This morning to Colossians chapter
2. Colossians chapter 2. It's good
to be with you again this morning. Good to see everybody. Appreciate the prayers and things
from my grandmother and. We've been praying for you guys
and your look for a pastor and pray that the Lord is. working
mightily in that. I was really taken by one of
the phrases in the song, the previous song, our unending need
for him, that that just really stuck in my head, we do have
an unending need for him. There'll never be a time where
we don't need him. And if ever you come to a place
where you think you don't need him, you need him even more at
that particular point in time. We do need him. I want to speak to you this morning
out of some of my favorite passages of Scripture here in Colossians. I want to read out of Colossians
chapter 2 and verse 10. Before I do that, I want to read to
you, and you don't have to turn to that. You can mark it down, maybe go
back and look at it a little bit later. But I want to look
at Isaiah 41-2, a verse that really has meant a lot to me
over the years, especially whenever we fellowship together. You know, whenever you come from
a really, really small, I know you guys, your church is small,
but my church is really small. And whenever you don't really
have a lot of people up there where we can have daily or even
almost weekly fellowship, it's good to hear these words, especially
whenever you come among each other. But in Isaiah 40 verse
one, the Bible says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith
your God. speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. You know, actually that's what
preaching is all about. Whenever we come this morning and we come
to worship, we come to hear and to proclaim what Christ has done,
to comfort the brethren. You know, whenever we come to
church, this isn't the evangelism field where we come to try to
get people saved. This is the place where we come
to worship God, and only those who are born from above can worship
God. We come here to hear about what has been given to us freely.
We come here to hear about our God. We come here to worship
and sing praise to our God for all that He has done, the great
things that He has done, the mighty things that He has done.
And so whenever we preach the gospel, the gospel is there not
only for your instruction, but it is there for your comfort.
And a lot of people wonder, you know, why do we continue to keep
preaching the gospel to those who have already professed Christ?
Well, that is because that is the bread and wine. That is the
food that we feed on. That is the very sustenance for
the child of grace is to hear what Christ has done. Not only
does it give us something to rejoice in, not only does it
lift our spirits, but brethren, it sustains us. in this generation
that we live in. Whenever we hear all the evil
and the wickedness that's going on in the world, the gospel brings
us back to the place that teaches us that holiness and righteousness
does prevail. It will prevail, though it might
not look like it now, but one of these days, our conquering
king will come again, and he will put all things under his
feet. And the gospel also comforts
us in knowing that while we who know our sin, we who know our
unending need for him has a source that never runs dry. It never
does go away. It is always there. And everything
that we have need of before God, and in this life, He is for us. And so I come today to comfort
you. I come today to tell you that
your warfare is accomplished, that your iniquity is pardoned,
and that you have received at the Lord's hand double for all
your sins. And we'll speak about that out
of Colossians chapter two and verse 10. And if you'll look
with me there, Colossians 2 and verse 10. I'm gonna start reading
in verse eight. It says, beware lest any man
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. I think we should
take heed to what the apostle is telling us. Beware lest any
man, any man, mother, father, sister, brother, preacher, evangelist,
teacher, government, any man. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after
the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For in him,
that's Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now think about that for a minute.
All that the Godhead is, the Father, the Word, the Holy Ghost,
dwells in Christ Jesus. There is nothing left in the
man Christ Jesus that is lacking of the fullness of God. He has
everything. Why? Because he is God manifested
in the flesh. He is God, the image of the invisible
God. Whatever God is in that invisible
state, the three record bearers that are in heaven, the Father,
Word, and Holy Ghost, whatever that is and however that is,
and I'll be honest with you, I can't figure it all out, but
whatever that is, Jesus is the image of that. Whatever that
is in its fullness, all of that is in Christ Jesus. So that when you have seen Christ
Jesus, he says, you have seen the Father. Whenever you have
seen Christ Jesus, you have seen the Holy Ghost because it is
His Spirit. Whenever you have seen Christ
Jesus, you have seen the Word because He is the living Word
made flesh. Brethren, you can't get any more
God into Christ Jesus. He is all God. and he was come
in the flesh, as Brother Denny brought out. If anybody doesn't
preach that to you, you need to kick them down the curb. Any
preachers that come in here for you guys and preaching to y'all,
and you're looking at that man, if he doesn't believe that Jesus
came in the flesh and that he is fully God, all God, and there
is no more God that can be put in him, listen, kick him down
the curb if he don't preach that. He is, the fullness of the Godhead. And listen, brethren, it's just
not this ooey-gooey, spirity thing that he's full of. He is
full of everything that God is. Everything that God is, in every
attribute, in every part, in every way, Christ is. Brethren,
whenever we worship God, we don't just worship something that's
unknown. We worship Christ. Have you wondered why all this
singing's about Christ? Have you ever wondered why the
end book tells us that on the throne, forever and ever, we're
gonna worship Christ? It's because all that God is
is in the man, Jesus Christ. That's who we are gonna worship.
