Go with me, if you would, to
Job 7 again. I believe I have something that
will be a real help to every believer here. I hope it will
be. I sincerely, sincerely hope it
will be. If the Lord opens our eyes to
this, I believe we'll find some real comfort, some current, useful, real daily comfort. I believe this will help us in
so many ways. Now, this is not our text. I read this and we're starting
here, but this is not our text. I will get to our text and I'll
tell you when we get there. But I want to set it up by seeing
something that is absolute truth. This is absolute truth. We either have already experienced
this, or we will experience this to be the absolute truth. We've
either already seen this or we will. We will. Job 7, Job is
speaking of his life. And he said in verse 16, I loathe
it. The last two words in verse 15,
he said, my life. I loathe it. I would not live
always." He said, I don't want to live on this earth forever.
He said to his so-called friends, let me alone for my days are
empty. That's what the word vanity means.
Empty. My days are empty. The longer
we live on this earth, the more clearly we will realize just
how empty it is. We don't realize that at first.
But the longer we go, the more we see that this world is empty. It's very, very empty. We all,
me included, the way of man, we all keep trying to get more
And more and more. And it's because everything in
this world is empty. Every single thing. The sooner
we realize this, the better off we'll be. Everything in this world turns
to emptiness. Everything you get. Everybody
in this room is going to get the next thing. Whatever it is. Everything you get will turn
to emptiness. Every single thing. We are constantly
having to fight feelings of emptiness. Constantly. Look with me at Psalm
chapter 39. Psalm 39 verse 5 says, Behold,
thou hast made my days as a handbreadth, and mine age is as nothing before
thee. Verily, every man at his best
state is altogether emptiness. Vanity. That's what life is. That's what
this world is at its best state. And that's what you and I are
at our best state. Our absolute best state. Emptiness. Just emptiness. And we see that,
don't we? Verse 11 right here says, When
thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, Thou makest
His beauty to consume away like a moth. Surely every man is empty."
No exceptions. No exemptions. Every man, every
woman is empty. It's just empty. Turn with me
over to Ecclesiastes chapter 1. Ecclesiastes 1 verse 2 says,
Vanity of vanities saith the preacher, vanity of vanities,
all is vanity. Empty of emptiness. Empty of
emptiness. All is emptiness. It's all emptiness. Verse 14, I have seen all the
works that are done under the sun. And behold, all is empty
and vexation of spirit. All work and career. All work, all career. You remember how excited you
were when they told you, you got the job. I got hired on. All career. All work turns out
to be emptiness. It all turns out to be emptiness. Now, it is possible to enjoy
your work. A man ought to enjoy his work. A woman ought to enjoy her work. But the end of it will never
be what you think it's supposed to be. It'll never be what you
thought it was going to be. The satisfaction fades. The reward dies out. And in this, I'm not trying to
promote complaining. I'm not. I'm not trying to promote
a negative attitude on things, not at all. I'm just trying to
be honest. I'm just trying to be real and tell the truth of
the matter. Ecclesiastes 2 verse 11 says,
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and
on the labor that I had labored to do, and behold, all was emptiness
and vexation of spirit, and there was no prophet under the sun. Verse 17 says, Therefore I hated life, because
the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me,
for all is vanity." It's all emptiness and vexation of spirit. Verse 22, For what hath man of
all his labor, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath
labored under the sun? For all his days are sorrows,
and his travail grief, yea, his heart taketh no rest in the night. He can't even, he's working,
working, working, and he can't even sleep through the night
because he's so worried about everything he's working on. He
said, this is also emptiness. The work is emptiness, the sleep
is emptiness. It's just emptiness. Look at
chapter 5 verse 10. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 10, it says, He that loveth silver shall not
be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with
increase. This is also emptiness. Let me ask you this question.
Have you ever gotten enough money? Have you ever gotten enough? Have you ever gotten to a place
where you said to your boss, no, thanks. That's enough. I just don't see the point in
drawing a paycheck anymore. I have plenty. You ever said that? No. No. Do you know why that
is? Money is empty. It's completely empty. There is not a dollar amount
that exists on this earth that could stop a man from feeling
like he needed one more. There's not an amount. There's
not a dollar amount. that could stop a man from feeling
like, I need to make a little bit more. I know I have a lot. I know, but I just, I think it'd
be good if I just make a little bit more. It is so empty. The man that
has a million in his account is no more satisfied than the
man that has a hundred in his account. The satisfaction is
not in there. Why? It's empty. It is empty. Look at chapter
6 verse 2. A man to whom God hath given
riches, wealth, and honor so that he lacks nothing for his
soul of all that he desireth. He can go get anything he wants.
Yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof. But a stranger
eateth it." This is empty. This is vanity. And it is an
evil disease. He can't touch it. And I'm not
being judgmental. I lump myself into the same category. You get a little stash and don't
touch it. It'll go down. He can't touch
it. You know, a man gets to the end
of his life and he's saved and saved and saved and he has these
accounts and they're growing and they're, you know, but he
can't touch it. He didn't touch it when he made
it and he can't touch it at the end of his life because he thinks
there's still not enough there to touch it. You'll ruin it. And what's going to happen is,
like so many do, he's going to die before he touches it, and
then he's going to leave it to somebody who didn't earn it,
didn't sweat for it, and work for it. And that person's just
going to blow it, and it's going to be gone. It's going to be
empty. The man who guarded it is just empty. It's emptiness
to him. Look at chapter 11, verse 8.
Ecclesiastes 11, verse 8. But if a man live many years,
and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the days of
darkness, for they shall be many. All that cometh is emptiness."
He said, remember the reality of everything that life brings. The home that a husband and a
wife work so hard to build together. They work so hard that it turns
out to be empty. Either they have children and
eventually the children grow up and leave and they become
what we call empty nesters. Or they don't have children and
they grow old together and then the Lord takes one of them and
the other one's just left. It's just empty. left alone. Now, as sad as all of this sounds,
am I not telling the true reality of this life? As sad as it is,
I understand this is sad, but is this not the true reality
of life? Do you ever feel that discontented
emptiness? Do you ever feel that? That fearful
emptiness, that hollow place, there's just a hollow place in
our contentment and our satisfaction and our joy and our happiness. Honestly, I feel that. Do you
feel that? If you do, let me show you why
all of those things are the case. All right, if you feel that,
let me show you why you feel that. And I believe you'll enjoy
seeing this. Let me show you why there is
so much emptiness in this world and so much emptiness in us and
so much emptiness in everything that pertains to us and our life
on this earth. This is the reason for all of
the emptiness that's here. Turn to our text, Colossians
chapter 1. Colossians 1 verse 19 says, For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. That's why. That's why everything
else is so empty. That's the reason why. It's because
it pleased the Father that in Christ all fullness should dwell. Oh soul, I wrote this song down
and let me just speak it for me to you. Oh soul, are you wearied
and troubled? No light in the darkness you
see. There is light for a look at
the Savior and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look full, full in His wonderful
face and the empty things of this earth, all of these empty
things will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and
His grace. Every ounce of fullness. that we need and we long for,
we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every ounce of it. God the Father
chose to put every ounce of it in Him. All of it is in Him. Everywhere, everything, and everyone
else that we turn to All we will see, all we will know, all we
will feel is emptiness. But every time we turn to Him,
and that's what we're doing right now, at this very moment, when
we turned to our text, that's what we did. Every time we turn
to Him, Every time we get a good look
at Him and enter into Him, every time our minds, our hearts, our
souls come back to Him, all we see, all we know, all we feel
is fullness. Absolute fullness. If we need
some relief from the emptiness, every now and then it's nice
to just get a little relief from the emptiness. And if we need
some, all we have to do is look to Christ. That's all we have
to do. Verse 19 says, For it pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. And I'm so happy about that.
I love the fact that that's where all of it is. The Father loves
the Son. And He has committed everything,
every good and full thing to His Son. All of it to His Son. Everything pertaining to us and
everything that pertains to our life in this world is so empty.
But everything pertaining to Him and the life that we have
in Him. And that's what we get a hold
of when we look to Him. We have a life on this earth.
