. If you look
at the end of verse 18, it says, gather the cluster of the vine
of the earth for her grapes are fully ripe. Okay, verse 19. And
the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth and gathered the
vine of the earth and cast it into the great winepress of the
wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden
without the city." Where was Golgotha's hill? Where was Calvary? Without the city. Verse 20 says,
and the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came
out of the winepress. The fullness of the wrath and
the vengeance and the condemnation of God on his people, on his
particular people, was pressed into the Lord Jesus Christ. The
fullness of the wrath of God. And with the fullness of it being
pressed into him, what it means is none of it is left to be pressed
into his people. That is what we're, we have a
table set before us. This is what we're remembering
in this table. This is what we're glorying in
the fullness of the wrath of God was pressed into him. And there's the result of it.
And because of that, it's not gonna be pressed into us. Because
he bore what should have come to us, we're gonna get to bear
everything that comes to him. The glory of the gospel for his
people, that Christ, all of the fullness of God's wrath, it was
poured into him. All of the fullness, it pleased
the Father that all fullness, should dwell in him, the fullness
of God, the fullness of his people, the fullness of his judgment
on the sin of his people. It pleased the Father that all
fullness should be placed in him." That is glorious news.
That is wonderful news. All right, now, I love this. This is absolutely amazing. Precious
to see. I love how the scripture says,
blessed are the eyes that read this. Blessed are the eyes that
see this. Turn with me to John chapter
one. John one verse 14, it says, And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Verse
15 says, John bare witness of Him and cried, saying, This was
He of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred
before me, for he was before me. Now watch verse 16. And of his fullness have all
we received and grace for grace of his fullness. It pleased the
father that all fullness should go to him. All the fullness of
God should be placed in him. All the fullness of his people
in him. All the fullness of that reconciliation
should be found in him. And of his fullness have all
we received because the fullness of God was
in him. And because the fullness of his
people was in him, in him, they receive all the fullness that
has been placed in him because everything ended up in him. We
receive all of the fullness that has been placed in Him. We receive
the fullness of God in Him. We received the fullness of the
judgment of God on our sin in Him. What about my sin? How can
God justify me for what I've done? It's because all the wrath
that God had to pour out on me, He poured it out on me in Him. The fullness of it came to me. Oh, He judged me. He condemned
me. He slew me. rightfully so in
Him. We have received of His fullness. Romans 8 verse 39 says, we receive
the fullness of God's love in Him. This is what that verse
says. It says, nothing can separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord. First Corinthians 1.30 says we
receive the fullness of God's wisdom. We receive the fullness of God's
righteousness. Men and women are going about
trying to establish their own righteousness before God. But
if the Holy Spirit ever reveals the righteousness that God has
already provided in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, they
will submit to that righteousness gladly. Give me that one. Give
me that one. I renounce my own. In Him we
have of His fullness, of the fullness of His perfection and
righteousness and holiness. That's glorious to me because
I don't see any of that in myself, but I see it in Him. And in Him,
I get to receive and we get to receive of His fullness, the
fullness of His wisdom, the fullness of His righteousness, the fullness
of His sanctification. That means His holiness, His
absolute righteousness is perfection without. Sanctification and holiness
is perfection within. wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Of the fullness of His redemption
have we received. Ephesians 1 talks about the fullness
of the Father's blessing. All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Him. All blessings, the fullness of
God's blessing in Him. It goes on to talk about the
fullness of our acceptance, The fullness of our forgiveness.
Can you imagine how glorious it is to be forgiven by God Almighty,
forgiven by the God we've sinned against? Full, complete, and
total forgiveness in Him. Ephesians 2 talks about the fullness
of His grace. 1 Peter 1 talks about the fullness
of His mercy. Where is mercy found? in Him,
in His blood. Talks about the fullness of our
hope and the fullness of our peace. Of His fullness have we
received. I love this. Psalm 1611 says,
in His presence, is the fullness of joy in His
presence. One of these days, we will, Lord
willing, if God has mercy on us, we will stand in His presence,
and when we do, this is what we will experience, the fullness
of joy. We have received of that in Him. Of all of His fullness have we
received. As a closing benediction, a final
word of blessing and prayer for all of us. Turn with me, if you
would, to Ephesians 3. Ephesians three, look at verse
14. It says, for this cause, I bow
my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant
you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with might by his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded
in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge that you might be filled with all
the fullness of God. He said, that's what I pray.
I pray that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. He said, I pray Christ might
be in you because he said, if Christ is in you, then you will
be filled with all the fullness of God. And he went on to say
in verse 20, now unto him, that is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh
in us, unto him be glory, in the church, by Christ Jesus,
throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. We are going to remember
the fullness of his sacrifice. That's what we're going to do
in taking this table. We are going to remember the
fullness of his sacrifice. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not
make a partial sacrifice for our sins. He did not put a down
payment on our redemption. He made a full sacrifice, He
made a full payment, fullness, fullness, fullness. We are going
to remember that His blood has washed us white as snow and His
broken body is our nourishment to take us
to glory. It bore the judgment that should
have come to us, and it is also the nourishment that will carry
us all the way to glory. We're here to remember His broken
body and His shed blood. We're here to remember that the
Holy God, think about this, the Holy God met with sinful man
right there in the fullness of the person of Jesus Christ. God
met with man. The result of that meeting was
his death. That death brought satisfaction
to God and reconciliation to us. In this, we are remembering
and acknowledging the fullness of our salvation in Christ. is a full, complete, total salvation. You are complete in Him, nothing
else to do. Well, do I have to take this
table to put the final stamp on my salvation? No. If we believe
that, let's not take the table. We are complete in Him. That's
what we're saying in this. All of it, everything, fully
satisfied in Him. By partaking of this table, this
is what we're acknowledging, We're acknowledging our desire
to partake of Him. We take this table saying, I
want to partake of Him. I want to be in Him. I want Him
to be in me. I want the fullness of everything
that God has provided for me in Him. I want it. I want it. If that's our heart, let's take
it together. Brother Bob, you come read for us.
Gabe Stalnaker
About Gabe Stalnaker
Gabe Stalnaker is the pastor of the Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church located at 2709 Rock Springs Rd, Kingsport, Tennessee 37664. You may contact him by phone at (423) 723-8103 or e-mail at gabestalnaker@hotmail.com

Comments

0 / 2000 characters
Comments are moderated before appearing.

Be the first to comment!

Joshua

Joshua

Shall we play a game? Ask me about articles, sermons, or theology from our library. I can also help you navigate the site.