We are gonna worship him forever. Now, why do I say that? He says
in verse 10, and ye are complete in Him. And ye are complete in
Him, which is the head of all principality and power. Brethren, I can think of no better
way to accomplish the desire to comfort you this morning than
by reminding you of these five words. These five words of indescribable
blessedness Ye are complete in Him. And I hope that by the end
of this morning, and I'm gonna have to talk fast, because I
got a lot to say. I hope by the end of this morning, when you
walk away, the Holy Spirit has taught you in your heart, has
taught you in your mind, how complete you are in Christ Jesus,
so that you leave here rejoicing in hope. rejoicing in what Christ
has done. Now, this phrase here, ye are
complete in him, when we look at this passage, when we look
at this phrase, and when we look at the theology surrounding it,
there's not any middle ground. Now, some of y'all that know
me, and most of y'all that know me on Facebook or on any kind
of forum that I might be on or in person know me, You know that
I'm a pretty straightforward person. I'm a pretty blunt person. There's no gray areas for me. I'm black and white. And especially
whenever it comes to the word of God and it comes to theology
and doctrine. I don't try to skirt around the
issue. I think that it ought to be defended.
I think it ought to be standed on. And I think that when we
love one another, that we tell each other the truth. And whenever
someone is in error, I think that we ought to confront that
error in a loving way, a patient way, a meek way. I think it ought
to be handled that way. A lot of people, they just say,
well, it's none of my business. I shouldn't say nothing to them or just let
it go or whatever, you know. Well, you know, God will teach
his people in his time. I'm fully aware of that, but
I think that if we truly love people, we're going to tell them
the truth and let them know that. I'm one of those guys that there
isn't really a lot of middle ground for me. It's either black
or white for me. I'm one of those types that it's
either true or it's false. It's black or it's white. It's
up or down. It's left or right. And in my case, it's more right. I'm speaking politically, not what I know. In this topic right here, you're
either complete in Christ and lack nothing, or you're altogether
without hope before God. There is no middle ground here.
We either have everything that God requires of man, everything
that God gives to men, everything God has and is as the mediator
between God or man, or we have nothing. There is no middle ground. It says here, ye are complete
in Him. And if that is not true, then
God is a liar. And we know that God is not a
liar, right? We know that He doesn't lie.
He's not like man that He lies. So we know that the Bible teaches
that the children of grace, those born from above, elected of God,
born from above, they are complete in Him. And brethren, that is
a precious phrase. I hope you will agree with me
by the end of this, if you don't already. If you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, even though you're empty in yourself, you're
complete in Him. If you're here this morning and
you're weak and you're poor, you're helpless, you're unworthy,
as we just sang, we are unworthy, He is worthy. Even though you're like that
in and of yourselves in Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, you are
complete. You are complete in the fullest,
broadest, and listen, most varied sense of that mighty word, complete. And we're gonna deal with that
word. Matter of fact, this morning,
those five words are gonna be my outline, so you can kinda
know where we're at in the sermon. by what word we're on. We're
gonna look at each one of those words. First word we wanna look
at this morning is the word ye. Ye are complete in Him. Who are
the ye that we're talking about here this morning? Whenever I look at that word
ye, and I look at it back into the context, and if you look
back in Colossians chapter one at the beginning, Paul is writing
to the saints of God and the faithful in Colossians, in the
church in Colossae. So we see that it's written,
this letter's written to the Colossian church. However, if
you go towards the end of the book in chapter four, you'll
see that Paul says to take this letter that I've written to you
and go to Laodicea and read it to the Laodiceans because this
is also good news for them as well. But whether you're a saint
at Colossae or whether you're a saint at Laodicea, if you're
a saint, this pertains to you. See, this message was just as
good for the Laodiceans as it was for the Colossians. There
may have been some implications like in Corinth that they were
dealing with in specific matters or in Galatia that they were
dealing with in specific matters, but even in those books, it pertains
to all of us, right? It's warnings for all of us.