And we have a life in Christ. Everything that pertains to our
life in Him is so full. It is so full. Now, we will never
be able to enter into the depth of His fullness until we see
Him as He is, until we're like Him and see Him truly as He is. But let's just skim the surface
for a minute. Let's read a little bit about
His fullness. Starting with Colossians 2, verse
9. It says, and see if this means something
to you. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Nothing can contain God. The
heavens cannot contain God. Yet in him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. When we come to Christ, when
we do come to Christ, the commandment and the draw of salvation in
a child of God's greatest desire is to come to Christ. That's
his greatest desire. He just wants to come to Christ. And
when we come to Christ, we are coming to the father the Son,
and the Spirit. When we come to Him, we're coming
to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. If we want to, as a helpless,
needy, empty child, if we need the Father, if we're crying,
Abba, Father, I'm your child, please feed me again, please
help me again, protect me. If we need to come as a needy,
empty child, To the Father, all we have to do is come to Christ.
That's all we have to do. Philip said, show us the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ looked
him right in the eye and said, have I been so long time with
you, Philip? And yet has thou not known me?
To have Him, to see Him, to enter into Him is to enter into all
the fullness of the Godhead. To have Christ is to have all
the fullness of the Godhead. You talk about take your mind
off the emptiness. Give a little relief from the
emptiness. Just dwell on that. All the fullness of the Godhead.
Everything God is, everything God has. Right there in Him. Look with me at Ephesians chapter
3. Ephesians 3 verse 17 says, 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. Everything around us,
everything about us and everything in us that pertains to this flesh
may be nothing but absolute emptiness. That's what it is. But if Christ
is in us, then we are filled with all the
fullness of God. If he resides in us, We are filled
with all the fullness of God. In Him dwells all the fullness
of God. And if He dwells in us, we are
filled. I mean, that's just with all
the fullness of God. That's fullness. That's fullness. Look with me at Romans 15. Romans 15 verse 29. And I am sure that when I come
unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the
gospel of Christ. There may be emptiness everywhere
else, but there is fullness in the blessing of the gospel of
Christ. Does the gospel fill you up? You know what I mean when I say
that? After you've been out there in
the emptiness of the world all week, I adore Wednesday night
service. I've been in it too. We've been in the world so far,
half the week, emptiness, just emptiness upon emptiness upon
emptiness. And you come in and you sit down
at the table of the blessed gospel of Christ. And it makes you feel
full. It literally fills me up, it
just Somebody will say, I don't know what you mean by that. I
don't. What do you mean? Makes you feel full. What is
the blessing of the gospel of Christ? What is this filling
good news of the gospel of Christ? Here it is. He took my emptiness
and gave me his fullness. The blessing is in the work that
he accomplished, the fullness of his work. Our works are so empty. His work
was so full. His redemption was so full. His payment was so full and so
complete. The end of His work was so satisfying
to the Father. The end of His payment was so
complete, the Father said, that's enough. I don't need any more. That's plenty. No more payment
is necessary. No more payment is needed. I'm
satisfied. I'm satisfied. What was the payment
that Christ made for our sin? It was every single drop of His
blood, His priceless blood. He gave it all. emptied Himself. You talk about all the inheritance
of heaven, everything He had, emptied it all. He paid the price, not just in
full, but exceeding abundantly above full. And that's where this verse of
Scripture comes from. That's what this means. Look
with me at John chapter 1. John 1, verse 16. And of His fullness have all
we received. And grace for grace. Of His fullness have all we received. Grace on top of grace. Grace and grace. Where sin abounded, the fullness
of His grace much more abounded. In Him, in His fullness, of His
fullness, from His fullness, because of His fullness, mercy
was great and grace was free. Grace for grace. Now, the next
time the emptiness of this flesh and the emptiness of this world
and the emptiness of our life in this world And it's empty. I know it's empty. The next time
all of this emptiness starts to get to you. Remember this
verse of scripture. Go with me to Psalm 16. Psalm 16, verse 11. Thou wilt show me the path of
life. In thy presence is fullness of
joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures
for evermore. If from the midst of the emptiness
we can just see Christ, if we can just get a glimpse of His
fullness and the path of life, this eternal path of life that
we have in Him, It'll bring joy. I mean, it'll bring true joy.
It'll bring pleasures forevermore. For it pleased the father that
in him should all fullness dwell. All of it to dwell in him is
to dwell in fullness. So full that just like David
said, we have to say with him, my cup is running over. Really? to enter into His fullness, you
just can't contain it. You just cannot contain it. Our
cup runs over. Isn't that wonderful in the midst
of all this emptiness to just come and just have all this fullness
poured on us? Thank God for it. All right,
let's all stand together.