And so whenever Paul here is saying ye are complete in him,
that word ye there is not translated and equal to you singular. Do you know that? For all of
y'all that have the King James Bible that uses the word ye,
it is not the same as the modern translations who use you. Ye
and you are not identical, that's not the same. Ye is a plural. It is a collective plural, but
it is a plural. You is singular. Whenever someone
says you, it's talking about you. But whenever the word ye
is used, it is talking about a collective plural. It is talking about more than
one, but a collective one. It's talking about a specific
group of people. And Paul here is saying ye are
complete in him. Who are the ye? The ye are the
saints of God. The ye are those who are in Christ
Jesus, as we will see. You who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, all of you and only you are complete in him. But as we
look through scripture, who is it that we are? You who were
dead in trespasses and sin, you're complete in him. You who in times
past walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, you are complete in
him. You who were by nature children
of wrath, and notice that that says of wrath and not under wrath.
You know, you look at some of the reformed guys, they'll say
that we were by nature children under wrath, and that of wrath
means that we were under God's wrath, that until we were born
again, we were under God's wrath, and then after we were born again,
then we was removed from God's wrath. Brethren, the Bible tells
us that we were not appointed under wrath. The Bible says that
he has loved us with an everlasting love. If he has loved us with
an everlasting love, Love is the absence of wrath. He cannot
love us and us be under wrath because wrath is his eternal
hatred towards us. His wrath is his eternal judgment
upon us. The very place where God had
showed Israel why he loved them, he said, because I chose you.
He said, I chose you above every other nation. I chose you above
everyone else. And I set my love upon you. I
have loved you with an everlasting love. I love Jacob and I hated
Esau. That's how you know how I love
you. God's wrath has never been honest.
The Bible says. that he has not beheld iniquity
in Jacob nor perverseness in Israel. He has not beheld that
ever because we have had an eternal surety standing in our place.
From all of time, Christ has stood in our place. Therefore,
we are complete in him. We lack nothing in front of God. Therefore, there is no wrath.
But you who were by nature children of wrath, meaning you were wrathful
towards God, you came into this world wrathful towards God because
of our Adamic nature. Now you say, well, I wasn't wrathful
towards God. Yes, you were. Every fiber of
your being was wrathful towards God because you thought you were
good enough to be before God. You thought that everything that
you do in your self-righteousness, everything that you do in your
pride and your arrogance and your works before God is something
that is acceptable unto Him. And the Scripture screams loudly
at every one of us that all of our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags, that we are unprofitable servants, that God has looked
down upon the face of this earth and that He has seen that there
is no one that is righteous, no not one, He has looked down
upon earth and seen that we are wicked to the core, that every
thought and intention of the heart is only wicked continually. That's who we are. But guess
what? If you're a child of grace, you
are complete in Him. You who were once without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from
the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in this
world, you're complete in Him. All of you who labor and toil
and vex and perplex your hearts continually because of the indwelling
sin that you have, you're complete in Him. You who are groaning under a
conscious sense of the body of sin and death like Paul in Romans
chapter seven was, you're complete in him. Did you know that? You
who are loved and chosen of God, redeemed by his blood, justified
by his faith, sanctified by his grace, born of his spirit, robed
in his righteousness, are complete in him. Did you notice all those
his and hims? See, it's in him. We are complete
in him. So who is the ye? All the elect
of God, that God before the foundation of the world had a book and he
wrote names down. And by the way, he didn't write
names down. It's not just a passive thing,
brethren. It's an active thing. The election of God is active
and the reprobation of God is active, not passive. You'll hear
that in a lot of pulpits of reformed and Protestant nature, that God's
reprobation is a passive thing, that he actively elects his people,
but he just passes over the rest. No, God actively chose who he
would write in the book and who he would not write in the book.
He knew everyone's name before the foundation of the world.
All creation is his and he knows their names. You remember whenever
he was talking about Abraham to Abraham and he said, look
at all the stars, could you name them? Listen, God has named every
one of his stars. Every one of his people are named
and those names are written down in a book. But Revelation tells
us that there were names that were not written. There were
names there. They were people that God knew
he was going to create That is why Romans chapter nine tells
us that he has made vessels of honor, vessels of dishonor. The
vessels of honor for one purpose, the vessels of dishonor for another
purpose. And that he as the sovereign God has the right to do that.
And we as his creation do not have the right to ask him why
he's doing it. Or how he does it. Or tell him
he's not doing it fair. He's God. So who is it that is
the, Ones who are complete in Him, it is the people of God
who have been elected before the foundation of the world.
They are complete in Him. Now look at that second word
there. It says ye are complete. Ye are complete. Now the scriptures
plainly declare that God's elect have been complete in Christ
from eternity. Look with me if you would at Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight and verse
28. It says, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are thee called, the word thee is there in front of called,
not just called, okay? There are a lot of people that
seem to be called by the preaching of the gospel, but we're talking
about a specific group of people. The definite article thee there,
also like the word ye, refers to a group of people, thee called.
to them who are thee called according to his purpose. For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. If you'll look
with me at Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. starting in verse three. The
Word of God says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us, who is the us? Well, look
back up at the top and get our context, to the saints which
are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Who are the
faithful in Christ Jesus? That's all the elect of God.
They are the faithful in Christ Jesus. Not just the good ones,
it's not just the ones who have been more faithful than others. Every one of us, did you know
that? We're all faithful in Christ Jesus. Now in Adam, we're not
faithful at all, but in Christ Jesus, all of us are faithful.
We are all faithful in Christ Jesus because he is faithful.
But it says in verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us, the saints of God, the people
of God, the faithful in Christ Jesus, with all spiritual blessings,
how many? All, not just part of them, not
just the eternal ones, and then later he's gonna give us those
timely ones, but which blessings did he give us? All spiritual
blessings. Well, try to go back and look.
What spiritual blessings are there? Well, there's a bunch
of them. But think, there's a lot of spiritual blessings, and he
give all of them to us, and that's kind of weird. Did you exist
before you were born? That's a pretty good question.
Go home and study it and then ask Denny next Sunday. Who have blessed us with all
spiritual blessings, where? In heavenly places. As it pertains to what? Being
in Christ Jesus. He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ according, so what's
the foundation or what's the, the reason or the foundation
for this blessing, with all spiritual blessings, according as he has
chosen us, so election. Election is his purpose. Matter of fact, isn't that what
Romans tells us, that we were elected, and that was according
to God's purpose, that he chose Jacob and not Esau, because it
was according to his purpose in election? God had a purpose
in electing. And that purpose will be finished.
It will be brought out. And we know that the purpose
ultimately is for God's glory. And it says here, according as
he has chosen us in him, when? Before the foundation of the
world. Now if anybody, I know because there was many years
that I disagreed with what I'm saying right now and preached
against it. Me and Tom went round and round
about it many times because I thought this was crazy, but it's plain
as day. We were elected before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. That isn't the end product. That
is the beginning product. That's before you were ever born,
you were elected to be holy and blameless. Not to become holy
and blameless, you were elected to be holy and blameless, where? In Christ. Now, I know you guys know me
a little bit. Am I holy? My granny would probably say
I am. I'm not holy. but in Christ I am holy as he
is holy. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted. We didn't accept
him. He made us accepted. So we see
here, brethren, that God's elect have been completing Christ from
all eternity. Our completeness is in Christ.
We have been completing Him for as long as we have been in Him. Now again, and I know I keep
harping on the poor reform people. They just have it wrong, I'm
sorry. They think that we are united to Christ in time. at faith. That is not when we're
united with Christ. We are united with Christ before
the foundation of the world, as these verses have plainly
stated. Our union is an eternal and vital
union in Christ from the foundation of the world, before creation. And so there never has been a
time that we have not been in him, ever. That's why there was
no wrath. because we've been in Christ.
And it's a blessed thing to know that we shall be complete in
Christ in heaven. Whenever we see him, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. That's a sweet
hope that we have, brother. And we know that whenever we
get there, we are gonna be complete. And so we know we were united
in Christ and by, as they would say, positionally, we were in
Him and complete. And whenever we are in heaven
at the end, we're definitely gonna be complete because we'll
be glorified. But right now, I don't know about
right now. No, the word is are. It's present
tense. It's present perfect tense. It
means it's happening now and it's gonna continue to happen.
My position of being complete in Christ happened before the
world began, is here now and will be in the very end. There is not a
time that I am not complete in Christ. He does not say you shall
be complete someday, He does not say when your faith is stronger,
you'll be complete. He doesn't say when your love
is more mature, you'll be complete. He doesn't say whenever your
works are better, you'll be complete. Or whenever you see more clearly,
you'll be complete. Listen, brethren, there are no
conditions or qualifications for us to meet. They are complete
because of Christ Jesus and they are complete now. You are complete in Him. Everything
here is complete because of grace. It's free grace, unconditional
grace, unqualified grace that you're complete. The Spirit of
God is not exhorting us to be complete. We are complete. We are. That's the state of who
we are. We are complete. Just like if
I would say, you are a homo sapien. You're not trying to be a homosapien.
You're not gonna become a homosapien. You are a homosapien. You are
a person. That's just who you are. I are a redneck. I don't have
to try to be a redneck. I are one. Ye are complete. The Spirit of
God is not telling us, go try to be complete. He's not telling
us how to be complete or what we must do to make ourselves
complete, brethren. He states a fact, affirms a reality
of revelation of God. He announces unto us a work that
is already finished to which nothing can be added and nothing
can be taken away. Your completeness cannot be diminished
and it cannot be improved upon. I know we've talked about progressive
sanctification here before. You can't be improved upon. Why? Because you are complete in Him. Right now, at this present moment,
you're complete in Him. Do not imagine that there is
something lacking. Don't think that there is something deficient
that you must make up. Don't think that there's something
that you must complete. He is saying to you today, you
are full, complete, and perfect in Christ. Being one with Him
and union with Him, being in His fullness, being in His completion
and His perfection, you are full, complete, and perfect. Brethren, this is the glory of
faith. See, faith looks to Christ. Now,
me saying that to many people will say, well, that just can't
be. I know all you guys. You know me. But see, that's
the thing. Faith isn't looking to Adam.
Faith is looking to Christ. Faith is looking not to the natural,
but to the spiritual. We don't look at the things in
the natural. The things in the natural are
gonna fade away and pass away. But that which is spiritual is
gonna be what endures forever. It's the things that we look
at, that we take stock of, the things that we are looking at
and diving in whenever we look to the Word of God. Let's not
be looking at the natural things of the Word of God. While they're
there for our learning and for our understanding and to help
us to get our grasp around some things, the natural is not there
so that we might increase in natural ability. The natural
always is superseded by the spiritual. And faith looks to that. Faith
leaves all works behind. Faith leaves the works of the
law behind. And it looks unto Christ alone.
That which is the glory of faith is the comfort and joy of faith. What joy, what comfort we should
find to know that Christ alone is all that we need. Now look
at this next word, the word complete here. Now this word complete
is one of those very common used words. We've been using it this
morning. We talk about, you know, we get
the job done. We say, well, we've completed
that job, finished that job. Okay. We use the word complete
quite often, I'm sure. But this word is simply bursting
with meaning as it pertains to God's word. And I think we ought
to look at God's word to see what this word means. Matter
of fact, I'll just side note, everything in God's word is important.
Every word is important. God didn't just put filler in
here. And every word is important. And whenever you want to find
out the definition of a word or how a word is used in the
word of God, Before you go run into lexicons and dictionaries,
listen, strong is pretty awesome, especially if you got the strongest
strongs. It's pretty awesome. But before you go run into men's
definitions and lexicons, go to God's word and find out what
that word means. See how God defines it before you go to man
to see how he finds it. I found that in my studies and
it makes a lot of things a little more clearer whenever you see
how God intended that word to be used and not how man thinks
it's supposed to be used. How do you do that? Well, you
look at the English word, you find what the Greek or the Hebrew
word is behind that. Instead of looking at third definition
of it, find that word every place that it's used in scripture.
Go and find every place and read it in its context and see how
that word is used in the context of God's word, how God used that
word. Then you got the definition.
Then go to Strong's or some lexicon and see if they got it right.
But use God's word to define God's word. Let God's word define
and commentate on itself before you go running to men. Anyway,
that was for free. This word here has a lot of meaning
for us And it's something that we shouldn't be passive about,
this word complete. Although we are passive when
it comes to what this word means, we should know what it means
and we should rejoice in it, we should preach it, we should
teach it, we should stand on it. But brethren, we definitely
have no hand in it. Now, this word complete, how
far can we carry this word? I've made a lot of statements
this morning that are pretty drastic, but how far do we carry
this word complete? Well, the Bible uses it this
way. Whenever you look at the word behind this in the Greek,
you'll find that this word is translated fullness or full. In John chapter one, verse 14,
is a good place to look. It says, and the word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory
is the only begotten of the Father, here's the word, full of grace
and truth. 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. And
here's the word, his fullness have all we received and grace
for grace. Well, how full of grace and truth
was Jesus Christ? That's the same word that says
your completeness. God used the same word to describe
the fullness of grace and truth in Christ Jesus as he does for
your completeness in Christ Jesus. Ain't that a kicker? In 1 Corinthians 10, 28, it says,
How much of the earth is God's? Well, all of it, right? That's the
same word he used for your completeness. Ephesians 1.22 says, and have
put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over
all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of
him that filleth all in all. Same word in Colossians 2.9 that
we just read, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead,
bodily. So as much, now you heard me
say how full of Christ was of God, right? And I heard all y'all
amen in that. So you ought to agree that the
same word is used for your completeness. Can you amen that? See, that's
awesome. That is what that word complete
means. To the utter fullness, there's
no more that can be packed in. It has all of it. all of the
completeness in Christ Jesus. This word means without limit,
or condition, or qualification. Whenever the Spirit of God says
you are complete in Him, the word complete first means complete
without limit, condition, or qualification of any kind. Whatever we are in Christ, we
are completely. Whatever we have in Christ, we
have completely. In all matters regarding our
spiritual welfare and our soul salvation, we are complete in
Christ, complete without any supplement of any kind. I hope I'm getting that point
across. Because there are so many that
think that their law keeping is the supplement that we need.
Brethren, you lack nothing. Listen, in Paul's day, just like
in our day today, if you're on Facebook much, the thought that
faith in Christ had to be supplemented. Your faith in Christ has to be
supplemented. Such being then and now, imagine
that faith is learned, not bestowed. You don't learn faith, faith
is given. Faith is given to you, not learned. They imagine that
faith is learned, that it is a matter of philosophical achievement. They believe that it's not a
matter of divine revelation. Matter of fact, many of the men
that I've spoken to, whenever I bring up the fact that we have
no need that a man should teach you, but the Holy Spirit shall
be your teacher, that He will bring all things to your memory,
that He will lead you into all truth, and that we don't need
a teacher to teach us. We don't have to have the confessions
and creeds all the commentaries of men to tell us what the word
of God says. We have the Holy Spirit to teach us those things
and that they all will be taught of God. Whenever you say that,
they call you a mystic or something. They think that, oh, God's just
gonna mysteriously put that truth in you. Then if it's just you
and your Bible. You mean to tell me that just
you and your Bible, that's how people go off into error because
they don't have accountability from other learned men of Scripture?
Well, those learned men of Scripture are no better than you or me,
brethren. How do I know that those men hadn't gone off in
some skewed avenue? Matter of fact, many of them
have. If you read the confessions of faith, you're not gonna find
a perfect one. Every confession of faith, and
I'll say Baptist and others, are all errant. They all have
problems. They're not our rule of faith.
Only God's word is our rule of faith. But there are many who
believe that our faith needs to be supplemented by that philosophical
achievement, by learning. While they deceitfully believe
in the supernatural and while professing to teach that salvation
is the Lord, their doctrine, though, is nothing more than
the cunning assertion that the new birth, faith in Christ, and
acceptance with God is really achieved by argument, reason,
and logic. Men believe that you're saved
by the knowledge that you know. That's why they can't fellowship
with anybody. That's why they're so quick to
part with each other because if you don't believe exactly
the way they do, then you're obviously a reprobate. You're
obviously not saved. You're lost because if you believe
this, the Holy Ghost would definitely would have told you about this
and you have to have that same knowledge that I do. Well, how
do I know that you are where you need to be? How do I know
that what you're saying is what is supposed to be what I'm supposed
to be believing? We can't, brethren. We can't
look at subjective men's knowledge. We go to the objective, unchanging
Word of God. And the subjective things of
men tell us, well, you can't be complete if you're still sinning. You can't be complete if you
have desires of the flesh. You can't be complete if you're
not completely sanctified. That's what subjective men say
because of the philosophy and the traditions of men. But the
Word of God says ye are complete in Him. These deceived men actually
teach that faith in Christ is a complex mystery, something
that can only be attained by superior levels of knowledge,
knowledge of which they are the most humbly examples of. Listen, they mystify everything
revealed in the book of God. And with their words of wisdom,
they do everything possible to turn you away from the simplicity
that is in Christ. See, it isn't about all this
appropriating the means of grace, and it's not all about this progressive
sanctification, and it's not all about all this stuff that
you must do, and keeping the law, and the feast, and the Sabbaths,
and all these things. It's not about all that. It's
about this, believing ye are complete in Christ. I pray to
you, that's just too simple. That's what we're to believe,
the simplicity that is in Christ. And that's why people can't understand
it. That's why Adam couldn't believe it. That's why, as Brother
Denny said, they had to go sow some fig leaves on. They just can't believe to just
trust in Christ, what he has done. But see, that's exactly
what the context in which Paul writes this year complete in. He says, as ye have therefore
received Christ Jesus as the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted
and built up in him, and established in the faith, or the doctrine
of Christ, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
What's the doctrine of Christ? The doctrine of what Christ has
accomplished, okay? Beware lest any man spoil you. What does spoil you mean? It
doesn't mean like go rancid, you know, like you're stuffing
your refrigerator. This word spoil is that old word
like pirates used to use. They would go out and steal some
treasure. They'd go out to war and they'd defeat somebody and
they'd come back with the spoils. They would spoil them. They would
take their goods. They would take their things
of value. That's what Paul is saying here.
Don't let anybody come in and steal the things of value to
you. Don't let people come in and
tell you you're not complete in Him. Don't let people come
in and say there's something that you are lacking that you
have to do spoil you. through philosophy and vain deceit,
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and
not after Christ. For in Him, that's Christ, all
the fullness dwells." All the spoils are in Christ. All of
your spoils are in Christ. They can't be taken away. And
he says, and you're complete in Him. He said, and just in
case you don't trust that all the spoils that are in me that
are yours, and you're complete in, are secure, he lets them
know he's the head over every principality and power. Nobody
can take him away. Nobody can take your completeness
away, brethren. Nothing can ever be added to
faith in Christ without making the thing added the object of
faith. Anything that you add that you
must do to be complete in Christ except for trusting in Christ
alone for what you have, you've now made the object of your faith
whatever that was, including your faith, including your faith. Nothing can be added to the gospel
of Christ without making it another gospel. There's nothing new in
theology except that which is false. Those who seek to improve
the gospel of Jesus only deface it. One of the greatest evils in
our day is the attempt of men to rationalize God's revelation
of himself in the scriptures. And in doing so, they obscure
that simplicity that is in Christ. But listen, God's elect will
not be removed from their steadfastness. He will preserve them. He will
keep them in the faith. The Bible says, we know whom
we have believed. Our hearts are filled with joy
to hear God declare we are complete. We're blessed and absolutely
overwhelmed whenever we hear that we are complete in Him. Brethren, I pray that you will
believe and rejoice in this very thing. Listen, but I must give
you a warning. Don't be so intent upon your
corruptions as to forget his purity which has been made yours.
And why do I say that? Well, I believe that we should
be honest about our Adamic nature. We need to come to grips with
our depravity. And we don't boast in the arm
of the flesh. Matter of fact, what do we do?
We drive it down to the dirt. We tell everybody how bad our
flesh is. But let's not glory in our flesh. Let's not glory in that. Let's
not go so far in our need to show how unworthy we are and
we are unworthy that we forget the purity which He has made
ours. Don't be so mindful of our own
poverty that we forget His riches that He has given us. And don't
be so absorbed with our emptiness that you forget His fullness. And listen, don't be so mindful
of the natural imperfection of fallen Adam that you fail to
be mindful of Christ's perfection that is yours by virtue of your
union with him. God sees us only in his dear
sons, brethren, and would have us to see ourselves only in him.
Now, I see that it's getting really late and I need to go
quickly here so I can get to this next word. But I want you
to see something about this word complete. Not only does it mean
what we just talked about, but it means fully supplied. We have
everything that we could possibly need in Christ Jesus. Ye have
everything supplied to you. And so I asked this morning,
do you need righteousness? Well, all of us do, right? We
need righteousness. Well, the Bible says that we
are made the righteousness of God in him who is made of God
unto us righteousness. So if Christ is my righteousness,
I can never be more righteousness and can never be less righteous,
right? Do you need acceptance with God? Well, the Bible says
that he has made us accepted in the beloved. And as he has
accepted us and the grounds upon which he accepted us, is there
anything that you could do to make that more, can you be more
accepted of God? And you surely will not be less
accepted by God. Do you need justification this
morning? The Bible says that God has made
Christ unto us justification. We are justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So you are supplied with everything
that you need, your righteousness, your acceptance, your justification
before God. But let me ask you, here's a
couple that's hard to grasp for us. Do you need holiness? Must we be holy as God himself
is holy? Well, brethren, holiness is ours
in Christ. God calls us his saints, his holy ones. Christ is our
holiness and that holiness without which no man can see the Lord.
You're complete in him. Do you need forgiveness this
morning? It's written that there is forgiveness with thee that
thou mayest be feared. Listen, brethren, if you need
forgiveness, there's pardon, rich, free, complete forgiveness
in Christ Jesus. You're complete in Him. You have
all the forgiveness you need in Christ. What about a clear conscience?
Do you need that this morning? The blood of Christ sprinkled
on our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as Hebrews 10.22 says, makes
the conscience clean. Complete redemption accomplished
by the Son of God makes the believing sinner perfect as pertaining
to the conscience, Hebrews 9.9. Listen, the blood of Christ proclaims
loudly in capital letters, not guilty. There is therefore now
no condemnation in Christ Jesus, our conscience. can be clear
this morning if you just trust that ye are complete in Him. What about perfection, sanctification,
grace? Do you need those things? Well,
He is everything to us and fulfills every need that we have. We have
nothing lacking. He has pardoning grace for your
sins, restoring grace to lift you from your countless falls.
He has strengthening grace to make up for your weakness. He
has reviving grace to overcome your deadness. He has cleansing
grace to bathe your foul soul when it sins. The Savior says
unto you, my grace is sufficient. You are fully supplied with everything
that you need. Ye are complete in Him. This word, it means to be satisfied. God the Holy Spirit declares
ye are complete in Him and whenever we are complete in Him and our
faith sees that we are complete in Him, then we become satisfied
in Him. I don't look to another. The
believer is so complete, so fully supplied by him, that we are
satisfied in him. I'm satisfied with his purpose,
who has purposed my everlasting good. I'm satisfied with his,
now listen, a lot of people aren't satisfied with God's purpose,
nor his providence. And I know because we're all
complainers. We complain when things don't go the way we want
to go. When life isn't like the way we want it to be. We complain. Whenever the Bible tells us to
rejoice in our sufferings, we don't like to do that. Well,
brethren, listen, for those who understand and by faith have
seen that we are complete in Him, we become satisfied in Him. So whatever God's purpose is
for our everlasting good, we're satisfied with. Whatever His
providence is, who does all things well, by the way, the Bible says,
we're satisfied with. We become satisfied with His
revelation of who God is. We don't have to keep worrying
about preaching a Jesus or preaching a God that's going to be acceptable
to the masses. We become satisfied with that
God of Scripture that the natural man will hate. We proclaim Him
anyway. I'm satisfied with his love,
whose love cannot be quenched. He loves us with that everlasting
love, and that love will not be quenched. I'm satisfied with
his love. I don't need anybody else's love.
Just like Job, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.
If nobody else in the world loves me, I'm gonna love him. I become
satisfied with his cenotone sacrifice who is satisfied the justice
of God. That's enough for me, that's enough. And then this
word complete, it means to be filled to the fullness. That
word complete means filled or full. We are called the fullness
of Christ who filleth all in all in Ephesians chapter one.
In Colossians 2.9, all the fullness of the three one God dwells in
our incarnate Redeemer and we are complete, are filled in him.
Nothing and no one can fill the soul except Jesus. Whenever Jesus
comes into the soul, you are filled in him. Learning will
not fill your soul. Emotional experience can never
fill your soul. Sound doctrine, as good as that
is and needful, cannot fill the soul, but only Christ can. Now
lastly, let's look at that last two words, in him. Where is this
perfect, completeness, this infinite supply, this unfailing satisfaction,
this limited fullness found in Him. It's found in Him. It's not in my family. It's not
in the ordinances of the church. It's not in the church itself.
It's not in His ordinances, His doctrine. It's not in my feelings. It's not in my experience. It's
not in my works. It's not in my devotion. And
brethren, listen, it's not in my faith. My completeness is
in Him. My completeness is in Him. Ye
are complete in Him. Pause over those two little words
in Him. Everything is in Christ. If we are in Him, we are complete.
And we are complete because we are in Him. Complete because of our union
with Him. Those two words speak of our
union and our oneness with Christ. We have been and are blessed.
We are spared. We are redeemed and justified,
sanctified, protected, kept, preserved, quickened, converted,
and accepted in Christ from everlasting as one with Christ solely, entirely
by the virtue of our union with him. No other reason. Not anything
in time, not any condition that you might keep, you are not complete
because of anything except for God's pleasure of placing you
in Christ. And because of that, you are
most fully complete in Him. This union of our souls with
Christ is so real that God considers anything done to us or for us
as done to Him. Just look to the cross. God sees
us only in His Son and considers all that is His Son to be ours. We are joint heirs with Jesus. He considers us and His Son to
be one. Is that not what Jesus prayed
for in John 17? I pray that we might be one as him and God was
one. That's pretty close. Listen, in Jeremiah, I didn't
write this in my notes, but in Jeremiah, the Bible says that
we become so one with imputed righteousness that the Bible
says that our name is the Lord our righteous. That's our name. that our name shall be the Lord
our righteous. We are so united with Christ
that God claims us as his righteousness. That isn't happening in the Adamic
man, but brethren, praise God, in the spiritual man it is. It's
because of our oneness with Christ before the creation of the universe
that we receive all of our mercies. Faith in Christ, the gift of
the Holy Spirit and the new birth, listen, it discerns this eternal
union and gives us a vital living union with Christ in the sweet
experiences of our grace that we have been given. Listen, all
this happened before we were ever created, but listen, because
of God's grace and in the work of salvation in time, we get
to experience this blessed union with Christ Jesus, this faith
that looks to Him, this faith that hopes in Him. We get to
experience that while on a limited fashion. And as we get there,
we'll know it all, brother. We'll know it all then. at least
as much as God's gonna let us know, but we're gonna know a
lot more than we know now. And so all that we come to experience
in time is the fruit of this eternal union with Christ. Redemption,
quickening, and resurrection, these are all the fruit of this
union in Christ Jesus. And we have been made complete,
whether it be before the foundation of the world, whether it be in
time, or whether it be in future eternity, We are complete in
Him, and there is no condition outside of heaven itself can
be more blessed than that which is produced by a God-given assurance
of eternal, everlasting, indissolvable, unalterable union with Christ. Ye are complete in Him. Amen.